Former Neuralink Staffer Sues After Scratches From Herpes Monkey

FIRED FOR GETTING PREGNANT


Sarah McBride
Fri, Jun 14, 2024

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup Neuralink Corp. forced an employee to work with monkeys that carried the Herpes B virus in conditions in which the animals scratched her bare skin, according to a complaint filed Friday in state court in California.

The employee, Lindsay Short, said that once she transferred to the company’s Fremont, California, site in August 2022, she encountered “a work environment fraught with blame, shame, and impossible deadlines.” She said she was later fired after telling her supervisors that she was pregnant.

Short sued the company for retaliation, wrongful termination and discrimination based on her gender among other issues.

Neuralink didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

The startup is in the early stages of clinical trials for its device, which is aimed at restoring function for paralyzed patients. An Arizona man, Noland Arbaugh, recently underwent surgery and became the first human patient to have the device implanted. A quadriplegic, Arbaugh can now successfully play video games by using only his thoughts.

The company has also come under fire for the mistreatment of monkeys and other animals in the past, including botched surgeries when it conducted research on monkeys housed at the University of California at Davis. It has since moved monkey research to its own facilities.

Short said she was working with monkeys that carried the Herpes B virus when she was scratched through a glove. She accused the company of failing to provide proper protective gear to work with the monkeys. In another incident, after she was forced to perform a procedure she wasn’t familiar with, a monkey scratched her face. When she insisted on medical treatment, her boss threatened “severe repercussions” if it happened again, according to the complaint.

In the lawsuit, Short also said Neuralink didn’t honor a promise for flexible work hours to accommodate her family, then demoted her in May 2023, two months after a promotion.

The following month, she told Neuralink’s human resources department she was pregnant. Short was fired the following day with the company saying the dismissal was for performance issues, according to the lawsuit.

Major veterans organization weighs in on upside-down American flags

Megan Lebowitz
Thu, June 13, 2024 



WASHINGTON — The veteran organization the American Legion weighed in on the upside-down American flag controversy on Thursday, noting that flags should only be flown this way if there is "extreme danger to life or property."

The potential implications of flying an American flag upside down have been the subject of debate since reports emerged that an upside-down flag flew outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home in early 2021. The justice said the flag was raised by his wife, Martha-Ann.

Some supporters of former President Donald Trump have also reportedly flown upside-down flags in support of the former president falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, leading it to be interpreted as a "stop the steal" symbol.


"The American flag is a symbol of courage, strength, freedom and democracy," said the American Legion National Commander Daniel Seehafer in a statement to NBC News. "American Legion members swore with their lives to protect all that the flag stands for."

Seehafer pointed to the Flag Code, a detailed set of guidelines laying out how the American flag should be displayed, as evidence the flag should not be inverted unless to signal distress.

"Our organization also led the creation of the U.S. Flag Code, which includes the following: ‘The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property,’” Seehafer said.

Alito had told Fox News last month that his wife flew the upside-down flag after an argument with a neighbor. Martha-Ann Alito told The Washington Post in January 2021 that the upside-down flag was "an international signal of distress" and appeared to indicate it was raised in reference to a neighborhood argument.

But the Alitos' timeline was thrown into question by the neighbor whose conduct was cited as the reason for the flag being hoisted upside down.

That neighbor, Emily Baden, said she did not personally see the upside-down flag, which The New York Times reported was displayed as early as Jan. 17, 2021. But Baden said that her argument with the Alitos took place nearly a month later, on Feb. 15.

The Alitos "seem to be implying that it happened directly before they put up the flag,” Baden told NBC News, adding that it was a “lie.”

The American Legion has weighed in on American flag-related controversies before.

In 2016, Trump said in a post to X that "nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag."

He added that "if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!"

The American Legion praised Trump's comments, with the group's then-National Commander Charles E. Schmidt saying that "no one should tolerate desecration of the American flag.” The group went on to push for a constitutional ban on flag-burning. The most recent attempt to implement a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning failed by one vote in 2006.

The American Legion has nearly 2 million members, making it the “largest wartime veterans service organization,” according to their website.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.co

Opinion

It’s Alito’s Vitriolic Wife’s Favorite Holiday

Edith Olmsted
Fri, June 14, 2024 

It’s officially Martha-Ann Alito’s favorite holiday: Flag Day. And the internet won’t let her forget it.

When it was first officially signed into law in 1949, Flag Day was meant to serve as a reminder of a unified nation, which found common ground under one symbol. Cut to 75 years later, and the wife of a U.S. Supreme Court justice has gleefully subverted that edict, cheered on the destruction of Democracy, and fantasized about new ways to sow division and hate.

So it’s only right that users on X, formerly Twitter, are having a little fun with it.

Screenshot of a tweet

Screenshot of a tweet

Screenshot of a tweet

Things even got a little topsy-turvy…


Screenshot of a tweet

Screenshot of a tweet

But we’re sure that Alito will figure out which way it’s supposed to go.


Screenshot of a tweet

Just last month, it was first reported that an upside-down flag was seen hanging at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the weeks following the January 6 insurrection, a common symbol of Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” MAGA mob. Desperate to retain the illusion of neutrality, Alito blamed his wife for the flag, and thus her reputation as a virulent vexillologist began. Since then, it’s only gotten more apparent that Martha-Ann Alito sure does love her flags.

Shortly after the first flag came to light, it was reported that an Appeal to Heaven flag, a symbol favored by a Christian nationalist sect, was once flown outside their family’s beach home. House Speaker Mike Johnson flies this flag outside his office, and—desperate for some culture-war currency—MAGA Senator Tom Cotton now has one too.

Earlier this week, in a secret recording, Alito revealed that once her husband is no longer a pillar of the U.S. judiciary, she hopes to use flags to communicate every little political thought she has. Meanwhile, she whined about her neighbor’s flying a Pride flag.

“I’m gonna send them a message every day. Maybe every week I’ll be changing the flags. They’ll be all kinds,” she gushed. She revealed that she’d even designed a flag of her very own, displaying the Italian word for “shame,” that she dreamed of raising in an effort to antagonize those neighbors.

Instead of continuing to get dredged up in Alito’s drama, please enjoy this list of really cool flags.

Tim Cook Admits Apple May Never Be Able to Make Its AI Stop Lying

Victor Tangermann
Thu, June 13, 2024 at 9:05 AM MDT·2 min read

AI in the Clouds

Apple has finally logged into the AI arms race, announcing a set of strikingly familiar machine learning tools during its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this week.

But even for Apple, a company with a market cap of $3.3 trillion — over 30 times that of OpenAI — the well-documented shortcomings of AI tech will likely persist.

In a new Washington Post interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted outright that he's not entirely sure his tech empire's latest "Apple Intelligence" won't come up with lies and confidently distort the truth, a problematic and likely intrinsic tendency that has plagued pretty much all AI chatbots released to date.

When asked about his "confidence that Apple Intelligence will not hallucinate," an increasingly unpopular term that has quickly become the catch-all for AI-generated fibs, Cook conceded that plenty of unknowns remain.

"It’s not 100 percent," he answered, arguing that he's still "confident it will be very high quality."

"But I’d say in all honesty that’s short of 100 percent," he added. "I would never claim that it’s 100 percent."
Pants on Fire

It's an uncomfortable reality, especially considering just how laser-focused the tech industry and Wall Street have been on developing AI chatbots. Despite tens of billions of dollars being poured into the tech, AI tools are repeatedly being caught coming up with obvious falsehoods and — perhaps more worryingly — convincingly told lies.

Besides jumbling facts to the point where they no longer hold together, some of these AI models are trained on dubious data that they're happy to offer up as the truth. Case in point, last month, Google's AI-powered search feature confidently told one user to put glue on their pizza, referencing an 11-year-old joke on Reddit.

Cook isn't the first tech executive to admit that these tools may simply continue lying. The news comes after Google CEO Sundar Pichai made strikingly similar statements in an interview with The Verge last month.

"We have definitely made progress when we look at metrics on factuality year on year," he said. "We are all making it better, but it’s not solved."

It remains to be seen how Apple's own implementation — a revised Siri personal assistant, forthcoming ChatGPT integration, among other AI features scattered across its desktop and mobile operating systems — will fare when it comes to hallucinations.

The stakes are high, especially considering the wealth of sensitive consumer data, including photos, emails, and text messages, Apple has collected from its customers. Nobody wants Siri to make up a calendar invite or tell you a meeting was canceled when it wasn't.

More on Apple: Apple's Huge AI Announcement Is a Chatbot and an Image Generator, Which Is the Exact Same Boring Offering As Microsoft, Google, and Meta

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; COUNTERFEITING

Boeing and Airbus may have used 'counterfeit' titanium in planes, FAA say

Patrick Smith and Jay Blackman
Fri, June 14, 2024 

Boeing and Airbus, the two biggest commercial airline makers, may have used titanium sold using fake documents, according to evidence from a supplier that has triggered a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.

The FAA said in a statement to NBC News on Friday morning it would look into allegations from Spirit Aerosystems that the two aviation giants used titanium in their planes that came with paperwork verifying its authenticity that could have been falsified.

The news adds to a troubled period for Boeing, which is the subject of ongoing federal investigations for alleged safety problems. But the news also brings its fierce rival, France-headquartered Airbus, into the wider scrutiny the aviation industry is facing.

A plane under construction at an Airbus assembly site (Valentine Chapuis / AFP via Getty Images file)

Spirit Aerosystems, based in Wichita, Kansas, which raised the alarm on the titanium issue, said it acted fast to remove all the suspect titanium from the supply chain.

“This is about titanium that has entered the supply system via documents that have been counterfeited. When this was identified, all suspect parts were quarantined and removed from Spirit production,” the company said in a statement.

Spirit added that “more than 1,000 tests have been completed to confirm the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the affected material to ensure continued airworthiness.”

"Boeing reported a voluntary disclosure to the FAA regarding procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records," the FAA said in a statement confirming yet another investigation into Boeing.

"Boeing issued a bulletin outlining ways suppliers should remain alert to the potential of falsified records," the statement added.

Airbus controls about 60% of the commercial airline market with Boeing taking the remaining 40% — the companies' grip on the industry has been called a duopoly.

Boeing said in an emailed statement: "This industry-wide issue affects some shipments of titanium received by a limited set of suppliers, and tests performed to date have indicated that the correct titanium alloy was used."

Boeing added that it was "removing any affected parts on airplanes prior to delivery. Our analysis shows the in-service fleet can continue to fly safely."

Airbus released a statement saying the company "is aware of the situation."

"Numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply," the statement said. "They show that (aircraft) airworthiness remains intact. The safety and quality of our aircraft are our most important priorities and we are working in close collaboration with our supplier.

Earlier on Friday the FAA said it was investigating how a Boeing 737 Max jet became caught in a so-called “Dutch roll” incident while flying from Phoenix to Oakland last month.

Boeing's tumultuous year began when a door panel blew off a 737 Max-9 mid-air in January.

The FAA is also investigating whether Boeing completed required inspections on its flagship 787 Dreamliner jets.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Boeing, Airbus say planes with titanium parts sold with falsified records are safe

Nick Robertson
Fri, June 14, 2024 


(The Hill) – Boeing and Airbus emphasized that there are no safety concerns after revealing Friday that some titanium parts used in their aircraft had falsified documentation, triggering a federal investigation.

Boeing did not say which models of aircraft or how many were affected by the titanium parts, but the company emphasized that it does not believe the discovery impacts safety.

“Our analysis shows the in-service fleet can continue to fly safely,” Boeing said.

Airbus said the parts wound up on its A220 model, a relatively small airliner that is used on shorter routes, but that the model is still airworthy.

“Numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply,” said Airbus, which has its main offices and assembly plant in France. “They show that the A220’s airworthiness remains intact.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will launch an investigation into how parts without proper documentation were installed on aircraft. Boeing said it will remove the parts from planes that have yet to be delivered to customer airlines.

The FAA is “investigating the scope and impact of the issue,” The Associated Press reported. The agency said Boeing reported the issue with an unnamed distributor “who may have falsified or provided incorrect records.”

Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing’s main manufacturing subsidiary, said titanium parts came with counterfeit paperwork.

“This is about titanium that has entered the supply system via documents that have been counterfeited,” Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino told the AP. “When this was identified, all suspect parts were quarantined and removed from Spirit production.”

Buccino said more than 1,000 tests have been conducted on the material “to ensure continued airworthiness.”

The investigation, first reported by The New York Times, was sparked when a parts supplier found corrosive damage on titanium parts. Titanium alloy parts are extremely common in aerospace manufacturing, selected for the metal’s strength and heat resistance.

It also comes as Boeing and Spirit are already under intense scrutiny for the manufacturing process of the 737 Max series aircraft. A previous FAA investigation after a door blew out of a flight in January found severe lapses in the company’s safety protocols in manufacturing.

“There are issues around the safety culture in Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality,” FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said in March. “And so, what we are really focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality.”

The FAA said its six-week audit of Boeing found “multiple instances when the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

FAA investigating titanium used in some Boeing, Airbus jets

Updated Fri, June 14, 2024 


By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether false or incorrect documents were used to verify the authenticity of titanium used in some recently manufactured Boeing jets, the agency said.

The New York Times, which first reported the issue on Friday, said the FAA is also investigating the authenticity of documents for titanium used in some Airbus jets.

Aircraft manufacturers are facing strong demand for new planes due to a surge in post-pandemic travel. However, supply-chain problems and component shortages are limiting their ability to meet this demand.

Titanium is an important component in the aerospace supply chain and is used to make landing gears, blades and turbine discs for aircraft.

The FAA said Boeing reported a voluntary disclosure "regarding procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records."

The agency added: "Boeing issued a bulletin outlining ways suppliers should remain alert to the potential of falsified records."

Boeing said the issue involves the broader industry and some titanium shipments received by a limited set of suppliers, affecting a small number of airplane parts.

The planemaker said it was removing any such parts from airplanes prior to delivery and added there is no impact to safety.

Airbus said it was aware of the reports but said "numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply. They show that the A220’s airworthiness remains intact."

Canada has imposed sanctions on Russian titanium, albeit with exceptions. It was not clear if the false documents were connected to sanctions.

Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies fuselages for Boeing and wings for Airbus, said the titanium entered the supply chain with "counterfeited" documents, and all related parts have been removed from its production.

"More than 1,000 tests have been completed to confirm the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the affected material to ensure continued airworthiness," Spirit said.

Last year, jet engine manufacturer CFM International disclosed that thousands of its engine components might have been sold with falsified documentation by a British distributor.

The discovery had prompted airlines to change parts on a handful of planes.

Boeing shares fell 1.8%, while Spirit shares were down about 1%.

(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Toby Chopra, Rod Nickel and Nick Zieminski)

Engineless Boeing 737 MAX jets await their fate as the company's 737 factory looms behind them in Renton, WA 

FAA investigating how titanium parts with falsified records wound up in Boeing and Airbus planes

DAVID KOENIG
Updated Fri, June 14, 2024 

FILE - An Airbus A220 lands at Toulouse-Blagnac airport, July 10, 2018, in southwestern France. Federal regulators are investigating how parts made with counterfeit titanium wound up in some Boeing and Airbus passenger jets that were built in recent years. Boeing and Airbus said Friday, June 14, 2024, that planes containing the parts are safe to fly. (AP Photo/Frederic Scheiber, File)More


Federal regulators are investigating how parts made with titanium that was sold with falsified quality documentation wound up in Boeing and Airbus passenger jets that were built in recent years.

Boeing and Airbus said Friday that planes containing the parts are safe to fly, but Boeing said it was removing affected parts from planes that haven’t been delivered yet to airline customers.

It will be up to regulators including the Federal Aviation Administration to decide whether any work needs to be done to planes that are already carrying passengers.


The FAA said it is “investigating the scope and impact of the issue.” The agency said Boeing reported the problem covering material from a distributor “who may have falsified or provided incorrect records.” The FAA did not name the distributor.

Boeing and Airbus declined to say how many planes were flying with parts made from the undocumented titanium.

Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for Boeing planes and wings for Airbus jets, reported the falsified documents.

“This is about titanium that has entered the supply system via documents that have been counterfeited," Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said. “When this was identified, all suspect parts were quarantined and removed from Spirit production.”

Buccino said more than 1,000 tests have been conducted on the material "to ensure continued airworthiness.”

The New York Times first reported the FAA investigation. The newspaper said a parts supplier found small holes in the material from corrosion.

The aerospace supply chain is a global one. The titanium came from a supplier in China starting around 2019 and was sold to several companies that make components that Spirit Aerosystems uses in its work for Boeing and Airbus, according to two people familiar with the situation. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The New York Times reported that an Italian company, Titanium International Group, noticed that the material looked different from previous supplies and determined that paperwork accompanying the titanium seemed inauthentic. A general manager told the newspaper that the company was cooperating with authorities and could not provide additional information.

The paperwork, called a statement of conformity, describes the part or material, how it was made and where it comes from. It is designed to ensure that parts comply with FAA standards for quality.

Titanium alloys have been used for decades in aircraft production because of their light weight, strength and resistance to corrosion and high temperatures. They are used in airframes, landing gear and other parts.

Boeing said tests indicate that the parts were made from the correct titanium alloy, which raised questions about why the documentation was falsified. The company, based in Arlington, Virginia, said it buys most of the titanium it uses directly from other sources, and that supply is not affected by the documentation issue.

Boeing said it was removing affected parts on planes before delivering them to airlines. “Our analysis shows the in-service fleet can continue to fly safely,” the company said. It did not say which of its aircraft models were affected.

Airbus said the parts wound up on one of its models, the A220, a relatively small airliner that is used on shorter routes.

“Numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply,” said Airbus, which has its main offices and assembly plant in France. “They show that the A220’s airworthiness remains intact.”

Officials said the affected parts could be replaced when planes undergo scheduled maintenance checks. It would be up to the FAA and its European counterpart to decide whether to order airlines to replace the parts sooner.


FAA is investigating how Boeing, Airbus jets may have ended up with counterfeit titanium. Here's a timeline of the company's mounting problems.

Plus, the FAA is also probing a "Dutch roll" incident.

Katie Mather
·Internet Culture Reporter
Updated Fri, June 14, 2024 



The Federal Aviation Administration has opened two more investigations into Boeing. The first probe was prompted by an incident in which a 737 Max experienced a rare event known as a "Dutch roll," and the second, which also involves Airbus planes, follows a report that counterfeit titanium may have been used in some jet parts.

Boeing has faced heightened scrutiny since the start of 2024, with Congress calling on top executives to testify at a Senate hearing in mid-April over whether the company’s corporate culture prioritized money-saving measures over safety in its production of the 787 Dreamliner and the 777 aircraft.
🚨 What just happened?

In May, a Southwest flight from Phoenix to Oakland, Calif., experienced a Dutch roll at 32,000 feet midflight. A Dutch roll is when a plane’s tail slides and the aircraft starts rocking from side to side simultaneously, which impacts the plane’s stability, potentially throwing the aircraft off course or making it too difficult to turn. It is a rare situation, but pilots are trained on how to recover from it.

The May 25 flight did not result in any injuries to the passengers or crew.

An early report by the FAA found that there was damage to a unit that provides the backup power to the rudder, which controls the plane’s rotation and stability.

Separately, the New York Times reported on June 14 that a recent investigation by supplier Spirit AeroSystems found that counterfeit titanium, sold with falsified documents, was used to build parts for Boeing and Airbus jets. It is unclear how many planes may have parts made of counterfeit titanium and how it may affect the structural integrity of those aircraft.

Boeing has responded that most of its plane materials have been tested and remain unaffected. The aircraft that allegedly have components made with the material were built between 2019 and 2023 and include some Boeing 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner planes.
🗓️ Let’s rewind. How did we end up here?
May 2024

The Seattle Times reports a second Boeing whistleblower died after spending two weeks in the hospital from a sudden infection. Joshua Dean accused Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems of ignoring manufacturing defects on the Boeing 737 Max model before being fired in 2023.
April 2024

FAA announces investigation into near-miss incident at LaGuardia Airport involving Southwest Airlines 737 on March 23.


Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 makes an emergency landing at Preston Smith International Airport after a small fire in the left engine.


Boeing pays Alaska Airlines $160 million to make up for losses the airline suffered following the mid-flight door plug blowout.


FAA announces investigation into claims made by new Boeing whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, an engineer who had worked on the 787 and 777 aircraft. He alleged that the planes were improperly fastened together and he was worried that after years of use, the planes could break apart mid-flight.


United Airlines claims the emergency grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner cost the company $200 million in the first three months of the year.


In a Senate hearing, lawmakers called multiple aviation safety specialists and former Boeing employees to testify. Witness Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at Boeing, alleged that the company had ignored all of the issues he’d flagged with the 787 aircraft and that he was “subjected to threats of violence from my supervisor” after he spoke out.

Read more from the Associated Press: Boeing put under Senate scrutiny during back-to-back hearings on aircraft maker's safety culture
March 2024

The FBI is investigating the Alaska Airlines flight in January in which a door plug blew off the plane midflight — and has told passengers they may be “a possible victim of a crime.”


The FAA’s 737 Max production audit finds multiple instances in which Boeing allegedly did not comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.


In two separate incidents, a Boeing 777-200 loses a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco and a Boeing 737 skids off the runway after landing in Houston.


The next week, a prominent Boeing whistleblower — former employee John Barnett — dies by suicide while in Charleston, S.C., for a deposition for a lawsuit against Boeing.


A Boeing 787 Dreamliner nosedives during a flight from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand, injuring at least 50 people, on the same day a Boeing 777 flight from Sydney is forced to turn around due to a maintenance issue.


Another Boeing 777 is forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after pilots report a flat tire.


A Boeing 737 that took off from San Francisco later that week is found to be missing a panel during a postflight inspection.


Boeing sues Virgin Galactic, accusing it of stealing trade secrets.


Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announces he will be stepping down by the end of the year. The CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Stan Deal, is retiring and Boeing’s chairman, Larry Kellner, will not be seeking reelection as a board director.


A United Airlines Boeing 777 flight from San Francisco to Paris was diverted to Denver due to an engine issue.


A United Airlines Boeing 787 plane headed to Newark, N.J., from Tel Aviv, Israel, was forced to make an emergency landing at New York Stewart International Airport because of extreme turbulence. Seven passengers were taken to the hospital and 15 were treated on-site for injuries.


An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet from Honolulu to Anchorage, Alaska, was forced to turn back after a malfunctioning bathroom sink flooded the cabin.

Whistleblowers, nosedives and a DOJ investigation: Read more about Boeing’s March mishaps on Yahoo News
February 2024

The NTSB publishes a preliminary report that found the Alaska Airlines flight was missing four key bolts, which is why the door plug blew out.
January 2024

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 experiences a door plug blowout midflight. The FAA subsequently grounds all Max 9 aircraft to investigate.

Read more from BBC News: Passenger describes being on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282
December 2023

Boeing urges airlines to inspect all 737 Max jets for potential loose hardware in the plane’s rudder control systems.
August 2023

Boeing reports a supplier quality issue with 737 Max planes involving improperly drilled holes.
October 2022

The FAA tells Boeing that some documents submitted for the certification review of the 737 Max 7 are incomplete.
March 2021

China’s aviation regulator claims there are major safety concerns with the Boeing Max jets.
November 2020

The FAA allows Boeing 737 Max planes to fly again.
September 2020

An 18-month-long investigation by a House of Representatives panel concludes that Boeing failed in its design and development of the Max aircraft and was not fully transparent with the FAA.

Read more from Reuters: U.S. lawmakers fault FAA, Boeing for deadly 737 Max crashes
January 2020

Boeing suspends all 737 production.
⚖️ Boeing has had problems for years. Why is it being investigated now?

“We’ve known [about Boeing] for five years,” Mark Pegram, father of one of the Ethiopian Airlines flight victims, told NPR in March. “I think the rest of the world is finally waking up to it, that these weren’t just isolated incidents.”

Boeing has paid billions of dollars in settlements since 2018, and the company and its leaders entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in January 2021 with the Department of Justice that has so far helped them avoid criminal prosecution.

Boeing paid $1.77 billion to compensate airline customers, $243.6 million as a criminal fine and $500 million for a compensation fund for family members of crash victims, CNN reported.

A yearlong FAA-commissioned panel review was critical of the safety culture at Boeing, and found that executives and employees were not aligned with what the safety standards were, according to a report released in February. The investigation also found that many employees were afraid of retaliation for speaking up.


FAA chief admits agency was ‘too hands-off’ before Boeing door blowout

Nick Robertson
Thu, June 13, 2024 



The head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday the agency was “too hands-off” with regulating aircraft manufacturers before a door blew out of a Boeing plane in January, causing weeks of scrutiny into the company’s manufacturing safety.

FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about Boeing that his agency “should have had much better visibility” into Boeing’s manufacturing process.

“FAA’s approach was too hands-off, too focused on paperwork audits, and not focused enough on inspections,” he said. “We have changed that approach over the last several months, and those changes are permanent. We have now moved to a more active, comprehensive oversight model, the audit plus inspection model, which allows the FAA to have much better insight into Boeing’s operations.”

The door blowout of a Boeing 737 Max operated by Alaska Airlines, caused by missing bolts, resulted in the grounding of every similar aircraft in the country and mandatory inspections. An investigation into Boeing’s process found a lax safety culture and oversights during manufacturing.

“There are issues around the safety culture in Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality,” Whittaker said in March. “And so, what we are really focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality.”

The FAA said its six-week audit of Boeing found “multiple instances when the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”

The scrutiny has tanked the company’s stock and brought additional scrutiny from Congress. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation in March, and members of the Senate Commerce Committee have previously promised more oversight.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the committee’s ranking member, said in March more oversight is “unquestionably” needed.

“This is an ongoing issue. Obviously, what has happened with Boeing in recent months is deeply concerning. The NTSB is engaged in investigation dealing with the Alaska Airlines incident. That investigation needs to proceed to conclusion,” he told The Hill.

“The challenges we’ve seen recently have raised real and material concerns and concerns that need to be addressed.”

CHINA CHARM OFFENSIVE DOWN UNDER
China Premier Li backs 'dialogue, not confrontation' in New Zealand
AFP
Fri, June 14, 2024 


Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research on Friday in Auckland (Brett Phibbs)


Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Friday he supported "dialogue, not confrontation" during a visit to New Zealand where he stirred up hope of new trade avenues.

Li is on a six-day tour of New Zealand and Australia, the highest-ranking official to visit either nation since his predecessor in 2017.

China accounts for 30 percent of New Zealand's export earnings, according to World Bank data, but there are fears this could evaporate if the world's second-largest economy continues to slow.

The Chinese premier praised "historic" developments in relations between the two countries over the past decade during a speech before a gala dinner in Auckland hosted by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

"We both emphasised that countries should live in harmony, engage in dialogue, not confrontation, and have cooperation, not conflict," Li said.

Luxon, who has raised sensitive issues such as foreign interference and recent escalations in the South China Sea with Li, said the pair had reached a better understanding of their "respective priorities".

New Zealand, long seen as one of China's closest partners in the region, has become increasingly bold in its criticism of Beijing's expanding influence in the South Pacific.

Business remains a priority, however.

Li met some of New Zealand's biggest exporters and most influential companies during the visit, which wraps up Saturday when he flies to the South Australian capital Adelaide.

- 'Big on collaboration' -

Mark Piper, chief executive of a top New Zealand government science institute, met the Chinese premier during a tour of an Auckland research facility earlier in the day.

"He was talking about more research collaborations and more people exchanges, which is what we're really interested in," Piper told AFP.

"He was really big on collaboration, the value that New Zealand can bring to China and that China can bring to New Zealand."

New Zealand was one of the first developed nations to sign a comprehensive free trade deal with Beijing.

Chinese consumers have a voracious appetite for New Zealand's premium meat, dairy and wine.

Li touted opportunities for trade, tourism and investment when he started his tour in New Zealand's capital Wellington on Thursday.

But he warned that emerging differences between the two nations "should not become a chasm that blocks exchanges and cooperation between us".

China's Li signals demand for New Zealand dairy and meat

Updated Fri, June 14, 2024


By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -There is a growing demand in China for high-quality dairy, beef and lamb products from New Zealand, Premier Li Qiang said on Friday, the second day of his trip to the Pacific island nation.

Li's trip to the region, which also includes a four-day stopover in Australia starting on Saturday, is aimed at strengthening trade and diplomatic ties with the two Pacific nations. China is the biggest trading partner of both nations.


Li visited the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research in Auckland on Friday, a government agency tasked with promoting the farming, food and beverage industries, before meetings and a dinner with business people, academics and diplomats.

Li said more bilateral business opportunities would emerge in the areas of energy, information technology, biomedicine and other emerging industries, Chinese state media reported.

He reiterated that China would work with New Zealand to upgrade their comprehensive strategic partnership, and stressed the need for increased cooperation in services trade and cross-border e-commerce.

His comments came as Chinese firms formally applied for an anti-dumping probe into pork imports from the European Union, escalating tensions after the bloc imposed anti-subsidy duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.Global food companies from dairy producers to pork exporters are on high alert for potential retaliatory tariffs from China.

New Zealand and China on Thursday signed bilateral agreements on trade and climate during Li's trip, the highest level Chinese visit to New Zealand in seven years.

BOOMING TRADE

Li has promised that Beijing will further expand market access, create a market-oriented and internationalised business environment, and he encouraged entrepreneurs to seize opportunities, Chinese state media said.

Beijing sees itself as a key part of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's plan to double exports over the next 10 years.

China is already New Zealand's largest trading partner with bilateral trade totalling nearly NZ$38 billion ($23.27 billion).

New Zealand remains keen to further boost trade ties with China but has also toughened its stance over the last year, accusing Beijing of hacking its parliament and noting what it characterises as a growing Chinese threat to Pacific security.

After his meeting with Li on Thursday Luxon said that as well as discussing trade, he had also raised concerns about issues such as Chinese interference.

Li's meeting with New Zealand opposition leader Chris Hipkins was cancelled on Friday, due to Hipkins facing travel issues.

($1 = 1.6329 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Additional reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Michael Perry and Gareth Jones)

China's Li pays 'very positive' visit to Fonterra, New Zealand minister says

Reuters
Fri, June 14, 2024 

(Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra on Saturday, a stop Trade Minister Todd McClay called "very positive" after the Chinese leader had spoken of demand for New Zealand's agricultural products.

"Fonterra is an important part of the Chinese food supply chain, a lot of our dairy products go to China," McClay said in comments broadcast on Radio New Zealand after Li visited Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Li said on Friday, the second day of his trip to the Pacific island nation, that there was growing demand in China for high-quality dairy, beef and lamb products from New Zealand.

China's second-highest ranked official is to travel to Australia on Saturday for a four-day stopover on a trip aimed at strengthening trade and diplomatic ties with the two commodities-exporting nations. China is the biggest trading partner of both countries.

Beijing sees itself as a key part of Luxon's plan to double New Zealand's exports over the next 10 years.

"I think it was clear there was a real appreciation on the part of the premier of China and their delegation just about how much that relationship has grown."

On Friday, Li visited Auckland's New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, a government agency that promotes the farming, food and beverage industries, before meetings and a dinner with business people, academics and diplomats.

Li met with Luxon in the capital Wellington on Thursday, signing agreements on trade and climate change, with human rights also on the agenda.

In the first visit by a Chinese premier to Australia since 2017, Li is to visit the South Australia state capital Adelaide, the national capital Canberra and the mining state of Western Australia.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by William Mallard)

Chinese Premier Li launches trade-friendly Australia visit

AFP
Sat, June 15, 2024 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will tour a wine producer and hold talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his trade-centred visit to Australia (Marty MELVILLE)

China's Premier Li Qiang embarked on a four-day trip to Australia on Saturday, dangling the promise of expanded trade even as the two nations compete for influence in the Pacific.

Li -- the second most powerful man in China after President Xi Jinping -- touched down in Adelaide at the start of a diplomatic mission across the resource-rich continent.

The premier waved from the plane's doors and was greeted on the airport tarmac by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, other government officials, and a group of photographers and TV journalists.

Flying in from a similarly trade-centred visit to New Zealand, Li is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit either country since 2017.

The premier will tour a South Australian wine grower and check in on two Chinese-loaned giant pandas in Adelaide zoo, hold talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese before tucking into a state lunch in Canberra, and then travel to a lithium mine in Western Australia.

His vineyard visit is a nod to China's recent lifting of swingeing trade sanctions on wine, timber, barley and beef exports imposed in 2020 during a diplomatic rift with a former conservative government.

The measures cost Australian exporters an estimated Aus$20 billion ($13 billion) a year.

Australia's rock lobster industry hopes Li will reopen its exports to China, removing one of the last sanctions in place since Albanese's government took power in 2022 and adopted a softer diplomatic approach to Beijing.

The Chinese premier's visit "reflects the improving tone," said Ryan Neelam, director of the foreign policy programme at Sydney-based think tank the Lowy Institute.

"The relationship is now more focused on the economic opportunities between them than it has in the past, which has been overshadowed by the political and security differences," he said.

"But at the same time, those differences haven't gone away."

Australia has tightened its defence alliance with the United States as it seeks to parry Beijing's expanding diplomatic and military influence on island states scattered around the Pacific region.

China describes the AUKUS security pact between Washington, London and Canberra -- a deal that would equip Australia with nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines to patrol the region -- as a divisive measure that raises nuclear proliferation risks.

- Wine and pandas -

In the most recent a sign of military tensions, Australia accused China of "unsafe and unprofessional" conduct after one of its warplanes fired flares in the path of a naval helicopter last month over the Yellow Sea.

Albanese has promised to tell Li the behaviour was "inappropriate".

Canberra also reacted with "outrage" when a Beijing court handed down a suspended death sentence to Chinese-Australian dissident writer Yang Jun earlier this year.

Such disagreements are likely to be aired behind closed doors, Neelam said.

Instead, Li sets a friendlier tone on the first full day of his trip Sunday -- visiting the famed Barossa winemaking region in Adelaide, hometown of Australia's foreign minister, who is credited with helping stabilise relations with Beijing.

China's punitive tariffs had effectively blocked premium Australian wine exports, worth an estimated Aus$1 billion a year, until just three months ago.

Even now, Australian vintners are hesitant to rush back into pre-tariff levels of trade with China, said Paul Turale, marketing manager at industry body Wine Australia.

"A lot of importers are probably taking a more conservative approach to bringing in new labels or new wines and are waiting to see it stabilise," he said.

"It will take some time to grow to what the industry was before."

First, though, Li will pop into Adelaide Zoo where giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been on loan from China since 2009.

Hopes are high that the pair -- instruments of China's so-called panda diplomacy -- will be allowed to stay despite producing no offspring in their time together.

djw-bur/mtp



China Li’s Australia Trip Is ‘Significant’, Chalmers Says

Swati Pandey
Sat, June 15, 2024 


(Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia is a “really significant step” for the two nations’ relationship, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Saturday.

Li will land in Australia for a four-day trip on Saturday, heading to Adelaide, Canberra and Perth as part of the first visit by a Chinese premier since early 2017, when relations began to deteriorate.

This follows Li’s visit to New Zealand, where he pledged to strengthen economic ties with Wellington. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the two premiers had discussed issues such as foreign interference, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

While the trip is the latest sign of warming relations between Australia and China, both countries are facing strategic and political tensions across a range of fronts, from strengthening security ties between Canberra and Washington to the global struggle over critical mineral supply chains.

Li’s visit “recognizes the key economic and broader relationship between Australia and China,” Chalmers said at a press conference in Queensland state. “We’re looking forward to engaging with Premier Li and his colleagues on this really important visit.”

Chalmers will also sign the Memorandum of Understanding on the Strategic Economic Dialogue with National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Liu Sushe that was agreed last year.

“We believe that engagement is good for our people, it’s good for our economy and it’s good for our country more broadly, and that’s what this visit is all about,” Chalmers said. “We’ve made really encouraging progress stabilizing the relationship with China but in a way which is consistent with our values and our interests.”

When asked by a journalist if the Australian government will confront the Chinese prime minister on humanitarian issues, Chalmers said “we are prepared to speak up for those values and interests when that’s appropriate.”

“We don’t pretend that isn’t sometimes a difficult relationship to manage or a complex relationship to manage,” he said. “And so we disagree with the administration when we need to, we engage where we can and I think we’ve seen some of the fruits of that, certainly in terms of the economy over the last couple of years.”

(Adds Li’s NZ visit in third paragraph. A previous version of this story was corrected to clarify it’s the first visit by a Chinese premier in more than seven years.)

 Bloomberg Businessweek

US imposes sanctions on Nordic Resistance Movement in fight against white supremacy

Daphne Psaledakis
Fri, June 14, 2024 a

Members of the Neo-nazi Nordic Resistance Movement march through the town of Ludvika


By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement and several of its leaders, designating them terrorists as Washington seeks to combat violent white supremacy, the U.S. State Department said.

The action designates Sweden-based NRM and three of its leaders as "specially designated global terrorists," the State Department said in a statement.


NRM is the largest neo-Nazi group in Sweden and has branches in Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland, where it has been banned since 2020, according to the statement.

"The United States remains deeply concerned about the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist threat worldwide and is committed to countering the transnational components of violent white supremacy," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"NRM’s violent activity is based on its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQI+ platform," he added.

The State Department said members and leaders of the group have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, protesters, journalists and others, and have also taken steps to collect and prepare weapons and explosive materials and organized training in violent tactics, including knife fighting.

Friday's action freezes any of the group's U.S. assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with it.

U.S. President Joe Biden has railed against white supremacy while in office.

He frequently says the "Unite the Right" white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 made him decide that he should run for president in 2020. The rally followed months of protests over the city's plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

In 2021, Biden launched the first-ever U.S. National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism that included resources to identify and prosecute threats and new deterrents to prevent Americans from joining dangerous groups.

Biden has also called on Congress to do more to hold social media companies accountable for spreading hate.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)


US designates Nordic neo-Nazi group as terrorists

Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Fri, June 14, 2024 




The US State Department on Friday designated a Nordic neo-Nazi group and three of its top officials as terrorists.

It’s the second time in history that the US has designated a foreign White supremacist organization and its leaders as terrorists.

The department designated the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) and three of its top officials – Tor Fredrik Vejdeland, Pär Öberg, and Leif Robert Eklund – as Specially Designated Global Terrorists on Friday, according to a statement from spokesperson Matthew Miller.

It is the first time the Biden administration has made such a designation of a White supremacist group. The Trump administration in 2020 designated the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) and its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

NRM is a transnational neo-Nazi organization founded in Sweden in 1997, with branches in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland, according to the State Department. It was banned in Finland in 2020.

According to a State Department fact sheet, NRM was designated “for having committed or attempted to commit, posing a significant risk of committing, or having participated in training to commit acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”

The designation of NRM comes as US officials have warned that White supremacist terror groups continue to pose a threat at home and abroad. The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community found that the “transnational racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVE) movement, in particular motivated by white supremacy, will continue to foment violence across Europe, South America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand inspiring the lone actor or small-cell attacks that pose a significant threat to U.S. persons.”

“NRM’s violent activity is based on its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQI+ platform,” Miller said Friday. “The group’s members and leaders have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, protestors, journalists, and other perceived adversaries.”

“NRM members have also taken steps to collect and prepare weapons and explosive materials, including on behalf of the group and in furtherance of its goals,” Miller continued. “In addition, NRM has organized training in violent tactics, including hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting.”

The State Department said they were making the designations as “part of a broader U.S. government effort to address the transnational dimensions of the threat posed by REMVE actors and reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s continued commitment to countering domestic terrorism (DT), which includes REMVE.”

In remarks Wednesday, a top State Department counterterrorism official warned that “transnational linkages” were increasing, “with individuals and groups communicating both online and in-person, radicalizing individuals—frequently young people—to violence, recruiting, and sharing tactical training, including sharing instructions for making weapons.”

“REMVE actors are becoming more and more adept at exploiting social media platforms, online gaming platforms and game-adjacent platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and encrypted chat applications to recruit new followers, plan and rally ideological support, and disseminate materials that contribute to radicalization and mobilization to violence,” said Ian Moss, the deputy coordinator for the Bureau of Counterterrorism.

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave the US government greater latitude to go after groups who train terrorists, not only groups that carry out terrorist attacks.

Friday’s designation will deny NRM members from accessing the US financial system, with the intention of making it more challenging for them to move money through the international system and fund their efforts.