Huawei 5G kit-removal deadlines put back
The government has extended two deadlines for the removal of Huawei equipment from the UK's 5G networks.
The requirement to remove the Chinese company's products from the network core has been pushed back 11 months, to 31 December 2023.
And a limit on the amount of Huawei kit in fibre-broadband infrastructure must now be achieved by the end of October,l rather than July, next year.
It follows advice from the National Cyber Security Centre.
The NCSC decided the security of Huawei's products could no longer be managed, in 2020, following a US decision to place the company under sanctions, and the UK government said all its equipment had to be stripped out of the UK by the end of 2027.
This and eight other interim deadlines remain unchanged.
The US authorities fear Huawei's 5G equipment makes countries vulnerable to their data being accessed by the Chinese state or having critically important services switched off.
Huawei has denied being controlled by the Chinese government or posing a security threat.
The new deadline extensions follow consultations with Huawei and UK telecoms providers.
The government said a small number of operators had indicated - because of the pandemic and global supply-chain issues - the original deadlines risked network outages and disruption for customers.
Providers should meet the original targets wherever possible, it said, and it expected most of them would do so.
The direction to remove Huawei equipment is also being put on a legal footing through the handing of notices called designated-vendor directions to all 35 UK telecoms network operators, under the Telecoms Security Act, which came into force in November 2021.
Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said it allowed the government to "drive up the security of telecoms infrastructure and control the use of high-risk equipment".
"We must have confidence in the security of our phone and internet networks, which underpin so much about our economy and everyday lives," she added.
NCSC technical director Dr Ian Levy said: "The Telecoms Security Act ensures we can be confident in the resilience of the everyday services on which we rely and the legal requirements in this designated-vendor direction are a key part of the security journey."
Huawei has been issued a separate document - a designation notice - which categorises the company as a high-risk vendor of 5G network equipment and services and sets out all of the reasons the government considers it a national security risk, including the impact of the US sanctions.
Source-BBC
Bruno Mars says Silk Sonic's album won't compete at Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards race has just opened up in a big way, now that a Grammy favorite has withdrawn his album from consideration.
Silk Sonic, the duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won Record and Song of the Year at the Grammys earlier this year for their hit "Leave the Door Open." Their album An Evening with Silk Sonic, released in November 2021 -- after the Grammy cutoff for this year's ceremony -- was expected to be a major contender when the nominations for next year's ceremony are announced in November. But as Bruno tells Rolling Stone, he feels as though they've already been honored enough.
"We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year," Bruno says in his statement. "We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.”
“Andy and I, and everyone that worked on this project, won the moment the world responded to ‘Leave The Door Open,'" he continues. "Everything else was just icing on the cake. We thank the Grammys for allowing us to perform on their platform — not once but twice — and awarding us at last year’s ceremony. We’d be crazy to ask for anything more.”
“Thank you to everyone that supported this project and championed it,” he concludes.
Of course, Bruno already has more Grammys than he knows what to do with: As a solo artist, he's won 11 trophies. Anderson .Paak, meanwhile, has four Grammys as a solo artist.
Source-ABC
Beyoncé, Drake & The Weeknd among lead American Music Award nominees
Beyoncé, Drake, and The Weeknd are among the top nominees for the 2022 American Music Awards.
While Bad Bunny leads the pack with a total of eight nominations, Beyoncé and Drake and Taylor Swift are close behind with six nods a piece. The Weeknd is next up with five nominations, alongside Adele and Harry Styles.
Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Drake and Taylor are all up for Artist of the Year, a category that also includes Adele, Harry Styles and The Weeknd. If The Weeknd wins the coveted award it would be his first win in that category.
Additionally, many artists received their first ever AMA nominations this year, including Tems and Jack Harlow, who each earned four, followed by Latto with three nods.
The AMA's also added a new category, Favorite Afrobeats Artist, which Burna Boy, CKay, Fireboy DML, Tems, and Wizkid are all nominated.
