Jack Ma, Elon Musk to Talk at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai

The talk will come amid an intensifying war over trade and technology between the United States and China.

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OnePlus Gets It Right With OnePlus 7T

OnePlus has carved a niche in the Indian market by staying true to that very legacy.

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NASA calls Africa fire continent, is home to 70 percent of all the world's fires

As the world has watched with fear and fascination the fires burning in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, satellite images show a far greater number of blazes on the African continent.

NASA has called Africa the “fire continent” that’s home to at least 70 percent of the 10,000 fires burning worldwide on an average August day, though the agency says the number of fires is consistent from year to year.

While French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is considering launching an international campaign to help sub-Saharan African countries fight fires, experts say the situation there is different and not yet a growing problem — though it could become a threat in future.

A satellite image that shows there is alot more fires burning in Africa than in the Amazon. Image credit: NASA/AP news

Angola had almost three times more fires than Brazil over a period last week, according to NASA satellite imagery, which indicated around 6,000 fires in Angola, more than 3,000 in Congo and just over 2,000 in Brazil.

Though Angola and Congo dominate in numbers of fires, they often occur in sparsely wooded savannas and on fields cultivated by small farmers, making them less of a concern for deforestation than those in the Amazon, said Sally Archibald, a professor at Wits University in Johannesburg.

“There are fire management questions in these (African) ecosystems, but fire is part of their ecology,” said Archibald, who studies fire management and savanna dynamics. “In South America, the equivalent non-forest woodlands have been largely converted to soybean agriculture already, but in Africa they are largely untransformed.”

Savanna fires release carbon dioxide, but within a year the grass regrows, sucking much of the carbon out of the atmosphere again. The fires may push toward the forests, but are mostly snuffed out at that border, Archibald said, unless trees are cut down making tropical forests more vulnerable. When a tropical forest is burned, the trees die and the carbon dioxide goes up and doesn’t return to the system quickly.

“The main message is: yes we have a lot of fire, but it’s not bad and can be very good for the ecology,” she said. “We don’t know how many deforestation fires we have but the best evidence is that our forests are not decreasing, they are in fact increasing.”

Most deforestation occurred in West Africa in the 19th century, Archibald said, adding that Cameroon and Gabon show increased forestation.

However, ecosystems such as the Miombo Woodlands, which covers 10 percent of the continent over nine countries, do need to be managed. These woodlands push up against forests and because of an increase in population, more people are planting crops along the edges.

A fire blazing in South Africa. image credit: Working on fire

The Miombo Network, an advisory and sustainability group that Archibald is a member of, is working with the World Bank and policymakers to make sure there is proper fire management in these areas, she said.

NASA research scientist Niels Andela also said that savanna fires have shaped Africa’s landscape for thousands of years.

“Fires are therefore often a critical component of these ecosystems and are not perceived as harmful by local communities,” he said. “Indeed, fires are often used for agricultural purposes, for example, to keep the landscape open to support livestock, as well as sometimes as part of shifting cultivation.”

Andela said deforestation isn’t occurring on the same scale as in South America.

“In part that may be simply due to limitations of existing infrastructure and lack of access to global markets, processes that drive large scale agricultural expansion elsewhere,” he said. “It is therefore certainly a possibility that this may change in future.”

Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, former chief negotiator for the Africa Zone at the 2015 United Nations climate change conference, said agricultural practices known as “slash and burn” need to be better managed, citing the over 3,000 fires in Congo.

“It is a great threat to our forests,” he said of the technique used by farmers in Congo and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. “You need a global ambitious program or you train people to use other practices for people to go into intensive agriculture. You have to organize these small farmers by giving them fertilizer, seeds.”

The European Space Agency estimates 25-35 percent of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions come from so-called biomass burning, which includes fires that are intentionally set to clear land for agriculture.

Deforestation in Africa is not as bad as it is in South America. Image credit: ICUN

The majority of those fires occur in tropical regions of Africa.

Using satellite data from the agency’s Copernicus program, researchers said in a December study that the total area burned in 2016 was 4.9 million square kilometers. Most of the fires are 100 hectares or smaller in size.

