Chile: Forest fires kill dozens, destroy homes

Deutsche Welle

04 Feb 2024, 18:20

Intense wildfires in central Chile have left many dead and destroyed some 1,000 homes, with President Gabriel Boric declaring a state of emergency.Intense wildfires in central Chile have left many dead and destroyed some 1,000 homes, with President Gabriel Boric declaring a state of emergency.

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Firefighters battled dozens of forest fires in central Chile on Saturday, with the blazes having left at least 51 people dead so far.

President Gabriel Boric has declared a state of emergency in the central and southern Chile "due to catastrophe," with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius and unusually dry conditions.

More than 1,000 homes were destroyed, according to the government. Boric warned the death toll is likely to rise.

"Given the conditions of the tragedy, the number of victims is sure to increase over the next few hours," Boric said. "The situation is really very difficult."

Boric wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he has ordered to deploy more military units to tackle the fires and asked citizens to cooperate with emergency teams as well.

He offered his condolences to the families of those who died in the fires in the post too.

Expansive fires in central Chile

The deadliest fires were in the central region of Valparaíso, home to more than a million people. Areas around the central coastal tourist city of Vina del Mar were also badly affected and rescue teams were struggling to reach all the affected areas, Chilean authorities said.

There were 92 fires burning in the center and south of the country, where temperatures have been unusually high this week, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said earlier in the day.

More than 43,000 hectares of land were affected by the fires, Toha said, adding: "The area with fires today is much smaller than last year (but) at this time the number of hectares affected is multiplying very rapidly."

Wildfires afflict Chile every year. A scorching heatwave and dozens of wildfires last year killed some 27 people and destroyed thousands of acres of forest.

