Day: January 4, 2023

In the latest installment of the Twitter Files released Tuesday, it was claimed that a US government agency demanded the suspension of hundreds of thousands of accounts from the social media platform.

“US govt agency demanded suspension of 250K accounts, including journalists and Canadian officials!” said Twitter CEO Elon Musk, retweeting a revelation by journalist Matt Taibbi.

“The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account,” said Taibbi in one tweet, referring to the Global Engagement Center, which he described as “a fledgling analytic/intelligence arm of the State Department.”

In another tweet, the office of Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, who represents California, made requests for Twitter to suspend certain accounts.

Taibbi also that Twitter “received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned.”

In November 2020, Schiff’s office requested that action be taken over “alleged harassment from QAnon conspiracists” against Schiff’s staff, including aide Sean Misko.

“Remove any and all content about Mr. Misko and other Committee staff from its service – to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content,” read one screenshot.

“Suspend the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry, which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies,” the request read.

The first series of the Twitter Files came out in early December, when Taibbi posted multiple tweets with a focus on discussions among the company’s staff on censoring a story about a laptop belonging to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

The eleventh series on Tuesday also revealed that Twitter was also trying to reduce the number of agencies with access to Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.

“If these folks are like House Homeland Committee and DHS, once we give them a direct contact with Yoel, they will want to come back to him again and again,” said policy director Carlos Monje, according to another tweet.

There was also an episode which Taibbi said led to a rare public disagreement between Twitter and state officials.

“When the FBI informed Twitter the GEC wanted to be included in the regular ‘industry call’ between companies like Twitter and Facebook and the DHS and FBI, Twitter leaders balked at first,” said one tweet.

“Facebook, Google, and Twitter executives were united in opposition to GEC’s inclusion, with ostensible reasons including, ‘The GEC’s mandate for offensive IO to promote American interests,” said another one.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Two years of carefully protecting his diabetic wife from the dangers of the pandemic have left a British man feeling alone and deeply shaken by her death after waiting 16 hours for an ambulance, he told Anadolu Agency.

“I spent two years trying to protect her from COVID, followed it down to the last detail. I always took hand sanitizer with me. I kept checking on my wife just to keep her safe, but it was the ambulance service that killed her,” Matthew Simpson said as he recounted the events on the day that he lost his 54-year-old wife, Teresa, who died at Hull Royal Infirmary in November after a heart attack and lack of oxygen to the brain.

Simpson called the emergency hotline 999 at 3.00 p.m. but was told the ambulance call center would contact him later due to congestion.

The ambulance would only arrive at 7.45 a.m. the next day after he placed a second call to say his wife appeared “lifeless.”

“I had to wait 16 hours and 45 minutes and they came because I had to call them and tell them that she was dead,” said Simpson, asserting that had emergency services arrived sooner, his wife could have survived.

“I lost my wife,” he said, adding that he was trying to keep his wife conscious by talking and taking care of her and giving her drugs until the ambulance arrived. “I am very annoyed. My wife should never have lost her life like this.”

“The sad part is this September is our 25th wedding anniversary. I was planning something special. Now, instead of planning something special for our anniversary, I’m planning my wife’s funeral,” he added.

A large-scale investigation expected to last 12 months has been launched into Simpson’s death following a normal investigation carried out after the incident.

On why he did not take his wife in a taxi when it became apparent that the ambulance was not coming, Matthew underlined that his wife was 90% disabled. “I had to call my wife special taxis designed for disabled people, which are very difficult to find in the evenings. You have to book in advance.

“On the other hand, I didn’t even know what happened to my wife. I’m not a medical doctor. I just helped her. I was there, I was with her, I was keeping her safe. I couldn’t do things that would put her at risk, like taking her out in the cold.”

– Crisis in NHS

Simpson didn’t blame the ambulance drivers or the doctors, but rather “the person at the top of Yorkshire Ambulance who made these decisions about what emergency is classified as an emergency. They were the ones who killed my wife.”

“I think the crisis in the NHS (National Health Service) is very serious at the moment and I’m really angry with the ambulance service because it doesn’t just happen to me.

“You hear stories of ambulances with waiting times of four, six, 12, 18, 20 hours every day,” he said, adding that even when the ambulance arrives, it was not guaranteed that the patient would receive medical care immediately.

“You can wait outside for 10 hours. I’ve heard stories of people waiting in ambulances. Such a thing should not happen in modern times.”

The story of Teresa Simpson first covered by Sky News reporter Greg Milam, after a senior British health official announced that approximately 500 people lost their lives due to delays in the emergency service.

The NHS is currently in the midst of the biggest walkout in its history as nurses in December went on strike over a pay dispute with the government.

According to a study conducted by the London School of Economics, nurses’ real earnings have lagged behind employees in other professions in the UK, especially those in the private sector.

“In the private sector, real median earnings fell by 3.2% between 2011 and 2021, while nurses’ median earnings diminished by 6%,” it said.

As nurses’ salaries declined substantially in real terms from 2010-11 to 2021-22, the annual rate of departure for nurses increased from 8.5% to 10.9%, the research showed. The total number of leavers rose from 27,000 to over 38,000 over the period, marking a 42% rise.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia said on Wednesday that mass production of new electronic warfare and anti-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems will start in the next couple of months.

“Within 1-2 months it is planned to complete state tests and switch to mass production of a fundamentally new generation of aviation and ground electronic warfare and combat UAVs.” Russian state-owned defense enterprise Rostec said on Telegram.

The statement also said that Rostec is increasing the pace and volume of production of weapons, special and military equipment.

“We are talking about attack and transport helicopters, new and modernized combat fighters, front-line bombers, strategic missile carriers, transport and combat training aircraft,” the statement noted.

It further said that Rostec and its enterprises transfer batches to the Russian military of small arms and ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles for various purposes, man-portable anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-tank systems.

“Rostec also produces ground, air and sea-based electronic warfare equipment, state identification equipment, special-purpose measuring equipment, and much more,” the statement added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Chinese military will hold a six-day shooting drill in the South China Sea.

The military exercises will be conducted in designated waters to the west of the Leizhou Peninsula in the South China Sea for six days beginning Thursday, People’s Daily reported on Wednesday.

Entry into the area has been prohibited, according to Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration.

Meanwhile, it is expected that China’s T-shaped space station will enter normal operation mode this year. China also hinted at launching around 50 missions this year.

Beijing is also working to complete the maiden flight of the home-built Long March-6C carrier rocket.

Source: Anadolu Agency

In a Wednesday phone call, the top Turkish and Qatari diplomats both repeated their denunciation of yesterday’s provocation at Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israel’s new national security minister, said an official Turkish statement.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed Tuesday’s “raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque and recent developments in Syria and Afghanistan,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

“During the phone call, the Ministers reiterated their condemnation regarding the provocative act of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security of Israel, at Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday,” said the ministry.

Adding that the two officials also exchanged views on developments in Syria, it said Cavusoglu and Al Thani expressed “their mutual concern about the Afghan (Taliban) Caretaker Government’s recent ban on women’s access to education and their exclusion from certain areas of work in Afghanistan.”

Cavusoglu also “congratulated his counterpart for the successful organization of 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.” Turkish forces also helped provide security during the event, the first-ever World Cup hosted by a Muslim and Arab nation.

On Tuesday, despite warnings that doing so would stir unrest, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Gas and electricity consumption in France was significantly lower in the last week of 2022 compared previous years, local media reported on Wednesday.

According to electricity operator RTE’s figures, nationwide power consumption last week was 8.5% lesser than the average for the 2014-2019 period, daily Le Figaro reported.

RTE attributed unseasonably warm temperatures as a major factor for the decline.

Gas use plummeted even further with an 11.2% decrease between Aug. 1, 2022 and Jan. 1, 2023, comparted to the same period in 2018-2019, according to national provider GRTgaz.

Source: Anadolu Agency

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered the suspension of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement with North Korea if it again violates the country’s borders, local media reported.

Yoon issued the orders during a high-level meeting where the Defense Ministry and senior military officials briefed him on the North Korean drone incursion into South Korean territory last week, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the National Security Office to consider suspending the Sept. 19 military agreement in the event North Korea carries out another provocation violating our territory,” the agency quoted senior presidential secretary for press affairs, Kim Eun-hye, as saying.

