YCLOAK

Tourists Trickle Back to Tunisia After 2015 Militant Attacks

By Yeco on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Dozens of tourists pack beach chairs at a Tunisian luxury hotel, where everything from the swimming pool to the wall paint, the furniture at the shiny reception hall, the police post at its gate and even its name is new.

Nothing reminds holiday-makers of the day in June 2015 when an Islamic State militant shot dead 39 foreigners in this beach resort, triggering an exodus of tourists from the country and severely damaging its economy.

Now some of those tourists are coming back, thanks to a massive security presence and advertising abroad. Tourism revenues rose 21 percent to $851 million in the first nine months of 2017 compared with last year, central bank data show.

The rise is helping the government weather an economic crisis as it prepares an austere budget and tax increases. The reforms were agreed to with the International Monetary Fund in return for a new $350 million loan.

Hotels fill up

Westerners are still reluctant to come back, even though most countries have lifted travel warnings. But hotels have managed to fill rooms, mostly with Algerians and Russians — the latter avoiding Egypt since Islamic State downed a Russian plane in 2015.

“It’s great here. Security is better than in Egypt,” said Galina Rasputov, a vacationer from Moscow. “I’ll come back.”

Rasputov was taking a break from the beach at the bar of the hotel where a Tunisian gunman trained in Libya opened fire with a Kalashnikov in 2015. The hotel was called Imperial Marhaba then; it reopened this summer after undergoing a facelift and changing its name to the Steigenberger Kantaoui Bay.

“We are fully booked,” said Zohra Driss, who owns this and other hotels in Sousse, a tourist beach town 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the capital, Tunis. “Many are Russians but we also have Algerians, Germans.”

Attacks in 2015

Tourism accounts for about 8 percent of Tunisia’s gross domestic product, provides thousands of jobs and is a key source of foreign currency, but it has struggled since two major attacks in 2015.

The first, at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, left 21 tourists dead. The Sousse attack killed 39, mostly British vacationers.

And risks remain. Jihadists are returning from Syria, Iraq and Libya after Islamic State lost most of its territory there.

But the number of foreign tourists rose by 23.4 percent to reach 5.366 million up to September, compared with the same period last year. Officials hope 6.5 million will come in all of 2017, which would be a return to the normal level.

The number of European visitors, however, rose by just 16.5 percent. Major tour operators like Thomas Cook have resumed bookings in select hotels, but the European tourists remain far below their pre-2015 levels.

That has left the industry relying on Algerians, whose numbers rose by 44 percent to 1.8 million up to September.

Almost half a million Russians also came.

“We seek to attract more tourists next year from new destinations like China and Canada while we will still focus on our traditional markets like U.K. and Germany,” said Neji Ben Othman, director general of the tourism ministry.

More security

Tunisia has increased security in Sousse and other tourist spots. Checkpoints were erected on the main roads and at hotels, ancient sites and airports. After police were criticized for a slow response to stop the hotel gunmen, security forces have cracked down on militants, dismantling dozens of cells.

With hotels resembling fortresses, many tourists book “all inclusive” tours that benefit chains and tour operators. But they stay indoors, leaving souvenir traders and cafes idle in the old city. Russians and Algerians, who come by car, also tend to spend less than Germans or Brits, the former clientele.

“Most come only to watch, like in a museum,” said Lutfi Laoun, a vendor who sells traditional pottery. “I haven’t had a single customer today.”
…

Technology

Will Your Job Be Automated? 70 Percent of Americans Say No

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Most Americans believe their jobs are safe from the spread of automation and robotics, at least during their lifetimes, and only a handful says automation has cost them a job or loss of income.

Still, a survey by the Pew Research Center also found widespread anxiety about the general impact of technological change. Three-quarters of Americans say it is at least “somewhat realistic” that robots and computers will eventually perform most of the jobs currently done by people. Roughly the same proportion worry that such an outcome will have negative consequences, such as worsening inequality.

“The public expects a number of different jobs and occupations to be replaced by technology in the coming decades, but few think their own job is heading in that direction,” Aaron Smith, associate director at the Pew Research Center, said.

More than half of respondents expect that fast food workers, insurance claims processors and legal clerks will be mostly replaced by robots and computers during their lifetimes. Nearly two-thirds think that most retailers will be fully automated in 20 years, with little or no human interaction between customers and employers.

Americans’ relative optimism about their own jobs might be the more accurate assessment. Many recent expert analyses are finding less dramatic impacts from automation than studies from several years ago that suggested up to half of jobs could be automated.

Skills will need to be updated

A report last week, issued by the education company Pearson, Oxford University, and the Nesta Foundation found that just one in five workers are in occupations that will shrink by 2030.

Many analysts increasingly focus on the impact of automation on specific tasks, rather than entire jobs. A report in January from the consulting firm McKinsey concluded that less than 5 percent of occupations were likely to be entirely automated. But it also found that in 60 percent of occupations, workers could see roughly one-third of their tasks automated.

That suggests workers will need to continually upgrade their skills as existing jobs evolve with new technologies.

Few have lost jobs to automation

Just 6 percent of the respondents to the Pew survey said that they themselves have either lost a job or seen their hours or incomes cut because of automation. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have a much more negative view of technology’s impact on work. Nearly half of those respondents say that technology has actually made it harder for them to advance in their careers.

Contrary to the stereotype of older workers unable to keep up with new technology, younger workers — aged 18 through 24 — were the most likely to say that automation had cost them a job or income. Eleven percent of workers in that group said automation had cut their pay or work hours. That’s double the proportion of workers aged 50 through 64 who said the same.

The Pew survey also found widespread skepticism about the benefits of many emerging technologies, with most Americans saying they would not ride in a driverless car. A majority are also not interested in using a robotic caregiver for elderly relatives.

Self-driving cars

Thirty percent of respondents said they think self-driving cars would actually cause traffic accidents to increase, and 31 percent said they would stay roughly the same. Just 39 percent said they thought accidents would decline.

More than 80 percent support the idea of requiring self-driving cars to stay in specific lanes.

The survey was conducted in May and had 4,135 respondents, Pew said.

…

Technology

Cambodian Virtual Reality Helps Train Bomb-disposal Techs

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

A lab in Cambodia is using cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, machine learning, swarm robotics and 3-D printing to try and revolutionize bomb disposal.

