- Apr 2022
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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The DMA includes any company that provides web browsers, social media services, messaging apps or other online services to at least 45 million EU users, or 10,000 businesses, and has a market capitalization of at least 75 billion euros (about $82 billion).
criterion for DMA
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Allowing third-party services (like messenger apps) to interact with gatekeeper systems.Letting users access services they may've acquired outside of a gatekeeper platform.Enabling users to uninstall any pre-installed software or apps.Allowing companies that advertise on gatekeeper platforms to access performance-measuring tools.Letting business users access data generated by their activities.
Requirements of DMA
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send files or make video calls across messaging apps,"
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"have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms,"
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The goal of the act isn't to break tech companies apart but to "break them open,"
Here is the key slogan no break tech companies but 'break them open'
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the Digital Markets Act is aimed at regulating massive "gatekeeper" providers, requiring them to exchange more information between services and provide space for smaller platforms to thrive in the market.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Who is in charge of anti-monopoly regulation
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www.eca.europa.eu www.eca.europa.eu
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TITLE: Cybersecurity of EU institutions, bodies and agencies - Special Report by European Court of Auditors
CONTENT: The audited report of the cybersecurity of EU institutions, bodies and agencies (EUIBAs) concluded that EUIBAs' cyber preparedness is not adequate to cyber threats. It based this conclusion on the following elements:
- increase level of cyber attacks of EUIBAs in times of pandemic and security crisis. The risk exposure is not likely to stop given global dynamcis.
- cyber risks are based on technical interconnectenes of EUIBAs (networks, servers). Technical interdependence is not followed by organisational and human one. There is lack of synergies on projects, tools and platforms such as email or videoconferencing.
- cybersecurity governance is lacking: strategies, policies, risk assessment, etc.
- cybersecurity training is not always systematic.
- two main cybersecurity institutions The Computer Emergency Response Team of the EUIBAs (CERT-EU) and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) are not adequately supported for cybersecurity challenges they face.
Report proposes a few immediate steps:
- legal framework for cybersecurity binding rules for all EUIBAs
- increased resources for CERT-EU
- promotion of synergies via the Institutional Committee for the Digital Transoformation
- focus work on CERT-EU and ENISa on the less cybersecurity mature EUIBAs.
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TITLE: Cybersecurity of EU institutions, bodies and agencies - Special Report by European Court of Auditors
CONTENT: The audited report of the cybersecurity of EU institutions, bodies and agencies (EUIBAs) concluded that EUIBAs' cyber preparedness is not adequate to cyber threats. It based this conclusion on the following elements:
- increase level of cyber attacks of EUIBAs in times of pandemic and security crisis. The risk exposure is not likely to stop given global dynamcis.
- cyber risks are based on technical interconnectenes of EUIBAs (networks, servers). Technical interdependence is not followed by organisational and human one. There is lack of synergies on projects, tools and platforms such as email or videoconferencing.
- cybersecurity governance is lacking: strategies, policies, risk assessment, etc.
- cybersecurity training is not always systematic.
- two main cybersecurity institutions The Computer Emergency Response Team of the EUIBAs (CERT-EU) and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) are not adequately supported for cybersecurity challenges they face.
Report proposes a few immediate steps:
- legal framework for cybersecurity binding rules for all EUIBAs
- increased resources for CERT-EU
- promotion of synergies via the Institutional Committee for the Digital Transoformation
- focus work on CERT-EU and ENISa on the less cybersecurity mature EUIBAs.
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The EU Cybersecurity Act defines cybersecurity as “the activities necessary to protect network and information systems, the users of such systems, and other persons affected by cyber threats”.
What is cybersecurity?
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increase their focus on EUIBAs that are less mature in cybersecurity
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the Interinstitutional Committee for the Digital Transformation, promotes further synergies among EUIBAs
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a legislative proposal introducing common binding rules on cybersecurity for all EUIBAs and increased resources for CERT-EU
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Although CERT-EU is highly valued by the EUIBAs, its effectiveness is compromised by an increasing workload, unstable funding and staffing, and insufficient cooperation from some EUIBA
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are not fully interoperable.
