The Basel Action Network urged South and Southeast Asian nations to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, an international agreement that would amend the existing Basel Convention, agreed to by 194 countries, to make it illegal to export hazardous wastes, including e-waste, from developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and EU to developing countries. BAN warned the nations they could be next, after Thailand, to be hit by a “tidal wave” of electronic and plastic wastes. The warning follows China’s decision to block imports of waste beginning this year with the advent of the "National Sword" policy. In the past month, Thailand has seen rural lands "overrun" with possibly “hundreds of illegal and highly polluting electronic waste processing yards that risk contamination of the food and water supply in the country,” said BAN. Meanwhile, the U.S., Canada and European countries continue to produce “the same volumes of waste and have shown little willingness, nor, at times, the infrastructure to deal with it at home rather than find new destinations for it,” BAN said Tuesday. Based on its GPS tracking, BAN said 40 percent of e-waste given to recyclers was exported, mostly to Asia, with tracked devices arriving in Hong Kong, and increasingly to Thailand and to Pakistan. In the region, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have ratified the agreement, but Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam haven't, it said, noting the amendment is three ratifications short of becoming international law.

Amazon Technologies got a U.S. patent Tuesday for a method and system of detecting the “hostile takeover” of drones and returning them to friendly hands. As use of commercial and recreational drones increases, "so does the likelihood” of hostile takeovers, whether stealing drones and “payloads,” intentionally crashing them or otherwise causing “disruption” of operations, said the patent, based on an August 2016 application and naming Glen Larsen, an Amazon hardware and systems architect, as its only inventor. “Using these attacks, nefarious individuals and/or systems may be able to obtain control” of the drones by hacking the communication signals being sent to and from them, it said. Such attacks could cause the drones “to operate unsafely and could also result in considerable financial loss for their operators,” it said. It envisions a system for a drone to operate in two “modes.” During normal-operating “mission” mode, the drone receives a “heartbeat signal from a controller,” it said. If a preset timer expires without the drone receiving a new heartbeat signal because it was hacked, the drone automatically switches into a “safety” mode in which it “performs one or more preprogrammed actions designed to reestablish communication with the controller,” or lands in a “safe location,” said the patent.

Lifeline providers and tribal groups asked the FCC to stay 2017 tribal Lifeline changes, pending judicial review of their legal challenges to an order released Dec. 1 (see 1711160021 and 1712010042). The commission order "unlawfully (1) limits the types of eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) eligible to receive enhanced Tribal Lifeline support and (2) narrows the geographic scope of Tribal lands in which individuals are eligible for the Tribal Lifeline benefit," said Assist Wireless, Boomerang Wireless, Easy Wireless, the National Lifeline Association, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority in a petition Friday in docket 17-287. They said the order is scheduled to take effect 90 days after the Wireline Bureau issues a public notice announcing approval of information collection requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act. A stay's "limited relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to ETCs and consumers, including Tribal communities," they said in their FCC request. "Petitioners are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims before the D.C. Circuit; they will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay; and the balance of harms and public interests weigh in favor of a stay." The FCC declined comment Monday. Meanwhile, TracFone Wireless pushed its proposals for an NPRM released with the order, including for a “conduct-based standard” to "root out waste, fraud, and abuse" in Lifeline. "Rather than excluding Lifeline resellers from the program ... the Commission should instead focus on the actual conduct of Lifeline carriers and target those that have performed poorly under the various audit and evaluation mechanisms intended to safeguard the Lifeline program," said a filing posted Friday on a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials. TracFone is "pleased that the soft launch of the National Verifier had finally commenced" last week (see 1806180054), but "remains concerned about the lack of any application programming interface (API) for the National Verifier that would enable carriers and its social services and health care partners to assist consumers with navigating" eligibility and verification processes.

CARDIFF, Wales -- Panasonic’s factory site on the Pentwyn Industrial Estate, on the Eastern outskirts of this Welsh town, was built in 1974 to produce TVs for the European market, but has reinvented itself many times to stay viable, Kevin Jones, managing director-computer products solutions, Europe, told us during a media briefing at the plant last week to mark the launch of the Panasonic Toughbook FZ-T1 Android smartphone. The FZ-T1 is the latest in a line of ruggedized mobile devices that Panasonic has been assembling in Wales for 20 years.