The suite of products developed by Golden West Humanitarian Foundation’s Phnom Penh lab, in collaboration with universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Villanova, are designed to mesh all these technologies together into a “total knowledge” toolkit for deminers.

Replica bombs created on 3-D printers in Phnom Penh that reveal the precise inner mechanics of a growing range of killing machines have already been sold to clients around the world, including the United Nations and the United States military.

Before that, Cambodian teams pioneered explosive ordinance harvesting, in which material recovered from unexploded bombs is recast into detonators used in the field to destroy mines and UXO, or unexploded ordnance.

Now Golden West, which is funded by the U.S. State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, has turned its sights to the virtual world.

Cambodian-American Alan Tan, a former U.S. army bomb disposal tech and director of applied technology at Golden West, said Cambodians are using their country’s painful experience to become world leaders in solving the crippling problem of explosive war remnants disposal.

“We’re bringing this deeper and more thorough knowledge to our field, and I like to say democratizing explosive ordinance disposal so any country that has that need can have that need addressed even if they don’t have a multibillion-dollar military budget to do it,” he said.

Virtual bomb disposal

On a sunny afternoon, Tan throws large, unexploded bombs around in a (virtual) burned-out industrial park with reckless abandon.

The factory complex is an electronic canvass he is painting with familiar objects from the kind of bomb sites he regularly encountered in Iraq.

Thanks to a glitch in the matrix, a conga line of Humvees he’s picked up and hauled across the concrete enclosure are stuck awkwardly in the sky.

“That looks like a glitch,” the former deminer said, as he moved around in his virtual reality headset while others watched what he was seeing on a nearby monitor.

His virtual reality team, led by a Cambodian engineer, is debugging ahead of a launch of the Virtual EOD Training Room software at Ravens Challenge, the world’s biggest bomb disposal expo in Thailand.

Tan is walking around in a Virtual EOD Training Center — a program his lab has created to speed up the process of teaching the most critical skill in the field: rapid risk assessment.

He changes mode to show observers generic objects from daily life available in the simulation, then accidentally drops a rubbish bag on one of the bombs he has thrown on the ground in front of him. Ka-boom!

But Tan is still alive, and that is one of the great assets virtual reality training brings to instructors — safe but immersive practice grounds.

Shifting scenarios

The other major benefit is that instructors can rapidly create a vast number of completely different bomb disposal scenarios to train students on various pressures they might encounter in the field — in a similar way to flight simulators.

Edwin Faigmane has trained U.N. peacekeepers in many of the world’s worst conflict zones, including Afghanistan, South Sudan and Angola.

Faigmane says the software would be particularly useful in training explosive ordinance disposal techs working as peacekeepers outside of their country, such as the Cambodians currently deployed in South Sudan.

“Virtual reality would let them feel, would let them experience, would let them see the surroundings for themselves and let them prepare their minds, so when they actually get into South Sudan, they know what they can expect,” he said.

To help visualize the inner mechanisms of the many different bombs and land mines that EOD techs have to diffuse, Golden West has also developed augmented reality animations.

Using a smartphone and a roughly $10 bifocal headset, a user views a live feed — captured by the phone’s camera and mimicking the viewer’s natural point of view —projected to-scale onto an object in front of him or her.

With the aim of eventually pairing these technologies, one of the world’s largest databases of explosive ordnance, with very high-resolution imaging and “open source” access for EOD techs, is being built.

Machine learning systems that work off these images are also under development to automate the identification of different types of explosives, although this technology is still in its infancy.

Al Johnston is a former U.S. army EOD tech and director of Ravens Challenge, which serves as both a testing ground and marketplace for technology manufacturers like Golden West.

Tools like these are particularly important, Johnston said, because traditional alternatives such as cutting open real versions of devices or accessing classified U.S. databases are prohibitively expensive and difficult to negotiate.

“That is really good because that gets the knowledge into more hands at the level that are actually encountering the UXO all over the world,” he said.
…

Science

UN Chief: Scientists Say Extreme Storms Will Be ‘New Normal’

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is heading to the hurricane-battered Caribbean, where he said Wednesday that scientists predict the extreme storms during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season “will be the new normal of a warming world.”

The U.N. chief told reporters that Hurricane Irma, which devastated Barbuda, was a Category 5 storm for three consecutive days — “the longest on satellite record” — and its winds that reached 300 kilometers per hour for 37 hours were “the longest on record at that intensity.”

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma marked the first time two Category 4 storms made landfall on the United States mainland in the same year, Guterres said, and Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, followed up by decimating Dominica and devastating Puerto Rico.

The secretary-general said “scientists are learning more and more about the links between climate change and extreme weather.”

A warmer climate “turbocharges the intensity of hurricanes,” which pick up energy as they move across the ocean, he said. “The melting of glaciers, and the thermal expansion of the seas, means bigger storm surges” and with more people living along coastlines “the damage is, and will be that much greater.”

Guterres said the world has “the tools, the technologies and the wealth to address climate change, but we must show more determination in moving towards a green, clean, sustainable energy future” — and in stepping up implementation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The secretary-general said he will travel to Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica on Saturday to survey the damage and assess what more the United Nations can do.

Stephen O’Malley, the U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, said Tuesday that the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Barbuda, whose 1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma damaged 95 percent of its structures on September 14.

He said a similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on September 18 by Hurricane Maria, probably in about three weeks.

Guterres said the response to the $113.9 million U.N. appeal to cover humanitarian needs in the Caribbean for the immediate period ahead has been poor and he urged donors “to respond more generously in the weeks to come.”

He also stressed that “innovative financing mechanisms will be crucial” to enable these small islands to recover, rebuild and “strengthen resilience.”
…

Science

Trump Administration Refuses Protection for Pacific Walrus

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The Trump administration has refused to designate the Pacific walrus as an endangered or threatened species.

The move announced Wednesday reverses the Obama administration finding that the walrus deserves protection because of diminished Arctic Ocean sea ice.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has instead concluded the walrus population is healthy and “can adapt to the changing conditions in the Arctic,” said Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and supporter of the initiative.

The decision could be challenged in court by environmental groups, who say a decline in Arctic Ocean sea ice due to climate change is a threat to the walruses’ future.

“This is a truly dark day for America’s imperiled wildlife,” said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biodiversity. “You couldn’t ask for a clearer sign that the Trump administration puts corporate profits ahead of protecting endangered species.”

