Lbiz

School closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic mean many parents are trying to come up with ways to educate and entertain their children at home. While there are many online options, some parents worry about too much screen time. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details on a couple of applications that combine the physical and digital so students learning at home get the best of both worlds.
…

School closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic are creating stress for many parents trying to teach and entertain their children at home. While many online educational options provide help, some parents worry about too much screen time while their kids are away from school. General view of a sign outside the Parkside Community Primary School in Borehamwood as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Borehamwood, Britain, March 18, 2020.“If you’re wasting your time on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, that’s the bad kind of screen time that we want to eliminate,” said David Drobik, co-founder of Vividbooks, an application that uses augmented reality to make physics concepts come to life. His app is among those that aim to combine the real and digital worlds to help children stay mentally active and engaged. Augmented reality physicsTraditional physics textbooks, Drobik said, contain illustrations, diagrams and lots of text to describe concepts that might be easier to understand if explained through a more visual medium.“Physics has a lot of caveats and a lot of concepts that are very visual in the sense that if you apply a digital layer with an animation that explains different concepts, it’s much easier to explain rather than having to read a lot of text,” Drobik said. Through a desktop or mobile device, a user first prints out Vividbooks pages. Once in the app, holding the mobile device over a Vividbooks page will animate what is on the page on the screen of the device.“The device recognizes the image on the worksheet, and that’s how it knows that it should play a certain type of animation,” Drobik said.Certain pages include sound when explaining concepts such as how a steam engine works or the mechanical properties of gases with the sound of blowing up a balloon. Other topics include energy, optics, Newton’s law and friction. An empty classroom is seen at a closed school in Paris, March 16, 2020. The app is currently available only for Apple mobile devices. Web and Android versions are expected in June. During the pandemic, parents can access Vividbooks pages for free. The target age range for the product is 10 to 12 years old. The company plans to add chemistry and biology content and to expand the material for a wider age range.Creativity and imagination Another app attempts to avoid the passivity that causes many children and young adults to be glued to screens.“Technology is great. It’s all around us and there’s so many fantastic things out there,” Martin Horstman, founder of Tink Digital, the company that created the app DoodleMatic, said. But, he added, the way children use it can be passive.Horstman considers social media and video games to be passive because the user is consuming other people’s ideas.He developed DoodleMatic so that users 6 years old and older could express their own ideas by combining real-world skills with technology.With the software, a user designs and draws a game on paper, using specific colors that tell the app whether something is an avatar, a goal, a hazard, or is something that can make an object move. The user then takes a photo of the picture with a mobile device through the app, and what was on paper becomes a video game.Through trial and error, young game developers learn how to avoid past mistakes and develop more complex games, which Horstman said can teach important life skills.“We believe strongly that creativity and imagination is such an important skill for every career path that you might end up taking,” Horstman said.Kids can design and animate two games for free. A package costs $29.99, which includes markers, design ideas and a code providing access to create 1,000 additional animated games.
…

Technology and spirituality normally don’t go together. But at a recent conference in San Francisco there were tips on how to use technology to achieve more inner peace. Deana Mitchell went to see if it was possible.
…

Chinese social video app TikTok named the initial members of a U.S.-focused content moderation committee to advise on its policies on Wednesday, as it faces U.S. scrutiny over data-sharing and censorship concerns.The council, which it announced in October, will meet every few months to give “unvarnished views” and advice on content moderation policies and evaluate the company’s actions.TikTok, owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, has made a series of bids to boost transparency as it faces scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers over its data security practices and concerns it engages in censorship at the behest of the Chinese government.The company, which has been criticized after former guidelines to suppress users’ content based on their physical appearance were leaked to media outlets, has also come under pressure to curb misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election and during the coronavirus pandemic.A Reuters search found TikTok videos repeating debunked false claims, including that the coronavirus might have come from a bioweapons ‘super laboratory.’The company has said U.S. user data is stored in the United States and that China does not have jurisdiction over content outside China.TikTok said its ‘Content Advisory Council,’ will grow to about a dozen members.The council’s first meeting at the end of March will focus on topics around “platform integrity, including policies against misinformation and election interference.”The group will be chaired by Dawn Nunziato, a professor at George Washington University Law School and co-director of the Global Internet Freedom Project.The other six founding members include Hany Farid, an expert on deepfakes and digital image forensics, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar, and experts on issues from child safety to voter information.Last week, TikTok announced it had set up a “transparency center” in Los Angeles to show regulators and the public how it how it reviews content.In November, the U.S. government launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly. Two senators have also introduced a bill to ban federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued phones.Facebook Inc is currently in the process of creating an independent oversight board to review appealed content decisions. In 2016, Twitter Inc formed a ‘Trust and Safety Council’ of groups and experts to provide advice.
…

