The Biden administration issued a blanket warning Friday to US firms about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong as China continues to clamp down on political and economic freedoms in the territory.Four Cabinet agencies — the departments of State, Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security — released the nine-page advisory that alerts companies about the shifting legal landscape in Hong Kong and the possibility that engaging with Hong Kong business could incur reputational and legal damages.At the same time, Treasury announced sanctions against seven Chinese officials for violating the terms of the 2020 Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which calls…
Author: Mike Harrison
(Photo : GettlyImages/ SOPA Images ) Apple app Apple Messages has been withdrawn by India’s IT ministry from its new social media regulation. The IT ministry no longer demands that Apple Messages comply with its social media rules, such as appointing a local complaint staff. Apple Messages is Now Subject to New Laws India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology or MEITY has previously banned numerous social media apps and asked Apple to remove TikTok as well. Now, in a separate regulation, MEITY counted Apple Messages as a social media platform that fits the new Indian laws. According to Business…
UK Prime Minister’s Boris Johnson’s plan to lift almost all restrictions from Monday amid a raging pandemic is a threat to the world and could lead to the emergence of deadly variants capable of evading vaccine-induced immunity, international experts have warned. Speaking at an emergency summit, scientists and physicians raised concern over the UK’s decision to kick off the final phase of the four-step roadmap out of lockdown while the country is witnessing a worrying surge in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, largely driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist and senior lecturer in machine learning at…
With Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and world leaders in the audience, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani used a regional conference in Tashkent on Friday to launch a blistering attack on Islamabad for failing to prevent foreign terrorists sneaking into Afghanistan and not doing enough to pressure the Taliban to join peace talks.Ghani used his address at the conference, hosted by Uzbekistan to foster connectivity between Central and South Asia, to criticise Pakistan for failing to deliver on its commitments to influence the Taliban to participate in negotiations and to prevent the cross-border movement of jihadi fighters.The president’s remarks reflected the…
Apple macOS Montereys’ Quick Note feature introduces productivity functions that support switching from supported apps and devices in the Apple ecosystem, such as the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. (Photo : by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)UKRAINE – 2021/06/07: In this photo illustration the macOS Monterey logo on an Apple website seen displayed on a smartphone screen with an Apple logo in the background. Apple has started its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), an information technology conference, where it presented the iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12 and watchOS 8. The main focus of the Quick Note feature is to allow…
India on Friday urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to “avoid the politicisation of humanitarian work and humanitarian actors” in conflict situations and they should not be used as a ploy to undermine the territorial integrity of countries.“Too often we have seen humanitarian assistance being linked to coercive measures by external players in order to force outcomes desired by them,” said Indian foreign security Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who is on a two-day visit to New York, during a UN Security Council briefing on protection of civilians in armed conflict.“Such actions run the risk of being counter-productive to achieving a resolution…
The United Kingdom on Friday registered 36,800 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) due to the Delta Covid-19 variant, data issued by Public Health England (PHE) showed. With this, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the UK due to the Delta variant, first detected in India last year, has risen to 253,049 from 216,249 in the previous week, or a rise of 17%, the data showed.Also Read | ‘UK not out of woods’: Senior medic’s warning on Covid-19 amid spike in daily casesHowever, PHE further said there has been no corresponding rise in the number of hospitalisations due to…
The heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest in late June resulted in an enormous surge in emergency department (ED) visits in the region, according to a new analysis from the CDC. There were 1,038 heat-related visits to the emergency department during the peak of the heat wave on June 28, in “region 10” — which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. In shocking comparison, there were just 9 similar ED visits in the region on the same day in 2019. The northwest was home to a disproportionate number of emergency department visits While much of the west was suffering…
(Photo : How Xfinite is Transforming the Digital World, Pushing Back Against Censorship) Heavy censorship is hitting the digital platform hard, driving a huge number of content creators, content consumers, and social media participants to search for censorship-resistant alternatives. Intense censorship, supported by the social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter, is the reason people are leaving these media platforms for decentralized ones. Such decentralized platforms operate on blockchain technology. Press freedom is under heavy attack from different directions, the government, and the private sector. What role can blockchain play to restore safety in the media industry? Blockchain-based social…
The Joker malware, which has previously infected several Google Android apps, is now back with another malicious scheme. Cybersecurity experts spotted the mobile trojan in a similar platform: Google Playstore. The said spyware can launch different attacks on systems, including faking service reviews, displaying deceptive ads, downloading virus-stricken apps, and disabling the Google Play Protect Service. The Return of Joker Malware (Photo : Rob Hampson from Unsplash )Experts say that the returning Joker malware is back with a malicious scheme to the victims. The system virus in the form of the Joker malware was seen to be collecting sensitive details…