HONG KONG: Hong Kong will cut mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals from one week to three days from Friday, Chief Executive John Lee announced in an easing of COVID-19 restrictions that have severely curbed travel.
Once a global logistics and transportation hub, Hong Kong has been largely cut off from the rest of the world for more than two years under its strict adherence to China’s zero-COVID policy.
Under some of the world’s tightest pandemic rules, Hong Kong had required overseas and Taiwan arrivals to undergo seven days of mandatory quarantine and repeated testing while confined to a room in a designated hotel, a restriction that residents and the business community complained had deterred them from traveling.
Lee, Hong Kong’s ex-security chief turned city leader, announced Monday that the quarantine period for arrivals would be shortened to three days’ hotel quarantine plus four days of health monitoring at home or a hotel of their choice.
“We hope to maintain livelihood activities and Hong Kong’s competitiveness, and to give the society the best development momentum and economic vitality,” Lee said.
He denied the easing signalled any departure from China’s policy.
“Staying in touch with the outside world and working to resume quarantine-free travel with the mainland are no contradiction,” he said.
Alongside the new quarantine arrangements, Hong Kong will implement a health code system similar to mainland China’s on a government-developed tracking app.
Under the system, an infected person will be given a red code that prevents them from leaving quarantine.
Overseas arrivals will be given a yellow code and will not be allowed in places such as restaurants, bars, gyms, and cinemas during their four days of self monitoring.
Hong Kong reduces COVID-19 quarantine for arrivals
https://arab.news/jtr3b
Hong Kong reduces COVID-19 quarantine for arrivals
- Hong Kong will implement a health code system similar to mainland China’s on a government-developed tracking app
- Under the new system, an infected person will be given a red code that prevents them from leaving quarantine
A Ghana toddler sets a world record as the youngest male artist. His mom says he just loves colors
ACCRA, Ghana: Meet Ace-Liam Ankrah, a Ghana toddler who has set the record as the world’s youngest male artist.
His mother, Chantelle Kukua Eghan, says it all started by accident when her son, who at the time was 6 months old, discovered her acrylic paints.
Eghan, an artist and founder of Arts and Cocktails Studio, a bar that that offers painting lessons in Ghana’s capital, Accra, said she was looking for a way to keep her boy busy while working on her own paintings.
“I spread out a canvas on the floor and added paint to it, and then in the process of crawling he ended up spreading all the colors on the canvas,” she said.
And that’s how his first artwork, “The Crawl,” was born, Eghan, 25, told The Associated Press.
After that and with his mother’s prodding, Ace-Liam kept on painting.
Eghan decided to apply for the record last June. In November, Guinness World Records told her that to break a previous record, her son needed to exhibit and sell paintings.
She arranged for Ace-Liam’s first exhibition at the Museum of Science and Technology in Accra in January, where nine out of 10 of his pieces listed were sold. She declined to say for how much the paintings sold.
They were on their way.
Then, Guinness World Records confirmed the record in a statement and last week declared that “at the age of 1 year 152 days, little Ace-Liam Nana Sam Ankrah from Ghana is the world’s youngest male artist.”
Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to an Associated Press query about the previous youngest male artist record holder.
The overall record for the world’s youngest artist is currently held by India’s Arushi Bhatnagar. She had her first exhibition at the age of 11 months and sold her first painting for 5,000 Rupees ($60) in 2003.
These days, Ace-Liam, who will be 2 years old in July, still loves painting and eagerly accompanies his mom to her studio, where a corner has been set off just for him. He sometimes paints in just five-minute sessions, returning to the same canvas over days of weeks, Eghan says.
On a recent day, he ran excitedly around the studio, with bursts of energy typical for boys his age. But he was also very focused and concentrated for almost an hour while painting — choosing green, yellow and blue for his latest work-in-progress and rubbing the oil colors into the canvas with his tiny fingers.
Eghan says becoming a world record holder has not changed their lives. She won’t sell “The Crawl” but plans on keeping it in the family.