Technology and spirituality normally don’t go together. But at a recent conference in San Francisco there were tips on how to use technology to achieve more inner peace. Deana Mitchell went to see if it was possible.
…

Technology and spirituality normally don’t go together. But at a recent conference in San Francisco there were tips on how to use technology to achieve more inner peace. Deana Mitchell went to see if it was possible.
…

A virtual library housing censored articles from around the world has been created within the hugely popular video game Minecraft by press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).   Minecraft, with its signature pixelated graphics, enables players to build entire universes from Lego-like digital blocks, either alone or with others online.   RSF said it had put work by banned, exiled or killed journalists in five countries — Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Vietnam — on an open server, making it available for players to view despite local censorship laws.   “In these countries, where websites, blogs and free press in general are strictly limited, Minecraft is still accessible by everyone,” the group said in a press release.   “These articles are now available again within Minecraft, hidden from government surveillance technology inside a computer game. The books can be read by everyone on the server, but their content cannot be changed,” it said.   In May last year, Minecraft said 176 million copies of the game have been sold since its launch a decade ago.   The project, announced on Thursday to mark the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, is called the “Uncensored Library” and takes the form of a large neoclassical-style building in the game.   RSF said the library was growing, with more texts being added both in English and their original language.   Already available in the game are articles by slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and from Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr, which has been blocked in the North African country since 2017. 
…

Motion capture technology is no longer just available for filmmakers and video game makers to transform human actors into other creatures. With the smartphone and other technologies, anyone can have their movements captured and analyzed to learn about how the body is moving for better physical performance and to avoid injuries.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. 
…

Apple Inc said late on Friday it will close all its retail stores, except those in Greater China, for the next two weeks to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.”We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on the company’s website.”In all of our offices, we are moving to flexible work arrangements worldwide outside of Greater China,” he added. “That means team members should work remotely if their job allows.”Apple reopened all 42 of its branded stores in China on Friday.The company’s donations to the global coronavirus response, to help treat those who are sick and to help lessen the economic and community impacts, reached $15 million on Friday, Cook wrote in the letter.More than 138,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 5,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
…

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Friday he is stepping down from the company’s board to focus on philanthropy.Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975.He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.The billionaire announced Friday that he’s leaving the Microsoft board entirely as well as his seat on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.Gates said he plans to dedicate more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will also remain a technology adviser to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other company leaders.
…

The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process.U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical aspects of the companies’ proposals to run the $10 billion computing project.The filing doesn’t address Amazon’s broader argument that the bidding was improperly influenced by President Donald Trump’s dislike of Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns The Washington Post, a news outlet with which Trump has often clashed.Amazon Web Services is a market leader in providing cloud computing services and had long been considered a leading candidate to run the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, known as JEDI. The project will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to improve communications with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.Amazon sued the Pentagon after Microsoft won the contract in October. Work on the project has been halted as the lawsuit proceeds.The judge who is presiding over the bid protest in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said earlier this month that Amazon’s challenge likely had merit on some technical grounds involving pricing.The Pentagon is asking her for 120 days to reconsider “certain aspects” of its decision. Amazon said in a statement it is pleased the government is taking correction action if it “fully insulates the re-evaluation from political influence and corrects the many issues affecting the initial flawed award.”Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said one possible outcome is that the Pentagon could end up splitting the award between Microsoft and Amazon, or with other vendors. That would move the project forward and get it out of the courts, he said.
 
