United News of Bangladesh

A year after the most destructive wildfire in the state's history scorched nearly 1,100 homes, Colorado lawmakers are considering joining other Western states by adopting artificial intelligence in the hopes of detecting blazes before they burn out of control. A Colorado Senate committee on Thursday unanimously voted to move forward a bill to create a $2 million pilot program that would station cameras on mountaintops, and use artificial intelligence to monitor the footage and help detect early signs of a wildfire. The bill will move to the state Senate Appropriations Committee next. “It can detect just a wisp of smoke and it’s that type of situation in remote areas that could save forests and homes and properties and lives,” Democratic state Sen. Joann Ginal, one of the bill's sponsors, said in the hearing. Read more: ChatGPT by Open AI: All you need to know The deployment of AI is part of an ongoing effort by firefighters to use new technology to become smarter about how they prepare and better position their resources. Fire lookout towers once staffed by humans have largely been replaced by cameras in remote areas, many of them in high-definition and armed with artificial intelligence to discern a smoke plume from morning fog. There are hundreds of such cameras scattered across California, Nevada, Oregon and a handful already in Colorado that allow even casual viewers to remotely watch. Vaughn Jones, who heads wildland fire management for Colorado’s fire prevention agency, said the technology “allows us to take very aggressive early action and keep the impact down... not waiting until the end of the day to start playing catch-up.” A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West and scientists say warming weather will continue to make fires more frequent and destructive. Record-breaking storms that drenched California with more than 11 inches (27.94 centimeters) of rain in recent weeks and big snow dumps in other states have improved conditions in the short-term, but the drought persists across many western states, according to a Tuesday report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Colorado program would support 40 fixed camera stations and six more mobile stations that can be moved to monitor ongoing fires, Ben Miller, the director at the Center of Excellence, which researches technology for firefighting, said at Thursday's hearing. The AI algorithm behind the camera would try to detect a plume of smoke and alert first responders early, said Miller, who pointed to a structure fire caught by AI technology near the city of Boulder in December as an example. Boulder County had partnered with an AI wildfire detection company called Pano AI, and the software had alerted authorities of the fire around the time the first 911 call arrived, Miller said. One home was destroyed and another damaged before the fire was contained — a far better outcome than a year before when the Marshal Fire, also near Boulder, burned over 1,000 structures. Read more: First-ever AI-generated mini-comic book in Bangladesh launched “The more you train the model, the better and better it gets,” said Miller, who added that his agency is very interested in the technology but that it's still burgeoning and that a pilot program is a good place to start. Pano AI began working with cities, including the ski resort town of Aspen, Colorado, and has expanded to cities, counties and even Pacific Gas & Electric in six states. Kathryn Williams, Pano AI’s director of government development who testified at the hearing, said “AI machine learning is new, it’s exciting, it’s glamorous but it isn’t perfect,” adding that the company uses employees to vet alerts from the AI. Their stations include two cameras mounted on a high vantage point, rotating at 360 degrees with 10-mile (about 16-kilometer) radiuses and connected to the company's AI software. Each station costs roughly $50,000 every year. It's unknown whether the company would be hired for the pilot if the bill passes. Arvind Satyam, the chief commercial officer at Pano AI, said in an interview that the artificial intelligence uses a data set of over 300 million images that teaches it what is smoke billowing up from a fire and what isn’t. Once a camera signals that there could be a fire, the photos and information are run through the company’s intelligence center for human vetting — the algorithm could’ve mistaken a tractor’s dust cloud for smoke — before it’s sent along to fire agencies, he said. Satyam added that the benefits go beyond detection, allowing fire agencies to pinpoint a blaze's location and monitor a live feed of the burn. AI has gained notoriety for breaking into a number of fields — from creating propaganda and disinformation to writing essays or cover letters about whatever the user requests. David Blankinship, senior technology advisor for the Western Fire Chiefs Association, said in an interview that fire agencies have come to rely on this type of detection technology, especially in California where the programs have been put to wider use. Still, Blankinship noted that “these cameras, even with AI, are only one component of the actual solution that is working." When a vote was called to send the bill forward, committee member Republican state Sen. Rod Pelton was enthusiastic. "I do not want to be the bucket of water on this bill so I will be a fiery, ‘Yes'," he said.

