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s at u r d ay : J u n e 1 3 , 2 0 1 5
WORLD
cesar barrioquinto EDITOR
editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Fighting IS propaganda online SYDNEY—In a small room close by the Sydney Opera House, 60 people representing a vast range of communities and industries are working feverishly to come up with ways to combat the Islamic State group’s online propaganda machine. The extremists’ ideology and use of social media has struck a chord with thousands of youngsters across the world, drawing them to fight in Iraq and Syria or show support from their home countries. The United States and its allies have struggled to counter the digitally savvy group, but a pair of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are leading a grassroots-charge to take on IS in cyberspace, travelling around the world to host hackathon challenges. The latest hackathon competition the fourth in the past five months is being held alongside a two-day countering violent extremism conference in
Australia’s biggest city, attended by high-level officials and experts and opened by Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The anti-extremism meeting is taking an in-depth look at how IS which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria reaches out to youths, with technology giants Facebook, Twitter and Google joining the more than 30 participating countries in hashing out solutions. Almost 25,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries were involved in jihadi conflicts worldwide, a recent United Nations report said, with many headed for Iraq and Syria. Some of those
making the journey include teenage boys and girls. The hackathon is designed to take an additional approach to countering IS. “We marry innovation and the national security sector, with Silicon Valley ethos and start-up models to try and create very new, fast-paced, highenergy (projects),” said hackathon organizer Quintan Wiktorowicz, who was US President Barack Obama’s senior adviser for countering violent extremism from 2011 to 2013. “No single prototype is a silver bullet to stop ISIS radicalization. But it’s the ecosystem that we’re building by running these (hackathons) globally and connecting the networks all the time,” he told AFP, using another term for IS. “Over five years, it can be a game changer, it can have strategy impact.”
The projects being developed do not have to address radicalization head on, but are meant to focus on the root causes of why young people choose to leave home, such as feeling disconnected from local communities. Hackathon competitors are drawn from across industries and communities that may not normally interact with each other, with a goal to go beyond the talking shop labels usually slapped on conferences and come up with concrete programs that can turn a profit. At a three-day “Haqqathon” a variation on the word hackathon using the Arabic word “haqq”, which means truth in Abu Dhabi in April, the people’s choice award went to “Marhubba”, an app which helps young Muslims tap into Islamic scholarship to answer questions about sex and intimacy. AFP
The queen in Milan. Queen Mathilde of Belgium visits the Universal
Exhibition 2015 (Expo Milano 2015 or World Exposition 2015) in Milan on June 12. The exhibition runs from May 1st, 2015 to October 31, 2015 on the theme Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. AFP
Felipe VI Vladimir the Great causes an outcry in Moscow strips his sister of her title MADRID—Spain’s King Felipe VI has issued a decree stripping his sister Princess Cristina of her title as Duchess of Palma, the palace announced Thursday, as the royal sibling faces tax evasion charges in a scandal that has embarrassed the monarchy. “The Official Journal of the state will tomorrow (Friday) publish a royal decree by which His Majesty the King will revoke the use of the title of Duchess of Palma de Mallorca by Her Royal Highness the Infanta Cristina,” the palace said in a statement. Cristina, 49, stands accused of taking part in tax evasion by her husband, the former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin. A judge ruled in December that she must stand trial on two counts of accessory to tax fraud, making her the first member of the Spanish royal family to be sent to the dock. No date has been set for her trial. Both Cristina and Urdangarin have suffered a dramatic fall from grace since they married in 1997 in a lavish ceremony in Barcelona and were bestowed the titles of Duke and Duchess of Palma by Felipe’s father, king Juan Carlos, who unexpectedly abdicated last year. AFP
MOSCOW—Scaffolding surrounds the vast clay sculpture-in-progress inside a warehouse on Moscow’s outskirts, yet already the statue of Vladimir the Great has caused an outcry as big as the monument itself. The 78-foot high likeness of the man who brought Christianity to Kievan Rus the forerunner of modern Russia and Ukraine is set to tower over the capital, the latest potent symbol in a surge of patriotism taking hold in Russia. Prince Vladimir is revered as
a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church and a hero by others, including the noted sculptor of the work, Salavat Shcherbakov. But not all Moscow agrees. ”Vladimir is our founding father,” Shcherbakov told AFP, comparing the 10th-century leader to America’s George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. ”He’s a figure whom the people, the country, can rely on. And he is important right now,” he said, working on the ornate robes as Vladimir
looms above, right hand raised high ready to hold a cross. The final, cast bronze is scheduled for installation in September on a prime spot called Sparrow Hills, overlooking all of Moscow and where all of Moscow will see Vladimir. But the choice has proved so divisive it may be changed. In a flurry of public anger, more than 59,000 people joined an online petition against the planned location, one of the city’s best-loved viewpoints high above Moscow’s center.
Several thousand students and staff at the nearby Moscow State University also signed an open letter to President Vladimir Putin opposing the statue. Even some of the leather clad bikers who roar up to Sparrow Hills each evening are not happy. “Who is this statue for? I think it’s totally inappropriate here,” said Sergei Govinov, two gold crosses dangling on his tanned chest. “Where are we going to meet now?” AFP
Waiting game. Syrian refugees wait near the Turkish border in Akcakale in the Sanliurfa province not far from the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad
on June 12. Turkey said it was taking measures to limit the flow of Syrian refugees onto its territory after an influx of thousands more over the last days due to the fighting between Kurds and jihadists. Under an “open-door” policy, Turkey has taken in 1.8 million Syrian refugees since the conflict in Syria erupted in 2011. AFP