this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.
https://time.com/5621384/north-korea-australian-student-spying/
2019-07-06 14:11:54Z
52780327067074
Sabtu, 06 Juli 2019
North Korea: Released Australian Student Was Spying - TIME
https://time.com/5621384/north-korea-australian-student-spying/
2019-07-06 14:11:54Z
52780327067074
Iran: UK 'should be scared' of retaliation over seized tanker - New York Post
Iran said Saturday the United Kingdom should be “scared” of possible retaliation after the Royal Marines captured an Iranian supertanker in Gibraltar.
“I am openly saying that Britain should be scared of Iran’s retaliatory measures over the illegal seizure of the Iranian oil tanker,” Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, a member of a powerful group of clerics, was quoted as saying in Fars, Iran’s semi-official news agency.
“We have shown that we will never remain silent against bullying … As we gave a staunch response to the American drone, the appropriate response to this illegal capture (of the tanker) will be given by Iran as well,” Reuters reported.
The tanker was seized on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.
Iran also repeated threats to increase its level of enriched uranium beyond limits stipulated in the 2015 nuclear deal, which the US exited.
“Americans directly and Europeans indirectly violated the deal,” a top aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a video posted Saturday on an Iranian website.
Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs, said in the video that increasing enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels was “unanimously agreed upon by every component of the establishment,” the Associated Press reported.
“We will show reaction exponentially as much as they violate it. We reduce our commitments as much as they reduce it,” said Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs. “If they go back to fulfilling their commitments, we will do so as well.”
The video follows similar threats on Wednesday. President Trump responded to those earlier threats with a tweet warning the nation to “Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before!”
Iran wants European leaders to offer a way for Tehran to avoid punishing economic sanctions, especially those targeting its crucial oil sales, that Trump put in place in the year since he pulled the US out of the pact.
With Post wires
https://nypost.com/2019/07/06/iran-uk-should-be-scared-of-retaliation-over-seized-tanker/
2019-07-06 13:25:00Z
CAIiEL_aJyxfFyPHGkPYvSOowlIqGAgEKg8IACoHCAowhK-LAjD4ySww69W0BQ
Alek Sigley: North Korea accuses Australian of 'spying' - BBC News
North Korea says an Australian student who had been detained for several days before being released had been "spying" for news outlets.
Alek Sigley, 29, was reported missing in late June, but was freed on Thursday after Swedish officials in Pyongyang met the North Korean government.
NK News, one of the websites to publish his writing, has rejected Pyongyang's claims that he spied for them.
It said his columns only "presented an apolitical view of life in Pyongyang".
Mr Sigley, a fluent Korean speaker, had been living in Pyongyang while studying a Master's at Kim Il-sung university and running a tourism business.
Mr Sigley has not commented on why he detained. Following his release, he flew to Japan, where his wife lives.
On Saturday, North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA said that Mr Sigley had "on numerous occasions transferred information, including photographs and analysis, that he gathered while travelling to every corner of Pyongyang using his status as an international student".
He had done this "upon request by anti-DPRK [North Korea] news outlets such as NK news", KCNA added.
The government decided to deport him on humanitarian grounds after he "honestly admitted that he had been spying... and repeatedly asked for our forgiveness for infringing on our sovereignty", it said.
North Korea often accuses foreigners detained in its country of espionage or "hostile acts".
Media playback is unsupported on your device
In a statement, NK News, a website specialising in North Korean news and analysis, said it appreciated "the DPRK's decision to promptly release Sigley on humanitarian grounds".
It said it had published six articles from Mr Sigley which showed "vignettes of ordinary daily life in the capital".
"The six articles Alek published represent the full extent of his work with us and the idea that those columns, published transparently under his name between January and April 2019, are 'anti-state' in nature is a misrepresentation which we reject."
Mr Sidley had published an essay titled: "From Perth to Pyongyang: my life as an Aussie student at Kim Il Sung University", as well as articles about North Korean fashion, apps, and restaurants.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48893523
2019-07-06 12:12:19Z
52780327067074
Iran religious leader threatens UK over capture of oil tanker - Al Jazeera English
The United Kingdom should be "scared" of Tehran's possible reciprocal measures for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by the British navy in Gibraltar, the semi-official Fars news agency reported an Iranian religious leader as saying.
"I am openly saying that Britain should be scared of Iran's retaliatory measures over the illegal seizure of the Iranian oil tanker," Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, a member of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful religious body said on Saturday.
