Do you ever wonder what could be done with all of those street views and Instagram photos of your favorite city? Well, a group of technical experts has taken all that data and turned it into an amazingly detailed 3D city map. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Month: June 2017
Romania: Protective Mama Bear, Cubs Cut off Dracula’s Castle
Danger lurks at Dracula’s castle.
Romanian authorities have closed a 13th-century fortress connected to Vlad the Impaler after a mother bear and her cubs were found roaming in the area.
The citadel, atop a mountain in central Romania, can be reached only by climbing 1,480 steps. It was shut in late May “for the safety of visitors,” its website said Saturday.
Local prefect Emilian Dragnea says the Environment Ministry had agreed to capture the four bears and relocate them elsewhere. Authorities blame people for leaving food in the area.
The citadel was repaired by 15th-century Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula.”
Bran Castle, also associated with Dracula, is a bigger tourist attraction.
Romania is home to between 5,000 and 6,000 brown bears.
Adam West, Who Played Batman in 1960’s TV Series, Dies at Age 88
Adam West, the actor who played the title role in the kitschy 1960’s “Batman” television series, has died at age 88, Variety reported on Saturday, citing a family statement.
West, who was so closely identified with his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the cartoon superhero that he had trouble landing other roles when the show ended, died on Friday evening after a struggle with leukemia, his representative told Variety.
His representatives did not immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.
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U2 Make Their First US Festival Show a Bono-Roo
U2 turned their first headlining appearance at a U.S. music festival into Bono-roo.
The Irish rockers performed a two-hour set Friday night at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, as part of their world tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Grammy-winning The Joshua Tree album.
They played the full album, as well as some of their other hits, including New Year’s Day and Beautiful Day, to tens of thousands of music fans.
Toward the end of the performance, lead singer Bono asked if they had made a mistake in not coming to the festival sooner, and later added, “Thanks for naming it after me.”
The band kicked off their tour last month in Canada, which hits the United Kingdom, Europe and Central America through Oct. 19.
The band has previously played the Glastonbury Festival, but their appearance on the Bonnaroo lineup this year was a huge get for the 16-year-old music festival.
Before their set, U2 guitarist The Edge received the Les Paul Spirit Award in a presentation from the Les Paul Foundation on the festival grounds. The Edge, whose name is David Evans, called Paul an inventor and innovator who pioneered advances in electric guitars and recording.
“I owe him a great debt of gratitude not only for the contributions he made to music, but in terms of his contributions to the technology,” Evans said.
The political nature of the album, which was inspired by the band’s fascination with America, was reflected on the giant screens behind the band. The screens showed images of female activists, scenes of the American desert and poems from American writers. Often Bono would stop singing to let the chorus of voices from fans complete the song.
As he ended the performance with their hit, One, he called it “a night we will never forget.”
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In India, Fighting Ocean Trash One Net at a Time
World Ocean Day, earlier this month, is an annual focus on the threats to our watery planet. It’s a long list: overfishing, climate change, algae blooms and plastic. Plastic is everywhere, on the surface, in the deep and along the shorelines. But, in India, a dedicated group of fishermen turned conservationists is doing its part to help solve that problem. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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New Google Project Digitizes World’s Top Fashion Archives
Anyone who has waited on a long, snaking line to get into a fashion exhibit at a top museum knows just how popular they’ve become — and more broadly, how fashion is increasingly seen as a form of artistic and cultural expression.
Google is acknowledging this reality by expanding its Google Art Project — launched in 2011 to link users with art collections around the world, online — to include fashion.
The new initiative, “We Wear Culture,” which launched Thursday, uses Google’s technology to connect fashion lovers to collections and exhibits at museums and other institutions, giving them the ability to not only view a garment, but to zoom in on the hem of a dress, examine a sleeve or a bit of embroidery on a gown up close, wander around an atelier, or sit down with Metropolitan Museum of Art costume restorers.
The project partners with more 180 cultural institutions, including the Met’s Costume Institute, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Japan’s Kyoto Costume Institute, and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. It comprises over 30,000 garments.
The site also offers specially curated exhibits. You can click your way to, for example, a curated photo exhibit on Tokyo Street Style, or an exploration of women’s gowns in the 18th century. You can search by designer, or by their muse — examining, say, Marilyn Monroe’s love of Ferragamo stiletto heels, via the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, Italy.
At a preview demonstration this week, Amit Sood, director of the Google Cultural Institute and designer of the Google Art Project (now called Google Arts & Culture) explained that he wasn’t initially clued into the possibilities for fashion, because at the tech giant, “we all wear hoodies.”
But, he said, collaborating with an institution like the Met showed him that
“art and fashion have a long history together.” The idea behind the new project, he said, is to tell the story — or rather, the multiple stories — behind fashion.
There are several virtual reality films included in the project. A 360-degree video displays the Met’s conservation studio, with conservators explaining how they keep delicate clothing strong enough for display — one of them explaining, for example, how the team uses needles designed for eye surgeons.
It is the ultimate fragility of clothes, though, that makes the project appealing to museum curators, explained Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s head curator — whereas many garments are too delicate to be permanently displayed, digitizing a collection makes it viewable forever. The Costume Institute has provided 500 of the objects on display, noted Loic Tallon, the Met’s chief digital officer.
Making a pitch to young users, the site also features YouTube personality Ingrid Nilsen in short videos, in which she explains the evolution of the hoodie, the choker, or colorful Japanese “Sukajan” jackets.
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US Backs Call to Save Oceans, but Notes Plan to Quit Climate Deal
The United States supported a global call to action at the United Nations on Friday to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources, even as it noted President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw from a pact to fight climate change.
The first U.N. Ocean Conference ended on Friday with the adoption of a Call to Action, which said: “We are particularly alarmed by the adverse impacts of climate change on the ocean.”
“We recognize, in this regard, the particular importance of the Paris Agreement, adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” it read.
After the consensus adoption, David Balton, deputy U.S. assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries, reminded the summit “that on June 1 our president announced that the United States will withdraw from or renegotiate U.S. participation in the Paris agreement or another international climate deal.”
Trump’s decision to pull the United States from the landmark 2015 Paris agreement drew anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry.
Speaking after the United States, French Ambassador for the Oceans Serge Segura received applause from delegates in the U.N. General Assembly after stating climate change was real.
“France is committed to upholding all of our obligations under the Paris agreement both for our welfare, but also for the welfare of the international community as a whole,” he said.
The week-long ocean summit promoted partnerships, such as between governments and businesses, to address issues such as marine pollution, ocean acidification, and marine research. More than 1,300 voluntary commitments to save the ocean were made.
UNGA Chief: ‘Climate Change, Ocean Acidification: Two Sides of the Same Coin’
Safeguarding the ocean was one of 17 goals adopted in 2015 by the 193 U.N. member states as part of an agenda for the world’s sustainable development up to 2030. Another goal calls for “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
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IOC Recommends Awarding Two Olympic Games at Same Time
The hosting rights for both the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games should be awarded at the same time, the International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended on Friday.
Paris and Los Angeles are the only candidates left in the race for 2024 and, if passed, the recommendation would almost certainly mean that each would host one of the next two summer Games, with only the order still to be decided.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the recommendation would be put to an extraordinary IOC session in Lausanne in July.
Decision in September?
There is a further IOC session in Lima in September which was originally scheduled to choose the 2024 hosts and may now decide whether Paris or Los Angeles go first.
“Having two such great cities, two such great countries, two candidates who are really enthusiastic and promoting the Olympic Games and the Olympic spirit … this represents a golden opportunity for the Olympic Games,” Bach told reporters.
“It is a win-win-win situation.”
Bach heavily implied that, if the recommendation was passed, there would be no chance for other candidates to enter the race for 2028. He also denied that getting the 2028 would be a consolation prize.
“It is a fascinating race to have Paris and Los Angeles striving for the Olympic Games, it is hard to imagine something better and it is a very strong sign of stability,” he said.
Bach praised both cities for including a high number of existing venues in their plans, saying this would “lead to significant cost reductions in the organization of the Games and make them more sustainable and more feasible.”
The Paris and Los Angeles organizing committees both welcomed the announcement.
Cities pulled out of bidding
The Olympic Games, once perceived as the hottest of sports properties, is now seen by many cities as a liability that can potentially drag an entire country’s economy down.
Rome, Budapest, Hamburg and Boston all pulled out of bidding for 2024.
Bach said the board had proposed the same 28 sports for 2024 which featured in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, provided they “comply with the Olympic charter and this includes the world anti-doping code.”
Extra pressure on weightlifting
But he said there was an extra condition for weightlifting, which has been plagued by doping with numerous participants testing positive in re-tests of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
“The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has until December 2017 to deliver a satisfactory report to the IOC on how they will address the massive doping problem this sport is facing,” he said.
