Chinese spies used hijacked NSA code in their hacking operations

Chinese spies used code first developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to support their hacking operations, Israeli researchers said on Monday, another indication of how malicious software developed by governments can boomerang against their creators.

 A map of China is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen showing binary digits.

Tel Aviv-based Check Point Software Technologies issued a report noting that some features in a piece of China-linked malware it dubs “Jian” were so similar they could only have been stolen from some of the National Security Agency break-in tools leaked to the internet in 2017.

Yaniv Balmas, Checkpoint’s head of research, called Jian “kind of a copycat, a Chinese replica.”

The find comes as some experts argue that American spies should devote more energy to fixing the flaws they find in software instead of developing and deploying malicious software to exploit it.
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The NSA declined comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.


A person familiar with the matter said Lockheed Martin Corp – which is credited as having identified the vulnerability exploited by Jian in 2017 – discovered it on the network of an unidentified third party.

In a statement, Lockheed said it “routinely evaluates third-party software and technologies to identify vulnerabilities.”

Countries around the world develop malware that breaks into their rivals’ devices by taking advantage of flaws in the software that runs them. Every time spies discover a new flaw they must decide whether to quietly exploit it or fix the issue to thwart rivals and rogues.

That dilemma came to public attention between 2016 and 2017, when a mysterious group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers” published some of the NSA’s most dangerous code to the internet, allowing cybercriminals and rival nations to add American-made digital break-in tools to their own arsenals.

How the Jian malware analyzed by Checkpoint was used is not clear. In an advisory published in 2017, Microsoft Corp suggested it was linked to a Chinese entity it dubs “Zirconium,” which last year was accused of targeting U.S. election-related organizations and individuals, including people associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign.

Checkpoint says Jian appears to have been crafted in 2014, at least two years before the Shadow Brokers made their public debut. That, in conjunction with research published in 2019 by Broadcom Inc-owned cybersecurity firm Symantec about a similar incident, suggests the NSA has repeatedly lost control of its own malware over the years.

Checkpoint’s research is thorough and “looks legit,” said Costin Raiu, a researcher with Moscow-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab, which has helped dissect some of the NSA’s malware.

Balmas said a possible takeaway from his company’s report was for spymasters weighing whether to keep software flaws secret to think twice about using a vulnerability for their own ends.

“Maybe it’s more important to patch this thing and save the world,” Balmas said. “It might be used against you.”

Inside the origins of a conspiracy theory about Myanmar and China

February 22, 2021

Image: First Draft Montage / Photography: Unsplash (Immo Wegmann, Isabel Retamales, Ko Ko Myoe, Daniel Romero)


AUTHOR

Stevie Zhang,

Esther Chan


Myanmar.


Since Myanmar’s democratically elected government was ousted February 1, social media has been inundated with conspiracy theories and rumors.

In this case study, we explore a recent theory that emerged when people in Myanmar noticed Chinese characters appearing on their mobile devices.

Myanmar’s military junta announced on February 11 plans to introduce sweeping new cybersecurity laws that would give authorities what Reuters called “unprecedented censorship powers,” less than a fortnight after it overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. The proposed laws led to speculation online and among protesters that Chinese IT equipment and technicians were being flown in to help implement an internet firewall, similar to the Great Firewall of China.

The junta has denied this, but fear over alleged Chinese support for the military coup was exacerbated when social media, particularly Twitter, erupted with claims that Chinese characters were appearing, seemingly at random, on mobile devices, smart TVs and apps following the announcement of the new cybersecurity laws.

These rumors have since been debunked by internet monitoring firms and analysts, who said the characters’ appearance was the result of a technical glitch.

Starting on February 17, people in Myanmar reported they were receiving automated messages from telecommunicators operators in Chinese, rather than Burmese, language. On the surface, the Chinese-language messages are gibberish, and the string of characters appears to be identical across many different screenshots and videos shared by internet users.

In reference to the strange characters, social media users made comments such as “China is definitely involved in Myanmar military coup” and “This may be because of the great firewall of china.”

Around the same time the Chinese characters were appearing on mobile devices, smart TVs across Myanmar started displaying Chinese characters on their menus and on apps such as YouTube. This, too, prompted people to claim foreign interference.

“This is obvious that China is helping Myanmar military to strictly control/monitor telecommunication,” one Twitter user said.

The issue attracted international media attention. BBC’s Freya Cole tweeted on February 16, “There is huge concern about CCP involvement in Myanmar. But it’s difficult to verify. I need telecom workers & airport staff to securely speak to me. I also need way more evidence. If you notice Chinese language on your phone or TVs pls screenshot. Inbox me.”




A BBC journalist shared images of the Chinese-language text seen by mobile customers in Myanmar. Image: Twitter, screenshot

An investigation by Hong Kong-based independent news outlet Citizen News found that the Chinese characters were likely the result of an encoding issue within the telecom providers’ system. Plugging the Chinese-language SMS text into a tool used to decode UTF-8, the character encoding method most commonly used on the internet, returns the message, “Please enter a valid keyword.” You can even reverse engineer it using a character encoder/decoder tool.

