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Minggu, 23 Agustus 2020

TikTok says it will sue over Trump crackdown - CNA

NEW YORK: Video app TikTok said Saturday (Aug 23) it will challenge in court a Trump administration crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned service, which Washington accuses of being a national security threat.

As tensions soar between the world's two biggest economies, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance - effectively setting a deadline for a potential pressured sale of the viral video sensation to a US company.

"Even though we strongly disagree with the Administration's concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution. What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the Administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses," TikTok said in a statement.

"To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system," it said, adding it expects to file its suit next week.

TikTok's owner ByteDance issued a separate statement on Sunday saying it will officially file a lawsuit against Trump administration on Monday, Aug 24.

READ: Commentary - Will the TikTok saga in the US lead to the break-up of the Internet industry?

READ: TikTok removes 380,000 videos for violating hate speech policy

Trump issued an executive order on Aug 14 that gave ByteDance 90 days to divest the US operations of TikTok. ByteDance has been making progress in talks with potential acquirers, including Microsoft Corp and Oracle. Some of ByteDance's U.S. investors could also join the winning bid.

Reports have said Oracle - whose chairman Larry Ellison has raised millions in campaign funds for Trump - was weighing a bid for TikTok's operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Trump claims TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.

The company has said it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blasted Trump's crackdown as political.

The US measures come ahead of Nov 3 elections in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden in the polls, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message.

Trump has increasingly taken a confrontational stance on China, challenging it on trade, military and economic fronts.

Shortly after Trump announced his moves against TikTok in early August, the United States slapped sanctions on Hong Kong's leader over the Chinese security clampdown after last year's pro-democracy demonstrations.

The measures move away from the long-promoted American ideal of a global, open internet and could invite other countries to follow suit, analysts have previously said.

"It's really an attempt to fragment the internet and the global information society along US and Chinese lines, and shut China out of the information economy," Milton Mueller, a Georgia Tech professor and founder of the Internet Governance Project said previously.

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2020-08-23 03:22:30Z
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Sabtu, 22 Agustus 2020

TikTok says it will sue over Trump crackdown - CNA

READ: Commentary - Will the TikTok saga in the US lead to the break-up of the Internet industry?

READ: TikTok removes 380,000 videos for violating hate speech policy

Reports have said Oracle - whose chairman Larry Ellison has raised millions in campaign funds for Trump - was weighing a bid for TikTok's operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Trump claims TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.

The company has said it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blasted Trump's crackdown as political.

The US measures come ahead of Nov 3 elections in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden in the polls, is campaigning hard on an increasingly strident anti-Beijing message.

Trump has increasingly taken a confrontational stance on China, challenging it on trade, military and economic fronts.

The measures move away from the long-promoted American ideal of a global, open internet and could invite other countries to follow suit, analysts have previously said.

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New Covid-19 cluster at S'pore's largest dorm; woman who works at ITE College Central among local cases - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - A 56-year-old Singaporean woman who works at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College Central was one of two community Covid-19 cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (Aug 22).

Two other cases were linked to Sungei Tengah Lodge to form a new cluster. One of Singapore's largest dormitory, it had been closed as a cluster a month ago.

The 56-year-old woman tested positive on Friday and had gone to work after the onset of symptoms on Wednesday.

She was detected under MOH's enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI) at first presentation to a doctor.

The other community case, also unlinked, was a 63-year-old Singaporean woman, who had been tested after being admitted to a hospital for another medical condition. She exhibited symptoms on Thursday and tested positive on Friday.

Epidemiological investigations of the cases are in progress, MOH said, adding that all the identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and placed on quarantine.

The two Singaporeans were among 50 new coronavirus cases announced by the ministry on Saturday, taking Singapore's total to 56,266.

Of these, two of the newly confirmed cases were linked to 55 previous cases to form a new cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday.

The dormitory at 500 Old Choa Chu Kang Road is one of Singapore's largest dormitories. It was previously confirmed as one of the biggest clusters here and was closed as a cluster on July 21.

There were also five imported cases who had been placed on stay-home notices upon arrival in Singapore. They tested positive while serving their notices, said MOH.

A 50-year-old Singaporean male who returned to Singapore from Iran on Aug 10 was among the imported Covid-19 patients. He displayed symptoms of the virus on Tuesday (Aug 18) and tested positive on Friday (Aug 21).

Two of the newly confirmed cases were linked to 55 previous cases to form a new cluster at Sungei Tengah Lodge. PHOTO: ST FILE

Two of the imported cases are dependent's pass holders who arrived from India and the Netherlands on Aug 10. The Indian and Dutch nationals were both asymptomatic and tested positive on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Another imported patient, who was also asymptomatic, is a 40-year-old Filipino national and a work permit holder currently employed in Singapore. She arrived from the Philippines on Aug 9 and tested positive on Saturday.

The remaining case is an 18-year-old Indian national and a student's pass holder who arrived from India on Aug 8. She was asymptomatic as well and tested positive on Friday.

All five imported cases had been placed on a 14-day SHN upon arrival in Singapore, and were tested while serving the stay-home period at dedicated facilities, said MOH.

