AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage

AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage
This combination created on Mar. 29, 2025, of handout satellite images taken by 2025 Planet Labs PBC shows the Masoeyein Monastery and surrounding area on Oct. 29, 2023 (L) in Mandalay, Myanmar (L), and the damage in the same area on Mar. 29, 2025 (R) following the Mar. 27, 2025, earthquake. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 01 April 2025
Follow

AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage

AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage
  • “The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,” said Microsoft’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres
  • “There’s no way to see through clouds with this technology”

MANDALAY, Myanmar: Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian country’s second-largest city.

The mission was to capture images that, combined with artificial intelligence technology, could help relief organizations quickly assess how many buildings had collapsed or were heavily damaged and where helpers most needed to go.

At first, the high-tech computer vision approach wasn’t working.

“The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,” said Microsoft’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres. “There’s no way to see through clouds with this technology.”

The clouds eventually moved and it took a few more hours for another satellite from San Francisco-based Planet Labs to capture the aerial pictures and send them to Microsoft’s philanthropic AI for Good Lab. By then it was already about 11 p.m. Friday at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. A group of Microsoft workers was ready and waiting for the data.

The AI for Good lab has done this kind of AI-assisted damage assessment before, tracking Libya’s catastrophic flooding in 2023 or this year’s wildfires in Los Angeles. But rather than rely on a standard AI computer vision model that could run any visual data, they had to build a customized version specific to Mandalay.

“The Earth is too different, the natural disasters are too different and the imagery we get from satellites is just too different to work in every situation,” Lavista Ferres said. For instance, he said, while fires spread in fairly predictable ways, “an earthquake touches the whole city” and it can be harder to know in the immediate aftermath where help is needed.

Once the AI analysis was complete, it showed 515 buildings in Mandalay with 80 percent to 100 percent damage and another 1,524 with between 20 percent and 80 percent damage. That showed the widespread gravity of the disaster, but, just as important, it helps pinpoint specific locations of damage.

“This is critical information for teams on the ground,” Lavista Ferres said.

Microsoft cautioned that it “should serve as a preliminary guide and will require on-the-ground verification for a complete understanding.” But in the meantime, the tech company has shared the analysis with aid groups such as the Red Cross.

Planet Labs says its satellites — it has 15 of them orbiting the Earth — have now photographed roughly a dozen locations in Myanmar and Thailand since Friday’s quake.


Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says

Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says
Updated 05 August 2025
Follow

Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says

Witkoff to meet with Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday, source says
  • Officials in Washington provided few details of Witkoff’s schedule
  • “Witkoff will be traveling to Russia this week,” Bruce said

WASHINGTON: US special envoy Steve Witkoff will be in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian leadership, a source familiar with the plan said on Tuesday.

Officials in Washington provided few details of Witkoff’s schedule.

“The president has noted, of course, that Special Envoy Witkoff will be traveling to Russia this week, so we can confirm that from this podium,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.

“What that will entail, I have no details for you.”

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, quoting aviation sources, said an aircraft believed to have Witkoff on board, had already left the United States.

US President Donald Trump, who has signaled frustration with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given him until this Friday to make progress toward peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions.


Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer

Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer
Updated 05 August 2025
Follow

Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer

Cameroon court rejects opposition leader’s presidential candidacy: lawyer
  • The Constitutional Council ruled that the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, a high-profile critic of the longtime president, “cannot be valid”
  • Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 contest

YAOUNDE: Cameroon’s constitutional court on Tuesday rejected the candidacy of President Paul Biya’s main opponent in October’s presidential election, the contender’s lawyer said.

The Constitutional Council ruled that the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, a high-profile critic of the longtime president, “cannot be valid and the immediate consequence is that he will not participate in the presidential race,” Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang told reporters after the hearing.

Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 contest.

Kamto, 71, who resigned from the MRC at the end of June, came second to Biya in the 2018 presidential election.

He sought to run this time as the candidate for the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM) and had officially submitted his candidacy last month.

In the 2018 election, Kamto stood for the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) but under the electoral code, parties wanting to run in the presidential election must have MPs in parliament or deputies in municipal councils.

The MRC boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections in 2020.

Constitutional Council president Clement Atangana ruled Kamto’s appeals were admissible for the court to hear but then judged them “unfounded.”

Another MANIDEM candidate submitted his candidacy, but that was also rejected.

After the ruling, Kamto did not comment.

MANIDEM president Anicet Ekane called it “a political decision. We take note of it.

