Microsoft claims to have thwarted Russian bid to hack the US Senate, and Beijing defies Washington to continue Iran oil imports.
Australia has detained 119 refugee children on a Pacific island
Australian advocates and opposition politicians are campaigning to free 119 refugee children under detention on a tiny Pacific Island, amid warnings that their health is fast deteriorating, reports CNN.
The children were transferred to Nauru under Australia’s immigration policy, which bans asylum seekers arriving by boat from settling on the mainland.
While the government says the children are no longer under detention, they and their parents are reportedly not allowed to leave.
Canberra is reported to have started moving many asylum seekers and refugees, including children, to Nauru after reopening its detention centre in 2012. Since then, several instances of physical and psychological damage have been reported among detained children.
On Monday, more than 30 non-government organisations came together to demand the release of the children by 20 November, the Universal Children’s Day. Using #KidsOffNauru, Australian charities have started a petition calling for the government to allow the refugee children to leave the island, the CNN report added.
The Australian government maintains that its tight border protection policies are necessary to avoid deaths at sea at the hands of people smugglers.
Russia tried to hack US Senate, says Microsoft
Parts of an operation linked to Russian military intelligence and targeting the US Senate and conservative think tanks were thwarted last week, Microsoft announced Tuesday, according to a CNN report.
The software giant was given control of six websites run by a group known as ‘Fancy Bear’ by a US court. The websites, Microsoft said, could have been used to launch cyber attacks on candidates and other political groups ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Fancy Bear “was behind the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and directed by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit, according to cybersecurity firms”.
Explaining the modus operandi of the cyber criminals believed to be involved in the attack, Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog, “Attackers want their attacks to look as realistic as possible and they therefore create websites and URLs that look like sites their targeted victims would expect to receive email from or visit.”
Earlier, such attacks, known as spearphishing, were successfully used to target Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta in 2016.
China will import oil from Iran despite US warnings
China will purchase oil from Iran despite a US warning that those engaged in trade with Tehran would lose Washington as a trading partner. On the other hand, many European companies are shunning Iran on account of the Trump administration’s threat, Reuters reports.
“The United States is trying to halt Iranian oil exports in an effort to force Tehran to negotiate a new nuclear agreement and to curb its influence in the Middle East”, the report added.
China, which is caught in a trade war with the US, has said it opposes unilateral sanctions and defended its commercial ties with Iran.
Other buyers of Iranian oil such as Japan, South Korea, India and most European countries have already slashed operations.
Malaysia is pushing back against Chinese investments
Malaysia is pushing back against Chinese investment in the country as it fears falling into a debt trap for infrastructural projects which, it is believed, serve little purpose apart from being of strategic significance for China, The New York Times reports.
China has already begun work on three infrastructural projects, including a deep-water port, a rail network, and four artificial islands, in Malaysia. “But where Malaysia once led the pack in courting Chinese investment, it is now on the front edge of a new phenomenon: A pushback against Beijing as nations fear becoming overly indebted for projects that are neither viable nor necessary — except in their strategic value to China,” the report added.
Malaysia’s leader Mahathir Mohamad’s five-day trip to Beijing, concluding Tuesday, was aimed at freeing his country from some of its $250 billion debt. “We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries,” Mahathir is reported to have said in Beijing Monday, after a meeting with Premier Li Keqiang.
Taking a step back from his predecessor Najib Razak, the Mahathir government has suspended two major projects related to China that it suspects were bad deals intentionally signed by the former leader to retain power.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Mahathir is reported to have shared his thought of China’s strategy, stating, “They know that when they lend big sums of money to a poor country, in the end they may have to take the project for themselves.”
US sanctions may be leading to a food crisis in North Korea
Humanitarian aid for North Korea is down to a trickle this year after the US imposed further sanctions and the United Nations adopted US-backed guidelines to monitor aid for North Korea, despite warnings of a potential food crisis in the Asian nation, Reuters reports.
Although international sanctions imposed over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme technically do not cover humanitarian activities, “stringent interpretations of United Nations sanctions curtailing banking and shipping transactions with Pyongyang, as well as a travel for US citizens, have effectively shut down the North Korea operations of most foreign relief groups”, Reuters quoted UN agencies and civilian organisations as saying.
Organisations based out of the US, the UK and Switzerland that provided services like healthcare, disaster relief and farming supplies have had to shut operations due to restricted access and inability to ship supplies.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Financial Tracking Service, the total funding for UN and NGO activities in North Korea has dropped from $117.8 million in 2012 to $17.1 million so far this year.
50 rhinoceros horns seized in Malaysia
Fifty rhinoceros horns worth $12 million were seized by Malaysian officials at the Kuala Lumpur airport following a tip-off, Reuters reports.
Along with the horns, weighing about 116kg, officials also seized what is believed to be carcasses of tigers and bears, weighing about 200kg. The shipment was bound for Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.
“All the wildlife items confiscated were to be exported out of Malaysia without a proper permit,” Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim, the director-general of the Wildlife and National Parks Department, is reported to have said in a statement.
While the United Nations has banned the trade of rhino horns, they are used in some Asian countries for medicinal purposes, the report added.
Last year, Malaysia seized about $3.1 million worth of rhino horns flown in from Mozambique via Qatar.
US First Lady lashes out at cyberbullying as Trump lashes out on Twitter, again
While US First Lady Melania Trump was holding a discussion with cyberbullying prevention experts Monday under the banner of her ‘Be Best’ campaign, President Donald Trump was unleashing his wrath on Twitter, again, The New York Times reported.
Besides calling former CIA director John Brennan a “political hack”, Trump mocked the effectiveness of the Justice Department.
Has anyone looked at the mistakes that John Brennan made while serving as CIA Director? He will go down as easily the WORST in history & since getting out, he has become nothing less than a loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
At the ‘Be Best’ event, Melania had said social media “can be destructive and harmful when used incorrectly”.
“The first lady has stuck with cyberbullying prevention as a signature issue despite Mr Trump’s combative posture on Twitter — he has attacked at least 487 people, companies or institutions since declaring his candidacy for the presidency,” The New York Times added.
Contributed by Sankalita Dey, Anagha Deshpande and Soniya Agrawal.