He added that the IOC had already sent a warning to the IWF by reducing the number of athletes for the 2020 Tokyo Games from 260 to 196.
US Commerce Chief Seen Imposing Mexico Sugar Deal Over Industry Objections
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is likely to impose a new sugar trade deal with Mexico even if final revisions to it fail to win support from the U.S. industry, trade lawyers and experts say.
After announcing a deal this week that would dramatically cut the amount of refined sugar that Mexico ships to the United States, officials from the two countries are working with their industries on final language that would govern its operation.
At issue is a new right of first refusal granted to Mexico to supply all U.S. sugar needs not met by domestic suppliers or other foreign quota holders.
A coalition of American sugar cane and beet farmers and a major refiner want a more explicit guarantee that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not Mexican producers, will dictate what type of sugar fills that gap. They are worried that a flood of refined sugar will pour in, rather than the raw sugar needed to keep U.S. mills running.
Sugar, lumber issues
The final sticking point stands in the way of resolving a years-long dispute over Mexican access to the highly regulated U.S. sugar market, which is protected by a complex web of subsidies and rationed quotas for foreign producers.
The sugar industry is known for its sway in Washington. But its point of view on Mexican imports is not shared by sugar users such as confectioners and soda makers.
The Trump administration wants to clear away the sugar dispute and a lumber trade row with Canada before starting full-scale negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.
An industry rarely objects to a government-negotiated settlement of its anti-dumping case, and U.S. sugar producers could do little to stop the Commerce Department from implementing a final deal after a two-week comment period, said Seattle-based trade lawyer William Perry, who previously worked at Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission.
‘Never entirely happy’
While the industry could ask the International Trade Commission to overturn the settlement that suspends anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty orders issued in 2014, chances for success look slim. The panel in 2015 rejected a challenge by two sugar refiners to the previous U.S.-Mexico pact.
“Petitioners are never entirely happy with suspension agreements like this,” Perry said. “They would rather have anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders with rates high enough to shut out imports.”
A Commerce spokesman said that Ross hoped the U.S. sugar industry would ultimately endorse the final agreement.
Willing to compromise
Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the administration was probably willing to compromise on some industry-specific concerns to help reach its larger NAFTA goals of reducing U.S. trade deficits.
The U.S. sugar industry must probably present evidence of new Mexican dumping before going back to Commerce for more changes to the deal, said Daniel Pearson, a senior fellow of the libertarian Cato Institute and former International Trade Commission chairman.
“They would do well to take this agreement and run with it and see how it works,” Pearson said, noting that it raises prices and keeps U.S. refiners well-supplied with raw sugar.
Mexico OK with language
Mexico made major concessions to maintain its access to the lucrative U.S. market, agreeing to ship no less than 70 percent of its quota volume as raw sugar to U.S. refineries. It gave ground on nearly all of the U.S. producers’ demands.
American Sugar Alliance spokesman Phillip Hayes said the final hurdle should be easy to address by making clear that the USDA, not Mexico, can dictate the type and purity level of any additional imports.
But Juan Cortina, head of Mexico’s main sugar trade group, said there was no problem with the language because any additional needs would filled with raw sugar, as Mexican producers would have to keep higher inventories of that grade.
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Top 5 Songs for Week Ending June 10
It’s another week of smooth sailing, with only the tiniest of changes in the hit list from the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending June 10, 2017.
Number 5: Ed Sheeran “Shape of You”
Let’s start in fifth place, where Ed Sheeran backs off a slot with “Shape Of You.” This song’s a force to be reckoned with: it opened at number one back in January, one of less than 30 songs to accomplish that feat. It held the top slot for 12 non-consecutive weeks, and according to Billboard has spent the most time inside the Top Five since debuting there: 20 weeks.
Number 4: Kendrick Lamar “Humble”
Kendrick Lamar rebounds a slot to fourth place with his former champ “Humble.” Kendrick kicks off his North American tour on July 12 in Glendale, Arizona.
Number 3: DJ Khaled Featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne “I’m The One”
DJ Khaled treads water in third place with “I’m The One” featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne. On June 23, Khaled drops his star-filled album Grateful – he tweeted the cover photo on Monday, featuring his young son Asahd.
He and Drake reunite on the next single, “To The Max.” Khaled and Drake have a long history of collaborations, including last year’s Top 20 hit “For Free.”
Number 2: Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like”
Bruno Mars spends yet another week in the runner-up slot with “That’s What I Like.” Fresh from a performance at the Billboard Music Awards, he’s prepping for another award show appearance.
Bruno just signed on to appear at the 2017 BET Awards, happening June 25 in Los Angeles. Last month, Bruno sang his latest single “Versace On The Floor” at the Billboard Music Awards…then watched the track experience a 395 percent sales jump.
Number 1: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Despacito”
Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber share Hot 100 gold for a third week with “Despacito.” On June 4, Justin hit the stage at Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester benefit concert. He sang some of his biggest hits accompanying himself on guitar and broke down onstage as he addressed the fans gathered in Manchester, England.
The Top Five machine just keeps on turning. Who’ll be number one next week? Join us to find out.
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Polio Immunization Campaign Planned for IS-controlled Area in Syria
The World Health Organization hopes to get a polio immunization campaign under way in the next week or two in the IS-controlled area of Deir Ezzor, Syria, where two new cases of the crippling disease were discovered this week.
The WHO reports two children in Deir Ezzor have been paralyzed by a vaccine-derived polio virus. Unlike the wild polio virus, vaccine-derived polio viruses are very rare; but, they can emerge in populations that have low immunity against the disease.
WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said the polio virus is circulating and must be stopped. He says a mass polio immunization campaign is being planned, targeting some 90,000 children under age 5 in the district of Mayadin in Deir Ezzor.
“We have the global supply,” Rosenbauer said. “It can be released, but, the big question, as you rightly pointed out — how is it going to be delivered, who is going to deliver it. That is always the challenge.”
Security and access to the area are dangerous and difficult because it is controlled by Islamic State militants. In 2013 and 2014, an outbreak of the wild polio virus occurred in this same region. Thirty-six cases were reported at that time.
Rosenbauer told VOA that security is not the only concern. He said it is possible that children could become infected with polio from the vaccine-derived strain during the immunization campaign. That is why, he said, the vaccine must be used with complete discretion.
“Really only use it when the … benefits of it are greater,” Rosenbauer said. “What we have is an outbreak. So, we need to consider that and do an outbreak response that outweighs the risk of a possible future outbreak.”
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L’Oreal Set to Sell The Body Shop to Brazil’s Natura in $1.1B Deal
French cosmetics and luxury goods group L’Oreal has started exclusive talks to sell The Body Shop business to Brazilian makeup company Natura Cosmeticos in a possible 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) deal.
Earlier this year, L’Oreal had announced it was reviewing its strategy for The Body Shop, which it bought for 652 million pounds in 2006, and the sale of the business had attracted a wide range of bidders.
L’Oreal said on Friday it had received a firm offer from Natura Cosmeticos, and the proposed deal put an enterprise value (equity plus debt) of 1 billion euros on the four-decades-old beauty brand — an innovator in the mass marketing of cosmetics made without animal testing and with natural ingredients.
Founded in 1976 by British entrepreneur Anita Roddick, The Body Shop was a pioneer in its field but had since fallen victim to increased competition from newcomers offering similar products based on natural ingredients with no animal testing.
L’Oreal shares were up 0.7 percent in late session trading, as investors welcomed progress toward a deal and the price tag.
“It’s a good move, given that The Body Shop had been one of the least profitable parts of the L’Oreal business,” said Roche Brune Asset Management fund manager Gregoire Laverne.
Keren Finance fund manager Gregory Moore said the price tag had pleased L’Oreal investors, since earlier reports had stated it could be sold for around 800 million euros.
“The stock has reacted well to the news, because there were some people who thought it could be sold for less,” said Moore, whose firm owns L’Oreal shares in its portfolio.
Shares in Natura fell 2.4 percent on the Brazil stock exchange, with Natura saying it would take on loans to finance the deal.
Natura chief executive Joao Paulo Ferreira said The Body Shop would fit in well with Natura’s similar businesses, such as its Aesop brand.
L’Oreal shares are up around 10 percent so far in 2017, broadly in line with the CAC-40, with the stock having touched a record high earlier this month.
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Cosby Offered to Pay for Grad School for Accuser, Jurors Hear at Trial
Comedian Bill Cosby acknowledged in 2005 that he offered to pay for graduate school for the woman who has accused him of sexual assault after her mother confronted him, jurors at his trial were told on Friday.
Jurors in a Norristown, Pennsylvania, courtroom read excerpts from a deposition Cosby gave under oath more than a decade ago, as prosecutors sought to use the comedian’s own words against him.
