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  Creative writing is probably one of the most sought-after soft skills out there. In today’s world quality content is required in diverse sectors like literature, business promotion, eCommerce, technical websites, digital marketing, etc. Content writing is an on-demand skill both for full-time jobs and outsourcing platforms. People, who have a natural spree of writing, can turn that passion into a profession and make a stable source of income. Here we have discussed the basic ideas about creative writing and listed some of the best 10 free online writing courses available in various reputed platforms in 2021. What is Content Writing? Though everyone with a basic understanding of English can write content, the skill of professional writing requires a combination of factors like ability to research, power of imagination, perseverance, etc. There is also the concept of natural flow and coherence. All in all, content writing is something that requires practice and learning to develop proficiency. The domain of Content writing has different branches, like web content, blog posts, business proposal writing, copywriting, technical writing, journalism reports, scientific report, academic writings, ghost writing, etc. Content writing depending on its category can be quite intricate and complicated with a requirement of basic and in-depth knowledge about the subject matter. Read Top 10 Free Online Video Editing Courses Why should you learn Creative Writing? Let me ask you this, why shouldn’t you? If you are a student or a white-collar professional, chances are you have to deal with and write lots and lots of content on different subjects every day. A piece of write-up written in proper tone and flow with appropriate research is highly valued, regardless of whether you're a student or a professional. Moreover, there is a high demand for content writing jobs on the internet. Most of these are freelance based meaning you can make a healthy side income or even take it up as a full-time career opportunity. Regardless of how you see it, content writing proficiency is one of those soft skills that you can use in almost every sphere of your professional as well as educational life. Read Top 10 Free Online Digital Marketing Courses in 2021 10 Free Online Content Writing Courses in 2021 The Craft of Plot   This one is for all the storytellers out there. One of the most challenging aspects of creative writing is to keep your readers engaged. The craft of plot creative writing course is offered by the Wesleyan University in collaboration with Coursera. This is an all-in-one comprehensive guide to creative writing. A writer will be taught how to set the structure, story building arc and finishing the inevitable climax. For aspiring writers who want to explore the literary world but don’t quite know how to open their thoughts, this course can be a good starting point. Business Writing Techniques If you are in the business world, you are probably familiar with the corporate culture and the need to be persuasive in every aspect. Whether it's a brand promotion or a sales pitch, when it comes to business writings, there are a lot of aspects that a writer must consider before jolting the pen on paper. The course offered by DoaneX is exactly what you need to get a comprehensive idea of business writing. There are enough modules for about 8 hours a week for 4 weeks. However, this is a self-paced course and you can get it done at your own preferred time. Read Free Online Graphic Design Courses to Enhance Your Skill during Quarantine How to Write an Essay The next course on our list is offered by UC Berkeley in association with Edx. The course mainly focuses on the academic writing aspect as well as essay development. The course also critically discusses certain tricky grammatical usage and how to get them right. When you are writing an academic essay, the structure and coherence need to be spot on and this course makes sure you get the strategies to write long and descriptive essays and thesis without an issue. There is also an online discussion session with this course which will be helpful to build a communicative learning environment. Write About Yourself How many times have we fumbled when asked to tell us something about ourselves? The same goes for writing as well. From the perspective of Bangladesh, the skill to write cohesively and confidently about oneself is very important considering many students take on the study abroad opportunity as well as a job application. The course titled Write about yourself is offered by Wesleyan University in association with Coursera. With 2 hours a week, this course can be completed in 4 months. The modules are all self-paced so you shouldn’t have any problem adjusting. Read Where to Find Online Courses