Forest growth in drier climates will be impacted by reduced snowpack, study finds

by Portland State University

A high-density ponderosa pine forest at the Fort Valley Experimental Forest site near Flagstaff, Arizona. Credit: Kelly Gleason | Portland State University

A new study suggests that future reductions in seasonal snowpack as a result of climate change may negatively influence forest growth in semi-arid climates, but less so in wetter climates.


Researchers from Portland State University, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service and the universities of Vermont and Maine found that forest density and snowpack can influence drought stress and forest growth in ways that are important to recognize for managing forests in a changing climate.

Research sites included pine-dominated experimental forests in northern Arizona, South Dakota, and northern Minnesota.

The study—led by Kelly Gleason, assistant professor of ecohydrology at PSU—found that forest growth in water-limited, dryland areas is likely to be most dramatically impacted by snowpack reductions. In these semi-arid climates, reduced snowpack may negatively influence forest growth and may increase tree mortality. This was only exacerbated in high-density forests.

"Forests are a lot more vulnerable because of increasing density," Gleason said. "More trees are sharing the same amount of water, and there's less water over time because of climate change impacts."

She said that in arid climates like much of the western U.S. where water availability is driven by snow, reducing forest density through thinning will improve the resilience of these forests amid a changing climate.

By contrast, the study found that in wetter climates like Minnesota, reduced snowpack as a result of future warmer winters may positively influence forest growth, potentially by extending the growing season. The study found that in these forests, thinning would have less of an impact on the snowpack-growth relationship.

Explore further Snowpack declines may stunt tree growth and forests' ability to store carbon emissions

More information: Kelly E. Gleason et al, Forest density intensifies the importance of snowpack to growth in water‐limited pine forests, Ecological Applications (2020). DOI: 10.1002/eap.2211

Journal information: Ecological Applications

Provided by Portland State University

'I can't afford tuition': College students face financial strains, health concerns from pandemic ahead of fall semester
by Jessica Menton, Usa Today

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Brittany Goddard's final semester at Howard University isn't the dream ending she imagined in Washington, D.C.

When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the U.S. economy in March, she scrambled to pack up her belongings since she had to be out of her dorm room within 48 hours. At the same time, she lost her part-time job at a catering company and still hasn't received unemployment after filing for jobless benefits in April.

She was set to study abroad in Barcelona over the summer, but those plans were upended due to the pandemic. And with just weeks to go before the fall semester begins, she's worried about how she'll pay the remaining balance of her tuition and fees—roughly $9,000—since her financial aid won't cover it at the private school.

"It's heartbreaking. I'm a low-income student. I can't afford tuition," Goddard, 20, says, who's created a GoFundMe page to raise money since her mother doesn't have the means to take out another Parent PLUS Loan, a federal student loan available to parents of dependent undergraduate students.

"We don't have much," Goddard says. "My mom is a single parent putting two kids through college alone. I'm trying to make it through the final stretch."

Colleges brace for stagnant enrollment

Millions of students across the country, like Goddard, face financial strains and health fears as they decide whether to return to colleges and universities this fall. It comes at an unpredictable time for faculty and parents as policymakers in Washington grapple with further coronavirus outbreaks, leaving schools rushing to implement plans for the new academic year.

Just over a third of college students will return to campus and attend class in-person this fall if given the option, according to a new report from Student Loan Hero, which was given exclusively to U.S. TODAY. Another 16% still plan to return to campus, but will take courses online, while roughly 29% plan to study online from home, the data shows.

While many students plan to take advantage of online learning options this fall, they don't necessarily think their courses should cost as much as in-person classes. Almost 66% of students think remote classes are of lower quality than those held in person, and that tuition costs should be reduced accordingly, data from Student Loan Hero shows.

In the fall, Fitch Ratings forecasts that annual enrollment declines could range from 5% to 20% for many colleges and universities as a result of the pandemic. Private colleges could experience more meaningful financial effects than public colleges, given a higher reliance on tuition and student fee revenues, for which the median share of total revenue is 82%, compared with 38% for rated public universities, according to Fitch Ratings.

