Plant study challenges tropics' reputation as site of modern evolutionary innovation

FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

 

IMAGE: THE TROPICS ARE THE BIRTHPLACE OF MOST ROSIDS, A MASSIVE GROUP OF FLOWERING PLANTS THAT INCLUDES THIS STERCULIA MONOSPERMA, A NUT-BEARING TREE NATIVE TO SOUTHERN CHINA AND TAIWAN. BUT ROSIDS... view more 

CREDIT: MIAO SUN

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- In a surprise twist, a major group of flowering plants is evolving twice as quickly in temperate zones as the tropics. The finding runs counter to a long-held hypothesis that tropical regions, home to the planet's richest biological diversity, outpace their temperate counterparts in producing new species.

The tropics are the birthplace of most species of rosids, a group that makes up more than a quarter of flowering plants, ranging from mangroves to roses to oaks. But in an analysis of about 20,000 rosid species, researchers found the speed of tropical rosid evolution lags far behind that of younger communities in temperate habitats.

Although rosids originated 93-115 million years ago, the rate at which the group diversified, or formed new species, dramatically increased over the last 15 million years, a period of global cooling and expanding temperate habitats. Today, rosids are diversifying far faster in places such as the southeastern U.S. than in equatorial rainforests, said study co-lead author Ryan Folk, assistant professor of biological sciences and herbarium curator at Mississippi State University.

"Everyone knows about the diversity of tropical rainforests. You would assume all the action in evolution is happening in them," said Folk, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "But we found out that it is really the temperate regions of the Earth - really our own backyards - where a lot of the recent action is taking place."

Charles Darwin once described the speed with which the earliest flowering plants evolved and spread across the planet as an "abominable mystery." Scientists are still tracing the driving forces behind these plants' runaway evolutionary success, with temperature emerging as a complex factor: Some studies have shown that flower evolution accelerates in warmer regions while others point to cooler climates. Research on higher and lower latitudes' influence on plant diversification produced similarly conflicting findings.

A team of evolutionary biologists selected rosids as the candidates for a closer look at the relationship between temperature and plant diversity in the first large-scale assessment of the group's evolution. Comprising an estimated 90,000-120,000 species, rosids live in nearly all land-based habitats, with rosid trees shaping most temperate and many tropical forests, said study co-author Douglas Soltis, Florida Museum curator and University of Florida distinguished professor.

"To me that was one of the biggest terrestrial evolutionary events - the rise of the rosid-dominated forests," he said. "Other lineages, such as amphibians, insects and ferns, diversified in the shadow of rosids."

The team's study shows rosids evolved by leaps and bounds after the Earth's hothouse climate began to cool and dry and as many tropical and subtropical habitats transformed into temperate ones - offering new real estate for evolutionarily enterprising organisms.

The diversity of tropical regions, in contrast, is not due to evolutionary mechanisms, but rather stability: Folk said tropical plant communities have "simply failed to go extinct, so to speak."

The findings echo a similar pattern the team uncovered in another group of plants known as Saxifragales, but the researchers are cautious about making conjectures on whether the pattern holds true for other plants or animals.

"It's difficult to say there is a universal pattern for how life responds to temperature," said study co-lead author Miao Sun, a postdoctoral researcher at Denmark's Aarhus University and a former Florida Museum postdoctoral researcher. "On the other hand, there seems to be a trend forming that, together with our study, shows a lower diversification rate in tropical regions compared with temperate zones. But it's still hard to tell to what extent this pattern is true across the tree of life."

If cooling temperature spurred rosid diversification, how might the group fare on a warming planet? The prognosis is not promising, the researchers said.

Rosids were able to fill cool ecological niches and now may not be able to adapt to a temperature hike, especially at the current rate of change, said study co-author Pamela Soltis, Florida Museum curator and UF distinguished professor.

"Warming temperatures will likely slow the rate of diversification, but even worse, we don't expect species currently living in arctic or alpine areas to be able to respond to quickly warming temperatures," she said. "The change is happening too rapidly, and we are already seeing species moving northward in the Northern Hemisphere or up mountains, with many more species facing extinction or already lost."

The team used genetic data from GenBank and natural history databases such as iDigBio and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to assemble DNA data for 20,000 species and 3 million plant occurrence records - one of the largest investigations of this nature to date.

