The Best and Worst Moments of the 2018 Emmys
Did you hear the one about the Emmys’ being super diverse this year?[Read about what happened at the Emmys and at the after-parties.]It was the running theme of the night, while curiously the discussion around #MeToo at the first Emmys ceremony since The New York Times’s Harvey Weinstein story broke last year was noticeably muted. This was especially glaring in light of the recent downfall of the former CBS chief executive Les Moonves, long one of the most powerful men in television, who stepped down earlier this month after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. (Mr. Moonves has denied these accusations.)Here are some of the most memorable moments from the Emmy Awards. — AISHA HARRISThe ‘S.N.L.’-ification of the EmmysNBC turned over this year’s telecast to Lorne Michaels, and the ceremony at times felt like a glammed-up installment of “Saturday Night Live,” with a heavy dose of the show’s past and present stars. As with most episodes of “S.N.L.,” the results were decidedly mixed. Performers like Mr. Thompson and Leslie Jones enlivened the evening, but several bits, like a running gag featuring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen as inept Emmy experts, fell flat.As the hosts, Mr. Jost and Mr. Che reprised the give and take of their “Weekend Update” segments on “S.N.L.,” cracking wise about subjects like Ronan Farrow, Roseanne Barr and the death of traditional television.“Our network NBC has the most nominations of any broadcast network,” Mr. Che said. “Which is kind of like being the sexiest person on life support.”As has become typical at Emmy telecasts, there were also plenty of Netflix jokes.“Netflix will spend $8 billion on programming. They now have 700 original series, which makes me realize that the show I pitched them must have really sucked,” Mr. Jost said. “It’s like being turned down for a CVS rewards card.” (Read the entire monologue here.)But if the writing and bits were hit and miss at best, “S.N.L.” got the last laugh. It won the award for the best variety sketch show for the second year in a row. — JEREMY EGNER‘Mrs. Maisel’ dominates comedyWith the perennial winner “Veep” out of the running this year, the Emmy Awards were guaranteed to crown a new top comedy. But the competition seemed like an even split between FX’s whimsically avant-garde “Atlanta” and Amazon’s period charmer “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”In the end, it wasn’t close. “Mrs. Maisel” dominated the category, taking home five awards Monday night, the most of any program. The haul included the top award as well as best comic actress for Rachel Brosnahan and best comedy writing and directing for the creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino. When Alex Borstein was announced in the supporting actress category, she ascended the stage in delightfully dramatic fashion:“Atlanta” did pull out one win, though: At the Creative Arts ceremony earlier this month, Katt Williams was named best guest actor in a comedy. — JEREMY EGNERThe Fonz finally winsHenry Winkler deserved the biggest thumbs up of all on Monday night. More than 40 years after his first Emmy nomination, he finally took home a statuette.“Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god!” said an ecstatic Mr. Winkler, 72, who’d leapt onto the stage to accept his award for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, bringing the audience to its feet. He played Gene Cousineau on HBO’s dark comedy “Barry.”“I wrote this 43 years ago,” he said of his acceptance speech. Mr. Winkler was first nominated in 1976 for his role as Arthur Fonzarelli, who exemplified midcentury American cool in a black leather jacket, on “Happy Days.”“I can’t stop yet,” Mr. Winkler said as his allotted speech time wound down. “My wife, Stacey, oh, my god. My cast and crew, and the kids! Kids! Jed, Zoe and Max, you can go to bed now! Daddy won!” — MAYA SALAM‘The Reparation Emmys’It has become commonplace for award shows to highlight the exclusion of minorities with a knowing wink at how far things have (sort of) come, and the Emmys were no different. In addition to the opening musical number, Mr. Che appeared in a pretaped bit in which he handed out “reparation Emmys” to veteran black performers who have been overlooked by the voting academy.Jaleel White (“Family Matters”), Marla Gibbs (nominated five times for her role as Florence on “The Jeffersons”), Tichina Arnold (“Martin,” “Everybody Hates Chris”) and Kadeem Hardison (“A Different World”) were among the famous faces who happily accepted Mr. Che’s acknowledgment of their impressive careers.The catch: The co-host “stole” the statues from the four-time winner Bill Cosby. But Mr. Cosby’s wins did not actually have anything to do with those performers not having their own awards. Rather, these actors remain unsung by Emmy voters because of a system that has largely overlooked black artists for decades.Even if that part of the sketch felt forced, it was nice to see the performers get some recognition. And Mr. Che is absolutely right: When it comes to sitcom actors, Ms. Arnold is, “pound for pound,” one of the best. — AISHA HARRIS‘The Americans’ gets a going-away presentGoing into the Emmy Awards, fans of “The Americans” could be forgiven for indulging in some quixotic wishful thinking: Might the great FX spy series, virtually ignored by the Emmys throughout its run, claim the top drama award for its final season?The answer was no — “Game of Thrones” won again. But “The Americans” did score awards for Matthew Rhys, for best actor in a drama, and the creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, for drama writing. It was a nice send-off for one of the best shows of the past decade, one that almost made up for Keri Russell’s being denied best actress honors for the past six seasons. Almost. — JEREMY EGNERA director wins an Emmy, then pops the questionIn a mostly ho-hum ceremony, Glenn Weiss delivered a moment that left many in attendance slack-jawed and applauding. He proposed to his girlfriend on live television after winning an award. Mr. Weiss, who has now amassed more than a dozen Emmys, won for outstanding directing for a variety special for his work on the most recent Oscars telecast.He started his speech paying tribute to his mother, who he said had passed away two weeks ago. “Mom always believed in finding the sunshine in things, and she adored my girlfriend, Jan,” Mr. Weiss said.Mr. Weiss was referring to Jan Svendsen, the chief creative officer at Charity Network, and added: “You wonder why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife.”Ms. Svendsen’s jaw dropped, and she said yes before Mr. Weiss had even popped the question. The crowd cheered as Ms. Svendsen walked to the stage. Once she arrived, Mr. Weiss told her, “This is the ring that my dad put on my mom’s finger 67 years ago.”He knelt and said, “Will you marry me?”She, of course, said yes (again), and the two walked offstage with an Emmy and a lifetime partnership. — SOPAN DEBMaking a bold fashion statementFor the most part, the women on the red carpet were glam, and the men (save the “Queer Eye” cast) were disappointingly bland. But one star stood out from the rest and had social media abuzz: the “black-ish” actor Jenifer Lewis, who arrived at the ceremony adorned in comparatively casual (but sparkly) Nike gear.“I’m wearing Nike tonight to tell them how proud I am of them for supporting Colin Kaepernick and his protest against police brutality and racial injustice,” she told CNN. Check out the rest of our Emmys red carpet coverage here. — AISHA HARRISThandie Newton’s hypothetical God is a woman“The only white people that thank Jesus are Republicans and ex-crack heads,” Mr. Che joked, regarding acceptance speeches at predominantly white awards shows. As the night went on, there were a few callbacks to his comment, but the “Westworld” star Thandie Newton, who won for best supporting actress in drama, had the best one.“I don’t even believe in God, but I’m gonna thank her tonight,” she quipped from the podium, appearing completely stunned by her win. The crowd erupted into cheers, before Ms. Newton continued on with her charming speech (which included a slip of profanity, also charming). — AISHA HARRIS#Notallmen, but a lot of themHannah Gadsby, whose Netflix special “Nanette” has become a cultural phenomenon since debuting earlier this year, presented the award for best directing for a drama series. The winner, Stephen Daldry of “The Crown,” was not present. But Ms. Gadsby’s dry, amiably acerbic wit was.This is not normal. The world’s gone a bit crazy. I mean, for somebody like me, a nobody from nowhere, gets this sweet gig — free suit, new boots — just because I don’t like men. That’s a joke, of course. Just jokes, fellas. Calm down. #Notallmen, but a lot of them. It is just jokes, but what are jokes these days? We don’t know. Nobody knows what jokes are, especially not men. Am I right, fellas? That’s why I’m presenting alone. There is a winner and the Emmy goes to Stephen Daldry, “The Crown.” And of course Stephen could not be with us tonight to accept the Emmy on his own behalf because of probably me. So I think I’ll just leave now and that’s well done, him.— SOPAN DEBTeddy Perkins shows upThere was an unexpected oddball sitting in the audience early in the evening, and his name was Teddy Perkins. The character, portrayed in “Atlanta” by the creator and star Donald Glover in Season 2, was spotted sitting among other attendees near the front of the stage. A photographer captured him congratulating Bill Hader, who beat out Mr. Glover for best actor in a comedy.And just like that, he was gone. It wasn’t clear if that was Mr. Glover beneath all that makeup — he hadn’t walked the red carpet earlier in the evening. But then a few categories later, Mr. Glover, looking like his normal self, did finally appear in the same seat once occupied by the creepy character.The prevailing theory was that another “Atlanta” star, Lakeith Stanfield, had put on the costume, but he did walk the red carpet before the show. And E! has since published a photo from someone in attendance at an Emmys after-party that appears to show Mr. Glover, Mr. Stanfield and Teddy Perkins chatting it up. The mystery is almost as confounding as that “Teddy Perkins” episode. — AISHA HARRIS
Outcry as Bolsonaro's son questions value of democracy in Brazil
