Monday, August 14, 2023

UK
Government distances itself from ‘Lavatory Tsar’ claims as it is mocked over public toilets strategy

Adam Forrest
Sun, 13 August 2023 


Rishi Sunak’s government has distanced itself from the idea of a “Lavatory Tsar” after it was mocked for its new public toilets strategy.

Mr Sunak and his equalities minister Kemi Badenoch were ridiculed following a report that the government was planning to introduce a toilets commissioner to address the closure of public toilets.

But it is understood that the plan is not being considered. Although it was discussed in parliament after being raised by a Labour MP, it was rejected by the government amid fears that it would increase bureaucracy.

It came as the government weighed into a fresh “culture war” row over bathrooms, announcing plans to crack down on gender-neutral toilets. New shops, public buildings and offices will be ordered to provide single-sex facilities, as the PM and Ms Badenoch engaged in a “war on woke” row with transgender rights groups on the issue.

Launching her new crackdown, the equalities minister said that the widespread switch to gender-neutral toilets had removed the “fundamental right” of women and girls to “privacy, dignity and safety”.

Trans rights groups have argued that gender-neutral toilets can help to combat discrimination, since trans people can face difficulties using male or female toilets.

But the Sunak government argues that communal cubicles and hand-washing facilities have led to “dignity and privacy concerns” among women who feel “unfairly disadvantaged”.

Pledging to halt the increasing use of gender-neutral facilities, the government is changing regulations to specify that all new non-residential buildings must offer separate single-sex toilets for women and men.

Self-contained, private unisex toilets should be provided in new buildings if there is space – but should not be put in at the expense of single-sex toilets.

“It is important that everybody has privacy and dignity when using public facilities,” said Ms Badenoch. “Yet the move towards ‘gender-neutral’ toilets has removed this fundamental right for women and girls.”


Sign for a non-binary gender neutral toilet (PA)

There was confusion over a report in The Sunday Telegraph which claimed that ministers planned to appoint a Lavatories Tsar.

Labour’s mayor of Newham Council compared it to John Major’s much-mocked “cones hotline” fiasco in the early 1990s, when the then Tory PM was ridiculed for his focus on minor traffic issues during a major economic recession.

But the government later made clear that it had no plans to bring in a tsar, pointing out that it had rejected a Labour amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill in October to have a commissioner for public loos.

However, some on social media questioned the government’s sense of priorities for focusing on bathroom rows during a cost of living crisis.

One Twitter user said voters “can’t pay our rent, mortgages, fuel bills, or buy food” while ministers were tackling the issue of “sex-segregated lavatories”.

Rishi Sunak has been accused of ‘ugly culture war’ (PA Wire)

And Tory MP Caroline Nokes defended the use of gender-neutral toilets. “What matters most when it comes to toilets is design,” the equalities select committee chair told Pink News.

“I always point at Portcullis House in parliament, which has bathrooms on every floor. Nobody refers to them as gender-neutral bathrooms – they are just bathrooms.”

The government has previously been accused of using gender-neutral toilets and other trans-related issues to stoke divisions in a “war on wokeism”.

Labour’s Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told The Independent in June that Mr Sunak was exploiting the trans debate as a “wedge issue in an ugly culture war”.

The PM was also accused of transphobia after a leaked video saw him mocking Ed Davey for “trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises”. But No 10 insisted the joke was at the expense of the Lib Dem leader, not of a minority group.

It comes as the government prepares to set out new guidance to schools on trans issues when parliament returns next month.

The delayed document is widely expected to tell headteachers to consult parents if their child talks about a desire to transition socially to a different gender.
UK
Bibby Stockholm: Asylum seekers should be moved back on the barge despite row over Legionella, says Steve Barclay


Sky News
Updated Mon, 14 August 2023 


Legionella bacteria can cause a potentially deadly lung infection known as Legionnaires' disease. It is contracted by people breathing in droplets of water containing the bacteria.

None of the migrants on the barge have shown any symptoms of the disease, according to the Home Office.


Asylum seekers were removed from the barge on Friday after Legionella bacteria was found in the vessel's water system.


It later emerged that people spent four days on board the barge after the bacteria was discovered and before they were removed by the Home Office as a "precautionary measure" - prompting a blame game about what the government knew and when.

Dorset Council has said Home Office contractors were notified about the results last Monday - four days before people were moved off the barge.

The council went on to claim a Home Office staff member was informed about the bacteria on Tuesday.