“For the time being, we will not make a statement. We are reflecting on the decision and will decide,” said Ekane.

No media outlet was authorized to broadcast the Constitutional Council’s debates and decisions live.

The ministry of territorial administration announced the arrest of several people accused of disturbing public order near its premises.

Cameroon’s opposition is struggling to challenge the Biya administration.

On Saturday, a group of representatives from several parties published a statement in which they committed “to the choice of a consensus candidate around a common program” without any name being put forward.

In the run-up to Kamto’s exclusion, Human Rights Watch had warned that not allowing him to stand would raise concerns about the credibility of the electoral process.

“Excluding the most popular opponent from the electoral process will leave a shadow over whatever results are eventually announced,” warned Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at HRW.

The NGO warned that the move reflected “the government’s long-standing intolerance of any opposition and dissent, and comes amid increased repression of opponents, activists, and lawyers since mid-2024.”

So far, Cameroon’s Election Commission has approved 13 out of 83 prospective candidates,including Biya and former government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary.


German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say

German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say
Updated 05 August 2025
Follow

German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say

German hesitation on Gaza could encourage atrocities, Israeli academics say
  • The letter was addressed to senior Social Democrat lawmakers Rolf Muetzenich and Adis Ahmetovic
  • The two MPs have called for Germany to impose sanctions against Israel and a suspension of weapons deliveries

BERLIN: More than 100 Israeli academics have warned in a letter that a failure by Germany to put pressure on Israel could lead to new atrocities in Gaza.

“Further hesitation on Germany’s part threatens to enable new atrocities — and undermines the lessons learnt from its own history,” the academics wrote in the letter, addressed to senior Social Democrat (SPD) lawmakers Rolf Muetzenich and Adis Ahmetovic and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

On July 22, the two men, whose party is in the ruling coalition, had called for Germany to join an international coalition pushing for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, sanctions against Israel and a suspension of weapons deliveries.

The German government — comprising the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD — has sharpened its criticism of Israel over the manmade humanitarian catastrophe visited on Gaza’s 2 million people, but has yet to announce any major policy change.

Israel denies having a policy of starvation in Gaza, and says the Hamas militant group, responsible for an operation that killed 1,200 people in Israel in October 2023 and took hundreds more hostage, could end the crisis by surrendering.

Critics argue that Germany’s response to the war has been overly cautious, mostly owing to an enduring sense of guilt for the Nazi Holocaust, weakening the West’s collective ability to put pressure on Israel.

“If over 100 Israeli academics are calling for an immediate change of course ... then it’s high time we took visible action,” Ahmetovic told the public broadcaster ARD.

Britain, Canada and France have signalled their readiness to recognize a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory at the United Nations General Assembly this September.


Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach

Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach
Updated 05 August 2025
Follow

Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach

Govt urged to bring relatives of Afghans to UK after data breach
  • Charities ask home secretary to ‘prevent the worst possible consequences … becoming a dire reality’
  • Thousands of Afghans who helped Britain remain in their country despite their information being leaked in 2022

LONDON: A group of more than 50 charities and lawyers has urged the UK government to let Afghans granted asylum bring their families with them after their identities were revealed in a data breach.

The leak in February 2022 saw the details of more than 100,000 Afghans who worked with the British accidentally shared online by a Ministry of Defence employee.

They included people who had worked as interpreters for the British Army, and others who applied for asylum under the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

The leak was hidden by the government through a legal mechanism called a superinjunction, making reporting it in the press illegal. The superinjunction was lifted by a court last month.

ARAP and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme do not allow applicants to sponsor relatives to come to the UK.

The group of charities, including Asylum Aid and modern slavery charity Kalayaan, wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asking her “to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality” and help take the relatives of those whose identities were leaked out of Afghanistan.

“The UK government has a moral responsibility to the Afghan people who continue to suffer, including now as a result of the data leak and have no choice but to seek safety elsewhere.

“The 2022 data breach directly exposed Afghans still in the country to a risk of reprisals they were not even aware of, and the High Court, in lifting the superinjunction, recognised that its imposition may have increased the risks these people face.”

The signatories added: “Poor decision-making could yet again have exposed Afghans to serious harm, with many of these people having clear UK family ties.”

They said: “It is essential that those who were resettled under ARAP and ACRS are able to live in safety and are given a fair opportunity to reunite with their families.”

Some routes are open to resettled Afghans to reunite in the UK with relatives, but the signatories said these involve “extremely costly application fees and require copious, specific documentation.”