An analysis by the monitoring service Netblocks also found that the Chinese characters were a side effect of the new internet restrictions, which affected the functioning of Google servers. A similar issue occurred in June 2020, when Verizon customers reported receiving nonsensical messages in Chinese. The problem was that messages were being sent in UTF-8 encoding, but were decoded in the more complex UTF-16BE.

While the BBC’s Cole later clarified that the characters were not an indication of Chinese government involvement, social media users discussing Myanmar quickly circulated her original post on Facebook and Twitter as validation of their concerns, urging others to send Cole evidence so the alleged collusion could be exposed. In the case of Cole’s tweet, the use of social media for journalistic inquiry inadvertently became a mechanism for the spread of a conspiracy theory.

Amid the larger questions about China’s relationship with Myanmar, the technical errors that resulted in Chinese characters being shown on digital devices became one node in a larger complex of conspiracy theories. The theory about the characters was used to support larger conspiracy narratives which, at the moment, remain far from proven: the idea that a China-style web surveillance regime was being set up in Myanmar; and that China was involved in the military coup there.

The example of the Chinese characters demonstrates how a volatile situation such as Myanmar’s can fuel conspiracy theories, which draw on a lack of trust in authorities. With a knowledge deficit created by Myanmar and China’s opaque politics and relations, speculation and rumors continue to run rampant.

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Protests swell after Myanmar junta raises spectre of force

YANGON, Myanmar — Protesters gathered in Myanmar’s biggest city on Monday despite the ruling junta’s threat to use lethal force against people who join a general strike against the military's takeover three weeks ago.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

More than 1,000 protesters gathered near the U.S. Embassy in Yangon despite barriers blocking the way, but left to avoid a confrontation after 20 military trucks with riot police arrived nearby. Protests continued in other parts of the city, including next to Sule Pagoda, a traditional gathering point.

Factories, workplaces and shops were shuttered across the country Monday in response to the call for a nationwide strike. The closings extended to the capital, Naypyitaw.

The junta had warned against a general strike in a public announcement Sunday night on state television broadcaster MRTV.

“It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,” the onscreen text said in English, replicating the spoken announcement in Burmese.

The junta’s statement also blamed criminals for past protest violence, with the result that “the security force members had to fire back.” Three protesters have been fatally shot.

Trucks cruised the streets of Yangon on Sunday night, blaring similar warnings.

The protest movement, which seeks to restore power to the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and have her and other leaders released from detention, has embraced nonviolence.

The nationwide strike was dubbed Five-Twos, for the five number twos in the numeric form of Monday’s date.

“I am joining the 22222 nationwide protest as a citizen of the country. We must join the protest this time without fail,” said 42-year-old Zayar, who owns a bottled water business in the capital. “So I’ve closed down my factory and joined the demonstration.”

Zin Mi Mi Aung, a 27-year-old saleswoman, also joined the strike.

“We don’t want to be governed by the regime," she said as people marched and chanted behind her. "We will fight against them until we win.”

Thousands of people gathered in the capital’s wide boulevards, many on motorbikes to allow swift movement in the event of any police action.

Reports and photos of protests in at least a dozen cities and towns were posted on social media. Overhead views, some shot from drones, showed massive crowds in six cities appearing to number in the tens of thousands.

There were pictures of a particularly colorful event in Taunggyi, the capital of Shan state, where scores of small red hot-air balloons were set aloft. A bigger one was adorned with a drawing of the three-finger salute adopted by the anti-coup movement. The city is famous for its annual hot-air balloon festival.

In Pyinmana, a satellite town of Naypyitaw, police chased people through the streets to arrest them. Reports on social media, including from worried family members, said police had arrested 200 people or more, mostly young people, and sent them to a military base. If confirmed, it would be the biggest mass arrest since the protests started.

The general strike was an extension of actions called by the Civil Disobedience Movement, a loosely organized group that has been encouraging civil servants and workers at state enterprises to walk off their jobs. Many transport workers and white collar workers have responded to the appeal.

On Saturday, a General Strike Committee was formed by more than two dozen groups to provide a more formal structure for the resistance movement and launch a “spring revolution.”

The United States and several Western governments have called for the junta to refrain from violence, release detainees and restore Myanmar's elected government. On Monday, the U.S. said it was imposing sanctions against more junta members because of killings of peaceful protesters by security forces.

Lt. Gen. Moe Myint Tun and Gen. Maung Maung Kyaw add to other military leaders and entities facing U.S. sanctions, and Britain and Canada have taken similar action since the military takeover.

The U.S. condemned the attacks on protesters, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement vowing to take further action if more violence occurred. “We call on the military and police to cease all attacks on peaceful protesters, immediately release all those unjustly detained, stop attacks on and intimidation of journalists and activists, and restore the democratically elected government,” he said.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military for most of its history since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. A gradual move toward democracy in the past decade allowed Suu Kyi to lead a civilian government beginning in 2016, though the generals retained substantial power under a military-drafted constitution.

Her party won last November's election by a landslide, but the military stepped in before Parliament was to convene on Feb. 1, detained Suu Kyi and other government officials and instituted a one-year state of emergency. It contends the vote was tainted by fraud and plans to reinvestigate those allegations before a new election is held.

The Associated Press

Malaysia deports Myanmar migrants despite court order

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian immigration authorities said Tuesday they have deported 1,086 Myanmar migrants, breaking a court order to halt their repatriation following an appeal by two human rights groups

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Just hours earlier, a high court granted a one-day stay order for the deportation of 1,200 Myanmar migrants to hear an appeal by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia, which said refugees, asylum-seekers and minors were among those being sent back.

Immigration chief Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the 1,086 had agreed to return home voluntarily on three Myanmar naval ships. He stressed that they were all Myanmar nationals who were detained last year and didn't include any Muslim ethnic Rohingya refugees or asylum-seekers.

“All of them have agreed to return voluntarily without being forced by any parties," he said in a statement, adding that it was part of the department's normal repatriation program.

The statement didn't mention the court order or explain why only 1,086 were deported instead of 1,200.

Amnesty International called the decision “inhumane and devastating.”

“It appears the authorities railroaded this shockingly cruel deportation before any proper scrutiny of the decision," it said in a statement. “This life-threatening decision has affected the lives of more than a thousand people and their families, and leaves an indelible stain on Malaysia’s human rights record, already in steep decline over the past year."

The rights group earlier said the court would hear its appeal Wednesday and urged the government to reconsider its plans to send the migrants back home, where human rights violations are high following a Feb. 1 military coup that deposed the country's elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

It urged the government to give the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees access to the 1,200 migrants and all immigration detention centres in general, which Malaysia's government has denied since August 2019.

The immigration department earlier said the migrants were held for offences including not having valid travel documents, overstaying their visas and violating social visit passes.

But the two rights groups in their legal filing named three people registered with the UNHCR and 17 minors who have at least one parent still in Malaysia. The UNHCR has separately said there were at least six people registered with it among the group to be deported.

Amnesty International and Asylum Access said the repatriation is tantamount to legitimizing ongoing human rights violations by Myanmar’s military and would put the migrants at risk of further persecution, violence and even death.

A group of 27 Malaysian lawmakers and senators also sent a letter to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Sunday urging him to halt the deportation. There was no response from the prime minister's office.

Malaysia doesn’t recognize asylum seekers or refugees, but has allowed a large population to stay on humanitarian grounds. It is home to some 180,000 U.N. refugees and asylum seekers — including more than 100,000 Rohingya and other members of Myanmar ethnic groups.

More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar since August 2017, when the military cracked down in response to attacks by a rebel group. The security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of homes.

The Associated Press

Angry youths rattle Spain in support of jailed rap artist

BARCELONA, Spain — The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music and tweets praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has set off a powder keg of pent-up rage this week in the southern European country.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The arrest of Pablo Hasél has brought thousands to the streets for different reasons.

Under the banner of freedom of expression, many Spaniards strongly object to putting an artist behind bars for his lyrics and social media remarks. They are clamouring for Spain’s left-wing government to fulfil its promise and roll back the Public Security Law passed by the previous conservative administration that was used to prosecute Hasél and other artists.

Hasél’s imprisonment to serve a nine-month sentence on Tuesday has also tapped into a well of frustration among Spain’s youths, who have the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. Four in every 10 eligible workers under 25 years old are without a job.

“I think that what we are experiencing now with the cases of Pablo Hasél (...) and other rappers politically detained by this regime is a brutal attack against the freedom of speech,” 26-year-old student Pablo Castilla said during a protest in Barcelona. “The protests are being brutally repressed by the allegedly progressive national government and the Catalan government.

“They are attacking us youngsters because we are showing our anger.”

For many, including older peaceful protesters, Hasél’s case also represents what they perceive as a heavy-handed reaction by a state whose very structure is in need of deep reform. That's even when some of his public remarks, especially in messages sent out on Twitter, Hasél expressed radical ideas, talked about attacking politicians and defended the now-defunct Grapo and ETA, two armed organizations that killed over 1,000 people in Spain.

Hasél’s lyrics that strike at King Felipe VI and his father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, have connected with a growing public debate on the future of Spain’s parliamentary monarchy. Unquestioned outside fringe circles of the Left until the past decade, the royal house has been plagued by financial scandal that has reached Juan Carlos himself. Many Spaniards were aghast when the former monarch left Spain for the United Arab Emirates amid a court investigation into his alleged fiscal improprieties.

As well as shouting its support for Hasél, a crowd that gathered in Madrid on Saturday chanted “Where is the change? Where is the progress?” and “Juan Carlos de Borbón, womanizer and thief.”

The debate has caused tensions inside Spain's left-wing coalition government. While Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Socialist Party back the parliamentary monarchy Spain has had since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s, their minor partner, the upstart United We Can party, wants to get rid of the monarchy and has supported this week’s protests for Hasél despite their violent turn.

In the rapper's home region of Catalonia, the unrest also comes after years of separatist politicians urging citizens to ignore or disobey court rulings unfavourable to their cause. Although this week’s protests are missing widespread calls for Catalonia’s independence or flags supporting secession of the industrial region, the head of public safety for Barcelona’s town hall said that many of the most violent offenders were also heavily involved in the 2019 riots that followed the imprisonment of several separatist leaders.

“It is a varied, violent profile that we already are familiar with because it is very similar to those who played a large role in the incidents of October 2019, so we know the type,” Barcelona town council member Albert Batlle told Cadena SER radio.