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do not systematically share with each other information on cybersecurity-related projects, security assessments and service contracts.
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potential synergies are not fully exploited.
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Cybersecurity training is not always systematic.
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IT security strategies are in many cases lacking or are not endorsed by senior management, security policies are not always formalised, and risk assessments do not cover the entire IT environment. Not all EUIBAs have their cybersecurity regularly subject to independent assurance
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cybersecurity governance
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he EUIBA community has not achieved a level of cyber preparedness commensurate with the threats.
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strongly interconnected
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attractive targets for potential attackers,
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Apple and Meta exposed client information to hackers disguised as law enforcement agencies. All of these incidents occurred in response to emergency requests, which can be used to circumvent conventional procedure with a court order.
Requests were often sent from law enforcement agencies' hacked e-mail accounts.
These data breaches point to severe flaws in the system's handling of data requests. The situation is becoming more serious as the number of requests increases. From January to June 2021, Meta received 21.700 data requests from law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Typically, these demands are delivered via email. This improvised approach introduces several dangers of misunderstanding, inaccuracy, and intentional hacking.
As a solution, a "single point of contact" is required where all law enforcement agencies can issue demands and businesses can collect them. With adequate safeguards, such a collaboration platform might be an effective solution to preventing hacking, data breaches, and the growing cyber vulnerabilities around the world.
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“Dark web underground shops contain compromised email accounts of law enforcement agencies, which could be sold with the attached cookies and metadata for anywhere from $10 to $50,”
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“There’s no one system or centralized system for submitting these things,”
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there are tens of thousands of different law enforcement agencies, from small police departments to federal agencies, around the world.
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The systems for requesting data from companies is a patchwork of different email addresses and company portals.
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The forged legal requests are believed to be sent via hacked email domains belonging to law enforcement agencies in multiple countries,
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The three people said it may be primarily used to facilitate financial fraud schemes.
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The emergency requests are intended to be used in cases of imminent danger and don’t require a judge to sign off on it.
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routinely asks social media platforms for information about users as part of criminal investigations.
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“may be contacted and asked to confirm to Apple that the emergency request was legitimate,”
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City of London Police recently arrested seven people in connection with an investigation into the Lapsus$ hacking group; the probe is ongoing.
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such requests are only provided with a search warrant or subpoena signed by a judge, according to the people. However, the emergency requests don’t require a court order.
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provided customer data to hackers who masqueraded as law enforcement officials,
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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The thinking space for current developments is shaped by political ideals and philosophy. We cannot understand our period or work on prospective answers for crises, such as the war in Ukraine, unless we comprehend deeper thought origins of our era. This text discusses the Ukraine war by revisiting ideas that influenced Putin and the Russian elite.
On the operational front, some analysts, such as John Mearsheimer, have cautioned that NATO's expansion into Russia's borders could provoke confrontation.
However, beyond the tactical, there are ideas and concepts that have shaped Putin and the Russian elite's thinking.
Several intellectuals, including
Vladislav Surkov is a Kremlin-connected adviser. He proposed the ideology of Russian "sovereign democracy," which is the authoritarian style of mild liberalism that Russia has been practicing since 2006.
IIvan Ilyn is Russian philosopher who died in exile in Switzerland in 1954. As a vehement opponent of the Bolsheviks, he advocated not only against Communism, but also against Western liberalism. In his view that classic autocracy is the right approach for Russia, he echoed Dostoevsky's thinking. Ilyin argued in his main work, 'Our Side,' that Russia had a duty to preserve its traditional autocracy and reject Western liberalism.
The Russian political elite began to be inspired also by 'the Justification of the Good' (Vladimir Solovyov) and 'Philosophy of Inequality' (Vladimir Solovyov) (Nicholas Berdyaev). These three authors, Ilyn, Solovyov, and Berdyaev, are sometimes cited as the fathers of the "Russian idea," which is based on the historical uniqueness, distinctive vocation, and worldwide purpose of the Russian people and, by extension, the Russian state.
