China’s Old Habits Delayed Epidemic Fight | Voter, You’ve Been Hacked | Codebreaker’s Papers, and more

“Russia appears to be using these academics to amplify and bolster their own disinformation, particularly to undermine the OPCW and divert attention from their own activities.
“It is unclear whether these academics are unwittingly and naively acting as agents of propaganda for the Russians – or they actively support Russian misinformation.
“Either way, it is difficult to see how their involvement with WGSPM is compatible with having any official role in academia.”

Mark Warner Takes on Big Tech and Russian Spies (Garrett. M. Graff, Wired)
A former telecoms entrepreneur, the Virginia senator says that saving the industry (and democracy) might mean blowing up Big Tech as we know it.

Voter, You’ve Been Hacked (CFR)
The aftershocks of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election are still being felt today. Is the United States ready for 2020?

Huawei 5G Troubles to Test Nordic Competitors’ Bandwidth (Sam Kingsley with Johannes Ledel, AFP)
Tougher UK and EU rules restricting 5G network supplier Huawei should be a golden opportunity for competitors Nokia and Ericsson, but the companies may struggle to meet the increased demand, analysts warned.

U.S. Wants to Return Codebreaker’s Seized Items to U.K. School (Colleen Slevin, AP)
A U.S. woman who said she was visiting England to do a study of the late World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing walked into the prestigious boys’ boarding school he attended and asked to see a collection of his memorabilia.
She was given a wooden box with items that once belonged to Turing, who helped crack Nazi Germany’s secret codes and whose story inspired 2014’s Oscar-winning film “The Imitation Game.” Inside the box was his Ph.D. from Princeton University, his Order of the British Empire medal and other mementos.
When she left that day in 1984, the box was empty. The only thing left inside was a note asking for forgiveness and promising to return the items someday, according to a recent court filing by government lawyers.
More than 30 years later, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Denver has the items that were seized from the Colorado home of the woman, who later changed her name to Julia Turing.

Historic Blizzard Highlights Need for Severe Weather Preparedness: Scientists (Holly McKenzie-Sutter, National Post)
Climate scientists say a blizzard that paralyzed eastern Newfoundland signals that greater preparations are needed for extreme precipitation and tidal surges — even if a direct line cannot be drawn between individual storms and climate change.
The historic Jan. 17 blizzard dropped more than 76 centimeters of snow on St. John’s amid winds gusting over 150 kilometers per hour, breaking a record for single-day snowfall in the city. The provincial capital was under a state of emergency for eight days as crews worked to clear roads, and other municipalities responded to infrastructure damage and similarly deep snowfalls.