The Canadian government on Wednesday ordered ByteDance-owned TikTok to dissolve its operations in the country, citing national security risks, but stopped short of instituting a ban on the popular video-sharing platform. "The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada's security and intelligence community and other

Trump 2020 reelection campaign announced Saturday for the final month before Election Day the launch of “Operation MAGA,” that will consist of a “full marshaling of top-level surrogates, campaign coalitions and Trump supporters to rally behind the president and carry the campaign forward” until President Trump recovers from COVID-19 and can return on the campaign […]

The post Trump Campaign Launches ‘Operation MAGA’ appeared first on Hispolitica.

velocityconf: RT @allspaw: Operations and System Safety - always a student http://t.co/1VYBEZYrK8 #devops #velocityconf

Platform engineering is the latest buzzword in IT operations. And like all other buzzwords, it’s in danger of becoming meaningless—in danger of meaning whatever some company with a “platform engineering” product wants to sell. We’ve seen that happen to too many useful concepts: Edge computing meant everything from caches at a cloud provider’s data center […]

Network Power in the Asia-Pacific: Making Sense of the New Regionalism and Opportunities for Cooperation 7 February 2020 — 9:45AM TO 5:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 17 January 2020 Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

The Asia-Pacific region continues to increase in geopolitical and geoeconomic importance. The rise of China and tensions with the US are affecting bilateral relationships and traditional alliances in the region. Whether seen from the perspective of the Quad – Australia, India, Japan and the US – or the Indo-Pacific concept embraced by a wide range of countries but with no shared consensus on scope and objectives or with ASEAN who insists on the importance of its own centrality, the region is redefining and reconceptualising itself.

With a diverse range of initiatives – including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – there are a plethora of regional agreements and institutional groupings that add further complexity.

As the Bretton Woods architecture continues to be dominated by Western powers, China is also spearheading parallel governance initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a means of enhancing its geopolitical and geoeconomic influence.

This one-day conference will focus on how such networks and alliances have been built, and sustained, in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to understand how new regional initiatives might open up opportunities for new forms of international cooperation, the conference will focus on the themes of cyber-technology and innovation, sustainable development and mitigating the impacts of climate change and new infrastructure initiatives. It will assess whether there is a zero-sum conflict between competing networks and agendas or whether a common approach can be developed.

Transatlantic Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

This project aims to recommend ways for the US, UK and EU member-states to work together more effectively to achieve shared aims in the Indo-Pacific.

This project is Phase II of a wider research collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute: “An Evolving Transatlantic Agenda to Meet the Challenge of China in the Indo-Pacific”. The work is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Through interviews with policymakers and workshops, the project will:

• Identify specific areas of policy convergence and divergence;
• Establish practical recommendations for how the US, UK and EU member-states can better align and coordinate their activities in the Indo-Pacific.

The project is led at Chatham House by the Asia-Pacific Programme, working with the Global Economy and Finance Programme and the Europe Programme.

The researchers are Ben Bland (project lead), Dr Yu Jie, Dr Gareth Price, Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, and Alice Billon-Galland.

The project builds on research from Phase I, a Transatlantic Dialogue on China, which explored how transatlantic partners are responding to China’s rise and its effects in the Indo-Pacific.

Next steps for EU-US cooperation on trade and technology 8 December 2022 — 3:00PM TO 4:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 21 November 2022 Online

How can the EU and US increase cooperation on AI, semi-conductors and funding information communication technology services?

On trade and technology policy, the EU and the US are making meaningful progress towards cooperation while at the same time navigating tensions. As senior officials meet on 5 December for the third meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), both sides have vowed to move towards concrete results. But can the US and EU increase cooperation on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and funding information communication technology services? 

This event draws on insights from a forthcoming Briefing Paper by Marianne Schneider-Petsinger that explores next steps for US-EU cooperation on trade and technology, which is part of a project supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. 

US and Europe Strategic Security Cooperation: The View from Washington 27 March 2023 — 9:00AM TO 10:00AM Anonymous (not verified) 9 March 2023 Chatham House

As the US prepares to enter the next presidential election cycle, can the transatlantic alliance stay the course, especially against a deepening Russia-China partnership?

Thank you for your interest in joining our event. Please plan to arrive at Chatham House from 08:45 GMT as the event will begin promptly at 09:00.

The Biden administration’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the rise of a globally assertive China, as articulated in the 2022 US national strategy, is to ‘constrain Russia and out-compete China’. It needs Europe as a partner and ally for both – yet Europe is also an object and a battleground in this era of strategic competition.

