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AUGUST 20, 2020 | The Jewish Home
The Week In News
China: World’s Most Surveilled Country
With the highest number of video cameras per capita in the world, China is the most surveilled country on Earth. A report put together by Comparitech, a leading cyber security firm, compared surveillance in different countries around the globe. Company researchers used data from government reports, news stories, and
police records to map out which cities are most saturated with surveillance cameras. The study only looked at CCTV cameras used by government agencies, such as law enforcement. According to the findings, China has the highest amount of cameras worldwide, with Chinese cities taking up 19 of the top 20 spots. Topping the list was the Chinese city of Taiyuan, with 120 cameras for every 1,000 residents. The only non-Chinese city in the top 20 list of most-surveilled cities was London in third place. The British capital is known for its intensive public surveillance program, with Comparitech finding that it has 67 cameras for every 1,000 people. In the U.S., the most surveilled city is Los Angeles with six cameras for 1,000 residents, followed by New York City, with five. CCTV technology has exploded over the past decade, driven by threats such as terrorism and advances in artificial intelligence. However, privacy advocates have decried the growing use of invasive cameras in public spaces as a way for governments to constantly monitor their citizens.
Massive Protests Rock Belarus
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets throughout Belarus to protest against irregularities in last week’s election. President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, declared victory following last Monday’s presidential election with 80% of the vote. His dubious win, which came amid significant rumors of voter fraud, caused challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to flee to Lithuania. The now-exiled Tikhanovskaya has said that the results “did not correspond to reality” and spoke of “numerous falsifications.” Her allies accuse Lukashenko of falsifying the vote in order to hide the fact that he
had lost his mandate to rule the former Soviet republic. Since then, massive protests have rocked Belarus as hundreds of thousands of citizens have called on Lukashenko to resign. In what the local media is calling the “the largest in the history of independent Belarus,” 222,000 people flooded the capital of Minsk on Sunday evening, where they heard a televised speech by Tikhanovskaya. In her video message, the opposition challenger declared herself the rightful victor and vowed to become the “national leader that Belarus needs.” Police responded to protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades and arrested more than 6,000 people. Videos on social media showed officers using extreme brutality against demonstrators, with those detained being badly beaten and thrown into overcrowded cells. In a rival rally on Monday, Lukashenko vowed never to resign and alleged that Belarus would “die as a state” should another election be held. “You came here so that for the first time in a quarter-century you
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