She added that she hopes the media attention around her boy could encourage and inspire other parents to discover and nurture their children’s talents.
“He is painting and growing and playing in the whole process,” she says.
India awaits election results after deluge of disinformation
- India’s elections brought with it surge of false social media posts such as doctored videos, images with false captions
- Some fake videos showed Bollywood stars endorsing opposition, as well as purporting to show a person casting multiple votes
NEW DELHI: India’s six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, but also in the “unprecedented” scale of online disinformation.
The biggest democratic exercise in history brought with it a surge of false social media posts and instant messaging, ranging from doctored videos to unrelated images with false captions.
Raqib Hameed Naik, from the US-based India Hate Lab, said they had “witnessed an unprecedented scale of disinformation” in the elections.
“Conspiracy theories... were vigorously promoted to deepen the communal divide,” said Naik, whose organization researches hate speech and disinformation.
With seven stages of voting stretched over six weeks, AFP factcheckers carried out 40 election-related debunks across India’s political divide.
There were fake videos of Bollywood stars endorsing the opposition, as well as those purporting to show one person casting multiple votes.
Some were crude or poked fun.
Others were far more sinister and sophisticated productions aimed to deliberately mislead.
All were widely shared.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came under fire for posts stoking sectarian tensions with India’s minority Muslim community of more than 200 million.
These included numerous videos, matching incendiary campaign speeches by Modi, falsely claiming his opponents were planning to redistribute India’s wealth in favor of Muslims.
Naik said such posts “aimed at stoking fear and animosity toward Muslims to polarize voters along religious lines.”
“The ruling party’s strategy of exploiting religious sentiments for electoral gain has not only undermined the integrity of the democratic process but also sowed dangerous seeds of division and hatred in society,” he said.
False information was detected across the political spectrum but the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, was one of the leading targets.
His statements, videos and photographs were shared on social media, but often incompletely or out of context.
One digitally altered video analyzed by AFP used Gandhi’s real boast that the opposition alliance would triumph, but flipped it to say Modi would win a third term when the result is declared on Tuesday.
Others purported to show Gandhi falsely appealing to people to vote for Modi.
Among the more egregious examples were those falsely linking him to India’s rival neighbors, Pakistan and China.
Those included a photograph that claimed Gandhi was waving the “Chinese constitution” during an election rally. It was in fact that of India.
Other posts portrayed Gandhi, a Hindu, as being against India’s majority religion, capitalizing on Modi’s efforts to cast himself as the country’s most staunch defender of the faith.
One video of a ruined Hindu temple, a real image from Pakistan, was widely shared.
However, the post falsely claimed it was from Gandhi’s constituency and that he was responsible for its destruction.
Another manipulated video falsely showed him refusing to accept a statue of a Hindu god.
One more claimed he was paying young people to support him on social media, when in reality he was talking about youth unemployment.
They were all widely shared by BJP supporters.
While political parties across the board have well-oiled digital outreach and social media teams, critics said the BJP’s sophisticated online campaign was driving posts.
Gandhi has alleged vast sums were “spent to distort my image” and blamed Modi’s party.
However, opposition parties also spread disinformation targeting the BJP and glorifying Congress.
Several digitally manipulated videos of two Bollywood actors criticizing the BJP and appealing to the public to vote for the Congress party were published.
Social media users also shared an old video to falsely accuse the ruling party of tampering with an electronic voting machine to rig the election in its favor.
“Overall, trust in content itself is falling,” said Joyojeet Pal, an expert in the role of technology in democracy from the University of Michigan.
Pal told AFP that Indian social media users widely understood the prevalence of disinformation and doctored content during the election.
“So there is a very good chance that they do not believe the doctored content to be real,” he said.
“However, there is a good chance they will forward these anyway because they align with their beliefs.”