However, a government source previously told Sky News there is no record of this conversation, and claimed the Home Office only received a written notification about the Legionella on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Barclay said ministers were informed about traces of the bacteria only on Thursday.

Asked about claims the Home Office was informed about test results which discovered the bacteria on Tuesday, he said: "This is a standard thing the council had done. There is no reason to suggest there were concerns. As a precaution the tests were done.

"As soon as ministers were notified on Thursday night, there were some concerns with that, they took instant action."

He added: "It may be the council notified the Home Office, that is an issue for those in the Home Office to respond to, obviously this is a Home Office lead.

"My understanding from colleagues in the Home Office is it was notified to Home Office ministers on Thursday and they then took very quick action as a result."

And asked whether people should be put back on the Bibby Stockholm despite the controversy, Mr Barclay replied: "Yes, I do, because it's costing around £6m a day in terms of the cost of hotels.

"It's important that we both maintain safety standards, but also reflect the pressure on the taxpayer position in terms of that £6m."

The health secretary also said no migrants had shown signs of illness from Legionella.

"There has been no concerns in terms of anyone that has been on the barge and all those people are being subject to health assessments," he said.

The barge is one of a number of alternative sites the Home Office is using to end reliance on expensive hotels for asylum seekers, which the government says is costing the taxpayer £6m a day.

Its operation has been mired in controversy after its opening was delayed several times before it finally opened to asylum seekers last Monday.

Charities have warned that those on board the boat have been "re-traumatised" after they were evacuated following the discovery of Legionella.

Conservative ministers have faced calls to resign over the saga, with former cabinet minister David Davis saying the evacuation "revealed the startling incompetence of the Home Office itself".

"Rather famously many years ago, John Reid, when he took over as home secretary, talked about it being not fit for purpose, and I'm afraid you're seeing that here," he told BBC Radio 4's programme.

"It's really, really hard to understand how, at all layers, this could not be caught early."

Read more:
Tories want to create dividing lines with Labour - small boats week shows that can backfire
Over 100,000 people likely to have crossed Channel in small boats since records began

He added: "Even working properly, the Bibby barge would only take effectively one day's arrivals. So it's not a solution to the problem and all of this is going to go on until the Home Office is able to process these arrivals more quickly."

The government believes the existence of the barge will serve as a deterrent to those arriving in England via small boats in the Channel.

However, in a further blow to Rishi Sunak, last week saw the highest daily number of people cross the Channel, with 755 migrants making the journey on Thursday.

It brought the cumulative total since records began in 2018 to over 100,000.

The government was then forced to defend its immigration strategy after at least six people died after a small boat crossing from France to the UK capsized and sank, in what was described as an "appalling and preventable" tragedy.
Trump praises ‘terrific’ white supremacist conspiracy theorist

Martin Pengelly
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Photograph: Shutterstock

In an online video, Donald Trump praised the white nationalist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer as “terrific” and “very special” and said: “You are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you. And in my opinion, I like that.”

Loomer, 30, is a Florida activist and failed political candidate who once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”, earning bans from major social media platforms.

Among proliferating controversies, Loomer has called Muslims “savages” and Islam a “cancer”. She has spread conspiracy theories about mass shootings, including the Parkland school shooting in Florida.

Trump endorsed Loomer in 2020, when she won a Republican US House primary in Florida. Heavily beaten in the general election, she switched districts in 2022, narrowly losing another primary.

Loomer has been closely linked to Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who, with the rapper Ye, controversially dined with Trump last year.

In April, the New York Times reported that the former president wanted to give Loomer a campaign role. It did not come to pass but she remains a vocal supporter. In the video posted online on Sunday, she said she was making her first visit to Bedminster, Trump’s golf club in New Jersey.

Sitting with the man she called “the greatest president ever”, she said Trump was “killing it right now” in the Republican presidential primary, adding: “You’re crushing it. You’re up over 50 points.”

Trump, 77, said: “It’s great to have you and you are very special and you work hard … I appreciate your support and everybody appreciates your support.”

Loomer said: “Thank you so much for inviting me to sit with you today. It’s a pleasure. You’re the best. I love you.”

The ex-president is indeed dominating the Republican primary, despite facing 78 criminal charges contained in three separate indictments – for hush-money payments, retention of classified information and election subversion – and the prospect of more, over election subversion, in Georgia this week.

On Monday, the fivethirtyeight.com polling average put Trump at 53.7% and his nearest challenger, Ron DeSantis, at 14.3% – a lead of 39.4 points.

