Archives for February 2021

Huawei founder sees no end to US sanctions

BEIJING (AP) — The founder of Huawei said Tuesday he doubts President Joe Biden will remove U.S. sanctions that battered the telecom equipment giant’s smartphone sales but expressed confidence the company can survive.

Speaking in the central city of Taiyuan, Ren Zhengfei said strong sales of network gear and other technology should make up for Huawei’s weaker handset business, according to a transcript released by the company.

“We can still survive even without relying on phone sales,” he was quoted as telling reporters.

Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand, is at the center of conflict with Washington over technology and security. American officials say the maker of network equipment and smartphones might facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation Ren and other executives deny.

Then-President Donald Trump cut off Huawei’s access to U.S. processor chips and other technology needed to make smartphones in 2019. Last year, Trump tightened those curbs by prohibiting suppliers from using U.S. technology to make chips for Huawei designed by its own engineers.

Ren said he expects Biden to consider U.S. chip and other suppliers that are losing billions of dollars in sales to Huawei. But he said it is “very unlikely” Huawei will be removed from the “Entity List.”

“I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’s extremely unlikely. We basically aren’t considering it a possibility,” Ren said.

Huawei sold its lower-priced Honor handset brand last year in an attempt to revive its sales by separating it from U.S. sanctions on the parent company.

Huawei’s smartphone sales, including Honor, fell 22% last year to 188.5 million handsets, according to Canalys. In the fourth quarter, Huawei fell out of the top five global brands for the first time in six years.

Ren, a former military engineer who founded Huawei in 1987, said last year’s sales and profits were higher than 2019 but gave no details. Huawei, which is privately held, began reporting financial results a decade ago in an attempt to defuse foreign unease.

Ren was in Taiyuan in the center of China’s coal country for the opening of a mining industry research center. He pointed to mining as an example of an industrial customer for Huawei’s network technology to link devices.

Bezos and Bloomberg among top 50 US charity donors for 2020

As the world grappled with COVID-19, a recession and a racial reckoning, the ultrawealthy gave to a broader set of causes than ever before — bestowing multimillion-dollar gifts on food pantries, historically Black colleges and universities and organizations that serve the poor and the homeless, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual rankings of the 50 Americans who gave the most to charity last year.

Another cause that got outsize attention from billionaire philanthropists: Climate change. Jeff Bezos topped the list by donating $10 billion to launch the Bezos Earth Fund. Bezos, who last week announced he was stepping down as Amazon CEO to devote more time to philanthropy and other projects, also contributed $100 million to Feeding America, the organization that supplies more than 200 food banks.

No. 2 on the list was Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, who gave $5.7 billion in 2020 by asking community leaders to help identify 512 organizations for seven- and eight-figure gifts, including food banks, human-service organizations, and racial-justice charities.

Another donor who gave big to pandemic causes and racial-justice efforts was Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, who ranked No. 5. He put $1.1 billion into a fund that by year’s end had distributed at least $330 million to more than 100 nonprofits.

The financier Charles Schwab and his wife, Helen (No. 24), gave $65 million to address homelessness in San Francisco. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and wife, Patty Quillin (No. 14), gave $120 million for financial aid for students at historically Black colleges and universities. Michael Jordan, the basketball great (No. 31), pledged $50 million to racial and social-justice groups.

“When I look at the events of the last year, there was an awakening for the philanthropic sector,” says Nick Tedesco, president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. “Donors supported community-led efforts of recovery and resiliency, particularly those led by people of color.”

Giving experts say they think the trend toward broader giving is likely to persist.

“I don’t think this approach is just a 12-month moment that started with COVID and continued following George Floyd and is going to recede,” says Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which counsels donors around the world. “There has been change building among private donors.”

All told, the 50 biggest donors contributed $24.7 billion in 2020, compared with $15.8 billion in 2019. Still, those gifts come from a small share of the billionaire class. Only 23 of the people on the Forbes 400 gave enough to qualify for the list. Many of the multimillion-dollar donations came from people far less wealthy, like Gordon Rausser, a former dean of natural resources at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Chronicle’s rankings are based on the total amount philanthropists awarded in 2020. The information is based on extensive research with donors, their beneficiaries, and public records.

The No. 3 donor was Michael Bloomberg, who contributed $1.6 billion to arts, education, public health, and many other causes. Nike founder Phil and Penelope Knight were next, donating $1.4 billion, $900.7 million of it to their Knight Foundation.

The $1 billion-plus of giving by each of the top five on the Philanthropy 50 matches last year’s record. No more than three donors gave $1 billion or more in any of the previous years.

