The resignation of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe has resonated across the region and the wider international community.

The veteran leader, 93, led his country from independence in 1980 until November 21, 2017. He was the world’s oldest head of state.

His departure came days after a surprise military takeover, amid a power struggle within the ruling ZANU-PF’s party, and unprecedented mass public protests calling for Mugabe to stand down.

The news of his resignation on Tuesday sparked scenes of jubilation in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, with thousands of cheering people pouring into the streets within minutes of the announcement. 

The past week’s dramatic events in Zimbabwe were watched closely by leaders in neighbouring countries and around the world.

Here is how how some governments and officials reacted to the news of the end of Mugabe’s era.

Alpha Conde, president of Guinea and African Union (AU) chief, said it is “a shame” Mugabe “has to leave through the back door”. 

He added, however that he was “very pleased” with Mugabe’s decision to resign, noting that the AU had warned against a coup in Zimbabwe.

Hailing Mugabe’s role in Zimbabwe’s fight for independence, Conde called Mugabe “an African hero”.

“Mugabe will never be forgotten, he was a great fighter,” he was quoted as saying by Guinean media. 

There was no immediate comment from the government in neighbouring South Africa, the region’s economic hub.

But Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, said a planned trip by President Jacob Zuma to Harare on Wednesday was expected to go on as normal.

“We understand he will still take that trip with Angolan President Joao Lourenco – although events on the ground may have eclipsed the necessity for that“, said Page, shortly after Mugabe submitted a letter to Zimbabwe’s parliament as it launched proceedings to impeach him. 

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s main opposition party, called the resignation “a victory for the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered greatly under the latter years of Mugabe’s reign”.

Hakainde Hichilema, opposition leader in Zambia, congratulated the people of Zimbabwe, saying the events there sent a message for African leaders.

“This is power by the people for the people and to the people,” he said.

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, encouraged Zimbabweans to “maintain calm and restraint” after Mugabe’s resignation.

Farhan Haq, Guterres’ spokesman, said “the secretary-general and his predecessors have made clear that we expect all leaders to listen to their people.

“That is a cornerstone of every form of government and needs to be followed in every continent and in every nation.”

In Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, Prime Minister Theresa May said the news of Mugabe’s resignation was an opportunity to “forge a new path free of the oppression that characterised his rule”.

“In recent days we have seen the desire of the Zimbabwean people for free and fair elections and the opportunity to rebuild the country’s economy under a legitimate government”, she added in a statement.

UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter he does not regret Mugabe’s downfall, calling the resignation “a moment of hope for the people of Zimbabwe”.

I will not pretend to regret Mugabe’s downfall. Today is a moment of hope for the people of Zimbabwe. The UK will support them. http://pic.twitter.com/AHyW5yHM30

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 21, 2017

The United States State Department released a statement congratulating the people of Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe has an historic opportunity to set itself on a new path. Through that process, the United States urges unwavering respect for the rule of law and for established democratic practices”, a statement by the US Embassy in Zimbabwe said.

The statement concluded by saying “the path forward must lead to free, fair, and inclusive elections, in which the people of Zimbabwe, free to assemble peacefully without undue interference and to voice their opinions without fear, choose their own leaders.”

Earlier on Tuesday, ahead of Mugabe’s resignation, Botswana President Ian Khama had publicly urged him to resign.

In an open letter published on social media, Khama said “the people of Zimbabwe have for a long time been subjected to untold suffering as a result of poor governance under your leadership”.

“It is therefore my conviction that by vacating the Presidency, this will usher in a new political dispensation that will pave the way for the much needed socio-economic recovery in Zimbabwe.”

No doubt hoping to get a jump on that holiday traffic, Nintendo’s latest mobile opus, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has hit iOS and Android a day ahead of schedule. The latest installment of one of the game company’s most adorable franchises was first announced this time last month.

In spite of some skepticism, early looks at the title were complimentary, noting that the title does appear to be more loyal to the console versions of the series than other recent mobile titles like Super Mario Run.

And, unlike Mario, the new game is free to play — it seems that, in spite of what appeared to be healthy download numbers, the company ultimately wasn’t happy with its return on investment with the side scroller. This time out, Nintendo will be making money on in-app purchases, via “leaf tickets” that let users unlock items.

That sort of incentive may push Nintendo to invest more in continued support of the game, offering up more experiences well after today’s launch. From a cursory look, however, it’s already one of the richest experiences Nintendo’s offered up on mobile so far, with camping-themed gameplay that closely mirrors its predecessor. There’s plenty of room for world building, too, if you pony up the aforementioned leaf tickets.

A number of eager users have reported server errors attempting to download the title, but for what it’s worth, I was able to get the game right away, as evidenced by the above screenshot. So, I’ll be enjoying the great outdoors from the comfort of my iPhone. 

For long in Zimbabwe’s politics, the military has been the decisive force keeping President Robert Mugabe in power. In early November, it proved yet again that it is the kingmaker of Zimbabwean politics, thwarting first lady Grace Mugabe’s plans to take over from her husband.

The influence that the army has exerted over the past decades has shaped Zimbabwe’s regime into a neopatrimonial, personalistic, military oligarchy, with a primary role of keeping Mugabe and ZANU-PF in power. After Mugabe’s resignation, the generals seem intent on introducing another member of the oligarchy into the presidency – most likely former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

But whoever takes over the reins of power in Zimbabwe is unlikely to change the status quo. The regime and its many clients (including the military) will stay intact.

A long history of military politics

The war of liberation in the 1970s charted the political future of Zimbabwe in many ways. The two military groups which led the war – Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) affiliated with Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) affiliated with the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) – laid the foundations of the Zimbabwean army.

The two political movements, ZAPU and ZANU, dominated the political scene after independence in 1980 and eventually merged into one party called (ZANU-PF) in 1987. The war of liberation remained the main source of political legitimacy, as the majority of the political elite had a role to play in the armed struggle.

The vice-like grip of the military on political affairs is likely, if not certainly, going to continue in the post-Mugabe era.

 

Robert Mugabe himself was the commander of ZANLA. His vice president, Mnangagwa, was also part of the ZANLA, although his “struggle credentials” were questioned during the political campaign against him led by Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

Therefore, since independence, the military has played a major role in the political scene in Zimbabwe.

Following the formation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, the military was involved in torture, kidnappings and killings of opposition supporters in the 2000 parliamentary elections. Before the 2002 elections, all senior military officers pledged that they would not serve under a president other than Mugabe, and the army joined the campaigns of intimidation of opposition supporters.

The army also participated in the 2000 land reforms which saw the forceful expropriation of land from white farmers. In 2001, Mugabe deployed troops on white-owned farms to “speed up” the process, which resulted in the death of more than a dozen white farmers.

