Asia
South Korean arrested for opening plane emergency exit door, faces up to 10 years in prison
A man who opened an emergency exit door during a flight in South Korea was formally arrested Sunday and faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of violating the aviation security law, officials said.
During a preliminary questioning, the 33-year-old told investigators that he felt suffocated and tried to get off the plane quickly, according to police.
Twelve people were slightly injured on Friday after he opened the door of the Asiana Airlines Airbus A321-200, causing air to blast inside the cabin. The plane was preparing to land in Daegu on an hour-long flight from the southern island of Jeju.
On Sunday, a district court in Daegu approved a warrant to formally arrest the man. Police earlier sought the arrest warrant, citing the graveness of the crime and a possibility the man may flee, according to Daegu police.
Daegu police said they have up to 20 days to investigate the man before determining whether to send him to prosecutors for a possible indictment.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for breaching the aviation security law that bars passengers from handling entry doors, emergency exit doors and other equipment on board, according to the Transport Ministry.
Daegu police said the man, surnamed Lee, told them that he was under stress after losing a job recently and that he wanted to get out of the plane soon because he was feeling suffocated just before landing.
The plane was carrying 200 people, 194 of them passengers including teenage athletes on their way to a track and field competition. The man pulled the door open when the plane was reaching the Daegu airport at an altitude of 700 feet (213 meters), according to the Transport Ministry.
The people who were taken to hospitals were mainly treated for minor problems such as breathing difficulties.
Modi opponents boycott opening of new parliament building as PM reshapes India’s power corridor
India's major opposition parties Sunday boycotted the inauguration of a new parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rare show of unity against his Hindu nationalist ruling party, which has spent nine years in power and is seeking a third term in general elections next year.
Modi inaugurated the new parliament in the capital of New Delhi by offering prayers as Hindu priests chanted religious hymns at the start of the ceremony. Opposition parties criticized the event saying the prime minister had sidelined President Droupadi Murmu, who has only ceremonial powers but is the head of state and highest constitutional authority.
"May this iconic building be a cradle of empowerment, igniting dreams and nurturing them into reality," Modi tweeted shortly after the inauguration.
Senior ministers from Modi's party and leaders from its alliance partners attended the inauguration but at least 19 opposition parties skipped the event, which coincided with the birth anniversary of a Hindu nationalism ideologue.
Opposition parties said in a statement Wednesday that Modi's "decision to inaugurate the building by himself" was "a grave insult" to India's democracy, adding that the ruling government had "disqualified, suspended and muted" opposition lawmakers while passing "controversial legislation" with little debate.
"When the soul of democracy has been sucked out from the parliament, we find no value in a new building," the parties said.
India's powerful Home Minister Amit Shah said the opposition had politicized the event and other leaders from Modi's party said the boycott is "an insult to the prime minister."
The new triangular-shaped building — built at an estimated cost of $120 million — is part of a $2.8 billion revamp of British-era offices and residences in central New Delhi that will also include blocks of buildings to house government ministries and departments, and Modi's new private residence. The entire project, called the "Central Vista," is spread over 3.2 kilometers (1.9 miles).
The project was announced in 2019 and Modi laid its foundation a year later in December 2020.
The plan has drawn intense criticism from opposition politicians, architects and heritage experts, many of whom have called it environmentally irresponsible, a threat to cultural heritage and too expensive.
Outrage grew in 2021 when at least 12 opposition parties questioned the project's timing, saying it was built as the country faced a devastating surge in coronavirus cases. They branded the revamp as Modi's "vanity project" and said its construction was prioritized over the loss of lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.
A year earlier, a group of 60 former civil servants wrote an open letter to Modi to highlight the architectural value of the old parliament building and said the new plan would "irrevocably" destroy the area's cultural heritage.
Modi's government has said the revamp was necessary because the older building was "showing signs of distress and over utilization" and that the new design "combines the country's heritage and traditions."
The newly inaugurated building sits just across from India's old parliament, a circular structure designed by British architects in the early 20th century. The new four-story building has a total of 1,272 seats in two chambers, almost 500 more than the old building.
The old parliament will be converted into a museum.
During the televised ceremony Sunday, Modi prostrated before a royal golden scepter that his Bharatiya Janata Party says symbolized the transfer of power when it was gifted to the country's first prime minister on the eve of India's independence from Britain in 1947. Dozens of Hindu priests followed Modi inside the parliament, where he installed the scepter near the chair of the speaker.
