4 Signs We Could Live Somewhere Else In The Solar System

 

The News Cover: Will humans live on Earth forever? Most estimates are that, for one reason or another, we won’t. And in the twenty-first century, there’s massively renewed interest in finding ways to get off of this planet to explore more of space. For many, it’s a matter of species survival. We simply have to move or else we will die. For others, it’s the greatest adventure imaginable. So, join us as we look at where the human homes of the future could be… This is Unveiled, and today we’re exploring four signs that we could live somewhere else in the solar system. 

Are you a fiend for facts? Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And ring the bell for more fascinating content! The first and arguably clearest sign that we could one day live elsewhere in the solar system is… we might not have a choice! It feels like doomsday predictions are ten-a-penny nowadays, with most years being billed by one theory or another as the year when the world will end. But scaremongering aside, we do have various problems to contend with. The global population is rising, the natural resources are falling, the uptake of renewables is… happening… but is it happening quickly enough? 

With or without climate change and global warming, there are other reasons why we could have to hop-it off of Earth in a hurry, too. The Hollywood blockbuster asteroid strike is always at the back of the mind of any anxious astronomer, but we’ve seen in even recent history how space could one day turn against us in other ways, as well. There was the near miss with a coronal mass ejection in 2012 which, had it hit us, could’ve caused a solar storm unparalleled in modern history. And, while we’re thinking about the sun, our star definitely will blow up into a red giant within about five billion years. According to most predictions, it will render Earth uninhabitable in doing so, in around one billion years. 

So, even if nothing else goes wrong between now and then, we will have to leave when that time comes! So, why can it sometimes feel as though we’re still so far away from ever being able to actually do that? The prospect of humans leaving Earth en masse is all fine and easy for a sci-fi movie plot, but for generations now there’s arguably been a feeling that it won’t happen “in our lifetime”. 

And to some extent, that still rings true, with even the most optimistic of projections for future space travel tending to claim it will happen for the next generation. But, in other ways, we’ve never been closer to unleashing ourselves onto the solar system. And sign number two why we could soon be somewhere else is water. It’s… everywhere. Well, not quite everywhere, but it’s certainly not as elusive as it once was! 

Mars is so often our first port of call when we imagine living off Earth, and one of the main reasons for that is that there’s water there - definitely as ice, and possibly as liquid (although in small amounts). In 2018, scientists from the Italian Space Agency even announced detection of a subglacial lake on the Red Planet. And, in general, water under the surface is now widely held to be a common occurrence in the solar system - with similar subglacial or subterranean bodies of water believed to be on Europa and Ganymede (both moons of Jupiter) as well as Enceladus (a moon of Saturn). 

There are even theories that the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the Asteroid Belt, also has the remainder of an internal ocean. Seeing as water is probably the most significant thing scientists look for when determining the potential habitability of anywhere other than Earth, it would appear that our solar system does, then, provide plenty of options. Add into the equation that most of the many thousands of comets hurtling around the sun also hold water ice… and that a European Space Agency mission successfully landed a probe onto a comet for the first time in 2014… and we’re seemingly better placed than ever before to learn about, make use of and imitate extraterrestrial water sources within the solar system. But, while water is undoubtedly important, it’s not the only thing we’re going to need if we’re going to survive elsewhere. 

Reason number three for today’s article is the many, contemporary plans to terraform that have taken hold in recent years. While we are still searching in earnest for planets that are readymade to support human life, we’re also more and more aware that finding one isn’t going to be easy. And, because Earth is the only planet inside our own sun’s habitable (or Goldilocks) zone, finding one in the solar system just isn’t going to happen. We need, then, to change one up.

 Elon Musk’s much-publicized plan to nuke Mars is probably the most famous example of a proposed terraforming method. For Musk, were we to detonate a load of our most destructive weapons over Mars, then we’d be equipping the Red Planet with multiple, artificial suns. And from there, water vapor gets released from the Martian ice caps, plus carbon dioxide… a greenhouse effect begins to take hold, and voila! Mars has a much-needed atmosphere, and perhaps even one we could survive in. 

The plan hasn’t attracted a great deal of support from elsewhere in the space or science communities, however. So, what are our other options? Another leading pitch for a terraforming strategy is to build lots and lots of giant mirrors. In recent years there have been a number of variations put forward on this theme, but the general idea is that if we can start reflecting (and directing) the sun’s light onto targeted locations in greater concentrations… then we can, again, inspire atmospheric change and a greenhouse effect. The Saturnian moon, Titan, could be one of the best candidates for this particular approach.

 It’s packed with surface ice to transform for our needs, and it’s partly protected by the magnetosphere around Saturn - meaning that any alteration made to its atmosphere should be long-term. By contrast, any change to the Martian atmosphere could be very short-lived because of our planetary neighbour’s lack of a magnetic field. But how, you ask, are we ever going to position all of these mirrors exactly where we want them? And, considering that they’d probably need to cover thousands of square miles, and that the distance from Earth to our example Titan is about one billion miles, it’s certainly a sizeable problem. 

But, thanks to reason number four as to why we could soon live somewhere else, it might not be impossible. In the twenty-first century, our space travel tactics have changed. And dramatically. For most of the middle of the twentieth century, the moon was our one and only target. For most of the end of that century, we saw either uncrewed missions to other planets… or crewed missions to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. We took tentative, physical steps by landing a dozen people on the lunar surface across six separate missions… but then we returned to Earth and mostly stayed put. 

But now, we’ve bided our time long enough… and there’s a greater variety of proposed space missions today than ever before. NASA and Roscomos have been joined by the CNSA, ESA, ISRO and others as the international effort to get us into space has ramped up. And, whereas before simply getting to the moon was challenge enough, now we’re asking… what then? So much so that the moon is now usually billed as a steppingstone, only. The mission statements behind NASA’s Artemis Program continually refer to our proposed return to the moon as a learning curve for another, further-reaching goal - sending humans to Mars. Meanwhile, the dearMoon Project is in large part pitched as a test run for SpaceX technology, with Elon Musk’s private firm also having eyes primarily on the Red Planet.

 More than that, there are now various proposals to build off-Earth launch sites, which could totally change the rules of the game. So far in history, our space travel ambitions have been severely limited thanks to the amount of fuel it requires any ship to carry just to get out of Earth’s atmosphere. But, today, there are plans to bypass that, by setting up launch capabilities either on the moon (where the fuel needs are much lower) or high in orbit (where SpaceX, in particular, proposes refuelling recently launched vehicles). 