As the US prepares to enter the next presidential election cycle, can the transatlantic alliance stay the course, especially against a deepening Russia-China partnership? Can Europeans, in particular, move from deepening dependency to greater agency and self-reliance? What is the role for Germany – and for the UK?

Strengthening Transatlantic Digital Cooperation

This project explores opportunities for increased cooperation via the transatlantic ‘tech triangle’ of the European Union, United Kingdom and United States.

This project serves as a cross-house initiative (involving the US and Americas Programme, the Europe Programme, the International Law Programme, the Digital Society Initiative and the International Security Programme).

Its long-term goal is to support the emergence of a global vision for technology governance: a vision drawing on democratic values and human rights principles. The project aims to extend the application of these principles to the digital space.

The first phase centres around a knowledge-exchange series, with findings and recommendations disseminated around targeted multilateral events such as G7, the United Nations General Assembly and the 2021 Internet Governance Forum.

Building on this exchange, the second phase will shift its focus to other democratic states and broaden digital cooperation dialogues from like-minded countries in the OECD, in addition to non-Western democracies and under-represented stakeholders from developing countries.

Transatlantic Tech Talks: Cooperation or sovereignty? Audio bhorton.drupal 15 December 2021

A new mini-series from Undercurrents explores international cooperation on regulating the tech sector.

Transatlantic Tech Talks is a three part mini-series on the Undercurrents podcast feed, produced with the support of Microsoft, which explores the state of international cooperation on digital governance between the United States, the UK and Europe.

As technological innovation accelerates, and new digital tools and business models arise, governments are working to develop a framework of regulations to safeguard the rights and interests of their citizens. Not all stakeholders agree, however, on the best way to achieve this. While some advocate a ‘digital cooperation’ approach based on transparency and data-sharing, others are more concerned with maintaining ‘digital sovereignty’.

In the first episode of this series, Ben is joined by Casper Klynge, Harriet Moynihan and Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, who set out the broad context for these debates. They assess where the major government, private sector and civil society actors stand on the question of digital governance, and how they are approaching the international negotiations.

Sino-Russian Gas Cooperation: Power of Siberia I and II and Implications for Global LNG Supplies 27 November 2019 — 8:30AM TO 9:30AM Anonymous (not verified) 19 November 2019 Chatham House | 10 St James's Square | London | SW1Y 4LE

In a new event in the Sustainable Transitions series, the speaker will present an update of Sino-Russian gas cooperation.

To give a comprehensive account of their impact on global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, he will discuss the following points:

• Gas is scheduled to start flowing from the Power of Siberia I (POS) on 2 December 2019. But what is the background of development of POS 1 and what is its current status and prospects?
• What are the chances of exporting gas through the proposed Altai pipeline? Why is the Mongolia export route so significant? And how will it affect the Central Asian Republics and in particular Turkmenistan’s gas export to China?
• What are the implications of both POS I and Altai gas via Mongolia route in the context of global LNG supply?
• What are the prospects for multilateral pipeline gas cooperation in northeast Asia?
• What are the implications for other Arctic onshore LNG supply, in particular, for Novatek’s Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 1 and 2 to China on top of POS 1 and Altai gas?

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Friedrich Haslinger
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 152 (), 5219-5227.
Abstract, references and article information

Jian Li
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 152 (), 5207-5217.
Abstract, references and article information

Benjamin Jaye and Manasa N. Vempati
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 152 (), 5105-5116.
Abstract, references and article information

T. A. Suslina
St. Petersburg Math. J. 35 (), 537-570.
Abstract, references and article information

Stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) plays a pivotal role in store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE), an essential mechanism in cellular calcium signaling and in maintaining cellular calcium balance. Because O-GlcNAcylation plays pivotal roles in various cellular function, we examined the effect of fluctuation in STIM1 O-GlcNAcylation on SOCE activity. We found that both increase and decrease in STIM1 O-GlcNAcylation impaired SOCE activity. To determine the molecular basis, we established STIM1-knockout HEK293 (STIM1-KO-HEK) cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and transfected STIM1 WT (STIM1-KO-WT-HEK), S621A (STIM1-KO-S621A-HEK), or T626A (STIM1-KO-T626A-HEK) cells. Using these cells, we examined the possible O-GlcNAcylation sites of STIM1 to determine whether the sites were O-GlcNAcylated. Co-immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that Ser621 and Thr626 were O-GlcNAcylated and that Thr626 was O-GlcNAcylated in the steady state but Ser621 was not. The SOCE activity in STIM1-KO-S621A-HEK and STIM1-KO-T626A-HEK cells was lower than that in STIM1-KO-WT-HEK cells because of reduced phosphorylation at Ser621. Treatment with the O-GlcNAcase inhibitor Thiamet G or O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) transfection, which increases O-GlcNAcylation, reduced SOCE activity, whereas treatment with the OGT inhibitor ST045849 or siOGT transfection, which decreases O-GlcNAcylation, also reduced SOCE activity. Decrease in SOCE activity due to increase and decrease in O-GlcNAcylation was attributable to reduced phosphorylation at Ser621. These data suggest that both decrease in O-GlcNAcylation at Thr626 and increase in O-GlcNAcylation at Ser621 in STIM1 lead to impairment of SOCE activity through decrease in Ser621 phosphorylation. Targeting STIM1 O-GlcNAcylation could provide a promising treatment option for the related diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases.