Modi's critics and opposition leaders have questioned the scepter's historicity and said the emblem is appropriate to a monarchy, not a democracy.
The prime minister's supporters see the new parliament as his attempt to remake India's power corridor and disrupt the country's colonial legacy.
Last year, Modi inaugurated a revamped colonial avenue in the heart of New Delhi that is used for ceremonial military parades. The boulevard was earlier called "Rajpath," or Kingsway, but Modi's party changed it to "Kartavya Path," or road to duty, arguing the old name was a "symbol of slavery" that had "been erased forever."
Many such moves by Modi's ruling government have been met with strong criticism, but the controversy over the new parliament building has been the most fractious.
It comes just months after opposition leaders protested Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Parliament in a defamation case over remarks he made about Modi's surname.
Hours before the new parliament was opened, the Congress party's general secretary, Jairam Ramesh, criticized Modi again.
"A self-glorifying authoritarian Prime Minister with utter disdain for Parliamentary procedures, who rarely attends Parliament or engages in it, inaugurates the New Parliament building in 2023," he tweeted.
Barely a mile away from the ceremony, a heavy police presence overpowered about 100 protesting Indian wrestlers and their supporters, who have accused their federation president of sexual harassment and had planned to march to the new parliament building. Some of the protesters scuffled with police and were taken away in a bus.
The protesters have been staging demonstrations in New Delhi for nearly a month demanding the resignation and arrest of Wrestling Federation of India President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing young athletes.
Singh, who has denied the accusations, is a powerful lawmaker from Modi's party.
Rights groups slam severe Taliban restrictions on Afghan women as ‘crime against humanity’
Two top rights groups on Friday slammed the severe restrictions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan as gender-based persecution, which is a crime against humanity.
In a new report, Amnesty International and the International Commission for Jurists, or ICJ, underscored how the Taliban crackdown on Afghan women's rights, coupled with "imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment," could constitute gender persecution under the International Criminal Court.
The report by Amnesty and ICJ, titled, "The Taliban's war on women: The crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan," cited the ICC statute, which lists gender-based persecution as a crime against humanity.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war.
Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule, the Taliban started to enforce restrictions on women and girls soon after their takeover, barring them from public spaces and most jobs, and banning education for girls beyond the sixth grade. The measures harked back to the previous Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, when they also imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
The harsh edicts prompted an international outcry against the already ostracized Taliban, whose administration has not been officially recognized by the United Nations and the international community.
In the report, Santiago A. Canton, the ICJ secretary general, said the Taliban's actions are of such "magnitude, gravity and of such a systematic nature," that they qualify "as a crime against humanity of gender persecution."
Both organizations called on the International Criminal Court to include this crime in their ongoing investigation into what is happening in Afghanistan and take legal action. They also called on countries "to exercise universal jurisdiction" and hold the Taliban accountable under international law.
The report also accused the Taliban of targeting women and girls who have taken part in peaceful protests by detaining, forcibly disappearing them and subjecting them to torture in custody. The Taliban have also forced them to sign "confessions" or "agreements" not to protest again, the report said.
What is happening in Afghanistan is "a war against women," which amounts to "international crimes" that are "organized, widespread, systematic," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general.
Without elaborating, she called for the international community to dismantle "this system of gender oppression and persecution."
Amnesty also documented cases of women and girls being forcibly married to members of the Taliban, as well as attempts to force them into such marriages. The report said those who refused such marriages were "subjected to abduction, intimidation, threats and torture."
The report cited the case of a 15-year-old girl who was forced to marry a Taliban figure despite her family's objections in the northeastern province of Takhar in August 2021, and that of a 33-year-old female journalist and social activist who was forcibly married to a Taliban commander the following month.
"We simply cannot afford to fail the women and girls of Afghanistan," said Canton of ICJ.
The report said the Taliban have also perpetrated human rights violations have also been against Afghan men.
Several monitoring groups have documented reports of "extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, and torture" of those associated with the former, Western-backed Afghan government that crumbled in the face of the Taliban takeover of the country.
The Taliban have also targeted journalists, the LGBTQ community, rights activists and ethnic minorities, the report said.