Tuition constraints threaten to exacerbate the financial effects of enrollment declines, experts say. The economic downturn could weaken expected family contributions and endowments, and increase financial aid needs.

Enrollment pressures related to a drop in international students and incoming freshmen will affect some institutions more so than others, experts say. For instance, private colleges in competitive regions with challenging demographics like in the Northeast will likely be among those most affected. But other schools with a wider geographic draw are poised to be less vulnerable.

Along those lines, Harvard recently acknowledged in an email to faculty and staff that more than 20% of its students do not intend to enroll this fall, according to a report in the Harvard Crimson.

Parents worry about financial aid, housing costs

Across the country, Jennifer Degutis, 48, has mixed feelings about sending her son, Ryan Contreras, 19, back to school for his sophomore year at the University of California, San Diego.

Contreras, an aerospace engineer major, will have his classes online this semester, Degutis says. But his housing options are up in the air if he doesn't return this fall. He was guaranteed housing on campus for his first two years with his financial aid package, but if he comes back in the spring, he'll be put on a wait list, she says.

He would need to remain on campus since he doesn't have a car, and they still don't know whether he'll be paired with a roommate yet. The price of a single room was too expensive with rising costs, and they would have to pay fees for him to use the campus facilities even if he stayed home, she says.

When students arrive at the university this month, they will find coronavirus testing stations strategically planted throughout campus.

"It's nerve wracking to know he's going back to school in this chaos," says Degutis, who's a retail manager at Five Below, a discount store. She lives nearly three hours away from the school in La Quinta, California.

A work-study program is also part of his financial aid package, but there aren't many options and she's unsure of how he'll be able to work in the library or in dining halls due to social-distancing measures.

Just over 46% of student workers are very concerned they won't be able to work during the fall semester, according to Student Loan Hero. And only about 1 in 5 students say their college offered a price cut for the fall semester due to the pandemic.

Mental health is a priority for parents

Not only has the pandemic created financial headaches for parents and students, but it also threatens to affect their children's mental well-being, Degutis cautions.

"All of my son's classes are online, so my concerns as a parent are also about his mental health if he's confined to his dorm room for 12 weeks," says Degutis.

Tracy Kapiloff, 54, of Houston, Texas, agrees. She is worried about sending her daughter, Andie Kapiloff, 19, back to an out-of-state school in a few weeks.

Her daughter, a sophomore at Swarthmore College, a private, liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, is studying political science and is also on the women's lacrosse team. But athletics are halted for now, and she'll be living alone on campus this year, Kapiloff says.

"I'm concerned about her mental health. Do you want your kid living in a single room, taking online classes while not seeing any friends? Plus the high cost of education. Is it worth it?" says Kapiloff, who is paying about $73,000 per year in tuition, fees and living costs.

"But then you think about her staying home indefinitely and not having any interaction with friends or teachers, so it seemed worse to remain at home."

The school is planning to intermittently conduct group testing for the virus throughout the semester. If a student is positive, they'll test each person individually with a lower, nasal swab, she says.

"It's weird. You send your kids to college sometimes worried about a big social scene. But now there's no parties or alcohol with the pandemic," says Kapiloff. "My concern is her education. But her concern is being social and navigating the new normal on campus."

An increasing number of colleges are offering students a choice of online or in-person classes. About 45% of the college students polled by Student Loan Hero say they plan to take classes online in the upcoming semester.

Some students fear on-campus classes

This fall, Garrett Weed, 22, will finish his last semester as a marketing major at Georgia State University in Atlanta. But he's concerned about how the school will prevent further outbreaks, he says.

He's scheduled to take four courses this semester. One is online, but he hasn't received guidance about the other three. He's worried that he'll have to commute on campus and risk contracting the virus, he says.

"It's scary. This doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do," says Weed. "I'd prefer if all classes were online."

Students' primary concern is avoiding the coronavirus, according to Student Loan Hero. The next two major worries on the list were not learning as much due to online classes and not having the college experience they wanted in terms of social life and extracurriculars.