Most notably, the army launched a violent campaign in the June 2008 presidential election run-off, after Mugabe lost the March 29 presidential election to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe won the run-off through military intervention, but the outcome was dismissed by the international community.

Apart from being regularly mobilised to solve Mugabe’s political problems, the military has also acquired power over decision-making in various levels of the state.

The military is deployed to the commissariat of ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to campaign and administer elections respectively. Its personnel occupies various positions in government ministries such as agriculture, land, justice and economic development. They run state programmes such as the Fast Track Land Reform and, of late, the Command Agriculture scheme.

Retired members of the military with liberation backgrounds are appointed as judges of the High Court, such as the current Judge President, retired Major General Justice George Chiweshe.

Others head key government parastatals such the Grain Marketing Board and the National Railways of Zimbabwe. While in these positions, members of the military are involved in partisan distribution of food handouts in times of drought. Those deployed in the justice system have been accused of subverting the rule of law, through selective application of the law against opponents of the regime.

The same applies to retired military personnel in the police force. They rarely arrest members of the ruling party for human rights abuses or other crimes.

A continuation of the old regime

The vice-like grip of the military on political affairs is likely, if not certainly, going to continue in the post-Mugabe era, and it will be the bedrock of a possible Mnangagwa presidency. 

In this regard, the role of the military in the transition, given its power, economic influence, and monopoly of coercive force, will shape or break this transition. If the military decides not to hand over power to the preferred civilian faction led by Mnangagwa, the country could be turned into a vicious military dictatorship.

If the military resists such temptations and hands over power to Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s future will be more of the same: a limited political sphere and a dwindled economy exhausted by continuing kleptocracy.

The new president will continue to treat the state as his private fiefdom and give only rhetorical attention to formal political institutions. The elite’s access to farms, government inputs like maize seeds and fertilisers for farming, mining claims, fuel, government financial resources, and immunity from prosecution will be more compelling grounds for them to hold on to power than to push for reform.

Mnangagwa and his military backers are likely to go for authoritarian state capitalism along the Chinese model. There will be liberalisation of the economy without democratisation as long-term political and economic trajectories.

This means that ordinary citizens would not enjoy the benefits of the mining and agriculture potential of the economy, as elites will continue to loot the resources. The lack of medicine, good hospitals, clean water, schools and the general improvement of the population will continue. 

Therefore, life for the average Zimbabwean is unlikely to change under the new presidency, unless there is huge investment to attract new money, to open closed industries and create new ones that come with jobs for the over 90 percent of unemployed people in Zimbabwe.

The new regime faces challenges of political legitimacy and an economy under recession and informalisation. In order to address the legitimacy question, the new regime will most probably seek to form a coalition government with opposition leaders such as Tsvangirai of the MDC.

Such a coalition could last until the next election in 2018 or be extended. This will pacify the population to avoid a possible uprising as a result of huge expectation for socioeconomic development.

Whatever happens with the government, however, the presidency will definitely be secured. The Zimbabwean military will be there, as always, the guarantor and kingmaker.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

The order, proposed in May, would roll back the Barack Obama administration’s classification of internet service providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

As common carriers, internet providers are required to act as neutral gateways to the internet. In other words, companies like Comcast are not allowed to speed up or slow down content passing through their networks.

If the order passes, ISPs will be reclassified as “information service” providers, as they were between February 1996 and February 2015.

For almost twenty years, the Internet thrived under the light-touch regulatory approach established by President Clinton and a Republican Congress. This bipartisan framework led the private sector to invest $1.5 trillion building communications networks throughout the United States. And it gave us an Internet economy that became the envy of the world.

Apple and dozens of other large technology companies urged the FCC to reconsider its proposal. The FCC also received a record-breaking 22 million comments from the public during a feedback period that ended in August.

Those against the order believe that the FCC rolling back the internet’s classification as a public utility will hurt net neutrality, as it could eventually divide internet users into so-called “fast lanes” and “slow lanes.”

In a letter submitted to the FCC in August, Apple warned that paid fast lanes could result in an “internet with distorted competition.”

Broadband providers should not create paid fast lanes on the internet. Lifting the current ban on paid prioritization arrangements could allow broadband providers to favor the transmission of one provider’s content or services (or the broadband provider’s own online content or services) over other online content, fundamentally altering the internet as we know it today—to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation.

Pai, who was designated as FCC chairman by Donald Trump, insists the Obama-era internet regulations are a “mistake.” Under the new rules, he said the FCC will “stop micromanaging the internet” to foster innovation.

Today, I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades. Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet. Instead, the FCC would simply require Internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate.

Despite the significant backlash from tech companies and the public, it is widely expected that the FCC will vote in favor of the order next month.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

The release of a Bollywood film, Padmavati, has been delayed indefinitely amid continued protests from Hindu groups, with an official from India’s ruling BJP placing a bounty of 10 crore rupees ($1.5m) on the heads of the film’s actress Deepika Padukone and its director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

“We will reward the ones beheading them, with 10 crore rupees, and also take care of their family’s needs,” Suraj Pal Amu, chief media coordinator for the BJP in northern Haryana state, told ANI news agency on Sunday.

The BJP, which also runs the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, distanced itself from the provocative statement.

“A show cause notice has been sent to him. There is rule of law in Haryana and no one can issue such fatwas,” Anil Jain, a BJP spokesman, told the ANI news agency.

But that has not deterred Amu from his diatribe against the film set in the 14th century. On Monday, he threatened to burn down theatre screens that show the film loosely based on an epic poem, Padmavat, penned more than 400 years ago.

Al Jazeera could not reach BJP spokespersons despite repeated attempts.

Last week, Padukone said that she was only answerable to the national censor board, referring to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

“Where have we reached as a nation? We have regressed,” she said.

Following threats, Padukone has pulled out of a global entrepreneurship summit scheduled to be held in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Modi and Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the US president, are expected to attend the event.

“These threats of beheadings, etc are a perverted form of politics which India was busy condemning all this while. And now India is the source of such politics. We have to fight it out here,” Ashis Nandy, a leading Indian sociologist, told Al Jazeera.

Members of the Rajput caste in Rajasthan state, the home of the legendary Rajput queen Padmini, are demanding a ban on Padmavati for “disrespecting the sentiments of the community”.

Freedom under threat

Public intellectuals and rights activists say that freedom of expression is under threat as the BJP under Modi is pandering to Hindu nationalists, its support base.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to ban the film and instead asked the CBFC to take a final call.

But the CBFC is under intense pressure as governments in BJP-ruled states as well as the opposition Congress government in Punjab state have called for a ban on the film.

Earlier, the Karni Sena (Karni Army) told Al Jazeera that it was a matter of honour for the Rajput community.

Nandy says India is becoming a satirist’s delight.

“I think it is a very pathetic scene. The bankruptcy of political parties is rather obvious. Democratic institutions in India are under threat in this kind of a situation,” Nandy told Al Jazeera.