Aides to the Florida governor are reportedly bullish about his chances in Iowa, the first state to vote next year. But Trump leads there by robust margins too.

Despite Trump’s unprecedented legal jeopardy, some party insiders fear that if he is not picked to face the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, Republican turnout will drop.

“There’s concern that if Trump’s not the nominee, his coalition will take their ball and go home,” Matt Dole, an Ohio strategist, told the Hill.

Another strategist, Brian Darling, said: “If somehow he’s not the nominee, it will hurt turnout. He’s got a unique coalition. He brings a lot of non-traditional voters to the Republican party.”

Trump’s “non-traditional voters” include those on the extreme right. But in April, when Trump reportedly sought to give Loomer a campaign role, another ardent supporter, the far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, was angry.

“Laura Loomer is mentally unstable and a documented liar,” wrote Greene, who has also spread conspiracy theories, including claiming the Parkland shooting was a “false flag” operation.

“Never hire or do business with a liar. Liars are toxic and poisonous to everything they touch.”

According to the Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his four years in office.

Trump heaps praise on conspiracy theorist even Marjorie Taylor Greene calls a ‘documented liar’


Gustaf Kilander
Mon, 14 August 2023 

Donald Trump heaped praise on far-right conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer in a video she shared on Twitter.

Ms Loomer has been called “mentally unstable and a documented liar” who “cannot be trusted” by far-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Ms Loomer has also been banned from Twitter, PayPal, Uber, Lyft, and Uber Eats for her anti-Muslim attacks, according to The Daily Beast. She was also banned from CPAC in 2019 after she harassed reporters.

Ms Loomer filmed a video with the former president in which he called her “terrific” and “very special” and he thanked her for backing him.

“You are a very opinionated lady, I have to tell you,” Mr Trump said in the video shared on Sunday. “And in my opinion, I like that.”

She has argued that Muslims should be banned from rideshare apps.

Ms Loomer has also pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“Trump just filmed a video with Laura Loomer, a white nationalist who pushed false flag conspiracy theories about the Parkland school shooting and celebrated the deaths of migrants, calling for ‘more’ of them to die,” podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted.

“This would have disqualified George Bush in 2000 and John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 but not Trump in this 2024 race. The GOP is all in on white supremacy, racism, and bigotry. It’s beyond the pale,” Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC wrote.

“Today’s GOP: No limits to the extremism, no boundaries to the craziness, no low too low, no bottom to the descent,” conservative commentator Bill Kristol added.
Israel’s actions in West Bank like Nazi Germany, says retired general



James Rothwell
Mon, 14 August 2023

Amiram Levin said there was ‘total apartheid’ in the occupied West Bank - Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A retired Israeli general and former Mossad spy accused his country’s government of “total apartheid” as he appeared to compare the occupied West Bank to Nazi Germany.

Amiram Levin, who served as commander of the Israeli army’s northern forces and deputy director of Mossad, made the remarks during an interview with the Israeli broadcaster Kan.

“There hasn’t been a democracy there in 57 years. There is total apartheid,” Mr Levin said, referring to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.


“It [the army] is standing by, looking at the settler rioters and is beginning to be a partner to war crimes. These are deep processes,” he added.

Israel increasingly faces accusations from human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, of imposing apartheid on Palestinians in the West Bank. But such criticism from former military commanders or other senior officials is rare.

Later in the interview, the former Mossad deputy drew an apparent comparison between Nazi Germany and the situation in the West Bank, which this year has suffered some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in two decades.

“Walk around Hebron and you will see streets where Arabs cannot walk, just like what happened in Germany,” the Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying, referring to the southern West Bank city where Palestinians live in close quarters with a Jewish settler minority backed by the army.

Change of heart

Mr Levin’s comments suggest he has had a profound change of heart on the issue since 2017, when he claimed Palestinians “deserved” to be occupied.

Danny Danon, a senior figure in Israel’s ruling Likud party, rejected the claims. “Those who compare us to Germany or the Nazi regime should be examined,” he said.

Israel’s government vehemently denies the charge of apartheid and has suggested that applying the label to Israel is anti-Semitic. Apartheid was the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by South Africa’s white minority government against black people from 1948 to 1991.

In recent years a number of human rights groups, including Israeli organisations, have started using the word in the context of the West Bank occupation.

In January 2021, the leading Israeli rights groups B’Tselem levelled the charge against Israel for the first time. This was followed by an April 2021 report by Human Rights Watch accusing Israel of “committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution”.

The following January, Amnesty International published its own report accusing Israel of apartheid on the grounds that it “considers and treats Palestinians as an inferior non-Jewish racial group”.

It is not the first time a former senior Israeli official has issued the apartheid charge. In 2015, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “On the Palestinian matter, his policies are leading to either a binational state or an apartheid state.”

iPhone maker Foxconn’s cautious pivot to India shows limits of ‘China plus one’

Kathrin Hille in Taipei and John Reed in New Delhi
Mon, August 14, 2023

When Foxconn chair Young Liu was in Tamil Nadu two weeks ago to discuss more investment by the iPhone manufacturer in the southern Indian state, two ministers from neighbouring Karnataka sought him out for their own meeting — and later produced documents claiming Foxconn also intended to build two factories in their state. While Foxconn insisted it had not committed to any project, the Karnataka government’s lobbying was a sign of the intense competition brewing in India to attract more investment from the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer, as Apple and other tech companies diversify away from their reliance on China. Multinationals’ desire for a “China plus one” strategy, following supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, is driving Foxconn into a renewed push into India, where it first invested 15 years ago but where it still only employs some 50,000 of its 1mn global workforce.
WHAT  ABOUT STALIN?!
Hitler, Burr and Trump: Show trials put the record straight for history but can also provide a powerful platform for the defendant

Stefanie Lindquist, Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science, Arizona State University
Sat, August 12, 2023 

The Washington, D.C., courthouse where Donald Trump's Jan. 6-related trial will likely take place. Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The trial of Donald Trump on charges that he conspired to undermine the peaceful transition of power will likely be a show trial – but not in the usual sense of the words.

The phrase “show trial” has two connotations. In the most common understanding of the term, those connotations are negative: Show trials in authoritarian regimes are sham trials used for propaganda purposes where the outcome is predetermined and the defendants condemned as traitors to the motherland.

Think of the show trials mounted by the Baathist regime under Saddam Hussein, the show trials of Josef Stalin’s dictatorship, or those of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong. These sham trials were used to persecute enemies and consolidate power through the fear they generated.

But trials that capture widespread public attention and expose wrongdoing by political or business figures may also produce highly constructive and positive outcomes as well. They can promote accountability for crimes against the state or against humanity.

Yet even these positive show trials, meant to affirm the laws and values of a democracy, can end badly, as with one prosecution in Germany in the mid-1920s – of the young Nazi party leader, Adolf Hitler, who had led an unsuccessful revolt to overthrow the country’s democratic government.


Adolf Hitler, fourth from right, with his fellow defendants in the Munich Putsch trial of 1924 for their failed coup attempt by the Nazi party to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, in November 1923. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Prosecuting war crimes and corruption

As international law scholar Martti Koskenniemi has astutely noted, political show trials may be useful “for establishing an impartial account of the past and for teaching younger generations of the dangers involved in particular policies.” Political trials that provide the public with a compelling narrative about crimes against the public trust can therefore have positive consequences for a democracy.

The Nuremberg trials after World War II highlighted Nazi atrocities to the world, the 2002 trial of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic exposed his war crimes, and the trials of Rwandans held to account those who engaged in the mass slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus. These trials served as an opportunity to expose the truth about the defendants’ actions and to hold them accountable for those actions for all the world to see.

Show trials are not only useful for exposing war criminals, however. In democracies, show trials of political officials – defined as such because they captivate public attention – promote the rule of law and order to a very wide audience.

Korean President Park Geun-hye was indicted and charged with high-profile corruption charges and convicted of the abuse of power in 2018; she was later pardoned. The high-profile trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has found him accused of accepting bribes and breaching the public trust – that trial is ongoing. And after he left office, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted in 2021 and imprisoned for illegal campaign financing.

These are but a few examples of heads of state in functioning democracies who have been held to account in trials that have riveted the public’s attention.

Even the U.S. has a history of political show trials.

In 1807, then-President Thomas Jefferson became personally involved in promoting the prosecution of his own vice president, Aaron Burr, for treason. Burr was Jefferson’s political rival: He had challenged Jefferson for the presidency in a fight over electoral college votes in the House of Representatives.

Burr’s defense counsel claimed that the fairness of Burr’s trial was compromised by widespread news coverage of the event – an issue that was ultimately decided in the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that exposure to news coverage did not compromise the trial. Burr was acquitted.

But there is a darker outcome lurking in show trials.

Several hundred journalists line up outside the War Crimes Tribunal where former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was being tried for alleged war crimes, July 3, 2001, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Hitler’s trial fueled rise to power


The facts underlying many political trials arise in a historical context. The interpretation of that context – let alone the very facts of the history – may be disputed.

