CAIRO: Egypt has freed Al-Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein, a security source said Friday, after four years in jail without trial following the end last month of a rift between the two Arab states.
Hussein, an Egyptian national who had been imprisoned since December 23, 2016, was released on Thursday night, the Egyptian security source told AFP without elaborating.
But Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, said that while the decision to release Hussein had been taken, “he has still not returned home and is still being held.”
The 54-year-old was detained in Cairo when he returned for a family holiday, and was accused of incitement against state institutions and spreading false news.
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera – which has run a daily campaign calling for his liberation – did not immediately confirm his release. It has repeatedly said he was being held “without formal charges nor trial.”
Hussein’s reported release comes two weeks after Egypt and Qatar restored ties, following a three-year Saudi-led freeze on relations with Doha.
Egypt, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, followed the lead of Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia and cut ties with Qatar in June 2017, alleging it backed radical Islamist groups and was too close to Riyadh’s rival Iran – claims Doha denied.
Ties were restored following a Gulf summit held in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia last month.
“Releasing Hussein could indicate a sign of goodwill from Cairo to Al Jazeera that it wants a thaw in its relations with the news channel,” said King’s College London assistant professor Andreas Krieg.
“But overall this is more about polishing its terrible human rights record a bit vis-a-vis the (US President Joe) Biden administration,” he said.
“The new tone and priorities in Washington really created fears in Egypt that America will sever relations.”
Egyptian analyst Amr El-Shobaki said Hussein’s release could be linked to rumored plans to review of the status of prisoners in the country.
“There are those ... who believe there should be a change concerning prisoners held in cases related to freedom of expression,” particularly in light of the new US administration, he said.
In May 2019 prosecutors ordered Hussein be released, but a week later he was slapped with another set of charges and ordered to stay in detention.
Al-Jazeera was caught up in a spat between Cairo and Doha after the 2013 military ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was backed by Qatar.
Cairo considered it a mouthpiece for Morsi’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, and access to its website has been blocked in Egypt since 2017.
“For Egypt, Al Jazeera remains the most important nuisance in the relationship with Qatar,” said Krieg.
After Morsi’s ouster, authorities arrested three Al-Jazeera journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, provoking international condemnation.
Faced with accusations similar to those levelled against Hussein, they were released in 2015 after receiving pardons from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
El-Sisi’s government is regularly accused of crushing all forms of dissent and repressing political opponents.
Under his rule, authorities have jailed thousands of Morsi’s Islamist supporters as well as liberal and secular activists, including popular bloggers, actors, singers and journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists had said that as of December 2020, at least 27 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt in relation to their work, including several from Al-Jazeera.
Analysts also linked Hussein’s release to Egyptian hopes of wooing investment.
“It may be purely random timing. But it wouldn’t be surprising if the Egyptian government sought ways to remove barriers to ever greater Qatari investment,” said David Roberts of King’s College London.
Tobias Borck of the Royal United Services Institute noted that the day after the Gulf summit renewing ties with Doha, a Qatari delegation was in Cairo for the inauguration of a Qatari-owned hotel.
“I am not sure to what extent this particular move is part of a thawing in relations,” said Borck.
“But it is rather obvious that Cairo and Doha have been in touch for a while – the opening of the $1 billion St. Regis in Cairo the day after the Al-Ula Summit made that pretty clear.”
Egypt frees Jazeera journalist after Qatar thaw
https://arab.news/mqyb3
Egypt frees Jazeera journalist after Qatar thaw
- The 54-year-old was detained in Cairo when he returned for a family holiday
ABC News suspends journalist who called Trump, top aide ‘world-class’ haters
- Terry Moran wrote that Stephen Miller’s ‘hatreds are his spiritual nourishment’
LONDON: ABC News has suspended one of its senior national correspondents after he published a series of now-deleted social media posts in which he described US President Donald Trump and top adviser Stephen Miller as “world-class haters.”
Veteran journalist Terry Moran, who recently interviewed Trump, wrote in the posts that both the president and the White House deputy chief of staff — known as the architect of the administration’s mass deportation policy — were driven by deep animosity toward their political opponents.
An ABC News spokesperson, in a statement on Sunday, confirmed Moran’s suspension “pending further evaluation,” and said the network “stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others.”
The spokesperson added: “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards.”
