Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on disease control, CCP, UK, aviation disaster, U.S., Iran
CCP China could attempt to interfere in the Tory leadership election in a similar manner to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum, British security sources fear.
For the first time, Conservative Party members will have the opportunity to change their postal vote online – once only – if they have a rethink and want to back a different candidate in the contest.
News (12)
British spies fear online postal vote is vulnerable to cyber-hacking
However, the security sources have raised the prospect that the reform could leave the process vulnerable to foreign cyber-hacking.
A 2020 report by the Intelligence and Security Committee found ‘substantial evidence’ that Russian interference was commonplace, including in the 2016 referendum on withdrawing from the EU.
News (13)
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has adopted a hard line on Russia and China
While Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has adopted a hard line on Russia and China, Rishi Sunak has taken a more emollient approach, on the grounds that it is in the interests of international trade.
After the former chancellor launched his leadership bid, China’s largest state tabloid praised him for his record on strengthening ties with the country.
The Global Times, a sister publication of the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said that while ‘most of the candidates hold a tough stance on China’, he was the only one with ‘a clear and pragmatic view on developing UK-China ties’.
In her interview with today’s Mail on Sunday, Ms Truss trumpets her record on both countries, saying: ‘We made a huge mistake as the free world in being too close to Russia, allowing Russia into the G8, Europe becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas, and allowing Russian business culture to influence places like London.
"Now we have fixed that with the toughest sanctions regime that any country in the world has on Russia and I urge Europe to get off Russian gas as soon as possible because that is funding Vladimir Putin’s war machine, and I think we need to be very clear that Russia is working with China.
"We shouldn’t be strategically dependent on China – we should be very careful in areas such as technology that we’re not enabling the threat against us."
Ms Truss added, "We need to be working more with like-minded nations to build our resilience and whether that’s in energy, whether it’s in food, what we cannot be is dependent on those authoritarian regimes."
Mr Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, holds a financial interest in two Chinese technology services businesses. She is linked to the companies through Infosys, the IT consultancy group set up by her father the billionaire Indian businessman N.R. Narayana Murthy. The group owns Infosys Technologies (China) Co Limited and Infosys Technologies (Shanghai) Co Limited.
Several other family members, including Murty’s father, have a stake in Infosys, which is worth around £67 billion.
The Chinese subsidiaries of the group generated 12.9 billion rupees (£134 million) in total turnover last year and are believed to employ around 3,300 workers at offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Hangzhou and Jiaxing.
News (14)
News (15)
The plane exploded and caught fire before takeoff, and the captain left passengers "the first to escape"
Editor : Qiu Lilong / https://news.tvbs.com.tw/world/1857105
A low-cost Spanish flight that was preparing to take off from Barcelona on 21 July 2022 suddenly exploded and caught fire before takeoff. The pungent burning smell and smoke filled the cabin. Just as the flight attendant was running back and forth on the aisle to comfort the passengers, the captain was seen rushing quickly. He got out of the cockpit, opened the side door and left the passengers behind without looking back! After seeing the captain leave, the other flight attendants also rushed off the plane, leaving only one flight attendant to evacuate the passengers. Witnesses said angrily, "The captain just left, he was the first to get off the plane."
The British "Sun" reported that before a Vueling Airlines flight was preparing to depart from Spain for Birmingham (Birmingham, UK), the passengers who happily fastened their seat belts and waited for the plane to take off, suddenly heard the tail of the plane "a huge explosion". The pungent stench floated out from the rear, the lights in the cabin immediately went out, and the emergency lights also came on. One of the 50-year-old passengers, Andrew Benion, described that the flight attendant seemed panicked after the plane caught fire but on the one hand, she tried to remain calm and reassure the passengers. Open the side door of the plane with a stride, and leave like this."
Benion said in disbelief, "I've never seen such absurd sight, if it wasn't for everyone's fear at the time, it would have been like a comedy; I can't believe the captain was the first to leave, he made those of us waiting for instructions look like idiots; he's like the captain of the Costa Concordia, who only cares about himself."
Another passenger, Andrew, recalled, "The crew first took us to a reception area, then we were surrounded by police, and the atmosphere felt like a terrorist attack; we waited more than an hour before I boarded the other half of the plane, and waited 50 minutes for the plane to refuel. After takeoff, the plane didn't even have air conditioning or food. This made me think that if the explosion happened after takeoff, it would have catastrophic consequences."
