Revealed: quarter of all tweets about climate crisis produced by CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL bots

Draft of Brown study says findings suggest ‘substantial impact of mechanized bots in amplifying denialist messages’

Oliver Milman in New York@olliemilmanFri 21 Feb 2020
 

The researchers examined 6.5m tweets posted in the days leading up to and the month after Trump announced the US exit from the Paris accords on 1 June 2017. 

Photograph: Oliver Berg/AFP/Getty Images

The social media conversation over the climate crisis is being reshaped by an army of automated Twitter bots, with a new analysis finding that a quarter of all tweets about climate on an average day are produced by bots, the Guardian can reveal.

The stunning levels of Twitter bot activity on topics related to global heating and the climate crisis is distorting the online discourse to include far more climate science denialism than it would otherwise.


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An analysis of millions of tweets from around the period when Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement found that bots tended to applaud the president for his actions and spread misinformation about the science.

The study of Twitter bots and climate was undertaken by Brown University and has yet to be published. Bots are a type of software that can be directed to autonomously tweet, retweet, like or direct message on Twitter, under the guise of a human-fronted account.

“These findings suggest a substantial impact of mechanized bots in amplifying denialist messages about climate change, including support for Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement,” states the draft study, seen by the Guardian.

On an average day during the period studied, 25% of all tweets about the climate crisis came from bots. This proportion was higher in certain topics – bots were responsible for 38% of tweets about “fake science” and 28% of all tweets about the petroleum giant Exxon.

Conversely, tweets that could be categorized as online activism to support action on the climate crisis featured very few bots, at about 5% prevalence. The findings “suggest that bots are not just prevalent, but disproportionately so in topics that were supportive of Trump’s announcement or skeptical of climate science and action”, the analysis states.

Thomas Marlow, a PhD candidate at Brown who led the study, said the research came about as he and his colleagues are “always kind of wondering why there’s persistent levels of denial about something that the science is more or less settled on”.

The researchers examined 6.5m tweets posted in the days leading up to and the month after Trump announced the US exit from the Paris accords on 1 June 2017. The tweets were sorted into topic category, with an Indiana University tool called Botometer used to estimate the probability the user behind the tweet is a bot.

In terms of influence, I personally am convinced that they do make a difference, although this can be hard to quantifyStephen Lewandowsky

Marlow said he was surprised that bots were responsible for a quarter of climate tweets on an average day. “I was like, ‘Wow that seems really high,’” he said.

The consistent drumbeat of bot activity around climate topics is highlighted by the day of Trump’s announcement, when a huge spike in general interest in the topic saw the bot proportion drop by about half to 13%. Tweets by suspected bots did increase from hundreds a day to more than 25,000 a day during the days around the announcement but it wasn’t enough to prevent a fall in proportional share.

Trump has consistently spread misinformation about the climate crisis, most famously calling it “bullshit” and a “hoax”, although more recently the US president has said he accepts the science that the world is heating up. Nevertheless, his administration has dismantled any major policy aimed at cutting planet-warming gases, including car emissions standards and restrictions on coal-fired power plants.

The Brown University study wasn’t able to identify any individuals or groups behind the battalion of Twitter bots, nor ascertain the level of influence they have had around the often fraught climate debate.

However, a number of suspected bots that have consistently disparaged climate science and activists have large numbers of followers on Twitter. One that ranks highly on the Botometer score, @sh_irredeemable, wrote “Get lost Greta!” in December, in reference to the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

This was followed by a tweet that doubted the world will reach a 9-billion population due to “#climatechange lunacy stopping progress”. The account has nearly 16,000 followers.

Another suspected bot, @petefrt, has nearly 52,000 followers and has repeatedly rejected climate science. “Get real, CNN: ‘Climate Change’ dogma is religion, not science,” the account posted in August. Another tweet from November called for the Paris agreement to be ditched in order to “reject a future built by globalists and European eco-mandarins”.