Israel’s tech industry has long been the driving force behind the country’s economy. Now, as Israel’s new government pushes ahead with its far-right agenda, the industry is flexing its muscle and speaking out in unprecedented criticism against policies it fears will drive away investors and decimate the booming sector. The public outcry presents a pointed challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who champions Israeli technology on the international stage and has long boasted of his own economic prowess. It also highlights how deep and broad opposition to the government’s policies runs, from political rivals, to top members of the justice system and military. Tech leaders say that since the government took power last month, a cloud has emerged over their industry, with foreign investors spooked at what some say is a country regressing rather than striving for innovation. They fear the government's plans to overhaul the judiciary and pledges by some top officials to advance discriminatory laws will imperil the industry that has earned the country the nickname Start-Up Nation and in turn, send Israel's economy into a tailspin. Read more: Hi-tech parks to help Bangladesh become knowledge-based economy: Palak “Investors are asking ‘where is Israel headed? Will it continue to be a country that leads technologically or is it moving two generations backwards? Are political agendas more important than the ability to be global tech leaders?’" said Omri Kohl, CEO of Pyramid Analytics, a company that makes business intelligence software. If the tech industry suffers, he said, “everyone will lose.” Over the last three decades, Israel’s tech industry has become the beating heart of its economy. The sector employs more than 10% of the country’s salaried workforce, according to official figures. And while the industry has struggled this past year like its counterparts abroad, it still accounts for about a quarter of the country's income taxes, thanks to its high salaries, and produces more than half of the country’s exports. During his time as prime minister for most of the past decade and a half, plus another stint in the 1990s, Netanyahu's political fortunes have been linked to the rise of the tech industry. For many in the tech sector, that makes his government’s agenda and the speed with which it is advancing all the more confounding. “Bibi is determined but he also understands that we are a small country that is very dependent on the outside world,” said Eynat Guez, the CEO of human resources software firm Papaya Global, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “With all due respect to Bibi, that determination will hit a wall very quickly” when investors start to pull out, she said. On Thursday, Guez tweeted that the company, which has raised nearly half a billion dollars from investors, would be “removing all of the company's money from the country” because of the proposed changes. The tech industry sees the government’s policies as a warning light for critical foreign investors, who they say are already holding off on investments as they wait for the political developments to unfold. The current government’s plans to accelerate settlement expansion on occupied lands sought by the Palestinians for a state could also impact foreign investment. Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund several years ago ruled out doing business with certain Israeli companies because of their involvement in the settlement enterprise, considered illegal by most of the international community. Last month, Israeli media reports said that the Norwegian fund was again rethinking its investment, in part because of the new government. Read more: Tech entrepreneurs to play important role in economy Maxim Rybnikov, an analyst with the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, told The Associated Press in an email that judicial changes could present “downside risks in the future" that could affect Israel's debt rating. That sentiment was reportedly echoed by Israel's central bank chief in a meeting this week with Netanyahu and voiced publicly by numerous other leading economists and business figures. Many in Israel's tech sector say the circumstances could prompt young Israeli talent as well as global tech giants who have offices in the country to leave. That would be catastrophic for the homegrown industry, they say. Typically silent on politics, hundreds of tech workers walked out of their offices on Tuesday near tech hubs around the country to protest the planned changes. Waving signs reading “there's no high-tech without democracy,” and “democracy is not a bug that needs to be fixed,” they blocked a central Tel Aviv throughway for about an hour. Last month, hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists signed a letter calling on Netanyahu to rethink his policies for the sake of the economy, calling them “a real existential threat to the illustrious tech industry.” “We call on you to stop the growing snowball, steady the ship and preserve the status quo,” the letter said. Jerusalem Venture Partners, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms, issued a statement against a proposed law allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people, signed by the companies it backs. And leaders of top firms are speaking out on social media, including Barak Eilam, chief executive of the Nasdaq-traded NICE Ltd., one of Israel’s oldest and largest tech companies and Nir Zohar, chief operating officer of the website builder Wix, who have