SINGAPORE: Singapore on Tuesday blocked access to 10 websites linked to foreign actors which the government said could be used to mount “hostile” disinformation campaigns against the city-state.
The move comes as Singapore prepares for elections to be held before November next year.
“These 10 inauthentic websites have been observed to masquerade as Singapore websites by spoofing or using terms associated with Singapore in their domain name and incorporating familiar local features and visuals,” the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement.
“They also carried content on Singapore, some of which were generated by artificial intelligence. These are common tactics used by malicious foreign actors: build websites which can attract a local following, that may subsequently be used as platforms to mount HICs,” it said, referring to hostile information campaigns.
Two of the websites use domain names closely related or similar to legitimate Singapore-linked websites.
They carried content “that may mislead their audience into thinking that the content is reflective of official positions or local sentiments,” MHA said.
Seven of the websites utilize the word “Singapore” or associated terms in their domain name and publish content related to the country.
The 10th presents itself as a Singapore news website, carrying mostly articles that we “were likely to have been written” using AI tools.
“These 10 inauthentic websites could potentially be used by foreign actors to mount HICs against Singapore, and it is in the public interest to issue directions... to disable access to them for users in Singapore,” MHA said.
Singapore blocks foreign-linked websites, warns against ‘hostile’ disinformation
https://arab.news/yndwq
Singapore blocks foreign-linked websites, warns against ‘hostile’ disinformation
- The move comes as Singapore prepares for elections to be held before November next year
- Two of the websites use domain names closely related or similar to legitimate Singapore-linked websites
Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia vow to carry on fight against illegal migration
Migrants typically move on to richer countries in western Europe, like Germany
KOMARNO, Slovakia: Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia will continue joint efforts to curb illegal migration into the European Union, their leaders said on Tuesday, adding that more EU funds were needed.
Meeting in Komarno, Slovakia, on the Hungarian border, the leaders recognized their efforts to cut the number of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, who have come via the so-called Balkan route that passes through Serbia and into the EU via Hungary.
Migrants typically move on to richer countries in western Europe, like Germany.
“This year, there are 80 percent fewer migrants (in Serbia) than last year,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said after meeting his Slovak and Hungarian counterparts Robert Fico and Viktor Orban.
“We will continue to work together and I believe that the results will be good.”
Illegal migration remains a key political problem across Europe nearly a decade after the crisis in 2015, when around 1 million people arrived in the bloc. Arrivals last year were around a third of that figure.
Orban said asylum applications must be assessed before someone is allowed to enter the EU, saying this model, used in Hungary, was the only one that worked against illegal migration.
Hotspots set up in the last safe countries for migrants, for example in Africa, could be a mass solution, he said.
Italy last week began working with EU non-member Albania by sending migrants there to have their asylum requests processed, a scheme to deter boat crossings which other EU leaders have said could be a model.
Vucic said Serbia, which is not an EU member, would never agree to create hotspots for illegal migrants on its territory.
The number of illegal crossings in the western Balkans fell 79 percent year-on-year to just under 17,000 in the first nine months of 2024, according to data from border agency Frontex.
Fico, who hosted the summit, called the fight against illegal migration an absolute priority and said illegal migration had negative effects on Europe.
“It was a topic of discussion today that in planning the next EU budget after 2027 we have to insist that a substantial part of the budget needs to be devoted to fight illegal migration, because it is seriously threatening us,” he said.
Indonesia calls for UNSC intervention over Israeli siege of northern Gaza
- Israeli forces have targeted healthcare facilities, including the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya
- New President Prabowo Subianto had reiterated Indonesian support for Palestine in inaugural speech
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s new government called on the UN Security Council on Tuesday to take “decisive action” to end Israel’s war on Gaza, as Tel Aviv further tightens its deadly siege of the enclave’s northern region.
Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have cut the entry of any medical and food aid to northern Gaza as they escalated air and ground attacks targeting people and healthcare facilities, while further driving hundreds of thousands of people trapped there to the verge of starvation.