Some leading pro-secessionist politicians have heavily criticized the handling of the protests by Catalan police, who made more than 35 arrests on Saturday night alone.

What started out as peaceful, if angry, protests by thousands in Barcelona and other nearby towns, degenerated into ugly incidents come nightfall caused by a violent minority bent on destroying property and battling with police.

“I think we must differentiate between those who come here in support of Pablo Hasél’s freedom and those who do not,” 19-year-old Joana Junca said. “Street barricades to defend themselves are okay. But those who go out there just to riot don’t have my support.”

The Mossos d’Esquadra police said Monday that 61 of the 75 people arrested in the Catalan capital since protests erupted on Feb. 16 were 25 or younger, including 24 minors. Three out of four had Spanish nationality and 26 of them had previous run-ins with authorities for public disorders or theft.

Within that splinter group of troublemakers, some are out to do some timely looting, Catalonia’s regional interior minister, Miquel Sàmper, on Sunday told the regional TV3 broadcaster that what was “a protest over freedom of expression” had evolved to "acts of pure vandalism.”

Police point to small groups who bash their way into sporting goods stores and other shops while law enforcement officers are engaged by the clashes and the clearing barricades of burning trash containers and metal barriers strewn across streets. Police described what they called “pillaging” by “some people who take advantage of the disorder and cover provided by the large number of people.”

Then there are those, mostly teenage rioters, who appear to be motivated by an anarchist, anti-police bent and seek to disrupt public order by any means possible. They work in fast-moving packs, smashing store windows and trashing bank offices. They pick their moments to stop running and target police with co-ordinated hurling of stones and other objects. Police swing batons and fire foam bullets after pouring out of riot vans to disperse them — and the chase continues.

Eleven police officers were injured on Tuesday night when a mob attacked a police station in the Catalan town of Vic.

“The attack on the station in Vic was a turning point,” Imma Viudes, spokeswoman of the SAP-Fepol union for the Catalan police told Spanish National Radio. “We don’t have the means to control this mass violence. (…) Someone is going to have to put their fist down.”

On Sunday, on their way to hurl bottles and firecrackers at a police station in Barcelona, a group of mostly black-clad youths marched behind a banner that they defiantly planted in front of a line of police vans.

It read: “You have taught us that being peaceful is useless.”

__

AP journalists Aritz Parra in Madrid, and Renata Brito in Barcelona, contributed to this report.

Joseph Wilson And HernáN MuñOz, The Associated Press

CANADA

Egerton Ryerson: Racist philosophy of residential schools also shaped public education

Hunter Knight, PhD Candidate, Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto 

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole issued a public apology in December: “I said that the residential school system was intended to try and ‘provide education.’ It was not. The system was intended to remove children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures.” He was referring to comments he made in a meeting with a Conservative club at Ryerson University, where he defended Egerton Ryerson in response to substantial debate and protest surrounding Ryerson’s legacy.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio Black Lives Matter protesters threw pink paint on a statue of Egerton Ryerson at Ryerson University in Toronto on July 18, 2020.

O'Toole’s apology gives us an opportunity to think about Ryerson’s understanding of education and the purposes of schooling in a settler colonial society. As critics rightly noted, it is true that the primary objectives of residential schools were not to educate children. It is also true that these institutions were part of Ryerson’s broader conception of schooling as key to what he foresaw as the evolution of Canada into a “civilized” white and culturally British nation.

Ryerson designed a model for residential schools that was influential in shaping a system that amounted to cultural genocide. He is also credited for founding public schooling in Ontario.

These developments were not contradictory. As writer and cultural theorist Sylvia Wynter notes, western educational systems are inextricable from colonialism. The development of both residential schools and public schooling are the organic outcome of Ryerson’s educational philosophy.
Dramatic social shift

Schooling existed in a variety of forms in what would become Ontario before the middle of the 19th century, but the rise of mass public education in the latter half of the century marked a dramatic social shift.

As chief superintendent of schools in Canada West starting in 1844, Ryerson presided over this shift. He either wrote or directed many foundational educational laws over the next 30 years.

Ryerson promoted the development of mass public education by saying state-run schools were where every child belonged. The Common Schools Act, with the term “common” supposedly meaning universal, was passed in 1846. But the movement of “universal” education did not give rise to equality of opportunity in schooling.

What followed were proposals or legislation pertaining to the exclusion of at least four constructed categories of children.

In 1847, the Department of Indian Affairs asked for Ryerson’s suggestions for a model for industrial schools for Indigenous children. His recommendations would influence the development of residential schools throughout Canada.

In 1850, under the same act that established separate schools for Catholics and Protestants, he legislated separate schools for Black children. Black families were soon forced into separate schools even when they wished to attend common schools.

Read more: Black History: How racism in Ontario schools today is connected to a history of segregation

In 1862, he outlined plans for schools for the “vagrant and neglected” children of the poor. His plans describe many of the characteristics of what later developed as industrial schools, designed to divert working class children from an imagined future as criminals.

In 1868, he published a report on recommendations for schools for deaf or blind children.

These separate schooling systems had a long-reaching legacy. The last residential school in Canada was open until 1996. Segregated schools for Black students existed in Ontario until 1965. Industrial schools were phased out in the 1930s.