US, African allies complete major military exercise amid new challenges in increasingly volatile regions
- 2-week "African Lion" war games involved military forces from nearly three dozen countries
- About 8,100 participating troops maneuvered throughout Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco
TAN TAN, Morocco: High-ranking military officials from the US and its top African allies watched intently as dust and flames shot up from pieces of the Sahara Desert hit by tank and artillery fire. They looked up as pilots flew F-16s into formation. And they listened intently as Moroccan and American personnel explained how they would set up beachheads to defend the Atlantic coastline in the event of a potential invasion.
The practice scenario was among those discussed during African Lion, the United States’ largest annual joint military exercise on the continent, which concluded Friday in Morocco.
Over the past two weeks, roughly 8,100 military forces from nearly three dozen maneuvered throughout Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco as part of the war games held this year as militaries confront new challenges in increasingly volatile regions.
Generals from the United States and Morocco, which hosted the finale of the two-week event, celebrated African Lion’s 20-year anniversary and how partnerships between the US and African militaries have expanded since it began.
“This exercise has grown over the years since 2004, not only have the number of multinational service members that we train with, but also the scope of the training as well, which has expanded to more than just security,” said Gen. Michael Langley, the head of the United States’ Africa Command.
But despite the spectacle of live-fire demonstrations and laudatory remarks about partnerships by Langley and Col. Maj. Fouad Gourani of Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces, parts of Africa are getting much more dangerous.
The United Nations earlier this year called Africa a “global epicenter for terrorism.” Fatalities linked to extremist groups have risen dramatically in the Sahel, the region that stretches from Mauritania to Chad.
Since 2020, military officers disillusioned with their governments’ records of stemming violence have overthrown democratically elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and began distancing themselves from Western powers.
From 2021 to 2024, militants killed more than 17,000 people across the three countries, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
The United States is holding steadfast to its strategy of coupling weapons assistance and intelligence sharing with initiatives designed to boost civilian populations and strengthen institutions.
But it faces new competition. Decades after the end of colonialism, Africa has once again become absorbed in fighting among Great Powers, with Western influence waning and countries accepting more economic and military support from Chinese firms and Russian contractors.
At African Lion, the US military showcased part of what it offers countries facing instability inside and just beyond their borders. Besides tanks and bombers, the joint exercises included operations and practice in field hospitals, medical evacuations and humanitarian assistance.
The exercise emphasized a “whole of government” approach to addressing the root causes of instability, ranging from climate change to displacement, rather than solely focusing on military might.
“It’s important that we not only be associated with kicking down doors,” said Col. Kelley Togiola, a command surgeon who helped set up a field hospital alongside Moroccan doctors as part of the exercise. “In times of crises, those relationships matter.”
That strategy differs from what’s being offered by Africa Corps, the descendent of the Russian state-funded private military company Wagner, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died last year. Yet it’s come under scrutiny since military officers with a history of participating in training exercises have risen to positions of power after the ousters of democratically elected leaders in countries such as Guinea and Niger.
Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said regardless of how much the US military broadens its efforts, its continued focus on counterterrorism will keep empowering military leaders throughout West Africa.
“The nature of security assistance is that it’s much more visible, impactful and manipulated by the recipient for ill,” Hudson said. “When we come in with training and toys, we reinforce within societies these power dynamics that in the long run are not helpful to the consolidation of civilian democratic rule.”
Despite training exercises like African Lion, US military leaders face difficulties prolonging their partnerships in places they’ve long characterized as strategically critical. Countries such as Niger and Chad — which participated in African Lion — have embraced Russian trainers and paramilitaries and pushed for the withdrawal of US troops.
The US military officials note their assessment of the threat of “malign” Russian and Chinese influence but say they can work in countries that accept assistance from geopolitical rivals.
To juggle curbing Russian influence while opposing the overthrow of democratically elected leaders hasn’t worked everywhere, especially as the US military often attaches strings to how countries can implement training and weapons provided.
US law makes governments deposed in military coups ineligible for large portions of assistance, despite the military’s talk of equal partnership and noninterference.
Rachid El Houdaigui, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, said the growing youth populations in west African countries wanted to forge new political identities and were skeptical of the West after years of insecurity.