Fictional character

The film is an adaptation of Padmavat, an epic poem written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, a 16th century poet.

The protagonist of the poem was Hindu queen Padmini who jumped into a fire “to save her honour” from a medieval Muslim king, Alauddin Khilji.

Historians say the protagonist in the film is a fictional character, and there are no historical accounts proving her existence.

Should Muslims demand to see #Padmavati before it releases, just like Karni Sena is demanding? The Rajputs want to check if the movie ‘protects the honour of a Rajput queen’. Can Muslims also check if the movie protects the honour of a Muslim king? Logical, no? 😂 #justsaying

— Irena Akbar (@irenaakbar) November 17, 2017

“In the contemporary period, there is no mention of this event, no accounts of Padmavati by Amir Khusrau, a prolific writer of the era and a courtier of Alauddin Khilji. This is misuse of both fiction and history. There is no historical evidence of this Padmavati event – this story is a poet’s imagination,” Aditya Mukherjee, professor of history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, had earlier told Al Jazeera.

Bhansali, the director of the film, had to issue a video statement saying he had kept in mind the “Rajput dignity and respect” while making the period drama.

Many people on social media have questioned the idea of societal sanction for a film based on a fictional character.

“If Rajputs can examine a fictional movie for authenticity before release, why can’t Brahmins, Muslims or Biharis [who are] often stereotyped,” Madhavan Narayanan, a senior Indian journalist, said on Twitter.

French startup Blade, the company behind Shadow, announced at a press conference that it is launching new offers, updating specifications and the ability to become a client and buy a subscription without any waiting list.

Shadow is a gaming PC in the cloud for a monthly fee. The company has been running thousands of computers with an Intel Xeon processor and an Nvidia GTX 1070 in a data center near Paris. You can then play demanding PC games on a crappy laptop, on a TV thanks to Shadow’s own little device (pictured above), on an Android phone and more.

Let’s start with the new specifications. “The next-generation Shadow is more powerful. When we started Shadow, we said obsolescence would be a thing of the past,” co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Freund said. “That’s what we want to prove today.”

Existing Shadow instances will be updated and have 8.2 teraflops of computing power compared to 6.5 teraflops with the previous configuration. The company says it is the equivalent of a $1,900 computer (€1,600).

When David Legrand from Next INpact asked about the new GPU, Freund didn’t want to name the exact model. From what I’ve heard, it’ll be a mix of GeForce GTX 1080 and Quadro P5000 at first. Nvidia doesn’t recommend using consumer cards in servers because they’re not meant to be running 24/7. At the same time, professional cards are more expensive.

But it’s clear that Nvidia wants Shadow to switch to server-grade GPUs in the near future — Quadro P5000 and GeForce GTX 1080 should be more or less as powerful. When it comes to CPU, Shadow currently uses Intel Xeon 2620 processors.

While there are already thousands of clients, Shadow has been very slowly rolling out its service. There’s now a huge waiting list of people waiting for the next batch of instances. Starting on November 29, you’ll be able to subscribe instantly.

The company is opening two new data centers — one in France for the company’s home countries and neighbouring countries, and another data center in Palo Alto. Shadow has signed a partnership with Equinix, and 2CRSI is manufacturing custom servers for Shadow with four GPUs per server.

A Shadow account will cost $53 per month, or $41 per month with a three-month commitment, or $35 if you’re willing to pay for a year (€44.95/€34.95/€29.95). Those prices aren’t changing, but there are two major changes — you get a beefier computer and you don’t get Shadow’s own device by default.

Now, you can pay $140 or $9 per month (€119.95/€7.95) to receive Shadow’s bridge computer. It is a good way to use your Shadow on your TV for instance. But if you only plan on using Shadow with your existing computer with Shadow’s apps, you don’t have to pay for this option anymore.

In addition to that, Shadow is launching a second version of its app called Shadow Beyond. “On an Android phone or a TV, you rarely use a keyboard and a mouse to browse Windows,” Freund said. So the company is launching a sort of media center interface to access your content. You’ll be able to launch games, movies, photos, music and files.

Freund reiterated that the company wants to attract 100,000 customers by the end of 2018. In order to do this, Shadow has added adaptive streaming to its streaming clients. When you stream a video on YouTube, your browser automatically switches from 480p to 1080p if you have enough bandwidth, and sticks to 480p if you don’t have a fast connection.

Shadow is using a similar technique to downgrade image quality if you’re using a DSL connection with only 15Mb/s. “15 million homes [in France] can now use Shadow instead of 5 million homes,” Freund said.

Back in June, the company raised a Series A round of $57.1 million (€51 million). Many companies are working on computer instances in the cloud, such as Nvidia with GeForce Now and Amazon with WorkSpaces.

Shadow is focusing on gamers first as they’re demanding clients when it comes to latency and service quality. The company hopes that this narrow focus will help them improve the service and attract more clients in the future beyond gamers.

Israel plans to deport tens of thousands of asylum seekers to a third country in Africa under threat of indefinite detention, a move that local human rights activists say violates international and Israeli laws.

The Israeli cabinet approved a proposal on Sunday to close the Holot detention centre, a facility in the southern Negev (Naqab) desert that currently houses just over 1,000 African asylum seekers, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

Put forward by the interior and public security ministers, the proposal would see Holot shuttered by mid-March 2018.

Asylum seekers in Israel would then be forced to choose between indefinite detention in an Israeli prison, or deportation to a third country in Africa – named in the local media as Rwanda – with or without their explicit consent.

Currently, Israel is home to about 40,000 asylum seekers, according to government figures. That includes 27,500 Sudanese and 7,800 Eritrean asylum seekers, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported.

The proposal is expected to go to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for consideration, Haaretz said.

Sigal Rozen, head of public policy at the Tel Aviv-based Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s plan is immoral and a violation of both international and Israeli laws.

“We are alert to see what is happening on the ground,” Rozen said.

Many asylum seekers are panicking at the news that they could be deported against their will, Rozen said, and some have already registered to leave on their own accord.

“If that’s the case, then [the government] might not need to detain people and to take them by force … It looks as if this is part of the plan,” she said.

“The main policy is detention and deportation,” Rozen added.

‘Increased removal’

Israel’s interior ministry did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The proposal appears to go against an Israeli High Court of Justice decision from August, that ruled that while Israel could deport asylum seekers to a third country, it could not threaten them with indefinite detention in order to get them to leave.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said Israel’s policy towards asylum seekers – whom he referred to as “infiltrators” – has entered a third phase that can be described as “increased removal”.

“This removal is enabled thanks to an international agreement I achieved, which allows us to remove the 40,000 remaining infiltrators without their consent. This is very important,” he said.

While Netanyahu did not explicitly name the third country in Africa that asylum seekers would be deported to, local media has named it as Rwanda.