Most of these ideas were brought closer to our time by Alexander Dugin, who developed 'Fourth Political Theory' as a synthesis of Neo-paganism, Slavic Nativism, and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
In his book 'Foundations of Geopolitics,' Dugin describes liberal postmodernity as humanity's fundamental threat, based on these three pillars of "Atlanticism": liberalism, free markets, and democracy. As counter-forces, he recommends hierarchy, tradition, and a strict legal structure.
As a practical response to 'atlanticism,' Dugin recommended destabilizing three actions: destabilising internal political processes in the United States, Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and Russia's annexation.
All of these books are essential background reading for understanding Putin's and Russia's elite's thinking as they shift from Western modernity to Russian social conservatism. Russian history has happened in this swinging between modernity and conservativism. It remains to be seen how this transformation will unfold with huge impact not only
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“The legitimacy crises that have plagued the WTO since its creation suggest that ordoglobalism as a distinct strain of neoliberalism may have overreached. If the goal was to fine-tune the rules to prevent disruptive demands for social justice or redistribution, then victory is nowhere in sight.”
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Quinn Slobodian made in his 2018 book, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism,
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The difference is that the American social scientist bet on Islamic civilisation becoming the main challenger to the West. Dugin, however, is betting on a new world order in which Russia is the one countering Western civilisation as the leading Eurasian power.
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Samuel Huntington in the Clash of Civilizations (1996)
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must “destabilise internal political processes in the US”, encourage Britain’s exit from the European Union and begin the annexation of Ukraine.
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that “Atlanticism” – the liberalism, free markets and democracy representing North America and Western Europe – loses its influence over “Eurasia” – the territories once governed by the Soviet Union, which needs to stand for hierarchy, tradition and a strict legal structure.
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Foundations of Geopolitics.
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combine Neo-paganism, Slavic Nativism, and Eastern Orthodox traditions under Dugin’s “Fourth Political Theory”, which integrates elements of liberal democracy, Marxism, and fascism in a new ideology designed to counter liberalism and its individualist denial of mysticism and traditions.
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Alexandr Dugin
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a set of concepts expressing the historical uniqueness, special vocation and global purpose of the Russian people and, by extension, of the Russian state.
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In 2014, he recommended his regional governors read Ilyin’s book, Our Side, alongside Justification of the Good by Vladimir Solovyov and Philosophy of Inequality by Nicholas Berdyaev.
three important books to understand Putin's approach
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a form of Christian authoritarianism
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who died in exile in Switzerland in 1954
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it is the ideas of Ivan Ilyin
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authoritarian brand of mild liberalism
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Russian “sovereign democracy” that has been guiding the Kremlin since at least 2006
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Vladislav Surkov, or “Putin’s Rasputin”
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none of these motivations can justify Putin’s actions – but they can help us understand the many dimensions
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there were also deeper philosophical and ideological motivations behind this invasion
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many political scientists and journalists, from John Mearsheimer to Pepe Escobar, have long been warning that if NATO continues expanding towards Russia’s borders, a deadly confrontation in Ukraine could be on the cards.
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www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov
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The United States has announced the Indo-Pacific Strategy (February 2022) calling for a free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific region. This strategy aims to limit China's growing influence in the region.
The Strategy includes prominent digital and cyber elements, as shown below.
Cross-border data is one pillar of this strategy's commerce aspect. The two other pillars are high labor standards and high environmental standards.
The call for Open RAN Standards and Technologies aims at limiting the dominance by Huawei proprietary standards for 5G networks.
Regional digital connectivity in Indo-Pacific with a link to EuroAtlantic regional networks are key infrastructural elements of the Strategy. US digital foreign policy is focusing its attention on two key strategic regions: Indo-Pacific, and Euro-Atlantic.
