COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president has told his cabinet that he will not cooperate with a parliamentary investigation into security lapses leading to the Easter suicide bombings, official sources said Saturday.
Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Friday night to oppose the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the April 21 attacks that killed 258 people and wounded nearly 500.
A ministerial source told AFP Sirisena has refused to allow any police, military or intelligence personnel to testify before the committee.
“The cabinet meeting ended inconclusively,” the source said on condition of anonymity. “The government did not agree to suspend the PSC either.”
Sirisena’s office did not comment on the outcome of the heated cabinet meeting, but said the president had told senior police officers on Friday that he will not allow any serving officer to testify before the PSC.
Last week, Sirisena’s intelligence chief El-Sisira Mendis told the committee that the president had failed to hold regular security review meetings to assess the potential threat from radicals.
Halfway through his testimony, the live telecast of the proceedings were stopped on Sirisena’s orders, official sources said.
Sirisena’s defense secretary and police chief have suggested that the president, who is also the minister of Defense and Law and Order, did not follow proper protocols in dealing with intelligence reports, including advance warnings about the April 21 bombings.
Sirisena has repeatedly denied he was aware of an impending threat.
A local militant organization and the Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels.
Sirisena said last week that he had met with the national police chief and his top brass 13 days before the Easter Sunday attacks but no officer had raised the warnings which had been relayed by India.
Official sources said New Delhi had provided details of planned attacks based on information from a militant in Indian custody.
The government has admitted there were intelligence failures before the attacks, in which 45 foreign nationals died.
Sirisena subsequently suspended police chief Pujith Jayasundara and dismissed his top defense official Hemasiri Fernando.
Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency since the attacks.
Sri Lanka president vows to block Easter attacks probe
Sri Lanka president vows to block Easter attacks probe
- Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Friday night to oppose the committee probing the April 21 attacks
- Sirisena has refused to allow any police, military or intelligence personnel to testify before the committee
Pakistani police arrest thousands of Imran Khan supporters as capital under lock down ahead of rally
Pakistani police arrest thousands of Imran Khan supporters as capital under lock down ahead of rally
- Former PM Imran Khan has been behind bars for more than a year and has over 150 criminal cases against him
- Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan suspended mobile and Internet services ‘in areas with security concerns’
Khan has been behind bars for more than a year and has over 150 criminal cases against him. But he remains popular and his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, says the cases are politically motivated.
Shahid Nawaz, a security officer in eastern Punjab province, said police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters. They include five parliamentarians.
Pakistan has since Saturday sealed off Islamabad with shipping containers and shut down major roads and highways connecting the city with PTI strongholds in Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Tit-for-tat teargas shelling between the police and the PTI was reported on the highway bordering Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan suspended mobile and Internet services “in areas with security concerns.”
The government and Interior Ministry posted the announcement on the social media platform X, which is banned in Pakistan. They did not specify the areas, nor did they say how long the suspension would be in place.
“Internet and mobile services will continue to operate as usual in the rest of the country,” the posts said.
Meanwhile, telecom company Nayatel sent out emails offering customers “a reliable landline service” as a workaround in the areas suffering suspended cellphone service.
Khan’s supporters rely heavily on social media to demand his release and use messaging platforms like WhatsApp to share information, including details of events.
PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi was traveling to Islamabad in a convoy led by the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur.
“She cannot leave the party workers on their own,” said Akram.
There was a festive mood in Peshawar, with PTI members dancing, drumming and holding up pictures of Khan as cars set off for Islamabad.
The government is imposing social media platform bans and targeting VPN services, according to Internet advocacy group Netblocks. On Sunday, the group said live metrics showed problems with WhatsApp that were affecting media sharing on the app.
The US Embassy issued a security alert for Americans in the capital, encouraging them to avoid large gatherings and warning that even “peaceful gatherings can turn violent.”
Last month, authorities suspended the cellphone service in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to thwart a pro-Khan rally. The shutdown disrupted communications and affected everyday services such as banking, ride-hailing and food delivery.