The rumbustious son of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under heavy fire from across the political spectrum after claiming rapid political change was unachievable “through democratic means”.Carlos Bolsonaro – a politician and social media fanatic known for his incendiary and often unintelligible tweets – sparked the maelstrom on Monday evening with a 43-word post on Twitter.“The transformation Brazil wants will not happen at the speed we yearn for through democratic means,” he tweeted to his 1.3 million followers.That comment triggered an immediate outcry in a country that only emerged from two decades of dictatorship in 1985 and whose current leader is a notorious pro-torture admirer of that military period and other authoritarian regimes.“Yes, I’m in favour of a dictatorship,” Jair Bolsonaro once told Brazil’s congress.The conservative Estado de São Paulo newspaper condemned Carlos Bolsonaro’s “vile statement” and demanded an urgent statement from his father on the matter.“If this was just any old fruitcake publishing such freedom-destroying nonsense on the internet … there would be no reason to worry. But the one going public to flirt with coup-mongering … was one of the sons of the president of the republic,” the broadsheet complained in an editorial.Writing in Rio’s O Globo newspaper, commentator Bernardo Mello Franco called the comment a deliberate attempt to fire up Bolsonaro’s base and disguise his shortcomings as president amid a slump in support.“Carlos Bolsonaro said what his dad thinks,” Mello Franco warned, pointing to the “authoritarianism in the [family’s] blood”.Another political observer, Bruno Boghossian, compared Carlos Bolsonaro’s words to those of the Peru’s former dictator Alberto Fujimori.Even Bolsonaro’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, was forced to weigh in on Brazil’s latest filial crisis, declaring democracy “essential” to western civilization.During an interview in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, the opposition senator Randolfe Rodrigues said Carlos Bolsonaro’s pronouncement underlined how taking a stand against Bolsonaro’s far-right administration had become “a civilizational, democratic and humanitarian task”.“Each day Brazilian democracy is being subjected to a litmus test – by the president’s declarations, by the declarations of his sons, and by the acts they commit,” Rodrigues said.“However long his government lasts, I’m convinced these will be among the saddest pages in Brazilian history,” Rodrigues added, pointing to the multi-pronged threat he said Bolsonaro represented to Brazil’s environment, international reputation and young democracy.“It will take us many years to recover from the number of civilizational setbacks Bolsonaro is ushering in.”Carlos Bolsonaro responded to the criticism in waspish fashion, blaming the outcry on journalists he branded “scoundrels”, “scum”, “filth” and “trash”.“Now I’m a dictator? Fucking hell!” he tweeted.Addressing lawmakers in Brasília, his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, downplayed the remark as “no big deal”.He claimed it was “vultures” on Brazil’s left – which has largely declined to condemn Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela – who were enamoured of autocrats, not his family.“They are dictatorship lovers,” Bolsonaro shouted. Topics Brazil Jair Bolsonaro Americas news
Exclusive: Visa, Mastercard offer tourist card fee cut in EU antitrust probe
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Visa and Mastercard have offered to trim the fees merchants pay on card payments by tourists in the European Union in an attempt to stave off possible fines after a long-running antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said. FILE PHOTO: Visa credit cards are seen in this picture illustration taken June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/Illustration/File PhotoEven after the cut, the fees paid by merchants when they accept card payments, a lucrative source of revenue for banks, will still likely be higher than those for EU cards, they said. The European Commission has battled for more than a decade to reduce so-called interchange costs and encourage cross-border trade and online commerce. U.S. regulators have also frowned on such practices. Retailers say interchange fees count as a hidden cost and the card companies have paid billions of dollars to settle class action lawsuits. Visa, the world’s largest payments network operator found itself in the Commission’s crosshairs in August 2017, charged with subjecting the cards of foreign tourists to excessive fees when they were used in the EU. The case originally concerned Visa Europe which was acquired by Visa Inc in June 2016. The EU said that fees charged to retailers when they accept Visa cards issued outside the EU could raise prices of goods and services for all consumers. The EU competition enforcer’s charge against Mastercard dated from July 2015. The company is also accused of having rules which blocked banks in one EU country from offering lower interchange fees to a retailer in a second EU country. The Commission and Visa declined to comment. Mastercard said: “At this time, we have no information to share on our ongoing engagement with the European Commission.” Mastercard has warned it might be fined more than $1 billion if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules, but this might be less if there was a negotiated resolution. The Commission can hand down fines as much as 10 percent of a company’s global turnover for infringing EU antitrust rules. But under EU settlement rules for antitrust cases, companies do not get fines nor are required to admit wrongdoing. The Commission is expected to seek feedback from retailers and consumer groups before deciding whether to accept the offer from Visa and Mastercard. Negative comments could lead it to demand a bigger fee cut. Business lobbying group EuroCommerce, whose 1997 complaint triggered the EU investigations, and Visa declined to comment. Visa and MasterCard capped cross-border fees within Europe - that is, fees on transactions in one EU country charged for transactions in another EU country - in 2014 and 2009 respectively, to end another EU investigation. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Alexander SmithOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Apple surprises with solid iPhone sales, announces $100 billion buyback
(Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday reported resilient iPhone sales in the face of waning global demand and promised $100 billion in additional stock buybacks, reassuring investors that its decade-old smartphone invention had life in it yet. Apple’s quarterly results topped Wall Street forecasts, which dropped ahead of the report on growing concern over the iPhone. The Cupertino, California-based company also was more optimistic about the current quarter than most financial analysts, driving shares up 3.6 percent to $175.25 after hours. Suppliers around the globe had warned of smartphone weakness, playing into fears that the company known for popularizing personal computers, tablets and smartphones had become too reliant on the iPhone. Sales of 52.2 million iPhones against a Wall Street target of 52.3 million was a comfort and up from 50.7 million last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Apple bought $23.5 billion of stock in the March quarter, and said it planned to hike its dividend 16 percent, compared with a 10.5 percent increase last year. Analysts believe the heavy emphasis on buybacks will bolster share prices, but some investors wished Apple had found different uses for the cash. “I’d hoped for more on the dividend side or maybe a strategic investment,” said Hal Eddins, chief economist for Apple shareholder Capital Investment Counsel. “I assume Apple can’t find a strategic investment at the current prices that will move the needle for them. The $100 billion buyback is good for right now but it’s not exactly looking to the future.” The cash Apple earmarked for stock buybacks is about twice the $50 billion market capitalization of electric car maker Tesla Inc. Apple posted revenue for its March quarter of $61.1 billion, up from $52.9 billion last year. Wall Street expected $60.8 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Average selling prices for iPhones were $728, compared with Wall Street expectations of $742. The figure is up more than 10 percent from $655 a year ago, suggesting Apple’s iPhone X, which starts at $999, has helped boost prices. Analysts had feared the high price was muting demand for the iPhone X, but Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said it was the most popular iPhone model every week in the March quarter. “This is the first cycle that we’ve ever had where the top of the line iPhone model has also been the most popular,” Cook said during the company’s earnings call. “It’s one of those things like when a team wins the Super Bowl, maybe you want them to win by a few more points. But it’s a Super Bowl winner and that’s how we feel about it.” The iPhone X has shaped up to be “a good, not a great product. There was a time prior to its introduction that investors expected it to be a great product,” said Thomas Forte, an analyst with D.A. Davidson Companies. “Now that we know it is a good product, as investors have lowered expectations, that is enough, in my view, for shares to go higher from current levels.” Positive iPhone news boosted shares of chip suppliers. Skyworks Solutions Inc rose 2.9 percent, Broadcom Inc was up 2 percent, while Cirrus Logic gained 4.3 percent. Silhouette of mobile user is seen next to a screen projection of Apple logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationApple also predicted revenue of $51.5 billion to $53.5 billion in the June quarter, ahead of the $51.6 billion Wall Street expected as of Monday evening, and the share repurchases in the March quarter drove Apple’s cash net of debt down slightly to $145 billion. “We are returning the cash to investors as we have promised,” Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview. Profits were $2.73 per share versus expectations of $2.68 per share, as of Monday, and up from $2.10 a year ago. Apple’s services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, posted $9.1 billion in revenue compared with expectations of $8.3 billion. Heading into earnings, investors were hopeful that growth in that segment could help offset the cooling global smartphone market. Julie Ask, an analyst with Forrester, said Apple’s services segment results were positive but warned that Apple needed to continue to boost subscriptions on its platforms, which reached 270 million users in the March quarter and includes people who subscribe to third-party apps on the iPhone as well as Apple’s own services like iCloud. “Apps are carrying most (services revenue) right now, but Apple needs to get to a place where it’s mostly subscriptions and monthly fees and not just one-off downloads,” Ask said. Apple traditionally updates its share buyback and dividend program each spring, and the $100 billion it added this year compares with an increase of $50 billion last year. (Graphic: Apple Buys Back Shares - reut.rs/2JIjkgo) In February, Apple said it planned to draw down its excess cash, although Cook had downplayed the possibility of a special dividend. But investors have had concerns around Apple because of brewing trade tensions with China. FILE PHOTO: Apple iPhone X samples are displayed during a product launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo Greater China sales rose 21 percent from a year earlier, Apple’s best growth rate there in 10 quarters, to $13.0 billion. While there has not yet been a tariff on devices such as Apple’s iPhone, Cook traveled last week to Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss trade matters. “China only wins if the U.S. wins and the U.S. only wins if China wins,” Cook said on the call, when asked about a possible trade war. “I’m a big believer that the two countries together can both win and grow the pie, not just allocate it differently,” he said. Apple has been emphasizing its contributions to the U.S. economy in recent months, outlining a $30 billion U.S. spending plan and highlighting the tens of billions of dollars it spends each year with U.S.-based suppliers. In recent months, Apple has been emphasizing the size of its overall user base, which includes used iPhones, rather than focusing strictly on new device sales, a sign of the increasing importance of making money off users without selling them new hardware. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Henderson, Lisa Shumaker and Peter CooneyOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Germany Won’t Ban Huawei from 5G Network
BERLIN—Germany won’t outright exclude Huawei Technologies Co. or other vendors from supplying components for next-generation 5G internet, according to a draft of new security requirements for German telecommunication networks, even as both the U.S. and the European Union have warned against risks posed by the Chinese telecom giant.The German...
How Apple and Microsoft Dwarf the Rest of the Market
By Nov. 24, 2019 9:14 am ET Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. helped lift the Dow industrials above 28000 for the first time earlier this month, a milestone that underscored how much the two largest U.S. companies influence major stock indexes. Boosted by optimism about a U.S.-China trade deal and sturdy profit growth, the companies have helped buoy the broader technology sector while they vie for the title of largest U.S. firm. Apple shares have soared 66% this year, pushing it ahead of Microsoft with a $1.16 trillion market value. Revenue growth in Apple’s... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In
Every woman CEO should apply to the Apple Entrepreneur Camp
In 2019, I was accepted into one of the first cohorts for the Apple Entrepreneur Camp—the company’s new hands-on mentorship program for companies founded and led by women. The experience has changed my life.Before starting at the camp, I was no newbie when it comes to app development. Since 2016, I’ve been the founder and CEO of BetterMe—a health and fitness platform with millions of downloads, users, and equally substantial annual recurring revenue. One of our apps has even reached the top five in the App Store’s Health & Fitness category. Our goals were and remain sky-high: to empower everyone to get into shape regardless of where they are today.I’ve never sought out a mentor before, apart from getting occasional advice from former bosses or investors. But I am insatiably curious by nature, and the desire to learn from the best made me look into mentorship opportunities and eventually led me to the Apple Entrepreneur Camp.Why you should apply to the programApple started its first Entrepreneur Camp in January 2019 as a way to help women succeed in building the “next generation of cutting-edge apps” and create a global community that would encourage women to realize their entrepreneurial ideas.The camp is roughly a week long and completely free. During that time, you attend lectures to learn the intricacies of Apple’s approach to app development, meet and get inspired by its executives, and work with one of the company’s top engineers, who provides personalized advice on your strategy and roadmap.Victoria Repa [Photo: courtesy of Victoria Repa]To get this level of attention from Apple, you might think you need to be a top performer already. But the selection approach is purposefully inclusive for female founders and CEOs. The only other requirement is that you have a female developer on your team—and of course that you have an app or a functional prototype that you can demo live.New cohorts for the Apple Entrepreneur Camp are assembled every quarter, with applications accepted on a rolling basis. You’ll be judged on your answers in the application form, your knowledge of and commitment to Apple’s platform and technologies, and the uniqueness of your app.Although the success of BetterMe could have played a role in the selection, I wasn’t sure if Apple would consider our health and fitness platform unique. In my application, I tried to elevate the universality of our features and demonstrate how they bring us closer to the mission of making weight loss accessible to everyone, especially beginners.Luckily, I was accepted, along with about 20 other women CEOs and app developers—and thus began an opportunity that would fundamentally change how I view my business. Here’s what I learned in just one week of the Entrepreneur Camp.Lesson 1: Community is empowermentMy first takeaway wasn’t one I had expected: the inspiration that comes with being surrounded by other women leaders, all striving to create outstanding products. Coming from Ukraine, where gender inequality in leadership positions is strong, it was empowering to see other female CEOs in action and hear how they’ve tackled similar problems.After the camp, the relationships have only grown stronger—you get access to the alumni forum, where you can hear from other cohorts, share your issues, and receive valuable peer-to-peer feedback.In addition, the connections made with Apple developers and executives never go away. They might even become the most valuable mentors you’ve ever had.Lesson 2: Relearning app development, the Apple wayEveryone in our group had built apps before, both well-known and niche. Most of us were always concerned about blitzscaling, outsmarting the competition, and shipping lots of features. It seemed like the way to win, until we learned the Apple way.I learned that everything Apple does is in service to emotion and it’s by far the top criterion for decision-making. One of the most memorable examples we were told was Apple’s decision to change the iPhone sizes. The result is not necessarily the most ergonomic or convenient for everyone, but the one thousands of people tested and said “felt right.”From left: Livia Cunha, Nané Toumanian, and Tatevik Gasparyan are part of the inaugural class of Apple Entrepreneur Camp attendees arriving at Apple Park. [Photo: courtesy of Apple]Simplicity is another one of Apple’s maxims—essential to adhere to when you’re trying to create a mass-market product. Apple maintains that to make something intuitive you need to make it simple.Learning from Apple’s top engineers and executives who are presenting right in front of you is humbling. You see what’s going on inside what I consider to be most inspirational company in the world.Lesson 3: From an app to a companyFor Apple, the company is also a product, one that you continuously improve and iterate upon. If the company product is robust, only then you can build apps that capture the market.As a company, Apple says it aims to be quick to admit mistakes, pivot, and reallocate resources. The earlier you can do this with your own startup, the better the results will be.Similarly, the values of “Emotion” and “Simplicity” are expressed throughout the whole company. Apple’s campus completely supports the well-being of everyone coming there every day, and just a single look at the Apple Store can show you how beautiful simplicity can be.Aftermath: All the changes to BetterMeWhen I came back from the Apple Entrepreneur Camp, it was impossible to continue working the way I used to. Even though I documented everything I learned thoroughly, I pushed hard to implement all my new ideas while they were still fresh in my head.We started actively cultivating the feelings of confidence and calm among our users. While most fitness apps push you to go, go, go, and hustle, we have realized that keeping our users motivated also means creating an inviting and positive space.We’ve also made user interests a priority. When you have investors or frequently disclose your metrics, it’s tempting to come up with crafty patterns that would increase user retention or time spent in the app.Now, we’re building a solution that will help raise user awareness for healthy and sustainable fitness goals, but at the same time build a gamified plan and get them excited about making measured progress every day.We are also working on making the app more exciting. I realized that excitement creates not just a better experience for users, but is crucial for weight loss. Shaking off extra pounds is a tiresome and often frustrating process. Something like gamification and interactive design can motivate people to stick to their weight-loss routine and help them achieve their goals.And that’s just the beginning. I’m still amazed at how life-changing one week of hard work at the Apple Entrepreneur Camp can be for a female CEO.Victoria Repa is the cofounder and CEO of BetterMe.
China's Tech Giant Huawei Spans Much Of The Globe Despite U.S. Efforts To Ban It : NPR
Loading... The United States government doesn't want the Chinese technology giant Huawei to feel welcome almost anywhere. In the past year, the U.S. had the company's chief financial officer detained in Canada and temporarily cut off its access to American suppliers, endangering Huawei's ambitions to roll out the next generation of wireless networks around the world.Now the Trump administration is seeking a global ban of Huawei's 5G equipment. It has even threatened to stop intelligence sharing with key allies such as Germany if they don't fall in line.But Germany's government has pointedly resisted the pressure, and it is not alone. Much of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas will continue to set up 5G using at least some Huawei equipment. Some countries have directly pushed back against American pressure, declaring it their sovereign choice. Europe Despite U.S. Pressure, Germany Refuses To Exclude Huawei's 5G Technology The Trump administration alleges Huawei's global deals could open back doors for the Chinese government to gather intelligence in other countries, but it has offered no proof.Huawei fiercely denies U.S. allegations that it spies or is too cozy with the Chinese government. Speaking at a conference in February, one of the company's top executives suggested the accusations may stem from America's own intelligence plans and referred to how U.S. spy agencies have conducted international surveillance through back doors in technology. Author Interviews Edward Snowden Tells NPR: The Executive Branch 'Sort Of Hacked The Constitution' Technology Huawei Chairman Willing To Sign A 'No-Spy' Deal With The United States Still, 5G is so new that the U.S. has struggled to assess its potential for cybersecurity threats, analysts say. With the drafting of international standards starting in late 2016 and still ongoing, the network is in an early launch phase and is not yet widely available."Part of the honest dilemma is people don't know precisely what the risks will look like, but the Huawei question has jumped to the front of that discussion before the broader security assurance programs are really through," says Graham Webster, a technology commentator and editor at Stanford-New America's DigiChina project. "Other countries have found the U.S. leap [to ban Huawei] there quizzical, which frankly makes trying to convince people harder to accomplish."Some analysts have framed this as a question of political allegiance to the U.S. "Faced with technological unknowns, the selection of equipment and service providers for 5G infrastructure is a matter of political trust; Europe needs to decide whether to extend that trust to the Chinese party-state," noted a March policy brief from the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank that frequently advises the German government. "The key concerns in Europe are — and should be — independent of such a geopolitical U.S. push."Meanwhile, Huawei has a baked-in 5G advantage in Europe, where it already has helped build out extensive 4G networks. That means countries that opt for faster and cheaper "non-standalone implementation" — building out the first wave of 5G on top of existing 4G infrastructure — have to incorporate at least some Huawei equipment or begin the expensive and complex task of extricating Huawei from their 4G networks, analysts say."That's why 4G is quite important to 5G implementation. It's also why you see pushback from countries like the U.K.," says Nikhil Batra, a senior research manager at research firm IDC in Australia.The British government decided to allow companies to use Huawei equipment in only "non-core" elements of its 5G network and has set up an independent security screening body to assess the company's hardware and software security annually.Other countries such as Bahrain and Cambodia have unreservedly embraced Huawei 5G. The company's services and products are consistently cheaper than those of competitors such as Nokia and Ericsson. Chinese state banks often partner to extend cheap loans to cater to smaller or developing countries willing to use Huawei equipment.Only a few other countries — Japan, Australia and New Zealand — have barred Huawei 5G deals; many world powers remain undecided.American officials cast the race to 5G as a quintessential national security competition, rather than a commercial one.Critics of Beijing say international governments should be vigilant even when dealing with private corporations in China. The country's 2017 national intelligence law compels companies and individuals to help with intelligence-gathering, including turning over data on foreign citizens."I think it would be naive to think that that country [China] and the influence it has over its companies would act in ways that would treat our citizens better than it treats its own citizens," Robert Strayer, the U.S. State Department's top diplomat for cyber policy, said at a think tank event in February.But in seeking a global ban on Huawei 5G equipment, the U.S. has taken a high-risk gamble: either manage to herd everyone else into prohibiting Huawei, or find itself outside the club.The U.S. has already made dramatic moves to contain Huawei's 5G global rollout. In May, the Commerce Department blacklisted Huawei from doing business with almost any American company. That could have kneecapped Huawei, which buys critical components from a handful of U.S. semiconductor companies. But President Trump walked back the ban in June, at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, by allowing American companies to apply for exemptions and sell to Huawei. "By putting Huawei on an entities list to gain leverage in trade talks but then walking it back, Trump has made the U.S. seem like an unreliable supplier of technology," says Dan Wang, a technology analyst with Beijing-based economics research firm Gavekal Dragonomics.Chinese technology companies are now seeking non-American alternatives to avoid having their supply chains disrupted once again, according to Wang, and U.S. tech companies are looking to move some production offshore to avoid future export bans."Trump's weakened the long-term strength of U.S. technology firms without having dealt a deathblow to Huawei," Wang says.Lack of follow-through has opened up opportunities for Huawei to double down in existing markets and seek new places to set up shop.Huawei may be preparing to fire hundreds of employees from its U.S. subsidiary Futurewei, The Wall Street Journal reported, and the tech company has begun moving American employees out of its Shenzhen, China, headquarters, according to the Financial Times. It is also barring Americans from attending public events hosted by its various Noah's Ark Lab research centers around the world, according to invitations seen by NPR.Huawei is allocating resources and personnel elsewhere. This year, it announced expanding research centers in Switzerland and $3.1 billion worth of investment in Italy over the next three years. Italy promptly dropped proposed emergency legislation to ban Huawei from its 5G networks two days later.
Paraguay may deploy troops after Brazilian gangster escapes in shootout
Mario Abdo Benítez has announced plans to amend Paraguay’s constitution to allow the military a greater role in the battle against increasingly brazen and powerful Brazilian crime gangs.But Paraguay’s president’s announcement on Thursday prompted concerns for civil liberties in a country which only emerged from military rule in 1989 – and skepticism that a militarized crackdown could succeed in reining in the violence after similar strategies have failed in other Latin American countries.Benítez’s announcement came a day after the dramatic escape from custody of Jorge Samudio, an alleged leader of the notorious Brazilian cartel Comando Vermelho (Red Command).“We can’t wait any longer” said Abdo Benítez, “we have resources that we aren’t using, and we need to put them to work to strengthen our security policy.”Samudio was being returned to jail in a police-escorted vehicle after a scheduled court hearing in Asunción was cancelled at the last minute.Witnesses reported that approximately eight gunmen disguised as anti-narcotics officers opened fire on the convoy, killing a police officer and injuring two other officials and a bystander, before Samudio and the assailants made their getaway.The Paraguayan National Drugs Secretariat (Senad) claimed that Samudio – a Paraguayan national – had been responsible for flying up to $20m of drugs per month into Brazil from Paraguay before his arrest.Government representatives admitted that protocol for transporting high-danger prisoners had not been followed and Abdo Benítez later tweeted that he had accepted the resignation of the justice minister and would substitute the national police commander.The escape was the latest incident in a growing wave of violence unleashed by Comando Vermelho and rival Brazilian cartel Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC, First Capital Command) in Paraguay in recent years – especially within the country’s extremely overcrowded prisons.The scale of the problem was laid bare in November, when a Comando Vermelho boss, killed a young woman who was visiting him in prison in an attempt to avoid extradition to Brazil. In June this year, 10 prisoners were killed in a bloody riot involving PCC members. Just last week, the security chief of a jail in the region of Itapúa was taken captive by PCC prisoners.As they expand their reach across the border, the Brazilian cartels have largely outgunned Paraguayan groups to take control of the country’s booming drug trade, employing aggressive recruitment strategies – especially within jails – to rapidly expand membership.Paraguayan authorities have considered a range of responses, including the construction of specialised jails for cartel members.But opposition senator Jorge Querey said Paraguay needed a much more profound reckoning. Since its return to democracy in 1989, Paraguay has not managed to strengthen its public institutions, giving great advantages to criminal groups both outside and inside of prisons, he said.“At present, we have a ministry of national affairs and a national police force that are highly penetrated by corruption and have even become components of organised crime,” he said.Vidal Acevedo, of the NGO Service for Peace and Justice, said the employment of the armed forces represented a dire threat to citizens’ human rights, pointing to a recent report demonstrated that the deployment of the military against the leftist guerrilla group the Paraguayan People’s Army has already produced widespread human rights violations.Acevedo also said that the militarisation of anti-crime policy in other Latin American countries such as Mexico and Brazil had only led to more violence, and argued that Paraguay should concentrate on reforming and equipping its police forces.Such shortcomings were clearly illustrated on Wednesday: while the gunmen who freed Samudio were equipped with assault rifles and bulletproof vests, police officers had minimal equipment and had not been informed of the danger represented by the Comando Vermelho leader in their midst. Topics Paraguay Brazil Americas news
Huawei Says US Firms Have Expressed Interest In Licensing Its 5G Technology
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:Blacklisted Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei is in early-stage talks with some U.S. telecoms companies about licensing its 5G network technology to them, a Huawei executive told Reuters on Friday. Vincent Pang, senior vice president and board director at the company said some firms had expressed interest in both a long-term deal or a one-off transfer, declining to name or quantify the companies. "There are some companies talking to us, but it would take a long journey to really finalize everything," Pang explained on a visit to Washington this week. "They have shown interest," he added, saying conversations are only a couple of weeks old and not at a detailed level yet.
UK Set To Allow Huawei in 'Non
"This could antagonize the U.S.," reports Engadget:After months of talk, the UK is reportedly close to letting Huawei into its 5G networks. Sunday Times sources claim Prime Minister Boris Johnson is close to allowing the Chinese tech giant into "non-contentious" parts of 5G service in the country. While there wasn't much elaboration on what that meant, past reports suggested these would be areas where the potential damage from Chinese surveillance (if any) would be limited. Earlier leaks suggested that all four of the UK's largest carriers (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone) were using Huawei gear in their 5G networks. While they're aware of concerns that China might task Huawei with using equipment to spy on UK targets, they may also have strong business incentives to adopt Huawei gear. It could help them build more heterogeneous networks that are less likely to fail outright, and force telecom giants like Ericsson and Nokia to offer more competitive pricing.
How AI bias can harm cybersecurity efforts
Biases exist everywhere. But it’s not easy to detect them in the domain of technology, which boils down to ones and zeroes. In my work as a VP at IBM Security, as AI gains more and more ground, business leaders often ask me how to deal with biases that may not be obvious in an algorithm’s outcome.We’ve seen inappropriate and unintended bias emerge from various industries’ use of AI, including recruiting and mortgage lending. In those cases, flawed outcomes were evident as bias was reflected in ways that relate to distinct features of our identity: gender, race, age. But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about areas in which we don’t even realize AI bias is present. In a complex field like cybersecurity, how do we recognize biased outcomes?AI has become a prime security tool, with research indicating that 69% of IT executives saying they can’t respond to threats without AI. However, whether used to improve defenses or offload security tasks, it’s essential that we trust that the outcome the AI is giving us is not biased. In security, AI bias is a form of risk—the more information, context, and expertise you feed your AI, the more you’re able to manage security risks and blind spots. Otherwise, various types of bias, from racial and cultural prejudices to contextual, industry-related forms of bias, can impact the AI. In order to be effective, AI models must be diverse. So how do we ensure this breadth, and what can go wrong if we don’t?Here are the three areas I believe are integral to help prevent AI bias from harming security efforts.The problem-solving algorithmWhen AI models are based on false security assumptions or unconscious biases, they do more than threaten a company’s security posture. They can also cause significant business impact. AI that is tuned to qualify benign or malicious network traffic based on non-security factors can miss threats, allowing them to waltz into an organization’s network. It can also overblock network traffic, barring what might be business-critical communications.As an example, imagine that an AI developer views one region of the world as safe, because it’s an ally nation, and another as malicious, because it’s an authoritarian regime. The developer therefore allows all the network traffic from the former to enter, while blocking all traffic from the latter. This type of aggregate bias can cause AI to overlook other security contexts that might be more important.If computer scientists design AI algorithms without influence and input from security experts, the outcomes will be flawed. Because if the AI scientists aren’t working in lockstep with security teams to cull data, threat intelligence, and context, and then codify these insights, they may tune AI tools with some level of bias. As a result, mistrained AI-powered security systems may fail to identify something that should be identified as a fraud element, a vulnerability, or a breach. Biased rules within algorithms inevitably generate biased outcomes.The source dataData itself can create bias when the source materials aren’t diverse. AI that’s fed biased data is going to understand only a partial view of the world and make decisions based on that narrow understanding. In cybersecurity, that means threats will be overlooked. For instance, if a spam classifier wasn’t trained on a representative set of benign emails, such as emails in various languages or with linguistic idiosyncrasies like slang, it will inevitably produce false positives. Even common, intentional misuse of grammar, spelling, or syntax can prompt a spam classifier to block benign text.The security influencersAI models can suffer from tunnel vision, too. As a cyber threat’s behavioral pattern varies based on factors like geography or business size, it’s important to train AI on the various environments that a threat operates in and the various forms it takes on. For instance, in a financial services environment, if you build AI to only detect identity-based issues, it won’t recognize malicious elements outside that setting. Lacking broad coverage, this Al model would be unable to identify threats outside the niche threat pattern it was taught.If computer scientists design AI algorithms without input from security experts, the outcomes will be flawed.”But when a security team consists of professionals from various backgrounds, cultures, and geographies, with varying expertise, it can help AI developers feed a 360-degree perspective on many behavioral patterns of security threats into the AI to process. We must train systems against a diversity of problem statements to enable a range of scenarios to be represented in the AI model and, subsequently, help prevent gaps in its threat detection process.If businesses are going to make AI an integral asset in their security arsenal, it’s essential they understand that AI that is not fair and accurate cannot be effective. One way to help prevent bias within AI is to make it cognitively diverse: The computer scientists developing it, the data feeding it, and the security teams influencing it should have multiple and diverse perspectives. Through cognitive diversity, the blind spot of one expert, one data point, or one approach can be managed by the blind spot of another, getting as close to no blind spots—and no bias—as possible.So, to answer the questions I get from business leaders, you can only address biased outcomes that aren’t obvious if you know where to look. And in security, you have to look at the elements producing the outcome. That is where you monitor for bias—and that is where you correct it.Aarti Borkar is a VP at IBM Security, where she is responsible for the vision, strategy, and execution for the business and builds ethical AI and bias-mitigation tools.
States planning to expand Google antitrust investigation: report
The group of 50 attorneys general investigating Google's market dominance will also probe the company's search and Android businesses, expanding their investigation, according to CNBC. When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton first announced the investigation — launched alongside nearly every state attorney general in the country — he said the focus was Google's online advertising business. But as it has progressed, according to CNBC, the attorneys general have decided some states will also look into Google search and Android, the company's mobile operating system.The states will soon issue civil investigative demands (CIDs) — a kind of subpoena — to obtain documents for the expanded probe, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC. They have already requested documents about Google's ad business. After the investigation was first announced earlier this year, Paxton said in a statement, "At this point, the multistate investigation is focused solely on online advertising; however, as always, the facts we discover as the investigation progresses will determine where the investigation ultimately leads."Google has said it will comply with all government antitrust investigations. The tech giant denies all allegations that it functions as a monopoly, insisting in a September blog post, "Google's services help people, create more choice, and support thousands of jobs and small businesses across the United States." In September, the group of attorneys general announced they will investigate Google for potential violations of antitrust law, a step that could lead to a broad legal challenge to the company’s market dominance. "This is a company that dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet as they dominate the buyers' side, the sellers' side, the auction side and even the video side with YouTube," Paxton said while announcing the investigation at a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court.The company is also facing an antitrust investigation from the Department of Justice, which recently requested documents from Google, and investigators in the House.Nearly 90 percent of web searches go through Google or its subsidiary YouTube. In 2018, European Union regulators fined Google $5 billion for violating antitrust laws by pre-installing its own products, like Google Chrome, on Android devices.
Hillicon Valley: Amazon to challenge Pentagon cloud contract in court
Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don't already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter with this LINK.Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and the tech team, Emily Birnbaum (@birnbaum_e) and Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills). WE PROTEST: Amazon is taking the battle over the Pentagon's $10 billion cloud-computing contract to federal court.Amazon's cloud-computing arm plans to challenge the Pentagon's surprising decision to award the contract to Microsoft in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson told The Hill on Thursday."Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias - and it's important that these matters be examined and rectified," an AWS spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.Last week, Amazon filed paperwork declaring it will challenge the decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which hears monetary claims against the government. The development was first reported by The Federal Times, which obtained a video of AWS CEO Andy Jassy telling employees at an all-hands meeting that the company plans to "protest the decision and push the government to shine a light on what really happened.""AWS is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology to the U.S. military needs, and remains committed to supporting the DoD's [Defense Department's] modernization effort," the AWS spokesperson said. "We also believe it's critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence."Amazon's comments make it clear that the company's complaints will revolve around whether the Pentagon's decision to award the contract to Microsoft was swayed by President TrumpDonald John TrumpLawmakers prep ahead of impeachment hearing Democrats gear up for high-stakes Judiciary hearing Warren says she made almost M from legal work over past three decades MORE, who publicly called on the Department of Defense to investigate the contract over the summer. Trump questioned if the process unfairly favored Amazon, which was widely seen as the front-runner.Read more here. THE INVESTIGATION EXPANDS: The group of 50 attorneys general investigating Google's market dominance will also probe the company's search and Android businesses, expanding their investigation, according to CNBC. When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) first announced the investigation -- launched alongside nearly every state attorney general in the country -- he said the focus was Google's online advertising business. But as it has progressed, according to CNBC, the attorneys general have decided some states will also look into Google search and Android, the company's mobile operating system.The states will soon issue civil investigative demands (CIDs) -- a kind of subpoena -- to obtain documents for the expanded probe, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC. They have already requested documents about Google's ad business. After the investigation was first announced earlier this year, Paxton said in a statement, "At this point, the multistate investigation is focused solely on online advertising; however, as always, the facts we discover as the investigation progresses will determine where the investigation ultimately leads."Read more here. GRINDING TO A HALT: Intelligence agencies have not collected any GPS records or other cell-site location data (CSLI) without a warrant since a 2018 Supreme Court decision involving cellphone privacy, according to a letter sent to Sen. Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenOvernight Health Care — Presented by Johnson & Johnson – House progressives may try to block vote on Pelosi drug bill | McConnell, Grassley at odds over Trump-backed drug pricing bill | Lawmakers close to deal on surprise medical bills Congressional leaders unite to fight for better future for America's children and families McConnell, Grassley at odds over Trump-backed drug bill MORE (D-Ore.).In the letter, made public Thursday, Benjamin Fallon, the assistant director of national intelligence for legislative affairs within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, wrote that the intelligence community has "not sought CSLI records or global positioning system (GPS) records" since the Carpenter v. United States case was decided by the Supreme Court last year. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the government violated the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures when it accessed historical cellphone location data without a search warrant. Fallon wrote that the decision to stop collecting GPS and other location data was made "given the significant constitutional and statutory issues" that the Supreme Court decision raised.Wyden originally wrote to former Director of National Intelligence Dan CoatsDaniel (Dan) Ray CoatsFormer US intel official says Trump would often push back in briefings Hillicon Valley: Amazon to challenge Pentagon cloud contract in court | State antitrust investigation into Google expands | Intel agencies no longer collecting location data without warrant Intelligence agencies have stopped collecting cellphone data without warrants: letter MORE in July to inquire whether, in light of the Supreme Court decision, the government would still be able to collect this type of data under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Section 215 allows the government to order third-party companies to hand over data deemed relevant to an intelligence investigation.Read more here. CHANGES, PLEASE: A coalition of civil rights groups are demanding that Facebook overhaul its political speech policy, according to a letter obtained by The Hill Thursday.The letter, dated Friday, followed up on a meeting between Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot ZuckerbergTech finds surprise ally in Trump amid high-stakes tax fight FTC rules Cambridge Analytica engaged in 'deceptive practices' with Facebook data mining Hillicon Valley: Trump officials propose retaliatory tariffs over French digital tax | FBI classifies FaceApp as threat | Twitter revamps policies to comply with privacy laws | Zuckerberg defends political ads policy MORE and the leaders of the groups -- including the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Color of Change and the National Action Network -- at the Facebook CEO's home earlier this month.The organizations, which also include Muslim Advocates, UnidosUS and the National Urban League, are asking for a response from Facebook by Nov. 25.Among the requests made in the letter is putting "guardrails on the newsworthiness exemption," referring to Facebook's community guideline allowing content from political figures to stay up even if it breaks some of the social media platform's policies."As we made clear in our discussion, politicians are, and historically have been, key perpetrators of rhetoric that incites racial, religious, and anti-immigrant violence and voter suppression in our nation," the groups wrote.Read more here. NEW FACIAL RECOGNITION BILL: Sens. Christopher CoonsChristopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsSenate confirms eight Trump court picks in three days Lawmakers call for investigation into program meant to help student loan borrowers with disabilities Senators defend bipartisan bill on facial recognition as cities crack down MORE (D-Del.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bipartisan bill Tuesday requiring law enforcement to obtain court orders to use facial recognition technology for surveillance.The Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act would limit surveillance warrants to 30 days and set rules to minimize the collection of information about individuals outside of the warrant's scope.It would also require judges granting law enforcement requests for using the technology to notify the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, which would in turn catalogue the data for Congress.The bill comes as several cities and states are limiting law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology, which scans faces for the purposes of identifying individuals.Unlike several of those laws, the senators' bill includes a carveout for "exigent circumstances" where a court order would not be needed to use the technology.Critics argue facial recognition technology expands unwarranted surveillance and exacerbates racial discrimination because of a tendency to be inaccurate, especially for people of color.Read more here. MORE ELECTION SECURITY LEGISLATION: The House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Thursday unanimously approved legislation intended to secure voting technology against cyberattacks.The Election Technology Research Act would authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation to conduct research on ways to secure voting technology. The legislation would also establish a Center of Excellence in Election Systems that would test the security and accessibility of voting machines and research methods to certify voting system technology. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Anthony GonzalezAnthony GonzalezWorld Bank approves billion-plus annual China lending plan despite US objections Hillicon Valley: Amazon to challenge Pentagon cloud contract in court | State antitrust investigation into Google expands | Intel agencies no longer collecting location data without warrant Bipartisan bill to secure election tech advances to House floor MORE (R-Ohio) and Mikie SherrillRebecca (Mikie) Michelle SherrillHillicon Valley: Amazon to challenge Pentagon cloud contract in court | State antitrust investigation into Google expands | Intel agencies no longer collecting location data without warrant Bipartisan bill to secure election tech advances to House floor Our commitment to veterans can help us lead for all Americans MORE (D-N.J.), along with committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and ranking member Frank Lucas (R-Okla.).All four sponsors enthusiastically praised the bill during the committee markup on Thursday, with Johnson saying that "transparent, fair, and secure elections are the bedrock of our democracy," and that attacks in 2016 on online voter registration databases "have increased Americans' concerns about the integrity of our elections."Concerns around the security of voting infrastructure have been an increasing topic of interest on Capitol Hill since the 2016 elections, when, according to former special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) Swan MuellerTrump says he'll release financial records before election, knocks Dems' efforts House impeachment hearings: The witch hunt continues Speier says impeachment inquiry shows 'very strong case of bribery' by Trump MORE, Russian intelligence officers were able to hack into an Illinois State Board of Elections database that included the voting information of millions. Read more here. THREAT TO OUR VETS: Disinformation attacks and scams targeting veterans online have ramped up in recent years, leaving lawmakers and social media platforms scrambling to address the issue.According to experts, veterans often seem an easy target due to their high level of trustworthiness, the older age of veterans, and the emotional attachment many Americans feel for the group.A study published by the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) in September highlighted the threat to veterans. The report found that the Russian Internet Research Agency had bought over 100 advertisements targeting followers of veteran accounts on social media sites during and after the 2016 election.Most of the ads were bought on Facebook, and at least one major fake veterans account had been used to spread messages supporting President Trump ahead of the 2020 elections.And in addition to targeting veterans with political disinformation, many scammers also impersonate veterans in their schemes.These worries have also attracted the attention of Congress. On Wednesday, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee held a hearing on how veterans are often exploited through social media disinformation campaigns.Kristofer Goldsmith, chief investigator and associate director for policy and government affairs at VVA, testified, urging the committee to adopt a "whole-of-government response" to address both disinformation threats against veterans and other threats in cyberspace.Those recommendations include requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to take action to protect veterans against these threats and holding social media companies responsible for not adequately combating them."This committee must help service members, veterans and our families resist the influence of foreign disinformation campaigns and efforts to divide us along partisan lines," Goldsmith said in her prepared remarks.Read more here. DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID: Rohit Chopra, a Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), on Thursday said he is concerned that U.S. regulators and lawmakers are "drinking the Kool-Aid of monopolists."Chopra, an ally to Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenBiden: 'I'd add' Warren to my list of potential VP picks Warren says she made almost M from legal work over past three decades How can top Democrats run the economy with no business skill? MORE (D-Mass.), a 2020 candidate who often speaks out against concentrated corporate power, made the comments at a conference about how the left and the right can come together over their concerns about monopolies in the U.S. He accused regulators of failing to pull the different "levers" of government at their disposal to take on the country's largest corporations, including financial institutions and top tech firms like Facebook."Some of it is not about laws and regulations," he said. "Some of it is about, 'Are we drinking the Kool-Aid of monopolists?' " "You have to start being suspicious when government is really solving for the headline rather than the real problem," Chopra continued, discussing the FTC's recent $5 billion settlement with Facebook over privacy violations.For months, Chopra has railed against the party-line settlement by the FTC, claiming that his Republican colleagues abdicated their responsibility to use the full force of their regulatory authority against Facebook, the largest social network in the world.Read more here. A CALL FROM THE POPE: Pope FrancisPope FrancisJudge in same-sex marriage denied communion at Michigan Catholic church Pope appeals to world leaders to renounce nuclear weapons During visit to Nagasaki, Pope Francis denounces use of atomic weapons MORE called on major tech companies Thursday to take action to protect children from viewing pornography.The pope spoke at a Vatican conference with religious leaders and representatives of tech companies, telling the tech giants they must regulate content on their platforms more aggressively, The Associated Press reported. Francis called out Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and others to take responsibility to guard children from pornography that could affect their emotional and sexual development, according to the news wire."There is a need to ensure that investors and managers remain accountable, so that the good of minors and society is not sacrificed to profit," he said according to the report.The pope told the audience at the "Promoting Digital Child Dignity" conference that these companies should implement age verification technology and artificial intelligence to remove child porn from their platforms. "It is now clear that they cannot consider themselves completely unaccountable vis-a-vis the services they provide for their customers," he continued. "So I make an urgent appeal to them to assume their responsibility toward minors, their integrity and their future."Read more here. A LIGHTER CLICK: Drink up AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: There are poor ideas, bad ones, and Facebook's Libra NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Dead birds and rashes: Hong Kong residents fear teargas poisoning
Angel Chan is more cautious about where she takes her two children, aged three and five, to play these days.“Police have thrown teargas all over the city – some of my friends say their children have come out in rashes,” Chan said. “I simply don’t know where to find a safe spot any more.”Chan is just one of many Hong Kong parents anxious about the harmful effects of teargas on their children. The Hong Kong Mothers group said last week it had collected 1,188 complaints, including about skin allergies and coughing, with the youngest victim being just two months old. They have urged the government to reveal the chemical composition of the teargas used by police.During Hong Kong’s six-month political crisis, which has escalated into violent confrontations between protesters and police, about 10,000 canisters of teargas have been fired by police across almost every district of this densely populated city.The recent sightings of dead birds in several districts where teargas canisters have been fired, and news that a frontline reporter has been diagnosed with chloracne, a skin disease linked to dioxin exposure, have sparked a health scare over the harmful effects of the noxious gas on the health of Hong Kong’s population.So far, the government has said there is no evidence to suggest that teargas poses major public health and environmental risks. However, it refuses to release the chemical composition of the teargas used by police, saying it would compromise their “operational capability”.Hong Kong’s welfare secretary insisted in the legislature on Wednesday that teargas was less harmful than firing up a barbecue and only caused mild respiratory and skin irritation.“For the dioxins resulting from teargas, I think it has been found from literature that it is minimal or even non-existent,” Law Chi-kwong said in response to lawmakers’ enquiries over fears of the effects on health. Echoing other officials, he said protesters burning plastic road barriers would have been one of the biggest causes of toxic dioxins in the city’s air, the public broadcaster RTHK reported.Sophia Chan, the secretary for food and health, also told the legislature that the Environmental Protection Department had not found any anomalies in the particulate matter (PM) levels recorded at monitoring stations near the areas where teargas had been launched. “This shows that teargas does not cause any significant increase in the PM concentration in the area,” she said. According to the World Health Organization, dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and cause cancer.Dr Kenneth Kwong, a retired chemistry lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said he was particularly concerned about the use of Chinese-made teargas as it burned at a higher temperature than that made in the west and the compounds it contains, which include chlorine, organic matter and metals, can turn into highly toxic dioxins.After several western countries stopped exporting teargas to Hong Kong, including the UK, police said in October that they had been procuring it from China.Kwong said dioxins accumulated in human bodies and cannot be removed. “The government should show us evidence rather than making us guess,” he said.Members of the public and lawmakers are frustrated with the government’s opaqueness and have urged it to come clean to restore public confidence.“They are not telling us what the gas’s composition is and expect us to think everything is OK. Do they think we’re stupid?” said Angel Chan.Lawmaker Kenneth Leung said the government was doing itself a disservice by failing to allay public fears. The health scare could escalate into another political crisis, he warned.“A public health issue is turning into a political issue. It is only deepening people’s mistrust in the government and adding to their discontent,” he said.A paper published in the medical journal the Lancet in October, co-authored by Emily Chan, a medical professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said teargas deployed at metro stations, around shopping centres and in high-density residential areas could expose people to high concentrations of teargas for prolonged periods but “minimum efforts have been made to provide decontamination guidelines and health protection”.Current and former members of the government’s advisory council on the environment have issued an open letter urging the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, to assess the potential public health implications of the extensive use of riot control agents and look for ways to de-escalate the current crisis to cut down the use of the substances. Topics Hong Kong Asia Pacific China news
Hong Kong protesters take stock, one week after siege
With an impish smile and mop-top haircut, the college sophomore pulls up a chair at a backstreet cafe, his boyish looks and mild manners belying his identity as a frontline Hong Kong protester.Before mass pro-democracy marches began in Hong Kong in June, the student was immersed in social science classes and campus clubs. Today, he is one of the yongmo – Cantonese for “brave militia” – the hardcore protest element that risks the most in head-on clashes with police, battling with Molotov cocktails, bricks, and umbrellas.“It’s like a war,” he says, using the pseudonym Steve to protect his identity. Toughened by the conflict, Steve and hundreds of others have been wounded physically – and mentally – in their fight for greater democracy and autonomy from China. Consuming most of his time and energy, it’s become a sometimes surreal struggle that is defining him even as it transforms his home city.Six months into Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaign, Steve and other activists offer an inside-the-resistance perspective, taking stock of its wins, losses, strengths, and weaknesses after the protests’ tensest chapter yet: a 12-day police siege of a university campus, with demonstrators barricaded inside. Overall, a tumultuous November saw two different challenges, they say: a spike in violence and a tactical setback that led to internal dissent, and a citywide election that some analysts believed could take the wind out of the protests. But so far, sizable numbers of Hong Kongers have continued to take to the streets. Convinced of their cause, Steve and others say the movement has resilience, broad public support, and unity – and won’t let up.“We cannot lose, and we have nothing to lose” but everything to gain, says Steve. “We have fantasies about building a new Hong Kong … where everyone has a deeply rooted faith in their rights and democracy” and so will defend them against government encroachment, he says. Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor Protesters cross a bridge next to the charred tower of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where police staged a two-week siege in November, during a major pro-democracy march by tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong on Dec. 1, 2019. Last month, the leaderless, nimble movement with the mantra “be water” made a costly, if inadvertent, misstep, Steve says. After calling for a general strike, protesters decided to block two main roads to give workers an excuse to stay home. They set up continuous roadblocks on the highway linking the New Territories bordering mainland China to the Kowloon Peninsula, and the cross-harbor tunnel connecting Kowloon and Hong Kong island – each located near a different university. But when protesters used the universities as staging bases, they lost their critical mobility, giving police an opportunity to encircle their fixed position and strike them hard. Ursula von der Leyen: The making of Europe’s top leaderSteve was one of hundreds of protesters waging an all-day battle against police from inside The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on Nov. 17. Protesters had a steady flow of supplies, both from inside the school and from thousands of ordinary people who brought them food, clothing, tools, and fuel for making Molotov cocktails.The next day, Nov. 18, Steve says, he joined three attempts to break out of the police blockade – only to be pushed back each time. “They shot so much tear gas, it was so condensed you could basically see nothing,” he says.Steve was already weak and in significant pain, having been shot twice in the leg with rubber bullets days before, as he took part in a roadblock to divert police from another campus, The Chinese University of Hong Kong – a strategy protesters call hoi faa, or “blooming flower.” Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is shown on Nov. 27, 2019, while still under police siege. After a two-week occupation by protesters, police entered the campus Nov. 28. “The friend next to me only had a simple surgical mask,” he says. “He was unable to breathe” and barely made it onto the campus.“The guy next to him didn’t make it and fell down the stairs,” and was caught by police, he adds.In all police fired more than 1,000 cans of tear gas and rubber bullets in the battle that day, saying they “used minimum necessary force to disperse protestors.” Protesters hurled bricks and firebombs and shot arrows at the police.“The gunshots never seemed to stop,” says another protester, part of a scout team, who gave her name as Ms. Z. “I was so panicked and afraid.”Later that day, Steve found a secret route out through a side building and scrambled up a hillside to a highway. There he was picked up by a “parent car,” one of a fleet of private vehicles driven by supporters who circulate around hot spots and help protesters escape. “Police were already shooting tear gas at the car. I believe I’m one of the last few people to get out that way,” he says.Police maintained the siege of the university for nearly two weeks, a low point in the movement for Steve. “PolyU was hell,” he says. “I’m the lucky one who got out,” he says, saying he’s haunted by survivor’s guilt over those who were arrested. “We lost many frontline protesters.” Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor The Rev. Common Chan of Sen Lok Christian Church stands on Nov. 27, 2019, on the campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he searched for hiding protesters, many of whom felt traumatized. His church is providing counseling to the protesters. More than 1,000 suspected protesters were detained at the university, raising the total arrested in connection with the demonstrations since June to more than 5,800. Police designated everyone inside the school as suspected rioters – meaning they could face charges that carry a 10-year jail term.Protesters trapped inside – even those who escaped – say they were traumatized by the ordeal. Many felt they were defending their school against police. “Every night, I get nightmares about the experiences in PolyU,” says Ms. Z. “Although I escaped from there, I feel like I cannot get away from the siege. ... I will never forget how desperate it was.” The police siege was unjustified and “has already resulted in very traumatic psychological problems,” says the Rev. Common Chan of Sen Lok Christian Church, who searched for protesters hiding on campus. His church is offering counseling to the protesters, who were left isolated, he says, after police detained dozens of medics.Steve says the tactical defeat at PolyU caused some discord within the movement, but fueled even more anger at the police. “People were depressed due to the PolyU failure, but we still didn’t lose the battle, because the government is doing things that can’t be forgiven,” he says.After the setback at PolyU, protesters strategically stood down, for the first weekend in months, to allow Hong Kong’s local elections to unfold peacefully on Nov. 24. The election produced a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates, as the “silent majority” claimed by the pro-Beijing establishment weighed in instead on the side of the protesters. The activists received a major boost of international support on Nov. 27 when the United States enacted a law supporting democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.Some analysts believed the local elections could redirect the movement toward institutions and away from street protests. But despite a huge win for the pro-democracy camp, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has not budged on the key remaining protester demands: an independent investigation of police conduct; amnesty for protesters, and dropping their designation as “rioters”; and universal suffrage to elect Hong Kong’s chief executive and all its legislators. Mrs. Lam did meet a major demand in October, by withdrawing the proposed China extradition bill that sparked Hong Kong’s protests last spring. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. Instead, Steve says the protesters and the elected pro-democracy officials will push a shared agenda through different channels. “We have divided into two sections, the battle inside the institutions, and the battle outside the institutions,” Steve says. “Both sections support each other and are not in conflict.”With large and small protests being staged in Hong Kong almost every day, Steve and the other “brave militia” are turning out in force. “I am actually not brave at all,” he says. “But … if I do nothing, who will? If we don’t sacrifice, then what about the people who died?” he asks. “This helps us keep going, toward the winning day.”
China suspends US Navy visits to Hong Kong over support for protests
China has suspended visits by US Navy ships and aircraft to Hong Kong after Washington passed legislation last week backing pro-democracy protesters.Beijing also unveiled sanctions against a number of US human rights groups.It comes after President Donald Trump signed the Human Rights and Democracy Act into law.The act orders an annual review to check if Hong Kong has enough autonomy to justify special trading status with the US.President Trump is currently seeking a deal with China in order to end a trade war.The foreign ministry said it would suspend the reviewing of applications to visit Hong Kong by US military ships and aircraft from Monday - and warned that further action could come."We urge the US to correct the mistakes and stop interfering in our internal affairs," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing. US-China trade war in 300 words Will the US law derail trade talks? Hong Kong protests explained in 100 and 500 words Aftermath of Hong Kong university siege "China will take further steps if necessary to uphold Hong Kong's stability and prosperity and China's sovereignty."Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) targeted by sanctions include Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute."They shoulder some responsibility for the chaos in Hong Kong and they should be sanctioned and pay the price," Ms Hua said, without specifying what form the measures would take.Several US Navy ships usually visit Hong Kong every year, although visits are sometimes suspended when ties between the two countries become strained.The USS Blue Ridge, the amphibious command ship of the US Seventh Fleet, was the last American navy ship to visit Hong Kong, in April.Mass protests broke out in the semi-autonomous territory in June and Chinese officials accused foreign governments, including the US, of backing the pro-democracy movement.In August China rejected requests for visits by the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and transport ship USS Green Bay, but did not give specific reasons.In September last year, China refused a US warship entry to Hong Kong after the US imposed sanctions over the purchase of Russian fighter aircraft.And in 2016, China blocked the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis, and its escort ships, amid a dispute over China's military presence in the South China Sea.Michael Raska, a security expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said that from a military point of view the US would not be affected by the latest ban "as they can use many naval bases in the region".However, it sends a signal that US-China tensions will continue to deepen, he told AFP news agency.Protesters celebrated on the streets of Hong Kong after President Trump signed the act last week.However, China quickly warned the US it would take "firm counter-measures". The new law requires Washington to monitor Beijing's actions in Hong Kong. The US could revoke the special trading status it has granted the territory if China undermines the city's rights and freedoms.Among other things, Hong Kong's special status means it is not affected by US sanctions or tariffs placed on the mainland.The bill also says the US should allow Hong Kong residents to obtain US visas if they have been arrested for being part of non-violent protests.Analysts say the move could complicate negotiations between China and the US to end their trade war.The bill was introduced in June in the early stages of the protests in Hong Kong, and was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives in October.Hong Kong - a British colony until 1997 - is part of China under a model known as "one country, two systems".Under this model, Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy and people have freedoms not seen in mainland China.However, months of protests have caused turmoil in the city.Demonstrations began after the government planned to pass a bill that would allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China.The bill was eventually withdrawn but unrest evolved into a broader protest against the police and the way Hong Kong is administered by Beijing.
China Resurrects Great Cannon For DDoS Attacks On Hong Kong Forum
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet:After more than two years since it's been used the last time, the Chinese government deployed an infamous DDoS tool named the "Great Cannon" to launch attacks against LIHKG, an online forum where Hong Kong residents are organizing anti-Beijing protests. [...] DDoS attacks with the Great Cannon have been rare, mainly because they tend to generate a lot of bad press for the Chinese government. But in a report published today, AT&T Cybersecurity says the tool has been deployed once again. This time, the Great Cannon's victim was LIHKG.com, an online platform where the organizers of the Hong Kong 2019 protests have been sharing information about the locations of daily demonstrations. The site is also a place where Hong Kong residents congregate to recant stories of Chinese police abuse and upload video evidence. AT&T Cybersecurity says the first Great Cannon DDoS attacks targeted LIHKG on August 31, while the last one being recorded on November 27. AT&T Cybersecurity researcher Chris Doman said the August attacks used JavaScript code that was very similar to the one spotted in the 2017 attacks on Mingjingnews.com. According to LIHKG, the site received more than 1.5 billion requests per hour during the August attack, compared to the site's previous traffic record that was only a meager 6.5 million requests per hour.
