Japan’s cybersecurity minister in charge admits he’s never used a computer and Apple wants to hire trafficking survivors.
Saudi Arabia prosecutor seeks death penalty for five in Khashoggi murder
Saudi Arabia prosecutors have charged 11 people in connection to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and wants five of them sentenced to death, reported CNN.
The prosecutors also said that the five people facing capital punishment were directly involved in “ordering and executing the crime.”
The Saudi public prosecutor’s office shared their findings about Khashoggi’s murder, saying he was killed on 2 October following a fight at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The journalist was tied up and injected with an overdose of a sedative that killed him, then his body was dismembered, said the report.
The office also added that former Saudi deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri ordered a mission to force Khashoggi to go back to Saudi Arabia and formed a team of 15 people.
Young engineers don’t want to work for Facebook
Though jobs at Facebook come with several perks, many young engineers who gathered at the University of California said they will not prefer jobs at the social network, reported The New York Times.
“I’ve heard a lot of employees who work there don’t even use it,” Niky Arora, an engineering student who was recently invited to a Facebook recruiting event, told the NYT. “I just don’t believe in the product because like, Facebook, the baseline of everything they do is desire to show people more ads,” he added.
Another computer science student said, “Before it was this glorious, magical thing to work there. Now it’s like, just because it does what you want doesn’t mean it’s doing good.”
A growing number of Facebook employees are turning on the company because of the recent scandals.
Chad Herst, a career coach based in San Francisco, said that his clients wanted to avoid working for social media giants like Facebook or Twitter.
Apple to hire trafficking survivors
Tech giant Apple is planning to provide jobs to trafficking survivors in its retails stores, reported Reuters.
“As a company whose work touches the lives of so many people, we feel we have an enormous responsibility… to turn our values into action,” Angela Ahrendts, head of retail at Apple, said Wednesday.
According to the company, the number of underage workers in its supply chain has reduced since 2012. Previously, Apple was condemned by few labour rights groups for hiring underage workers and failing to provide health insurance.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and rights group Walk Free Foundation, approximately 40 million people are said to be trapped in forced labour and forced marriages, most of them women and girls. Nearly 25 million work in factories, on construction sites, farms, fishing boats and as domestic or sex workers, said ILO.
Marijuana supply not meeting demand in Canada
Marijuana was legalised in Canada a month ago and its retailers have been facing shortages from the first day, reported BBC.
Nefoundland resident Thomas Clarke was one of the very first retailers to sell the marijuana legally in Canada. He said he sold out that day and was out-of-stock for nearly a week. He added that he can’t order what he needs from the provincial suppliers, but has had just enough to not run out of stock.
Around 12 stores out 20 have been closed in New Brunswick because of a lack of supply.
The provincial agency responsible for the sale of marijuana said that though it had ordered a full supply to stock its stores, it only received just 20-30% of that original order.
Patrick Wallace, owner of a marijuana dispensary, predicted it will take a year to 18 months before supply matches demand.
Some reports also showed shortages of medical cannabis, which was legalised in Canada in 2001.
Minister in charge of Japan’s cybersecurity has never used a computer
Japan’s cybersecurity minister in charge Yoshitaka Sakurada admitted during a Parliament questioning Wednesday that he has never used a computer, reported The New York Times.
“I have been independently running my own business since I was 25 years old. When computer use is necessary, I order my employees or secretaries to do it,” Sakurada said.
Sakurada appeared confused when asked about basic technology questions, said the report.
When a lawmaker asked him about nuclear power plants using USB drives, Sakurada had no clue what they were. In response he said, “I don’t know details well. So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how’s that?”
Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker, said, “I can’t believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures.”
Sakurada is also overseeing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
‘Chinese artificial sun’ touches electron temperature of 100 million degrees
The experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), or the Chinese artificial sun, achieved an electron temperature of 100 million degrees in its core plasma, reported Xinhua.
The step is key towards the test running of fusion reactor, said the report.
Gong Xianzu, director of the experiment, said that artificial sun’s goal is to create nuclear fusion similar to Sun using deuterium abound in the sea to provide a steady stream of clean energy.
The four-month experiment shows China is making significant progress towards tokamak-based fusion energy production, said Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The achieved temperature is about seven times more than the interior of the Sun, which is about 15 million degrees Celsius.