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Daily Archives: January 27, 2022

Before pullout from Afghanistan US watchdog warned Afghan air force would collapse

Chicago Sun Times – “Months before President Joe Biden announced the U.S.’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, Washington’s watchdog warned that the Afghan air force would collapse without critical American aid, training and maintenance, according to a newly declassified report. The report by John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, had been submitted to the Department of Defense in January 2021. Its release now underscores that American authorities had been alerted that Afghanistan’s air force didn’t have the capabilities to survive after a U.S. withdrawal. In particular, the report points to the U.S. government’s failure to train Afghan support staff, which left that country’s air force unable to maintain its aircraft without enlisting American contractors. U.S. air support to government forces was key in the 20-year-war against Taliban insurgents. Its removal was one factor that contributed to the Taliban’s sweeping victory as the Americans withdrew, as was the inability of the Afghan air force to fill the void. The inspector general’s office told The Associated Press it’s rare for SIGAR reports to be classified but that, when they are, a declassified version is issued by the Pentagon in under two months. The office said it didn’t know why it took the Defense Department more than a year before declassifying this report or why it did so now, five months after the Taliban took power…”

Source: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction UNCLASSIFED VERSION OF A PREVIOUSLY ISSUED CLASSIFIED REPORT. SIGAR 21-14-AR/Afghan Air Force Sustainability – Afghan Air Forces: DOD Has Taken Steps to Develop Afghan Aviation Capability but Continued U.S. Support is Needed to Sustain Forces, January 2022.

FAQ about our most popular models of 3M N95 Respirators

“U.S. Government Distribution of N95 Respirators from the Strategic National Stockpile:  In January 2022, the U.S. government announced a program to distribute N95s to Americans from the Strategic National Stockpile.  If you receive 3M N95 Respirators (sometimes referred to as “masks”) through this program, read through the information on this page to learn more about how to put… Continue Reading

TikTok is confronting Holocaust misinformation but antisemitism persists

TechCrunch: “In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, TikTok launched a portal on its Discover page this morning, intended to educate users about the historic catastrophe, as well as the ongoing threat of antisemitism. The platform also hosted a similar portal last year. When users navigate to the Discover page on the TikTok mobile app,… Continue Reading

Petabase-scale sequence alignment catalyses viral discovery

Edgar, R.C., Taylor, J., Lin, V. et al. Petabase-scale sequence alignment catalyses viral discovery. [Full text – Free] Nature (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04332-2: “Public databases contain a planetary collection of nucleic acid sequences, but their systematic exploration has been inhibited by a lack of efficient methods for searching this corpus, which (at the time of writing) exceeds… Continue Reading

New Tracking Global Online Censorship Site Explains Content Moderation Practices and Impacts

EFF: “Content moderation has become a critical topic across the globe. Unfortunately, it can still be difficult for the average person to understand the processes that go into content moderation, much less how to appeal decisions that those platforms make to censor content or accounts. To help fill this gap, we’re launching a resource for… Continue Reading

FTC: US consumers lost $770 million in social media scams in 2021 up 18x from 2017

“Consumers in 2021 reported losing about $770 million to fraud initiated on social media—about one fourth of all reported fraud losses for the year and an 18-fold increase from 2017, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s latest Consumer Protection Data Spotlight. Of those who reported losing money to fraud in 2021, more than 95,000 indicated… Continue Reading

State Of Fintech 2021 Report

CB Insights: “It was a record year for global & US fintech funding, mega-rounds, unicorns, M&A exits, and more. Global fintech deals and dollars reached record highs in 2021. Funding more than doubled year-over-year as private market deal activity soared across sectors and geographies. In our State Of Fintech 2021 Report, we dive into global… Continue Reading

The modern workplace: Will remote tech workers tolerate being monitored?

ZDNet – “The same technologies that enable people to work from home can be used to watch them work. A survey finds widespread use of monitoring software and not everyone is told it is there…For work at home advocates the future looks rosy. With the current jobs boom it looks certain that they’ll get what… Continue Reading