during Coronavirus Home Quarantine Become a Journalist This course is offered by Michigan State University in association with Coursera. If you want to consider journalism as a career, then you should check this one out. The course is comprehensive, it sets guidelines of ethical standards to be followed, the dos and don'ts to be a journalist, overall structuring of the report, and a host of other things. With 4 hours a week, you can complete this course in 6 months. It's reported that, of the journalists who took this course, 20% of them got a pay raise after the completion of the course. In addition to that, you will receive professional certification as well. Creative Writing Course The course is offered by crafty writer, a renowned web content site that specializes in writing skill development. Their creative writing course is very detailed and comprehensive in its elements. You will be introduced to several personalized styles like writing flow and voice, how to write short stories, understanding point of view, using vividness, etc. In addition to ample resource materials, you will also be getting several assignments and modules to finish so that there's an effective learning outcome. On top of that, this is a self-paced course, so you can complete it at your ease.   Read How to Get Hired for Online Writing Jobs How to Write a Novel The title of the course is pretty self-explanatory. If you are a storyteller itching to write your first piece, then this is the course for you. The all-in-one course will provide you with a detailed idea about writing a long piece. The course is offered by reedsy learning and will take you over the 101 of writing novels and long stories. Not just novels, you can also learn about word-building techniques, character development, and how to be consistent with your writing. Writing What You Know Creative writing isn’t always about writing fiction or long articles. Sometimes it can be as simple as articulating a personal experience. However, expressing an experience cohesively often becomes a drag for lack of proper structure and sequencing. The writing course provided by open learn tackles this issue in creative writing. You will learn how to structure your content, how to develop a vivid image, pacing scenes, and many more. This is a completely free course and you can learn it at your own ease. Read Want to start freelancing from Bangladesh? These are the best platforms for you How to Write a Business Book If you have a successful business story to tell, then this is the course for you. This course specifically focuses on how you can write a business book that will capture your audience and get them hooked to your strategy. The course is offered by reedsy learning. You will get a detailed idea about the questions to be addressed in the book, goal management, and step generation so that it becomes easy for the readers to follow. The course is available for free and it will take you roughly about 6 months to complete. English Composition This is another course offered by Arizona State University. Rather than specializing in certain writing styles, this takes a broad approach to content writing. This is basically a writing 101 course that will get you started in writing, regardless of the subject matter. The course focuses on incorporating rhetorical knowledge, and critical thinking, and digital technology in your writing. It also incorporates established style conventions and habits of mind to make your writing stand out and better engage your audience. You can access this self-paced course from Edx. Read The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in the Freelancing Industry: Can You Sustain? Bottom Line Writing content isn’t about sequentially putting words one after another, it’s also about capturing the emotion of the reader and properly communicating the gist material of the writing. We hope the free online content writing courses mentioned above will help you better excel in your creative writing endeavors. 

Huawei and third-party data predict that the Augmented Reality (AR) market will be $300 billion by 2025. At the Huawei's Better World Summit 2021 Thursday, Bob Cai, chief marketing officer of Huawei Carrier Business Group, said: "5G will switch on AR, and AR will light up 5G." Also read: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched "AR will first see massive adoption in five prioritised industries – education, social networking, shopping, travelling and navigation, and gaming by converging the physical and digital worlds, making dreams a reality, " he added. Cai also called on the entire industry to work together for a prosperous 5G + AR ecosystem. "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. AR development requires the entire industry to work together and create a prosperous 5G + AR value chain," he said. Also read: Huawei joins Responsible Business 2021

