In The News

CNET: China's Supercomputers Race Past US to World Dominance

Stephen Shankland November 14, 2017
China dominates the list of the world’s list of the 500 fastest supercomputers. with 202 in all along with total performance. The United States has 144 supercomputers. The list is released twice a year. “The news … marks a notable shift in the international balance of high-end computing power that's closely tied to industrial, academic and military abilities,” writes Stephen Shankland for...

The Guardian: Global Pollution Threatens Human Survival

Damian Carrington October 20, 2017
Humans tend to ignore threats that are slow emerging or ubiquitous – and pollution is such a threat. “Toxic air, water, soils and workplaces are responsible for the diseases that kill one in every six people around the world,” writes Damian Carrington for the Guardian. He describes a report by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. “[T]he true total could be millions higher because the...

TechCrunch: WeChat Censors Users Ahead of China’s National Party Congress

Jon Russell October 18, 2017
China’s leaders are convening for the National Congress, held every five years for outlining policy priorities, and government censors are taking no risks. The goal is to prevent internal protests or external disruptions from outside trolls who used social-media messages to influence the 2016 US election. Posting anonymous content is banned in China, and social-media platforms WeChat and Weibo...

Project Syndicate: IP for the 21st Century Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev October 17, 2017
Intellectual property laws can be an obstacle when emerging economies are enduring a health crisis. Writing for Project Syndicate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev describe South Africa’s battle against the global pharmaceutical industry as HIV/AIDS swept through the continent. Today South Africa’s leaders are working to develop intellectual property policies to expand access to...

Financial Times: Is Facebook Spinning Out of Control Over Russian Revelations?

Hannah Kuchler and Barney Jopson October 10, 2017
Russia used social media to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election and under-cut some of the world’s most innovative companies in the process – “weaponization” in the words of the Financial Times. Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter encourage political comment and gather personal data, then sell targeted, automated advertising. The social-media firms can expect more regulations from Europe...

The New York Times: China Hastens the World Toward an Electric-Car Future

Keith Bradsher October 10, 2017
The world’s most populous nation is the largest maker and buyer of electric cars. China applies specific rules to guide markets – for example, more than half of cars sold by automakers must rely on alternative energies. Manufacturers around the globe are forced to adjust and add electric models to their product lines. “Propelled by vast amounts of government money and visions of dominating next-...

Reuters: Russian Firm Provides New Internet Connection to North Korea

Jeremy Wagstaff, Eric Auchard and Maria Kiselyova October 6, 2017
A state-owned Russian company has given North Korea a second internet connection. The first one was provided by China Unicom. North Korea has thousands of trained cyber specialists, and the new connection could increase North Korea’s hacking capabilities while helping the country evade similar attacks from the United States. “Dyn Research, which monitors international internet traffic flows, said...