US plans to require Covid vaccine for foreign travellers

 

The US will eventually require almost all foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated, a White House official has said.

The unnamed official told several news agencies that the Biden administration had tasked inter-agency groups with creating a phased reopening for international visitors.

No timeline for the decision was given.

The US has seen a rise in cases, particularly among the unvaccinated, amid the spread of the Delta variant.

Current Covid-19 rules prevent most international travellers from entering the country.

The first round of travel restrictions were imposed on China in January 2020.

Since then, the US ban has expanded to include non-US citizens who had recently visited the UK, the 26-nation Schengen bloc in Europe, Brazil, Ireland, India, Iran and South Africa.

Those who are able to enter the country must show proof of a negative Covid test taken within three days of travel.

Americans 'scared and angry' amid Covid surge

Why is the US falling behind with its vaccinations?

US to maintain Covid foreign travel restrictions

Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the US would "maintain existing travel restrictions at this point" due to rising infections, despite opposition from airlines and the tourism industry.

On Wednesday, the unnamed White House official said the administration was looking to reopen in a "safe and sustainable manner", adding that "with limited exceptions... foreign nationals travelling to the United States - from all countries - need to be fully vaccinated".

More than 70% of Americans have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

However, cases are rising in a number of states,, with a record number of  hospitalisations in Florida,according to officials.

Many regions and businesses across the US are once again introducing rules to force people to wear masks in public places.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes.....

Bangladesh lightning strike kills 17 wedding party guests

At least 17 members of a wedding party have died in Bangladesh after being struck by lightning, officials said.

Fourteen other people, including the groom, were injured. The bride was not with the wedding party.

The party was disembarking from a boat at the riverside town of Shibganj, heading towards the bride's house, when they were caught in a thunderstorm.

Local people said several bolts of lightning hit the group.

Every year, hundreds of people across South Asia are killed by lightning.

In 2016, Bangladesh declared lightning strikes a natural disaster when more than 200 people died in the month of May alone, including 82 people on a single day.

Experts say deforestation has played a part in the rising number deadly lightning strikes due to the disappearance of many tall trees that before would have drawn lightning strikes.

Excerpt from BBC News Homes.....

 

Article 370: Why more locals in Kashmir are becoming militants

 

Every time Bashir Ahmad Bhat's gaze falls on the blood stains on the walls, he is reminded of the night his brother, a policeman in Indian administered Kashmir, was murdered.

It was June; Mr Bashir had been preparing to go to sleep when he heard the sound of gun shots coming from next door. Alarmed, he sprang out of bed to check.

A heart-wrenching scene awaited him - his brother lay dead at the entrance of his home. His wife and daughter lay next to him, bloodied and struggling in pain. They died later.

"Those bullets destroyed a garden full of flowers in a minute," Mr Bashir said. "What was their fault? Nothing."

The police say the family was shot by militants. Officers like Mr Bashir's brother, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, are often targeted in the Kashmir valley, which has long seen militancy against local security forces.

"These are the people the other side calls police informers or collaborators," said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of Delhi-based defence think tank, the Institute for Conflict Management.

And their families, he added, "are always vulnerable and the first targets".

What happened in Kashmir and why it matters

Viewpoint: Has India pushed Kashmir to a point of no return?

On 5 August, 2019, India revoked nearly all of Article 370 in the constitution, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of the autonomy it had been guaranteed. At that time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP-led government argued the move was necessary to restore stability and bring economic prosperity to the region.

But two years on, the valley continues to remain tense, with officials saying more local young people are being drawn toward militancy.

There has been an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989.

But experts say the resistance is now becoming increasingly homegrown - a worrying trend for the geopolitically sensitive region.

Kashmir has been ravaged by conflict and unrest for decades.

Both India and Pakistan claim the territory in its entirety but control only parts of the region. The nuclear-armed neighbours have gone to war twice over it.

For years, India has accused Pakistan of pushing thousands of militants across the border to foment instability in Indian-administered parts of Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge.

Relations between the two countries have always been tense but reached a nadir when Delhi unilaterally revoked the region's special status in 2019.

Narendra Modi justified the controversial decision, saying that Kashmir's status had been stoking militancy.

