Cincunri Sakia

Jumat, 26 Agustus 2022

Turks frustrated by 'deliberate' increase in number of European visa rejections - Reuters

ISTANBUL, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Turkish sports presenter Sinem Okten was surprised to see her visa application to Europe's Schengen area rejected twice, having visited often to cover matches and interview figures like Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon and Liverpool's Juergen Klopp.

"I applied first to Germany then to France. Both rejected my application," she said. "I've travelled abroad numerous times to follow and film matches and interview people, maybe 50-60 times. This is the first time I am having this problem."

Turks applying for visas to the 26 Schengen countries are increasingly being rejected, data shows, and tours are being cancelled. Ankara said this week it was a deliberate effort to put President Tayyip Erdogan in a difficult position ahead of tight elections next year, a charge the European Union denies.

According to data from schengenvisainfo.com, 16.5% of applicants from Turkey last year were denied a visa, up from 12.5% a year earlier. Schengen rejections were only 4% in 2015 and started ramping up in 2017 for Turks, it shows.

The visa costs - amounting to some 100 euros, or a third of Turkey's minimum wage - are not refundable whether a visa is issued or not.

"Overall, the rejection rates for Schengen visa applications have increased worldwide...however, when compared to other countries like Russia, Turkey's rejection rate growth is way bigger and consistent," said Shkurta Januzi, editor-in-chief at SchengenVisaInfo.com.

Okten said the German embassy gave no reason for rejecting her application. A document from the French embassy, seen by Reuters, said it did not see enough evidence that the TV presenter could finance her stay in France or return to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he believed the lengthy processing times and an increase observed in rejection rates were deliberate, adding that he raised the issue in meetings with his counterparts.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. and some EU and non-EU western countries give our citizens visa appointments one year, 6-7-8 months later. They also increased the rejection rate. This is planned and deliberate," he said on Tuesday.

Cavusoglu dismissed "excuses" related to coronavirus measures or personnel shortages, and said, without providing evidence, that the visa rejections were intended to give Erdogan a pre-election headache.

His ministry will warn ambassadors of some Western countries about the issue in September, he said. "If the situation does not improve after that we will take counter, restrictive measures."

Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, head of the EU delegation to Turkey, told Reuters the Schengen applications are treated on their merits and not on political grounds, adding relatively more incomplete and potentially fraudulent applications are seen from Turkey.

"No decisions are taken on political grounds but rather on objective grounds," he said, adding Turkey's rejection rate last year was near the global rate of 13-14% for Schengen visas.

TOURS CANCELLED

Twenty-two of the 26 Schengen area members are EU states.

Turkey and the bloc enjoy good trade ties and decades of migration however relations are strained over issues including freedom of speech in Turkey and EU policies on refugees from Syria.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Schengen states received more than 900,000 visa applications annually from Turkey but that figure had dropped to around 270,000 in 2021.

Citizens from all Schengen countries are exempt from visas when visiting Turkey, most for up to 90 days, and some can enter with only their ID cards, according to Turkey's foreign ministry website.

As more and more Turks are being rejected, tour operators have cancelled regular trips, Tur Andiamo chairman Cem Polatoglu said.

"We are having problems. Our tours are getting cancelled. We used to schedule tours to Italy every week, now we have to offer them every fortnight," Polatoglu said.

At a visa application centre in Istanbul, 57-year-old Hikmet Dogan said it was easier to get a visa in his previous trips to see his son in Sweden.

"I travelled 2-3 times but this time it is harder, the costs jumped too...Unfortunately young people are trying to leave the country as the Turkish economy is getting worse," Dogan said.

Beyond the Schengen area, the United States vowed on Wednesday to expand its visa processing capacity in Turkey after the foreign minister's public complaints. read more

Okten, the sports presenter, said she would continue her efforts to secure a visa.

"The season started and I need to cover some matches on site. I need to be able to travel abroad to do my job...I will apply again and try my chance through Greece this time," she said.

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Daren Butler and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2022-08-26 06:18:00Z
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Redacted version of Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit set to be made public on Friday - Sky News

A redacted version of the affidavit used for the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is set to be made public on Friday.

It is likely to contain key information about the justification for the search by FBI special agents on 8 August and some of the evidence the government presented to the judge.

The order by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart came hours after federal law enforcement submitted under seal the portions of the affidavit that they want to keep secret, as their investigation moves forward.

But the redactions or blacked-out portions proposed by the department are likely to be extensive, so it is unclear how much new information about the investigation will be revealed.

