In 2018, Putin approved a national research strategy that stretches to 2024. It calls for more money, extra support for early-career scientists, and some 900 new laboratories, including at least 15 world-class research centres with a focus on mathematics, genomics, materials research and robotics. Last year, the government completed a sweeping evaluation of scientific performance at its universities and institutes; it has vowed to modernize equipment in the 300 institutes that made the top quartile. And it says it wants to strengthen previously neglected areas, including climate and environmental research (see ‘Russia’s climate-science ambitions’).
As the number of global coronavirus cases surpassed 200,000 as of Wednesday, a Japanese flu drug undergoing clinical trials in China as a possible treatment for coronavirus has effectively helped patients recover, Chinese officials told reporters. This is only one of many drugs that have shown promise.
A Chinese government official said patients who took Avigan tested negative for the virus in a shorter amount of time.
The EARN IT Act could give law enforcement officials the backdoor they have long wanted — unless tech companies come together to stop it. But Match Group has already endorsed it, putting pressure on Facebook, Twitter, and others.
Love this convergence of metaverse and fighting censorship with style. Wonder when Microsoft will start getting pressure about this or other kinds of content.
Most of us live in countries where freedom of speech is considered a fundamental human right and it would be hard to imagine living in a different state than that. However, not all of us are blessed with this sometimes overlooked right as there are a number of countries in this world where governments actively censor their citizens, especially those whose profession is to report facts. Journalists.
In a number of places around the world, journalists are banned, jailed, exiled, and even killed for their words. In order to make their message heard and reach the places where they’re banned, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) opened a special type of library that could reach millions. They built it in Minecraft.
The creators reason their choice by explaining the library’s accessibility: ” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) used this backdoor to build ” The Uncensored Library”: a library that is now accessible on an open server for Minecraft players around the globe. The library is filled with books containing articles that were censored in their country of origin. These articles are now available again within Minecraft—hidden from government surveillance technology inside a computer game. The books can be read by everyone on the server, but their content cannot be changed. The library is growing, with more and more books being added to overcome censorship.”
Case in point: FDA rules initially prevented state and commercial labs from developing their own coronavirus diagnostic tests, even if they could develop coronavirus PCR [Polymerase chain reaction] primers on their own. So when the only available test suddenly turned out to be bunk, no one could actually say what primer sets worked.
The government reversed course on February 29 and allowed private labs to begin developing their own tests. The results have been spectacular.
The old tests took two to seven days to process. The patient was left in limbo in the meantime. Within a matter of days of the government dropping its restriction, the Cleveland Clinic developed a test that delivered results within eight hours.
The US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum’s (USISPF) President Mukesh Aghi said that the companies are talking to them about how to set up an alternative to China by investing in India.
Aghi said that USISPF’s recommendation to the new government would be to accelerate the reforms and bring transparency in the decision-making process.
“I think that’s critical. We would advise to bring more transparency in the process and to make it more consultative because in the last 12 to 18 months, we are seeing US companies look at some of the decisions being made, either e-commerce or data localisation, as more domestic-oriented than global,” he told PTI in an interview.
Australian supermarket giant Woolworths is introducing a dedicated shopping hour that will only allow elderly and disabled people to purchase items.
Starting tomorrow (March 17) shopping between 7 am and 8 am will be exclusive to elderly and disabled people with government-issued disability and pension cards.
These actions are a direct response to the chaotic panic buying and hoarding of essential items by other greedy shoppers which has left older people struggling to get their hands on food and toiletries.
Turkey’s first electromagnetic anti-drone systems manufacturer Harp Arge (R&D) on Sunday unveiled its 2.5-kilogram (5.5-pound) anti-drone weapon produced with the latest antenna technology, allowing for reduced size and weight.
The technology firm, which has been working to improve capabilities of national drone systems, introduced its newest product, ES-60 Electromagnetic Anti Drone Gun, designed to inflict high-speed electromagnetic interference to disrupt communications between drones and their control units and cause enemy devices to malfunction.
The Harp Arge said the anti-drone gun has a weight of 2.5 kilograms and is capable of combating rogue drones within a 3-kilometer (1.86-mile) range. The company said the new antenna technology installed enabled the company to reduce the size and weight of the weapon to an impressive extent. The firm added that the jamming weapon is produced using more than 70% of locally sourced content and would only be provided to government agencies as per weapons regulations.
Hong Kong’s government announced in late February that it would be giving every resident over the age of 18 a cash payout of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, part of a package of measures aimed at reducing the financial blow to the territory from the COVID-19 outbreak and months of anti-government protests. At the time, the city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan told CNBC the move could boost Hong Kong’s economy by around 1%.
The U.S. should follow Hong Kong’s lead and give a cash handout to its citizens amid the coronavirus pandemic, a strategist told CNBC Friday.
“This is not a financial crisis,” Andrew Freris, CEO of Ecognosis Advisory, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection.” “It is a crisis about the real economy.”
He noted that in 2008, central banks used stimulus to respond to the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market — but he said nothing of the kind was happening right now.
