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US, Taiwan, China race to improve military drone technology  

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

washington — This week, as Taiwan was preparing for the start of its Han Kuang military exercises, its air defense system detected a Chinese drone circling the island. This was the sixth time that China had sent a drone to operate around Taiwan since 2023.

Drones like the one that flew around Taiwan, which are tasked with dual-pronged missions of reconnaissance and intimidation, are just a small part of a broader trend that is making headlines from Ukraine to the Middle East to the Taiwan Strait and is changing the face of warfare. 

The increasing role that unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, play and rising concern about a Chinese invasion of democratically ruled Taiwan is pushing Washington, Beijing and Taipei to improve the sophistication, adaptability and cost of drone technology.

‘Hellscape’ strategy

Last August, the Pentagon launched a $1 billion Replicator Initiative to create air, sea and land drones in the “multiple thousands,” according to the Defense Department’s Innovation Unit. The Pentagon aims to build that force of drones by August 2025.

The initiative is part of what U.S. Admiral Samuel Paparo recently described to The Washington Post as a “hellscape” strategy, which aims to counter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan through the deployment of thousands of unmanned drones in the air and sea between the island and China.

“The benefits of unmanned systems are that you get cheap, disposable mass that’s low cost. If a drone gets shot down, the only people that are crying about it are the accountants,” said Zachary Kallenborn, a policy fellow at George Mason University. “You can use them at large amounts of scale and overwhelm your opponents as well as degrade their defensive capabilities.”

The hellscape strategy, he added, aims to use lots of cheap drones to try to hold back China from attacking Taiwan.

Drone manufacturing supremacy

China has its own plans under way and is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial drones. In a news briefing after Paparo’s remarks to the Post, it warned Washington that it was playing with fire. 

“Those who clamor for turning others’ homeland into hell should get ready for burning in hell themselves,” said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese defense ministry.

“The People’s Liberation Army is able to fight and win in thwarting external interference and safeguarding our national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Threats and intimidation never work on us,” Wu said.

China’s effort to expand its use of drones has been bolstered, analysts say, by leader Xi Jinping’s emphasis on technology and modernization in the military, something he highlighted at a top-level party meeting last week.

“China’s military is developing more than 50 types of drones with varying capabilities, amassing a fleet of tens of thousands of drones, potentially 10 times larger than Taiwan and the U.S. combined,” Michael Raska, assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told VOA in an email. “This quantitative edge currently fuels China’s accelerating military modernization, with drones envisioned for everything from pre-conflict intel gathering to swarming attacks.”

Analysts add that China’s commercial drone manufacturing supremacy aids its military in the push for drone development. China’s DJI dominates in production and sale of household drones, accounting for 76% of the worldwide consumer market in 2021.

The scale of production and low price of DJI drones could put China in an advantageous position in a potential drone war, analysts say.

“In Russia and Ukraine, if you have a lot of drones – even if they’re like the commercial off-the-shelf things, DJI drones you can buy at Costco – and you throw hundreds of them at an air defense system, that’s going to create a large problem,” said Major Emilie Stewart, a research analyst at the China Aerospace Studies Institute.

China denies it is seeking to use commercial UAV technology for future conflicts.

“China has always been committed to maintaining global security and regional stability and has always opposed the use of civilian drones for military purposes,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA. “We are firmly opposed to the U.S.’s military ties with Taiwan and its effort of arming Taiwan.”

Drone force

With assistance from its American partners, pressure from China and lessons from Ukraine, Taiwan has been pushing to develop its own domestic drone warfare capabilities.

The United States has played a pivotal role in Taiwan’s drone development, and just last week it pledged to sell $360 million of attack drones to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, or TECRO, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington.

“Taiwan will continue to build a credible deterrence and work closely with like-minded partners, including the United States, to preserve peace and stability in the region,” TECRO told VOA when asked about the collaboration between Taipei and Washington. “We have no further information to share at this moment.”

The effort to incorporate drones into its defense is crucial for Taiwan, said Eric Chan, a senior nonresident fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute.

“The biggest immediate effects of the U.S. coming into this mass UAV game is to give Taiwan a bigger advantage to be able to, first, detect their enemy and, second, help them build a backstop to their own capabilities as well,” Chan said.

With the potential for China to consider using drones in an urban conflict environment, Taiwan is recognizing the importance of stepping up its counter-drone defense systems.

“After multiple intrusions of Chinese drones in outlying islands, the Taiwan Ministry of Defense now places great emphasis on anti-drone capabilities,” said Yu-Jiu Wang, chief executive of Tron Future, an anti-drone company working with the Taiwanese military.

The demand is one that Wang said his company is willing and ready to fill.
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Video game performers to strike over artificial intelligence concerns

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers voted Thursday to go on strike, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections. 

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement. 

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the studios will not make a deal over the regulation of generative AI. Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said. 

Fran Drescher, the union’s president, said in a prepared statement that members would not approve a contract that would allow companies to “abuse AI.” 

“Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live — and work — with, we will be here, ready to negotiate,” Drescher said. 

A representative for the studios did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said. 

“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable AI protections, but rather flagrant exploitation,” said Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh. 

Last month, union negotiators told The Associated Press that the game studios refused to “provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI for all our members” — specifically, movement performers. 

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. 

The last interactive contract, which expired November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012. 

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union. 

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered indie and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected.
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UN chief: Earth becoming hotter and more dangerous for all

HMnews Categories Business

United Nations — The U.N. Secretary-General warned Thursday that the Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, killing nearly a half-million people annually, and he blamed fossil fuels for driving global warming.

“Billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic — wilting under increasingly deadly heat waves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That’s 122 degrees Fahrenheit. And halfway to boiling,” Antonio Guterres told reporters.

Sunday was the Earth’s hottest day on record, only to have the record broken the following day. Temperatures have been rising steadily, with scientists declaring the last 13 consecutive months all heat record-breakers. Urban areas are heating up at twice the global average.

Heat waves have killed scores of people this year in India and in Africa’s Sahel region. Last month, extreme heat killed 1,300 Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. This month, Europe, the United States and Asia have also seen exceptional heat.

He said that the World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization estimate that improvements to heat health warning systems in 57 countries could save nearly 100,000 lives a year.

Fossil fuels

Guterres has repeatedly called on greenhouse gas emitters to meet the 2015 Paris Climate Accord’s target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius — a goal that many worry is slipping away. He said that fossil fuel expansion and new coal plants are obstacles to meeting that target.

“I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world’s wealthiest countries,” he said. “In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future.”

He urged leaders to quickly and fairly phase out fossil fuels and end new coal projects.

“The G20 must shift fossil fuel subsidies to renewables and support vulnerable countries and communities,” he said of the world’s largest economies.

And he urged more climate adaptation and mitigation financing from the richest countries — which are the biggest emitters — to help the poorest, most vulnerable nations that have contributed the least to global warming.

Guterres said he is launching a global call to action focused on caring for the most vulnerable, including protecting workers who are exposed to extreme heat.

“A new report from the International Labor Organization — being released today — warns that over 70% of the global workforce — 2.4 billion people — are now at high risk of extreme heat,” he said.

In addition to the rights and health of individual workers, there are economic impacts of extreme heat too.

“Heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030. Up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s,” Guterres said, adding measures need to be taken to “heat proof” critical sectors of the global economy, like farming and construction work.

The U.N. chief warned that extreme heat widens social inequality, undermines development, furthers food insecurity, and pushes people deeper into poverty.

“Leaders across the board must wake up and step up,” he said.
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NASA telescope spots super Jupiter that takes more than a century to go around its star

HMnews Categories Business

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit. 

The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter’s. 

One big difference: It takes this planet more than a century, possibly as long as 250 years, to go around its star. It’s 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is to the sun. 

Scientists had long suspected a big planet circled this star 12 light-years away, but not this massive or far from its star. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. These new observations show the planet orbits the star Epsilon Indi A, part of a three-star system. 

An international team led by Max Planck Institute for Astronomy’s Elisabeth Matthews in Germany collected the images last year and published the findings Wednesday in the journal Nature. 

Astronomers directly observed the incredibly old and cold gas giant — a rare and tricky feat — by masking the star through use of a special shading device on Webb. By blocking the starlight, the planet stood out as a pinpoint of infrared light. 

The planet and star clock in at 3.5 billion years old, 1 billion years younger than our own solar system, but still considered old and brighter than expected, according to Matthews. 

The star is so close and bright to our own solar system that it’s visible with the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Don’t bet on life, though. 

“This is a gas giant with no hard surface or liquid water oceans,” Matthews said in an email. 

It’s unlikely this solar system sports more gas giants, she said, but small rocky worlds could be lurking there. 

Worlds similar to Jupiter can help scientists understand “how these planets evolve over giga-year timescales,” she said. 

The first planets outside our solar system — dubbed exoplanets — were confirmed in the early 1990s. NASA’s tally now stands at 5,690 as of mid-July. The vast majority were detected via the transit method, in which a fleeting dip in starlight, repeated at regular intervals, indicates an orbiting planet. 

Telescopes in space and also on the ground are on the hunt for even more, especially planets that might be similar to Earth. 

Launched in 2021, NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb telescope is the biggest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever placed in space.
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Young Ethiopian Space Program graduates aim for the skies

HMnews Categories Business

A group of young African students is shooting for the stars thanks to a program called ‘Pathways to Space.’ Aerospace company Boeing and a South African science organization backed an education program that just celebrated its first batch of graduates. Vicky Stark reports from Cape Town.
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Polio at high risk of spreading within Gaza Strip

HMnews Categories Business

Geneva — A senior World Health Organization official expressed alarm Tuesday at the high risk of polio spreading within the Gaza Strip because of dire sanitary conditions in the war-wracked enclave, and that the paralytic disease it causes could spill across borders without prompt action to stem the outbreak.