As well as all of that, there are initiatives at various stages of production toward orbital hotels, such as the Gateway Foundation’s Voyager Station, and even orbital cities, suggested by Blue Origin. Whereas in the twentieth century we were all about the destination… today we’re all about the journey. These plans (and more) are aiming to build a working infrastructure in space, so that we can one day explore with relative ease. Yes, this means that there is still a feeling that some of the most exciting stuff might not happen in our lifetimes… but we do now look at space with a strategy for the future, and not just a far-off dream. 

We’re locating resources, we’re developing ways to terraform, and we’re working on making the solar system a smaller, more reachable place. Because, one day, we will have to head out there! And those are four signs that we could live somewhere else in the solar system. What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments.

UK to send medical equipment to India in fight against COVID

 

The News Cover: The second wave of corona infection has hit India. The situation is worse this time than last year. The terrifying microscopic creature has increased the killing power instead of the form. In 2020, India supplied medicine and medical equipment to the whole world. The country has also exported corona vaccine earlier this year. But gradually the situation has changed. The epidemic has taken a terrible form in the country. There has been a lack of oxygen and medical supplies. In such a situation, other countries including Britain have sided with India this time.

The news agency ANI quoted the Indian foreign ministry as saying that a cargo plane carrying emergency medical supplies had arrived in India from Britain on Tuesday morning. It contains 100 ventilators, 95 oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies. According to the British Government, a total of 495 oxygen concentrators, 120 non-invasive ventilators and 20 manual ventilators will be provided to India under the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office's project. London has given a message to India to face Corona in the future. To this end, the ambassadors of the two countries are discussing. Indians living in Britain have also come forward in this direction. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given a clear message that his country will stand by New Delhi in this danger of India.

The shipment of vital medical supplies from the United Kingdom, including 100 ventilators & 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in India earlier this morning: Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Ed3CXGARS6

— ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2021

Note that the second wave of Corona Pandemic completely destroyed India. The number of daily victims has exceeded three and a half lakh. As the situation progresses, Corona is going to take a more terrible shape in this country in the future. Hospitals do not have enough medicine, oxygen or beds. In this situation, this time US President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the telephone. According to ANI, US President Joe Biden had a long phone conversation with the Indian Prime Minister on Monday night. According to sources, the two leaders discussed the situation in Corona. The US President expressed concern over the manner in which the second wave of Corona has taken hold in India. He also assured all possible help to India in this situation.

World Pandemic Coronavirus: Brazil govt's negligence of COVID-19 causing a humanitarian catastrophe

 

The News Cover: national humanitarian medical, "non-governmental organization doctors" without borders has slammed the Brazilian government's response to the covid-19 pandemic. the aid group has said that there is no national and central coordination. efficient response, to the pandemic in brazil and the authorities,

haven't taken the disease seriously. enough the "international group" says that while people are desperate and mourning the authorities have failed to implement the basic guidelines, like wearing masks and promoting physical distancing. 

this disease needs to be taken seriously, by the authorities is what they say? to me people are desperate they are mourning and they need help there is no national and centrally, coordinated efficient response to this pandemic prevention measures, which we have seen working

in other contexts like limiting non-essential movements, and activities or wearing masks, and promoting physical distancing and increased hygiene measures are not implemented at this moment in brazil. the right-wing government, of brazil, has completely failed in its response to check.

the deadly covid-19 virus and its spread in brazil. the Covid 19 has the world under its tentacles for over a year now. "the second wave of Covid-19 has crushed. the healthcare system in Brazil, and hospitals are claiming, that they have run out of critical drugs. to incubate patients and that beds have almost run out of capacity brazil accounted for almost a quarter of deaths due to cover 19 last week.

France Shuts Down Schools & Travel Due to Spike in Cases

 

The News Cover: In France, their President Emmanuel Macron in a televised speech on 31st March, announced that for 3 weeks all schools & colleges will remain closed in the country. Plus for 3 weeks domestic flights will not be allowed. 

This is because France has witnessed a sudden spike in cases, causing a huge strain on the healthcare system. An overnight nationwide curfew has been in place since January, and all of France's restaurants, museums, bars, gyms, cinemas have been closed since October. He also said night curfew in the entire country from 7pm - 6am will continue. 

People are allowed to go outside for leisure, but only within a 10-kilometer radius from their homes. People must walk while keeping the proper distance. Essential services such as groceries and pharmacies will remain open. All non-essential shops have been closed down. France will also increase the number of ICU beds, 

to beat the shortage. Macron has encouraged people to remain united and follow COVID protocols, as it will help to control the spread of infection.

cryptocurrency ATM : Visa to open payment option on Crypto platforms

 

The News Cover: Sheet the payment joined visa it has launched a pilot program with payment on crypto platforms other major financial firms like bny million blackrock and mastercard.

They have also enabled digital coins on their platforms visa will permit the use of cryptocurrency usd coins to settle transactions on its payment network. 

The usd coin is a stable coin whose value, is pegged to the death, of one us dollar with the latest step in a person's crypto wallet. will deposit flat currency in a bank account. now, this amount will be wired to visa the end of the day to settle transactions. 

The cost and complexity, for companies, are also taken care of earlier last week tesla and "SpaceX CEO Elon musk" he had announced that people in america can buy tesla cars using bitcoins the option to pay with the most popular cryptocurrency will be.

Myanmar protests continue on eve of Armed Forces Day as death toll surpasses 300

 

The News Cover: Myanmar has seen its worst day, of violence since its military, seized power nearly two months ago. local media are reporting as many as 50 people have been shot dead, in the latest crackdown against anti-coup protesters. now that's on top of the 320 deaths that rights groups have confirmed since the start of the military coup although the true number is likely to be much higher the violence, coincides with a military parade, in the capital where the leader of the ruling junta pledged to safeguard democracy. 

let's get we've been getting an ongoing, increasing death toll, as that crackdown continues. by the military indeed and it's rising quickly. we've been it's very hard to get a really accurate impression. we were trying to do that earlier in the day trying to double-check and confirm these reports. we were getting of fatalities, but as the day has gone on the numbers have just been increasing faster, and faster it is of course very difficult to access information in addition. to which the internet is still blocked in many areas but we do know the protesters went out very early this morning in Yangon they've been out since 4 30 in the morning it's 230 in the morning then the security services moved in at four o'clock.

 we understand that four people were killed in clashes there in dana and Yangon last year. in the shan state, several people were killed again, when the protesters went out onto the streets they were met as they have been day after day by volleys of tear gas rubber bullets, and live rounds, and in Yangon, in Mandalay Myanmar's second city, the city is basically wreathed in smoke as the security services. went in first setting alight barricades. the protesters have put in place around their neighborhoods to try and stop.

