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      Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 04:30

    Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing

    With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021 , the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.

    James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”.

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      Super gonorrhea rate quickly triples in China, now 40x higher than US

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Yesterday - 18:12 · 1 minute

    A billboard from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is seen on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on May 29, 2018, warning of a drug-resistant gonorrhea.

    Enlarge / A billboard from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is seen on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on May 29, 2018, warning of a drug-resistant gonorrhea. (credit: Getty | )

    Health officials have long warned that gonorrhea is becoming more and more resistant to all the antibiotic drugs we have to fight it. Last year, the US reached a grim landmark : For the first time, two unrelated people in Massachusetts were found to have gonorrhea infections with complete or reduced susceptibility to every drug in our arsenal, including the frontline drug ceftriaxone. Luckily, they were still able to be cured with high-dose injections of ceftriaxone. But, as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bluntly notes: "Little now stands between us and untreatable gonorrhea."

    If public health alarm bells could somehow hit a higher pitch, a study published Thursday from researchers in China would certainly accomplish it. The study surveyed gonorrhea bacterial isolates— Neisseria gonorrhoeae —from around the country and found that the prevalence of ceftriaxone-resistant isolates nearly tripled between 2017 and 2021. Ceftriaxone-resistant strains made up roughly 8 percent of the nearly 3,000 bacterial isolates collected from gonorrhea infections in 2022. That's up from just under 3 percent in 2017. The study appears in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

    While those single-digit percentages may seem low, compared to other countries they're extremely high. In the US, for instance, the prevalence of ceftriaxone-resistant strains never went above 0.2 percent between 2017 and 2021 , according to the CDC. In Canada, ceftriaxone-resistance was stable at 0.6 percent between 2017 and 2021. The United Kingdom had a prevalence of 0.21 percent in 2022.

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      Liu Cixin: ‘I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?’

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 11:03

    Author of sci-fi epic The Three-Body Problem – newly serialised by Netflix – on ‘the greatest uncertainty facing humanity’ and how finding a secret copy of a Jules Verne novel inspired his career

    Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science-fiction novels have sold millions of copies all over the world, and have won him numerous awards, including the global Hugo award for science fiction in 2015. Now, the English translation of the first book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, The Three-Body Problem, is back in the Amazon bestsellers charts, after the release of a TV adaptation by the creators of Game of Thrones.

    But a decade ago, few in the UK had heard of Liu and The Three-Body Problem, which begins as a contemporary murder mystery and gradually builds into a story of alien contact. When it was first published here, Nic Cheetham, managing director of Liu’s UK publisher Head of Zeus, remembers being unsure if anyone would turn up for a book signing with the author in a London bookshop.

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      Why didn’t New Zealand impose sanctions on China?

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 02:02


    New Zealand did not follow the US and UK in imposing financial restrictions after accusing Beijing of links to cyber-attacks

    Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week.

    The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence.

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      India left reeling by Afghanistan as World Cup hopes begin to fade again

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 12:06 · 1 minute

    Expanded 2026 World Cup finals have given hope to Igor Stimac’s side but the Lions of Khorasan had other ideas

    Perhaps the one positive for India from their shock 2-1 home defeat by Afghanistan in 2026 World Cup qualification is that the team have risen far enough for shock defeats to be a thing. It’s not much of a comfort, however, and once solid-looking dreams of getting to the final stages on the road to the World Cup for the first time are starting to hang by delicate threads of Assam silk.

    On Thursday, fans in that state’s biggest city, Guwahati, were confident of a comfortable win against Afghanistan, a team ranked 158 in the world. The 0-0 draw between the two five days earlier in the south-west corner of Saudi Arabia, rather than in Kabul, was surely a blip. Qatar were streaking ahead in Group A of qualification, leaving India and Kuwait to fight for the second spot that also brings a place in the final 18 that will fight it out for Asia’s increased World Cup allocation of eight. India had four points from the first three games and could have moved four points clear of third with two games to go.

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      China’s president Xi meets US bosses amid moves to mend ties frayed by trade tensions – business live

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 07:44

    China keen to restore confidence in the economy amid a shaky recovery

    Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

    China’s president Xi Jinping has met a group of US chief executives in Beijing amid efforts to mend ties frayed by geopolitical and trade tensions between the two countries.

    Japan’s medium to long-term inflation expectations, and trend inflation, are still in the process of heading towards 2%.

    8.30am GMT: Sweden’s Riksbank interest rate decision

    10.30am GMT: Bank of England financial policy committee releases its March summary and report on risks to financial stability

    11am GMT: US MBA Mortgage applications for week of 22 March

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      Foreign Office summons senior Chinese diplomat over ‘malicious cyber-activity’

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 18:06

    Beijing’s chargé d’affaires told UK government will not tolerate threatening cyber-attacks which it unequivocally condemns

    Ministers summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to the Foreign Office on Tuesday after accusing Beijing-backed hackers of a cyber-attack on the British elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on politicians .

    The department called in China’s chargé d’affaires and told him the UK would not tolerate “threatening” cyber-attacks.

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      Six killed after suicide bomber rams convoy of Chinese engineers in Pakistan

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 16:00

    Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver killed while en route from Islamabad to dam construction site

    Six people have been killed after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in north-west Pakistan, in the third significant attack on Chinese interests in the country in a week.

    The first two attacks targeted a Pakistani naval air base and a strategic port used by China in the south-west province of Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.

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      China cyber-attacks are increasing, western analysts warn

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 11:17

    US and UK governments announced sanctions against Chinese firms linked to hacking group

    Cyber-attacks linked to Chinese intelligence agencies are increasing in capability and frequency as they seek to test foreign government responses, analysts have warned in the wake of revelations about a mass hacking of UK data.

    On Tuesday, the UK and US governments accused hacking group, Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT 31), backed by China’s government spy agency, of conducting a years-long cyber-attack campaign , targeting politicians, national security officials, journalists and businesses. The UK said the hackers had potentially gained access to information on tens of millions of UK voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyber-espionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about threats from China.

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