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Riots break out in cities across US, including fires, violence near White House
05/31/20 7:57 PM
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Semitrailer speeds into crowd of protesters on Minneapolis bridge; injuries unclear
05/31/20 4:29 PM
Semitrailer speeds into crowd of protesters on Minneapolis bridge; injuries unclear
05/31/20 4:29 PM
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NASA astronauts board Space Station in historic SpaceX mission
05/31/20 10:35 AM
NASA astronauts board Space Station in historic SpaceX mission
05/31/20 10:35 AM
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President Trump says US to designate Antifa group as a terrorist organization amid ongoing riots
05/31/20 9:51 AM
President Trump says US to designate Antifa group as a terrorist organization amid ongoing riots
05/31/20 9:51 AM
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SpaceX spacecraft docks with space station on historic NASA mission
05/31/20 7:26 AM
SpaceX spacecraft docks with space station on historic NASA mission
05/31/20 7:26 AM
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Watch Sunday Mass live from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC at 10:15 am on FoxNews.com
05/31/20 7:15 AM
Watch Sunday Mass live from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC at 10:15 am on FoxNews.com
05/31/20 7:15 AM
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
813 by genedangelo | 145 comments on Hacker News.
In May of 1963, I started my first full-time job as a computer programmer for Mitchell Engineering Company, a supplier of steel buildings. At Mitchell, I developed programs in Fortran II on an IBM 1620 mostly to improve the efficiency of order processing and fulfillment. Since then, all my jobs for the past 57 years have involved computer programming. I am now a data scientist developing cloud-based big data fraud detection algorithms using machine learning and other advanced analytical technologies. Along the way, I earned a Master’s in Operations Research and a Master’s in Management Science, studied artificial intelligence for 3 years in a Ph.D. program for engineering, and just two years ago I received Graduate Certificates in Big Data Analytics from the schools of business and computer science at a local university (FAU). In addition, I currently hold the designation of Certified Analytics Professional (CAP). At 74, I still have no plans to retire or to stop programming.
813 by genedangelo | 145 comments on Hacker News.
In May of 1963, I started my first full-time job as a computer programmer for Mitchell Engineering Company, a supplier of steel buildings. At Mitchell, I developed programs in Fortran II on an IBM 1620 mostly to improve the efficiency of order processing and fulfillment. Since then, all my jobs for the past 57 years have involved computer programming. I am now a data scientist developing cloud-based big data fraud detection algorithms using machine learning and other advanced analytical technologies. Along the way, I earned a Master’s in Operations Research and a Master’s in Management Science, studied artificial intelligence for 3 years in a Ph.D. program for engineering, and just two years ago I received Graduate Certificates in Big Data Analytics from the schools of business and computer science at a local university (FAU). In addition, I currently hold the designation of Certified Analytics Professional (CAP). At 74, I still have no plans to retire or to stop programming.
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Los Angeles mayor calls for National Guard help
05/30/20 8:25 PM
Los Angeles mayor calls for National Guard help
05/30/20 8:25 PM
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Minneapolis mayor says 'white supremacists,' 'out of state instigators' behind protests, but arrests show otherwise
05/30/20 3:44 PM
Minneapolis mayor says 'white supremacists,' 'out of state instigators' behind protests, but arrests show otherwise
05/30/20 3:44 PM
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SpaceX rocket lifts off in historic flight carrying 2 NASA astronauts to International Space Station
05/30/20 12:25 PM
SpaceX rocket lifts off in historic flight carrying 2 NASA astronauts to International Space Station
05/30/20 12:25 PM
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WATCH LIVE: Two NASA astronauts are awaiting liftoff in a historic flight on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station
05/30/20 12:16 PM
WATCH LIVE: Two NASA astronauts are awaiting liftoff in a historic flight on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station
05/30/20 12:16 PM
New world news from Time: In Rare Move, U.S. Embassies in Africa Condemn George Floyd Murder
(JOHANNESBURG) — As Minneapolis burns over the police killing of George Floyd and shock and disappointment in Africa grow, some U.S. embassies on the continent have taken the unusual step of issuing critical statements, saying no one is above the law.
The statements came as the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the “murder” of Floyd and said Friday the continental body rejects the “continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA.”
Africa has not seen the kind of protests over Floyd’s killing that have erupted across the United States, but many Africans have expressed disgust and dismay, openly wondering when the U.S. will ever get it right.
“WTF? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’?” tweeted political cartoonist Patrick Gathara in Kenya, which has its own troubles with police brutality. He, like many, was aghast at the tweet by President Donald Trump, flagged by Twitter as violating rules against “glorifying violence,” that the president later said had been misconstrued.
Mindful of America’s image on a continent where China’s influence has grown and where many have felt a distinct lack of interest from the Trump administration in Africa, some U.S. diplomats have tried to control the damage.
The ambassador to Congo, Mike Hammer, highlighted a tweet from a local media entrepreneur who addressed him saying, “Dear ambassador, your country is shameful. Proud America, which went through everything from segregation to the election of Barack Obama, still hasn’t conquered the demons of racism. How many black people must be killed by white police officers before authorities react seriously?”
The ambassador’s response, in French: “I am profoundly troubled by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Justice Department is conducting a full criminal investigation as a top priority. Security forces around the world should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
Similar statements were tweeted by the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Uganda, while the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya tweeted a joint statement from the Department of Justice office in Minnesota on the investigation.
African officials also were publicly outspoken last month over racism in China, when Africans complained of being evicted and mistreated in the city of Guangzhou amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, the U.S. was quick to join in, with the embassy in Beijing issuing a critical security alert titled “Discrimination against African-Americans in Guangzhou” and noting actions against people thought to be African or have African contacts.
Now the Africa-facing version of the state-run China Daily newspaper is tweeting footage from Minneapolis with the hashtags #GeorgeFloydWasMurdered and #BlackLivesMatter.
