Japan has already lost a cohort of foreign students, the very people who often go on to become bridge-builders between countries.

Border closures have been popular: nearly 90% of Japanese approved when Kishida Fumio, Japan’s prime minister, tightened travel restrictions in response to the outbreak of the Omicron variant late last year.

Japanese nationals were largely free to come and go. Foreigners, even those with permanent residence, faced restrictions.

If it refuses, the likely result is that TikTok—and more companies like it—will be locked out of the West altogether.

reluctant to cede any corporate control to foreigners.

classified content-recommendation algorithms as a key technology and may object to TikTok’s code being made available for dissection

TikTok should be ultimately responsible to an independent board of its own, with members from outside China

showing the source code and allowing ongoing inspection

to let third parties inspect its algorithm.

data are held by Oracle

Western countries might one day have to shut TikTok down.

Because each user gets a personalised feed, tampering would be hard to spot.

But the app’s algorithm is nurtured in Beijing

A quarter of American users say they consider TikTok to be a news source.

it offers China to manipulate what the app’s vast foreign audience sees.

Most such information could be scraped from TikTok’s front end

risk is privacy

America often accuses China of copycat capitalism. Now the boot is on the other foot.

to reach $12bn this year and $23bn in 2024

user spends 50% longer on the app each day than the typical user spends on Instagram.

sign up its first 1bn users in half the time it took Facebook.

a test of whether global business and the global internet can remain intact as us-China relations deteriorate.

a security risk to the Chinese Communist Party’s enemies

storm in Congress

elections loom in America

the sunny app has a dark side

its 1bn-plus users

as “the last sunny corner on the internet”.

The Amazon case also influenced the new rules. In November 2020, Vestager told reporters that “data on the activity of third-party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers.” Just a month later, her DMA proposal included an outright prohibition for gatekeepers from using the non-public data of business users to compete against them.

Amazon is aiming to solve Commission concerns by leaning on the recently-adopted Digital Markets Act (DMA), by potentially sharing some data with other sellers on the platform, two individuals with direct knowledge of the case said.

Paradoxically, a digital way to send across continents a person’s list of diagnoses, medical conditions or allergies in a standard, universally accepted terminology and an interoperable format is not available, although it is technically possible, and lures as a hard-to-reach target. If we accept the progressive nature of Digital Healthcare Systems (Martins 2020), chained globalisation in health will mean one thing: Global Digital Health.

But the predictable is as much a human need as are ruptures from the predictable.

to offer what is so beloved about rules, which is the increase of what Daston terms the “radius of predictability.”

Alice’s Wonderland is a place where the only rule is that the rules will keep changing.

Daston describes how, historically, sovereignty in Europe has been derived from a mix of “divine authority, the patriarchal power of the male head of household over his wife and children, and the power of the conqueror over the vanquished in war.”

Carl Schmitt’s definition of sovereignty as “the power to decide on the exception,”

Rules that allow no exception seem free of human frailty but alien, and unable to admit properly of complexity.

Rules that leave a ruler, or a judge, in charge of interpreting them feel at once humanized and corruptible.

In this way, the nonsense nested within the cadence of sense becomes vivid.

Algorithms, which were closely associated with reason, came to be valued as more ideal than error-prone human judgment.

Daston suggests that rules tend to succeed when they are also norms.

A computer algorithm is an example of a thin rule—long, perhaps, but intended to be deployed without the need of any human thought or intervention.

thin rules “aspire to be self-sufficient.”

they require interpretation, and because examples are given, and because they make room for all sorts of exceptions.

rules were derived from models:

Similarly, the Latin term regula connects both to straight planks used for measuring and building and to a model by which others are measured more metaphorically—the ruler of a nation, say.

Daston helps us see rules (and their neighbors, such as laws and regulations) through the concepts of thickness and thinness, paradigms and algorithms, failures

when reasoning as we would recognize it proves even minimally consequential.

less than two weeks after CYBERCOM disrupted Trickbot’s operations, Microsoft engaged in operations toward that same end. Microsoft has previously coordinated botnet disruptive operations with the FBI, including the 2013 operations against the Citadel and ZeroAccess botnets and the recent disruption of the Zloader botnet.