Amnesty and ICJ also shared a summary of the report's findings with the Taliban-appointed foreign ministry in Kabul, requesting a response. None was immediately provided, the groups said.
Aid chief says Taliban agree to consider allowing women to resume agency work in Kandahar
The head of a major aid organization said Thursday that the Taliban have agreed to consider allowing Afghan women to resume work at the agency in the southern province of Kandahar, the religious and political center for the country's rulers.
The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab — the Islamic headscarf — correctly or observing gender segregation rules. In April, they said the ban extended to U.N. offices and agencies in Afghanistan. There are exemptions in some sectors, like health care and education.
Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, met officials in the capital Kabul and Kandahar to persuade them to reverse the ban on the organization's female staff.
"We have an agreement to start immediate talks on a temporary arrangement that will enable our female colleagues to work with and for women and others in Kandahar," Egeland told The Associated Press. "If we get a provincial exemption in Kandahar, we should be able to replicate it elsewhere."
In January, the Taliban said they were working on guidelines for women to return to work at NGOs. Egeland said earlier this week that key officials told him they are close to finalizing these guidelines. But they were unable to give a timeline or details when pressed.
The temporary arrangement would be in place while the nationwide guidelines are developed. The interim arrangement would cover all sectors and all programming by the Norwegian Refugee Council, he said.
Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely impacted by December's edict.
Egeland said he made it clear to the Taliban that the agency needs to be able to deliver aid as it did before the ban, and with women.
Years of humanitarian diplomacy in Afghanistan have paved the way for the positive feedback from Kandahar, with the Norwegian Refugee Council negotiating with the Taliban to provide education and relief in areas under their control during the war, he said.
"They knew we never broke any rules in terms of Afghan culture, we go way back, but we have to be firm," Egeland told the AP.
He insisted the organization will not employ male-only teams or deliver male-only aid work.
Egeland said there is agreement within the Ministry of Economy, which oversees NGOs in Afghanistan, that a regional deal could open a pathway to a national one.
"I have a strong sense they understand that if aid operations are cut for a longer period, they may not come back. They realize time is running out."
The Taliban have repeatedly told senior humanitarian officials visiting Afghanistan since December that the NGO restrictions are temporary suspensions, not a ban.
Turkish anti-migrant party backs Erdogan's rival in presidential runoff
A hard-line anti-migrant party on Wednesday threw its weight behind the opposition candidate who is running against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in this weekend's runoff presidential race.
Umit Ozdag, the leader of the far-right Victory Party, announced his support for main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who will be facing off against Erdogan on Sunday. He said he decided to back Kilicdaroglu over his promises to repatriate millions of migrants.
Ozdag's announcement came just days after Sinan Ogan, the third-placed contender in the first round of the presidential election on May 14, endorsed Erdogan in the upcoming runoff. Ogan was the joint candidate of an alliance of small conservative parties, led by Ozdag's Victory Party.
Erdogan received 49.5% of the votes in the first round of the presidential race — just short of the majority needed for an outright victory — compared to Kilicdaroglu's 44.9%.
Also Read: How Turkey's president maintains popularity despite economic turmoil
Erdogan's ruling party and its nationalist and Islamist allies also retained a majority in the 600-seat parliament — a development that increases Erdogan's chances of reelection because voters are likely to vote for him to avoid a splintered government, analysts say.
In an apparent attempt to woo nationalist voters in the runoff, Kilicdaroglu hardened his tone last week, vowing to send back refugees and ruling out any peace negotiations with Kurdish militants if he is elected.
Kilicdaroglu, 74, is the joint candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, which has pledged to reverse Turkey's authoritarian drift under Erdogan and return the country to a parliamentary democracy with increased checks and balances.
Turkey is home to the world's largest refugee community, including 3.7 million Syrians. Anti-migrant sentiment is running high in the country amid economic turmoil, including high inflation, and the issue of the repatriation of migrants has become a main campaign issue.
Indian Prime Minister Modi strikes new agreements on migration and green hydrogen in Australia
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck new agreements Wednesday with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen, while raising concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney.
Modi was welcomed Tuesday by around 20,000 cheering fans, many chanting "Modi," at a Sydney stadium for his second visit to Australia as India's leader.
