Posts made by mlnews

mlnews

Mitch McConnell: Top Trump ally breaks silence to congratulate Biden

A top member of US President Donald Trump's Republican Party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has congratulated Joe Biden on winning the presidential election last month.
Senator McConnell spoke after the electoral college formally confirmed Mr Biden's victory over Mr Trump. The Democrat won 306 electoral college votes to Mr Trump's 232. President Trump still refuses to concede, making unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud. Relations with the Senate, currently controlled by the Republicans, will be crucial to Mr Biden's presidency. He visited Atlanta, Georgia, to campaign for the Democrats in next month's Senate run-off elections. Two seats will be decided on 5 January and could determine whether or not his party takes control of the chamber. Democrats already control the House of Representatives. After Monday's confirmation of Mr Biden's victory, three world leaders whose refusal to congratulate the president-elect had been commented widely, did so on Tuesday: Russia's Vladimir Putin, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

mlnews

SolarWinds: Why the Sunburst hack is so serious

We've all seen the pop-ups on our laptops or phones: "Update is available, click here to download."
We're constantly urged to do as we're told because these software updates improve our apps by boosting cyber-security and removing glitches. So when, in the spring, a pop-up message hit the screens of IT staff using a popular piece of software called SolarWinds, around 18,000 workers in companies and governments diligently downloaded the update for their offices. What they couldn't have known was that the download was booby-trapped. SolarWinds itself didn't know either. The US company had been the victim of a cyber-attack weeks previously that had seen hackers inject a tiny piece of secret code into the company's next software update.

mlnews

Tech Tent: Breaking up Facebook

In a landmark lawsuit, US regulators have accused Facebook of buying up rivals in order to stifle competition.
They have made it clear they will seek a drastic remedy - the sale of Instagram and WhatsApp. On this week's Tech Tent we ask whether it is really likely that the social media giant's empire will be dismantled. New York Attorney General Letitia James could hardly have been clearer in her denunciation as she outlined the case she and more than 45 other state and federal regulators are bringing against Facebook. "For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals, and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users," she said.

mlnews

World needs to declare 'climate emergency' - UN

The UN secretary general has called on all countries to declare a climate emergency.
António Guterres was speaking at a virtual summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, He criticised rich countries for spending 50% more of their pandemic recovery cash on fossil fuels compared to low-carbon energy. Over 70 world leaders are due to speak at the meeting organised by the UK, UN and France. Mr Guterres said that 38 countries had already declared a climate emergency and he called on leaders worldwide to now do the same.

mlnews

Co-op facial recognition trial raises privacy concerns

A trial of facial recognition technology within 18 Co-op food stores has sparked outrage from privacy advocates.
The system, from start-up Facewatch, alerts workers if someone enters the store who had a past record of "theft or anti-social behaviour". The supermarket said the pilot was done to protect workers from assaults by shoplifters. Privacy groups say they are "deeply concerned" by the trial. The initiative was organised by the Southern Co-operative, which is independent of the larger Co-op chain but runs more than 200 stores in the south of England using the same brand. The trial was first reported by Wired's news site, which picked up on a blog posted on Facewatch's website by Southern Co-op's loss prevention officer Gareth Lewis.

mlnews

Brexit: EU sets out plans in case trade talks with UK fail

The EU has published contingency plans in case of the possible collapse of Brexit trade talks with the UK.
The plans aim to ensure smooth UK-EU air and road travel, as well as allowing the possibility of fishing access to each other's waters. They come after talks between UK PM Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen aimed at ending a deadlock over the deal ended without agreement. The UK is due to stop following EU trading rules on 31 December. The UK left the EU at the end of January this year, but a transition period of 11 months followed to allow the two sides to try to negotiate a deal. The commission said the application of the proposed measures would, in some cases, depend on the UK reciprocating and accepting certain terms.

mlnews

Cyberpunk adds epilepsy warning after reviewer warns of seizures

The developer of Cyberpunk 2077 is adding warnings to the game, after reviewers and charities complained it caused epileptic seizures.
It thanked one reviewer who said it had triggered "one major seizure" and left them "close" to another several times. "Regarding a more permanent solution, [the] dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible," it tweeted. The game is released on Thursday, after months of repeated delays. Video games have long been a potential trigger for those who have epileptic seizures and standard warnings have been written in to licence agreements over the years.

mlnews

Covid-19 vaccine: Allergy warning over new jab

People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not have the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab, regulators say.
It came after two NHS workers had allergic reactions on Tuesday. The advice applies to those who have had reactions to medicines, food or vaccines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said. The two people had a reaction shortly after having the new jab, had treatment and are both fine now. They are understood to have had an anaphylactoid reaction, which tends to involve a skin rash, breathlessness and sometimes a drop in blood pressure. This is not the same as anaphylaxis which can be fatal. Both NHS workers have a history of serious allergies and carry adrenaline pens around with them.

mlnews

SpaceX gets almost $900 million in federal subsidies to deliver broadband to rural America

The US government plans to give SpaceX nearly a billion dollars to beam internet from space to people across rural America, where three out of five people say access to broadband is still a pressing issue.
The company will receive a total of $856 million, one of the largest subsidies handed out by the Federal Communications Commission under a new program designed to encourage companies to extend broadband access into the United States' most underserved areas over the next 10 years. SpaceX's win is notable because the company competed against more established internet service providers, such as Charter Communications and CenturyLink, which rely on traditional fiber optic cables to deliver high-speed internet to customers. SpaceX's Starlink internet service, which is currently in beta testing and is not yet fully operational, relies on an experimental swarm of nearly 1,000 satellites whizzing around Earth at more than 17,000 miles per hour as they beam the internet to high-tech antennas mounted on people's homes.

mlnews

Investors can now trade water futures

There's a new commodity in town for investors to trade: water.
Futures tied to the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index, which measures the volume-weighted average price of water, began trading under the ticker NQH2O on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday.
Water has never been traded this way before. Before the futures came along, the buying and selling of water rights, which allow the holder to pump water from the ground or reservoirs, only happened in the spot market. In dry years, when more water is required to grow crops and supply municipalities, it meant that buyers were facing high prices and a lot of uncertainty.

mlnews

Covid: Fauci warns Christmas is 'greater challenge' than Thanksgiving

Top US diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci has warned of another surge in Covid cases after Christmas - even with the rise following Thanksgiving still being tackled.
He said the longer Christmas/New Year period may be even more of a challenge. The US is seeing peak infections of close to 200,000 a day on average with record numbers of people in hospital. California is under a strict new lockdown, with other states announcing record increases. The US has recorded more than 14.7 million cases of infection in the pandemic so far and 282,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University research, both global highs. President Donald Trump has been accused of playing down measures such as mask wearing but the US has also had to deal with different states taking different approaches to tackling the virus.

mlnews

School photo is viral internet meme, Adrian Smith finds

Adrian Smith was shocked to find that a photo of him as an eight-year-old had become an internet meme.
He stumbled upon the picture on Instagram, but it had come from a Tumblr blog in which his image was being used as the stepson of a fictional "teenage stepdad". He said he was amused by it, but admitted that as a child he would have found it "confusing and sad". Mr Smith's discovery has now gone more viral than the original meme. He has been in touch with its original creator, and said he was happy that the image has not been used in a "mean spirit". "Teenage Stepdad" offered to kill the character off, but Mr Smith is happy for him to carry on with it if he wishes, he said.

mlnews

Timnit Gebru: Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher

Hundreds of Google staff have signed a letter backing a leading AI ethics researcher who was sacked by Google.
Timnit Gebru says she was fired after sending an internal email that accused Google of "silencing marginalised voices". Hundreds of colleagues have signed a letter accusing the search giant of racism and censorship, while Twitter users have rallied around Dr Gebru using the hashtag #BelieveBlackWomen. Google disputes her version of events. Dr Gebru is a well-respected researcher in the field of ethics and the use of artificial intelligence. She is well-known for her work on racial bias in technology such as facial recognition, and has criticised systems that fail to recognise black faces.

