Tag: All Regions

From August, China is to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical elements for making semiconductor chips. With China dominating the supply of both elements, exporters will now need special license to get them out of the country. The move has the potential to harm a range of western tech manufacturers that use these elements to make their products. The move is reportedly in response to western restrictions of equipment vital for making semiconductor devices (and was forewarned in an previous article in The Conversation). Above…

Last week, in a significant victory for free speech, a federal court stepped in to curb potential overreach by the Biden administration in its collaboration with social media platforms to suppress online content. The court ruling, issued by US District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana on Tuesday caused critics to complain that it hinders the administration’s efforts to counter online conspiracy theories and “disinformation.” But in the usual doublespeak in an interview with MSNBC, the former head of the government’s controversial Disinformation Governance…

  The body of missing 59-year-old Mexican journalist Luis Martín Sanchez Iniguez was found in the Mexican state of Nayarit with signs of violence, the state public prosecutor’s office confirmed Saturday. Sanchez Iniguez worked for the newspaper La Jornada. He had been missing since Wednesday and his wife filed a missing person’s report with Mexican authorities on Friday. His body was found on the outskirts of the city of Tepic. It was not immediately clear how he died, but authorities…

TORONTO – A few hundred members of Canada’s Sikh community demonstrated outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto on Saturday to protest the unsolved killing of one of their leaders last month in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area. They accused the Indian government of being responsible for the gunning down of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of a Sikh temple and campaigner for the creation of an independent Sikh state that supporters hope to call Khalistan. “When an Indian agency and system…

HOUSTON – On the afternoon of July 4, as Americans were celebrating the country’s independence with elaborate fireworks displays, a prisoner named Joseph Martire passed out in his cell in Texas, amid the excessive heat that has been swamping much of the southern United States in recent days. In concrete, brick and metal penitentiaries, industrial fans churn warm vapour without really cooling the air. And with no air-conditioning in most prisons, when outside temperatures exceed 40 deg C, it can…

On Friday, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said that the country opposes the United States sending cluster munitions after the Biden administration announced it was considering it.  According to Reuters, Germany is one of 111 states that are part of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and the organization also opposes the munitions which are widely denounced for killing and maiming civilians long after a war is over. “I have followed the media reports. For us, as a state party, the Oslo…

Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 injured in mass shootings in the United States during the Independence Day extended weekend, the Gun Violence Archive portal said on Wednesday. “Fourth of July extended weekend mass shootings: 17 mass shootings…18 killed – 102 injured,” it said. In Baltimore, the largest city close to the US capital, two people were killed and some 30 injured in a shooting on Sunday. After the incident, the Biden administration urged Congress to improve…

Nearly 70 IT security and privacy academics have added to the clamour of alarm over the damage the UK’s Online Safety Bill could wreak to, er, online safety unless it’s amended to ensure it does not undermine strong encryption. Writing in an open letter, 68 UK-affiliated security and privacy researchers have warned the draft legislation poses a stark risk to essential security technologies that are routinely used to keep digital communications safe. “As independent information security and cryptography researchers, we…

American online political news daily Punchbowl News reported Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the negotiations, that the Biden administration supports the $20 billion sale worth of F-16 fighters to Ankara and has informally informed Congress on the willingness to do so, but Menendez and the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee can place holds on major weapons sales as part of the review process. Top Biden administration officials want to make sure that the senator will not obscure…

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications Jean-Noel Barrot reportedly warned platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter of their responsibility and asked for support identifying users involved in committing offenses. France has been gripped by unrest since June 27, when a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by a police officer for failing to stop his car when ordered to do so in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. The officer who pulled the trigger on Nahel M. has been taken into custody for voluntary manslaughter, but that has not deterred the protesters.

WASHINGTON – A white powder found inside the White House late on Sunday, which led to the temporary closure of part of the presidential complex, was identified by Washington fire department as cocaine, the Washington Post reported. The Secret Service confirmed to Reuters that an “unknown item” had been found that led to part of the White House being closed, but referred other questions to the fire department, which declined to comment. “On Sunday evening, the White House complex went…

The Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten – IMY) has fined two companies with 12.3 million SEK (€1 million/$1.1 million) for using Google Analytics and warned two others about the same practice. In a decision published yesterday, the agency explains that by using Google Analytics to generate web statistics the firms were breaching European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Specifically, the companies were in violation of the GDPR Article 46(1), which forbids the transfer of personal data to countries or…

BEIRUT (AP) — A French court Tuesday upheld the freezing of the assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor, rejecting his appeal to have them released, an official close to the investigation said. Several European countries are investigating central bank Gov. Riad Salameh and his associates over myriad alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and laundering of $330 million. A French investigative judge on May 16 issued an international arrest warrant, or Interpol red notice, for the 72-year-old Salameh after…

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has slapped BNK Banking Corporation with a $247,500 fine for failing to meet its data reporting requirements to the APRA.  In a statement, the prudential regulator said BNK was 32 days late in filing statistical reports for the month ending Feb. 23 under the Economic and Financial Statistics program. This failure to report data by required deadlines was in breach of the requirements of the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 (FSCODA). Therese McCarthy…

Russian jamming in Ukraine has become so effective that even US-made guided weapons sent to Kyiv may no longer hit targets accurately, according to several British military analysts. A recent analysis by the UK’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) notes that while Moscow’s electronic warriors could not stop the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), their improved jamming skills are taking a toll on the weapon’s accuracy. This reportedly happens despite multiple anti-jamming upgrades on the JDAMs. According to the report,…

China says the UK is sheltering fugitives after Hong Kong put bounties on the heads of eight pro-democracy activists who fled the territory. The statement from its London embassy came after the UK said it would not tolerate attempts by China to silence individuals in the UK or overseas. The eight left the former British territory after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said they would be “pursued for life”. He…