Kamis, 24 Juni 2021
Singapore speeds up COVID-19 vaccinations; those vaccinated to get concessions when travel resumes - CNA
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2021-06-24 10:28:46Z
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Hong Kong's Apple Daily to live on in blockchain, free of censors - CNA
HONG KONG: Hong Kong cyber activists are backing up articles by Apple Daily on censorship-proof blockchain platforms after the newspaper was forced to shut down as it became embroiled in a national security law crackdown.
The latest drive to preserve the paper's content comes after activists rushed to upload documentaries by local broadcaster RTHK investigating people in power after the media outlet said it would remove materials older than one year from its social media platforms.
Under the national security law, the Hong Kong government can request the blocking or removal of content it deems subversive or secessionist, raising fears over internet freedom in the global financial hub.
The Hong Kong government says use of the Internet will not be affected so long as its use is within the law.
"Law enforcement actions taken by Hong Kong law enforcement agencies are based on evidence, strictly according to the laws of Hong Kong, and for the acts of the person(s) or entity(ies) concerned,” a spokesman for the Security Bureau said.
READ: Heartbreak in newsroom as Apple Daily bids farewell to Hong Kong
READ: Hong Kong police raid newspaper Apple Daily, arrest 5 including editor-in-chief
This year, the company that approves Internet domains in Hong Kong said it would reject any sites that could incite "illegal acts". Internet service provider Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) said it had blocked access to HKChronicles, a website offering information about anti-government protests.
Fearing the security law could bring elements of China's great firewall to Hong Kong, limiting access to dissenting views, 21-year-old Ho - who works in tech and did not give his first name because of the sensitivity of the matter - began this week to upload Apple Daily articles on decentralised file storage platform ARWeave.
READ: Hong Kong leader says press must not 'subvert' government
After midnight, as the printers ran one final time, Apple Daily shut off its website and erased all its social media platforms after authorities froze company-related assets as part of a national security probe.
"I’m not doing this because I love Apple Daily, it’s what needs to be done," Ho said. "I never thought that Apple Daily would disappear so quickly."
Police froze assets of companies linked to Apple Daily and arrested five executives last week, moves that led to the newspaper printing its final edition on Thursday (Jun 24).
Authorities have said dozens of Apple Daily articles may have violated the security law, but there was no suggestion that Apple Daily content would be blocked or censored.
Similar to BitTorrent, ARWeave breaks down a file into bits of information distributed over an open network of anonymous computers around the world. On its website, it describes itself as a "collectively owned hard drive that never forgets".
As of Thursday, more than 4,000 Apple Daily articles had been uploaded on ARWeave. Hundreds of RTHK programmes dating back to 2012 are also available.
READ: Hong Kongers snap up final edition of Apple Daily newspaper
Another programmer, Kin Ko, 47, has been building a decentralised registry called LikeCoin. The blockchain platform helps internet users identify the metadata - creator, date, time, location, version - of the content through a unique number called an International Standard Content Number (ISCN), akin to a book's distinctive International Standard Book Number.
Any changes made to the content would be known and tracked through changes to its digital fingerprint.
READ: No jury as Hong Kong's first 'national security' trial gets under way
The digital repository is still in its beta phase and months away from launching officially. But online pro-democracy outlet Citizen News told Reuters its has already used LikeCoin to catalogue its images.
Ko's initial idea was to create a platform that could authenticate any type of content, and did not expect his platform to be embraced so enthusiastically by pro-democracy activists.
But, he said: "History must not be determined by those in power."
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2021-06-24 08:22:55Z
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S'pore targets two-thirds of population to be fully vaccinated by National Day | THE BIG STORY - The Straits Times
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2021-06-24 09:55:07Z
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Work from home? Nah. How about 'work from paradise' – at Potato Head Bali - CNA
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Work from home? Nah. How about 'work from paradise' – at Potato Head Bali CNAhttps://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vY25hbHV4dXJ5LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vZXhwZXJpZW5jZXMvcG90YXRvLWhlYWQtc3R1ZGlvcy1ob3RlbC1iYWxpLWluZG9uZXNpYS0xNTA4MTMxMNIBAA?oc=5
2021-06-24 05:24:13Z
CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vY25hbHV4dXJ5LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vZXhwZXJpZW5jZXMvcG90YXRvLWhlYWQtc3R1ZGlvcy1ob3RlbC1iYWxpLWluZG9uZXNpYS0xNTA4MTMxMNIBAA
Rabu, 23 Juni 2021
Hong Kongers snap up final edition of Apple Daily newspaper - CNA
HONG KONG: Hong Kongers queued Thursday (Jun 24) for the final edition of the city's beloved pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily after it was forced to close under a sweeping new national security law, ending a 26-year run of taking on China's authoritarian leaders.
The sudden death of the popular newspaper is the latest blow to Hong Kong's freedoms and deepens unease over whether the international finance centre can remain a media hub as China seeks to stamp out dissent.
