• Yielding to Chinese Demand, Zoom Closes Accounts of Regime Critics

    Three U.S. lawmakers sent letters to Zoom Video Communications, asking the company to clarify its data-collection practices and relationship with the Chinese government. The letters were sent after the firm said it had suspended user accounts in response to demands from the Chinese government. “It is time for you to pick a side: American principles and free-speech, or short-term global profits and censorship,” Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) implored in his letter to Zoom’s CEO.

  • British Decision to Oust Huawei Is Settled, Analyst Says

    A British political insider says there is no longer any doubt that the London government will abandon plans to incorporate technology from Chinese tech giant Huawei in the rollout of its 5G telecommunications network. The government will make an official announcement in the coming weeks of its plans to “sunset” Huawei’s involvement in the network.

  • Twitter Removes 170,000 Accounts Used by China, Russia, and Turkey to Spread Disinformation

    Twitter said Thursday it had removed more than 170,000  accounts used by China, Russia and Turkey to spread disinformation. The accounts were part of a network used to push propaganda, attack critics of the government, and spread misinformation. A majority of the accounts were linked to China.

  • Risks of—and Solutions for -- Remote Voting

    Delaware, West Virginia, and New Jersey have either deployed OmniBallot or plan to do so for fully online voting, also referred to as “electronic ballot return.” Other states including Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Ohio and Washington, the New York Times reports, use it to deliver blank ballots to registered voters who can mark them and return them by fax, email or mail. Election security researchers have found troubling vulnerabilities in OmniBallot.

  • Chinese Govt.-Controlled Telecoms Operated in the U.S. with Little or No U.S. Government Oversight

    A bipartisan report released Tuesday by the Senate investigative panel found that U.S. government officials had “exercised minimal oversight” of the risks posed by three Chinese telecom companies which have operated on American communications networks for nearly twenty years. The Trump administration took steps to limit the ability if Huawei and China Telecom to operate in the United States, but U.S. officials have failed to keep an adequate watch on three other Chinese government-controlled companies — China Unicom Americas, China Telecom Americas, and ComNet (USA).

  • Under Pressure, Britain Pushes Back on Huawei Dependence

    The Trump administration’s campaign to keep Chinese tech giant Huawei out of its allies’ 5G networks appears to be gaining ground in Britain. Earlier this year, the British government proposed to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei restricted access to the U.K. 5G infrastructure, but relentless U.S. pressure; mounting opposition from Conservative Party backbenchers; and China’s conduct during the coronavirus epidemic have pushed the government to change course. Now, British officials are trying to forge an alliance of 10 democracies to develop their own 5G technology and reduce dependence on the Chinese firm.

  • New Visa Restrictions Will Make U.S. Economic Downturn Worse

    The Trump administration is expected to set limits on a popular program — the Optional Practical Training (OPT) — which allows international students to work in the U.S. after graduation while remaining on their student visas. The administration says the aim is to help American graduates seeking jobs during the pandemic-fueled economic downturn. Economists, however, argue that immigrant rights enhance the lives and livelihoods of native-born workers in many ways.

  • “Prof. Lockdown” Neil Ferguson Admits Sweden Used Same Science as U.K.

    The scientist behind lockdown in the UK has admitted that Sweden has achieved roughly the same suppression of coronavirus without draconian restrictions. Henry Bodkin writes in The Telegraph that Neil Ferguson, who became known as “professor lockdown” after convincing Boris Johnson to radically curtail everyday freedoms, acknowledged that, despite relying on “quite similar science”, the Swedish authorities had “got a long way to the same effect” without a full lockdown.

  • Coronavirus Shutdowns: Economists Look for Better Answers

    As Covid-19 cases took off in New York in March, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo imposed a lockdown of nonessential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus, calling it “the most drastic action we can take.” Eduardo Porter writes in the New York Times that now, researchers say more targeted approaches — in New York and elsewhere — might have protected public health with less economic pain.

  • “The Costs Are Too High”: The Scientist Who Wants Lockdown Lifted Faster

    It appears that most scientists still argue that now was not the time to lift the lockdown. Ian Sample writes in The Guardian that Sunetra Gupta, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at Oxford University, does not agree. She believes – somewhat controversially – that the lockdown should be lifted faster. In the rush to drive infections down, she fears the poorest have been brushed aside.

  • During Global Crises, Strategic Redundancy Can Prevent Collapse of Supply Chains

    When the novel coronavirus began spreading during the early months of 2020, it put kinks in multinational production chains — first in China and then around the globe. But it didn’t have to happen that way. Experts suggest companies use redundancy as a way to fortify their operations against unforeseeable events such as pandemics.

  • Coronavirus Crisis Accelerates March Towards Cashless Society

    The march towards a cashless society has gathered pace during the lockdown with analysts more confident than ever that the end is nigh for notes and coins, Harry Shukman writes in The Times.

  • Snapback of Sanctions under the Terms of the Nuclear Deal Is Fully Justified Today

    “If Iran today wants a serious discussion about sanctions relief, it should start by abandoning the key threat Tehran poses to international peace and security: its uranium enrichment program,” writes David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert and the president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “Instead, Iran holds its own people hostage over the deadly coronavirus outbreak in a cynical campaign for wholesale sanctions relief.” The willingness of Iran’s leadership to refuse epidemic aid and thus dramatically, and unnecessarily, increase the number of sick and dying Iranians; the willing of the leadership to intensify and deepen the severe economic deprivation and misery across the country – and do all that in order to grow an economically nonviable, menacing uranium enrichment program — “That alone should lead all to consider just what is the real purpose of Iran’s enrichment program,” Albright writes.

  • As States Reopen, Tensions Flare Between the Rule Followers and Rule Breakers

    As countries reopen their economies, tensions escalate between those who believe it is safe now to resume normal business activity – and even ignore social distancing and the need to wear face masks – and those who prefer a more cautious, slower path toward something resembling pre-coronavirus life. These differences aren’t just random personality types; they reflect our primal social mindsets – what I call “tight” and “loose” mindsets. And unless these differences are better understood, it will be that much more difficult to navigate life under COVID-19.

  • The Government’s One‑Size‑Fits‑R Lockdown Is Bad Health Policy and Bad Economics Too

    “It was when Matt Hancock used the term ‘reproduction number’ for the 15th time in his latest press conference that I stopped counting. R, as this concept is also known, has become the government’s new totem, the driver of policy, the means of calibrating our response to the dangers of COVID-19….  As a concept, it is certainly seductive. R, as everyone now knows, refers to the average number of people that one infected person will transmit the virus to,” Matthew Sayed writes in The Times. But “R is, after all, an average for the entire UK. As a single point estimate, it doesn’t take into account the marked regional differences in transmission. It takes no account of the variance between different settings, such as care homes and factories. It takes no account of the fact that the spread of the virus isn’t the same for each person but is shaped to a significant degree by superspreading events. Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist and the author of The Rules of Contagion, estimates that 80% of transmission occurs via as little as 10% of the population.In other words, the R number for the majority of us is, in fact, zero.”