While older male walruses spend summers in the Bering Sea, females with calves ride sea ice north as it melts in spring and summer. The ice provides a moving platform, giving walruses a place to rest and nurse, and protection from predators.

Arctic sea ice this summer dropped to 4.64 million square kilometers, about 1.58 million square kilometers below the 30-year average.
…

Technology

Senate Bill to Clear Obstacles to Self-driving Cars Advances

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Legislation that could help usher in a new era of self-driving cars advanced in Congress on Wednesday after the bill’s sponsors agreed to compromises to address some concerns of safety advocates.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill by a voice vote, a sign of broad, bipartisan support. It would allow automakers to apply for exemptions to current federal auto safety standards in order to sell up to 15,000 self-driving cars and light trucks per manufacturer in the first year after passage. Up to 40,000 per manufacturer could be sold in the second year, and 80,000 each year thereafter.

Action by the full Senate is still needed and differences with a similar bill passed by the House would have to be worked out before the measure could become law.

The bill initially would have allowed manufacturers to sell up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles a year, but that number was reduced in last-minute negotiations. In another change, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would evaluate the safety performance of the vehicles before increasing the number of vehicles manufacturers can sell.

Supporters of the bill, which was sought by the auto industry, say it would be a boon to safety since an estimated 94 percent of crashes involve human error. They say it would also help the disabled.

The bill “is primarily about saving lives,” but it will also increase U.S. international competitiveness and create jobs, said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan.

Safety advocates said the bill has been significantly improved, but they still have serious concerns. Joan Claybrook, a NHTSA administrator under President Jimmy Carter, said the bill is one of the “biggest assaults” ever on the landmark 1966 law that empowered the federal government to set auto safety standards because it permits such large and unprecedented number of exemptions to those standards.

Automakers are “making guinea pigs out of their car buyers,” she said.

Under the bill, the NHTSA would have 180 days after an application in which to grant or deny the exemption. Manufacturers must show that they can provide an equivalent of safety. Safety advocates say six months isn’t enough time for an agency that is undermanned and lacks expertise in self-driving technology to effectively make such determinations.

The bill is broad enough to permit exemptions to standards that protect occupants in a crash, like air bags, safety advocates said.

There are no federal safety standards for many of the technologies at the heart of self-driving cars, like software and sensors, and there is no sign that the Trump administration would create such standards. Administration and auto and technology industry officials suggest that new regulations would be unable to keep up with rapid developments in technology and would slow deployment of self-driving cars.

The bill pre-empts state and local governments from enacting their own safety standards in the absence of federal standards. Industry officials have complained that being forced to comply with a patchwork of state safety laws would be unmanageable. But another compromise made to the bill allows states to continue their traditional roles of licensing vehicles and regulating auto insurance even if their actions affect the design of vehicles. Wrongful death lawsuits against manufacturers would also be allowed in states that permit them.

Automakers have experienced the largest number of recalls for safety defects in the industry’s history in recent years. General Motors, for example, was found to have buried evidence of an ignition switch defect that ultimately caused the recall of 2.6 million small cars worldwide. The switches played a role in at least 124 deaths and 275 injuries.

Also, about 70 million defective Takata air bag inflators are being recalled in the U.S. The inflators are responsible for up to 19 deaths worldwide and more than 180 injures.
…

Technology

Cambodian Virtual Reality Helps Train Bomb-disposal Technicians

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

A small lab in Cambodia is developing some big tech in the field of bomb disposal. The augmented and virtual reality products developed by Cambodian-led international teams aim to revolutionize how deminers are trained. Golden West Humanitarian Foundation is working with big universities such as MIT and Villanova to help turn a devastating legacy of unexploded ordnance in Cambodia into a source of global expertise and respect. David Boyle has this report.
…

Technology

The Latest: Google’s Wireless Headphones Can Auto-translate

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The Latest on Google’s new-product showcase (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

Google is introducing wireless headphones as its new line of Pixel smartphones joins the shift away from a headphone jack.

Although they will connect wirelessly, the company’s Pixel Buds will come with a short cord so you can drape them around your neck.

Google removed the headphone jack from the second generation of its Pixel phones to make them thinner and waterproof. The new phones also feature built-in stereo speakers.

Besides playing music, the Pixel buds work with translation software built in the new phones to make it easier to converse in different languages. The translation feature will also be made available in an update to Pixel models released last year.

The Pixel buds will sell for almost $160 and ship next month.

10:30 a.m.

Google is borrowing from Apple’s playbook as it takes on its rival in high end of the smartphone market.

The second generation of Google’s Pixel phones unveiled Wednesday feature larger, brighter screens that take up more of the phone’s front, changes that Apple is also making with its iPhone X scheduled to be released next month.

Both the Pixel XL and the 5-inch Pixel will also get rid of the headphone jack, something Apple did with the iPhone last year.

Google also souped up the already highly rated camera on the Pixel, boasting that it will take even better photos than the iPhone.

The smaller Pixel will sell for almost $650, $50 less than the iPhone 8. The Pixel XL will sell for almost $850, or $50 more than the iPhone 8 Plus. Prices for the iPhone X start at $1,000.

10 a.m.

Google is introducing different sizes of its internet-connected speaker to compete against similar devices from Amazon and Apple.

The Google Home Mini unveiled Wednesday is a button-sized speaker covered in fabric. It includes the same features featured in a cylindrical speaker that Google rolled out last year in response to Amazon’s Echo.

The Mini will cost almost $50, roughly the small price as Amazon’s smaller speaker, the Echo Dot. The standard Google Home speaker costs almost $130.

The Google Home Max is a rectangular speaker with superior acoustics for playing music, mimicking Apple’s HomePod.

Google is selling the Home Max for almost $400, $50 more than the HomePod. Both speakers are due in December.

Google’s voice-activated digital assistant will serves as the brains for all the speakers.
…

Science

Solar Energy is Fastest Growing Source of Power

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

A report shows that solar energy was the fastest-growing source of power last year, accounting for almost two-thirds of net new capacity globally.

The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that the rise was due to a boom in photovoltaic panel installations, particularly in China, thanks to a drop in costs and greater support from governments.

It is the first time that solar energy growth surpasses any other fuel as a source of power. Coal in particular had continued to grow in recent years despite global targets to reduce carbon emissions.

The IEA said solar panels capacity grew 50 percent last year, with China accounting for almost half the expansion. The country has become a leader in renewable energy production, with the United States the second-largest market.