In the working-class district of Mongkok, hundreds queued through the early hours of Thursday to get their hands on the final edition, some chanting "Apple Daily we will meet again!"
READ: Hong Kong police raid newspaper Apple Daily, arrest 5 including editor-in-chief
READ: No jury as Hong Kong's first 'national security' trial gets under way
The swansong front page featured the paper's own journalists waving goodbye to crowds outside its headquarters.
"It's very shocking," a 30-year-old woman, who was in the queue and gave her first name as Candy, told AFP.
"Within two weeks, authorities could use this national security law to dismantle a listed company."
A few hours later, vendors were doing a roaring trade with commuters in Central, the financial heart of the city.
"It is all so sudden," a student, who gave his first name as Tim, told AFP.
"I think Hong Kong has entered a dark age."
ASSET FREEZE
Hong Kong's most popular tabloid had long been a thorn in Beijing's side, with unapologetic support for the city's pro-democracy movement and caustic criticism of China's authoritarian leaders.
Those same leaders used a new security law to bring about its rapid demise.
Owner Jimmy Lai, currently in jail for attending democracy protests, was among the first to be charged under the law after its imposition last year.
READ: Hong Kong leader says press must not 'subvert' government
But the final chapter was written over the last week when authorities deployed the security law to raid the newsroom, arrest senior executives and freeze its assets.
That last move crippled the paper's ability to conduct business or pay staff and the news group decided Thursday's newspaper - a run of one million copies in a city of 7.5 million - would be its last.
Overnight it took down its website, Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Some 1,000 people, including 700 journalists, are now out of work.
"Hong Kongers lost a media organisation that dared to speak up and insist on defending the truth," eight local journalist associations said in a joint statement, as they called on colleagues to dress in black on Thursday.
FORBIDDEN OPINIONS
China imposed its security law on Hong Kong last year after the city was convulsed by huge and often violent democracy protests in 2019.
The prosecution of Apple Daily was sparked by articles and columns that allegedly supported international sanctions against China, a view now deemed illegal.
Lai, chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung have all been charged with colluding with foreign forces to undermine China's national security and remanded into custody.
On Wednesday, Yeung Ching-kee, one of the paper's top columnists, was arrested on the same charge.
The decision to freeze Apple Daily's assets also laid bare the sweeping powers now at the disposal of authorities to pursue any company deemed to be a national security threat.
Multiple international media companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, attracted to the business-friendly regulations and free speech provisions written into the city's mini-constitution.
But many local and international outlets are questioning whether they have a future there.
FIRST TRIAL
Hong Kong has plunged down an annual press freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders, from 18th place in 2002 to 80th this year. Mainland China languishes at 177th out of 180, above only Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
China and Hong Kong's authorities have hailed the security law for successfully restoring stability after the 2019 demonstrations and said media outlets must not "subvert" the government.
Authorities initially said the law would only target "a tiny minority".
READ: Crackdown brings resignations at Hong Kong pro-democracy paper Apple Daily
But it has radically transformed the political and legal landscape of a city that China promised would be able to keep key liberties and autonomy after its 1997 return by Britain.
On Wednesday, the first trial under the new law got under way for a man accused of riding a motorbike into police officers.
His trial is not being heard by a jury, a major departure from Hong Kong's common law traditions.
His case is unusual because he is the only Hong Konger so far charged under the security law with an explicitly violent act.
More than 60 people have now been charged under the law, including some of the city's best-known democracy activists, but their offences are related to political views or speech that authorities have declared illegal.
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2021-06-24 01:45:37Z
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Tears and cheers as Hong Kong's Apple Daily prints last edition - The Straits Times
HONG KONG (AFP) - As journalists from Hong Kong's embattled pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper scrambled to produce their final edition, they did not need to go far to find their front page - the news was right outside their doors.
With its confrontational style, caustic commentaries and sometimes tawdry reporting techniques, the city's most popular tabloid was no stranger to being in the headlines.
So it was perhaps fitting that its final front page after 26 years of operation featured its own journalists waving goodbye to hundreds of supporters on the streets outside.
"Hong Kongers bid a painful farewell in the rain: 'We support Apple Daily'," the paper's last headline read.
Apple Daily is the latest Hong Kong institution to be upended by a national security law that Beijing imposed on the city last year to stamp out dissent after huge and often violent democracy protests.
The authorities used the law to freeze its assets and arrest five key executives last week.
Six days later, it folded.
'Complicated feeling'
Inside the bustling newsroom on Wednesday evening (June 23), many staff wept as they put together the last edition. Others gathered for group photos and cheered.
"We're trying to do the best at the very last moment," a harried page designer, who gave his surname as Kwok, told AFP, as a gaggle of reporters from rival outlets criss-crossed the newsroom documenting a watershed moment for their own embattled industry.
"It's a complicated feeling," he added.
One photographer, who declined to be named, said the newsroom was filled with far more employees than usual on its last night, almost like a reunion or a funeral.
"It was a chance to gather all the colleagues together, we made it a historical moment," he told AFP.
