Month: June 2020

The Chinese government is spending millions of dollars each year implementing population control measures against the Uighurs, the country’s largest Muslim ethnic group, including mandatory IUDs, sterilization, and forced abortions, according to a story published Monday by the Associated Press.

Muslim women who have “too many” children are also being thrown into the concentration camps currently operating in China’s Xinjiang region—facilities that President Trump has reportedly endorsed, according to former National Security Advisor John Bolton who alleged as much in his explosive new book, The Room Where It Happened.

The new AP report, which depends partially on new research by the Jamestown Foundation’s Adrian Zenz, confirms stories from Uighurs over the past few years who have experienced brutal detention and forced labor in China, but shows that population control methods are even more widespread than previously believed. Two regions comprised of predominantly Uighurs, have seen their birth rate plunge by roughly 60% since 2015, according to Zenz, who cites Chinese government planning documents from 2019.

In yet another sign the Chinese government is systematically targeting the minority Uighur population, roughly 80% of all IUDs implanted in the country in 2018 were given to women in Xinjiang, according to Zenz. That’s a startling figure when you realize that Uighurs represent less than 2% of China’s population of 1.4 billion people.

The oppression of the Uighurs in China accelerated in 2017 and the population control efforts by the government kicked into high gear around 2018:

Officials and armed police began pounding on doors, looking for kids and pregnant women. Minority residents were ordered to attend weekly flag-raising ceremonies, where officials threatened detention if they didn’t register all their children, according to interviews backed by attendance slips and booklets. Notices found by the AP show that local governments set up or expanded systems to reward those who report illegal births.

Zenz has been known to obtain rare internal documents by the Chinese Communist Party from whistleblowers, though Gizmodo cannot confirm the validity of these documents for obvious reasons. But the accounts are consistent with other reports and the AP independently confirmed some of the data:

Leaked data obtained and corroborated by the AP showed that of 484 camp detainees listed in Karakax county in Xinjiang, 149 were there for having too many children – the most common reason for holding them. Time in a camp — what the government calls “education and training” — for parents with too many children is written policy in at least three counties, notices found by Zenz confirmed.

The AP also speaking with experts who believe Zenz’s reports are plausible and go a step further to classify the current actions by the Chinese government as “genocide.”

“It’s genocide, full stop. It’s not immediate, shocking, mass-killing on the spot type genocide, but it’s slow, painful, creeping genocide,” Joanne Smith Finley, an expert at Newcastle University in the UK, told the AP.

The Chinese government has imprisoned an estimated 800,000 to 3 million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps over recent years, and officially the U.S. State Department has condemned the practice. But John Bolton’s book tells us that Trump has endorsed China’s concentration camps when discussing them with Xi Jinping.

From an excerpt of Bolton’s book that appeared in the Wall Street Journal:

Beijing’s repression of its Uighur citizens also proceeded apace. Trump asked me at the 2018 White House Christmas dinner why we were considering sanctioning China over its treatment of the Uighurs, a largely Muslim people who live primarily in China’s northwest Xinjiang Province.

At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019, with only interpreters present, Xi had explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang. According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do. The National Security Council’s top Asia staffer, Matthew Pottinger, told me that Trump said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China.

And all of this makes sense if you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention. The Trump regime has no real objections to concentration camps, even on American soil. Why would Trump stick his neck out for the Uighurs if he can personally gain from their exploitation?

Amazon.com has agreed to pay over $1 billion to buy self-driving startup Zoox Inc, in a move that would expand the e-commerce giant’s reach in autonomous-vehicle technology.

The company confirmed the deal to The Information (subscription required), which first carried the report. 

A majority of Zoox investors are getting their money back, with some making a positive return, the report added. Lux Capital, DFJ and Atlassian co-founder Michael Cannon-Brooks are some of the investors.

Amazon and Zoox did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the companies were in advanced talks and the deal could value Zoox at less than the $3.2 billion it achieved in a funding round in 2018.

