Category: Technology

Nearly a week after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said that the accounts of suspended journalists would be reinstated, at least six remain blocked. Voice of America’s chief national correspondent, Steve Herman, is among them. Twitter suspended the accounts Dec. 15 over posts about another removed account — @Elonjet — which uses public data to track Musk’s private jet and other aircraft. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington-based whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, filed a complaint to Congress over the suspension of Herman and other journalists. “All of this is disturbing,” GAP’s Senior Counsel David Seide wrote in a letter addressed to the House and Senate commerce committees. “For no rational reason, Twitter and Mr. Musk wrongly muzzled and continue to muzzle Voice of America’s reporter and…

French authorities plan to use an AI-assisted crowd control system to monitor people during the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to a draft law seen by AFP on Thursday. The system is intended to allow the security services to detect disturbances and potential problems more easily, but will not use facial recognition technology, the bill says. The technology could be particularly useful during the highly ambitious open-air opening ceremony  with Olympians sailing down the river Seine in front of a crowd of 600,000 people. French police and sports authorities faced severe criticism in May after shambolic scenes during the Champions League final in Paris when football fans were caught in a crowd crush and teargassed. The draft law, which was presented to the cabinet on Thursday, proposes other security measures including…

Between the close of this year's climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh and the 2023 climate event slated for December 2023 in the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are all working to position themselves as new electric vehicle powerhouses. Signaling an era where next-generation electric vehicles are made in a region most strongly associated with fossil fuels, manufacturers in the three countries are seeing new forms of government backing and technology-driven partnerships with international automotive companies.   Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has set the most ambitious targets for electric vehicle manufacturing. Last month Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the first Saudi vehicle brand Ceer to design, manufacture, and sell sedans and sports utility vehicles targeting consumers in the kingdom and the broader Middle East. Ceer…

If not Elon, then who? That’s a question many are contemplating since Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, said this week he was actively looking for a new leader to run the social media network. Musk’s proclamation comes after more than 10 million respondents said in a Musk-created Twitter poll that he should resign. Musk followed up with a tweet that he would resign as soon as he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.” It was one of many twists in the company’s chaotic restructuring since Musk took over in late October, a period that has included mass layoffs and resignations, advertisers fleeing, policy changes and reversals, and the suspension of some journalists’ accounts. Musk’s management style is “break-it-to-build it,” said Andrew Miller, chief growth officer at Interbrand North America,…

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he plans on remaining as Twitter's CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job.  Musk's announcement came after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by.  "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Musk tweeted. "After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."  Since taking over San Francisco-based Twitter in late October, Musk's run as CEO has been marked by quickly issued rules and policies that have often been withdrawn or changed soon after being made public.  He has also alienated some investors in his electric vehicle company Tesla who are concerned that…

Elon Musk had an eventful year, capping 2022 with a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, a takeover that almost didn’t happen. The controversial CEO has brought changes and disruptions, layoffs and resignations that put Twitter’s fate into question. VOA’s Tina Trinh has more. ...

More than half of 17.5 million users who responded to a poll that asked whether billionaire Elon Musk should step down as head of Twitter voted yes when the poll closed on Monday.  There was no immediate announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether that would happen, though he said that he would abide by the results.  Musk has clashed with some users on multiple fronts and on Sunday, he asked Twitter users to decide if he should stay in charge of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media websites.  In yet another significant policy change, Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms…

Twitter users will no longer be able to link to certain rival social media websites, including what the company described Sunday as "prohibited platforms" Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon. It's the latest move by Twitter's new owner Elon Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet. "We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter," the company said in a statement. The banned platforms include mainstream websites such as Facebook and Instagram, and upstart rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump's Truth Social. Twitter gave no explanation for…

A prominent video game creator who helped lead Facebook's expansion into virtual reality has resigned from the social networking service's corporate parent after becoming disillusioned with the way the technology is being managed. John Carmack cut his ties with Meta Platforms, a holding company created last year by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a Friday letter that vented his frustration as he stepped down as an executive consultant in virtual reality. "There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy," Carmack wrote in the letter, which he shared on Facebook. ""Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say, 'Half? Ha! I'm at quarter efficiency!'" In response to an…

Taiwan's government said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, for an unauthorized investment in a Chinese chip maker even after the Taiwanese firm said it would be selling the stake. Taiwan has turned a wary eye on China's ambition to boost its semiconductor industry and is tightening legislation to prevent what it says is China stealing its chip technology. Foxconn, a major Apple Inc. supplier and iPhone maker, disclosed in July it was a shareholder of embattled Chinese chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup. Late Friday, Foxconn said in a filing to the Taipei stock exchange its subsidiary in China had agreed to sell its entire equity stake in Tsinghua Unigroup. Taiwan's Economy Ministry said in response that its investment commission, which has to approve all…