…

Two Republican senators on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at banning federal employees from using Chinese social media app TikTok on their government-issued phones, amid growing national security concerns around the collection and sharing of data on U.S. users with China’s government.The bill by Senators Josh Hawley and Rick Scott comes as several U.S. agencies that deal with national security and intelligence issues including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have banned employees from using the app.It is also the latest attempt to rein in technology companies by Hawley, who has repeatedly clashed with big tech companies and has a notably nuanced and aggressive approach when questioning tech executives in congressional hearings.”TikTok is owned by a Chinese company that includes Chinese Communist Party members on its board, and it is required by law to share user data with Beijing,” Hawley said. ”
The app has been rapidly growing in popularity among U.S. teenagers and allows users to create short videos. About 60% of TikTok’s 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said last year.In November, the U.S. government launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.TikTok has been on the defensive as lawmakers and law enforcement agencies  take a closer look at its data security practices amid concerns it engages in censorship at the behest of the Chinese government.  The company previously said U.S. user data is stored in the United States and that China does not have jurisdiction over content that is not in China.A TikTok spokesman told Reuters last week Hawley’s concerns were unfounded and that the company is increasing its dialogue with lawmakers to explain its policies. The spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.In November, Hawley unveiled a bill that would bar companies from China, Russia or other countries that present national security concerns from transferring Americans’ data back within their borders — where it could be used to spy on the United States.The bill also prevented the companies from collecting data that isn’t necessary to the operation of their business, such as phone contacts or location in the case of TikTok.
…

The US needs a top-level cybersecurity coordinator and a better strategy of “deterrence” to protect against hackers and other cyber threats, a congressionally mandated commission said Wednesday.Defense in cyberspace requires a series of government reforms and policies to strike back at attackers, according to the report by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.The bipartisan panel which included lawmakers and private sector experts made more than 80 recommendations ranging from reforms in the executive and legislative branches to better cooperation with allies to secure cyberspace.”The reality is that we are dangerously insecure,” said a statement from Senator Angus King and Representative Mike Gallagher, co-chairs of the panel which took its name from an Eisenhower-era foreign policy project.”Your entire life — your paycheck, your health care, your electricity — increasingly relies on networks of digital devices that store, process and analyze data. These networks are vulnerable, if not already compromised.”Panel members described the required effort as equivalent to preventing another 9/11 attack.The panel recommended the establishment of White House cabinet-level “national cyber director” to direct coordination within government and the private sector.Additionally, the panel cited the need for a stronger deterrence strategy to demonstrate that attackers in cyberspace would pay a price.”Deterrence is possible in cyberspace,” the report said.”Today most cyber actors feel undeterred, if not emboldened, to target our personal data and public infrastructure… through our inability or unwillingness to identify and punish our cyber adversaries, we are signaling that interfering in American elections or stealing billions in US intellectual property is acceptable.”It said the US government and private sector must  “defend themselves and strike back with speed and agility.”The commission said cyber defense should rely on a “layered” strategy that imposes costs on attackers.”A key, but not the only, element of cost imposition is the military instrument of power,” the report said.”The United States must maintain the capacity, resilience, and readiness to employ cyber and non-cyber capabilities across the spectrum of engagement from competition to crisis and conflict.”
 
…

A SpaceX cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, delivering the company’s 20th batch of gear and treats.The Dragon capsule reached the orbiting lab after launching late Friday night. NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir used the station’s robot arm to capture the spacecraft.The 4,300-pound (1,950-kilogram) shipment contains science experiments and equipment, as well as special goodies for the three-person crew aloft for months: grapefruit, tomatoes, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces and Hot Tamales.This is the last of SpaceX’s original-style Dragons. All future ones are designed to carry either cargo or crew, and will dock automatically rather than require robot-arm assistance. SpaceX has been sending up station cargo since 2012 and plans to start launching NASA astronauts this spring.From 260 miles (418 kilometers) up, Meir congratulated SpaceX on its many milestones, including the fact this is the third flight for this particular Dragon. Spacecraft and rocket recycling, she noted, is “the more sustainable approach that will be paramount to the future of spaceflight.”The Dragon will remain at the orbiting lab for a month before returning to Earth with science specimens.
…