Twitter accounts spreading falsehoods about the climate crisis are also able to use the promoted tweets option available to those willing to pay for extra visibility. Twitter bans a number of things from its promoted tweets, including political content and tobacco advertising, but allows any sort of content, true or otherwise, on the climate crisis.

Research on internet blogs published last year found that climate misinformation is often spread due to readers’ perception of how widely this opinion is shared by other readers.

Stephan Lewandowsky, an academic at the University of Bristol who co-authored the research, said he was “not at all surprised” at the Brown University study due to his own interactions with climate-related messages on Twitter.

“More often than not, they turn out to have all the fingerprints of bots,” he said. “The more denialist trolls are out there, the more likely people will think that there is a diversity of opinion and hence will weaken their support for climate science.

“In terms of influence, I personally am convinced that they do make a difference, although this can be hard to quantify.”

John Cook, an Australian cognitive scientist and co-author with Lewandowsky, said that bots are “dangerous and potentially influential”, with evidence showing that when people are exposed to facts and misinformation they are often left misled.

“This is one of the most insidious and dangerous elements of misinformation spread by bots – not just that misinformation is convincing to people but that just the mere existence of misinformation in social networks can cause people to trust accurate information less or disengage from the facts,” Cook said.

Although Twitter bots didn’t ramp up significantly around the Paris withdrawal announcement, some advocates of action to tackle the climate crisis are wary of a spike in activity around the US presidential election later this year.

“Even though we don’t know who they are, or their exact motives, it seems self-evident that Trump thrives on the positive reinforcement he receives from these bots and their makers,” said Ed Maibach, an expert in climate communication at George Mason University.

“It is terrifying to ponder the possibility that the Potus was cajoled by bots into committing an atrocity against humanity.”

Tokyo Olympics: dance by Japan’s indigenous people dropped from opening ceremony

Move raises questions about status of Ainu ethnic minority, whose cultural identity Japan is legally obliged to protect
Justin McCurry in Tokyo Fri 21 Feb 2020

An Ainu ritual ceremony. An estimated 13,000 

Ainu people live in Hokkaido, according to a 2017

 survey, but the actual number is thought to

 be much higher. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters


Japan’s commitment to the rights of its indigenous people has been questioned after organisers of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics dropped a performance by members of the Ainu ethnic minority from the Games’ opening ceremony.

Members of the Ainu community, originally from Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, had been expecting to showcase their culture to the world in a dance at the Olympic stadium, but learned recently that the plans had been scrapped.

The Tokyo 2020 organising committee said the performance had been dropped from the ceremony due to “logistical constraints”.

Dream weavers: the indigenous Ainu people of Japan – in pictures
The Ainu of Hokkaido in Japan were not officially recognised as an indigenous people until 2008. This recognition came after a long history of exclusion and assimilation that almost erased their society, language and culture. Photographer Laura Liverani collaborated with members of the Ainu for this exhibition called Coexistences: Portraits of Today’s Japan
Magi is a transgender woman originally from Okinawa. Although not an Ainu by blood, Magi has embraced the indigenous way of life, after having lived as an Ainu in a commune in Nibutani for many years. She is skilled in traditional Ainu embroidery, which she incorporates in her handmade clothes.
Ainu elder Haruzo Urakawa in his home. Kamuy Mintara, meaning ‘Playground of Gods’, is a Cise, a traditional Ainu home, that 75-year-old Haruzo Urakawa built by himself in the mountains outside of Tokyo. Here, he lived as closely as possible to the traditional Ainu lifestyle, which, as a child in Hokkaido, he had learned from his father.


“Unfortunately, this particular Ainu dance performance could not be included because of logistical constraints related to the ceremonies,” it said in a statement to the Guardian.

“However, Tokyo 2020 is still deliberating other ways to include the Ainu community. We are not able to provide further details of the content of the opening and closing ceremonies.”

The public broadcaster NHK said last week that an Ainu ceremonial dance would be included in a cultural exposition at the Tokyo National Museum in March, but Ainu representatives said performers, who had already started rehearsing, had been anticipating an appearance on a much bigger stage.