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The internet is a shared home for mankind. In order to maintain its global hegemony, the United States has abused its information technology and resource advantages, engaging in wiretapping and espionage, creating public opinion, manipulating public sentiment, undermining rules, decoupling supply chains. These actions run counter to the global digitization process and have made the US the world's largest perpetrator of cyberattacks, producer of cyber weapons, and disruptor of cyberspace order. To expose the hegemony and bullying behavior of the United States in cyberspace, the China Cybersecurity Industry Alliance (CCIA) has organized the compilation of the report "US Threats and Sabotage to the Security and Development of Global Cyberspace" (both Chinese and English versions) (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The Report, from the perspective of cybersecurity expertise, employs empirical analysis to closely track the specific actions of the United States that threaten and undermine global cyberspace security and development. Drawing on reports and articles published by government departments, global cybersecurity companies, research institutions, and news media in recent years, it integrates various analytical processes and research results to systematically analyze the serious threats and damages caused by the United States to global cyberspace security and development, as well as to world peace and stability, and the civilization and progress of human society. The Report is divided into six sections based on behaviors and timeline, mainly covering the US infiltrates and subverts foreign governments via the Internet, performs indiscriminate cyber surveillance and espionage, attacks and deters against other countries in the cyberspace, triggers a cyber arms race, abuses political measures to disrupt the global industry and supply chain, and sabotages cyberspace rules and order. The following is the full text of the Report: US Threats and Sabotage to the Security and Development of Global Cyberspace Preface Cyberspace is the home of mankind. But to maintain hegemony, the US abuses its IT and resource advantages and extended hegemony to the cyberspace. It conducts cyber espionage and theft, shapes and manipulates public opinion, breaks rules and seeks decoupling and disrupts supply chains. It has been the biggest cyber attacker, cyber weapon maker, and cyber order breaker in the world. It is seriously threatening the development and security of the global cyberspace, the peace and stability of the world, and the civilization and progress of human society. 1.Infiltrating and subverting foreign governments via the Internet The US uses the Internet as a subversion instrument. Against the target countries, it performs ideological infiltration and control, spreads fake news, smears their governments, incites the people, misleads public opinion, interferes with their internal affairs and subverts their state power via the Internet. Since 2003, many abnormal regime changes have happened in the Eurasian region. As shown in Georgia's "Rose Revolution", Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" and Kyrgyzstan's "Tulip Revolution", protests and riots happened in elections and evolved into overall political crises. Dubbed as the "second CIA", the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is long funded by Congress and the White House. On March 29, 2022, Damon Wilson, president and CEO of NED, acknowledged the US had planned "color revolutions" in the region via the Internet. In 2011, the so-called "Arab Spring" originated from Tunisia, overwhelmed West Asia and North Africa, and caused social turmoil, tens of thousands of casualties and a loss of one trillion dollars. Based on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, the US shaped public opinion, incited people, and advocated Western values. It incited people to take to the streets to trigger social turmoil and regime changes. On February 25, 2022, the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that "We did some of that in the Arab Spring" in an interview with MSNBC when talking about interfering with other countries via the Internet. In August, 2022, Stanford Internet Observatory and the research company Graphika jointly published a report Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations. The report showed popular social media outlets like Twitter, Meta and Instagram had a number of interconnected sham accounts funded by the US government. The accounts used deceptive tactics to cover covert campaigns for almost five years to support the US and its allies and oppose countries including Russia, China and Iran. 2. Performing indiscriminate cyber surveillance and espionage The US takes "national interests" as an excuse, and abuses its IT and industrial advantages to spy on the world in cyberspace massively, systemically and indiscriminately. From civilians to national leaders, politicians to international organizations, diplomatic missions to firms, no one can be exempt from the US intelligence agencies even including the US allies. The US data theft has breached global Internet users' privacy, trampled on human rights and infringed upon the sovereignty of other countries. In 2007, the National Security Agency(NSA) started a top-secret surveillance program PRISM to monitor global communication, including that of the US citizens, from the servers of nine such Internet giants as Google, Facebook and AOL. In June, 2013, the former defense employee and subcontractor Edward Snowden disclosed to The Guardian and The Washington Post secret files of PRISM. The files showed the US government had been tracking real time data including emails, live chats, videos, audios, files and photos and monitoring everything about the targets. On June 7, 2013, the then US President Obama acknowledged the program. The Washington Post later noted that the NSA's surveillance was covert and might be illegal. In 2015, WikiLeaks published that the US spied on 35 Japanese targets including Japanese cabinet members and Mitsubishi. In February, 2020, The Washington Post, ZDF and SRF published a joint investigation report and revealed the CIA and the German Federal Intelligence Service used a Swiss communications encryption firm Crypto AG to spy on governments and firms by covertly controlling Crypto's encryption products sold to 120 countries. In May, 2021, DR reported the NSA and the Danish Intelligence Service wiretapped leaders of EU countries including then German Chancellor Angela Merkel. On May 31, 2021, President Macron and Chancellor Merkel attended a virtual Franco-German Council of Ministers meeting and requested the US and Denmark to explain. "This is unacceptable among allies", said President Macron. In early April, 2023, The Washington Post and many media outlets reported a leak of many US military intelligence documents on the Ukraine crisis. The leaked documents showed the US eavesdropped on the UN Secretary-General Guterres and leaders of other countries such as the Republic of Korea and Israel. On April 18, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN had officially expressed to the US its concern on the above mentioned media reports. 