Sixteen donors in this year’s list — nearly a third of the Philanthropy 50 — made their fortunes in technology, and 20 of them live in California.

Joe Gebbia (No. 47), the 39-year-old co-founder of Airbnb, has seen his net worth shoot up to around $12 billion following his company’s initial public offering in December. During 2020, he gave $25 million to two San Francisco charities that are tackling homelessness and helping people who have suffered economically due to the pandemic.

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate and believe that comes with the responsibility of giving back,” Gebbia says. “Where will I take it? The sky is the limit.”

At a time when tech billionaires’ wealth is compounding and many working people are still suffering from the pandemic’s fallout, philanthropic expectations have never been higher. David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, highlighted the disparate effects of the pandemic in a January interview on the PBS NewsHour.

“During the pandemic, billionaires made $5.2 billion in increased wealth per day,” he said. “All we are asking for is $5 billion to avert famine around the world. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Elon Musk, whose $180 billion fortune puts him neck-and-neck with Bezos for richest person in the world, is not on the Philanthropy 50. Musk has faced criticism for his meager lifetime donations, estimated in a recent Vox article at just 0.05 percent of his current net worth.

If small and midsize charities were the notable winners in 2020, does that make large universities the losers? Hardly. Colleges and universities received $2.2 billion from Philanthropy 50 donors in 2020.

But Benjamin Soskis, a research associate in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, says the most striking change with this year’s Philanthropy 50 list is that it presents a plurality of options for giving.

“There’s a big difference between a hypothetical ‘Why didn’t you give to an HBCU instead of Harvard?’ and today’s list, where you can point to donors who actually did that.”

More details about the Philanthropy 50 are available at philanthropy.com.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Maria Di Mento is a senior reporter at the Chronicle. Email: maria.dimento@chonicle.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content.

UN experts: North Korea using cyber attacks to update nukes

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea has modernized its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions, using cyberattacks to help finance its programs and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal including in Iran, U.N. experts said.

The panel of experts monitoring sanctions on the Northeast Asian nation said in a report sent to Security Council members Monday that North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million,” according to one unidentified country.

The panel said its investigations found that North Korean-linked cyber actors continued to conduct operations in 2020 against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses to generate money to support its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

The experts previously reported on the continuous involvement in Iran of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, North Korea’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons that are under U.N. sanctions.

In the new report, the experts quoted an unidentified country as saying North Korea and Iran “have resumed cooperation on long-range missile development projects … said to have included the transfer of critical parts, with the most recent shipment associated with this relationship taking place in 2020.”

Iran replied on Dec. 21 that “preliminary review of the information provided to us by the panel indicates that false information and fabricated data may have been used in investigations and analyses of the panel,” the experts said.

In North Korea’s weapons development, the experts said, Kim Jong Un’s government has also produced fissile material — an essential ingredient for producing nuclear weapons — and maintained its nuclear facilities.

“It displayed new short-range, medium-range, submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missile systems at military parades,“ they said. “It announced preparation for testing and production of new ballistic missile warheads and, development of tactical nuclear weapons … and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure.“

The panel recommended that the Security Council impose sanctions on four North Korean men: Choe Song Chol, Im Song Sun, Pak Hwa Song, and Hwang Kil Su.

The Security Council has imposed increasingly tough sanctions on North Korea since its first test explosion of a nuclear device in 2006. It has banned most of the country’s exports and severely limited its imports, trying to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

But the report’s summary and some key findings and recommendations, obtained by The Associated Press, make clear that North Korea remains able to evade sanctions and develop its weapons and to illicitly import refined petroleum, access international banking channels and carry out “malicious cyber activities.”

North Korea’s arsenal escalated to a major threat to the United States following tests in 2017 that included a detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and flight tests demonstrating its ICBMs could reach deep in the American mainland.

A year later, Kim initiated diplomacy with South Korea and then-U.S. President Donald Trump that derailed in 2019 when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a piecemeal deal partially surrendering its nuclear weapons capabilities.

Last year, North Korea’s already battered economy decayed further amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which led Kim to close the country’s borders. That severely limited the legal and illegal transfer of goods and movement of people, according to the experts.

At a North Korean political conference, Kim sharply criticized his government’s economic agencies for unspecified passiveness and “self-protecting tendencies,” the North’s state media reported Tuesday. His remarks follow a ruling party congress last month where he called for greater state control over the economy while also vowing to continue all-out efforts to boost his nuclear program, which North Korea sees as a deterrent to the U.S. and thus an assurance of the Kim dynasty’s continued existence.

With his diplomatic efforts stalemated, Kim must start all over again with President Joe Biden, who previously called him a “thug” and criticized Trump for summit spectacles instead of significant nuclear reductions.

