Month: January 2021

Enlarge / A woman is wearing a mask with the Uyghurs flag on it, during the demonstration 'Freedom for Uyghurs' in The Hague, Netherlands on August 20th, 2020. (credit: Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Twitter has told Ars Technica that a Chinese government tweet praising China's treatment of its Uygur ethnic minority does not violate its policy against hateful conduct.

"Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines," the tweet says. "They are more confident and independent."

Human rights advocates have characterized China's treatment of the Uygur people in the Xinjiang region of China as a demographic genocide. Here's how the Associated Press described China's approach last summer:

A drone pilot is sent into a deadly militarized zone where he finds himself working for an android officer tasked with averting a doomsday scenario in Outside the Wire, the latest high-profile feature film from Netflix. This one stars Anthony Mackie as the android protagonist, fresh off his stunning performance in the sci-fi indie film Synchronic (included in our roundup last month of the best films released in 2020). That, and Netflix's solid track record with its feature films, are reason enough to be intrigued.

Per the official synopsis:

In 2036, America serves as a peacekeeping force and human troops on both sides are supported by robot combatants called Gumps and drone pilots monitoring skirmishes from thousands of miles away. But after headstrong drone pilot Lieutenant Harp (Damson Idris) disobeys a direct order to intervene in a conflict, the Army deploys him to a military outpost to confront the human costs of his button-pushing.

Harp's expectations of guarding a fence are upended when his new commanding officer Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie) announces plans to infiltrate the demilitarized zone and apprehend Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbæk), a warlord who intends to launch a network of dormant nuclear weapons. Soon, Harp learns that his theoretical experience as a drone pilot means little out on the battlefield under enemy attack—especially after discovering that Leo is an A.I.-enhanced supersoldier whose strength, speed and demand for results promise to turn his real-world education into a trial by fire.

That pretty much sums it up. The trailer opens with Harp arrives for his reassignment, apparently because he has trouble following the rules—or, as Leo (the classified prototype supersoldier) prefers to think of it, an ability to "think outside the box." A bit of a buddy-cop vibe separates the two, with Leo teasing his subordinate about the mushy inscription on the back of Harp's girlfriend's photo ("Awwww... 'my gummi bear.... '"). We learn that Leo is capable of human emotion despite his extensive combat training (or, er, programming), and he has a neat trick of temporarily removing his tracker when he wants to go off the grid ("Sometimes you got to get dirty to see any real change"). Then the fisticuffs, property damage, and explosions kick in.

Enlarge / Boeing 737 Max planes. (credit: Boeing)

Misleading federal regulators who were investigating not one but two plane crashes turns out to be a bad idea. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that Boeing has been charged with a conspiracy to defraud a government agency that was evaluating the company's 737 Max airplane.

As a result of "misleading statements, half-truths, and omissions communicated by Boeing employees" to the Federal Aviation Authority's Aircraft Evaluation Group, Boeing has agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion as part of a deferred prosecution agreement—that includes a criminal penalty of $243 million, $500 million to compensate the heirs of 346 crash victims, and $1.77 billion in compensation to Boeing's airline customers.

Boeing's problem with its best-selling 737 Max began in October 2018 when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea and killed 189 people. The following March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed after takeoff in Ethiopia, killing 157 people. Both crashes had the same cause—the plane's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.

Enlarge / Wealth. (credit: Aurich Lawson vs. Disney)

Elon Musk has become the world's richest man, surpassing previous record-holder Jeff Bezos, according to CNBC. Musk is now worth more than $180 billion.

Musk's rising wealth reflects the meteoric rise of Tesla's stock. The company's share price closed at $816 on Thursday, up almost 8 percent for the day. That share price values Tesla at almost $800 billion—several times more than any other car company.

CNBC says that Musk's rise to become the richest man in the world is the fastest in history. At the start of 2020, just over a year ago, Musk was worth only $27 billion. At the time, Tesla stock traded for less than $100 (adjusting for a 2020 stock split).