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Tech Official Pushing TikTok Ban Could Reap Windfall From U.S.–China Cold War
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000
From his perch on a government commission, Jacob Helberg fearmongered about TikTok in Congress. He also works for a giant defense contractor.
The post Tech Official Pushing TikTok Ban Could Reap Windfall From U.S.–China Cold War appeared first on The Intercept.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says China’s duties on Australian bottled wine will come to an end from Friday
China has dropped tariffs on Australian wine, a long-awaited decision heralded by the Albanese government as validation of its “calm and consistent approach” with the superpower on a series of controversial trade disputes.
In a statement on Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, foreign minister, Penny Wong, and trade minister, Don Farrell, said they had been informed that from Friday, China’s duties on Australian bottled wine would come to an end. Australia would, in turn, discontinue its legal proceedings in the World Trade Organization, the government said.
Continue reading...In his last weeks of life, the Oscar-winning composer is filmed at the piano by his son. It is an almost wordless paean to a remarkable career
Short of presenting nothing more than music and a blank screen, this documentary about the late Japanese composer-performer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last appearances is as stark and minimal as a concert film can get. And yet it’s a work suffused with emotional tones and shades, surprisingly not all of them sad even though the subject knew at the time of filming he had mere weeks left before he’d die of cancer.
There are moments when director Neo Sora, Sakamoto’s son, turns up the lighting for the more upbeat songs and we can see the master smile, pleased with his own performance, or the composition, or … we know not what, as there is almost no dialogue, no nattering about the life. We had all that in an earlier documentary, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda. In Opus it is the music, played by the man himself, that is completely sufficient to the moment and all that remains, with the occasional very human stumbles and missed notes. When he says he needs a break for a while, exhausted by a performance, the strain is painfully visible, audible, practically palpable.
Continue reading...New Zealand did not follow the US and UK in imposing financial restrictions after accusing Beijing of links to cyber-attacks
Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week.
The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence.
Continue reading... submitted by /u/etfvpu [link] [comments] |
submitted by /u/benh999 [link] [comments] |
More than half of the borrowed words relate to cooking, while Kintsugi, the increasingly popular art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer is also included
Katsu, donburi and onigiri are among 23 Japanese words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in its latest update.
More than half of the borrowed words relate to food or cooking. Santoku, a knife with a short, flat blade that curves down at the tip, and okonomiyaki, a type of savoury pancake, were both added. Okonomiyaki is derived from okonomi, meaning “what you like”, combined with yaki, meaning “to fry, to sear”.
Continue reading...The former star UBS and Citigroup trader was convicted of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating financial benchmark and served 5 1/2 years in prison
Britain’s financial regulator has identified shortcomings in how some motor insurance firms are valuing written-off or stolen vehicles.
A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found evidence that suggests some firms are offering their customers less than their written-off or stolen vehicle is worth and, in some cases, are only increasing that offer when a customer complains.
Having your vehicle written off or stolen can be intensely stressful and we expect firms to offer the right support to help their customers.
We expect all motor insurers to take note of our findings and we are engaging directly with those that have issues that need to be addressed.
Continue reading... submitted by /u/College_Prestige [link] [comments] |
Cholesterol-lowering supplements containing ‘beni koji’ recalled by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical over possible link to kidney disease
A nationwide recall of a dietary supplement that lowers cholesterol has been issued in Japan amid concerns it could be linked to two deaths and more than 100 hospitalisations, according to news agency Kyodo.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, which sells over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements, has issued a national recall of the product, and authorities are conducting emergency checks on thousands of products that advertise their health benefits, Kyodo reported.
Continue reading...Oji Holdings said it would stop making children’s nappies in September amid a sharp decline in demand. Japan has a rapidly ageing society
A nappy manufacturer in Japan is to stop making the products for babies and instead raise production of adult diapers, in a reflection of the country’s rapidly ageing society.
Oji Holdings, which specialises in paper products, said it would stop making children’s nappies in September amid a sharp decline in demand. The firm has seen sales drop from a peak of about 700m in 2001 to 400m today.
Continue reading...Another federal government program to fight foreign disinformation falls flat.
The post Government-Made Comic Books Try to Fight Election Disinformation appeared first on The Intercept.
Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from U.S. Special Operations forces.
The post Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator appeared first on The Intercept.
A bleak, brilliant moral maze of a novel about ethical dilemmas, from global poverty to the climate crisis
In the middle ages, morality would be transmitted in images. Churchgoers would commonly find above the altar a panel of three paintings relating a biblical parable or commandment. Such altarpieces could be found in Buddhist shrines, too, which might be adorned with three scenes from the path of enlightenment. A knack for envisioning moral precepts has seen the triptych translated across many cultures and now, with the UK-based Indian writer Neel Mukherjee’s formally daring new novel, even from image to text.
Composed of three narratives about 21st-century ethical and political dilemmas, Choice has been termed a triptych by its author and, like its visual forebears, the novel needles our moral impulses. The issues in question, from climate change to global poverty, are modern, but the novel’s interest in sin and virtue is redolent of the triptych’s medieval preoccupations. Where Choice differs is that, in its world, there are no unambiguous rights or wrongs. As one character observes of another: “No escape was offered by making what one thought was the correct moral choice.” This is a triptych for a secular age – without hope of salvation, however hard humans try.
Continue reading...Despite promises of reform, exploitation remains endemic in India’s sandstone industry, with children doing dangerous work for low pay – often to decorate driveways and gardens thousands of miles away
Sonu has one clear instruction from his boss: when you see an outsider, run. In the two years since he started working full time, he has had to run only twice. Sonu is eight years old. His mother, Anita, said that almost every time an outsider comes to their village of Budhpura, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, she receives a phone call telling her not to bring Sonu to work. “Only adults go to work on those days,” said the 40-year-old, cradling her youngest child, who is three.
Sonu and his mother work eight hours a day, usually six days a week, making small paving stones, many of which are exported to the UK, North America and Europe. Sonu began working after his father died of the lung disease silicosis in 2021. “First, he made five stones, then 10, and then he quit school to work full-time,” his mother said. The pair sit on a street close to their home, amid heaps of sandstone rubble, chiselling rocks into rough cubes of rugged stone. Sonu is paid one rupee – less than a penny – for each cobblestone he produces. These stones have a retail value of about £80 a square metre in the UK.
Continue reading...US called for fair legal process for opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal amid claims that challengers to Narendra Modi are being targeted ahead of national elections
India has summoned a top US diplomat after Washington warned it to ensure a “fair, transparent and timely legal process” for a senior opposition leader jailed just weeks ahead of parliamentary elections.
The US state department had said it was “closely watching” events after Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, was arrested last week in connection with a long-running corruption investigation.
Continue reading...Two bodies recovered from water beneath Francis Scott Key Bridge as authorities in Maryland continue their investigation
Authorities are continuing their investigation into the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after the Singaporean-flagged container ship Dali crashed into it on early Tuesday morning.
Here’s where things stand:
Six members of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge who were missing following the incident are now presumed dead.
The bodies of two men were recovered on Wednesday morning when their submerged pickup truck was found in the waters under the collapsed structure. Authorities identified the men as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, a 35-year-old originally from Mexico who was living in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, who was from Guatemala and was living in Dundalk, Maryland.
Other named victims include 49-year-old Miguel Luna from El Salvador, a husband and father of three who lived in Maryland for over 19 years, and 38-year-old Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, originally from Azacualpa in Honduras, a married father of two who had lived in the US for 18 years and launched his own maintenance business.
The foreign affairs ministry of Guatemala confirmed that two of the workers were nationals, though it did not name them. The ministry said the two people were 26 and 35, originally from San Luis, Petén, and Camotán, Chiquimula, respectively.
Three Mexican nationals were working on the bridge when it collapsed, Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday. One was rescued while two others remain missing, he said. The two Mexican nationals who remain missing were originally from the states of Veracruz and Michoacán, Mexico’s foreign affairs ministry has said. A third who was rescued on Tuesday is also originally from Michoacán.
Two construction workers were rescued on Tuesday. One was hospitalized at the Cowley Shock Trauma center in Baltimore before being later discharged.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board will examine whether “dirty fuel” played a role in the giant cargo vessel losing power and crashing into the span. The Dali had lost power and issued a distress call moments before the crash, just after it began heading out from Baltimore to its destination of Sri Lanka. One reason for the blackout is contaminated fuel that can create problems with the ship’s main power generators, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Maryland’s governor, Wes Moore, said it was “imperative” to get the port of Baltimore up and running as quickly as possible. Moore warned at a Wednesday briefing that the economic consequences of the bridge collapse “cannot be overstated and not just for the state of Maryland … we’re talking about what this means for the entire country”.
The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, urged bipartisan support for federal funding to rebuild the bridge and reopen the port. At a news conference on Wednesday, Buttigieg said it was too soon to say how long it will take to reopen the Port of Baltimore or replace the destroyed bridge. Officials were focused on reopening the port, dealing with supply chain issues, rebuilding the bridge and addressing surface transportation, he said.
The Coast Guard vice-admiral, Peter Gautier, said there is no threat to the public from any materials on board the Dali ship. Gautier, at a White House briefing on Wednesday, said the vessel is holding over 1.5m gallons of fuel, and that more than 50 of the cargo containers on board contain hazardous material, but that the ship is stable and that authorities have determined there is no safety risk.
Lawmakers in Maryland drafted an emergency bill to cover the salaries of workers who have been affected by the shutdown of the port. Details about the bill have not been disclosed yet. Bill Ferguson, the state senate president, said more 15,000 people in the region rely on daily port operations “to put food on the table”.
Singaporean officials announced that they will lead their own investigation on the Key Bridge collapse. The Dali ship was a Singapore-flagged ship traveling to Sri Lanka.
Continue reading...Records tumbled in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Indian Premier League victory over Mumbai Indians, which set a new mark for the highest-scoring T20 match in history.
The hosts set a new IPL record of 277-3, but Mumbai put up a fierce fight in their chase before ending up 31 runs short on 246-5.
Continue reading...Musk made hay of his legal battle against secret surveillance but continued selling X user data to a company that facilitates government monitoring.
The post Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance — While Profiting Off Government Surveillance appeared first on The Intercept.
The Pentagon’s own program to minimize civilian harm is stalled, the Government Accountability Office’s audit says.
The post Biden Decries Civilian Deaths in Gaza as Pentagon Fails With Its Own Safeguards appeared first on The Intercept.
Holi is the Hindu festival of colours and is celebrated to mark the start of spring in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora. Celebrants rejoice by throwing coloured powders at one another on the street.
Festivities also involve special holiday foods, music and dancing. Holi is seen as a time to welcome the good and let go of the negative, signifying a time of rebirth and rejuvenation
Continue reading...The World Nature Photography award winners have been announced from a pool of entries from all corners of the globe – including a baby elephant in Kenya and an owl-like plant in Thailand. The top award and cash prize of $1,000 went to Tracey Lund from the UK for her image of two gannets under the water off the coast of the Shetland Islands. Lund and her fellow winners were drawn from thousands of images
Continue reading...Lawmakers overwhelmingly vote to make country the first in south-east Asia to recognise same-sex unions
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill that would make the country the first in south-east Asia to legalise equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.
Four hundred of 415 lawmakers present voted for the bill on Wednesday and footage from inside parliament showed people standing and applauding afterwards.
Continue reading...Judge says Arvind Kejriwal can be held until next Thursday, as his party’s leaders condemn accusations as politically motivated
An Indian court has ruled that Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, will be kept in custody for six days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges.
Kejriwal, the top elected official for the Indian capital, was taken in by police on Thursday night as part of an investigation into an alleged scam involving kickbacks for alcohol licensing deals.
Continue reading...“I saw scenes that were horrific and I never want to see again,” said Yasser Khan, a surgeon from Toronto.
The post “Man-Made Hell On Earth”: A Canadian Doctor on His Medical Mission to Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
This mini-essay was my contribution to a round table on Power and Governance in the Age of AI. It’s nothing I haven’t said here before, but for anyone who hasn’t read my longer essays on the topic, it’s a shorter introduction.
The increasingly centralized control of AI is an ominous sign. When tech billionaires and corporations steer AI, we get AI that tends to reflect the interests of tech billionaires and corporations, instead of the public. Given how transformative this technology will be for the world, this is a problem.
To benefit society as a whole we need an ...
Aam Aadmi party leader Arvind Kejriwal is held as part of corruption case a month before elections
Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has been arrested in a corruption case, a move condemned by his party as a “conspiracy” by Narendra Modi’s government to target the opposition before next month’s elections.
Kejriwal, who is the leader of the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) and has been Delhi’s chief minister since 2015, was arrested at his home on Thursday night by a dozen officers from the enforcement directorate (ED), an investigating agency under central government control.
Continue reading...Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond. Now front pages are splashed with stories of social platforms’ role in misinformation, business conspiracy, malfeasance, and risks to mental health. In a 2022 survey, Americans blamed social media for the coarsening of our political discourse, the spread of misinformation, and the increase in partisan polarization.
Today, tech’s darling is artificial intelligence. Like social media, it has the potential to change the world in many ways, some favorable to democracy. But at the same time, it has the potential to do incredible damage to society...
After the Honduran president repealed a law granting unfettered authority to outside investors, the cryptoquistadors took the dispute to a World Bank arbitration court.
The post Honduras Ratchets Up Battle With Crypto-Libertarian Investors, Rejects World Bank Court appeared first on The Intercept.
Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield—that is, Ukraine—and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change.
The F-35A certainly remains an important platform for high-intensity conventional warfare. But the Air Force is planning to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which will remain in service through the year 2070. These jets, which are wholly unsuited for countering proliferated low-cost enemy drones in the air littoral, present enormous opportunity costs for the service as a whole. In a set of comments posted on LinkedIn...
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