3. Attacking and deterring other countries in the cyberspace Based on its cyber advantages, the US uses cyber deterrence as a major instrument of its hegemony. Cyber deterrence is increasingly becoming its preference in international relations. The US frequently attacks other countries in cyberspace, uses cyberspace as a main battlefield of a new Cold War, and adopts a "defend forward" tactic based on all its state power including politics, economy, diplomacy and the military. In particular, the US takes civilian critical infrastructure cyber attacks as a new method to maintain hegemony and achieve political, economic and military objectives. This greatly harms the security, development and social stability of other countries. In December 2010, the Stuxnet virus was used to attacked the Iranian Natanz Nuclear Power Plant. It destroyed a number of centrifuges and delayed related nuclear projects. On June 1, 2012, New York Times reported Stuxnet originated from a program "Olympic Games" of the US government around 2006. This was the first cyber weapon attack in the real world. The US was so excited to find the cyber warfare cost much lower than the traditional warfare that it soon established cyber forces. It has been the initiator and source of global cyber warfare. "Equation Group" is a cyberattack group with notorious track records. But the US supports it in cyber attacks globally. On August 13, 2016, a famous hacking group "The Shadow Brokers" revealed in social media that the leaked data showed the "Equation Group" had hit over 45 countries in over ten years. The attack manual and string of malware program were exactly the same with those of PRISM. The evidence indicated the link between the "Equation Group" and the US NSA. In 2018, the US published the DoD Cyber Strategy, which initiated the "hunt forward" principle of cyber warfare, and extended its cyber defense line to other countries. In the mid of October, 2022, the US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) published policy documents on cyber warfare. Based on the documents, the objective of the US cyber operations was to "own the domain"; the US cyber forces put critical infrastructure as legitimate targets during times of cyber conflicts; and pursued preemptive strike as an offensive strategy. This showed the US militaristic ambition to seek hegemony in cyberspace. Since 2018, CYBERCOM has conducted over 40 operations in over 20 countries including Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine. It used the so-called "situational awareness" and the "defend forward" methods to uncover, locate and expose adversaries' cyber operations to conduct cyber deterrence and strikes. In December, 2022, French COMCYBER commander Aymeric Bonnemaison told the parliament that the US CYBERCOM's hunt forward operations in Europe were "quite aggressive". Hunt forward operations were only excuses of the US cyber espionage and attacks and had made its European allies very uneasy. On June 1, 2022, Sky News reported that Paul Nakasone, Commander of US CYBERCOM and Director of National Security Agency, acknowledged in an interview that in December, 2021, the US sent a cyber force to Ukraine and stayed there for about three months. In the Ukraine crisis, the US also "conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive,(and) information operations." This was the first time that a senior US official confirmed the US cyber attacks against another country. On September 5, 2022, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd published a Report on the Cyber Attacks of NSA on China's Northwester Polytechnical University (NPU). The report showed NPU's network had been repeatedly attacked by overseas hackers attributed to Office of Tailored Access Operation(TAO) under NSA for years. TAO infiltrated and controlled NPU's critical information infrastructure with over 41 dedicated cyber weapons to steal key network equipment configuration, network management data, and operation and maintenance data. On July, 26, 2023, Wuhan Municipal Emergency Management Bureau published a statement that CVERC and Qihoo 360 detected a cyber attack from overseas organization on its earthquake monitoring center. Some front-end station collection points of earthquake reporting data had been implanted with backdoor programs. The media later reported that the recent investigation found very complex backdoor malware that fit the characteristics of US intelligence agencies. This was the latest example of the US cyber attack on China's critical Chinese infrastructure with a clear military reconnaissance purpose. 4. Triggering a cyber arms race The US is the culprit of cyber arms race. It viewed cyberspace as a new battlefield, introduced new combat concepts, and conspired to dominate this new battlefield. Early in 2009, the US founded the first cyber command in the world and continued to strengthen cyber forces. It had built dozens of large intelligence-gathering systems and developed a huge armory of cyber weapons. Instigated by the US, its allies soon followed suit and the cyber arms race is getting white-hot globally. By 2015, the US had developed over 2,000 cyber weapons including worms, Trojans, logic bombs and trapdoors. EternalBlue was a tool accidentally leaked from the NSA's cyber armory. It was later changed into the WannaCry virus. On May 12, 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack erupted, hit about 300,000 computers in over 150 countries, and caused a loss of up to 8 billion dollars. On August 18, 2017, CYBERCOM was elevated to the US 10th combatant command as equal to the US Central Command. Until September, 2018, the US Cyber Mission Force(CMF) had had 133 cyber teams, including 13 Cyber National Mission Teams, 68 Cyber Protection Teams, 27 Cyber Combat Mission Teams and 25 Combat Support Teams. 