Senior U.S. and Chinese diplomats are set to meet Sunday at a time of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.  

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the No. 2 American diplomat, will meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and others in Tianjin, China, as part of an Asia trip which includes stops in Japan, South Korea and Mongolia as well as Oman. 

“In the context of relationships that are complex, that are challenging, that are dynamic, we believe it’s important to maintain open lines of communication between high-level officials. And that includes in times of, as in the case with the PRC (People’s Republic of China), sustained competition,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a briefing on Wednesday.  

Sherman’s meetings with Chinese officials come as the Biden administration accuses China of instigating a large-scale hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software. On Monday, the U.S. indicted four Chinese nationals on charges they tried to steal U.S. trade secrets, technology and disease research. China rejected the allegations.  

Sherman’s trip, which is widely seen as a step toward future higher-level meetings between the U.S. and China, comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Austin will be the first official from President Joe Biden’s Cabinet to head to Southeast Asia. Sherman’s meeting with Wang in Tianjin will be the highest-level direct talks since March’s meeting in Alaska between the two nations’ top diplomats. 

U.S. officials say Beijing’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea are high on the agenda. Washington has rejected China’s “unlawful” maritime claims in the sea, accusing China of continuing to “coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states” and threatening freedom of navigation in the critical global waterway. 

“I’ll emphasize our commitment to the freedom of the seas and also make clear where we stand on some unhelpful and unfounded claims by China in the South China Sea,” said Austin on Wednesday at the Pentagon.  

“We don’t believe that any one country should be able to dictate the rules, or worse yet, throw them over the transom,” added the Defense chief. 

ASEAN policy and Myanmar 

In early August, Brunei is hosting foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the U.S. in a mostly virtual gathering to address issues including regional security. 

Addressing a videoconference on the U.S.-ASEAN relationship, senior U.S. officials and American lawmakers renewed a call for the Southeast Asian bloc to work on the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, pressing its military leaders to cease violence and release all those unjustly detained. 

Henrietta Levin, the National Security Council director for Southeast Asia and ASEAN affairs, said Washington is calling on ASEAN members “to quickly hold the Burmese military accountable to the ASEAN five-point consensus.” 

Levin was referring to a statement by ASEAN leaders issued in late April that urged ending the violence as well as establishing political talks and naming a regional special envoy on Myanmar. 

U.S. Representative Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican who is also the co-chair of the U.S.-Philippine Friendship Caucus in the U.S. Congress, said “fostering relationships” with U.S. allies from the Southeast Asian bloc through “economic engagement” is an effective approach to address challenges posed by China and “its bid for regional and global hegemony.” 

U.S. Representative Young Kim, a Republican from California, urged American businesses and companies to “hold principles” when operating in Myanmar as people in the country seek to restore the rule of law and democracy. 

“I am struck by the continuing violence and abuses” in that country, said Kim.   

ASEAN is collectively the third-largest economy in the Indo-Pacific and the fifth-largest economy in the world. The U.S. exports over $122 billion in American-made goods to ASEAN annually. 
 
…

At least 12 people are dead in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou after massive floods triggered by several days of heavy rains. 

The rains washed out streets throughout the capital of Henan province, forcing stranded motorists to wade through waist-deep waters that submerged cars and even sent them floating away. 

The floods also washed out Zhengzhou’s subway system, with riders posting videos on social media awaiting rescue in waist-high muddy waters. A passenger named Xiaopei posted on Weibo that “the water in the carriage has reached (their) chest.”   

Dozens of reservoirs and dams have reached critical levels, with local authorities warning that the Yihetan dam in the nearby city of Luoyang had sustained a 20-meter breach and was on the verge of imminent collapse. 

Authorities have evacuated 100,000 residents to safe zones.  

Henan province, home to about 94 million people, has experienced severe rains through the past week. Forecasters say Zhengzhou received as much rainfall in three days as it normally gets in a year.  

A representative of the city of Xu Liyi, a member of the Standing Committee of Henan Provincial Party Committee, and secretary of the Zhengzhou Municipal Party Committee said the high levels of rainfall were unusual. 

Extreme weather events have surged this summer in China, with recent flooding in Sichuan province killing hundreds of citizens and forcing thousands to evacuate the area. Officials of Greenpeace International, an environmental group, warn that China’s rapid urbanization will increase the frequency of climate disasters.  

Speaking to the Chinese media, Liu Junyan of Greenpeace said, “because of the highly concentrated population, infrastructure and economic activity, the exposure and vulnerability of climate hazards are higher in urban areas.” 

This report contains information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

More than half of the Kenyan capital’s nearly 5 million people live in slums, where many young people are lured by drugs and crime. In one neighborhood, a group is using the game of chess to help transform the lives of young people. Lenny Ruvaga reports from Nairobi.

Camera: Amos Wangwa 
 
…

The Vatican has stressed Pope Francis is recovering well from his recent colon surgery and a ten-day post-operative stay in hospital.  Later this year, he has trips to Hungary and Slovakia planned. Vatican officials also confirmed last week that the pope will attend in November the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Nonetheless, some Vatican observers say the 84-year-old’s surgery earlier this month, undertaken at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, may later be seen as a turning point in his papacy and it will likely add greater urgency to his reform plans, including efforts to overhaul the notoriously change-resistant Curia, the administrative institutions of the Holy See.