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Supreme Court rejects challenge to limits on church services; Roberts sides with liberals
05/30/20 12:44 AM
Supreme Court rejects challenge to limits on church services; Roberts sides with liberals
05/30/20 12:44 AM
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At Trump request, Pentagon puts military police on alert to combat riots
05/30/20 12:11 AM
At Trump request, Pentagon puts military police on alert to combat riots
05/30/20 12:11 AM
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White House briefly locked down as unrest reported in Atlanta, Washington and New York City in wake of George Floyd's death
05/29/20 5:38 PM
White House briefly locked down as unrest reported in Atlanta, Washington and New York City in wake of George Floyd's death
05/29/20 5:38 PM
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Summary, details of phone conversations between Michael Flynn and then-Russian envoy to US Sergey Kislyak made public
05/29/20 2:23 PM
Summary, details of phone conversations between Michael Flynn and then-Russian envoy to US Sergey Kislyak made public
05/29/20 2:23 PM
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DNI Ratcliffe sends declassified transcripts of December 2016 Michael Flynn phone calls with then-Russian envoy to Congress
05/29/20 1:06 PM
DNI Ratcliffe sends declassified transcripts of December 2016 Michael Flynn phone calls with then-Russian envoy to Congress
05/29/20 1:06 PM
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Trump announces US ‘terminating’ relationship with World Health Organization, says agency has not made 'greatly needed reforms'
05/29/20 12:04 PM
Trump announces US ‘terminating’ relationship with World Health Organization, says agency has not made 'greatly needed reforms'
05/29/20 12:04 PM
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President Trump holds news conference in White House Rose Garden
05/29/20 11:50 AM
President Trump holds news conference in White House Rose Garden
05/29/20 11:50 AM
New world news from Time: Peru Locked Down Hard and Early. Why Is Its Coronavirus Outbreak So Bad?
Most countries that have seen their COVID-19 cases explode in the last month—Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.—have received fierce criticism from epidemiologists for their resistance to the tough social distancing measures necessary to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. For Peru, which now has the world’s second-highest per capita infection rate, it’s a different story.
Peruvian president Martín Vizcarra declared a national state of emergency on March 15, when the country had just 71 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The order closed Peru’s borders and banned Peruvians from leaving the house except to access essential goods or perform essential work. It was one of the earliest quarantines in Latin America, and came in before lockdown orders in France, the U.K., and other European countries that were at the time far ahead of Peru in their contagion curves.
But it hasn’t worked as hoped. By May 28, Peru had nearly 142,000 cases of COVID-19 and 4,099 coronavirus-related deaths. It’s the third highest toll in Latin America, a region which has become the new epicenter of the pandemic in recent weeks, led by its two largest countries, Brazil and Mexico.
Read More: Brazil Is Starting to Lose the Fight Against Coronavirus—and Its President Is Looking the Other Way
Speaking on May 23 as he extended most quarantine measures until the end of June, Vizcarra said that Peruvians needed to do more to keep to follow the rules of lockdown and avoid “individualistic” and “selfish” behavior.
But public health experts say living and working conditions in the country of 33 million—where a fifth of people live on only around $100 a month—has made it near impossible for many Peruvians to comply with quarantine measures. Meanwhile, some government measures have backfired, inadvertently leading to bigger gatherings of people. Here’s what to know about how COVID-19 spread in Peru, despite quarantine measures.
How did the coronavirus spread so much during Peru’s quarantine?
The virus has been spreading fast in Peru ever since the country confirmed its first case on March 6. The country surpassed 1,000 cases 25 days later, and 10,000 cases two weeks after that, on April 14, according to Reuters. Some 70% of cases are concentrated in Lima, the sprawling coastal capital which is home to a third of the population. Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, the world’s largest city that cannot be reached by road, has also been hit hard.
The problem is that for many in the South American country, life is still structured in a way that makes it difficult for many people to avoid close contact with others, says Ivan Hidalgo Romero, academic director at the Institute of Government and Public Management in Lima. “The government’s [quarantine] strategy works for the 30% of Peru that is employed in the formal sector, that’s been growing economically,” he says. “But there’s another 70% of Peru, which is informal, that doesn’t have access to basic services of health, education, nutrition, or to pensions and financial safety nets.”
Staying home for long periods of time is impossible for the 44% of households that do not have a refrigerator, according to a 2018 government survey, with families needing to leave the house regularly to access food. As a result, busy food markets have become a hub of infection. In late April, when authorities shut down one of Lima’s more than 1,200 food markets and performed rapid discard tests on traders, 163 of 842 came back positive.
Forgoing several months work is even harder for Peruvians than it has been for people in wealthier countries like Italy, China and the U.S., which have shuttered their economies. More than 70% of Peruvians work for cash in the informal sector, with little job security and no possibility of sick pay. Working from home is impossible for the vast majority. Around 43% of the workforce is employed in agriculture or heavy industry, while construction and tourism make up the large bulk of the services sector. Less than a third of households have a computer.
“We’re seeing the measures designed in the capital colliding with the reality of the country,” Hidalgo says.
The government has given poorer families grants of around $220 each to help them weather the crisis—part of a massive economic response package that will cost 12% of Peru’s GDP. But critics say the distribution of that aid has contributed to spreading the virus. Most poorer Peruvians don’t have bank accounts, so recipients have needed to go to banks in person to collect their money. “This generated queues at the banks since dawn, without any respect for physical distancing,” Nora Espiritu, a doctor and health researcher wrote in The BMJ, a British medical journal,
How is Peru’s healthcare system coping with COVID-19?
It’s struggling. Ernesto Gozzer, a former director of Peru’s National health Institute a professor of Global Health at Cayetano Peruvian University, says the system is reeling from “at least 30 years” of underinvestment. “We started in this outbreak with a system that wasn’t prepared. That’s why the government tried to rapidly implement this bold quarantine order, even though it’s not an easy thing to do in Peru.”
Gozzer says the government has moved fast to boost capacity in the healthcare system. “Before February we had only around 100 ICU beds in the country. In March that doubled to 200. And now we have 1,000.” The government says they will double that number again, to 2,000, over the next month.
Health minister Victor Zamora Mesía has been blunt about the challenge facing his country. In an interview with La Republica newspaper, he compared Peru to Spain, a comparatively wealthy nation, about 1.5 times the population of Peru, that saw overcrowding in hospitals despite starting with roughly 8,000 ICU beds. “If Spain was overwhelmed, imagine the effort we’ve got to make here.”
Nationwide ICU beds with ventilators in Peru’s hospitals are 85% full, according to the government. But with health care facilities unevenly distributed, some parts of the country, like the northern Amazon region of San Martin, have just a few beds left or have run out altogether. In mid-May, the president of Peru’s Society of Intensive Care Medicine said that ICUs in Lima were no longer admitting older patients, instead taking in younger ones who had a higher chance of survival. (Other health officials later said that decisions were made on a case by case basis and not on age alone). In some places—like isolated Iquitos—a shortage of basic medicines has led to price speculation in pharmacies. “We are at our limit,” Gozzer says.
How is the government responding to the increasing infections?
Police have been cracking down on people breaking quarantine rules, but working without personal protective equipment (PPE), thousands of officers have fallen sick themselves. Going forward, the priority for security forces will be enforcing health protocols at food markets, President Vizcarra said May 22. He also announced an extension of quarantine measures until June 30. But certain businesses, including salons and food delivery services are now allowed to reopen.
The government said May 25 that the number of new infections is leveling off in Peru, in what Vizcarra calls a “non-flat plateau”. But the following day the WHO included Peru in a list of Latin American countries where the rate of infection is “still accelerating.” The number of new infections per day has topped 5,700 since May 26, with a peak of 6,154 on May 27.
Zamora Mesía, the health minister, has been clear that the economy is also a major consideration in easing quarantine measures. According to a national telephone survey, 30% of Peruvians have lost their jobs since the lockdown began. “The impact on employment and the increase in poverty and extreme poverty translate into hunger, which also affects health,” he told La Republica. “We have to restore a balance at some point, and this is the first step: we begin to cautiously move the economy, in a way that doesn’t inflict a blow on what we’ve gained in health.”
How is the rest of Latin America coping with the coronavirus?
COVID-19 was slower to spread in Latin America than in Asia, Europe and the U.S. But this month has seen a spike of cases across the region, and as of May 28 the region accounted for 40% of daily deaths from the disease. It’s an alarming figure for a region with high rates of inequality and poverty, underfunded health systems, and highly urbanized populations.
Latin American governments have mounted drastically different responses to the pandemic. Leaders in some countries, like Mexico and Brazil, have resisted efforts to shut down the economy and performed very few tests for the virus. Other countries, from relatively well-off Chile to poorer Honduras, have implemented strict lockdowns. But even with such responses, analysts say limits on state aid and large informal economies have made it harder for Latin Americans to abide by quarantine orders, as in Peru.
Hidalgo says the next few months may bring a moment of reckoning for the region’s governments. Many Latin American countries have experienced rapid economic growth over the last two decades, but some have failed to channel that prosperity into strengthening the social safety nets and health systems that are now proving crucial to keeping COVID-19 at bay. “The pandemic is going to reveal how much governments have really invested in creating infrastructure for the poor and for the general population,” he says. “Every country will see their reality laid bare.”
New world news from Time: ‘We Know What Is Best for Us.’ Indigenous Groups Around the World Are Taking COVID-19 Responses Into Their Own Hands
When Eric Freeland, 34, started coughing at the end of March, he didn’t think much of it. But when his symptoms grew worse, Freeland’s mother began to worry. Freeland is a Native American living with his family in the Navajo Nation in the southwestern U.S., where access to healthcare is limited. He is also diabetic, putting him at greater risk to the coronavirus.
When Freeland’s breathing became short and stuttered, his mother drove him to the nearest hospital where within minutes of arriving, he lost consciousness. He awoke three weeks later, hooked up to a ventilator, from a medically induced coma.
“We’ve had epidemics before. We’ve had viruses before. In general, we’ve had a lot of things attack us before,” says Freeland, who has since recovered fully. But this is “the worst case scenario.”
The Navajo Nation, home to more than 173,000 people and spans across parts of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, has been hard hit by COVID-19, with 4,944 confirmed COVID-19 infections in the community and 159 deaths as of May 29. Before the pandemic, the nation already faced a host of challenges, with up to 40% of people not having access to running water in their homes and 10% not having access to electricity. But despite the outbreak, the Navajo Nation has received little support from the federal government. “The efforts for battling COVID-19 were solely the Navajo Nation’s doing,” says Jonathan Nez, the President of the Navajo Nation. “There was little federal assistance when we were going through the peak of the crisis.”
The Navajo Nation is not alone. While Indigenous communities and cultures vary greatly in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, they face similar challenges when it comes to health problems and accessing medical care. The close to 10 million Indigenous people in these four countries who are descendants from the original inhabitants of their countries, have higher rates of chronic health issues making them more susceptible to severe COVID-19 cases.
And yet, they say, federal funding to these communities continues to be insufficient. The COVID-19 stimulus law passed by the U.S. Congress mandates $8 billion for relief to Native American communities, but they had to sue the Treasury Department to access the funds. The support only began reaching the Navajo Nation in mid-May, long after the outbreak had started. Delays in distributing funding left frontline workers without proper protection and forced the Urban Indian Organization to close some of its health facilities due to a shortage of critical resources.
In Canada, where the government pledged to spend $216 million to protect Indigenous Canadians (who make up 4.9% of the population), experts pointed out it would only amount to only around $142 per person. The funding also does not go to Indigenous people living outside of Indigenous reserves, who make up over half of Canada’s Indigenous population. This prompted the Congress of Aboriginal People in Canada to file a federal court application on May 13, alleging that the government’s COVID-19 assistance is “inadequate and discriminatory.” (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since announced $54 million to support off-reserve Indigenous people.)