…

Science

Dubochet, Frank and Henderson Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work to simplify and improve the imaging of biomolecules.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award Wednesday along with its $1.1 million prize.

The scientists developed a way to generate three-dimensional images of molecules, which the academy said has brought biochemistry “into a new era.”

“Researchers can now freeze biochemicals mid-movement and visualize processes they have never previously seen, which is decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals,” the academy said.

…

Science

Madagascar Seeing an Early Spike in Plague Cases

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The plague, bubonic plague to be exact, is endemic to the island of Madagascar, where about 400 cases show up every year. But this year cases have spiked early and more than two dozen people have died. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

Technology

Yahoo Says All 3 Billion Accounts Hacked in 2013 Data Theft

By Ytech on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Yahoo on Tuesday said that all 3 billion of its accounts were hacked in a 2013 data theft, tripling its earlier estimate of the size of the largest breach in history, in a disclosure that attorneys said sharply increased the legal exposure of its new owner, Verizon Communications.

The news expands the likely number and claims of class action lawsuits by shareholders and Yahoo account holders, they said. Yahoo, the early face of the internet for many in the world, already faced at least 41 consumer class-action lawsuits in U.S. federal and state courts, according to company securities filing in May.

John Yanchunis, a lawyer representing some of the affected Yahoo users, said a federal judge who allowed the case to go forward still had asked for more information to justify his clients’ claims.

“I think we have those facts now,” he said. “It’s really mind-numbing when you think about it.”

Yahoo said last December that data from more than 1 billion accounts was compromised in 2013, the largest of a series of thefts that forced Yahoo to cut the price of its assets in a sale to Verizon.

Yahoo on Tuesday said “recently obtained new intelligence” showed all user accounts had been affected. The company said the investigation indicated that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information.

But the information was protected with outdated, easy-to-crack encryption, according to academic experts. It also included security questions and backup email addresses, which could make it easier to break into other accounts held by the users.

Many Yahoo users have multiple accounts, so far fewer than 3 billion were affected, but the theft ranks as the largest to date, and a costly one for the internet pioneer.

Verizon in February lowered its original offer by $350 million for Yahoo assets in the wake of two massive cyber attacks at the internet company.

Some lawyers asked whether Verizon would look for a new opportunity to address the price.

“This is a bombshell,” said Mark Molumphy, lead counsel in a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Yahoo’s former leaders over disclosures about the hacks.

Verizon did not respond to a request for comment about any possible lawsuit over the deal.

Verizon, the likely main target of legal actions, also could be challenged as it launches a new brand, Oath, to link its Yahoo, AOL and Huffington Post internet properties.

In August in the separate lawsuit brought by Yahoo’s users, U.S. Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, ruled Yahoo must face nationwide litigation brought on behalf of owners accounts who said their personal information was compromised in the three breaches.

Yanchunis, the lawyer for the users, said his team planned to use the new information later this month to expanding its allegations.

Also on Tuesday, Senator John Thune, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, said he plans to hold a hearing later this month over massive data breaches at Equifax and Yahoo. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission already had been probing Yahoo over the hacks.

The closing of the Verizon deal, which was first announced in July, had been delayed as the companies assessed the fallout from two data breaches that Yahoo disclosed last year. The company paid $4.48 billion for Yahoo’s core business.

A Yahoo official emphasized Tuesday that the 3 billion figure included many accounts that were opened but that were never, or only briefly, used.

The company said it was sending email notifications to additional affected user accounts.

The new revelation follows months of scrutiny by Yahoo, Verizon, cybersecurity firms and law enforcement that failed to identify the full scope of the 2013 hack.

The investigation underscores how difficult it was for companies to get ahead of hackers, even when they know their networks had been compromised, said David Kennedy, chief executive of cybersecurity firm TrustedSEC LLC.

Companies often do not have systems in place to gather up and store all the network activity that investigators could use to follow the hackers’ tracks.

“This is a real wake up call,” Kennedy said. “In most guesses, it is just guessing what they had access to.”
…

Economy

Ford Plans $14B in Cost Cuts as Part of New CEO’s Strategy

By Yeco on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Ford Motor Co.’s new CEO plans to cut $14 billion in costs, drop some car models and focus the company’s resources on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles as part of a renewed effort to win over skeptical investors.

Jim Hackett, who became Ford’s CEO in May, met with around 100 investors Tuesday in New York to lay out his plans for the future. He said getting the company lean and flexible will help it handle the changes the auto industry is facing, from car-sharing to self-driving vehicles, to the shift to electric cars.

“I feel a real sense of urgency for what we’re doing here,” Hackett said.

Hackett and his executive team spent the summer reevaluating Ford’s operations after former CEO Mark Fields was ousted in May. Hackett traveled to Russia and Turkey and visited North American plants and Ford’s Silicon Valley research center as part of his review.

He said he was impressed by the talent at Ford, but wants to update factories and speed product development and decision-making. One of his first moves was to pare down the number of people reporting to him. Hackett has eight direct reports, compared to 18 for Fields.

Ford told investors it expects to reduce material costs by $10 billion by 2022 through new deals with suppliers and simpler designs. The company plans to share more parts between vehicles and reduce the options available for configuring a car. For example, customers can now order a Ford Fusion sedan in 35,000 possible combinations. Ford is reducing that to 96.

Ford also says it will cut $4 billion in engineering costs through 2022 by making fewer prototypes and reducing product-development time.

It plans to cut one-third of its engine development costs and redeploy them to electric and hybrid vehicles. Ford plans to introduce 13 new electrics and hybrids over the next five years, including a small electric SUV coming in 2020.

The company plans to reallocate $7 billion from cars to SUVs and trucks. Global demand for those vehicles is rising, and they are critical to Ford’s bottom line. Jim Farley, head of Ford’s global markets, said Ford plans more off-road SUVs like the upcoming Bronco for North America and more low-end small SUVs and seven-passenger SUVs for China.

The automaker plans to cut some cars from its lineup, but didn’t name them Tuesday. Farley said Ford will still offer small cars, like the Focus, but will stick to more expensive — and more profitable — versions.

Smarter vehicles

Ford emphasized that it’s open to new partnerships, such as its recent agreement with Indian automaker Mahindra Group to cooperate on mobility, electric cars and other projects. It is also working with ride-hailing company Lyft on self-driving technology and with China’s Zotye Automobile Co. about an electric car partnership.