Wendy Chamberlain MP, the Liberal Democrat chair of the all-parliamentary group for Afghan women, told The Independent: “There is already anecdotal evidence of reprisals on family members by the Taliban — the Home Office has no time to waste if the government wants to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality.

“The Home Office desperately needs to take a pragmatic and compassionate approach to allowing Afghans resettled in the UK to be reunited safely with their families.

“It is clear that these schemes have been seriously mis-handled, culminating in the recent exposure of the 2022 data leak.”

James Tullett, CEO of the charity Ramfel, said: “The government has acknowledged that the people they have resettled need protection, and yet this offer of support comes with the heavy price of separation from family.

“Allowing Afghan families to reunite won’t solve all the problems associated with the data leak, but it will make a monumental difference for the affected families.”


Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster

Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster
Updated 05 August 2025
Follow

Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster

Thousands gather in Dhaka as Bangladesh marks a year after Hasina’s ouster
  • People can ‘speak freely’ since Hasina was removed from power, analysts say
  • Interim government plans to hold elections between February and April 2026

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered in the capital of Dhaka on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the student-led uprising that ousted long-serving former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Hasina was removed from power on Aug. 5, 2024, when demonstrators defied a nationwide curfew and stormed her official residence, forcing her to flee to neighboring India, where she remained in exile. 

Her ouster came following weeks of protests that began in early July 2024. What started as peaceful demonstrations over a controversial quota system for government jobs morphed into a wider anti-government movement which was met with a violent crackdown against protesters by security forces that killed over 1,000 people, mostly students. 

The end of her 15 years in uninterrupted power brought the formation of an interim government led by Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who promised to restore stability and hold new elections after necessary reforms. 

“Together, we will build a Bangladesh where tyranny will never rise again,” Yunus said in a message to the nation on Tuesday, as crowds in the capital waved flags and used colored smoke to celebrate. 

A year on, Hasina now faces trial for crimes against humanity in absentia, while the prospect for a better and reformed Bangladesh remains a challenge. 

“There is already a high hope among the citizens of this country that the interim government could do much. But we have to consider the time frame. At the same time, we have to consider the reality on the ground,” Dr. ASM Amanullah, political analyst and Vice-Chancellor of the National University, told Arab News. 

Though progress on institutional reforms promised by the interim government has been slow and fragmented, the country has been recording signs of economic recovery after the burden left by the previous Awami League party-led government, which accumulated over $44 billion in foreign debt and oversaw widespread corruption plaguing the banking, infrastructure, energy and power sectors. 

“People’s hopes are valid … (But) the way the government handled the issue with 180 million people in the country is remarkable,” Amanullah said. 

The interim government “should move to hold a free and fair election early next year, as early as possible,” he added. 

Despite calls for early polls, the Yunus administration has delayed elections, which may now take place between February and April 2026. 

While uncertainty about the future of democracy still looms large in Bangladesh, the country has witnessed in this past year a greater freedom of expression among the public, which was largely absent under Hasina’s rule of extensive dissent suppression, electoral manipulation and restricted press freedom. 

“The people of Bangladesh can speak freely, can run freely, they can move freely without fear. There is no fear of extrajudicial killing. There is no fear of abduction,” Amanullah said. 

In a report published on July 30, New York-based Human Rights Watch said “some of the fear and repression” and “abuses such as widespread enforced disappearances” that marked Hasina’s rule “appear to have ended.” 

For Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Bengali-language daily Amar Desh, this was Bangladesh’s “biggest” achievement. 

“We can speak freely, The people can vent their anger. They can criticize the government without any fear of government persecution. And the media is free; media also can criticize the government,” he told Arab News. 

But priority must be placed on holding elections that “will be accepted by the people of Bangladesh” and the international community. 

“We should return to the democratic system … without any further delay,” Rahman said. “It’s better to let a political government take over and we’ll see where the country goes from there.”

Despite the myriad of unresolved issues, Bangladeshis believe that unity will be central to the future of their country. 

“Most important for the people of the country is to unite against fascism,” Rahman said. “They should uphold the spirit of the July Revolution and they should unite in a way that never again another fascist regime should come to power in any form.” 

Amanullah from Bangladesh’s National University echoed the sentiment. 

“At this moment, the most important thing for Bangladesh is to be united,” he said. “This should be the most priority concern for the country. If they remain united, Bangladesh will see a light at the end of the tunnel.”