Asia

Ramzan Kadyrov, the sanity-challenged Kremlin-appointed strongman leader of Chechnya, was unusually critical on Sunday of both the Russian military and leader Vladimir Putin for reportedly easing an offensive in the face of a Ukrainian counter-attack. Kadyrov, who flamboyantly vowed to unleash some 70,000 Islamist fighters on Ukraine to support his beloved “commander-in-chief” Putin, said on Sunday the Russians “have made mistakes” during the invasion. “If today or tomorrow no changes in strategy are made, I will be forced to speak with the leadership of the defense ministry and the leadership of the country to explain the real situation on the ground to them,” Kadyrov said in an audio message posted to his Telegram account. “It’s a very interesting situation. It’s astounding, I would say,” he added. Kadyrov vowed that all of the territory recaptured by Ukraine would be returned to Russian control with the help of his Chechen troops. Ramzan … [Read more...] about Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Putin Loyalist, Criticizes Russian Woes in Ukraine

The new film My Son Hunter includes a scene in which the fictionalized Hunter Biden proudly boasts of the million-dollar deals he made with Chinese businessmen, only to appear momentarily chagrined when reminded that Beijing was committing genocide while Hunter and his partners were happily raking in Chinese cash. The scene briskly dramatizes Hunter going into business with Ye Jianming, once a high-flying Chinese oil tycoon and youthful “princeling” of the Chinese Communist Party, who came to a mysterious and probably very unhappy end after he became an embarrassment to the regime in Beijing. In the movie, as apparently in life, Hunter seemed untroubled by Ye’s links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese intelligence. The Biden scion became part of Ye’s lavishly-funded effort to develop influential connections in the United States, as extensively chronicled in Peter Schweizer’s bestselling book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich … [Read more...] about ‘My Son Hunter’ Highlights How Bidens Ignored Uyghur Genocide to Get Rich in China

Samsung Electronics will invest over 7 trillion won ($5.02 billion) by 2030 as part of sweeping environmental initiatives aimed at making the company carbon neutral by 2050, the world's largest chip and mobile maker said. The tech giant will spend the money on research and development for technology aimed at filtering out greenhouse gases and capturing carbon dioxide generated during chip production, and is seeking to make its devices business carbon neutral earlier, by 2030, said Kim Soo-jin, Samsung 's head of ESG strategy group. It also plans to boost the recycling of resources such as lithium and plastic. Read Also Samsung starts up a mega chip production line in South Korea "These activities are to eventually meet demand from our customers ... so that we raise interest in our products," said Kim. "There are costs, but we will try to forge a business opportunity." Samsung said it joined a group of global corporations committed to 100% … [Read more...] about samsung: Samsung Electronics to invest over $5 billion as it targets net zero emissions by 2050

Southeast Asia 's largest e-commerce firm Shopee has rescinded dozens of job offers in the past two weeks, sources said, a move that began shortly after parent company Sea Ltd reported widening losses and sharply slower revenue growth. One 27-year-old engineer who asked that only his first name Wang be used said his call came a week after arriving in Singapore , having quit a job in Shanghai with TikTok owner Bytedance . "I thought it was a scam call ... until I realised it was a widespread rescinding of offers by Shopee," said Wang, who had by then paid an advance to rent a house. Read Also US bill to urge Big Tech to compensate news publishers for using their content Grab-Singtel venture steps into Singapore's competitive bank sector Singapore-based Sea said it had recently cancelled some offers at Shopee but declined to say how many. "Due to adjustments to hiring plans on some tech teams, a number of roles at … [Read more...] about sea: Tech workers left without jobs as Sea’s e-commerce arm Shopee retracts offers

The Taliban jihadist terror organization confirmed the arrival in Afghanistan on Monday of convicted heroin “kingpin” Bashir Noorzai, a terrorist-affiliated warlord the administration of leftist President Joe Biden freed in exchange for American engineer Mark Frerichs. Noorzai was sentenced to life in prison in America in 2009 for attempting to smuggle upwards of $50 million in heroin into the United States. Officials accused Noorzai of being a critical funder of the Taliban, using his position as a high-ranking tribal leader to administer opium fields and heroin laboratories used to fund the war against the United States. The drug kingpin’s release follows a similar move in June in which the Biden administration released Assadullah Haroon Gul, an al-Qaeda-linked detainee, to Taliban custody from the Guantánamo Bay prison facility. The Taliban is currently the de facto government of Afghanistan, facing no serious challenges (former President Ashraf Ghani claims to remain in … [Read more...] about Biden Admin Frees Afghan ‘Heroin Warlord’ in Taliban Prisoner Swap

