Under The Radar – 19 November

By CasperRae for Unsplash

This week, we discuss:

1. An alternate use for nuclear fusion

2. New bill gives home office more powers

3. Antibiotic resistance – the next pandemic?

An alternate use for nuclear fusion on the horizon?

What Happened? New research out of the USA has shown that the plasma inside tokamaks, or nuclear fusion reactors, could have uses in further discoveries surrounding the formation of the solar system, as well as aid in the actualisation of nuclear fusion as a commercial source of clean energy. What does it mean?

In 1995, upon entering Jupiter’s atmosphere, a NASA probe from the Galileo mission’s head shield was melted almost immediately by the plasma. Following the failure of the mission, scientists attempted to recreate the conditions of a high-speed entry into a dense atmosphere – something which is incredibly hard to replicate with any accuracy. However, years later, scientists Eva Kostadinova and Dmitri Orlov have figured out that the plasma inside the tokamaks can be used in the process of simulation. And the result of such a discovery has implications far beyond use in the space research community, as it could contribute to the design of fusion reactors themselves and therefore speed up the process of achieving commercialised nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion has the potential to provide clean energy in perpetuity, yet up until this point it has been regarded as little more than a pipe dream. At a time when net-zero and climate action, or rather inaction, is a hot topic of conversation, such a development could prove instrumental in eventually reaching global climate targets.

New bill to give even more power to Home Office

What happened? Should a proposed change to Clause 9 of the Nationality and Borders Bill pass, the Home Office would be granted the power to strip people of their British citizenship and be exempt from giving any notice if it is considered “reasonably practicable” to do so.

What does this mean?

The amendment to the Bill would give the Home Office a wider scope of powers to decide who can or can’t be a British citizen. The ability for the government to strip someone of their citizenship was introduced in 2005, however, it became more frequent during Theresa May’s tenure as Home Secretary. Previously, the Home Office could avoid giving notice if the person’s whereabouts were unknown. Should the proposed changes be enacted, there would be a range of circumstances in which no notice would be needed to revoke citizenship. The proposal has been widely criticised, and, as several NGO directors have pointed out, it could potentially be used to target citizens of certain minority ethnic groups or religions. Frances Weber, the vice-chair of the Institute of Race Relations, said: “It unapologetically flouts international human rights obligations and basic norms of fairness.” The Home Office has said: “British citizenship is a privilege, not a right.” Whether this new proposal will pass and become law, and how it will be used in the future remains to be seen. What we do know is during a time of immigration and border concerns, the government appears to be flexing its muscles.

Antibiotic resistance – the next pandemic?

What happened?

Health officials in the UK have warned of a “hidden pandemic” of antibiotic-resistant infections if people do not act responsibly. The warning comes ahead of what is expected to be a more prevalent winter cold and flu season, leading to antibiotics being unnecessarily overprescribed. What does it mean?

The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistance has been of grave concern to medical professionals for many years now. Although an antibiotic disaster has not yet come to pass, in 2020, one in five people who had an infection had an antibiotic-resistant one, in spite of a significant drop in social mixing levels.

Now, with cold and flu symptoms set to be more common this winter due to increased social mixing, it would appear that fears of antibiotic resistance as the next medical disaster are most certainly not unfounded ones.

One needs only to observe the potential parallels with Covid to appreciate the gravity of such an outcome, after all, prior warnings of a global viral pandemic were widely ridiculed. This alone worsened the eventual impacts of Covid, with the presence of any adequate funding and advance planning painfully absent in the vast majority of countries across the world. Though the potential impacts of increased antibiotic resistance may not replicate those of Covid – i.e. bringing the world to a halt – they may nevertheless prove to be more fatal. We continue to turn a blind eye to antibiotic resistance at our own peril.

This week’s must reads

1. “Has the nation finally had enough of Tory scandals?” by Zoe Williams for The Guardian

2. ‘”How strongmen cling to power” by Jeremy Cliffe for The New Statesman

3. “Britain is finally taking a no-nonsense approach to foreign takeovers” by Ben Marlow for The Telegraph

4. ‘Chinese threat calls for Five Eyes expansion” by Roger Boyes for The Times

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Digital Digest – 17 November

In this week’s Digital Digest we look at Amazon ceasing to accept VISA credit card payments and Israeli spyware attacks on websites in the UK and Middle East.  