"This work would have been impossible without natural history collections data," said study co-lead and senior author Robert Guralnick, Florida Museum curator of bioinformatics. "Rosids are an enormously successful group of flowering plants. Look out your window, and you will see rosids. Those plants are there because of processes occurring over millions of years, and now we know something essential about why."

###

The Florida Museum's Matthew Gitzendanner and Zhiduan Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences also co-authored the study.

Folk's quotes originally appeared in a press release published by Mississippi State University.

Researchers develop software to find drug-resistant bacteria

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

IMAGE: THIS IS A MEDICAL ILLUSTRATION OF CLOSTRIDIOIDES DIFFICILE BACTERIA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE, PRESENTED IN THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC) PUBLICATION ENTITLED, ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE THREATS IN... view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CDC

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Washington State University researchers have developed an easy-to-use software program to identify drug-resistant genes in bacteria.

The program could make it easier to identify the deadly antimicrobial resistant bacteria that exist in the environment. Such microbes annually cause more than 2.8 million difficult-to-treat pneumonia, bloodstream and other infections and 35,000 deaths in the U.S. The researchers, including PhD computer science graduate Abu Sayed Chowdhury, Shira Broschat in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Douglas Call in the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, report on their work in the journal Scientific Reports.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria or other microorganisms evolve or acquire genes that encode drug-resistance mechanisms. Bacteria that cause staph or strep infections or diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia have developed drug-resistant strains that make them increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible to treat. The problem is expected to worsen in future decades in terms of increased infections, deaths, and health costs as bacteria evolve to "outsmart" a limited number of antibiotic treatments.

"We need to develop tools to easily and efficiently predict antimicrobial resistance that increasingly threatens health and livelihoods around the world," said Chowdhury, lead author on the paper.

As large-scale genetic sequencing has become easier, researchers are looking for AMR genes in the environment. Researchers are interested in where microbes are living in soil and water and how they might spread and affect human health. While they are able to identify genes that are similar to known AMR-resistant genes, they are probably missing genes for resistance that look very unique from a protein sequence perspective.

The WSU research team developed a machine-learning algorithm that uses features of AMR proteins rather than the similarity of gene sequences to identify AMR genes. The researchers used game theory, a tool that is used in several fields, especially economics, to model strategic interactions between game players, which in turn helps identify AMR genes. Using their machine learning algorithm and game theory approach, the researchers looked at the interactions of several features of the genetic material, including its structure and the physiochemical and composition properties of protein sequences rather than simply sequence similarity.

"Our software can be employed to analyze metagenomic data in greater depth than would be achieved by simple sequence matching algorithms," Chowdhury said. "This can be an important tool to identify novel antimicrobial resistance genes that eventually could become clinically important."

"The virtue of this program is that we can actually detect AMR in newly sequenced genomes," Broschat said. "It's a way of identifying AMR genes and their prevalence that might not otherwise have been found. That's really important."

The WSU team considered resistance genes found in species of Clostridium, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Listeria. These bacteria are the cause of many major infections and infectious diseases including staph infections, food poisoning, pneumonia, and life-threatening colitis due to C. difficile. They were able to accurately classify resistant genes with up to 90 percent accuracy.

They have developed a software package that can be easily downloaded and used by other researchers to look for AMR in large pools of genetic material. The software can also be improved over time. While it's trained on currently available data, researchers will be able to re-train the algorithm as more data and sequences become available.

"You can bootstrap and improve the software as more positive data becomes available," Broschat said.

###

The work was funded in part by the Carl M. Hansen Foundation.

US envoy to Israel: a hardliner on West Bank annexation

Issued on: 07/07/2020 - 

US ambassador to Israel David Friedman has a long history of supporting West Bank settlements that are considered illegal under international law MENAHEM KAHANA AFP/File

Jerusalem (AFP)

A fervent supporter of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the US envoy to Israel has emerged as a central figure in the uncertainty surrounding Israel's annexation plans in the Palestinian territory.

Ambassador David Friedman has, according to some experts, encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to act swiftly on annexation -- even more swiftly than the White House wants.

Friedman, a 61-year-old lawyer, was an enthusiastic supporter of the US embassy's 2018 move to Jerusalem and has a long history of supporting West Bank settlements, communities considered illegal under international law.