“I am, like, super worried,” Dr. Avadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at the WHO in the occupied Palestinian territory, told journalists from Jerusalem. “I am extremely worried about an outbreak happening in Gaza … and that it may spill over internationally at a very high point.” 

Saparbekov, who recently returned from a weeklong visit to Gaza, confirmed that “circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2” has been identified in samples of Gazan sewage assessed by researchers and that an epidemiological probe “to identify the potential source of this importation” is underway.

“Based on the results of the assessment, WHO and the GPEI (Global Polio Eradication Initiative) partners will consolidate a set of recommendations, including the need for a mass vaccination campaign,” he said.

On July 16, the Global Polio Laboratory Network isolated the virus in six environmental surveillance samples collected from sewage on June 23 in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah in Gaza.

The WHO reports that further genomic sequencing of the samples by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that they are related to environmental samples that were circulating in Egypt during the second half of last year.

“It is important to note that poliovirus has been isolated from environmental samples only at this time; no associated paralytic cases have been detected,” Saparbekov stressed.

Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus is transmitted from person to person mainly through the fecal-oral route. It can invade a person’s nervous system and cause paralysis and death.

“We have not yet collected the human samples to identify any viruses because of the lack of equipment to collect those and lack of capacity to test those samples,” Saparbekov said, noting that WHO and UNICEF teams entering Gaza on Thursday will bring up to 50 sample collection kits “so we will be able to collect human samples, stool samples from humans.”

The samples, he said, will be sent to a lab in Jordan to confirm any cases of infection.

“Until that is done, I cannot say that there are any humans that are affected with this circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus,” he said.

The WHO said that wild poliovirus was eliminated more than 25 years ago in the Palestinian territories. Before the start of the war in Gaza, following a vicious attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the U.N. health agency says 89% of the population was vaccinated against polio, primarily conducted through routine immunization.

Last Sunday, Israel’s military said it would offer polio vaccinations to soldiers serving in Gaza to protect against the paralytic disease.

Saparbekov said the WHO will be reaching out to COGAT, the Israeli authority responsible for the coordination of government activities in the Palestinian territories, “to see how they can facilitate” the response to the outbreak. One way to do that, he added, is to have vaccines available for Gazans in case “there is a decision to conduct a mass campaign.”

“We have so far received assurances that this will be done,” he said.

The WHO official expressed hope that the epidemiological investigation and risk assessment would be completed by the end of the week, such that his team “will have a joint recommendation from the GPEI network about what to do with this particular outbreak” by Sunday.

In the meantime, he said, aid workers are doing their best to inform the population as to health measures they must take to prevent a polio outbreak.

“Given the water and sanitation limitations in Gaza, it will be very difficult for the population to follow the advice to wash their hands, to drink safe water,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the majority that live in shelters with one toilet for 600 people and maybe 1.5 liters of water per person, will definitely not be able to follow the recommendations that we are providing,” he said.

While reiterating concerns about polio spreading in the Palestinian enclave, WHO health emergency chief Saparbekov said he also is very worried about the possible outbreak of other communicable diseases.

“We had Hepatitis A confirmed last year and now we may have a polio outbreak,” he said. “So, with the crippled health system, lack of water and sanitation, as well as lack of access of the population to health services, specifically primary health services, this is going to be a very bad situation that will happen in Gaza.

“We may have more people dying from communicable diseases than from injuries and related conditions,” he warned.
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UN: Nearly 40 million had HIV in 2023, many died due to lack of treatment

HMnews Categories Business

United Nations — Nearly 40 million people were living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year, over 9 million weren’t getting any treatment, and the result was that every minute someone died of AIDS-related causes, the U.N. said in a new report launched Monday.

While advances are being made to end the global AIDS pandemic, the report said progress has slowed, funding is shrinking, and new infections are rising in three regions: the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America.

In 2023, around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses, a significant decline from the 2.1 million deaths in 2004. But the latest figure is more than double the target for 2025 of fewer than 250,000 deaths, according to the report by UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the global effort to end the pandemic.

Gender inequality is exacerbating the risks for girls and women, the report said, citing the extraordinarily high incidence of HIV among adolescents and young women in parts of Africa.

The proportion of new infections globally among marginalized communities that face stigma and discrimination – sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs also increased to 55% in 2023 from 45% in 2010, it said.

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “World leaders pledged to end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs, and that the human rights of everyone are protected.”

As part of that pledge, leaders vowed to reduce annual new HIV infections to below 370,000 by 2025, but the report said in 2023 new infections were more than three times higher at 1.3 million.

Last year, among the 39.9 million people globally living with HIV, 86% knew they were infected, 77% were accessing treatment, and for 72% the virus was suppressed, the report said

Cesar Nunez, director of the UNAIDS New York office, told a news conference there has been progress in HIV treatments — injections that can stay in the body for six months, but the two doses cost $40,000 yearly, out of reach for all but the richest people with the virus.

He said UNAIDS has been asking the manufacturer to make it available at lower cost to low and middle-income countries.