Israel plans to pay Rwanda $5,000 for each asylum seeker it agrees to take in, Haaretz reported.

It will also pay each asylum seeker $3,500 and pay for their flight out of the country, the newspaper reported. 

“It will enable us later to make the Holot facility unnecessary and to use part of the vast resources we allocate there for inspectors and increased removal. That is why we are succeeding here. But our goal is to continue removing significantly more then (sic) what we have until now,” Netanyahu said.

35,300 asylum seekers

Most asylum seekers in Israel are from Sudan and Eritrea. They arrived in the country over the last decade via Egypt and most have fled war, torture and other mistreatment.

Between December 2013 and June of this year, about 4,000 Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers were deported under Israel’s “voluntary departure programme” to Rwanda and Uganda, according to the UN’s refugee agency. 

UNHCR expressed concerns about this week’s proposal, saying that “the secrecy surrounding this policy and the lack of transparency concerning its implementation” has made it “very difficult for UNHCR to follow up and systematically monitor the situation of people relocated to these African countries”.

“As party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Israel has legal obligations to protect refugees and other persons in need of international protection,” Volker Turk, UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for protection, said in a statement.

Though it is a signatory to the convention, Israel has only recognised eight Eritrean and two Sudanese asylum seekers as refugees since 2009, according to UNHCR. Two hundred Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region were also granted humanitarian status.

Israel has pressured asylum seekers and refugees to leave the country for years, through a series of restrictive laws, the threat of arrest and detention at the Holot prison, and limits on their movement and access to employment and education.

According to Rozen, the government has maintained a policy that aims to make life in Israel so unbearable for asylum seekers that they choose to leave on their own.

“All this together is created to make them feel unsafe and unwanted,” she said. “[If] they will continue leaving quickly, then there will be no need to deport.”

Gamevice is a bit like way to turn your iPhone or iPad into a Switch, at least in terms of adding physical controls to your gaming experience. But now the add-on can go beyond gaming, offering a way to easily control the DJI Spark with added precision and improved ergonomics when compared to just using a touchscreen device on its own.

This is actually great news for Spark owners, since the diminutive drone has a lot going for it, including relative affordability, and decent picture quality. But the one thing it’s lacking that the rest of the DJI lineup boasts is a solid physical controller experience included in the box – the Gamevice provides that, with a design that’s actually superior to the official DJI controller in a number of ways.

You plug your phone or tablet into the Gamevice directly via Lightning connecgtor, and the physical controls reside on either side. There’s a full complement of buttons that allow you to control all aspects of the drone, including flight and photo and video capture.

In addition to Spark support, the Gamevice now works with Sphero’s SPRK+ programmable robot. If you’ve ever used a Sphero spherical bot, you might already be aware that physical controls easily trump the onscreen touch sensitive variety.

Gamevice starts at $59.99, and also still supports a range of games including Minecraft’s mobile iteration. If you’re a Spark fan, it’s definitely worth a look, since it basically addresses one of the only weaknesses of the DJI drone without requiring a significant financial investment.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has submitted his resignation after nearly four decades as the country’s leader.

Mugabe defied demands to step down for almost a week after a military takeover and expulsion from his own ruling ZANU-PF party but stepped down on Tuesday, hours after parliament started an impeachment process.

Cheers broke out in the parliament after speaker Jacob Mudenda read out Mugabe’s resignation letter.

“I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation … with immediate effect,” said Mudenda, reading the letter.

The news also sparked scenes of jubilation in the capital, Harare, as people took to the streets to celebrate Mugabe’s removal.

“People are coming out onto the streets, people are calling this day Independence Day,” Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting from Harare, said. 

“It’s getting chaotic,” she added. “Some people still can’t believe this has happened. People say they are really excited and hoping for a better future.”

Mugabe’s resignation terminated to the impeachment proceedings initiated by ZANU-PF after its Central Committee voted to dismiss him as party leader.

Mugabe, 93, led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

New era 

In a surprise move, Zimbabwe’s armed forces seized power on November 15 and placed Mugabe under house arrest.

The military takeover was triggered by Mugabe’s decision on November 6 to sack Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been First Lady Grace Mugabe’s main opponent to succeed the veteran leader.

In a rare sign of solidarity between the people and the army, which has often been a pillar of support for Mugabe’s near 40-year rule, tens of thousands of Zimbabweans on Saturday expressed support and praise for the military’s operation.

An investigation by Quartz has revealed that Android devices send cell tower location data to Google even if the user has disabled location services for apps in their device settings.

Quartz also said it observed location data being sent even if devices had been reset to factory default settings. Android devices with a cellular data or a wi-fi connection were seen to send the data to Google each time they came within range of a new cell tower — including devices with no SIM cards installed (these offloaded the location data via wi-fi, where available).

It says there is currently no way for Android users to prevent their location data from being sent to ad targeting giant Google — short of removing SIMs from their devices and disabling wi-fi (or else leaving the devices inside a faraday cage).

After raising its findings with Google, Quartz reports that a company spokesperson told it the cell tower location data harvesting has been going on for the past 11 months, and that cell tower addresses were included in information sent to the system it uses to manage push notifications and messages on Android devices.

The spokesperson further claimed the location data was never used or stored. And Google added that it intends to end the practice by the end of November, having had the location tracking issue flagged to it by Quartz.

“In January of this year, we began looking into using Cell ID codes as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery,” the Google spokesperson said. “However, we never incorporated Cell ID into our network sync system, so that data was immediately discarded, and we updated it to no longer request Cell ID.”

Whatever the reason Google was experimenting with harvesting Android users’ location info, it’s another troubling instance of the company slurping up sensitive user data without making people explicitly aware it’s doing so — let alone giving users controls to opt out of another major invasion of their privacy.

Back in October, for example, a number of Google Home Mini devices were shown to have malfunctioned and been persistently recording audio in the background in their owners’ homes, instead of only waking up when a specific trigger word was used.

After that snafu gained press attention, Google said it would remove the touch top function on the device — blaming that hardware for a malfunction that had triggered near continuous recording of users’ domestic goings on. As it’s now blaming engineering experimentation for Android covertly harvesting location data.

Location data is highly sensitive personal data from which much can be inferred about a person’s life and lifestyle, especially given the rule for mobile devices is to accompany the user wherever they go. And while cell tower location data isn’t necessarily hugely precise, triangulation of multiple cell towers can be used to calculate a more exact location.

So even if message speed and performance could be enhanced by the Android OS knowing a user’s cell tower location, Google should at least be asking people to opt in to that location-tracking enhancement and/or providing them with a way to opt out.

Google’s privacy policy does include the following section on “location information” (below) which states that users of “Google services” may have their location data collected, including cell tower data — though the linked examples Google uses refer to specific Google apps, like Google Maps, rather than to the Android OS itself; while the linked example on wi-fi access points and cell towers talks only in terms of location data being collected for users who have enabled Google’s Location Services (not persistently, because you are using the Android OS):

When you use Google services, we may collect and process information about your actual location. We use various technologies to determine location, including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that may, for example, provide Google with information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.