In August 2019, the U.N. panel said North Korean cyber experts illegally obtained proceeds “estimated at up to $2 billion” to fund its weapons programs.

The panel said in the new report that it investigated “malicious” activities by the Reconnaissance General Bureau — North Korea’s primary intelligence agency, which is on the U.N. sanctions blacklist — including “the targeting of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, and attacks on defense companies.”

North Korea continues to launder stolen cryptocurrencies especially through over-the-counter virtual asset brokers in China to acquire fiat currency which is government backed, like the U.S. dollar, the experts said.

The panel said it is investigating a September 2020 hack against a cryptocurrency exchange that resulted in approximately $281 million worth of cryptocurrencies being stolen, and transactions on the blockchain indicating the $281 million hack is related to a $23 million second hack in October 2020.

“Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds strongly suggests links to the DPRK,” the experts said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

According to one unnamed country, North Korea also continues to generate illegal revenue by exploiting freelance information technology platforms using the same methods it does to access the global financial system — false identification, use of virtual private network services, and establishing front companies in Hong Kong, the panel said.

The experts said they investigated attempted violations of the U.N. arms embargo, including illegal actions of blacklisted companies. They cited the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, alleged military cooperation by North Korea, and the use of the country’s overseas diplomatic missions for commercial purposes.

The panel said it also investigated “the country’s continued illicit import of refined petroleum, via direct deliveries and ship-to-ship transfers, using elaborate subterfuge.“

It cited images, data and calculations from an unidentified country showing that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 last year North Korea received shipments of refined petroleum products exceeding “by several times” the annual ceiling of 500,000 barrels set by the Security Council.

U.N. sanctions ban North Korean coal exports, and the panel said shipments of coal appear to have been largely suspended since late July 2020.

It said that last year, North Korea continued to transfer fishing rights in violation of sanctions, which earned the country $120 million in 2018, according to an unnamed member state.

Under a 2017 sanctions resolution, all North Korean nationals working overseas were to be repatriated by Dec. 22, 2019. The experts said they investigated North Korean workers earning income in sub-Saharan Africa as well as information technology workers dispatched by the Munitions Industry Department.

MLB players to wear electronic tracers, face discipline

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball players, on-field staff and non-playing personnel who require access to them at ballparks must wear electronic tracing wristbands from the start of spring training and face discipline for violations.

Players will be encouraged to get vaccines but are not required to get them.

That was part of upgraded health protocols agreed to by Major League Baseball and the players’ association to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The 108-page operations manual, agreed to Monday night and obtained by The Associated Press, expands on the 101-page version used during the shortened 2020 season.

“Every covered Individual must wear a Kinexon contact tracing device at all times while in club facilities and during club directed travel and while engaged in team activities, including group workouts and practices,” the manual says. “Repeated failure to wear the devices or repeated failure to return the devices to the Kinexon device docking station may be a basis for discipline,” the manual says.

The manual states violations of the MLB or club codes of conduct or of spring training home quarantine “are subject to potential discipline, including but not limited to suspension or forfeiture of salary for days spent away from the club while in mandatory self-isolation or quarantine resulting from the violation.”

Player discipline would be subject to the just cause provisions of the collective bargaining agreement.

“Vaccination for COVID-19 will be voluntary for all players. However, MLB and the MLBPA will strongly encourage players to undergo vaccination at the appropriate time,” the manual states.

It adds “the parties, in consultation with their respective medical experts, will consider in good faith relaxing these protocols on a league-wide, team-wide and/or individual basis” … (to) the extent it is safe and appropriate to do so” when sufficient players are immunized.

As part of the agreement, the sides extended last year’s experimental use of seven-inning doubleheaders and runners on second base at the start of extra innings.

Active rosters will return to 26 from opening day through Aug. 31 and 28 for the rest of the regular season, as originally intended for 2020, down from the 28 used throughout last season. Each team can travel with up to five taxi squad players for road games, and if all five are used one must be a player designated before the season as a catcher. The taxi squad players must return to the alternate training site after each trip.

A team experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak may expand its active roster without the added players having to be optioned, sent outright to the minors or placed on waivers when impacted players return.

MLB and the players’ association combined to spend about $35 million on COVID-19 testing and rules last year. There were 45 games postponed for COVID-19-related reasons but just two were not made up, between St. Louis and Detroit.

MLB said during the World Series that 91 of 172,740 samples (.05%) has been positive, of which 57 were players and 34 staff, a group that included 21 of the 30 teams.