Weed, who worked part-time at Bartaco, a casual, street-food restaurant, lost his job in the spring. He filed for unemployment in April and didn't get his first check until June, he says.

Since the spring, he's been socially distancing with his family, who live about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta. He eventually moved out of his apartment at the end of July since he couldn't afford rent. He's also run into challenges trying to get an internship since many places aren't hiring, he added.

"It's scary to go that long with no source of income," says Weed, who has a mix of scholarships and student loans to pay for school. This semester was the first time that he had to pay his remaining balance—$200—out of pocket. He normally would receive a refund to help cover a portion of his living expenses, he says.

"It's frustrating not being fully independent. There aren't jobs readily available for me to apply for," says Weed. "When I graduate, I want to get a decent job. An internship would help out so much, but I don't know if I'll be able to now."

Others haven't retrieved their belongings from the spring

Goddard, who is a double major in political science and Spanish at Howard University, stashed her belongings in storage in the spring, expecting to return to school in the fall. But now she's finishing her final months as an undergraduate living at home in Atlanta, Georgia, and doesn't know when she'll be able to return to get her stuff.

She opted to stay with her mother since her financial aid and lack of income couldn't cover her living expenses on campus.

She attended Howard University, a historically Black college and university, for the experience to be around a diverse group of young adults. Although the school is reopening in the fall, there won't be a homecoming, football games or double-dutching on campus this semester, she says.

"I'm devastated. College is the most transformative years of your life. Things are never going to be the same," Goddard says. "I wanted to go out with a bang, but COVID ruined it."


Explore further Harvard invites freshmen to campus, but classes stay online

©2020 USA Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Road test: Chinese 'robotaxis' take riders for a spin

by Beiyi Seow, Dan Martin

Chinese players such as Baidu, Alibaba-backed AutoX and ride-sharing king DiDi Chuxing recently launched autonomous taxi pilot projects in cities around the country

Chinese entrants in the race to put autonomous vehicles on the road are bringing "robotaxis" online in hopes that a hired-car format can be the key to unlocking wide acceptance of the futuristic technology.

It is expected to be years before cars that operate completely without human intervention are unleashed owing to lingering technological, regulatory, and safety hurdles.

But as China challenges US tech dominance, Chinese players such as Baidu, Alibaba-backed AutoX and ride-sharing king DiDi Chuxing recently launched autonomous taxi pilot projects in cities around the country.

Similar efforts are under way in the US, and AutoX's chief executive Xiao Jianxiong told AFP the first fully-autonomous vehicles could be on the roads by the end of the year.

Robotaxis or delivery services are considered ideal for accumulating the driving time and huge data cache needed for cars to "learn" and become safe enough.

Chinese consumers—known for eagerly embracing e-commerce, online payments and other digital solutions—are lining up for a spin in DiDi Chuxing's self-developed autonomous taxis at a Shanghai pilot project launched in June.

Underlining the work-in-progress nature of the concept, a DiDi staffer occupies the driver's seat, ready to take the wheel if needed.

But Da Xuan, a 24-year-old social-media worker, leapt at a taste of the future.

Robotaxis or delivery services are considered ideal for accumulating the driving time and huge data cache needed for cars to 'learn' and become safe enough

'Smooth' running

"I heard companies like Uber or Tesla were doing autonomous driving, so I was curious what Chinese companies were doing, whether they can go into production, and if so, what will the (riding) experience be like," she said.

"It was very smooth," Da said, adding that she would feel safe in such a car.

Test subjects use DiDi's mobile app to plot a ride through suburban roads in a Volvo fitted with a crown of tech hardware topped by a spinning radar device.

The vehicle confidently sets out, accelerating, braking, signalling and turning on its own in real traffic as a female voice calmly narrates: "Yielding for crosswalk"; "Your car has been disinfected".

When a large truck abruptly swerved in front, DiDi's AI driver smoothly applied the brake.


Like any student driver, however, it still needs practice.

