MONTH IN BRIEF – JUNE 2024
MONTH IN BRIEF
First arrests under new HK security law
Hong Kong police have arrested six people under the city’s draconian new security law for ‘posting messages with seditious intention’ online.Five women and a man were apprehended for posting the messages on an anonymous social media page. One of the women arrested, Chow Hang-tung, was already on remand in a maximum-security women’s prison, the police said. She was the former leader of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which had organised an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mourn the victims of June 4, 1989, when Beijing sent troops into Tiananmen Square to quash appeals for democracy.
Sri Lankan tea crisis
Sri Lanka’s tea producers have condemned a government order to increase wages by 70 per cent, saying it would make their tea globally uncompetitive and reduce dollar earnings essential for the island nation to emerge from a financial crisis.The US$1.3 billion (S$1.7 billion) industry – which has been impacted by the fallout from the protracted crisis –produces popular Ceylon tea and employs about 615,000 workers. The island annually exports about 95 per cent of the 250 million kilos of tea it produces.
Fears of escalation in Taiwan Strait and SSC
During a working visit to Singapore, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wonghas spoken of her fears about the risk of escalation and miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. Amid mounting security concerns, China varied out military drills in the Taiwan Strait on May 23, as a warning to newly inaugurated Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing regards as a ‘separatist’. Ms Wong urged the need to ‘encourage process, dialogue and architecture that enable de-escalation’.
Virus arrest
A Japanese man has been arrested for allegedly creating a computer virus by using interactive generative artificial intelligence available online, in what is believed to be the first case in Japan related to the creation of viruses using generative AI systems. Police arrested Ryuki Hayashi, 25, who is from Kawasaki, on May 27 on suspicion of making electric or magnetic records containing unauthorised commands. He is believed to have used his home computer and smartphone to combine information about creating malware programs obtained after giving instructions to several generative AI systems in March 2023, according to investigators.
Malaysian forests at risk
Vast concessions in Malaysia’s forests threaten millions of hectares of rich natural habitats and risk the country’s commitment to a 50 per cent forest cover, a report has warned.Non-governmental organisation RimbaWatch said its analysis of concessions in the country’s forest showed up to 3.2 million ha could be slashed, potentially unleashing enormous carbon emissions and compromising key animal habitats.
Top of the world…
Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa summited Mount Everest for the 29th time on May 12, breaking his own record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain.A guide for more than two decades, Mr Kami Rita, also known as ‘Everest Man’, first reached the top of the 8,849m peak in 1994, while working for a commercial expedition. Since then he has climbed Everest almost every year, guiding clients.In 2023, he even scaled Everest twice to reclaim his record as another guide, Mr Pasang Dawa Sherpa, had equalled his number of ascents.
…and mountain tragedy
Meanwhile, an Indian climber rescued from Mount Everest has died in hospital, a Nepali tourism official said, taking the number of fatalities this season on the mountain to eight. Mr Banshi Lal, 46, was plucked from the peak and taken to a hospital in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, but died on May 28.Three people – a British climber and two Nepali guides – among the eight are listed as missing but presumed dead.The latest fatality comes as the Everest mountaineering season nears its end, with the death toll relatively low compared with other years.
AI helps elephants at risk
‘Gajraj’, an artificial intelligence-based surveillance system, is being used in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu following a high court order to prevent elephants being killed on its railway tracks. In the last decade, 36 elephants have been killed from train collisions, with 11 deaths occurring near Madukkarai, where tracks intersect with the elephant’s migratory route to neighbouring forests. The forestry department has now installed 12 towers along two tracks, each equipped with an AI camera capable of thermal and visible imaging.