News (16) to (20) / Reporters : Tom Brown etal., Daily Mail / https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11043363/Iran-nuclear-state-uranium-build-one-not-two-bombs-ex-diplomat.html
News (16)
Ex-U.S. envoy: Iran at "breakout point" in developing nuclear weapons, Iran a "nuclear state"
Iran is already a nuclear weapons state with enough uranium to build 'one, if not two' bombs, an ex-US diplomat and nuclear weapons expert has warned.
Former Washington official Robert Joseph told MailOnline, "The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has documented that Iran has 60% of enriched uranium, enough for at least one if not two bombs.
"We have been saying for years 'they're approaching this breakout point and we've really got to negotiate with them.' They're there."
The ex-United States Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security was speaking ahead of the "Free Iran" summit in Albania, which was abruptly cancelled due to a terror threat.
The U.S. Department of State issued a security alert ahead of the summit this weekend, urging officials - including Joseph - not to attend.
Fellow Washington officials including former national security adviser John Bolton, senator Joe Lieberman and former NATO General James Jones were set to attend.
"I am the last person who would suggest the use of force, either there or with North Korea," Joseph said in Tirana. "But rather to support the opposition in overthrowing this regime."
Joseph was the chief negotiator to Libya in 2003 and is credited with convincing Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to give up his nuclear weapons programme.
He has been strongly critical of former president Barack Obama’s regime and in its actions in aiding the overthrow of Gaddafi’s government in 2011, as well as the 2015 nuclear deal, which the administration agreed to prevent Iran from developing weapons of mass destruction.
News (17)
U.S. officials back exiled Iranian opposition group living in exile in Albania
The conference was being hosted by an exiled Iranian opposition group living in exile in the Ashraf 3 camp in Tirana, with some former US officials backing the campaigners as a potential replacement for the Islamic Republic currently running Iran.
News (18)
Americans urged not to attend the summit
"The U.S. government is aware of a potential threat targeting the Free Iran World Summit to be held near Durres, Albania on July 23-24, 2022," said the U.S. Embassy in Albania one day prior to the event, asking US citizens to avoid the summit and "be aware of your surroundings".
The IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said in May that Iran’s ‘breakout time’ — the time theoretically required for the regime to produce a nuclear weapons — had shrunk to two weeks.
However the Institute for Science and International Security said a month later the breakout time had hit zero.
News (19)
Iran is regularly testing ballistic missiles
‘We hear that they are regularly testing ballistic missiles, and they are seeking to get enough uranium that they are able to produce a weapon,’ said MP Matthew Offord, who had been scheduled to attend the event.
‘The issue with the ballistic missiles is that they would be longer range,’ he added. ‘It wouldn’t be in the immediate area, say as far as Israel, it could go a lot further than that.’
The MP said he has been ‘"taking preventative actions" after the death of his friend David Amess last year, a fellow MP murdered by an Islamist extremist.
Iranian agents have previously targeted events hosted by the members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the exiled opposition that relocated to Tirana after thousands of its members were executed during the 2013-2017 War in Iraq.
News (20)
Summit cancelled, the importance of supporting Iranian opposition-in-exile, supporting Iranian regime change
John Baird, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada who was also scheduled to attend, said the terror threat was only the second time in his career when a summit was cancelled because of a credible threat to attendees, the first also involving the NCRI.
Assadollah Assadi, 49, who worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, was given a 20-year jail term by the court in Antwerp in Belgium, the first time an Iranian official had faced such charges in the EU since the 1979 revolution.
However on Thursday the Belgian parliament ratified a treaty to swap the convicted terrorist with a Belgian citizen held hostage in Iran, a move strongly opposed by the Iranian opposition.
‘We need to stand with Iran in this great struggle. The people of Iran have got to know that the world recognises this regime for what it is,’ Baird added. ‘I strongly support regime change, not outside with military force, but the National Council is probably the biggest and most effective opposition to the regime, so we need to support them.’
The IAEA said in May that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% had grown to 95 pounds, an increase of more than 300% compared to the previous three months.
In 2018, French police arrested an Iranian agent trying to bring explosives and a detonator to a NCRI rally in Paris.
NCRI originally revealed the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons programme to the world in 2005, providing evidence to international bodies that the regime has worked on production of a neutron initiator by using Polonium 210 and Beryllium — granting it the capacity to enrich uranium and eventually acquire nuclear weapons.
Newslink
Tanzania investigates deadly outbreak of mysterious disease
https://www.whmi.com/news/national/tanzania-investigates-deadly-outbreak-mystery-disease
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