Egyik 19

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Afghanistan
31 October 2019  Afghan security units backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have carried out extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, indiscriminate air strikes and other rights abuses and should be disbanded. While Afghan paramilitary forces nominally belong to the main National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence service, the CIA-backed forces do not fall under the agency's normal chain of command, nor those of the Afghan or U.S. militaries. "They largely have been recruited, trained, equipped, and overseen by the CIA. The forces have also been allowed to call in air strikes, which is likely a factor behind a rising toll of civilian casualties in the war. They have also attacked medical facilities and killed staff" - Human Rights Watch said. While the United States and the Taliban have been discussing the withdrawal of U.S. troops, some U.S. officials have called for the clandestine Afghan forces to be maintained as a bulwark against al Qaeda and islamic state militants. (Source: Reuters)

China
October 26, 2019  The victims of unvoluntary organ harvesting. The organs of members of marginalized groups detained in Chinese prisons and labor camps are unwillingly harvested. Most affected is a spiritual minority, the Falun Gong, who have been persecuted for adhering to a Buddhist-centric religious philosophy grounded in meditation and compassion. After 12 months of independent assessment of all available evidence, the seven-person China Tribunal panel – which was initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), an international human rights charity – delivered its final findings in June. The tribunal, chaired by Sir Nice QC who led the prosecution of Milosevic in the International Criminal Trial for the former Yugoslavia. “Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years, and Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply,” the report concluded, pointing to the growing transplant industry already worth more than $1 billion. The report underscored that there were “extraordinarily short waiting times for organs to be available for transplantation,” and numerous websites advertised hearts, lungs, and kidneys for sale – suggesting an on-demand industry. The Tribunal concluded that the commission of Crimes Against Humanity against Falun Gong and Uighurs had been committed. Survivors routinely point to the frequent physical screenings, ultrasounds, and X-rays as further corroboration that victims are being monitored to determine whose organs are healthy enough for transplantation purposes, as most are pushed to the brink in allegedly tortuous interrogation sessions. The China Organ Harvest Research Center (COHRC), which also testified before the China Tribunal, published its own incriminating report in July after years of underground research and analysis, deducing that the “on-demand killing of prisoners of conscience is driven by the state, run on an industrial scale and carried out by both military and civilian institutions.” Moreover, the China Organ Harvest Research Center (COHRC), which also testified before the China Tribunal, published its own incriminating report in July after years of underground research and analysis, deducing that the “on-demand killing of prisoners of conscience is driven by the state, run on an industrial scale and carried out by both military and civilian institutions.” The country does not have a history of willful organ donation and the official figures – 10,000 transplants each year – “understates the real volume,” which researchers pledge is likely upward of 60,000-100,000 annually. Hospitals charged more than $65,000 for a kidney transplant, $130,000 for liver, and more than $150,000 for lung or heart. Desperate patients might make a high-price “donation” for a new organ at top-speed. The practice is alleged to have started in the 90s on a small-scale, but kicked into high gear around 2000 and focused on the Falun Gong. It was initially characterized as targeting the forcible removing of organs of prisoners on death row. China later claimed that death row prisoners consented to donate their organs to the State to redeem themselves for the crimes they had committed against the State, a practice China claimed to have stopped in January 2015. However, the explosion of organ transplant activities in China from 2000, together with reports of thousands of transplant tourists going to China to purchase organs, suggests a larger supply of organs than could be sourced from executed criminals alone,” the Tribunal states. “The scale of the Chinese transplant industry, together with other evidence, points to the possibility that China is involved in forced organ harvesting and selling for profit organs from prisoners of conscience.” The Tribunal affirmed that it “has had no evidence that the significant infrastructure associated with China’s transplantation industry has been dismantled and absent a satisfactory explanation as to the source of readily available organs concludes that forced organ harvesting continues till today.” The root issue still goes back to the Communist Party’s persecution of faith groups and its animosity toward groups that it perceives as threats to its ideological control. (Source: FoxNews)
See also: ChinaOrganHaevestOrg): https://tinyurl.com/yxq5df4m