There were COVID-19 positives for 58 consecutive days before Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner learned of his positive test and was pulled after seven innings of the sixth and final game of the World Series. Turner caused a controversy when he left an isolation room and returned to the field for a postgame celebration. He later apologized.

Players will undergo PCR testing for a second straight season, mostly by saliva samples but with a provision allowing nasal swabs. Blood samples will be occasionally collected for serology or rapid antibody testing. PCR testing will take place at least every other day starting in spring training and continue as long as a player’s team advances until the postseason ends. There will be daily temperature and symptom screening.

Players and of-field staff will again be required to wear masks at ballparks, except for players in games, and pitchers and catchers warming up in bullpens.

Spring training starts Feb. 17 in Florida and Arizona, and the sides agreed intake screening can start three days before a player’s voluntary report date. A player must undergo a five-day at-home quarantine before reporting, with exceptions for essential activities and approved outdoor workouts and exercise.

Players, on-field staff and non-playing personnel who require access to them may not during spring training, the season or the postseason go to indoor restaurants, bars, fitness centers, casinos, bowling alleys, pool halls, dance clubs or any indoor gathering of 10 or more people.

In addition, during spring training they must quarantine at home except for baseball activities with their teams and travel, medical care, grocery shopping, takeout food pickup, outdoor physical activity and — with permission of a joint management-committee — outdoor dining. Other low-risk outdoor activities are permitted during the season.

Unless advance permission is given by the team compliance officer, anyone covered by the plan may not meet during road trips with anyone outside the traveling party, other than for outdoor meetings with family and household members.

Similar to last season, high-risk individuals may opt out of playing and those who opt out may change their minds and opt in.

Traveling parties will be encouraged to keep windows in hotel rooms and team buses open for ventilation.

During the regular season, a game of less than five innings stopped by rain will be suspended and continued.

Players complained last year that they could not view replays during games, A new provision states “players will have access to tablets under the Dugout iPad program that can be loaded with content before and after games, and will have access to in-game video in a format that cannot be used to steal the catcher’s signs.”

Spring training will be divided into three phases. Workouts will be limited to individuals and small groups through Feb. 20, larger groups and intrasquad games will be permitted from Feb. 21-26, and the exhibition season will start Feb. 27 or 28.

Games against non-major league teams, including colleges, are banned this year, and spring training games through March 13 may be shortened to five or seven innings if both managers agree; half-innings may be stopped before three outs if a pitcher has thrown at least 20 pitches; and pitchers may re-enter a game. The three-batter minimum rule that started last season will be enforced starting March 14. Any spring training game may end in a tie.

Players will be allowed to drive their own cars rather than take team buses to maximize distancing.

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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Turkey unveils space program including 2023 moon mission

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled an ambitious 10-year space program for his country Tuesday that includes missions to the moon, sending Turkish astronauts into space and developing internationally viable satellite systems.

Erdogan announced the program, seen as part of his vision for placing Turkey in expanded regional and global role, during a live televised event laced with special effects.

He said Turkey planned to establish “a first contact with the moon” in 2023, when the country marks the centennial of the founding of the Turkish republic. The first stage of the mission would be “through international cooperation,” while the second stage would utilize Turkish rockets, Erdogan said.

“Our primary and most important goal for our national space program is the contact of the Republic, in its 100th year, with the moon,” the Turkish leader said. “God willing, we are going to the moon.”

Erdogan also declared Turkey’s aim to send Turkish citizens into space with international cooperation, to work with other countries on building a spaceport and to create a “global brand” in satellite technology.

“I hope that this roadmap, which will carry Turkey to the top league in the global space race, will come to life successfully,” he said.

Turkey established the Turkish Space Agency, or TUA, in 2018, with the aim of joining the handful of other countries with space programs.

Critics have questioned the government’s decision to spend vast sums of money on that goal at a time when the country’s economy is suffering. But supporters say a space program will provide jobs for researchers and is likely to reduce the brain drain of emigrating scientists.

Erdogan did not provide details on how Turkey plans to achieve its goals. Last month, he and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spoke by telephone and discussed cooperation on space technologies with Turkish companies.

Meanwhile, a metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeast Turkey turned out to be a publicity gimmick before the event.

The3-meter-high (about 10-feet-high) metal slab with the inscription “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” written in an ancient Turkic script was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. The monolith was near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe, which is home to megalithic structures dating to the 10th century B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge.

The structure was reported gone Tuesday morning, adding to the mystery.

An image of the monolith was later projected on the screen as Erdogan said: “I now present to you Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and aims and I say, ‘Look at the sky, you will see the moon.’”

Robert Badendieck contributed from Istanbul

Archives for February 2021

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