“Everyone was looking forward to performing at the Olympic stadium,” said Kazuaki Kaizawa of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, which started discussing the inclusion of an Ainu element in the opening ceremony with organisers three years ago.

“We are willing to talk to the organisers about how Ainu culture can be represented during the Olympics,” Kaizawa told the Guardian, adding that the Games’ organising committee had yet to explain its decision. “We’re hopeful something can be worked out.”

The decision sits uncomfortably with recent moves by Japan’s government to improve the status of the Ainu. In May last year, parliament passed a law that legally recognised them as Japan’s indigenous people, obliging the government to protect their cultural identity and ban discrimination in employment, education and other areas.

The law was intended to officially end more than a century of discrimination that began in the late 19th century, when Japan’s Meiji-era government took control of Hokkaido, where the Ainu had been hunting, fishing, practising an animist religion and speaking their own language since the 1300s, according to experts.

But after opening the island to Japanese settlers, the government forced the Ainu, who it referred to as “former aborigines”, to assimilate.

An estimated 13,000 Ainu currently live in Hokkaido, according to a 2017 survey, although the actual number is thought to be much higher, as many are reluctant to identify themselves as Ainu and have moved to other parts of Japan.

Members of the Ainu community continue to encounter prejudice. They are half as likely to attend university as other Japanese, according to official data, and Ainu households can expect to earn significantly less than the national average. In a 2017 survey, over 23% of Ainu people said they had been discriminated against.

“Society was not accepting of the Ainu, and it still isn’t,” said Mai Ishihara, an anthropologist at Hokkaido University. “There are still many people who keep their Ainu identity secret from their children.”

The lack of awareness of Japan’s indigenous people extends to the upper echelons of government. Last month, the finance minister, Taro Aso, drew condemnation after he claimed that Japan had been racially homogeneous for 2,000 years.

“There is no other nation but Japan where a single race has spoken a single language at a single location, and maintained a single dynasty with a single emperor for over 2,000 years,” Aso, who is also deputy prime minister, told constituency supporters. “It is a great nation.”

Aso later apologised. “If my remarks caused a misunderstanding, I apologise and will correct them,” he said.

Ainu representatives hope the opening in April of the National Ainu Museum and Park in Hokkaido, will lead to wider recognition of their history and traditions.

Known as Upopoy – or “singing together” in the Ainu language – the $220m (£171m) facility is part of a drive by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to draw more visitors to Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido and now the venue for the Olympic marathons.

The events were controversially moved to Sapporo from Tokyo after the International Olympic Committee acted on warnings about the threat the capital’s searing heat and humidity posed to athletes and spectators.

“We hope people from around the world come to the park, but we also want to see lots of visitors from Japan,” Kaizawa said. “Too many Japanese are still unaware of our existence and our culture.”

Reuters contributed to this report

Library

'Pyke notte thy nostrellys': 15th-century guide on children's manners digitised for first time

New British Library site ranges from medieval book Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke to manuscripts by Lewis Carroll and Jacqueline Wilson


Alison Flood Fri 21 Feb 2020 

‘Some of these sources may seem uncannily familiar’ … a librarian opens Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book (1744). Photograph: British Library Board

From Horrid Henry to Just William, naughty children are not difficult to find in children’s books today. But bad behaviour isn’t confined to recent decades – a manuscript from 1480, which has been digitised for the first time by the British Library, gives an insight into the antics of medieval children, as it exhorts them to “pyke notte thyne errys nothyr thy nostrellys” – don’t pick your ears or your nostrils - and to “spette not ovyr thy tabylle”.
Don’t burp as if you had a bean in your throat’ … The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, a medieval conduct book 15th century credit British Library Board Photograph: The British Library Board

The 15th-century conduct book, The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, was intended to teach table manners. It has been put online as part of a new children’s literature website bringing together original manuscripts, interviews and drafts by authors from Lewis Carroll to Jacqueline Wilson. The medieval text is part of the British Library’s own collection, and “by listing all the many things that medieval children should not do, it also gives us a hint of the mischief they got up to”, said the library.

“Bulle not as a bene were in thi throote,” is another piece of advice doled out by the book – or “don’t burp as if you had a bean in your throat”. “And chesse cum by fore the, be not to redy,” children are warned – or “don’t be greedy when they bring out the cheese”. And long predating the Victorian age’s exhortations for children to be seen but not heard: “‘Loke thou laughe not, nor grenne / And with moche speche thou mayste do synne.” Or: “Don’t laugh, grin or talk too much.”

Anna Lobbenberg, the lead producer on the British Library’s digital learning programme, said: “These older collection items allow young people to examine the past close up. Some of these sources will seem fascinatingly remote, while others may seem uncannily familiar despite being created hundreds of years ago.”

More than 100 “treasures from children’s literature” feature on the new site, Discovering Children’s Books, including pages from Judith Kerr’s sketchbook for The Tiger Who Came to Tea, showing tigers drawn from life at London zoo. Axel Scheffler has shared the changing face of the Gruffalo, after he was told to make it less scary. There is also the first manuscript of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Enid Blyton’s typescript drafts of The Famous Five and Last Term at Malory Towers. 

Lightening the dark wood … Axel Scheffler sketching the Gruffalo. Photograph: Joe Turp

The site, bringing together collections from the British Library, Seven Stories, Bodleian Libraries and the V&A, will also feature Curiosities in the Tower of London, a miniature book published in 1741 by Thomas Boreman, the first publisher and bookseller to specialise in books for children. Describing the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London, the miniature book sees Boreman introduce the zoo’s lionesses, Jenny and Phillis, and the lion Marco with his “frightful teeth”. It will also show children the only book about suffragettes written for children during the Votes for Women campaign, Votes for Catherine Susan and Me by Kathleen Ainslie. Catherine Susan, and Me, are two peg dolls, who join the campaign, fighting policemen, smashing windows, going to prison and going on hunger strike. Perhaps unsurprisingly for the time, the tale was meant to be a cautionary one: “We cheered up when the Home Secretary and the Governor came to see us. And when they said ‘Will you go home quietly’? we said ‘YES’.”

'One in four cowboys were black'. The Yee Haw Agenda's founder on the politics of cowboy style

From Lil Nas X to Billy Porter on the Grammys red carpet, Yee Haw fashion is everywhere. It is helping to finally put black cowboys, long erased from history, on the agenda

• Read more from the spring/summer 2020 edition of The Fashion, our biannual style supplement


Bri Malandro Fri 21 Feb 2020
 

Lil Nas X at the Grammy Awards in January. 

Photograph: Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

I have been archiving the black cowboy experience online for about a year. I’ve lived in Texas for most of my life and have always been interested in the aesthetic.

I think the ubiquity of the white American cowboy myth reflects a lot of deep-rooted ideas about heteronormativity and whiteness in the US. It also speaks to the historical erasure of the black cowboy – most people don’t know that one in four cowboys were actually black.

I called the movement, and my Instagram account, which began in March 2019, “the Yee Haw Agenda” as a play on “the gay agenda”. A lot of straight people have issues with gay people or gay content being so popular and feeling as if it’s being forced on to children, which I’ve always thought was ridiculous. This has never made sense to me because the LGBTQI community has contributed so much to culture in general, stuff that they haven’t been credited for. It’s similar to the way black cowboys have not been historically credited. There are people who actually hate the term Yee Haw Agenda, but it’s funny to me because it was never meant to be as serious as it has become.
Mary J Blige in 2000. 

Photograph: Steve Azzara/Corbis via Getty Images


Black erasure is something that’s happened since the beginning of time. It’s still happening today, because the chairmen, the CEOs, the company heads, the people behind the scenes and the people who are in positions to actually change things still all look the same – the same as they have always looked. So I think it’s great and important when something becomes so popular, like Yee Haw. It means people can’t ignore the disparity any more. And the people in power are forced to open the doors that have been closed for so long. These days I think social media plays a huge part in that.