But Cosby’s defense lawyer, Brian McMonagle, noted that throughout the deposition that Cosby described the encounter with his accuser, Andrea Constand, as consensual.
Constand, a former administrator at Cosby’s alma mater, Temple University, has accused him of drugging and then sexually assaulting her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.
Dozens of women have leveled similar accusations against the 79-year-old entertainer, whose starring role in the 1980’s television comedy The Cosby Show made him a household name.
All the accusations but Constand’s are too old to support criminal charges under the state’s statute of limitations.
In the deposition, given in response to a civil lawsuit that Constand brought in 2005, Cosby said he gave her 1-1/2 Benadryl pills to help her relax before they engaged in what he called consensual sexual activity.
But Constand testified earlier this week the pills left her semi-conscious and unable to stop Cosby from sexually assaulting her.
Cosby also said in the deposition that he refused to tell Constand or her mother what type of pills he gave her during a phone call in 2005 because he did not trust their intentions.
“The mother is coming at me for being a dirty old man, which is bad also, but then, ‘What did you give my daughter?'” Cosby said. “What are they going to say if I tell them about it? And also to be perfectly frank, I’m thinking and praying that nobody is recording me.”
Cosby offered to pay for Constand to go to graduate school, but indicated in the deposition that he did so because she and her mother were upset, not to compensate her for anything he did wrong.
The testimony came after both sides tussled over whether the defense should be allowed to introduce evidence that Constand is gay. Judge Steven O’Neill sided with the prosecution, which called it “unfairly prejudicial and completely irrelevant” and said it would violate Pennsylvania’s rape shield law that bars defendants from referring to a victim’s sexual past.
Cosby’s deposition was unsealed in 2015 by a federal judge, prompting prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, to reopen the case and later bring criminal charges before the statute of limitations expired.
Constand settled the civil lawsuit in 2006 for an undisclosed sum.
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Apple CEO to MIT Grads: Tech Without Values is Worthless
Science is worthless if it isn’t motivated by basic human values and the desire to help people, Apple CEO Tim Cook told graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, urging them to use their powers for good.
In a commencement address, Cook — who as Apple’s chief executive since 2011 has overseen the rollout of the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch — said the company is constantly looking for ways to combine tech with a sense of humanity and compassion.
“Whatever you do in your life, and whatever we do at Apple, we must infuse it with the humanity that we are born with,” said Cook, who previously served as chief operating officer and headed the Macintosh division.
“That responsibility is immense. But so is the opportunity,” he said.
Cook said Apple wants to make products that help people. As examples, he cited iPhone technology that can help a blind athlete run a marathon and an iPad that connects an autistic child to the world around them.
“When you keep people at the center of what you do, it can impact,” he said.
Cook said he isn’t worried about artificial intelligence giving computers the ability to think like humans.
“I’m more concerned about people thinking like computers without values or compassion or concern for the consequences,” he said. “That is what we need you to help us guard against. Because if science is a search in the darkness, then the humanities are a candle that shows us where we have been and the danger that lies ahead.”
Cook also urged graduates to resist becoming cynical.
“The internet enabled so much and empowered so many, but it can also be a place where basic rules of decency are suspended and pettiness and negativity thrive,” he said.
“Don’t let that noise knock you off course. Don’t get caught up in the trivial aspects of life. Don’t listen to trolls, and don’t become one. Measure impact in humanity; not in the likes, but the lives you touch and the people you serve.”
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Japan’s SoftBank Buys Robotics Leader Boston Dynamics From Alphabet
Japanese internet, solar and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. is buying robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent.
Terms of the deal, announced Friday, including when it might close, were not disclosed.
Tokyo-based SoftBank, which offers the chatty childlike Pepper companion robot, said the purchase underlines how robotics is a key part of its business.
Boston Dynamics makes various robots, including Big Dog and Spot, which are complex machines that walk and trot on four legs. Another is Atlas, which walks on two legs like a human. Atlas has arms and can open doors and lift items. Some were designed for military purposes.
Under Friday’s deal, SoftBank is also buying from Alphabet a company called Schaft that develops biped robots. Schaft’s roots are in a research lab at the University of Tokyo.
Pepper has expressive arms but wheels for legs and does little more than sing songs and answer basic questions, and can’t do any heavy lifting. Often it fails to understand even simple speech and will keep asking you to repeat sentences.
Speculation had been growing recently that Google might want to sell Boston Dynamics. Alphabet said it remains committed to robotics, such as connecting human-like motor skills, including hand-eye coordination, to machines so they can process images, speech, text and draw pictures.
It is also interested in research on helping robots learn from what they “experience,'”Alphabet said in a statement.
“Robotics as a field has great potential, and we’re happy to see Boston Dynamics and Schaft join the SoftBank team to continue contributing to the next generation of robotics,'”it said.
SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said robots will help solve problems that have been beyond human capabilities.
“Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the Information Revolution,'”he said.
“I am thrilled to welcome them to the SoftBank family and look forward to supporting them as they continue to advance the field of robotics and explore applications that can help make life easier, safer and more fulfilling,'”Son said of Boston Dynamics and Schaft.
Japan, with its longtime culture of cartoons like “Astro Boy,'”has a soft spot for cute robots. Various companies, including automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., have developed entertainment robots, designed to do nothing more than keep people company.
But interest around the world is growing in the potential of robotics and artificial intelligence for everyday products like safer cars and connected home appliances.
SoftBank bought British semiconductor company ARM Holdings, an innovator in the “internet of things,'”last year. The first carrier to offer the Apple iPhone in Japan, SoftBank includes U.S. carrier Sprint and Yahoo Japan in its group business.
Son drew attention for hobnobbing with U.S. President Donald Trump late last year and promising to create jobs and invest in the U.S.
Marc Raibert, CEO of Boston Dynamics, said he looked forward to working with SoftBank on creating technology for “a smarter and more connected world.”
“We share SoftBank’s belief that advances in technology should be for the benefit of humanity,'”he said.
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SE Asia Urged to Step Up Cooperation in Fight Against Cybercrime
Asia Pacific nations are facing rising challenges posed by cybercrime and security breaches amid escalating economic costs from cyber attacks.
Regional businesses and governments say policy reforms are needed against a backdrop of a fast changing technological landscape and mounting vulnerabilities to cyber crime.
Singapore has taken the regional lead to boost cyber security within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as promoting the island state’s technical resources.
In October 2016, Singapore hosted the inaugural ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity, announcing new initiatives to boost ASEAN’s capacity to deal with cyber threats.
U.S.-based Honeywell, backed by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), is to set up a new industrial cybersecurity center of excellence for Asia Pacific. It will also feature development laboratories and advanced training in security services.
Multilateral effort
In June, Singapore and Australia signed a cooperation agreement to stem cybercrime, with Australia also signing pacts to boost cooperation with Thailand and China.
Australia’s Ambassador for Cybercrime, Tobias Feakin, in Bangkok for official talks with the Thai Government, said regional cooperation was vital in the face of growing challenges posed by cybercriminal networks in Asia.
“Criminals and nefarious actors can adapt and absorb all [this information] so much quicker than governments. So if we’re not talking about it, sharing best practice and keeping on the move as well then we will soon find ourselves behind by a quite a margin,” Feakin told VOA.
A 2016 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned cybercrime was growing in the Asia Pacific region, and evolving from an emerging threat to a criminal enterprise.
The UNODC said cybercrime – or internet-related crime – includes identity theft, crime, scams facilitated through email and social networking sites, sex offenses and fraud, and can ensnare victims through social media websites and mobile phones as well as standard internet sites.
UNODC Bangkok-based cyber technology analyst, Alexandru Caciuloiu said transnational crime accounts for the largest segment in cyber crime.
“We have all types – we have the criminal element – which I say is the biggest part. Of course we have the corporate to corporate [hacking] – there is also the nation state – there are many players in this area. So in terms of the criminal element of course, they’re always trying to leverage with the new technology,” Caciuloiu said.
Cyberattacks
High profile cyberattacks have raised the awareness for the need for improved safety and security. The May unleashing by computer hackers of the WannaCry ransom malware affected 200,000 organizations in 150 countries, including Thailand.
An executive with cybersecurity company, Trend Micro, was reported saying online extortion attacks had “increased dramatically”, with criminal elements causing millions of dollars in losses.
In the Philippines, security analysts said businesses needed to step up security measures against cyber crimes and increasing global threats.
In late May, reports said Vietnam-linked hackers had been targeting Philippines government agencies to gather intelligence related to the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
Australia, in pressing for an agreement with China, had accused China-based businesses of on-line intellectual property theft.
“China is a huge economic partner [with Australia],” said Ambassador Feakin. “There are some areas – there is some differences and the fact that we got to a point of signing an agreement, which said we agree to not conduct cyber enabled intellectual property that, I think that’s a good point.”
UNODC’s Caciuloiu said the challenge for South East Asia lies in the economic disparities in wealth and capacities to address the cybersecurity problems.
“There are some countries where I will say they are very focused on cybersecurity, but some others there’s a pretty big lack of awareness within the government(s),” he said.
International consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in its 2017 Global State of Information Security Survey, called for a “unified front against cybercriminals” including collaboration and information sharing to enable organizations to understand risks with effective methods of response.
Exponential increase in mobile phone use and tablet devices have added to the risks.
“Cyber risk now encompasses more than our traditional view of computers a more than our traditional view of computers,” including increased attacks involving the so-called Internet of Things from cars to household devices.
“Over the next decade, both the motivation and opportunity for malicious attacks on business and government will soar,” PwC said.
Australia’s Feakin said there was a need to ensure development and increased connectivity are not hamstrung by a lack of international collaboration at all levels.
“In this region we need more of that. Our concern would always be if we don’t make sure that the threats a managed, then that’s the danger we miss out on that golden opportunity,” he said.
In a recent commentary, Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum at the Center for Security Studies, said the 2015 cost estimates of cybercrimes in the Asia Pacific stood at $81 billion, with the number of incidents growing.
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Documentary ‘Zero Days’ Warns of Wide Scale Cyberattacks
The recent WannaCry computer virus infected more than 230,000 computers in more than 150 countries. It is not yet clear who was behind the ransomware attack that affected organizations, hospitals and telecom companies worldwide, but it was hardly unexpected.
Months earlier, filmmaker Alex Gibney released his documentary Zero Days, in which he warns of massive-scale cyberattacks and their devastating effect on modern life.
He documents a cyberweapon found lurking in computers around the world in 2010.
Stuxnet
Recruiting the help of computer experts and NSA insiders, Gibney analyzes the Stuxnet computer virus that was developed in the United States in cooperation with Israel to infect and destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
Eric Chien, technical director of security response at the global cybersecurity company Symantec, told VOA the United States developed the virus as leverage against Iran, to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful.
“Certainly the Iran deal is connected to this story,” Chien said.
He tells VOA the Stuxnet worm and its more dangerous sister virus Nitro Zeus were designed to do a lot of harm, such as, “shutting down huge portions of the Iranian grid; and this was a subject we know, of some debate inside the government, because it would involve not just military targets but also civilian targets like hospitals.”
He says diplomacy achieved an agreement with Iran, but says an unstated aspect of that agreement is the United States had “a big stick to use” if Iran violated the treaty.
Pandora’s Box
“That’s a very interesting thing because a lot of the legality around Stuxnet is very much in doubt,” Chien said. “In point of fact, the United States and Israel attacked Iran’s critical infrastructure in peace time.”
Though the Stuxnet operation was originally successful, the film asserts, the virus was eventually discovered and fell into the wrong hands, which could enhance it and turn it against its creator.
“It became much clearer to us that this was no longer sort of evolution of some piece of malware but a revolution that became the first sort of cyber sabotage malware that could actually cause physical destruction. And it did open Pandora’s Box,” Chien said.
“That’s where we are today. Now, what we see is many likely nation states conducting attacks all over the world, we see staging, so that potentially one day if they need flip the switch they could cause some additional sabotage to occur.”
Many attacks, targets
The Symantec security expert says the number of cyberattacks has greatly increased over the years. He says Symantec is now “tracking close to maybe a hundred different attacks on a daily basis.”
Gibney says cyberwarfare is dangerous because it has no borders or rules. It can strike anywhere, anyone, at any time.
“People depend on trains, people depend on airplanes, and people depend on their electricity. This is modern life. So, what we’re saying in this film is these weapons threaten modern life as we know it,” Gibney said.
Chien says there is always a need for mitigation when viruses sabotage our computer-controlled infrastructures.
“We actually saw recently in Ukraine that their power grid was attacked through a cyber piece of malware,” he said, “and they were able to bring back the power within a few hours. And were able to do so because actually their infrastructure is frankly a little bit more behind and they had the ability to go a manual mode. And literally just flip the switch and put things back on.”
Though there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the recent ransomware WannaCry and Stuxnet, experts such as Chien say they are both launched from remote, often undetected locations by unknown groups who are either allegiant to rogue nation states launching undercover attacks or are mercenary hackers paid by the highest bidder to conduct cyberterrorism.