Fan voting is open now at VoteAMAs.com and via Twitter in all award categories, except Favorite K-Pop Artist, voting for which begins November 1.
The American Music Awards air Sunday, November 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Here are the nominees in some of the major categories:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Adele
Bad Bunny
Beyoncé
Drake
Harry Styles
Taylor Swift
The Weeknd
FAVORITE MALE HIP-HOP ARTIST
Drake
Future
Kendrick Lamar
Lil Baby
Lil Durk
FAVORITE FEMALE HIP-HOP ARTIST
Cardi B
GloRilla
Latto
Megan Thee Stallion
Nicki Minaj
FAVORITE HIP-HOP ALBUM
Future I NEVER LIKED YOU
Gunna DS4EVER
Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Lil Durk 7220
Polo G Hall of Fame 2.0
FAVORITE MALE R&B ARTIST
Brent Faiyaz
Chris BrowN
GIVĒON
Lucky Daye
The Weekndpage7image27928704
FAVORITE FEMALE R&B ARTIST
Beyoncé
Doja Cat
Muni Long
Summer Walker
SZA
FAVORITE R&B ALBUM
Beyoncé Renaissance
Drake Honestly, Nevermind
Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak) An Evening with Silk Sonic
Summer Walker Still Over It
The Weeknd Dawn FM
FAVORITE R&B SONG
Beyoncé BREAK MY SOUL
Muni Long Hrs And Hrs
Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak) Smokin Out The Window
SZA I Hate U
Wizkid ft. Tems Essence
FAVORITE AFROBEATS ARTIST
Burna Boy
CKay
Fireboy DML
Tems
Wizkid
Netflix ad-supported service to launch in November
Netflix is launching a new streaming option with adverts in November, introducing a less expensive offering as it fights to keep viewers.
The plan will be available in 12 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Mexico and Australia.
The firm said it would charge £4.99 a month for the service in the UK, while it will cost $6.99 in the US.
Netflix has been losing customers as competition and cost of living pressures mount.
The company lost more than 1 million subscribers in the first half of this year. It is due to provide an update of that figure to investors next week.
Netflix's move into advertising is a big change for the company, which pioneered the idea of subscription-based streaming.
But as more entertainment companies roll out online streaming platforms, it has had a harder time retaining subscribers, especially as households concerned about the rising cost-of-living look for ways to cut back.
In the UK, the least expensive plan without commercials starts at £6.99 a month.
"We're confident that ... we now have a price and plan for every fan," the company said in a press release.
"While it's still very early days, we're pleased with the interest from both consumers and the advertising community and couldn't be more excited about what's ahead."
Subscribers to the new offering should expect to see an average of four to five minutes of adverts per hour, the company said.
Some films and TV series also will not be available due to licensing restrictions.
The company said it planned to expand the offering to more countries over time.
Many of Netflix's competitors already combine streaming with adverts or have plans to.
Disney, for example, is due to roll out an advert supported service in December in the US. That plan will start at $7.99 a month.
Jeremi Gorman, Netflix's president of worldwide advertising, said it had nearly sold out all the available ad time for the launch, a sign of the interest from advertisers in reaching younger audiences that are increasingly turning away from traditional television.
Netflix is asking people who sign up for the ad service for gender and birth date information as part of efforts to target ads.
Source-BBC Business
China's electric car market is booming
Five years ago, the city revealed plans to ban the introduction of fossil fuel-powered taxis. Today, thousands of the cars run on batteries instead. And the drivers of these electric vehicles (EVs) don't have to worry about wasting time at charging stations, either.
Many electric taxis in Beijing, and dozens of other Chinese cities, just go to a battery-swapping station where a machine plucks out the depleted battery and installs a charged one in mere minutes.
"They want to drive out there and earn some money so they definitely don't want to wait two hours for EV charging," explains I-Yun Lisa Hsieh from National Taiwan University.