Ministers from the BJP government echoed his claims. Some called Kashmir's status a "historical blunder", while others insisted that Kashmir is peaceful now "like never before".

But militant attacks in the region have continued even as security forces have intensified counter-insurgency operations.

The Indians celebrating Kashmir's loss of autonomy

'India has betrayed Kashmir'

Since 2019, the government has altered property rights of locals, triggering widespread suspicion among people. Locals fear the new laws will change the demography of India's only Muslim-majority region.

Kashmir has a history of a insurgency against Indian rule, and experts say these recent political changes have exacerbated this anger.

A senior security officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC that of 200 currently active militants, 80 are believed to be from Pakistan and more than 120 are locals.

"Between January and July this year, 76 Kashmiris have picked up arms and the number is anticipated to increase," the official said.

He said that no new foreign militant had been added to the list of active militants in Kashmir this year.

"But the names of locals are being added every day."

Not all of the militants who pick up arms belong to known militant groups. Some are poorly armed and untrained, and often end up dying in gun fights with Indian forces.

Since January this year, 90 alleged militants have been killed in gun fights in Kashmir, government data shows. Nearly all of them are locals, with some reportedly as young as 14.

Mr Sahni said that while the government's policies have fuelled resentment, local participation has been increasing because Pakistan "now seeks to project that militancy in Kashmir is indigenous".

But he added that the "overall trend" of militancy has been on the decline.

Security experts attributed this to increased counter insurgency operations, tighter borders and the fall in cross-border infiltration along the Line of Control (LoC) - the de-facto border between India and Pakistan - ever since a ceasefire came into effect in February.

According to security agencies, cross-firing along the border is "just a cover" to push militants into the valley.

An Indian army spokesperson said the ceasefire had not been violated since it was announced in February, because of which "cross-border infiltration has also come down, drastically".

But peace remains elusive for people like Mr Bashir.

"Both India and Pakistan are playing with our lives," he said. "There should be a permanent resolution, so that Kashmiris don't have to die."

VIDEO DETTALS :

Not all of the militants who pick up arms belong to known militant groups. Some are poorly armed and untrained, and often end up dying in gun fights with Indian forces. Since January this year, 90 alleged militants have been killed in gun fights in Kashmir, government data shows. Nearly all of them are locals, with some reportedly as young as 14. Mr Sahni said that while the government's policies have fuelled resentment, local participation has been increasing because Pakistan "now seeks to project that militancy in Kashmir is indigenous". But he added that the "overall trend" of militancy has been on the decline. Security experts attributed this to increased counter insurgency operations, tighter borders and the fall in cross-border infiltration along the Line of Control (LoC) - the de-facto border between India and Pakistan - ever since a ceasefire came into effect in February. According to security agencies, cross-firing along the border is "just a cover" to push militants into the valley. An Indian army spokesperson said the ceasefire had not been violated since it was announced in February, because of which "cross-border infiltration has also come down, drastically". But peace remains elusive for people like Mr Bashir. "Both India and Pakistan are playing with our lives," he said. "There should be a permanent resolution, so that Kashmiris don't have to die."

Excerpt from BBC News Homes.....

How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda

 

A sprawling network of more than 350 fake social media profiles is pushing pro-China narratives and attempting to discredit those seen as opponents of China's government, according to a new study.

The aim is to delegitimise the West and boost China's influence and image overseas, the report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) suggests.

The study, shared with the BBC, found that the network of fake profiles circulated garish cartoons depicting, among others, exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, an outspoken critic of China.

Other controversial figures featured in the cartoons included "whistleblower" scientist Li-Meng Yang, and Steve Bannon, former political strategist for Donald Trump.

Each of these individuals has themselves been accused of spreading disinformation, including false information about Covid-19.

Some of the accounts - spread across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube - use fake AI-generated profile pictures, while others appear to have been hijacked after previously posting in other languages.

There is no concrete evidence that the network is linked to the Chinese government, but according to the CIR, a non-profit group which works to counter disinformation, it resembles pro-China networks previously taken down by Twitter and Facebook.

These networks amplified pro-China narratives similar to those promoted by Chinese state representatives and state media.

Much of the content shared by the network focuses on the US, and in particular on divisive issues like gun laws and race politics.

