ICANN wants feedback on a proposed amendment to its IANA contract with Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), which manages operation of the Internet Assigned Number Authority functions, it said Monday evening. The change would allow the Customer Standing Committee (CSC), which reviews PTI's monthly performance against the IANA naming function service level agreements, and PTI/ICANN to modify SLAs without having to do a contract amendment each time. Instead, an SLA change would be subject to a process that would enable amendments in a timely fashion but still require consultations with IANA function naming customers -- such as generic top-level domain name registries or country code TLD managers -- and the broader ICANN community as appropriate. Once the IANA contract is amended, the table containing current SLAs will no longer be included in it but made available on pti.icann.org or iana.org. The table may then be changed only when the change process is followed. PTI/ICANN would consider feasibility and costs of any potential amendments before a broader consultation. Comments are due Feb. 18, and a staff report is scheduled for March 6.

TomTom announced autonomous driving collaborations with automotive product makers. TomTom and Denso teams will partner in Japan, with TomTom’s HD Map working with Denso in-vehicle camera and radar sensors on localization, perception and path planning, it said Friday. Delphi and TomTom are working toward powertrain systems that know what’s up ahead, they said.

American Doreen Bogdan-Martin started her job as director of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau Tuesday. Bogdan-Martin was elected to the post last year, making her the highest-ranking woman in ITU history and the first person from the U.S. in 30 years to get one of the five leadership positions there (see 1811010052). “I am excited at the opportunity to explore new ideas, new avenues 4 collaboration + a new direction to make a difference, improve lives and achieve [sustainable development] for all,” she tweeted Tuesday.

China won’t “officially comment” on reports that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order in January barring U.S. companies from using Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment on national security grounds because the reports have “not been confirmed,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thursday. “Despite not having any evidence, certain countries have politicized the normal exchanges and cooperation in science and technology and even obstructed and restricted the normal operations of Chinese businesses on unwarranted charges and under the pretext of national security,” she said. “This actually amounts to shutting their own door to openness, progress and fairness.”

Two state-linked Chinese hackers were charged with cybercrimes targeting intellectual property and confidential business information in at least a dozen countries, DOJ announced Thursday. For more than a decade, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, who remain at large, committed cyber intrusion with the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s Tianjin State Security Bureau, Justice alleged. “The defendants were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China’s intelligence service access to sensitive business information,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein alleged, saying he hopes the defendants one day “face justice under the rule of law in a federal courtroom.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., lauded the announcement: “A truly effective response will require a coordinated approach with our allies and a comprehensive strategy to protect our national security and enhance U.S. competitiveness and resiliency.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen voiced concerns the activity violates 2015 U.S.-China cyber commitments by Chinese President Xi Jinping to “refrain from conducting or knowingly supporting” cybertheft.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted Wednesday he had met with David Friedman, U.S. ambassador to Israel, as part of his trip there. “We had a wonderful, wide-ranging conversation about everything from #Israel's tech sector to art to telecom litigation over the years,” Pai said. Pai also met with the team from Gilat Satellite Networks (see 1812180054), he noted. “They're providing satellite backhaul to wireless carriers, connectivity to planes through companies like @Gogo, & emergency comms in places like #PuertoRico,” he said. “Appreciated hearing about the opportunities & challenges ahead.” The U.S. Embassy tweeted about a presentation Pai made to students at Tel Aviv University. The chairman “discussed his work at the @FCC, the promise of #5G and efforts to bridge the digital divide,” it said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted that he visited Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, as part of his trip to Israel. “Impressive history and art … accompany the vibrant democratic debate found here,” he said. Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry tweeted about "meeting with tech companies" including Gilat Satellite, Sckipio Technologies fast-web chipset maker and the Siklu 5G/millimeter-wave wireless product firm. "There is a lot of innovation happening in Israel," Berry said.

Efforts to finalize a deal on updated EU copyright rules failed Thursday, leaving talks between the European Parliament and Council to be taken up again under the Romanian Presidency, which begins Jan. 1. The Dec. 13 "trilogue did not resolve all issues" and it's unclear when the next meeting will be, emailed a Council spokesperson. Asked whether the outstanding issues are still Article 13, which would require platforms to monitor uploads for copyright infringement, and Article 11, which would give press publishers a new right to remuneration, he said, "Basically yes." Heavy lobbying for and against both articles continued before the trilogue meeting. The plan by the current Austrian Presidency to finish negotiations last week seemed "very ambitious," Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda, of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany, told us earlier this month. "We are nowhere near a compromise on the most controversial articles 11 and 13." In a Dec. 13 post, she noted that major film industry associations -- including the Motion Picture Association and Association of Commercial Television in Europe -- and sports leagues wanted their sectors expressly excluded from Article 13 because the Council and Parliament versions would both end up benefiting big platforms. Others opposing the provision include the Computer & Communication Industry Association and European Digital Rights (see 1809120001). News publishers, meanwhile, said failure to negotiate a workable neighboring right to remuneration for press publishers would "condemn consumers to a future of news experienced through the lens of Google" since the provision would require Google to secure licenses to use their content. Google Vice President-News Richard Gingras blogged earlier this month that Article 11 could change the principle of equal access to information by requiring online services to strike commercial deals with publishers to show hyperlinks and short news snippets, forcing platforms to make decisions about what content to include.

EU net neutrality rules don't impede innovation, as some claim (see 1812130001), the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) told us. So far, regulators "have not received any actual examples that would prevent operators from innovation especially with regard to 5G," it emailed. The reason for updating the net neutrality guidelines next year "is not because they are too long or 'convoluted,'" but because the organization now has the benefit of two years of applying the open internet regulation and the guidelines and can see where clarity of specific guidance is needed, BEREC said. "We feel that this is also supported by stakeholders contributing to our consultation earlier in the year."

GAO found 26 long-range national security threats as identified by federal agencies, including the possibility adversaries could apply commercially available artificial intelligence to weapons. Other threats in Thursday's report include disrupting IoT-enabled critical infrastructure and devices; “developing autonomous capabilities that could recognize faces, understand gestures, and match voices of U.S. personnel, which could compromise U.S. operations”; and launching cyberattacks against critical and military infrastructure. Threat categories are: Adversaries’ Political and Military Advancements, Dual-Use Technologies, and Weapons, Events and Demographic Changes. DOD, the State and Homeland Security departments and Office of the Director of National Intelligence identified risks, and GAO reviewed national security documents and interviewed officials, it said. DOD told GAO the study provides “an accurate although sobering macro picture of how the US stands in the world against emerging threats.” The report is a public version of a classified one issued Sept. 28.