Category:

International News

UN experts call to impose moratorium on sale of surveillance technology

Two years ago the then UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression published a report on the dangerous impact of surveillance technology on human rights and recommended an immediate moratorium on its sale and transfer until international regulations incorporating human rights safeguards were adopted. The international community failed to heed his call.

read more

Covid-19: China’s port shutdown raises fears of closures worldwide

The shutdown at Ningbo-Zhoushan is raising fears that ports around the world will soon face the same kind of outbreaks and Covid restrictions that slowed the flows of everything from perishable food to electronics last year as the pandemic took hold. Infections are threatening to spread at docks just as the world’s shipping system is already struggling to handle unprecedented demand with economies reopening and manufacturing picking up.

read more

Global sizzling: July was hottest month in 142 years, NOAA says

In this case first place is the worst place to be, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”

This is climate change,” said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. It is an exclamation mark on a summer of unprecedented heat, drought, wildfires and flooding.

read more

Sex scandal in Alibaba sparks #MeToo moment in China

“An Alibaba executive raped his female employee, but the company has taken no action!” she screamed, handing out the leaflets to stunned colleagues until security guards forcibly removed her. “No one is taking responsibility!”

The allegations she printed on those pages, and in a lengthy post over the weekend that went viral on China’s tightly controlled internet, are now reverberating across the upper echelons of Alibaba and in C-suites across much of the country.

read more

Accenture says ransomware attack had no impact, withholds comment on data

Accenture said in a statement Wednesday that it had “identified irregular activity in one of our environments” and ” immediately contained the matter and isolated the affected servers.” It did not specify when the incident occurred — or acknowledge that it was ransomware. But the description of its response was consistent with ransomware.

read more

COVID-19 numbers in SE Asia plateaued over past month mainly due to cases in India remaining stable: WHO

The highest number of new cases were reported from India (278,631 new cases; 20.2 new cases per 100,000; 2 per cent decrease), Indonesia (225,635 new cases; 82.5 new cases per 100,000; 18 per cent decrease), and Thailand (141,191 new cases; 202.3 new cases per 100 000; 20 per cent increase).

In the region, the highest numbers of new deaths were reported from Indonesia (11,373 new deaths; 4.2 new deaths per 100,000; 9 percent decrease), India (3511 new deaths; 0.3 new deaths per 100,000; 8 percent decrease), and Myanmar (2045 new deaths; 3.8 new deaths per 100,000; 22 percent decrease).

read more

Amazon partners Marsh to offer product liability insurance to sellers

Amazon announced it is creating the insurance network-Amazon Insurance Accelerator- along with implementing a new policy of paying shoppers’ injury and damage claims up to $1,000.
The online marketplace now requires third-party sellers to obtain product liability coverage after reaching $10,000 in sales within one month on Amazon.

read more

Delta tears across US, cases and hospitalisations at six-month high

Nationwide, Covid-19 cases have averaged 100,000 for three days in a row, up 35 per cent over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of public health data. The surge of the disease was strongest in Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas.Hospitalisations rose 40 per cent and deaths, a lagging indicator, registered an 18 per cent uptick in the past week with the most fatalities by population in Arkansas.

read more