Two of Tokayev’s decisive moves have been the replacement of Nazarbayev as the head of the National Security Council and the dismissal of the country’s powerful intelligence chief Karim Masimov (who has since been arrested along with other unidentified suspects as part of a probe into “high treason.”)

Why is Kazakhstan a sought-after partner? Simply put, the country provides unique access to ethnic Russian and Chinese groups as “specimens” for conducting field research involving highly pathogenic potential biological-warfare agents. Kazakhstan has 13,364 kilometers of borders with its neighboring countries Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The EU should respond to the challenge by focusing on four pillars of European Green Deal diplomacy: trade, bilateral financial agreements, multilateralism through the United Nations, and domestic implementation of its Fit for 55 climate package.

Wealthy Western powers such as the US, the United Kingdom, and the EU still fail to see that climate justice and efficiency in dealing with the global climate crisis are two sides of the same coin.

The European Commission has proposed a version of the CBAM that is designed to be compatible with the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization (WTO). But legality is not the real test of such a measure. The EU and its member states need to prepare to face trade retaliation for the CBAM.

Most countries – rich and poor, large and small – view the CBAM as green trade protectionism.

However, lawyer Kian Bone claimed that Djokovic could only benefit from diplomatic immunity if he entered Australia on official state business. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also state on their website that holding such a passport will not lead to special rights of privileges.

According to Li, the moon simulator could also be used to test whether new technology such as 3D printing could be used to build structures on the lunar surface. It could help assess whether a permanent human settlement could be built there, including issues like how well the surface traps heat, he said.

According to Li, the moon simulator could also be used to test whether new technology such as 3D printing could be used to build structures on the lunar surface. It could help assess whether a permanent human settlement could be built there, including issues like how well the surface traps heat, he said.

The timing of the project can be linked to China’s recent successes in the standards domain with Huawei dominating the 5G standards and with China exporting standards through Belt and Road projects in regions like Central Asia and Africa.

to open standardization to the outside world.

China has successfully captured the renewable energy market being the global leader in solar power and EV batteries.

views technical standards through the lens of green and sustainable development.

by acquiring the first-mover advantage in key sectors.

The Chinese government believes that the strategic and geopolitical game is no longer limited to market domination and is inherently influenced by system design and rulemaking.

better economic gains in the form of licenses and royalties

the optimization of the industrial supply chains (production, distribution, circulation, and consumption),

to dictate the terms of technological innovation in certain critical technologies

banking on technical standards to achieve technical competence and excellence in critical technologies

China views standardization as a way to strengthen its research and development in critical and emerging technology areas like artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and biotechnology.

the National Standardization Development (NSD) outline document

The frenetic social media action follows an end-of-year announcement by Kosovo’s government of an immediate, albeit temporary, ban on all crypto mining activity as part of emergency measures to ease a crippling energy crisis.

That was because of the nations’ “soaring” negative perceptions towards each other, economic issues being politicised and affected by national security scrutiny, and both sides seeking support from allies “in a sustained geostrategic competition”, he said.

a hot peace rather than a new Cold War.

“Despite escalating political difficulties, Chinese and American businesses remain deeply integrated in terms of financial, intellectual and production networks,” Wang wrote. “The vast majority of Chinese and American companies are not embracing the idea of decoupling.”

Wang noted that Beijing was grappling with an economic slowdown and trying to contain the spread of Covid-19, while the pandemic and financial stability were also key issues for Washington.

He said US President Joe Biden would be under fire at home if his administration moved away from confrontation with China before the 2022 midterm elections. And he also expected Beijing to show stronger resolve to resist US challenges to its legitimacy and authority in the run-up to the Communist Party national congress in autumn.

STANDARDS FOR IOT SENSORS

The devices have become key enablers for a host of new technologies essential to business and to everyday life, from turning on a light switch to managing one’s health.

tates, the progress enjoyed by the LGBTQI+ community rests on the shoulders of thousands of brave pioneers with the courage to live their lives openly a

on Julian on Wednesda

The device is powered by a Qualcomm

er. The printi

y printer. The printing cost is inversely proportional to the cost effectiveness, which means the lower the c

bor-saving digital technologies could spur the reallocation oflabor toward higher-growth sectors, provided it is accompanied by proper labor and social protection policies, helping to raise potential output and sustain the global recovery (Dieppe 2020).