Before being named ambassador in 2017, he worked with an organisation called the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, which supports an illegal settlement outside the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Since taking up his post, Friedman has asserted Israel's "right" to annex West Bank territory.

Friedman also has a long-standing relationship with President Donald Trump, having represented Trump-linked companies in US bankruptcy proceedings.

The US president's controversial Middle East peace plan paves the way for Israel to annex roughly 30 percent of the West Bank as part of a larger package of proposals, including negotiations with the Palestinians on a future state.

- 'His own goals' -

The Palestinians have rejected negotiations on Trump's terms and some see Friedman as the main US voice pushing Israel to move forward unilaterally on annexations alone -- a move certain to cause international outrage.

"I think he is not representing exactly the US, but more his own opinion or goals," Nitzan Horowitz, an Israeli opposition lawmaker and head of the left-wing Meretz party, told AFP.

"He is pursuing a very obsessive agenda of annexation, which according to my knowledge and understanding, is not shared by most of his colleagues in Washington," Horowitz said, explaining that his information came from talks with multiple foreign and Israeli officials.

The US embassy declined to comment.

Netanyahu's centre-right coalition had set July 1 as the date it could begin acting on annexation under the terms detailed in Trump's plan.

When no implementation roadmap was announced on Israel's self-imposed kick-off date last week, speculation began circulating in Israeli media that US reticence about immediate action partly compelled Netanyahu to pull back.

Michael Oren, who served as Netanyahu's envoy to Washington, told AFP that the US position on annexation is split between Friedman's view and that of senior White House advisor Jared Kushner.

Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a leading architect of the peace proposals, sees the plan as an "organic whole", added Oren, an expert on US-Israeli affairs.

For Kushner, if Israel acts unilaterally on annexation it risks alienating regional players whose support for the broader plan is essential, especially Arab states in the Gulf theoretically responsible for financially supporting a future Palestinian state.

- Showing 'movement' -

Oren, who said he knows Friedman "fairly well", agreed that the ambassador wanted action on annexation independent of progress on the rest of the Trump plan.

But he downplayed the notion Friedman was motivated purely by religious zeal or a personal desire to see so-called Jewish Law applied in West Bank areas some Israelis refer to by the biblical terms "Judea and Samaria".

"Yes, (Friedman) is pro-settlement, yes he is pro-annexation," Oren said, warning that people wrongly attribute to the ambassador a desire "to annex the entire West Bank".

Friedman's motivations are partly tactical, added Oren.

He believes "you have to show movement on the peace programme or it is going to die like every other peace programme" and that moving ahead with annexation would in effect put the Trump plan in motion.

Friedman's view is that if the Palestinians "leave the (negotiating) table they cannot go unpunished," added Oren, who also advised former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the 1994 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.

Evidence of a Friedman-Kushner split was on display within days after Trump's plan was unveiled at the White House in January.

The ambassador told reporters that night that Israel "does not have to wait at all" before annexing West Bank territory, comments publicly walked back by Kushner days later.

© 2020 AFP

Yemen's starving children, grim legacy of six years of war

THIS IS OUR WAR TOO WE SELL ARMS TO THE SAUDI'S TO USE IN YEMEN

Issued on: 07/07/2020 - 

A medic holds a Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition, at a treatment centre in Yemen's northern Hajjah province ESSA AHMED AFP

Sanaa (AFP)

Masirah Saqer could barely open her eyes, as she struggled to swallow the milk her grandmother attempted to feed her with a syringe.

Nearby the cries of other malnourished children reverberated around the pink-walled hospital ward, a vivid reminder of the human cost of Yemen's devastating conflict, which drags into a seventh year on Tuesday.

Masirah, just short of three months old, was undergoing treatment at Al-Sabyine hospital's infant malnutrition department in the capital Sanaa.

Swaddled in a pink and white comforter, her tiny frame and slender limbs were dwarfed by the full-sized bed on which her grandmother sat as she tried to feed her.

The war in Yemen, the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, has mutated into what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

After years of protests and political crises that escalated into violent clashes, the conflict took a decisive turn on July 8, 2014.

Huthi rebels from the north pulled off a decisive victory in the battle for the city of Amran north of Sanaa, comprehensively defeating government troops.

The major battlefield win opened the way for the rebels to march on the capital and take it with ease -- but not without a dire human cost, with millions eventually pushed to the brink of starvation.