"We have shown that we will never remain silent against bullying ... As we gave a staunch response to the American drone, the appropriate response to this illegal capture [of the tanker] will be given by Iran as well," he said over the seizure of the supertanker in the British overseas territory.
British Royal Marines seized the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday for trying to transport oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions in a move which drew Tehran's fury and could escalate its confrontation with the West.
On Friday, the tanker's crew were being interviewed as witnesses in an effort to establish the nature of the cargo and its ultimate destination, a spokesperson for the British territory said.
The spokesperson said the 28-member crew, who have remained on board the supertanker, were mainly Indians with some Pakistanis and Ukrainians.
Later on Friday, Gibraltar said it had obtained an order extending the detention of the tanker by 14 days because there were grounds to believe it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to Syria.
Saudi seizure of tanker
Iranian officials also say that Saudi Arabia has been holding an Iranian oil tanker in the port of Jeddah since late April after the ship experienced engine failure.
"There was an Iranian oil tanker that was on its way through the Suez Canal, carrying 1.2 billions of crude oil on April 30 off the port city of Jeddah," Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said.
"It experienced an engine failure and sent a distress call before being saved by Saudi Arabia with 26 crew members on board," she also said.
She added: "It has been since fixed in the port city, but Saudis are charging Iranians $200,000 a day. Iran wants this vessel back but the cost is very high, around $20m. Saudi Arabia says they will not release the vessel until Iran pays the bill."
Iran downed a United States military drone on June 20 that it said was flying over one of its southern provinces on the Gulf. Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened on Friday to seize a British ship in retaliation for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by Royal Marines.
The ship's seizure comes at a sensitive time as the EU mulls over how to respond to Iran announcing it will go beyond the maximum uranium enrichment level it agreed to in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Tensions have mounted in the wake of Washington's unilateral decision last year to abandon the nuclear deal and hit Iran's crucial oil exports and financial transactions with biting sanctions.
Iran has accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of waging "economic war" against it with a campaign to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/iran-religious-leader-threatens-uk-capture-oil-tanker-190706091738043.html
2019-07-06 10:50:00Z
52780327368995
Boris takes on Hunt at Nottingham hustings | LIVE - The Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0qintyCeQA
2019-07-06 09:24:42Z
52780326330237
The UK's next Prime Minister will be chosen by 0.2% of the nation - CNN International
A self-selecting group of 160,000 people -- just 0.2% of the electorate -- will choose the next leader for a country of nearly 67 million people.
That's because in the UK, when a prime minister quits -- as Theresa May did over Brexit -- there isn't necessarily a general election. In the country's parliamentary system, the PM is typically the head of the largest party in parliament. If there's a personnel change at the top of the ruling party, the new party leader pretty much automatically gets the keys to 10 Downing Street.
In this case, the people charged with picking between flamboyant frontunner Boris Johnson, or safe-pair-of-hands challenger Jeremy Hunt, are the aforementioned 160,000 members of the Conservative Party -- and they start receiving their ballot papers this weekend.
So, who exactly are they?
Conservatives have a reputation for being out of touch and monied. "The classic perception of posh old men in red trousers hankering for the good old days misses the point. You have very different make-ups of membership across England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland," Lauren McEvatt, a Conservative party member and former Conservative special advisor, explains. While those people do exist, there are also "a lot of low-middle income earners who have an aspirational approach to life and are not attracted to the big-state ideas of the left."
However, while they might be a diverse group in terms of their backgrounds and approach, they are far from representative of the UK in 2019. "They are predominately white, middle-class and comfortably off," says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London and co-author of the upcoming book "Footsoldiers: Political Party Membership in the 21st Century."
"They are also 97% white British, whereas about 15% of people in the country are from an ethnic minority background. They are also mostly men," Bale says.
Their political views are also at odds with the nation at large -- and even with the Conservative lawmakers sitting in the House of Commons. "The are pretty traditionalist," Bale explains. "If you look at their attitudes on immigration, justice and education, they are socially very right-wing." Contrast this with Conservative members of parliament, who largely voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage and campaigned against Brexit, and you begin to see the tightrope that Johnson and Hunt must walk in order to win over their party but not alienate 98.8% of the country.
Of course, the most important issue in the UK right now is Brexit. And it's been a matter dividing the Conservatives for decades, with the party split between ideological europhiles and euroskeptics. The fact that a Conservative government has failed to deliver Brexit is seen by party members as at best a betrayal, at worst a public humiliation.
