Monthly: July 2021

Amazon Hit With Record EU Data Privacy Fine

Amazon.com Inc has been hit with a record $886.6 million (746 million euros) European Union fine for processing personal data in violation of the bloc’s GDPR rules, as privacy regulators take a more aggressive position on enforcement.The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) imposed the fine on Amazon in a July 16 decision, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.Amazon will appeal the fine, according to a company spokesperson. The e-commerce giant said in the filing it believed CNPD’s decision was without merit.CNPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to seek people’s consent before using their personal data or face steep fines.Globally, regulatory scrutiny of tech giants has been increasing following a string of scandals over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that they abuse their market power.Alphabet’s Google, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp have drawn heightened scrutiny in Europe.In December, France’s data privacy watchdog handed out its biggest ever fine of 100 million euros ($118.82 million) to Google for breaching the nation’s rules on online advertising trackers.
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Israel’s NSO Under Fire for Spyware Targeting Journalists, Dissidents

There is growing international criticism of Israel following allegations that software from the private security company NSO was used to spy on journalists, dissidents, and even political leaders around the world. A group of American lawmakers is urging the U.S. government to take punitive action against the company, which denies any wrongdoing. In Israel, some experts are calling for better regulation of cyber exports. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
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Big Tech Companies to Allow Only Vaccinated Employees into US Offices

Big tech companies are making it mandatory for employees in the United States to get COVID-19 vaccinations before entering campuses, as the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus drives a resurgence in cases.Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday all U.S. employees must get vaccinated to step into offices. Google is also planning to expand its vaccination drive to other countries in the coming months.According to a Deadline report, streaming giant Netflix Inc. has also implemented a policy mandating vaccinations for the cast and crew on all its U.S. productions.Apple Inc. plans to restore its mask requirement policy at most of its U.S. retail stores, both for customers and staff, even if they are vaccinated, Bloomberg News reported.Apple and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comments.Many tech companies, including Microsoft Corp. and Uber, have said they expect employees to return to their offices, months after pandemic-induced lockdowns forced them to shift to working from home.In April, Salesforce said it would allow vaccinated employees to return to some of its offices.Google also said on Wednesday it would extend its global work-from-home policy through Oct. 18 due to a recent rise in cases caused by the delta variant across different regions.”We’ll continue watching the data carefully and let you know at least 30 days in advance before transitioning into our full return-to-office plans,” the company said.   
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8.2M Quake Hits Alaska, Triggering Tsunami Watch in Hawaii

A tsunami watch was issued for Hawaii on Wednesday evening following a large earthquake off the Alaska peninsula.

According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center listed the magnitude as 8.1 and said, “an investigation is underway to determine if there is a tsunami threat to Hawaii.” But the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was magnitude 8.2 and hit 91 kilometers east-southeast of Perryville, Alaska.

“Based on all available data, a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter,” PTWC said.

Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused light to moderate damage.

Moderate shaking probably occurred in Perryville, Chignik Lake and Sandpoint. 
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Asian American Olympians Discuss Facing Hate

From racist slurs and gestures to harassment while working out in public, Asian Americans representing their country at the Olympics in Tokyo have recounted some of the discrimination they have faced in the United States.

Sakura Kokumai is competing in karate, a sport being contested for the first time at the Olympics.

She described in a May post on the Team USA website how a man at a park in California “verbally harassed me because of my race.”

“It was my first experience with such an aggressive and obvious hate crime,” Kokumai wrote.  “I was a target because of how I looked. Not because I am an athlete. Not because I compete in karate — but because I am Asian. And no matter how you look at me, I will always look Asian.”

Kokumai said she had talked about such crimes with friends, but experiencing it firsthand made her really understand and want to be vocal about the issue.

“I wish there was one thing that would fix this problem, but the first step is spreading awareness,” she wrote.  “And then we have to have empathy and compassion for one another. Over time we can help change things in the world for the better.”

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the country have faced verbal and physical attacks, with the group Stop AAPI Hate reporting in May that from March 19, 2020 to March 31, 2020 it received 6,603 incident reports.

According to a report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, the number of hate crimes against Asians reported to police in large U.S. cities rose 189% during the first quarter of this year.

For gymnast Yul Moldauer, who is competing in his first Olympics, an incident with an angry driver prompted him to share his story in a March Instagram post with the caption: “Asian American. The United States is my home.” 

Moldauer said the woman, who had cut him off, yelled to him at a traffic light, “Go back to China.”

“For me, this really shocked me,” he explained.  “I was confused.  I felt uncomfortable.  I really just tried to act like it didn’t happen.  When I put USA on my chest when I compete, it hurts to know that I have to represent people like that.”

Erik Shoji, a two-time Olympian on the U.S. men’s volleyball team, used his social media to call attention to the suspension of a Serbian player who during a match in June used her fingers to narrow her eyes in a gesture toward players from the opposing team from Thailand.

“On behalf of the Asian community and the Asian volleyball community, I just want to thank the [International Volleyball Federation] and the [Volleyball Nations League] for taking a stance against racist gestures like this one, against racism as a whole and making our sport an even safer place,” Shoji said.

Alexander Massialas, competing in fencing in his third Olympics, wrote on his Instagram account about the need to confront and push back against acts of hate.

“Being half Chinese, I often experience racism through a different lens, not as a direct target but as a witness and secondhand victim,” Massialas wrote.