This is just one facet of the increasingly diverse and booming market for electric cars in China. Members of the public are also snapping up EVs in unprecedented numbers.
Tesla had its best ever month in China in September, according to its most recent figures, selling 83,135 cars.
Nearly a quarter of all cars newly registered in China are now electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, meaning that the country is ahead of Europe and well ahead of the US in adoption of these technologies. Half the world's EVs are sold in China.
And this is largely driven by government mandates and incentives, says Mr Hsieh. For more than a decade, the Chinese government has subsidised EV purchases. The value of these subsidies has fallen over time, and they are due to end by 2023, but there are still plenty of reasons why buying an electric car is a financial no-brainer.
Many buyers of new fossil fuel vehicles in China have to pay out, not only for the car, but the licence plate as well. "It's really expensive," says Mr Hsieh. A new licence plate in Shanghai costs nearly 100,000 yuan (£12,500; $14,000).
There are other perks if you opt for an EV instead, though they differ from city to city. In Liuzhou, authorities have allowed EV owners to drive in bus lanes. And they get access to free parking spaces as well.
Then there is the potentially irresistible price tag of some vehicles. The Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV bucks the trend of EVs being a relatively expensive option.
The entry-level version of this dinky, no-frills car costs the equivalent of just £4,200 and appeals to city-dwellers and first-time car owners, says Jon Hykawy, president and director of Stormcrow Capital, a consulting and research firm.
"These are vehicles that could be sold through a big chunk of Asia as well," he adds.
The Hong Guang Mini is currently China's most popular EV. But there are a host of options at the other end of the price scale, such as Tesla's Model Y (£49,000) or Xpeng's P7 (£30,410). Both are in the list of top 10 best-selling EVs in China.
The Chinese EV market is enormously competitive and lots of companies are vying for a place in it. Even an airline, Juneyao, wants to start making electric cars, according to a recent report from the Reuters news agency.
"It's a very good environment for these manufacturers to develop technology," says Pedro Pacheco, an analyst at Gartner, noting that the range offered by some battery EVs in China is particularly good.
And manufacturers are filling higher-end EVs with infotainment systems and other gadgetry in a further attempt to woo consumers
But two big questions hover over the frenzy for electric cars in China. Firstly, will it last? And secondly, how will it shape the global EV market?
Ana Nicholls, director of industry analysis at the Economist Intelligence Unit, says she has been surprised at just how quickly EVs have flown out of dealerships in China lately but argues that, with the removal of subsidies for purchasers of new vehicles, the appetite for EVs could wane.
"It's hard to see how the EV market can carry on expanding at quite this rate in the future," she says.
Charging infrastructure remains unevenly distributed and subject to supply issues - some charging stations were curtailed recently thanks to a fall in electricity production caused by the mega drought affecting parts of China.
Source-BBC
Jamaica's broadcasting authority has banned content that "glorifies illegal activity"
Jamaica's broadcasting authority has banned content that "glorifies illegal activity" - such as drug and gun use.
The new rules cover TV and radio - including music - and list specific topics that are off-limits.
Scamming, drug abuse and the illegal use of firearms cannot be "promoted" - and swearing or "near-sounding" replacements are also banned.
But the strict nature of the ban has been criticised by some artists who argue music is a reflection of life.
It comes amid high levels of violent crime in Jamaica - in 2021, the island nation had one of the highest murder rates in Latin America and the Caribbean.
But the broadcasting agency says the use of public airwaves to broadcast songs that glorify illegal activity could give "the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society".
All forms of "illegal or criminal activity" are now prohibited in an effort to help keep the airwaves "clean", it said - and station operators are required to take immediate steps to comply.
Concern that offending content could normalise criminality among young adults and "vulnerable and impressionable" youths was also cited as a reason for the changes.
However, some of Jamaica's musical artists have criticised the move.
