World
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2019 CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Soros calls Xi most perilous enemy of all free societies
D
AVOS―Billionaire investor George Soros on Thursday said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “the most dangerous enemy” of free societies for presiding over a high-tech surveillance regime.
MARAUDING MONEKYS. In this file photo taken on November 13, 2018, macaques monkeys gather near the Taj Mahal
monument in Agra in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Indian authorities have deployed slingshot-armed police-guards to protect tourists from being attacked by hordes of marauding monkeys at the Taj Mahal, an official said on January 25, 2019. AFP
IN BRIEF Power outages as Australia swelters
SYDNEY―Hundreds of thousands of people sweltering through a brutal heatwave in southern Australia were left without power Friday, as the grid struggled with surging demand. Authorities said more than 200,000 customers were experiencing blackouts after it ordered forced outages to reduce the risk of the entire grid failing. “We have asked for 100 megawatts of involuntary load reduction, we have notified the networks, they’re in the process of doing that,” Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Audrey Zibelman told reporters. The disruption comes as temperatures in Melbourne soared to 42.8 Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) just after lunch, before a cool change saw the mercury drop 12 degrees in just seven minutes in the city in the early afternoon. There were reports of up to 100 traffic lights without power in Melbourne, and some shops and cafes were forced to close. The extreme heat did not deter tennis fans however, who flocked to Melbourne park for the Australian Open tennis semi-finals―although many did make use of mist tunnels and fans to keep cool. In other parts of Victoria state authorities had issued fire warnings—with hundreds of emergency services personnel and dozens of planes and helicopters on standby -as temperatures in some areas were expected to reach up to 47 Celsius. Australia is reeling from a heat wave that peaked in South Australia Thursday when the state capital Adelaide topped 47.7 Celsius, breaking a record that had stood since 1939. Meanwhile, authorities further south on the island state of Tasmania continued to battle bush fires. AFP
Mexico fuel explosion death toll rises to 107
MEXICO CITY―The death toll from a fiery pipeline explosion in central Mexico reached 107 Thursday, the government announced, with 40 people also injured in the blast last week. Last Friday, the fuel-line in Hidalgo state was deliberately punctured, drawing hundreds of people looking to gather gasoline before it ignited. The disaster occurred as the government wages a huge effort to clamp down on fuel theft, which cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017. The so-called “huachicol”―as the stolen fuel is known in Mexico―costs about half of the market price. Mexico is regularly rocked by deadly explosions at illegal pipeline taps, a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and corrupt Pemex insiders. AFP
Rich Russians flock to Florida to deliver American babies SUNNY ISLES BEACH―In southern Florida’s Sunny Isles Beach, Russian tourists Anna and Helen sip coffee with their husbands and newborn babies: a common scene in what has become a prized destination for well-off foreigners looking to secure US citizenship for their children. Under the shadow of luxury skyscrapers―among them Trump Towers―exists an army of well-dressed women, either pregnant or pushing topof-the-line strollers. Most are Russian or from former Soviet Union countries. The weather, white-sand beaches and dazzling turquoise waters are common reasons given for traveling to give birth in this city of 20,000 people, north of Miami. But one 34-year-old, who gave her name only as Anna, was more direct. “For the American passport!” she told AFP, smiling. She arrived in the US while expecting now two-monthold Melania. Both she and compatriot Helen,
Floods death toll up to 59 in Indonesia
MAKASAR, Indonesia—Floods and landslides in Indonesia have killed at least 59 people, the government said Friday, after heavy rain pounded Sulawesi island and forced thousands to flee their homes. “I’ve never seen something this bad―this is the worst,” Syamsibar, head of South Sulawesi’s disaster mitigation agency, told AFP, adding that 25 people were still missing. Lashed by the heavy rain, rivers swelled and burst their banks, inundating dozens of communities in 11 districts of southern Sulawesi. Parts of the provincial capital Makassar have also been affected. Gowa district suffered the heaviest casualties, with 44 people found dead, said Syamsibar, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. Some 3,400 people were evacuated from their homes and given refuge in schools, mosques and tents. Rescuers and residents waded through streets filled with waist-deep water, some carrying their possessions above their heads. “I couldn’t save all my belongings, my house was swept away,” Makassar resident Ayu Fiskarina told AFP. Authorities say floodwaters are receding but the impact of the disaster has ranged far and wide, damaging houses, government buildings, schools and bridges. “All the locals in this area have been evacuated to the mosque, except for [a] woman who refuses to leave her house because she’s scared her belongings could be looted,” said Makassar police officer Ardal. AFP