Although comparisons with Hitler are largely considered out of bounds when discussing current politics and politicians, it’s relevant to any discussion of high-profile political trials that the future Nazi dictator’s rise to power was fueled in large part by a show trial.

In 1923, Adolf Hitler led an effort to foment revolution in Bavaria. Known as the Beer-Hall Putsch because it literally began in a beer hall, Hitler and his followers sought to lead a revolt against the governing German Weimar democracy. His effort failed and he was tried for the crime of subverting the constitution of Germany.

But in the 1924 trial, presided over by a judge sympathetic to the Nazi agenda, Hitler used the courtroom as a platform, writes law professor Douglas O. Linder, “to showcase his oratorical skills and promote his views to as wide an audience as possible.”

As Hitler used the trial to argue that German institutions were corrupt, his popularity grew substantially. Historian David King writes in his book about the trial that “the incident caused headlines all over the international press, and Hitler’s name became known thereafter. He could not have bought the kind of publicity he got at the trial even if he wanted to.”

And even though he was ultimately convicted, Hitler used his time in prison to write “Mein Kampf” – his manifesto for Nazism – and to reinvigorate his political movement by building the Nazi party platform. By 1933, Hitler was named chancellor. After the staged Reichstag fire, the government capitulated to Nazi party rule, abolished elections and succumbed to Hitler’s dictatorship.

The United States has a justice system that is far more impartial than the German judicial system during Hitler’s rise to power.

But the history lesson remains relevant: Trials within a political context and the charging of political crimes have risks. Though they may be necessary to uphold the rule of law, these types of show trials may also provide the defendant with the opportunity to dispute the historical record and challenge the very governmental authority holding them to account.

Donald Trump has already begun his version of that effort.

Significant political consequences


With every indictment, Trump has become more popular with the GOP’s electoral base. His social media posts clearly reflect his efforts to undermine faith in the rule of law and in the justice system.

Most recently, Trump has made statements that seem aimed at goading U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Jan. 6 case, into holding him in contempt of court. A public post by Trump stating, “If you go after me I’m coming after you,” seems tailor-made to convince a judge that the defendant is prepared to intimidate witnesses and disrupt the administration of justice.

History tells us that trials of political figures like Donald Trump – if he is found guilty of the crimes charged – may promote the rule of law and democracy.

But history also shows that trials may produce significant political consequences that reverberate well beyond the simple administration of justice.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 
KARMA IS A BITCH
Bankman-Fried heads to Brooklyn jail notorious for poor conditions

Luc Cohen
Mon, August 14, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Former FTX Chief Executive Bankman-Fried at the Manhattan federal court in New York City


By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sam Bankman-Fried will prepare for his fraud trial from a Brooklyn jail where inmates ranging from convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell to Honduras' former president have complained of subpar conditions.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ruled on Friday that Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, must be jailed for tampering with witnesses while free on $250 million bond at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California.

Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges over FTX's collapse, will now be housed before his Oct. 2 trial in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, a far cry from the luxurious Bahamas resort where he lived until his December 2022 arrest and extradition to the United States.

In recent years, MDC has been plagued by persistent staffing shortages, power outages and maggots in inmates' food. Earlier this year, a guard pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to smuggle in drugs. Public defenders have called conditions "inhumane."

In the winter of 2019, an electrical fire cut off the jail's lighting and heat for days as temperatures fell to near zero Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius).

Lawyers for Maxwell, who was convicted of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for abuse by the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said raw sewage seeped into her MDC cell. Her attorneys compared the "reprehensible and utterly inappropriate" conditions there to Hannibal Lecter's incarceration in the 1991 movie "The Silence of the Lambs", "despite the absence of the cage and plastic face guard."

They also cited "hyper-surveillance" by overbearing guards, a bad diet, and sleep deprivation.

Maxwell was sentenced last year to 20 years and is being held at a prison in Florida.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which runs MDC, did not respond to a request for comment. The agency previously has said it is committed to the safety of inmates and staff, and that humane treatment of inmates is a top priority.

Founded in 1994, MDC currently hosts 1,608 inmates. It is now the jail housing detainees awaiting federal trials in New York City, after the Manhattan Correctional Center closed in 2021 for improvements. Epstein killed himself in his MCC cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers had urged Kaplan not to jail the 31-year-old former billionaire, in part because a "staffing crisis" at MDC meant there would be too few guards to escort him to a room where he could access computers to review prosecutors' evidence against him.