Chinese consumers—known for eagerly embracing e-commerce, online payments and other digital solutions—are lining up for a spin in DiDi Chuxing's self-developed autonomous taxis at a Shanghai pilot project launched in June

At one stop sign, it braked so abruptly that passengers lurched forward.

And any impromptu deviation from the plotted route requires human intervention.

But Meng Xing, chief operating officer of DiDi's autonomous driving company, told AFP its AI system "is already smart enough to handle most of the situations", and safety drivers almost never need to touch the steering wheel or brakes.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, known for his overly rosy predictions, raised eyebrows in July by saying the US electric carmaker could have a completely autonomous car ready this year, which analysts have dismissed.

'Long way' to go

Paul Lewis, who heads policy research at the Washington-based non-profit Eno Center for Transportation, told AFP that hopes are being "reset" as the pace of the technology's development disappoints.

"Technology developers are starting to realise the limits of artificial intelligence and the benefits of the human brain in handling some of these tasks," he said, adding we remain "a long way" from driverless cars.

A Didi executive said in June that the ride-hailing giant aims to operate more than a million self-driving cars by 2030

But Xiao of AutoX expects a "sizeable" deployment of the vehicles—without safety drivers—could take place in two to three years, with regulations and technology being the main obstacles.

"It's just a matter of time and effort to make it happen," he said. "There are no open scientific questions left to be solved."

Tech giant Baidu has plans for autonomous car testing bases in more than 10 Chinese cities including Beijing, with a 45-strong robotaxi fleet already on trial in central China's Changsha city, plying an area of around 130 square kilometres (50 square miles).

Its Apollo Park in the capital, which opened this year, has more than 200 vehicles while Apollo general manager Li Zhenyu told employees in a letter that "the era of unmanned driving in traffic will definitely arrive".

A Didi executive said in June that the ride-hailing giant aims to operate more than a million self-driving cars by 2030.

"What we are trying to solve is the last 0.5 percent of problems... we believe in the future, we'll be able to get to that point where we can provide a safer experience than a human driver."


Explore further China's Didi launches Silicon Valley research hub

© 2020 AFP

Renewables in Europe: Land requirements can be reduced at low cost

by Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Transitioning our energy supply from coal, oil and gas to wind and solar power is feasible. However, renewables require more land than conventional forms of energy generation. A new study explores the options to reduce the land requirements of a fully renewable energy supply in Europe and their possible impact on the cost of electricity.

The most affordable option for a fully renewable electricity supply in Europe is based on solar parks and onshore windfarms. However, this solution requires some 97,000 km2 land, or roughly 2% of the total area of the European Union—an area equivalent to the size of Portugal.

Offshore wind and solar energy can reduce land requirements

Wind and solar farms change landscapes and their development is frequently the subject of controversy. This is especially true in the case of onshore windfarms, currently the most important technology behind the European energy transition, as these occupy large areas and are visible from a long distance. Prioritizing the adoption of other electricity generation infrastructures in the future could reduce the space requirements of a fully renewable electricity system. According to the study, three options could be pursued individually or in combination to achieve this goal: Offshore wind power, large solar parks, and roof-top solar systems. Each of these technologies could limit land use to about 48,000 square kilometers—one percent of the area of Europe—or even less.

Additional costs are low

According to the study, offshore wind power is particularly cost-effective and could reduce onshore land requirements by 50 percent at an additional cost of five percent compared to the cheapest option. Replacing onshore wind farms with large solar parks or roof-top solar systems would incur additional costs of up to 20 percent. "We have to decide, as a society, how much we value open land," explains the study's author Tim Tröndle. The well-planned expansion of offshore wind power and solar energy offers opportunities to effectively reduce onshore land requirements at a low additional cost.

Explore further  Renewables now EU's biggest source of electricity: study

More information: Tim Tröndle et al, Supply-side options to reduce land requirements of fully renewable electricity in Europe, PLOS ONE (2020). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236958
Journal information: PLoS ONE
Provided by Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V.

Breakthrough technology purifies water using the power of sunlight

by Monash University

A research team, led by Australia's Monash University, has been able to transform brackish water and seawater into safe, clean drinking water in less than 30 minutes using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and sunlight. Credit: Monash University
A global research team has been able to transform brackish water and seawater into safe, clean drinking water in less than 30 minutes using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and sunlight.

In a discovery that could provide potable water for millions of people across the world, researchers were not only able to filter harmful particles from water and generate 139.5L of clean water per kilogram of MOF per day, but also perform this task in a more energy-efficient manner than current desalination practices.

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This world-first research was published in the prestigious journal Nature Sustainability.

Lead author Professor Huanting Wang from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University in Australia, said this work opened up a new direction for designing stimuli-responsive materials for energy-efficient and sustainable desalination and water purification.

"Desalination has been used to address escalating water shortages globally. Due to the availability of brackish water and seawater, and because desalination processes are reliable, treated water can be integrated within existing aquatic systems with minimal health risks," Professor Wang said.

"But, thermal desalination processes by evaporation are energy-intensive, and other technologies, such as reverse osmosis, has a number of drawbacks, including high energy consumption and chemical usage in membrane cleaning and dechlorination.

"Sunlight is the most abundant and renewable source of energy on Earth. Our development of a new adsorbent-based desalination process through the use of sunlight for regeneration provides an energy-efficient and environmentally-sustainable solution for desalination."

Metal-organic frameworks are a class of compounds consisting of metal ions that form a crystalline material with the largest surface area of any material known. In fact, MOFs are so porous that they can fit the entire surface of a football field in a teaspoon.

The research team created a dedicated MOF called PSP-MIL-53. This was synthesised by introducing poly(spiropyran acrylate) (PSP) into the pores of MIL-53—a specialised MOF well-known for its breathing effects and transitions upon the adsorption of molecules such as water and carbon dioxide.

Researchers demonstrated that PSP-MIL-53 was able to yield 139.5L of fresh water per kilogram of MOF per day, with a low energy consumption. This was from desalinating 2,233 ppm water sourced from a river, lake or aquifer.

Professor Wang said this highlights the durability and sustainability of using this MOF for future clean water solutions.

"This study has successfully demonstrated that the photoresponsive MOFs are a promising, energy-efficient, and sustainable adsorbent for desalination," Professor Wang said.

"Our work provides an exciting new route for the design of functional materials for using solar energy to reduce the energy demand and improve the sustainability of water desalination.

"These sunlight-responsive MOFs can potentially be further functionalised for low-energy and environmentally-friendly means of extracting minerals for sustainable mining and other related applications."

Explore further

Solar-driven membrane distillation technology that can double drinking water production

More information: A sunlight-responsive metal–organic framework system for sustainable water desalination, Nature Sustainability (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0590-x , www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0590-x

Journal information: Nature Sustainability

Provided by Monash University

Huawei: Smartphone chips running out under US sanctions

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM VS STATE CAPITALISM

by Joe McDonald

In this Oct. 31, 2019 photo, man uses his smartphone as he stands near a billboard for Chinese technology firm Huawei at the PT Expo in Beijing. Chinese tech giant Huawei kept its global business growing for almost a decade while Washington piled sanctions on the company and lobbied its allies to keep the company out of telecom networks. Now, Huawei is starting to suffer in earnest as the Trump administration steps up efforts to slam the door on access to Western components and markets in a widening feud with Beijing over technology and security. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Chinese tech giant Huawei is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to U.S. sanctions and will be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive says, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei's business from American pressure.


Huawei Technologies Ltd., one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. The feud has spread to include the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok and China-based messaging service WeChat.

Washington cut off Huawei's access to U.S. components and technology including Google's music and other smartphone services last year. Those penalties were tightened in May when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using U.S. technology to produce components for Huawei.

Production of Kirin chips designed by Huawei's own engineers will stop Sept. 15 because they are made by contractors that need U.S. manufacturing technology, said Richard Yu, president of the company's consumer unit. He said Huawei lacks the ability to make its own chips.