We then take a look at big tech as Meta restricts the flow of internal information and Uber acts as an indicator for global economic trends. 

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Closer To Home

Amazon to stop accepting VISA credit cards in UK

As of January 19th 2022, online retail company Amazon will stop accepting VISA credit cards as a means of payment, but will still accept VISA debit cards. The move comes as the cost of credit card transaction fees increase.

VISA has responded by saying it is “very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice” and that “when consumer choice is limited, nobody wins.” It is yet to be seen whether the two companies can come to an agreement prior to the January deadline and prevent a huge amount of inconvenience on numerous fronts to most users of the online shopping hub.

Israeli spyware company linked to attacks on websites in UK and Middle East

New evidence suggests that Israeli spyware company, Candiru, which was recently blacklisted in the US, was used to target critics of autocratic regimes in the Middle East as well as a London-based news website. This comes after Israeli NSO Group’s ‘Pegasus’, which infects mobile phones, was also blacklisted by the Biden administration for acting against US national security interests.

Canadian researchers say they have found a number of links between “watering hole attacks” on high-profile websites in the UK and Middle East. These attacks are aimed at ordinary websites which attract users who are thought to be “targets of interest” by the user of the malware who can then infect the computers of those users and collect vast sums of data. 

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Big Tech

Meta goes into lockdown

A slew of leaks and external scrutiny has stifled the internal flow of information at Meta, formerly known as Facebook. Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is arguably the main catalyst for such action, or rather inaction, at Meta as her revealing testimonies have led to congressional hearings and lawsuits against the tech giant.

Internal Workplace hubs are increasingly being made private, while Nick Clegg, their policy and communications chief, has slowed the release of Integrity research internally. A talk centered around ‘how to cope as a researcher when the company you work for is constantly receiving negative press’ was pulled before the recent internal research summit event as it was determined the risk of its contents leaking was not worth going ahead with. Additionally, a number of pre-recorded talks were subject to a second round of scrutiny to protect against any such leak.

Uber remains an indicator for global economic trends

The ride-hailing app Uber continues to be an accurate example of wider global economic trends and shifts. It was at the forefront of the flourishing gig economy in its early years, marshalling the full scale of venture capital in Silicon Valley, and in a post-pandemic world it is reflecting the widespread shortage of labour and supply chain disruptions causing prices to rise across the economy.

The hike in prices mirrors inflation in the wider economic environment and the rising cost of living. The days of cheap and reliable Ubers may be at an end as the cost of operation, fuel, cars, certification, coupled with driver shortages and a hard-hit gig economy, mount on the company. The question remains as to whether these changes will be here to stay once the world returns to a greater level of ‘normalcy’ or whether this is in fact the new normal. 

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Also in the news

Facebook has failed to protect users from Covid misinformation, says NewsGuard. See here.

The US Senate has confirmed Google critic and competition lawyer Jonathan Kanter to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division. See here.

Plastic scanner device that identifies which plastics can actually be recycled wins Dyson award. See here.

The European Union’s win against Google is a reminder of the scale and scope of its regulatory power. See here.

Following COP26, three ad agencies are hoping to sell consumers a sustainable future using the persuasive powers of advertising. See here.  

Worth a read

1. BBC News: Online hate speech rose 20% during pandemic

2. The FT: UK announces national security probe of Nvidia’s $54bn Arm deal

3. Wired: Twitter vigilantes are hunting down crypto scammers

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Under The Radar – 12 November

This week, we discuss:

1. Google Wins Supreme Court Appeal

2. Bolsonaro Gets Desperate

3. Post-Brexit Shake-Up for Financial Regulation

UK Supreme Court Blocks $4.3bn Class Action Against Google

What Happened? The UK Supreme Court has rejected a claim that sought £3.2bn in damages from Google over allegations that the company had illegally tracked the personal information of millions of iPhone users. What does it mean?