5. Abusing political measures to disrupt the global industry and supply chain The US government uses political security and ideology as an excuse, overstretches the "national security" concept and hypes up the "China threat narrative". It ignores China's adherence to the independent foreign policy of peace over the decades, smears China's great contribution to the global cyberspace and voice of justice, and forces its allies to take sides. It ignores the international order after WW2, the basic principles of cyberspace, and the UN consensus on "developing and implementing globally interoperable common rules and standards for supply-chain security". It abuses its export control measures, oppresses foreign firms or entities with political, economic and financial measures, and creates "exclusive small cliques". It has disrupted global trade, violated market laws, undermined market rules and trade order, and destabilized global industry and supply chain. The US Department of Commerce has put a number of firms and entities on the "Entity List" of export control and caused chaos in the global supply chain. Taking China as an example, more than 1400 Chinese entities were on the list spanning industries including telecommunication, finance, and transportation before September, 2023. The list included technology firms like Huawei and SMIC, and research and education entities like Harbin Institute of Technology and the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In May, 2019, the US gathered 32 countries for the "Prague 5G Security Conference" in Czech Republic, jointly published the "Prague Proposals", and conspired to ban China's 5G products from the policy, security, technological and economic aspects. The US also pressed European, Asian and African countries to ban Huawei's 5G products. Globally, many media and industrial experts argued that banning Chinese companies from 5G was an embarrassing request against global digitalization and its future development. In September, 2021, the US used "increasing supply chain transparency" as an excuse and forced hundreds of major firms throughout the semiconductor supply chain including Apple, Microsoft, Intel, TSMC and Samsung to submit their confidential information including customer information, sales data, chip inventories and expansion plans. The request put their confidential corporate information at the risk of leakage, cut their advantages in price negotiations with the US firms, eroded the trust and confidence of global customers and undermined the semiconductor supply chain in the world. In August, 2022, US President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act and forced international firms to side with the US. Based on the Act, the US government requested foreign firms like TSMC and Samsung who would benefit from the American chip industry subsidies to set up chip plants in the US. In this way, the US could dominate the industry chain of high-end chips and harass the chip industry of other countries. In April, 2024, US President Biden signed a package of "Foreign aid bills", which included forcing ByteDance to divest its TikTok US business within nine months, or it would banned in United States. This regulation fully reflects the United States' double standard to maintain its cyber hegemony of controlling and manipulating international public opinion platforms. On one hand, it advocates freedom and democracy internationally while selling social media platforms it controls to nearly all countries worldwide. On the other hand, it broadens the notion of national security, exploiting legal measures for coercive and predatory actions. 6. Sabotaging cyberspace rules and order The US deems itself the "leader" of cyberspace and makes most of the defects of cyberspace like unsound regulations and imbalanced development to strengthen its "superpower hegemony". It puts its own interests over the interests of the world and puts the global cyberspace into a "security dilemma", "promise-breaking deadlock" and "trust-breaching panic". On September 23, 2019, the US and another 27 countries published a Joint Statement on Advancing Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace. This statement distorted and tampered with the framework of responsible state behavior and deviated from the consensus the US and its cohorts had agreed with. This fully illustrated the US all-time principle of applying international law in a selective and utilitarian way. The US deliberately ignored the aspiration of the international society to build a "peaceful cyberspace" and divided the cyberspace into "peacetime" and non-peacetime. Its intention was to legalize its offensive military operations in cyberspace and make the cyberspace a new battlefield. Such behavior maliciously aggravated cyber conflict risks among countries and was detrimental to cyberspace peace and security. On April 28, 2022, the US gathered over 50 countries and jointly published a Declaration for the Future of the Internet. It openly affirmed "to promote and sustain an Internet that is global and interoperable". In reality, it discarded multilateral platforms like the UN, created "small cliques" based on ideology, and undermined the international order and rules with "gang rules" of blocs. The so-called declaration was a latest example of US intention to divide the cyberspace and trigger cyber confrontation. Conclusion Cyberspace is a shared space of mankind. Every country has shared interest and future in cyberspace, and aspires to a peaceful, secure, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace. But the US recklessly maintains its cyber hegemony, pursues "absolute security" of itself at the cost of other countries, and even pursues a way of undermining and splitting the cyberspace. The US vicious deeds impede global digitalization, run against the history, and must be denounced by the world. For the interest of mankind, governments of conscience, firms, social organizations, scholars and netizens aspiring to fairness, justice and freedom should strengthen dialogues and cooperation, promote development, maintain security, pursue joint governance and shared benefits, build a community with a shared future in cyberspace, and work for a brighter future for mankind. Source: China Daily