Communications technology provider Ericsson projects that 5G mobile subscriptions will exceed 580 million by the end of 2021 and cross 3.5 billion by 2026. Northeast Asia is expected to account for the largest share of 5G subscriptions by 2026 with an estimated 1.4 billion 5G subscriptions. North American and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets are forecast to account for the highest 5G subscription penetration with 5G mobile subscriptions comprising 84% and 73% of all regional mobile subscriptions, Ericsson said. Also read: 5G phone: Realme targets 100 million youth customers by 2024 However, the pace of adoption varies widely by region. Europe is off to a slower start and has continued to fall far behind China, the US, Korea, Japan and the GCC markets in the pace of 5G deployments, Ericsson's biannual mobility report said. 5G is expected to surpass a billion subscriptions two years ahead of the 4G LTE timeline for the same milestone. Key factors behind that include China's earlier commitment to 5G and the earlier availability and increasing affordability of commercial 5G devices. More than 300 5G smartphone models have already been announced or launched commercially, Ericsson said. Also read: ZTE implements SuperDSS for 5G transition in S Africa "We are in the next phase of 5G, with accelerating rollouts and coverage expansion in pioneer markets such as China, the US and South Korea. Now is the time for advanced use cases to start materialising and deliver on the promise of 5G. Businesses and societies are also preparing for a post-pandemic world, with 5G-powered digitalisation playing a critical role," Ericsson's head of networks Fredrik Jejdling said. "Going beyond the existing technologies that have played a key role in Bangladesh's digital development, 5G can address the rapid data growth and reduce cost per GB. It can further stimulate the digital economy in Bangladesh through innovation-driven platforms," Abdus Salam, head of Ericsson Bangladesh, said. Read $300 billion market by 2025 for Augmented Reality: Huawei

A software bug at a major network provider briefly knocked dozens of financial institutions, airlines and other companies across the globe offline during peak business hours in Asia. Akamai, which runs one of the internet’s main content-delivery systems, said the outage Thursday was not caused by a cyberattack, but rather a software bug on a service that protects customers against denial-of-service attacks. Many of the 500 affected Akamai customers had their traffic rerouted in minutes but it took more than four hours to fully restore the system, the Massachusetts company said. Akamai operates mirrors of customer websites in 135 countries — known as edge servers — designed to speed access to them. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the four largest U.S. airlines were among those impacted. Akamai does not name its customers but says they include more than 300 of the world’s banks, more than 30 airlines, more than 200 national government agencies and 825 retailers. Many of the outages were reported by people in Australia trying to do banking, book flights and access postal services at mid-afternoon. Many services were back up and running after an hour or so. Banking services were severely disrupted, with Westpac, the Commonwealth, ANZ and St George all down, along with the website of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank. The Reserve Bank cancelled a bond-buying operation due to technical difficulties facing several banks that were to participate. The airline Virgin Australia was also affected and cited the Akamai content delivery system. It said flights largely operated as scheduled after it restored access to its website and guest contact center. Outages briefly spiked on American, Delta, United and Southwest airlines. Because the disruptions happened late at night in the U.S. when few planes were taking off, airline representatives said there was little to no effect on flights. Southwest, which has suffered two other, unrelated technology issues this week, said its website and other internet-based tools were briefly disconnected but flights were not affected. United said there were no lingering issues early Thursday. The disruptions occurred only days after many of the world’s top websites went offline briefly due to a software disruption at Fastly, another major web services company. The company blamed the problem on a software bug triggered when a single customer changed a setting. Brief internet service outages are not uncommon and are only rarely the result of hacking or other mischief. However, the recent outages have underscored how vital a small number of behind-the-scenes companies have become to running the internet.

