In June 2020, Puritan Medical Products hosted the US President Donald Trump and displayed the swab manufacturing ramp-up that was being done in response to COVID-19. Controversy sparked when a company spokesperson revealed to USAToday that swabs manufactured during his visit would have to be discarded. Puritan Medical Products clarified that only t...

This photograph and many like it are circulating social media, claiming that cloth and surgical masks are ineffective at limiting the spread of COVID-19. This comes closely behind many United States stores deciding to refuse entrance to anybody not wearing a mask, which many of these social media posts claim to be a useless measure, […]

On May 7th, Ohio state representative Nino Vitale posted on Facebook, quoting the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams as saying "masks increase virus risk". This was likely sourced from a tweet by the Surgeon General on Feb 29th. Adams did indeed recommend not wearing face masks, but has since changed his stance. On April 3rd, […]

The first episode of a documentary titled ‘Plandemic' made its way through many social media platforms this week, with uploads gathering hundreds of thousands of views on various platforms. Many of the claims made in the video are false: one claim in particular is that the Coronavirus appears to be manipulated, and there is evidence […]...

The Washing State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) is stating that the Asian Giant Hornet, known as the "Murder Hornet", has made its way into the United States for the first time. The WSDA confirms two cases in Blaine, WA, with additional probable cases in Custer, WA. The insects are indeed deadly: the United States Department […]...

On a Fox News segment in April 2020, Dr. Scott Jensen made claims about the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance on completing death certificates, issued on April 3rd, 2020. "The determination of the cause of death is a big deal. It has impact on estate planning, it has impact on future generations… The […]

On Tuesday, April 28th, Donald Trump made various claims about the state of Coronavirus testing in the United States. Here are two major claims that were found to be untrue: The United States would "very soon" hit 5 million COVID-19 tests a day. Reporter: "Did I hear you saying you're confident you can surpass 5 […]

On April 23rd, in a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, US President Donald Trump speculated on a number of potential COVID-19 treatments. Social media posts began to appear claiming Trump suggest ingesting or injecting disinfectant, and shining an ultraviolet light inside the body. These allegations are true, and can be confirmed in the White H...

As soon as the United States announced a stimulus plan that included deposits of up to $1,200 for qualifying American citizens, scams posing as the IRS began to appear. Here are some things to keep in mind about your potential stimulus payment: The IRS will never ask for sensitive personal or payment information (such as […]

Whether your email address is firstname.lastname@ or something more expressive like corgicrazy@, an email address says something about who you are. But from the start, email addresses have always required you to use non-accented Latin characters when signing up. Less than half of the world?s population has a mother tongue that uses the Latin alphab...

Starting with the version 6.0 The Bat! supports IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) are the domain names that contain national alphabet characters. The names composed from the characters of the non-latin alphabets, such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, etc., as well as the Latin alphabet-based characters wi...

The composition of the Internet?s population has seen a dramatic shift over the last two decades. In 1996, the majority of end users were based in the U.S.; according to a 2012 Comscore report, the non-English speaking Internet population has grown to 87 percent, with more than 40 percent based in the Asia-Pacific region. In

In an announcement on 26 February 2013, ICANN published a list of string similarity contention sets wherein two or more applied-for gTLD strings are identical or so nearly resemble one another visually that they are likely to cause confusion. In ICANN's New gTLD program, string similarity checks on Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) strings go bey...

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful completion of String Evaluation on proposed IDN ccTLD string for Sudan. Details of the successful evaluation are provided here: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-com pletion/s The IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved by the ICANN Board a...

National Business Daily reported:? 18 domain names registered by Internet giant which included adsense.???adwords.???android.???blogspot.???chrome.???chromium.??? doubleclick.???gmail.???google.???googlemail.???googlemaps.??? googleplus.???igoogle.???nexus.???orkut.???picasa.???postini.???youtub e. ?? .?? is the Chinese IDN ccTLD. The well-known IT ...

