'Shocked and alarmed': New York Times reporter back from Libya describes the ISIS surge there

• Pamela Engel
 
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• 17h
• 24,226
 
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@7our/TwitterISIS fighters drive through Libya.

While Western nations focus on taking ISIS out in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group's influence in Libya is rising as it works to build a potential "backup capital" if its stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, falls.

A New York Times reporter who recently returned from covering ISIS — aka the Islamic State and ISIL — in Sirte, a coastal city in northern Libya, told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that he was "shocked and alarmed" at how much ISIS has grown there.

"I have to say I was personally shocked and alarmed at what I found on this last visit," Times reporter David Kirkpatrick told Hewitt.

"When I had last been near Sirte earlier this year in February and March, it looked like a bunch of local militants with their own local agenda just hauled up the Islamic State flag to make themselves look tough," he said. "When I went back this time, not only did I find that they had vastly expanded their terrain ... but the city of Sirte had become a kind of actively managed colony of the Islamic State leaders in Raqqa."

ISIS is "sending in their own administrators, many of them from the Gulf, as well as their own military commanders, often Iraqis and former officers in Saddam Hussein's army to lead their operations there, and recruiting foreign fighters from around the region," Kirkpatrick said.

He explained that Libya is a failed state full of cities governed by local militias.

"Some of those militias are ideological, and increasingly, they have picked up into two big teams fighting against each other mostly for money and power, but with a sort of vaguely ideological overtone," he said. "And into this landscape comes the Islamic State ... and it's been expanding its own empire so that it now has a full and exclusive control of 150 miles of Libyan coastline."

The base of operations in northern Libya also brings ISIS closer to the West. Kirkpatrick pointed out that Sirte is only 400 miles away from Sicily, Italy.

Screenshot / Google Maps

And if ISIS does eventually scale back its operations in Syria and shift its focus to building out its base in Sirte, it might be more difficult for Western states to intervene and stop them.

"You're talking about a failed state surrounded by weak and fragile states," Kirkpatrick said.

"I can't think of any of the neighboring states that could launch an intervention against the Islamic State or even host a Western intervention against the Islamic State. The closest thing is Egypt, and Egypt hasn't been able to solve its own Islamic State problem," he said.

The Times reporter continued: "And again, because this little Islamic State colony in Libya is amid the chaos in Libya, it's surrounded by other militias, tribal or ideological militias, all of which are fighting against each other, and none of which would welcome a column of American troops marching through their territory. So it's a big mess."

At the end of the show, Hewitt called Libya the "newest, latest nightmare for the West."

The Times reported last month that ISIS's branch in Sirte is the only one outside the group's core territory in Iraq and Syria that ISIS central leadership directly controls.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on ISIS's expansion in Sirte, noting that ISIS leaders in Libya have reportedly adopted a slogan that reflects Sirte's heightened profile within the jihadist organization: "Sirte will be no less than Raqqa."

ISIS's Libya affiliate has reportedly gone from 200 fighters to about 5,000 since ISIS announced its branch there, The Journal reported. The Times reported that Western officials put that estimate at 2,000 fighters.

Sirte is governed like other ISIS-controlled cities in the Middle East. The group has reportedly set up propaganda "media points" in the city and started imposing its strict laws, like requiring women to wear Islamic veils in public and permitting public executions.

But there are problems with ISIS's franchise in Sirte. While the group has tried to build up the city to mirror Raqqa — with bureaucratic buildings, a "police" force, and courts — ISIS is having a hard time meeting the basic needs of the population, according to The Journal. Gas stations and hospitals aren't functioning, and checkpoints make travel difficult.

As a civil engineer who recently fled told The Journal: "Sirte has gone dark."

Read or listen to the full interview at Hugh Hewitt's website >>

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NOW WATCH: Animated map shows the spread of ISIS through Iraq and Syria

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China could give 100 million people new identities in a bid to save its economy

• Linette Lopez
 
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• 19h
• 5,180
 
• 5

ReutersMigrant workers hold the names of new migrants as they wait to pick up them from a railway station in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, February 7, 2003.

Chinese officials are set to discuss ways to stimulate the country's sputtering housing market during its Central Economic WorkingConference later this month, according to Chinese state media.

The goal will be to create demand for empty houses in second- and third-tier cities that overbuiltduring the country's construction boom. According to government figures, unsold housing inventory is up 17.8% from this time last year.

That unsold housing is a drag on the economy. China's growth was built, in large part, on the back of infrastructure development, including property.

