Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, says a New York-based company’s facial recognition technology “appears to pose particularly chilling privacy risks.” In a letter to Hoan Ton-That, the chief executive of Clearview AI, which provides its technology to the law enforcement community, Markey also says it could be exploited by criminals or foreign adversaries.

As the death toll from a coronavirus continues to rise slowly but steadily from initial diagnosis in early December, China has widened its travel restrictions in Hubei province. As of 24 January, they affect some 35 million residents in 10 cities. At least 26 fatalities have been reported in China and a few isolated cases have been confirmed elsewhere, including France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S. (one case each in Chicago and Seattle), and Vietnam.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ metaphoric Doomsday Clock has ticked 20 seconds closer to midnight, to 100 seconds, the closest it has ever been to the prospect of a global catastrophe. Created in 1947, when it was set at seven minutes to midnight, the iconic marker has shifted back and forth 23 times and had been at two minutes since 2018. The latest shift, announced 23 January, reflects growing concern about the “existential” threats of nuclear war and climate change, which the group says are exacerbated by cyber-enabled information warfare.

A Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport owned by Coulson Aviation (USA) Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Columbia-based Coulson Group, crashed 23 January while fighting wildfires in Australia. The three-member crew of American residents died.