GLOBAL FAST INTERNET MEGA PROJECTS....

 01

Alibaba and the 40 spies? Belgium frets over Chinese mega project

Press play to listen to this article

Belgian politicians are beginning to worry a massive Chinese project at Liège airport in the south of the country is more about spycraft than aircraft.

Members of the country's parliament are debating whether China is looking to give its spies a firmer foothold in Europe through a landmark logistics hub being built by the e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Alibaba's €100 million investment has long been welcomed in Belgium as a way to help revive the struggling economy of the French-speaking region of Wallonia. The freight and parcels hub, on 220,000 square meters leased at the airport, is expected to become operational this year.

The mood on China is souring in the EU, however, amid tit-for-tat sanctions and boycotts against European products by Chinese consumers.

"We should realize that Alibaba is not just a simple private operator, but an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, under the orders of the regime, for instance in the repression of the Uyghur minority through its facial recognition software," said Samuel Cogolati, a member of the Green Ecolo party in the Belgian parliament, who is leading the charge on the file.

"We must reappropriate ... control over these digital giants and screen these Chinese investments, without naivety. We must open our eyes, guarantee our security, basic freedoms and protect the personal data of Belgian citizens," he told POLITICO.

At a meeting of the parliamentary justice committee last week, Cogolati pressed Belgium's Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne on the issue. And the minister sounded pretty worried too.

“Chinese intelligence officers could have access to sensitive and secure areas of the airport … The future economic importance of Liège airport to China can't be underestimated,” the Flemish liberal said, according to Belgian press reports of the meeting. “Alibaba will also have to obey the Chinese security apparatus in the event that it wishes to have access to the potentially sensitive commercial and personal data held by Alibaba in connection with its activities in Liège.”

Neither Van Quickenborne nor Alibaba responded to requests for comment from POLITICO.

The Chinese embassy in Belgium firmly rejected the accusations.

“Some Belgian parliamentarians, institutions and the media … baselessly suspected that Alibaba’s Liège Airport logistics project cooperates with the Chinese government’s espionage activities and poses a threat to citizens’ privacy and national security,” it said in a statement. Requirements under China’s national intelligence law, it added, “respect and protect human rights.”

Beijing and Brussels now seem to be trying to smooth over relations at the ministerial level. Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked to his Belgian counterpart, Sophie Wilmès, and called on Belgium to “play a constructive role in the EU” and “promote the long-term and steady development of China-EU relations.”

“Belgium is the heart of Europe, and has long been a bridge for China-Europe exchanges,” Wang added, according to the Chinese readout.

And Wallonia knows full well the value of that bridge because Liège has already benefited enormously from Alibaba’s presence. According to a spokesman for the city’s airport, freight soared from 9 million parcels in 2018 to 362 million parcels in 2019, and 548 million last year mainly thanks to Alibaba and its subsidiary Cainiao Smart Logistics Network.

Laurens Cerulus contributed reporting.

Want more analysis from POLITICO? POLITICO Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.

02

Special unit to monitor 260 mega development projects

View(s):

By Damith Wickramasekara 

A special supervisory unit under a Deputy Treasury Secretary is to be appointed to review the progress of 260 mega-scale development projects with a combined investment of Rs. 5.8 trillion, Treasury sources said.  The special unit, which will be supported by government agencies, including the Auditor General’s Department, will conduct weekly progress reviews of the projects, many of which have been impacted by the country’s economic crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 125 if these projects are financed through foreign sources. The earliest of the projects date from 2012 and should be completed before 2030. Ten of the projects have been initiated this year.

The decision to set up a special unit comes after a survey conducted by government agencies including the Ministry of Finance revealed that though 61 of the 260 projects were to be completed during the first half of this year, 46 of them had failed to generate results as expected.

Moreover, only 15 of the projects have been completed while 15 others are being implemented successfully. From a total of 134 projects 59 have been identified as those which “need special attention” and 75 “at critical status”. Implementation of 14 projects have so far been temporarily suspended.

While a procedure had been adopted this year for allocating funds on a quarterly basis to ensure the optimum utilisation of funds for the projects, the progress was impeded due to a number of issues including restrictions on imports, scarcity of raw material, the fuel crisis, power cuts and difficulties in contract management due to inflation and the shortage of foreign exchange, the Treasury sources noted.

The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!

03

Mega ‘GTA 6’ Leak Floods the Internet With Gameplay Footage and Screenshots

In what could be one of the biggest gaming bombshells of all time, Rockstar Games’ upcoming GTA 6 has suffered a major leak, revealing footage of an early build of the release and loads of unfinished gameplay. While this new leak seems to confirm certain previously rumoured elements, it also does dampen all the surprises the developers had in store for players. Grand Theft Auto 6 is among the most hyped and talked about video games on the planet, with speculation over the plot, characters and release date brewing long before its existence was even confirmed.

RELATED: Grand Theft Auto VI’ Confirmed by Rockstar Games

© Provided by Man of Many US Gta 6 leak 2

Image: Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games has been extremely secretive about the whole project and until recently there was almost nothing we knew or had seen of the game, but that has now completely changed, all thanks to more than 90 videos and screenshots that surfaced on GTA Forums. Recently, a user going by the name of ‘teapotuberhacker’ uploaded an overwhelming amount of GTA 6 footage to the forum, which they argued was from a test build of Grand Theft Auto 6, running with “GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets”.

The leaked screenshots and video footage have already taken over YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, and other social media forums, and align with some previous information from past GTA 6 leaks, such as the game having multiple playable characters, including a female protagonist, and the location which seems to be a Miami-like Vice City. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier substantiated the authenticity of the leaked clips and photos, saying, “Not that there was much doubt, but I’ve confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend’s massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real. The footage is early and unfinished, of course. This is one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games”.

© Provided by Man of Many US Gta 6 leak 3

Image: Rockstar Games

Despite several sources claiming the videos were real, the internet was divided on the authenticity of the clips. However, just days later, the actual confirmation came with Rockstar Games officially taking to Twitter to share its disappointment in the reveal.

“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto,” Rockstar Games confirmed on Twitter. “At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services not any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.”

“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations, We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”

© Provided by Man of Many US Gta 6 leaks

Image: Rockstar Games

In one of the leaked videos, we can see a playable female character named Lucia looting a restaurant and taking NPCs as captives. Since the footage is from an early build of the game, you can see an abundance of placeholder texts such as ‘Time Until Cops Dispatched’, and dialogue texts like “Jason: GENERIC_CURSE_TO_SELF.” In yet another video, we see a playable character on the “Vice City Metro” train, which appears to verify the information that the game will take place in a fictionalised rendition of Miami. There’s another clip showing a poolside conversation where we hear dialogue like, “Oh yeah, he’s dead, is he? Just like there’s a country called Finland.” Other clips also reveal gunplay along with fleeing from Vice City police.

Take-Two Interactive already has begun filing takedown requests for a lot of GTA 6 videos uploaded on YouTube, with many videos now reading, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Take-Two Interactive.” However, there are still a few that remain online.

All the leaked videos and images are clearly from an alpha build of the game and it seems like an unfinished development build used for testing some facets of the game by the devs. While we don’t have any idea or confirmation as to how old this footage is or how far along Rockstar is in development, GTA 6 is still a way off and probably won’t be out before late 2024 or early 2025. However, these newly leaked videos and screenshots do confirm a wide array of information surrounding the game’s location and characters.

Did you love this story on Grand Theft VI? Check out some of our other recent GTA 6 coverage: