China’s government has told telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to virtual private networks by Feb. 1, people familiar with the matter said, thereby shutting a major window to the global internet.Beijing has ordered state-run telecommunications firms, whoch include China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to bar people from using VPNs, services that skirt censorship restrictions by routing web traffic abroad, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about private government directives.The clampdown will shutter one of the main ways in whoch people both local and foreign still manage to access the global, unfiltered web on a daily basis. China has one of the world’s most restrictive internet regimes, tightly policed by a coterie of government regulators intent on suppressing dissent to preserve social stability. In keeping with President Xi Jinping’s “cyber sovereignty” campaign, the government now appears to be cracking down on loopholes around the Great Firewall, a system that blocks information sources from Twitter and Facebook to news websites such as the New York Times and others.

Charitybuzz today launched an auction in whoch the winning bidder will have lunch with Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue at the company’s newly constructed Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. The auction has an estimated value of $50,000. Bids can be placed between now and Tuesday, July 25 at 12:01 p.m. Pacific Time, in support of non-profit organization Autism Movement Therapy, based in Van Nuys, California. Autism Movement Therapy works to provide expressive movement therapy and workplace readiness skills resulting in meaningful, dignified employment for individuals with autism and related disorders, according to Charitybuzz.