Google did announce a partnership with Paratus to land the cable in Namibia but not much else made the news.

Nagasaki demonstrates all the signs of active city diplomacy — global advocacy and a myriad of activities that help to maintain the city’s global identity. Cities should use their local history, experiences and resources to build networks and coalitions for action. As the world continues to deal with difficult problems like nuclear proliferation and climate change, we will continue to see cities network and collaborate to engage these issues.

Nagasaki also plays a special role in the history of sister-city relations, which are now a common aspect of city diplomacy.

Nagasaki is active in city diplomacy on both the domestic and international fronts through its promotion of peace tourism, research on nuclear abolition, its sister-city relationships and activities that emphasise its history as an open city to the world.

Cities have shown that they are capable of acting on the global stage by leveraging their resources as hubs of globalisation, forming networks and coalitions with other cities and focussing on issues in which they have unique experiences or expertise.

Whether Chinese companies are able to meet these new demands could inform analogous debates in Europe over the right to explanation.

The CAC is traditionally an internet-focused regulator, and future regulations for autonomous vehicles or medical AI may create an opening for a ministry like the MIIT to seize the regulatory reins.

many practical aspects of trustworthy AI will first surface in the MOST-inspired ethics committees of individual companies.

the CAC’s approach appears to have the clear upper hand: It is the most mature, the most in tune with the regulatory zeitgeist, and it comes from the organization with the most bureaucratic heft

But in the Chinese context, that tactic feels quite out of step with the country’s increasingly hands-on approach to technology governance, a disconnect that could undermine the impact of MOST’s efforts.

released its own set of ethical norms for AI, with a special focus on weaving ethics into the entire life cycle of development.

In November 2021, it issued its first batch of trustworthy AI certifications for facial recognition systems.

trustworthy AI refers to many of the more technical aspects of AI governance, such as testing systems for robustness, bias, and explainability.

a focus on creating the tools for measuring and testing AI systems.

to “give an explanation” and “remedy” situations in which algorithms have infringed on user rights and interests.

a draft set of thirty rules for regulating internet recommendation algorithms

three different approaches to AI governance

“These technologies are partially already used and it will be the intention to use them more,” said Ambühl. “Everything around data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning … we want to see how can it be made beneficial for multilateral or bilateral diplomacy.”

“The narratives of debt-trap and the influence-building on the back of state-to-state infrastructure projects delivered by China are increasingly influencing, possibly dominating, international perceptions of China’s overseas infrastructure projects, railways included,” he said.

“Much more is exported from China than is imported into China via this railway corridor,” Pavlicevic said. “While the containers on outbound trains are full, many on the inbound ones are empty, and this has a negative impact on the overall economics of this logistic corridor, and the prospects for the logistic sector.”

“Railways are very convenient in the context of China’s current zero-Covid policy because they do not involve people. The whole train only has an operating crew,”

In the first 11 months of this year, 13,817 freight trains ran from China to Europe, delivering more than 1.33 million containers, a 30 per cent increase on the same period last year.

it has seen explosive growth over the past months as manufacturers at both ends of the line seek alternative trade routes because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted sea and air shipping and pushed up prices.

intensifying tensions in the South China Sea had forced Beijing to turn to land routes.

once the China-Laos railway linked up with the Thai rail network

The 1,035km (643-mile) China-Laos railway

“One could say that railway projects in that sense are also meant to contribute to China’s soft power.”

“The goals are quite simple – the export of Chinese standards, facilitating the going global of Chinese capital and industries, and helping solve domestic issues related to overcapacity,” said Karl Yan, an associate professor with Zhejiang University.

“railway diplomacy”.

In 2021, President Xi had 79 telephone calls with leaders of foreign countries and international organizations, attended 40 major diplomatic events via video links, delivered speeches and sent correspondences and messages totaling at least 100 via video links, according to a China Media Group documentary titled "Exceptionally significant 2021" broadcast on Sunday.

