In The News

Macron and International Digital Tax: Reuters

Richard Lough December 6, 2019
France seeks an international tax on digital services like internet advertising. The United States has responded with proposed tariffs on French champagne, handbags, cheese and more. “The French leader is keen to reach an international agreement on taxing big tech companies and has urged the Trump administration to help reform global corporate taxes,” reports Reuters. “Internet giants … are...

Restore Internet for Iran? Deutsche Welle

Fabian Schmidt November 25, 2019
Blocking most of the internet within Iran’s borders was the government's response to nationwide protests over a rise in fuel prices. The US ambassador to Germany suggests that the United States and European Union could restore internet access, and he called on tech and telecom companies to provide service. Limited communications could be available with the help of secret servers, explains...

Twitter Workers Charged for Spying: Washington Post

Ellen Nakashima and Greg Bensinger November 8, 2019
The US Department of Justice has charged two former Twitter employees, sending out a warning that any activities on tech platforms – social media, email, search engines – can be accessed by spies. The two men Saudi nationals tracked thousands of prominent critics of Saudi Arabia, marking the first formal accusations of the country spying in the United States. Foreign governments with nefarious...

Nuclear Fusion: BBC News

Matt McGrath November 6, 2019
The United Kingdom, investing £200 million, expects to unveil a demonstration nuclear fusion model by 2025 and to use such reactors to supply energy by 2040. Nuclear fusion relies on heating hydrogen atoms at high temperatures to replicate the processes of the Sun on Earth, explains Matt McGrath for BBC News. “With the price of wind and solar continuing to drop, experts say these existing...

US Ends Two Science Advisory Boards: Hill

Miranda Green October 6, 2019
Donald Trump issued an executive order in June, urging departments to consider eliminating a third of the country’s advisory panels. Steps have been taken to disband two: the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Invasive Species Advisory Committee run by the Interior Department. Such panels are typically staffed by...

As the US Reached the Moon, So Did the World: DW

Zulfikar Abbany July 20, 2019
Around the world, many still feel chills remembering the reports from July 20, 1969, that two men had landed and walked on the Moon. Zulfikar Abbany, writing for Deutsche Welle, describes how the American story is “a Cold War story, too — of a Free World against a closed, communist world. And in that sense, it's a global story.” The Apollo space program relied on engineers, technicians and...

Internet Monopolies and India’s Trust Deficit: Livemint

Mihir Dalal July 14, 2019
Regulators with the Competition Commission of India are surveying e-commerce and its novel challenges to competition. “This is the closest the CCI has come to admitting that the present competition laws may not be equipped to deal with the shape-shifting, confounding challenges posed by the nature of internet platforms to competition regulation,” explains Mihir Dalal. “Globally, regulators and...