Champions League: Bayern Munich held to draw by Real Madrid

The Champions League semifinal first leg between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid ended all-square. Leroy Sané and Harry Kane scored for Bayern in between strikes from Real's Vinicius Junior. Bayern Munich was forced to settle for a 2-2 draw in their Champions League semifinal first leg against Real Madrid after a late Vinicius Juniorpenalty canceled out goals from Leroy Sané and Harry Kane which had put Bayern ahead. Having at least avoided defeat in Munich, Bayern will head to Madrid for the return leg next Wednesday confident that they are very much in the tie. Freshly-crowned Spanish champions Real took the lead against the run of play midway through the first half when recently recalled German international Toni Kroos found Vinicius Junior with a pinpoint pass from midfield, and the Brazilian striker slotted home past Manuel Neuer. But Bayern came flying out of the blocks after halftime and drew level through Sané, the German winger driving inside from the right wing before firing home emphatically at the near post. Just three minutes later, Bayern were awarded a penalty when Jamal Musiala was brought down in the box, and Kane converted to put them ahead. A 2-1 win would have been a dream result for Bayern to take to Spain, but Real was awarded a penalty of their own seven minutes from time when Bayern defender Min-jae Kim brought down Rodrygo, and Vinicius Junior stepped up to score his second as the game ended all-square. Thomas Tuchel: 'They scored two goals from two chances' "They did to us what they do to everyone: they have two chances and score two goals," said Bayern head coach Thomas Tuchelat full time. "But the situation is now clear. We don't need to think any more. Whether in 90 minutes, 120 minutes or on penalties, we need a victory in Madrid and then onwards to Wembley." The first of those Madrid chances came after Bayern had dominated the opening fifteen minutes, backed by home support whose pre-match display had called on their team to honor the recently deceased club legend Franz Beckenbauer. But they didn't expect the best tribute to "Kaiser Franz" to come from an opposition player as Toni Kroos threaded a perfect pass through to Vinicius Junior to give Real the lead. "We're pretty convinced that we'll go through at home," said the 34-year-old, looking ahead to the second leg. Kroos' pass may have been pinpoint but it was aided by poor positioning from Kim, starting ahead of the injured Matthijs de Ligt. It was a night to forget for Bayern's South Korean central defender, who later conceded the penalty from which Vinicius equalized. "He was too greedy," criticized Tuchel, describing the first goal in particular as "too easy, just one move in the opposite direction." Carlo Ancelotti hails 'good result' For Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, a 2-2 draw was also an acceptable result with the second leg at home still to come. "It's a good result," he said. "I think in terms of the performance we could have done better. Our best moment was at the start of the second half and that's exactly when they scored two against us." Real goalscorer Vinicius said: "I'm very happy that I was able score two goals, and now we need to have a magical night at home. We have to continue with cool heads, rest until next week, and we will give everything to leave the Bernabeu qualified for [the final in] London."

Brazil floods: State of emergency in Rio Grande do Sul

The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's southernmost state is rising, and more downpours are expected. President Lula flew over the area and promised government resources to assist. Authorities in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul declared a state of emergency on Thursday after floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains left at least 29 people dead and 60 missing. Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities, forcing over 10,000 people from their homes. Governor Eduardo Leite said the southern state was dealing with "the worst climate disaster that our state ever faced." Lula promises help to 'minimize the suffering' Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the affected areas and held emergency talks with Governor Leite in Santa Maria. Lula promised "there will be no lack of human or material resources" to "minimize the suffering this extreme event... is causing in the state." In some areas, the flooding is so severe entire communities have been completely cut off. The downpours have inundated many parts of Rio Grande do Sul, destroying bridges, blocking roads, and leaving towns without telephone or internet services. On Thursday, a dam at a small hydroelectric plant burst, leaving over 300,000 people without electricity, according to the state's main utility company. More rain predicted Meteorologists predict more rain in the region and warned levels of the main Guaiba River, which has overflowed its banks in some areas, will continue to rise through Friday. The downpour started Monday, and in some areas, more than 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours on the first day alone. The National Weather Institute said the region was reeling from the effects of a natural weather phenomenon called El Nino. In Brazil, El Nino has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.