"This is a very big loss for us," Yu said Friday at an industry conference, China Info 100, according to a video recording of his comments posted on multiple websites.

"Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on Sept. 15," Yu said. "This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips."

More broadly, Huawei's smartphone production has "no chips and no supply," Yu said.

Yu said this year's smartphone sales probably will be lower than 2019's level of 240 million handsets but gave no details. The company didn't immediately respond to questions Saturday.

Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying. Chinese officials accuse Washington of using national security as an excuse to stop a competitor to U.S. tech industries.

Huawei is a leader among emerging Chinese competitors in telecoms, electric cars, renewable energy and other fields in which the ruling Communist Party hopes China can become a global leader.

Huawei has 180,000 employees and one of the world's biggest research and development budgets at more than $15 billion a year. But, like most global tech brands, it relies on contractors to manufacture its products.

Earlier, Huawei announced its global sales rose 13.1% over a year ago to 454 billion yuan ($65 billion) in the first half of 2020. Yu said that was due to strong sales of high-end products but gave no details.

Huawei became the world's top-selling smartphone brand in the three months ending in June, passing rival Samsung for the first time due to strong demand in China, according to Canalys. Sales abroad fell 27% from a year earlier.

Washington also is lobbying European and other allies to exclude Huawei from planned next-generation networks as a security risk.

In other U.S.-Chinese clashes, TikTok's owner, ByteDance Ltd., is under White House pressure to sell the video app. That is due to fears its access to personal information about millions of American users might be a security risk.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a ban on unspecified transactions with TikTok and the Chinese owner of WeChat, a popular messaging service.


Explore further Huawei sells folding smartphone with no Google after US ban

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

TikTok and privacy: What's the problem? Perhaps the video-sharing app gathers too much data

by Jefferson Graham

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Karen North, a professor of social media at the University of Southern California told her two teenage kids they could have any app on their phones, with one exception.

That would be the controversial, but wildly popular TikTok, which young people love for making quick, funny videos, often set to music.

Her reason: "Because their data is being mined, and the company doesn't have to adhere to our privacy laws."

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, and should the Chinese communist government demand data be handed over, ByteDance would have no choice but to comply, says North.

(TikTok denies this, and has said repeatedly that it stores data in the U.S. and Singapore, and adds that if asked by the Chinese government to hand over data, that it wouldn't comply.)

After President Donald Trump initially said he would would sign an executive order banning the operation of TikTok in the United States, within days, Microsoft said it would intercede with plans to buy the U.S. operations instead. The company hopes to complete the deal by September.

Trump said Thursday he'll go through with the executive order banning TikTok here if no deal happens within 45 days.

Meanwhile, parents might be wondering what exactly is the problem with TikTok?

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, you're free to watch TikTok videos without registering, which means no data collection. However, if you want to create a video and share it, or comment on someone's video, then you must fork over your personal information, starting with age, phone number and e-mail address.

From there, TikTok freely admits—in the privacy policy on its website—it collects information shared from third-party social network providers, and technical (your location) and behavioral information (what videos you think are funny, how often you watch) "about your use of the Platform. We also collect information contained in the messages you send through our Platform and information from your phone book."

That's a lot.

North says that because China has different privacy laws than here, she's wary about the app. "I would say the same thing about any foreign app," she says. "Angry Birds is from Finland. How are the privacy laws there?"


Might there be a ban on all apps from China? Besides TikTok, which has reaped over 800 million downloads and currently is the no. 5 most downloaded app on Apptopia's charts, WeChat, a WhatsApp like communication program, and QQ, which is also used for direct messages, are both owned by China's Tencent.

In a speech this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said all "untrusted" Chinese apps should be removed from U.S. app stores. "With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens," not to mention tools for content censorship, Pompeo said.

The information collected by TikTok is similar to what's gathered by Facebook, but security researcher Patrick Jackson, the chief technology officer of security app Disrupt, says Facebook does more ill things with it, simply because it's so much bigger. Facebook boasts of over 2 billion users.

