After protests, Bangladesh government to formally accept ruling on job quotas
Protests that erupted last week turned violent, resulting in the killing of almost 150 people
Protesters want overturned a high court decision that reinstated quota system for government jobs
Updated 23 July 2024
Reuters
DHAKA: The Bangladesh government is expected to formally accept on Tuesday a court ruling to lower quotas for state jobs, media reported, meeting a key demand of the students who had been protesting for days.
Calm prevailed in Dhaka and most major cities in Bangladesh for a second day amid a curfew and an Internet and telecoms shutdown that the government imposed after the protests that erupted last week turned into one of the worst outbreaks of violence in recent years, killing almost 150 people.
The protesters wanted the government to overturn a high court decision last month that reinstated a quota system putting aside nearly 60 percent of government jobs for certain people, including families of those who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had scrapped the quotas in 2018.
On Sunday, the Supreme Court agreed to scrap most of the quotas and Hasina approved the verdict late on Monday.
The government’s acceptance of the court ruling is expected to be published in its formal record on Tuesday, media reports said, in line with one of the demands of the protesters.
Hasina on Monday blamed her political opponents for violence and said the curfew, imposed since Friday, would be lifted “whenever the situation gets better.”
The protesters have given the government 48 hours to meet 8 demands, which include a public apology from Hasina and the reopening of the university campuses that were shut when the violence began.
Malaysia on Tuesday joined the list of countries trying to evacuate its citizens from Bangladesh because of the violence, with the foreign ministry saying the flight was expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday afternoon.
India also said at least 4,500 Indian students had returned home over the last few days from Bangladesh.
Daesh supporters turn to AI to bolster online support
A January study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point said AI could be used to generate and distribute propaganda, to recruit using AI-powered chatbots, to carry out attacks using drones or other autonomous vehicles, and to launch cyber-attacks
Updated 12 sec ago
Reuters
BEIRUT: Days after a deadly Daesh attack on a Russian concert hall in March, a man clad in military fatigues and a helmet appeared in an online video, celebrating the assault in which more than 140 people were killed.
“The Daesh delivered a strong blow to Russia with a bloody attack, the fiercest that hit it in years,” the man said in Arabic, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks and analyzes such online content.
But the man in the video, which the Thomson Reuters Foundation was not able to view independently, was not real — he was created using artificial intelligence, according to SITE and other online researchers.
Federico Borgonovo, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, traced the AI-generated video to an Daesh supporter active in the group’s digital ecosystem.
This person had combined statements, bulletins, and data from Daesh’s official news outlet to create the video using AI, Borgonovo explained.
Although Daesh has been using AI for some time, Borgonovo said the video was an “exception to the rules” because the production quality was high even if the content was not as violent as in other online posts.
“It’s quite good for an AI product. But in terms of violence and the propaganda itself, it’s average,” he said, noting however that the video showed how Daesh supporters and affiliates can ramp up production of sympathetic content online.
Digital experts say groups like Daesh and far-right movements are increasingly using AI online and testing the limits of safety controls on social media platforms.
A January study by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point said AI could be used to generate and distribute propaganda, to recruit using AI-powered chatbots, to carry out attacks using drones or other autonomous vehicles, and to launch cyber-attacks.
“Many assessments of AI risk, and even of generative AI risks specifically, only consider this particular problem in a cursory way,” said Stephane Baele, professor of international relations at UCLouvain in Belgium.
“Major AI firms, who genuinely engaged with the risks of their tools by publishing sometimes lengthy reports mapping them, pay scant attention to extremist and terrorist uses.”
Regulation governing AI is still being crafted around the world and pioneers of the technology have said they will strive to ensure it is safe and secure.
Tech giant Microsoft, for example, has developed a Responsible AI Standard that aims to base AI development on six principles including fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability.
In a special report earlier this year, SITE Intelligence Group’s founder and executive director Rita Katz wrote that a range of actors from members of militant group Al-Qaeda to neo-Nazi networks were capitalizing on the technology.
“It’s hard to understate what a gift AI is for terrorists and extremist communities, for which media is lifeblood,” she wrote.
CHATBOTS AND CARTOONS
At the height of its powers in 2014, Daesh claimed control over large parts of Syria and Iraq, imposing a reign of terror in the areas it controlled.
Media was a prominent tool in the group’s arsenal, and online recruitment has long been vital to its operations.
Despite the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in 2017, its supporters and affiliates still preach their doctrine online and try to persuade people to join their ranks.
Last month, a security source told Reuters that France had identified a dozen Daesh-K handlers, based in countries around Afghanistan, who have a strong online presence and are trying to convince young men in European countries, who are interested in joining up with the group overseas, to instead carry out domestic attacks.