The company says its vehicles will get smarter, with 90 percent of its global vehicles getting modem connectivity by 2020. That will allow things like software updates or apps that help drivers find parking. Ford can differentiate itself by offering, say, connected commercial vans that help small businesses keep track of their deliveries.

Marcy Klevorn, Ford’s head of mobility, said Ford launched a medical van service eight weeks ago that can pick up wheelchair-bound patients and take them to the doctor. The service uses Ford-developed software for scheduling appointments, and it will help the company figure out ways that consumers will eventually use self-driving vehicles.

“We have created a box of assets that we can pull out and use for various things,” Klevorn said.

Share price

Ford stuck to its previous guidance for 2017 on Tuesday. The company expects adjusted earnings of $1.65 to $1.85 for the full year. Ford earned $1.76 per share 2016.

Hackett, the former CEO of office furniture company Steelcase Inc., joined Ford’s board in 2013. He briefly led Ford’s mobility unit before being tapped as CEO.

Ford hired Hackett, in part, to turn around its share price, which has languished for the last two years even as rival General Motors Co. saw its shares rise to their highest level in seven years. Ford sunk below Tesla Inc. in market value earlier this year, even though it earned $4.6 billion in 2016 and Tesla has never made a full-year profit.

Ford’s shares rose 2 percent to close at $12.34 Tuesday before Hackett’s presentation. It’s not yet clear if his pitch will improve investors’ confidence.

“Straddling the now and the future will be tricky, especially in terms of profitability,” said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car-buying site Autotrader.com.

Investors have been critical of Ford for waiting too long to bring a long-range electric vehicle to market, as GM did with the Chevrolet Bolt. They also struggled to understand Ford’s plans to compete on autonomous cars.

“In the past few years, Ford simply hasn’t had a compelling narrative that investors could latch onto,” Barclay’s analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a recent note to investors.
…

Economy

North Korea Accuses US of Imposing ‘Economic Blockade’

By Yeco on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

North Korea’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Tuesday of imposing “an economic blockade” on his country and deploying nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula aimed at toppling leader Kim Jong Un.

Ja Song Nam said the U.S. push for countries to implement what he called “illegal and unjustifiable” U.N. sanctions on North Korea is part of America’s “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation.”

“The U.S. is clinging to unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail, economic sanctions and blockade to deny our rights to existence and development, but they only result in our sharper vigilance and greater courage,” he told the General Assembly committee that deals with economic and financial issues.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea in response to its continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests, with the aim of pressuring Kim’s government into returning to negotiations on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

The measures include a ban on countries importing North Korean coal, iron ore and textiles and new limits on its crucial oil and petroleum product imports. But the economic pressure has had no visible impact on Kim’s government, which appears to be accelerating toward what it says is its goal: putting the entire United States within range of its nuclear weapons.

A week ago, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump had “declared the war on our country” by tweeting that North Korea’s leadership “won’t be around much longer.” Hours later, the White House pushed back, saying: “We have not declared war on North Korea.”

No regime change

The Trump administration, referring to the tweet, stressed that the U.S. was not seeking to overthrow North Korea’s government. U.S. Cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have insisted that the U.S.-led campaign of diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea is focused on eliminating its nuclear weapons program, not its totalitarian government.

North Korea’s ambassador told the assembly committee that “our people will continue to uphold the line of simultaneous development of the state nuclear force and the economy.”

Ja said the country is committed to implementing U.N. goals to end poverty and preserve the environment by 2030 and said Trump’s announced intention to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement “illustrates the negative stand of the U.S. towards the sustainable development goals.”

To achieve these goals, Ja said, “we should immediately obliterate the high-handed measures of the U.S., including the sanctions imposed on the developing countries.”

And clearly aiming at the United States and other economic powers, he said the “monopolistic position” of countries that control the monetary and trade system should be destroyed at the same time.
…

Science

WHO: Plague Outbreak in Madagascar Kills 20

By Yscien on Wednesday, October 4, 2017

An outbreak of plague has killed at least 20 people in a month in Madagascar, with more than 80 others infected, the World Health Organization said.

Plague is mainly spread by flea-carrying rats. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague, which swells lymph nodes and can be treated with antibiotics.

But the more dangerous pneumonic form invades the lungs and can kill a person within 24 hours if not treated. About half of the 104 known cases are pneumonic, the WHO said.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva late last week that areas affected included the capital, Antananarivo, and the port cities of Mahajenga and Toamasina.

The U.N. health agency said it feared that the outbreak could worsen because the season for plague, which is endemic in Madagascar, had only just begun and runs until April. On average, 400 cases are reported each year.

“The overall risk of further spread at the national level is high,” WHO said in a statement.
…

Science

Why Gravitational Wave Researchers Won a Nobel

By Yscien on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Three U.S.-based astrophysicists won the Nobel prize in physics Tuesday for their discovery of gravitational waves, a phenomenon Albert Einstein predicted a century ago in his theory of general relativity. Here’s what their discovery means and why they won the prize worth $1.1 million (9 million kronor).

Who won?

Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a German-born scientist who initially flunked out of MIT, won half the prize as the astronomer who initially spearheaded the push for the $1.1 billion project called LIGO. Theorist Kip Thorne and physicist Barry Barish, both of the California Institute of Technology, split the other half.

So far, the LIGO twin detectors in Louisiana and Washington — and a new one in Italy — have spotted four gravitational waves in about two years since going online in September 2015.

What is a gravitational wave?

Gravitational waves are extremely faint ripples in the fabric of space and time that come from some of the most violent events in the universe. The four observations came from the merger of two black holes. The first one was 1.3 billion light-years away.

These waves stretch in one dimension — like left and right — while compressing in another, such as up and down. Then they switch, Weiss explained.

“They are ripples that stretch and squeeze space and everything that lives in space,” Thorne said.

What is space-time?

Space-time is the mind-bending, four-dimensional way astronomers see the universe. It melds the one-way march of time with the more familiar three dimensions of space.

Einstein’s general relativity says that gravity is caused by heavy objects bending space-time. And when massive but compact objects like black holes or neutron stars collide, their immense gravity causes space-time to stretch or compress.

When two black holes collide, you get “a storm in the fabric of space-time … vortices of twisting space fighting with each other,” Thorne said.