Under the leadership of newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto, who was sworn in on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Israel to stop attacking the besieged enclave.
“Indonesia demands that Israel immediately stop its attacks across all of Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, and urges the UN Security Council to take decisive action to end the war without delay,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the total blockade and Israeli attacks that have caused severe hunger and the deaths of countless Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza.”
Subianto reiterated Indonesia’s long-standing support for Palestine during his first presidential speech and said that the country was ready “to help our brothers who became victims of an unfair war.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also highlighted on Tuesday Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical workers in northern Gaza, including at the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahiya, as “clear violations” of international law.
At least two patients have died at the hospital funded by the Indonesian nongovernmental organization Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, as dozens of people remain trapped inside after Israeli strikes that began on Saturday.
The hospital was one of just three partially functional hospitals treating critical patients and sheltering displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza.
“The medics and patients are still holding out inside the hospital. They don’t want to be evacuated because the patients are not in a condition to do so,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees in Jakarta, told Arab News.
Murad said he was last in touch with the hospital staff on Tuesday morning.
“They destroyed solar panels and power generators and are withholding food and medical supplies from the Indonesia Hospital,” he said. “We are very concerned about the people who are trapped inside.”
Over a year since Israel launched its war on Gaza, its military has killed at least 42,700 people and injured more than 100,000. The real death toll is suspected to be much higher, with estimates published by medical journal The Lancet indicating that, as of July, it could be more than 186,000.
Modi arrives for BRICS summit in Kazan, seeks stronger ties with Russia
- Modi expected to meet Xi amid signs of thaw in Indian-Chinese ties
- India ready to support peace efforts amid Russia-Ukraine war, Modi tells Putin
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to reinforce New Delhi’s special partnership with Moscow, his office said on Tuesday, as he is in Russia to participate in the 2024 BRICS summit.
Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group expanded in January this year, with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE.
Morphing into the most powerful geopolitical forum outside of the Western world, it accounts for 45 percent of the world’s population and 35 percent of its economy.
The bloc’s annual meeting is taking place in Kazan on Oct. 22-24.
Ahead of his departure to Russia, Modi’s office quoted him as saying that his participation would “further reinforce the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia.”
He held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately after his arrival.
“The fact that I have come to Russia twice in the last two months demonstrates our deep connection and friendship,” he said, referring to the India-Russia Annual Summit, which he attended in Moscow in July.
The meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit was livestreamed on Modi’s X account.
He offered India’s support to reach peace amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“We fully support the early restoration of peace and stability. All our efforts give priority to humanity,” Modi said. “India is ready to provide all possible cooperation.”
Modi is attending the BRICS summit accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
“India is a voice of the Global South and Prime Minister Modi will refer to that, and once again bilaterally assess the possibility of further contribution to the efforts for ceasefire and peace in the Eurasian war,” said Anil Trigunayat, a former ambassador who has served in the Indian missions in the Middle East and Europe, including Russia.
“Regional and global challenges will be discussed as well. Prime Minister Modi in his departure statement clearly underscored the importance of BRICS. He will also be meeting several leaders including Iran and China, apart from the host Russia.”
Modi’s expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be the “biggest point” of the summit, according to Prof. Amitabh Singh from the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Indian-Chinese ties have been strained since 2020, following deadly clashes on their de facto Himalayan border and military buildup from both sides. Rounds of meetings taking place over the past four years had not yielded any resolution until Monday, when the countries reached a patrolling agreement widely seen as possibly leading to disengagement.
“Modi is going to meet Xi Jinping in all likelihood ... it is also important that India would be starting a new phase of relationship with China after things get worse in 2020,” Singh told Arab News.
“More than economic organization or platform, the BRICS is also becoming a political platform where non-Western countries are coming together.”
Modi calls for quick end to Ukraine conflict in meeting with Putin
- ‘We believe that disputes should only be resolved peacefully. We totally support efforts to quickly restore peace and stability’
- Narendra Modi visited Kyiv in August and Moscow in July in an effort to encourage talks
KAZAN, Russia: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted the Ukraine conflict to be resolved peacefully and “quickly” as he met President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit in Russia on Tuesday.
The three-day gathering, held amidst tight security in the city of Kazan, is the biggest international event in Russia since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022, with Putin seeking to build an alliance aimed at challenging the West’s “hegemony.”
“We have been in constant touch over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Modi told Putin after the two shook hands and embraced.
“We believe that disputes should only be resolved peacefully. We totally support efforts to quickly restore peace and stability,” the Indian leader added.
Putin hailed what he called Russia and India’s “privileged strategic partnership” and vowed to build ties further.
New Delhi has walked a diplomatic tightrope since the Ukraine conflict began, pledging humanitarian support for Kyiv while avoiding explicit condemnation of Russia’s offensive.
Modi visited Kyiv in August and Moscow in July in an effort to encourage talks, as India cast itself as a potential mediator.
Some two dozen other leaders are to attend the summit, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The main issues on the agenda include Putin’s idea for a BRICS-led payment system to rival SWIFT, an international financial network that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The Kremlin has touted the BRICS summit as a diplomatic triumph that shows Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the Ukraine conflict have failed.
The United States has dismissed the idea that BRICS could become a “geopolitical rival” but has expressed concern over Moscow flexing its diplomatic muscle as the Ukraine conflict rages.
Moscow has steadily advanced on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine this year while strengthening ties with China, Iran and North Korea — three of Washington’s adversaries.
By gathering BRICS leaders in Kazan, the Kremlin “aims to show that not only is Russia not isolated, it has partners and allies,” Moscow-based political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Putin in 2023 over the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, and the Russian leader abandoned plans to attend the previous summit in ICC member South Africa.
This time, the Kremlin wants to show an “alternative to Western pressure and that the multipolar world is a reality,” Kalachev said, referring to Moscow’s efforts to shift power away from western nations.
In televised talks, Putin told Modi the leaders in Kazan “should take a number of important decisions, aimed at further improving the organization’s activities.”
Putin will also meet Xi and the leaders of South Africa and Egypt on Tuesday, followed by separate talks with Erdogan and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is on his first trip to Russia since April 2022 to attend the summit. He will sit down with Putin on Thursday, according to the Kremlin, for talks that have been criticized by Kyiv.
Ahead of the summit, AFP journalists in Kazan reported heightened security and a visible police presence.
The surrounding Tatarstan region, which is some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine, has previously been hit by long-range Ukrainian drone attacks.
Movement around the city center is being limited, residents advised to stay home, and university students moved out of dormitories, local media reported.
The West believes Russia is using BRICS to expand its influence and promote its own narratives about the Ukraine conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned other countries could feel emboldened if Putin wins on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Starting with four members when it was established in 2009, BRICS has since expanded to include other emerging nations such as South Africa, Egypt and Iran.
But the group is rife with internal divisions, including between key members India and China.
Turkiye, a NATO member with complex ties to Moscow and the West, announced in September that it wanted to join the bloc.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva canceled a planned trip to the summit at the last minute after suffering a head injury that caused a minor brain hemorrhage.
Ukraine not asking West for nuclear weapons: Zelensky
- Ukraine leader also says prospect of peace talks with Russia ‘depends’ on the outcome of next month’s US presidential election
KYIV: Ukraine is not requesting nuclear weapons from Western partners to defend itself against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a meeting with journalists under embargo until Tuesday.
“We are not asking for nuclear weapons to be given to us,” Zelensky said, a few days after suggesting Kyiv would seek either NATO membership or nuclear arms.
Zelensky also said the prospect of peace talks with Russia “depends” on the outcome of next month’s US presidential election.
Asked whether he thought Moscow was ready for negotiations with Kyiv, Zelensky told journalists in comments released Tuesday: “First of all, it depends on the elections in the United States. I think they will be watching the policy of the United States.”
