News Round-Up: China's Digital ID, WHO Again with Monkeypox and Violent Crimes on the Rise at Train Stations Across Europe
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
China's developing surveillance society: the country is introducing digital ID.
WHO declares an international emergency again due to monkeypox outbreaks.
Violent crimes at European train stations are on the rise.
European Commissioner warned Elon Musk against interviewing Donald Trump.
US migrant crisis: costs for New York are already at 5 billion and rising.
China's developing surveillance society: the country is introducing digital ID
The Chinese government plans to introduce soon a "voluntary" digital identity, or digital ID, which will use biometric data, among other personal data, to identify people online. If used, it will allow the state to fully monitor people's online activities, or even exclude them from internet services.
China's communist regime claims that the digital ID, which is still in the development and testing stages and will be introduced in the future, will add convenience and provide greater security for users when using internet services, according to The Epoch Times. The authorities claim that this 'voluntary' certificate will streamline service processes, protect personal information and reduce online fraud. The longer-term aim is to replace the username and password system with a digital ID, which will supposedly make life easier for online portals by eliminating the need to collect data separately.
Chinese internet users have long been required to register with their real name and ID number when using internet services. But the new digital certificate will include a combination of data that have not been consolidated before, including messaging, the IP and router gateway addresses, and biometric data such as fingerprints and facial features. It is therefore data that will allow the authorities to apply stricter censorship and monitor people even more effectively than before.
That the aim is to further increase the state's control over citizens' internet use is also indicated by the fact that posts on local social media that are even slightly critical of the app and consider the digital ID to be yet another censorship tool are eagerly removed. In some quarters, such evidence is also compared to an Internet user tracker, which can easily piece together a user's entire online history. It has also been described as a tool that turns internet use and services into a privilege that can only be used with permission, as it gives authorities the possibility to deny authentication services to disobedient persons on the basis of a digital ID, i.e. to restrict or revoke a person's right to use the internet. If the new digital ID were to be placed alongside the social credit system already in use in China, under which the regime restricts access to goods and services in the physical world, for example, for disobedient people, the new online credential would allow the same to be done online.
Violent crimes in European train stations are on the rise
The number of violent crimes and sexual assaults against women on trains and in train stations is on the rise in various Western European countries. While Germany publishes statistics pointing to large-scale immigration as a problem, British police say people are simply reporting more crime.
In February this year, Brwa Shorsh, a 24-year-old of Kurdish origin, pushed 61-year-old postman Tadeusz Potoczek off a platform at a London Underground station. Fortunately, Potoczek, who had fallen on the tracks, landed on his feet and was quickly rescued by another passenger ahead of the arriving tube train. The two men were not acquainted and the justification Shorsh gave for attacking the much older man is baffling – he said Potoczek was giving him a dirty look. Shorsh was convicted in court at the end of July and is now expected to serve a long prison sentence.
While this case ended happily, the figures show that the number of violent crimes on the UK rail network as a whole is rising at an alarming rate. Specifically, figures released this week show that violence against women and girls onboard UK trains has increased by more than 50% in two years, with a 10% increase in sexual offences. In 2023, 11,357 crimes were recorded on the network, up from 7,561 in 2021. The number of sexual offences rose from 2,235 to 2,475 in the same period. The number of reports of sexual harassment also more than doubled, to 1,908.
While the British Transport Police acknowledge the problem and pledge to tackle it, they note that the reason behind the increase is the fact of more and more victims reporting crimes.
While these UK statistics do not specifically identify the origin of the assailants, German statistics of the same kind, for example, do. Figures for the first six months of the year published in the German media show that a total of 13,543 violent crimes were recorded at train stations, half of which were committed by foreigners. The proportion of foreigners in sexual offences was 59%. However, even these figures would probably need to be revised, as many of the suspected criminals recorded in the statistics as 'Germans' are in fact immigrants or descendants of immigrants and they are recorded as 'Germans' simply because they have acquired German passports, which the country currently grants quite generously.
In addition to Germany and the UK, other countries such as Belgium and France are also struggling with violent crime involving trains and train stations.
WHO declares an international emergency again due to monkeypox outbreaks
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced this week that it is on high alert due to the outbreak of monkeypox in Africa and its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared a public health emergency of international concern. A similar state of emergency was declared for the Covid crisis and has already been declared once for monkeypox two years ago.
The decision to declare a state of emergency was announced by Ghebreyesus, following a meeting with the Emergency Committee. According to the Committee, the new clade of monkeypox that has caused the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to spread further across Africa and beyond the continent. “The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” said Ghebreyesus.
Due to the outbreak of monkeypox, the WHO also declared the same kind of state of emergency in July 2022 and ended it in May 2023. At that time, another clade of the disease was spreading and reached about a hundred countries around the world.
Monkeypox is a disease that causes flu-like symptoms and unpleasant skin lesions. It spreads through close contact with an infected person. One of the forms of close contact through which the disease is spread is sex, for example, and thus the 2022 WHO campaign placed particular emphasis on informing 'men who have sex with men' about the spread and risks of the disease, considering them to be the first risk group. A number of countries, such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, then began vaccinating gay and bisexual men as a priority against monkeypox.
Four out of a hundred cases of monkeypox are said to be fatal, but now with this clade it is claimed that the mortality is even higer – about 10 out of a hundred cases. The BBC's figures for DRC, the country of origin of the current outbreak, however, do not confirm the higher mortality rate. Since the beginning of the year, 13,700 cases have been detected in the country of around 87 million people, of which 450 have been fatal, or around 3.28 cases per 100. While this is also an ominously high figure, the 10% mortality rate now claimed would be exceptionally alarming.
On the other hand, looking at the past, we can see that the WHO has exaggerated the mortality figures for diseases before. The Covid crisis also led the WHO to declare an international emergency in 2020, and at the time the WHO's claim of a 3.4% mortality rate from Covid went viral and caused panic. Yet this percentage was actually calculated on the basis of identified cases and not infected people, essentially reflecting the numbers of the at-risk group, i.e. those who actually suffered from the disease and needed medical care, rather than the majority of those infected. Thus the actual Covid mortality rate was several tens of times lower. A comprehensive study by John P. A. Ioannidis, a renowned Stanford University professor of medicine, et al. in October 2022 found that the pre-vaccination infection fatality rate in the 0-69 age group was 0.095%. The difference with the initial percentage circulated through WHO was thus more than 30-fold. Although both Ioannidis and other researchers pointed out the gross misconception as early as 2020, the WHO did not see it fit to reduce the panic at the time. In any case, it is to be hoped that the monkeypox mortality rate has also been overestimated, at least to some extent.
However, for the WHO, the declaration of public health emergency of international concern means the Director-General can now begin to issue temporary recommendations to countries to contain the spread of monkeypox, and the organisation's financial resources to deal with the situation have also opened up. WHO expects to need an initial $15 million (€13.8 million) to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities. The organisation has also appealed to its funders (member states, Bill Gates, etc.) for the money. The WHO is also making efforts to accelerate the availability of monkeypox vaccines in lower-income countries.
European Commissioner warned Elon Musk against interviewing Donald Trump
European Union (EU) Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a letter to Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, this week, warning him against publicly interviewing former US President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump on the platform. Breton did not rule out taking action to protect Europeans from 'harmful content'.
“I am writing to you in the context of recent events in the United Kingdom and in relation to the planned broadcast on your platform X of a live conversation between a US presidential candidate and yourself, which will also be accessible to users in the EU,” Breton began his letter to Musk. He explained that with his letter, he wanted to remind Musk of the requirements of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in force in the EU.
On the one hand, according to Breton, the DSA means that platforms have an obligation to ensure freedom of expression and information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected.
On the other hand, Breton wrote, that the DSA – which we have covered at length here – places an obligation on platforms to use all proportionate and effective measures to prevent the dissemination of harmful content that could have a detrimental impact on public security and civic discourse. As the letter makes clear, such content can also occur when Musk interviews Trump via X. “As the relevant content is accessible to EU users and being amplified also in our jurisdiction, we cannot exclude potential spillovers in the EU. Therefore, we are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political – or societal – events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections,” Breton wrote.
Breton reminded Musk that the European Commission has already initiated proceedings against X, in particular with regard to the measures against illegal content and the dissemination of disinformation, which the Commission considers insufficient. “I therefore urge you to promptly ensure the effectiveness of your systems and to report measures taken to my team. My services and I will be extremely vigilant to any evidence that points to breaches of the DSA and will not hesitate to make full use of our toolbox, including by adopting interim measures, should it be warranted to protect EU citizens from serious harm,” Breton wrote, referring to the possibility that under certain conditions he could also shut down X in the EU.
In addition, the Commission's proceedings could result in a significant fine for X, which could amount to up to 6% of the platform's global turnover. In terms of X's 2023 turnover, this would mean an estimated €200 million.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, called Breton's letter an unprecedented attempt to use European law to influence political activities in the United States. “It also patronizes European citizens, suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions,” she added.
Musk, however, responded to Breton, via X, with a simple meme, telling him to f... his own face.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that Breton did not have the approval of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to send such a letter, and it had not been discussed by the Commission.
Musk's conversation with Trump took place and has been listened hundreds of millions of times on X. Musk's conversation with Trump also marked Trump's return to the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. Under previous ownership, Twitter banned Trump in early 2021 in connection with the January 6 protests at the US Congress, arguing that Trump speaking out on Twitter could be a threat to public order and democracy. Although Musk bought Twitter and started to restore freedom of expression on the platform in October 2022, Trump has only now relaunched his account on the platform.
US migrant crisis: costs for New York are already at 5 billion and rising
Long-term illegal immigration to the United States across the country's southern border has led to significant costs. As an example, from the beginning of 2023 until the end of the first half of this year, New York City has spent $4.88 billion (€4.49 billion) on immigrants, The New York Post reports. 2 billion (€1.84 billion) of that has been spent on housing them. Many hotels in New York, some of which are even in the city centre, are currently only accommodating immigrants, paid for by the City of New York. In total, the city currently houses 63,900 immigrants in 210 locations.
New York has also spent 2 billion dollars (€1.84 billion) on services and goods for immigrants, 500 million (€460 million) on food and medical services and another 500 million (€460 million) on IT, administration and other costs.
The City of New York, led by Mayor Eric Adams, expects costs to continue to rise, with a budget projection of $10 billion (€9.2 billion) by June 30, 2025.
The total cost of the crisis is thus comparable to the budget of the New York Police Department (NYPD), which is $5.75 billion (€5.29 billion) per year. In fact, the NYPD itself has had to spend $21 million (€19.3 million) just to maintain public order and security in the areas where immigrants are housed.
As of 2022, the city has provided services to a total of 212,000 migrants. However, in recent years, millions of migrants have entered the country illegally across the southern border of the United States.
I note the totalitarian tenor of at least one person puffed up by self-importance drawn from the European Commission. Hard to distinguish his arrogance from that of Xi or Putin
Digital ID will go mainstream across Australia in 2024.