Kaplan said during the hearing that while MDC "is not on anybody's list of five star facilities," he was not sure whether housing Bankman-Fried at a minimum security jail in Putnam County, about 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City, as prosecutors had requested, was "doable."

It is not Bankman-Fried's first time behind bars. In the Bahamas, he was held for nearly a week at the Fox Hill Prison, which a 2021 U.S. State Department report said was plagued by rodents and a lack of toilets. Local authorities said in December conditions had improved.

Other high-profile inmates currently being held at MDC include Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras who has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges, and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessman who has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.

Hernandez' lawyers have likened his confinement conditions to those of a "prisoner of war." Guo's lawyers in March called MDC "an extraordinarily dangerous environment," citing a recent lockdown in response to an increase in contraband including weapons.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis)

World's first mass-produced humanoid robot? China start-up Fourier Intelligence eyes two-legged robots with AI brains

South China Morning Post
Sun, August 13, 2023 at 3:30 AM MDT·6 min read


When Fourier Intelligence unveiled its lanky, jet-black humanoid robot GR-1 at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai in July, it instantly stole the show.

While the global technology community has been fixated on artificial intelligence (AI) software since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November, the Chinese-made GR-1 - said to be capable of walking on two legs at a speed of 5km an hour while carrying a 50kg load - reminded people of the potential of bipedal robots, which are being pursued by global companies from Tesla to Xiaomi.

For Fourier, a Shanghai-based start-up, GR-1 was an unlikely triumph.

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"It is an unprecedented attempt by us - we barely had any reference when it came to the technology," Alex Gu, founder and chief executive of Fourier, said in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post in the Chinese financial capital.

Fourier's focus has not always been on humanoid robots. Named after the 19th-century French mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier, the company was originally set up in 2015 in Shanghai's tech hub Zhangjiang with the aim of developing rehabilitation robotics.

The firm's current products include a smart exercise bike, a wireless robotic glove and a series of computer-guided contraptions that help users restore movement in their arms and legs.

But just like many of his peers, 42-year-old Gu, a mechanical engineering graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, had long dreamed about creating his own humanoid robot.

So in 2019, after Fourier brought its intelligent rehabilitation devices into hundreds of hospitals and medical care centres in over 10 countries and established itself in the industry, Gu decided it was time to kick off a new venture.

Back then, few companies in the world had successfully launched a humanoid robot due to the high technological barrier and development costs. In the US, there were a handful of projects including Atlas by Boston Dynamics, the company known for its robot dog Spot, and Digit by Agility Robotics.

In China, most firms chose to dedicate their efforts on lightweight products like four-legged robots. Gu thought he could do better.

"Many technologies used in rehabilitation robots are essentially applicable to humanoid robots," Gu said. "Humanoid robots require very good motors that are both powerful and light, and we are able to develop them ourselves."


Alex Gu, founder and chief executive of Fourier Intelligence

GR-1 was born in a small laboratory on the first floor of the Fourier headquarters, where a group of engineers were busy refining and testing the robot when this reporter visited last month. The team reached a major breakthrough in 2022 - three years after the start of the project - when it managed to make the 1.65-metre tall robot rise up on both legs and walk.

"When we saw it standing up for the first time, untethered and walking around by itself, it was a big encouragement for all our engineers," said Gu. "It felt like raising a newborn baby."

Fourier later published an online video of the walking GR-1, drawing compliments from many viewers, but also plenty of scepticism.

"Some overseas viewers said the video was computer-generated," said Gu. "I understand that the field is still at an early stage and that people will have different opinions, just like some had argued 20 years ago whether electric vehicles would be able to travel on roads."

In addition to technical challenges, researchers and robotics experts have cautioned that companies still face massive difficulties in commercialising humanoid robots in the broader consumer market.

"[Humanoid robots] mostly live in the labs now and are extremely expensive," said Zhang Xiaorong, director of Chinese research institute Shendu Technology. "A relatively high-quality machine can cost millions of yuan."

Those problems have not stopped companies from trying.

Lei Jun, founder of Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi, in August 2022 showed off on stage the company's first humanoid robot CyberOne, which was seen to be capable of walking, but not much else.

Less than two months later, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, unveiled a prototype of its highly anticipated Optimus robot during the company's AI Day. It walked and danced live on stage. The audience was also shown a video of the robot doing tasks like carrying a box and moving metal bars.

