EU warns Twitter to beef up its content moderation

SAN FRANCISCO—The EU’s top tech enforcer warned Elon Musk on Thursday that Twitter must have enough resources to moderate dangerous content by August 25 or risk being in violation of the bloc’s landmark rules to rein in big tech.

“If the technology is not ready they need to have enough resources to match the gap. I spoke on this specific topic with Elon Musk,” EU commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters following a meeting at Twitter headquarters, which included the platform’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Breton said he told the Twitter team, with Musk joining by videoconference from New York, that “there are a few areas that will be critical immediately when the regulation will be enforceable.”

This would be “especially everything related to child abuse which is a very hot topic for us in Europe, also disinformation in elections,” Breton said.

The commissioner’s two-day visit to San Francisco came just weeks before the European Union’s Digital Service Act (DSA) comes into full force for the world’s biggest platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok and Twitter.

The former French finance minister will also meet with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the new rules.

But all eyes are on Musk, who since taking ownership of Twitter has, often abruptly, modified many rules about what language is allowed on the site, even if it is found offensive or delivers hate and misinformation -- in direct opposition to the EU’s new rules.

Breton’s meeting at Twitter was part of what the EU called a “stress test” to gauge whether the platform was ready to meet the new rules, despite a massive wave of layoffs since Musk took it over.

TikTok has also accepted to undergo a stress test in July, as the Chineseowned app fights off fears that it is potentially under the domination of the Chinese Communist party in Beijing.

On a visit to Paris last week, Musk said he had every intention of meeting the demands of the DSA, an ambition that the EU welcomed. AFP

Squatting Russian diplomat sparks standoff in Australia

CANBERRA—A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for loungewear and cigarettes on Friday sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin, defying Australia’s efforts to kick him off a messy building site near parliament.

Australia has blocked Russia from building a new embassy on a scruffy parcel of land a stone’s throw from Parliament House, after intelligence officials warned that Moscow would use the site as a base to spy on lawmakers.

Last week, Australia passed laws specifi- cally drafted to stop the development, which sits about 400 metres (0.25 miles) away from the parliamentary precinct.

Since then, a bespectacled Russian official clad in track pants and a puffer jacket has thwarted efforts to reclaim the land, where he is squatting inside a small security shed surrounded by weeds and discarded building materials.

With an envoy firmly ensconced inside the cosy portacabin on Friday afternoon, the Russian embassy launched a last-ditch legal bid to

Oil firms sued for $51b over ‘Heat Dome’

WASHINGTON—A county in the northwestern state of Oregon on Thursday filed a lawsuit against major fossil fuel companies seeking more than $51 billion over the 2021 “Heat Dome,” one of the United States’ deadliest weather-related disasters.

Multnomah County, which encompasses the state’s most populous city Portland, said combined historic carbon pollution from use of the companies’ products—and their decision to mislead the public about their impacts —was a big factor in exacerbating the heat wave.

“This is an event that is directly attributed to the impacts that we are seeing on our climate because of the actions of fossil fuel companies and their agencies that have been pressing for decades to deny climate science,” County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson told AFP.

The county is asking for $50 million in current damages from the Heat Dome, and $1.5 billion for future damages as extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and smoky skies become more common. It also wants a much larger sum— $50 billion—for a longer term “abatement fund” to upgrade and “climatize” the county’s infrastructure.

The record-breaking heat wave baked the western United States and Canada from late June to mid-July 2021, causing a peak temperature of 121.3 degrees Fahrenheit (49.6 degrees Celsius) in Lytton, British Columbia and leading to an estimated 1,400 deaths. AFP halt his eviction.

An Australian government spokesman said Russia was seeking an injunction at the country’s highest court.

“Russia’s challenge to the validity of the law is not unexpected,” he told AFP.

“This is part of the Russian playbook.”

- ‘Russophobic hysteria’Government sources have confirmed the man has diplomatic protection, but AFP has been unable to match him with Russia’s official list of representatives in Australia. AFP

The V20 group of countries on the climate front lines -- which now includes 58 member nations -- has said restructuring the global financial system to align with climate targets must be completed by 2030.

“We come to Paris to identify the common humanity that we share and the absolute moral imperative to save our planet and to make it liveable,” said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, whose Caribbean island nation is threatened by rising sea levels and tropical storms. AFP

Thais charged with human trafficking

Malaysian court charged four Thai nationals with human trafficking of migrants on Friday over the discovery eight years ago of mass graves near the country’s border with Thailand.

KANGAR, Malaysia—A

More than 100 bodies were discovered buried deep in the Malaysian jungle in 2015, triggering an investigation into human trafficking in the Southeast Asian nation.

The four men, aged between 30 and 58, were charged under Malaysia’s anti-trafficking in persons and anti-smuggling of migrants law.

The men are alleged to have been involved in the trafficking between 2013 and 2015, and face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty, according to court documents.

After being extradited to Malaysia on Thursday, the suspects will be held in a prison in the northern town of Kangar ahead of their next court appearance on July 25.

The men, wearing white T-shirts and chained together, were brought to a court in Malaysia’s northern city of Kangar, which borders Thailand, near where the graves and trafficking camps were found.

The suspects were among 10 Thai nationals that Malaysia had sought for since 2017 as part of an investigation into the border camps.

The region, known for its porous border, has long been a gateway for persecuted Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in their native Myanmar and economic migrants from Bangladesh.

Smugglers have in previous years brought tens of thousands of Rohingya on a perilous journey over land and sea to Malaysia, a relatively affluent and safe Muslim-majority country.

One of Southeast-Asia’s countries richest countries, Malaysia depends heavily on cheap foreign workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar for its construction, plantations and services sectors.

A 2019 report by Malaysian human rights commissioners and a rights group said a human smuggling syndicate operated in the area from 2012 to 2015. AFP