Other areas with extensive biomass burning are Australia, South America and Southeast Asia.

Globally, the amount of area burned declined by about 25 percent over the past two decades, largely because of savannas and grasslands being converted to agriculture, said James Randerson, an earth systems scientist at the University at California, Irvine.

Randerson said the tropical forests of Africa have yet to see widespread deforestation driven by industrial-scale agriculture that is transforming parts of the Amazon. But, he said, global economic forces could potentially change this as countries in East Asia, particularly China, seek to expand trade relations with African nations.

“That could put more pressure on the African forests,” Randerson said.

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Space Laws: What criminal law if any, applies to astronauts in outer space?

NASA is reportedly investigating what could be the first-ever alleged crime in space. Astronaut Anne McClain has been accused of accessing her estranged spouse’s bank account via the internet while onboard the International Space Station (she denies the accusation).

This gives rise to the question: what criminal law if any, applies in outer space? The short answer is that, for a US astronaut aboard the International Space Station with a US alleged victim, US criminal jurisdiction applies.

The long answer is more complicated and set to become even more so with the advent of space tourism, space militarisation, and commercial activity. Human activity has increased in space, with at least 50 nations currently engaged in space activities.

Space, like the high seas, is considered res communis – it belongs to everyone and to no one, nor can any country lay claim to it.

But that doesn’t mean the high seas and outer space are free from national laws. International law allows countries to assert jurisdiction outside their territory in several ways, including via the nationality principle, which covers crimes committed by a country’s citizens outside its borders, and the universality principle, which allows countries to prosecute anyone for serious crimes against international law, such as piracy.

So far there are no pirates in space, outside the realms of science fiction at least.

ISS astronaut Anne C McClain has been accused of identity theft. Image courtesy: NASA

Space is governed by five key international treaties, known informally as the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue Agreement, the Liability Convention, the Registration Convention, and the Moon Agreement (their formal names are much, much longer). All are under the auspices of the delightfully named United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs.

The Outer Space Treaty is one of the most relevant when it comes to dealing with alleged crimes in space.

Broadly, the treaty requires the exploration and use of outer space to be free, in the interests of all countries, and not subject to any claim of national sovereignty. The Moon and other bodies are to be used only for peaceful purposes. Nations are responsible for national space activities and are liable for damage caused by their space objects.

As for the question of who prosecutes space crimes, the short answer is that a spacefaring criminal would generally be subject to the law of the country of which they are a citizen, or the country aboard whose registered spacecraft the crime was committed, because the treaty grants that country authority "over any personnel thereof".

However, the term "personnel" is not defined, and this raises questions as to what the case might be for private citizens such as, for example, an Australian space tourist flying aboard a US-registered spacecraft.

SpaceX's Starman and Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster just completed their first orbit around the sun. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Far from home, far from simple

The International Space Station (ISS) in fact has its own intergovernmental agreement, signed by the project’s partner nations, that makes express provision for nationality-based jurisdiction over crime. It says:

Canada, the European Partner States, Japan, Russia, and the United States may exercise criminal jurisdiction over personnel in or on any flight element who are their respective nationals.

As McClain is reportedly a US citizen, this means US criminal law will apply to her conduct. This is also known as "active-nationality" jurisdiction. This is made simpler by the fact that her alleged victim is also a US national.

If the victim of a crime committed on the ISS was a citizen of a different partner nation, and if the US did not provide assurance it would prosecute the perpetrator, that other nation’s criminal law would apply. This is known as "passive nationality" jurisdiction. There is also a possibility that if the crime took place in a partner nation’s section of the space station, its criminal law may apply.

For other space flights not onboard the ISS, things potentially get more complicated still, for several reasons. The treaty framework on criminal law in space relies heavily on nationality. This makes the situation more complicated if an alleged criminal is a dual citizen.

Illustration of a Mars city. Image: SpaceX

Since 2001, when Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, a total of just seven private citizens have paid to go to space. But Virgin Galactic promises "a regular schedule of spaceflights for private individuals and researchers" in the future.

Future space tourists are unlikely to be aboard the ISS, so that agreement won’t apply. It is most likely that the criminal law of the country of registration of the space plane would apply, but this could be problematic if the countries whose citizens are on board also attempt to claim jurisdiction.