The actin cytoskeleton is of profound importance to cell shape, division, and intracellular force generation. Profilins bind to globular (G-)actin and regulate actin filament formation. Although profilins are well-established actin regulators, the distinct roles of the dominant profilin, profilin 1 (PFN1), versus the less abundant profilin 2 (PFN2) remain enigmatic. In this study, we use interaction proteomics to discover that PFN2 is an interaction partner of the actin N-terminal acetyltransferase NAA80, and further confirm this by analytical ultracentrifugation. Enzyme assays with NAA80 and different profilins demonstrate that PFN2 binding specifically increases the intrinsic catalytic activity of NAA80. NAA80 binds PFN2 through a proline-rich loop, deletion of which abrogates PFN2 binding. Small-angle X-ray scattering shows that NAA80, actin, and PFN2 form a ternary complex and that NAA80 has partly disordered regions in the N-terminus and the proline-rich loop, the latter of which is partly ordered upon PFN2 binding. Furthermore, binding of PFN2 to NAA80 via the proline-rich loop promotes binding between the globular domains of actin and NAA80, and thus acetylation of actin. However, the majority of cellular NAA80 is stably bound to PFN2 and not to actin, and we propose that this complex acetylates G-actin before it is incorporated into filaments. In conclusion, we reveal a functionally specific role of PFN2 as a stable interactor and regulator of the actin N-terminal acetyltransferase NAA80, and establish the modus operandi for NAA80-mediated actin N-terminal acetylation, a modification with a major impact on cytoskeletal dynamics.

2 September 2020

When you log on to the SAS Risk Governance Framework and choose a solution, the web application might fail to load the solution content. When the problem occurs, you continue to see "Loading..." on the screen, an

Africa and Europe: Cooperation on digital transitions and new technologies 26 May 2022 — 8:00AM TO 12:30PM Anonymous (not verified) 12 May 2022 Online

The 11th Africa Day International Conference takes place under the auspices of the president of the Republic of Slovenia, HE Mr Borut Pahor, and within the framework of the Bled Strategic Forum.

Slovenia’s annual high-level Africa event seeks to improve policy outcomes for citizens in Europe and Africa as a result of a mutual understanding and strengthened cooperation between the two regions.

The event is co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, the Chatham House Africa Programme and the European Commission.

Expert discussions at this year’s edition will examine collaborative links between Africa and Europe in promoting responsible innovation and governance of emerging technologies, as well as the role of technology in shaping creative and cultural economies.

The conference will be broadcast live on this website, on the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website and on the Africa Programme Facebook page.

Earlier this month, the United States and the Republic of Korea reached an agreement on greater cooperation on civil nuclear energy projects, the U.S. Department of Energy said this week.

Zapata Computing, which was founded in 2017 as a Harvard spinout specializing in quantum software and later pivoted to an AI focus, is ceasing operations, according to an SEC filing […]

The post Zapata Computing, Early Quantum-AI Software Specialist, Ceases Operations appeared first on HPCwire.

The Rapid Trident 21 exercise to enhance interoperability between Ukraine, U.S. and NATO partners started Monday, with an opening ceremony, and will run through Oct. 1.

Air Force Special Operations aims to test the MC-130J Hercules transport aircraft's amphibious capability in 2022, the commander said Monday.

The U.S. Space Force will take over satellite communications billets, funding and mission responsibility from the U.S. Army and Navy, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

North Korean soldiers deployed to the Kursk region of Russia have begun combat operations against Ukrainian troops, the U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday.

Building on previous efforts, the Kingdom of Morocco will offer technical assistance to the Republic of Guinea through a South-South Cooperation Tripartite Agreement signed today at FAO headquarters by FAO [...]

A recent side event during the Council last week promoted South-South Cooperation (SSC) as a cost-effective means to addressing food insecurity, showcased FAO’s role as a facilitator and voiced the [...]