The wild metamorphosis continues, and while its mechanisms may be technological, the soul behind them is deeply and unavoidably human

We won’t tell you what to think about the future, but how to think about it.

We’ll be critical but not cynical; skeptical but not defeatist

“change everything.”

get carried away by hype

You cannot explain the impacts of technology on the world without deeply understanding the motives, incentives, and limitations of the people who build and use it.

taking an evenhanded, clear-eyed look at what it would take to tackle the severe challenges the world faces.

a false dichotomy

This tug-of-war between optimism and pessimism is the reason why I said this feels like an inflection point in the history of tech.

tech itself—“this tech is bad” vs. “this tech is good”—instead of looking at the underlying economic, social, and personal forces that actually determine what that tech will do.

Every issue is divisive and tribal

The metaverse

Personalized medicine

Blockchain

to always collapse into either/or.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, an intelligent person should be able to hold opposed ideas in their mind simultaneously and still function.

we were wrong to think tech itself was the solution

with rejecting the binary

What does it mean to be WIRED, a publication born to celebrate technology, in an age when tech is often demonized?

when various binaries that have long been taken for granted are being called into question.

to think about the issue intelligently and with nuance instead of always falling into the binary trap.

When WIRED was founded in 1993, it was the bible of techno-utopianism.

“I am very grateful to the leadership of Kazakhstan for their attentive attitude to the maintenance and development of the Russian language… Many people in Kazakhstan are studying Russian. This is a Russian-speaking country in the full sense of the word.”

As a minimum, knowing the Russian language is a must. You need to understand what Russia is.”

Russia is a top destination for labor migration from Tajikistan and for the first nine months of 2021, more than 1.59 million Tajik citizens entered the country for the purpose of work. Tajikistan’s economy is highly dependent on remittances from those migrants.

the creation in 2017 of the European Battery Alliance of batteries is already producing significant results. By 2025, the EU will be able to produce enough battery cells to meet the needs of the European automotive industry – and even to build our export capacity. This is also strategic autonomy!

EU resilience in the rare earth magnet and motor value chain.

The list of sensitive materials has more than doubled over the past decade, including rare earth elements joined by lithium, titanium and bauxite.

the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)

a useful toolbox for 5G

the Strategic Compass that is currently under development will be very important because it aims precisely at harmonizing the perception of threats and risks.

not all European states see the problems through the same lenses, because they share neither the same history nor the same geography.

Science, technology, trade, data, investments are becoming sources and instruments of force in international politics.

the transformation of economic interdependence in which we, as Europeans, have invested a great deal, particularly through the defence of multilateralism.

Strategic autonomy is, in this perspective, a process of political survival.

Thirty years ago, we represented a quarter of the world's wealth. It is foreseen that in 20 years, we will not represent more than 11% of world GNP, far behind China, which will represent double it, below 14% for the United States and at par with India.

to be a “political union” able to act as a “global player” and as a “geopolitical Commission” without being “autonomous”.

“capacity to act autonomously when and where necessary and with partners wherever possible”.

widened to new subjects of an economic and technological nature, as revealed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was born in the field of defence industry and, for a long time, it was reduced to issues of defence and security.

"If they are able to convince large swaths of the public that the 2022 elections are illegitimate, then they are more likely to get the sorts of legislative changes that they want."

Even though these larger social media platforms are trying to stomp out misinformation, people spreading false information and conspiracy theories have found other platforms. Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, has become a haven for QAnon influencers who talk to their hundreds of thousands of followers. Rumble and Odysse are two video platforms filled with misinformation and conspiracy theories that would be quickly removed from YouTube.

they mistrust the government and public officials after social systems in the US have failed them -- whether through economic hardships or a lack of proper mental illness coverage. This leaves believers feeling alienated and dissatisfied with how their lives ended up.

