Beijing (AFP) – US President Donald Trump doubled down Tuesday on calling the coronavirus spreading rapidly across the world the “Chinese Virus,” despite protests from Beijing.”It did come from China, so I think it’s very accurate,” Trump told a news conference, defending tweets in which he used the label for the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump indicated that…

NEW YORK (AP) — Across the United States, religious leaders are taking unprecedented steps to shield their congregations from the coronavirus – canceling services, banning large funerals and weddings, and waiving age-old requirements of their faiths.For Roman Catholics, attendance at Mass is considered a sacred obligation. But bishops in numerous dioceses announced that they are…

FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a protective mask stands at a fence surrounding Beijing Capital International as a plane lands in Beijing as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, China, March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter(Reuters) – Chinese airlines including Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines are planning…

Stefan eefting is, as he puts it, “a long-lasting guy” in the shipping industry. He started as an apprentice engineer in a German shipyard in 1984, and now he’s a senior vice president at MAN Energy Solutions, a firm whose engines power every second vessel on the deep seas. Over the course of Eefting’s career,…

Epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu drove through the empty streets of Wuhan in February, observing the Chinese city at war with the novel coronavirus. “It was incredible,” recalls the director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Abuja. “This huge city looked empty, but behind every window were families supplied with food, medicine, everything they…

Fox News host Sean Hannity tore into former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as results from Super Tuesday primary states continue to be tallied.Hannity first went after “Quid Pro Joe” over a recent gaffe he made at a rally on Monday where he botched the words of the Declaration of…

A  Philadelphia SWAT team officer was shot and killed early Friday as he and other officers were attempting to arrest a murder suspect.Cpl. James O’Connor, 46, is the first police officer killed in the line of duty in Philadelphia in five years, according to reports.The officer was struck by gunfire just before 6 a.m. at…

Photo: GettyVermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the controversial face recognition company Clearview AI alleging its efforts to collect images of Vermonters without their consent to fuel a law enforcement database is in violation of multiple state laws.“I am disturbed by this practice, particularly the practice of collecting and selling…

Not creepy at all. Image: Getty Images By Matt Binder2020-03-02 18:44:24 UTC Clearview AI, which scans the internet for photos for its massive facial recognition database, is reportedly working on a surveillance camera According to a report by BuzzFeed News, Clearview AI is developing the camera through a sister operation called Insight Camera. The company…

Israel has passed an emergency law to use mobile phone data for tracking people infected with COVID-19 including to identify and quarantine others they have come into contact with and may have infected. The BBC reports that the emergency law was passed during an overnight sitting of the cabinet, bypassing parliamentary approval. Israel also said…

Computer vision techniques used for commercial purposes are turning out to be valuable tools for monitoring people’s behavior during the present pandemic. Zensors, a startup that uses machine learning to track things like restaurant occupancy, lines and so on, is making its platform available for free to airports and other places desperate to take systematic…

The novel coronavirus does not respect borders, but they loom large for heads of state and CEOs responding to the global health crisis. Geopolitics as much as public health will determine how the pandemic proceeds and its lasting effects on people and business. Ian Bremmer, president and founder of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, says…

SpaceX Bans Zoom Over Privacy Concerns (reuters.com) Posted by msmash on Thursday April 02, 2020 @11:24AM from the gift-that-keeps-giving dept. Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has banned its employees from using video conferencing app Zoom, citing “significant privacy and security concerns,” according to a memo seen by Reuters, days after U.S. law enforcement warned users…

Though the social media accounts were using familiar tactics — spreading inflammatory memes in an effort to “sow discord” — the IRA went to new lengths to disguise its involvement. Rather than operating the accounts out of Moscow, as they did in 2016, the accounts were run by groups in Ghana and Nigeria, according to…