In March 2012, a 25-year-old Russian computer whiz named Yevgeny Nikulin sat with several others in a conference room in a hotel in eastern Moscow. A video taken by a Ukrainian named Oleksandr Ieremenko showed them discussing plans for an Internet cafe business and other matters.In an earlier part of the video, Ieremenko, 19, drives to the hotel to meet the group, which he calls a “summit of bad [expletives].”That same month, according to U.S. prosecutors, Nikulin broke into a social media company engineer’s computer a half a world away, in California — and allegedly stole the usernames and passwords used by tens of millions of people to access their LinkedIn accounts. Some of that data was put up for sale on a notorious Russian hacker forum that June.These details and other evidence were contained in pretrial motions prosecutors filed this week ahead of the opening of Nikulin’s trial in U.S. federal court in San Francisco. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.The case against Nikulin, who was arrested in 2016 in Prague and extradited to the United States in 2018, is the latest example of a Russian citizen facing prosecution in the United States for cybercrimes. It’s a trend that has infuriated the Russian Foreign Ministry, which complains that the United States is “hunting” Russians around the globe.But the pretrial motions add yet more evidence of the web of relationships among Russia’s cyber underworld, allegedly tying Nikulin, now 32, to people who have been charged with even bigger, more serious hacks. That includes a hacker who allegedly worked for Russian intelligence to steal hundreds of millions of Yahoo user credentials — possibly used in the 2016 hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee, according to cyberexperts.Nikulin, who was examined by court-ordered psychologists last year amid concerns about his mental health, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.Arkady Bukh, one of Nikulin’s lawyers, said prosecution lawyers appeared to be trying to pressure Nikulin to plead guilty ahead of the trial — particularly, he said, since the conviction rate for such cybercases is high.Nikulin, however, has refused his lawyer’s counsel to change his plea to guilty.’Zhenya’ from MoscowAccording to prosecutors’ evidence, the video showing Nikulin, Ieremenko and others was from a hard drive seized by Ukrainian authorities who raided Ieremenko’s home in Kyiv, and the homes of several other alleged Ukrainian hackers, in November 2012.An FBI affidavit said photographs found on the hard drive included photos that said “Zhenya from Moscow” — a diminutive form of the name Yevgeny.The U.S. Secret Service obtained the hard drive as part of an investigation into hacks of several business newswires, a scheme that involved selling unreleased corporate information to stock traders who then made trades based on the nonpublic information.Ieremenko, now 27, was implicated in that scheme, but he gained wider notoriety in 2019 when U.S. authorities indicted him and another Ukrainian in connection with a similar scam that traded on corporate earnings reports stolen from a database of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ieremenko is believed to be in Russia.According to the trial motions, Nikulin worked closely with Ieremenko in 2012, sharing hacked passwords and coding tips, using Skype accounts. A Skype address they tied to Nikulin — dex.007 — was used to send Ieremenko a link containing the password to one of Nikulin’s accounts on a domain hosting site, along with stolen LinkedIn credentials.’Reporting on the spot’The video, one of eight copied from Ieremenko’s hard drive, was shot on March 18 or 19, 2012. In it, the person making the video narrates it, saying: “In short, we are reporting on the spot. Now, here at this Vega Izmailovo Hotel, there will be a f****** summit of bad motherf*****s,” according to the U.S. transcript submitted in the court record.Nikulin also worked closely with another Russian, Nikita Kislitsin, who was indicted in the United States in 2014 on conspiracy charges related to the hack of another, lesser-known social media company called Formspring. Kislitsin’s indictment, which was under seal since being filed, was unsealed earlier this week.U.S. prosecutors say that, three months after the Moscow meeting, Nikulin himself stole 30 million user credentials from  Formspring and utilized some of those credentials when he hacked into the LinkedIn engineer’s computer.According to the court documents, the FBI used “court-ordered electronic interceptions” — phone and email taps — to track Nikulin in 2012 and 2013.U.S. investigators discovered overlap with another Russian, Aleksei Belan, under investigation in connection with a separate hack: the theft of user credentials from the Internet giant Yahoo, beginning in 2013.FILE – A cyclist rides past a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., July 19, 2016. The Yahoo hack announced in December 2016 exposed personal details from all of the company’ user accounts.Yahoo eventually revealed all 3 billion of its users had had their credentials compromised in what is today considered one of the largest data breaches in the history of the internet.Prosecutors said the FBI, which had obtained a court-authorized warrant to search Belan’s e-mail and tap his phones, found that Belan, along with Kislitsin, purchased the Formspring passwords in July 2012.That same year, Belan was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for cyberthieves. The following year, he was arrested in Greece at the request of U.S. authorities. But he avoided being extradited and escaped back into Russia, according to U.S. and European authorities.In 2014, according to previous U.S. documents, Belan was recruited by Russia’s main intelligence and security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and its cyberunit, known as the Center for Information Security.Belan, according to the 2016 Yahoo hack indictment, was ordered by the FSB cyberunit to conduct the breach of Yahoo accounts.In all, U.S. officials charged four people with the Yahoo breach, including two FSB officers. Those officers themselves were later arrested by the FSB itself and charged with state treason, allegedly for passing classified intelligence to U.S. agencies.One, Sergei Mikhailov, pleaded not guilty to the Russian charges and was sentenced last year to 22 years in prison. The other, Dmitry Dokuchaev, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators. He was handed a six-year sentence.In December 2016, in response to the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had tried to meddle in the presidential election won by Donald Trump that year, the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama announced sweeping sanctions against Belan and another Russian, who also allegedly had ties to Russian intelligence, Yevgeny Bogachev.The interference, according to U.S. intelligence, included the hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the theft of emails that were later leaked publicly during the election campaign. U.S. officials, and cyberanalysts, have said the FSB was among those responsible for the hack, and that the stolen Yahoo credentials may been used to trick victims into letting hackers steal their emails.Kislitsin connectionsA further illustration of the web of ties among Russia’s cyber underground comes in the case of Kislitsin, who attended the March 2012 meeting in Moscow with Nikulin and Ieremenko.Kislitsin, according the U.S. prosecutors, allegedly partnered with Belan to get the Formspring data from Nikulin in July 2012.The following year, in 2013, Kislitsin met with an official from the U.S. Justice Department to discuss “research into the [cyber]underground,” according to Group IB, a prominent Russian cybersecurity and research firm.Kislitsin was joined in the meeting with the Justice Department official by representatives from Group IB, according to a Group IB statement provided to RFE/RL.Group IB later hired Kislitsin, and he is currently listed as the “head of network security” for the company.Asked for comment about the newly unsealed charges, which include conspiracy and trafficking in stolen user names and passwords, against Kislitsin, Group IB said that they predated his employment.”The information that has become public contains only allegations, and no findings have been made that Nikita Kislitsin has engaged in any wrongdoing,” the company said in the statement to RFE/RL.The company also said that after the 2013 meeting with the Justice Department official, “neither Group-IB nor Nikita Kislitsin has been officially approached with any additional questions.”And there’s one other connection involving Kislitsin. He previously worked as editor in chief for a well-known Russian cybermagazine called Hacker, where the ex-FSB officer Dokuchaev worked for him, writing under his nickname, Forb.’I want to hack the prison’Nikulin was arrested in Prague in October 2016 after his entrance into the country a few days earlier triggered a notification among Czech law enforcement.He and his lawyers strenuously fought the U.S. request for his extradition. Ultimately, he was sent to the United States in March 2018, prompting an angry statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called it “a conscious, politically motivated step by the Czech side aimed at undermining the constructive basis of bilateral cooperation.”While in U.S. custody, Nikulin was reported by prison authorities as behaving strangely, prompting a judge to order a psychological examination. He was later deemed competent to stand trial.”He is refusing to accept a guilty plea, and this is another example of his mental condition,” Bukh told RFE/RL.The evidence that will be introduced in the trial also included other less significant but revealing comments, including a transcript of a phone conversation Nikulin had with a woman named Anya in November 2018.In the conversation, Nikulin complained that he had not received food, books or magazines, as he requested. He also joked with Anya.”I want to hack the prison,” he is quoted as saying. “The rules here are stupid.”This story was first published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
…

