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Submission + - Covid learning loss has been a global disaster (economist.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

When covid-19 first began to spread around the world, pausing normal lessons was a forgivable precaution. No one knew how transmissible the virus was in classrooms; how sick youngsters would become; or how likely they would be to infect their grandparents. But disruptions to education lasted long after encouraging answers to these questions emerged.

New data suggest that the damage has been worse than almost anyone expected. Locking kids out of school has prevented many of them from learning how to read properly. Before the pandemic 57% of ten-year-olds in low and middle-income countries could not read a simple story, says the World Bank. That figure may have risen to 70%, it now estimates. The share of ten-year-olds who cannot read in Latin America, probably the worst-affected region, could rocket from around 50% to 80% (see chart 1).

Children who never master the basics will grow up to be less productive and to earn less. McKinsey, a consultancy, estimates that by 2040 education lost to school closures could cause global gdp to be 0.9% lower than it would otherwise have been—an annual loss of $1.6trn. The World Bank thinks the disruption could cost children $21trn in earnings over their lifetimes—a sum equivalent to 17% of global gdp today. That is much more than the $10trn it had estimated in 2020, and also an increase on the $17trn it was predicting last year.

Submission + - UK's National Grid reveals £54bn wind power network upgrade plan (bbc.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: A huge upgrade of the UK's electricity network would see a host of pylons and cables transporting power from offshore wind farms around the UK. National Grid ESO said it was the biggest network upgrade in 60 years. There are now more than 11,000 wind turbines on and offshore, which produce nearly a quarter of the UK's electricity. National Grid ESO, which runs the electricity network, said the plan it has laid out would enable the government to deliver 50GW of offshore wind power by 2030 — a third of the UK's electricity demand — while creating 168,000 jobs. It claimed the network could lead to more than £50bn of investments over the next eight years.

A total of 23 gigawatts (GW) of electricity — 24 million homes worth at current power usage — worth of contracts were awarded this morning to bidders wishing to build new renewable facilities. The auction saw offshore wind prices hit a new record low at a quarter of the current cost of gas generated power.

Submission + - Arizona Makes It Illegal For Bystanders To Record Cops At Close Range (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Arizona passed a law making it harder to record police by limiting how close bystanders can be while recording specified law enforcement activity. [...] The new Arizona law requires any bystanders recording police activity in the state to stand at a minimum of 8 feet away from the action. If bystanders move closer after police have warned them to back off, they risk being charged with a misdemeanor and incurring fines of up to $500, jail time of up to 30 days, or probation of up to a year. Sponsored by Republican state representative John Kavanagh, the law known as H.B. 2319 makes it illegal to record police at close range. In a USA Today op-ed, Kavanagh said it is important to leave this buffer for police to protect law enforcement from being assaulted by unruly bystanders. He said “there’s no reason” to come closer and predicted tragic outcomes for those who do, saying, “Such an approach is unreasonable, unnecessary, and unsafe, and should be made illegal.”

This week, Kavanagh has succeeded in making close-range recording illegal in Arizona, with only a few exceptions. Perhaps most critically, the person involved in the police activity—someone being questioned, arrested, or handled by police—can record, as long as it doesn’t interfere with police actions. The same exception extends to anyone recording while in a vehicle involved in a police stop. Additionally, anyone recording activity from an enclosed structure on private property still has a right to record police within 8 feet—unless law enforcement “determines that the person is interfering” or “it is not safe” for them to be in the area. That caveat potentially gives police a lot of discretion over who can record and when.

Kavanagh said he decided to push for this change in Arizona law after some Tucson officers complained that bystanders sometimes stood a foot or two behind them while recording arrests. The state representative also told USA Today that his decision to set the minimum distance at 8 feet “is based upon 8 feet being established by the US Supreme Court as being a reasonable distance as they applied it to people entering and leaving abortion clinics when faced with protesters.” Responding to critics who think citizens should be able to get closer to law enforcement activity, Kavanagh said, “The argument that filming from 8 feet away does not allow for a proper view of the scene is ridiculous." He cited impactful police brutality recordings that were recorded from further distances, including Rodney King (100 feet) and Freddie Gray (“clearly 8 to 10 feet away”).