Historically, the most significant Yee Haw looks have included Diana Ross’s cowgirl style for her 1969 TV special, the Gap Band’s look from the early 80s, singer Nicole Wray’s artwork for her first album in 1998 and Lil’ Kim’s look in the 1999 Get Naked music video with Tommy Lee. But the first person that comes to mind, when I think about who exudes the Yee Haw look as we know it today, is Mary J Blige. I don’t think she gets the praise for taking as many chances as she did, style wise, in the late 90s and early 00s, but she was never afraid of a good cowboy hat and boot combo. I would include Destiny’s Child in there as well. They always made being from Texas look fly, even though they got criticised for some of their earlier outfits. 

Destiny’s Child in 2001. 

Photograph: Sipa/REX/Shutterstock

Lil Nas X was very significant to Yee Haw: Old Town Road is literally the biggest song of all time [the song holds the record for the longest time at number one in chart history], so it goes without saying. Seeing his rise was entertaining and made perfect sense, because he’s really good at using the internet to his advantage. His stylist, Hodo Musa, is also amazing: my jaw always hits the floor when I see the looks they put together. A lot of the older people who have a problem with him now, mainly forgotten homophobic hip-hop stars, can’t keep up with his wit. He always deflects any shade thrown his way.


Recently, I saw an Out magazine headline that read The Gay Yeehaw Agenda Hit The Grammys Red Carpet, accompanied by a photo of Lil Nas X, Billy Porter and Orville Peck [all of whom wore cowboy hats to the awards ceremony]. It made me smile. The only real agenda at this point is to continue to spread the word about Yee Haw so maybe the world won’t be as shook the next time a black cowboy makes their presence known.
Diana Ross in 1979. 

Photograph: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection

 via Getty Images

Right now, I’m just taking things a day at a time, with the growth of the account [Malandro now has 13.5k followers on Instagram]. I spoke at a festival a few months ago and got to meet some amazing people who participate in the rodeos of today. I’m working on incorporating them into the movement and helping put a spotlight on more active cowboys and cowgirls.

I don’t think the Yee Haw movement will end any time soon, because it’s more than just one moment. There may be people who lose interest, like anything that sees a spike in popularity, but fashion will always repeat itself and black cowboys will still be there, like they’ve always been.

As told to Priya Elan

US economy faces long-lasting damage from trade war: Fed official

AFP•February 24, 2020

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester, pictured in 2016, warned the some foreign companies may have permanently reoriented their supply chains away from the United States (AFP Photo/ROB KIM)More

Washington (AFP) - The trade conflict of the past two years likely left a mark on the US economy, even with the recent agreement to defuse the situation, a Federal Reserve official said Monday.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus in China adds another risk factor to the outlook, which otherwise seemed poised to provide steady growth, said Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve's regional bank in Cleveland.

"At this point, it is difficult to assess the magnitude of the economic effects, but this new source of uncertainty is something I will be carefully monitoring," she said of the epidemic.

With the partial agreement signed with China to call a truce in the dispute with Beijing -- despite leaving many tariffs in place -- as well as a new continental free trade pact with Canada and Mexico, Mester said the trade picture is "somewhat better" heading into 2020.

"Nevertheless, some long-lasting effects arising from the trade war are likely," she said in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics.

While the reduced uncertainty means businesses that had put plans on hold might now be more likely to invest, some foreign companies "have reoriented their supply chains away from US firms, which means these exports may be permanently lost."

Sluggish investment, too, is a source of concern.

"Without investment in new technologies and capital, productivity will continue to be weak, dampening the economy's growth potential and living standards."

Mester, a voting member of the Fed's interest rate setting committee this year, was relatively upbeat about the economy, which she said should continue to perform well with a strong job market and growth around two percent, slightly slower than last year.