Since 2016, the membership's view on Brexit has shifted significantly. "The party has gone from two-thirds of members holding off deciding how they would vote in the Brexit referendum, to two thirds saying they'd be happy with no deal," according to research by Tim Bale.
Lauren McEvatt believes that the shift began with David Cameron misunderstanding why so many of his own wanted to leave the EU. "It wasn't just about immigration; it was also about a perception that unelected gray men in Brussels were interfering in everyday life in the UK, with ludicrous regulations on things like light bulbs and vacuum cleaners. So, when he came back with an offer from Brussels that didn't appear to address those things, Conservative members felt like he had failed."
This has affected the contest to replace May next month. Stuart Graham, a long-standing party member, says May's resignation has "given the majority of members of the party a new lease of life and a new sense of purpose." This, combined with its new hardening on Brexit, has forced both leadership candidates to publicly say they would be comfortable leaving the EU without a deal.
Winning over the members might be useful for now, but any new prime minister will likely have to pivot when they actually take office.
While both Hunt and Johnson claim that they plan to reopen Theresa May's tortuously negotiated Brexit deal, the EU has said that's simply not an option. And while both say they will happily pursue a no-deal departure, they have the small matter of the UK parliament to overcome. Parliament cannot formally prevent a no-deal Brexit, but it can very strongly tell the government that to do so would be catastrophic. And should a PM press ahead in spite of the declared will of parliament, then lawmakers have the power to vote down the government, a scenario that might well trigger a general election.
This is where things get spicy. The wider public (remember them?) will have taken note of everything said by both candidates during the Conservative leadership race. And public opinion is currently quite a bit more diverse than it is within the Conservative party. A succession of opinion polls show the Conservatives taking large hits from parties on both extremes of the Brexit spectrum, including parties that want to abandon the project altogether.
And before you say, "yes, but polls have had a habit of being wrong of late," look at last month's EU elections, where the Conservatives and opposition Labour party both finished behind the pro-no deal Brexit party and the pro-scrapping Brexit altogether Liberal Democrats.
So, while 0.2% of the population might well install their Brexit hero Boris Johnson next month (or Jeremy Hunt, who has an equally complicated Brexit stance), the ultimate victor might be drinking from a poisoned chalice. And, if they get this wrong, they could end up being the shortest serving prime minister in history.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/05/uk/conservative-party-leadership-next-prime-minister-intl-gbr/index.html
2019-07-06 01:03:24Z
52780326330237
Jumat, 05 Juli 2019
What Denise Ho, Jackie Chan and Other Celebrities Think About the Hong Kong Protests - The New York Times
HONG KONG — As Hong Kong’s protests evolve into a struggle against the grip of authoritarian China, one of the city’s biggest pop stars has emerged as an icon of defiance. She has spoken at rallies, handed out voter registration forms at marches and stood on the front lines with demonstrators, urging the riot police not to charge.
Denise Ho, a Cantopop singer, is just one of many high-profile figures in the decentralized protest movement, but among Hong Kong’s celebrities, she is a rare breed. Ms. Ho threw her stardom behind the city’s pro-democracy movement five years ago and has since been paying the price — being barred in the lucrative mainland Chinese market.
Ms. Ho defended the recent protests after Monday’s destructive turn when a core group of younger protesters stormed the city’s legislative offices. That day, Ms. Ho left a peaceful march to join a crowd outside the complex that was cheering on the students, and was still there after midnight when hundreds of riot police officers moved in to disperse them, with some firing tear gas.
Was tear gassed again. Retreated from the premises together with the protesters at around midnight, moments after the police came to disperse the crowds.
The kids kept going back, making sure that everyone has left safely, with the motto : “No one left behind!”#Hongkong
— Denise Ho (HOCC) (@hoccgoomusic) July 1, 2019
In 2014, Ms. Ho’s career had been taking off in China, and she had played more than 100 concerts there. Then she took part in a protest movement in Hong Kong that called for freer elections in the semiautonomous territory.
The Chinese government barred her from performing and scrubbed her music from the playlists of streaming websites. The blacklisting cut around $120,000 from her annual income, her manager said.
Image
The ban only emboldened Ms. Ho, reminding her of the need to protect the freedom of speech and other civil liberties that set Hong Kong apart from the rest of China.