On Monday, Judge Reinhart acknowledged it was possible that the redactions would be so extensive as to leave the public version of the document without any meaningful information.

The justice department had opposed its release, even in redacted form, saying it risks compromising an ongoing criminal investigation and revealing information about witnesses.

Mr Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that the search was politically motivated, has made statements on social media calling on the court to unseal the unredacted version.

What we know so far about the search

The search of the former president's Florida estate was part of a federal investigation into whether Mr Trump illegally removed documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.

Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI retrieved from the property 11 sets of classified documents, including information marked at the top-secret level.

They also showed the FBI was investigating the "wilful retention of national defence information", the concealment or removal of government records and obstruction of a federal investigation.

Under the law, presidential documents are not the president's property and should be handed to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government body that preserves historical and government records.

Mr Trump announced the search himself in a statement, claiming agents had broken into his safe and saying it represented "dark times for our nation".

He has tried to defend his actions, saying without providing evidence that he had a standing order to declassify the documents in question. However, none of the three laws cited by the justice department in the search warrant require a showing that the documents were in fact classified.

The former president's lawyers have asked a federal judge to prevent the FBI from continuing to review documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

He has suggested he might run for the White House again in 2024, but has not made any commitment.

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2022-08-26 02:02:00Z
1542730575

Kamis, 25 Agustus 2022

Children among 25 killed in Russian attack on Ukraine's Independence Day - The Times

Russia has admitted launching an Iskander cruise missile at Chaplino railway station in a strike that killed 25 people, including two children.

The defence ministry in Moscow said, however, that it had hit a military train, and killed more than 200 Ukrainian servicemen, without providing supporting evidence.

The missiles slammed “directly” into four train carriages at the station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, President Zelensky of Ukraine said.

A further 31 people were said to have been wounded in the attack, which coincided with Ukraine’s Independence Day and a surprise visit by Boris Johnson.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a presidential aide, said that the death toll had risen from yesterday’s report of 22. He said an 11-year-old boy had been killed when a missile struck a nearby building

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2022-08-25 09:19:00Z
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Uvalde's district police chief Pete Arredondo sacked over hesitant response to school massacre - Sky News

Uvalde's district police chief has been sacked over the hesitant response by hundreds of heavily armed law enforcement officers during the May massacre at Robb Elementary School.

In a unanimous vote, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's (UCISD) board of trustees dismissed police chief Pete Arredondo, three months to the day after one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history.

He had been on unpaid administrative leave since shortly after the 24 May shooting.

Parents yelled "coward" in the room where the meeting took place.

Mr Arredondo did not attend, however minutes before it got underway his lawyer released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief's fullest defence so far of his actions.

Over 17 defiant pages, it insisted Mr Arredondo was not the fumbling school police chief who a damning state investigation blamed for not taking command and wasted time by looking for keys to a likely unlocked door, but a brave officer whose level-headed decisions saved the lives of other students.

The letter also accused Uvalde school officials of putting his life at risk by not letting him carry a weapon to the school board meeting.

"Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn't reach in time," the letter stated.

It also said the district was in the wrong for dismissing him, saying it did not carry out any investigation "establishing evidence supporting a decision to terminate" his employment.

Because Mr Arredondo was UCISD police chief, the school board had the power to fire him.

State police and a damning investigative report in July criticised the former police chief of the roughly 4,000-student school district for failing to take charge of the scene, not breaching the classroom sooner and wasting time by looking for a key to a likely unlocked door.

Investigations and body camera footage have laid bare how police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles within minutes - but waited more than an hour before finally confronting the gunman in a classroom of fourth graders.

Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fire Mr Arredondo in July but postponed the decision at the request of the police chief's attorney.

Only one other police official at the scene, Uvalde police lieutenant Mariano Pargas, is known to have been placed on leave since the shooting.

Mr Pargas was the city's acting police chief during the massacre.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which had more than 90 state troopers at the scene, has also launched an internal investigation into the response by state police.

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2022-08-25 04:01:57Z
1534535608

Rabu, 24 Agustus 2022

Dugongs declared functionally extinct in Chinese waters - Sky News

The dugong has been declared functionally extinct in Chinese waters.

Fishing and ship strikes have caused a rapid decline of the "sea cows" since the 1970s, according to research by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

There has been no evidence of their presence in China since 2008, the teams found.

Their research said "this is the first functional extinction of a large mammal in China's coastal waters".

