THAILAND
Chinese scammers handed over
Myanmar yesterday handed 111 Chinese scam center workers to be repatriated through Thailand, the third batch in a major crackdown on the illegal operations. Hundreds of foreigners are expected to be sent home from scam compounds in Myanmar over the coming weeks, with the first two batches already flown out on Thursday and Friday. The compounds are run by criminal gangs and staffed by foreigners, many of whom say they were trafficked and forced to swindle people around the world in protracted Internet scams.
Photo: EPA-EFE / XINHUA news agency
UNITED KINGDOM
Apple ends full encryption
Apple on Friday said it was ending full end-to-end encryption for British customers and iPhone users, following US media reports that the UK government had asked for global data access. “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection [ADP] in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” it said in a statement. ADP means only account holders can view content such as photographs and documents stored online and in the cloud through what is known as end-to-end encryption. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the UK had issued “a secret government order” that Apple create a “back door” to enable the government to snoop on data uploaded by any Apple user around the world.
Photo: Reuters
GERMANY
Stabbing suspect arrested
Police arrested a suspect in the stabbing on Friday at about 6pm at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial that seriously injured a man two days before a watershed national election. Berlin Police gave no details on the identity of the suspect or his possible motive, but said an investigation was ongoing. The victim “was so seriously injured that he had to be taken by the fire brigade to hospital for emergency treatment,” police spokesman Florian Nath said. The victim was identified as a 30-year-old Spanish man.
Photo: EPA-EFE
UNITED STATES
AP sues White House aides
The Associated Press on Friday sued senior aides to President Donald Trump over a White House decision to restrict the news outlet’s access to the president and other officials for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage. The federal lawsuit alleges that the White House’s decision to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One violates the Constitution, including First Amendment protections for free speech, by trying to control the language that it uses to report the news. “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the complaint said.
Photo: AP
UNITED STATES
Woman held in romance scam
A woman used online dating apps to lure at least four older men to meet her in person, then drugged them with sedatives and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “sinister” romance scheme, FBI officials in Las Vegas said on Friday. Three of the men died, authorities said. She has been charged in one of their deaths. Aurora Phelps, 43, who is in custody in Mexico, faces 21 counts including wire fraud, identity theft and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, Sue Fahami, the acting US attorney for the District of Nevada, told a news conference. “This is a romance scam on steroids,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division. One of the victims awoke from a coma after Phelps gave him prescription sedatives over the course of a week, he added.
Photo: AP
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
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