Ironically, Einstein would have been quite surprised because even though he theorized about gravitational waves, he didn’t think humans would ever have the technology to spot them. And he didn’t believe black holes existed, Weiss said.

Why is it important?

Unlike other types of waves that go through the universe such as electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves go through matter — stars, planets, us — untouched. So it’s an entirely new type of astronomy, with experts comparing it to Galileo’s observations of the solar system. There’s information in gravitational waves that cannot be found elsewhere.

The first gravitational wave detected was in the form of an audible chirp that some call the music of the cosmos. University of Florida’s Clifford Will said it offers a new way of observing the cosmos beyond light and particles.

How is this “hearing” the cosmos?

Scientists mostly use the word “hear” when describing gravitational waves, and the data does, in fact, arrive in audio form. The researchers can don headphones and listen to the detectors’ output if they want. But Weiss said it is not quite like sound waves.

What’s next?

Scientists are waiting to detect crashes of neutron stars, which many thought would be the first collision to be heard.

Other types of gravitational detectors are being built, including one in India.

The European Space Agency is planning a multibillion-dollar probe to be launched in about 17 years that would look for gravitational waves from space. With better technology, Weiss hopes astronomers will learn more about nuclear physics, states of matter and how heavy elements are made, and detect information from “the very moment when the universe came out of nothingness.”

“We expect surprises,” Weiss said. “There has to be surprises.”
…

Economy

UN Says Recovery of Eastern Caribbean Could Cost $1 Billion

By Yeco on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The recovery of eastern Caribbean islands hardest hit by recent hurricanes, including Dominica, Barbuda, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, could cost up to $1 billion, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a large-scale rebuilding effort that will take time,” said Stephen O’Malley, the U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, “and it will be important to do that right.”

He told U.N. correspondents in a phone briefing from Dominica that “we don’t have exact figures yet,” but for the worst-affected islands the recovery bill will be “half a billion to a billion dollars.”

O’Malley said the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Barbuda, whose 1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma damaged 95 percent of its structures on Sept. 14. And he said a similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on Sept. 18 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, probably in about three weeks.

“They want to build back better and they take that very, very seriously — to make sure that that can be done,” O’Malley said.

Making plans for future

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he wants to have the world’s first “climate-resilient nation.”

He made an impassioned case for the world to do more to help vulnerable countries cope with the effects of global warming and urged the U.N. General Assembly 10 days ago to “let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably.”

O’Malley said the effects of climate change are evident in the Caribbean, where the sea is heating up.

“The fact that the Caribbean Sea heats up, it intensifies the strengths of hurricanes; it doesn’t necessarily make them more frequent but it intensifies” the storm, he said.

O’Malley said the challenge for the islands in rebuilding is: “How do you protect yourself against that? How do you ensure that you have a resilient state and a resilient economy if you know that the risk factors are going to be elevating in this next period of time?”

Immediate disaster relief critical

As for immediate disaster relief following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, he said, regional efforts and military assistance from outside the region have been critical.

He singled out the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency which sent a ship from Barbados to Dominica with initial aid workers the day after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

When he landed at the airport in Dominica on Tuesday, he said there were policemen from St. Kitts, soldiers from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago securing the airport and other sites.

“That has helped the government set itself back up — that regional solidarity,” O’Malley said.

Some ‘green’ returning to Dominica

He said Dominica has also benefited from timely military support, especially helicopters and water desalination plants on naval vessels that produced water that could be taken inland and distributed.

He singled out military help to Dominica from Venezuela, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands.

Compared with the situation a week ago, O’Malley said he could already see some green returning to the almost totally brown island, streets were clear, roads were opening up, power and water supplies were being restored and the port was open. Now, he said, power and water need to be restored to everyone on Dominica and the economy needs to start operating quickly.

…

Technology

Study: Las Vegas Shooting Was Twitter’s Saddest Day Ever

By Ytech on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The mass shooting in Las Vegas, in which at least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured, was the saddest day ever recorded on Twitter, according to Hedonometer, a tool that measures sentiment on social media platforms.

The barometer, which measures the happiness of millions of Twitter users based on their posts, showed an average happiness level of 5.77 on Monday when the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history occurred at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

The previous record low was 5.84 on the day of another mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, that killed at least 49 people and injured more than 50 last year.

The third-saddest recorded day on Twitter was Nov. 9, 2016, the day after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, according to Hedonometer. The barometer on that day was 5.87.

The happiest recorded day on Twitter was on Christmas day of 2008, when the day’s score was 6.36. The tool has been tracking Twitter sentiment since 2008.

Hedonometer was invented by Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician and computer scientist at the University of Vermont’s Advanced Computing Center. It gathers sentences that start with “I feel” or “I am feeling” and generates a happiness score for the text. Each sentence is then given a happiness score from 1 to 9.
…

Economy

US Lawmakers Grill Former Equifax Chairman Over Data Breach

By Yeco on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

House Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday grilled Equifax’s former chief executive over the massive data hack of the personal information of 145 million Americans, calling the company’s response inadequate as consumers struggle to deal with the breach.

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith apologized for the compromise of such information as names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers. Smith was the lone witness at the first of several Capitol Hill hearings this week. No current Equifax official testified.

“The criminal hack happened on my watch, and as CEO, I am ultimately responsible, and I take full responsibility,” Smith said. “I am here today to say to each and every person affected by this breach, I am truly and deeply sorry for what happened.”

Democrats favor legislation that they say would establish strong data security standards and prompt notification and relief for consumers when their information is hacked. But Republicans tamped down expectations for any congressional action as this year the GOP-led Congress has rolled back several Obama-era rules affecting businesses and the financial sector.

“Equifax deserves to be shamed in this hearing, but we should also ask what Congress has done, or failed to do, to stop data breaches from occurring,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.

Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, the chairman of the subcommittee examining the breach, said there are already laws on the books that require companies to secure sensitive consumer data. He said that hearings before four House and Senate panels this week should run their course before lawmakers make a decision about what to do next.

“The big thing we heard today is it was a very human error on their part,” Latta said.

Timeline of breach

Smith offered a timeline of what went wrong, saying the Department of Homeland Security warned the company on March 8 about the need to patch a particular vulnerability in software used by Equifax and other businesses. The company disseminated that warning by email the next day and requested that applicable personnel install the upgrade. The company’s policy requires the upgrade to occur within 48 hours, but that did not occur. The company’s information security department also ran scans on March 15 that did not pick up the vulnerability.