In cybersecurity, the strategy calls for "new regional initiatives to improve collective cybersecurity and rapidly respond to cyber incidents." The strategy also calls for the mitigation of online radicalization.
The Quad is called to support building cyber capacities in South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
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free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient
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to mitigate online radicalization,
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the internet, and cyber space.
Interesting distinction between the internet and cyber space.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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set common binding rules on cybersecurity for all the bloc’s institutions.
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Because the EU’s organizations are strongly interconnected, a vulnerability anywhere could have a cascading effect, it said.
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Nonetheless, the European auditors said Tuesday that EU organizations were failing to enact some “essential” cybersecurity controls and underspending in this area. The auditors also alleged a lack of “systematic” cybersecurity training and information sharing.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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“A lot of the influencers who tend to align with Modi see at least some amount of common cause or some of their own viewpoints espoused by Putin’s brand of ethnonationalism,” Mr. Brookie said.
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Pro-Russian sentiment has taken hold in right-wing circles in the United States, misinformation has spread within Russia that claims Ukrainians have staged bombings or bombed their own neighborhoods, and myths about Ukrainian fortitude have gone viral across social media platforms. But in India and other countries where social media users joined the hashtag, pro-Russian narratives have focused on ethnonationalism and Western hypocrisy over the war, themes that have resonated with social media users.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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GDPR has been poorly enforced—including a provision that says people should be able to transport their data from one app to another.
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These standards already exist—for instance, the Matrix messaging protocol, the XMPP standard, and the upcoming Messaging Layer Security. “If every player in the field—so the gatekeepers but also the smaller player—all connect to the same standard, it ends up being a big glue between the different services,” says Amandine Le Pape, a cofounder of the Matrix standard.
Standards for inteoperability.
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for all companies to adopt one encryption standard and stick to it.
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who would manage the exchange of public encryption keys and how cryptographic metadata would be shared between companies.
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The first involves tech companies allowing access to APIs that connect to their messaging services—this is the option Schwab and lawmakers are leaning toward. The second involves more radical change: All companies would have to adopt and implement one universal encryption standard.
Two options for interoperability among platforms.
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“The main challenge is the trade-off between interoperability and privacy for gatekeepers who provide end-to-end encryption,”
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the DMA will create “unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities.”
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“Interoperable E2EE [end-to-end encryption] is somewhere between extraordinarily difficult and impossible,”
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cryptography experts are concerned the proposals will not be technically possible without compromising end-to-end encryption,
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the largest messaging platforms—including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage, which the DMA designates as gatekeepers—will have to open up to rivals.
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But it’s not possible to send a message from one encrypted app to another.
Is it true?
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www.sciencediplomacy.org www.sciencediplomacy.org
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Strong arguments for scientific sanctions against Russia.
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to impose non-violent pain and pressure on Russian civil society, especially among the oligarchs and middle class, provoking them to rise up and force Putin to withdraw from Ukraine.
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we should cease all science cooperation with Russia, and Russian officials should be excluded from international science meetings.
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isolate and punish Russia for its actions.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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If science engagement is no different than soccer, the case for science diplomacy’s potential to build bridges when other means of communication have ceased to function has just become far less persuasive.
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the unique role of the scientific community as a purveyor of rational discourse and mutual understanding
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the head of the Russian Space Agency responded to international sanctions with a threat to let the International Space Station crash into the U.S. or Europe.
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science diplomacy “serves as a critical medium of international political communication when regular diplomatic channels are strained, blocked, or nonexistent.”
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who share common principles and objectives underpins arguments for science diplomacy.
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My position is not a political one: I have served current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and I will serve Secretary-designate Hillary Clinton upon her assumption of office this month. I accepted the position because my involvement in scientific interactions between US scientists and scientists in the former Soviet Union through the 1990s convinced me of the profound stabilizing influence that scientific interactions can exert between countries with deeply discordant ideologies and political systems.
