ECUADOR
Assange associate arrested
A collaborator of WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange was on Thursday arrested while trying to flee to Japan, Minister of the Interior Maria Paula Romo said. She did not identify the person, but told Sonorama radio that he was very close to Assange, who was arrested on Thursday in London on a US extradition request after spending seven years in the Ecuadoran embassy. TV channel Teleamazonas identified the collaborator as Ola Bini, a software developer focused on privacy, security and cryptography, but did not name its source. Earlier on Thursday, Romo had linked the collaborator with alleged attempts to destabilize the government of President Lenin Moreno. He “has been detained simply for investigation purposes,” she said, adding that he had taken foreign trips with former minister of foreign affairs Ricardo Patino, who gave Assange political asylum in 2012. “We have sufficient evidence that he was collaborating in attempts to destabilize the government.”
UKRAINE
Activists gas lesbian forum
Ultra-right activists on Thursday attempted to derail a lesbian conference in Kiev, engaging in scuffles with security guards. Several dozen activists from ultra-right groups picketed a hotel hosting a European lesbian conference that opened on Thursday. They tried to break through security cordons protecting the entrance and sprayed tear gas at the guards. The assailants were holding placards that read “We are against gays” and “Go back to hell, sodomites.” One ultra-right activist, Margarita Korotkikh, said that their goal was “to put pressure on the government and explain that heterosexuals are against LGBT propaganda.” Ultra-right groups have become increasingly assertive, regularly assaulting gatherings by LGBT and women’s rights groups.
UNITED STATES
Reject hate: Disney CEO Iger
Disney CEO Bob Iger on Thursday called upon US politicians to reject hate in the run-up to next year’s presidential election — and claimed that Adolf Hitler would have “loved social media” as a tool to spread extremist propaganda. “Hate and anger are dragging us toward an abyss,” he said at a dinner organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Our politics, in particular, are now dominated by contempt.” He said that “Hitler would have loved social media — it’s the most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for... At its worst, social media allows evil to prey on troubled minds and lost souls.” With a fierce campaign for next year’s election expected in the coming months, Iger said that it is “possible to argue policy without attacking people... I want to hear a pitch that isn’t grounded in contempt of others. I want to see a vision big enough to include everyone.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of