Innovation, Science and Technology

April 27, 2020

Reboot manufacturing to safeguard sovereign assets

The neoliberal assumptions that have held sway over economic policymaking for a generation must be abandoned, writes Senator Kim Carr The US and China are…

5G, Huawei and a technology tipping point

The politics of research and science

A workforce revolution is coming – how ready are you?

EU overhauls space policies

David Brown: autodidact or freewheeler?

Humanity may not be hard-wired for success

Shifting sands of scientific progress

Nitrate: there’s something in the water

February 1, 2018

AI provokes revolutionary minds

Artificial intelligence is no longer the sole preserve of data scientists and science fiction writers, with its technological applications now pervading daily life, says James…

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Seven in 10 testing positive for virus show no symptoms
More than two thirds of those who tested positive for coronavirus had no symptoms, in the first nationally representative sample. The Office for National Statistics said the figure underlined the importance of social distancing to avoid catching the virus from those who felt well, amid warnings that the scale of infection without symptoms could make the NHS contact tracing system much less effective. However, other experts cautioned that many of the test results could be false positives, caused by the inherent difficulties of checking people at random for a disease that fewer than one in 400 people has at present. The results also show that only one in 15 people had antibodies, indicating that they had recovered from coronavirus, dealing another blow to hopes that herd immunity would end the epidemic without the need for a vaccine or treatments. The Times, May 29

Govt rejected radical lockdown of care homes
Public health officials proposed a radical lockdown of care homes last month to stem surging coronavirus deaths, including staff moving in for four weeks and deploying NHS Nightingale hospitals – but it was rejected by the government, the Guardian has learned. An 11-point plan proposing “a further lockdown of care homes” was submitted to Downing Street on 28 April by officials at Public Health England, as fatalities peaked in care homes and the virus spread to half of homes in the worst-affected areas. They urged ministers to “use NHS facilities and other temporary accommodation to quarantine and isolate residents”, and to “consider whether staff can move into the care home for the next four weeks”. But neither of the proposals, recommended as “high impact”, were included in a subsequent action plan on infection control announced by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, last week. The Guardian, May 28

UK manufacturers plan 10000s of redundancies
Britain’s manufacturers are poised to make tens of thousands of workers redundant after a worse-than-expected slump in orders, prompted by the pandemic that has left many firms struggling to survive. A survey by the manufacturers’ lobby group, Make UK, found that 25 per cent of companies are already drawing up plans to cut jobs in the next six months. A further 45 per cent say they are considering redundancies. Only 30 per cent said they expect to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with all their staff on the payroll. The worst-hit firms, which account for more than a quarter of those planning to make redundancies, expect to cut more than half [of] their workforce while another 30 per cent said they would need to lose a quarter of their staff over the next six months. The Guardian, May 29

Nissan backs Britain as it cuts back in Europe
The future of Britain’s largest car factory looks secure after the Japanese carmaker Nissan said that it would close its Spanish factories and indicated that it planned to retrench in Europe. However, unions representing 6,500 workers at the Sunderland factory fear they could yet suffer job cuts as Nissan swung to huge losses. The news was received badly in Spain where riots erupted. Nissan’s Barcelona factory, which like Sunderland has been closed during the lockdown, employs 2,800. Nissan yesterday announced losses for 2019-20 of 671 billion yen (£5bn), a fall of £9bn against profits in the previous year. Revenues fell 15 per cent to Y9.8 trillion (£74bn) as it sold 10 per cent fewer vehicles. It expects that to worsen with sales projected to fall as much 20 per cent this year. The Times, May 29

Renault to cut €2bn costs with 14,600 lost jobs
Renault plans to cut 14,600 jobs, shrink production and restructure some of its French factories as the carmaker looks to slash €2bn in costs amid falling demand and the aftermath of the 2018 arrest of Carlos Ghosn. With profits almost wiped out last year and sales slumping, Renault is trying to achieve more than €2bn in savings over the next three years while cutting global production capacity from 4m vehicles in 2019 to 3.3m by 2024. Before his arrest on charges of financial misconduct in Japan, former Renault chief Mr Ghosn had targeted selling more than 5m vehicles by 2022. Now, as part of its turnround plan, Renault said it was launching discussions with unions to repurpose plants in France, some of which could stop making cars altogether, and which would involve job cuts. The group has not made final decisions about the future of six sites in France, including at Flins and Dieppe, as it faces both political and union opposition. Financial Times, May 29