October 25, 2019  The current US-China trade talks provide one vehicle for the Chinese to influence the outcome of the election. In this scenario, China could launch a carefully orchestrated influence campaign involving the use of both cyberattacks aimed at manipulating markets, and the use of strategic information. A harsh statement in August or September of 2020 by lead Chinese trade negotiator Liu could include an announcement that China has given up on reaching a trade deal and would instead put the entire nation into an all-out trade war. Such a statement could send the stock market into a downward spiral, and even though China would likely be harmed in the ensuing global recession, Beijing could take steps to limit the economic fallout to its own economy. In addition to the use of fake news, other market manipulation tools China could employ include attacks using various large-scale and covert market manipulation tools, such pump-and-dump stock schemes, spoofing to create a market crash, and bear raids - the illegal practice of pushing a stock price lower through short-selling and spreading rumors about targeted companies. The entire financial warfare attack would be closely coordinated through Chinese intelligence services and state-run Chinese companies that are required to do Beijing’s bidding under Communist Party of China orders. (Source: AsiaTimes)

Iraq
31 Oct 2019  Qardash, a former officer in Saddam's military, is the new leader of isis, after the terror group finally confirmed the death of Baghdadi. He has a $5m US bounty on his head. The Iraqi worked as the death cult’s top legislator, his nickname is the Professor. Three main factions have emerged, gathered around Tunisian, Saudi and Iraqi leadership, ready to step into any power vacuum. (Source: TheSun)

October 27, 2019 I raq’s intelligence service provided the U.S.-led coalition with the exact coordinates of islamic state leader al-Baghdadi’s location, paving the way for the raid that reportedly killed him. The agency learned of Baghdadi’s location from documents found at a secret location in Iraq’s western desert after arresting an Iraqi man and woman from within his inner circle. “We have been constantly coordinating with the CIA, providing valuable information that the Iraqi National Intelligence Service has on Baghdadi’s movements and place of hiding,” an official said. (Source: Reuters)

27 October 2019  The rise and fall of the islamic state; the key moments in the rise and fall (Source: DailyMail): https://tinyurl.com/yyk5aafo

Syria
Oct. 28, 2019  Events that led to the end of the islamic state leader. In February 2018 one of the islamic state leader’s top aides, Ethawi, provided intelligence to Iraq’s military on how Baghdadi escaped capture for so many years: Baghdadi would sometimes hold strategy talks with his commanders in moving minibuses packed with vegetables in order to avoid detection. Baghdadi later tasked Ethawi with key roles such as delivering religious instructions and the selection of islamic state commanders. /video/ (Source: Reuters): https://tinyurl.com/y2s9mgw8

Oct 27, 2019  Who was al-Baghdadi, one of the most wanted men? The man known as al-Baghdadi was believed to have been born al-Badri on July 28, 1971, near Samarra, Iraq. He was believed to have earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Baghdad University. He was a cleric in a mosque in Samarra when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. He was believed to have been a jihadist in Iraq at that time. He was captured by U.S. forces on Feb. 2, 2004, near Fallujah in Iraq, and was held at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, U.S. detention facilities in Iraq. He rose to leadership of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda in 2010. Around 2013, that branch of al-Qaeda became the islamic state of Iraq and the Levant, and al-Baghdadi became its leader. In 2014, al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate after his troops captured the Syrian city of Mosul. He was believed to have three wives – two Iraqi and one from Syria. Two other women may have been married to him at some time. He was believed to have a son and a daughter. (Source: Kiro7)