China’s state-run newspaper Global Times on Sunday condemned British critics of the Communist Party — and, in particular, its crimes against humanity, human rights atrocities in the formerly British Hong Kong, and ongoing genocide of Turkic people in East Turkistan — as being “disrespectful” to Queen Elizabeth II by standing up for human rights. A wave of condemnation of Beijing emerged last week in the United Kingdom in anticipation of the Queen’s funeral, which took place across London and Windsor, England, on Monday. The British government extended invites to the heads of state of nearly every country on earth, including China and omitting only a small list of similarly brutal human rights abuses, such as Russia, Syria, Burma, and Belarus. Some countries – such as Iran, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – received “ambassadorial” invites, meaning their respective dictators could not attend but a designated ambassador could represent the country at the event. Several British … [Read more...] about China: British Critics of Communism ‘Extremely Disrespectful’ to Queen Elizabeth

General Motors ' autonomous driving unit Cruise has developed its own chips for self-driving cars to be deployed by 2025, as they aim to bring down costs and scale up volume, executives said. Cruise is taking a page out of Tesla 's playbook, switching from Nvidia Corp's products to customized chips to power their vehicles. Read Also Tesla supplier Aptiv to buy 85 percent stake in Intercable unit in EV tech push "Two years ago, we were paying a lot of money for a GPU from a famous vendor," Carl Jenkins , head of Cruise hardware, told Reuters in an apparent reference to Nvidia, a leading maker of graphics processing units, or GPUs. "There is no negotiation because we're tiny volume. We couldn't negotiate at all. So that's why I said, okay, then we have to take control of our own destiny," he said during a tour of the Cruise R&D workshop in San Francisco. Cruise executives this week for the first time have given details about its … [Read more...] about cruise: Upset by high prices, GM’s Cruise develops its own chips for self-driving cars

Tesla supplier Aptiv Plc said that it would acquire a majority stake in a unit of Italy' Intercable for 595 million euros ($605.71 million), allowing the auto parts company access to technology used in electric vehicles (EVs). US-based Aptiv will own an 85 percent stake in the unit, Intercable Automotive Solutions , which manufactures high-voltage busbars that carry more electrical power than traditional cables. It has manufacturing facilities in Europe and Asia . " Intercable Automotive Solutions is an excellent strategic fit with Aptiv's Signal & Power Solutions segment," Aptiv Chief Executive Officer Kevin Clark said in a statement. Read Also Tesla increases hiring in Thailand as the EV market becomes more competitive More exits at Tesla as EV firm's India interest tails off Auto parts suppliers are increasingly investing in electric and battery technology to cater to the EV market, which could be worth … [Read more...] about aptiv: Tesla supplier Aptiv to buy 85 percent stake in Intercable unit in EV tech push

Cooks love their gadgets, from countertop slow cookers to instant-read thermometers. Now, there’s increasing interest in magnetic induction cooktops —surfaces that cook much faster than conventional stoves, without igniting a flame or heating an electric coil. Some of this attention is overdue: Induction has long been popular in Europe and Asia, and it is more energy-efficient than standard stoves. But recent studies have also raised concerns about indoor air emissions from gas stoves. Academic researchers and agencies such as the California Air Resources Board have reported that gas stoves can release hazardous air pollutants while they’re operating, and even when they’re turned off. As an environmental health researcher who does work on housing and indoor air, I have participated in studies that measured air pollution in homes and built models to predict how indoor sources would contribute to air pollution in different home types . Here is some perspective on how … [Read more...] about Is your gas stove bad for your health?

Audio player loading… The Steam Deck changed quite considerably during the process of being developed and honed, as some freshly aired photos of prototypes make clear enough. As PC Mag (opens in new tab) reports, Valve developer Pierre Loup Griffais posted pics of older prototype models of the Steam Deck – wheeled out for a press event over in Asia – on Twitter to show how the device evolved. As part of the Asia launch press event, we made the design lab into a showroom of development history. My favorite are the playable prototypes: bootable Deck family tree from mid-2019 to now, from a couple of hand-built units onto gradual mass production. pic.twitter.com/TpU5I8D50p September 12, 2022 See more As Griffais notes, these are prototypes from the middle of 2019 onwards, and it’s interesting to see how the design of the handheld gaming PC moved forwards. Although the overall design remains roughly the same throughout, there are some key … [Read more...] about Steam Deck prototype pics spark debate about what could have been