The Senate Appropriations Bill for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019 would spend $14.26 billion on CBP, almost $239 million more than the current spending. The committee report said that it's sending $49 million for 375 additional CBP officers, "in recognition of wait times at certain ports of entry as well as the volume of illicit drugs passing through POEs." With regard to drugs smuggled through ports of entry, the report says the Senate intends to provide $30 million in support of enforcement at international mail facilities and express consignment carrier locations "by enhancing scientific and laboratory staffing, increasing law enforcement staffing and canines, improving facilities, deploying technology to locate targeted packages, enhancing detection and testing equipment, and improving interoperability with FDA detection equipment." The bill provides $174 million for non-intrusive inspection equipment, of which the $30 million for opioids is a subset.

The Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. patent number 10,000,000 Tuesday to a Raytheon invention for a frequency-modulated laser detection and ranging system with possible applications in autonomous vehicles, medical imaging devices and national defense, said the agency. “Given the rapid pace of change, we know that it will not take another 228 years to achieve the next 10-million-patent milestone,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, referring to the first U.S. patent issued July 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash for fertilizer. When inventor Joseph Marron, a Raytheon engineer, applied for the patent three years ago, little could he predict he would land the milestone number in 2018, he said in a company statement. "It's equivalent to a guy who buys a lottery ticket every month," he said. "Eventually, it hits."

Amazon Technologies landed a U.S. patent Tuesday that uses drones for more efficient movement of inventory in warehouses. Patent 10,000,284 describes a “collaborative unmanned aerial vehicle for an inventory system.” Modern inventory systems “face significant challenges in responding to requests for inventory items,” and those challenges become “non-trivial” when stock needs to be split between ground floors and upper “mezzanine levels within a large structure,” it said. An inventory system can quickly “dispatch autonomous ground drive units on both the first floor and on the mezzanine to collect the items,” it said. “At the mezzanine, the items can be collected at a staging point and consolidated into a container for transport.” The staging point may double as a “docking station” for a drone, it said. Amazon didn’t comment on commercial implications.

The Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. patent number 10,000,000 Tuesday to a Raytheon invention for a frequency-modulated laser detection and ranging system with possible applications in autonomous vehicles, medical imaging devices and national defense, said the agency. “Given the rapid pace of change, we know that it will not take another 228 years to achieve the next 10-million-patent milestone,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, referring to the first U.S. patent issued July 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash for fertilizer. When inventor Joseph Marron, a Raytheon engineer, applied for the patent three years ago, little could he predict he would land the milestone number in 2018, he said in a company statement. "It's equivalent to a guy who buys a lottery ticket every month," he said. "Eventually, it hits."

Though much of the focus of Amazon’s drone development has been on the Amazon Prime Air initiative and its ultimate promise of delivering packages to customers in 30 minutes or less, Amazon Technologies landed a U.S. patent Tuesday that uses drones for the more efficient movement of inventory within the four walls of the warehouse. The patent (10,000,284) describes a “collaborative unmanned aerial vehicle for an inventory system” and was based on a June 2015 application. Modern inventory systems “face significant challenges in responding to requests for inventory items,” and those challenges become “non-trivial” with the growth of those systems, especially when stock needs to be split between ground floors and upper “mezzanine levels within a large structure,” it says. “Suppose that” Alice, an inventory management “agent,” needs to fill an order for items “on both the first floor and on the mezzanine,” it says. “To accomplish the formerly laborious task of obtaining all of these items, Alice can place a request for the items with an inventory system,” which can quickly “dispatch autonomous ground drive units on both the first floor and on the mezzanine to collect the items,” it says. “At the mezzanine, the items can be collected at a staging point and consolidated into a container for transport.” The staging point may double as a “docking station” for a drone, which can “subsequently lift the container and transport the items to a staging point at the first floor, where all of the items for the order can be consolidated and provided to Alice for shipping,” it says. Amazon didn’t comment Tuesday on the invention's commercial implications.

FCC staff approved Cincinnati Bell's planned takeover of Hawaiian Telcom, subject to a condition proposed by the Department of Homeland Security, backed by DOD and DOJ (see 1806070054). Team Telecom said they wouldn't object to communications license transfers if conditioned on Cincinnati Bell assurances to abide by undertakings listed in a June 1 commitment letter. "We condition grant of the cable landing license transfer of control applications ... on compliance by Cincinnati Bell with the commitments and undertaking," said a Wireline, Wireless and International bureaus' order Tuesday in docket 17-207. "Applicants contend that the transaction will provide Hawaiian Telcom a stronger financial and operational foundation, which will 'enhance future planning and development for interisland submarine cables.' We find that the transaction is likely to result in continued, and perhaps improved, financing for Hawaiian Telcom, which may result in a greater incentive or ability to enhance its service offerings."