Moran claimed in the tweets that Miller “is not the brains behind” Trumpism, but rather someone who channels its “impulses” into policy through sheer malice.
He wrote: “It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater.”
Moran added: “You can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
Turning to Trump, Moran wrote: “Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred (is) only a means to an end, and that end (is) his own glorification.”
The posts sparked a backlash from conservative figures and further deepened tensions between ABC News, owned by The Walt Disney Company, and Trump’s allies.
The network last year agreed to pay $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, in what was seen as a rare concession by a major broadcaster.
Reacting to Moran’s comments, Vice President JD Vance called them a “vile smear,” and added: “It’s dripping with hatred.”
Miller also responded, saying: “The most important fact about Terry’s full public meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America. For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose. Terry pulled off his mask.”
Moran’s posts came as the Trump administration, reportedly under Miller’s strategic direction, ramped up rhetoric around immigration and called for expanded deportation efforts.
Raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks across major US cities, including Los Angeles, have reignited public protests. Some demonstrations outside the federal building in downtown LA have turned violent amid unconfirmed reports that detainees were being held inside.
ABC News has not announced when or whether Moran will return to the network.
Nike cuts ties with Australian brand ambassador over pro-Palestinian posts
- Activist and runner Grace Tame dropped after sportswear giant’s review into her social media posts
- Tame recently sparked a backlash after resharing posts calling the killing of two Israeli aides in Washington ‘not an antisemitic attack but a response to Israeli aggression in Gaza’
LONDON: Nike has ended its partnership with Australian brand ambassador Grace Tame after the activist shared several pro-Palestinian posts on social media.
Tame, a long-distance runner and high-profile advocate for survivors of sexual assault, had used her platform in recent months to speak out against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, describing it as “genocide” and calling for a ceasefire.
The American sportswear giant confirmed the decision over the weekend, following growing speculation after it launched a review of Tame’s public statements.
A Nike spokesperson said on Friday: “We’ve agreed to part ways. We wish Grace the best as she continues her running journey.”
Tame signed a $100,000 ambassadorial deal with Nike in January, marking a return to the brand after a previous collaboration four years ago.
Since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023, Tame has shared posts and attended events expressing solidarity with Palestinians.
In November, she signed a global ceasefire petition organized by Oxfam. In May, she gave a speech at an event hosted by the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, where she said: “Empathy should have no boundaries.”
Tame also revealed she had been asked not to speak about the war at other public engagements.
Her increasingly vocal advocacy drew criticism from pro-Israel commentators in Australia, some of whom accused her of sharing inflammatory and antisemitic content.
In May, Tame reposted a statement from Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd criticizing Western media coverage of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy aides in Washington.
She quoted the post, which argued the incident was a direct response to Israel’s assault on Gaza, rather than a random antisemitic attack.
“Even though it was undeniably, and by the alleged shooter’s own admission, a response to the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed one hundred and seven Palestinians in the last 24 hours alone,” she reposted to her 260,000 followers.
Tame, no stranger to controversy, has long been a divisive figure in Australian public life.
Earlier this year, she appeared at a public event with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wearing a T-shirt that read “F**k Murdoch,” a jab at media mogul Rupert Murdoch. In the accompanying Instagram caption, she criticized what she called “dynastically wealthy white supremacist corporate oligarchs ruining our planet, funding genocide, war, and destruction.”
In response, Murdoch-owned The Australian accused her of being fixated on Israel and wrote that Nike’s “face-saving statement of a mutual separation with Tame is arguably misplaced in its generosity.”
The newspaper also noted that all Nike stores in Australia are operated by Fox Group, an Israeli company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, adding another layer to the fallout.
UK to boost ‘homegrown talent’ in new AI skills drive
- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged to boost “homegrown talent for the AI age” by teaming up with tech giants to train 7.5 million workers in artificial intelligence skills
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged to boost “homegrown talent for the AI age” by teaming up with tech giants to train 7.5 million workers in artificial intelligence skills.
Speaking at the start of London’s Tech Week, with a line-up of speakers including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Starmer said: “In this global race, we can be an AI maker and not an AI taker.”
Starmer was due to have a one-on-one conversation with the chief of the star Silicon Valley semiconductor firm whose chips are critical for artificial intelligence applications and research.
Ahead of the event bringing together industry giants, Starmer announced a government-industry partnership to train 7.5 million workers in AI skills, including in using chatbots and large language models to boost productivity.