Despite the lack of government support and limited resources, Indigenous communities are implementing public health measures to effectively curb the spread of the virus within their communities. Although the Navajo Nation has one of the highest infection rates per capita in the United States, surpassing New York and New Jersey, the community is testing far above the national average of 4.9%, with 15.64% of its population having been tested. “We are using our own sovereign ability to govern ourselves,” says President Nez. The community also implemented some of the strictest lockdown measures in the country after an outbreak began in their community, mandating that no one leaves home unless they are essential workers or there is an emergency. They say that has helped curb the spread of the virus. “The reason the Navajo Nation has managed this crisis isn’t because of the federal government,” President Nez says. “It’s because of us.”
Indigenous communities have long received worse care during pandemics and witnessed higher mortality rates than the rest of the population. The New Zealand Māori mortality rate during the 1918 Spanish flu was 7.3 times higher than the non-Indigenous mortality rate. During the H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak in 2009, Indigenous Canadians accounted for 17.6% of deaths even though they account for only 4.3% of the country’s population.
“Historically, we have not been treated well when it comes to pandemics,” says Chief David Monias of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba. “While the rest of Canada received services [during previous pandemics], we were just left to die.”
The lack of federal support for Indigenous communities is particularly dangerous, given that these communities—who face higher rates of chronic illnesses—are more vulnerable to COVID-19.
In Australia, 50% of Aboriginal people live with one major chronic disease such as cancer, cardiovascular or kidney disease and nearly 25% have two or more chronic ailments. “If you look at Indigenous Australians, they have onset of kidney and cardiovascular disease earlier than non-Indigenous Australians,” says Jason Agost, an epidemiologist focussed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. In Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities have a lower life expectancy than the national average and in the United States, the mortality rates for preventable diseases such as asthma or diabetes are three to five times higher for Native Americans.
While experts say there is no single reason for why Indigenous populations face poorer health outcomes, Stephane McLachlan, a researcher looking into effective responses to COVID-19 for Indigenous populations says it can be explained by “the long standing impacts of colonization” which have left Indigenous people poorer on average and lacking access to nutritious food, clean water and adequate housing.
As well as higher rates of chronic illnesses that make them more vulnerable to the coronavirus, Indigenous communities often cannot implement precautionary measures to stop the virus spreading rapidly.
In Canada, at least 61 First Nations communities have not had access to safe drinking water for at least a year. While some non potable water sources can be effective for washing hands, the Canadian government says that communities on a “Do Not Use Advisory” should not use tap water for washing hands. “The government keeps telling people to wash their hands,” Meredith Raimondi, a senior manager from the United States National Council of Urban Indian Health. “But how are Indigenous people supposed to do that when they don’t have clean water?”
For many Indigenous people living in overcrowded homes, social distancing or isolation is also impossible. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are 16 times more likely to be living in an overcrowded house than non-Indigenous Australians.
This was the case for Freeland, who like many Native Americans, lives with his extended family. Both his parents fell ill with the virus after he contracted it. “So many of us live in close quarters,” he says. “By the time my symptoms started to show, it was too late.”
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Indigenous people also disproportionately struggle to access medical services if they do fall ill with COVID-19. Some Indigenous communities live in remote areas where governments have not invested in health infrastructure, resulting in people having to travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest medical facility. In Northern Canada, many communities cannot be accessed by road and require planes or boats. Some remote communities in Australia only have a single nurse present on the ground, with doctors consulting patients over the phone.
“So many Native Americans have to drive for hours to see a doctor or get to a grocery store,” Freeland says, noting that he is lucky he lives within close proximity to hospital facilities. “I wouldn’t have made it if, like other Native Americans, I had been a little further away.”
For all the challenges Indigenous communities face—from a lack of federal funding to higher rates of pre-existing comorbidities that increase vulnerability to COVID-19—these communities have taken matters into their own hands. They say Indigenous led-responses are the key to mitigating the impacts of the virus.
“Money is a good start but it’s not the whole story,” says Shannon MacDonald, a Canadian Indigenous physician and deputy chief medical officer for First Nations Health Authority, a health service delivery organization in British Columbia. “It’s about communities having the ability to respond within the communities.”
Because Indigenous people often face systemic racism when seeking out medical attention, MacDonald says that “some of our community members are reluctant to access services unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Indigenous health providers, who understand Indigenous cultures, have proven to be better equipped to develop culturally-sensitive public health responses for these communities.
Indigenous-led responses have already proven to be successful, and in some cases, more effective than federal responses.
The Lummi Nation, a sovereign Native American community in the Pacific North-West have been preparing for COVID-19 since the virus appeared in China, gathering additional medical supplies including test kits and creating the country’s first field hospital. The Nation declared a state of emergency on March 3, 10 days before the Trump Administration did and has implemented health measures including social distancing, drive-through testing, essential good deliveries for the elderly and phone call consultation with doctors. The Lummi reservation, home to 5,583 people, has had 40 cases as of May 2—an infection rate in line with the national average.
In Australia, Aboriginal communities have been less affected by the virus than anticipated, which experts attribute to having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health practitioners and researchers play a pivotal role in leading response efforts that are culturally sensitive. Aboriginal-led health services ensured that public health messages were communicated to communities in their local languages. Aboriginal communities also protected themselves by camping out in the bush to protect elders. Like many Indigenous Nations in Canada, some Australian Aboriginal communities also shut their borders before the federal government did to avoid disease transmission.
“We can’t be waiting for the government to decide,” says Myrle Ballard, a Canadian Indigenous researcher studying effective health responses to COVID-19 for Indigenous communities. “We Indigenous people know what is best for us.”
Please send any tips, leads, and stories to virus@time.com
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Trump vows military support to Minnesota governor
05/28/20 11:30 PM
Trump vows military support to Minnesota governor
05/28/20 11:30 PM
New world news from Time: The U.S. Might Revoke Hong Kong’s ‘Special Status.’ Here’s What That Means For Business in the Global Financial Hub
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently autonomous from mainland China — an assessment that could threaten the city’s trading relationship with the U.S. and deal a blow to both American and Chinese companies operating there.
The news comes following Beijing’s decision late last week to draw up a national security law for Hong Kong. The move came after Hong Kong’s Legislative Council failed in its obligations to enact such a law since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997. Critics say, however, that the Chinese government’s bypassing of the local legislature undermines the “high degree” of autonomy promised to Hong Kong when China resumed sovereignty over the territory of 7.4 million.
“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” Pompeo said in a statement.
That autonomy matters because Hong Kong’s trading privileges with Washington depend on it. It’s up to the White House to decide what action it will take following Pompeo’s assessment, but options include tariffs, visa restrictions, export controls and freezing the U.S. assets of Hong Kong and Chinese officials deemed to be aiding Beijing in its encroachment on Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Officials made clear that the move is not intended to target Hong Kong citizens. The U.S. will try “to ensure the people of Hong Kong are not adversely affected to the best we can,” David R. Stilwell, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said during a media teleconference on May 27.
Businesses, however, are nervous. Almost 300 U.S. companies base their regional headquarters in Hong Kong and more than 1,300 have operations in the city — from 3M to Goldman Sachs to the insurer AIG. There are also an estimated 85,000 U.S. citizens living in Hong Kong.
An American Chamber of Commerce spokesperson spoke last week of a “fear factor developing in the business community.” Business confidence was already shaken by the six months of often violent protests sparked last year by a contentious extradition bill, in the wake of which some companies started making plans to shift their operations. Now experts say that Beijing’s growing control over Hong Kong, and potential trade restrictions by Washington, could further diminish business confidence and compromise Hong Kong’s importance as an international business center.
“Businesses will inevitably change their perceptions of Hong Kong as a gateway to China that is protected by rule of law,” says Benjamin Quinlan, CEO and managing partner of strategy consultancy Quinlan and Associates, who also sits on the board of a fintech association.
“If you remove [Hong Kong’s special status], there will be foreign companies that say ‘we’ll just enter China directly, I’ve got no one going via Hong Kong,’ or they’ll just exit China completely,” he tells TIME. “It doesn’t bode well for Hong Kong’s position as a global financial hub.”
What is Hong Kong’s ‘special status’?
Although Hong Kong is a part of China, under the terms of the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 the U.S. treats Hong Kong as distinct from the mainland when it comes to economic relations, applying a different set of rules from the rest of China on things like export controls, customs and immigration.
The continuance of this special status is predicated on Hong Kong remaining distinct from mainland China. The “one country, two systems,” framework, a political formula that has been in place since the 1997 handover, affords the city plenty of leeway to run its own affairs, including an independent judiciary and freedoms of assembly, the press and speech. The enclave has its own currency, Olympics team and seat at the World Trade Organization.
Business groups say that these characteristics are an important driver of the city’s commercial success. “It would be a serious mistake on many levels to jeopardize Hong Kong’s special status, which is fundamental to its role as an attractive investment destination and international financial hub,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act—passed in November 2019 following months of protests in Hong Kong—requires the State Department to complete an annual assessment to determine if Hong Kong remains sufficiently different from China. That assessment is needed to justify Hong Kong’s unique treatment under U.S. law.
What happens next?
Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) tells TIME that while President Trump “has a menu of things he could choose to do” it was “an a la carte menu as opposed to on or off.”
According to Kennedy, it’s likely that things like export controls on sensitive technologies would be adopted first, with more punitive measures like tariffs coming later on.
In his May 27 teleconference, Stilwell said actions would be “as targeted as possible to change behavior.”
Sanctions on Chinese officials or entities could damage the ability of Chinese companies to transact in the city, which in turn impacts China’s ability to do international business in U.S. dollars. But the Hong Kong government warned in a May 28 statement that, “any sanctions are a double-edged sword that will not only harm the interests of Hong Kong but also significantly those of the U.S.”
Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University and the former head of the IMF’s China Division tells TIME that the revocation of Hong Kong’s special status will have a significant negative impact on trade and financial flows between the U.S. and Hong Kong. In 2018, U.S. foreign direct investment in the territory was $82.5 billion and U.S. goods and services traded with Hong Kong totaled an estimated $66.9 billion. Hong Kong is one of the few jurisdictions to maintain a trade surplus with the U.S., to the tune of $26.4 billion in 2019.
Key to Hong Kong’s success is the rule of law, but its longevity is doubt many businesspeople say. “If the Chinese legislature can start doing things like this and overriding Hong Kong legislature, can they start doing similar things on issues other than national security?” asks Kevin Yam, a financial regulatory lawyer based in Hong Kong.
A lawyer at one global law firm tells TIME that she has received inquiries from nervous clients over the last few days who want to move commercial contracts away from Hong Kong law.
“For U.S. businesses and financial institutions operating in Hong Kong this would herald a period of great uncertainty,” says Prasad, “especially as they can no longer count on Hong Kong’s much-touted rule of law and at least modest independence from China.”
Kennedy believes that companies with operations in Hong Kong will likely leave if the situation continues to deteriorate.
“If Hong Kong loses its independent judiciary, freedom of the press, and all those things it has treasured, then Hong Kong is not going to be seen as a safe harbor within China and the region for American companies to base their regional headquarters, have most of their capital and large staff, and base their contracts there,” he says.
One Hong Kong hedge fund executive tells TIME that he is “definitely concerned” about the news. His firm started considering alternative office locations in Asia because of events in Hong Kong last year, but hadn’t made any meaningful decisions. Depending on how the situation pans out, it may “speed up,” the process of getting a contingency plan in place.
Better for business?
Hong Kong officials have attempted to allay the concerns of international investors, saying that national security legislation is needed to ensure there is no repeat of the mass demonstrations that paralyzed Hong Kong for the second half of 2019. The protests plunged Hong Kong into its first recession in a decade. Protests raged in the financial district for several weeks late last year.
During lunchtime on Wednesday, riot police fired pepper balls to dispel a crowd that had gathered to protest the national security law in the Central area, which is home to the headquarters of several international banks and law firms.
“As the implications of China’s recent direction on Hong Kong start to sink in, there is a growing possibility that investors will lose confidence in Hong Kong’s unique legal construct, of British law operating on Chinese soil,” says Kurt Tong, the former U.S. Consul General in the territory, who is now a partner at consultancy the Asia Group. “As that happens, the movement of people and money out of Hong Kong could start to snowball.”
Others say that it may take a while to see the consequences the national security law has on business in the city. Some are even guardedly optimistic.
“If the process is purely confined to addressing mass protests and what not,” Quinlan says, “then you could argue the opposite point, that businesses will see this as a better place to do business, particularly ones that will be more impacted by protest movements like retail or restaurants.”
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435 by ricardomcgowan | 183 comments on Hacker News.
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New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology
Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology
610 by trianx | 387 comments on Hacker News.
This just landed in my inbox. The discussion on hackernews ( https://ift.tt/3c2KiNO ) surely helped Triplebyte understand that it was a mistake to create public profiles of their users by default: Email by Triplebyte CEO, Ammon: --- Hi xxxxx, There’s no other way to put this--I screwed up badly. On Friday evening, I sent an email to you about a new feature called public Triplebyte profiles. We failed to think through the effects of this feature on our community, and made the profiles default public with an option to opt out. Many of you were rightfully angry. I am truly sorry. As CEO, this is my fault. I made this decision. Effective immediately, we are canceling this feature. You came to us with the goal of landing a great software engineering job. As part of that, you entrusted us with your personal, sensitive information, including both the fact that you are job searching as well as the results of your assessments with us. Launching a profile feature that would automatically make any of that data public betrayed that trust. Rather than safeguarding the fact that you are or were job searching, we threatened exposure. Current employers might retaliate if they saw that you were job searching. You did not expect that any personal information you’d given us, in the context of a private, secure job search, would be used publicly without your explicit consent. I sincerely apologize. It was my failure. So, what happened? How did I screw this up? I’ve been asking myself this question a bunch over the past 48 hours. I can point to two factors (which by no means excuse the decision). The first was that the profiles as spec’d were an evolution of a feature we already had (Triplebyte Certificates--these are not default public). I failed to see the significance of “default public” in my head. The second factor was the speed we were trying to move at to respond to the COVID recession. We’re a hiring company and hiring is in crisis. The floor has fallen out on parts of our business, and other parts are under unprecedented growth. We've been in a state of churn as we quickly try various things to adapt. But I let myself get caught in this rush and did not look critically enough at the features we were shipping. Inexcusably, I ignored our users’ very real privacy concerns. This was a breach of trust not only in the decision, but in my actual thought process. The circumstances don’t excuse this. The privacy violation should have been obvious to me from the beginning, and the fact that I did not see this coming was a major failure on my part. Our mission at Triplebyte has always been to build a background-blind hiring process. I graduated at the height of the financial crisis as most companies were doing layoffs (similar to what many recent-grads are experiencing today). My LinkedIn profile and resume had nothing on them other than the name of a school few people had heard of. I applied to over 100 jobs the summer after I graduated, and I remember just never hearing back. I know that a lot of people are going through the same thing right now. I finally got my first job at a company that had a coding challenge rather than a resume screen. They cared about what I could do, not what was on my resume. This was a foundational insight for me. It's still the case today, though, that companies rely primarily on resume screens that don’t pick up what most candidates can actually do--making the hiring problem much worse than it needs to be. This is the problem we're trying to fix. We believed that we could do so by building a better Linkedin profile that was focused on your skills, rather than where you went to school, where you worked, or who you knew. I still believe there's a need for something like this. But to release it as a default public feature was not just a major mistake, it was a betrayal. I'm ashamed and I'm sorry. Triplebyte can’t function without the trust of the engineering community. Last Friday I lost a big chunk of that trust. We’re now going to try to earn it back. I’m not sure that’s fully possible, but we have to try. What I will do now is slow down, take a step back, and learn the lessons I need to avoid repeating this. I understand that cancelling this feature does not undo the harm. It’s only one necessary step. Please let me know any other concerns or questions that I can answer (replies to this email go to me). I am sorry to all of you for letting you down. Sincerely, -Ammon
610 by trianx | 387 comments on Hacker News.
This just landed in my inbox. The discussion on hackernews ( https://ift.tt/3c2KiNO ) surely helped Triplebyte understand that it was a mistake to create public profiles of their users by default: Email by Triplebyte CEO, Ammon: --- Hi xxxxx, There’s no other way to put this--I screwed up badly. On Friday evening, I sent an email to you about a new feature called public Triplebyte profiles. We failed to think through the effects of this feature on our community, and made the profiles default public with an option to opt out. Many of you were rightfully angry. I am truly sorry. As CEO, this is my fault. I made this decision. Effective immediately, we are canceling this feature. You came to us with the goal of landing a great software engineering job. As part of that, you entrusted us with your personal, sensitive information, including both the fact that you are job searching as well as the results of your assessments with us. Launching a profile feature that would automatically make any of that data public betrayed that trust. Rather than safeguarding the fact that you are or were job searching, we threatened exposure. Current employers might retaliate if they saw that you were job searching. You did not expect that any personal information you’d given us, in the context of a private, secure job search, would be used publicly without your explicit consent. I sincerely apologize. It was my failure. So, what happened? How did I screw this up? I’ve been asking myself this question a bunch over the past 48 hours. I can point to two factors (which by no means excuse the decision). The first was that the profiles as spec’d were an evolution of a feature we already had (Triplebyte Certificates--these are not default public). I failed to see the significance of “default public” in my head. The second factor was the speed we were trying to move at to respond to the COVID recession. We’re a hiring company and hiring is in crisis. The floor has fallen out on parts of our business, and other parts are under unprecedented growth. We've been in a state of churn as we quickly try various things to adapt. But I let myself get caught in this rush and did not look critically enough at the features we were shipping. Inexcusably, I ignored our users’ very real privacy concerns. This was a breach of trust not only in the decision, but in my actual thought process. The circumstances don’t excuse this. The privacy violation should have been obvious to me from the beginning, and the fact that I did not see this coming was a major failure on my part. Our mission at Triplebyte has always been to build a background-blind hiring process. I graduated at the height of the financial crisis as most companies were doing layoffs (similar to what many recent-grads are experiencing today). My LinkedIn profile and resume had nothing on them other than the name of a school few people had heard of. I applied to over 100 jobs the summer after I graduated, and I remember just never hearing back. I know that a lot of people are going through the same thing right now. I finally got my first job at a company that had a coding challenge rather than a resume screen. They cared about what I could do, not what was on my resume. This was a foundational insight for me. It's still the case today, though, that companies rely primarily on resume screens that don’t pick up what most candidates can actually do--making the hiring problem much worse than it needs to be. This is the problem we're trying to fix. We believed that we could do so by building a better Linkedin profile that was focused on your skills, rather than where you went to school, where you worked, or who you knew. I still believe there's a need for something like this. But to release it as a default public feature was not just a major mistake, it was a betrayal. I'm ashamed and I'm sorry. Triplebyte can’t function without the trust of the engineering community. Last Friday I lost a big chunk of that trust. We’re now going to try to earn it back. I’m not sure that’s fully possible, but we have to try. What I will do now is slow down, take a step back, and learn the lessons I need to avoid repeating this. I understand that cancelling this feature does not undo the harm. It’s only one necessary step. Please let me know any other concerns or questions that I can answer (replies to this email go to me). I am sorry to all of you for letting you down. Sincerely, -Ammon
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531 by anarchyrucks | 238 comments on Hacker News.