Already in Rome, there is speculation about who might succeed Francis, with some Vatican watchers pointing out that Francis has hinted in the past he may follow his predecessor, Benedict XVI, and step aside, if his health seriously deteriorates, rather than follow tradition and die in office.  

Benedict became in 2013 the first pope to relinquish office since 1415, possibly setting a modern-day precedent.

Two weeks after surgeons removed a large portion of his colon because of an intestinal narrowing, Pope Francis resumed his weekly appearances from a Vatican window Sunday for his regular blessing of the faithful in St Peter’s Square. He spoke for 14 minutes, but at one point appeared short of breath.   

Among the crowds in the square were a number of Cuban residents waving banners supporting recent anti-government protests in their homeland. “I am near to the dear Cuban people in these difficult moments, especially to the families who are suffering more,” Francis said during his address.

But aside from weekly Sunday appearances the pontiff, who had one of his lungs removed as a teenager because of infection and who suffers sciatica causing him to walk with a limp, has no other public appearances listed for the rest of July. Vatican officials say he will be spending the rest of the month and early August largely focusing on recuperating.

But while there are no immediate health alarms, some Vatican watchers suggest the Pope’s lengthy hospitalization — it was double the time slated — is already focusing minds on what and who will follow Francis and also how the rest of his papacy will likely unfold.

Beginning of the end

His surgery may be “the moment that marked the beginning of the end of his papacy,” noted American Jesuit priest and influential Catholic columnist Thomas Reese in an opinion article published last week by the Religion News Service, a nonprofit news site.

“Even with the best prognosis, age is catching up to Francis. Barring a miracle, he will only be expected to continue as pope for five or six years,” Reese wrote. He indicated that Francis has much to do, if he’s going to leave an enduring legacy of change.

Francis has sought to reduce the power of the clerical establishment and to rebrand the papacy to make it more outgoing, less dogmatic and focused on pastoral duties and inclusivity. “Where he has been less successful is in winning over the clerical establishment to his vision for the church. In his eight years as pope, Francis has hardly dented the clerical establishment that he inherited,” according to Reese.

The sense of time running out may have been behind the pontiff’s decision last week to reverse one of Benedict XVI’s signature decisions and to crack down on the spread of the old Latin Mass in what is being seen as a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics. They immediately condemned it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.  

His move to re-impose tight restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass beloved by conservative doctrinal opponents has prompted a ferocious reaction with commentator Damian Thompson, host of the Holy Smoke podcast in Britain, describing it as “a poison-pen letter from the pontiff.”

Other conservative Catholics accused the pope of high-handedness and treating traditionalists as “second-class Catholics.”

The pontiff said he was making the move because the use of the Latin Mass had become a source of division in the church and was being used by Catholics opposed to modernization of the Church. In 2007, Benedict relaxed restrictions on the use of Latin Mass.

Critics of Pope Francis say his repudiation was highly unusual in the thoroughness of reversing a predecessor’s policy — and even more eye-opening considering Benedict is still alive and living in the Vatican. Under the terms of the new rule, priests who want to celebrate the Latin Mass rather than in the vernacular will require the prior approval of their bishops who will have to consult the Vatican.

Francis has been engaged in a series of sharp skirmishes with conservative clerics and their supporters ever since his election as pope in a long-running doctrinal struggle between progressives and conservatives over church reform.

The clashes have included how to handle clerical sex abuse scandals and his tacit approval of parish priests giving communion to divorced-and-remarried couples.

His supporters say Francis has tried to make the Church less rigid and dogmatic.

His opponents say he has been undermining the moral consistency of the Catholic Church.
…

Iranian police opened fire late Sunday night amid protests against water shortages in southwestern Iran, a video showed, the latest unrest after days of demonstrations that have seen at least one person killed. 

The video from the Human Rights Activists News Agency by Human Rights Activists in Iran showed the shooting in Susangerd, which has been an epicenter of demonstrations in Iran’s restive Khuzestan province. 

A police officer fires into the air with a pistol and at least one other shot can be heard in the footage. Riot police on motorcycles race around a corner, firing at the protesters. 

The video corresponded to other Associated Press reporting of the demonstrations in Khuzestan, home to ethnic Arabs who complain of discrimination by Iran’s Shiite theocracy. The video also matched known features of Susangerd and the protest depicted took place where other demonstrations occurred in recent days. 

On Sunday, the deputy governor of Khuzestan province in charge of security affairs acknowledged the unrest had killed at least one person. The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Valiollah Hayati as blaming “rioters” for killing a citizen in the city of Shadegan in Khuzestan. Iran’s government long has blamed protesters for deaths during demonstrators in unrest, despite its history of bloody crackdowns. 

Arab separatists have long operated in Khuzestan, which Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein tried to seize in his 1980s war with Iran. They have blown up oil pipelines in the past and have been blamed for attacks, including a 2018 assault on a military parade that killed at least 25 people in Ahvaz. 

Water worries in the past have sent angry demonstrators into the streets in Iran. The country has faced rolling blackouts for weeks now, in part over what authorities describe as a severe drought. Precipitation had decreased by almost 50% in the last year, leaving dams with dwindling water supplies. 

The protests in Khuzestan come as Iran struggles through repeated waves of infections in the coronavirus pandemic and as thousands of workers in its oil industry have launched strikes for better wages and conditions. 