The epidemic in China casts a cloud of uncertainty over the outlook, she cautioned, and is hard to compare with past health issues, like the SARS epidemic in 2003, which caused a minor slowing in the US economy.

"China was not as big a player in the global economy back then as it is today, so there is the potential for a larger impact," if supply chains are disrupted or investment postponed, she said.

"On the other hand, China now has more resources with which to address the epidemic than it had in 2003," which might mean "less protracted" damage to the economy.

Probe into abuse at America's oldest deaf school finds 'appalling truths'

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE, BEING THE NORM NOT THE ANOMALY 

Tim Stelloh,NBC News•February 23, 2020

An investigation into inappropriate conduct at America's oldest school for deaf people corroborated multiple allegations of sexual and physical abuse that stretched decades, school officials said.

In a report, officials at the American School for the Deaf, in West Hartford, Connecticut, said Friday that the allegations involved former dorm supervisors, a maintenance worker, a dean and the school's longtime executive director.

The alleged abuse occurred from the 1950s to the 1980s, the report said. The school was founded in 1817.

"The results of this investigation reveal startling and appalling truths," Executive Director Jeffrey S. Bravin and Catherine Burns, president of the board of directors, said in the report. "As a school community, we offer a sincere and heartfelt apology to the survivors of the inexcusable actions identified in this report and for the fact that the school did not prevent or stop them."

The investigation, which was conducted by an outside legal team, began last February after officials learned of allegations of abuse at the school and a camp connected to it. The school said it immediately reported the allegations to West Hartford police, the state Education Department and the state Department of Children and Families.

The team interviewed 81 former students, faculty and staff members and found 20 direct, credible allegations of sexual abuse, the report says. Investigators uncovered 20 more allegations from witnesses who had either seen or heard about abuse that happened to others.

Dozens more people reported physical abuse that included being punched and struck with sticks, belts and paddles, the report says. Students described being restrained with belts, sheets and straitjackets, being forced to walk on their knees and eat until they threw up, and being put in dark places like closets.

Several of the former faculty and staff members named in the report are dead, including Edmund Boatner, the school's executive director from 1935 to 1970.

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For several years, the report alleges, Boatner groomed and had "sexual contact" with a student.

Other people named in the report declined to speak to investigators.

IMAGE: American School for the Deaf in 1855

Dry February sends California back to drought: 'This hasn't happened in 150 years'

February is typically one of the wettest months in California, but the state is parched, and there’s no moisture in the forecasts


Susie Cagle Fri 21 Feb 2020
 

Sierra snow pack is below normal for February. Photograph: NWS Sacramento

San Francisco and Sacramento have not seen a drop of rain this February, and climate scientists are expecting that disturbing dry trend to hold, in what is typically one of the wettest months of the year for California.

“This hasn’t happened in 150 years or more,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “There have even been a couple wildfires – which is definitely not something you typically hear about in the middle of winter.”
Illustration: Susie Cagle/The Guardian

Combined with warmer than average temperatures, the state is parched, and there is no moisture in the forecasts. “The dryness has picked up as the season has gone on,” said Swain.

Illustration: Susie Cagle/The Guardian


The year began with snowpack at 90% of its historical average. But less than two dry, warm months later, it’s hanging in at just 52% of average.

“Those numbers are going to continue to go down,” said Swain. “I would guess that the 1 March number is going to be less than 50%.”

That snow isn’t just the basis for the mountain tourism industry in the winter – it serves as a significant source of water for California cities and agriculture come spring melt.
Illustration: Susie Cagle/The Guardian

Last year’s snowpack at this time was more than 125% of average, an indicator of what Swain calls “precipitation whiplash”. California has long weathered these wet and dry cycles. The state’s future in the climate crisis looks warmer and drier not because of a lack of rain, but because of the extra heat drawing moisture out of the ecosystem. That heat is a major contributor to reduced snowpack, both as less snow falls, and as more of it melts more quickly. Climate science points to a California bound for a future that looks less like endless extreme drought alone.