He was referring to a 2018 agreement between the two countries, which created buffer zones along land and sea boundaries and no-fly zones above the border.

The president also instructed the Defense Ministry to establish a joint drone unit for surveillance and build a system enabling the mass production of small, hard-to-detect drones within a year and push to develop stealth drones before the end of the year, Kim said.

Last week, drones from North Korea crossed the border into the South prompting Seoul to scramble jets and fire warning shots in response.

Two major airports were shut down by South Korea as the drones crossed the Military Demarcation Line, which separates the two Koreas, and were spotted flying in areas in Gimpo, Ganghwa Island, and Paju.

Seoul acknowledged “limits in detecting and striking small surveillance drones” as the South Korean military publicly apologized over the major security issue.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia said early on Wednesday that the main reason for the missile strikes by US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers on a deployment area near the city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region was the mass use of mobile phones by military personnel despite a ban.

“Currently, a commission is working to investigate the circumstances of the incident. But it is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the inclusion and massive use of mobile phones by personnel in the reach of enemy weapons, contrary to its ban,” a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry on Telegram read.

The statement said that this allowed Ukrainian forces to determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for launching the missile strike.

“Currently, the necessary measures are being taken to prevent similar tragic incidents in the future. As a result of the investigation, the guilty officials will be brought to justice,” the statement added.

It also said the registered death toll from the missile strike rose to 89 following an analysis of the explosion site.

“During the analysis of the rubble of reinforced concrete structures, the number of our comrades who died increased to 89,” the statement said.

Reminding that four missiles hit a building where Russian military personnel were stationed, the statement noted that the multiple rocket launcher system that fired on the deployment area was destroyed by a return fire.

“Also, as a result of missile and air strikes on the accumulation of military equipment in the area of the Druzhkivka railway station, … four more HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, four RM-70 multiple rocket launchers, more than 800 rockets, and eight vehicles were destroyed,” the statement said, also claiming that over 200 Ukrainian servicemen were killed.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that two US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers were destroyed by Russian strikes near the city of Kramatorsk, while two other HIMARS were destroyed in Druzhkivka, both in the Donetsk region.

On Monday, the ministry initially said in a statement that 63 Russian soldiers were killed by the missile strikes near Makiivka.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army’s strategic communications department claimed late on Sunday that nearly 400 Russian soldiers were killed in strikes in Makiivka.

The statement also noted that an additional 300 Russian soldiers were wounded at varying levels of severity.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Pakistan has imposed several restrictions to cut down business timings under the National Energy Conservation Plan as the nation of 220 million people faces depleting foreign reserves and an energy crisis.

Announcing the plan on Tuesday following a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the government is introducing certain measures to ensure the proper utilization of national resources.

“All restaurants, hotels, and markets will be closed down across the country by 8:30 p.m. while marriage halls by 10 p.m.,” Asif said.

These measures would save around rupee 62 billion ($274 million) annually, he added.

The Cabinet also banned the production of inefficient electric fans and imposed additional duties aimed to discourage the use of these fans.

The latest energy-efficient fans will help consumers reduce their monthly bills as they consume 40 to 60 watts of electricity as compared to 120 to 130 watts of electricity consumed by old fans, he explained.

The minister said the government has also decided to introduce e-bikes in the country which would help save around $3 billion in terms of fuel consumption annually.

“The motorcycles that run on petrol will slowly be phased out. We have already been importing e-bikes and had started negotiations with motorcycle companies for the modification of existing ones. This will help save us around Rs 86 billion ($380 million),” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Asif as saying.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sharif also directed the ministries and departments of the federal government to ensure a 30% decline in energy use in the offices.

Meanwhile, the business community rejected the government’s decision to close businesses at 8:30 p.m., saying such decisions failed in the past.

“In the past, similar decisions did not achieve the desired results,” the daily Express Tribune quoted Atiq Mir, chairman of All Karachi Traders Union, as saying.

“This decision will also not help much in saving energy,” he said, adding the ruling elite class should give sacrifices instead of putting the burden on the public.

Pakistan is currently grappling with an energy crisis, internal political instability and depleting foreign reserves that caused huge inflation in the country.

Source: Anadolu Agency