both slammed the proposed changes. Netanyahu has pledged to charge ahead with his policies. At a news conference on Wednesday, he lashed out at his critics, accusing his political opponents and the media of using scare tactics to promote their own agendas. “In recent days, I have heard concerns about the effect of the legal reforms on our economic resilience," he said. “The truth is the opposite. Our steps to strengthen democracy will not harm the economy. They will strengthen it.” Most worrisome to the tech sector is the planned overhaul of Israel’s justice system, which would give parliament power to overturn certain Supreme Court decisions. Critics say the changes would grant the government overwhelming power and upend Israel’s democratic system of checks and balances. Last weekend, an estimated 100,000 Israelis took to the streets against the planned changes. Tech leaders also have spoken out against pledges by Netanyahu’s ultranationalist partners to craft legislation that would allow discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community, seeing it as contradictory to the pluralistic values of the tech sector. Netanyahu has given authority over certain educational programs to Avi Maoz, the head of a radical, religious ultranationalist party who is anti-LGBTQ. Netanyahu has also made promises to his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to strengthen their insular school system that emphasizes religious studies over subjects like math and English. Economists say this will prevent their integration into the modern world, a step seen as necessary to keep the economy afloat. Moshe Zviran, the chief entrepreneurship and innovation officer at Tel Aviv University, a position that encourages youth to navigate the tech world, said the next generation might not have the same opportunities as their predecessors because of the government's policies. “If there won’t be exits and sales and Israeli high-tech it’ll be a real problem. It’s a fatal blow to the Israeli economy," said Zviran, the former dean of the university's business school. “The minute that innovation departs, what are we left with here?”

Facebook parent Meta said Wednesday it will restore former President Donald Trump 's personal account in the coming weeks, ending a two-year suspension it imposed in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The company said in a blog post it is adding “new guardrails” to ensure there are no “repeat offenders” who violate its rules, even if they are political candidates or world leaders. “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” wrote Nick Clegg, Meta’s vice president of global affairs. Clegg added that when there is a “clear risk” to real-world harm, Meta will intervene. “In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” he wrote. Facebook suspended Trump on Jan. 7, 2021, for praising people engaged in violent acts at the Capitol a day earlier. But the company had resisted earlier calls — including from its own employees — to remove Trump's account. Read more: Georgia grand jury ends probe of Trump, 2020 election Meta said Trump’s accounts will be restored “in the coming weeks” on both Facebook and Instagram. Banned from mainstream social media, Trump has been relying on Truth Social, which he launched after being blocked from Twitter. Facebook is not only the world's largest social media site, but had been a crucial source of fundraising revenue for Trump’s campaigns, which spent millions of dollars on the company's ads in 2016 and 2020. The move, which comes as Trump is ramping up his third run for the White House, will not only allow Trump to communicate directly with his 34 million followers — dramatically more than the 4.8 million who currently follow him on Truth Social — but will also allow him to resume direct fundraising. During the suspension, his supporters were able to raise money for him, but couldn't run ads directly from him or in his voice. Responding to the news, Trump blasted Facebook’s original decision to suspend his account as he praised Truth Social. “FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since “deplatforming” your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution!” he wrote. Other social media companies, including Snapchat, where he remains suspended, also kicked him off their platforms following the insurrection. He was recently reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company. He has not tweeted yet. Civil rights groups and others on the left were quick to denounce Meta's move. Letting Trump back on Facebook sends a signal to other figures with large online audiences that they may break the rules without lasting consequences, said Heidi Beirich, founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and a member of a group called the Real Facebook Oversight Board that has criticized the platform’s efforts. Read more: Trump says climate change not a hoax, not sure of its source “I am not surprised but it is a disaster,” Beirich said of Meta’s decision. “Facebook created loopholes for Trump that he went right through. He incited an insurrection on Facebook. And now he’s back.” NAACP President Derrick Johnson blasted the decision as “a prime example of putting profits above people’s safety" and a “grave mistake.” “It’s quite astonishing that one can spew hatred, fuel conspiracies, and incite a violent insurrection at our nation’s Capitol building, and Mark Zuckerberg still believes that is not enough to remove someone from his platforms,” he said. But Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University called the reinstatement “the right call — not because the former president has any right to be on the platform but because the public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for political office.” The ACLU also called it the right move. “Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech. Indeed, some of Trump’s most offensive social media posts ended up being critical evidence in lawsuits filed against him and his administration,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The biggest social media companies are central actors when it comes to our collective ability to speak — and hear the speech of others — online. They should err on the side of allowing a wide range of political speech, even when it offends." Clegg said that in light of his previous violations, Trump now faces heightened penalties for repeat offenses. Such penalties “will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol.” If Trump — or anyone else — posts material that doesn't violate Facebook's rules but is otherwise harmful and could lead to events such as the Jan. 6 insurrection, Meta says it will not remove it but it may limit its reach. This includes praising the QAnon conspiracy theory or trying to delegitimize an upcoming election. While Trump has insisted publicly that he has no intention of returning to Twitter, he has been discussing doing so in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Though it has been eclipsed culturally by newer rivals like TikTok, Facebook remains the world’s largest social media site and is an incredibly powerful political platform, particularly among older Americans, who are most likely to vote and give money to campaigns. Throughout his tenure as president, Trump’s use of social media posed a significant challenge to major social media platforms trying to balance the public’s need to hear from their elected leaders with worries about misinformation, harassment and incitement of violence. “In a healthier information ecosystem, the decisions of a single company would not carry such immense political significance, and we hope that new platforms will emerge to challenge the hegemony of the social media giants," the ACLU's Romero said.

The European Space Agency's director general says it's crucial to rebuild Europe's access to space following the botched launch of a European rocket carrying two Earth observation satellites last year and the delayed introduction of the Ariane 6 launcher. In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Josef Aschbacher said his “priority is to reinstall access to space, guaranteed access to space for Europe. And I will work on that in all dimensions." Until then, he said, Europe must look at alternative solutions outside the continent — including Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Aschbacher said the ESA is working at identifying the causes of the failure of the Vega-C rocket launch in French Guiana, with the results of the investigation expected in less than a month. The launch of Vega C was meant to take two Earth observation satellites made by Airbus, Pleiades Neo 5 and 6, into orbit. The satellites would have been part of a constellation capable of taking images of any point on the globe with a resolution of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches). “Having three failures in two years is not good," Aschbacher said, referring to previous Vega misfirings. “And this is something where we really need to look into how we need to change some of the practices or quality management processes that we have in place in order to make sure when Vega C gets back on the launchpad it is safe, but also as quick as possible." Meanwhile, with Ariane 5 preparing to retire, the delayed launch of Ariane 6 is further denting Europe’s capacity to send satellites into space amid fierce competition from SpaceX and other rocket programs in the U.S. and China. Read more: Bangladesh, France keen to build partnership in aviation, space, aerospace technology The maiden flight of the medium-to-heavy Ariane 6 rocket was planned for mid-2020 but following several delays its first launch is not expected before the fourth quarter of this year. “Of course, top priority is getting Ariane 6 onto the launchpad," Aschbacher said. “We still have some technical issues to resolve and I am not hiding them. They are serious, and we have to really work through." In addition, the Russian space agency has terminated Soyuz launches at the European spaceport in French Guiana, in retaliation for ESA's decision to implement sanctions imposed by its members on Russia over its war in Ukraine, leaving Europe with even fewer options. Until proper access to space is regained, Aschbacher said Europe needs to look at alternative solutions outside the continent. “Could be SpaceX, could also be somebody else," he said. “We may need an interim solution in the next one, or maybe maximum two years." Asked about Musk's competition, Aschbacher said “he is putting facts on the table which you have to take into account in how you develop." Read more: Next US moon landing will be by private companies, not NASA “And in a way, it’s also helping us in our argumentation because you have one clear player who is developing," he added. “In some domains we have to catch up. ... But I think it also energizes and reinforces our engineers and our scientists to make sure that we have good solutions to make progress on this. So overall, I think this really helps the space sector altogether."

The Digital Bangladesh Mela 2023 will be inaugurated Thursday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the capital's Agargaon. This three-day fair will introduce the latest innovations and future technological trends with industry partners and visitors. The Huawei pavilion will be equipped with multiple breakthrough innovations in different frontiers like 5.5G, enterprise business solutions, Huawei cloud, and digital power. Read more: Specialised knowledge-sharing centre: Huawei Bangladesh Academy launched in Dhaka Demo sites of smart ports and digital power solutions will also be available for the audience.  Apart from these, the visitors can join quizzes every two hours and win attractive prizes. Huawei Bangladesh Facebook page has also announced a separate quiz campaign.  Majian, chief technical officer of Huawei Bangladesh, said: "Our pavilion, themed 'Stride to 5.5G,' will bring diverse cutting-edge technologies to the fair,  including 5.5G, robotics, smart port, smart education, Huawei Solar PV solution, Cloud service and more."

Bijoy keyboard software installation in all android phones not mandatory, said Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar on Wednesday. Amid criticism over the matter, the minister clarified this while talking to reporters on the 2nd day of Deputy Commissioners Conference 2023 at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital. Read more: 'Environment for 5G rollout already in place': Mustafa Jabbar “I have an explanation that Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has used a word – ‘Mandatory’. This term is misleading,” said the minister. One can install, uninstall, remove and reinstall any software on any Android phone. So there is no need to use the word ‘mandatory’, he  said. Jabbar said, “What we said that the mobile phone set manufacturers or importers will provide software to facilitate Bangla writing. Whether a user uses the software or not is entirely up to him/her.” Regarding the internet service, he said the 4G service has been provided in more than 98 percent area of the country. “Now we are working with 5G which is 10 times more powerful than 4G.” Read more: Mustafa Jabbar wants fixed rate for internet packages across operators Besides, there are more than 10 crore mobile internet subscribers and some fixed internet subscribers too, he said. “We should give more importance to mobile internet.” “But we are not able to install towers for network in different parts of the country. Some people spread propaganda that towers are emitting radiation. We have tested and found that these are propaganda. People should not obstruct the towers installation work.”

More landlords are taking Twitter to court over unpaid rent, this time at the social media company’s headquarters in San Francisco and its British offices — the latest sign that owner Elon Musk's extreme cost-cutting strategy includes simply not paying the bills. Twitter is facing a lawsuit over allegations it failed to pay rent for its head office, according to California court documents. The owner of its premises in central London, meanwhile, said it's taking the company to court over rental debt. Musk is slashing costs after his $44 billion deal last year to buy Twitter left the company on the hook for about $1 billion in annual interest payments. Twitter has already been taken to court this month for falling behind on rent at another San Francisco office. It's the latest legal headache for Musk, who has been testifying in recent days in a separate class-action lawsuit from Tesla investors alleging his 2017 tweet misled them about funding to take the electric carmaker private. The billionaire Tesla CEO's cost-cutting strategy for Twitter also has included gutting the company’s workforce and auctioning off memorabilia and fancy office furniture. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Its communications department was shut down after Musk's acquisition. The owner of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, located at 1355 Market St., is suing the company after it failed to make its latest monthly rent payment, according to documents filed Friday with the Superior Court of California. The company, Sri Nine Market Square LLC, said Twitter “breached the Lease by failing to pay monthly rent and additional rent” for January amounting to $3.4 million. Twitter, which has had a lease for three floors in the building since 2011, had fallen behind on a similar amount of rent in December, which Sri Nine Market Square recouped from a letter of credit that Twitter had put up as a security deposit, the filing said. Read more: 'Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!': Musk tweets After using those funds, the landlord says Twitter still owes $3.16 million in unpaid rent and is seeking late fees and interest plus attorneys’ fees. The social media company still occupies the property, the landlord said. In Britain, the Crown Estate has started court proceedings against Twitter after the company fell behind on rent at its offices near London's famed Piccadilly Circus. The Crown Estate, which owns some of the priciest real estate in central London, said it took action following previous contact with Twitter over the unpaid rent and is in talks with the company but provided no further information. The Crown Estate is a vast property portfolio that includes much of London’s Regent Street as well as the Windsor estate. It's an independently run commercial business, but its profits are used as a benchmark for the funding of the Sovereign Grant, which is the public money that funds the British royal family’s official work.

University of Wisconsin System officials said Tuesday that they will ban the use of TikTok on system devices. System spokesman Mark Pitsch told The Associated Press about the move in email statements. Nearly half of the states nationwide have blocked the popular social media app owned by a Chinese company. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers banned the use of TikTok on Wisconsin state phones and other devices, citing potential risks to privacy, safety and security. The order didn't apply to the UW System, which employs 40,000 faculty and staff, because it isn’t an executive branch agency. UW-Madison, the system's flagship school, has multiple TikTok accounts, including one for the women's volleyball team. Universities often use TikTok accounts as a recruiting tool to connect with high school students. Read more: Making money on TikTok: 10 Best Ways A number of other universities across the country have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including Auburn, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa and Texas. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices. TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens and has become the second-most popular domain in the world. But there has long been bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation. Read more: List of US states banning TikTok grows

Elon Musk returned to federal court to defend himself against a class-action lawsuit that alleges he misled Tesla shareholders with a tweet about an aborted buyout that the billionaire defiantly insisted Tuesday he could have pulled off, had he wanted. Musk spent roughly three more hours on the stand during his third day of testimony before being excused by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen. It’s unlikely Musk, 51, will be summoned back to the witness stand during a civil trial expected to be turned over to a nine-person jury in early February. Musk, who also owns Twitter while continuing to run Tesla, spent much of Tuesday depicting himself, while being questioned by his own attorney, Alex Spiro, as an impeccably trustworthy business leader capable of raising as much money as he needs to pursue his visions. He testily sparred with a shareholder lawyer, Nicholas Porritt, who had raised his ire earlier in the trial. Read more: Elon Musk rebuffed in bid to move Tesla tweet trial to Texas At two separate junctures Tuesday under Spiro’s gentle prodding, Musk left no doubt about his contempt for Porritt with a remark expressing doubt that the lawyer was looking out for the best interests of Tesla shareholders. The remarks drew a quick rebuke from the judge and were stricken from the record. “It's inappropriate," Chen at one point admonished Musk. When he was being challenged by Porritt, Musk purposefully diverted his gaze from the lawyer and delivered his explanations while looking directly at the jurors sitting a few feet to his right. In another instance, Musk asserted, without elaborating, that a question from Porritt wondering if he had ever caused investors to suffer losses contained “falsehoods." On the flip side, Spiro at one point mistakenly addressed Musk as “your honor" while asking the billionaire how much money he had made for investors during his career. The slipup elicited a moment of levity in the San Francisco courtroom filled with media and other spectators in attendance to listen to Musk, who has become even more famous since completing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October. The current trial hinges on whether a pair of tweets Musk posted on Aug. 7, 2018, damaged Tesla shareholders during a 10-day period leading up to his admission that the buyout he had envisioned wasn’t going to happen. The statements resulted in Musk and Tesla to reach the $40 million settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing. In the first of the 2018 tweets, Musk stated “funding secured” for what would have been a $72 billion — or $420 per share — buyout of Tesla at a time when the electric automaker was still grappling with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. Musk followed up a few hours later with another tweet suggesting a deal was imminent. After those tweets, Musk declared Tesla would remain publicly a few weeks later. A month after that, Musk and Tesla reached a $40 million settlement with securities regulators who had alleged the tweets were misleading. Read more: Musk says he can't get fair trial in California, wants Texas Musk has previously contended he entered into the settlement under duress and maintained he never wavered in his belief that he had the money for a deal. Musk spent most of Tuesday trying to persuade the jurors that there was nothing devious about the two tweets indicating he had lined up the money to take Tesla private as the electric automaker was struggling with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. The