China is spending $143 billion to combat U.S. moves to cut off its supply of semiconductor technology.  The funds will be used to provide financial subsidies and incentives to help China's chipmakers develop and acquire semiconductor technology to withstand the U.S. move.  This is one of three measures, analysts say, taken by Beijing to protect semiconductor companies supporting its vast electronics, automotive and military hardware industries.   “China views semiconductors as a strategic resource. Therefore, it wants to become self-sufficient in all aspects of advanced chip design and manufacturing,” said Lourdes S. Casanova, director of the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University. “These funds are meant to build China’s capabilities towards this goal." Washington issued an order in October barring U.S. companies from supplying semiconductor chips, chipmaking devices, and updates for past…

VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman was among several journalists to be suspended from Twitter late Thursday. Followers of the former White House bureau chief’s Twitter account were greeted with a blank screen and message saying, “Account suspended.” Accounts for journalists from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as some independent journalists, showed similar messages. It was not immediately clear why those accounts were suspended. VOA's email requesting comment from the media contact listed on Twitter's company website was returned with a "delivery failure" message. Many of the reporters have written articles or posted about changes made to Twitter by its new owner, Elon Musk. In replies to tweets late Thursday, Musk said on the platform: "Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but…

A hacker who reportedly posed as the chief executive of a financial institution claims to have obtained access to the more than 80,000-member database of InfraGard, an FBI-run outreach program that shares sensitive information on national security and cybersecurity threats with public officials and private sector individuals who run U.S. critical infrastructure. The hacker posted samples purportedly from the database to an online forum popular with cybercriminals last weekend and said the asking price for the entire database was $50,000.  The hacker made the disclosures to independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who broke the story. The hacker called the vetting process surprisingly lax.  The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Krebs reported that the agency told him it was aware of a…

Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say was allowed and even promoted on the social media platform amid heated rhetoric over their country's deadly Tigray conflict. Former Amnesty International human rights researcher Fisseha Tekle is one petitioner in the case filed Wednesday and the other is the son of university professor Meareg Amare, who was killed weeks after posts on Facebook inciting violence against him. The case was filed in neighboring Kenya, home to the platform's content moderation operations related to Ethiopia. The lawsuit alleges that Meta hasn't hired enough content moderators there, that it uses an algorithm that prioritizes hateful content and that it acts more slowly to crises in Africa than elsewhere in the world. The lawsuit, also backed…

Law enforcement officials and financial services regulators have filed a raft of criminal and civil charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, alleging wide-ranging fraud that eventually brought down the company, which was valued at $32 billion earlier this year. The Department of Justice on Tuesday morning unsealed an indictment charging Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, actual wire fraud, money laundering, and violation of laws governing donations to politicians and political parties. At the request of U.S. prosecutors, Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested on Monday evening at his home in the Bahamas, where the headquarters of FTX is located. The U.S. and the Bahamas have an extradition treaty, and Bankman-Fried is expected to be transferred to U.S. custody in…

NASA's Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby. The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors. NASA needed a successful splashdown to stay on track for the next Orion flight around the moon, currently targeted for 2024. Four astronauts will make the trip. That will be followed by a…

The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. smartphone giant Apple Inc. is accelerating plans to move some China-based production lines to other southeastern Asian countries such as India and Vietnam. That, analysts said, would represent a significant shift in the so-called de-Sinification of global supply chains after manufacturers become aware of risks of concentrating production in China. China’s zero-COVID policy, which paralyzed some of its supply chains, and its deteriorating business environment would be the major trigger behind the shift, they added. India: the world’s next factory? “China’s anti-virus measures have forced many multinationals, including Apple, to hedge against the risk of disrupted supply chains. Though China is set to ease COVID restrictions, uncertainty remains because these multinationals have had experienced much sudden change of policy there – reasons behind Apple’s…

Taiwanese chip giant TSMC is building a second U.S. facility in the southwest state of Arizona, highlighting the Biden Administration’s push to bring more of the semiconductor supply chain to the United States. But are there enough trained workers there to meet the demand? Michelle Quinn has our story from Arizona, where they are ramping up training for workers and students at all levels. Videographer: Levi Stallings  ...