Hong Kong protesters take stock, one week after siege
With an impish smile and mop-top haircut, the college sophomore pulls up a chair at a backstreet cafe, his boyish looks and mild manners belying his identity as a frontline Hong Kong protester.Before mass pro-democracy marches began in Hong Kong in June, the student was immersed in social science classes and campus clubs. Today, he is one of the yongmo – Cantonese for “brave militia” – the hardcore protest element that risks the most in head-on clashes with police, battling with Molotov cocktails, bricks, and umbrellas.“It’s like a war,” he says, using the pseudonym Steve to protect his identity. Toughened by the conflict, Steve and hundreds of others have been wounded physically – and mentally – in their fight for greater democracy and autonomy from China. Consuming most of his time and energy, it’s become a sometimes surreal struggle that is defining him even as it transforms his home city.Six months into Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaign, Steve and other activists offer an inside-the-resistance perspective, taking stock of its wins, losses, strengths, and weaknesses after the protests’ tensest chapter yet: a 12-day police siege of a university campus, with demonstrators barricaded inside. Overall, a tumultuous November saw two different challenges, they say: a spike in violence and a tactical setback that led to internal dissent, and a citywide election that some analysts believed could take the wind out of the protests. But so far, sizable numbers of Hong Kongers have continued to take to the streets. Convinced of their cause, Steve and others say the movement has resilience, broad public support, and unity – and won’t let up.“We cannot lose, and we have nothing to lose” but everything to gain, says Steve. “We have fantasies about building a new Hong Kong … where everyone has a deeply rooted faith in their rights and democracy” and so will defend them against government encroachment, he says. Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor Protesters cross a bridge next to the charred tower of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where police staged a two-week siege in November, during a major pro-democracy march by tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong on Dec. 1, 2019. Last month, the leaderless, nimble movement with the mantra “be water” made a costly, if inadvertent, misstep, Steve says. After calling for a general strike, protesters decided to block two main roads to give workers an excuse to stay home. They set up continuous roadblocks on the highway linking the New Territories bordering mainland China to the Kowloon Peninsula, and the cross-harbor tunnel connecting Kowloon and Hong Kong island – each located near a different university. But when protesters used the universities as staging bases, they lost their critical mobility, giving police an opportunity to encircle their fixed position and strike them hard. Ursula von der Leyen: The making of Europe’s top leaderSteve was one of hundreds of protesters waging an all-day battle against police from inside The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on Nov. 17. Protesters had a steady flow of supplies, both from inside the school and from thousands of ordinary people who brought them food, clothing, tools, and fuel for making Molotov cocktails.The next day, Nov. 18, Steve says, he joined three attempts to break out of the police blockade – only to be pushed back each time. “They shot so much tear gas, it was so condensed you could basically see nothing,” he says.Steve was already weak and in significant pain, having been shot twice in the leg with rubber bullets days before, as he took part in a roadblock to divert police from another campus, The Chinese University of Hong Kong – a strategy protesters call hoi faa, or “blooming flower.” Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is shown on Nov. 27, 2019, while still under police siege. After a two-week occupation by protesters, police entered the campus Nov. 28. “The friend next to me only had a simple surgical mask,” he says. “He was unable to breathe” and barely made it onto the campus.“The guy next to him didn’t make it and fell down the stairs,” and was caught by police, he adds.In all police fired more than 1,000 cans of tear gas and rubber bullets in the battle that day, saying they “used minimum necessary force to disperse protestors.” Protesters hurled bricks and firebombs and shot arrows at the police.“The gunshots never seemed to stop,” says another protester, part of a scout team, who gave her name as Ms. Z. “I was so panicked and afraid.”Later that day, Steve found a secret route out through a side building and scrambled up a hillside to a highway. There he was picked up by a “parent car,” one of a fleet of private vehicles driven by supporters who circulate around hot spots and help protesters escape. “Police were already shooting tear gas at the car. I believe I’m one of the last few people to get out that way,” he says.Police maintained the siege of the university for nearly two weeks, a low point in the movement for Steve. “PolyU was hell,” he says. “I’m the lucky one who got out,” he says, saying he’s haunted by survivor’s guilt over those who were arrested. “We lost many frontline protesters.” Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor The Rev. Common Chan of Sen Lok Christian Church stands on Nov. 27, 2019, on the campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he searched for hiding protesters, many of whom felt traumatized. His church is providing counseling to the protesters. More than 1,000 suspected protesters were detained at the university, raising the total arrested in connection with the demonstrations since June to more than 5,800. Police designated everyone inside the school as suspected rioters – meaning they could face charges that carry a 10-year jail term.Protesters trapped inside – even those who escaped – say they were traumatized by the ordeal. Many felt they were defending their school against police. “Every night, I get nightmares about the experiences in PolyU,” says Ms. Z. “Although I escaped from there, I feel like I cannot get away from the siege. ... I will never forget how desperate it was.” The police siege was unjustified and “has already resulted in very traumatic psychological problems,” says the Rev. Common Chan of Sen Lok Christian Church, who searched for protesters hiding on campus. His church is offering counseling to the protesters, who were left isolated, he says, after police detained dozens of medics.Steve says the tactical defeat at PolyU caused some discord within the movement, but fueled even more anger at the police. “People were depressed due to the PolyU failure, but we still didn’t lose the battle, because the government is doing things that can’t be forgiven,” he says.After the setback at PolyU, protesters strategically stood down, for the first weekend in months, to allow Hong Kong’s local elections to unfold peacefully on Nov. 24. The election produced a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates, as the “silent majority” claimed by the pro-Beijing establishment weighed in instead on the side of the protesters. The activists received a major boost of international support on Nov. 27 when the United States enacted a law supporting democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.Some analysts believed the local elections could redirect the movement toward institutions and away from street protests. But despite a huge win for the pro-democracy camp, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has not budged on the key remaining protester demands: an independent investigation of police conduct; amnesty for protesters, and dropping their designation as “rioters”; and universal suffrage to elect Hong Kong’s chief executive and all its legislators. Mrs. Lam did meet a major demand in October, by withdrawing the proposed China extradition bill that sparked Hong Kong’s protests last spring. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. Instead, Steve says the protesters and the elected pro-democracy officials will push a shared agenda through different channels. “We have divided into two sections, the battle inside the institutions, and the battle outside the institutions,” Steve says. “Both sections support each other and are not in conflict.”With large and small protests being staged in Hong Kong almost every day, Steve and the other “brave militia” are turning out in force. “I am actually not brave at all,” he says. “But … if I do nothing, who will? If we don’t sacrifice, then what about the people who died?” he asks. “This helps us keep going, toward the winning day.”
Chinese defy Hong Kong's protest gloom in hunt for bargain stocks
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese investors more than doubled their Hong Kong stocks purchases this year, braving market headwinds from violent street protests and the protracted Sino-U.S. trade war, which have battered the Asian financial hub’s economy. FILE PHOTO: The name of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited is displayed at the entrance in Hong Kong, China January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby YipData from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) showed mainland investors had been net buyers of Hong Kong stocks for the nine months through to November, as they hunted for bargains in the wobbly $4.5 trillion stock market. Total net inflows via the Stock Connect linking mainland and Hong Kong in the Jan-Nov period amounted to about HK$208 billion ($26.58 billion), versus about HK$83 billion for the full year of 2018, according to HKEX. For a graphic on mainland investors bought a total of HK$208 bln HK-listed stocks via Stock Connect in Jan-Nov, click here$208%20bln%20HK-listed%20stocks%20via%20Stock%20Connect%20in%20Jan-Nov.png The months-long protests and their hit to sectors including tourism, retail and real estate have all contributed to the benchmark Hang Seng index’s global underperformance this year. For a graphic on Hong Kong economy fell into recession, click here For a graphic on Hong Kong stocks among worst performers in the past six months, click here Mainland investors have been undeterred, though, seeing opportunities to buy on the dip when the overall appetite for risk is dampened and valuations of Hong Kong stocks hover near three-year lows. For firms dual-listed in mainland China and Hong Kong, the latest AH premium index indicates Hong Kong-listed shares are more than 20% cheaper on average than their mainland peers. China’s No. 2 telecom equipment maker, ZTE Corp, for example, on Wednesday, traded at 31.18 yuan in Shenzhen, while selling at HK$20.9 in Hong Kong, representing a near 40% discount. For a graphic on Mainland investors continue to buy Hong Kong stocks as valuations hover near 3-yr lows, click here Still, there has been a tendency to shun local Hong Kong firms and chase mainland companies whose business operations derive revenue and profits mainly from outside of Hong Kong. Among mainland investors’ darlings, Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan Dianping has seen its share price more than double this year, with upward momentum enhanced by its inclusion in the Stock Connect scheme. Shares of another consumer bellwether, Haidilao International, also doubled this year, amid bets Beijing would roll out more measures to spur domestic consumption to shore up growth. For a graphic on Mainland investors' Hong Kong darlings outperform in 2019, click here Mainland investors are playing an increasingly significant part in the Hong Kong stock market, owning stakes of 20% or more in several dozen firms. Analysts believe in the long-run there is still abundant room for their exposure to Hong Kong stocks to keep rising, as their overall holdings are far from dominant and as the listings of tech giants, such as Alibaba, boost the offshore market’s attractiveness. Editing by Sam HolmesOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.