judge has already declared the jurors can consider those two tweets to be false, leaving them to decide whether Musk deliberately deceived investors and whether his statements saddled them with losses. While being steered by Spiro, Musk told jurors he had stated only that he was “considering” a Tesla buyout but never promised a deal would get done. But, Musk said, he thought it important to get the word out to investors that Tesla might be poised to end its eight-year run as a publicly held company. “I had no ill motive,” Musk said. “My intent was to do the right thing for all shareholders." While being grilled the day before by Porritt, Musk at times was combative, indignant and exasperated. Through it all, Musk has insisted he locked up financial backing for what would have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla during 2018 meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, although no specific funding amount or price was discussed. When presented with texts and email indicating that a representative for the Saudi fund had never pledged the money for a full buyout of Tesla, Musk contended it was nothing more than the words of someone trying to backpedal from a previous pledge made in private conversations. Not long after Porritt resumed his questioning Tuesday, Musk once again scoffed at the notion that his belief that he had the Saudi funding's financial backing wasn't enough for him to tweet about a potential Tesla buyout. “We are talking about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Musk testified. “They can buy Tesla several times over. This was not a large amount of money for them." Musk also reiterated earlier testimony that he could finance a Tesla buyout by sharing some of his holdings in SpaceX, a privately held maker of rocket ships that he also started. That would be similar to what he did in the Twitter purchase, which led him to sell about $23 billion of his Tesla stock. That's something that Musk said Tuesday that he didn't want to do, but that it showed he had the wherewithal to pull together purchases for expensive deals. Musk's ownership of Twitter also has proved unpopular with Tesla shareholders who worry about him being distracted as the automaker faces more competition. Tesla's stock has lost about one-third of its value since Musk took over Twitter. Despite that downturn, the stock is still worth about seven times more than at the time of Musk's 2018 tweets, after adjusting for two splits that have since occurred. That opened the door for Musk to remind jurors Tuesday that any investor who held Tesla shares in August 2018 would have done “extremely well," had they just held on to the stock. “It would have been the best investment in the stock market," Musk said.

As technicians in a distant control room watch on display screens, an automated crane at one of China’s busiest ports moves cargo containers from a Korean freighter to self-driving trucks in a scene tech giant Huawei sees as its future after American sanctions crushed its smartphone brand. The backbone of the “smart terminal” at the Tianjin Port, east of Beijing, is a data network built by Huawei, which is reinventing itself as a supplier for self-driving cars, factories and other industries it hopes will be less vulnerable to Washington's worsening feud with Beijing over technology and security. The ruling Communist Party is promoting automation in industries from manufacturing to taxis to keep China’s economy growing as the workforce ages and starts to shrink. Its managers say the “smart terminal,” part of Tianjin's 200-square-kilometer (77-square-mile) port, allows 200 employees to move as much cargo as 800 used to. Read more: Huawei launches all-band 5G solution series “We believe this solution in Tianjin is the world’s most advanced,” said Yue Kun, chief technology officer of Huawei’s business unit for ports. “We believe it can be applied to other ports.” Huawei Technologies Ltd., which makes smartphones and is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone carriers, struggled after then-President Donald Trump cut off access to American processor chips and other technology in 2019 in a feud with Beijing about security. Washington says Huawei is a security risk that might use its access to foreign phone networks to facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation the company denies. The United States and allies including Japan and Australia have banned or restricted use of Huawei equipment by their phone carriers. Smartphone sales outside China collapsed after Huawei lost music, maps and other services from Alphabet Inc.’s Google that handset buyers expect to see pre-loaded. Its low-end Honor brand was sold off in 2020 in hopes of reviving sales by separating it from the sanctions on its corporate parent. Huawei, with a workforce of almost 200,000, has held onto its status as the leading maker of network gear based on