Today, racism in mainstream schooling is an ongoing urgent problem as is school equity or inclusion for Black, Indigenous, low-income and disabled people

© (Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County/Flickr) A photograph of Common School No. 2 in Belleville, Ont., around 1900.

Project of national development

Before he passed any major legislation, Ryerson’s first initiative in his tenure was a report that served as a basis for the Common Schools Act of 1846. It illuminates the philosophy behind Ryerson’s vision.

Ryerson set up the project of schooling as one of national development. This vision was understood in deeply colonial, racialized and hierarchical terms. He wrote:


“We should judge, not by what has been, or is, but what ought to be, and what must be, if we are not to be distanced by other countries in the race of civilization.”

Public schooling was understood as a venue through which children could do necessary work for their country’s “forward development.”

The framework for development here was as an extension of Enlightenment European philosophies of the world and humanity, which were posited as universal while being structured by ideologies of pseudo-scientific racism and evolutionary thought. As Wynter explains, these philosophies emerged amidst efforts to rationalize and justify colonial practices and transatlantic slavery.

Through this lens, advocates of colonial expansion argued that individual humans and races of people progressively develop from irrational, malleable subjects towards higher rationality and advanced scientific capabilities. As such, the state is an ultimate reflection of how advanced, or “civilized,” its people are. In this pseudo-scientific evolutionary philosophy, the “rational, advanced, civilized” subjects who deserve more power — and are justified in inflicting colonial rule, violence and genocide on others — are white European men.

© (Government of Ontario Art Collection, AC622107/Archives of Ontario) The Rev. Dr. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson, DD, LL D (Chief Superintendent of Education, Canada West, Ont., 1844-76), portrait ca. 1850-51 by Theophile Hamel.

Justifying colonial violence, hierarchies

For Ryerson, creating a framework for public schooling and also for residential schools was part of the same project of furthering Canada’s development. The differentiated schooling he proposed was intended to serve those explicit aims, and the contrast in schooling methods and what Ryerson advocated (or did not advocate) for is stark.

Ryerson described education in common schools as a “charming passage,” in which students were inspired towards lifelong learning and growth.

In contrast, for industrial schools for Indigenous children, the model which the residential school system emerged from, Ryerson argued that “a state of civilization” could only be achieved with eight to 12 hours a day of heavy agricultural labour, starting at the age of four. He mused there would likely be little time for academics.

Read more: Residential school literature can teach the colonial present and imagine better futures

For deaf and/or blind children, he believed that only an intensive focus on manual trades would be able to combat what he saw as their natural idleness.

For segregated schools for Black students, he refused to support Black parents and advocates when school boards (that answered to him) denied them adequate funds, arguing he had no power to help.

And he suggested that industrial schools for “vagrant and neglected children” be structured similarly to prisons.

Ryerson’s legacy is rightly criticized for his role in creating the model for residential schools. How Canadians choose to memorialize him and understand the systems he developed has wide-ranging implications.

Let’s not ignore how the same racist and colonial philosophy behind residential schools was also foundational to mainstream public education.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Hunter Knight receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Cloud computing is helping to keep NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on track

Amazon Web Services touts space credentials from Earth-bound cloud infrastr

By Liam Tung | February 23, 2021 -- 12:19 GMT (04:19 PST) | Topic: Cloud

Panorama, taken on 20 February, 2021, by the Navcams aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover.

Image: NASA

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has explained the role of cloud computing in processing data sent back from NASA's Perseverance explorer on Mars.

During Perseverance's mission on Mars, the science and engineering data will be processed and hosted in AWS. The Mars Rover team is receiving hundreds of images from Mars each day from a record number of cameras, resulting in thousands of images over Perseverance's time on the planet; using the cloud helps NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to store, process, and distribute this high volume of data, according to AWS.

AWS is processing data from Mars on behalf of NASA, helping inform how the Mars rover handles the terrain. 

"The rover requires visibility to drive, so it is important for the team to be able to send the next batch of instructions back to the rover within a specific timeframe. The increased efficiency will allow Mars 2020 to accomplish its ambitious goal of collecting more samples and driving longer distances during the prime mission, compared to previous rovers," AWS expained. 

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is scoping out the geology of the red plant and is looking for signs of ancient life. The mission launched on July 30 and will collect and store rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth in the future. 

Besides collecting physical samples, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Perseverance mission is a roving smartphone packed with sensors, such as a cameras and microphones, to collect data. 

But why would the NASA mission need microphones on Mars?

"The sensors will gather scientific data like atmospheric information, wind speeds, and weather. The microphones will collect the sounds of the planet. This data will be processed by JPL and made publicly available so viewers can explore Mars alongside NASA JPL," AWS states. AWS is also providing a 3D view of Mars from the perspective of Perseverance. 

Cloud computing is far from the only technology being used by the project; there is also a significant role for Linux and open-source technologies.

The AWS contribution to NASA's mission matches up with Amazon's former CEO Jeff Bezos' space ambitions with his rocket company, Blue Origin. 

Texas turtles 'shellebrate' as they dive back home after recovering from cold snap | ITV News

• Tuesday 23 February 2021

Video report by ITV News Reporter Sally Biddulph

---

Dozens of sea turtles have been returned to the sea after thousands were left stunned by freakishly cold weather in the United States.