“We aren’t going to necessarily see less rain, it’s just that that rain goes less far. That’s a future where the flood risk extends, with bigger wetter storms in a warming world,” said Swain.


'Apocalyptic threat': dire climate report raises fears for California's futur

The 2011-2017 drought was the worst since record-keeping began. It reshaped California’s landscape and its regulations, and memories of water rationing still loom large in the state’s memory.

“Some folks will say you’re not in a drought until there’s water scarcity problems,” said Swain. “We have a fair bit of single-year drought resilience. No matter how severe it is, the cities and most of the [agriculture] zones won’t run out of water.”

The more immediate impacts of this trend will be on the ecosystem and the inevitable fire season, as California’s grasslands and forests continue to dry out.

China sentences Swedish bookseller to 10 years in prison
YANAN WANG,Associated Press•February 24, 2020


FILE - In this June 18, 2016, file photo, a picture of missing bookseller Gui Minhai is shown on a placard beside freed Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, as the protesters are marching to the Chinese central government's liaison office in Hong Kong. A court in eastern China announced Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, that it has sentenced Gui, a naturalized Swedish citizen, to 10 years in prison. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)More

BEIJING (AP) — A court in eastern China announced Tuesday that it has sentenced Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen, to 10 years in prison.

The Ningbo Intermediate People's Court convicted the 55-year-old Gui of “illegally providing intelligence overseas," the court said in a statement published online.

For years, Gui sold gossipy books about Chinese leaders in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. He first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.

Four other people who worked for the same publishing company also went missing that year, only to turn up months later in police custody in mainland China. Gui is the only one who remains in detention.

He was initially released into house arrest in Ningbo, the eastern Chinese city where he was born, but police detained him once again in 2018 while he was on a train to Beijing in the company of two Swedish diplomats.

Gui's arrest has been a source of friction between Beijing and Stockholm. In November, Sweden's culture minister awarded the bookseller the annual Tucholsky literary prize despite a threat from the Chinese ambassador to ban her from entering the country.

Standing next to Gui’s empty seat at a ceremony in Stockholm, Culture Minister Amanda Lind said it was “crucial for culture and democracy that artists and authors can work freely.”

The Ningbo court said Gui applied in 2018 to restore his Chinese citizenship. He pleaded guilty and will not appeal his sentence, the court said.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused China of extracting forced confessions from individuals it perceives to be opponents of the ruling Communist Party.

Supreme court denies Rodney Reed appeal

Jordan Freiman, CBS News•February 24, 2020



The United States Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed. But while the petition for a review of his case was denied, Justice Sonia Sotomayor left the door open for further appeals pending the outcome of upcoming hearings.

"There is no escaping the pall of uncertainty over Reed's conviction," Sotomayor wrote.
Reed, now 51, was found guilty of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites and has spent over 20 years in prison. Reed was originally scheduled to be executed on November 20, 2019, but was granted an indefinite stay just days before following petitions from Reed's attorneys citing evidence that he is innocent.

Attorneys with the Innocence Project alleged prosecutors in Reed's 1998 trial withheld exculpatory evidence and relied on incorrect scientific testimony to convict him.

"In the instant petition for a writ of certiorari, Reed has presented a substantial body of evidence that, if true, casts doubt on the veracity and scientific validity of the evidence on which Reed's conviction rests," Sotomayor wrote. "Misgivings this ponderous should not be brushed aside even in the least consequential of criminal cases; certainly they deserve sober consideration when a capital conviction and sentence hang in the balance."

"While the Court today declines to review the instant petition, it of course does not pass on the merits of Reed's innocence or close the door to future review," Sotomayor added.

The Innocence Project said they are preparing for Reed's upcoming hearings, where they hope he will be granted a new trial.

"Following the Supreme Court's decision, the Innocence Project has renewed its call for the Texas Attorney General's Office and Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz to agree to DNA testing of the murder weapon and other evidence. The Innocence Project would pay for this testing and share the results with the state, leaving no reason for the state to continue to oppose testing efforts," the Innocence Project said Monday.

