By Emily Parker, New Yorker

A few years before his arrest, in 2012, I exchanged e-mails with the Vietnamese blogger Le Quoc Quan, a Hanoi-based lawyer who first started blogging in 2005. He told me that his first post, just a sentence long, read: “Oh my fatherland of Vietnam, I want to say something to you!”

This picture taken on July 8, 2012 shows lawyer Le Quoc Quan (C) shouting during an anti-China rally in Hanoi. Quan said on August 21, 2012 he was attacked by plain clothed police with a metal bar and left injured as a ‘warning’ to stop his activisms. AFP PHOTO/HOANG DINH Nam (Photo credit should read HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/GettyImages)

While working on my book about Internet dissent in the Communist and post-Communist world, I interviewed bloggers in China, Cuba, and Russia who, like Quan, wanted to tell stories that did not appear in the state-controlled media.

Quan, whose blogging career started in a small shop that repaired computers and sold pirated software, wrote about a variety of topics, including corruption, anti-China demonstrations, and the arrest of the prominent human-rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh. In 2012, not long after publishing an article that criticized a draft of Vietnam’s constitution, Quan was arrested for tax evasion in a case that was widely viewed as politically motivated. He was sentenced to thirty months in prison, where he remains today.

Last month, the popular Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy were both arrested for abuses of “democratic freedoms.” Human Rights Watch called the arrests a “cynical and chilling move.”

These cases have painted a bleak picture of Internet freedom in Vietnam, a country that blocks Web sites and surveils netizens. The Internet came to Vietnam in the nineteen-nineties, and use of it has grown at a rapid pace ever since. According to figures from 2013, more than one in four Vietnamese said that they had used the Internet in the past week. The Vietnamese government, in response, has tried to rein in dissent by enacting laws that restrict online content, but authorities cannot entirely control the spread of information.

Ngo Nhat Dang, a Hanoi-based independent journalist, told me that it’s easy to get around the censorship laws. People “use word of mouth to spread knowledge about circumvention, so when one gets blocked others simply come in to help,” he said.

The Vietnamese government has also intermittently blocked Facebook, which, according to some estimates, has over twenty-two million users in Vietnam. Despite relatively weak controls, Vietnamese authorities do not seem ready to let the social media site run completely free. The Communist Party, in particular, is worried about freedom of assembly and Facebook’s power to spur collective action.

Read the full article by Emily Parker from New Yorker.

By Peter Schurmann, New America Media

Editor’s Note: University of California President Janet Napolitano recently returned from a two-day trip to Mexico, where she met with government officials and academics to discuss the recently announced UC-Mexico Initiative, which aims to bolster cross-border academic and cultural ties. The initiative comes on the heels of an agreement between President Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña-Nieto to increase student exchanges between the two countries. Napolitano spoke with NAM education editor Peter Schurmann about the initiative and about the recent shootings at UC Santa Barbara.

UC President Janet Napolitano speaks with New America Media education editor Peter Schurmann about the UC-Mexico Initiative.

What was your initial reaction to the shooting in Santa Barbara?

I was just horrified. In fact I had literally just gotten back from Mexico City, and like most people I was looking forward to a nice, calm three-day weekend. But then you have to go into, ‘What do we need to do?’ We need to make sure the campus has an emergency operation center up and running. The [UCSB] chancellor was in Boston visiting his grandchildren [so] we needed to get him back to the campus; working with the sheriff’s office to get the identities of the victims so that we could then reach out to the families; making sure those who are in the hospital are getting good care. All those things have to happen simultaneously.

At the same time, [we were] thinking about support services the campus might want to offer students, staff and faculty in terms of counseling. A couple of our campuses were already done with school, so they were able to make resources available immediately. The [UCSB] campus decided it wanted to have a memorial. They did that on Tuesday, and cancelled class. It was a remarkable event – 20,000 young people crammed into a football stadium totally silent. It was just very powerful.

What will you carry from this experience?

Sadly, what I carry is that I’ve been to too many of these, and through too many of these. As the governor, as the Homeland Security secretary … these mass casualty events, I’ve just seen and been through many by this point in my career. And in a sad way, that was very helpful because many at the campus had never been through anything like this.

What steps can or should the university take to deter similar incidents in the future?

One of the things we can do, and this is long term but the work is going on and will go on, is more research into the causes of and treatments for mental illness. This ties into the president’s Brain Mapping Initiative and into a lot of the work at our research facilities. As we talk about national health care and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we need to be thinking about mental, in addition to physical health. We see mental health in the criminal justice side of things, and in all kinds of social problems. I think we are a long way from having our arms around what is going on.

As former head of Homeland Security, your job was to secure America’s borders. Now, as head of UC, you’ve adopted a globalist’s approach to leadership there. Is there any inherent tension between these two positions?

I don’t think so. Part of my job as secretary involved enforcement of the law as the law currently is, even though I was advocating, at the same time, that the law and the whole system needed to change. But that’s not my job here at the university. My job here is, as I like to say, teach for California and research for the world. What that means is to really think of ourselves as the globe’s leading public research university, what are the opportunities for us and what responsibilities do we have.