Submission + - Rogers Communications down. No cell service or Internet for millions in Canada (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by farrellj
farrellj writes: Eary Friday morning, Rogers Communications ((TSX:RCI.B)(NYSE:RCI)) network went down. As the third-largest Cell and Internet provider in Canada, that means millions of Canadians have no contact with the outside world. Rogers also provides connectivity for INTERAC bank and debit services, so people currently can only use cash for their purchases. In many places, they also provide 911 Emergency services, and that is unavailable, too. The call centers themselves are still available, I assume they have multiple/redundant service providers, and users of other cell networks can still call 911. Internet traffic across Canada is down by 25% due to this outage. Currently, there is no indication of when they will be back online, or what has caused the outage.

Submission + - 5M barrels of Oil from U.S. reserves sent overseas as gasoline prices stay high (reuters.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency reserves release to lower domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices hit record highs.

About 1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986. U.S. crude futures are above $100 per barrel and gasoline and diesel prices above $5 a gallon in one-fifth of the nation. U.S. officials have said oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.

U.S. crude inventories are the lowest since 2004 as refineries run near peak levels. Refineries in the U.S. Gulf coast were at 97.9% utilization, the most in three and a half years.

Submission + - SPAM: Anonymous is waging cyber war on Russia - how effective could they be?

Submitted by Martin S.
Martin S. writes: Anonymous has declared a cyber war on Russia in response to the invasion (Credits: PA)

A spate of cyber attacks has affected Ukraine’s digital systems since Russia’s invasion began.

It soon became clear Russia’s ‘boots on the ground’ approach would be supplemented by a parallel cyber offensive.

Last week Ukraine called on its citizens to take to their keyboards and defend the country against Russia’s cyber threat.

At the same time, a campaign was underway among the hacktivist collective Anonymous, calling on its global army of cyber warriors to target Russia.

Anonymous launches "cyber war" against Russia

Vladimir Putin is getting ‘a sip of his own bitter medicine’, one German Anonymous group wrote

Anonymous hacks Russian news sites with anti-Putin messages
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Anonymous hack Russian satellite C&C computers

Submitted by Martin S.
Martin S. writes: Anonymous says Russia's spy satellites are now hacked. "Russian denies everything"
"Go the f*** back to Russia tweeted Anonymous. On Wednesday, a group associated with the collective Anonymous, called Network Battalion 65 or ‘NB65’, announced in a tweet that it had hacked into Russia’s space agency. The group added that Roscosmos and Russia “have no more control over their own Spy-Satellites.” But Russia was quick to deny these claims with a statement by Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin released through the Russian news agency Tass.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, has publicly called on "all game development companies" to "temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts" in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In a tweet from his verified account, Fedorov also called on esports platforms to "temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding [sic] on the territory of Russia and Belarus."

These moves, Fedorov suggests, "will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression" by the Russian government. "In 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers... and missiles." In an additional note directed at the Xbox and PlayStation Twitter accounts, Fedorov wrote that "if you support human values, you should [leave] the Russian market!" In a follow-up tweet, Fedorov also asked Riot Games, EA, Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Wargaming to "close your office in Russia" in solidarity with Ukraine. "There’s no place for [an] aggressor on the global technological map!"
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Ukraine Proposes ICANN Remove Russian Domains (theregister.com)

Submitted by unimind
unimind writes: With so many coming together on the side of Ukraine (even those who traditionally stay neutral in international affairs), asking ICANN to take action against Russia seems like it could be a reasonable proposition under the circumstances. From the article:

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, Mykhailo Fedorov, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, on Monday asked the head of DNS overlord ICANN to disable country code top-level domains associated with Russia...
Specifically, he has asked for the revocation of domains “.ru”, “.”, “.su”, and others used by the Russian Federation, shutting down DNS root servers serving the Russian Federation, and contributing to the revocation of associated TLS/SSL certificates for those domains.
"All of these measures will help users seek for reliable information in alternative domain zones, preventing propaganda and disinformation," Fedorov's email says.

As a bonus the likely decrease in spam would be a welcome reprieve...

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