Migrant workers living in dormitories made up the remaining 43 new cases on Saturday.

MOH said it has completed its screening and testing of all staff in the public bus industry who work at depots and interchanges. It added that this was a precautionary measure after some Covid-19 cases were detected at Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub.

In all, more than 14,800 staff and close contacts of the cases had been tested using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test between July 23 and Aug 15 and all have tested negative, except 10 which have been announced earlier, said MOH.

The number of new daily cases in the community remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks, said MOH.

With 269 cases discharged on Saturday, 53,905 patients have fully recovered from the disease.

A total of 81 patients remain in hospital, with none in intensive care. A further 2,238 are isolated and recuperating in community facilities.

Singapore has had 27 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.

Malaysian PM Muhyiddin's Bersatu party formally gets 11 more MPs led by Senior Minister Azmin - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's senior minister Azmin Ali announced on Saturday (Aug 22) that he and 10 other MPs will be joining Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's political party, a move that should strengthen Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia amid continuing political turbulence in the country.

The group of 11 federal lawmakers had been partiless in the last five months after leaving Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) following a bitter power tussle with its president, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Their decision to formally join Bersatu was made on Saturday.

"Sincerely, on this sacred evening, myself and the 'warriors' from Perlis to Sabah... hereby declare to join Bersatu. We support the leadership of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin," Datuk Seri Azmin said in a speech at a congress attended by the PM Muhyiddin in Kuala Lumpur.

"Now is the time to 'bersatu' (unite). Bersatu for the nation. Bersatu for Malaysia," he said to rousing cheers from the meeting hall which was filled with some 2,500 supporters.

Three of the 11 ex-PKR MPs are Cabinet ministers in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government - Senior Minister for Economy Azmin, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin and Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

Their decision to join Bersatu raises its total number of its lawmakers to 32.

The years-long feud between Mr Azmin, the former PKR deputy president, and Mr Anwar had steadily built up over the years and turned personal after a viral sex video allegedly involving Mr Azmin with another man made its rounds in June last year. Mr Azmin and his faction blamed the Anwar faction for the video, which they said was fake.

Mr Anwar had said Mr Azmin should resign if he was indeed one of the two men featured in the video, which prompted the latter to tell his former boss to "look in the mirror". Mr Anwar had twice gone to jail over claims of having sex with men, a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

The February defection of the 11 MPs combined with the defection of most Bersatu lawmakers caused the collapse of the 22-month old Pakatan Harapan (PH) government led by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

"We were headed for trouble two years ago (when PH won the general election). Our roles were supposed to be different, we were supposed to care for the people, but we were busy bickering on who should be the next prime minister," said Madam Zuraida in her speech, referring to tensions in PH between Tun Dr Mahathir and Mr Anwar.

"In our crisis to decide on who to back... we made the right choice by supporting Tan Sri Muhyiddin as PM," she added.

At the congress, Bersatu president Mr Muhyiddin revealed that the Malay-based party is proposing a new chapter to accommodate and allow non-Malay leaders to contribute and hold positions in the party. A committee led by supreme council member Rais Yatim has been formed to look into the process.

"We propose a new chapter that could help affiliated members contribute ideas and hold leadership positions. The committee under Tan Sri Rais will look into it and bring up the matter to the Supreme Council," he said in his speech.

Should the proposal be accepted, Mr Muhyiddin said an extraordinary general meeting would be called to amend Bersatu's constitution.

Bersatu today faces two major challenges.

One is defections from its ranks to a new party being formed by Dr Mahathir, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air.

The other is being accepted fully by its enemies-turned-allies in Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).

Though both Umno and PAS are in the same PN government today, there remains suspicions between all three allied parties five months into their political marriage.

This is partly due to the fact that of the 32 Bersatu MPs, 14 were lawmakers who defected from Umno and another 11 were from PKR.

Meanwhile, PM Muhyiddin in his speech at the congress said about 200,000 youths from four non-govermental organisations (NGOs) have applied to be members of Bersatu.

“We accepted all the applications officially for them to be party members, and the party is honoured to accept them, ” he said.

“The party has agreed to accept all their applications and will process their memberships as soon as possible.

"This is a functional government. There must be unity by us all, and it is on this basis that we ensure that Perikatan Nasional works".

The congress was organised by four NGOs backed by Mr Azmin and included many former members of PKR.

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2020-08-22 12:07:30Z
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India reports record number of new COVID-19 cases, as tally nears 3 million - CNA

MUMBAI: India reported a record daily jump of coronavirus infections on Saturday (Aug 22), bringing the total near 3 million and piling pressure on authorities to curb huge gatherings as a major religious festival began.

The 69,878 new infections - the fourth straight day above 60,000 - take India's total cases to 2.98 million, behind only the United States and Brazil. COVID-19 deaths increased by 945 to 55,794, data from the federal health ministry showed.

For most of western India, especially the financial capital Mumbai, the 11-day festival of Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesh is usually celebrated with big public gatherings.