Investors poured billions into projects, creating what some analysts consider China's first big asset bubble. As such, it's one of the most indebted sectors in an economy where debt, and its impact on growth, have become a central concern.

China's plan to address the unsold housing could include moving around 100 million people from the country to cities, where there's excess housing capacity. 

The Chinese government announced a plan to move citizens from rural areas to cities last year, but it didn't disclose any details. Now officials are connecting a resurrection of that plan to the talks to address the unsold housing, according to real-estate website Mingtiandi.

"Premier Li Keqiang ... told a cabinet meeting that the government should overhaul China'shousehold registration system to encourage more rural residents to settle in cities and boosthouse sales," the Chinese state-media report said.

Such a move would pose a logistical nightmare, and present a direct challenge to a system that has classified Chinese people based on their place of birth and family since the 1950s: the hukou system.

Reuters/David GrayA migrant worker sleeps as his wife waits with him at a bus stop.

What the heck is hukou?

The hukou system is basically a residency-permit system. It designates where people are supposed to live based on their family and where they were born. It became a dominant force in shaping the Chinese identity in 1958, when leader Mao Zedong made it official party policy.

"Without registration one cannot establish eligibility for food, clothing or shelter, obtain employment, go to school, marry, or enlist in the army," Judith Banister wrote in her 1991 book "China's Changing Population."

The government put this system in place to restrict the movement between the city and country. The government needed to keep cities from overcrowding with migrants looking for work, and it needed farmers to stay in the country to grow food.

The hukou system makes it so that certain social services available to city dwellers are still not available to people with country hukous. If someone from the country applied for a city permit, they would have to give up their land.

The system effectively created a source of cheap labor for city factories. Migrant workers from the country who move to cities to work are still classified as country people, and as such are not eligible to apply for certain jobs in urban areas.

That means they have to take manufacturing jobs that don't pay well, since better-paying jobs are closed to their hukou. Some have said this makes hukou like a caste system.

"China cannot be continuing to do all this low-cost production," Kam Wing Chan, a University of Washington professor, said in 2010. "It's not the way out. There were great merits for doing that in the 1980s, but continuing it today is not the right strategy. They should let people gradually move into the city, get an education and social services, and focus on producing better products rather than just cheap products."

Thomson ReutersBuildings are seen on a hazy day in downtown Chongqing, one of China's third-tier cities.

Liberalize it

It seems the Chinese government has come around to Chan's thinking. With the housing market lagging as it is and debt piling up, China needs those in the country to put what little money they have to work in key parts of the real-estate sector.

Here is the Mingtiandi article:

According to an account in the China Securities Journal, the government is preparing to not only provide these would-be urbanites with urban hukous, the official family register that entitles them to city services, but also to lower financial barriers to home ownership.

Additionally, China plans to recognize around 13 million undocumented people — with no hukou whatsoever. A lot of these people are second children born in violation of the country's one-child policy.

The question is, of course, whether an undocumented person in, say, Beijing, will want to have the government give them a hukou in some third-tier city. What happens if people won't move?

NOW WATCH: JIM CRAMER: 'YOU SHOW UP AND THAT'S THE REVENGE'

More: China Markets and Economy China Markets China

Russia is now supporting Assad's enemies in Syria

• Dmitry Solovyov, Reuters

• 20h
• 15,858
 
• 17

Thomson ReutersRussian President Putin addresses the audience during an annual meeting at the Defence Ministry in Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia supports the opposition Free Syrian Army, providing it with air support, arms and ammunition in joint operations with Syrian troops against Islamist militants.

His statement appeared to be the first time Moscow said it was actually supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's opponents in the fight against Islamic State forces. Putin said last month the Russian air force had hit several "terrorist" targets provided by the Free Syrian Army.

Western and Arab states carrying out air strikes against Islamic State for more than a year say that Russian jets have mainly hit other rebel forces in the west of Syria.

"The work of our aviation group assists in uniting the efforts of government troops and the Free Syrian Army," Putin told an annual meeting at the defense ministry.

"Now several of its units numbering over 5,000 troops are engaged in offensive actions against terrorists, alongside regular forces, in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqqa," he said, referring to the Free Syrian Army.

"We support it from the air, as well as the Syrian army, we assist them with weapons, ammunition and provide material support."

Putin said strikes by Russia's air force and navy had inflicted heavy damage on the infrastructure of Islamic State, which controls large areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, however, that the influence of Islamic State was increasing in Syria, where militants control around 70 percent of the country.