In a lively Muslim quarter of Nanchang city, a sprawling Chinese factory turns out computer screens, cameras and fingerprint scanners for a supplier to international tech giants such as Apple and Lenovo. Throughout the neighborhood, women in headscarves stroll through the streets, and Arabic signs advertise halal supermarkets and noodle shops.Yet the mostly Over the past four years, the Chinese government has detained more than a million people from the far west Xinjiang region, most of them Uighurs, in internment camps and prisons where they go through The Chinese government says the labor program is a way to train Uighurs and other minorities and give them jobs. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday called concern over possible coerced labor under the program “groundless” and “slander.”However, experts say that like the internment camps, the program is part of a broader assault on the Uighur culture, All the companies that responded said they required suppliers to follow strict labor standards. LG and Dell said they had “no evidence” of forced labor in their supply chains but would investigate, as did Huawei. HP did not respond.OFILM also lists as customers dozens of companies within China, as well as international companies it calls “partners” without specifying what product it offers. And it supplies PAR Technology, an American sales systems vendor to which it most recently shipped 48 cartons of touch screens in February, according to U.S. customs data obtained through ImportGenius and Panjiva, which track shipping data.PAR Technology in turn says it supplies terminals to major chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Subway. However, the AP was unable to confirm that products from OFILM end up with the fast food companies.McDonald’s said it has asked PAR Technology to discontinue purchases from OFILM while it launches an immediate investigation. PAR Technology also said it would investigate immediately. Subway and Taco Bell did not respond.OFILM confirmed it received AP requests for comment but did not reply. Its website says the company “answered the government’s call” and went to Xinjiang to recruit minorities, as part of an effort to pull them from poverty and help them “study and improve.” It recruited more than 3,000 young men and women from Xinjiang starting in 2017.A report Sunday from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, researched separately from the AP, estimated that more than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred from Xinjiang to factories across China between 2017 and 2019. The report said it found “conditions that strongly suggest forced labor” consistent with International Labor Organization definitions.The AP also reported a year ago that Uighur forced labor was being used within Xinjiang to make sportswear that ended up in the U.S.
…