"I think we're going to see an acceleration and expansion of the conspiracy theories,"

“There’s an old adage that ‘all models are wrong, some are useful,’” says Milrad. “Even if it’s a great forecast it’s going to be slightly wrong. It's how you can add value to that model.”

Over the two decades of information Novak’s team studied, humans were 20 to 40 percent more accurate at forecasting near-future precipitation than the Global Forecast System (GFS) and the North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM), the most commonly used national models.

the US-based Global Forecasting System (GFS) and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF),

Models are now capable of interpreting the dynamics of parcels of atmosphere as small as 3 kilometers in area

By running a basic algorithm that took the real-time pressure field in each discrete unit and prognosticated it forward over the course of a day, the team created four 24-hour atmospheric forecasts covering the entire country. It took 33 full days and nights to complete the forecasts. Though far from perfect, the results were encouraging enough to set off a revolution in weather forecasting, moving the field toward computer-based modeling.

The department manages 280 active social media accounts globally, with a total of about 4.6 million followers, according to the document. During the pandemic the department scaled up “the provision of regular high-quality social media content” for use by Australian embassies.

Dedicated staffing for consular and crisis response services had increased to 210 staff.

In an implicit warning against cuts, the document said: “Our global network is smaller than those of comparable economies and, on current number of posts, we are second last in the G20 (Saudi Arabia ranks last) and 20th in the OECD (behind countries such as Belgium, Hungary, Greece and Chile).”

It shows the number of positions at Australian embassies and high commissions has declined in recent years, with Dfat employees on overseas postings dropping from 897 in June 2017 to 833 in June 2020.

It shows the number of positions at Australian embassies and high commissions has declined in recent years, with Dfat employees on overseas postings dropping from 897 in June 2017 to 833 in June 2020.

If Bukele succeeds in his experiment to marry libertarian Bitcoin with authoritarianism, it won’t be the last time it happens

The country has a junk-bond rating and a dwindling number of friends abroad. “It's a huge gamble,” says Gamarra, the political scientist. “That’s why I think it leads to great speculation about how this is personally benefiting [Bukele] or benefiting his family.”

He compares it to the idea behind Hong Kong or Dubai: Bring international investment, create a safe regulatory environment, and watch the benefits flow to locals.

Bitcoin City. The city would be built on the edge of the Conchagua volcano, he said, giving easy access to geothermal energy to mine bitcoins, and would have no taxes (except for sales tax). But the more important aspect was how he would pay for it: a $1 billion bond, backed in bitcoins.

If it were bitcoins, how would profits from that fund be used, and what would happen if the value fell suddenly?

there was the now infamous Article 7, a provision that requires merchants to accept Bitcoin—a mandate. (Bukele has since said that there are no penalties for businesses that decline it.)

While legal-tender status is clearly a watershed moment for Bitcoin, the practical benefits are less clear for Salvadorans, says Jill Gunter, an investor who has researched the use of cryptocurrency in struggling economies like Venezuela.

For the Bitcoiners who convened with Bukele later that night in a Twitter Space to celebrate “El Jefe,” it was a major symbolic victory—a claim for Bitcoin’s legitimacy on the world stage.

“Shame on everyone (OK, fine, I'll call out the main people responsible: Shame on Bitcoin maximalists) who are uncritically praising him,”

held it up as a symbol of freedom, an open financial technology free of government control that would give people more autonomy. Now, they are helping to prop up an increasingly autocratic regime, one that could offer a roadmap for others around the world.

Magaña suspects that Bukele, faced with dwindling options for relief from abroad, may view Bitcoin as a last ditch effort to raise funds—even if it further alienates the US and the IMF, which has criticized the Bitcoin plans.

including a $1 billion Bitcoin-backed bond, economic zones with lax regulations, tax breaks, and permanent residency for high-dollar investors.

that more than two-thirds of Salvadorans disapprove of the “Bitcoin Law,” and protests against using tax money to buy a volatile cryptocurrency have drawn thousands.

Bukele has pitched Bitcoin as an opportunity for Salvadorans, especially as a way around high fees for people receiving US dollars from abroad, a flow that represents nearly a quarter of El Salvador’s economy.