Iran’s economy also has struggled under U.S. sanctions then-President Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, crashing the value of the Islamic Republic’s currency, the rial. 
…

…

Professor William LeoGrande, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs in the Department of Government at the American University, and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, Eduardo Gamarra, analyze with host Carol Castiel the roots and ramifications of twin crises in the Caribbean: the assassination of Haiti’s President, Jovenal Moïse, and ensuing power struggle and the largest and most widespread protests in Cuba in decades. How does the turmoil affect US policy toward the region? Given the large Cuban and Haitian Diaspora communities in the United States, how does the Biden Administration deal with both domestic and international dimension of policy? 
…

Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis talks with VOA Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson and correspondent for Marketplace Kimberly Adams about the ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans over voting rights legislation, what’s next after Senate Democrats agree to a $3.5 trillion human infrastructure package, the impact of the crises in Haiti and Cuba on the Biden Administration, and much more.
…

…

Australian cybersecurity experts are calling for more aggressive government action to protect businesses from ransomware attacks. Experts have warned a “tsunami of cybercrime” has cost the global economy about $743 billion.

Big companies can be attractive targets for cybercriminals who can extort millions of dollars after stealing sensitive commercial information.

The Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre is a collaboration between industry representatives, the Australian government and academics.

Its chief executive, Rachael Falk, believes Australia is an easy target for hackers because cyber defenses can be weak.

“More often than not, it is by sending an email where an employee clicks on a link,” she said. “They get into that organization, they have a good look around and they work out what is valuable data here that we can encrypt, which means we lock it up and we will take a copy of it. And then we will encrypt all the valuable data in that organization and then we will hold them to ransom for money. So, it is a business model for criminals that earns them money.”

The consequences for businesses can be extreme. They can lose valuable data, or have it leaked or sold by cyberthieves. In some cases, hackers can disable an organization’s entire operation. In March, a cyberattack disrupted broadcasts by Channel Nine, one of Australia’s most popular commercial television news networks. It sought help from the Australian Signals Directorate, a government intelligence agency.

Researchers want the government to require Australian companies to tell authorities when they are being targeted.

They also want clarity on whether paying ransoms is legal. Experts have said Australian law does not make it clear whether giving money to hackers is a criminal offense.

There is also a call for the government to use tax incentives to encourage Australian businesses to invest in cybersecurity.

Last year, federal government agencies said China had been responsible for a series of cyberattacks on Australian institutions, including hospitals and state-owned companies. 
…

A Chinese gene company is collecting genetic data through prenatal tests from women in more than 50 countries for research on the traits of populations, raising concern that such a large DNA database could give China a technological advantage and the strategic edge to dominate global pharmaceuticals, according to a recent news report.

Analysts expressed unease with the developments exclusively reported by Reuters at BGI Group, the Chinese gene company, which is collecting genetic data via its NiPT prenatal test with the brand name NIFTY (Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY).

The tests, sold in more than 50 countries, can detect abnormalities such as Down syndrome in the fetus by capturing DNA from the placenta in the bloodstream about 10 weeks into a pregnancy.

The tests are sold in 52 countries, including Germany, Spain and Denmark, as well as in Britain, Canada, Australia, Thailand, India and Pakistan, according to Reuters. They are not sold in the United States, where “government advisers warned in March that the genomic data BGI is amassing and analyzing with artificial intelligence could give China a path to economic and military advantage,” Reuters reported. 

Collecting the biggest and most diverse set of human genomes could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply, the U.S. advisers said, according to Reuters.

Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of the rights group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said that due to China’s strategy of fusing military and civilian interests, “any Chinese company can be forced by the government to supply its information to the military.”

China sells the prenatal tests “a good product at a lower cost because they’re able to do that,” Littlejohn said. “But what people don’t realize is that when they get these lower cost genetic tests,” the collected information goes to the Chinese military,” she told VOA via a video interview using Microsoft Teams.

The Reuters report said the company has “worked with the Chinese military to improve ‘population quality’ and on genetic research to combat hearing loss and altitude sickness in soldiers.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the report, telling Reuters it was “a groundless accusation and smear campaign.”

Dan Harris, an international lawyer and author at the China Law Blog, told VOA Mandarin that he believes democratic entities, such as the United States, Japan, Korea, Australia and the European Union, are going to realize they “need to enact special laws to deal with China and China’s hoovering of data.”

Crystal Grant, a data scientist and molecular biologist with a Ph.D. in genetics who is a technology fellow in the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told VOA Mandarin via Teams video interview that this accumulation of DNA will challenge genomic policy worldwide.

By using what she described as “this massive amount of information” and supercomputers “to crack those codes is going to be a threat to genomic policy everywhere,” she told VOA in a video interview.

Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council of Foreign Relations, told VOA Mandarin in a TV interview in February that rapid advances in genetics and biotechnology have highlighted the need for the international community to step up regulations to prevent data abuse.

“It is not just China. The progress in the legal framework in this area is lagging behind,” Huang said. “It’s vital for the international community to sit down and work out a framework.”

Genetic engineering

Yet researchers worldwide in the academic, private and government sectors, are refining genetic engineering techniques and knowledge.