In what is being described as one of the most significant legal cases in recent years, Richard Lloyd had sued Google for using cookies to collect data on health, race, ethnicity, sexuality and finance through Apple’s Safari web browser, even when users had opted for the “do not track” privacy setting. The former Which? director was seeking £750 each for 4.4 million affected users, claiming that Google’s tracking caused them financial damage and mental distress.  But Google won the appeal, with the judge ruling that the claimant had failed to prove that damage had been caused to individuals by the collection of their data. However, the judgement added that the case had a “real chance of success” if pursued by the claimant as an individual, instead of as a class action.  Google’s lawyers argued that the ruling could “open the floodgates” to vast claims brought on behalf of millions of people against companies over how they handle people’s data. And victory in the UK’s first such data privacy case is likely to inform a series of similar cases waiting to be heard against other tech giants, including Facebook and TikTok. This week’s ruling marks an interesting development in recent criticism we have seen levelled against big tech companies, particularly in relation to their handling of private data. Google may have won this battle, but the litigation war is only just beginning. 

Bolsonaro Gets Desperate

What happened? Brazil’s far-right populist president Jair Bolsonaro joined the centre-right Liberal Party (or PL) in an effort to fortify his position ahead of next year’s presidential election in the country. And in another sign of re-election nerves, Bolsonaro announced a new social welfare scheme for one of the world’s worst Covid-hit countries.

What does this mean?

Bolsonaro joining the Liberals (who are a member of the Centrao group) suggests he is shifting his political strategy away from his 2018 platform, where he was running as an anti-establishment candidate.

He has been without a political home since he quit the Social Liberal Party amid a dispute with its leadership over funding and regional nominations. But the Liberal Party, along with the Centrao group, have been Bolsonaro’s allies, protecting him from impeachment and voting in favour of his proposals in Parliament.

With the election in sight, the new social welfare scheme “Auxílio Brasil” will replace the long-running Bolsa Família scheme launched under former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s tenure, which won widespread international acclaim and is said to have decreased extreme poverty in Brazil by as much as 25%.  Lula will also run in 2022 and is currently well ahead in polls. Whether the Auxílio Brasil scheme or the tactical move to join the Liberals will help Bolsonaro boost his popularity and fortify his position remains to be seen. Having said that, Lula’s welfare reforms were and remain extremely popular, so the jury is out on whether this is where Bolsonaro should be pinning his re-election hopes.  

Post-Brexit Shake-Up for Financial Regulation

What happened?

Rishi Sunak has outlined government proposals for a new post-Brexit system of financial regulations, aimed at having greater focus on growth and international competitiveness. What does it mean?

EU financial services law, which was initially retained after Brexit, is now being overhauled according to Government proposals. The new regime aims to make regulation consistent with growth, something that did not feature in the EU’s framework. The Chancellor has maintained that rules set out by Brussels have constrained the government’s ability to set requirements that suit the needs of UK markets. Sunak, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, described Brexit as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to reform financial institutions and regulations.  One of the key takeaways is that the Government will wield more influence over the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), who regulate the industry. They will now be required to consider the implications for growth and international competitiveness as a consequence of their regulations, as well as their existing objectives of maintaining market integrity, consumer protection and a sound financial system. There has been much speculation as to what Brexit will mean for the City of London. The UK announced a few weeks ago that they were set to keep the EU’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, something that many speculated would be scrapped in a bid to keep the competitive status of the City.  Rishi Sunak’s latest proposals certainly aim to boost global competitiveness for the industry, but there is still much to prove.

This week’s must reads

1. ‘Tory corruption is a huge opportunity for Keir Starmer. Here’s what he should do’ by Simon Fletcher for The Guardian

2. ‘Joe Biden created America’s inflation mess – and now he’s panicking’ by Ryan Bourne for The Telegraph

3. ‘The Times view on the Poland-Belarus border crisis: Moral Blackmail’ for The Times

4. ‘The Owen Paterson fiasco has reminded Westminster that Boris Johnson is mortal’ by Stephen Bush for The New Statesman

Chart of the week