"The sheer volume of what's collected can't be compared," he says. "What's bigger than using your data to influence an election, which Facebook did in 2016," with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he asks. That's when users data was tapped by Cambridge for political advertising.

(This week Facebook introduced a TikTok clone for its Instagram app called Reels.)

In an April 2020 blog post, Tik Tok said it was doing everything it could to keep the U.S. data out of Chinese hands. "Our goal is to minimize data access across regions so that, for example, employees in the APAC region, including China, would have very minimal access to user data from the EU and US."

But there's a different between "minimal" and "none."

Jackson suggests that parents counsel their kids that if they are to use TikTok, only use it to watch videos, so no data can be compiled on them. Additionally, users can opt to have their account be listed as "private," and only select certain friends to gain viewing access.

And North says that if the Microsoft deal goes through, she'll be happy to let her kids download the app.

"They own it, they have the data on U.S. servers and follow U.S. laws, and I'm fine with it," she says.

Microsoft has long been a company that focused on business, with Office 365 software and cloud computing. Online it owns LinkedIn, which fits in with its work-centric mantra, and Skype, which Microsoft tried to transition into more of a business communication device. "Where they need help is with the next generation, young people," says North. "This could get them there."


Explore further US Senate votes to ban TikTok on government phones

(c)2020 USA Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Windows, Gates and a firewall: Microsoft's delicate castle in China

Microsoft arrived in China in 1992 and now employs around 6,200 in the region

Microsoft, which is in talks to buy part of Chinese video app TikTok, is one of the few US tech titans that have managed to succeed in China.


The software giant has kept its business alive in the country by complying with strict local laws, despite the communist nation's wide-reaching censorship.

Here are some key points about the technology and gaming group's operations in the world's second biggest economy.

A pioneer

Microsoft arrived in China in 1992 and opened its largest research and development centre outside the United States. It now employs around 6,200 people in China.

The ubiquitous Windows operating system is used in the vast majority of computers in China—despite Beijing promising in recent years to develop its own operating system. The company's success has a downside, however, as its software is widely pirated.

The important Chinese market, which is very restrictive for foreign firms, represents a drop in the ocean of Microsoft's business, accounting for barely 1.8 percent of its turnover, president Brad Smith said at the beginning of the year.

Microsoft's Bing is one of the few foreign search engines operating in China—although it is far behind its local competitors Baidu and Sogou, which dominate the market.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is pictured with China's President Xi Jinping during a conference on the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan on April 8, 2013

Bill Gates

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has long embodied a model of success in the eyes of many Chinese people and his books are bestsellers in the country.

President Xi Jinping visited the company's headquarters on a state visit to the US in 2015, where he met with Gates and his wife.

Today, as the head of his humanitarian Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 64-year-old has the prestige of a head of state in Beijing.

In February Xi wrote Gates a letter thanking him for his support during the coronavirus epidemic.

Censorship and control

China censors all subjects considered politically sensitive in the name of stability, and internet giants are urged to block unwanted content online.

Refusing to comply with Beijing's strict demands, American giants Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as Wikipedia and several other foreign media, are blocked by China's "great firewall".


Microsoft, however, operates its professional LinkedIn network in the country by complying with the draconian censorship rules through a local joint venture.

After Beijing lifted its ban on console sales, Microsoft was the first foreign firm to break into the video games market in China with its Xbox One console in 2014

Skype and Teams, its other two big platforms, are also available in China.

It's not all smooth sailing though, with Bing temporarily taken offline last year, prompting speculation the search engine had been blocked by censors.

Smith told Fox Business News at the World Economic Forum in Davos that "there are times when there are difficult negotiations with the Chinese government."

The Greatfire.org website, which tracks online censorship in China, accused Bing a few years ago of redacting results containing sensitive information.

Video games

In 2000 Beijing halted the sale of all consoles because of their alleged negative effects on the "mental health" of young users, although they remained available illegally.

After the ban was lifted, Microsoft in 2014 was the first foreign firm to break into the video games market in China with its Xbox One console.

Also in 2014, the Chinese competition authorities opened an anti-monopoly investigation against Microsoft and its Windows software.