Its Digital Crimes Unit applies legal and technical solutions to identify, investigate, and disrupt malware-facilitated cybercrime and nation-state-sponsored activity.

Many U.S. private-sector companies have strong corporate incentives to support conformance with proposed prohibitive norms. Some also have the capacity, capability, and legal standing to engage in responsible, exploitation-based activities.

CYBERCOM’s hunt-forward operations enable anticipatory resilience by discovering adversary malware, techniques, tactics, and procedures as well as indicators of compromise and releasing this information through VirusTotal and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alerts to inoculate U.S. companies from malicious cyber activity.

The FBI itself recently removed the CyclopsBlink C2 malware associated with a Russian APT-built botnet off of thousands of devices before it was activated toward malicious ends. It also closed the external management ports being exploited to access the C2 malware.

or example, to preclude technical disruption and interference in the 2020 U.S. elections, CYBERCOM reportedly engaged in an operation to temporarily disrupt what was then the world’s largest botnet: Trickbot.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s defend forward cyber strategy as operationalized by U.S. Cyber Command’s (CYBERCOM) doctrine of persistent engagement embodies the notion of achieving security through responsible, persistent exploitation-based operations, campaigns, and activities.

Cultivating conformance through a cyber persistence-based approach should aim to coordinate campaigns among government agencies with cyber capabilities and authorities and, where possible, with private-sector actors that have legal standing to engage in such behavior

overt naming and shaming, which seeks to exert such pressures to achieve conformance, may be counterproductive to stability

Covert operations scholarship suggests that secrecy dampens risks of instability by reducing potential pressures from domestic or other audiences and by allowing states to manage reputational concerns. Leveraging the “open secrecy” of persistent cyber campaigns is thus not just a more promising approach but also a more prudent one.

It is time better spent tacitly communicating to the malicious source by exposing, disrupting, and contesting threatening behaviors.

revealing publicly indicators and warnings of malicious activity, the techniques, tactics, and procedures associated therewith, and malicious malware itself that was discovered after an opponent’s intrusion or in anticipation of one

set security conditions in one’s favor by exploiting adversary vulnerabilities and reducing the potential for exploitation of one’s own

exploiting and then closing a vulnerability for the sole purpose of removing malicious malware

persist and responsibly leverage exploitation-based activities that preclude, inhibit, or otherwise constrain behaviors inconsistent with proposed prohibitive norms.

cyber persistence, which manifests as a threat through the malicious exploitation of cyber vulnerabilities.

All three mechanisms have a poor track record, in isolation and in combination, for cultivating conformance by malicious state and non-state actors with proposed prohibitive peacetime cyber norms.

Martha Finnemore and Duncan Hollis outline three discrete mechanisms for cultivating conformance: persuasion, socialization, and incentives (positive and negative inducements).

Unlike the U.N. GGE and OEWG products, the GCSC report proposes prohibitive norms addressing ongoing destabilizing behaviors.

States are engaging in a range of cyber behaviors that undermine peace and stability, but these proposed prohibitive norms do not address those behaviors. There is no reported instance of states engaging in cyber operations against another state’s cyber emergency response teams or using their teams for malicious purposes. And, although states have targeted critical infrastructure in armed conflict and non-state actors have done so in peacetime, the proposed prohibitive norms are not framed in a manner addressing that context or those actors, respectively.

There are also overlaps with the eu’s Global Gateway scheme, launched in December to “mobilise” €300bn ($340bn) in infrastructure investment by 2027, and Britain’s Clean Green Initiative, unveiled a month earlier with a pledge of £3bn ($4.1bn) for sustainable infrastructure in developing countries.

t is a repackaging of an idea called Build Back Better World that was launched at the group’s summit last year.

the Partners in the Blue Pacific pact, aimed at offsetting Chinese influence in the Pacific islands.

by focusing on “soft” infrastructure where they have comparative advantages, Western countries aim to boost exports of their own technology and services in areas such as 5g telecoms, blockchain and clean energy.

the Global Development Initiative, which is expected to focus more on sustainable development.