“African states consider variety favorable. It allows them to choose and gives them many possibilities,” he said of countries in the Sahel that have opened their doors to Russian and Chinese assistance.
Zelensky in Philippines to promote peace summit he says China and Russia are trying to undermine
- Ukraine to open embassy in Manila, says Zelensky after meeting with President Marcos Jr.
- He flew to Manila unannounced after failing to meet with Marcos on the sidelines of the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore, say Filipino officials
MANILA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the Philippines on Monday in a rare Asian trip to urge regional leaders to attend a Swiss-organized global peace summit on the war in Ukraine that he accuses Russia, with China’s help, of trying to undermine.
Zelensky arrived unannounced and under heavy security in Manila late Sunday after speaking over the weekend at the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore.
He had planned but failed to meet with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of that annual defense gathering and decided to fly here to personally invite Marcos to attend the summit in Switzerland, two Filipino officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss details of Zelensky’s secretive trip to Manila.
During his meeting with Marcos, Zelensky said Ukraine will open an embassy in Manila this year.
Both Zelensky and Marcos spoke critically of China at the defense forum in Singapore, which was attended by top defense and government officials from around the world, including from Washington and Beijing. The talks were held amid the raging wars in Gaza and Ukraine as well as growing tensions and rivalry for influence between the United States and China in the Indo-Pacific region.
At a news conference at the Singapore forum Sunday, Zelensky accused China of helping Russia to disrupt the Swiss-organized peace summit by pressuring other countries and their leaders not to attend the talks.
“Russia, using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit,” he said without elaborating. “Regrettably, this is unfortunate that such a big independent powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Zelensky’s claim.
China has taken what it says is a neutral position on the war, putting it at odds with Ukraine, the US and most of Europe and its trade with Russia has grown, easing the economic impact of Western sanctions. American, Ukrainian and other intelligence agencies say there is evidence that Chinese parts are winding up in Russian weaponry, even if China is not directly arming its neighbor.
Switzerland had been hoping China would attend the peace conference in mid-June, but Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning signaled Friday that that was unlikely.
At the security forum, Zelensky urged top defense officials to participate in the talks in Switzerland, expressing disappointment over the failure of some countries to commit to attending. Ukraine, he said, has proposals to make at the summit as a basis for peace, addressing nuclear security, food security, the release of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
Zelensky said Ukraine is “ready to hear various proposals and thoughts that lead us ... to an end of the war and a sustainable and just peace.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Zelensky on the sidelines of the conference and renewed US commitments to Ukraine. In an address to the forum Saturday, Austin said that “Putin’s war of aggression has provided us all with a preview of a world that none of us would want.”
Marcos, whose country has had escalating clashes with China over disputed islets in the South China Sea, bluntly underscored the dangers of the regional flashpoint Friday at the defense forum. He said that if “a willful act” should result in a Filipino dyring in one of the periodic faceoffs, “that is, I think, very, very close to what we define as an act of war.”
“That would certainly increase the level of response,” Marcos said in response to a question.
Marcos restated earlier concerns over a new law issued by China giving its coast guard license to seize foreign ships “that illegally enter China’s territorial waters” and to detain foreign crews for up to 60 days. The same law made new reference to 2021 legislation that says China’s coast guard can fire on foreign ships if necessary.
“Illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive actions continue to violate our sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdictions,” Marcos said, without naming China, but he added the Philippines remained committed to a peaceful resolution of the disputes.
Austin said at the forum that US commitment to the Philippines as a treaty ally is “ironclad” but reiterated the importance of dialogue with China.
“There are a number of things that can happen at sea or in the air, we recognize that,” he said. “But our goal is to make sure that we don’t allow things to spiral out of control unnecessarily.”
Violence mars Mexico vote as country prepares to elect first woman president
- Mexico’s largest-ever elections have also been the most violent in modern history, with the murders of 38 candidates
- The deadly violence has stoked concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy
MEXICO CITY: Two people were killed in violence at polling centers on Sunday in the midst of Mexico’s historic election expected to make leftist Claudia Sheinbaum, the ruling party candidate, the country’s first woman president.