According to Quartz’s findings, the location tracking did not appear limited to particular Android phones or tablets. It says Google was apparently collecting cell tower data from all modern Android devices.

It further cites a source familiar with the matter specifying that the cell tower addresses were being sent to Google after an early 2017 change to the Firebase Cloud Messaging service that’s owned by Google and runs on Android phones by default.

While this is notable as an instance of Google itself, Android’s platform controller, apparently caught covertly tracking users’ location via the OS, this time last year a range of budget Android smartphones sold in the US were found to be secretly sending personal data to a third party company based in China — including information about users’ locations.

Albeit in that case the culprit was commercial firmware pre-installed on the devices, rather than the Android OS itself, as here.

A new ground-breaking report by Amnesty International has described the situation of the Rohingya living in Rakhine State as one of “apartheid”.

The report, titled “Caged without a roof: Apartheid in Myanmar’s Rakhine State“, capped two years of extensive and investigative research into the legal status and conditions of the Rohingya minority.

“They live under a system of repression that is upheld through the intricate web of laws, policies and practices, imposed by state officials at all levels – township, district, state and nation-wide,” said Laura Heigh, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher.

Olof Blomqvist, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the report puts into context what has been happening to the Rohingya in the last few months.

“We’ve documented horrific violations and stories by the Myanmar military over the last couple of months,” he said, “but what is not widely known is that this did not happen in a vacuum.”

‘Systematic oppression’

The discriminatory policies, the report says, are institutionalised by a “regime of systematic oppression and domination of a racial group” which goes back to 1982, when authorities denied the Rohingya citizenship and the rights associated with it.

Myanmar government has excluded Rohingya from the list of 135 recognised ethnic groups.

One of the main apartheid practices is the severe restrictions on freedom of movement.

Across the Rakhine State, the Rohingya are under lockdown in their homes every night, and face the risk of arrest and require special travel permits to move from one township to another.

The report also details the systematic social and political exclusion of the Muslim communities. In the north of the state, gatherings of more than four people in one place are prohibited, which hinders the Rohingya’s right to worship and to politically advocate for their rights.

Healthcare access is also curtailed, and the main hospital in the capital Sittwe has segregated wards for the Rohingya.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh [Al Jazeera]

“We don’t have access to healthcare, to education, there are restrictions on travelling,” said one Rohingya interviewed by the human rights group. “We can’t go anywhere on the road because there are checkpoints along the way. We are struggling for survival, our children are struggling for their future”

“Dismantling this system of apartheid is essential to ensure the dignified return of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled death, destruction and poverty in Myanmar, but is equally pressing for the hundreds of thousands who continue to live in in Rakhine State and who remain subject to this appalling regime,” Amnesty International said.

The report urged the Myanmar authorities to “urgently adopt a comprehensive action plan on combating discrimination and segregation”. It also called for government initiatives to dismantle the system of apartheid and to ensure the respect of human rights.

“We hope by documenting this the international community and Myanmar will wake up and realise this it is not about short-term solutions to the violence in the past couple of months but about addressing long-term state-sponsored apartheid,” Blomqvist said.

Aung San Suu Kyi under fire

Since August, Myanmar’s military has driven out about 600,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State into neighbouring Bangladesh. The military says it launched a crackdown on Rohingya after an army base came under attack.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been criticised for her silence on the atrocities against Rohingya.

Rohingya activists have accused her of “denying their existence” as she has failed to criticise military’s campaign that the UN rights chief has called “text-book case of ethnic cleansing”.

“Aung San Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her government are still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State,” the Amnesty said.

About one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the first brutal military action in 1977.

Apple told The New York Times that it was forced to remove a number of voice and video calling apps from the App Store in China to comply with laws in the country.

We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over internet protocol apps do not comply with local law. Therefore these apps have been removed from the app store in China. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.

Skype has been unavailable on the App Store since at least late October, according to users on Twitter and other websites. The service appears to function normally still for users who have already installed the app.

Skype is the latest victim of China’s strict internet filters, colloquially known as the Great Firewall. Earlier this year, Apple was forced to remove many VPN apps from the App Store in China due to regulations, while other apps affected in the past or present include WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Microsoft wouldn’t comment on why Skype is also unavailable on at least a few major third-party Android app stores. Many of Google’s services, including Gmail and YouTube, have been blocked in China for several years.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

A suicide car bombing has killed at least 20 people in Tuz Khurmatu, a town in northern Iraq, according to local security and medical sources.

Dozens more were wounded in Tuesday’s attack near a marketplace in the town, located south of Kirkuk city and home to a mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen population.

Iraqi government forces gained control over the oil-rich Kirkuk province from the Kurdish Peshmerga as part of a military offensive last month.

Tuz Khurmatu was one of several towns that witnessed violent clashes when the Iraqi government deployed the military in response to referendum in which Kurds overwhelmingly voted for secession from Iraq.

Toyota has a new, third-generation humanoid robot bears the charming name “T-HR3” and is designed to be a helpful and safe assistant to humans. It also features a so-called “master maneuvering systems,” which is essentially a VR-powered remote operating platform that a human can use to have the T-HR3 mirror its movements. Yes, kind of like a jaeger from kaiju movie Pacific Rim.

The T-HR3 is designed to work in an assistant capacity to humans across a range of different potential uses, including in-home care, at hospitals, on construction sites, in areas impacted by disaster and even, Toyota says, in the far reaches of outer space. The robot resembles a somewhat short person with long arms and smooth white panels covering its mechanical bits, with optical sensors but into the head.

An operator in the Master Maneuvering System has both arm and leg coverings that will convey their movements to the robot, allowing the operator to use a full range of motion to walk in place, manipulate arms and even grip with direct translation of their natural actions. The operator can also see from the robot’s perspective, thanks to a head-mounted display (an HTC Vive, in the video) they wear.

The synced up movement also has safeguards in place to insure that the robot’s movements don’t interfere with the operator, so that you can’t accidentally (or intentionally, I guess) club yourself with the bot while sitting in the chair.

Remotely operated, dexterous humanoid robots have a lot of potential across basically all of human activity. And if we happen to need to defend against inter-dimensional kaiju invaders, at least now we have a path to make that happen.

When the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334 in December 2016, Israeli leaders seethed. Their fury was duly understood to stem from what they perceived as an unprecedented betrayal by the United States.

But that was not it at all, since Resolution 2334 – which asserted that Israeli settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of human rights – was partly predicated on, and clarified and added to, previous UNSC Resolution 242 of 1967.

This means that 50 years of incessant Israeli attempts to absolve itself from any commitment to international law have failed, and terribly so.

Resolution 242, which stipulated that the Israeli army has to withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 war, has been cited in various agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and later, the Palestinian Authority (PA), but only as if to say that these agreements were legally binding. The citations did not accept the full legal context, obligations and retributions of international law as stipulated in the resolution.

Instead, the Oslo Accords of 1993 and later agreements gave Israel the opportunity to use its leverage to bypass international law altogether: signing a peace agreement without ending its military occupation became the goal.

Then, over time, Oslo and the ensuing “peace process” developed a unique lexicon and served as an independent legal initiative, managed and interpreted by the US government as it saw fit.

Against this backdrop, it is no wonder Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quite shocked to witness that a recommitment to Resolution 242 last year at the UNSC did not garner US opposition. In fact, the long-standing resolution gained more substance and vigour.

Rewriting history

But Resolution 242 was not always welcomed by Palestinians, for it was born out of the collective Arab defeat in the war of June 1967. European and US military backing ensured Israel’s victory in that war and the collapse of Arab defences in a battle that expanded Israel’s control over Arab land nearly three-fold.

Expectedly, Arabs fell into deep political discord from which they are yet to recover.

Resolution 242 enshrined a whole new order in the Middle East, one in which the US and Israel reigned supreme.

 

That division was highlighted most starkly in the August 1967 Khartoum summit, where Arab leaders clashed over their future priorities. A major dilemma was whether Israel’s territorial gains should be allowed to redefine the status quo and whether Arabs should focus on returning to a pre-1967 border or to the situation before 1948, when a Jewish state was established on the ruins of historic Palestine.  

Prior to that war, two UN resolutions defined the international legal frame of reference for Palestine and Israel: Resolution 181 pertained to the partition of historic Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and Resolution 194 detailed the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees who were driven out of their land during the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe).

But Israel’s territorial gains in 1967 imposed a new reality on Palestinians wrapped up in a new frame of reference which aimed to sideline resolutions 181 and 194 as irrelevant and historically removed.

While the Arabs quarrelled over priorities, Lyndon Johnson’s US administration capitalised on the Arab and Soviet camp’s defeat and pushed to pass Resolution 242on November 22, 1967.

The US and the UK also managed to omit the article “the” in front of “territories” from a critical sentence in the resolution which demanded the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”.

That fact alone gave Israel an argument that it has pushed relentlessly since, namely that Resolution 242 didn’t demand a complete withdrawal.

Moreover, under US pressure, Resolution 242 made no mention of Resolutions 181 and 194, as if it was a declaration of a new era, where the Arab-Israeli conflict was to be managed through a whole new mode of thinking imposed by the US and its allies alone.

This was made clear in a Resolution 242 stipulation that calls for the “termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force”.

Considering that no Arab country’s sovereignty was ever in question, and that Palestinians were never mentioned in the resolution, that condition was injected to facilitate future Arab recognition of Israel, in what became known as the “land for peace” formula.

Arab prisoners of war are led blindfolded to interrogation in the old city of Jerusalem on June 8, 1967 [File: AP]

For Israel, Resolution 242 was a tool to reach unilateral agreements with Arab countries without making any concessions on its military occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Today, 50 years after the passing of Resolution 242, the Israeli military occupation has become entrenched in all of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Coopting the Arabs

The 1967 war and its aftermath also brought about fundamental shifts in language and alliances. It relegated the role of the Soviet Union while enforcing the power and influence of the US.

The Arab political narrative was also changing.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser‘s pan-Arab message seemed, for the first time, befuddled and unconvincing. He resigned, only to be brought back to power after popular protests. However, he died three years later without ever reclaiming the central position he had once enjoyed as the leader of the Arab nationalist movement. 

It is true that Arab governments had rejected the outcomes of the war, and announced the famous “three no’s” – no negotiations, no recognition and no peace with Israel – but it is also true that the war had redefined Arab relations with the Palestinian struggle.

United Arab Republic’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser sits beside the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Committee Yasser Arafat in Cairo on February 4, 1969, File: AP]

The altered language expressed in Resolution 242 alarmed Palestinians who realised that any future political settlement would likely ignore the situation that existed prior to the war, and would only attempt to remedy current grievances.

The Palestinian faction Fatah concluded that this required the swift resumption of an armed struggle. It also moved in 1969 to consolidate its power over the PLO, whose agenda was, up until that point, largely shaped by Egypt.

When Anwar Sadat took over the presidency in Egypt after the death of Nasser, he offered a peace settlement with Israel along the lines of UN Resolution 242, which, more or less, cemented Israel’s military victory.

Meanwhile, Israel’s new prime minister, Golda Meir took office in March 1969 only to dismiss all peace offerings that existed at the time.

Peace that never was

Washington’s pro-Israeli stance morphed into unconditional backing under the hardline policies of Henry Kissinger, who served as National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State in the Richard Nixon administration.

Kissinger maintained intense pressure on Egypt to disown its Soviet allies. When Sadat, in 1972, abruptly ordered more than 25,000 Soviet advisors and military experts to leave Egypt, he had perhaps hoped that the US would reciprocate by offering a more even-handed approach to the conflict in the Middle East.

All he gained, however, was a vague US promise to bring the region’s violence to an end, in accordance with UN Resolution 242.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shakes hands with former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, attended by Shimon Peres, the leader of the Israeli Labor Party, in the Knesset building, Jerusalem on November 21, 1977 [File: AP]

The war of October 1973 – between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt – led to the passing of Resolution 338, which reaffirmed the centrality of Resolution 242 as the basis for a future peace between Israel and Arab nations.

When Egypt disengaged from the conflict with Israel, after the signing of the Camp David peace treaty in 1979, the PLO was left to navigate on a divided Arab front. As the political landscape in the Arab world moved closer to the US camp, the PLO eventually yielded to the new reality.

On November 12, 1988, the PLO’S Palestine National Council (PNC) convened in Algiers to approve of a political strategy based on Resolutions 242 and 338 – which by then had become the habitual US condition for politically engaging with the PLO.

A few years later, as local Palestinian leaders negotiated an agreement based on Resolutions 242 and 338 with their Israeli counterparts in Madrid, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and a few Fatah officials negotiated in Oslo a secret agreement of their own: the Oslo Accords.

The Israeli gambit to degrade Palestinian rights seemed to have finally succeeded.

Death and resurrection

The June 1967 war was Israel’s greatest military victory, and Resolution 242 enshrined a whole new order in the Middle East, one in which the US and Israel reigned supreme.

This is why Resolution 2334 was a political earthquake, for it invalidated all the physical changes that Israel has made in 50 years of illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

The resolution called for “two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, liv(ing) side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders”.

President Bill Clinton presides over ceremonies marking the signing of the 1993 peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians on the White House lawn with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat [File: AP]

And unlike Resolution 242, Resolution 2334 left no room for clever misinterpretation: it referenced the pre-June 1967 lines in its annulment of the Israeli occupation and all the illegal settlements Israel has constructed since then.

The resolution even cited the Fourth Geneva Convention, the UN Charter and the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 2004, which stated that Israel’s barrier in the West Bank was illegal and should be dismantled.

It may be argued that Resolution 2334 is a far more convincing resolution than the politically manipulated Resolution 242. The former gave the latter more credence and substance and a clear legal framework.

However, it may have also arrived belatedly, as 50 years of illegal Jewish settlements have altered the physical reality of Jerusalem and the West Bank in ways which may be irredeemable.

It seems that no matter what Israel does to distract from the history of its occupation, mistreatment of Palestinians and violations of international law, the past will always be present – if only as a reminder of a justice that has yet to be served. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy. 

The two sides have locked horns over the fees CBS wants from Dish for retransmission of its content. In a statement, CBS said it had been trying for months to reach an agreement with Dish, and added that “Dish is infamous within the media industry for its long history of disputes with content providers”. Dish responded by claiming CBS is attempting to “tax” customers on programming that’s losing viewers, and that it’s “regrettable and unnecessary that CBS is bringing its greed into the homes of millions of families this Thanksgiving”.

Much of CBS’s local programming is available for free over-the-air (OTA), and Dish is offering its customers digital OTA antennas at no cost, so they can continue to access news, popular network shows and sports from CBS. But those that rely on their pay-TV package to get these stations will just have to sit tight until an agreement is reached — and it seems unlikely that will happen any time soon.

British Colombia has been lashed by an active winter storm. Heavy downpours, strong winds and snow have battered the region over the past few days.

More than 70 millimetres of rain fell in Vancouver between Saturday evening and Monday morning, and elsewhere the rain was even heavier. Port Alberni reported 115mm in just 24 hours.

At higher levels, the rain turned to snow, with Fort St John recording 13.4 centimetres.

As the rain fell, the winds roared, with gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour reported along some coasts, forcing the cancellation of some ferries.

“We picked up 10 millimetres in just one hour, and we only see that about every two years in Vancouver,” Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald told CTV News.

He explained that it was inevitable that this sudden downpour had triggered flooding.

“What happens when it rains that hard is that it surpasses infrastructure’s capacity to flush that out, so storm drains end up getting clogged, especially those that have leaves at the entrance. So, we did see a lot of water pooling and localised flooding.”

Although the rain was heavy, the water is needed, because so far November has been rather dry. The airport would usually expect around 186mm of rain in the month, but so far only 92mm has fallen.

More persistent rain is forecast from Tuesday to Thursday, and there could well be more on its way.

La Nina conditions have recently developed in the Pacific Ocean, and this normally brings a wetter and colder winter than usual to western Canada.

However, La Nina is not the only thing that can affect a forecast, and Environment Canada is the first to admit that long-range forecasts should always be taken with a pinch of salt:

Something to keep in mind when looking at #SeasonalForecasts: We (and everyone else) have absolutely NO skill in forecasting precipitation beyond 2 weeks #MythBusting http://pic.twitter.com/1W57tEAhCx

— ECCC Weather BC (@ECCCWeatherBC) November 20, 2017

In past few months, several research groups have uncovered vulnerabilities in the Intel remote administration feature known as the Management Engine (ME) which could allow remote attackers to gain full control of a targeted computer.

Now, Intel has admitted that these security vulnerabilities could “potentially place impacted platforms at risk.”

The popular chipmaker released a security advisory on Monday admitting that its Management Engine (ME), remote server management tool Server Platform Services (SPS), and hardware authentication tool Trusted Execution Engine (TXE) are vulnerable to multiple severe security issues that place millions of devices at risk.

The most severe vulnerability (CVE-2017-5705) involves multiple buffer overflow issues in the operating system kernel for Intel ME Firmware that could allow attackers with local access to the vulnerable system to “load and execute code outside the visibility of the user and operating system.“

The chipmaker has also described a high-severity security issue (CVE-2017-5708) involving multiple privilege escalation bugs in the operating system kernel for Intel ME Firmware that could allow an unauthorized process to access privileged content via an unspecified vector.

Systems using Intel Manageability Engine Firmware version 11.0.x.x, 11.5.x.x, 11.6.x.x, 11.7.x.x, 11.10.x.x and 11.20.x.x are impacted by these vulnerabilities.

For those unaware, Intel-based chipsets come with ME enabled for local and remote system management, allowing IT administrators to remotely manage and repair PCs, workstations, and servers within their organization.

As long as the system is connected to a line power and a network cable, these remote functions can be performed out of band even when the computer is turned off as it operates independently of the operating system.

Since ME has full access to almost all data on the computer, including its system memory and network adapters, exploitation of the ME flaws to execute malicious code on it could allow for a complete compromise of the platform.

“Based on the items identified through the comprehensive security review, an attacker could gain unauthorised access to the platform, Intel ME feature, and third party secrets protected by the ME, Server Platform Service (SPS), or Trusted Execution Engine (TXE),” Intel said.

Besides running unauthorized code on computers, Intel has also listed some attack scenarios where a successful attacker could crash systems or make them unstable.

Another high-severity vulnerability involves a buffer overflow issue (CVE-2017-5711) in Active Management Technology (AMT) for the Intel ME Firmware that could allow attackers with remote Admin access to the system to execute malicious code with AMT execution privilege.

AMT for Intel ME Firmware versions 8.x, 9.x, 10.x, 11.0.x.x, 11.5.x.x, 11.6.x.x, 11.7.x.x, 11.10.x.x and 11.20.x.x are impacted by this vulnerability.

The worst part is that it’s almost impossible to disable the ME feature to protect against possible exploitation of these vulnerabilities.

“The disappointing fact is that on modern computers, it is impossible to completely disable ME,” researchers from Positive Technologies noted in a detailed blog post published late August. “This is primarily due to the fact that this technology is responsible for initialization, power management, and launch of the main processor.”

Other high severity vulnerabilities impact TXE version 3.0 and SPS version 4.0, leaving millions of computers with the feature at risk. These are described as:

High Severity Flaws in Server Platform Service (SPS)

• CVE-2017-5706: This involves multiple buffer overflow issues in the operating system kernel for Intel SPS Firmware that could allow attackers with local access to the system to execute malicious code on it.
• CVE-2017-5709: This involves multiple privilege escalation bugs in the operating system kernel in Intel SPS Firmware that could allow an unauthorized process to access privileged content via an unspecified vector.

Both the vulnerabilities impact Intel Server Platform Services Firmware 4.0.x.x.