Nunez said there have also been seven cases where people with HIV who were treated for leukemia emerged with no sign of the HIV virus in their system.

He said injections and the seven cases will be discussed at the 25th International AIDS Conference which began Monday in Munich.

At present, he said, daily treatment with pills costs about $75 per person per year. It has allowed many countries to increase the number of people with HIV to receive treatment.

Nunez said UNAIDS will continue advocating for a vaccine to prevent AIDS.
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LogOn: Device may help disabled vocal cords speak again

HMnews Categories Business

Some people who have lost the ability to speak can still move their vocal cords. California researchers are working to transform those muscle movements into audible speech. Genia Dulot reports from Los Angeles in this week’s edition of LogOn.
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CrowdStrike: More machines fixed as customers, regulators await details on what caused meltdown 

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

AUSTIN, Tex. — Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says a “significant number” of the millions of computers that crashed on Friday, causing global disruptions, are back in operation as its customers and regulators await a more detailed explanation of what went wrong. 

A defective software update sent by CrowdStrike to its customers disrupted airlines, banks, hospitals and other critical services Friday, affecting about 8.5 million machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The painstaking work of fixing it has often required a company’s IT crew to manually delete files on affected machines. 

CrowdStrike said late Sunday in a blog post that it was starting to implement a new technique to accelerate remediation of the problem. 

Shares of the Texas-based cybersecurity company have dropped nearly 30% since the meltdown, knocking off billions of dollars in market value. 

The scope of the disruptions has also caught the attention of government regulators, including antitrust enforcers, though it remains to be seen if they take action against the company. 

“All too often these days, a single glitch results in a system-wide outage, affecting industries from healthcare and airlines to banks and auto-dealers,” said Lina Khan, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in a Sunday post on the social media platform X. “Millions of people and businesses pay the price. These incidents reveal how concentration can create fragile systems.” 
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India ed-tech firm Byju’s founder faces reckoning as startup implodes

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

NEW DELHI — Byju Raveendran, an Indian mathematics whiz who soared from teacher to startup billionaire before his education-technology company imploded this year, now faces his biggest test.

The future of Raveendran’s eponymous Byju’s online coaching firm rests with India’s courts after the country’s biggest startup, once loved by global investors who valued it at $22 billion, crashed below $2 billion in valuation.

The 44-year-old founder last week lost control of the company as a tribunal kick-started an insolvency process.

Accused of “financial mismanagement and compliance issues,” the son of a family of teachers from a small village in south India faces a reckoning that will test the ingenuity that made him a poster child for India’s startups.

His formerly high-flying company was eventually brought low when it could not pay $19 million in sponsorship dues to India’s cricket federation, prompting a tribunal to suspend Byju’s board and make Raveendran report to a court-appointed restructuring expert.

An appeals tribunal is expected to hold a hearing on Monday on whether Byju’s insolvency process should be quashed after the former billionaire argued in court his company is solvent and that insolvency could shut it down and cost the jobs of 27,000 staff, including teachers. Insolvency also would not bode well for Byju’s backers, such as Dutch technology investor Prosus.

Raveendran denies the allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing at his firm, which has in recent months faced lawsuits over unpaid loans and boardroom battles with foreign investors that went public.

Potential insolvency is a dramatic turn of events for an entrepreneur described by one person who has worked with him as an extremely passionate and goal-oriented person who might adopt “an abrasive approach” in a crisis.

Raveendran presented a “suave, nice and polished” image, appearing to heed advice, but “eventually there was a trust deficit,” said another executive who quit last year as a Byju’s senior vice president.

“He said things are improving, don’t worry, we have the money,” the former executive said.

Raveendran and a Byju’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Byju’s downfall: ‘Our fair share of mistakes’

An engineer by training, he started Byju’s in 2011 with physical classes after friends urged him to go into teaching.

Raveendran, who aced a premier Indian management exam “with a score of 100 percentile, not once but twice,” according to the company website, started what would become his empire with his wife Divya Gokulnath, 38, a former student of his.

In education-obsessed India, Raveendran hit gold by offering online teaching programs priced from $100 to $300. He got a mammoth boost when the COVID-19 pandemic sent students indoors. At the height of his fame in 2021, he and his wife had a net worth of $4 billion, Forbes reckoned.

Now all that is in tatters.

Behind the reversal of Byju’s meteoric success, say executives and advisers who worked with Raveendran, is that he overruled associates and expanded the business through expensive acquisitions, splurging on marketing and being slow to address problems such as sales agents adopting aggressive tactics to mis-sell courses that damaged the company’s reputation.

With the backing of investors like General Atlantic, Prosus and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy venture, Raveendran spent millions on acquisitions, and the company says it has 150 million students in over 100 countries.

“While growing fast, as I’ve accepted multiple times, we’ve made our fair share of mistakes,” Raveendran told an interviewer last year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

As he battled crises, the CEO also said decisions to lay off some of its then-50,000 employees and slash branding expenses would help strengthen loss-making Byju’s and turn its cashflow positive.

