Good morning, Happy Tuesday, it is very quiet in tech land today, with the U.S. on a public holiday and folks over the other side of the world bucking the trend of journalists notoriously not taking any time off. We’ve still managed to scrounge a few things together, however, so let’s dive in.
1. Don’t 3D-print guns
Starting with the AFP and alongside Border Force, the law enforcement team say they dismantled an illegal firearm parts import scheme and an alleged 3D-printed firearm manufacturing operation in western Sydney. The investigation resulted in the seizure of eight complete firearms, 14 glock pistol receivers, a glock barrel, a collection of firearm parts, and tools used in the manufacture of firearms. The NSW government back in 2015 amended the Firearms Act 1996 and the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 to include 3D-printed firearms. That amendment considered it an offence to possess digital blueprints for the manufacture of firearms on 3D printers or electronic milling machines, with the offence carrying a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.
2. Elon blames anyone but himself
Elon Musk is blaming the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for a slump in U.S. advertising revenue on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Per the SMH, ad sales on the platform are down 60 per cent “primarily due to pressure on advertisers” mounted by the ADL. Musk reckons the non-profit organisation has been “trying to kill” the platform since he bought it by “falsely accusing” it and him of being anti-Semitic. He suggested legal action was one possible option if it persisted with accusations.
3. Tear-down of Huawei phone has everyone talking
Everyone is talking this morning about a tear-down video of Huawei’s new phone. Per Bloomberg, Huawei and China’s top chipmaker SMIC have built an advanced 7-nanometer processor to power its latest smartphone. Why is this news? Well, it’s a sign Beijing is making early progress in a push to circumvent U.S. efforts. But is it enough? Well, per The Verge, the Kirin 9000s chip is still a few generations behind what TSMC is producing for current iPhones (4nm), expected to move to 3nm next week. And without access to advanced machines from ASML it’s going to be very hard for China to advance efforts further.
4. Bragg Bill for crypto knocked back
Opposition Senator Andrew Bragg in March introduced a Bill to Parliament he hoped would go some way to regulating the wild west that is cryptocurrency and its associated things. Under the Private Member’s Bill, such things were the regulation of digital asset exchanges in Australia. Bragg at the time said the government hadn’t done enough to regulate crypto and was therefore taking things into his own hands. But, the Senate economics committee has this week knocked back the Bill. Per The Australian, one of the reasons was that “The Bill is at odds with the measured and industry-accepted approach the government is undertaking to ensure that current and new regulations are well considered and effective in supporting consumers and the digital assets industry.”
5. Cruise not to blame for blocking ambulance
The San Francisco Fire Department said that on August 14, two Cruise (an autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors) driverless vehicles stopped in the right two lanes of a four-lane, one-way street, blocking an ambulance from getting through with a victim on board, who later died in hospital. Cruise said that it was not at fault, and The New York Times agrees. “As soon as the victim was loaded into the ambulance, the ambulance left the scene immediately and was never impeded” by the Cruise vehicle, the company is quoted as saying. The Fire Department said the case was one of more than 70 of autonomous vehicles interfering with emergency responders. Read more over here.
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See you tomorrow!