The number of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria totals around 60,000, Shoigu said, and there is a threat of violence spilling over into post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Talking to his generals, Putin issued a veiled warning to Turkey, whose downing of a Russian bomber jet near the Syrian-Turkish border last month sent bilateral relations to a freezing point and led Moscow to impose economic sanctions to Istanbul.

Russian militaryA Russian attack helicopter.

"I want to warn those who may again try to stage provocations against our troops," he said.

"I order you to act in an extremely tough way. Any targets threatening Russia's (military) group or our land infrastructure must be immediately destroyed," Putin told the generals.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier on Friday called on Russia for calm, but said Turkey's patience is not unlimited. 

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2015. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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This mathematical principle reveals the best way to get anything you want in life

• Jenna Goudreau
 
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• Jun. 30, 2015, 10:14 AM
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The Mathematics of LoveIllustration by Christine Rösch for "The Mathematics of Love" published by TEDBooks.

Whether it's landing your dream job or getting the girl, a basic mathematical principle can help you in almost any situation.

That's according to Hannah Fry, a mathematician at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis in London and author of the new book "The Mathematics of Love."

She describes the "stable marriage problem," or the challenge of matching two entities so that neither would be better off in another match, and explains the Gale-Shapley matching algorithm often used to solve it. Exploiting this algorithm can be a great strategy for getting what you want.

Here's how it works: Fry uses the example of three boys talking to three girls at a party. Each participant has an ordered list of who is most suitable to go home with.

If this was a 1950s-style dating scenario in which the boys approached the girls, each boy would hit on his top-choice girl, Fry says. If a girl has multiple offers, she would choose the boy she preferred most, and if a boy were rejected, he would approach his second-choice girl.

The result is pretty great for the boys. Each gets his first- or second-choice partner, and there is no way the boys could improve, because their top choices have said yes or already rejected them.

The girls fare relatively worse, however, having paired up with their second- or third-choice partners.

Fry writes:

Regardless of how many boys and girls there are, it turns out that whenever the boys do the approaching, there are four outcomes that will be true:

1. Everyone will find a partner.

2. Once all partners are determined, no man and woman in different couples could both improve their happiness by running off together.

3. Once all partners are determined, every man will have the best partner available to him.

4. Once all partners are determined, every woman will end up with the least bad of all the men who approach her.

Amazon

Essentially, whoever does the asking (and is willing to face rejection until achieving the best available option) is better off. Meanwhile, the person who sits back and waits for advances settles for the least bad option on the table.

The Gale-Shapley matching algorithm applies to plenty of situations beyond weekend hookups — including, say, hiring.

For example, a hiring manager who posts a job listing and lets the résumés roll in ultimately hires the best of the candidates who applied. But of course, that's a limited pool. On the other hand, a hiring manager who reaches out to the best professionals in the field and ends up with his or her third choice is still more likely to have a better candidate.

By the same token, a job seeker who approaches all the companies he or she wants to work for, starting with the most desirable, ends up with the best available employer.

The US National Resident Matching Program uses this strategy to match doctors with hospitals so that everyone is happy. Prior to the '50s, Fry says, hospitals reached out to the students they wanted, and the students accepted the least bad offers. But the organizers realized that doctors often had to relocate and weren't always happy with their options. To create a better system, they decided to flip the scenario and let doctors approach the hospitals they liked best.

Fry says the algorithm has been similarly applied to the assignments of dental residents, Canadian lawyers, and high-school students.

"Regardless of the type of relationship you're after," Fry concludes, "it pays to take the initiative."

Watch Fry's TED Talk on the mathematics of love:

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Here's why China's billionaires are disappearing

• Saad Ahmed, BRIC+

• 16h
• 12,815

Reuters/China Stringer NetworkGuo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International and a delegate of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attends a group discussion during a session of the CPPCC in Beijing.

The ‘Warren Buffet of China’

China is home to fifty individuals with a net worth of one billion US dollars or more. One of China’s most high-profile entrepreneurs has disappeared. Guo Guangchang has an estimated net worth of $7 billion, and is an owner and investor in many Chinese industries. Through his investment vehicle the Fosun Group, the Chinese tycoon has interests in diverse fields from financial services, to mining, retail and many others. These endeavours allowed his company to become one the largest private enterprises in China, a country where state-run businesses still reign supreme. Guo Guangchang’s disappearance is just the most recent suspicious circumstance to befall China’s business class.