But his visit has also been protested by activists who accuse his government of restricting Muslim and other minorities' rights, as well as press freedom. Anti-Modi posters appeared around Sydney, and Hindu temples in Sydney's west were recently vandalized. Sikhs have also used the visit to demand a separate state.
Modi, a Hindu, said he had raised the issue of attacks on temples with Albanese, who assured him that authorities would take "strict actions" against the culprits.
"We will not accept any elements that harm the friendly and warm ties between India and Australia by their actions or thoughts," Modi told reporters through an interpreter in a joint press conference with Albanese. Neither leader took questions.
The Indian diaspora accounts for only 3% of Australia's population but is the nation's fastest growing ethnic minority. Modi described the diaspora as the real strength in the growing bilateral relationship.
Modi is the only leader of the Quad nations to continue with his scheduled visit to Australia after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled out of a planned meeting of the group in Sydney to return to Washington to focus on debt limit talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted a Group of Seven summit last week, later canceled his Australia trip as well.
Modi arrived Monday night in Sydney from Papua New Guinea, where he hosted a meeting with Pacific Island leaders to discuss ways to better cooperate.
Modi and Albanese's meeting Wednesday "reinforced their commitment to an open, prosperous and secure" Indo-Pacific region, the Australian prime minister's office said in a statement.
The prime ministers announced a new migration agreement that will promote two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people. They also agreed on the terms of reference on a bilateral Green Hydrogen Task Force that will promote cooperation on producing the gas without use of fossil fuels.
The leaders said they expect to complete negotiations on a free trade deal before the end of the year. They also announced new diplomatic posts in Bengaluru, India, and Brisbane, Australia.
Modi last visited Australia in November 2014, just months after his government was first elected.
S. Korea's births keep falling in March
South Korea's births kept falling for the 88th straight month in March, boosting concerns about a so-called demographic cliff, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
The number of newborn babies was 21,138 in March, down 8.1 percent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest March figure since relevant data began to be compiled in 1981.
The newborns have been on the decline since December 2015 as more young people delayed or gave up on having children due to economic difficulties such as high housing prices and education costs.
The low birth rate fueled worry about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sharp fall in the heads of households eventually leading to a consumption cliff.
The number of marriages advanced 18.8 percent from a year earlier to 18,192 in March due to the lifting of measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of divorces gained 4.7 percent to 8,255 in the cited month.
The number of deaths tumbled 35.2 percent to 28,922 due to the weakened pandemic effect.
Affected by the still high deaths and the births slide, the country's population kept skidding for the 41st successive month since November 2019.
How Turkey's president maintains popularity despite economic turmoil
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remained in power for 20 years by repeatedly surmounting political crises: mass protests, corruption allegations, an attempted military coup and a huge influx of refugees fleeing Syria's civil war.
Now the Turkish people and economy are being pummeled by sky-high inflation, and many are still recovering from a devastating earthquake in February made worse by the government's slow response.
Yet Erdogan — a populist with increasingly authoritarian instincts — enters a runoff election Sunday as the strong favorite against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu after falling just shy of victory in the first round of voting. So, even with a weak hand, what explains his longevity and wide appeal?
Erdogan, 69, has cultivated deep loyalty from conservative and religious supporters by elevating Islamic values in a country that has been defined by secularism for nearly a century.
He has tightened his grip on power by deploying government resources to his political advantage — lavishly spending on infrastructure to please constituents, and strictly controlling the media to silence criticism.
And he has swayed many Turks to his side by the way he navigates the world stage, showing that his country has an independent streak — and can flex its military — as it engages with the East and West.
Erdogan's popularity at a moment of economic crisis also seems to be derived from the mere fact of his endurance; many people seem to want some stability, not more change, according to interviews with voters and analysts.
"During times of national crises such as this one, people usually rally around the leader," said Gonul Tol, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "The voters don't have enough faith in the opposition's ability to fix things."
Already Turkey's longest serving leader, Erdogan would stretch his rule into a third decade — until 2028 — if he were to secure a majority of votes in the runoff.
He received 49.5% of the votes in the first round — four percentage points ahead of Kilicdaroglu, a social democrat who has led the country's main opposition party since 2010. And on Monday Erdogan won the endorsement of the far-right candidate who finished in third place, giving him a boost heading into the runoff.