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Nina Fedoroff, a former president of AAAS and former science and technology adviser to the U.S. secretary of state, explained her engagement in science diplomacy as follows:
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Many Central Asians working in Russia will be forced to return home as work opportunities decline. An influx of largely young men to countries with little economic prospects to offer them will have a destabilising impact. Russia may soon be called upon to quell unrest in the guise of the CSTO, unrest the Kremlin is largely responsible for.
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For instance, the percentage of GDP that remittances comprise for Kyrgyzstan in 2020 was 31.3 per cent, with the vast majority last year coming from Russia. Analysts forecast a 33 per cent decline in remittances for Kyrgyzstan in 2022.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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fair use only matters for copyright holders, it doesn’t matter for data subjects and it doesn’t matter for the people who are affected by the decisions when these models are deployed.
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There are lots of people in communities who are not writing papers, but they have other forms of knowledge that are very important for our projects.
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How do we make sure that when we extract knowledge from people, we appropriately compensate them?
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I wonder about AI for social good.
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AI for the value of AI itself.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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TITLE: Will Chinese companies fill the gap at Russian tech market?
CONTENT: After the introduction of sanctions and the withdrawal of Western tech operators, Chinese companies filled the gap.
For example, Huawei's phone sales in Russia trippled in the first two weeks of March. After the withdrawal of Nokia and Ericsson, Huawei and ZET will increase their share of the market for wireless network equipment. Currently, the Russian market is divided almost half-and-half between these two Chinese and American companies.
However, business with Russia exposes Chinese companies to the risk of US sanctions, especially on the sales of equipment containing semi-conductors produced in the United States.
Chinese tech giants will have to walk a fine line between capturing the huge Russian tech market while avoiding harsh sanctions from the United States.
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the Harmony operating system
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Huawei and Chinese peer ZTE control roughly 40 to 60 percent of the market for wireless network equipment in Russia, according to market research company Dell’Oro, with Nokia and Ericsson making up most of the rest.
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Russia needs Huawei. Apple's and Samsung’s retreat has put half the smartphone market up for grabs, while Ericsson and Nokia’s suspension of their Russia business has left a hole in the supply of telecoms equipment for broadband and mobile network infrastructure that will need to be maintained and eventually upgraded.
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“It is theoretically possible that [Huawei] has been able to figure out how to make a cell or base station without US tools, software etc. But it’s hard to believe they would be able to find all the [semiconductors] that were not made with US tools.”
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Its phone sales in Russia rose 300 percent in the first two weeks of March, while other Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo also recorded triple-digit sales increases, according to analysts at MTS, Russia’s largest mobile operator.
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newsletterglue.com newsletterglue.com
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“The theme for this cycle is to clean everything up, make small improvements, debug.
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newsletterglue.com newsletterglue.com
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Ready to start your Email Newsletter? Here are some tips to get you started:
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fully transparent with their suggestions.
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Review tools and products related to one topic: I
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to take short interviews with noted people and introduce them to your readers in a digestible format.
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Curated Resources:
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Make each section shareable:
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Remember that your readers are humans too, and they love it when you sound like a normal person in their personal inbox instead of like a TV News Anchor.
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How to write engaging newsletters - 10 examples
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writer.com writer.com
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||anjadjATdiplomacy.edu||||JovanNj|| GPT-3 driven writing is not extremely promissing (yet).
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Conversion.ai is handy for unlocking writing ideas.
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With these challenges in mind, content teams should assume that anything generated via GPT-3 will need fine-tuning.
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OpenAI’s GPT-3 was first to market, but there are more general pretrained transformer engines on the way. GPT-Neo, aka “open-source GPT-3,” is already available thanks to the work of the grassroots AI research scientists at EleutherAI.
Shall we try to use this real open ai iplatform?
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GPT-3 is a commercially available API for developers.
Shall we try it?
||JovanNj||
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GPT-3 only needs a few (2-3) examples to deliver on specific writing tasks.