READ: India study suggests millions more in New Delhi may have caught COVID-19

Cases have plateaued in Mumbai, which now averages just above 1,000 a day and has recorded more than 134,000 in total. But strict pandemic regulations have meant the festival season, which begins this month, has been lacklustre.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-08-22 08:58:12Z
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New Zealand aware of Singapore's intent to establish travel, advisory to residents remains unchanged - CNA

SINGAPORE: New Zealand says it is aware of Singapore's plans to ease travel restrictions for selected countries but will not change its travel advisory to residents, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Saturday (Aug 22).

“We are aware of Singapore’s intention to establish selective travel programmes with a range of countries, including New Zealand,” the spokesman said, in response to queries from CNA.

“This reflects the close relationship between our two countries and the trust Singapore has in New Zealand’s response to COVID-19.”

However, the spokesman added that New Zealand’s advice to residents not to travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic remains unchanged.

“We will continue to review these settings in response to international developments.”

New Zealand's border remains closed to all but citizens and residents, a spokesperson for Immigration New Zealand told CNA.

"There are some exceptions to the border restrictions but the bar to be granted an exception remains high to protect New Zealand against COVID-19," the spokesperson added.

This comes after Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Friday that it will update its travel advisory to allow general travel to Brunei and New Zealand.

Under the current advisory, residents are advised to defer all travel abroad, except for essential business and official travel under green-lane and fast-lane arrangements.

People visiting these two countries are advised to check the entry requirements imposed by the respective governments, as well as take the necessary precautions.

MOH also announced on Friday that Singapore will allow some travellers from New Zealand and Brunei to take a COVID-19 test instead of serving a stay-home notice upon arrival.

READ: Allowing some travellers to take COVID-19 tests instead of serving stay-home notices is 'small, cautious step' to reopen aviation: Ong Ye Kung

This applies to travellers who have stayed in Brunei or New Zealand for the past 14 consecutive days. Those who test negative will be allowed to go about their activities in Singapore, the ministry added.

"For the two countries we just listed, these are very established systems already. They have shown themselves to be effective (in containing COVID-19), very low case loads ... systems that give us a lot of confidence,” said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung.

The decision was made unilaterally, but does not preclude the possibility of future reciprocal green lane arrangements with other like-minded countries for essential business travel.

Singapore could also go a step further to upgrade such arrangements into broader “travel bubbles or travel corridors”, Mr Ong said.

There are currently four flights a week operating between Singapore and New Zealand, and two flights a week between Singapore and Brunei, he noted.

"So, all in all, I think this is a small, cautious step to reopen aviation and resuscitate Changi Airport as well as Singapore Airlines," he added.

READ: SIA, Changi Airport welcome Government's decision to ease some COVID-19 travel restrictions

"I believe we can strike a good balance between keeping Singapore safe and (keeping) travellers here safe, as well as reviving the air traffic sector.

"Remember, as a small open economy, to survive, we have got to keep our borders open. To earn a living, we have got to have connections with the world. To thrive, to prosper, we must be an aviation hub."

MOH also reduced the 14-day stay-home notice period for travellers coming in from “low-risk” countries and regions to seven days.

These countries and regions are Australia (excluding Victoria state), Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Travellers will be tested before the end of the isolation period.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-08-22 08:24:16Z
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New Zealand aware of Singapore's intent to establish travel, advisory to residents remains unchanged - CNA

“We are aware of Singapore’s intention to establish selective travel programmes with a range of countries, including New Zealand,” the spokesman said, in response to queries from CNA.

“This reflects the close relationship between our two countries and the trust Singapore has in New Zealand’s response to COVID-19.”

However, the spokesman added that New Zealand’s advice to residents not to travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic remains unchanged.

“We will continue to review these settings in response to international developments.”

New Zealand's border remains closed to almost all travellers wanting to travel to New Zealand by either air or sea. CNA has reached out to New Zealand authorities regarding their stance on travellers from Singapore, in light of Friday's announcement by the Singapore government to allow general travel to Brunei and New Zealand.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) also said on Friday that Singapore will allow some travellers from New Zealand and Brunei to take a COVID-19 test instead of serving a stay-at-home notice upon arrival.

READ: Allowing some travellers to take COVID-19 tests instead of serving stay-home notices is 'small, cautious step' to reopen aviation: Ong Ye Kung

The decision was made unilaterally, but does not preclude the possibility of future reciprocal green lane arrangements with other like-minded countries for essential business travel.

Singapore could also go a step further to upgrade such arrangements into broader “travel bubbles or travel corridors”, Mr Ong said.

There are currently four flights a week operating between Singapore and New Zealand, and two flights a week between Singapore and Brunei, he noted.

"So, all in all, I think this is a small, cautious step to reopen aviation and resuscitate Changi Airport as well as Singapore Airlines," he added.

READ: SIA, Changi Airport welcome Government's decision to ease some COVID-19 travel restrictions

"I believe we can strike a good balance between keeping Singapore safe and (keeping) travellers here safe, as well as reviving the air traffic sector.

MOH also reduced the 14-day stay-home notice period for travellers coming in from “low-risk” countries and regions to seven days.

These countries and regions are Australia (excluding Victoria state), Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Travellers will be tested before the end of the isolation period.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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Minggu, 23 Agustus 2020

Sabtu, 22 Agustus 2020

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