There are a few drawbacks to the international version. For starters, it will have 65 dynamic displays, whereas the China version has over 100. The global version will have six strap color variations, whereas the China version has eight. The global version does not have NFC, and it does not support the XiaoAi assistant.

Xiaomi also announced new earbuds, the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 Basic. These appear to be a non-ANC version of the already available Mi True Wireless Earphones 2. The Bluetooth earbuds boast up to 20 hours of total battery life (thanks to the charging case), and each earbud can be turned on or off individually.

We don’t know how much the smartband or earbuds will cost, or when they’ll be available. Xiaomi’s products are usually pretty cheap, and since the Mi Band 5 is already available in China, it might not take too long for the international version to arrive.

Tinder has a similar, paid feature called Passport that lets people connect with users in other locations. Last month, Tinder made Passport free to all users, but that offer expired on April 30th.

While Global Mode will do away with geographic boundaries, it sounds like it won’t allow users to decide which cities they pop up in. That could be one way for Tinder to distinguish between Global Mode and Passport, so that it can still keep Passport as a paid feature. 

Tinder isn’t the first to loosen dating boundaries in response to the pandemic. In April, Bumble made it possible for users to match with anyone in the US with a “whole country” filter. It added a Virtual Date badge for users willing to date via video chat, and it has teamed up with Airbnb to encourage creative online dating. Tinder is also preparing for virtual dates with plans to launch one-on-one video chats this summer. 

It’s clear that, like everything else, dating has been impacted by COVID-19. While app users probably shouldn’t meet in person, swiping is up. Tinder said it saw more swipes (over three billion) on March 29th than on any single day in its history. Letting users match around the world, might give the app even more of a boost.

“One-ring scams are annoying and pernicious, waking up many Americans with confusing calls in the middle of the night and tricking them out of their money if they call back,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “With this effort, this agency shows it’s serious about aggressively combating this scam.”

Earlier this month, the FCC and FTC sent letters to three gateway providers that were facilitating COVID-19-related robocall scams. The FCC warned that if the providers did not cut off those robocalls, phone companies would begin blocking all traffic from those gateway providers’ networks. According to the FCC, the providers stopped carrying those scams within 24 hours. Now, the FCC wants feedback on whether a similar approach might be used for one-ring scam calls.

In the meantime, the FCC advises consumers not to answer or return calls from numbers they don’t recognize and to check whether unfamiliar numbers have international area codes. It even suggests asking your phone company to block outgoing international calls if you don’t typically place those.

“Given the series’ apocalyptic theme, and because we are sensitive to the current events our members are experiencing, we felt it would be difficult to launch it in the right spirit,” the company said in a statement.

The show, Tinder’s first, follows a group of friends navigating the end of the world. Viewers take on a first-person role and have to make tough decisions, which get added to their profile, so matches can see how they’d handle a disaster. The six-episode first season was released weekly in the US, and according to TechCrunch, it has been viewed by millions, prompting plans for an international release and a second season.

Several shows and movies have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, but in most cases, those decisions were made to limit the potential spread via human contact. Tinder’s decision is based on the content of its show. It’s likely Swipe Night will launch internationally at some point, when it’s less offensive to make light of apocalyptic scenarios.

Tinder has also sent guidelines to its users, urging them to take precautions against COVID-19 if they meet matches IRL. If you’re not supposed to touch your own face, this probably isn’t a great time to touch a stranger’s face.

The UK first announced the “digital services tax” in 2018, and after a couple rounds of review, it’s ready to be enacted. The new legislation will levy a two-percent tax on the revenue from search engines, social media services and online marketplaces that derive value from UK users. It will only apply when companies make more than £500 million (about $650 million) from those digital activities and when more than £25 million (about $35 million) of that revenue is derived from UK users. So companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google will be impacted.

Initially, the UK government predicted the tax could raise more than £400 million ($512 million) annually. The UK still believes the best long-term option would be new international corporate tax rules, and it says it is “committed to dis-applying” the digital service tax if such rules are put in place.

The EU has proposed stricter tax laws for large tech companies, including a 3 percent tax on tech giants with global revenues of more than €750 million, but those are still being debated. Countries from Germany to Austria, Italy and South Korea have considered their own tax bills. Last year, Apple agreed to pay France 500 million euro (about $570 million) in back taxes.

When France proposed a three percent tax on revenues earned on digital services, President Trump threatened a tariff on French wine. The two reportedly reached an agreement, the details of which are still vague. The UK seems to be leading the way, and its new bill could spur more international tax reform.