China’s beleaguered Uighurs under high-tech surveillance

CHINA: A new Human Rights Watch report details the scaled-up efforts to eradicate Uighur Muslims, Kazakhs, and other minorities behind a wall of secrecy in Xinjiang province—in state parlance, “to cure ideological diseases.” Most disturbing, according to the report, for its widespread implications:

“... is the government’s use of high-tech mass surveillance systems. Xinjiang authorities conduct compulsory mass collection of biometric data, such as voice samples and DNA, and use artificial intelligence and big data to identify, profile, and track everyone in Xinjiang. The authorities have envisioned these systems as a series of ‘filters,’ picking out people with certain behavior or characteristics that they believe indicate a threat to the Communist Party’s rule in Xinjiang.”

For a look at the faces of detention—and death—revisit WORLD Magazine’s August feature on these “forgotten people.”

SWEDEN became the first Scandinavian nation to join a swelling list of European countries where nationalist parties are making significant headway, after Sunday’s elections gave Sweden Democrats 17.6 percent of the vote. They will likely join a right-leaning alliance making up 40.3 percent of parliamentary seats, against the traditional left-leaning coalition’s 40.6 percent—making majority rule for either side uncertain.

FRANCE: A metaphor unfolded for the sometimes violent multicultural clash in Europe as pétanque players in Paris threw their metal pétanque balls at a man on a knife-stabbing rampage. The suspected Afghan national injured seven people, including two British tourists, and four are in critical condition. It was the country’s fifth stabbing attack this summer, including one Aug. 23 claimed by ISIS.

BRAZIL: Presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro is “markedly improving” after he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign event last week, and supporters believe the attack will increase support for his outsider campaign.

MEXICO: A mass grave in Veracruz State containing 168 human skulls is the latest reminder of brutal drug gang violence—and the estimated 30,000 Mexicans missing as a result.

SYRIA: Intense air strikes, including the return of the infamous government barrel bomb, are underway in Idlib and Hama.

SUDAN: President Omar al-Bashir dissolved his government and appointed a new vice president as the country faces its latest economic emergency, with long bank lines and ATMs in the capital emptied of cash.

CANADA: Who knew Canada has its own country music scene, dominated at last night’s CCMA Awards by native Shania Twain?

ITALY: Hundreds lined up Friday in Milan and waited an hour for cappuccinos they could get on any corner, as Italy’s first Starbucks opened.

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