Missing magnates

China’s business executives and high-profile members of the financial elite have been vanishing. Yim Fung, the CEO of Guotai Yunan International was reported missing just two weeks before Guo Guangchang. 2015 has seen a total of five Chinese business figures disappear. Often, unsurprisingly, the financial effects of this on the companies is catastrophic. When Lei Heijun, the chairman of Hanenergy failed to attend a shareholder meeting in May 2015, the effect was dramatic. The value of shares plummeted 47%, resulting in an astonishing $18.6bn wiped from the company’s share values. Upon announcement of Guo Guangchang’s disappearance, share trading for Fosun International was suspended. These disappearances are more than mere coincidence.

Corruption questioning

Frequently, the business figures have been reported missing after being approached by the Chinese authorities to purportedly aid in an investigation of some variety. Central to these theories, is the Chinese government’s supposed anti-corruption battle. Since 2013, under the charge of Premier Xi Jinping, and anti-corruption chief Wang Quishan, a number of China’s leading businessmen have been questioned under suspicion of corruption. The investigations began investigating officials at a local level, but soon increased in scope. The net expanded to cover state-owned companies, and, crucially, those involved in the financial sector. It is suspected that Guo Guangchang has been targeted by the Chinese government for this very reason.

An economic witch-hunt

The anti-corruption campaign, however, may not be as substantive as it seems. What at first seemed to be a genuine attempt to pursue those involved in unscrupulous dealings, soon morphed into a basic witch-hunt. The Chinese economy underwent substantial shocks in 2015. After a fall in exports, the Chinese government devalued the yuan in order to stimulate international trade. However, the damage had already been done. In addition to causing havoc on China’s stock markets, the export slump, coupled with the yuan devaluation saw stock markets take a plunge worldwide. The Chinese authorities are searching for a scapegoat for the year’s economic troubles. In China’s billionaires it seems they have found a target.

Read the original article on BRIC+. For more news, views and insights into culture and commerce from the emerging world, BRIC+. BRIC+ is also available on Facebook. Copyright 2015. Follow BRIC+ on Twitter.

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Trump Tower website has outage after Anonymous' anti-Trump rant

      

The website for Trump Towers, Donald Trump's glitzy signature skyscraper in Manhattan, went offline for at least an hour on Friday after activist hacking group Anonymous denounced the real-estate mogul and Republican presidential front-runner for his anti-Muslim comments. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

DEC 12, 20156:55 AM

[NEW YORK] The website for Trump Towers, Donald Trump's glitzy signature skyscraper in Manhattan, went offline for at least an hour on Friday after activist hacking group Anonymous denounced the real-estate mogul and Republican presidential front-runner for his anti-Muslim comments.

The website for the 68-story Trump Towers, often used for his presidential campaign, was down after a tweet from an account associated with the anonymous hacking collective that said: "Trump Towers NY site taken down as statement against racism and hatred.www.trumptowerny.com/(what you see is cloudflare offline backup)" Earlier this week, a handle claiming to be "Anonymous Operations" posted a video on YouTube with the message: "The more the United States appears to be targeting Muslims, not just radical Muslims, you can be sure that ISIS will be putting that on their social media campaign." The post added, "Donald Trump think twice before you speak anything. You have been warned Mr. Donald Trump." A spokesperson for Trump Towers was not available for comment.

The group's warning to Trump came days after the outspoken billionaire proposed to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States in response to last week's shooting spree in San Bernardino by two Muslims who the FBI said had been radicalized.

A recent poll by New York Times/CBS News showed Americans are more fearful about the likelihood of another terrorist attack than at any other time since the weeks after Sept 11, 2001. A gnawing sense of dread has helped lift Trump to a new high among Republicans who will vote in primaries to choose their party's nominee for the November 2016 presidential election.

Anonymous, a loose-knit international network of activist hackers, or "hacktivists," is famous for launching cyber attacks on groups such as the Islamic State following the attacks in Paris last month that killed 129 people.

REUTERS

      

Hong Kong to study electronic road pricing, Morning Post says

Hong Kong has opened a three-month consultation period on a proposed electronic road-pricing plan in a bid to ease traffic jams in Central, the busiest Hong Kong business district, the South China Morning Post reported, citing government officials including Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

DEC 12, 20152:07 PM

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong has opened a three-month consultation period on a proposed electronic road-pricing plan in a bid to ease traffic jams in Central, the busiest Hong Kong business district, the South China Morning Post reported, citing government officials including Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung.

The government yesterday also announced a 50 per cent increase in parking penalties from next year, the Hong Kong- based newspaper said.

BLOOMBERG