Bitcoin has long been held up as a beacon of freedom from banks and governments. And yet, somehow, by opposing his country’s embrace of Bitcoin, Gomez had become a reluctant political dissident.

On August 31, Gomez tweeted several leaked slides of an app called Chivo, the government’s upcoming Bitcoin wallet, along with critiques.

who declared that he had a plan for a better future: Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency would become legal tender in the country,

Cassis is still seeking dialogue with China on human rights and, in general, multilateralism remains at the top of the Swiss agenda: International Geneva, digital diplomacy, and the search for mandates for international mediations.

The importance of Latin America was downgraded, and measures to reduce migration were given more weight in foreign aid. He set priorities in foreign policy: China and the Middle East. He also extended Switzerland’s diplomatic network.

knowledge graphs might provide a way to identify promising connections between disparate ideas that wouldn’t normally exist in any one person’s head

He points out that most knowledge work is siloed and over-specialized, causing researchers and technologists to miss out on valuable connections between concepts in different fields

their responses are intrinsically explainable

to assess its level of confidence in responses to user queries.

Rather than offering users a list of the ten web pages most relevant to their query, Diffbot has to provide them with a single number, or name, or piece of information that can be unambiguously right or wrong.

Diffbot (and knowledge graphs in general) give definite answers to user queries, as opposed to a list of resources that readers can consult to find the answers they’re looking for.

Knowledge graphs encode entities like people, places and objects into nodes, which are then connected to other entities via edges, which specify the nature of the relationship between the two.

Language models often babble, or make up answers to questions they don’t understand.

Late last week, Microsoft sought a court order to seize websites Nickel was using to compromise targets. The court, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, granted the motion and unsealed the order on Monday.

Microsoft said it has seized control of servers that a China-based hacking group was using to compromise targets that align with that country’s geopolitical interests.

Browsing anonymous sites that are within Tor hidden services network (aka the Dark Web)—as opposed to using Tor to connect to regular Internet sites and servers—isn’t affected by the threat. Unfortunately, this is frequently not an option for people who want to reach sites that have been blocked through censorship.

Tor anonymity works by routing traffic through three separate nodes. The first knows the user’s IP address, and the third knows where the traffic is destined. The middle works as a sort of trusted intermediary so that nodes one and three have no knowledge of each other. Running huge numbers of servers has the potential to break those anonymity guarantees, said Matt Green, an encryption and privacy expert at Johns Hopkins University.

The move left Tor users in Russia—said by Tor Project leaders to number about 300,000, or about or 15 percent of Tor users—scrambling to find ways to view sites already blocked and to shield their browsing habits from government investigators.

The Russian government has blocked most Tor nodes in that country, and hundreds of malicious servers have been relaying traffic.

“harms children” and creates “a toxic environment for teens.”

The message kids are getting is not “Be yourself.”

shows that different isn’t always better.

It’s all about an exclusive experience. But, likes lots of favorite tourist spots, it could soon get crowded up there.

By attacking critical infrastructure, the gang drew more attention than it expected. The FBI tracked and seized back about half the Bitcoin ransom, and DarkSide later announced on its website that it was going out of business.

The US, Russia and China are all experimenting with new weapons, such as orbiting hypersonic glide vehicles capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the heavens. Russia caused anger in late 2021 with its reckless test of an anti-satellite missile. Others will follow suit, potentially threatening global communications. Not to be outdone, Nasa is planning to knock a giant asteroid off course in September by orchestrating a head-on collision, using a spacecraft launched on a rocket built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The US calls this “planetary defence” – but the technology plainly has offensive applications. Some will deem this progress, others a giant backward step for mankind.

These emergencies provide the context for another great challenge of 2022: international migration, whether it involves refugees from conflict, politically persecuted asylum-seekers, or economic migrants forced out of their homes by climate change, famine and drought. The UN’s International Organisation for Migration says a record 281 million people, or 3.6% of the global population, were classified as international migrants in 2020. This figure is climbing despite pandemic restrictions on movement across international borders.