Daesh-K is a resurgent wing of Daesh, named after the historical region of Khorasan that included parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Analysts fear that AI may facilitate and automate the work of such online recruiters.
Daniel Siegel, an investigator at social media research firm Graphika, said he came across chatbots that mimicked dead or incarcerated Daesh militants in earlier research he conducted before joining the firm.
He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that it was unclear if the source of the bots was the Daesh or its supporters, but the risk they posed was still real.
“Now (Daesh affiliates) can build these real relationships with bots that represent a potential future where a chatbot could encourage them to engage in kinetic violence,” Siegel said.
Siegel interacted with some of the bots as part of his research and he found their answers to be generic, but he said that could change as AI tech develops.
“One of the things I am worried about as well is how synthetic media will enable these groups to blend their content that previously existed in silos into our mainstream culture,” he added.
That is already happening: Siegel had tracked videos of popular cartoon characters, like Rick and Morty and Peter Griffin, singing Daesh anthems on different platforms.
“What this allows the group or sympathizers or affiliates to do is target specific audiences because they know that the regular consumers of Sponge Bob or Peter Griffin or Rick and Morty, will be fed that content through the algorithm,” Siegel said.
EXPLOITING PROMPTS
Then there is the danger of Daesh supporters using AI tech to broaden their knowledge of illegal activities.
For its January study, researchers at the Combating Terrorism Center at Westpoint attempted to bypass the security guards of Large Language Models (LLMs) and extract information that could be exploited by malicious actors.
They crafted prompts that requested information on a range of activities from attack planning to recruitment and tactical learning, and the LLMs generated responses that were relevant half of the time.
In one example that they described as “alarming,” researchers asked an LLM to help them convince people to donate to Daesh.
“There, the model yielded very specific guidelines on how to conduct a fundraising campaign and even offered specific narratives and phrases to be used on social media,” the report said.
Joe Burton a professor of international security at Lancaster University, said companies were acting irresponsibly by rapidly releasing AI models as open-source tools.
He questioned the efficacy of LLMs’ safety protocols, adding that he was “not convinced” that regulators were equipped to enforce the testing and verification of these methods.
“The factor to consider here is how much we want to regulate, and whether that will stifle innovation,” Burton said.
“The markets, in my view, shouldn’t override safety and security, and I think — at the moment — that is what is happening.”
Why Afghanistan’s high rates of childhood lead exposure are a cautionary tale for the Middle East
Lead poisoning is a silent epidemic in Afghanistan, damaging the brains and futures of nearly all Afghan children
Contaminated cookware, battery recycling, and conflict remnants are poisoning millions, harming cognitive development
Updated 27 August 2024
Nadia Al-Faour
DUBAI: With one of the world’s highest rates of childhood lead exposure, Afghanistan is in the midst of a major public health crisis, perpetuating a cycle of poverty, illness and lost potential, in what could be a cautionary tale for impoverished and war-devastated countries in the Middle East.
It is estimated that almost all Afghan children have some degree of lead poisoning, which can result in brain damage, irreversible loss of intelligence, behavioral difficulties and learning problems.
A 2020 survey found that one in three children has lead in their blood above the threshold for lead poisoning, meaning they could suffer damage to their cardiovascular system and internal organs, and experience behavioral problems in adulthood.
It is estimated that almost all Afghan children have some degree of lead poisoning, which can result in brain damage, irreversible loss of intelligence, behavioral difficulties and learning problems. (AFP)
The “Toxic Truth” report by the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, and the non-profit environmental health organization Pure Earth estimates that about 800 million children worldwide have blood lead levels exceeding 5 micrograms per deciliter.
“The consequences of lead poisoning for global health, for children’s education and for overall development and economic growth are staggering,” Rachel Bonnifield, a senior fellow at the US-based Center for Global Development, told a recent conference on lead and public health.
While some of those affected live in wealthy countries, it is mainly poor countries such as Afghanistan that have the highest rates of lead poisoning, as their populations are more likely to be exposed to lead from multiple sources.
These sources can include inhaling dust and fumes from lead-acid battery recycling operations, being around open-air smelters, as well as eating food contaminated by cookware containing traces of lead and lead-infused spices such as turmeric.
Afghan children play on the remains of an old destroyed Soviet tank in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on September 29, 2012. (AFP)
Children playing or working in lead-contaminated spaces such as electronic waste dumps also face a high risk of exposure.
Lead poisoning is a serious health issue in the Middle East, with significant impacts in countries such as Iraq, Yemen and Egypt.
In Iraq, decades of conflict have left high levels of lead contamination, especially near industrial sites and in urban areas, leading to widespread health problems among children, including cognitive impairments and developmental delays.