In late July, data security officials noticed suspicious activity on a website, which Smith said “happens routinely around our business.” He said an internal investigation ensued and he was alerted the next day, but he had no knowledge at that time that consumers’ personal information had been accessed.

Lawmakers pressed Smith about company executives selling stock in the company after the suspicious activity had been detected. On August 1 and 2, Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and two other executives, Rodolfo Ploder and Joseph Loughran, sold a combined $1.8 million in stock.

Smith described the executives as “honorable men, men of integrity.” He said at that point in time the company was unaware that consumer data had been accessed.

Schakowsky said “for a lot of Americans, that just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Smith said the full extent of what occurred emerged during a meeting he had with cybersecurity experts and outside counsel on August 17. The board was alerted the following week and the public on September 7, after the company had made plans for how it would try to help consumers respond.

‘Damage control’

The timeline laid out by Smith didn’t satisfy many lawmakers, who accused the company of being too slow.

“I worry that your job today is about damage control. You put a happy face on your firm’s disgraceful actions, and then depart with a golden parachute,” said Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “Unfortunately, if fraudsters destroy my constituent’s savings and financial futures, there’s no golden parachute awaiting them.”

Lawmakers said that at one point Equifax tweeted the wrong link for consumers to check to learn if they were part of the breach.

“Talk about ham-handed responses, this is simply unacceptable,” said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.

Smith said he was disappointed in the rollout of call centers and a website designed to help the people affected by the breach. He said the company has increased its number of customer service representatives and the website has been improved. He said more than 400 million consumers contacted the company in the weeks following the announcement of the breach. He said the company wasn’t prepared for that kind of volume.

Lawmakers said they’re getting scores of calls from constituents concerned that their information was stolen and the potential ramifications in the years ahead. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., said hundreds of constituents have contacted his office about the company’s response.

“The slow rollout and how poorly it was done. To me, it was just inexcusable,” Costello said.
…

Economy

First Global Funding Pact Launched to Secure Indigenous Land Rights

By Yeco on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Indigenous people under threat from companies seeking to develop their land for agriculture, mining and energy projects will be supported with money and practical help through a major global partnership backed by philanthropic and government funding.

The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility is the first initiative to provide grants to advance the rights of indigenous people to help them protect their forest land and resources.

“Creating mechanisms that allow indigenous peoples and local communities to gain tenure over their land or forests is a key way to tackle climate change and inequality,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, a major backer.

Norway pledges $20 million

The facility won a $20 million pledge from Norway on Tuesday when it was launched at a land rights conference in Stockholm.

Indigenous people and rural communities have customary claims to two thirds of the world’s land but are legally recognized as holding only 10 percent, according to the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a global network.

This has contributed to an increase in conflicts over land in countries rich in tropical forests and natural resources as agribusinesses, mining and energy companies lay claim to indigenous land and forests.

Forests help slow global warming

Forests absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide and when they are degraded or destroyed, the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere. Deforestation accounts for 10 to 15 percent of carbon emissions worldwide.

If the facility invests at least $10 million a year for its first 10 years, experts project an increase in titled, protected and well-managed community and indigenous tropical forests of more than 40 million hectares (100,000 acres), an area roughly the size of Sweden.

Such efforts would also prevent deforestation of one million hectares and the release of 500 million tons of carbon dioxide and help reduce poverty among indigenous people, the RRI said.

“The Tenure Facility provides a powerful solution to save the world’s forests from the ground up,” said Carin Jämtin, director general of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, another key funder.

Pilot projects

The facility has already provided grants and guidance for pilot projects in Indonesia, Mali, Peru, Cameroon, Liberia and Panama.

A 2015 peace accord that ended Mali’s civil war failed to address land-based conflicts that contributed to the war, said Boubacar Diarra, the project’s coordinator in the West African country.

The facility helped to set up 17 local land commissions to sort through conflicting claims to determine who owns the land, he said.

“These commissions have reduced conflicts by up to a third by working with local villagers and tribal leaders,” Diarra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
…

Science

Plan Aims to Sharply Reduce Cholera Deaths Worldwide by 2030

By Yscien on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Fifty leading United Nations and international agencies on Wednesday will roll out a global road map for reducing cholera deaths by 90 percent by 2030.

The new strategy from the Global Task Force on Cholera Control will target “hot spots” with simple, effective tools to prevent the disease from taking hold.

The World Health Organization reports cholera kills an estimated 95,000 people and affects nearly 3 million more every year at a cost of about $2 billion to world economies.

WHO says it expects the global cholera situation to worsen because of accelerating conflicts, climate change and population growth.

Currently, 47 countries are affected by cholera. The disease is endemic in 20 of these countries.

The director of WHO Health Emergencies, Peter Salama, said the cholera “hot spots” are relatively small but play a disproportionate role in spreading this fatal disease.

“Just to give you a sense of what we are talking about, in sub-Saharan Africa, around 40 million to 80 million people live in these cholera hot spots,” he said. “If we can effectively target water and sanitation and health interventions at those areas, we will make a tremendous contribution in controlling this disease.”

Success in Nigeria

Salama told VOA the road map for ending cholera already was in play in some of the world’s crisis spots.

“We have seen, for example, in northern Nigeria’s Borno state, the very effective use of oral cholera vaccine in a displaced population affected by conflict,” he said, noting that there had been “a rapid decline” in cholera cases there.

Salama said this case provided a template for a very early response to any new emergency where a significant risk of cholera exists. For example, he cited the dire situation of a half-million Rohingya refugees who recently fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.

Health professionals say new tools, including oral vaccines, can prevent death from cholera. They note it has been more than 150 years since rich countries achieved cholera control. They say poor countries also can end cholera by improving water, sanitation and hygiene.
…

Science

Obesity-Related Cancers Rising, Threatening Gains in US Cancer Rates

By Yscien on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The rates of 12 obesity-related cancers rose by 7 percent from 2005 to 2014, an increase that is threatening to reverse progress in reducing the rate of cancer in the United States, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 630,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with a cancer linked with being overweight or obese in 2014.

Obesity-related cancers accounted for about 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the United States in 2014. Although the overall rate of new cancer diagnoses has fallen since the 1990s, rates of obesity-related cancers have been rising.

“Today’s report shows in some cancers we’re going in the wrong direction,” Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said on a conference call with reporters.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, 13 cancers are associated with overweight and obesity.