Musk said at the WAIC conference last month that Optimus was not intended to "have great intelligence", but to help humans with "boring, repetitive or dangerous tasks".

Gu said he shared similar visions with Musk, but added that robots "can also become very good friends of humans by providing emotional value".

While current humanoid robots still have "large gaps with humans in both movement and cognitive ability", the development of large language models (LLM) - the type of software that underpins AI chatbots like ChatGPT - could be "epoch-changing", Gu said.

"LLMs will give robots the ability of logical reasoning, making them much more human-like," Gu said.


A Fourier Intelligence engineer tests the self-balancing ability of the company's humanoid robot.

While Gu emphasised that Fourier will focus on developing the hardware that makes up the "body" of the robots and leave AI developers to work on the "brain", Fourier co-founder and chief strategy officer Zen Koh said a few AI companies had already reached out for potential collaboration in LLMs.

"We're hoping to work with all the major ones and ... as a system, be open," Koh said.

The GR-1 robot has already been delivered in small quantities to some universities and AI companies for research and development, according to Gu. He plans to begin mass production by year-end and deliver thousands of units in 2024.

Musk last year also claimed that production could start in 2023.

Gu expects Fourier's humanoid robots, which he said have great potential in various scenarios including elderly care, education and guest reception, to generate more revenue than its rehabilitation robots in the next three to five years.

Still, there is a long way to go before humanoid robots become a part of our daily lives, he said.

"Don't expect a miracle to come out in a year or so - even for Tesla, we have to give them time [to achieve mass production of humanoid robots]," said Gu.

"But also, don't underestimate the possibility that this thing may become part of people's family lives in five or 10 years."

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.




WHAT WAR? SAYS GUNRUNNER
Russia supplying S-400 air defence systems to India on schedule - defence official

Reuters
Mon, August 14, 2023 

Russian S-400 missile air defence systems are seen during a training exercise in Kaliningrad region


(Reuters) - Russia will deliver an order of S-400 anti-aircraft systems to India within the agreed timeframe, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian defence export official on Monday as saying.

India is the world's biggest arms importer and still mostly uses Russian technology for traditional arms, but officials in New Delhi have expressed concern that Russia's war in Ukraine could delay planned deliveries of weapons and equipment.

"The production of S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems is being carried out according to schedule," Interfax quoted Dmitry Shugaev, head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, as saying.

"The delivery of the equipment of the S-400 Triumf system is expected to be completed within the agreed time frame," he said in comments made during an armed forces event.

India purchased the S-400 Triumf air defence system units in 2018 for $5.4 billion. Three of the systems have been delivered and two more are still awaited.

The deliveries are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, according to Interfax.

The Indian Air Force said in March that the war in Ukraine was holding up vital defence supplies from Russia.

New Delhi has been seeking in recent years to diversify imports or replace them with home-built hardware.

It is buying French fighter jets, Israeli drones and U.S. jet engines. But Russia still accounted for $8.5 billion of the $18.3 billion India has spent on arms imports since 2017, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

(Reporting by Felix Light; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Toby Chopra and Sharon Singleton)
TOXICS REGULATION
U.S. Sunscreen Is Stuck in the ’90s. Is This a Job for Congress?

Sandra E. Garcia
Sun, August 13, 2023 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

After months of prompting, I have finally managed to help my husband form a daily sunscreen habit. Whenever I see traces of paper-white cream in his dark beard, I think, ‘We’re halfway there.’

Hoping to avoid the white cast, heaviness and greasiness common in many sunscreen products available in U.S. drugstores, some Americans, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have taken matters into their own hands, opting for sunscreens manufactured abroad. In a recent interview, the congresswoman said she toggled between Bioré in the summer and Beauty of Joseon in the winter — two Asian brands that employ active ingredients not approved for use in the United States.

“The technology is very sophisticated,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “You don’t feel like you have a layer of sunscreen on, and it kind of just feels like you’re putting on a moisturizer in that sense, which makes it easier to use.”

While sunscreen is regulated as a cosmetic in major skin-care hubs such as South Korea, Japan and the European Union, in the United States it falls under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. Any drug product marketed to American consumers must be approved by the FDA, and because sunscreen “makes a drug claim” — namely, that it can prevent sunburn, decrease the risk of skin cancer and mitigate early skin aging — the agency regulates it as an over-the-counter drug.