Voting was suspended at one polling place after a person was killed in a shooting in Coyomeapan, a town in the state of Puebla, the state electoral authority reported in the afternoon. The state attorney general confirmed another death at a polling center in Tlapanala, also in Puebla.
Mexico’s largest-ever elections have also been the most violent in modern history, with the murders of 38 candidates, including a local candidate who was fatally shot on Saturday night. The deadly violence has stoked concerns about the threat of warring drug cartels to democracy.
Sheinbaum, who has led in opinion polls over her main competitor Xochitl Galvez, will be tasked with confronting organized crime violence, if elected. More people were killed during the mandate of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history.
A victory by either woman would represent a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture. The winner, set to begin a six-year term on Oct. 1.
On her way to vote on Sunday morning, Sheinbaum told journalists it was a “historic day” and that she felt at ease and content.
“Everyone must get out to vote,” Sheinbaum, a physicist and former Mexico City mayor, said on local TV.
Galvez, a senator who represents an opposition coalition comprised of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the right-wing PAN and the leftist PRD party, chatted with supporters before casting her ballot early Sunday.
“God is with me,” Galvez said, adding that she was expecting a difficult day.
Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum’s mentor, greeted supporters and posed for photos as he walked from the presidential palace to vote with his wife.
There were long lines of voters outside polling places, even before they opened at 8 a.m. local time (1400 GMT), with some reports of delayed openings.
“It seems like a dream to me. I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Tlaxcala, Mexico’s smallest state.
“Before we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it,” Montiel added.
Almost 100 million Mexicans are eligible to vote in Sunday’s election. Other positions up for grabs include Mexico City’s mayor, eight governorships and both chambers of Congress. About 20,000 elected positions are on ballots, the most in Mexico’s history.
The polls will close at 6 p.m. local time (0000 GMT on Monday). The first official preliminary results are expected late on Sunday.
‘Flooded with blood’
“The country is flooded with blood as a result of so much corruption,” said Rosa Maria Baltazar, 69, a voter in Mexico City’s upper-middle class Del Valle neighborhood. “I wish for a change of government for my country, something for a better life.”
Lopez Obrador has loomed over the campaign, seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his political agenda. Sheinbaum has rejected opposition claims that she would be a “puppet” of Lopez Obrador, though she has pledged to continue many of his policies including those that have helped Mexico’s poorest.
Polls indicate that Morena, the ruling part of Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum, is likely to fall short of securing a two-thirds majority in Congress. That would make it more difficult for Sheinbaum to push constitutional reforms past opposition parties, including the
PRI, which ruled Mexico for about seven decades until democratic elections in 2000.
Challenges ahead for the next president also include addressing electricity and water shortages and luring manufacturers to relocate as part of the nearshoring trend, in which companies move supply chains closer to their main markets. The election winner also will have to wrestle with what to do with Pemex, the state oil giant that has seen production decline for two decades and is drowning in debt.
Both candidates have promised to expand welfare programs, though Mexico has a large deficit this year and sluggish GDP growth of just 1.5 percent expected by the central bank next year.
The new president will face tense negotiations with the United States over the huge flows of US-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security cooperation over drug trafficking at a time when the US fentanyl epidemic rages.
Mexican officials expect these negotiations to be more difficult if the US presidency is won by Donald Trump in November. Trump, the first US president to be convicted of a crime, has vowed to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese cars made in Mexico and said he would mobilize special forces to fight the cartels.
Sam Castillo, a 25-year-old dancer who lives between Oaxaca state and Mexico City, said he hoped Sheinbaum could be stronger on foreign relations than Lopez Obrador had been.
As he waited to vote at a polling place in the Florida district in the south of Mexico City, he said he felt better with the leftist Morena in power as part of the LGBT community.
“What we have seen with gender legislation, with marriage equality, for me it has to do with party,” Castillo said.