10/26/19  "Something very big has just happened!" The United States military has conducted a special operations raid targeting one of its most high-value targets, al-Baghdadi, the leader of the islamic state militant group (isis). President Trump approved the mission nearly a week before it took place. Baghdadi was the target of the top-secret operation of U.S. military helicopters over the Syria's northwestern Idlib province, the last bastion of the country's Islamist-dominated opposition, a faction that has clashed with isis in recent years. The White House have "high confidence" that the high-value target killed was Baghdadi, but further verification is pending DNA and biometric testing. There was a brief firefight when U.S. forces entered the compound in Idlib's Barisha village and that Baghdadi then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest. Family members were present. According to Pentagon sources, no children were harmed in the raid but two Baghdadi wives were killed after detonating their own explosive vests. Members of the Joint Special Operations Command's Delta Team carried out today's high-level operation after receiving actionable intelligence. The location raided by special operations troops had been under surveillance for some time. The compound in which Baghdadi was located was then taken out with an airstrike in order to prevent the site from becoming a shrine to the leader. Turkey, a NATO ally backing local insurgents, was not notified prior to the operation. The White House announced that the president will make a "major statement" Sunday at 9:00 a.m. Baghdadi, an Iraqi national, is an ultraconservative cleric who became active in the Islamist insurgency against U.S. forces following the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi President Hussein. He was held by U.S. forces in the detention centers of Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, where a number of future jihadi leaders rubbed shoulders while in military custody. He went on to join Al-Qaeda in Iraq, rising up the ranks of the violent group as it merged with others to form the islamic state of Iraq and eventually inherited its leadership in 2010, when his predecessor was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation. As the group took advantage of a U.S. military exit to further expand, he renamed the group to the islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham - or the Levant - better known as isis, in 2013, seeking to expand to neighboring Syria, where a civil war was raging. Baghdadi's forces made lightning gains across both Iraq and Syria, and in 2014 he declared his group a global caliphate from the Grand Al-Nuri Mosque in Iraq's second city of Mosul in his only known public appearance as isis leader. The United States involved itself in Syria by backing groups trying to overthrow President Assad in an uprising also supported by Turkey and other regional powers. The Pentagon began to realign itself by partnering with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as isis grew increasingly powerful, Islamists overtook the opposition and Russia joined Iran in backing Assad against these factions. Rival campaigns led by the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Force were launched to defeat isis, which began to lash out abroad with bloody attacks in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and beyond. The perpetrators of at least three mass killings in the U.S. professed their allegiance to isis. The group began to lose ground in both Iraq and Syria in recent years. Idlib is the base of operations for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rival jihadi group with ties to Al-Qaeda's former Nusra Front, headed by Baghdadi's former associate, Jolani, who refused to join isis in a move that created a major rift among the militant groups. Assad himself was seen on a rare visit to the frontlines of Idlib province in footage released on October 21. The Syrian leader told his troops "that the Idlib battle is the core to decisively end chaos and terrorism in all of Syria" and vowed to defeat the array of rebel groups there while also teaming up with Kurdish-led forces against any Turkish-led attempts to push further into northern Syria. Facing nationwide defeats at the hands of the government and its allies, a number of Syrian rebel groups have opted to reorganize themselves with the support of Turkey. Ankara has mobilized these fighters to battle the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey due to alleged links to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Though Trump has withdrawn U.S. Special Forces from northern Syria, he has called for some troops to remain elsewhere in eastern Syria, where much of the country's oil reserves remain under Kurdish-led control. A convoy of U.S. military vehicles was seen rolling through the city of Qamishli on its way to eastern Deir Ezzor province. Turkey has since halted its incursion following back-to-back deals with the U.S. and Russia, which has sought to restore Assad's authority at the country's northern border and facilitate a YPG withdrawal. The Joint Special Operations Command, out of U.S. Army base Fort Bragg in North Carolina, is a sub-unified command of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Led by U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Howell, the command oversees special mission units such as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group and 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, known to the public as SEAL Team Six⁠ - involved in the May 2011 raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden⁠ -  and Delta Force, respectively. (Source: NewsWeek)

23/10/2019  For the Kurds, this is the end of Rojava. A Turkish-Russian deal signed in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that carves up northeastern Syria sounds the death knell for Kurdish autonomy. The Sochi agreement defines the contours of the debacle for the Kurdish forces, who still controlled close to a third of Syria two weeks ago and have now lost almost everything. Turkey was granted the right to remain fully deployed in an Arab-majority area it has dubbed a "safe zone" that was the main target of an offensive it launched on October 9. It stretches along 120 kilometres and is 32 kilometres deep. In Sochi, the deal reached by Syria's two main foreign brokers also requires Kurdish forces to pull back to a line 30 kilometres from the border along its entire length (440 kilometres). The Sochi agreement includes an exception for Qamishli, the de facto capital of the now defunct autonomous region. Damascus reclaims control of everything that Turkey does not occupy. (Source: AFP)