The latest crackdown comes on the eve of a visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said authorities have sealed off Islamabad’s Red Zone, which houses key government buildings and is the destination for Khan’s supporters.
“Anyone reaching it will be arrested,” Naqvi told a press conference.
He said the security measures were in place to protect residents and property, blaming the PTI for inconveniencing people and businesses.
He added that protesters were planning to take the same route as the Belarusian delegation, but that the government had headed off this scenario.
Naqvi denied cellphone services were suspended and said only mobile data was affected.
Social media sites call for Australia to delay its ban on children younger than 16
- Advocate tells Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed in June
- Proposed legislation would impose fines of up to $33 million on platforms for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts
MELBOURNE: An advocate for major social media platforms told an Australian Senate committee Monday that laws to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed until next year at least instead of being rushed through the Parliament this week.
Sunita Bose, managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, was answering questions at a single-day Senate committee hearing into world-first legislation that was introduced into the Parliament last week.
Bose said the Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed in June.
“Parliament is asked to pass a bill this week without knowing how it will work,” Bose said.
The legislation would impose fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) on platforms for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.
It seems likely to be passed by Parliament by Thursday with the support of the major parties.
It would take effect a year after the bill becomes law, allowing the platforms time to work out technological solutions that would also protect users’ privacy.
Bose received heated questions from several senators and challenges to the accuracy of her answers.
Opposition Sen. Ross Cadell asked how his 10-year-old stepson was able to hold Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube accounts from the age of 8, despite the platforms setting a nominal age limit of 13.
Bose replied that “this is an area where the industry needs to improve.”
She said the proposed social media ban risked isolating some children and driving children to “darker, less safe online spaces” than mainstream platforms.
Bose said her concern with the proposed law was that “this could compromise the safety of young people,” prompting a hostile response from opposition Sen. Sarah Henderson.
“That’s an outrageous statement. You’re trying to protect the big tech giants,” Henderson said.
Unaligned Sen. Jacqui Lambie asked why the platforms didn’t use their algorithms to prevent harmful material being directed to children. The algorithms have been accused of keeping technology-addicted children connected to platforms and of flooding users with harmful material that promotes suicide and eating disorders.
“Your platforms have the ability to do that. The only thing that’s stopping them is themselves and their greed,” Lambie said.
Bose said algorithms were already in place to protect young people online through functions including filtering out nudity.
“We need to see continued investment in algorithms and ensuring that they do a better job at addressing harmful content,” Bose said.
Questioned by opposition Sen. Dave Sharma, Bose said she didn’t know how much advertising revenue the platforms she represented made from Australian children.
She said she was not familiar with research by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that found X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat made $11 billion in advertising from US users under 18 in 2022.
Communications department official Sarah Vandenbroek told the committee said the evaluation of age assurance technologies that will report in June would assess not only their accuracy but also their security and privacy settings.
Department Deputy Secretary James Chisholm said officials had consulted widely before proposing the age limit.
“We think it’s a good idea and it can be done,” Chisholm told the committee.
US drawing up contingency plans for Taiwan emergency: Kyodo
- They will be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December
- Washington has been strengthening alliances in the region
TOKYO: The United States is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of an emergency over Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
They will be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, according to sources familiar with Japan-US relations, Kyodo said late Sunday.
The US Third Marine Littoral Regiment, which possesses the multiple-launch HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), would be deployed along Japan’s Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said.
From an early stage, if a Taiwan contingency becomes highly imminent, temporary bases will be set up on inhabited islands based on US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations, the report added.
Japan’s military is expected to mainly engage in logistical support for the marine unit, including supplying fuel and ammunition, it said.
Kyodo added that the US Army would deploy Multi-Domain Task Force long-range fire units in the Philippines, Kyodo said.
The Japanese and the Philippines defense ministries were not immediately available for comment. The US embassy in Manila declined to comment while the Chinese embassy in Manila “noted” the Kyodo report.