Tech firms including Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Amazon committed to make training materials freely available to businesses over the next five years.
Google EMEA region President Debbie Weinstein called it a “crucial initiative” essential for developing AI skills, unlocking AI-powered growth “and cementing the UK’s position as an AI leader.”
In his opening speech, Starmer said Britain must build “the digital infrastructure that we need to make sure AI improves our public services.”
The UK has a “responsibility” to “harness this unprecedented opportunity and to use it to improve the lives of working people,” Starmer added.
“We are going to build more homes, more labs, more data centers, and we’re going to do it much, much more quickly.”
His government has pledged to fire up the UK’s flagging economy, including with “pro-growth” AI regulations to attract tech investment and turn Britain into an “AI superpower.”
“We are putting the power of AI into the hands of the next generation — so they can shape the future, not be shaped by it,” Starmer said in a press release before the event.
The British leader unveiled £187 million ($253 million) in funding to help develop tech abilities including training for one million secondary school students, as part of its “TechFirst” program.
He called it a “step change in how we train homegrown talent for the AI age.”
The investment will “embed AI right through our education system,” he said, announcing nearly £150 million in undergraduate and PhD research scholarships in AI and tech.
Starmer also announced a “commitment from Nvidia to partner on a new AI talent pipeline,” including through expanding a Nvidia lab in Bristol, southwest England.
The UK’s AI sector is valued at £72 billion, employing over 64,000 people, and is projected to exceed £800 billion by 2035.
It was growing 30 times faster than the rest of the economy, according to government figures from 2023 — an “incredible” rate, according to Starmer.
Other speakers at the tech conference include the CEO of Mistral AI, Arthur Mensch, the UK’s Science Secretary Peter Kyle and Markus Villig, founder of ride-hailing app Bolt.
Apple heads into annual showcase reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war
- The pre-summer rite is expected be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event in 2023 when Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset
- Now Apple is facing nagging questions about its ability to innovate and ability to navigate a gauntlet of other challenges as it heads into this year’s World Wide Developers Conference
CUP: After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple will try to regain its footing Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The pre-summer rite, which attracts thousands of developers to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, is expected to be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years.
In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri.
But heading into this year’s showcase, Apple faces nagging questions about whether the nearly 50-year-old company has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset, Apple this year is expected to focus on an overhaul of its software that may include a new, more tactile look for the iPhone’s native apps and a new nomenclature for identifying its operating system updates.
Even though it might look like Apple is becoming a technological laggard, Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson contends the company still has ample time to catch up in an AI race that’s “more of a marathon, than a sprint. It will force Apple to evolve its operating systems.”
If reports about its iOS naming scheme pan out, Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That would mean the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the current sequential naming approach.
Whatever it’s named, the next iOS will likely be released as a free update in September, around the same time as the next iPhone models if Apple follows its usual road map.
Meanwhile, Apple’s references to AI may be less frequent than last year when the technology was the main attraction.
While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, Apple still hasn’t been able to soup up Siri in the ways that it touted at last year’s conference. The delays became so glaring that a chastened Apple retreated from promoting Siri in its AI marketing campaigns earlier this year.
“It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts last month when asked about the company’s headaches with Siri. “But we are making progress, and we’re extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”
While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.
“While much of WWDC will be about what the next great thing is for the iPhone, the unspoken question is: What’s the next great thing after the iPhone?” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, another analyst for Forrester Research.
Besides facing innovation challenges, Apple also faces regulatory threats that could siphon away billions of dollars in revenue that help finance its research and development. A federal judge is currently weighing whether proposed countermeasures to Google’s illegal monopoly in search should include a ban on long-running deals worth $20 billion annually to Apple while another federal judge recently banned the company from collecting commission on in-app transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system.
On top of all that, Apple has been caught in the cross-hairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California, company. Cook successfully persuaded Trump to exempt the iPhone from tariffs during the president’s first administration, but he has had less success during Trump’s second term, which seems more determined to prod Apple to make its products in the US.
“The trade war and uncertainty linked to the tariff policy is of much more concern today for Apple’s business than the perception that Apple is lagging behind on AI innovation,” Husson said.
The multi-dimensional gauntlet facing Apple is spooking investors, causing the company’s stock price to plunge by nearly 20 percent so far this year — a decline that has erased $750 billion in shareholder wealth. After beginning the year as the most valuable company in the world, Apple now ranks third behind long-time rival Microsoft, another AI leader, and AI chipmaker Nvidia.
Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a ‘mobile security crisis’
- Groups linked to China’s intel service have targeted the smartphones of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalisms, according to national security and tech experts
WASHINGTON: Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash — it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalism.
The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user.
The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China’s government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past.
Foreign hackers have increasingly identified smartphones, other mobile devices and the apps they use as a weak link in US cyberdefenses. Groups linked to China’s military and intelligence service have targeted the smartphones of prominent Americans and burrowed deep into telecommunication networks, according to national security and tech experts.
It shows how vulnerable mobile devices and apps are and the risk that security failures could expose sensitive information or leave American interests open to cyberattack, those experts say.
“The world is in a mobile security crisis right now,” said Rocky Cole, a former cybersecurity expert at the National Security Agency and Google and now chief operations officer at iVerify. “No one is watching the phones.”
US zeroes in on China as a threat, and Beijing levels its own accusations
US authorities warned in December of a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign designed to gain access to the texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.
“They were able to listen in on phone calls in real time and able to read text messages,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the senior Democrat on the Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, created to study the geopolitical threat from China.
Chinese hackers also sought access to phones used by Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance during the 2024 campaign.
The Chinese government has denied allegations of cyberespionage, and accused the US of mounting its own cyberoperations. It says America cites national security as an excuse to issue sanctions against Chinese organizations and keep Chinese technology companies from the global market.
“The US has long been using all kinds of despicable methods to steal other countries’ secrets,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said at a recent press conference in response to questions about a CIA push to recruit Chinese informants.
US intelligence officials have said China poses a significant, persistent threat to US economic and political interests, and it has harnessed the tools of digital conflict: online propaganda and disinformation, artificial intelligence and cyber surveillance and espionage designed to deliver a significant advantage in any military conflict.
Mobile networks are a top concern. The US and many of its closest allies have banned Chinese telecom companies from their networks. Other countries, including Germany, are phasing out Chinese involvement because of security concerns. But Chinese tech firms remain a big part of the systems in many nations, giving state-controlled companies a global footprint they could exploit for cyberattacks, experts say.
Chinese telecom firms still maintain some routing and cloud storage systems in the US — a growing concern to lawmakers.
“The American people deserve to know if Beijing is quietly using state-owned firms to infiltrate our critical infrastructure,” US Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan and chairman of the China committee, which in April issued subpoenas to Chinese telecom companies seeking information about their US operations.
Mobile devices have become an intel treasure trove
Mobile devices can buy stocks, launch drones and run power plants. Their proliferation has often outpaced their security.
The phones of top government officials are especially valuable, containing sensitive government information, passwords and an insider’s glimpse into policy discussions and decision-making.
The White House said last week that someone impersonating Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, reached out to governors, senators and business leaders with texts and phone calls.
It’s unclear how the person obtained Wiles’ connections, but they apparently gained access to the contacts in her personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the newspaper reported.
While most smartphones and tablets come with robust security, apps and connected devices often lack these protections or the regular software updates needed to stay ahead of new threats. That makes every fitness tracker, baby monitor or smart appliance another potential foothold for hackers looking to penetrate networks, retrieve information or infect systems with malware.
Federal officials launched a program this year creating a “cyber trust mark” for connected devices that meet federal security standards. But consumers and officials shouldn’t lower their guard, said Snehal Antani, former chief technology officer for the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command.
“They’re finding backdoors in Barbie dolls,” said Antani, now CEO of Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity firm, referring to concerns from researchers who successfully hacked the microphone of a digitally connected version of the toy.
Risks emerge when smartphone users don’t take precautions
It doesn’t matter how secure a mobile device is if the user doesn’t follow basic security precautions, especially if their device contains classified or sensitive information, experts say.
Mike Waltz, who departed as Trump’s national security adviser, inadvertently added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a Signal chat used to discuss military plans with other top officials.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had an Internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office so he could use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, the AP has reported.
Hegseth has rejected assertions that he shared classified information on Signal, a popular encrypted messaging app not approved for the use of communicating classified information.
China and other nations will try to take advantage of such lapses, and national security officials must take steps to prevent them from recurring, said Michael Williams, a national security expert at Syracuse University.
“They all have access to a variety of secure communications platforms,” Williams said. “We just can’t share things willy-nilly.”