But he said few had much optimism.
"It doesn't look good for the future of Hong Kong news, press freedom and the news industry," he added.
Throughout the evening, a steadily growing crowd of supporters kept vigil outside.
Many chanted slogans or messages of encouragement and shone mobile phone lights towards the building.
Now and then, those inside would come out onto a balcony and wave, replying with their own mobile phone flash lights.
Transportation worker Alan Tso, 30, said he had been reading Apple Daily for the last 12 years.
He said he sent a box of fresh apples to the company this morning and asked for early leave from work after learning the paper would close.
He pinned a three-page hand-written letter to the company's gates.
"Thank you for standing fast at your posts and reporting news every day for Hong Kongers," it read.
"Apple Daily stands for the spirit of daring to do what you believe is right," Mr Tso told AFP.
"I won't buy other newspapers after I lose it."
'Hong Kong has no future'
The paper's headquarters is on a remote industrial estate at the far eastern end of Hong Kong.
A 27-year-old woman who gave her first name as Beatrice said she travelled with a friend to be with her favourite paper on its last night.
"I felt like I needed to go. It's a duty for me to say goodbye," she said.
A man in a yellow face mask, who gave his surname as Chow, was among four people writing messages on the paper's main gate.
"I think Hong Kong has no future," he told AFP.
"We will never have the old Hong Kong again because since the national security law came in all freedom of press, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly have been suppressed by the government."
Shortly after midnight, the printing presses began rolling and staff came out to give free copies to the crowds outside.
Many in the crowd were weeping. Others chanted democracy slogans and shook the hands of some of the 1,000 employees now out of work.
One Apple Daily photographer, who asked not to be named but said he joined when the paper first opened in 1995, had spent some of the evening watching and shooting the crowds below.
His eyes were red.
Asked what he would do next, he simply shrugged.
"I just have to stop. No more. Relax."
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2021-06-23 17:49:33Z
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Larger-than-life software mogul John McAfee dies in Spain by suicide, lawyer says - CNA
BARCELONA: British-born US technology entrepreneur John McAfee died on Wednesday (Jun 23) by suicide in a Barcelona prison after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States on tax evasion charges, his lawyer told Reuters.
McAfee's lawyer, Javier Villalba, said the anti-virus software pioneer died by hanging as his nine months in prison brought him to despair.
During a court hearing last month, McAfee, 75, said that given his age, he would spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted in the United States. "I am hoping that the Spanish court will see the injustice of this," he said, adding "the United States wants to use me as an example".
McAfee had lived for years on the run from US authorities, some of that time aboard a megayacht. He was indicted in Tennessee on tax evasion charges and was charged in a cryptocurrency fraud case in New York.
The colourful tech founder was detained on Oct 3 at the Barcelona airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul with a British passport, a Spanish police source said at the time.
McAfee worked for NASA, Xerox and Lockheed Martin before launching the world's first commercial anti-virus in 1987. He sold his software company to Intel in 2011 and no longer had any involvement in the business. The program still carries his name and has 500 million users worldwide.
Spain's high court said on Wednesday it agreed to extradite McAfee to the United States. The regional justice department confirmed that a US man aged 75 awaiting extradition was found dead in his cell on Wednesday. Prison authorities were investigating the cause of death.
McAfee still had opportunities to appeal his conviction but could not stand more time in jail, Villalba said.
"This is the result of a cruel system that had no reason to keep this man in jail for so long," Villalba said. US prosecutors will likely ask the judge overseeing the tax evasion case to dismiss charges because of McAfee's death.
McAfee said in 2019 that he had not paid US income taxes for eight years for ideological reasons. That year, he left the United States to avoid trial, largely living on a megayacht with his wife, four large dogs, two security guards and seven staff.
He offered to help Cuba avoid a US trade embargo using cryptocurrency and sought to run for US president for the Libertarian Party.
McAfee, who said in 2018 that he had fathered at least 47 children, lived in Belize for several years. He fled after police sought him for questioning in the 2012 murder of a neighbour. They ultimately said he was not a suspect.
He met his wife, Janice McAfee, when she solicited him as a prostitute while he was on the run, he said.
Janice McAfee said in a post on Twitter on Sunday, "Now the US authorities are determined to have John die in prison to make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies ... There is no hope of him ever having a fair trial in America."
McAfee was a prolific user of Twitter, where he had 1 million followers, and other social media.
He posted a profanity-laced video on YouTube in 2013 that mocked the difficulty of removing the software that bore his name from computers.
A number of cryptocurrency backers around the world on Wednesday posted tweets of condolence. In his last public tweet on Jun 18, McAfee wrote: "All power corrupts. Take care which powers you allow a democracy to wield."
Where to get help: Samaritans of Singapore operates a 24-hour hotline at 1800 221 4444, or you can email pat@sos.org.sg. If someone you know is at immediate risk, call 24-hour emergency medical services.
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2021-06-23 21:22:30Z
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