Issue #9
Reluctance to wear masks, EU's new debt deal and Chinese hackers running wild
Masks
Such silly backlash in United States right now. People are afraid—not of the pandemic, but of wearing masks — because they think they’ll look stupid. Because they don’t want to look different or change how people act around them. Because they think it’ll be inconvenient or uncomfortable. There are folks at the extreme end who are so insecure with the idea of wearing mask that they label other as coward. Even in the early days of the virus, it’s likely that health and government authorities were reluctant to advise mask use for fear of looking like they were “overreacting” or freaking people out.
Over at The Atlantic, the facts say something else:
Models show that if 80 percent of people wear masks that are 60 percent effective, easily achievable with cloth, we can get to an effective R0 of less than one. That’s enough to halt the spread of the disease.
Hey Hey Dr. Fauci isn’t this what you have been telling us all to do for a while.
A new chapter in EU history
Getting the 27 members countries to agree was not easy. But they did. Europe opened a new chapter which involves EU commissions borrowing collectively for EU. As agreed by EU leaders it is a package pegged at Euro 1.8 trillion. First part of this is a budget of 1 trillion euro from 2021 to 2027. Second are allocation keys based on metrics like unemployment rates, GDP per capita etc. in form of grant and loans.
EU is breaking new grounds. All sorts of concern and negotiations took long. Especially contentious was the share of package for grants. Germany and France wanted to peg it at 500 billions which was finally agreed to at 390 billion after objections from Frugal four (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark).
The negotiations were Fiercely debated. In standard EU business however there are lots of opportunities for trade off. Eg:- Dutch are going to see larger custom duties. Each country gets something they can hold up to their electorate. It opens a new chapter in the form of “Emergency break measures”.
But is this is all due to the crisis? Or strictly one-off emergency measures? It does establishes a principle that — EU countries despite their differences can act collectively. If needed it can very easily be put into action again. Once you have established something can be done that can be done in the future. This is historic.
Two best friends
Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi are not your conventional college graduate. Having studied computer and electrical engineering at China’s Sichuan province, they embarked on a decade long hacking spree steeling millions of dollars worth of trade secret according to a recent indictment by Justice Department officials in the US.
They both worked to further the goal of China’s Ministry of State Security, targeting companies, governments and other institutions. Over the years they stole documents, trade secrets, military and foreign secrets according to the long investigation done by FBI.
According to assistant attorney general for national security:
China has now taken its place alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cybercriminals in exchange for those criminals being on call for the benefit of the state.
Their victims were located all across the world, including the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and U.K., according to the indictment. China copies the idea of hacker working with the state from Russia.
Such indictment are relatively rare however with the changing nature of US-China relations. This is going to change. It acts as a detriment for Chinese hackers as they never know where in the world a red corner notice may be waiting for them.