China’s interest in the field is not new. In 2018, researcher He Jiankui announced that he had produced twins genetically altered to resist HIV using a relatively new, accurate and very fast American-developed genetic editing technique known by its acronym, CRISPR.

In 2019, a Chinese court found He guilty of using “illegal medical practices” and sentenced He to three years in prison.

Prenatal privacy

Reuters found no evidence BGI violated patient privacy agreements or regulations. “However, the privacy policy on the NIFTY test’s website says data collected can be shared when it is ‘directly relevant to national security or national defense security’ in China,” the report stated.

BGI dismissed the Reuters report, saying that the company’s research has met national and international requirements.

“All NIPT data collected overseas are stored in BGI’s laboratory in Hong Kong and are destroyed after five years, as stipulated by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),” the company said in a statement released on July 9.

BGI emphasized that it developed the NIPT test alone, not in a partnership with China’s military.

Reuters interviewed four women who have used the BGI’s prenatal tests in Poland, Spain and Thailand. They all signed consent forms stating that their genetic data would be stored and used for research, yet they are not aware that their genetic information could end up in China.

Harris, the lawyer, told VOA that most of the time, people didn’t know what they were signing.

“Maybe the sign off says that it will be limited to BGI and BGI access, though XYZ, a Chinese military company, might be one of BGI’s subsidiaries,” which would mean that the consent form allowed BGI to transfer a woman’s genetic information to the Chinese military, he told VOA via Microsoft Teams.

One of the women, a 32-year-old office administrator from Poland, told Reuters that she would have chosen a different test had she known that her data might end up in China being used for research involving military applications.

U.S. federal authorities have been watching BGI’s record on data collection. Bill Evanina, former director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told the CBS-TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes in January that he was extremely concerned when BGI offered to provide COVID-19 testing kits to several U.S. states last year.

“Knowing that BGI is a Chinese company, do we understand where that data’s going?” Evanina asked. They are the ultimate company that shows connectivity to both the communist state as well as the military apparatus.”

Edward You, supervisory special agent with the FBI and a former biochemist, told 60 Minutes in the same January episode that Beijing authorities are betting that accumulating large amounts of human DNA will prove to be a successful strategy.

“They are building out a huge domestic database,” You said. “And if they are now able to supplement that with data from all around the world, it’s all about who gets the largest, most diverse data set. And so, the ticking time bomb is that once they’re able to achieve true artificial intelligence, then they’re off to the races in what they can do with that data.”  
…

Iran appears to be intensifying its effort to exploit U.S. and Western targets in cyberspace, running a campaign aimed at manipulating American military personnel and defense companies on social media.

Tehran’s latest campaign, orchestrated on Facebook by a group known as Tortoiseshell, used a series of sophisticated, fake online personas to make contact with U.S. servicemembers and employees of major defense companies in order to infect their computers with malware and extract information.

“This activity had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation, while relying on relatively strong operational security measures to hide who’s behind it,” Facebook said Thursday in a blog post, calling it part of a “much broader cross-platform cyber espionage operation.”

Personas used

Employees of defense companies in the U.K. and other European countries were also targeted.

“These accounts often posed as recruiters and employees of defense and aerospace companies from the countries their targets were in,” Facebook said. “Other personas claimed to work in hospitality, medicine, journalism, NGOs and airlines.”

And the hackers were in no hurry.

“Our investigation found that this group invested significant time into their social engineering efforts across the internet, in some cases engaging with their targets for months,” Facebook said. “They leveraged various collaboration and messaging platforms to move conversations off-platform and send malware to their targets.”

Facebook said it has notified users who appeared to have been targeted, took down the fake accounts and blocked the malicious domains from being shared.

The social media company said it was able to trace the activity to Iran, in part because of the distinctive malware, known to have been developed by Mahak Rayan Afraz, a Tehran-based company with links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Mandiant Threat Intelligence, a private cybersecurity company, said Thursday that it agreed with Facebook’s assessment that Iran, and the IRGC in particular, was behind the campaign.

Tortoiseshell “has historically targeted people and organizations affiliated with the U.S. military and information technology providers in the Middle East since at least 2018,” Mandiant Senior Principal Analyst Sarah Jones said in an email.

Jones also said it was noteworthy that some of the fake domains associated with the Iranian campaign used the name of former U.S. President Donald Trump, including, “trumphotel[.]net”, “trumporganization[.]world”, and “trumporganizations[.]com”.

“Domains such as these could suggest social engineering associated with U.S. political topics,” Jones said. “We have no evidence that these domains were operationalized or used to target anyone affiliated with the Trump family or properties.”

Facebook, which discovered the hacking campaign, did not comment on whether Iran managed to steal any critical or sensitive data.

U.S. military officials also declined to speak about what, if anything, the Iranian hackers were able to steal.

“For operational security purposes, U.S. Cyber Command does not discuss operations, intelligence and cyber planning,” a spokesperson told VOA.

“The threats posed by social media interactions are not unique to any particular social media platform and Department of Defense personnel must be cautious when engaging online,” the spokesperson added.

‘Significant threat’

U.S. intelligence officials have been increasingly concerned about Iran’s growing capabilities and aggressiveness in cyberspace.

In its annual Worldwide Threat Assessment, published in April, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence called Tehran “a significant threat to the security of U.S. and allied networks and data.”