Gibney says his goal in making Zero Days was to make the public aware of the extent and danger of cyberwarfare and allow us to ask questions and demand transparency from our governments.
“At the very least, we can all demand that our leaders start talking about it more openly and stop pretending that this stuff is not going on when it is, because it’s affecting all of us at a most basic level,” the filmmaker said.
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China Bike-Share Revolution Brings Convenience, Headaches
Thanks to an explosion of bike share apps and providers, China is rediscovering its love of bicycles. In cities across the country and in the capital of Beijing, a colorful bike-share revolution is taking over on the streets, helping ease traffic snarls and keeping the air cleaner. It is also creating some problems.
China used to be called the “kingdom of bicycles,” and though cars have taken over in a major way, the growing popularity of bike-share apps seems to indicate two-wheelers are making a come back.
Color revolution
For drab and dusty Beijing, the bike-share color revolution of yellows, oranges and blues is a welcome sight. People of all ages are enjoying the convenience the bikes provide, which combines cell phone technology, and GPS tracking in some cases, to help users find a ride.
Traveling by car across the sprawling, densely populated city is often a nightmare. Even distances of a few kilometers can take up to an hour when traffic is snarling.
Cheng Li, a bike-share user, said he has been driving his car less and using the metro more since he started using the service about six months ago.
“After I get off the metro, I usually have to walk another kilometer or two, so I’ll grab a bike share and go. It’s less stressful,” Cheng said.
For many, the convenience of cycling is its biggest attraction. Beijing’s city government has long had a bike-share program in place, but many of its bike-share stations were inconveniently located. Getting registered for the smart phone based apps is also much easier.
For Zhang Jian, the bike-share revolution is not only convenient, but nostalgic.
“Now, when we’re riding home from work, especially in the evening, when it’s not as rushed, it feels like we’re reliving the past,” Zhang said.
Great Wall of bikes
But with a growing number of providers, competition is getting increasingly fierce. One key tactic of providers has been to flood the streets with bikes — so much so that sidewalks are almost blocked in some cases.
The surge of bikes has become a major headache for city governments. Users frequently leave bikes in the middle of the street or just dump them on the sidewalk blocking passageways in an already densely populated city.
In Beijing’s southern district of Daxing, authorities have been fighting the surge by seizing the illegally parked bikes that clog streets and metro exits, one transportation worker said.
“Bike sharing is really convenient, but no one is taking care of the problem of illegally parked bikes,” the worker said. Behind her are several thousand bikes that have been seized. It was unclear when or how they would be returned to the companies that made them.
“Since the Lunar New Year, the number of bikes has been growing rapidly. At least 10,000 bikes have been added to the streets (of Daxing) since then, and we’ve collected about a third of that total,” she said.
China’s two biggest operators, Ofo and Mobike, have deployed more than 3 million bikes in scores of cities across the country. And the numbers continue to grow.
Mobike aims to expand to 100 cities at home and abroad by the end of this year.
Bike hunters
While many complain the bike-share revolution has taken over city streets, some like Gao Xiaochao are taking matters into their own hands.
Gao is one of many who call themselves bike-share hunters. Bike-share hunters find and report stolen and vandalized bikes that users deliberately park outside their homes or inside gated communities. With some bike-share apps, riders can report illegally parked bikes or other problems the two-wheelers may have.
Gao uses his lunchtime to find, report and move illegally parked bikes.
“Bike hunting is like a game, a hobby, a way to get some exercise. It’s like a new way of living,” Gao said. “Sometimes, I spend two to three hours looking for illegally parked bikes and it’s just like talking a walk.”
Many like Gao are passionate about bike sharing and what it is doing to help transportation and the city’s notoriously smoggy air.
However, as complaints grow and competition gets increasingly cut-throat, they hope companies will do more to improve their service and not just focus on flooding the streets with bikes to edge out competitors.
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Documentary "Zero Days" a Warning of Wide Scale Cyberattacks
The recent attack by the computer virus WannaCry infected more than 230,000 computers in more than 150 countries. It is not clear who is behind it, but the attack was hardly unexpected. Months earlier, award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney released his documentary “Zero Days,” in which he warned of massive cyberattacks and their devastating impact on our way of life. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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Breast Cancer No Barrier to Pregnancy
A new study is providing reassuring news for breast cancer survivors who want to have children. Faith Lapidus reports.
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