sales in China and other markets where Washington has had less success at encouraging governments to shun the company. “Huawei is already a key player” in data networks with a “wealth of knowledge,” said Paul Budde, an industry analyst. The company has created 20 teams to focus on factories, mines, hospitals, ports, power plants and other industrial customers. It says the auto unit has 3,000 people working on autonomous driving and invested $2 billion in the technology in 2020-21. Huawei was an early developer of “smart city” networks for traffic control and police surveillance. Read more: Huawei Bangladesh Academy launched in Dhaka “The big, black cloud here, however, is geopolitics," said Budde. "This will hamper its participation in overseas markets,” he said. “The issues are not technology but are purely political.” American pressure on Huawei spiraled into an international standoff in 2018 after its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of its founder, was arrested in Canada on U.S. charges related to accusations of violating trade sanctions on Iran. China arrested two Canadians on spying charges, trying to win Meng's release. They were freed in September 2021 after Meng was allowed to return to China under an agreement with American prosecutors in which she took responsibility for misrepresenting Huawei's dealings with Iran. Huawei says its new focus already is helping to revive the company’s fortunes. “In 2020, we successfully pulled ourselves out of crisis mode,” said Eric Xu, one of three Huawei executives who take turns as chairman, in a December letter to employees. “U.S. restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual.” Last year’s revenue was forecast to be little-changed from 2021 at 636.9 billion yuan ($91.6 billion), Xu said. That was below Huawei’s double-digit growth of a decade earlier but an improvement over the 5.9% slide in the first half. He gave no breakdown by business line, but Huawei reported 2021 sales to industrial customers of 102.4 billion yuan ($16.1 billion). Sales of smartphones and other devices fell 25.3% from a year earlier in the first half of 2022 to 101.3 billion yuan ($15 billion). The auto unit, which supplies components and software for navigation, dashboard displays and managing vehicle systems, has played a role in five models released by three Chinese automakers. The ruling party's urgency about rolling out automation has risen as the size of China’s working age population 16 to 59 declined after hitting a peak in 2011. That group has shrunk by about 5%. Its share of the population slid from 70% to 62%. The Tianjin port managers told Huawei they already were having trouble finding and keeping truck drivers, according to Yue. “This can help to address the aging population issue,” said Yue. Yue said Huawei has talked with “people outside China” who might use its port technology, but he gave no details. The annual market for port-related network technology is modest at $2 billion, but global sales of gear to link factory and medical equipment, cars and other devices total $600 billion a year, according to Budde. He said that has the potential to replace Huawei's lost smartphone and other telecom sales, so long as foreign buyers aren't put off by security concerns. The Tianjin port's fleet of 88 battery-powered autonomous trucks are charged by wind turbines, according to a port spokesman, Peng Pai. “It’s much safer, and it uses clean energy,” said Peng. In a third-floor control room with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the port, a dozen operators sit in front of displays with as many as six screens showing video feeds of computer-controlled cranes lifting cargo boxes onto or off ships. Each can monitor as many as six cranes at once, unlike a traditional operator who serves only one ship. “People had to work high up in cranes,” said Yang Jiemin, a vice president of Tianjin Port Group. “Now, our operators can sit in an office and monitor equipment remotely.” Operators take control of a crane or truck if sensors indicate a problem, according to Huawei's Yue. He said the port’s goal is to cut that “takeover rate” to 0.1%, or one container in 1,000, while computers manage the handling of the others from start to finish. The high-speed network allows a crane or truck to react to a command in 1/100th of a second, even though the ships are 500 meters (one-third of a mile) away from the control room, according to Liu Xiwang, manager of the port’s information department. “You can’t feel the delay,” Liu said. Yue, the Huawei executive, was reluctant to say whether it needs processor chips or other foreign inputs that might be disrupted by U.S. sanctions. “I really don’t know the answer to your question,” Yue said after being asked twice about the sources of critical components. He compared it to buying a cup of coffee: “I don’t know who supplies the cup, the coffee beans and the water.”