“We expect Tehran to focus on online covert influence, such as spreading disinformation about fake threats or compromised election infrastructure and recirculating anti-U.S. content,” the report said.

The U.S. intelligence community, earlier this year, also accused Iran of meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, carrying out a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign intended to undercut former President Trump’s reelection prospects.”

U.S. officials said part of that effort involved hacking voter registration systems in at least one U.S. state and using the information to send prospective voters threatening emails.

More recently, the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said a separate Iranian hacker collective with ties to the IRGC, known as TA453 and Charming Kitten, posed as British university professors to steal information and research from think tanks and academics.
…

The U.S. government said Thursday it will begin offering up to $10 million for information to identify or locate malicious cyber actors working on behalf of a foreign government that are trying to cripple the internet operations of American businesses and infrastructure.The new reward was announced as the U.S. faces a growing threat from ransomware attacks – the demand from foreign entities that U.S. corporations and institutions pay millions of dollars to unlock critical technology systems that hackers have seized. The attacks have usually originated overseas, frequently from Russia, according to U.S. officials.Already this year, one of the largest pipeline operators in the U.S., a major meat processing company and, most recently, hundreds of small businesses have been hit by ransomware, forcing companies to pay millions of dollars to restore their operations or risk losing vital data.The U.S. says that about $350 million in ransom was paid to malicious cyber actors in 2020, a more than 300% increase from the year before.The U.S. State Department said it has created a new Tor-based channel to let potential sources anonymously report tips on malicious activity.At the same time, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security created a new website, stopransomware.gov, with information for organizations to learn how to protect themselves and respond to attacks.Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN it is a “one-stop shop” for information on “how one can prevent oneself from becoming a victim of ransomware, and should one become a victim, how one can work with the federal government in partnership to address the situation.”“Of course, we advise they not pay that ransom,” he said.  In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the government alone cannot prevent the ransomware attacks.“It is critical for business leaders across industries to recognize the threat, prioritize efforts to harden their systems and work with law enforcement by reporting these attacks promptly,” Garland said.
…

The State Department will offer rewards up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of anyone engaged in foreign state-sanctioned malicious cyber activity against critical U.S. infrastructure — including ransomware attacks — and the White House has launched a task force to coordinate efforts to stem the ransomware scourge.The Biden administration is also launching the website stopransomware.gov to offer the public resources for countering the threat and building more resilience into networks, a senior administration official told reporters.Another measure being announced Thursday to combat the ransomware onslaught is from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the Treasury Department. It will engage banks, technology firms and others on better anti-money-laundering efforts for cryptocurrency and more rapid tracing of ransomware proceeds, which are paid in virtual currency.  Officials are hoping to seize more extortion payments in ransomware cases, as the FBI did in recouping most of the $4.4 million ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline in May.The rewards are being offered under the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program. It will offer a tips-reporting mechanism on the dark web to protect sources who might identify cyber attackers and/or their locations, and reward payments may include cryptocurrency, the agency said in a statement.  The administration official would not comment on whether the U.S. government had a hand in Tuesday’s online disappearance of REvil, the Russian-linked gang responsible for a July 2 supply chain ransomware attack that crippled well over 1,000 organizations globally by targeting Florida-based software provider Kaseya. Ransomware scrambles entire networks of data, which criminals unlock when they get paid.Cybersecurity experts say REvil may have decided to drop out of sight and rebrand under a new name, as it and several other ransomware gangs have done in the past to try to throw off law enforcement.Another possibility is that Russian President Vladimir Putin actually heeded President Joe Biden’s warning of repercussions if he didn’t rein in ransomware criminals, who enjoy safe harbor in Russia and allied states.That seemed improbable, however, given Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s statement to reporters Wednesday that he was unaware of REvil sites disappearing.”I don’t know which group disappeared where,” he said. He said the Kremlin deems cybercrimes “unacceptable” and meriting of punishment, but analysts say they have seen no evidence of a crackdown by Putin.
 