In Yemen, lead poisoning has been exacerbated by the use of contaminated water sources and the lack of proper waste management, resulting in elevated blood lead levels in children.
Similarly, in Egypt, the use of leaded paint and lead-infused pottery has contributed to widespread exposure.
INNUMBERS
815m Children worldwide who have exposure levels considered as lead poisoning.
20% Proportion of learning gap between rich and poor countries attributable to lead poisoning.
5.5m Deaths each year caused by cardio-vascular diseases linked to lead exposure.
(Source: CGD)
Gaza has also seen significant rates of lead poisoning, in part owing to Israel’s 2008 ban on the export of used batteries, which resulted in mountains of discarded units piling up in the overcrowded enclave, where their chemical contents leak and contaminate the soil and water.
According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe level of lead exposure. Even low levels have been shown to damage cognitive development, IQ and attention span in children.
Juvenile delinquent behavior and adult violence have also been associated with lead exposure. Studies have found that pupils with a lower concentration of lead in their blood are less likely to commit crimes or be arrested.
In Afghanistan, however, few are even aware that they and their children are being poisoned, nor are they aware of the health consequences.
An Afghan labourer makes metal pots at an aluminum factory in Herat on January 22, 2019. (AFP)
Afghans who work in electrical waste dumps or metal work factories have little or no protection. Many wrap scarves around their faces as a makeshift guard against the fumes. Few of them wear gloves as they carry scrap to the furnace, raising the likelihood of contamination.
Some of these factories produce pressure cookers and cooking pots called kazans, which Afghans use to cook their daily meals — unaware of the lead contaminants seeping into their food from the cheaply made alloy.
A kazan, usually made out of low-quality recycled aluminum, is a kitchenware staple in Afghanistan. Their popularity has thereby contributed to widespread lead poisoning.
Some factories produce pressure cookers and cooking pots called kazans, which Afghans use to cook their daily meals — unaware of the lead contaminants seeping into their food from the cheaply made alloy. (Shutterstock)
The Taliban government, which returned to power in 2021, appears to lack the financial means and political will to address the problem, as it wrestles with a succession of humanitarian emergencies and security threats amid its continuing isolation by the international community.
“The government is not taking any measures to stop the exposure,” said Ali, a Kabul-based Afghan who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity. “I don’t think the men who work in the dump and metal fields are aware of the dangers of their work.
“The men work to put food on their family’s table. Where do you start to explain that even the cookware is poisoning them?”
Baffled by high levels of lead found in children arriving in America from Afghanistan, US researchers conducted studies on kazans and other aluminum cookware, only to find the products far exceeded the US Food and Drug Administration’s limit for lead content.
As a result, multiple states have put out warnings against the use of Afghan pressure cookers. This year, Washington state banned the manufacture, sale and distribution of lead-contaminated pots altogether.
However, Afghan cookware is not the only source of lead contamination.
Decades of conflict in Afghanistan have left the country littered with the remnants of spent and unexploded munitions and ordnance, and the wreckage of military vehicles, polluting the environment with lead and other harmful elements.
Additionally, the use of kohl — a kind of eyeliner worn to guard against the sun’s glare and as part of traditional dress — is also a culprit of lead poisoning.
Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, an India-based specialist in hepatology and liver transplant medicine, says that lead poisoning is among the most damaging things to a child’s physical development.
Afghan deminers from the Halo Trust prepare to detonate unexploded ordnance (UXO) at a hill in Deh Sabz district of Kabul on May 21, 2024. (AFP)
In a recent thread on the social media platform X, Philips said that even exposure to small amounts of lead can result in children appearing “inattentive, hyperactive and irritable.”
“Afghanistan has a major public health crisis,” Philips said. “Almost all children have lead poisoning there.”
He added: “Children with greater lead levels may also have problems with learning and reading, delayed growth and hearing loss. Studies show that lead exposure leads to reduced IQ in children, and this reduction in IQ carries on into adulthood.
“It also causes attention deficit disorders and has been linked to both Parkinson’s disease and, more recently, Alzheimer’s disease. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with permanent intellectual disability and behavioral disorders.”
An Afghan internally-displaced woman cooks in front of her tent at Shaidayee refugee camp in Injil district of Herat province on February 20, 2022. (AFP)
Although lead poisoning is a complex challenge that will take time to solve, the Center for Global Development says it remains entirely feasible to end childhood lead poisoning by the year 2040.
The center says the international community must invest $350 million to tackle the three known sources of lead exposure — paint, spices and battery recycling. Money should also be allocated to research and to raising public awareness about the dangers of lead contamination.