Another issue is the question of where space even begins. Earth’s atmosphere does not have a solid boundary, which makes it hard to determine whether air law or space law should apply at a given altitude, and whether space-bound flights can be deemed to have violated another country’s air space.

Finally, for really serious crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes, the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court may also extend into outer space. While some people already see space as a military arena, we can only hope this theoretical jurisdiction is never applied in practice.

Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor of Constitutional and International Law, Bond University

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

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Apple should have split up a long time ago, big tech is too big: Steve Wozniak

We recently heard Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes advocating that the social media giant should break up after he stated that the company was becoming "too powerful". Apparently, he has been lobbying the US government to make it happen. Simultaneously, another tech giant co-founder is in favour of a split up and this time, Apple is the target.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently said in an interview with Bloomberg that he is in favour of the Cupertino giant's split and he wishes that it happened a long time ago. He said, "I am against monopoly powers being used in unfair, anti-trust matters, not opening up the world to equal competition, and using your power in unfair ways. And I think this has happened a lot in big tech and that they can get away with a lot of bad things".

Steve Wozniak.

And for that reason, he says, "I am pretty much in favour of looking into splitting up companies... I wish Apple on its own had split up a long time ago, and spun off independent divisions in faraway places and let them think independently..."

"I think big tech has gone too big, it's too powerful a force in our lives and it has taken our choices away...," he added.

However, he did appreciate Apple for being "best of the companies" for "caring about the customers" and "just making money out of good products not really tracking you and following you".

He also went on to talk about Google and Facebook and that they need to "allow competition". He uses Facebook's instance and says that the company should give its users a choice to pay for a model that offers "almost no tracking", wherein you can export all your contacts and friends, and start afresh without your data being tracked.

Wozniak also criticised big tech companies like Google, Apple and Amazon for using humans to listen to voice assistants saying it infringes on privacy. Apple recently acknowledged and apologised for listening and keeping Siri recordings without user permission.

Earlier this year, four iPhone users had sued Apple alleging that the company illegally monopolises the distribution of apps for devices.

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Leaked Hands-on Photos Reveal Reliance Jio’s Upcoming JioFiber Hybrid Set-top-box

The photos of the alleged product have been shared by DreamDTH which show the hybrid set-top-box sporting a dark blue finish with the Jio logo on top.

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Wish Apple had split up a long time ago, big tech is too big: Steve Wozniak

We have recently heard Facebook co-founder advocating that the social media giant should break-up after he called out on the company becoming "too powerful". Apparently, he has been lobbying with the US government to make it happen. Simultaneously, another tech giant co-founder is in favour of a split up and this time Apple is the target.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently said in an interview with Bloomberg that he is in favour of the Cupertino giant's split and he wishes that it happened a long time ago. He said, "I am against monopoly powers being used in unfair, anti-trust matters, not opening up the world to equal competition, and using your power in unfair ways. And I think this has happened a lot in big tech and that they can get away with a lot of bad things".

Steve Wozniak.

And for that reason, he says, that "I am pretty much in favour of looking into splitting up companies...I wish Apple on its own had split up a long time ago, and spun off independent divisions in faraway places and let them think independently...".

"I think big tech has gone too big, it's too powerful a force in our lives and it has taken our choices away...," he added.

However, he did appreciate Apple for being "best of the companies" for "caring about the customers" and "just making money out of good products not really tracking you and following you".

He also went on to talk about Google and Facebook that need to "allow competition". He uses Facebook's instance and says that the company should give its users a choice to pay for a model that offers "almost no tracking", wherein you can export all your contacts and friends, and start afresh without your data being tracked.

Wozniak also criticised big tech companies like Google, Apple and Amazon for using humans to listen to voice assistants saying it infringes on privacy. Apple recently acknowledged and apologised for listening and keeping Siri recordings without user permission.

Earlier this year, four iPhone users had sued Apple, alleging that the company illegally monopolises the distribution of apps for devices. According to the complaint, Apple’s 30 percent “vig” on paid apps causes consumer direct harm as that cost is passed on to consumers by app developers.

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