…

It began in February with a tweet by pop star Rihanna that sparked widespread condemnation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of massive farmer protests near the capital, souring an already troubled relationship between the government and Twitter.Moving to contain the backlash, officials hit Twitter with multiple injunctions to block hundreds of tweets critical of the government. Twitter complied with some and resisted others.Relations between Twitter and Modi’s government have gone downhill ever since.At the heart of the standoff is a sweeping internet law that puts digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook under direct government oversight. Officials say the rules are needed to quell misinformation and hate speech and to give users more power to flag objectionable content.Critics of the law worry it may lead to outright censorship in a country where digital freedoms have been shrinking since Modi took office in 2014.Police have raided Twitter’s offices and have accused its India chief, Manish Maheshwari, of spreading “communal hatred” and “hurting the sentiments of Indians.” Last week, Maheshwari refused to submit to questioning unless police promised not to arrest him.On Wednesday, the company FILE – In this Feb. 25, 2021, photo, India’s Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, left, and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar new regulations for social media companies and digital streaming websites.Tech companies also must assign staff to answer complaints from users, respond to government requests and ensure overall compliance with the rules.Twitter missed a three-month deadline in May, drawing a strong rebuke from the Delhi High Court. Last week, after months of haggling with the government, it appointed all three officers as required.“Twitter continues to make every effort to comply with the new IT Rules 2021. We have kept the Government of India apprised of the progress at every step of the process,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, says he worries the rules will lead to numerous cases against internet platforms and deter people from using them freely, leading to self-censorship. Many other critics say Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is imposing what they call a climate of “digital authoritarianism.”“If it becomes easier for user content to be taken down, it will amount to the chilling of speech online,” Gupta said.The government insists the rules will benefit and empower Indians.“Social media users can criticize Narendra Modi, they can criticize government policy, and ask questions. I must put it on the record straight away . . . But a private company sitting in America should refrain from lecturing us on democracy” when it denies its users the right to redress, the ex-IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, told the newspaper The Hindu last month.FILE – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Despite the antagonisms between Modi and Twitter, he has been an enthusiastic user of the platform in building popular support for his Bharatiya Janata Party. His government has also worked closely with the social media giant to allow Indians to use Twitter to seek help from government ministries, particularly during health emergencies. Bharatiya Janata Party’s social media team has meanwhile been accused of initiating online attacks against critics of Modi.Still, earlier internet restrictions had already prompted the Washington-based Freedom House to list India, the world’s most populous democracy, as “partly free” instead of “free” in its annual analysis.The law announced in February requires tech companies to aid police investigations and help identify people who post “mischievous information.” That means messages must be traceable, and experts say this it could mean end-to-end encryption would not be allowed in India.Facebook’s WhatsApp, which has more than 500 million users in India, has sued the government, saying breaking encryption, which continues for now, would “severely undermine the privacy of billions of people who communicate digitally.”Officials say they only want to trace messages that incite violence or threatening national security. WhatsApp says it can’t selectively do that.“It is like you are renting out an apartment to someone but want to look into it whenever you want. Who would want to live in a house like that?” said Khursheed of Laminar Global.The backlash over online freedom of expression, privacy and security concerns comes amid a global push for more data transparency and localization, said Kolla, the tech expert.Germany requires social media companies to devote local staff and data storage to curbing hate speech. Countries like Vietnam and Pakistan are drafting legislation similar to India’s. In Turkey, social media companies complied with a broad mandate for removing content only after they were fined and faced threats to their ad revenues.Instead of leaving, some companies are fighting the new rules in the courts, where at least 13 legal challenges have been filed by news publishers, media associations and individuals. But such cases can stretch for months or even years.Mishi Choudhary, a technology lawyer and founder of India’s Software Freedom Law Center, says that under the rules, social media platforms might lose their safe harbor protection, which shields them from legal liability over user-generated content. Courts have to decide that on a case-by-case basis, she said. And their legal costs would inevitably soar.“You know how it is in India. The process is the punishment,” Choudhary said. “And until we get to a place where the courts will actually come and tell us what the legal position is and determine those legal positions, it is open season for tech backlash.” 
…

A report by a non-profit group says Africa needs to increase internet access to boost its economies, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The advocacy group found that while Africa’s locally routed online traffic has increased, only one in five Africans has internet access.  High taxes and frequent internet shutdowns by some African governments have also discouraged online trade.The Internet Society group says in a report this month Africa’s internet exchange points, or IXP’s, have increased from 19 to 46 in under eight years. Six countries have more than one IXP. An IXP is where multiple networks and service providers exchange internet traffic.  The increase is significant because a decade ago, most African countries routed their online traffic outside the continent.Dawit Bekele is the Africa regional vice president for the Internet Society, a global nonprofit organization that promotes the development and use of the internet. He said Africa having its own IXP’s improves internet performance for users on the continent.“By developing internet exchange points within Africa, we have limited this kind of unnecessary travels of internet traffic outside of Africa to come back to Africa, which has a considerable advantage to improving the user experience, be it the speed, connectivity or even the cost of connectivity,” he said.The Washington-based group says its goal is to eventually have 80 percent of internet traffic in Africa be exchanged locally.Michael Niyitegeka, an information technology expert, said public demand has forced African governments to improve internet access.“We can’t run away from the youth population. There are quite a number of young people and therefore their affinity or drive for technology and use of the Internet is way higher than our parents and they are more comfortable using technology than anything else. Finally, the other aspect I think is quite critical is the access to mobile technology devices is a big driver. We see quite a number of relatively cheap smart or internet-enabled phones in our markets and that has a massive effect on how many people can access the internet,” said Niyitegeka.In a 2020 study, the International Foundation Corporation said internet use could add $180 billion to Africa’s economies.However, some governments have taken steps to control digital communication by shutting down social media platforms and imposing a high tax on internet use.Omoniyi Kolande is the CEO of SeerBit, a Nigerian company that offers payment processing services to businesses. He said that government control of the internet will drive businesses backward. “It’s a way we are driven backward instead of moving forward. We are supposed to encourage access, we are supposed to encourage free access point for interaction for solutions, because if businesses had to put their product on platforms, as long as those platforms are put down or disconnected there is loss of revenue at that point and for payment gateway. We are already losing revenue as those businesses do not exist to achieve the purpose of what they should achieve,” he said.The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa notes that only 20 percent of the continent’s population has access to the Internet.The Internet Society Group is urging African governments to expand internet infrastructure to rural areas, where most of the population lives, so that they can benefit from it. 
…

In the future, keyboards and remote controls may be replaced with a more direct way for humans to interact with machines —  hand gestures. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more.  
Camera: Elizabeth Lee
Produced by: Elizabeth Lee
…