“For me, it is always about the people, for the people to be empowered and for them to believe that we can control our destiny,” she said in a recent interview.
But for other celebrities, whose careers have come to depend on the mainland Chinese market, Ms. Ho’s punishment served as the latest warning from the governing Communist Party that it has a low tolerance for political dissent. Most stars stay out of politics. Others have chosen to support Beijing, and have been rewarded.
“Most of these people have stayed silent,” said Ms. Ho, who has livestreamed her appearances at demonstrations, including one in which she appeared to be shoved by a police officer. “It gets really frustrating and of course lonely for the people, especially for the younger people.”
[Here’s what to know about Hong Kong’s evolving protest movement.]
From her privileged perch, Ms. Ho has given voice to Hong Kongers’ grievances across the world, speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum, writing op-ed pieces and giving interviews. She is scheduled to speak to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
Yet few among Hong Kong’s performers have made public appearances at the huge protests of recent weeks against a bill that would allow extraditions to China.
Image
It is a stark contrast to 1989, when Hong Kong was still a British colony in the midst of a golden era of entertainment and there was little in the way of a mainland Chinese market. That year, a star-studded list of Hong Kong entertainers turned out for a concert to support the pro-democracy student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Jackie Chan performed, and the actors Andy Lau and Chow Yun-Fat called in to express their support.
In recent years, as nationalist sentiment in the mainland has grown and the economy has rapidly expanded, the authorities, companies and fans have frequently shunned performers who take stances that are seen to be critical of Beijing.
Aside from Ms. Ho, others blacklisted after the 2014 protests, known as the Umbrella Movement, reportedly also included Mr. Chow and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. Some stars found themselves shut out by fans and companies in the mainland. Job opportunities suddenly evaporated.
During the recent protests, several industry organizations, including the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild, issued statements demanding the total withdrawal of the extradition bill.
However, other than Ms. Ho, only a handful of individual entertainers, including the actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang and the Cantopop singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, have spoken out.
Some entertainers who only hinted at their support for the demonstrations have come under pressure to clarify their positions.
Image
Miriam Yeung Chin-wah, a Hong Kong actress and singer, posted an image of the term “R.I.P.” on her Instagram, which many fans saw as a tribute to a protester who fell to his death last month. Ms. Yeung later deleted the post without explanation, prompting a wave of criticism from fans who accused her of bowing to mainland pressure.
Charmaine Sheh, a Hong Kong actress popular in mainland China, was subject to a barrage of online attacks after she “liked” a post showing the anti-extradition protests on Instagram, which is blocked in China.
Ms. Sheh apologized soon after. “I was shocked when I later realized what was in the post,” she wrote on a Chinese social media site. “I, Sheh Sze-man, love the country and love Hong Kong!”
A few stars such as the actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and the singer Kenny Chung have publicly supported the police, whom protesters condemned for using excessive force when dispersing crowds.
“It’s a bit dangerous for us to come out today as public figures,” Mr. Chung said at a pro-police rally on Sunday. “But we are not speaking about politics — we are talking about justice.”
Others have pleaded ignorance.
Jackie Chan, the superstar Hong Kong-born actor of “Rush Hour” fame, was in Taiwan to promote a new album last month when reporters asked about his views on the protests in Hong Kong. Mr. Chan said he had only just learned about them.
Image
“I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, 57, the Cantopop singer, is one of the few established artists who spoke out against the extradition bill along with Ms. Ho. He came out as gay in 2012 and said the experience encouraged him to break the industrywide silence about politics.
“I am a civilian first,” Mr. Wong said in a telephone interview, “then a musician and also a social activist.”
But speaking in support of the Umbrella Movement, which Beijing criticized as a national security threat, came at a high cost. Mr. Wong said he had lost more than half of his annual income that came from China, as well as partnerships with international brands.
“I’ve been singing for 30 years and I can afford to pay this price,” he said. “A lot of people would then become too scared to speak up or express themselves. This is the most chilling part of it.”
Ms. Ho said that choosing to speak out had been liberating. “I am feeling quite free,” she said.
On Friday night, the singer spoke to a rally of several thousand protesters and urged them to persevere despite the arrest of several demonstrators.
“We have to learn how to turn a short-term protest into a long-term resistance,” she said. “And we have to learn how to integrate our resistance into our daily lives.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/world/asia/denise-ho-hong-kong-protests.html
2019-07-05 18:31:52Z
52780326606017
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)