Arab oil producers, alarmed by their economies' dependence on a resource for which demand is set to fall, are focusing on space development in a new strategic turn aimed at both building up new industries for the future and raising national prestige. Taking the lead is the United Arab Emirates, which has already begun an exploration of Mars and will launch a lunar probe next year. Technical experts in their 30s and younger, many of them women, are at the heart of the efforts, and collaboration has started with other Arab countries. The Gulf state has developed its economy on the back of abundant crude oil and gas resources, but Sarah Al Amiri, a computer engineer and the UAE's first minister of state for advanced technology, warns that the end of the road for reliance on these resources is ahead. "We completely understand that demand for oil will decline at a certain point in the future," she said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. The 34-year-old emphasized that fostering the science and technology industries through space development will be "the fuel" for a sustainable economy into the future. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is located in a desert region around 20 minutes by car from the bustling economic hub of Dubai. It manages the "Hope" orbiter, which entered Mars' orbit in February as the first Arab interplanetary probe. According to Omran Sharaf, 36, the project manager of the UAE's mission to Mars, the staff employed at the space center has an average age in their late 20s, with women comprising half of the leadership roles in each department. The UAE, which had little experience in space development until the Hope mission, has positioned Mars exploration as a national project as it celebrates the 50th anniversary this year of the country's founding, proceeding with work at a rapid pace. With cooperation from the United States and Japan, the UAE achieved the difficult mission of launching the Mars probe just six years after announcing the plan in 2014. "There are much bigger strategic objectives for the mission beyond just exploring Mars. It's critical for the future of our economy," said Sharaf, adding that space development will be a big challenge for the future of the Middle East region as a whole. Diversification of industries and job creation for young people are some of the issues that are facing Arabs as a whole. In what appears a clear attempt to break through a sense of being mired in economic stagnation, the UAE has set a bold goal of colonizing Mars in about a century. Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest oil-producing countries, established a space agency in 2018. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman views the space industry as a promising field that can contribute to the economy, with a substantial investment to be made as part of the growth strategy "Vision 2030," which aims to eliminate dependence on oil by 2030. The UAE launched a framework for space development cooperation with 10 other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 2019 and is planning to launch a jointly manufactured artificial satellite within a few years. An Arab space bureau that transcends national boundaries is also rumored to be planned. The UAE lunar rover is scheduled to be mounted on a lander by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace and transported to the moon next year. "Japan has always been a partner for the UAE, especially if we talk about the oil and gas sector," Al Amiri said, adding that she envisions the two governments working closely to build an even stronger relationship through space development into the future.

Youth-focused brand realme Tuesday launched its flagship killer phone realme GT 5G along with three new AIoT products – realme Watch 2 and 2 Pro and realme TechLife Robot Vacuum – in the global market. Realme also revealed its new elevated AIoT strategy and plan to bring in its first laptop and tablet for global consumers within the next few months. With the launch of GT 5G, realme has entered the global mid-to-high-end smartphone segment. Also read: 5G phone: Realme targets 100 million youth customers by 2024 Realme GT 5G, inspired by the core concept of grand tourers (GT) sports cars, is expected to deliver high speed and exceptional performance. The phone features Qualcomm's most sophisticated high-end chipset Snapdragon 888 along with a premium speed-inspired design, a stainless-steel cooling system for sustained performance, a super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 65W super dart charger. Also read: Realme to bring Snapdragon 778G 5G, Android 12 Beta 1-equipped smartphone Also, it is equipped with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. This flagship phone also has dual light sensors, greater connectivity, a flagship camera, immersive audio and exclusive GT mode.  Sky Li, CEO of realme, said: "By offering the maximum number of flagship features for our budget-minded consumers, the global launch of the realme GT reflects our ongoing commitment to making cutting-edge technology more accessible to young consumers around the world and hence empowering them in their daily lives."  Read OPPO partners with Thales for World’s First 5G SA-Compatible eSIM