A cold snap in Texas sparked a rescue operation for the planet's oldest creatures, who were frozen in the water and unable to move their flippers.

But after an estimated 4,500 were saved by residents in the southern state, some have recovered enough to head out to open waters once again.

Crew members of the US coast guard were recorded lifting the turtles and pushing them back home.

It is hoped others will soon follow.

'Dare mighty things': hidden message found on Nasa Mars rover parachute

Social media users say message is encoded in red-and-white pattern on parachute

Nasa’s Perseverance rover took this photo of the parachute as it

 was lowered to the surface of Mars. 

Photograph: NASA/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Martin Belam
Tue 23 Feb 2021 

Internet sleuths claim to have decoded a hidden message displayed on the parachute that helped Nasa’s Perseverance Rover land safely on Mars last week. They claim that the phrase “Dare mighty things” – used as a motto by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – was encoded on the parachute using a pattern representing letters as binary computer code.

Reddit users and social media posters on Twitter noticed that the red-and-white pattern on the parachute looked deliberate, and arrived at the result by using the red to represent the figure one, and the white to represent zero.

 

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Each of the concentric rings in the parachute’s pattern represents one of the words. The zeroes and ones need to be split up into chunks of 10 characters, and from that, adding 64 gives you the computer ASCII code representing a letter. For example, seven white stripes, a red stripe and then two more white stripes represents 0000000100, the binary for four. Adding 64 to that gives 68, the ASCII code for the letter D.

The pattern on the outer-edge of the parachute is additionally believed to represent 34°11’58” N 118°10’31” W, the geolocation code for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which carried out much of the work on Perseverance.

The origins of the phrase are an 1899 speech by Theodore Roosevelt, in which he said: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

The challenge had been set by Nasa itself. While the pattern has a scientific purpose – it allows mission control to see the angle the parachute has deployed at and whether it has got twisted – during a live stream discussing the landing, one Nasa commentator said: “Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find. So we invite you all to give it a shot and show your work.”
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Nasa has previously used the phrase in association with its Mars missions. In 2013 it issued a trailer video of the Curiosity rover mission entitled “Dare mighty things”. The current mission has also used the phrase in tweets marking the successful landing.

The hi-tech fabric making up the parachute was created in Devon, emphasising the international nature of the effort to get Perseverance to the red planet. Heathcoat Fabrics of Tiverton said it was “very, very proud of the achievement”, with the director of the company’s woven fabric department, Peter Hill, saying it represented 15 years’ work.

The company’s technical director, Richard Crane, told the BBC: “It is an incredibly emotional moment, when you know that millions of people around the world are holding their breath, waiting for news of a successful touchdown, and that part of that success is down to the efforts of our fantastic team here in Tiverton.”


This isn’t the only hidden message carried on the Perseverance Rover. Among the “Easter eggs” Nasa put on the vehicle there are special microchips carrying 10.9 million names and 155 essays sent to the space agency as part of competitions to send names to Mars or to name the rover itself.

The vehicle also carries a reference to the Covid pandemic, which has affected the preparations and running of the mission here on Earth. An aluminium plate on the rover carries an image of the Rod of Asclepius, the ancient Greek symbol for healing and medicine, supporting the Earth, in honour of the work of frontline medical workers during the pandemic.

Nord Stream 2: Twists and turns of a controversial gas pipeline

Charlotte Nijhuis
23 Feb 2021, 11:11 

Photo: Nord Stream AG

The pipeline Nord Stream 2 would connect Germany directly to Russian gas supply, but it has split opinions in Europe and beyond for years. The tube's construction in the Baltic Sea is well advanced, but the project dampens efforts to rekindle good transatlantic relations, as the US is strongly opposed to the project and has imposed sanctions on the companies involved. This article provides a chronological overview of the twists and turns surrounding the project and will be updated regularly. [UPDATES to 23 February]

For background on the project, including arguments from proponents and opponents of the pipeline, see our factsheet.

Recent developments

German, U.S. and international media such as Handelsblatt, Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported in mid-February that the administration of new President Joe Biden might be willing to make a deal with Germany on Nord Stream 2, according to government sources. It remained unclear whether Biden would even consider to do so in the face of clear bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Congress. A deal could involve waiving sanctions in turn for an agreement that Germany would shut off future natural gas deliveries through the pipeline, for example in case Russia put pressure on Ukraine.

After more than a year of threatening to do so, the U.S. had introduced first sanctions on 19 January, former president Donald Trump’s final full day in office. The administration sanctioned the Russian ship Fortuna, which later resumed pipe-laying in Danish waters on 6 February.

The pipeline was originally scheduled for completion by the end of 2019. About 2,300 km out of approximately 2,460 km had been laid by December 2019, when Swiss pipelaying company Allseas suspended activity following the introduction of U.S. sanctions legislation. By mid-February 2021, about 150 km – 75 km per strand of the twin pipeline – still had to be completed, mostly in Danish and to some extent in German waters.

Timeline

2021

23 February: Eighteen European companies have withdrawn or are in the process of withdrawing from the pipeline project following U.S. sanctions threats, according to a U.S. state department report for Congress submitted on Friday (19 February). "This shows that the legislative goals and our actions have been successful," U.S. state department spokesman Ned Price said. "We continue to monitor companies involved in potentially sanctionable acts."