The last time the FDA approved new active ingredients for use in sunscreens was more than two decades ago, and at times it can feel as if the rest of the world has surpassed the United States in the development of new sunscreen formulations and protocols. Skin-care influencers on TikTok and Instagram are in a near-constant state of frenzy over exciting new products and innovations that are nowhere to be found on American shelves. Currently there are 14 sunscreen filters approved for use by the FDA. The European Union employs more than 30.

Frustrated by what seems to be a wealth of more exciting options for sun protection overseas, skin-care-conscious Americans have been quick to point the finger at the FDA for the delay in approving new active ingredients. But according to Ocasio-Cortez, the agency is not to blame for the holdup, at least not entirely.

“I think the assessment here is that Americans need sunscreen, and they have sunscreen,” she said. “Are there other avenues that we can use in order to kind of break through this standstill? Yeah.”

Congress has begun a “preliminary, early process” of examining what a better approval procedure might look like, she said: a way that pushes the manufacturers of sunscreen filters to do the appropriate research and development to submit drug information to the FDA for approval.

“I also think it’s very important that we maintain a level of rigor around safety,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We want to make sure this is not about advocating for the deregulation of these filters.”

Many sunscreen ingredients that have appeared in foreign-made sunscreens for decades, favored by consumers for their ease of use, are still awaiting approval by the FDA. The ultraviolet-filtering compounds amiloxate, enzacamene and octyl triazone, for instance, have been stuck in the FDA regulatory pipeline since at least 2003.

In November 2014, President Barack Obama signed the Sunscreen Innovation Act into law. The legislation gave the FDA five years to approve or deny the use of new sunscreen ingredients, including several under review since 2002. In 2019, the FDA reaffirmed the safety of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in mineral sunscreens and asked manufacturers for more information on 12 other ingredients.

“They said you can continue to market products and utilize these but we want to see more data,” said Thomas F. Myers, executive vice president for legal and regulatory affairs at the Personal Care Products Council, a trade group representing companies that make cosmetics and personal care products. As long as the FDA continues to defer a final decision on a product, Myers said, it remains eligible for use on the market.

In 2020, the CARES Act included a change in the approval process for over-the-counter drugs.

Under the new procedure, the FDA asked for more information from manufacturers on new sunscreen filters, essentially kicking the can — or bottle — back over to them but not flat-out denying approval. The 14 chemicals moved up from 2019 to 2020 to satisfy the CARES Act are the chemicals allowed for use now.

In a statement, the FDA said it was committed to helping “facilitate the marketing of sunscreen products that include additional over-the-counter sunscreen active ingredients.” It continued, “To do so, the FDA relies on industry to submit the data needed to make safety and effectiveness determinations for these ingredients.”

Although skin cancer remains the most common type of cancer in the United States, the worrisome rates of the disease cannot be blamed on a lack of new sunscreen filters, according to Dr. Steven Q. Wang, chair of the Skin Cancer Foundation’s photobiology committee.

The current rate of skin cancer in the United States is a result of the past 50 years, Wang said. Even today, new diagnoses are the legacy of the lack of awareness of sun damage in the 1950s, as well as the sun tanning and tanning bed culture of the 1980s and ’90s.

“Sunscreen is only a part of the overall protection,” said Wang, who is also a member of the Public Access to SunScreens Coalition. The other parts? Avoiding sunlight during the hours of most intense daylight, seeking out shade and wearing protective clothing.

U.S. sunscreen manufacturers, he added, have done “a pretty good job with the existing UV filters to make a superior, better sunscreen to protect Americans.”

Although there are many potential solutions, the onus to provide the greatest possible sun protection to Americans is on Congress, Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that there had not been much attention on the matter since Obama signed the Sunscreen Innovation Act in 2014.

“It just doesn’t seem that this issue has risen to a level of awareness in Congress that creates the political momentum necessary to make things a priority,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “What I’m very excited about is that it does seem like there is a growing awareness among everyday people about this issue.”

Across her various platforms, she is trying to foster that political momentum. On Thursday, the congresswoman posted an Instagram video in which she told her 1.5 million followers that “U.S. sunscreens are far behind the rest of the world,” adding, “We deserve better here in the U.S.”

Online, influencers have been more outspoken about sunscreens, developing their own rules of thumb for use and creating videos of themselves trying one brand after another to determine which takes to the skin best. New, targeted brands such as Black Girl Sunscreen populate the shelves at Target. Americans are branching out when it comes to the sunscreens they want to use.

“That, I think, is also creating a certain political and popular and cultural momentum that’s necessary for us to actually make changes around these things,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“I don’t think this is a left or right flashpoint,” she added. “I think this is something that all people need.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company