- Brink of famine -

Masirah was one of the many thousands of infants affected by the conflict.

Weighing just 2.4 kilograms (5.3 pounds), she suffered from acute malnutrition, her grandmother told AFP.

"We needed a medical checkup, milk, and food. If the medicines are available in the hospital, they give them to us, if not we have to buy them outside," she said.

Millions of children in Yemen now face starvation due to a lack of aid for the country, UNICEF said in June.

The long conflict has devastated the health system and displaced 3.3 million people who live in camps where cholera and other diseases are rife.

The humanitarian situation has worsened since Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015, leading a coalition in support of government forces against the rebels, who are in turn backed by Riyadh's arch-rival Iran.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, including hundreds of children, in air strikes and raids.

- Serious shortages -

Yemen, a country with scarce clean water supplies, is now facing another threat -- the spread of the novel coronavirus. Officially, the respiratory disease has killed 330 people in the country.

Doctors at Al-Sabyine's malnutrition department, a facility with capacity for 25 patients, have warned that COVID-19 coupled with fuel shortages have worsened the situation and acted as a barrier to treatment.

Many parents fear their children are at risk of the deadly respiratory disease if they are hospitalised, said doctor Hazaa Abdallah al-Farah.

"Some people ... won't send their children to hospital any more" due to fears about the virus, he said.

But the true scale of the impact of coronavirus in the Huthi-controlled north of Yemen remains a mystery. The internationally recognised government accuses the rebels of a cover-up.

NGOs and the UN are braced for a catastrophe. UNICEF, the latter's children's agency, has called for $461 million to fund humanitarian work in Yemen and an additional $53 million to fight COVID-19.

Despite the urgent need, only 39 percent of the first sum and just 10 percent of the second have so far been amassed, UNICEF says.

The agency has also sounded the alarm over the reduction to its services on the ground.

In June, the UN raised just $1.35 billion of the $2.41 billion it was aiming to secure for Yemen during a virtual donor conference.

"They die in their homes unable to get to the health centre or hospital or a clinic because of their bad financial situation," said Amin al-Aizari, another doctor at Al-Sabyine.

"They need food," he said. "The children of Yemen die every hour and every minute."

© 2020 AFP

Tie for warmest June globally, Siberia sizzles: EU


Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Siberia and the Arctic Circle are prone to large year-on-year temperature fluctuations, but the persistence of this year's warm spell is very unusual 

MAXIM MARMUR AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Temperatures soared 10 degrees Celsius above average in June across much of permafrost-laden Siberia, with last month in a dead heat for the warmest June on record globally, the European Union's climate monitoring network said Tuesday.

An Arctic hourly temperature record for the month -- 37 degrees Celsius -- was set on June 21 near Verkhoyansk in northeastern Russia, where a weather station logged a blistering 38C on the same day, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported.

The hourly record -- averaged across 60 minutes -- was one to two degrees above previously registered Arctic highs in 1969 and 1973.


Freakishly warm weather across large swathes of Siberia since January, combined with low soil moisture, have contributed to a resurgence of wildfires that devastated the region last summer, C3S reported.

Both the number and intensity of fires in Siberia and parts of Alaska have increased since mid-June, resulting in the highest carbon emissions for the month -- 59 million tonnes of CO2 -- since records began in 2003.

"Last year was already by far an unusual, and record, summer for fires in the Arctic Circle," said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), warning of "intense activity" in the coming weeks.

Copernicus has said that "zombie" blazes that smouldered through the winter may have reignited.

Globally, June 2020 was more than half a degree Celsius warmer than the 1981-2010 average for the same month, and on a par with June 2019 as the warmest ever registered.

Siberia and the Arctic Circle are prone to large year-on-year temperature fluctuations, but the persistence of this year's warm spell is very unusual, said C3S director Carlo Buontempo.

- Permafrost 'carbon bomb' -

"What is worrisome is that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world," he said in a statement.

Across the Arctic region, average temperatures have risen by more than two degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century, twice the global average.

Despite lower-than-average temperatures in its western reaches, the whole of Siberia -- larger than the United States and Mexico combined -- was more than 5C above normal for June, according to C3S satellite data.

The softening of once solid permafrost -- stretching across Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada -- has upended indigenous communities and threatens industrial infrastructure, especially in Russia.

