Here are today’s Top 6 News & Events from Around the World. Take a look!
#6
Ohio Becomes the First State in the US to Officially Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payments
Businesses in the state of Ohio can now use bitcoins to pay for its taxes from today onwards. Companies interested to use this method of payment can visit OhioCrypto.com to register and start using cryptocurrency for tax payments. The story was first published on WSJ. This step from Ohio state authorities has come to enhance the image of the sate as being more tech-friendly. Whether or not this will turn into success is debatable. Currently, the bitcoin is free falling in the exchanges across the globe. Still, it’s interesting to see that several governments have embraced the idea of a free currency. The platform will use BitPay to handle the bitcoin transactions.
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#5
U.S. Wants Allies to Drop Huawei Equipment, Will You Get Affected?
The U.S. is aggressively looking forward to a world free of Huawei equipment. So, its bargaining hard with its allies to shun all equipment manufactured by Huawei. The crux of the matter is with the CEO of Huawei, who was previously an official in the Chinese government. So, western intelligence agencies are worried that Huawei might use its products to snoop on other countries. The U.S. has already banned Huawei equipment for its official requirements. Austrailia has also dropped the company from its latest 5G network development. The U.S. is even planning for financial aid in telecommunication development for countries that will follow its advice.
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#4
UK Parliament Takes Control of Facebook’s Internal Document
To further carry out its privacy probe against Facebook, the UK’s parliament has accessed the cache of internal Facebook documents. Zuckerberg is paying the price of underestimating the might of the UK’s parliament. Despite several summonses from the U.K’s parliament, Zuckerberg was quietly snubbing them. Now, the tables have turned and the UK has legally got hold of Facebook’s data which it can use to further probe Facebook’s involvement in treating user’s data unlawfully.
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#3
China Plans First Ever Undersea High-Speed Train
According to Chinese authorities, the country is planning to connect two cities through undersea high-speed train in the province of Zhejiang. The train will connect the island city of Zhoushan to city of Ningbo. The undersea tunnel will stretch to 16.2 km. The high-speed rail network of China is the worlds largest, accounting for 60% of the worlds total network. Also, the longest high-speed rail network is in China.
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#2
Digital Ad Duopoly of Google and Facebook Under Threat, Is it Good News?
The Facebook and Google are under threat. This time it’s because of the businesses trying to find different options for digital ad placements. Because of the mounting pressure from the government in the UK, it’s inevitable that businesses will reconsider their ties with these tech giants. The UK MPs have asked companies to allocate their ad budget away from Google and Facebook until these sites become more safe and free of terrorist activities. Currently, both Google and Facebook take home 55pc of every pound spend on digital ads on its websites. Will the pressure from advertisers force these tech giants to make the internet a much safer place? Only time can tell.
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#1
26,000 More Suicides in the U.S. by 2050 due to Climate Change, Study
Scientists have observed that high temperatures cause higher mental instability and lead to more suicides in the affected region. This finding is backed by over two centuries of research and is a warning sign for all of us. Today, you can check the CDC data and see for yourself the suicide cases peaking in summers. If we don’t mend our ways, soon enough things can get pretty ugly.
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