Is it true?
||JovanNj||||anjadjATdiplomacy.edu||
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Let’s strip away the hype
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app.writer.com app.writer.com
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Writing style
Elements for Diplo's Writing Style
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support.writer.com support.writer.com
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Once your Styleguide is published, it will be viewable to anyone with the URL (and password, if you have password protection enabled). It’s not limited to teammates who have Writer seats. This way, your entire organization has easy access to the content guidelines you’ve created.
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How to build styleguide for writer.com
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support.writer.com support.writer.com
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How to import terms into writer.com
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www.saasworthy.com www.saasworthy.com
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The best language and grammarly softare
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kinsta.com kinsta.com
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Top 13 Grammarly alternatives - to be checked
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docs.newsletterglue.com docs.newsletterglue.com
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The complete list of the blocks we've optimised:
Blocks that display well on Newsletter email
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newsletterglue.com newsletterglue.com
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to use for our newsletters - Newsletter Glue
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www.scmp.com www.scmp.com
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This is not a conflict. This is a war.
We have to be careful on terminology since it is becoming important language 'detail'.
She is correct. It is war as per 'definition of war'.
Let us pay more attention on our communicatioin. We should use more 'war' and conflict exceptionally when we want to show wider context beyond 'military encounters'.
||DylanF||||AndrijanaG||||borisbATdiplomacy.edu||||StephanieBP||||VladaR||||MarcoLotti||||sorina||
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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China needs Europe as a market, and as a source of technology and investments, they note, especially when China’s ties with America are in dire shape.
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Deterring a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan requires demonstrating that the West is capable of unity and resolve.
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Those Chinese also predict that transatlantic unity between Europe and America will crumble and that sanctions will fail to break Russia’s will, not least as European voters protest against high energy prices and flows of refugees from Ukraine.
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China is doing Europe a favour by explaining how it expects the West to be a loser from the conflict in Ukraine.
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Chinese officials pre-emptively instructed the Europeans not to threaten their leader.
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that China will face a serious cost if it helps Mr Putin circumvent Western sanctions on Russia, or provides military aid
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Mr Michel and Ms von der Leyen were expected to express the EU’s horror over Chinese fondness for economic coercion.
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Instead Mr Michel and Ms von der Leyen were due to raise human rights at the summit, touching on such thorny topics as China’s iron-fisted rule over Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
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hina’s preferred agenda involved the signing of memorandums, and talks about reviving the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), a trade pact heavily backed by Mrs Merkel.
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EU governments are horrified by China’s refusal to urge Russia to stop the war.
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In 16 years as chancellor, she promoted an accommodating approach that treated China as an invaluable source of economic opportunity and a potential partner on such issues as climate change, albeit one prone to disappointing lapses on human rights.
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CHINESE LEADERS wanted the mood to be “business as usual”.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Digital outsourcing contributes 5.6% to Indian economy.
There are three reasons why digital outsourcing will gain in momentum:
- accelerating digitalisation of all segments of economy during pandemics.
- migration of economy to cloud
- mainstreaming of remote work
Digital outsourcing will gain in importance because of crisis in Ukraine and Russia, an important software developer hubs as well geo-political tensions with China.
However, India faces a few problems with digital outsourcing:
- more and more push to have support in the region or at least in the same time-zone
- pressure from countries to reduce cross-border data flows especially in critical and confidential areas.
- protectionism and push for employing local workfoce.
This opens new possibilities, in particular, for countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe when it comes to European market.
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governments are increasingly keen to limit cross-border information flows, often invoking national security
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forcing these positions to be filled locally.
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Amid supply-chain disruptions from the pandemic, now compounded by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a geostrategic contest with China, Western politicians are in a protectionist mood.
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being in the same time zone as your client.
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For these reasons, proximity matters.
Great asset for the Balkans and Serbia
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It is harder to do so for high-value projects at the heart of their business, which require constant communication, continuity and confidentiality
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McKinsey estimates that compensation costs have risen by 20-30% over the past year.
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A ballooning Indian “talent cloud”
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Wages for new hires in India can be as little as $5,000 annually, less than a tenth of the going rate in rich countries.