22 February 2021: Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau and Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba call for an end to Nord Stream 2, as it damages the “strong, vibrant and resilient West”, the ministers write in an opinion piece published by Politico. The United States can play an important role in preventing the completion of the pipeline, the ministers say.

20 February 2021: The Biden administration singles out a Russian ship for violating U.S. sanctions on the construction of the pipeline, Bloomberg reports. Like in the first round, the U.S. sanctions the ship Fortuna. Not sanctioning German entities involved can be seen as reflecting reported decisions by the new administration not to challenge Germany over its support for the pipeline, in an effort not to antagonise a key European ally.

19 February 2021: The U.S. might hold off on sanctioning German companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 project, as the Biden administration seeks to halt the project without antagonizing a close European ally, Bloomberg reports. It would instead put only a small number of Russia-linked entities on the list.

16 February 2021: The Biden administration might be willing to make a deal with Berlin on Nord Stream 2, according to German media sources. However, it remains unclear whether Biden would even consider doing so in the face of clear bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Congress. A deal could involve waiving sanctions in exchange for an agreement that Germany would stop future natural gas deliveries through the pipeline, for example in case Russia puts pressure on Ukraine.

9 February 2021: German environmental NGO Umwelthilfe publishes a letter written by German finance minister Olaf Scholz to former U.S. counterpart Steven Mnuchin. In the letter, dated 7 August 2020 and reported by Zeit in September 2020, Germany offers financial support for German liquid natural gas (LNG) importers to enable them to directly import U.S. LNG in a bid to prevent the U.S. from imposing sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

9 February 2021: German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier defends the pipeline by pointing at the "bigger picture", including Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII, in an interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post. The presidents' comments leave Ukraine angry as they ignore the Ukrainian victims of the war. The Ukrainian ambassador says the president's stance was met with "surprise and indignation" in Kyiv.

6 February 2021: The construction of the pipeline with the Russian vessel Fortuna restarts in Danish waters despite U.S. sanctions.

1 February 2021: France urges Germany to drop the Nord Stream 2 project in light of the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

21 January 2021: The European Parliament calls for a halt to Nord Stream 2 after the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. On the same day, Merkel reaffirms her support for Nord Stream 2, despite growing opposition in Germany and the EU. “My basic attitude has not yet changed to the point where I say the project should not exist,” Merkel says at a press conference in Berlin.

19 January 2021: The U.S. announces sanctions for the first time – on the Russian pipe laying vessel Fortuna. The German government says it “notes” the decision “with regret.” Previously, there had only been a threat of sanctions.

15 January 2021: Nord Stream 2 receives a renewed construction permit from Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) for a short stretch in German waters after the original permit had run out. Rresearchers from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) question whether Germany needs the pipeline for its natural gas supply.

6 January 2021: The parliament of the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would land, sets up a “climate” foundation in an effort to circumvent the threat of U.S. sanctions. To justify its purpose of finalising Nord Stream 2, the pipeline is highlighted as a special contribution to energy security and a source of natural gas, the energy transition’s "bridging technology.” Environmentalists criticise the plans and say they will fuel the climate crisis. German political analyst Thomas O'Donnell of the Hertie School of Governance says the plan is unlikely to work, as “no company […] will sell equipment to this foundation.”

1 January 2021: The U.S. Congress authorises new sanctions against companies involved in the construction of the pipeline.

2020

28 December 2020: The Russian pipe laying vessel Fortuna leaves the Nord Stream 2 construction site in the Baltic Sea, indicating that the construction in German waters may have been completed.

11 December 2020: The pipeline’s construction continues with the Russian pipe laying vessel Fortuna, which completes a short 2.6 km stretch in German waters.

30 November 2020: Certification company DNV-GL suspends certification work for vessels involved in the pipeline project citing possible sanctions under the Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act (PEESA) as the reason.

23 November 2020: The U.S. increases pressure on people and companies associated with the construction of the pipeline and its leaders make several direct phone calls. "We are making these calls to warn them and give them time to get out," said a U.S. administration representative.

4 September 2020: Several members of the European Parliament call on EU and member state officials to "do whatever they can to stop the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline now."

3 September 2020: German politicians call for halt to the Nord Stream 2 project following the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Norbert Röttgen, a lawmaker with German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), calls for a “clear European response” and says “diplomatic rituals” would no longer suffice as a reaction to Russia’s “inhumane politics.”

28 August 2020: The poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the completion of the natural gas pipeline are “separate issues,” and linking them would “not be appropriate,” German chancellor Angela Merkel says during her annual press conference in Berlin. Navalny was treated a hospital in Germany earlier in the month after being poisoned in Russia.

12 August 2020: Utility company Uniper, one of the investors in the Nord Stream 2 project, publishes a report saying the pipeline could be delayed or even fail altogether due to the threat of U.S. sanctions.

7 August 2020: Three Republican senators threaten that the U.S. will impose "crushing legal and economic sanctions" on the port of Sassnitz on the German Baltic Sea, a key hub for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

5 August 2020: Environmental Action Germany (DUH) says it is suing to stop Nord Stream 2 from going into operation over methane leakage concerns.

30 July 2020: The companies involved in Nord Stream 2 call for political support against the possibility of U.S. sanctions.