A massive diesel spill into rivers near the city of Norilsk, Russia resulted when a tank at a power plant built on melting permafrost collapsed in late May.

"Widespread permafrost thaw is projected for this century," the UN's climate science panel, the IPCC, said in a landmark report last year on the world's cryosphere, or frozen zones.

"The majority of Arctic infrastructure is located in regions where permafrost thaw is projected to intensify by mid-century."

Soils in the permafrost region across Russia, Alaska and Canada hold twice as much carbon -- mostly in the form of methane and CO2 -- as the atmosphere, more than 1.4 trillion tonnes.

One tonne of carbon is equivalent to 3.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

© 2020 AFP

'We're next': Hong Kong security law sends chills through Taiwan


Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

A woman in Taipei walks past a billboard promoting democracy for Hong Kong Sam Yeh AFP

Taipei (AFP)

The imposition of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong has sent chills through Taiwan, deepening fears that Beijing will focus next on seizing the democratic self-ruled island.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after nationalist forces lost a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists, fleeing to the island which Beijing has since vowed to seize one day, by force if necessary.

"The law makes me dislike China even more," 18-year-old student Sylvia Chang told AFP, walking through National Taiwan University in Taipei.


"They had promised 50 years unchanged for Hong Kong but they are getting all the more heavy-handed... I am worried Hong Kong today could be Taiwan tomorrow."

Over the years China has used a mixture of threats and inducements, including a promise Taiwan could have the "One Country, Two Systems" model that governs Hong Kong, supposedly guaranteeing key civil liberties and a degree of autonomy for 50 years after the city's 1997 handover.

Both Taiwan's two largest political parties long ago rejected the offer, and the new security law has incinerated what little remaining faith many Taiwanese may have had in Beijing's outreach.

Some now fear even transiting through Hong Kong, worried that their social media profiles could see them open to prosecution under the legislation.

The law "makes China look so bad, distancing themselves even further from Hong Kongers, not to mention people across the strait in Taiwan", Alexander Huang, a political analyst at Tamkang University in Taipei, told AFP.

- 'Hong Kong today, Taiwan tomorrow' -

Beijing has taken an especially hard line towards Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), ramping up military, economic and diplomatic pressure.

Tsai views Taiwan as a de facto independent nation and not part of "one China".

But the pressure campaign has done little to endear Taiwan's 23 million people.

In January, Tsai won a second term with a historic landslide and polls consistently show a growing distrust of China.

A record 67 percent now self-identify as "Taiwanese" instead of either Taiwanese-Chinese or Chinese -- a ten percent increase on the year before -- according to a routine poll conducted by the National Chengchi University.

In 1992, that figure was just 18 percent.

In recent decades Taiwan has morphed from a brutal autocracy into one of Asia's most progressive democracies.

Younger Taiwanese tend to be especially wary of its huge authoritarian neighbour.

Social media is filled with messages of support for Hong Kong's democracy movement. Some back Taiwanese independence, or highlight China's rights abuses in regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang.

Wendy Peng, a 26-year-old magazine editor who said she often shared pro-Hong Kong democracy messages on social media, said she would now avoid visiting the city.

"The national security law makes me wonder how far would China go. Right now I don't see a bottom line and there's probably none. I think it's possible they will target Taiwan next," she said.

- Universal jurisdiction -

Peng's fears are not unfounded.

As well as allowing China's security apparatus to set up shop openly in Hong Kong for the first time, Beijing's security law claims universal jurisdiction.

Article 38 says security crimes can be committed anywhere in the world by people of any nationality.

Hong Kong police have made clear that support for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet or Xinjiang independence is now illegal.

University employee Patrick Wu, 31, said he would now avoid even transiting through Hong Kong.

"It's like a blanket law, whatever China wants to define and interpret," he told AFP. "I don't know if the 'Likes' or messages I have left on social media will be prosecutable."

Last week Chen Ming-tong, the minister for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, accused Beijing of aiming to become a supremely powerful "heavenly empire" by ordering "subjects all over the world" to obey its law.

Lin Fei-fan, deputy secretary-general of the ruling DPP, warned that "regular Taiwanese people" might now face arrest in "manufactured cases" if they went to Hong Kong.