According to the International Rescue Committee charity’s 2022 emergency watchlist, 12 of the 20 countries at greatest risk of worsening humanitarian crises are in Africa.

The countries of the Sahel, in particular, have seen an upsurge of radical Islamist groups, mostly home-grown, yet often professing allegiance to global networks such as al-Qaida and Islamic State.

It’s estimated 25 million people in Africa will live with HIV-Aids in 2022. Malaria claims almost 400,000 lives in a typical year. Treatment of these diseases, and others such as TB and diabetes, may deteriorate further as a result of Covid-related strains on healthcare systems.

the bigger problem may be the negative impact on management of other diseases.

The sudden spread of Omicron, first identified in South Africa, suggests more Covid variants could emerge in 2022. Yet once again, the response of developed countries may be to focus on domestic protection, not international cooperation.

France assumes the EU presidency in January and Macron will try to advance his ideas about common defence and security policy – what he calls “strategic autonomy”.

More fundamentally, Europe must decide whether it wants to be taken seriously as a global actor, or will surrender its international influence to China, the US and malign regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

India, China’s biggest regional competitor, may continue to punch below its weight on the world stage.

The Guardian revealed that at least 6,500 workers have died since Qatar got the nod from Fifa in 2010, killed while building seven new stadiums, roads and hotels, and a new airport.

the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, humanitarian crises, mass migration, and trans-national terrorism

The latest obsession in the tech industry are cryptocurrency start-ups and related companies that imagine a future of the internet that would be less dominated by corporate control. This feels, in part, like a crisis of confidence about technology’s foundations from inside the machine.

China’s government was anxious enough about the power of the country’s tech superstars that it cracked down on some popular digital services. In London, Brussels, Seoul, Washington, Tallahassee and — OK, just about everywhere — regulators and lawmakers are trying to erect new guardrails to control what they see as pernicious effects of tech companies’ power in our lives.

These tech empires’ combination of wealth, importance in the economy, huge numbers of users and global influence is perhaps something we’ve never seen before.

already the world’s most valuable business, is close to reaching an unimaginable stock market value of $3 trillion. That’s about eight Walmarts, or more than the value of the entire German stock market.

Russia outsourced its COVID-19 diplomacy efforts to intermediaries and local partners, enabling them to profit by selling Sputnik V doses at a significant markup.

Angola turned to Serbia, which has its own production facility, for a donation of 50,000 doses that arrived in September and October 2021.

Current Angolan President João Lourenço studied in the Soviet Union and sees Russia as an important partner in balancing his country’s foreign policy. Angola is among Africa’s top buyers of Russian arms, while Russian diamond miner Alrosa has a large presence there.

The vaccine’s financial backers in Moscow reportedly awarded exclusive resale rights in both countries to Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, a mid-level royal in the United Arab Emirates.

South Africa stopped using AstraZeneca over efficacy concerns with the Beta variant and approved China’s Sinovac vaccine, albeit with delays.

about Sputnik V’s use of the adenovirus 5 as the main vector in its second dose

SAHPRA has proven to be quite independent and resistant to domestic and international political pressures despite the urgency of the pandemic.

which WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, among others, has described as “vaccine apartheid”

a broader campaign to portray Russia as a development, economic, political, and security partner to the continent—a role that it has not played since the Soviet era.

the makers and distributors of the vaccine have yet to secure emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other important independent regulatory bodies in countries like South Africa. Kenya and Namibia discontinued their use of Sputnik V over safety concerns, while Nigeria has yet to place any orders for the Russian vaccine even though its pharmaceutical regulator gave it a green light.

“vaccine for humankind.”

By most metrics, Wu Dao 2.0 has surpassed OpenAI’s GPT-3. Tang says it was trained on 4.9 terabytes of clean data, including Chinese-language text, English-language text, and images. OpenAI has said that GPT-3 was trained on just 570 gigabytes of clean, primarily English-language text.

it would cut China off from the advanced semiconductors needed to train AI models

Microsoft maintains its research lab in Beijing, and the Chinese Internet and AI giant Baidu has a research lab in Silicon Valley, for example.

to limit this crosspollination