mlnews

China becomes second nation to plant flag on the Moon

China has planted its flag on the Moon, more than 50 years after the US first planted the Stars and Stripes there.
China has planted its flag on the Moon, more than 50 years after the US first planted the Stars and Stripes there.The US planted the first flag on the Moon during the manned Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Five further US flags were planted on the lunar surface during subsequent missions up until 1972. In 2012 Nasa cited satellite images as showing that five of the flags were still standing, but experts quoted in media reports say they are likely to have been bleached white by the sun's glare. The first flag was said by astronaut Buzz Aldrin to have been placed too close to the Apollo lunar module and was, he said, probably blown away when the module blasted off.

mlnews

A dog was missing for weeks.

Then it wandered into Walmart and found its owner working at the register.
June Rountree and her husband circled their neighborhood night after night looking for their beloved lost dog Abby. Rountree, 60, realized the dog was missing Nov. 8, when she went to the backyard of their home in Dothan, Ala., and instead of seeing her 4-year-old black-and-white dog, she was horrified to see only Abby’s collar and leash, which was secured to a ground stake. Despite their efforts, there was no sign of Abby, and the Rountrees were beginning to lose hope. Three weeks later, an unlikely and perhaps miraculous turn of events left them convinced Abby is either the luckiest or the smartest dog in town.

mlnews

Future Zoom users will be able to smell the virtual coffee

People in video meetings will, in future, be able to feel their hands being shaken and smell coffee in their virtual space, the founder and CEO of Zoom has predicted.
Eric Yuan was speaking at the Web Summit tech conference. Mr Yuan said he believed artificial intelligence would bring a physical aspect to virtual meetings. He also said he thought many workers would not return full-time to the office after the pandemic. Unsurprisingly perhaps, he argued that video meetings were here to stay, stating that the pandemic had demonstrated that "it works" - despite Zoom's share value plunging following the first announcement about Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine. He said that for office-based staff, coming in for maybe two days a week could become the norm. "The world will become a hybrid [workplace], and I think that's a world we have to embrace," he said.

mlnews

Dr Fauci apologises for saying UK 'rushed' vaccine

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, has apologised for remarks that seemed to criticise the UK's vaccine approval process.
"I have a great deal of confidence in what the UK does both scientifically and from a regulator standpoint," Dr Fauci told the BBC on Thursday. The UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus. It has defended the rapid approval and said the jab is safe and effective. Dr Fauci on Wednesday had told Fox News that the UK did not review the vaccine "as carefully" as US health regulators. He later told CBS News that the UK had "rushed" the approval. On Thursday, he walked back the comments, and said there was "no judgement on the way the UK did it".

mlnews

Amazon's Panorama box lets firms check if staff follow coronavirus rules

Amazon plans to sell companies a way to detect when staff are not wearing face masks or socially distancing.
Beyond the pandemic, the system could also be used to track compliance of other workplace rules or to monitor the public - for example, to check the number of customers queuing in a store. It involves retrofitting a box to existing security cameras that can then draw on off-the-shelf AI apps. But privacy campaigners have raised concerns.Remote working has already led to an increase in the use of software that checks up on employees, but Amazon's new solution is focused on tracking people and products in factories, shops and other traditional workplaces.

mlnews

Covid-19: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine judged safe for use in UK

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.
Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out. The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs. Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff. But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there - for care home staff, NHS staff and patients - so none of the vaccine is wasted.

mlnews

Facebook Oversight Board reveals its first cases

Facebook's Oversight Board has chosen its first batch of cases to review.
All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content. They include images of female breasts in a post about breast cancer, and an image of a dead child alongside text about whether retaliation was justified against China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims. The board said Facebook users had submitted 20,000 suggested incidents for review since October 2020. The arbitration body is inviting the public to comment on the cases - which have all been anonymised - over the next seven days.