UNICEF has outlined a six-pronged approach to tackling the scourge of lead poisoning, including monitoring and reporting systems and building capacity for blood testing and identifying lead-contaminated sites.
It also calls for control measures to prevent children and pregnant women from being exposed to lead, including guarantees of adequate nutrition and the elimination or replacement of lead in cookware.
Workers make traditional tin stoves at a tin workshop in Kabul on September 19, 2023. (AFP)
Furthermore, UNICEF calls for the provision of training for health care providers on how to identify and manage lead exposure in children and pregnant women, as well as providing enhanced educational interventions and services alongside cognitive behavioral therapy.
Additionally, governments should launch public awareness campaigns on the dangers and sources of lead poisoning.
Legislation, including the development of health and safety precautions and standards, especially in substances that contain lead such as paint, lead-acid batteries and other e-waste, is also necessary.
This also extends to eliminating lead compounds in gasoline, children’s toys, cosmetics, spices and medicines.
Finally, global and regional action is required to create a global standard unit of measures to track and verify pollution and public health, as well as establishing partnerships and creating international standards for the recycling of lead-infused products.
Trump, Harris agree to mute mics for Sept. 10 US presidential debate, Trump says
Trump said the rules for next month’s debate will be the same as they were for the June CNN debate he had with President Joe Biden
Harris’ campaign had said it wanted the broadcaster to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event
Updated 27 August 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday an agreement has been reached to have closed microphones at the Sept. 10 US presidential debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
The Harris campaign did not immediately return a request for confirmation about the ABC-hosted debate.
The candidates campaigns clashed on Monday over the previously agreed-upon debate, with the vice president’s team seeking a return to open microphones while Trump threatened to pull out entirely after suggesting the network was biased.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said the rules for next month’s debate will be the same as they were for the June CNN debate he had with President Joe Biden, whose poor performance led him to drop out of the 2024 race.
“The Debate will be ‘stand up,’ and Candidates cannot bring notes, or ‘cheat sheets.’ We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a ‘fair and equitable’ Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance,” Trump wrote.
The CNN debate did not have a live audience. Trump’s post did not mention that.
Harris’ campaign had said it wanted the broadcaster to keep the candidates’ microphones on throughout the event, not muted when their opponent was speaking as in the last presidential debate. So-called “hot mics” can help or hurt political candidates, catching offhand comments that sometimes were not meant for the public.
While Trump’s team said it had already agreed to have closed microphones, Trump later told reporters that he preferred to have his microphone kept on.
Trump’s campaign has floated an additional debate on Sept. 4 on Fox News network but the Harris team rejected that.
Greek-flagged oil tanker appears to be leaking oil, Pentagon says
The Sounion was the third vessel operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers to be attacked in the Red Sea this month
Updated 27 August 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The Greek-flagged crude oil tanker Sounion that was recently attacked by Yemen’s Houthis is still on fire in the Red Sea and now appears to be leaking oil, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday.
The Sounion was targeted last week by multiple projectiles off Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah. The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, said they attacked it in the Red Sea, as the Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said that a third party had tried to send two tugs to help salvage the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to attack them. He said the tanker was carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil.
“These are simply reckless acts of terrorism which continue to destabilize global and regional commerce, put the lives of innocent civilian mariners at risk and imperil the vibrant maritime ecosystem in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Houthis’ own backyard,” Ryder added.
The Sounion was the third vessel operated by Athens-based Delta Tankers to be attacked in the Red Sea this month. The attack caused a fire onboard, which the crew extinguished, Delta Tankers said in a statement.
Captain of superyacht that sank off Sicily doesn’t respond to prosecutors’ questions, lawyer says
James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealand national, is under investigation for possible manslaughter and culpable shipwreck charges
Updated 27 August 2024
AP
ROME: The captain of a superyacht that sank during a storm off Sicily last week, killing seven people, decided not to respond to prosecutors’ questions on Tuesday, his lawyer said.
James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealand national, is under investigation for possible manslaughter and culpable shipwreck charges and was questioned for the third time by the Termini Imerese prosecutors on Tuesday.
“He just exercised his right to remain silent, probably prosecutors were expecting that,” lawyer Aldo Mordiglia told The Associated Press, adding that the captain’s legal team has just been named and needs time to work on his defensive strategy.
Cutfield was among 15 survivors of the Aug. 19 sinking that killed British tech magnate Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah and five others.
Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who’s heading the investigation, has said his team would consider each possible element of responsibility including those of the captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.
The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht, went down near the Mediterranean island in southern Italy. Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.
Prosecutors said the event was “extremely rapid” and could have been a “downburst” — a localized, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads out rapidly upon hitting the ground.
The crew was saved, except for the chef, while six passengers were trapped in the hull.