High Severity Flaws in Intel Trusted Execution Engine (TXE)

• CVE-2017-5707: This issue involves multiple buffer overflow flaws in the operating system kernel in Intel TXE Firmware that allow attackers with local access to the system to execute arbitrary code on it.
• CVE-2017-5710: This involves multiple privilege escalation bugs in the operating system kernel in Intel TXE Firmware that allow an unauthorized process to access privileged content via an unspecified vector.

Both the vulnerabilities impact Intel Trusted Execution Engine Firmware 3.0.x.x.

Affected Intel Products

Below is the list of the processor chipsets which include the vulnerable firmware:

• 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core processors
• Xeon E3-1200 v5 and v6 processors
• Xeon Scalable processors
• Xeon W processors
• Atom C3000 processors
• Apollo Lake Atom E3900 series
• Apollo Lake Pentiums
• Celeron N and J series processors

Intel has issued patches across a dozen generations of CPUs to address these security vulnerabilities that affect millions of PCs, servers, and the internet of things devices, and is urging affected customers to update their firmware as soon as possible.

The chipmaker has also published a Detection Tool to help Windows and Linux administrators check if their systems are exposed to any threat.

The company thanked Mark Ermolov and Maxim Goryachy from Positive Technologies Research for discovering CVE-2017-5705 and bringing it to its attention, which forced the chipmaker to review its source code for vulnerabilities.

A blast at a mosque in Mubi, northeastern Nigeria, has killed at least 20 people, local media reports have said. 

Police said a teenage bomber targeted the mosque as people arrived for morning prayers.

No group has yet claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram carries out regular attacks in the region.

The death toll reported varied from at least 20 to 50. 

“It was a devastating attack on the mosque as people gathered for prayer,” said Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Abuja.

“The number of wounded was so high that we will probably see more and more people succumbing to wounds.”

He added: “Mubi is not far away from … the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency.”

Harare, Zimbabwe – Defiant President Robert Mugabe could lose his 37-year grip on Zimbabwe within days, with a motion to impeach him on Tuesday’s parliament agenda introduced by the ruling ZANU-PF party.

The motion – which will be heard in a joint sitting of the lower and upper house – accuses Mugabe of being “the source of instability” within government and allowing his wife, First Lady Grace, to “usurp constitutional power”.

As laid out in Section 97 (3) of the Constitution, once the Senate and National Assembly have passed a resolution confirming the president should be removed from office, Mugabe could be stripped of his wide-ranging powers that many citizens say have caused untold suffering and hardship.

Douglas Gumbo, 54, who participated in Saturday’s mass march calling for Mugabe to resign, told Al Jazeera he was eager to watch the parliamentary session. House sittings are normally broadcast live on state television.

“He tried to run away from us on Sunday, but now he is cornered. It’s game over for him and I just can’t wait to see him and his wife go,” he said.

Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority of both the senate and the national assembly.

While the governing ZANU-PF party, which has turned against its leader, holds a parliamentary majority, it may have to team up with opposition legislators to make up the required numbers.

Dozens of ZANU-PF MPs have fled the country or gone into hiding facing army detention, following a military crackdown targeting “criminals” surrounding the veteran leader.

Also on Tuesday, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president Mugabe sacked on November 6, reportedly joined calls for the leader to resign.

“The people of Zimbabwe have spoken with one voice and it is my appeal to President Mugabe that he should take heed of this clarion call and resign forthwith so that the country can move forward and preserve his legacy,” he said in a statement that has been circulating around local media.

Mugabe ignores ZANU-PF deadline

A military takeover, launched on November 15, placed Mugabe under house arrest – he is largely confined to his Blue Roof residence.

Despite increasing pressure, Mugabe has resisted demands to resign, instead maintaining “a business as usual” stance, calling for a cabinet meeting ahead of Tuesday’s parliamentary session, as is routine.

On Monday, he disregarded an ultimatum from ZANU-PF demanding he submit his written resignation as national president.

In a national address broadcast on Sunday, Mugabe said he would “preside” over the party’s upcoming extraordinary congress next month.

Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda reportedly jetted in on Monday on an official mission to convince Mugabe to step down in a “dignified exit”.

Kaunda is a close ally of Mugabe and like his 93-year-old age mate, was neighbouring Zambia’s first president after liberation in 1964.

However, after 27 years, he conceded electoral defeat and stepped down.

If Mugabe’s impeachment sails through it could see Mnangagwa, the sacked vice presient, appointed as interim president.

Mnangagwa, who fled Zimbabwe after being dismissed on November 6 amid a power to struggle with Grace Mugabe, was reinstated as ZANU-PF’s vice president and appointed interim party leader.

According to army chief General Constantino Chiwenga, Mnangagwa – Mugabe’s longtime heir apparent, is expected back in the country “shortly”.

Follow Tendai Marima on Twitter: @i_amten

Warning of “dark ages” in the Middle East, Qatar’s foreign minister on Monday accused its neighbours of perpetuating “drama and discord” as part of a “dangerous game of power”.

“Regional players are acting irresponsibly, taking a political gamble with the lives of other nations’ citizens with no exit strategy,” Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a speech at Washington, DC-based think-tank the Center for the National Interest.

The foreign minister was in Washington for meetings with officials from the Trump administration, including his US counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, over the blockade on Qatar.

Al Thani’s speech targeted countries that had imposed a blockade on Qatar earlier this year — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.

In June, the four countries abruptly cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups in the region.

Accusing the blockading countries of ruining regional stability and security, Al Thani added that the Saudi-led bloc is trying to subdue smaller countries in the region such as Qatar, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Lebanon.

Full of drama

“The world watches the news and sees images from my region which are full of drama and discord,” Al Thani continued. “Dark periods of closed-mindedness, totalitarianism and aggression [have] set in. The Middle East went from the centre of connectivity and enlightenment to being a chaotic region. During the age of aggression, extremism has flourished.”

The four nations have also threatened Qatar with additional sanctions if Doha failed to meet a long list of demands, including the closure of the Doha-headquartered news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

They are “governments who seek domination to centralize power, intimidate smaller countries into submission”, Al Thani continued. “These dark ages are not happening in the distant past. They are happening right now.”

Al Thani said countries in the Saudi-led bloc are willing to use unbridled means of intimidation, listing the offenses as “silencing dissenters, creating humanitarian crises, shutting down communications, manipulating financial markets, bullying smaller nations, blackmailing, fracturing governments, terrorising citizens, strong-arming the leaders of other nations and spreading propaganda”.

Lebanon

Turning to a question about Saudi influence on Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri‘s resignation, Al Thani said it is “an intervention into the internal affairs of Lebanon” and an effort to sway the balance of power in the region away from Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical nemesis Iran.

The Lebanese premier had abruptly announced his resignation on November 4 during a televised address from Saudi Arabia, citing an alleged plot to assassinate him. Hariri’s resignation, however, was not accepted by Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun amid allegations he was being held by Riyadh against his will.

SOURCE: Anadolu news agency