Kilicdaroglu, an economist and former member of parliament, is the joint candidate of a six-party coalition alliance. He has promised to undo Erdogan's economic policies, which experts say have stoked inflation, and to reverse Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian leanings, including crackdowns on free speech. But his campaign has struggled to entice Erdogan supporters.
"Look at the stage our country has arrived in the last 20 years. (The opposition) would take us back 50-60 years," said Bekir Ozcelik, a security guard in Ankara, who voted for Erdogan. "There is no other leader in the world that measures up to Erdogan."
What Ozcelik and many other supporters see in Erdogan is a leader who has shown that Turkey can be a major player in geopolitics.
Turkey is a key member of NATO because of its strategic location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it controls the alliance's second-largest army. Under Erdogan's rule, Turkey has proven to be an indispensable and, at times, troublesome NATO ally.
It vetoed Sweden's entry into NATO and purchased Russian missile-defense systems, prompting the United States to oust Turkey from a U.S.-led fighter-jet project. Yet, together with the U.N., Turkey brokered a vital deal that has allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to parts of the world struggling with hunger.
After civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Erdogan embroiled Turkey by backing opposition fighters seeking to depose President Bashar Assad. The fighting triggered a surge of Syrian refugees that Erdogan has used as leverage against European nations, by threatening to open up Turkey's borders and swamp them with migrants. And Turkey now controls large swaths of territory in northern Syria, after a succession of military attacks aimed at Kurdish groups there affiliated with rebels that Turkey has outlawed.
Erdogan has boasted about Turkey's military-industrial sector on the campaign trail citing homemade drones, aircraft and a warship touted as the world's first "drone carrier" — and the message appeared to resonate with voters on May 14, analysts say.
On the domestic front, Erdogan has raised Islam's profile in country whose secular roots are fraying.
He has curbed the powers of the once staunchly secularist military and lifted rules that barred conservative women from wearing headscarves in schools and government offices. To further rally his conservative supporters, Erdogan has disparaged Kilicdaroglu and the opposition as supporting what he called "deviant" LGBTQ rights.
The biggest threat Erdogan faces at the moment is the economy. His primary method of attacking families' diminishing purchasing power has been to unleash government spending, which — along with lowering interest rates — only makes inflation worse, according to economists.
Erdogan has increased public-sector wages, boosted pensions and allowed millions of people to retire early. He has also introduced electricity and gas subsidies and wiped out some household debt.
He has also promised to spend whatever is necessary to reconstruct the vast quake-stricken areas. At each ground-breaking ceremony he attends, Erdogan says only his government can rebuild lives following the disaster that leveled cities and killed more than 50,000 in Turkey.
Erdogan's party won 10 out of 11 provinces in the region affected by the quake, an area that has traditionally supported him — despite criticism that his government's initial response to the disaster was slow.
Mustafa Ozturk, an Erdogan supporter in Ankara, said his standard of living has declined as a result of inflation. But the way he sees it, Turkey isn't the only country struggling with inflation since the pandemic.
"It isn't Erdogan's fault," he said. Ozturk said he would never vote against Erdogan, saying he felt "indebted" to him for bringing Islam more to the forefront of society.
Erdogan's message — and power — are amplified by his tight control over the media.
The state-owned broadcaster TRT Haber devoted more than 48 hours of airtime to Erdogan since April 1, compared with 32 minutes given to Kilicdaroglu, according to Ilhan Tasci, a member of Turkey's radio and television watchdog.
Kilicdaroglu's promise to repair the economy and uphold women's rights to wear Islamic headscarves in schools simply did not resonate in the country's conservative heartland.
"Kilicdaroglu changed the image of the (opposition) party, but Erdogan controls the narrative, so there is that fear factor" among conservative women who wear Islamic-style headscarves, Tol said. "They believe that if the opposition comes to power, they will be worse off."
After Turkey's pro-Kurdish party backed Kilicdaroglu, Erdogan portrayed the opposition as being supported by Kurdish "terrorists." The opposition's efforts to refute this were rarely broadcast by the mainstream media.
Erdogan "meticulously crafted a run for victory that included leaning on state institutions, leaning on information control and demonizing the opposition as terrorists or (having) beliefs interpreted as insufficiently Muslim," said Soner Cagaptay an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute and an author of numerous books about Erdogan.
