US Insurers Eye Legionnaires’ Disease Safeguards as Buildings Reopen From Lockdowns

Commercial insurers are scrutinizing building managers’ efforts to avoid outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease as they reopen movie theaters, gyms, schools and offices that had been closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources told Reuters. Legionnaires’ disease is a severe, sometimes lethal form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria that build up in…

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Australia Says it Has Been Target of ‘State-Based’ Cyberattacks

A “sophisticated state-based cyber actor” has been attempting to hack a wide range of Australian organizations for months and had stepped up its efforts recently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.The attacks have targeted all levels of the government, political organizations, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure, Morrison said in a…

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Social Media Companies Battle Evolving Threat Ahead of 2020 Election

Top social media companies Google, Facebook and Twitter told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that foreign interference on their platforms has evolved significantly since the 2016 presidential election.The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence heard how these companies are adapting their approaches to combating disinformation as COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests and the upcoming 2020 presidential election…

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Facebook Removes Trump Ads, Citing ‘Hateful’ Symbols

Facebook has removed dozens of official Donald Trump advertisements, saying they violated the social media platform’s policy against organized hate.“We don’t allow symbols that represent hateful organizations or hateful ideologies unless they’re put up with context or condemnation,” Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. “That’s what we…

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Russia Lifts Ban on Telegram Messaging App

The Russian government has lifted a ban on Telegram two years after it announced attempts to restrict access to the encrypted instant-messaging app, the country’s communications regulator said Thursday.“As agreed with the Prosecutor General’s office, Roskomnadzor withdraws the demand to restrict access to the Telegram messenger,” the federal communications watchdog said in a statement.Roskomnadzor began…

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Trump Unleashes Attacks on Bolton Book

U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a full-bore attack Thursday on his former national security adviser John Bolton after Bolton in a new book that called the U.S. leader an “erratic” and “stunningly uninformed” commander in chief.Trump, in a string of biting Twitter comments, called Bolton’s book “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all…

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COVID-19 Sparks Technology Innovation

Engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, are developing new technology for health care workers on the front lines of fighting the spread of COVID-19. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from Chicago, an unexpected benefit of the current pandemic is technological innovation that could have a lasting impact.Camera: Kane Farabaugh        Produced by: Rob Raffaele…

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