Football to kick off on June 17
Premier League football is coming back with artificial crowd noise to enhance the atmosphere for viewers at home. English football’s long-awaited return to action is to start on June 17, more than three months after matches were halted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Premier League will resume, subject to government consent, with all games played in empty stadiums. Broadcasters are planning to give viewers the option of artificial fan sounds, adjusted by a sound engineer, according to the action on the pitch. The noise will be provided as a red-button option, allowing viewers to stick with natural sound if they prefer. The first matches will be Manchester City v Arsenal and Aston Villa v Sheffield United. A full Premier League programme is then due to be played over the weekend of June 20-21. The Times, May 29

UK citizenship plan for HK people lacks detail
A UK plan to offer a “pathway to citizenship” to hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people offers too little detail and does not go far enough to protect them from an increasingly authoritarian Beijing, campaigners say. Dominic Raab, UK foreign minister, on Thursday pledged to extend visa rights for British National (Overseas) passport holders in the territory that he said could be used to obtain citizenship unless Beijing reversed plans to impose national security laws on Hong Kong. Craig Choy, spokesman for campaign group Equal Rights for British National Overseas, said Mr Raab’s comments were encouraging but were “meaningless” if the path to citizenship was no different to the existing route open to BNO holders. Mr Raab’s offer would allow BNO holders “to work and study in the UK for extendable periods of 12 months and that would itself provide a pathway to future citizenship”. Under the existing scheme, BNO holders are entitled to consular assistance but not British citizenship. They are allowed to stay in the UK for up to six months only with no right to work. Financial Times, May 29

Australian court grants access to Queen’s mail
Letters written by the Queen before the 1975 dismissal of then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam can be made public, an Australian court has ruled. Mr Whitlam’s government was removed by her representative at the time, Governor-General Sir John Kerr, and replaced with an opposition party. The dismissal is often described as the most controversial episode in Australian political history. It is not known what the letters between the Queen and Sir John contain. Historians have long questioned what Buckingham Palace knew about the removal of Mr Whitlam, a progressive whose reforms divided Australia after two decades of conservative rule. More than 200 letters have been kept sealed in the National Archives since 1978, but on Friday the High Court of Australia ruled they could be accessed in the national interest. It follows a challenge by historian Prof Jenny Hocking to have them released as state records – documents which are disclosed after a 31-year embargo. BBC news, May 29

Twitter hides Trump tweet ‘glorifying violence’
Twitter has hidden one of President Donald Trump’s tweets from his profile, saying it violates rules about glorifying violence. But instead of being deleted, it has been replaced with a warning and can be viewed by clicking on it. The warning says “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible”. It is the latest in an escalating row between Twitter and the White House. Mr Trump was tweeting about the US city of Minneapolis, which has seen consecutive nights of protests following the death of a black man in police custody. BBC news, May 29

Trump legal review targets social media groups
Donald Trump ordered a wide-ranging review of the law that underpins how social media platforms operate, in a move which threatens to undermine legal protections internet companies have enjoyed for decades. The US president on Thursday signed an order instructing his officials to re-examine the 1996 law that granted social media companies immunity from being sued for content which appeared on their platforms, or for removing content. Section 230 of the law, the Communications Decency Act, has been dubbed the “26 words that created the internet”. The president’s review – one of several moves designed to check what his supporters say is anticonservative bias shown by social media companies – comes after a bitter row with Twitter, which placed “fact check notices” against two of his tweets earlier this week. “Currently, social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they’re a neutral platform, which they’re not,” Mr Trump said on Thursday, labelling the company an “editor with a viewpoint”. Financial Times, May 29

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