"We can't stop the creatives (artists) from singing about what they see around them or grew around," said Romeich, a local music manager and producer in an Instagram post.
He went on to ask if "Jamaica the only country that has children? Because the same children listen to these same songs elsewhere".
Grammy award-winning music producer and singer, Stephen McGregor, who goes by the stage name "Di Genius" shared his frustrations on Twitter.
"Yay! Crime and violence gonna magically stop now," he wrote sarcastically, before pointing out that young people listen to music over the internet more often than through a radio.
"[In my opinion] the move is more of a 'look we're doing something' more than actually trying to do something," said Mr McGregor.
This is not the first time a some music has been banned in Jamaica. In 2009, regulators banned music promoting sex, violence, murder or arson, when "daggering" - a type of sexually-suggestive dancing -gained in popularity.
The broadcasting commission's statement said while there had to be regard for freedom of expression, content promoting criminality conflicted with the "tenets of responsible broadcasting".
Source-BBC
POLICE OPERATION’s TARGETS CRIMINALS
It was an exercise that was expected, following weeks of death across the TCI, which resulted in an international casualty as a results of gangs and various fractions attacking each other and the lives of many that started living in fear in this beautiful by nature, Turks & Caicos Islands.
Drastic measures were needed, and have now been taken following meetings by Ministers & National Security and eventually international assistance. starting at around 3:30pm yesterday (Tuesday 11th October 2022), a policing operation was carried out in one of the areas less visited by the some law enforcers called Dock Yard.
Armed with search warrants, “Operation Anaconda” targeted several premises which were the prime areas linked to serious crime. The coordinated operation saw items related to potential gang related violence, including ammunition seized.
During the operation seven suspects were arrested for their involvement in criminality.
Just hours before Operation Anaconda took a bite into Dock Yard, Governor of the TCI, HE Nigel Daikin, sent an address out to the nation, in part, the Governor said, " I have said it before that if you are confronted by our Tactical Firearms Officers, or Response Teams, it really would be best to lie down & place your hands out in front of you. If you fire on our Officers – or others – their rules of engagement mean they will return fire." Further down into his message, " Every death is unfortunate. So I repeat the advice; this isn’t a movie or a video game - if you are confronted – drop to the floor – hands outstretched. You are young and you think yourself invincible – but you are not."
Commissioner of Police, Trevor Botting said: “Yesterday’s intelligence led operation in Dock Yard directly targeted those whom we believe have been involved in serious crime and gang related activity. I have long stated that the police and by extension the communities must purge these criminal elements from continuously causing havoc in this beautiful by nature TCI.
“A total of 58 officers consisting of joint teams from tactical, armed and investigations units, supported by police dogs and forensic teams formed part of the multi-pronged operation in areas where gang killings and violence have erupted.
“As a result seven (7) persons were arrested for crime related matters and they remain in custody as suspects in active police investigations. Property, inclusive of ammunition and masks, believed to be used in the perpetration of criminal acts were seized.
RTC will have more on other stings as they become known to our news room.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH REPORTS SUSPECTED CASES OF HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE
The Ministry of Health and Human Services (MoHHS) of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) wishes to inform the public that there has been report of two cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) in Providenciales over the past weekend. Preliminary investigations by the Public Health Team revealed a possible cluster of cases at a particular school. As a part of standard procedures for mitigation of a possible outbreak and out of an abundance of caution, deep cleaning at the school was recommended in addition to the provision of additional advice to the institution.
Primary Health has embarked on an enhanced surveillance and education campaign to ensure that suspected cases be identified as quickly as possible and schools and daycare facilities are educated on proper implementation of prevention and hygienic measures (e.g. hand washing).
HFMD is a contagious viral illness that primarily affects infants and children younger than 5 years old. It is transmitted by direct contact with nasal secretions (droplets produced by coughing or sneezing), saliva, fluid from blisters and stool of infected individuals. It can also be spread through touching objects and surfaces that have the virus on them, like doorknobs or toys, then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. HFMD is most prevalent in child care settings due to frequent contact with soiled diapers and children putting their hands in their mouths where it can spread easily. HFMD occasionally occurs in adolescents and adults.