The .eu registry EURid and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will present on 6 November a report on the global uptake of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs). The study is planned to go out at the 7th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan and it will present updates to the

The IDN Variant TLD Program has the following two updates: Volunteer Team formed to assist the development of the Label Generation Ruleset Process for the Domain Name System (DNS) Root Zone ICANN is pleased to announce the formation of a global volunteer team, comprised of community experts, who will work with ICANN on the project

  String [1] Applicant Location [2] Community? [3] Geographic? [4] ???? The Foundation for Network Initiatives ?The Smart Internet? RU - - ??????? Pontificium Consilium de Comunicationibus Socialibus (PCCS) (Pontifical Council for Social Communication) VA Yes - ??? VeriSign Sarl CH - - ?????? Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies...

The Registry Submits Applications to ICANN for Four Top-Level Internationalized Domain Names RESTON, Va., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ — Public Interest Registry( http://www.pir.org ) (PIR) ? the not-for-profit operator of the .ORG domain ? today applied for the creation and management of four internationalized domain names (IDNs) recognize...

Muscat, Oman ? 1st May 2012 ? The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the Sultanate of Oman, with the support of ARI Registry Services, officially relaunched the .om country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) today in a move to ensure the ongoing stability and growth of the Internet within the country and greater Gulf region. ARI

DNJournal recorded the Largest IDN deal for ??????.com ("Moscow" in Russian) which was completed in July 2011 when the final installment on a $216,000 purchase price was paid. That is the highest verified sale price reported to date for an IDN. The deal was originally subject to a? confidentiality agreement but Gary Males at IDNTools.com...

ICANN is now opening a public comment forum for the second annual review of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. Community members and specifically those who were directly involved in the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process, including requesters, public authorities, and end users of the delegated IDN ccTLDs, are kindly asked to provide feedback on

AFNIC will shortly be opening the registration of IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) to their ccTLD portfolio. All those who already are owners of .FR domain names or wish to register new ones will benefit from this feature. Starting May 2012, web site owners will be able to buy domain names with accents and special characters.

Here on gTLD Strategy, we spend a lot of our time talking about English-language gTLDs, mostly because that?s the language we speak best. The FairWinds staff dabbles in Spanish, Korean, French, Arabic, Chinese, and even Polish, but you could say English is our forte. But, of course, ICANN?s New gTLD Program is not limited to

In response to comments made by participants at the ICANN public meeting in Costa Rica, ICANN has extended this public comment period for 21 days until 8 April 2012. ICANN has also received a number of constructive comments for amendments to the proposed project plan. ?As a result, it is likely that ICANN will publish

ICANN is pleased to announce the publication of the final Integrated Issues Report [PDF, 2.15 MB] and the posting of the proposed project plan [PDF, 211 KB] for the next steps of the IDN Variant Issues Project for public comment. ?The report explores the issues associated with the potential inclusion of IDN variant TLDs in

DUBLIN–(Afilias Limited, the ICANN-designated registry operator for the .INFO top level domain (TLD) and a global provider of technical registry services, today announced that it will apply for the Simplified and Traditional Chinese language equivalents of .INFO under ICANN?s new gTLD program. ?Given the global presence of Afilias, Internatio...

15 December 2011 Following the ICANN Board's approval on 8 December 2011 of the amendment to the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Implementation Plan, ICANN is providing this notice of publication for the Revised Implementation Plan. This amendment was considered following guidance received from the ccNSO during the ICANN meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Two...

On 22 November 2011, the Federal Agency for Printed and Mass Media (Rospechat) in tandem with the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) co-organized a press conference ?Runet: year in review and prospects of expansion? at the RIA Novosti press center . Andrey Kolesnikov, the CC?s CEO, took part in the press conference. In his...

Following the ICANN Board's acceptance at the October 2011 meeting in Dakar, Senegal, ICANN is today providing notice of implementation for version 3.0 of the Guidelines for Implementation of Internationalized Domain Names. The IDN Guidelines are a list of general standards that many top-level domain registries deploying IDNs are required to follow...

ICANN is pleased to announce the successful completion of String Evaluation on proposed IDN ccTLD string for Kazakhstan. Details of the successful evaluation are provided here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-comple tion-k-en.htm#kz. The IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved by the ...