An official leading South Korea's battle against COVID-19 says he's a member of a doomsday cult where a virus 'super-spreader' event occurred

Rhea Mahbubani,Business Insider•February 24, 2020
 

A medical professional is at the National Medical Center's testing facility where patients suspected of contracting coronavirus are assessed in Seoul, South Korea, on February 24, 2020. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

A senior health official in South Korea who is responsible for leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak admitted to being a member of a doomsday church "cult" after contracting the virus.

The delay forced authorities to quarantine another 50 health officials at a time when medical resources are already stretched thin.

A police officer and an elementary school teacher also revealed that they believe in the Shincheonji Church of Jesus after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

A senior health official in Daegu — the city that lies at the center of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak — confessed to being a follower of a controversial doomsday church cult after testing positive for the virus.

The unnamed official leads the Infection Preventive Medicine Department in the city that is home to 681 of the 833 COVID-19 cases in the country, the South China Morning Post reported. Over 450 of those Daegu residents have been found to be members of the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, a fringe religious sect that belongs to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

Authorities worry that the toll in Daegu is likely to increase because the official, who is in charge of the local battle against the deadly illness, only came forward and admitted that he belonged to Shincheonji after he was already sick. This delay forced officials to quarantine 50 more health officials in their homes as a precaution, the Post said.

And he is not alone.

A Daegu police officer and a teacher at an elementary school near the city revealed themselves as believers after being diagnosed with coronavirus, according to the Post.

Shincheonji Church of Jesus was established in 1984 by Lee Man-hee and counts nearly 250,000 South Koreans among its ranks. Claiming to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, Lee touts the ability to take 144,000 people to heaven with him on Judgment Day, the Guardian said.

Korean officials say the cult played a key role in spreading the virus

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes a 61-year-old woman, who tested positive for the coronavirus, triggered a "super-spreader" event at the "same Korean cult." She was the country's 31st patient. Officials say she didn't get tested for COVID-19 since she mistook her symptoms for the common cold as she hadn't left South Korea recently and believed she couldn't have contracted the virus.

Officials ordered nearly 1,000 churchgoers who came in contact with the woman at prayer services to isolate themselves at home. Since then the city government also shut down the Temple's 163 facilities in Daegu and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon criticized Shincheonji for "playing a key role" in spreading the illness, according to the Post.

Church leaders are working with authorities and have shared a list of 9,600 believers in Daegu. That entire group has been quarantined in their homes, irrespective of whether they're presenting COVID-19 symptoms. All its members across South Korea have been asked to stay home and the addresses of some 1,100 facilities have also been provided to officials, the Post said.

In this Feb. 14, 2020, photo, a woman wearing a face mask walks on a almost empty street at the Chinatown in Incheon, South Korea. Associated Press

For its part, the Temple issued a statement asking critics to stop hurling "hatred and groundless accusations at them," since its members, like others who have been sickened, were "victims of the disease which originated in China and was transmitted to this country."

But people say that the information provided by Shincheonji doesn't include its "bible study rooms" and "undercover churches," where people sit so closely packed together that they can rub shoulders with one another while praying.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the emergence of so many coronavirus cases centered on the church had led to a "completely new situation" in the nation's fight to control the spread of the disease, the Post reported.
South Korea didn't enforce strict travel restrictions in the early stages of the epidemic

Officials have faced backlash for not enforcing more stringent restrictions and only stopping travelers from Hubei province in China from entering South Korea. This could have enabled people who picked up the infection elsewhere to enter the country without any hassle.

"It is like claiming that the gatekeeping is being done well without knowing that your back door is still left open," Dr. Lee Hoanjong, a professor at Seoul National University Children's Hospital, told the Post.

"Medical staff and health infrastructure in Daegu are now being stretched to a breaking point. If we have another Daegu in this country, I can't imagine what would happen."

Read more:
South Korea is bracing for a spike in coronavirus cases after a 'super-spreader' event occurred at a church 'cult'