Amazon has stepped up its investment in the car sector, participating in a $530 million funding round early last year in self-driving car startup Aurora Innovation.

 

Taking a cross-country roadtrip in your electric vehicle is a little more feasible thanks to Electrify America. Its first coast-to-coast EV fast charging route is now complete, and the company plans to have another route finished by September. The routes provide high-powered chargers to all EV brands, and on average, the stations are spaced about 70 miles apart, so EV owners can travel without being stranded.

The first route stretches over 2,700 miles from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles. It follows Interstates 15 and 70 and passes through 11 states. The second route will connect Jacksonville and San Diego.

“Electrify America’s primary goal has always been to advance electric vehicle adoption in the U.S., and that starts by instilling feelings of confidence and freedom in consumers when it comes to EV ownership,” said Anthony Lambkin, director of operations at Electrify America. “The completion of our first cross-country route is a significant step towards that goal – by making long-distance travel in an EV a reality, we hope to encourage more consumers to make the switch to electric.”

Electrify America already has routes along the East and West coasts, and with these new routes it will be even easier for EV owners to travel farther. This is especially important for non-Tesla owners. Tesla’s Supercharger network already covers much of the country and has some trip-planning tools. Those chargers are only available to Tesla customers. In contrast, Electrify America’s chargers are “open” to all EVs.

This story by Christine Fisher originally appeared on Engadget.

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When Kia introduced the facelifted Rio for Europe a few weeks ago, the press release briefly touted a clutch-by-wire six-speed manual transmission that would improve gas mileage and reduce CO2 emissions. A new press release provides details on the Intelligent Manual Transmission (iMT), which we find a surprising avenue of innovation designed just for mild hybrids. Traditional and dual-clutch automatic transmissions, thanks in part to more gears and programmed repeatability, already perform better than human drivers shifting for themselves in metrics including gas mileage. Kia’s head of powertrain in Europe said the automaker developed the manual just because “European drivers in particular still love changing gear for themselves.” With the pressure on budgets and on standard gearboxes even before the current travails, this seems a benevolent gesture.

The traditional linkage from clutch pedal to gearbox goes AWOL in the iMT, sensors on the pedal lever controlling clutch actuation electronically. And an iMT-equipped Kia can take over control of the driveline even when the vehicle is in gear. For example, when a driver takes his foot off the accelerator as he approaches a stoplight, the iMT tells the mild hybrid system to turn off the engine, as it disengages the clutch. Normally, many drivers use coasting in gear in this situation as a way to slow the car without pressing the brake pedal. Kia’s system has “the open clutch limiting deceleration and allowing the car to make the most of its kinetic energy,” which will mean rethinking one of the finer points of transmission use.

If the driver presses the accelerator or brake during the coast, the integrated starter-generator (ISG) restarts the engine. Assuming speed hasn’t dipped too low for the chosen gear, the iMT engages the clutch and the driver resumes in the gear the Kia was left in. The hybrid system supplies a boost to get engine revs back up to speed in order to avoid bogging. If vehicle speed is too low to avoid bogging in the current gear, the iMT will disengage the clutch so the car effectively restarts in neutral while in gear, and the driver adjusts.

If the driver presses the clutch pedal during the coast, the ISG restarts the engine with an open clutch, so neutral.        

Because the transmission can cut the engine off sooner and start it later, Kia says the system “can reduce CO2 emissions around 3 percent in real-world driving.” In the new European emissions regime, every percentage point counts.

The iMT debuts on models with the automaker’s Smartstream 48-volt MHEV powertrains. That begins with the Ceed hatch and Xceed crossover with the 1.6-liter diesel mild hybrid, then the facelifted Rio with the 1.0-liter gasoline mild hybrid. The South Korean maker has a range of new engines and mild hybrid powertrains planned for this year offering the iMT. A seven-speed dual-clutch will remain optional.

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