What was the reason for your trip to Mexico and the initiative you are spearheading there?

The genesis of the trip came out of my visits to the UC campuses during the fall. I kept asking, ‘Well, what are we doing with Mexico?’ at each campus. There were little pockets and episodic things, but no strategic approach by the entire university toward our neighbor to the south. When you look at the world’s fastest growing economies, Mexico is right up there. And there’s been so much focus toward the Pacific and Asia, which is great and we do a lot of that, but it seems to me that we ought to also look south.

Then, in part because I know many of the people in the Peña-Nieto administration from my time as the governor of Arizona and as the secretary, it’s an ideal time to use some of these friendships. Peña-Nieto and President Obama have a joint project to exchange 100,000 students. What role can the UC play in that, and what are we doing in terms of faculty research and joint opportunities?

The UC-Mexico Initiative is designed to put a strategic umbrella over our current activities, but also identify new ones – graduate student exchange, undergraduate exchange and research opportunities. For example, sustainable energy – what work do we have going on in our campuses in that field? Lots. How can we connect with work being done in Mexico? How about work on climate change, or agriculture and security of the food supply?

Data from Google shows 91 percent of employees are white or Asian, and only 3 percent are Latino and African American. Can the UC-Mexico Initiative help balance the numbers in this critical industry?

I would hope so, alongside our own education mission. The second largest cohort of our entering class is Hispanic. They surpass whites. That’s the first time in California history that that’s happened. As we educate these young people, they’re going to be entering the workforce, and these companies are all headquartered in California.

Violence has been cited as a reason for the low number of American exchange students studying in Mexico. What’s your sense of the situation there now?

Of course we will not send students to some place that is dangerous. In Mexico, there are some areas to be careful about. But at the major universities and places where we send students, these are very safe environments in which to study and to learn. Mexico City is like any major metropolitan area in the world, and it’s very cosmopolitan. I think there is a misperception by students and parents about violence in Mexico.

What do you see as being a potential draw for students from the U.S. to go study in Mexico?

First of all, [Mexico City’s] UNAM is a major research university. It is a university that we are going to be forming a specific partnership with. The student body of UNAM is almost the size of the entire UC system. It’s a huge university. The students we have there now are doing sociology and related fieldwork. I would like to see us do more in science, engineering and technology. I think UNAM and UC can match up very well in terms of these undergraduate experiences.

Mexico is behind countries like Korea, China, India and Vietnam in the number of exchange students it sends to the U.S. What’s your response to that?

I think this is why President Peña-Nieto has announced the FOBESII (Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research) Initiative, to get more students to come to the United States. My impression is the government will be putting some financial support into that for students. But there’s also the perception issue. U.S. students are deterred by the perception that all of Mexico is violent. Mexican students are deterred because of the view that the United States is hostile. Perceptions are difficult to change, but one of the ways you change them is through actual experience. That’s one of the reasons why it’s important to increase the relationship with higher education in Mexico.

Does the potential for immigration reform factor into the long-term success of the Mexico Initiative?

There will be a window between June and the Labor Day recess for the House to take up immigration. I read an article yesterday about how a number of pro-immigration reform advocacy groups are asking the Obama administration not to do anything in terms of changing enforcement policy right now, to take a pause to see whether the House will do anything. I hope they do, and I hope it is meaningful reform. It is something the country needs so badly. Again, a lot of the political reluctance for reform is because of misperception. But the UC-Mexico Initiative is independent of immigration reform.

A good deal of your personal and professional life has been involved with the U.S.-Mexico border.

The border is part of who I am. I’ve driven it, I’ve walked it, I’ve ridden horseback along it, I’ve flown it in helicopters, I’ve been to virtually every port of entry, and I’ve also spent a fair amount of time in Mexico. There is such a rich opportunity here for meaningful exchange, and it saddens me that the toxicity of the immigration issue has infected so many people with respect to our relationship with Mexico. I would like to do what I can to dissipate that toxicity.

What role does Mexico play in California’s future?

California will be stronger and thrive even more in this century if it develops a stronger relationship with Mexico. And I mean that both from an education standpoint, from an economic and trade standpoint, and also from a regional standpoint in terms of facing the world as a region as we deal with some of the global issues that we have. We talked about energy and climate change – two perfect examples of how, if we deal with these together, we will do better than if we deal with them separately.

From Free Press Journal

Vietnam has warned that it has no option but to seek international arbitration over the South China Sea standoff with China if Beijing continued to push it to do so by their activities in the disputed Islands, agencies report.

This picture taken on June 2, 2014 shows the Vietnamese fishing boat ‘DNA 90152’ (L), which was reportedly sunk by a Chinese ship, at a shipyard in the central coastal city of Danang. Vietnam last week accused a Chinese ship of ramming and sinking one of its fishing boats — the first ship reported sunk since the dispute flared in early May after China deployed an oil rig in the disputed waters of the South China Sea off Vietnam’s central coast. (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Vietnam’s Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that Vietnam was yet to decide when to seek international arbitration, but the decision hinged on China’s actions in the South China Sea. “They (China) have asked us several times not to bring the case to international court,” Vinh was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post on Monday.