Taiwanese tech giants Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced Monday they will each donate five million coronavirus vaccine doses to the government in a deal with a China-based distributor. Taipei has been struggling to secure enough vaccines for its population, and its precarious political status has been a major stumbling block. As Taipei and Beijing accused each other of hampering vaccine deals, Foxconn and TSMC stepped in with a face-saving solution — buying the Pfizer-BioNTech doses from a Chinese distributor and donating them to Taiwan. “Me and my team feel the public anxiety and expectations on the vaccines and we are relieved to give the public an answer that relevant contracts have been signed,” Foxconn founder Terry Gou said in a post on his Facebook page. “Beijing authorities have not offered any guidance or interfered with the vaccine acquisition process,” he said, adding that the vaccines will be shipped directly by German firm BioNTech. Foxconn and TSMC, the world’s largest contract electronics and chip makers respectively, said they will spend $175 million each on the vaccines. Beijing’s authoritarian leadership views democratic self-ruled Taiwan as part of China’s territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if needed. China tries to keep Taiwan internationally isolated, including blocking it from the World Health Organization. Taipei has been trying to secure Pfizer-BioNTech direct from Germany, but Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma has the distribution rights for China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Attempts to sign a direct deal made little headway, something Taiwan blamed on Beijing. In return, Beijing has accused Taiwan of refusing to deal with Fosun Pharma and politicizing its vaccine search. Fosun issued a statement late Sunday saying it had signed a deal with the Taiwanese firms to sell 10 million shots, to be donated to “disease control institutions in the Taiwan region.” In an interview with China’s Global Times — a state-run tabloid — Fosun Chairman and CEO Wu Yifang accused Taipei of “rule-breaking in the whole process.” No further elaboration was provided. Taiwan had only received 726,000 vaccine doses before the United States and Japan recently donated 2.5 million and 2.37 million doses, respectively. So far, just 14 percent of its 23.5 million people have been vaccinated, according to the health ministry. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung previously revealed that Taiwan and BioNTech were about to finalize a deal in January when the company suggested the words “our country” had to be taken out of a Taiwanese press statement. Chen said authorities agreed to replace it with “Taiwan,” but the deal remained stalled. The Chinese government reacts angrily at any attempts to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. 
…

China’s technology ministry Monday announced a three-year action plan to develop the country’s cyber-security industry, which it estimates will be worth more than $38 billion by 2023, according to Reuters. The new strategy by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is being unveiled as Beijing tightens its grip on the country’s technology sector, underscored by its regulatory probe of ride-hailing giant Didi Global.   The company was valued at $68 billion after its June 30 initial public offering, or IPO, on the New York Stock Exchange.   But Chinese regulators launched a cybersecurity review of the company and said new users would not be allowed to register during the review, sending Didi Global share prices tumbling. The Cyberspace Administration of China then ordered Didi’s app removed from domestic mobile app stores. The agency has also ordered two other tech-based companies, Uber-like trucking startup Full Truck Alliance and Kanzhun, which connects job seekers and hiring enterprises via a mobile app, to suspend user registrations and submit to security reviews, citing risks to “national data security.”   The two companies, like Didi Global, had also recently issued IPOs on U.S. stock exchanges.   Some information for this report came from Reuters, CNBC, and the New York Times. 
…

Iran’s railroad system came under cyberattack Friday, a semi-official news agency reported, with hackers posting fake messages about train delays or cancellations on display boards at stations across the country.  The hackers posted messages such as “long delayed because of cyberattack” or “canceled” on the boards. They also urged passengers to call for information, listing the phone number of the office of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the hack led to “unprecedented chaos” at rail stations.  No group took responsibility. Earlier in the day, Fars said trains across Iran had lost their electronic tracking system. It wasn’t immediately clear if that was also part of the cyberattack. Fars later removed its report and instead quoted the spokesman of the state railway company, Sadegh Sekri, as saying “the disruption” did not cause any problem for train services.  In 2019, an error in the railway company’s computer servers caused multiple delays in train services.  In December that year, Iran’s telecommunications ministry said the country had defused a massive cyberattack on unspecified “electronic infrastructure” but provided no specifics on the purported attack. It was not clear if the reported attack caused any damage or disruptions in Iran’s computer and internet systems, and whether it was the latest chapter in the U.S. and Iran’s cyber operations targeting the other. Iran disconnected much of its infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus — widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation — disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.  
…

U.S. President Joe Biden said he discussed recent ransomware attacks on the U.S. from Russia in a phone call Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Biden said he told Putin, “I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is.”He told reporters at a White House signing ceremony Friday that the call “went well. I’m optimistic.”When asked if there would be consequences if Russia did not take action against ransonware criminals, he answered, “Yes.”Biden also said the two leaders “set up a means of communication now on a regular basis” to discuss such issues.Russia denies responsibilityRecent ransomware attacks have been linked to groups based in Russia. The Kremlin has denied any responsibility for the attacks.The White House said in a statement after the call that “President Biden underscored the need for Russia to take action to disrupt ransomware groups operating in Russia.”It said, “President Biden reiterated that the United States will take any necessary action to defend its people and its critical infrastructure in the face of this continuing challenge.”The Kremlin said that the two leaders agreed to cooperate on issues of cybersecurity and that the collaboration “must be permanent, professional and nonpoliticized and should be conducted via special communication channels … and with respect to international law.”The call came more than three weeks after the two leaders met in Geneva on June 16, when Biden appealed to Putin to crack down on cyber hackers in Russia.Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 
…