Egyesült Államok    United States
2019. október.  A CIA részben feloldotta száz, kelet-európai helyzettel foglalkozó 1990 körüli CIA-jelentés titkosítását. (Forrás: CIAGovLibraryReadingroom): https://tinyurl.com/rf4wmvb

October 31, 2019   2016 Presidential campaign hacking fast facts. Hacking incidents during the 2016 presidential race between Trump and Clinton. September 2015 - The FBI contacts the Democratic National Committee's help desk, cautioning the IT department that at least one computer has been compromised by Russian hackers. A technician scans the system and does not find anything suspicious. November 2015 - The FBI reaches out to the DNC again, warning them that one of their computers is transmitting information back to Russia. April 2016 - Hackers create a fake email account and use it to send spear-phishing emails to more than thirty Clinton staffers. May-June 2016 - The hackers steal thousands of emails from the DNC server and begin to conceal their efforts. June 12, 2016 - During an interview on British television, WikiLeaks founder Assange says that the website has obtained and will publish a batch of campaign emails. June 15, 2016 - Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC, posts a public notice on its website describing an attack on the political committee's computer network by two groups associated with Russian intelligence. According to the post, two groups called "Cozy Bear" and "Fancy Bear" tunneled into the committee's computer system. In response, the hackers create a persona called Guccifer 2.0, a self-described Romanian blogger who claims that he alone conducted the theft. July 25, 2016 - The FBI announces it has launched an investigation into the hack. October-November 2016 - Over the course of a month, WikiLeaks publishes more than 58,000 messages hacked from Podesta's account. December 9, 2016 - The Washington Post reports the CIA has determined that Russian hacking was conducted to boost Trump and hurt Clinton. December 11, 2016 The CIA assessment shows that the Russians may have sought to damage Clinton and help Trump. The FBI has yet to find proof that the attacks were orchestrated to elect the Republican candidate. December 29, 2016 - Obama issues an executive order with sanctions against Russia. The order names six Russian individuals who allegedly took part in the hacking. Additionally, 35 Russian diplomats are ordered to leave the United States within 72 hours. January 5-6, 2017 - Intelligence officials meet separately with Obama and Trump to present the results of their probe into cyber espionage during the presidential campaign. According to the report, hackers did not breach voting machines or computers that tallied election results but Russians meddled in other ways. Putin ordered a multifaceted influence campaign that included spreading pro-Trump propaganda online and hacking the DNC and Podesta. Paid social media users shared stories about Clinton controversies to create a cloud of scandal around her campaign. July 3, 2018 - The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a report concluding that the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment of election meddling was accurate. July 13, 2018 - The Justice Department announces indictments against 12 members of the Russian intelligence agency, GRU, as part of Mueller's ongoing investigation. ... (Source: CNN): https://tinyurl.com/y8cydnfb

October 30, 2019  A point person on Ukraine, during the time when Ukraine was its most corrupt, and he didn’t blow any whistles on their corruption. The public’s interest in learning details of an effort to remove a sitting president from office. For a town that leaks like a sieve, Washington has done an astonishingly effective job keeping from the American public the name of the anonymous “whistleblower" who triggered impeachment proceedings against President Trump  - even though his identity is an open secret inside the Beltway. He is a CIA analyst who at one point was detailed to the White House and is now back working at the CIA. Ciaramella, being a hearsay reporter of accusations against the president, is one who has “some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate" -- as the Intelligence Community Inspector General phrased it circumspectly. The 33-year-old Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Biden and former CIA Director Brennan. A vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia “collusion” investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election meeting with operative Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American DNC opposition researcher who supported Clinton, and led an effort to link the Republican campaign to the Russian government. He left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. With Ciaramella’s name long under wraps, interest in the intelligence analyst has become so high that a handful of former colleagues have compiled a roughly 40-page research dossier on him. A classified version of the document is circulating on Capitol Hill, and briefings have been conducted based on it. One briefed Republican has been planning to unmask the whistleblower in a speech on the House floor. A CIA officer specializing in Russia and Ukraine, Ciaramella was detailed over to the National Security Council from the agency in the summer of 2015, working under Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser. He also worked closely with the former vice president. Biden’s office invited Ciaramella to an October 2016 state luncheon the vice president hosted for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Other invited guests included Brennan, as well as then-FBI Director Comey and then-National Intelligence Director Clapper. The invitation that was extended to Ciaramella, a relatively low-level GS-13 federal employee, was unusual and signaled he was politically connected inside the Obama White House. Ciaramella worked on Ukrainian policy issues for Biden in 2015 and 2016, when the vice president was President Obama's "point man" for Ukraine. A Yale graduate, Ciaramella is said to speak Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Arabic. He had been assigned to the NSC by Brennan. He was held over into the Trump administration, and headed the Ukraine desk at the NSC, eventually transitioning into the West Wing, until June 2017. He was moved over to the front office to temporarily fill a vacancy and saw everything, read everything. It soon became clear among NSC staff that Ciaramella opposed the new Republican president’s foreign policies. He worked with Hill, another Obama holdover, in the West Wing. In May 2017, Ciaramella went outside his chain of command, to send an email alerting another agency that Trump happened to hold a meeting with Russian diplomats in the Oval Office the day after firing Comey, who led the Trump-Russia investigation. The email also noted that Russian President Putin had phoned the president a week earlier. Contents of the email appear to have ended up in the media, which reported Trump boasted to the Russian officials about firing Comey, whom he allegedly called “crazy, a real nut job.” In effect, Ciaramella helped generate the “Putin fired Comey” narrative. In the days after Comey’s firing, this presidential action was used to further political and media calls for the standup of the special counsel to investigate ‘Russia collusion. Special Counsel Mueller found no conspiracy between Trump and Putin. In his complaint, the whistleblower charged that the president used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” Based on second-hand information, specifically, he cited a controversial July 25 phone call from the White House residence in which Trump asked Ukraine’s new president to help investigate the origins of the Russia “collusion” investigation the Obama administration initiated against his campaign, citing reports that “a lot of it started with Ukraine," where the former pro-Clinton regime in Kiev worked with Obama diplomats and Chalupa to try to “sabotage” Trump’s run for president. Later in the conversation, Trump also requested information about Biden and his son, since “Biden went around bragging that he” had fired the chief Ukrainian prosecutor at the time a Ukrainian oligarch, who gave Biden’s son a lucrative seat on the board of his energy conglomerate, was under investigation for corruption. The whistleblower filed his “urgent” report against Trump with the I.C. inspector general on Aug. 12, but it was not publicly released until Sept. 26. Earlier this year, Schiff the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, one of the lead investigators in the impeachment inquiry against Trump, recruited two of Ciaramella’s closest allies at the NSC - both whom were also Obama holdovers - to join his committee staff. He hired one, Misko, in August -  the same month the whistleblower complaint was filed. During closed-door depositions taken in the impeachment inquiry, Misko has been observed handing notes to the lead counsel for the impeachment inquiry, Goldman, as he asks questions of Trump administration witnesses. (Source: RealClearInvestigations): https://tinyurl.com/y4t6pv4z

Oct 29, 2019  Democratic presidential candidate Biden has a brand new Super PAC in his corner, being run by Rasky, a registered foreign agent for the government of Azerbaijan. A previous firm run by Rasky also represented foreign officials in Japan, Hungary, Congo, and Serbia. Rasky changed the name of the PAC from “For The People” to “Unite the Country” yesterday. Biden’s campaign has been dogged by allegations that he corruptly used his influence as vice president to steer lucrative foreign business contracts to his son Hunter. At a 2018 event organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden - who was tasked by then-President Obama to lead the U.S. government’s efforts in Ukraine - bragged about threatening to withhold a billion-dollar loan guarantee if the Ukrainian government refused to fire a prosecutor who was reportedly investigating a gas company that paid Hunter millions of dollars to sit on its board. “I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars,” Biden said. “I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours.” “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours,’” Biden recalled. “If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b-tch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.” After Shokin was fired, he was replaced by  Lutsenko, who also has been dogged by allegations of corruption. (Source: TheFederalist): https://tinyurl.com/yye97rk7

27 October 2019  'He died like a dog' Trump addresses the nation and confirms that 'coward' isis leader al-Baghdadi has been killed by U.S. Special Forces and died 'whimpering and crying and screaming' after being cornered inside his Syrian lair and detonated his suicide vest killing himself and three of his children. Eleven children were cleared from the lair. (Source: DailyMail)

October 25, 2019  The Pentagon released a statement yesterday saying it was committed to sending additional military forces to eastern Syria to “reinforce” control of the oil fields and prevent them from “falling back to into the hands of isis or other destabilizing actors.” Starting in late 2015 and continuing for many months, the U.S. conducted airstrikes against a range of oil resources in the Deir el-Zour province that had been taken over by is. The attacks damaged or knocked out oil tanker convoys, oil processing plants, storage facilities, pumping stations, pipelines and refineries. It was called Operation Tidal Wave II, after a World War II air campaign to hit Romania’s oil industry. (Source: APNews)

October 24, 2019  The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, or DTRA, hand-in-hand with health IT company Royal Philips is developing a predictive algorithm that knows whether a service member is falling ill—due to anything from a cold to exposure to biological weapons - up to 48 hours before they start to show any symptoms with better than 85% accuracy. Using 165 distinct biomarkers across 41,000 cases, the Philips team was able to create the Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure, or RATE, algorithm. (Source: NextGov)

October 22, 2019  President Trump’s mistrust of Ukraine was fueled by Russian President Putin and his ally Viktor Orbán of Hungary, strongmen who both harbor anti-Ukraine views that they eagerly shared with a receptive commander-in-chief. The president believes that the US’s Eastern European ally, not Russia, was responsible for the interference in the 2016 election that was later investigated by special counsel Mueller. The US intelligence community, as well as Mueller’s probe, established that Russian hackers at Putin’s direction meddled in the election to help Trump, who nonetheless has publicly called for Ukraine to investigate the 2016 campaign. One career State Department official, Kent told lawmakers that Putin and Orbán had teamed up to sour Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine. Trump met with Orbán at the White House between President Zelensky’s April 21 election and his May 20 inauguration. (Source: TheNewYorkPost)

October 22, 2019  The author of an anonymous column in the New York Times on September 5, 2018, who was identified as a senior Trump administration official acting as part of the “resistance” inside the government, has written a tell-all book titled “A Warning,” to be published next month. The forthcoming book will list the author as “Anonymous.” The book will be published Nov. 19. There is no modern historical parallel for a firsthand account of a sitting president written in book form by an anonymous author. (Source: msn)

Globalization
October 31, 2019   Shutdowns can cost high-connectivity countries up to 1.9% of their GDP per day. In 2018 there were 196 documented internet shutdowns across 25 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa. Of those 196 shutdowns that happened last year, 134 took place in India. The primary target is the state of Jammu and Kashmir, a politically unstable region on the border with Pakistan. Shutdowns in India are estimated to have cost the country over $3 billion since 2012. It is shown an escalation in the number of new countries opting to use shutdowns for the first time. Often they do so around the time of elections -- a trend that has increased over the past year, starting with Bangladesh at the end of 2018, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Benin. Either governments can make the services unavailable altogether, or can make them painfully slow to use. Some of these slowdowns are designed specifically to stop people being able to send pictures and videos, which would be more likely to inflame tensions or serve as evidence. Another justification used by governments to shut down internet access is to stop the spread of misinformation for example following the Easter bombings that took place in Sri Lanka earlier this year. (Source: CNet)

31 October 2019   A total of 3,268 Ebola cases recorded in Central African countries with the death rate being at 67%, has led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to classify the outbreak as a global emergency. (Source: TheDailyStar)

25 October 2019  Protests around the world.    Since October 21, when in Bolivia President Morales declared victory in elections whose disputed results have triggered riots, a general strike and opposition charges that he is trying to steal the election to secure a fourth straight term.    In Chile an increase in the price of metro tickets in the capital and a week of street protests for general discontent at low salaries and pensions, high costs of health care and education, and a yawning gap between rich and poor left 18 dead. President Pinera suspended the price hike and then announced social measures such as increased pensions and lower electricity costs. But the protests spread, including complaints about living costs and social inequality.  A general strike started on October 23.    Lebanon. Since October 17 peaceful protests, marked by several clashes, have paralysed the country but there have been no injuries. Trigger? A proposed tax on calls made through messaging apps. The government of Hariri quickly axed the measure and announced emergency economic reforms. But the protests have widened to demand the removal of the entire political class.     Guinea. Since October 7. around 10 protesters killed. Thousands of people have joined a string of demonstrations organised by an alliance of opposition groups, the FNDC. Accusations that President Conde is trying to circumvent a bar on a third term in office.     Ecuador. From October 1 to 13 eight killed and 1,340 injured. Trigger? The scrapping of fuel subsidies. After 12 days of protests, President Moreno and the indigenous movement, which has spearheaded the demonstrations, reached an agreement under which the government reinstated fuel subsidies.     Iraq. Since October 1 spontaneous calls on social media to protest corruption, unemployment and poor public services. After a week of protests that quickly escalated into clashes with security forces, the government announced reforms. Protesters continue to demand an end to corruption and unemployment, and an overhaul of the political system. Today the protests resumed, with a new upsurge of violence, fanned by Shiite political leader Sadr. More than 150 dead the first week. At least 12 on today alone.     In Hong Kong, a protest movement started on June 9 in response to a draft government bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. After months of regular protests, including some of the worst violence the former British colony has known, the extradition bill was withdrawn in September. But the campaign had already broadened to demand greater democratic freedoms. Initially peaceful, the protests have degenerated into violent clashes between protesters and security forces. Numerous pro-democracy activists have been attacked by supporters of mainland China. On October 1 police shot a protestor with a live bullet but he survived.    Algeria. The decision by President Bouteflika to run for a fifth term sparked a wave of peaceful demonstrations on February 22. Bouteflika resigned in April but protesters continue to demand an overhaul of the entire political establishment. The opposition rejects elections under the current establishment, called for December 12. (Source: AFP)

October 24, 2019  In recent years countries including Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka have scrapped or scaled back Chinese-funded projects due to cost concerns or complaints that not enough work goes to local companies. Malaysia canceled Chinese-backed projects worth more than $20 billion last year, saying they would create an unsustainable debt burden. Uganda’s national debt stood at over $10 billion in 2018, nearly a third of it owed to China, according to official figures. The loans are usually approved with little opposition as the ruling party enjoys an overwhelming majority in the national assembly. Resistance has been seen in other African countries. Anger in Zambia peaked last year with street protests and an online campaign to “say no to China.” A Chinese-backed fish meal plant in Gambia drew protests this year over alleged pollution and overfishing. In Uganda, authorities in recent years have approved massive loans to finance the construction of a $580 million expressway linking the capital, Kampala, to an international airport, as well as hydropower dams that currently are surplus to the country’s needs. The projects were financed mostly with loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. A Hong Kong businessman was convicted in New York in December of bribing Ugandan president Museveni, his foreign minister and the leader of Chad in efforts to secure oil rights for a Chinese energy conglomerate. Museveni insists he has never accepted a bribe. This month Ugandan authorities announced that the Export-Import Bank of China had agreed to provide over $450 million to upgrade roads in a region where oil exploration is taking place. Uganda is not expected to produce oil before 2022 - and the governor of the central bank warned that borrowing against oil resources pushes the country toward a so-called oil curse. (Source: AP)

October 23, 2019  islamic state recruitment videos on TikTok. The videos, identified by social-media intelligence company Storyful, show balaclava-wearing militants grabbing captives, pushing them to the ground and beheading them with machetes. In another video, an assailant fires a gun at people at close range. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based Bytedance Ltd which removed all the videos flagged by the Journal and canceled the accounts responsible. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

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