A U.S. senator is introducing legislation that would ban government employees from using the social media app TikTok on their government devices.Josh Hawley, a Republican representing the state of Missouri, said at a hearing Wednesday the data the Chinese-owned app collects and the potential for it to be shared with China’s government represent a “majority security risk for the American people.”He said similar bans are in place at some of the biggest federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and the State Department.Hawley did not say exactly when he would introduce the bill.The effort is the latest security scrutiny of TikTok, which allows users to post and view short videos.The company has said any data from U.S. users is stored in the United States and not subject to any Chinese government jurisdiction.It says it understands the safety concerns, but thinks they are unfounded, and that it has reached out to lawmakers in order to explain its policies.
…

The United States appears to have found a new partner in its drive to discourage European allies from building their 5G telecommunication networks with Chinese equipment.In a joint declaration last week, the U.S. and the Baltic nation of Latvia agreed to encourage the use of “reliable and trustworthy network hardware” as the world builds out the next generation of telecom networks and to promote frameworks that protect against “unauthorized access and interference.”
The declaration did not name any country or company, but it comes in the context of a U.S. campaign to steer countries away from Chinese-based Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of 5G equipment, which Washington fears is vulnerable to Chinese spying.FILE – Signage is seen at the Huawei offices in Reading, Britain, May 2, 2019.The American effort has suffered setbacks in recent weeks, with Britain rejecting U.S. entreaties to ban Huawei from its 5G networks and Germany torn on the issue. That makes the agreement with Latvia — following similar agreements last year with Poland and Estonia — all the more important.Latvia has working 5G networkWhile small in population, with fewer than 2 million people, Latvia last summer became one of the world’s first countries to roll out a working 5G network and, according to its foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, it is “one of the largest exporters of 5G technologies and IT solutions.”The joint declaration calls for “a rigorous evaluation” of potential 5G suppliers, taking into account “the rule of law; the security environment; ethical supplier practices; and a supplier’s compliance with security standards and best practices.”That would appear to rule out Huawei, at least in U.S. eyes. At a recent security conference in Germany, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued that “Huawei and other state-backed tech companies are Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence.”Speaking to VOA a day after he and Pompeo signed the joint declaration, Rinkevics said he and the secretary had discussed alternative 5G providers besides Huawei. “We would love to have for the United States, leading European nations and their companies work out good, viable alternatives. Call it Ericsson, call it Nokia, call it Samsung, call it Motorola,” the name doesn’t matter as long as the substance is there, he said. “We can’t simply say ‘this is bad, that is not good,’ without presenting a sound, solid alternative.”’Growing understanding’Latvia, he added, is ready “to be part of wider efforts with our technological contribution, with our companies working on both software and hardware components of these initiatives.”While European approaches to the use of Huawei ‘s 5G equipment vary widely, Rinkēvičs said there is a “growing understanding” within the European Union that “we should address this jointly, not separately.”“We are currently developing joint European policies. It’s not an easy task — you have 27 nations, you have European institutions, everyone has his/her interests — but I think we have done relatively well, all things considered,” he said.Sounding an optimistic note, he added “we are making progress; if you compare, let’s say even year 2018, 2019, we are moving ahead.”
 
…

Twitter staff across the world were asked to work from home starting Monday in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus epidemic.At the same time, thousands of staff at Google’s European headquarters in Ireland were told to stay away for the day after one employee reported flu-like symptoms.The outbreak has spread across the world since emerging in central China late last year, killing more than 3,100 people, infecting over 90,000, and prompting a wave of travel restrictions.Twitter’s decision to ask its staff to avoid the office follows similar requests by governments in virus hotspots.”We are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they’re able,” Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie said in a Monday blog post.”Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us — and the world around us.”Working from home will be mandatory for employees at the company’s South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan offices, Christie said.South Korea has recorded nearly 5,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections — the largest number outside mainland China — along with 28 deaths. More than half of the cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious group often described as a cult.Japan’s government has urged the closure of schools nationwide and employers to give their staff permission to work remotely.Most civil servants in Hong Kong returned to work on Monday after they were asked to work from home for a month. The financial hub has recorded 100 cases of the infection.Twitter had already announced the suspension of “non-critical” business travel and events last week.Google employees some 8,000 staff and contractors in the Irish capital.”We continue to take precautionary measures to protect the health and safety of our workforce,” a spokesperson said in a statement.”In accordance with the advice of medical experts, and as part of that effort, we have asked our Dublin teams to work from home today.”Ireland has one confirmed case of COVID-19 — a man who returned from northern Italy.Google staff who have been in contact with their colleague with the flu-like symptoms have been told to monitor their health, while the company is using the situation to help test the company’s readiness to deal with any outbreak.
…

Firefighters who run into burning buildings or attack wildfires face considerable risks despite their protective gear.  Until recent trials in Spain, central command centers had no way to monitor the health of their teams.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that recently changed because of one inventive firefighter and a large cash prize.
…

In the near future, farmers in Africa could boldly go where no farmers have gone before. Major manufacturers look to launch the industry into the 21st Century by tying tractors to cell phones. With a high-tech device, can follow a tractor’s movement and productivity. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi ploughs through this story.
…

NASA is preparing to send a new rover to Mars for a human exploration mission of the Red Planet. Voice of America reporter Verónica Villafañe saw the space vehicle up close and spoke with members of the mission.
 
…

Huawei will build its first European manufacturing plant in France, its chairman said Thursday, as the Chinese telecom giant seeks to ease worldwide concerns stoked by U.S. charges that Beijing could use its equipment for spying. Liang Hua said Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecom equipment, would invest 200 million euros ($217 million) in the first phase of setting up the mobile base station plant. He said it would create 500 jobs. Huawei, which denies its equipment poses a security risk, is at the center of a storm pitting the United States against China over 5G, the next-generation mobile technology. Europe has become a major battleground. Continental market”This site will supply the entire European market, not just France’s,” Liang said at a news conference. “Our group’s activities are worldwide and for this we need a global industrial footprint.” 5G technology is expected to deliver a huge leap in the speed and capacity of communications and an exponential spike in connections between billions of devices, from smart refrigerators to driverless cars, that are expected to run on 5G networks. It was not immediately clear whether Huawei’s decision had the blessing of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has courted foreign investors but also led warnings about Chinese encroachment into the European Union’s economy. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Chairman Liang Hua speaks during a news conference in Paris, France, Feb. 27, 2020.Liang said Huawei had outlined the group’s plans to the French government. “This is not a charm offensive,” he said. There was no immediate reaction from Macron’s office. Early stages The United States has repeatedly warned European allies against allowing the Chinese firm into the continent’s 5G infrastructure. But European capitals are divided about how to deal with Huawei. France has yet to start rolling out its 5G networks but the top French mobile operator, state-controlled Orange, has already chosen Huawei’s European rivals, Nokia and Ericsson. Smaller operators Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe’s SFR, whose existing networks rely heavily on Huawei, are urging Paris to clarify its position on Huawei. France says it will not discriminate against any vendor but requires all suppliers to be screened so they can secure a green light from the cybersecurity agency, which is examining Huawei equipment. Sources close to the French telecom industry say they fear Huawei will be barred in practice even if no formal ban is announced. Neighboring Germany is also struggling to reach consensus on the way forward. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives back tougher rules on foreign vendors but have stopped short of an outright ban on Huawei. British planBritain has defied the United States by allowing “high-risk vendors” such as Huawei into nonsensitive parts of its 5G network but not what it describes as “core” components. Washington has pressed London to reconsider. The mobile base stations that will be manufactured in France are not considered core to 5G network infrastructure. Huawei accuses the United States of seeking to frustrate its growth because no U.S. company can offer the same range of technology at a competitive price. The French plant will be Huawei’s second manufacturing facility outside China. It has a plant making smartphones in India but only has assembly plants elsewhere. The plant in France will generate 1 billion euros a year in sales. 
…

Imagine how life would change for so many people who need a replacement organ if scientists could just print a new one that works. That’s exactly one of the projects scientists at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are working on – 3D bio printed human organs. They’re also working to develop artificial blood vessels and miniature models of a human body using 3d bio printing.  Lesia Bakalets has the story from Winston-Salem, North Carolina in this report narrated by Anna Rice.
…

Technology is finally able to make food appear. With help from a local NGO, hungry kids in Kenya can now get a hot lunch for a few pennies with just a tap of their wrists. It happens using short-range Wi-Fi, as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.
…

NASA says Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked on NASA’s early space missions and was portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures,” about pioneering black female aerospace workers, has died.
   
In a Monday morning tweet, the space agency said it celebrates her 101 years of life and her legacy of excellence and breaking down racial and social barriers.
   
Johnson was one of the so-called “computers” who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits by hand during NASA’s early years.
   
Until 1958, Johnson and other black women worked in a racially segregated computing unit at what is now called Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Their work was the focus of the Oscar-nominated 2016 film.
   
In 1961, Johnson worked on the first mission to carry an American into space. In 1962, she verified computer calculations that plotted John Glenn’s earth orbits.
   
At age 97, Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
   
Johnson focused on airplanes and other research at first. But her work at NASA’s Langley Research Center eventually shifted to Project Mercury, the nation’s first human space program.
   
“Our office computed all the [rocket] trajectories,” Johnson told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2012. “You tell me when and where you want it to come down, and I will tell you where and when and how to launch it.”
   
In 1961, Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 Mission, the first to carry an American into space. The next year, she manually verified the calculations of a nascent NASA computer, an IBM 7090, which plotted John Glenn’s orbits around the planet.
…

Britain’s most senior police officer on Monday called on the government to create a legal
framework for police use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.Speaking about live facial recognition, which police in London started using in January, London police chief Cressida Dick said that she welcomed the government’s 2019 manifesto pledge to create a legal framework for the police use of new technology like AI, biometrics and DNA.”The best way to ensure that the police use new and emerging tech in a way that has the country’s support is for the government to bring in an enabling legislative framework that is debated through Parliament, consulted on in public and which will outline the boundaries for how the police should or should not use tech,” Dick said.”Give us the law and we’ll work within it,” she added. Dick rejected evidence that facial recognition algorithms are racially discriminatory in that their accuracy rates vary depending on the skin colour of the person they detect.”We know there are some cheap algorithms that do have ethnic bias but, as I’ve said, ours doesn’t and currently the only bias in it is that it shows it is slightly harder to identify a wanted woman than a wanted man,” she said. The London police’s facial recognition technology is provided by NEC, a Japanese company.
…

New Mexico’s attorney general sued Google Thursday over allegations the tech company is illegally collecting personal data generated by children in violation of federal and state laws.The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque claims Google is using its education services package that is marketed to school districts, teachers and parents as a way to spy on children and their families.Attorney General Hector Balderas said that while the company touts Google Education as a valuable tool for resource-deprived schools, it is a means to monitor children while they browse the internet in the classroom and at home on private networks. He said the information being mined includes everything from physical locations to websites visited, videos watched, saved passwords and contact lists.The state is seeking unspecified civil penalties.“Student safety should be the number one priority of any company providing services to our children, particularly in schools,” Balderas said in a statement. “Tracking student data without parental consent is not only illegal, it is dangerous.”Google dismissed the claims as “factually wrong,” saying the G Suite for Education package allows schools to control account access and requires that schools obtain parental consent when necessary.“We do not use personal information from users in primary and secondary schools to target ads,” said company spokesman Jose Castaneda.“School districts can decide how best to use Google for education in their classrooms and we are committed to partnering with them.”Unlike Europe, the U.S. has no overarching national law governing data collection and privacy. Instead, it has a patchwork of state and federal laws that protect specific types of data, such as consumer health, financial information and the personal data generated by younger children.New Mexico’s claim cites violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires websites and online services to obtain parental consent before collecting any information from children under 13.In a separate case, Google already has agreed to pay $170 million combined to the Federal Trade Commission and New York state to settle allegations its YouTube video service collected personal data on children without their parents’ consent.According to the New Mexico lawsuit, outside its Google Education platform, the company prohibits children in the U.S. under the age of 13 from having their own Google accounts. The state contends Google is attempting to get around this by using its education services to “secretly gain access to troves of information” about New Mexico children.The attorney general’s office filed a similar lawsuit against Google and other tech companies in 2018, targeting what Balderas described as illegal data collection from child-directed mobile apps. That case still is pending in federal court, but the companies have denied wrongdoing.The latest lawsuit claims more than 80 million teachers and students use Google’s education platform. Balderas said in a letter to New Mexico school officials that there was no immediate harm if they continue using the products and that the lawsuit shouldn’t interrupt activities in the classroom. 
…