“Our response was that it’s up to China’s activities and behaviour; if they continue to push us, we have no choice. The legal option is also in accordance with international law,” he said.

Vinh said despite Beijing repeatedly asking it to shun any such plans it will not give up its rights of sovereignty over the disputed islands.

Vinh’s remarks came after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said his country had prepared evidence for a legal suit to challenge China’s claim in the waters off the Vietnamese coast and was considering the best time to file it.

Rejecting the claims of Vietnam and other maritime neighbour, China said it has indisputable sovereignty over the area for over 2000 years and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) cannot be applicable to it.

Read the full story from Free Press Journal.

By Nicole Nguyen, Pop Sugar

There was one announcement from today’s WWDC event you might’ve missed. It’s a small release with huge potential: a new set of tools for developers shipping with iOS 8. There’s over 4,000 new possibilities (or “APIs,” in engineering lingo) for future iOS apps, including crazy keyboard alternatives and using Touch ID to log in to third-party applications.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JUNE 02: Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone West center on June 2, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC which is typically a showcase for upcoming updates to Apple hardware and software. The conference runs through June 6. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

This small, very technical announcement means that we, as normal everyday users, will have way more options and control with how we use our phones. Apple is finally loosening its grip on integrating non-Apple third-party apps into the existing Safari, Maps, and Photos apps we love and use every day.

1 Log In to Everything With Touch ID

Only Apple’s official apps (App Store, iTunes, etc.) could make use of the iPhone 5S’s fingerprint-scanning technology. Now, for the first time, third-party apps (like Mint or Facebook) can use Touch ID to log in, instead of typing a password.

The app does not store your personal fingerprint data. Rather, your fingerprint will unlock a username and password stored in your phone, like Keychain. So your unique fingerprint is never accessed by other apps. It stays safe in your iPhone 5S.

2 Integrate Our Favorite Apps, Everywhere

Soon, you’ll be able to apply VSCO Cam filters without having to leave Camera Roll (shown on the right). You will even be able to translate a webpage via Bing in Safari, without having to open up a separate app.

It’s all part of a feature available to developers called Extensions. This allows app-makers to do three different things:

—–Embed their own filters and editing tools into the iOS Photos app.

—–Create “custom actions” (like translate this text, bookmark this webpage to Pocket, etc.) for the iOS 8 control center (what you see when you swipe up from the bottom).

—–Add “widgets” to Notification Center (the window that drops down when you swipe down from the top) that are automatically updated with sports scores of package deliveries.|

Read the full article by Nicole Nguyen from Pop Sugar.

By Gary V. Murray, Telegram

WORCESTER — A California pilot was sentenced to jail Monday after pleading guilty to a possession of marijuana with intent to distribute charge stemming from his 2011 arrest at Fitchburg Airport.

Marijuana. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Hoang Nguyen, 34, of Garden Grove, Calif., was initially charged with trafficking in 50 to 100 pounds of marijuana after authorities said he landed a plane containing 74 pounds of the drug at the airport in Fitchburg on Sept. 27, 2011.

Mr. Nguyen pleaded guilty Monday in Worcester Superior Court to a reduced charge of marijuana possession with intent to distribute. He was sentenced by Judge James R. Lemire to 2 years in the House of Correction with 6 months to be served. The balance of the sentence was suspended for 2 years with administrative probation.

The sentence imposed by the judge was recommended by Assistant District Attorney Timothy M. Farrell and Mr. Nguyen’s lawyer, Leonard J. Staples, under a plea agreement. Mr. Nguyen was given credit for 81 days he spent in custody awaiting the disposition of his case.

Paul R. Jarvey, a spokesman for District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., said representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration were in court for the plea hearing and suspended Mr. Nguyen’s pilot’s license for life. Mr. Jarvey said Mr. Nguyen also agreed to the forfeiture of about $77,000 that was seized at the time of his arrest.

Read the full story by Gary V. Murray from Telegram.

By Daniel J. Graeber, UPI

HANOI, Vietnam –Amid tensions over a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters, an economic policy center in Hanoi said Vietnam needs to take steps to reduce its ties to China.

This picture taken on May 13, 2014 from a Vietnamese coast guard ship shows two Chinese coast guard vessels sailling near the area of China’s oil drilling rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Vietnam is experiencing its worst anti-China unrest in decades following Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig to disputed waters, with at least one Chinese worker killed and more than 100 injured. (Photo: HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)

An annual report from the Vietnam Center for Economic and Policy Research says Vietnam’s economy is expected to slow down because of ongoing tensions with China over an oil rig operating in disputed waters in the South China Sea.

“Facing tensions with China, Vietnam needs to commit to changing its economic model, development path and ideology in governing its economy,” the report said. “The economic slowdown has offered a number of reasons to call for radical reforms and reduce dependence on China.”

The Vietnamese government in May said it has the right to defend its national interests. Beijing says it’s operating within its territorial waters and has called on Vietnam to stop interfering with its legitimate work in the region.

Read the full story by Daniel J. Graeber from UPI.