UNITED STATES
WhatsApp steps up security
The popular messaging service WhatsApp on Tuesday said it had implemented “full end-to-end encryption,” a move which steps up privacy, but might lead to conflicts with law enforcement agencies. The Facebook-owned mobile application, with 1 billion users worldwide, made the announcement following weeks of intense debate over efforts by US authorities to compel Apple to help break into an encrypted iPhone. “WhatsApp has always prioritized making your data and communication as secure as possible,” a blog post announcing the change said. “And today, we’re proud to announce that we’ve completed a technological development that makes WhatsApp a leader in protecting your private communication: full end-to-end encryption.” This means that “when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to,” the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Porsche favored in ruling
A California judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Porsche filed by the widow of a man who died alongside The Fast and the Furious star Paul Walker in 2013. Roger Rodas’ widow, Kristine, had alleged in her wrongful death suit that several defects in the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT her husband was driving caused the fatal crash. However, US District Judge Philip Gutierrez dismissed the claims on Monday, saying they were not supported by any evidence. After the crash investigators concluded that Rodas had been driving at an unsafe speed and lost control of the car.
UNITED STATES
Outrage over alleged rape
Four men in Utah have been accused of raping a nine-year-old child while her mother smoked methamphetamine, in a case that has prompted a furious outcry and appeals for calm. According to a statement by the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office, the rape took place on March 27 as the mother was visiting friends in the town of Vernal, east of Salt Lake City, and went to the garage to smoke drugs while her daughter slept on a couch. “During that time, the child was taken into another room in the home where she was raped by the four men,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The men, who were living temporarily at the house, were later arrested and charged with rape and sodomy.
UNITED STATES
Beyonce not ‘anti-police’
Pop superstar Beyonce has rejected criticism that her new activism is “anti-police,” saying she is tired of being assigned labels. Beyonce caused a stir in February with her new song Formation, whose video was heavy in imagery from the Black Lives Matter protest movement including a scene in which police raise their hands up as if under arrest. “I’m an artist, and I think the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken,” she said in an interview with Elle magazine that came out Tuesday.
UNITED STATES
Dad leaves baby in car
A California man is facing up to six years in prison for leaving his nine-month-old baby girl alone in a parked car while he went into a strip club. Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement on Tuesday that Auwin Dargin, 24, had been charged with child abuse in the incident that took place last month. Authorities said employees at the strip club and neighboring businesses rescued the baby after hearing her cries and then called police.
UNITED STATES
China’s hacks ‘continue’
Six months after Washington and Beijing agreed not to conduct cyberattacks on each other’s private sector for commercial gain, a top US spy on Tuesday questioned whether China has cut such activities. In September last year, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) announced an accord under which neither the US nor the Chinese government would conduct cyberenabled theft of intellectual property. However, Admiral Michael Rogers, who heads the military’s Cyber Command, told lawmakers it was unclear if the Chinese government was holding up its end of the deal.
JAPAN
Reactors can stay online
The country’s only two working nuclear reactors can remain online after a court rejected an appeal by residents who said safety rules following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster were inadequate, the operator confirmed yesterday. The court ruling was a victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who plans to bring back atomic energy. The Miyazaki branch of the Fukuoka High Court on Kyushu yesterday ruled that the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Sendai power plant should be allowed to stay online, Rei Fujimoto, spokesman for operator Kyushu Electric Power Co, confirmed.
VIETNAM
PM to step down
Prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung is preparing to step down after 10 years in office. Dung leaves behind a mixed legacy of promoting failed state enterprises, but at the same time attracting foreign investment and daring to challenge China. The National Assembly was to vote later yesterday to remove Dung, three months before the end of his term. Dung’s departure was widely expected after he lost a leadership battle during the Communist Party’s congress in January. Dung lost to Nguyen Phu Trong, who was re-elected party general secretary for a second five-year term. The National Assembly is to appoint Dung’s deputy, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, as prime minister today.
UNITED STATES
Fake university sting nets 21
Authories on Tuesday arrested 21 suspects on suspicion of visa fraud conspiracy for allowing more than 1,000 foreign students, primarily from China and India to extend their stay in the country illegally, prosecutors said. Federal agents set up a fake university to ensnare the suspects in an operation that spotlights growing concern about visa fraud at a time when illegal immigration has become a major issue in the US presidential campaign. Prosecutors said the recruiters, brokers and employers were charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit, which each carry up to five and 10 years in prison respectively.
CHINA
Toddler saved from well
Rescuers in Shandong Province have performed a dramatic televised rescue of a three-year-old boy who fell about 10m into a narrow well. The boy had been playing when he slipped and tumbled into the shaft that in total was 90m deep in the city of Weifang on Thursday last week. Complicating the rescue, the well mouth was only 30cm in diameter. Rescuers pumped in oxygen from canisters and used sensors and cameras to communicate and monitor his condition. He was finally pulled to safety after he grasped a loop at the end of a rope and was declared exhausted, but healthy after an examination.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was