Around 100 inspectors raided the group's offices in four Chinese cities, confiscating files and questioning employees.


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30-year-old file format behind MacOS hackby Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A security expert revealed this week that an exploit commonly used against Windows users who own Microsoft Office can sneak into MacOS systems as well.


A former NSA security specialist who addressed the Black Hat security conference this week summarized his research into the new use for a very old exploit.

Patrick Wardle explained that the exploit capitalizes on the use of macros in Microsoft Office. Hackers have long used the approach to trick users into granting permission to activate the macros, which in turn surreptitiously launch malicious code.

But Wardle noted that attacks against Mac systems using such macros began occurring around 2017. In 2018, the internet security company Kaspersky uncovered evidence that North Korean hackers infected a cryptocurrency exchange in what was believed to be the first such assault on a MacOS system. Hackers residing under the world's most repressive regime may have earned up to $2 billion in cryptocurrency hacks, according to a report released why the United Nations last year.

The hacks rely on the use of two additional weak spots, one a nearly 30-year-old file format little used in recent years. While Microsoft Office generally prompts users before a macro is executed, the old SYLK Excel file format (.SLK) does not trigger a prompt. Thus, it can be used to bypass a line of security.

Wardle noted that Microsoft Office handles code for old files differently than code for newer ones.

When researchers alerted Apple to the .SLK vulnerability last year, Wardle said, Microsoft declined to issue a patch, asserting that malicious code would be contained within the secure Microsoft Office sandbox environment.

Wardle, who slyly proclaimed, "Working at the NSA corrupted my mind and filled it with evil ideas," set out to test those boundaries of the sandbox protection. In a matter of days, he found a vulnerability.

By beginning a filename with the "$" character, he learned, a file can break out of the sandbox and avoid detection.

"Security researchers love these ancient file formats because they were created at a time when no one was thinking about security," Wardle told Motherboard.

Microsoft has patched the SYLK vulnerability and says it is communicating with Apple on addressing other issues raised by the research of Wardle and others.

Wardle fears these hacks may be just the tip of the iceberg.

"I was surprised how easy it was," to devise these hacks, Wardle told Wired magazine. "I do have experience doing this, but it would be arrogant for me to think that well-resourced hacker groups aren't looking at this and don't have similar talents, if not more so. It's a very broad attack vector. Sufficiently resourced and clever hackers will find ways to gain access and persist on Mac systems."

Dutch researcher Stan Hegt, who uncovered the SYLK macro vulnerability, praised Wardle's research but also cautioned there likely are more problems to come.

"The fact that he's now built a full exploit chain definitely proves a point," said Hegt. "I'm pretty sure if you dig deep in Office, especially on Macs, there's more" troublesome issues to uncover.


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More information: objective-see.com/blog/blog_0x4B.html

Twitter, TikTok discuss potential combination: WSJ

President Donald Trump set a September 15 deadline for Chinese-owned TikTok to be acquired by an American company

Twitter is in preliminary discussions for a possible combination with TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, after US President Donald Trump said he would ban the app, calling it a threat to national security.

Trump declared Thursday that the popular Chinese video app TikTok and social network WeChat "threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

In an executive order, Trump gave Americans 45 days to stop doing business with the platforms, effectively setting a deadline for a sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent firm ByteDance.

He has also demanded that a significant portion of the sale go to the US Treasury.

Microsoft has been the primary suitor for TikTok, saying it was in talks to buy the company's US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operations.

The Financial Times reported Thursday that Microsoft has expanded negotiations and was now after the app's entire global operations.

As a smaller company, Twitter would have a long-shot bid for TikTok, but the social media platform believes it would come under less antitrust scrutiny than larger corporations such as Microsoft, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the talks.

Twitter, however, would likely need the support of other investors to complete the combination.

While Twitter does allow for the sharing of videos, most posts contain short text messages and photos or GIFs.

In 2012 Twitter acquired the platform Vine, which allowed users to share short videos, but shut down the service in 2016.


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