the security services getting on getting in and since then we've seen lots of people both injured and dead it follows a chilling warning. that went out last night on Myanmar's state tv, that people should not throw their lives away. the warning said that but if they did come out in the streets today they would be shot in the head or the back and that's what we're seeing a lot of these injuries and fatalities appear to be gunshot wounds to the head we've also seen on social media lots of images of snipers in high-end placements all over the country and of course, this news all comes on the day. 

that the armed forces parade actually happened, as well as a show of might and subliminal messages, about who we are as a military. and what we can do absolutely frankly. not that subliminal we were expecting this to be a big day from the military I think the protesters were also expecting it they came out very early in the morning before the sun had risen in nepador the capital and on this huge parade ground we saw armed vehicles missile launchers tanks, and then as the sun rose thousands and thousands of soldiers representing. all of the armed forces but of course, while this is a day that celebrates Myanmar's military the glories of the past the biggest battle today concerning. 

the military in the battle against. its own people on the streets of towns, and cities, all across the country we saw the hunters' leader general Minong lai come out. he said that the military was put in this position trying to paint, the military as the guardian of democracy. saying that they'd been put in this position and they'd carried out the coup illegally because of unlawful acts by the NLD at the party led by Aung san tsuchi but of course, he presented no arguments as he hasn't done since the coup and again I think we can see from the reaction of the protesters out on the streets. who are risking their lives to oppose this coup that no one really believes that?

israel pre-election protest against PM Benjamin Netanyahu "anti-government"

 

The News Cover: Israel is set to hold its fourth snap election, next weekdays before the crucial polls thousands of Israelis took to the 'streets to protest against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies and leadership' local reports suggesting that over 20 000 protesters gathered at the Paris square close to Netanyahu's official residence. the protesters were seen waving flags and carrying posters shouting bibi go home.

we are here to protest against, Netanyahu, and his corrupted government this is our last chance before the election. I came to speak and protest, about the situation when the government is probably going to win this election and somebody needs to stop this because the government will be worse than it used to be and the people must vote differently.

I'm here to overthrow Benjamin Netanyahu, we have been here since the summer expecting. it to be better in Israel has been witnessing weekly anti-establishment protests. since last year but the Saturday demonstrations were the largest since the protest started. the demonstrators demand "prime minister Netanyahu's" resignation over the alleged corruption scandals and mishandling of the covid-19 crisis. 

Netanyahu has been in power for the last 12 years, and the leader hopes to retain his seat in the Tuesday vote. one thing to be noted here is that Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted in office for corruption and bribery however he denies any wrongdoings. the series of elections have been going on since April 2019 but the winning parties failed to form the government experts.

say Netanyahu's liquid party, is likely to emerge as the biggest player, but 'the opinion polls have not suggested a clear winner' yet they say third time's a charm that did not really hold true, for Israel in the previous election as the country gears up for the fourth poll in less than two years opinion polls have not suggested any clear winner. 

they predict that the deadlock will continue what is the sense that you're getting you're absolutely right molly. I mean the situation now in march 2021 is actually different from the last election in March 2020 at that time covid-19, was just emerging we didn't know what to expect over the course of the year, and during the course of the year. 

we've obviously we've seen six thousand people die. a lot of suffering due, to the economy as well as for health reasons very tight lockdowns. and we're just starting to see those restrictions being eased there have been you know there and there have been a number of protests over the course of the year as you know private prior to this year as well against prime minister Netanyahu.

however, saying that he is still very very popular in general a channel 12 poll shows that 57 people are generally happy with the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and this election is going to be very much judged on the government's handling of covid 19. the poll also suggested that prime minister Netanyahu will win he'll come in the first place although with fewer seats than in previous elections and as you say, we might not see a final government come. 

out of this election, every Israeli government has to form a coalition in order to reach 61 seats. which is a majority in the parliament, and even with prime minister Netanyahu he's been expected to be able to pull together a coalition of 60 seats just so short of that 61 seats needed, and the person who's expected to come second is yeah lapid the head of the Yasha tid party and he's expected to pull together perhaps a coalition of 56 so we don't yet know whether or not this election. 

will break the political deadlock the Israel democracy institute did a poll which showed that only one-third of Israelis feel that this election will end the political deadlock and if that's the case then we could be looking at the fifth election in two years to what extent will Netanyahu indictment on corruption charges uh have a bearing on this electoral result. 

we've seen those demonstrations, that have been continuing against, the leader over corruption or over the corruption charges. also over his handling of the covid-19 crisis. right so in the last election a key issue was the corruption trial, facing prime minister Netanyahu, by this election yes it's definitely a significant factor particularly for those who oppose prime minister Netanyahu but it's not the key issue of this election really this election is a referendum on are you in favor of prime minister Netanyahu or do you feel that he's been in power for too long and you'd like to see him go and the key issue is the handling of the covid-19 pandemic.

now just last week we saw Pfizer's CEO, Albert, personally credit Netanyahu with the fact that he decided to give Israel the vaccinations so quickly and use Israel really as the world's testing laboratory as he said and many people are aware of this and are happy with the fact that the vaccination program has gone well even though of course there has been suffering in Israel as in other places across the world leaving it there for the moment, 

Why Mount Everest's height keeps changing

 

The News Cover: These two men were the first to climb to the top of Mt. Everest. Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal and India, became global celebrities after reaching the summit, 

where Hillary snapped this photo of Norgay holding their national flags. Since then, many have followed in their footsteps, raising their own flags at the peak. Summit bids have created a lucrative industry — and a perilous one; hundreds have died or been injured during the climb. All in the pursuit of one goal: reaching the highest point on Earth. But the thing is,

 most of the people who have stood on top of Mt. Everest have climbed to slightly different heights— For Hillary and Norgay, it was 8,840 meters. For this British Army officer who summited in 1976, the height was 8,848 meters. This Sherpa guide and his Swedish client climbed 29,035 feet or 8,850 meters in 1999. And at the end of 2020, 

the height of Mount Everest changed again — it’s now officially 8,849 meters. These changes are small — and probably don’t really matter to the people who’ve reached the summit. But the reason why Mount Everest’s height keeps changing tells a story about how we measure mountains—and about who gets to do the measuring. 

We have only one Mt. Everest in the world. But the one mountain had several heights. This is the Himalayan mountain range, and here is Mount Everest, with one side in Tibet and another side in Nepal. In Nepal, the mountain is known as Sagarmatha; in Tibet, it’s called Chomolungma. 

Everest is a colonial name, named for this British official, George Everest. And that’s because India, Nepal’s neighbor, was under British rule when Everest was first measured. British and Indian surveyors started a massive mapping project in 1802, at one point led by George Everest. Called the Great Trigonometrical Survey. 