The marine mammal, whose diet is highly dependent on seagrass, has been classified as a Grade 1 National Key Protected Animal since 1998 by China's State Council.

The report said their marine habitats have been rapidly degraded by humans and although restoration and recovery efforts are a key priority in China they take "time that dugongs may no longer have".

Dugongs are found in coastal waters from East Africa to Vanuatu and as far north as Japan.

The gentle animals are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Their appearance is thought to have inspired ancient stories of mermaids and sirens.

Professor Samuel Turvey of ZSL's Institute of Zoology, a co-author of the study, said the likely disappearance of dugongs in China was a devastating loss.

"Their absence will not only have a knock-on effect on ecosystem function, but also serves as a wake-up call - a sobering reminder that extinctions can occur before effective conservation actions are developed," he said.

A team of international scientists conducted interviews in 66 fishing communities across four Chinese provinces along the coastal region of the South China Sea.

The authors said they would welcome any evidence dugongs might still exist in China.

They recommended the species' regional status be reassessed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

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2022-08-24 09:27:18Z
CBMiW2h0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2R1Z29uZ3MtZGVjbGFyZWQtZnVuY3Rpb25hbGx5LWV4dGluY3QtaW4tY2hpbmVzZS13YXRlcnMtMTI2ODAzMzXSAV9odHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvZHVnb25ncy1kZWNsYXJlZC1mdW5jdGlvbmFsbHktZXh0aW5jdC1pbi1jaGluZXNlLXdhdGVycy0xMjY4MDMzNQ

Japan set for new nuclear plants in post-Fukushima shift - Financial Times

Japan is preparing a big shift on nuclear power, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announcing plans to look at the construction of new plants, in what would be a break with more than a decade of energy policy.

With energy prices soaring in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kishida said Japan would restart more nuclear plants shut down after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and also study the development of next-generation reactors.

The prime minister had already announced the restart of some plants after Tokyo came close to suffering a power blackout this year, but his tentative plans for new nuclear reactors would be a U-turn on post-Fukushima policy.

No new plants have been built since the 2011 disaster, when the largest earthquake in recorded Japanese history led to the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The big increase in global energy prices largely driven by the Ukraine war has made other countries reconsider energy policy, notably Germany, which is rethinking its plan, decided in the aftermath of Fukushima, to exit nuclear power by the end of the year.

Japan’s energy policy has been in paralysis since the 2011 disaster prompted the shutdown of most of its nuclear reactors. That has forced Asia’s largest advanced economy to burn additional coal, natural gas and fuel oil even as it pledges to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Because Japan imports most of its energy, it has also been hit hard by the rise in commodity prices. The country relies on Russia for about 9 per cent of its liquefied natural gas.

Before Fukushima, Japan sourced about a third of its electricity from 54 nuclear reactors. Now, only six are operational with restarts hampered by a string of safety incidents and a deep public distrust of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the owner of the three reactors that melted down in Fukushima.

In July, Kishida unveiled plans to restart most of the 10 nuclear reactors that have been given clearance to avoid an electricity shortage in the winter months.

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2022-08-24 08:35:27Z
1544408217

How Putin used internet censorship and fake news for six months to push the Ukraine war agenda - Sky News

Russia's failure to secure a quick victory against Ukraine forced Vladimir Putin to adapt.

Over the past six months, Russia has been fighting an information war alongside its military campaign.

How Moscow rerouted the internet

On 30 May the internet connection in occupied Kherson dropped. It returned within hours, but people could no longer access sites like Facebook, Twitter and Ukrainian news.

The internet had been rerouted to Russia. The online activity of those in Kherson was now visible to Moscow and was subject to censorship.

Internet traffic in Kherson was originally routed from network hubs elsewhere in the country and passed through Kyiv.

These connections remained in place during the first three months of the invasion before it was rerouted.

As Russia gained strength in southern Ukraine, reports emerged that it was taking over control of local internet providers in Kherson – either through cooperation or by force.

Once in control, Russia could reroute the internet to Moscow via a state-owned internet provider in Crimea.

This briefly happened on 1 May, before Ukrainian officials managed to reverse it. But on 30 May, with Russia now in control of more infrastructure, it happened again. It now appears permanent.

With the people of Kherson now forced to use Russian internet if they want to go online, they are subject to Moscow's censorship.

For three months they have been unable to access Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Some Ukrainian news websites are also blocked.

Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, an internet monitoring company, says the rerouting has "effectively placed Ukrainian citizens under the purview and surveillance of the Russian state at the flick of a switch."

