The US and the EU made a joint pledge on Friday to cut global methane emissions by almost a third in the next decade, in what climate experts hailed as one of the most significant steps yet towards fulfilling the Paris climate agreement. The Guardian reports: Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, about 80 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and emissions have been rising in recent years. Natural gas production and fracking, meat production and other forms of agriculture are among the chief sources. The pact between the US and the EU sets a target of cutting at least 30% from global methane emissions, based on 2020 levels, by 2030. If adopted around the world, this would reduce global heating by 0.2C by the 2040s, compared with likely temperature rises by then. The world is now about 1.2C hotter now than in pre-industrial times.

The UN published a report on Friday that found current pledges on emissions from national governments would result in an increase of 16% in emissions in 2030 compared with 2010 levels, whereas scientists warn that emissions must fall by 45% in that period to stay within 1.5C. The OECD also published a report on Friday showing that climate finance -- funding from private and public sources that flows from the rich world to developing countries, to help them cut emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather -- was falling about $20 billion short of a longstanding target of $100 billion a year.

New submitter Generic User Account writes: Under plans unveiled by ministers today, it will once again become legal for market stalls, shops, and supermarkets to sell their goods using only Britain's traditional weighing system. "A document titled 'Brexit opportunities: regulatory reforms' includes plans to permit the voluntary printing of the crown stamp on pint glasses and review the EU ban on markings and sales in pounds and ounces, with legislation set to come 'in due course,'" reports The Independent. Weights and measures inspector Pippa Musgrave tweeted: "The UK agreed, when it signed the OIML [International Organization of Legal Metrology] in 1856 to move to a single system of measurement. Metric measures have been lawful in the UK since 1875. Are you proposing the UK leaves the OIML treaty?"

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: Scientists say the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole is larger than usual and already surpasses the size of Antarctica. The European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said Thursday that the ozone hole, which appears every year during the Southern Hemisphere spring, has grown considerably in the past week following an average start. "Forecasts show that this year's hole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one," said Vincent-Henri Peuch, who heads the EU's satellite monitoring service. "We are looking at a quite big and potentially also deep ozone hole," he said. The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, led to a ban on a group of chemicals called halocarbons that were blamed for exacerbating the annual ozone hole. Experts say it's likely to take until the 2060s for ozone-depleting substances to be completely phased out. "[S]cientists have been closely monitoring the development of this year's ozone hole over the South Pole, which has now reached an extent larger than Antarctica," says the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. "After a rather standard start, the 2021 ozone hole has considerably grown in the last two weeks and is now larger than 75% of ozone holes at that stage in the season since 1979."

Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, adds: "This year, the ozone hole developed as expected at the start of the season. It seems pretty similar to last year's, which also wasn't really exceptional until early September, but then turned into one of the largest and longest-lasting ozone holes in our data record later in the season. Now our forecasts show that this year's hole has evolved into a rather larger than usual one. The vortex is quite stable and the stratospheric temperatures are even lower than last year, so it may continue to grow slightly over the next two or three weeks."

TikTok faces two investigations by the Irish data watchdog following intense scrutiny for months over concerns that children's data isn't safe on the platform. From a report: Ireland's Data Protection Commission, said on Tuesday it opened two "own volition" investigations into ByteDance's TikTok amid worries about the way it handles its users' data. The Irish regulator became TikTok's lead European Union data protection authority in December. The first probe will look into TikTok's processing of data by its underage users and whether it's in line with the EU's strict protection rules. The second follows concerns expressed by the Irish privacy chief, Helen Dixon, that some EU user data could be accessed by "maintenance and AI engineers in China."

An anonymous reader shares a post: But what's at stake is not just employing people properly and/or paying them well -- what is often called the 'casualisation of work.' At the core of enabling, financing and founding this servant economy is something much less tangible but substantial: what kind of an economy do you want to produce with your decisions? How far do you want to push the division of labour between (elite) educated high earners and people providing menial services for this class?

The economy we are currently seeding is one where convenience for some is worth more than community and solidarity for all. It pits one class of unstably employed (gig) work 'entrepreneurs' against an often older, surely more established class blessed with safety and security, benefitting from a new choice of servant services.

"One project going dark — due to a DMCA takedown or otherwise — can impact thousands of developers," GitHub warns in a blog post this week: We saw that firsthand with both leftpad and mimemagic. That's why GitHub's designed its DMCA process to follow the law in requiring takedown requests to identify specific content. We want developers on our platform and elsewhere to have a clear opportunity to remove infringing code yet keep non-infringing code up for others to use, modify, and learn from.

Ensuring that software copyright allegations are specific and actionable benefits the entire developer ecosystem. That's why GitHub submitted a "friend of the court" brief in the SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. case before a Federal Court of Appeals.

This case is the most recent in a ten-year litigation spanning both the UK and the US. SAS Institute has brought copyright and non-copyright claims against World Programming's software that runs code written in the SAS language, and the copyright claims drew comparison to the recent Google v. Oracle Supreme Court case. But this case is different from Google v. Oracle because here the alleged copyright infringement is based on a claim of "nonliteral" infringement. That means there is no allegation that specific lines of code were literally copied, but only that other aspects, like the code's overall structure and organization, were used. In nonliteral infringement claims, the questions arise: what aspects of the "nonliteral" features were taken and are they actually protected by copyright...?

GitHub believes that for claims involving nonliteral copying of software, it is critical that a copyright owner provide — as early as possible — examples that would allow a developer, a court, or a software collaboration platform like GitHub to identify what was claimed to be copied. Our brief helps educate the court why specificity is especially important for developers.... We urged the court to think about efficiency in dispute resolution to avoid FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). The sooner infringement allegations can be made specific and clear, the sooner infringing code can be changed and non-infringing code can stay up. That should be the result for both federal lawsuits, as well as DMCA infringement notices.

WhatsApp didn't fully explain to Europeans how it uses their data as called for by EU privacy law, Ireland's Data Protection Commission said on Thursday. The regulator hit the messaging app with a fine of 225 million euros, about $267 million. From a report: Partly at issue is how WhatsApp share information with parent company Facebook, according to the commission. The decision brings an end to a GDPR inquiry the privacy regulator started in December 2018. WhatsApp said it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal. "We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will continue to do so," a WhatsApp spokesperson said via email.

Europe's top court has struck what could be a mortal blow to the practice of zero rating -- where mobile operators exempt data associated with specific services, such as Spotify or Facebook, from counting towards users' overall data caps. From a report: In a Thursday ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against the German providers Vodafone and Telekom, saying their "zero tariff" options broke the EU's net-neutrality law -- legislation designed to ensure that operators treat Internet traffic equally, without favoring certain online providers due to commercial considerations. This is not the first time the court has weighed in on the topic, but the ruling is its most definitive repudiation of the practice of zero rating.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record, written by Catalin Cimpanu: The European Union's lead data protection supervisor has recommended on Thursday that personal data such as search queries & internet browsing history should not be used for the assessment of credit scores and creditworthiness. The recommendation comes from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), an independent agency attached to the EU that advises policymakers "on all matters relating to the processing of personal data."a document published on Thursday. In addition, the agency advises that providers of financial and credit services should also not be allowed to use health data, such as cancer data, as well as any special category of personal data under Article 9 of the GDPR for the calculation of credit scores. The EDPS recommendations follow a recent blog post for the International Monetary Fund, where researchers see the possibility of using the data from your browsing, search, and purchase history to create a more accurate mechanism for determining the credit rating of an individual or business.

Brussels is set to launch a formal competition probe early next month into Nvidia's planned $54 billion takeover of British chip designer Arm, after months of informal discussions between regulators and the US chip company. From a report: The investigation is likely to begin after Nvidia officially notifies the European Commission of its plan to acquire Arm, with the US chipmaker planning to make its submission in the week starting September 6, according to two people with direct knowledge of the process. They added that the date might yet change, however. Brussels' investigation would come after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority said its initial assessment of the deal suggested there were "serious competition concerns" and that a set of remedies suggested by Nvidia would not be sufficient to address them. The UK watchdog said it feared the deal could "stifle innovation across a number of markets" including by giving Nvidia the power to hurt its rivals by limiting their access to Arm's technology. Nvidia announced a plan in September last year to buy the UK chip designer from SoftBank, the Japanese investment conglomerate.

Britain will attempt to move away from European data protection regulations as it overhauls its privacy rules after Brexit, the government has announced. From a report: The freedom to chart its own course could lead to an end to irritating cookie popups and consent requests online, said the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, as he called for rules based on "common sense, not box-ticking." But any changes will be constrained by the need to offer a new regime that the EU deems adequate, otherwise data transfers between the UK and EU could be frozen. A new information commissioner will be put in charge of overseeing the transformation. John Edwards, currently the privacy commissioner of New Zealand, has been named as the government's preferred candidate to replace Elizabeth Denham, whose term in office will end on 31 October after a three-month extension.

Dowden said: "Now that we have left the EU I'm determined to seize the opportunity by developing a world-leading data policy that will deliver a Brexit dividend for individuals and businesses across the UK. It means reforming our own data laws so that they're based on common sense, not box-ticking. And it means having the leadership in place at the Information Commissioner's Office to pursue a new era of data-driven growth and innovation. John Edwards' vast experience makes him the ideal candidate to ensure data is used responsibly to achieve those goals." The GDPR data protection rules introduced by the EU in May 2018 are part of UK law even after Brexit, under the Data Protection Act.

The world's first customer delivery of "green steel" produced without using coal is taking place in Sweden, according to its manufacturer. From a report: The Swedish venture Hybrit said it was delivering the steel to truck-maker Volvo AB as a trial run before full commercial production in 2026. Volvo has said it will start production in 2021 of prototype vehicles and components from the green steel. Steel production using coal accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrit started test operations at its pilot plant for green steel in Lulea, northern Sweden, a year ago. It aims to replace coking coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steel making, with renewable electricity and hydrogen. Hydrogen is a key part of the EU's plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Hamburg's state government has been formally warned against using Zoom over data protection concerns. From a report: The German state's data protection agency (DPA) took the step of issuing a public warning yesterday, writing in a press release that the Senate Chancellory's use of the popular videoconferencing tool violates the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) since user data is transferred to the US for processing. The DPA's concern follows a landmark ruling (Schrems II) by Europe's top court last summer which invalidated a flagship data transfer arrangement between the EU and the US (Privacy Shield), finding US surveillance law to be incompatible with EU privacy rights.

The fallout from Schrems II has been slow to manifest -- beyond an instant blanket of legal uncertainty. However a number of European DPAs are now investigating the use of US-based digital services because of the data transfer issue, and in some instances publicly warning against the use of mainstream US tools like Facebook and Zoom because user data cannot be adequately safeguarded when it's taken over the pond. German agencies are among the most proactive in this respect. But the EU's data protection supervisor is also investigating the bloc's use of cloud services from US giants Amazon and Microsoft over the same data transfer concern.

Google has provided tens of millions of pounds of funding to academics investigating issues closely related to its business model. From a report: A recent scientific paper proposed that, like Big Tobacco in the Seventies, Big Tech thrives on creating uncertainty around the impacts of its products and business model. One of the ways it does this is by cultivating pockets of friendly academics who can be relied on to echo Big Tech talking points, giving them added gravitas in the eyes of lawmakers. Google highlighted working with favourable academics as a key aim in its strategy, leaked in October 2020, for lobbying the EU's Digital Markets Act -- sweeping legislation that could seriously undermine tech giants' market dominance if it goes through.

Now, a New Statesman investigation can reveal that over the last five years, six leading academic institutes in the EU have taken tens of millions of pounds of funding from Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to research issues linked to the tech firms' business models, from privacy and data protection to AI ethics and competition in digital markets. While this funding tends to come with guarantees of academic independence, this creates an ethical quandary where the subject of research is also often the primary funder of it. The New Statesman has also found evidence of an inconsistent approach to transparency, with some senior academics failing to disclose their industry funding. Other academics have warned that the growing dependence on funding from the industry raises questions about how tech firms influence the debate around the ethics of the markets they have created.

Amazon has been issued with a fine of 746 million euros ($887 million) by a European privacy watchdog for breaching the bloc's data protection laws. From a report: The fine, disclosed by Amazon on Friday in a securities filing, was issued two weeks ago by Luxembourg's privacy regulator. The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection said Amazon's processing of personal data did not comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. It has ordered Amazon to revise certain undisclosed business practices.

Amazon, which has its European headquarters in Luxembourg, denied that there had been any kind of breach that would violate the GDPR rules. "Maintaining the security of our customers' information and their trust are top priorities," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. "There has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party," they added.

gollum123 shares a report from The New York Times: The 27 member states of the European Union altogether have now administered more coronavirus vaccine doses per 100 people than the United States, in another sign that inoculations across the bloc have maintained some speed throughout the summer, while they have stagnated for weeks in the United States. E.U. countries had administered 102.66 doses per 100 people as of Tuesday, while the United States had administered 102.44, according to the latest vaccination figures compiled by Our World in Data. This month, the European Union also overtook the United States in first injections; currently, 58 percent of people across the bloc have received a dose, compared with 56.5 percent in the United States. The latest figures provide a stark contrast with the early stages of the vaccination campaigns this year, when E.U. countries, facing a shortage of doses and delayed deliveries, looked in envy at the initially more successful efforts in the United States, Britain and Israel. But the European Union is now vaccinating its populations at a faster pace than most developed countries. More than 70 percent of adults in the bloc have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

France, Spain, Italy and 20 other EU countries may be taken to court for their tardiness in enacting landmark EU copyright rules into national law, the European Commission said on Monday as it asked the group to explain the delays. From a report: The copyright rules, adopted two years ago, aim to ensure a level playing field between the European Union's trillion-euro creative industries and online platforms such as Google, owned by Alphabet, and Facebook. Some of Europe's artists and broadcasters, however, are still not happy, in particular over the interpretation of a key provision, Article 17, which is intended to force sharing platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to filter copyrighted content.

The Commission said it had sent letters of formal notice, the first step of its infringement proceedings, to the countries group asking for explanations. The deadline for enacting the EU rules was June 7. The other countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia.

The European Union is pushing for clarity from Google about how the company processes flight and hotel searches. From a report: The tech giant must explain why it ranks certain flights and hotels above others and provide more clarity about how it calculates prices, European Union regulators demanded Monday, accusing the company of having "misled" consumers. The final prices that Google displays should include all fees and taxes that can be calculated in advance, regulators said in a statement. "EU consumers cannot be misled when using search engines to plan their holidays," EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said. "We need to empower consumers to make their choices based on transparent and unbiased information." The regulators are giving Google two months to propose a fix to the issues or face possible unspecified sanctions.

Facebook's acquisition of U.S. customer service startup Kustomer is set to trigger a full-scale EU antitrust investigation next month, Reuters reported Friday, citing three people familiar with the matter. From the report: The world's largest social network, which announced the deal in November, is looking to the deal to scale up its instant messaging app WhatsApp, whose usage has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Commission will conclude its preliminary review of the deal on Aug. 2 after which it will begin an in-depth 90-day investigation, the people said. Facebook has until July 26 to offer concessions to stave off the investigation but is unlikely to do so because of the difficulty of finding the right remedies to address competition concerns, the people said on condition of anonymity.

Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. From a report: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The proposals could take two years to become law. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote. While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient.