From the Article

“Mining giant Rio Tinto on Monday apologized after the loss of a small radioactive capsule used in its operations caused a radiation alert in Western Australia.

The silver-colored capsule is just 6 millimeters in diameter (0.24 inches) and 8 millimeters long and is thought to have been lost during a 1,400 kilometre drive through the remote Pilbara, Midwest Gascoyne, Goldfields-Midlands and Perth Metropolitan regions.

Emergency services in the state of Western Australia said close exposure to the substance could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness and warned the public to stay five meters away from it if spotted. However, they said the risk to the rural community was relatively low.

The capsule was part of a gauge used for measuring the density of iron ore feed.

It was delivered by a third-party contractor from Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri site to Perth for repairs on Jan. 12, arriving on Jan. 16.

When it was unpacked for inspection on Jan. 25, the gauge was found broken apart with four mounting bolts, all screws and the capsule missing.

Simon Trott, Rio Tinto's iron ore chief executive, said in a statement issued Monday, "We are taking l this incident very seriously. We recognise this is l clearly very concerning and are sorry for the alarm it has caused in the Western Australian community."

From the Article:

"China’s top nuclear-weapons research institute has bought sophisticated U.S. computer chips at least a dozen times in the past two and half years, circumventing decades-old American export restrictions meant to curb such sales.

A Wall Street Journal review of procurement documents found that the state-run China Academy of Engineering Physics has managed to obtain the semiconductors made by U.S. companies such as Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. since 2020 despite its placement on a U.S. export blacklist in 1997.

The chips, which are widely used in data centers and personal computers, were acquired from resellers in China. Some were procured as components for computing systems, with many bought by the institute’s laboratory studying computational fluid dynamics, a broad scientific field that includes the modeling of nuclear explosions.

Such purchases defy longstanding restrictions imposed by the U.S. that aim to prevent the use of any U.S. products for atomic-weapons research by foreign powers. The academy, known as CAEP, was one of the first Chinese institutions put on the U.S. blacklist, known as the entity list, because of its nuclear work.

A Journal review of research papers published by CAEP found that at least 34 over the past decade referenced using American semiconductors in the research. They were used in a range of ways, including analyzing data and generating algorithms. Nuclear experts said that in at least seven of them, the research can have applications to maintaining nuclear stockpiles. CAEP didn’t respond to requests for comment."

From the Article:

“Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea next week to criminal charges he defrauded investors and looted billions of dollars in customer funds at his failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

The 30-year-old is expected to be arraigned on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, court records on Wednesday showed.

Kaplan was assigned to the case on Tuesday, after the original judge recused herself because her husband's law firm had advised FTX before its collapse.

Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of engaging in a years-long "fraud of epic proportions," by using customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund firm, buy real estate and make political contributions.

Bankman-Fried is charged with two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy, including to launder money and commit campaign finance violations, and if convicted could spend decades in prison.”

From the Article:

“A lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company Meta was filed earlier today in Kenya’s High Court over its alleged role in fueling violence and hate in eastern and southern Africa.

The case claims that Meta has failed to employ enough safety measures on Facebook, which has in turn fueled conflict that has led to deaths, including of 500,000 Ethiopians during the recently ended Tigray War.

The petitioners, Kenyan rights group Katiba Institute, and Ethiopian researchers Fisseha Tekle and Abrham Meareg, whose father Professor Meareg Amare was killed during the Tigray War, claim Facebook amplified hateful content, and failed to have enough personnel, with an understanding of local languages, to moderate content.

The petitioners are demanding that Facebook stops and demotes viral hate, have enough content moderators at the content moderation hub in Kenya and creates a restitution fund of $1.6 billion.”