Author: Alan Lorenz

Beijing Receives First International Flight in Five Months
3Sep By Alan LorenzNo Comments
China, News

Beijing Receives First International Flight in Five Months

An international passenger flight landed in Beijing on Thursday for the first time in more than five months.   Airport workers in protective suits greeted passengers who had left the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on an Air China plane. The international airport of the Chinese capital was closed since March 23 due to the corona pandemic. Flights were diverted to other cities. With strict security measures, passengers from Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Greece, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Canada are now welcome again. According to the Chinese authorities, the virus is sufficiently under control in these countries. During a trial period, up to five hundred passengers are allowed to travel on direct international flights to Beijing daily, according to state television. Anyone boardin...
Read More
Taiwan Passports Overhauled to Avoid Confusion
2Sep By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Taiwan, News

Taiwan Passports Overhauled to Avoid Confusion

Taiwan will adopt the design of passports to prevent citizens from being mistaken for Chinese people abroad. The island state is formally called the Republic of China, and that is also stated on the travel documents.   According to the authorities, residents sometimes have difficulty entering certain countries. The new passport, due to be issued in January, features the word "Taiwan" much more prominently. The big English words "Republic of China" are being deleted. These can confuse because communist China has a similar official name: People's Republic of China. The Taiwanese parliament also approved a proposal to change the name of the national airline earlier this year. It has the name China Airlines and is therefore sometimes mistaken for a Chinese organization. The Chinese na...
Read More
Trump in A TV Interview for the Trip to Kenosha
31Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
US, News

Trump in A TV Interview for the Trip to Kenosha

President Trump appears on TV for an interview shortly before heading to the violence and looting-ridden city of Kenosha.   Presenter Laura Ingraham receives him in her program 'the angle of Ingraham' for the right-wing conservative TV network FOX News. Trump wants to present himself in the election campaign as the man of law and order and criticizes the Democratic authorities of cities where it has been restless since May. The violent outbreaks were triggered by the harsh police crackdown on black suspects, such as in Minneapolis in May and more than a week ago in Kenosha. Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin, where Kenosha is located, has asked the president to cancel his visit for fear of adding fuel to the fire. It was quiet on the night from Sunday to Monday for the first time ...
Read More
Microsoft Takes Over TikTok VS Within Days
28Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Technology, News

Microsoft Takes Over TikTok VS Within Days

The departure of Kevin Mayer as CEO of the video service TikTok may mean that the US arm of the company will be sold in a few days.   The likely buyers are Microsoft and supermarket chain Walmart, and sources tell US news channel CNBC. According to the insiders, Mayer was not involved in the talks with Microsoft and Walmart. The former CEO wanted to run TikTok as an independent company, not as part of a larger technology group. It probably would be when Microsoft and Walmart acquired TikTok. Walmart would like to reach more customers with the help of the social media platform. There has been a lot of activity around TikTok lately. The app is threatened with a ban in the United States. According to critics, TikTok collects too much data from its users, and it could just fall into ...
Read More
Boris Johnson: Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Has Been Poisoned
26Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
UK, News, Russia

Boris Johnson: Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Has Been Poisoned

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson supports the call for an independent investigation into what has happened to the sick Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.   For Johnson, the cause is exact: "Navalny poisoning has shocked the world." "A full and transparent investigation is needed into what happened," Johnson said Wednesday. The United Kingdom will join international efforts to see justice prevail and hold the perpetrators to account, the prime minister said. President Putin's 44-year-old opponent fell ill on Thursday and was taken to Berlin on Saturday. His supporters immediately spoke of poisoning. Doctors in a hospital in Omsk, where he was first admitted, were dealing with a metabolic disorder. German doctors later said they had evidence of poisoning. The Kremlin sa...
Read More
US Police Disperse Kenosha Protesters With Tear Gas
25Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
US, News

US Police Disperse Kenosha Protesters With Tear Gas

Police in Kenosha, USA, fired tear gas canisters at protesters who refused to leave. Demonstrations against racism and excessive police brutality were held in the Wisconsin city after police shot an unarmed black man.   For the second night in a row, there were skirmishes after shocking video footage of the shooting incident came out. It shows how 29-year-old Jacob Blake is shot in the back several times by the police while his three children watch. Shortly after curfews began at 8 p.m. local time, police began dispelling protesters at the courthouse with tear gas. Officers began firing tear gas canisters after protesters threw water bottles at police. Some protesters then threw fireworks and more bottles at the police.
Read More
American Foreign Minister Pompeo Starts Visit to the Middle East
24Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
News, Middle East, US

American Foreign Minister Pompeo Starts Visit to the Middle East

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in Israel at the start of a five-day tour of the region.   He consults with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others, about Iran and about further expansion of Israel's relations with other countries in the Middle East. Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) first established diplomatic relations with Israel. In the Arab world, only Egypt and Jordan had diplomatic relations with Israel, recognizing Israel. Many other Arab countries demand that there be a Palestinian state first and that Israel return the occupied territories, including Arab East Jerusalem, for that purpose. The UAE dropped that line and entered into relations. Pompeo will go to Sudan and Bahrain after he visits Israel. He hopes that those countrie...
Read More
Former Security Boss Uber Sued for Hiding Hack
21Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Technology, News

Former Security Boss Uber Sued for Hiding Hack

The former security director of Uber Joseph Sullivan has been charged with halting a taxi app hack in 2016, exposing the personal details of 57 million customers and drivers.   Rather than report the hack to the authorities, Sullivan decided to keep it quiet and buy off the hackers. According to the prosecutor, Sullivan should have gone to market watchdog FTC, which was investigating another hack at Uber from 2014 at the time. Instead, he paid the hackers $ 100,000 in bitcoins. He used a program for this in which Uber rewards reporting vulnerabilities found in its computer code. Sullivan is charged with the hindrance of justice and failure to report a crime. However, according to the former Uber director, the case is misplaced. A spokesman for Sullivan said that at Uber, a large...
Read More
Wildfires in the US State of California Have Put Thousands of People to Flight
20Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
US, News

Wildfires in the US State of California Have Put Thousands of People to Flight

Wildfires in the US state of California have put thousands of people to flight. Nearly 7,000 firefighters have been deployed against the fires, which ravage both the north and south of the state.   The extreme heat in the western United States is exacerbating the situation, Gavin Newsom warns. Newsom has asked other states also to send firefighters and equipment to California. He says there are 23 major fires. In total, there have been more than 360 wildfires in recent days, many of which were caused by lightning strikes. A fire service spokesperson says most small fires could be extinguished quickly. He called on residents of the threatened regions to immediately comply with evacuation orders. On Tuesday, Governor Newsom already declared a state of emergency in his state. This a...
Read More
Microsoft Adds A New Key to PC Keyboard
19Aug By Alan LorenzNo Comments
Technology, News

Microsoft Adds A New Key to PC Keyboard

Images have surfaced of a new Microsoft keyboard on Twitter. Not so special in itself, were it not for the fact that the keyboard has an entirely new key for quick access to the Windows 10 emoji.   Both Microsoft and Apple are very proud of the ever-expanding collection of emoji in their operating systems. Microsoft now seems to go one step further by making the smiley faces quickly accessible via a special keyboard button. In the photos that have turned up, a button with a square and a heart is visible at the bottom, next to the right Alt key. That icon is not entirely new, as it previously appeared in the most recent Insider Preview build of Windows 10. On Twitter also surfaced an image of the separate numeric keypad that can be linked wirelessly to the keyboard. A user with ...
Read More