He cited China's jailing of Taiwanese NGO worker Lee Ming-che under the mainland's own subversion laws.

Lee was arrested in 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months before his eventual fate was made public.

Sung Chen-en, a political commentator and columnist in Taipei, said Beijing's new security law "creates a great uncertainty about what can be said" far beyond Hong Kong's borders.

"If everyone is watching his own expression of opinions, it creates a chilling effect on democracy," he told AFP.

"If everybody is exercising constraint, there is no freedom at all."

© 2020 AFP

Hong Kong police granted sweeping security surveillance powers

Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Hong Kong police will be able to conduct a search without a warrant if they deem a threat to national security is 'urgent'

 ISAAC LAWRENCE AFP

Hong Kong (AFP)

Hong Kong's police have been granted vastly expanded powers to conduct warrantless raids and surveillance -- as well as issue internet takedown notices -- under Beijing's new national security law.

The announcement comes as major tech companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter said they were suspending requests from the Hong Kong government and law enforcement authorities for information on users.

The new provisions, disclosed late Monday in a 116-page document, remove much of the judicial oversight that previously governed police surveillance powers.


Officers will be able to conduct a search without a warrant if they deem a threat to national security is "urgent".

The city's police chief has also been granted powers to control and remove online information if there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect the data breaches the national security law.

Police can order internet firms and service providers to remove the information and seize their equipment, with fines and up to one year in jail if they refuse to comply.

The companies are also expected to provide identification records and decryption assistance.

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam has been given broad oversight over covert surveillance powers for national security cases, including communication interception, according to the document.

The police chief can ask international political organisations -- including those in Taiwan -- to supply information on their activities in Hong Kong including personal data, sources of income and expenditure.

The powers are controversial because Beijing's new national security law has effectively outlawed certain political views in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, such as support for independence or greater autonomy.

Legal experts said the new surveillance powers were broad and lacked proper oversight.

"The new rules are scary, as they grant powers to the police force that are normally guarded by the judiciary," barrister Anson Wong Yu-yat told the South China Morning Post.

"For example, in emergency and special circumstances police do not need a warrant under one rule, but it never explains what it means by special circumstances. They can also ask anyone to delete messages online only because it's 'likely' to be violating the law."

The national security law is the most radical shift in how Hong Kong is run since it was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

The content was kept secret until the moment it was imposed on Hong Kong one week ago, bypassing the city's legislature.

It targets crimes under four categories: subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, and gives China jurisdiction in some especially serious cases.

Legal analysts, critics and many western nations warn the broadly-worded categories criminalise many peaceful dissenting opinions.

Beijing says the law will restore stability after a year of pro-democracy protests.

Hong Kong police granted sweeping security surveillance powers under Beijing's new law

Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Police officers escort a prison van which is carrying Tong Ying-kit, the first person charged under the new national security law, as he leaves West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts, in Hong Kong, China July 6, 2020. © REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Hong Kong's police have been granted vastly expanded powers to conduct warrantless raids and surveillance -- as well as issue internet takedown notices -- under Beijing's new national security law.

The announcement comes as major tech companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter said they were suspending requests from the Hong Kong government and law enforcement authorities for information on users.

TikTok said late Monday it is stopping its popular video snippet-sharing app from working in Hong Kong due to "recent events."

TikTok has consistently denied sharing any user data with authorities in China, and was adamant it did not intend to begin to agree to such requests.

The new provisions, disclosed late Monday in a 116-page document, remove much of the judicial oversight that previously governed police surveillance powers.


Officers will be able to conduct a search without a warrant if they deem a threat to national security is "urgent".

The city's police chief has also been granted powers to control and remove online information if there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect the data breaches the national security law.

Police can order internet firms and service providers to remove the information and seize their equipment, with fines and up to one year in jail if they refuse to comply.

The companies are also expected to provide identification records and decryption assistance.


🇭🇰🔊🇨🇳Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the highly controversial new security las is not all doom and gloom for the city. The newly revealled detail includes sweeping new powers for the police our correspondent @ofarry told me. #HongKong #F24 pic.twitter.com/KRvNXRTlIn— Stuart Norval (@StuartNorval) July 7, 2020

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam has been given broad oversight over covert surveillance powers for national security cases, including communication interception, according to the document.