"The media switched the debate to how Turkey has become an industrial military giant under him. And it worked," Cagaptay said.
During the first round of voting on May 14, Turkey also held legislative elections, in which Erdogan's alliance of nationalist and Islamist parties won a majority in the 600-seat parliament. That gives him an additional advantage in the second round, analysts say, because many voters are likely to back him to avoid a splintered government.
"The parliament is overwhelmingly with us," Erdogan said last week in an interview with CNN-Turk. "If there is a stable administration, there will be peace and prosperity in the country."
The cyber gulag: How Russia tracks, censors and controls its citizens
When Yekaterina Maksimova can't afford to be late, the journalist and activist avoids taking the Moscow subway, even though it's probably the most efficient route.
That's because she's been detained five times in the past year, thanks to the system's pervasive security cameras with facial recognition. She says police would tell her the cameras "reacted" to her — although they often seemed not to understand why, and would let her go after a few hours.
"It seems like I'm in some kind of a database," says Maksimova, who was previously arrested twice: in 2019 after taking part in a demonstration in Moscow and in 2020 over her environmental activism.
For many Russians like her, it has become increasingly hard to evade the scrutiny of the authorities, with the government actively monitoring social media accounts and using surveillance cameras against activists.
Even an online platform once praised by users for easily navigating bureaucratic tasks is being used as a tool of control: Authorities plan to use it to serve military summonses, thus thwarting a popular tactic by draft evaders of avoiding being handed the military recruitment paperwork in person.
Rights advocates say that Russia under President Vladimir Putin has harnessed digital technology to track, censor and control the population, building what some call a "cyber gulag" — a dark reference to the labor camps that held political prisoners in Soviet times.
It's new territory, even for a nation with a long history of spying on its citizens.
"The Kremlin has indeed become the beneficiary of digitalization and is using all opportunities for state propaganda, for surveilling people, for de-anonymizing internet users," said Sarkis Darbinyan, head of legal practice at Roskomsvoboda, a Russian internet freedom group the Kremlin deems a "foreign agent."
RISING ONLINE CENSORSHIP AND PROSECUTIONS
The Kremlin's seeming indifference about digital monitoring appeared to change after 2011-12 mass protests were coordinated online, prompting authorities to tighten internet controls.
Some regulations allowed them to block websites; others mandated that cellphone operators and internet providers store call records and messages, sharing the information with security services if needed. Authorities pressured companies like Google, Apple and Facebook to store user data on Russian servers, to no avail, and announced plans to build a "sovereign internet" that could be cut off from the rest of the world.
Many experts initially dismissed these efforts as futile, and some still seem ineffective. Russia's measures might amount to a picket fence compared to China's Great Firewall, but the Kremlin online crackdown has gained momentum.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, online censorship and prosecutions for social media posts and comments spiked so much that it broke all existing records.
According to Net Freedoms, a prominent internet rights group, more than 610,000 web pages were blocked or removed by authorities in 2022 -– the highest annual total in 15 years — and 779 people faced criminal charges over online comments and posts, also a record.
A major factor was a law, adopted a week after the invasion, that effectively criminalizes antiwar sentiment, said Net Freedoms head Damir Gainutdinov. It outlaws "spreading false information" about or "discrediting" the army.
Human Rights Watch cited another 2022 law allowing authorities "to extrajudicially close mass media outlets and block online content for disseminating 'false information' about the conduct of Russian Armed Forces or other state bodies abroad or for disseminating calls for sanctions on Russia."
SOCIAL MEDIA USERS 'SHOULDN'T FEEL SAFE'
Harsher anti-extremism laws adopted in 2014 targeted social media users and online speech, leading to hundreds of criminal cases over posts, likes and shares. Most involved users of the popular Russian social media platform VKontakte, which reportedly cooperates with authorities.
As the crackdown widened, authorities also targeted Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram. About a week after the invasion, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were blocked in Russia, but users of the platforms were still prosecuted.
Marina Novikova, 65, was convicted this month in the Siberian city of Seversk of "spreading false information" about the army for antiwar Telegram posts, fining her the equivalent of over $12,400. A Moscow court last week sentenced opposition activist Mikhail Kriger to seven years in prison for Facebook comments in which he expressed a desire "to hang" Putin. Famous blogger Nika Belotserkovskaya, who lives in France, received a nine-year prison term in absentia for Instagram posts about the war that the authorities claimed spread "fakes" about the army.