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New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public
Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public
613 by winston_smith | 266 comments on Hacker News.
Fortunately this email made it through my spam filter. Looks like they want to take on LinkedIn and are planning to seed it by making existing accounts public unless you opt OUT within the next week: Hey [redacted], I’m excited to announce that we are expanding the reach of your Triplebyte profile. Now, you can use your Triplebyte credentials on and off the platform. Just like LinkedIn, your profile will be publicly accessible with a dedicated URL that you can share anywhere (job applications, LinkedIn, GitHub, etc). When you do well on a Triplebyte assessment, your profile will showcase that achievement (we won’t show your scores publicly). Unlike LinkedIn, we aim to become your digital engineering skills resume — a credential based on actual skills, not pedigree. The new profiles will be launching publicly in 1 week. This is a great opportunity to update your profile with your latest experience and preferences. You can edit your profile privacy settings to not appear in public search engines at any time. Our mission is to build an open, valuable, and skills-based credential for all engineers. We believe that allowing Triplebyte engineers to publicly share their profiles and skills-based credentials will accelerate this mission. Thanks, Ammon Co-founder & CEO, Triplebyte
613 by winston_smith | 266 comments on Hacker News.
Fortunately this email made it through my spam filter. Looks like they want to take on LinkedIn and are planning to seed it by making existing accounts public unless you opt OUT within the next week: Hey [redacted], I’m excited to announce that we are expanding the reach of your Triplebyte profile. Now, you can use your Triplebyte credentials on and off the platform. Just like LinkedIn, your profile will be publicly accessible with a dedicated URL that you can share anywhere (job applications, LinkedIn, GitHub, etc). When you do well on a Triplebyte assessment, your profile will showcase that achievement (we won’t show your scores publicly). Unlike LinkedIn, we aim to become your digital engineering skills resume — a credential based on actual skills, not pedigree. The new profiles will be launching publicly in 1 week. This is a great opportunity to update your profile with your latest experience and preferences. You can edit your profile privacy settings to not appear in public search engines at any time. Our mission is to build an open, valuable, and skills-based credential for all engineers. We believe that allowing Triplebyte engineers to publicly share their profiles and skills-based credentials will accelerate this mission. Thanks, Ammon Co-founder & CEO, Triplebyte
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: What startup/technology is on your 'to watch' list?
Ask HN: What startup/technology is on your 'to watch' list?
617 by iameoghan | 460 comments on Hacker News.
For me a couple of interesting technology products that help me in my day-to-day job 1. Hasura 2. Strapi 3. Forest Admin (super interesting although I cannot ever get it to connect to a hasura backend on Heroku ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4. Integromat 5. Appgyver There are many others that I have my eye on such as NodeRed[6], but have yet to use. I do realise that these are all low-code related, however, I would be super interested in being made aware of cool other cool & upcoming tech that is making waves. What's on your 'to watch' list? [1] https://hasura.io/ [2] https://strapi.io/ [3] https://ift.tt/2p6eimS [4] https://ift.tt/1N3LkvM [5] https://ift.tt/1T5iPym [6] https://nodered.org/
617 by iameoghan | 460 comments on Hacker News.
For me a couple of interesting technology products that help me in my day-to-day job 1. Hasura 2. Strapi 3. Forest Admin (super interesting although I cannot ever get it to connect to a hasura backend on Heroku ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4. Integromat 5. Appgyver There are many others that I have my eye on such as NodeRed[6], but have yet to use. I do realise that these are all low-code related, however, I would be super interested in being made aware of cool other cool & upcoming tech that is making waves. What's on your 'to watch' list? [1] https://hasura.io/ [2] https://strapi.io/ [3] https://ift.tt/2p6eimS [4] https://ift.tt/1N3LkvM [5] https://ift.tt/1T5iPym [6] https://nodered.org/
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New world news from Time: China Is Pushing Through a Controversial National Security Law for Hong Kong. Here’s What to Know
Chinese authorities announced on Thursday plans to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature to enact a national security law that pro-democracy campaigners say is aimed at cracking down on dissent in the city.
A motion to enable the drafting of the law—which targets secession, sedition, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong—was brought before the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s lawmaking body, at its annual meeting in Beijing on Friday.
“National security is the bedrock underpinning a country’s stability,” NPC spokesman Zhang Yesui told media in Beijing on Thursday. “Safeguarding national security serves the fundamental interests of all Chinese people, including our Hong Kong compatriots.”
The introduction of the legislation has sparked fear and outrage from pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong, who say that Beijing has reneged on promises made it made when it took back the former British colony in 1997. Hong Kong was guaranteed a high level of autonomy and an independent judiciary for a period of 50 years under a political model dubbed “one country, two systems.”