The police chief can ask international political organisations -- including those in Taiwan -- to supply information on their activities in Hong Kong including personal data, sources of income and expenditure.

The powers are controversial because Beijing's new national security law has effectively outlawed certain political views in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, such as support for independence or greater autonomy.

Legal experts said the new surveillance powers were broad and lacked proper oversight.

"The new rules are scary, as they grant powers to the police force that are normally guarded by the judiciary," barrister Anson Wong Yu-yat told the South China Morning Post.

"For example, in emergency and special circumstances police do not need a warrant under one rule, but it never explains what it means by special circumstances. They can also ask anyone to delete messages online only because it's 'likely' to be violating the law."

The national security law is the most radical shift in how Hong Kong is run since it was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

The content was kept secret until the moment it was imposed on Hong Kong one week ago, bypassing the city's legislature.

It targets crimes under four categories: subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, and gives China jurisdiction in some especially serious cases.

Legal analysts, critics and many western nations warn the broadly-worded categories criminalise many peaceful dissenting opinions.

Beijing says the law will restore stability after a year of pro-democracy protests.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Hong Kong leader says will 'vigorously implement' security law


Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam denied allegations the security law would stifle freedoms 

ROFLMAO

Anthony WALLACE AFP

Hong Kong (AFP)

Hong Kong's leader Tuesday defended Beijing's new security law for the financial hub, saying it would restore stability and confidence as she vowed to "vigorously implement" the controversial legislation.

Speaking at a press conference a week after China imposed the law on the semi-autonomous city, Chief Executive Carrie Lam combined warnings with assurances to Hong Kong's 7.5 million residents.

"The Hong Kong government will vigorously implement this law," she said. "And I forewarn those radicals not to attempt to violate this law, or cross the red line, because the consequences of breaching this law are very serious."


She denied allegations the law would stifle freedoms and hit out at what she said were "fallacies" written about its impact.

"Surely this is not doom and gloom for Hong Kong," Lam said.

"I'm sure with the passage of time... confidence will grow in 'One Country, Two Systems' and in Hong Kong's future," she added, naming the model that allows Hong Kong to keep certain liberties and autonomy from the mainland.

The national security law is the most radical shift in how Hong Kong is run since the city was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

The content was kept secret from Hong Kongers until the moment it was imposed one week ago, bypassing the city's legislature.

It targets crimes under four categories: subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, and gives China jurisdiction in some especially serious cases.

Legal analysts, critics and many western nations warn the broadly-worded categories criminalise many peaceful dissenting opinions.

The Hong Kong government has made clear that advocating independence or greater autonomy for the city is now illegal, and at least ten arrests have already been made under the new law.

Hong Kongers have scrubbed social media accounts, businesses have taken down protest displays while libraries and schools have removed certain books from their shelves.

Lam rejected suggestions the law had alarmed residents and said the legislation was designed to protect the freedoms of the majority.

"I have not seen widespread fears amongst Hong Kong people in the last week," she said.

"This national security law is actually relatively mild."

Her press conference came hours after the government unveiled vastly expanded powers to conduct warrantless raids and surveillance -- as well as issue internet takedown notices -- under the law.

These rules were announced in a document released after the inaugural meeting on Monday of a new national security commission, which is headed by Beijing's top envoy to the city.

On Tuesday Lam said all future workings of the committee would be kept secret.© 2020 AFP

China censors Hong Kong internet, US tech giants resist
Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

Certain political views, slogans and signs became illegal in Hong Kong overnight with the passage of China's new national security law for the city

ISAAC LAWRENCE AFP

Hong Kong (AFP)

China has unveiled new powers to censor Hong Kong's internet and access user data using its feared national security law -- but US tech giants have put up some resistance citing rights concerns.

The online censorship plans were contained in a 116-page government document released on Monday night that also revealed expanded powers for police, allowing warrantless raids and surveillance for some national security investigations.

China imposed the law on semi-autonomous Hong Kong a week ago, targeting subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces -- its wording kept secret until the moment it was enacted.


Despite assurances that only a small number of people would be targeted by the law, the new details show it is the most radical change in Hong Kong's freedoms and rights since Britain handed the city back to China in 1997.

Late Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke out against "Orwellian" moves to censor activists, schools and libraries since the law was enacted.

"Until now, Hong Kong flourished because it allowed free thinking and free speech, under an independent rule of law. No more," Pompeo said.