Internet operators and monitors report internet access in large areas of Kherson is censored to a similar level as experienced in Russia. Some smaller areas are experiencing even tougher censorship, with some Google services blocked.

Ukrainians in Kherson are finding ways to evade Russia's efforts to monitor and censor their online activity.

When Ivanna (not her real name) leaves her home, she deletes social media and messaging apps like Instagram and Telegram in case she is stopped by a soldier who may search her phone.

"You need to be careful," she tells Sky News, using an online messaging app.

She goes online using a VPN (virtual private network) which hides the user's location and allows them to bypass Russian censorship.

Searches for the software spiked in Kherson when internet controls tightened.

Russia has also shut down the mobile phone network in Kherson and new SIM cards are being sold for locals to use.

Ivanna told Sky News a passport is needed to buy the sim cards, prompting fears their use may be tracked.

Cautious, she paid a stranger to buy a SIM under his name.

TV and phone communications targeted

In the unoccupied parts of Ukraine, Moscow has sought to destroy the communication infrastructure - such as TV towers and communication centres.

It's a tactic Russia initially wanted to avoid as it did not want to damage resources that would be useful as an occupying force, explains William Alberque, director of strategy, technology, and arms control for the Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Russia thought they were going to win so fast [so wouldn't] destroy infrastructure as it was going to own that infrastructure," he tells Sky News.

Subscribe to the Ukraine War Diaries on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker

But by keeping the lines open, Ukrainians were able to communicate with one another and the wider world.

Ultimately Russia moved to destroy what it was unable to quickly seize.

Examples of the attacks on communication infrastructure have been logged by the Centre for Information Resilience, which has been tracking and verifying attacks like these using open-source information.

One incident logged by the group was a communication centre in southern Ukraine.

Russia's attempt to control information has also included targeting TV towers.

Power cuts in Ukraine have also caused the nation's biggest broadband and mobile internet providers to lose connectivity.

Disinformation has doubled since the war began

Russia has used disinformation during the war to influence those in Ukraine, the country's allies, as well as its own population at home.

Examples of pro-Russian fake news include a clumsily faked video of the Ukrainian president telling people to surrender (known as a deepfake video) and social media posts accusing bombing victims of being actors.

Some of Russia's efforts have been effective. Moscow claimed the invasion was in part to tackle nazism in the Ukrainian government. Searches for "nazi" in both Russia and worldwide spiked in the first week of the war.

The number of disinformation sites has more than doubled since the Russian invasion in February, according to Newsguard, which provides credibility rankings for news and information sites.

In March, its researchers found 116 sites publishing Russia-Ukraine war-related disinformation. By August, that number had risen to 250.

It's not possible to show that all of those sites are run on the orders of Russia, however, Moscow has allocated a boosted pot of funds for its propaganda arm.

The independent Russian-language news site The Moscow Times reported the government had "drastically increased funding for state-run media amid the war with Ukraine".

The article cited figures provided by the Russian government. It said 17.4bn rubles (£244m) had been allocated for "mass media" compared to 5.4bn rubles (£76m) the year before.

It said in March, once the war was underway, some 11.9bn rubles (£167m) were spent. This is more than twice as much as the combined spend of the two months before, which was 5bn rubles (£70m).

The research comes as no surprise to Mr Alberque, who says Russia's disinformation campaign has been "constant".

"As they shift into war mode, [Russia] has to go to directly paying salaries and no longer hoping that people will echo its messages but paying them to send a certain number of messages per day," he told Sky News.

Looking forward, Mr Alberque believes the death of the daughter of an ally of Vladimir Putin will be a distraction for those directing Russia's disinformation efforts.

Russia has pointed the finger at Ukraine for carrying out the fatal car bombing in Moscow but Kyiv denies any involvement.

An apparent high-profile assassination in the capital has sparked a number of conspiracy theories, including claims the responsibility may lie with a Russian group looking to influence the war.

"The Russian government is going to have to try to control this narrative," Mr Alberque explains.

He adds that propaganda resources that would be focused on Ukraine may now be drawn into the fallout of the death, saying: "I think it's going to be a huge information sink for them because it's going to take up time and attention."

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Why data journalism matters to Sky News

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2022-08-24 01:13:59Z
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Jumat, 26 Agustus 2022

TOURS CANCELLED

Kamis, 25 Agustus 2022

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Rabu, 24 Agustus 2022

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