They measured as much of India’s land as they could, using an instrument like this, called a theodolite. It’s the distant ancestor of what land surveyors and engineers use today—to basically do the same thing —measure the angles between two horizontal points, and use basic trigonometry to measure the location and distance to a third point. But when surveyors from the Great Trigonometrical Survey reached the Himalayas in the 1840s, they ran into a very tall, vertical problem. 

Measuring the height of a mountain is more complicated than just measuring from the ground to the peak. You have to know where sea level is. Because sea level is relatively similar throughout the globe, it’s the base that most natural heights on earth are measured from. But there is no sea or ocean immediately next to the Himalayas. 

So surveyors in the mid-1800s had to walk from the Bay of Bengal to translate sea level to the Himalayas, which took years. Surveyors couldn't enter Nepal at the time, so they did this from over 100 miles away, across the border in India. Only then could they measure the distance between two points at sea level then aim the theodolite to the peak. That’s how they measured the Himalayas, 100 years before anyone reached Everest’s summit. And that’s how in 1855, 

the first official measurement of Mount Everest was recorded: 8,840 meters. After that first measurement, scientists from around the world began documenting their own heights. They were never too far off from that first one but fluctuated anywhere from ⅓ of a meter to 72 meters. One reason those numbers differ is that it’s still really hard to calculate sea level. The sea might seem relatively smooth compared to the earth’s erratic topography. But water is uneven too: tides go up and down — and, thanks in part to global warming, 

sea levels are rising. The global mean sea level is an average of all these fluctuations. But when surveyors want to measure a mountain’s height, they have to be more precise. That means considering something called the ellipsoid — the bulge at Earth’s equator due to the centrifugal force of its rotation. 

areas of the Earth with more density, like mountain ranges, affect gravity and therefore the height of sea level. Taking variations on gravity into account, this is Earth’s true sea level, called the geoid, which is full of dimples and bumps. When surveyors want to measure Everest, they have to precisely consider all these conversions, which explains some of the variations in height. But there’s another reason the height of a mountain might shift, that has to do with the origin story of the Himalayas. 

These mountains started forming 50 million years ago when the Indian continent collided with the Asian continent. That collision hasn’t stopped happening, even if we can’t see it. Geologists think that the Himalayas are still rising 5 millimeters a year, or a quarter of an inch. The tectonic shifts causing that growth also cause earthquakes in the region, 

which can shift the height of mountains. So when Nepal suffered a devastating earthquake in 2015, Scientists knew Everest’s height had probably changed. Nepalese surveyors decided to investigate. Being the Everest-lying country all responsibility is to clarify the question regarding the height of Mount Everest. 

Khim Lal Gautam, climbed to the top of Everest in 2019 to take a new measurement. And brought with him a tool that’s been helping surveyors since the 1980s: a GPS receiver. Gautam lingered at the peak of Everest for nearly 2 hours in the middle of the night, which is an eternity anywhere in the oxygen-deprived altitude above 8,000 meters, known as The Death Zone. 

He endured it to receive as many satellite pings as he could. GPS can accurately measure height through the time it takes a satellite signal to reach a receiver. But that signal gives a height based on Earth’s ellipsoid, not the geoid. 

Which means it still doesn’t solve for the most important part of mountain surveying: establishing the local sea level.Doing that with precision still requires surveying on land. We planned for the study of 50 kilometers at the east and 50 kilometers at the west, from northern border to the southern border. 

This was our study area and within this region we had around 300 control points. Susheel Dangol led the Nepalese survey from 2017 to 2019. To find the geoid height, they measured gravity through an instrument like this. The main motive of this... is to get the mean sea level.

Removes Clothes During Award Function French Actress

 

The News Cover: The world is still battling the COVID pandemic. People continue to suffer with unemployment, lay-offs & economic problems. Especially the most affected is the entertainment industry as no movies are releasing and all forms of programmes have been cancelled due to the lockdown. 

This is because of a lack of audience and social distancing norms. Those working in the entertainment industry have been laid off and are finding it difficult to make ends meet. French Prime Minister Jean Castex on 30th October 2020, had ordered the closure of cinemas and theaters & decided not to reopen in the near future. During France’s César Awards ceremony, 

French actress Corinne Masiero was on stage to present the awards. Corinne first appeared on stage in a donkey costume and splashed with fake blood. She then removed the Donkey headgear to reveal a red dress. She then proceeded to remove the dress as well. She was completely naked under it. Across her breasts and torso was written, “No culture, no future.” She meant to say France used to have so many art, cultural, and entertainment displays. 

Since these have stopped, France has no future anymore. On her back, there was a message for Prime Minister Jean Castex: “Give us back art, Jean.” As the ceremony host scrambled to gather Corinne’s clothes off the stage floor, Corinne said, “I don’t think I’ll be invited next year, we’ll see.” When Corinne reappeared, 

she was back in the red dress. Corinne did this to create awareness and in support of artists and technicians who have been laid off, due to the PM Castex's ordered that is causing suffering among many. Several actors and technicians have been protesting and urging to reopen public places with proper social distancing protocols. The actress’s gesture has been widely appreciated by the audience & art fraternity in France.

How Japan Is Building Disaster-Proof Skyscrapers

News Cover: The ground began to shake, 32 million people here in Tokyo brace themselves for the worst. 8.9 magnitude, now we know that's a big number. It was the fifth largest earthquake in history. But the real damage comes from the ferocious tsunami that was unleashed.

In some areas, the waves reached 40 meters in height- Sweeping up everything in its path including cars and ships unable to withstand the strength and the power of the surging water. 

Japan is located in the Pacific earthquake belt. This means the country is struck by some of the strongest earthquakes and tsunamis in the world. In the past decade, about 30 tropical storms have also hit the country each year. 

These natural disasters kill on average 100 to 200 people per year and take a huge toll on the country's economy. But learning from painful experience, Japan has built one of the world's best natural disaster response systems, which includes regular disaster preparedness drills and early warning alerts. 

Japanese engineers and architects have also pushed the boundaries of technology and design to create resilient, disaster-proof buildings. This is Tokyo Skytree. At 634 meters, it's the world's tallest tower. Designed for broadcasting and observation, the base of Skytree occupies a relatively small plot of land that isn't ideal for such a tall structure. 

Atsuo Konishi and his colleagues designed a steel truss tower, so instead of fighting against the wind, it can simply pass through the gaps between the trusses. To stabilize the tower, the team used a traditional Japanese design called Shinbashira that dates back over 1000 years. 

This is the flexible central pillar of a Japanese pagoda, which stabilizes the tiered wooden structure during an earthquake or typhoon. In a similar way to a tree trunk supporting its branches. A Shinbashira has been found at the center of the world's oldest wooden structure, made from a tree felled in 594 AD. 

For Skytree, the team designed a 375-meter-tall concrete core column connected to the tower's steel outer frame by a series of flexible oil dampers, devices that control unwanted vibrations. The swaying of the core column and outer frame in opposite directions reduce the vibration of the entire tower by up to 50% during an earthquake and 30% during strong winds. 

The core column is set on six seismic isolators made of rubber, these absorb unwanted movement and work together with the oil dampers at various heights. The top part of Skytree is a broadcasting antenna. To ensure high quality, the antenna needs to stay as stable as possible. So two tuned mass damper systems were installed to reduce unwanted vibrations. 

One is at an altitude of 625 meters and weighs 25 tons, and the other is at an altitude of 620 meters and weighs 40 tons. When the tower shakes, these two dampers act together as reverse pendulums, reducing vibrations caused by wind or an earthquake. When Skytree was designed in the late 2000s, architects and engineers flew weather balloons to collect data on wind speeds and build models which they tested in a wind tunnel. 

But for some building designs, this expensive and time-consuming process has been replaced by faster and cheaper software powered by artificial intelligence. After a decade of research, architectural engineering company Takenaka has developed a typhoon simulation software called Kazamidori. For a 3 kilometer square urban area, it usually takes three months to build a model, conduct a wind tunnel test and get the results, but with Takenaka's software, the entire process can happen in just two or three days and its engineers are trying to reduce that down to half a day. 

Japanese architects are also experimenting with unconventional building material for highrises. Skyscrapers are usually built from concrete or steel because they're strong and cost-effective. But building from wood is more environmentally-friendly. Compared with the production of steel and concrete, production of timber consumes less energy and releases less carbon dioxide. 

New trees can also be planted to absorb emissions. But building tall structures with wood offers up its own engineering and financial challenges. That didn't stop Japanese construction company Maeda from trying though. Maeda is going to construct a 13-story wood and steel hybrid office building in Tokyo's Shibuya district. To make the building earthquake-proof, designers came up with a hybrid lattice structure that will support the walls and create a more user-friendly experience. 

These designs and technologies have helped high-rise buildings to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. And now many low-rise buildings in Japan are starting to adopt them as well. Some vulnerabilities still exist, like older buildings constructed before regulations were tightened in 1981. With natural disasters becoming more and more frequent, these innovative designs and technologies could be key to protecting the economy and lives both in Japan and around the world.

Why Taiwan and China are Battling over Tiny Island Countries - Explained

Why Taiwan and China are Battling over Tiny Island Countries

The News Cover: The People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan, have fought their territorial dispute for generations, but now, nearly each and every one of the tiny nations dotting the Pacific Ocean has emerged as a battlefield for this conflict. 

The weapons of this war are not guns and bullets, but rather concrete and banknotes. This is a diplomatic mission aiming to shore up the support of some of the world’s smallest countries. There are fourteen nations in question here: Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Tonga, Kiribati, Samoa, Niue, and the Cook Islands. 

With the exception of Papua New Guinea, each of these have populations below one million and each also tends to have fairly low GDP per capita’s—generally between one and five thousand dollars. This means that they’re each granted fairly significant amounts of foreign aid. In the previous decade, Niue, for example, received $134 million in aid, or about $83,000 for each member of its population. 

Region-wide that average is only in the low-thousands, but the point is that the Pacific gets a lot of aid. Now, most of this does not come from Taiwan or China. Australia is by far the largest donor. It is important for Australia to be in these countries’ good graces for strategic reasons. For example, 6% of Australia’s GDP is made up solely of exports that take one of these three maritime routes—each of which passes by some of these Pacific countries. 

These trade routes could be disrupted if there were instability in the Pacific. Political stability also keeps foreign powers from attempting a power-grab in any of these nations, and any such power-grab would likely be too close for comfort for Australia. So, the primary aid motivation for Australia and its close allies, like New Zealand and the US, is stability. That is not the primary motivation for China and Taiwan. These two powers are openly engaging in what's known as "checkbook diplomacy.” They're buying diplomatic partners through financial aid, but why? China is a massive nation of more than a billion people. 

What benefit does it receive from having tiny nations like Samoa, Tonga, or Fiji on its side? Well, they might gain some limited benefit, but the main reason China works to build these diplomatic partnerships is so Taiwan can not. That’s because, to Taiwan, even a tiny, eleven-thousand person nation like Tuvalu is hugely valuable as Tuvalu has something Taiwan doesn’t. 

Tuvalu is a member of the United Nations. Taiwan is rarely recognized as an independent country in international settings. This is despite the fact that, in almost every way, it acts and operates as an independent country would. There are plenty of countries, like the US, for example, that have strong relations with Taiwan and treat it as if it were a country. 

The US has a de-facto embassy in Taiwan, recognizes Taiwanese passports, sells military supplies to Taiwan, and has an enormously strong trade relationship with Taiwan, yet it does not recognize Taiwan as a country. That’s because, in international relations, there is an implicit rule: you either recognize the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China. 

Now, given the choice between working with the world’s most populous country or a moderately-sized island of 24 million, nearly every nation picks China. Even though Taiwan and the US are functionally allies while China and the US are frenemies, at best, it’s just not worthwhile for the US to recognize Taiwan as a country. 

This is the case for almost every country—that is, of course, unless Taiwan makes it worthwhile. Across the Pacific, Taiwan has been funding projects to keep small nations on its side. In Palau, they spent $1.3 million to help the country recover from Typhoon Haiyan. 

In Papua New Guinea, they spent $4.5 million to improve domestic agriculture in order to increase food security. In the Solomon Islands, they spent $2.5 million to train local staff and conduct a survey of the islands’ local plant species. In Nauru, they spent $600 thousand donating more-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs to local households. 

In the Marshall Islands, they spent $1 million building a seawall around Majuro Atoll to protect it from rising sea-levels. In Fiji, they spent $300 thousand improving mental health service access around the country. In Tuvalu, they spent $200 thousand repairing and improving water storage equipment around the country after a cyclone. In Kiribati, they spent $19 million to repair and upgrade the country’s main airport. Each of these projects, and the hundreds more funded by Taiwan around the pacific, improves its relations with these countries, and therefore brings it more and more diplomatic clout. 

Taiwan can’t afford to buy the support of large nations, but in some settings the size of the nation doesn’t matter. In the United Nations General Assembly, for example, it’s one country, one vote. It doesn’t matter if it’s Tuvalu or China, when voting, every member nation has the exact same power. 

There are other systems in the UN where power is more balanced based on population, but overall, the world’s smallest nations have a disproportionate amount of power. More recognition, even by the smallest countries, strengthens Taiwan’s case for a position in intergovernmental organizations like the UN. That’s why Taiwan targets small nations for support. 

$5 million spent on Tuvalu goes a lot further than $5 million spent on Mexico, for example, but in the General Assembly, Tuvalu can help Taiwan just as much as Mexico can. This diplomatic clout that Taiwan has amassed, though, gets in the way of China’s ambition of eventually unifying the two. 

It is for that reason that the People’s Republic has gone on the offensive. China has been courting Taiwan’s diplomatic partners in the Pacific with promises of larger aid packages. The most recent two defectors were Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. Early in the 2010’s China provided no foreign aid to either of these countries, but then, as soon as they each revoked their recognition of Taiwan, promises of planes, ferries, medical supplies, and more started pouring in from China. 

In addition to these two countries, Taiwan has lost diplomatic support from the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Panama, and São Tomé and Príncipe since 2016. That leaves them with just fifteen total diplomatic partners, and only four in the Pacific region. To maintain the limited support that it has, Taiwan has had to get tactical. 

China’s style with aid is to build big, flashy, expensive infrastructure projects. In Fiji, they spent $50 million building a paved road that halved the time it took for local farmers to get to markets, but local engineers reportedly said that a far lower-quality and cheaper road could have achieved the same result. 

In Vanuatu, they spent $80 million upgrading a port to allow for larger cruise ships to dock, but in all of 2019, for example, just five visited. In Papua New Guinea, they spent $1 million building a malaria hospital in the capital of Port Moresby, despite that being the region of the country with the least malaria, and despite the capital having no road link to the regions with the worst malaria outbreaks. 

Each of these projects and more clearly have positive effects, but undoubtably they are not the most efficient uses of $1 or $50 or $80 million in the mission of improving relations between China and these Pacific nations. China does big, flashy, and sometimes ineffective aid. Taiwan does small, personable, and generally more effective aid. 

That’s why they have been able to maintain the relationships they have for so long, despite a much lower budget. China works to impress the governments, Taiwan works to impress the people. Taiwan’s average aid project size in the Pacific is $500,000. China’s is $6 million. 

Taiwan does things like contribute $1,600 for Palau’s baseball team to attend a tournament in Guam, or spend $200,000 buying a boat for an outer atoll in the Marshall Islands, or construct $300,000 of solar street lights in Nauru. The $80 million port in Vanuatu might help people more than the $1,600 for the baseball team in Palau, but one can be sure that every member of that team and their families and friends heard about and remember how Taiwan helped them. 

That’s less likely with the large, somewhat ineffective port. Taiwan knows that the choice of which side to support is a political issue in the Pacific because there is that choice. Pretty much any politician in these countries will run their campaign with the Taiwan issue as part of their platform and so Taiwan is trying to gain the support of everyday people. 

They want to win support from the ground-up, rather than from the top-down. This might create a better value for their money, but at the end of the day, China just has so much more money. If China wants to win the political support of a small nation, they can just spend and spend and spend. At this point, Taiwan’s few, tiny diplomatic partners are no longer a threat to China’s goal of reunification. 

China will likely keep courting these nations, not because they need to, but because it’ll further weaken Taiwan. Eventually, though, if there comes a day when the Taiwan issue is resolved, either through reunification or recognized independence, the Pacific islands will be victims because, when it's no longer useful, the pawn is the first to be sacrificed. If you want to learn more about one of the four Pacific-island nations that are still on Taiwan’s side, the Marshall Islands, you can watch the Nebula-exclusive documentary we filmed on location in the Marshall Islands. 

You heard earlier that Taiwan funded a seawall for the capital, Majuro, but The Final Years of Majuro explains why that was necessary, and what it means for the nation. It explains what life is like in a nation with an expiration date. The best way to get access to that is to sign up for CuriosityStream’s Nebula bundle deal. Curiosity Stream is, of course, home to thousands of documentaries that any Wendover viewer will enjoy, and Nebula is home to all of Wendover’s normal videos early and ad-free, plus special, exclusive projects like this documentary.

Why Dubai's Man-Made Islands Are Still Empty- Explained

The News Cover: In 2003, the construction of the multi-billion dollar project “The World” was announced. The man-made archipelago shaped like a map of the earth was planned to feature luxurious houses and tourist-resorts located all within just a short boat ride from Dubai. But today, more than 10 years after the completion of these islands, there is hardly anything built on them. What happened here? 

In the early 2000s, Real estate developers saw an enormous opportunity in creating artificial land off the coast of Dubai. The real estate boom in the Emirate seemed unstoppable. And the demand for ocean properties was huge. Dubai had already expanded along most of its coast. 

Why Dubai's Man-Made Islands Are Still Empty

So Nakheel Properties, a real estate company owned by the government of Dubai made plans to radically change the region, all within just two decades. Between 2001 and 2006, a number of plans were announced. 

The company planned three different island projects that when viewed from space should represent the shape of palm trees. Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and lastly Palm Deira, by far the largest one. In addition, “The World” was announced. Different areas were planned, from low density housing, high density complexes and islands that can be used commercially. In a second phase, “The World” was planned to be supplemented by another even bigger project: The Universe. Man-made Islands were planned, that resemble the shape of the sun, the moon as well as the planets of the solar system, the milky way and a distant galaxy. 

Dubai's Man-Made Islands

Next to Palm Jebel Ali, another gigantic project was to be created: the Dubai Waterfront. These islands should be formed like a star and crescent, an important symbol in Islam. And the construction project was advertised as the largest man-made development project worldwide. 

The shape should also serve as a shelter to protect Palm Jebel Ali from erosion. With all these projects, most of the coast of Dubai would have been transformed as on one side the Emirate of Abu Dhabi begins, and on the other side there is the Emirate of Sharjah. In retrospect, the level of confidence with which these projects were advanced is astonishing. 

But the islands were seen as prestige projects that serve the larger goal of developing Dubai into a major tourist hotspot, and thereby creating new income sources for a place that gained most of its wealth through the extraction of oil. Now let’s take a look at what happened to these ambitious plans. In 2001, Nakheel Properties started building the Palm Jumeirah. 

This project alone would double the length of the coastline of Dubai. In 2006, the land reclamation was completed and the first apartments were already handed over. The strands of the palm mainly host private houses. 

While a number of large luxury hotels were built on the breakwater ring around the palm, that protects the Palm from storms. While Palm Jumeirah was still under construction other projects started to take shape. The 21st century seemed to have reached a new peak in the rate of growth of Dubai. 

The real estate market experienced a rapid boom. And a number of prestige projects, such as the Burj Khalifa, the largest building in the world, were built. In September 2008 the Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeirah celebrated it’s opening with a firework show on the entire Palm. But the celebrations couldn’t change that the international financial crisis started to affect Dubai. 

Reporter:"Just last week Dubai spent 20M Dollars for a party to open the Atlantis Hotel. The headline was: Dubai parties as the rest of the world reels from the economic crisis. Perhaps not anymore." 

Reporter: "Dubai has been hit by the global financial crisis. Especially in real-estate. Megaprojects like the artificial islands off the coast are in danger of collapse. Many construction sites are shut down." Due to a declining demand, the price of the plots of land fell rapidly. And the development of Palm Jebel Ali came to a standstill. In 2011, Nakheel Properties offered investors refunds and the project has been on hold ever since. 

The empty sand banks that reach 7km or 4.3 miles into the sea appear strangely forgotten. The Palm is located behind the Jebel Ali Port with no city development near it. And most of the visions dreamed up by the project planners seemingly evaporated in a puff of sand. 

The land reclamation of the Dubai Waterfront is nowhere near as advanced. But you can already see the shape of some of the islands on satellite images. This project as well has been discontinued. A similar situation exists with Palm Deira. 

The land reclamation had already progressed but is far from complete. In 2013, Nakheel decided to try to save this project by re-branding it. Instead of continuing to create new land, the project was scaled down and is now just called Deira Islands. 

And there is current construction work underway, with a planned mall, two high-rise buildings and a shopping street. Finally, “The World”. The land creation was mostly completed and a large part of the islands had already been sold before the financial crisis. But the islands were just not developed further as many of the investors that bought them were facing their own problems in the aftermath of the financial crisis. 

And although investment into new projects in Dubai increased after the crisis. The “World” project couldn’t benefit from this, as there was less confidence on the return on any such investments. 10 years after the initial project reveal, “The World” already seemed to no longer fit in the current time. 

Many concerns about the longevity of the project arose as news reports stated that the smaller channels between the islands started to sand up. And the rising sea levels are a growing danger for a project like this. In general, growing concerns around land reclamation projects came up. 

Residents at Palm Jumeirah criticised their water quality. While the breakwater is necessary to protect the palm from erosion, it also hinders the natural tidal movement. And the seawater within the palm became stagnant. Additionally environmental concerns got more attention. Pilling up hundreds of thousands of tons of sand on a seabed that previously had been almost evenly flat has an impact on the marine ecology. 

The islands are composed mainly of sand that was dredged from Dubai’s shallow coastal waters. And there are concerns that this leads to a destabilisation of the coastal soil, which can lead to an erosion of the natural coastline In addition, the coastal soil is destabilised, which can lead to an erosion of the natural coastline. Even if these consequences have been known for a long time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to market projects that are considered environmentally harmful. 

Many of the projects promoted in recent years are therefore trying to incorporate environmental compatibility. In addition, the difficult living conditions of migrant construction workers in Dubai is a topics that is receiving more media attention. Nevertheless, there are development projects on these Islands, that are starting to take shape Initially, there was only one island that had been developed. The villa served as a show house to promote the project. 

In summer 2012, the Royal Island Beach Club opened on Lebanon island. The club hosts daytime tourists that can get there by boat. The biggest project however was announced in 2014. An Austrian real estate investor plans to develope a number of projects on the European islands. The project is called “The Heart of Europe”. And the goal is to create kind of a mini version of Europe. 

With luxurious hotels that are inspired by places like Venice or Monaco. In addition to a number of restaurants with European food, the investor also plans to build a plaza on the Swiss island where there will be artificial snow falling. The project is currently under construction and time will tell whether it will bring the desired economic success. 

There are risky development projects almost everywhere in the world. And everywhere in the world, some of them fail. In Urban development, prestige projects often serve a greater role than being financially successful by their own as they can attract tourists to a region and therefore support the greater local economy in a variety of ways. In addition to attracting tourism, such prestige projects also often serve as national pride. 

Or they intend to symbolise the start of a new era, for example by using new construction methods or by breaking world records. Now if Dubai is questioned for creating planned landmarks, then the same criticism must certainly be applied elsewhere as well. But still the question remains, how these projects that changed the coastal landscape of Dubai will be viewed in retrospect. At a time when Dubais growth slows down and when the ambitious dream that this city represents stops being built and just has to be just lived.

The Rise Of TikTok | Explained By The News Cover

The News Cover: 2020 has been a year of chaos, uncertainty and grief. A global pandemic, record unemployment and nationwide protests have left people reeling. Through it all though, there's been TikTok, providing moments of levity and new dance crazes, interspersed with more serious commentary on the issues that we face. TikTok, it's like the party you want to be at, a t the moment. 

You'll see hair tutorials, cooking tutorials. People can create challenges, they can create duets, th ey can interact, they can engage. T ikTok is the most downloaded app of 2020. Since its global release less than two years ago, TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, have amassed 800 million monthly active users, more than Reddit, Snapchat or Twitter. Its parent company, ByteDance, is the most valuable startup in the world. Its reach might surprise you unless you're a member of Gen Z or the parent of one. But as millions scramble for connection amidst quarantines, more and more users of all ages are hopping aboard. 

We're all just kind of going through the same thing together. And we happen to be documenting it all through TikTok. It's not all rosy, though. The Chinese-owned app faces a slew of regulatory hurdles, privacy concerns and allegations of censorship. Amidst these struggles, it's brought in a new CEO. This guy is Kevin Mayer. Formerly the Head of Streaming at Disney. That's basically what Kevin Mayer's first priority needs to be, is to make sure that Americans trust TikTok. In the long run, t hat may prove complicated. But in the short term, it hasn't prevented tens of thousands of new users from signing up. 

The predecessor to TikTok was an app called Musical.ly. Founded in 2014, it provided a platform for users to create short, 15 second videos set to a song of their choice. The content mostly involved lip-syncing and dancing, and it took off quickly among preteens and teens in the U.S. This is an app that was built around the fact that there was music that was licensed to be used on this app. This was something that Musical.ly decided really to invest in, because they knew that music and sharing music was inherently social. 

By July 2015, a year after its launch, Musical.ly reached number one in the iTunes app store. It continued to grow and was bought by the Beijing-based startup ByteDance for one billion dollars in 2017. ByteDance already owned Tik Tok, a similar video sharing platform, and merged the two apps less than a year later. Now TikTok's main office is in Los Angeles, California. They're essentially an American startup that is subsidized by a successful Chinese tech company. As the app has grown, it's given rise to a whole new pack of social media celebrities. 

Content is public by default on TikTok, and the algorithm that determines what appears on a user's home page gives every creator the chance to put their video in front of millions. Really what we saw was a different style of humor. It wasn't the sketches that you saw on Vine, and it wasn't longer-form YouTube videos. It was meme culture or like the general public's take on a meme. What I enjoyed about it is there was some deeper humor in there if you were paying attention to the trends that were happening. 

On TikTok, King uses creative video editing to make it look like he's performing magic tricks, a skill which has earned him over 44 million followers, the second most on the app as of June 2020. But at 30, King represents the rare millennial that's broken into TikTok's top ranks. Many of the most followed users are in their teens, and lip syncing and dancing remain wildly popular. So I originally started when I was 14 years old, and so I started using my facial expressions and hand motions to make these like larger than life lip sync videos. And as I grew up, I think the app also grew up. Now there's so much more that you can do. 

While Martin has found her niche with dancing and lifestyle content, she says there's something out there for everyone. There's like creators who are huge when it comes to comedy, some still do lip syncing, some cooking videos, tutorials. You can do whatever you want as long as it's fun, it's quick and it catches people's eye. Stay at home orders have propelled the app's rapid growth in the United States. So between October and March, according to research fro m Comscore, its unique visitors has grown from 27 million to 52 million, so doubled in the past five months. 

And within that time period, just in March alone, according to Comscore TikTok added 12 million new unique visitors. People in the U.S. on TikTok spent more time on TikTok than Instagram users spent on Instagram or Snapchat users spent on Snapchat in the month of March. That's a big deal since Snap and Instagram are two of the app's main competitors. They're all extremely popular among young users, b ut in the U.S. at least, TikTok still has some catching up to do. We estimate that this year TikTok will have 45 million users. 

But Instagram, we're estimating will have over 110 million and Snapchat will have 85 million users. But TikTok is also huge abroad, especially in India and China. In China, it operates as a technically separate but very similar app called Douyin. And in the first quarter of 2020, TikTok and Douyin were downloaded 315 million times globally, a 68 percent increase over the previous year. In April, the company reached two billion overall downloads. 

India is by far the app's largest market when it comes to downloads, accounting for 30.3 percent of the total. But China is definitely the largest from a revenue standpoint, accounting for about 72 percent of total spending on the app. The U.S. is third in terms of downloads and second in terms of revenue, and its influence continues to grow. Viral dances and memes have propelled a number of songs to the top of the U.S. charts, most famously, Old Town Road in 2019 . And now the moms, dads and siblings of the TikTok o bsessed have started to get in on the trends as well, learning dances and performing challenges together. 

You're still laughing at them, but actually the fact that parents are getting on it, I mean they needed that demo so badly to even make it to this level that they're at now. In order to build out a sustainable revenue model, e xperts say that TikTok eventually needs to attract older users. Advertisers are going after broader demographics and especially those with purchasing power. But TikTok is not under immediate pressure to make money just yet. Its parent company ByteDance is valued at over 100 billion dollars and made three billion dollars in revenue last year. 

That's because it owns a host of other, more profitable Chinese apps, most notably Douyin and a news aggregator called Toutiao. TikTok's revenue model is still very, very nascent. This is a company that has some advertising, we have some of the users starting to do sponsorships. But at the end of the day, this is a company with hundreds of millions of users here in the U.S. that's still not making as much money as it could some day. Monetization aside, many say that CEO Kevin Mayer's first priority needs to be the regulatory and privacy concerns facing the app, which stem from its Chinese ownership as well as its popularity among children. 

You know, it's never been the case that so many Americans are putting so much of their visual data in the hands of a Chinese company. And as we know, the relationship between the Chinese government and Chinese corporations is a pretty tight one. While TikTok claims that all American user's data is stored within the U.S. and is not subject to Chinese law, many security experts remain skeptical. Similar concerns exists in India, where data protection laws are weaker and thus citizens are more vulnerable. Regulators are going to be very weary of that separation. 

Where's the data held? What's the cross-pollination look like? A number of incidents over the years have provided ample reason for worry. An investigation by The Guardian last September revealed that TikTok moderators were instructed to censor videos related to Tiananmen Square and other content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. 

While the company claimed that these guidelines had been phased out by the time of the investigation, it still helped spur the Federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to open an ongoing review into ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly. It seems unlikely that ByteDance would be forced to divest itself of what was Musical.ly, now is TikTok. But I do think that this all speaks to the great amount of concern and oversight over this app that's gone from a tiny little thing to this huge powerhouse. 

Most recently, the app received criticism for what it said was a technical glitch, in which post tagged with #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd appeared to have zero views when they actually have over two billion. And in the past, both India and Indonesia have instituted brief bans on the app due to concerns over inappropriate content like violence and pornography. 

Lastly, there are ongoing issues regarding children's privacy. Users under 13 are technically not allowed on TikTok, but there's not much really preventing them from signing up. In February 2019, the company paid 5.7 million dollars to the FTC to settle charges that it was illegally collecting children's personal information. This then prompted the U.K. to conduct their own investigation into the matter. While TikTok said it would make changes, in May 2020 a coalition of consumer groups filed a complaint stating that TikTok had not kept its promises. 

It's all undoubtedly a lot for Mayer to inherit. But given his background at Disney, some say he may be exactly the right person to address these concerns. So he is someone who has experience dealing with regulation, dealing with oversight, and especially dealing with online security issues, which are certainly front of mind for TikTok as they navigate their relationship with the FTC. If Mayer can secure the trust of U.S. consumers and investors, Byt eDance could be well positioned for an IPO in the next year or two. Beyond that, experts say that TikTok's long-term prospects depend upon its ability to keep users engaged while building out a sustainable monetization strategy. 

YouTube could be seen as a model in the way that YouTube shares advertising revenue with its content creators. Mayer's background in streaming services also has both analysts and creators excited about what new forms of content may lie on the horizon. I have been begging TikTok to get into the streaming game. People have speculated that TikTok might get involved in original programming.

 To make TikTok sustainable, you're going to have to do long-form content. I don't see a version where you make 60 second videos forever and it stays cool for another two to three years. King also says TikTok's live-streaming feature has room to grow. It's super popular in China, but hasn't yet taken off in the U.S. I think what's next for TikTok is how they figure out how to make money, how they figure out how to create a home for advertisers, and how they make sure that content creators themselves want to stick around and don't want to go jump off to whatever the next cool app is going to be.