Hong Kong:

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, one of Beijing’s most vocal critics, was arrested on Monday under a new national security law for collusion with foreign forces, deepening the crackdown on supporters of the democracy.

“They arrested him at his home around 7 a.m. Our lawyers are on their way to the police station,” Mark Simon, a close associate, told AFP, adding that other members of the press group from Lai had also been arrested.

A police source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that Lai was arrested on charges of collusion with foreign forces – one of the new national security offenses – and fraud.

Lai is the owner of Apple Daily and Next Magazine, two outlets resolutely pro-democratic and critical of Beijing.

On Twitter, Simon said officers were executing search warrants both at Lai’s mansion and at his son’s home.

Few Hong Kongers generate the level of Beijing vitriol that Lai does.

To many residents of the restless semi-autonomous city, he is an unlikely hero – a pugnacious, self-proclaimed tabloid owner and the only mogul willing to criticize Beijing.

But in Chinese state media, he is a “traitor”, the biggest “black hand” behind last year’s huge pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the head of a new “Gang of Four” conspiring with foreign nations to undermine the homeland.

Lai spoke to AFP in mid-June, two weeks before the new security law was imposed on the city.

“I am ready for prison,” said the 72-year-old. “If that happens, I will have the opportunity to read books that I haven’t read. The only thing I can do is be positive.”

He described the law as “the death knell of Hong Kong”.

“It will replace or destroy our rule of law and destroy our international financial situation,” he said.

He also said he feared the authorities would attack his journalists.

The security law targets secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

It was introduced to quell the often violent protests of the past year.

China and Hong Kong have said it will not affect people’s freedoms and only target a minority.

But its broadly worded provisions criminalize certain political speeches, such as advocating for sanctions, greater autonomy or independence for Hong Kong.

Critics, including many Western countries, believe the law ended key freedoms and autonomy that Beijing had promised Hong Kong to retain after it was surrendered in 1997 by Britain.

Lai is no stranger to arrest.

He is already being sued for taking part in protests last year – and for defying a police ban from attending a vigil in early June commemorating the deadly Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing in 1989.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Chinese government-linked hackers targeted US electoral infrastructure ahead of the 2020 presidential election, White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday, indicating a more active level of Chinese interference presumed.

O’Brien’s comments appeared to go beyond a statement released Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that China was “expanding its influence efforts” and that Russia was already trying to undermine Democratic candidate Joe Biden. But did not specifically accuse Beijing of hacking attempts against US electoral systems.

“They would like to see the president lose,” O’Brien said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “China – like Russia, like Iran – has gone into cyber attacks and phishing and that sort of thing in terms of our electoral infrastructure, in terms of websites and that sort of thing.”

China has always denied claims by the US government that it is hacking US businesses, politicians or government agencies. “The US presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in intervening in it,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in April.

O’Brien said the United States has seen hackers attempt to infiltrate websites belonging to the Secretary of State’s offices across the country, which are responsible for administering elections locally and collecting data. data on Americans.

“It’s a real concern and it’s not just Russia,” he said. “There will be grave consequences for any country that attempts to interfere in our free and fair elections.”

The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ODNI declined to comment or clarify whether O’Brien’s comments contradict theirs.

ODNI had previously said the “adversaries” sought to compromise the private communications of US political candidates and penetrate US electoral systems ahead of the November elections. And that China prefers President Donald Trump does not win re-election.

Numerous reviews by U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia acted to boost Trump’s campaign in 2016 and undermine the chances of rival Hillary Clinton in this election.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)

Niamey, Niger:

Eight people, including employees of a French humanitarian group, were killed on Sunday by gunmen on motorcycles in an area of ​​Niger that is home to the last West African giraffes, officials said.

“There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French,” the governor of the Tillabéri region told AFP.

The French presidency confirmed that its nationals were among the dead, without giving a figure.

French humanitarian group ACTED said several of its workers were among those killed during a tourist outing.

“Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were temporary employees,” said NGO lawyer Joseph Breham.

It is believed to be the first such attack on Westerners in the region, a popular tourist attraction in the former French colony thanks to its unique population of giraffes from West Africa or Niger.

“We are managing the situation, we will give more information later,” Governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said, without indicating who was behind the attack.

A source close to Niger’s Environmental Services said the assault took place around 11:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. GMT) six kilometers (four miles) east of the town of Koure, which is an hour’s drive from the river. Niamey capital.

“Most of the victims were shot … We found a magazine emptied of its cartridges at the scene,” the source told AFP.

“We do not know the identity of the attackers but they came by motorbike through the bush and awaited the arrival” of the group.

The source added that the victims’ vehicle belonged to ACTED.

“Barbarian act”

The source also described the scene of the attack, where bodies were laid side by side next to a burnt out vehicle, which had bullet holes in its rear window.

In Paris, a French army spokesperson said the French Barkhane force, which combats jihadists in the Sahel region, has provided support to Nigerien forces.

An AFP reporter at the scene confirmed that French fighter jets flew over Sunday later as the Nigerien army searched the vast wooded area.

Forensic police were taking samples before the bodies were moved before dark, the reporter added.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office said it spoke on the phone with his Nigerien counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou.

The president of neighboring Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, for his part strongly condemned “the barbaric act”.

He deplored that “violent extremism” is still rife in the Sahel region “despite the ruthless war waged by the national armies, the joint forces of the G5 Sahel and the Barkhane force”.

“Not considered dangerous”

About 20 years ago, a small herd of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter color, found refuge from poachers and predators in the Koure region.

Today, they number in the hundreds and are a key tourist attraction, benefiting from the protection of local people and conservation groups.

A Western humanitarian source based in Niamey said that “we all go to Koure on weekends because it is very easy to get to.”

“Everyone goes there, even the ambassadors, diplomats, teachers … it’s not considered a danger zone at all. There are NGOs protecting the giraffes there,” the source said. to AFP.

However, the Tillaberi region is in an extremely unstable location, near the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso.

The region has become a hideout for jihadist groups in the Sahel such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

The use of motorcycles has been totally banned since January in an attempt to curb the movements of these jihadists.

Many Europeans have been kidnapped or killed in the volatile Sahel.

Two young French people, Antoine De Leocour and Vincent Delory, were killed after being kidnapped by jihadists in a restaurant in the Nigerian capital Niamey in 2011.

Paris:

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday denounced a “cowardly” attack on aid workers in Niger and said he would do anything to shed light on the incident in which eight people died.

The French leader, who spoke with his Nigerien counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou, added that he was determined to help counter “terrorist groups in the Sahel region”.

Nigerien officials said six of the eight people killed by gunmen on Sunday were French nationals.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)