One of the narratives pushed by the network paints the US as having a poor human rights record. Posts from the fake accounts cite the murder of George Floyd among examples, as well as discrimination against Asians.

Some accounts repeatedly deny human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where experts say China has detained at least a million Muslims against their will, calling the allegations "lies fabricated by the United States and the West".

"The aim of the network appears to be to delegitimise the West by amplifying pro-Chinese narratives," said Benjamin Strick, the author of the CIR report.

How was the network uncovered?

The CIR mapped hashtags favoured by previously identified networks, unearthing more accounts that showed signs of being part of an influence operation.

Tell-tale signs included high levels of activity pushing propaganda narratives and repeated use of the same hashtags. Newly created accounts, accounts with usernames that appeared to be randomly generated, and accounts with very few followers also raised red flags.

The foreigners in China's disinformation drive

Inside the pro-China network targeting the US, Hong Kong and an exiled tycoon

Going undercover to infiltrate Chinese-American far-right networks

Some profiles were created to post original content, while others only shared, liked and commented on those original posts, to help them reach a wider audience.

This kind of activity is often referred to as "astroturfing" because it is designed to create the appearance of a grass-roots campaign.

Fake people

Many of the fake profiles used AI generated photos - a relatively new phenomenon that allows computers to create realistic looking images of people who don't exist. Unlike stolen profile images of real people, the AI generated images, which are created by a type of machine learning framework called StyleGAN, cannot be traced using a reverse image search.

The use of fake profile pictures in disinformation campaigns is becoming more common as users and platforms become more wary of suspicious accounts.

The CIR used various techniques to identify fake profile pictures in the network. The synthetic images always put the eyes in the same location, so lining them all up can help identify a collection of fake profile pictures.

Normally, a random collection of profile pictures would display much more variety in the cropping and the alignment of the eyes.

Other signs include blurred edges around the hair, teeth at strange angles, and blurred objects around the face.

Many of the Facebook accounts believed to be part of the network appeared to have Turkish names. These accounts may once have belonged to real people but were later hijacked or sold and given new profile pictures.

Hijacked accounts also spread the network's pro-China narratives on YouTube. Accounts that had previously posted in English or German and then lain dormant for years suddenly started posting Chinese language content from official Chinese state broadcasters.

The CIR shared its research with the social media platforms involved.

Facebook has removed the accounts on its platform highlighted in the study.

A Facebook spokesman said: "In September 2019, we removed a network of spam activity that posted lifestyle and political clickbait, primarily in Chinese. This network had almost no engagement on our platform, and we continue to work with researchers and our industry peers to detect and block their attempts to come back, like those accounts mentioned in this report."

YouTube also terminated accounts in the network for violating YouTube's community guidelines.

Twitter said it had also now removed almost all of the accounts identified by CIR, as well as a number of others engaged in similar behaviour. It said its investigations are still ongoing.

"When we identify information operation campaigns that we can reliably attribute to state-linked activity - either domestic or foreign-led - we disclose them to our public archive."

Analysis - Kerry Allen, BBC Monitoring China media analyst

Over the past decade, billions of dollars have gone into funding the growth of China's presence on international platforms.

But with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube blocked in the mainland, and only accessible via a VPN, the country has struggled to get such platforms recognised as viable competitors to Western juggernauts. It has needed not only Chinese voices, but foreign voices, to show that the country has "arrived".

"Wolf warrior diplomacy" has emerged, with officials using Twitter accounts to fly the flag for Communist Party rhetoric. China wants to portray itself as a friend to the world - and not a repressive, authoritarian state, as it perceives Western nations make it out to be.

With more than one billion internet users, China certainly has the capability to orchestrate large-scale social media campaigns, and target what it sees as anti-China voices with a wealth of opposing opinions.

But with English-language skills limited in China, there are often clumsy tell-tale signs that a Chinese troll is behind such accounts. Many rely on automatic translation software to turn Chinese messages into English, meaning such messages are riddled with typos, or contain clumsy grammatical structures.

And with many Western outlets inaccessible to them within China, users generally have very little knowledge of who they are meant to be targeting, so they simply piggyback off the replies of others from within the same network.

Graphics by Simon Martin

Excerpt from BBC News Homes.....