Western officials say the scheme will not compete directly with the bri, which has focused on ports, railways and other “hard” infrastructure. Instead, it will try to play to the g7’s strengths by prioritising climate and energy security, digital connectivity, health and women’s equality.

the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (pgii)

On June 26th the rich democracies of the g7 unveiled a plan to mobilise $600bn of private and public investment in infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries over the next five years

And every time America criticised China’s “new Silk Road”, the riposte came: “What are you offering instead?”

The party can probably tighten security in its own internal networks. But governing in China, as elsewhere, is all about priorities. And continued surveillance over its own citizens will remain far more important to the authorities than protecting those citizens’ data.

the party’s competence.

The hashtag “data leak” was blocked on Weibo, a microblog, soon after news started to circulate. Discussion on WeChat, a messaging app, is also constrained.

“China is a dictatorial state but that does not mean the state can do anything it likes, because individuals are going to get a bit angry,”

the law is enforced less strictly on officialdom, and there is little evidence of any change.

The document is ridiculously broad. It says the state should “promote the culinary and gastronomic heritage” of Chile and recognise “spirituality as an essential element of the human being”. Everyone has a “right to sports”. Non-humans get a look in, too: the state “will promote an education based on empathy…for animals”.

n particular,expert communities, researchers and the privatesector –to work withand supporthumanitarian organizationsto develop or acquire the necessary tools

calls onStates and other actors to respect and protect impartial humanitarian organizations online as they do offline, including by safeguarding them from harmful cyber and information operations of any kind

n the datasecurity and personal data protection measures taken by Movement components

researching the technical feasibility of a digital emblem –namely,a distinctive emblemor signto identify the dataand digital infrastructure of organizationsand entities

impartial humanitarian organizations’ activities must be respectedand protected online as well as offline

may erode trustin impartial humanitarian organizations

that Statesand other actors respect the humanitarian purpose of such dataprocessing

mitigate the risk of data breaches,so that the peoplewhose data is being processed,

to adopt cyber security measures and data protection practices to

the Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Actionand the Restoring Family Links Code of Conduct on Data Protection, and for protection frameworks,such as those in the Professional Standards for Protection Work

related to the safeguarding of people’s privacyanddignity and their safety

to trust humanitarian organizations with their personal data

impartial humanitarian organizations to process personaldata and sensitive non-personal data (humanitarian data) is critical toand an integral part oftheirability to deliver humanitarian activities

extraction of data being processed(forexample,collected, stored or transferred)by impartialhumanitarian organizationsundermines their work

the broad refusal to recognize the right of the West to lead means there will no longer be a world order based on Western rules.

the specter of China looms – a systemic competitor to the West and, even better, an accomplice of ‘the Russians’.

the former third world is becoming more demanding and picky

it has now completely lost the desire to share its advantages.

former third world today have money, skills, and to some extent, technology.

it is difficult for the West to offer the leading countries of the rest of the world anything that would force them to radically change their positions.

And almost in parallel with the events in Europe, Modi participated in a virtual BRICS summit, and Argentina, it seems, together with Iran, has applied to join this emerging association.

it’s not about sympathy for Russia, but antipathy to the West.

The reason is not support for Russia’s actions, but opposition to the West’s attempts to impose its will on others, which often harms their own interests.

their irritation with the West as a whole

What did you expect would happen when you provoked the tiger?’

wars on the planet have never stopped, including in the last 30 years, and statements from the EU states about the era of ‘harmony and prosperity’ that Putin interrupted are perceived as both selfishness and hypocrisy

harsh methods and humanitarian consequences of the conflict do not elicit much sympathy from outside. In other words

few people approve of Russia’s actions in Ukraine

he Western media still has a near-monopoly on determining the picture of what is happening on a global scale.

no one has yet come close to the Western world in terms of well-being and comfort.

He called on nations to join China’s new Global Security Initiative and its Global Development Initiative, two loosely defined campaigns.

The country’s policies were “coercive,” its cyberoperations “malicious” and its rhetoric “confrontational.”

In the run-up to any Cop, negotiations are largely handled by technical specialists in the initial phases, with ministers typically getting involved at the end of talks.

