International news brief: Defying Beijing, US senator arrives in Taiwan, Taliban blocks 23 Mn websites

Taipei, Aug 26: US Senator, Marsha Blackburn is the latest US lawmaker to visit the self-governed island of Taiwan on Thursday after a series of visits by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other US officials that has heightened tensions with China. Applauding US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan alongside 25 other Republican senators, she said that Taiwan is the strongest partner of the US in the Indo-Pacific Region, according to The Hill. "Regular high-level visits to Taipei are long-standing US policy," Blackburn said, adding that she will not be bullied by China into turning her back on the island.

As per The Hill, Blackburn arrived in Taiwan after stops in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea and was received by the director-general for North American affairs in Taiwan's foreign ministry, Douglas Hsu at the airport.

Taliban blocks 23 Mn websites in Afghanistan

The interim government of Afghanistan led by Taliban has blocked more than 23 million websites for displaying what it considers immoral content over the year since the Taliban took power in the country, Najibullah Haqqani, the minister of communications in the Taliban administration, said on Thursday. "We have blocked 23.4 million websites. They are changing their pages every time. So, when you block one website another one will be active," TOLOnews quoted acting Minister Najibullah Haqqani as saying at a conference. Speaking at the same conference, the deputy communications minister in the interim government, Ahmad Masoud Latif Rai, also criticized Facebook for its reluctance to cooperate with the Taliban authorities on content moderation.

Massive protest in Pakistan over inflated energy bills

Staging a massive protest against the over-billing of the electricity bills in Pakistan, numerous protestors stormed the office of K-electric in Korangi district and held demonstrations in different areas of Karachi Thursday. Several protestors stormed different localities of Karachi and also vandalised and destroyed furniture of the K-Electric office, according to Express Tribune. Apparently, the over-billing of the electricity bills and long load-sheddings have infuriated citizens forcing them to take to the streets in different areas of the city. Claiming that high taxes on energy bills were beyond affordability, the enraged protestors blocked the road by putting up barriers and burning tyres.

Pakistan judge laments generals, politicians have misused Jinnah

A judge of Pakistan's Supreme Court has lamented that generals and politicians have often misquoted and misused the country's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah's declarations to emphasise equal rights for people of all faiths. "In the past, generals had attributed a lot of sayings to Quaid-e-Azam, now lawyers should not do that. There is already a lot of division in the society in the name of religion, don't create more," Justice Faiz Isa said as the top court heard a case of a Christian man accused of blasphemy.

Justice Isa informed the lawyer that Quaid-e-Azam (Jinnah) "had said that people of all faiths were free for their worship in Pakistan." He was referring to Jinnah's speech while inaugurating the country's independence in August 1947.

US suspends 26 flights operated by Chinese carriers

The United States suspended 26 passenger flights operated by Chinese carriers after Beijing's aviation agency took similar action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the US Transportation Department said in an order. "We, therefore, conclude that the public interest now requires a further modification, effective immediately, of Order 2020-6-1, to limit Chinese carriers' scheduled services accordingly," the order said on Thursday . "In the circumstances presented, we have decided to suspend twenty-six (26) US to China passenger flight segments."

Mark Zuckerberg admits censoring 'Hunter Biden Laptop' story for a week

Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that Facebook algorithmically censored the 'Hunter Biden laptop' story for a week. Zuckerberg admitted it on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast. Mark said that he did so because of a general request from the FBI to restrict election misinformation. During the podcast, Joe asked Zuckerberg how Facebook handles controversial issues...like the Hunter Biden story and whether it was censored. In response, Zuckerberg said, "So we took a different path than Twitter. I mean, basically, the background here is the FBI basically came to us...some folks on our team. They were like, Hey, just so you know...you should be high alert. We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, we have it on notice. That's basically...there's about to be some kind of dump that's similar to that. So just be vigilant."