mother to a three-month-old, said tens of thousands of dollars and months of planning went into their trips. The attraction is clear. President Donald Trump does not like it, but according to the US constitution, children born on American soil automatically gain citizenship, opening up highly sought-after opportunities to study and work. And why Sunny Isles specifically? “Feel home, lot of Russian,” Anna said. Upon turning 21, baby Melania will also be able to sponsor visas for her parents to come to the US―another policy that has disgruntled Trump. The trend is big business: Miami Mama, a company in neighboring Hallandale Beach, has been organizing travel packages for Russian mothers since 2009. Charging between $6,900 and $49,000, they will coordinate everything from interpreters and apartments to medical care and citizenship documents, according to the firm’s website. AFP
“China is not the only authoritarian regime in the world but it is the wealthiest, strongest and technologically most advanced,” he said, noting concerns too about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “This makes Xi Jinping the most dangerous opponent of open societies,” Soros told a dinner audience on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Hungarian-born philanthropist said US tech giants such as Facebook must be reined in by authorities for the good of democracy. He pointed “to the mortal danger facing open societies from the instruments of control that machine learning and artificial intelligence can put in the hands of repressive regimes”. Soros dwelt on concerns in the West about Chinese tech giants ZTE and Huawei, as countries roll out nextgeneration 5G wireless networks. He said US President Donald Trump should crack down hard on the companies as part of a more focused effort on China instead of taking on “practically the whole world” in trade conflicts. “If these companies came to dominate the 5G market, they would present an unacceptable security risk for the rest of the world,” Soros said in a speech, copies of which were distributed in Chinese. Communist China under Xi has been building a cutting-edge system including facial recognition to keep tabs on its citizens, and Soros said algorithms would calculate how dangerous a threat individuals might pose to the regime. “The ‘social credit’ system, if it became operational, would give Xi
total control over the people,” he said at the dinner, which was open to media. “Since Xi is the most dangerous enemy of the open society, we must pin our hopes on the Chinese people, and especially on the business community and a political elite willing to uphold the Confucian tradition,” he said, referencing the ancient history of Chinese officials speaking truth to power, on pain of imprisonment or death. “This doesn’t mean that those of us who believe in the open society should remain passive,” Soros added. “The reality is that we are in a Cold War that threatens to turn into a hot one. “On the other hand, if Xi and Trump were no longer in power, an opportunity would present itself to develop greater cooperation between the two cyber-superpowers.” Soros’s dinner speeches are an annual tradition at the elite business forum in Davos, and this year it came after a particularly difficult period for his Open Society Foundations. Last month, the Soros-funded Central European University said it had been “forced” to move its most prestigious study programs to Vienna after a bitter legal battle with the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his native Hungary. Soros did not touch on the issue in his Davos speech, but did say: “Those of us who want to preserve the open society must work together and form an effective alliance. We have a task that can’t be left to governments.” AFP
PREMIERE. A
view of the artist painting at the ‘I Am The Night’ Los Angeles Premiere on January 24, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. AFP
Liberia wrestles with poverty to protect sharks MONROVIA―George Toe reflects on the good old days, when catching a couple of sharks helped fill a fisherman’s pocket and feed a hungry family. Fifteen years or so ago, local fishermen who ventured off the coast of Liberia could expect to come back with 200, maybe 300, of the fish in their boats, the 45-year-old recalls. “Now it is difficult to get even 10,” he said. “Now you have to go 72 kilometers in the water before you meet up with any.” Toe’s worry encapsulates the dilemma facing Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries, as it seeks to protect these beautiful, endangered but often under-estimated species. Each year, tens of millions of sharks
and rays are hauled from the sea, typically to meet a voracious demand in East and Southeast Asia for shark fin soup or products used in traditional medicine. Experts say the plunder is having a devastating effect on the health of the sea— but protecting the species often meets resistance from fishermen, who see the catch as a vital source of income. Fishing provides a livelihood to more than 30,000 people in Liberia and accounts for two-thirds of all animal proteins consumed nationally. On the UN’s Human Development Index, the country ranks a lowly 181 out of 189 nations. The average salary is $100 per month, and many Liberians survive on
just $1 a day. What’s at stake in shark and ray conservation is not just the survival of these ancient species but supporting commercial fish stocks. “Loss of sharks can lead to dramatic imbalances in the ecosystem,” says campaign group Environmental Justice Foundation. Catching sharks ricochets down the food chain as big fish decimate small fish in the absence of the apex predator. Under a three-year initiative, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority will collect data on shark and ray populations, monitoring their numbers and location, and track fishing, both legal and illegal. AFP