This notion strongly reflects Japan’s long-standing philosophy of supporting self-help efforts for development cooperation and translates it into Africa’s context.

The market is bigger and more visible than ever before, encompassing hundreds of companies selling surveillance tech globally. One of the industry’s top trade shows, ISS World, recently held a show in Prague, and it was bigger than ever on both the company and government delegation sides. Calls from every conceivable corner to regulate the industry internationally have largely failed. As a result, there is still little global transparency or accountability for abuse despite increased attention on the problem.

A strengthened and more secure data sharing framework that clarifies ambiguity on liability and ownership when transferring data will protectpeopleand businesses;it will alsohelp build trust and acceptance in twinning technologies

Using standards to ensurethattwinning technologies and infrastructures are interoperable will also enabletheintegration of EU partnersin the implementationprocess

The EU must developa more strategic approach to international standardisation activities in relevant global formats.

EU policymakingshouldfurther exploit the useof digital solutions,such as digital twins, artificial intelligence for forecasting,ormodelling in impact assessments.

Social dialogue, investments for quality job creation, and timely development of partnerships between public employment services, trade unions, industry and educational institutions are key.

Green anddigital diplomacy and outreach,leveraging the power of regulation and standardisation and promoting EUvalues,should be stepped up.

Rules-based multilateralism and values-based international cooperation should be prioritised.

The work of the EU Observatory of Critical Technologiesand a periodic review process will be important in the context of current and future risks of (technological) strategic dependencies.

the role of the EU in shaping global standards, and the voice of EU companies in regional standard setting bodies, will remain key.

Data standards will play an important role in ensuring that the exponential increase in the volume from different origins and private data

Standardswill beimportant forenabling the twinning.

Further digitalisation, accelerated by COVID-19, will also affect conditions and patterns of work, as well as access tosocial protection.

will be fair or will not be

currently the richest 10% of Europeans emit per capita more than three timesas much as the rest of Europe’scitizens.50

This entails reorientingthetraditionalview ofeconomic progresstowards a more qualitative one evolving around wellbeing, resource efficiency, circularity,and regeneration.

Boese, V., et all (2022).Democracy Report2022: Autrocratization Changing Nature? Varieties of Democracy Institute, V-DEM

This is relevant, as the last 30 years of democratic progress has been eradicated46: the average level of global democracy in 2021 is down to its 1989 level.

pursuing a value-based approac

rivalriesbased on values and societal modelsare alsoexpected to grow.

n quantum computing 50% of the top companies are in the US, 40% in China and none in the EU. In 5G, China captures nearly 60% of external funding, the US 27%, Europe 11%. In artificial intelligence, the US captured 40%, Europe 12% and Asia (including China) 32%. In biotech in 2018–20, theUS spent $260 billion, Europe $42 billion, China $19 billion. McKinsey Global Institute (2022). Securing Europe’s future beyond energy.

the EU could meet 52% of lithium demand, 49% for nickel and 58% for cobalt in 2050 for electric mobility by recycling end-of-life batteries.

For instance, after 2040, recycling could be the EU’s major source of supply for most transition metals, together with the continued need for primary metals.

Beyondthe access to critical raw materials, the ability to setenvironmental and socialstandards, ensuring the sustainability ofmining, refining, and recyclingactivities, and production of energy, will be key in the new geopolitical context.

a 3500% increase in the use of lithium, akey component for electric mobility. Chile currently holds 40% of lithium deposits, while China hosts 45% of itsrefining facilitiesworldwide.

China alone accounts for 86% of the global supply of neodymium. Palladium is mostly provided by Russia (40%), and tantalum by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (33%).

EU’s own productionaccountsfor only 4% of the global supply chain of critical raw materials used in the production of digital equipment, such as palladium, tantalum,or neodymium.

the EU’sdependence on third countries, including China,for a number of critical raw materials is even greater than thaton Russia for fossil fuels

oaring energy and food pricesand related social implications, the potentialneed totemporarily increasetheuse of coal, further pressure on public finances,higher inflation rates, increased cyber risks,issues withsupply chains,andimpaired access to critical raw materialsand technologies.

igital twins will provide data to manage thediversification of products and use functional biodiversity to redesign pestcontrol

ood security or the greening of the sector, and while tacklingfood insecurity in low-income partner countries

In the new geopolitical context, the EU needsto reduce its dependence on import of feed, fertilisers,and otherinputs

Availability of anonymised data, smartappliances, as well asconsumer behaviour will enable targeted investments in renovations.

n the EU,thissector currently accounts for 40% of energy consumption, while 75% of the building stock is energy inefficient.3

Uptake of digital solutions by the industrial sectorrequires higher levels of technologicalreadiness and cybersecurity to protect the data of industrial processes and the integrity of their functioning.

Data-driven optimisation will help improve existing materials, develop greener alternatives,and prolong their lifetime.

Four energy-intensive industries –steel, cement, chemicals, pulp,and paper –account for around 70% of its total global CO2 emissions.

digital platforms will boost other options such as pooling and sharing.

The use of data from vehicles and their environment can optimise charging

'Energy-as-a-service'21and data-driven innovative energy services canchangethe way energy suppliers and consumers interact.

Digitalisationcan strengthen the EU’senergy security.

For example, 5G and 6Gwill require users to replace equipmentto fully reap their benefits,as most existing smartphones, tablets, and computers would only be backwardscompatible.

currently only 17.4% of this is properly treated and recycled

On the other hand, deployment of next generations of low-power chips11and moreefficient connectivity technologies (5G and 6G, networkspowered by artificial intelligence) might reduce the overall footprint of ICT.

Power consumption will also rise due to the increaseduse of online platforms, search engines, virtual reality concepts such as the metaverse10, andmusic or video streamingplatforms.

theDigital Twin of the Ocea

Thedevelopment of the EUDestination Earth (DestinE)and itsdigital earth twins is key to predicting the effects and building resilience to climatechange.

nformation and communications technology(ICT)isresponsiblefor5-9% of globalelectricity use and around3%of greenhouse gas emissions.

the greening of data-based technologies, such asbig data analytics, blockchain,andthe internet of things

climate neutrality and energy efficiency for data centres and cloud infrastructures by 2030

Space-based data technologies providing real-timeglobal information monitor progress towards sustainability.

Digital product passports enableenhanced material, componentand end-to-end traceabilityand make data more accessible

monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions for carbon pricing.

resource efficiency and strengthen the flexibility of systems and networks.

ten key areas where action will be needed.

Digital CompassandFit for 55

While they are different in nature and each subject to specific dynamics, theirtwinning–i.e. their capacity to reinforce each other–deservescloser scrutiny.

on the interactions between the green and digitaltransitions

Governments also fret about privacy breaches, which is even more sensitive than usual when it comes to medical information.

Another Alphabet subsidiary, Verily, is working with L’Oréal, a French beauty giant, to better understand how ageing impacts the biology of the skin—and thus create better skincare.

ageing should be viewed not as an immutable aspect of life but as a condition that can be managed and treated,

to slow the ageing process—or stop it altogether.

Alphabet’s ai projects are also beginning to produce results. Starting in 2016 DeepMind, a British startup bought by Google in 2014,

The fda’s stamp of approval for the Fitbit sensor is a big deal.

Google launched itself into the wearables business in 2019 with a $2.1bn acquisition of Fitbit.

Through engagement with user communities, GEO will play a key role in systematically: identifying data needs while advocating the provision of, and access to, multiple sources of data; delivering tools, skills and services to allow the intelligent exploitation of the data by the user communities; and showcasing the value of Earth observation data in order to expand interest in, and usage of, those observations, as well as demonstrate their benefits to society.

on the ability of expert communities to utilize complex data from Earth observations and combine these with social and economic analyses.

The extraordinary monitoring capabilities of the countries and organizations that participate in GEO afford decision-makers an unprecedented opportunity to gain foresight about critical factors that impact our future

Earth observations are an opportunity tosupplement statistical analyses in the assessment of indicators towards the attainment of the SDGs and thus have a critical role to play in support of SDG monitoring frameworks.