“Every country needs a Byju’s,” he said.
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India’s battery storage industry grows

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

BENGALURU, India — At a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of Chennai in southern India, a giant battery powers machinery day and night, replacing a diesel-spewing generator. It’s one of just a handful of sites in India powered by electricity stored in batteries, a key component to fast-tracking India’s energy transition away from dirty fuels.   

The country’s lithium ion battery storage industry — which can store electricity generated by wind turbines or solar panels for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing — makes up just 0.1% of global battery storage systems. But battery storage is growing fast, with around a third of India’s total battery infrastructure coming online just this year.   

“Our orders are growing exponentially,” said Ayush Misra, CEO of Amperehour Energy, the company that installed the batteries at the Chennai factory. “It’s a really exciting time to be a battery storage provider.”   

Businesses invest in industry

India currently has around 100 megawatts of storage capacity from batteries, with another 3.3 gigawatts of clean energy storage coming from hydropower. The Indian government estimates that the country will need about 74 gigawatts of energy storage from batteries, hydropower and nuclear energy by 2032, but experts think the country actually needs closer to double that amount to meet the country’s energy needs. 

Some customers are still wary of using battery technology for storage, and the storage systems can be seen as more expensive than the more commonly used coal. The supply chain of batteries is also concentrated in China, meaning the sector is vulnerable to geopolitical volatility. 

But markets don’t think customers will be hesitant about batteries for long, with major Indian businesses announcing significant investments in the industry.   

In January this year, energy giant Reliance Industries said it will build a 5,000-acre factory in Jamnagar, Gujarat. And in March, Goodenough Energy said it will spend $53 million by 2027 to set up a 20 million kilowatt-hour battery factory in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir.   

Alexander Hogeveen Rutter, an independent energy analyst based in Bengaluru, said upping storage capacity should be done alongside ramping up renewables. 

“Clean energy combined with adequate storage can be an alternative to coal. Not in the future but right now,” he said. He added that it’s a “myth” that clean energy is more expensive than coal, as current prices of renewable energy combined with storage is cheaper than new coal.   

Global battery costs are declining faster than expected, and experts say that if costs continue to plummet, energy storage systems can better compete with both coal and clean energy sources like hydropower and nuclear energy that can also control their supply to meet demand. 

“Battery storage is now the largest resource to meet California’s evening peak electricity requirements. It’s more than gas, nuclear or coal,” he said. This is being replicated in the U.K., China and even smaller nations like Tonga. “There’s no reason why this can’t happen in India too,” he said.   

India’s energy needs grow

One of India’s unique challenges is that energy needs are growing more rapidly than most nations: the population is increasing and extreme heat fueled by climate change means more and more people are using energy-guzzling air conditioning. India’s electricity demand grew by 7% last year and is expected to grow by at least 6% every year for the next three years, according to the International Energy Agency. 

“The country needs to quadruple its renewable energy deployment just to meet demand growth,” said Hogeveen Rutter. 

Ankit Mittal, co-founder of Sheru, a software company that offers energy storage and management solutions, said that making battery storage sites more flexible can help the industry ramp up quickly.   

Mittal said battery storage sites should be more accessible to the national energy grid, so they can provide electricity to whichever regions need the extra boost of energy most. Currently, battery storage sites in India only power up more local sites.   

To encourage further growth of the battery sector, the Indian government announced last year a $452 million effort to support an additional four gigawatts of battery storage by 2031. But the government also provides subsidies for coal plants, making the electricity generated there a cheaper bet for some utility companies. 

Future government policy could level the playing field. The country is set to announce a new national budget later in July that industry leaders hope will contain incentives for clean energy storage. 

Akshat Singhal, co-founder of the Bengaluru-based battery tech startup Log 9 Materials, thinks that better government support can help the country meet growing energy demands “the right way,” with clean energy. 

“One significant policy change can kickstart the entire ecosystem,” he said. 
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Australia warns of ‘malicious websites’ after cyber outage

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

sydney — Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that “malicious websites and unofficial code” were being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday’s global digital outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines. 

Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that caused havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike. 

On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate — the country’s cyber intelligence agency — said “a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.” 

On its website, the agency said its cyber security center “strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only.” 

Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said on social media platform X on Saturday that Australians should “be on the lookout for possible scams and phishing attempts.” 

CrowdStrike — which previously reached a market cap of about $83 billion — is a major cybersecurity provider, with close to 30,000 subscribers globally. 
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How to handle deli meats as CDC investigates listeria outbreak in the US

HMnews Categories Business

new york — As U.S. health officials investigate a fatal outbreak of listeria food poisoning, they’re advising people who are pregnant, elderly or have compromised immune systems to avoid eating sliced deli meat unless it’s recooked at home to be steaming hot.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t mandate a food recall as of early Saturday, because it remains unclear what specific products have been contaminated with the bacteria now blamed for two deaths and 28 hospitalizations across 12 states. This means the contaminated food may still be in circulation, and consumers should consider their personal risk level when consuming deli meats.

Federal health officials warned Friday that the number of illnesses is likely an undercount, because people who recover at home aren’t likely to be tested. For the same reason, the outbreak may have spread wider than the states where listeria infections have been reported, mostly in the Midwest and along the U.S. eastern coast.

The largest number known to get sick — seven — were in New York, according to the CDC. The people who died were from Illinois and New Jersey.

What investigators have learned

Of the people investigators have been able to interview, “89% reported eating meats sliced at a deli, most commonly deli-sliced turkey, liverwurst and ham. Meats were sliced at a variety of supermarket and grocery store delis,” the CDC said.

And samples collected from victims from May 29 to July 5 show the bacteria is closely related genetically.

“This information suggests that meats sliced at the deli are a likely source of this outbreak. However, at this time CDC doesn’t have enough information to say which deli meats are the source of this outbreak,” the agency said in a statement published on its website Friday.

What to expect if you’re infected

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food.

It can be diagnosed by testing bodily fluids, usually blood, and sometimes urine or spinal fluid, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Listeria infections are especially dangerous for people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC. Victims of this outbreak ranged in age from 32 to 94, with a median age of 75.

For pregnant people, listeria can increase the risk of miscarriages. One of the victims of the current outbreak was pregnant, but did not have a miscarriage, officials said.

Infections confined to the gut — intestinal listeriosis — can often be treated without antibiotics according to the CDC. For example, people might need extra fluids while experiencing diarrhea.

But when the infection spreads beyond the gut — invasive listeriosis — it’s extremely dangerous and is often treated with antibiotics to mitigate the risk of blood infections and brain inflammation, according to the Mayo Clinic.

What about the meat in your fridge

So far there’s no sign that people are getting sick from prepackaged deli meats. And for at-risk people who already have deli slices in their refrigerator, they can be sanitized by being recooked.

“Refrigeration does not kill Listeria, but reheating before eating will kill any germs that may be on these meats,” the CDC says.
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Back to the Moon – Part 2

HMnews Categories Business

After the Apollo program ended, the US took a long hiatus from lunar exploration. What happened during this time, and what has NASA been doing? This documentary by the Voice of America’s Russian service focuses on the details of the NASA’s Artemis program and plans to further explore the Moon and Mars.
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Microsoft users worldwide report widespread outages affecting banks, airlines, broadcasters

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Microsoft users worldwide, including banks and airlines, reported widespread outages on Friday, hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The cause, exact nature and scale of the outage was unclear. Microsoft appeared to suggest in its X posts that the situation was improving but escalating outages were still being reported around the world hours later.

The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. Some New Zealand banks said they were also offline.

Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment. It did not explain the cause of the outage further.

Australian outages reported on the site included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.

News outlets in Australia — including the ABC and Sky News — were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers.

An X user posted a screenshot of an alert from the company Crowdstrike that said the company was aware of “reports of crashes on Windows hosts” related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected Crowdstrike site and could not be verified. Crowdstrike did not respond to a request for comment.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6

HMsales Categories Business, Showcase

Your self-expression tool, Galaxy Z Flip6, is more compact and eye-catching, with Galaxy AI and a pro-level 50MP camera.

Processor:

CPU Speed 3.39GHz, 3.1GHz, 2.9GHz, 2.2GHz, CPU Type: Octa-Core;

Display:
Size (Main_Display): 170.3mm (6.7″ full rectangle) / 166.4mm (6.6″ rounded corners)
Resolution (Main Display): 2640 x 1080 (FHD+); Technology (Main Display): Dynamic AMOLED 2X;
Color Depth (Main Display): 16M; Max Refresh Rate (Main Display): 120 Hz; Size (Sub_Display):
86.1mm (3.4″ full rectangle) / 83.2mm (3.3″ rounded corners); Resolution (Sub Display): 720 x 748
Technology (Sub Display): Super AMOLED; Color Depth (Sub Display): 16M;

Camera:
Rear Camera – Resolution (Multiple): 50.0 MP + 12.0 MP, Rear Camera – F Number (Multiple):
F1.8 , F2.2, Rear Camera – Auto Focus: Yes, Rear Camera – OIS: Yes, Rear Camera – Zoom,
Optical quality Zoom 2x (Enabled by Adaptive Pixel sensor) , Digital Zoom up to 10x, Front Camera – Resolution: 10.0 MP, Front Camera – F Number: F2.2, Front Camera – Auto Focus: No, Rear Camera – Flash:
Yes, Video Recording Resolution: UHD 4K (3840 x 2160)@60fps, Slow Motion: 240fps @FHD, 120fps @FHD;

Storage/Memory:
Memory_(GB): 12, Storage (GB): 256, Available Storage (GB): 227.7;

Network/Bearer:
Number of SIM: Dual-SIM, SIM Slot Type: SIM 1 + eSIM / Dual eSIM, Infra: 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA, 4G LTE FDD, 4G LTE TDD, 5G Sub6 FDD, 5G Sub6 TDD, 5G Sub6 SDL, 2G GSM GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900 3G UMTS
B1(2100), B2(1900), B4(AWS), B5(850), B8(900) 4G FDD LTE B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B13(700), B17(700), B18(800), B19(800), B20(800), B25(1900), B26(850), B28(700), B32(1500), B66(AWS-3) 4G TDD LTE B38(2600), B39(1900), B40(2300), B41(2500)
5G FDD Sub6 N1(2100), N2(1900), N3(1800), N5(850), N7(2600), N8(900), N12(700), N20(800), N25(1900), N26(850), N28(700), N66(AWS-3) 5G TDD Sub6 N38(2600), N40(2300), N41(2500), N77(3700), N78(3500)
5G SDL Sub6 N75(1500+)

Connectivity:
USB Interface, USB Type-C, USB Version, USB 3.2 Gen 1, Location Technology: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS; Earjack: USB Type-C, MHL: No, Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz+5GHz+6GHz, HE160, MIMO, 1024-QAM, Wi-Fi Direct: Yes, Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth v5.3, NFC: Yes, PC Sync. Smart Switch (PC version);

OS: Android;

General Information: Form Factor Flip;

Sensors:
Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor;

Physical specification:
Dimension (HxWxD, mm): 165.1 x 71.9 x 6.9, Dimension when folded (HxWxD, mm): 85.1 x 71.9 x 14.9,
Weight (g): 187;

Battery:
Internet Usage Time(LTE) (Hours): Up to 19, Internet Usage Time(Wi-Fi) (Hours): Up to 20,
Video Playback Time (Hours, Wireless): Up to 23, Battery Capacity (mAh, Typical): 4000, Removable: No,
Audio Playback Time (Hours, Wireless): Up to 68;

Audio and Video:
Stereo Support: Yes, Video Playing Format: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM,
Video Playing Resolution: UHD 8K (7680 x 4320)@60fps, Audio Playing Format: MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, DFF, DSF, APE;

Services and Applications:
Gear Support: Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Buds3 Pro, Galaxy Buds2 Pro, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, Galaxy Buds3, Galaxy Buds2, Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Buds FE, Galaxy Fit3, Galaxy Fit2, Galaxy Fit e, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Watch FE, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch7, Galaxy Watch6, Galaxy Watch5, Galaxy Watch4, Galaxy Watch3, Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active2, Galaxy Watch Active
Samsung DeX Support: No
Bluetooth® Hearing Aid Support: Android Audio Streaming for Hearing Aid(ASHA)
SmartThings Support: Yes
Mobile TV: No

More information here

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6

HMsales Categories Business, Showcase

Put PC-like power in your pocket, Galaxy Z Fold6. More powerful than ever with its super-slim, productive, super-charged with Galaxy AI on foldables.

Specification:

Colours: Silver Shadow, Pink, Navy, Crafted Black, White;

Processor: CPU Speed: 3.39GHz, 3.1GHz, 2.9GHz, 2.2GHz, CPU Type: Octa-Core;

Display:
Size (Main_Display): 193.2mm (7.6″ full rectangle) / 192.5mm (7.6″ rounded corners), Resolution (Main Display): 2160 x 1856 (QXGA+), Technology (Main Display): Dynamic AMOLED 2X, Color Depth (Main Display):
16M, Max Refresh Rate (Main Display): 120 Hz, Size (Sub_Display): 158.9mm (6.3″ full rectangle) / 158.1mm (6.2″ rounded corners), Resolution (Sub Display): 968 x 2376 (HD+), Technology (Sub Display): Dynamic AMOLED 2X, Color Depth (Sub Display): 16M;

S Pen Support: Yes;

Camera:
Rear Camera – Resolution (Multiple): 50.0 MP + 12.0 MP + 10.0 MP, Rear Camera – F Number (Multiple):
F1.8 , F2.2 , F2.4, Rear Camera – Auto Focus: Yes, Rear Camera – OIS: Yes, Rear Camera – Zoom,
Optical Zoom 3x, Optical quality Zoom 2x (Enabled by Adaptive Pixel sensor) , Digital Zoom up to 30x
Under Display Camera – Resolution: 4.0 MP, Under Display Camera – F Number: F1.8, Under Display Camera – Auto Focus: No, Under Display Camera – OIS: No, Rear Camera – Flash: Yes, Cover Camera – Resolution:
10.0 MP, Cover Camera – F Number: F2.2, Cover Camera – Auto Focus: No, Video Recording Resolution: UHD 8K (7680 x 4320)@30fps, Slow Motion: 240fps @FHD, 120fps @FHD, 120fps @UHD;

Storage/Memory:
Memory_(GB): 12, Storage (GB): 256, Available Storage (GB): 229.2;