They include meningioma, multiple myeloma, adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, and cancers of the thyroid, postmenopausal breast, gallbladder, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, ovaries, uterus and colon and rectum (colorectal).

In 2013-2014, about two out of three U.S. adults were considered overweight or obese. CDC researchers used the U.S. cancer statistics database to see how obesity was affecting cancer rates.

Although cancer rates rose in 12 of these cancers from 2005 to 2012, colorectal cancer rates fell by 23 percent, helped by increases in screening, which prevents new cases by finding growths before they turn into cancer.

Cancers not associated with overweight and obesity fell by 13 percent.

About half of Americans are not aware of this link, according to Schuchat. The findings suggest that U.S. healthcare providers need to make clear to patients the link between obesity and cancer, and encourage patients to achieve a healthy weight.

“The trends we are reporting today are concerning,” Schuchat said. “There are many good reasons to strive for a healthy weight. Now you can add cancer to the list.”

She said the science linking cancer to obesity is still evolving, and it is not yet clear whether losing weight will help individuals once cancer has taken root.

What is clear is that obesity can raise an individual’s risk of cancer, and that risk may be reduced by maintaining a healthy weight, Schuchat said.
…

Technology

European Court Asked to Rule on Facebook Data Transfers

By Ytech on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The European Court of Justice has been asked to consider whether Facebook’s Dublin-based subsidiary can legally transfer users’ personal data to its U.S. parent, after Ireland’s top court said Tuesday that there are “well-founded concerns” the practice violates European law.

In a case brought after former U.S. defense contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of electronic surveillance by American security agencies, the Irish court found that Facebook’s transfers may compromise the data of European citizens.

The case has far-reaching implications for social media companies and others who move large amounts of data via the internet. Facebook’s European subsidiary regularly does so.

Ireland’s data commissioner had already issued a preliminary decision that such transfers may be illegal because agreements between Facebook and its Irish subsidiary don’t adequately protect the privacy of European citizens. The Irish High Court is referring the case to the European Court of Justice because the data sharing agreements had been approved by the European Union’s executive Commission.

Ireland’s data commissioner “has raised well-founded concerns that there is an absence of an effective remedy in U.S. law . for an EU citizen whose data are transferred to the U.S. where they may be at risk of being accessed and processed by U.S. state agencies for national security purposes in a manner incompatible” with the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Irish High Court said Tuesday.

Austrian privacy campaigner Maximillian Schrems, who has a Facebook account, had challenged this practice through the Irish courts because of concerns that his data was being illegally accessed by U.S security agencies.

“U.S. citizens would not be allowed to have such mass surveillance as for European citizens and we have to protect our citizens,” Schrems said. “And actually, Europe protects anybody because we see it as a human right, not as a citizens’ right.”

Facebook said standard contract clauses provided critical safeguards and that such safeguards are used by thousands of companies to do business.

“They are essential to companies of all sizes, and upholding them is critical to ensuring the economy can continue to grow without disruption,” the company said in statement.

It added that it was important that the European court “now considers the extensive evidence demonstrating the robust protections in place under standard contractual clauses and U.S. law before it makes any decision that may endanger the transfer of data across the Atlantic and around the globe.”

In an earlier ruling in the case, the European Court of Justice found that the so-called Safe Harbor regime, which Facebook previously relied on when transferring data to the U.S., violated EU law because it didn’t provide effective legal remedies. The Safe Harbor regime had been established in 2000 by the EU executive Commission, which found that U.S. data protection laws were adequate to protect the rights of EU citizens.

The Irish Data Commissioner decided to seek judicial review of standard contractual clauses in part because of “the very significant commercial implications arising from the value of data exchanges to EU-U.S. trading relationships.”

The U.S. government and three other parties were allowed to file friend of the court briefs in the case. The others are the BSA Business Software Alliance, a trade association whose members include Apple, Microsoft and Intel; Digital Europe, which represents the region’s digital technology industry; and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a U.S. civil liberties group.
…

Economy

EU Says Brexit Talks Still Stuck on Question of UK Exit Bill

By Yeco on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The European Union insisted Tuesday that Brexit negotiations with Britain will not move on to the question of future relations until enough progress has been made on divorce issues, such as how much the country’s exit bill should be.

Britain desperately wants talks to move on to future trade and security arrangements but EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that more needs to be done on the withdrawal issues first.

Juncker told the European Parliament that “we have not made the sufficient progress needed” and the legislators backed him, approving a resolution underscoring the same point with a vote of 557 to 92 with 29 abstentions. It further underscored the unity of the 27 EU nations as they face off with Britain in the talks.

The EU wants London to commit to guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens already in Britain, making sure border posts do not reappear between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and Ireland itself and pay up for everything it had agreed to while it was a member.

Juncker said “the taxpayers in the EU 27 should not pay for the British decision” to leave, while the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said “serious differences remain” on how many bills the U.K. still has to settle. Estimates vary widely from 20 billion euros ($27 billion) to over three times that amount.

“Serious rifts remain, especially on the financial settlement,” Barnier said. “We will not pay at 27 what has been decided at 28, it is simple as that.”

The parliamentary resolution called for postponing any move to widen the talks with Britain unless “a major breakthrough” takes place during the fifth round of negotiations in Brussels next week.

Observers said decisive progress was highly unlikely. Tuesday’s moves further dampened hopes that the EU leaders might give the green light to an expansion in the talks at a summit on Oct 19-20.

Many lawmakers were also dismissive of Britain’s Conservative government, which is widely seen as insecure and bumbling.

The head of the biggest party group in the European Parliament called for the sacking of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for stoking confusion over the Brexit talks.

The European People’s Party chairman, Manfred Weber, appealed to Prime Minister Theresa May: “Please sack Johnson, because we need a clear answer who is responsible for the British position.”

Weber turned Henry Kissinger’s famous observation about the many leaders in the EU onto Britain: “Who shall I call in London? Who speaks for the government? Theresa May, Boris Johnson, or even (Brexit negotiator) David Davis?”

Others are speculating that Britain might actually be stalling to make sure that the member states that trade heavily with the U.K. would buckle and concede at the last moment, sowing discord among the 27.

EPP member Tom Vandenkendelaere said the strong backing of the resolution proved differently. “If the Brits they can play their old divide-and-rule game, they’d better think again,” he said.
…