"Users of any social media platform shouldn't feel safe," Gainutdinov said.
Rights advocates worry that online censorship is about to expand drastically via artificial intelligence systems to monitor social media and websites for content deemed illicit.
In February, the government's media regulator Roskomnadzor said it was launching Oculus — an AI system that looks for banned content in online photos and videos, and can analyze more than 200,000 images a day, compared with about 200 a day by humans. Two other AI systems in the works will search text materials.
In February, the newspaper Vedomosti quoted an unidentified Roskomnadzor official as lamenting the "unprecedented amounts and speed of spreading of fakes" about the war. The official also cited extremist remarks, calls for protests and "LGBT propaganda" to be among banned content the new systems will identify.
Activists say it's hard to know if the new systems are operating and their effectiveness. Darbinyan, of the internet freedom group, describes it as "horrible stuff," leading to "more censorship," amid a total lack of transparency as to how the systems would work and be regulated.
Authorities could also be working on a system of bots that collect information from social media pages, messenger apps and closed online communities, according to the Belarusian hacktivist group Cyberpartisans, which obtained documents of a subsidiary of Roskomnadzor.
Cyberpartisans coordinator Yuliana Shametavets told AP the bots are expected to infiltrate Russian-language social media groups for surveillance and propaganda.
"Now it's common to laugh at the Russians, to say that they have old weapons and don't know how to fight, but the Kremlin is great at disinformation campaigns and there are high-class IT experts who create extremely effective and very dangerous products," she said.
Government regulator Roskomnadzor did not respond to a request for comment.
EYES ON — AND UNDER — THE STREETS
In 2017-18, Moscow authorities rolled out street cameras enabled by facial recognition technology.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities were able to trace and fine those violating lockdowns.
Vedomosti reported in 2020 that schools would get cameras linked to a facial recognition system dubbed "Orwell," for the British writer of the dystopian novel "1984," with his all-seeing character, "Big Brother."
When protests over the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny erupted in 2021, the system was used to find and detain those attending demonstrations, sometimes weeks later. After Putin announced a partial mobilization for Ukraine last year, it apparently helped officials round up draft evaders.
A man who was stopped on the Moscow subway after failing to comply with a mobilization summons said police told him the facial recognition system tracked him down, according to his wife, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because she feared retaliation.
In 2022, "Russian authorities expanded their control over people's biometric data, including by collecting such data from banks, and using facial recognition technology to surveil and persecute activists," Human Rights Watch reported this year.
Maksimova, the activist who repeatedly gets stopped on the subway, filed a lawsuit contesting the detentions, but lost. Authorities argued that because she had prior arrests, police had the right to detain her for a "cautionary conversation" — in which officers explain a citizen's "moral and legal responsibilities."
Maksimova says officials refused to explain why she was in their surveillance databases, calling it a state secret. She and her lawyer are appealing the court ruling.
There are 250,000 surveillance cameras in Moscow enabled by the software — at entrances to residential buildings, in public transportation and on the streets, Darbinyan said. Similar systems are in St. Petersburg and other large cities, like Novosibirsk and Kazan, he said.
He believed the authorities want to build "a web of cameras around the entire country. It sounds like a daunting task, but there are possibilities and funds there to do it."
'TOTAL DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE'
Russia's efforts often draw comparisons with China, where authorities use digital surveillance on a vast scale. Chinese cities are blanketed by millions of cameras that recognize faces, body shapes and how people walk to identify them. Sensitive individuals are routinely tracked, either by cameras or via their cellphones, email and social media accounts to stifle any dissent.
The Kremlin seems to want to pursue a similar path. In November, Putin ordered the government to create an online register of those eligible for military service after efforts to mobilize 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine revealed that enlistment records were in serious disarray.
The register, promised to be ready by fall, will collect all kinds of data, "from outpatient clinics to courts to tax offices and election commissions," political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya said in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
That will let authorities serve draft summonses electronically via a government website used to apply for official documents, like passports or deeds. Once a summons appears online, recipients cannot leave Russia. Other restrictions -– like suspension of a driver's license or a ban on buying and selling property -– are imposed if they don't comply with the summons within 20 days, whether they saw it or not.