He describes a time when he went to get into a ride share car driven by a Chinese man, when a passenger getting out of the car objected to the driver taking photos of the back seat where the passenger had spilled alcohol and drug paraphernalia.

“The man stumbled over to me and tried to get me to join him by saying, ‘can you believe this f*ing chnk?'”

Massialas said he intervened when the passenger tried to steal the car, going against what he says is a cultural norm in his community to “ignore what everyone else says, no matter how wrong or hurtful.”  He writes that the driver even told him he should not have put himself in harm’s way, but that the incident was an example to Massialas of what needs to change “when it comes to racism.”

“Today I think about the victims of the senseless attack on Asian women in Atlanta, the Thai grandfather that was murdered within a 10-minute walk of my own home in San Francisco, and the countless acts of racism and violence against the AAPI community,” he said.  “Instead of ignoring and internalizing the ignorance that propagates hate, we can combat this by sticking together, speaking out, and standing up to hate against vulnerable communities.”
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Western Wildfires Calm Down in Cool Weather, But Losses Grow

Cooler weather on Tuesday helped calm two gigantic wildfires in the U.S. West, but property losses mounted in a tiny California community savaged by flames last weekend and in a remote area of Oregon that are both bracing for more hot, dry conditions that have been making the blazes so explosive. 

Teams reviewing damage from the massive Dixie Fire in the mountains of Northern California have so far tallied 36 structures destroyed and seven damaged in the remote community of Indian Falls, said Nick Truax, an incident commander for the fire. It’s unclear if that figure included homes or smaller buildings. 

The assessment was about half done, Truax said in an online briefing Monday night, and the work depends on fire activity. 

The Dixie Fire has scorched more than 842 square kilometers (325 square miles), an area bigger than New York City, and it was partially contained Tuesday. More than 10,000 homes were threatened in the region about 282 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of San Francisco. 

A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. 

An inversion layer, which is a cap of relatively warmer air over cooler air, trapped smoke over much of the fire Monday, and the shade helped lower temperatures and keep humidity up, incident meteorologist Julia Ruthford said. 

Similar smoke conditions were expected through Tuesday. Monsoon moisture was streaming in over the region, but only light showers were likely near the fire. A return to hotter, drier weather was expected later in the week. 

The Dixie Fire, burning mostly on federal land, is among dozens of large blazes in the U.S. 

With so many fires, officials have to prioritize federal resources, said Nickie Johnny, incident commander for the Dixie’s east section, crediting help from local governments and California’s firefighting agency. 

“I just wanted to thank them for that because we are strapped federally with resources all over the nation,” she said. 

Authorities also were hopeful that cool temperatures, increased humidity and isolated showers will help them make more progress against the nation’s largest wildfire, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. Crews have it more than halfway contained after it scorched 1,657 square kilometers (640 square miles) of remote land. 

“The mild weather will have a short-term calming effect on the fire behavior. But due to the extremely dry conditions and fuels, as the week progresses and temperatures rise, aggressive fire behavior is likely to quickly rebound,” a situation report said Tuesday. 

The lightning-sparked fire has destroyed 161 homes, 247 outbuildings and 342 vehicles in Klamath and Lake counties, the report said, cautioning that the numbers could increase as firefighters work through the inner area of the fire. 

Elsewhere, high heat was expected to return to the northern Rocky Mountains, where thick smoke from many wildfires drove pollution readings to unhealthy levels. 

Unhealthy air was recorded around most of Montana’s larger cities — Billings, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula — and in portions of northern Wyoming and eastern Idaho, according data from U.S. government air monitoring stations. 

In California, the 275-square-kilometer (106-square-mile) Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe was chewing through timber and chaparral but was more than halfway contained. Evacuation orders for about 2,000 residents on both sides of the California-Nevada line have been lifted. At least 23 buildings have burned. 
 
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Female Somali Boxer at Olympics Motivates Upcoming Somali Boxers

Somali boxer Ramla Ali was defeated at the Tokyo Games Monday, but she still made history as the country’s first Olympic boxer. VOA speaks to Somalia’s boxing federation and amateur boxers about the significance of Ali’s stepping into the ring.
Somali female boxer Ramla Ali lost to Romanian Claudia Nachita in the round of 16 at the Olympics Monday but her performance in the ring excited thousands of Somalis back home.

Abdirahman Ali Mire, chief of the Somali Boxing Federation, said upcoming boxers look to Ali as their role model.

He said Ramla’s representation of Somalia at the Olympics was historic and realized the dreams of boxers following years of hard work and training.  He added Ali’s experience will motivate upcoming Somali boxers who look up to her and believe in the spirit of flying the flag of Somalia in international boxing competitions.

Hundreds of Somalis posted messages on social media praising her courage for being the first female boxer representing a Horn of Africa country in the Olympics.  

Dahir Abdile was among hundreds of supporters that watched her fight on TV in Mogadishu.

He says they had high expectations of Ramla performance in the ring due to professional training and despite the defeat, they believe she will perform well in other upcoming events.

Boxing is not one of the most popular sports among Somalis.  But the few professionals like Omar Abdi Ali who train outside the country, as does Ramla, hope they will follow her footsteps.

He says he’s proud of Ramla representing Somalia in the ring in Tokyo Monday and hopes to join her in the upcoming boxing competitions while jointly representing their country.

Somalia is represented by one other athlete at the Tokyo games.  Sports officials say they are making plans to send more athletes to upcoming Olympics. 
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