After more than half a century, the last Boeing 747 rolled out of a Washington state factory on Tuesday. The 747 jumbo jet has taken on numerous roles — a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft — since it debuted in 1969. It was the largest commercial aircraft in the world and the first with two aisles, and it still towers over most other planes. The plane's design included a second deck extending from the cockpit back over the first third of the plane, giving it a distinctive hump that made the plane instantly recognizable and inspired a nickname, the Whale. More elegantly, the 747 became known as the Queen of the Skies. It took more than 50,000…

U.S. President Joe Biden was in Arizona Tuesday promoting investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. He was joined by officials from the Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC, which says it is tripling its Arizona investment. VOA correspondent Michelle Quinn has our story. ...

President Joe Biden's visit Tuesday to a massive construction project in north Phoenix highlighted Arizona's role in a major U.S. policy shift on semiconductor manufacturing. The Biden administration is pushing to boost domestic chips manufacturing with more than $50 billion in subsidies in the new CHIPs and Science Act. The president's visit to the new fabrication facility being built by Taiwanese chips giant TSMC came as the firm announced it would build a second fabrication facility and triple its investment in Phoenix to $40 billion. Biden says it is good news for TSMC's biggest customer, Apple. "These are the most advanced semiconductor chips on the planet. Chips will power iPhones and MacBooks," Biden said. "Apple had to buy all the advanced chips from overseas. Now, they are going to bring…

U.S. President Joe Biden is traveling to Arizona on Tuesday to visit a computer chip facility, underscoring the Grand Canyon state's position in the emerging U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. Biden will visit a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plant in north Phoenix. He will tour the plant and deliver remarks celebrating his economic plan and the "manufacturing boom" it has caused, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during Monday's briefing. TSMC is the world's largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor chips. In August, Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, legislation aimed at countering China's massive subsidies to its chip industry. It includes about $52 billion in funding for U.S. companies for the manufacturing of chips, which go into technology like smartphones, electric vehicles, appliances and weapons systems.   Arizona is…

Three Chinese astronauts landed in a northern desert on Sunday after six months working to complete construction of the Tiangong station, a symbol of the country’s ambitious space program, state TV reported. A capsule carrying commander Chen Dong and astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe touched down at a landing site in the Gobi Desert in northern China at approximately 8:10 p.m. (1210 GMT), China Central Television reported. Prior to departure, they overlapped for almost five days with three colleagues who arrived Wednesday on the Shenzhou-15 mission for their own six-month stay, marking the first time China had six astronauts in space at the same time. The station’s third and final module docked with the station this month. The astronauts were carried out of the capsule by medical workers about…

With Ukraine scrambling to keep communication lines open during the war, an army of engineers from the country's phone companies has mobilized to help the public and policymakers stay in touch during repeated Russian missile and drone strikes. The engineers, who typically go unseen and unsung in peacetime, often work around the clock to maintain or restore phone service, sometimes braving minefields to do so. After Russian strikes took out the electricity that cellphone towers usually run on, they revved up generators to keep the towers on. "I know our guys – my colleagues – are very exhausted, but they're motivated by the fact that we are doing an important thing," Yuriy Dugnist, an engineer with Ukrainian telecommunications company Kyivstar, said after crunching through 15 centimeters of fresh snow to…

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said his Neuralink company is seeking permission to test its brain implant in people soon. In a "show and tell" presentation livestreamed Wednesday night, Musk said his team is in the process of asking U.S. regulators to allow them to test the device. He said he thinks the company should be able to put the implant in a human brain as part of a clinical trial in about six months, though that timeline is far from certain. Musk's Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking brains to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications. The field dates to the 1960s, said Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington. "But it really…

The United States is pushing to regain its position as a center for semiconductor manufacturing and research as part of a Biden administration plan to make the nation less reliant on supply chains in Asia. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports from the Southwest state of Arizona on competition for billions of dollars in federal funding to bolster domestic chip manufacturing. Additional videographer: Levi Stallings ...

The International Energy Agency says 13% of cars sold worldwide this year will be electric. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles that consumer demand for electric vehicles is increasing as the industry overcomes technical hurdles. ...

The Biden administration has banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from China's Huawei Technologies HWT.UL and ZTE 000063.SZ because they pose "an unacceptable risk" to U.S. national security. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said Friday it had adopted the final rules, which also bar the sale or import of equipment made by China's surveillance equipment maker Dahua Technology Co 002236.SZ, video surveillance firm Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd 002415.SZ and telecoms firm Hytera Communications Corp Ltd 002583.SZ. The move represents Washington's latest crackdown on the Chinese tech giants amid fears that Beijing could use Chinese tech companies to spy on Americans. "These new rules are an important part of our ongoing actions to protect the American people from national security threats involving telecommunications," FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel said…