Stanovaya believes these restrictions could spread to other aspects of Russian life, with the government "building a state system of total digital surveillance, coercion and punishment." A December law mandates that taxi companies share their databases with the successor agency of the Soviet KGB, giving it access to travelers' dates, destinations and payment.
"The cyber gulag, which was actively talked about during the pandemic, is now taking its real shape," Stanovaya wrote.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cheered by 20,000 fans at Sydney stadium
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed by around 20,000 cheering fans, many chanting "Modi," at a Sydney stadium on Tuesday during his second visit to Australia as his country's leader.
Modi shared the stage with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who compared the reception by the primarily Indian crowd at Qudos Bank Arena to a concert by U.S. rock star Bruce Springsteen at the same venue.
"The last time I saw someone on the stage here was Bruce Springsteen and he didn't get the welcome that Prime Minister Modi has got," Albanese told the capacity crowd.
"Prime Minister Modi is the Boss," Albanese added, using Springsteen's nickname.
Modi told the audience he expected trade between the two countries will double in the next five years.
"Our positive cooperation is growing in areas like climate action, disaster management, strategic technologies, reliable supply chain, education and health security," Modi said.
"It hasn't grown through diplomacy. The real strength is the Indians living in Australia," he added.
A skywriter had earlier emblazoned the sky over Sydney with the message "Welcome Modi" in an indication of the city's enthusiasm about the 72-year-old Indian leader's visit.
The Indian diaspora accounts for only 3% of Australia's population but is the nation's fastest growing ethnic minority.
Modi is the only leader of the so-called Quad nations to continue with his scheduled visit to Australia after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled out of a planned meeting of the group in Sydney to return to Washington to focus on debt limit talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted a Group of Seven summit last week, later canceled his Australia trip as well.
Modi told The Australian newspaper that he wants to take India's relationship with Australia to the "next level," including closer defense and security ties to help ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
"As two democracies, India and Australia have shared interests in a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. There is alignment of our strategic viewpoint," Modi told the newspaper.
"The high degree of mutual trust between us has naturally translated into greater cooperation on defense and security matters. Our navies are participating in joint naval exercises. I am confident that there is merit in working together to realize the true potential in closer defense and security cooperation," Modi added.
Albanese told Parliament that Australia will host naval exercises involving India, the United States and Japan called Malabar for the first time this year in another sign of a deepening commitment to the Quad.
"India is a key strategic partner," Albanese told Parliament. "We are both part of a growing and dynamic region and Prime Minister Modi is a very welcome visitor to our shores."
Albanese said he and Modi expect to complete negotiations on a free trade deal before the end of the year.
"That will create Australian jobs, helping our industries prosper, sparking growth in innovation," Albanese said.
Negotiations on the deal began in 2011. The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement would increase the scope of a bilateral trade pact that came into force last December.
India is Australia's sixth largest trading partner, with the two-way exchange of goods and services valued at 46.5 billion Australian dollars ($31 billion) last year.
Australia is eager to increase trade with India as a means of diversifying from China, Australia's biggest trading partner. Australian efforts to improve trade relations with India have gained urgency in recent years as Beijing has imposed restrictions on certain Australian products.
Modi last visited Australia in November 2014, just months after his government was first elected.
Australia pulled out of the original Quad security dialogue with India, the United States and Japan in 2008, fearing the grouping would provoke a Chinese military buildup. Since China took that course anyway, the Quad reformed in 2017 and Australia returned to joint Quad military exercises in 2020.
With the Quad summit in Sydney canceled, a substitute Quad meeting was convened on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan.
Modi arrived in Sydney on Monday night from Papua New Guinea, where he hosted a meeting with Pacific Island leaders to discuss ways to better cooperate.
Asked if Australia would raise the issue of Muslim and minority rights in India with the Hindu leader, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said he expected Albanese and Modi would have a "full conversation."
"We have never had a greater strategic alignment with India than we do right now. Both countries are deeply invested in the collective security of the Indo-Pacific region," Marles said.
Sydney doctor Vani Arjunamani, one of the organizers of a rally near the stadium where Modi appeared, said the Indian leader was drawing bigger crowds than he did when he visited Australia in 2014.
"It's very interesting, isn't it? Is there another head of state that can pull this crowd? It is very unusual," Arjunamani said.