- Restore stability -

Under its handover deal with the British, Beijing promised to guarantee until at least 2047 certain liberties and autonomy not seen on the authoritarian mainland.

Years of rising concerns that China's ruling Communist Party was steadily eroding those freedoms birthed a popular pro-democracy movement, which led to massive and often violent protests for seven months last year.

China has made no secret of its desire to use the law to crush that democracy movement.

"The Hong Kong government will vigorously implement this law," Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the city's Beijing-appointed leader, told reporters on Tuesday.

"And I forewarn those radicals not to attempt to violate this law, or cross the red line, because the consequences of breaching this law are very serious."

With pro-democracy books quickly pulled out of libraries and schools, the government signalled in the document released on Monday night that it would also expect obedience online.

Police were granted powers to control and remove online information if there were "reasonable grounds" to suspect the data breaches the national security law.

Internet firms and service providers can be ordered to remove the information and their equipment can be seized. Executives can also be hit with fines and up to one year in jail if they refuse to comply.

The companies are also expected to provide identification records and decryption assistance.

- Big tech unease -

However the biggest American tech companies offered some resistance.

Facebook, Google and Twitter said Monday they had put a hold on requests by Hong Kong's government or police force for information on users.

Facebook and its popular messaging service WhatsApp would deny requests until it had conducted a review of the law that entailed "formal human rights due diligence and consultations with human rights experts," the company said in a statement.

"We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety or other repercussions," a Facebook spokesman said.

Twitter and Google told AFP that they too would not comply with information requests by Hong Kong authorities in the immediate future.

Twitter told AFP it had "grave concerns regarding both the developing process and the full intention of this law".

Tik Tok, which is owned by Chinese company Byte Dance, announced it was pulling out of Hong Kong altogether.

"In light of recent events, we've decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong," TikTok told AFP.

Tik Tok has become wildly popular amongst youngsters around the world. However many Hong Kongers have distrusted it because of its Chinese ownership.

ByteDance has consistently denied sharing any user data with authorities in China, and was adamant it did not intend to begin to agree to such requests.

In less than a week since the law was enacted, democracy activists and many ordinary people have scrubbed their online profiles of anything that China may deem incriminating.

Police officers will be able to conduct a search without a warrant if they deem a threat to national security is "urgent".

"The new rules are scary, as they grant powers to the police force that are normally guarded by the judiciary," barrister Anson Wong Yu-yat told the South China Morning Post.

© 2020 AF

SHOOTING THE MESSENGER 

Malaysia probes Al Jazeera documentary about migrant arrests
Al Jazeera's documentary about migrant workers angered Malaysian authorities

Issued on: 07/07/2020 -

 AL-JAZEERA/AFP/File

Kuala Lumpur (AFP)

Malaysian police said Tuesday they are investigating an Al Jazeera documentary about the arrests of undocumented migrants during the coronavirus lockdown after officials denounced it for damaging the country's image.

The move comes after several activists, journalists and opposition figures have been put under investigation recently in what critics say is a bid to silence dissent.

The documentary by the Qatar-based broadcaster, "Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown", focused on the detention of hundreds of migrants found without valid documents in areas under strict lockdowns.


Authorities defended the May arrests as necessary to protect public health, but rights groups warned that putting the foreigners in detention centres could increase the risk of infection.

National police chief Abdul Hamid Bador said an investigation had been launched after complaints were lodged about the 25-minute documentary.

Officials would examine whether the report "contains elements of sedition, or any other offences, under the laws of the country", he told a press conference.

"We will be calling them soon for questioning... We will decide on the charges after we question them."

Al Jazeera, which broadcast the documentary last week, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The programme sparked a backlash online, and ministers have lined up to criticise it -- with Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Monday demanding an apology from Al Jazeera.

He said the broadcaster had "reported incorrect things, accusing us of being racist".

Concerns about worsening freedom of expression have been growing in Malaysia since the collapse of a reformist government in February and the return of a scandal-plagued party to power.

One of the country's leading independent news portals, Malaysiakini, faces contempt of court proceedings next week over reader comments on its site that were critical of the judiciary.

Malaysia is home to large numbers of migrants from poorer countries -- including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar -- who work in industries ranging from manufacturing to agriculture.

© 2020 AFP