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it possible for companies to untether from their physical headquarters not just peripheral functions but parts of their ever more digital core business
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Earlier this year JPMorgan Chase, an American bank, announced it would add 6,000 people to its substantial Indian business to work on the cloud, cyber-security and AI. IBM has opened a cyber-security centre in India to cater to its Asian clients.
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great migration to the cloud offers further opportunities.
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All these innovations required sophisticated software. A lot if it has been developed in India since early 2020. And there is more to come.
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All manner of businesses are digitising ever more of their operations. They are moving more activities to the computing cloud. And work is becoming more remote. India’s low-cost, competent coders can help with all three.
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In the last financial year they reached an all-time high of $150bn, or 5.6% of Indian GDP (see chart 1).
Digital outsourcing is important part of Indian economy.
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The industry’s three giants, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, became household names at home and familiar to chief executives of big businesses abroad, who had outsourced their companies’ countermeasures against the feared “millennium bug”,
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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The most important points regarding influencers
Influencers are an integral part of the digital economy.
It's difficult to tell the difference between entertainment and e-commerce in an 'influencer economy.
Influencer could gain more importance in digital advertising, as traditional Google/Facebook ads may be more affected by privacy regulations and filtering.
China has started to regulate influencers. Global regulators will expect influencers to communicate clearly to followers that their work is commercial.
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As the Wild West phase ends, brands should also embrace new analytical tools that help them gauge the performance of influencers
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who disclose to their audiences that their posts are paid
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They should expect more regulation on consumer protection: China’s crackdown may also include limits on spending and content rules
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the most popular marketing strategy of the 2010s—ads targeted through Google and Facebook—is under threat as new privacy standards, including on Apple’s iPhone, make it harder to spy on potential customers.
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The boundary between entertainment and e-commerce is blurring.
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ignoring influencers is a mistake.
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They are quick to adapt to newer platforms like TikTok and to the ever-changing algorithms of older ones like Instagram.
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Influencers’ networks reach new audiences, particularly younger shoppers.
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an elite of under 100,000 of them who have over 1m followers
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Total spending on influencers by brands could reach $16bn this year.
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For all firms with brands—and together those brands are worth over $7trn—it is time to realise that influencing is more than just a hobby.
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This week China promised a tax-evasion crackdown on social-media influencers, who are paid by brands to promote products online to armies of followers.
Regulation of influencers in China.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Main brands are increasingly relying on influencers to be their ambassadors.
China, where influencers became more prominent earlier than in Western countries, is estimated that influencers contribute 1.4% towards the country's GDP. The Economist explains how the rapid rise in economic importance of influencers opens many business, regulatory and policy issues.
Influencers are becoming a strong competitor for traditional brand ambassadors (actors and sportsmen, etc.). ).
Influencers have a greater impact on Gen-Z who will become the major consumers in coming years.
China will regulate influencers' economic and Internet roles. Others regulators have plans for influencers to indicate their posts in advertisements.
On the risk side, influencers could 'cheapen' some brands, such as Louis Vuitton.
For advertising companies, influencers are also more difficult than traditional brand ambassadors to manage and direct
Major brands will need more influencers to help them with their advertising campaigns, despite all possible difficulties.
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To be a top-ten brand, says Flavio Cereda-Parini of Jefferies, an investment bank, you have to know how to play the digital game. If you don’t, “you are not going to be top ten for very long.”
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Regulators around the world, as well as some social-media platforms, are beginning to clamp down on influencers who do not tag their content as advertorials.
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Before the latest clampdown Chinese authorities had already forced 20,000 influencer accounts to be taken down last year on grounds of “polluting the internet environment”.
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A host of younger and more unpredictable brand ambassadors is harder for brands to control than one or two superstars on exclusive contracts with good-behaviour clauses.
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Influencer-led live-streamed shopping events in China by Louis Vuitton and Gucci were ridiculed for cheapening their brand.
