Bruce Bentley

According to a New York Times report, the Indian government led by Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi acquired spyware from Israel in a 2017 arms purchase deal. The Indian government denied buying the Israeli-made spyware allegedly used to infect the phones of its opponents, right-wing activists and journalists in India. The report, released Friday, says Pegasus and a missile system were then the "hearts" of a roughly $2 billion deal involving advanced weapons and intelligence tools. Last year, an investigation by a global consortium of media companies revealed how Israeli-made malicious spyware was being used by governments around the world to spy on dissidents and journalists through their cellphones. More than 1,000 phone numbers in India were among nearly 50,000 selected worldwide as potentially of interest to customers of the Israel-based NSO Group, makers of the Pegasus spyware. According to the New York Times report, the warming of relations after Modi...

Global investment demand for gold suffered a more than 40% drop in 2021, even as demand for bars and coins climbed to an eight-year high and investment demand for the fourth quarter more than doubled, according to a World Gold Council report released on Thursday Eve. "Investment demand was mixed in an environment of opposing forces: high inflation competed with rising yields for investor attention," the report said. Total investment demand for gold, which includes bars, coins and gold-backed exchange-traded funds, fell 43% last year to 1,007 tons. Within that segment, annual investments in bars and coins rose 31% to 1,180 tonnes -- an eight-year high, while gold exchange-traded funds saw outflows of 173 tonnes last year, a 5% decline in total holdings. Total gold demand for full-year 2021, which includes investment, jewellery, technology and central bank demand, rose 10% to 4,021 tonnes, while gold demand climbed almost 50% to a 10-quarter high in the fourth...

With "metaverse" becoming the buzzword of 2021, Chinese tech giants are also looking for opportunities in what may be the next phase of the internet's evolution. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg announced the official renaming of Facebook as Meta last October, Chinese tech companies have also been raving about the idea of ​​building a vast digital world that integrates the internet, virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI. Last month, tech giant Baidu held its annual Baidu Create 2021 developer conference in Xirang, or Land of Hope, the company's answer to the Metaverse. To enter the digital realm, users need to create their avatars. Users can then move freely and interact with other avatars, from attending conferences to taking virtual tours. Baidu said the annual developer conference marks China's first major event held entirely in the metaverse. This month, the Communication University of China (CUC) ope...

My three-year-old daughter, Carson, is perhaps Waymo's biggest fan. Waymo vehicles, which grew out of Google's self-driving project, are tested so frequently in our San Francisco neighborhood that we typically see four of them on our 15-minute dog walk . Carson and I play Find the Waymo and sing about the laser sensors that allow the vehicle to see. "The lidar on the Waymo is doing pulse, pulse, pulse..." Carson likes Waymo because they look distinctive, their 29 cameras, five lidar and six radar sensors protruding on all sides of a Jaguar I-Pace model. However, she is not impressed that a robot is driving. That's just the reality she was born into. It's no more special than on-demand Bluey episodes. Former Waymo CEO John Krafcik told me last year that Carson will never need a driver's license. "She'll be able to use a Waymo almost anywhere she is," he said. "So that's one less thing to worry about." In 20...

Faster internet access has significantly weakened civic participation in the UK, according to a study which found that engagement in political parties, unions and volunteering decreased as internet speeds increased. Volunteering in social care fell by more than 10% when people lived closer to local telecom hubs and thus had faster internet access. Participation in political parties decreased by 19% for every 1.8 km increase near a node. In contrast, the arrival of fast internet did not have a significant impact on interactions with family and friends. Analysis of the behavior of hundreds of thousands of people, led by scientists from Cardiff University and Sapienza University of Rome, found that faster connection speeds may have reduced the likelihood of civic engagement for nearly 450,000 people - more than double the Conservative Party's estimated membership . They found that as internet speeds increased between 2005 and 2018, time online “supplanted” other forms of civic enga...

Ahmed Raslan, MD, Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at OHSU School of Medicine (front center), with his students on Monday, January 17, 2022 on OHSU's mezzanine level near the Portland Aerial Tram. From left: Caleb Nerison, Joseph Nugent, Emma Richie and Brittany Stedlin. Ahmed Raslan, Edward Ward and Erik C. Brown (far right). (OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks) The human brain is in constant motion and reacts to both external and internally generated stimuli, such as. B. the heart, allowing blood to pulsate through it. Recording brain activity at high resolution is fundamental to advance our understanding of brain circuitry, function, and disease or injury. A team of researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and UC San Diego have demonstrated the ability of a new sensor array to record electrical signals directly from the surface of the human brain in previously unseen detail. Currently, arrays of electrocorticography (ECoG) sensors most commonly used...

The Nasdaq logo is displayed on the grounds of the Nasdaq market in Times Square on December 3, 2021 in New York City, USA. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com to register Peloton falls after Report Co halts production Travelers soar after reporting record quarterly profit Baker Hughes jumps on Q4 earnings announcement Indices up: Dow 0.76%, S&P 0.9%, Nasdaq 1.23% Jan 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indices rallied on Thursday with solid gains for technology and growth stocks as Treasury yields stabilized and investors sought bargains a day after the Nasdaq tumbled into correction territory. All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 were higher. Megacap stocks were the biggest individual drivers for the S&P 500, with Microsoft (MSFT.O) up 1.7% and Tesla (TSLA.O) up 3.8%. Stocks regained some ground after a sharp sell-off earlier in the week, with the Nasdaq closing 10.7% below its November all-time high on Wednesday, confirm...

Companies with structural growth drivers aligned with digitization, decarbonization, and other transformative trends will emerge as long-term winners. The central theses: There are several reasons to be constructive about emerging markets (EMs) as we head into 2022. Stock valuations seem to have priced in a lot of caution and suggest attractive long-term value. China's market valuations appear to be near a floor and should be well supported from here in 2021 after significant negative news. While short-term headwinds from regulatory uncertainty and its “zero-COVID-19” stance may continue into 2022, policymakers stand ready to stabilize economic growth if necessary. Positive structural forces remain visible across emerging markets and should encourage new investment opportunities. Digitization and decarbonization are key issues to watch. Financial and current account balances are also in better shape than before, potentially precluding a repeat of the severe market tensions tha...

For Bitcoin enthusiasts in Kosovo with a breezy risk attitude, it's been a good week to strike a deal for computer equipment that can create, or "mine," the cryptocurrency. From Facebook to Telegram, recent posts in the region's online crypto groups have been dominated by dismayed Kosovars trying to sell their mining equipment - often at bargain prices. "There's a lot of panic and they're selling it or trying to move it to neighboring countries," said CryptoKapo, a crypto investor and administrator of some of the region's largest online crypto communities. The frenzied social media action follows the Kosovar government's year-end announcement of an immediate, albeit temporary, ban on all crypto-mining activity as part of emergency measures to alleviate a crippling energy crisis. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are created, or "mined," by high-performance computers that compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles in an extremely...

Jan 14 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Friday posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat market expectations, but its shares fell as much as 6% as analysts expressed disappointment with its forecast for the expressed future profitability. The country's largest bank warned that its return on tangible equity (ROTCE), a key metric that measures how well a bank is using shareholder money to generate profits, could fall below its 17% medium-term target this year. A slowdown in capital markets activity, the cost of investing in the business, including new technology and branch openings, and rising spending partly due to higher inflation and labor costs were some of the factors the bank cited as headwinds for the coming year. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com to register However, it maintained a medium-term target of 17% ROTCE after 2022 and said it expects to benefit from rising interest rates and longer-term business growth stemming from its investments....

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected both staff and students in higher education. The Advance Higher Education Academy (AHEA) helped academics improve their educational practice during the pandemic. The AHEA offers a teaching qualification called Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) or PGCert and awards the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) after successfully completing the PGCAP. PGCAP assists academic staff to improve their teaching skills by reflecting on their teaching practice, evaluating their teaching methodology, and considering improvements in their current teaching approach. UK academics must complete this qualification before being confirmed in office. It comprises four modules, three of which focus on teaching and one on action-oriented educational research. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching a module has become a particular challenge, especially when it has to be done online and students are scattered across ...

Photo credit: Chinnapong / Shutterstock.com. The Clinical Trial Arena lists five of the most popular neurology tweets in the third quarter of 2021, based on data from GlobalData's Pharmaceuticals Influencer Platform. The top tweets are based on the total engagements (likes and retweets) received in the third quarter (Q3) of 2021 on tweets from 150+ neurology professionals tracked by GlobalData's Pharmaceuticals influencer platform. The most popular tweets about neurology in the third quarter of 2021: Top 5 1. Li-Huei Tsai's tweet on the role of the hippocampus in recognizing image sequences Li-Huei Tsai, professor and director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), shared an article about a study by the institute to analyze how the mammalian brain recognizes image sequences. The study showed that individual images are preserved in the brain's visual cortex, but guidance through the hippocampus ...

"UVA has been part of this competition since the beginning of 2019. In October last year we held the first part of this competition, a historic race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. " Paul Mitchell, President and CEO of En...

Hosting exciting events leading up to the 64th annual Great American Race; Fully open front stretch seating, camping, dining, and pre-race experiences DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (January 6, 2022) - The DAYTONA Speedweeks Presented by AdventHealth, which will culminate on Sunday, February 20 with the 64th annual DAYTONA 500, will start on Tuesday and Wednesday (February 15-16) with the DAYTONA 500 training and the DAYTONA 500 Qualifying Presented By Busch. Light on the Track, which gives fans more opportunities to see NASCAR's new, anticipated "Next Gen" cars on the high banks of the World Center of Racing. Tuesday, the first of six days of full activity on the track, features two 50-minute workouts (5:05 p.m. ET / 6:35 p.m. ET) for NASCAR Cup Series teams to get started on Wednesday's run in the top flight prepare the spot that will take place at 8:05 p.m. ET. Infield camping guests have free entry to the UNOH fan zone on Tuesday (opens at 4:00 p.m. ET), which will a...

Issued on: 01.06.2022 - 04:10 Las Vegas (AFP) - A ring shimmers at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this isn't just a piece of jewelry - it's packed with sensors that can detect body temperature, breathing, and much more. Start-ups at the annual Gadget Extravaganza in Las Vegas touted technology-enabled accessories that look appealing on the outside and at the same time question what happens inside the wearer. "We want to democratize personal health," said Amaury Kosman, founder of the French startup that launched the Circular Ring. While this goal was shared by a number of exhibitors, some experts feared that a trend towards ceaseless tracking of steps, sitting times, heart rate and more could bring with it risks for stress and addiction. Circular Ring provides a wearer with a daily "energy value" based on the intensity of their activity, taking into account heart rate, body temperature, blood...