Huawei organized recently the Asia-Pacific Higher Education Innovation Forum through live streaming with the theme Embracing the New Era of Intelligent Education. The forum invited industry experts from UNESCO ICHEI, NUS, Open University, Thammasat University, National University of Malaysia, and PwC, including 450 informatization directors, partners, and business luminaries. The forum focused on topics such as smart campus, online education, and smart classroom and discussed the development trend of education ICT and the challenges and opportunities for education informatization in the post-pandemic era. READ: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched At the opening ceremony, Nicholas Ma, President of Huawei Asia Pacific Enterprise Business Group, shared Huawei’s understanding of ICT development in higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as its vision of smart higher education in the future. Professor Zhao Jianhua, Senior Specialist of UNESCO ICHEI, shared his insights on the exciting new trends in education. According to Prof. Zhao, today’s education industry is being shaped by five major digital technologies: AR, personalized hybrid learning, gamification, AI, and IoT. What’s more, there will be five new applications in the education industry: a more efficient learning system, mental health monitoring, personalized distant education, automated data processing, and personalized collaborative education. Read Women continue making amazing contributions in STEM fields: US The recent disruptions to the world in the last 18 months have severely affected university education around the world. Many teachers and students can no longer go to school like they used to. During the panel session of this forum, the panellists explored how universities in the Asia-Pacific region use ICT to offset this impact, what plans and visions they have for future teaching and management models, and how to accelerate the digital transformation of universities. Assoc. Professor Dr. Nurhizam Safie (Deputy Dean (Networking & Alumni), IST Faculty Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) stressed that the critical success factor for digital transformation in higher education is to embrace the new online pedagogy and it’s really about effective change management and managing the transition to online learning. Read Huawei brings financial aid, free service for Asia-Pacific SMEs Many universities are facing similar problems, such as a lack of teacher-student-classroom interaction, the insufficient sharing of education resources, difficult management due to scattered school services, high energy consumption, and low decision-making efficiency. It has become a priority for education administrators and teachers to tackle such challenges. At this forum, Shi Ri, Huawei APAC, introduced the Huawei Smart Campus Solution and Smart Classroom Solution designed for higher education. Huawei has been working in collaboration with industry-leading partners and is leveraging its cloud platform to provide E2E smart education solutions that cover smart devices, converged networks, and teaching and management applications for university customers in multiple countries, including South Africa, Italy, and UAE. READ: Huawei joins Responsible Business 2021

A cyberespionage campaign blamed on China was more sweeping than previously known, with suspected state-backed hackers exploiting a device meant to boost internet security to penetrate the computers of critical U.S. entities. The hack of Pulse Connect Secure networking devices came to light in April, but its scope is only now starting to become clear. The Associated Press has learned that the hackers targeted telecommunications giant Verizon and the country’s largest water agency. News broke earlier this month that the New York City subway system, the country’s largest, was also breached. Security researchers say dozens of other high-value entities that have not yet been named were also targeted as part of the breach of Pulse Secure, which is used by many companies and governments for secure remote access to their networks. It’s unclear what sensitive information, if any, was accessed. Some of the targets said they did not see any evidence of data being stolen. That uncertainty is common in cyberespionage and it can take months to determine data loss, if it is ever discovered. Ivanti, the Utah-based owner of Pulse Connect Secure, declined to comment on which customers were affected. Read: Huawei's largest cybersecurity, privacy protection transparency centre launched But even if sensitive information wasn’t compromised, experts say it is worrisome that hackers managed to gain footholds in networks of critical organizations whose secrets could be of interest to China for commercial and national security reasons. “The threat actors were able to get access to some really high-profile organizations, some really well-protected ones,” said Charles Carmakal, the chief technology officer of Mandiant, whose company first publicized the hacking campaign in April. The Pulse Secure hack has largely gone unnoticed while a series of headline-grabbing ransomware attacks have highlighted the cyber vulnerabilities to U.S. critical infrastructure, including one on a major fuels pipeline that prompted widespread shortages at gas stations. The U.S. government is also still investigating the fallout of the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched by Russian cyber spies, which infiltrated dozens of private sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies and went on for most of 2020. China has a long history of using the internet to spy on the U.S. and presents a “prolific and effective cyber-espionage threat,” the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence said in its most recent annual threat assessment. Six years ago Chinese hackers stole millions of background check files of federal government employees from the Office of Personnel Management. And last year the Justice Department charged two hackers it said worked with the Chinese government to target firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world. Read:Attacks on individuals fall as cybercrime shifts tactics The Chinese government has denied any role in the Pulse hacking campaign and the U.S. government has not made any formal attribution. In the Pulse campaign, security experts said sophisticated hackers exploited never-before-seen vulnerabilities to break in and were hyper diligent in trying to cover their tracks once inside. “The capability is very strong and difficult to defend against, and the profile of victims is very significant,” said Adrian Nish, the head of cyber at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. “This is a very targeted attack against a few dozen networks that all have national significance in one way or another.” The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, issued an April alert about the Pulse hack saying it was aware of “compromises affecting a number of U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and other private sector organizations.” The agency has since said that at least five federal agencies have identified indications of potential unauthorized access, but not said which ones. Verizon said it found a Pulse-related compromise in one of its labs but it was quickly isolated from its core networks. The company said no data or customer information was accessed or stolen. Read:Hack against US is 'grave' threat, cybersecurity agency says “We know that bad actors try to compromise our systems,” said Verizon spokesman Rich Young. “That is why internet operators, private companies and all individuals need to be vigilant in this space.” The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people and operates some of the largest treatment plants in the world, said it found a compromised Pulse Secure appliance after CISA issued its alert in April. Spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said the appliance was immediately removed from service and no Metropolitan systems or processes were known to have been affected. She said there was “no known data exfiltration.” The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York also said they’ve not found evidence of valuable data or customer information was stolen. The breach was first reported by The New York Times. Nish, the BAE security expert, said the hackers could have broken into networks but not stolen data right away for any number of operational reasons. He compared it to a criminal breaking into a house but stopping in the hallway. “It’s still pretty bad,” Nish said. Read: UK government sets up cyber unit to fight coronavirus-related fake news Mandiant said it found signs of data extraction from some of the targets. The company and BAE have identified targets of the hacking campaign in several fields, including financial, technology and defense firms, as well as municipal governments. Some targets were in Europe, but most in the U.S. At least one major local government has disputed it was a target of the Pulse Secure hack. Montgomery County, Maryland, said it was advised by CISA that its Pulse Secure devices were attacked. But county spokesman Scott Peterson said the county found no evidence of a compromise and told CISA they had a “false report.” CISA did not directly respond to the county’s statement. The new details of the Pulse Secure hack come at a time of tension between the U.S. and China. Biden has made checking China’s growth a top priority, and said the country’s ambition of becoming the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world is “not going to happen under my watch.”

Global smart device brand Oppo has come up with an activity where the users and fans will have to capture the surprising and funny moments with friends and family with their F19 Pro. After creating both single and dual-view videos, the participants will have to post the video or the link of the video in the comment section with the hashtag #ShareYourFunMoments. Also, they will be able to win a brand new Oppo F19 Pro and other gifts such as Oppo Band Style and OPPO Enco W11 headphones.   Also read: Oppo offers 30% off and lots of surprises for users Interested people can participate in this activity based on three themes – fun moment with a friend, fun moment with friends and family and fun moment with family.  In the first theme, the participants will have to create videos capturing fun moments with friends. This activity will continue from June 8-14. The second theme is meant for friends and families. This will continue from June 15-19.  Also read: Oppo launches swap deal The third theme is dedicated to family. In this category, the users can share fun moments with family from June 20-27.  Oppo F19 Pro is a mid-range phone with Dual-View Video and AI Color Portrait Video, new crystal silver design with Reno Glow Effect, 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 and Game Focus Mode. Owing to a fusion of hardware performance and software capability, F19 Pro offers immersive gaming. Read Tecno Spark 7 review: The entry-level gaming phone of 2021

Global smartphone brand realme is all set to introduce its flagship phone – realme GT 5G – to the global market on June 15. Realme CEO Sky Li will deliver the opening speech at the global launch event whereas Madhav Sheth, VP and CEO of India and Europe, realme, will talk about the company's business strategy.  Also read: 5G phone: Realme targets 100 million youth customers by 2024 The event will come to a close with the unveiling of realme's new AIoT products. Inspired by the slogan "sheer speed flagship," realme GT is an amalgamation of cutting-edge design and technology. The phone has captured the original essence of the Grand Touring (GT) experience for young users.  Also read: Realme to bring Snapdragon 778G 5G, Android 12 Beta 1-equipped smartphone Apart from the flagship launch, realme will also unveil its new AIoT strategy and a new line of products labelled under realme TechLife. After the launch of realme GT 5G in the global market on June 15, the flagship phone will be released in the local markets.