15 July 2020: The U.S. threatens investors to ditch Nord Stream 2. It is meant as a “clear warning” to companies that aiding the project would not be tolerated by Washington. “Get out now, or risk the consequences,” secretary of state Mike Pompeo said.

18 June 2020: All parties in the German parliament reject the economic sanctions threatened by the U.S. In a statement released by parliament's economy and energy committee, the MPs said that "there has been solid cross-party unanimity that these extraterritorial sanctions are in violation of international law and cannot be accepted."

8 June 2020: German officials condemn U.S. plans to expand NS2 sanctions, shortly after several U.S. senators, including Ted Cruz (Republican) and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat) presented a bill that would expand existing sanctions and penalise all companies involved in the project.

May 2020: Russia defies threats from the U.S. and deploys a new vessel to finish the construction of Nord Stream 2. The vessel, Akademik Cherskiy, replaces a ship provided by Swiss company Allseas, which was withdrawn from the construction in December 2019 following U.S. threats.

19 February 2020: German economy minister Peter Altmaier criticises the Nord Stream 2 sanctions and says the importance of Russian gas for Germany is set to grow further amid the German energy transition. Altmaier says he regrets the decision by the U.S. to impose sanctions and stresses that Germany is going to "need more natural gas, not less" as it phases out coal-fired power production over the next years.

11 January 2020: Nord Stream 2 could be finished by the end of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin says during a press conference, following a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow.

2019

30 December 2019: Russian and Ukrainian companies sign a final five-year agreement safeguarding Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine.

21 December 2019: The Swiss offshore contractor Allseas suspends its Nord Stream 2 pipe-laying activities, anticipating the enactment of the U.S. sanctions as President Donald Trump signs legislation. The move effectively halts construction for about a year.

19 December 2019: German chancellor Angela Merkel criticises the U.S. sanctions to be imposed on companies working on Nord Stream 2, shortly after the relevant legislation was approved by the U.S. Senate. “We are opposed to extraterritorial sanctions,” Merkel said during question time in the national parliament.

8 February 2019: EU member states agree to a last-ditch deal struck by France and Germany that introduces tougher requirements for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but does not endanger the project as a whole.

January 2019: The U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, writes letters to companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2, urging them to stop working on the project and threatening them with the possibility of sanctions.

2018

4 December 2018: German foreign minister Heiko Maas says Germany will not withdraw its political support for Nord Stream 2, despite tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

14 November 2018: The U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, threatens sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and says the U.S. has “not deployed the full set of tools yet” to thwart the completion of the pipeline.

24 October 2018: Polish president Andrzej Duda calls for a stop to Nord Stream 2 during a visit to Germany, arguing that it would upset the “energy balance.”

19 September 2018: Germany says it will choose a location for its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal by the end of the year as a gesture to the U.S., which wants to ship more gas to Europe. (By February 2021, there was still no final investment decision on a domestic German LNG terminal)

30 August 2018: Construction of Nord Stream 2 begins in German waters.

21 August 2018: Russia says it is ready to defy “illegal” U.S. sanctions against Nord Stream 2, as the U.S. administration reiterates its threat to impose sanctions on companies involved in the project.

18 August 2018: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel meet near Berlin to discuss issues surrounding Nord Stream 2, including the possible disadvantages for Ukraine. Merkel reiterates that “Ukraine has to play a role also with Nord Stream 2 in place.”

17 July 2018: Ministerial discussions between Ukraine, Russia and the EU regarding the future delivery of Russian gas to Western Europe via Nord Stream 2 begin in Berlin.

11 July 2018: US president Donald Trump lashes out at Nord Stream 2 and says Germany is “totally controlled by” and “captive of” Russia, as the natural gas pipeline will increase Germany’s reliance on Russian energy resources.

18 May 2018: Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says the Nord Stream 2 project would empower Moscow to “attack our common values” and the pipeline would be “a tragic historic mistake.”

15 May 2018: German economy and energy minister Peter Altmaier calls on Russia to guarantee the continued transmission of natural gas via Ukraine after the completion of Nord Stream 2.

11 April 2018: German chancellor Merkel says that Ukraine must not be excluded from Nord Stream 2, thereby intervening in the dispute between Russia and Ukraine.

28 March 2018: With the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), the last German authority approves the construction and operation of Nord Stream 2.

31 January 2018: Germany grants Nord Stream 2 a permit for construction and operation in German waters and landfall areas near Lubmin.



2017

15 December 2017: German authorities issue the first partial permit for Nord Stream 2 construction in the Baltic Sea.

25 April 2017: To find an alternative way to get the project going, Uniper, Wintershall, ENGIE, OMV and Royal Dutch Shell sign a financing agreement with Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of Gazprom responsible for the development of the Nord Stream 2 project.

2016

12 August 2016: Gazprom’s partners ENGIE, Gazprom, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall withdraw their application for merger approval from the Polish competition authority for Nord Stream 2. Gazprom says the withdrawal will not affect the construction of the pipeline.

7 March 2016: Eight EU leaders sign a letter objecting to Nord Stream 2 citing geopolitical reasons.


2015

June 2015: Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell, E.ON, OMV and ENGIE sign an agreement to build Nord Stream 2.



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