Network/Bearer:
Number of SIM: Dual-SIM, SIM size: Nano-SIM (4FF), Embedded-SIM, SIM Slot Type: SIM 1 + SIM 2 / SIM 1 + eSIM / Dual eSIM, Infra: 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA, 4G LTE FDD, 4G LTE TDD, 5G Sub6 FDD, 5G Sub6 TDD, 5G Sub6 SDL
2G GSM, GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900, 3G UMTS: B1(2100), B2(1900), B4(AWS), B5(850), B8(900)
4G FDD LTE, B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B13(700), B17(700), B18(800), B19(800), B20(800), B25(1900), B26(850), B28(700), B32(1500), B66(AWS-3)
4G TDD LTE, B38(2600), B39(1900), B40(2300), B41(2500), 5G FDD Sub6, N1(2100), N2(1900), N3(1800), N5(850), N7(2600), N8(900), N12(700), N20(800), N25(1900), N26(850), N28(700), N66(AWS-3), 5G TDD Sub6
N38(2600), N40(2300), N41(2500), N77(3700), N78(3500), 5G SDL Sub6, N75(1500+);

Connectivity:
USB Interface: USB Type-C, USB Version: USB 3.2 Gen 1, Location Technology: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, Earjack: USB Type-C, MHL: No, Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz+5GHz+6GHz, HE160, MIMO, 1024-QAM, Wi-Fi Direct: Yes, Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth v5.3, NFC: Yes, UWB (Ultra-Wideband): Yes,
PC Sync.: Smart Switch (PC version);

OS: Android;

General Information: Form Factor: Folder;

Sensors:
Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor;

Physical specification:
Dimension (HxWxD, mm): 153.5 x 132.6 x 5.6, Dimension when folded (HxWxD, mm): 153.5 x 68.1 x 12.1,
Weight (g): 239;

Battery:
Internet Usage Time(LTE) (Hours): Up to 18, Internet Usage Time(Wi-Fi) (Hours): Up to 18, Video Playback Time (Hours, Wireless): Up to 23, Battery Capacity (mAh, Typical): 4400, Removable: No, Audio Playback Time (Hours, Wireless): Up to 77;

Audio and Video:
Stereo Support: Yes, Video Playing Format: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM, Video Playing Resolution: UHD 8K (7680 x 4320)@60fps, Audio Playing Format: MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, DFF, DSF, APE;

Services and Applications:
Gear Support: Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Buds3 Pro, Galaxy Buds2 Pro, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, Galaxy Buds3, Galaxy Buds2, Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Buds FE, Galaxy Fit3, Galaxy Fit2, Galaxy Fit e, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Watch FE, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch7, Galaxy Watch6, Galaxy Watch5, Galaxy Watch4, Galaxy Watch3, Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active2, Galaxy Watch Active,
Samsung DeX Support: Yes, Bluetooth® Hearing Aid Support: Android Audio Streaming for Hearing Aid(ASHA)
SmartThings Support: Yes, Mobile TV: No.

More information here

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Recent outages highlight need for stronger African internet

HMbiz Categories Business, IT & Technology

Nairobi, Kenya — Experts say Africa needs to invest in robust infrastructure if the continent is to have reliable internet after recent outages due to underwater cable failures highlighted the continent’s reliance on single-path connectivity.

Disruptions in March and May caused online banking problems and communication delays. Businesses experienced interruptions in many countries.

In March, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, four submarine cables that deliver the internet to at least 17 countries went offline.

Less than two months later, Eastern and Southern Africa experienced outages after two undersea cables were damaged. In Tanzania, the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam closed for two days due to the disruption.

Ben Gumo, a Kenyan who relies on the internet to sell clothes, shoes and children’s wares, said he lost business during the May disruption.

“Someone … puts stuff in the [online] basket, but because of the outage he cannot complete the sale, so he cancels,” Gumo said, adding that he couldn’t update his website with new products.

According to the telecommunications research company Telegeography, over 100 cable cuts occur globally each year. Experts blame undersea volcanic activity, rock falls, recent rainfall and currents in rivers that are much stronger than when some of the cables were built.

Manmade activities also cause disruptions. According to one report, a ship was attacked in the Red Sea and drifted, its anchor pulling up three underwater cables.

Mike Last works with the West Indian Ocean Cable Company, which operates in 20 African countries and has built 36 data centers. He said recent disruptions prompted government officials and businesspeople to recognize the need for better internet infrastructure.

“What it made people realize is that you have to invest in a reliable network, you have to invest in redundancy,” Last said, meaning that internet service is provided by more than one source. “We’ve seen a real boom in clients coming to us wanting connectivity on the new subsea systems.”

Some countries can stay online when one internet source is cut off, although service is often slow and not stable, because service providers and telecommunication carriers invested in more than one international connection.

According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa’s digital infrastructure coverage, access and quality are far behind those of other regions.

However, Africa is embracing the digital future. According to the Submarine Cable Networks, 37 countries have at least one subsea cable connection, and 20 countries have more than two subsea cables.

Last said cables planned by Google and Meta will improve connectivity.

One of the new cables, he said, has a high capacity. Another new cable — named 2Africa and led by Meta, the parent company of Facebook — is being built all the way around Africa.

“It brings a lot of capacity to Africa, and that will help,” Last said.

Experts warn that disparities in connectivity across Africa are expected, but that the development of infrastructure, government policies and private sector investments can accelerate growth.
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