New Atlas

Telecommunications Audio available

Australian government passes controversial world-first anti-encryption law amid broad criticism

Rich Haridy December 6, 2018

The Australian government yesterday passed a bill allowing law enforcement agencies to compel tech companies to hand over encrypted messaging data. The legislation has been broadly condemned with suggestions it could not only harm the Australian tech industry, but undermine encryption worldwide.

The Australian government has just passed an anti-encryption law that could have global implications

Science

Legal marijuana: The world watches as Canada’s massive social experiment begins

Rich Haridy October 20, 2018

As Canada becomes only the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, the world is closely watching. The country will offer the grandest social experiment we have ever seen in drug legalization and may help answer some questions that have been divisively debated for decades.

What are the questions we hope the Canada experiment will help us answer?

Computers

Apple slams Australia's anti-encryption bill, calling it "dangerously ambiguous"

Rich Haridy October 14, 2018

In an expansive submission to the Australian Parliament, Apple has strongly condemned the government’s prospective anti-encryption legislation, arguing “this is no time to weaken encryption,” and calling the draft outline “extraordinarily broad” and “dangerously ambitious.”

Australia's prospective anti-encryption legislation may be passed over the next few months

Motorcycles

NTSB recommends mandatory ABS and stability control on all new motorcycles

Loz Blain September 20, 2018

Here's something that might have caused considerable uproar a few years ago, but that will likely be uncontested by today's motorcyling world: The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended mandatory ABS brakes on all motorcycles as a part of its latest safety report.

Under NTSB recommendations, all new motorcycles sold in the USA would require mandatory ABS - and ...

Computers Audio available

The right to disconnect: The new laws banning after-hours work emails

Rich Haridy August 13, 2018

In today’s ultra-connected world, with many people often getting work emails sent to their smartphones, a growing number of countries and companies are endorsing “right to disconnect” laws, recreating a much-needed boundary between work and home.

Laws around the world are increasingly trying to grapple with the impact of digital technologies eroding ...

Motorcycles

Hanoi plans to ban motorcycles altogether by 2030

Loz Blain August 6, 2018

Citing pollution and road trauma statistics, the Hanoi People's Council has voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning motorcycles in the inner city by 2030. Instead, the city is aiming to develop public transport to better serve its 7.6 million residents.

Hanoi's famous swarms of motorcycles could be a thing of the past, with Hanoi's city council ...

Telecommunications Feature

Opinion: How fake news is being co-opted by governments around the world to suppress dissent

Rich Haridy August 4, 2018

Not a day goes by without someone throwing out the term 'fake news'. While misinformation and inaccurate reporting is undeniably a major global problem, fake news is quickly morphing into something else entirely, and some governments are using the phrase as a way to quash dissenting opinions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Biology

EU court controversially rules gene-edited crops are subject to tough GMO laws

Rich Haridy July 25, 2018

The European Union has just ruled that gene-edited plants and crops are subject to the same tough regulations as genetically modified organisms. The ruling stands apart from a recent US government statement claiming gene-edited plants are notably different from more comprehensively altered GMOs.

A divisive new EU court ruling is placing unprecedented regulations on genetically edited plants and crops

Computers

First UK legal challenge to question police use of facial recognition technology

Rich Haridy June 14, 2018

2018 is fast becoming the year that facial recognition technology finally hits the mainstream with a constant torrent of stories revealing the growing use of these systems by law enforcement agencies. But some people are now asking if they violate civil liberties.

A facial recognition van deployed by South Wales Police in the United Kingdom

Telecommunications

UK Government moves to classify high-speed broadband access as a "legal right"

Rich Haridy December 20, 2017

The UK Government has just announced that from 2020, high-speed broadband will be considered a legal right for all its citizens, meaning service providers must offer access to any person that requests it

Hot on the heels of the FCC's net neutrality repeal, the UK Government has offered up ...