“This is the end of Hong Kong. This is the end of one country, two systems. Make no mistake about it,” pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok told TIME.
Here’s what to know about the contentious national security law.
What is it?
Under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the mini-constitution governing the territory, the Hong Kong government must enact laws to prohibit acts like treason, secession, sedition, and subversion against the Chinese government and the theft of state secrets. The local government’s failure to get such laws through the legislature is the reason that Beijing now takes matters into its own hands.
When the Hong Kong government attempted to introduce national security legislation in 2003, an estimated 500,000 people turned out to protest against the bill on July 1, 2003—the largest protest the city had seen since its handover from the U.K. The bill was eventually shelved.
Since then, the city’s government hasn’t attempted to introduce the legislation again, although pro-Beijing politicians have called for its revival on several occasions. Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has repeatedly said that passing the bill would require the right timing and conditions.
Pressure to enact the bill has increased since widespread unrest erupted in June 2019.
Why does Beijing want to pass this now?
Experts say that Beijing has grown weary of waiting for the local government to enact national security legislation.
“I think they have lost patience that Article 23 can be passed by the Legislative Council,” Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Center for China Studies, tells TIME. “This is a direct way of imposing a national security law on Hong Kong.”
Last year’s protests have also increased Beijing’s desire to crack down in Hong Kong. The often violent demonstrations—which began over an extradition bill that would have allowed suspected criminals to face trial in mainland China—paralyzed much of the city throughout the second half of 2019.
An editorial published on Thursday by the state-run China Daily said that the law will act as a deterrent to further protests: “The introduction of the legislation will provide the legal basis for concrete actions to check the escalation of violence in [Hong Kong], and act as a deterrent to expedite the restoration of public order.”
Last year’s protesters mostly focused on getting the extradition bill withdrawn, fearing that it would be used to round up dissidents in the territory. They also called for Lam’s ouster and an independent investigation of police behavior during the protests. But some fringe groups have called for independence from China and the idea of secession has been broadly debated. “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time,” a phrase first used by jailed Hong Kong separatist Edward Leung, became a popular protest slogan.
Chinese authorities have on multiple occasions accused “foreign forces” of being behind the unrest.
“Necessary measures must be taken—in accordance with the law—to prevent, stop and punish foreign and overseas forces using Hong Kong to conduct separatist, subversion, infiltration and damaging behavior,” according to a document released by a Chinese government spokesman on Friday.
Beijing’s concern has taken on a new urgency with the deterioration of relations with Washington. The sight of Hong Kong protesters waving the Stars and Stripes at protests has provoked anger and dismay among many mainland Chinese.
Why is it a big deal?
Critics argue that the introduction of the legislation spells the death of Hong Kong’s unique political model.
“Today I think is the saddest day in Hong Kong history,” pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan said at a Thursday night press conference. “It confirms one country, one system.”
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo tells TIME the legislation, enacted outside of Hong Kong’s own legislative process, is the “last nail in [the] coffin” for Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Experts say that the legislation will surely encroach on the freewheeling city’s freedoms, which have already been backsliding. For example, press freedom has been on the decline and several activists critical of Beijing have been denied entry to Hong Kong in recent months.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, tells TIME there are likely to be serious implications across Hong Kong’s civil society—from local activists to expatriates and NGOs.
“The big question is whether it’s going to narrow civil liberties, public freedoms, political freedoms even more—are we moving from a hybrid system which we’ve had since the handover to a more authoritarian system?” asks Cabestan.
China has used its own national security laws to crack down on activists, journalists, lawyers and other human rights defenders. For example, Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who spoke out on issues like democracy and human-rights, was jailed in 2009 on charges of “inciting subversion against state power.”
Critics of the proposed law say that it will have a chilling effect on dissenting voices.
“It will be used to silence people, the whole opposition, both the moderate section and the radical one,” pro-democracy politician Eddie Chu tells TIME. “This national security ordinance will be used as a tool to threaten ordinary citizens and to criminalize those who dare to voice out.”
Chu adds that the national security legislation will essentially force Hong Kong to accept China’s law enforcement and the legal system. “All the things we worry that are happening to human rights activists in mainland China will happen right in Hong Kong.”
What happens next?
China’s National People’s Congress is expected to vote on the motion at the end of its annual session, likely to be around May 28. Although details of the new legislation still need to be ironed out, the the draft could be approved for promulgation in Hong Kong by the end of the next meeting of the NPC Standing Committee, which could be as early as June, according to the South China Morning Post.
It’s unclear if the news will spark another wave of mass demonstrations, although small protests have been begun cropping up again in recent weeks as coronavirus cases dwindle in the city. Some small groups of protesters gathered in various locations around the city to protest on Friday.
“It might be difficult for the pro-democracy politicians to arouse the passion of ordinary people to hit the streets in protest,” says Willy Lam, the Chinese University of Hong Kong professor. “I think a proportion of people are resigned to the inevitable.”
What is clear is that the legislation is likely to fundamentally change Hong Kong’s relationship with the United States. In November 2019, after almost six months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, President Donald Trump signed into law bipartisan legislation aimed at safeguarding Hong Kong’s civil rights and freedoms. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act links the financial hub’s special trade status to continued autonomy from Beijing.
The act requires an annual assessment for Hong Kong to continue to qualify for Washington’s favorable trading terms. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in early May that the first assessment would be delayed until after the May 22 NPC meeting, to take into account any actions that might effect Hong Kong.
The U.S. on Thursday night issued a stern warning to China against imposing the law on Hong Kong, saying a high-degree of autonomy and respect for human rights were key to preserving the enclave’s special status. “Any effort to impose national security legislation that does not reflect the will of the people of Hong Kong would be highly destabilizing, and would be met with strong condemnation from the United States and the international community,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in emailed comments.
But experts say international pressure isn’t going to change Beijing’s mind. “It’s not going to have any impact on Beijing’s policy towards Hong Kong,” says Cabestan. I think they’ve made their decision.”
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