Karmic fortune has arrived to the digital art market, with a kaleidoscopic splash of colors and the face of a revered Thai monk offering portable Buddhist good luck charms to tech-savvy buyers.Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — virtual images of anything from popular internet memes to original artwork — have swept the art world in recent months, with some fetching millions of dollars at major auction houses.CryptoAmulets is the latest venture to chase the craze, with founder Ekkaphong Khemthong sensing opportunity in Thailand’s widespread practice of collecting talismans blessed by revered monks.”I am an amulet collector and I was thinking about how I could introduce amulets to foreigners and to the world,” he told AFP.Collecting amulets and other small religious trinkets is a popular pastime in Buddhist-majority Thailand, where the capital Bangkok has a market solely dedicated to the traders of these lucky objects.Their value can rise thousands of dollars if blessed by a well-respected monk.Despite being a digital format, Ekkapong wanted CryptoAmulets to have the same traditional ceremony as a physical piece, which is why he approached Luang Pu Heng, a highly regarded abbot from Thailand’s northeast.”I respect this monk and I would love the world to know about him — he is a symbol of good fortune in business,” he said.Luang Pu Heng last month presided over a ceremony to bless physical replicas of the digital amulets, which show a serene image of his face.He splashed holy water onto his own visage as his saffron-robed disciples chanted and scattered yellow petals on the altar where the portraits were mounted.’We just tried to simplify it’One challenge was trying to explain the concept of NFTs to the 95-year-old abbot, who assumed he would be blessing physical amulets.”It’s very hard so we just tried to simplify it,” said Singaporean developer Daye Chan.”We said to him that it’s like blessing the photos.”Transforming amulets into crypto art also means the usual questions of authenticity plaguing a talisman sold in a market are eliminated, he added.”There are so many amulets being mass produced… All the records could be lost and these physical items can be easily counterfeited,” Chan said.NFTs use blockchain technology — an unalterable digital ledger — to record all transactions from the moment of their creation.”For our amulet, even a hundred years later, they can still check back the record to see what the blockchain is,” Chan said.But founder Ekkaphong would not be drawn on the karmic effectiveness of digital amulets, compared to their real-life counterparts.”They are different,” he said.On the CryptoAmulets website online gallery, different inscriptions are written in Thai — “rich,” “lucky” or “fortunate,” for instance — around each of the tokens.They are priced on a tiered system in ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, and are currently selling for between $46 and $1,840.Sales have been slow ahead of Sunday’s purchase deadline, with only 1,500 tokens sold out of the 8,000 available, and with Thais making up most of the buyers.Thai chef Theerapong Lertsongkram said he bought a CryptoAmulet because of his reverence for objects blessed by Luang Pu Heng, which he says have brought him good fortune.”I have had several lucky experiences such as winning small lottery prizes… or being promoted on my job,” said Theerapong, who works in a Stockholm restaurant.”I did not know anything about NFTs before, but I made the decision to buy it as I respect Luang Pu Heng so much,” he told AFP.But fellow collector Wasan Sukjit — who adorns the interior of his taxi with rare amulets — has a harder time with the concept.”Amulets need to be something physical, something people can hold,” he scoffed.”I prefer the ones I can hang on my neck.” 
…

 China’s most popular social media service has deleted accounts on LGBT topics run by university students and nongovernment groups, prompting concern the ruling Communist Party is tightening control over gay and lesbian content.WeChat sent account holders a notice they violated rules but gave no details, according to the founder of an LGBT group, who asked not to be identified further out of fear of possible official retaliation. She said dozens of accounts were shut down about 10 p.m. Tuesday.It wasn’t clear whether the step was ordered by Chinese authorities, but it came as the ruling party has tightened political controls and had tried to silence groups that might criticize its rule.WeChat’s operator, Tencent Holding Ltd., confirmed it received an email seeking comment but didn’t immediately respond.The Communist Party decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, but gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and other sexual minorities still face discrimination. While there is more public discussion of such issues, some LGBT activities have been blocked by authorities.The official attitude is increasingly strict, the founder of the LGBT group said.Contents of the WeChat accounts, which included personal stories and photos of group events, were erased, according to the group’s founder.DevastatingThe former operator of a different group for university students, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, called the step a devastating blow.University officials asked students two months ago to shut down LGBT social media groups or to avoid mentioning their school names, according to the LGBT group founder. She said universities in the eastern province of Jiangsu were told by officials to investigate groups for women’s rights and sexual minorities to “maintain stability.”Surveys suggest there are about 70 million LGBT people in China, or about 5% of the population, according to state media.Some groups have organized film festivals and other public events, but those have dwindled.One of the most prominent, Shanghai Pride, canceled events last year and scrapped future plans without explanation after 11 years of operation.China’s legislature received suggestions from the public about legalizing same-sex marriage two years ago, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. However, it gave no indication whether legislators might take action.
…

A breakthrough safety feature being developed for vehicles is designed to potentially save the 10,000 lives lost to drunk driving in the U.S. each year. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
Camera: Mike Burke    Footage: DADSS Program, WMUR
…