China is building up its military capacity while ramping up pressure on self-governed Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
Washington has been strengthening alliances in the region, while infuriating Beijing with regular deployments of ships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports
- In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army
Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia’s Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia’s RIA state news agency.
“A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence,” the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.
Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.
It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on the reports outside office hours.
The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40 percent of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.
In South Korea, nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis
Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.
It’s the fifth time the world’s nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and environmentalists have come to shape how the world tackles the surging problem.
The planet is ” choking on plastic, ” according to the United Nations. It’s polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and people’s bodies.
“Don’t kick the can, or the plastic bottle, down the road,” UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a message aimed at negotiators.
This “is an issue about the intergenerational justice of those generations that will come after us and be living with all this garbage. We can solve this and we must get it done in Busan,” she said in an interview.
The previous four global meetings have revealed sharp differences in goals and interests. This week’s talks go through Saturday.
Led by Norway and Rwanda, 66 countries plus the European Union say they want to address the total amount of plastic on Earth by controlling design, production, consumption and where plastic ends up. The delegation from the hard-hit island nation of Micronesia helped lead an effort to call more attention to “unsustainable” plastic production, called the Bridge to Busan. Island nations are grappling with vast amounts of other countries’ plastic waste washing up on their shores.
“We think it’s the heart of the treaty, to go upstream and to get to the problem at its source,” said Dennis Clare, legal adviser and plastics negotiator for Micronesia. “There’s a tagline, ‘You can’t recycle your way out of this problem.’”
Some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, including Saudi Arabia, disagree. They vigorously oppose any limits on plastic manufacturing. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest exporter of primary polypropylene, a common type of plastic, accounting for an estimated 17 percent of exports last year, according to the Plastics Industry Association.
China, the United States and Germany led the global plastics trade by exports and imports in 2023, the association said.
The plastics industry has been advocating for a treaty focused on redesigning plastic products, recycling and reuse, sometimes referred to as “circularity.” Chris Jahn, International Council of Chemical Associations secretariat, said negotiators should focus on ending plastic waste in the environment, not plastic production, to get a deal. Many countries won’t join a treaty if it includes production caps, he said.
To continue to progress and grow as a global economy, there are going to be more plastics, Jahn added.
“So we should strive then to keep those plastics in the economy and out of the environment,” Jahn said.
The United States delegation at first said countries should develop their own plans to act, a position viewed as favoring industry. It changed its position this summer, saying the US is open to considering global targets for reductions in plastic production.
Environmental groups accused the US of backtracking as negotiations approached.
Center for Coalfield Justice executive director Sarah Martik said the United States is standing on the sidelines rather than leading, putting “their thumb on the scale throughout the entirety of the negotiations.” She hopes this does not derail other countries’ ambition.
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a national strategy to prevent plastic pollution Thursday, but Martik said she thinks too many of the measures are voluntary to make a difference.
Democratic US Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, said it’s a mistake for the United States to settle for the lowest common denominator proposals, just to get some kind of agreement.
Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the committee chair from Ecuador, recently proposed text for sections where he thinks the delegations could agree.
The production and use of plastics globally is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70 percent from 2020, without policy changes, according to the intergovernmental Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Research published in Science this month found it is still possible to nearly end plastic pollution. The policies that make the most difference are: mandating new products be made with 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic; limiting new plastic production to 2020 levels; investing significantly in plastic waste management, such as landfills and waste collection services and implementing a small fee on plastic packaging.
The treaty is the only way to solve plastic pollution at this scale, said Douglas McCauley, professor at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. McCauley co-led the research.
Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer for Monterey Bay Aquarium, said plastic pollution used to be considered largely a waste problem. Now it is widely viewed as an existential crisis that must be addressed, said Spring, who represents the International Science Council at the negotiations.
“I’ve never seen people’s understanding of this issue move as fast, given how complex the topic is,” she said. “It gives me hope that we can actually start moving the dial.”