Symptoms include some or all of the following; painful sores in the mouth, rashes on the hands and feet which may be associated with blisters, fever, headache, feeling generally unwell or irritable, runny nose, and/or sore throat. It is mostly a mild and self-limiting illness lasting for a few days.
However, there are more severe, albeit uncommon, forms of the disease which are associated with neurological complications as a result of meningitis (associated with fever, headache, and neck stiffness) and encephalitis (resulting in paralysis). Affected persons can sometimes be contagious for days or weeks after the symptoms have ended.
There is no specific treatment for hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Symptoms are controlled by the use of paracetamol (Panadol or Tylenol) for fever and pain relief and is often all that is necessary. In some cases, HFMD can cause a sore mouth and throat, which makes it difficult to swallow. It is therefore important to maintain adequate fluid intake to avoid dehydration that could result in hospitalization. Symptoms usually resolve within ten days.
Persons with suspected HFMD should abstain from school and report to a healthcare provider to obtain guidance, including when to return to work, school or daycare.
The MOHHS will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as appropriate.
TCI’s International Coastal Clean-up Day!
The DECR hosted a very successful International Coastal Clean-up Day (ICCD)!
The Clean up was supported by the Turks & Caicos Islands' community, with a total of 147 bags collected nation-wide.
The event was open to everyone, and participants from all circles of the community signed up to keep the TCI beautiful by nature! Organizations and individuals alike, took to beach accesses, bushes, roads and of course the beach for a few hours, tidying up any litter and other debris they found.
“We are incredibly thankful to the businesses and individuals that participated in this year’s clean-up event! Although we had to work around the mourning of Queen Elizabeth II, and a hurricane, the community of the TCI showed up showed off for another ICCD! As we continue to fight for trash-free seas, we are excited to notice ICCD turning into the TCI’s largest annual clean-up event!” Said Amy Avenant, the DECR’s Environmental Outreach Coordinator.
The DECR would like to thank the following organizations and individuals who registered and attended the event on Saturday, around the islands (in no particular order):
- Caicos Dream Tours
- Clement Howell High School
- Fortis TCI
- Louise Garland Thomas High School
- Seven Stars Resort
- Enid Capron Primary School
- Mere Financial
- Moswn Flowers
- ISTCI
- The Strand
- Tania Allen
- Grand Turk Cruise Centre
- Provo Primary and Middle School
- Turks and Caicos National Trust
- Rotaract (Grand Turk & Providenciales)
- Ministry of Health (Contract Managment)
- Nathan Hesselgrave & family
- The Source
- Norman Rogers
- Soroptomist Int of Providenciales
- The Sands Resort
- The School for Field Studies
The clean up was held on Saturday October 8th,2022.
Serious Crime – Significant Arrest
Officers of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force arrested a man on Thursday, 6th October 2022, wanted in connection with firearm-related offenses.
Reports indicate, at around 9.45 am, the Response and Operations Unit intercepted a car along Airport Road in the vicinity of Alice & Alice Plaza, having identified the driver as a person of interest in gang-related serious criminal activities. The vehicle he was traveling in was searched and a quantity of marijuana was found.
Ag ASP and Divisional Commander Randy Ellis said: “Our officers from the Response and Operations Unit continue to be vigilant during the execution of their duties. I am very proud of the officers involved who continue to risk their lives by ensuring the safety of the communities and law-abiding citizens. We will continue our relentless exercises, which may, at times, be inconvenient to the public. Additionally, members of the public are reminded to provide any information which can lead to the capture of suspected criminals causing mayhem within the TCI.”
The public is being advised to notify the closest police station or to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477 and give any information of illegal activity anonymously.