Dot VN, Inc., (http://www.dotvn.com) (OTC Trading Symbol: DTVI), an Internet and Telecommunications Company and the exclusive online global domain name registrar for the Country of Vietnam (?the Company? or ?Dot VN?), announced today that since it?s official launch of the Vietnamese Native Language Internationalized Domain Names (?Vietnamese IDN?) ...

If you write your ads in any language other than English, you may have wished that you could make your display URL consistent with the rest of your ad by showing your internationalized domain name. Today, we?re announcing that we now support non-ASCII characters, including non-Latin characters and Latin characters with accents and diacritics, in...

Bulgaria's government is failing to facilitate the process for the introduction Internet domains in Cyrillic, Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament Ivaylo Kalfin declared after meeting the ICANN management in DC. "The unwillingness of the Bulgarian government to provide arguments and to enter into a dialogue is an obstacle for the country and...

On 15 June 2011, SGNIC announced the launch of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs). The launch will take place in the following phases: Sunrise Phase 1????????? 4 July 11 ? 15 August 11 Sunrise Phase 2???????? 12 September 11 ? 8 November 11 General Launch????????? 14 December 11 onwards Registrations of IDNs can be made with

Brussels, 31 May 2011 ? More work is needed to stimulate online multilingualism and the uptake of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), according to a new .eu Insights report published today by EURid, the registry for the .eu top-level domain (TLD). The report was prepared in cooperation with UNESCO, United Nations agency promoting multilingualism...

SAN DIEGO, May 18, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Dot VN, Inc., (http://www.dotvn.com) (Pink Sheets:DTVI), an Internet and Telecommunications Company and the exclusive online global domain name registrar for the Country of Vietnam ("the Company" or "Dot VN"), announced today that since it's official launch of the Vietnamese Native Language Internati...

Last night, Qatar became one of the first countries in the world to offer Arabic domain names to Internet users as?ictQatar officials launched the Qatar Domains Registry, making the Internet more accessible to Arabic customers. The first phase of the introduction of the Qatar Domains Registry (QDR) will see select organisations allocated Qatar-spec...

On February 19, 2011 the central registry for ORG domains will be launching support for Cyrillic IDNs. Cyrillic IDNs will be available in the following languages: Bosnian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian. LAUNCH INDICATOR Cyrillic ORG IDNs are scheduled to go live sometime at 19:00 UTC, on February 19th. We have c...

Prague, 19 November ? For the fourth time in a row, the Czech Internet public refused the introduction of diacritics in the .CZ domain system. This ensues from a public opinion survey carried out by Markent for the CZ.NIC association, the administrator of the Czech domain registry. Eight-seven percent of organisations that responded and 62

November 11, 2010, marked the day when the new IDN ccTLD .?? (Cyrillic for ?????????? ?????????, Russian Federation) was opened for general registration. Prior to that date the registration was open only for trademark owners and governmental institutions. Before the registration started, in an interview for the ??????????? (Commersant) daily, Andre...

Total 31 IDNs was sold on first IDNEvent Auction at SnapNames.com ??.org $5,250.00 ?.com $4,026.00 ?.com $1,550.00 ?.com $1,450.00 ??.com $1,429.00 ?.com $1,250.00 ??.com $1,180.00 ??.com $1,155.00 ??.com $1,117.00 ?.com $1,005.00 ????.com $802.00 ?.com $710.00 ??.com $625.00 ?.com $625.00 ????.jp $590.00 ????.com $530.00 ?.com $525.00 ??????.com $...

DENIC plans to update Domain Guidelines effective 16 November 2010 ? Sunrise period for holders of domains with names containing "ss" starting on 26 October 2010 Effective 16 November 2010, the central registry for .de domains, DENIC, will abolish the rule that forbids the Latin small letter sharp s to be used as an independent

GAZA-Palestine PNINA announced the launching of Palestinian country code Top-Level-Domain in Arabic which known as (.falasteen). This has been accomplished after the ICANN completed technical check ups and register the new ccTLD domain servers on the global root DNS servers. It is possible now to reach the websites by using the pure Arabic domain n...

We are nearing the one-year anniversary date (16 November 2010) of the launch of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. The Final Implementation Plan for the Fast Track Process requires that the process undergo review annually. ICANN is now opening a public comments forum on the review of the process. Commenters are asked to suggest