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“media impact value” (MIV)
Diplo should increase it.
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They are video editors, scriptwriters, lighting specialists, directors and the main talent wrapped into one.
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He and Viya, a fellow influencer, flogged $3bn-worth of goods in a day, half as much again as changes hands daily on Amazon.
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(Instagram is best for all-stars with over 2m followers and TikTok for niche “micro-influencers” with up to 100,000 followers and “nano-influencers” with fewer than 10,000).
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Such star-led campaigns can feel aloof to teenagers and 20-somethings who prize authenticity over timeless glamour.
Change in PR priorities.
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Brands’ global spending on influencers may reach $16bn this year, more than one in ten ad dollars spent on social media.
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One in 2020 from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, where influencers gained prominence earlier than in the West, estimated its contribution to the economy at $210bn, equivalent to 1.4% of GDP.
Contribution of influencers to Chinese economy is 1.4% of GDP!!!
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On March 29th news reports surfaced that China’s paternalistic authorities are planning new curbs on how much money internet users can spend on tipping their favourite influencers, how much those influencers can earn from fans, and what they are allowed to post.
China will regulate influencers.
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For consumers, influencers are at once a walking advert and a trusted friend.
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Their fame stems not from non-digital pursuits, as was the case with the A-list stars who used to dominate the ranks of brand ambassadors, but from savvy use of Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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Google and Apple may soon end their 30% cut on app sales in their stores.
This monopoly was challenged by app developers. However, the main challenge for app monopolies is coming from Brussels.
The EU's Digital Market Act is (DMA), which will be in force in 2023, will require mobile platforms to allow "sideloading" directly from the internet.
It is intended to eliminate monopoly and increase competition in the apps market. Google permits 'sideloading'. Apple does not. DMA will punish offenders with fines of up to 20% of their worldwide revenues.
The lobbying battle began. Apple's boss Tim Cook said sideloading would "destroy" the iPhone's security. Apple will likely have to make a trade with it.
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Apple and Google take a cut of up to 30%, which is thought to contribute a fifth of the operating profits at Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
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you cannot “pass laws against trade-offs”.
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Apple allows sideloading on its desktop computers without calamity.
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The DMA, which is on track to come into force next year, would force mobile platforms to allow third-party app stores and “sideloading” of apps directly from the web—something Google permits but Apple does not.
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A bigger threat comes from the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), approved in draft form on March 24th.
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A bill before America’s Congress would force app stores to allow payment alternatives and let apps advertise other ways to sign up.
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curator.diplomacy.edu curator.diplomacy.edu
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According to the Economist Silicon Valley has changed in post-Covid age in the following ways:
- The Silicon Valley spirit is spreading worldwide. To benefit from the funding, talent, and know-how, you don't need to physically be in Silicon Valley. New emerging digital hubs in the USA are Austin and New York.
- Europe is gaining digital momentum. Venture capital investment in Europe has risen from under $40 billion in 2019 to over $93 billion last year
- Fund-raising is getting easier and faster You can pitch venture capital via Zoom or recorded video."Promising startups can raise funds in days instead of weeks."
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Its high-octane venture capitalism and, increasingly, its capitalists and capital have infused technology scenes from Stockholm to Shanghai and São Paulo.
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Venture investments across the Atlantic have shot up from less than $40bn in 2019 to more than $93bn last year—pulling nearly equal with Silicon Valley, according to CBInsights, another data provider.
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The Brookings Institution, a think-tank, recently estimated that 31% of tech jobs are now offered in “superstar metro areas” such as Silicon Valley, down from 36% before the pandemic.
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now they no longer have to be physically present to get access to capital, talent and know-how.
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Zoom makes it easier for people to interview for a new job and for entrepreneurs to pitch to potential investors. In the words of Mike Volpi of Index Ventures, a VC firm, “This has created a much more efficient market.”
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Promising startups can raise money in days rather than weeks.
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everyone seems suddenly obsessed with the decentralised “web3” (which they are)
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ike a college reunion these days
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