Xi Jinping’s signature policy to transform the world has cost billions - has it paid off?

Body camera video of the fatal police shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year old pregnant mother in Ohio, has raised questions about the strength of police department use-of-force restrictions and how an allegation of shoplifting led to a bullet being fired through her windshield

On 10 August, California regulators voted to expand the footprint of paid taxi services by autonomous, driverless cars from Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. Since then, it’s been utter chaos, with the AVs involved in traffic jams, slapstick malfunctions, and a car accident with a fire truck. A day after the vote, video went viral on social media showing about 10 frozen Cruise taxis snarling traffic in the North Beach neighbourhood, which company officials later said was caused by a connectivity issue due to a spike in cell traffic because of a nearby music festival. The following Tuesday, a Cruise taxi was stuck in wet concrete at a construction site. “I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them,” resident Paul Harvey told SFGATE. “It thinks it’s a road and it ain’t because it ain’t got a brain and it can’t tell that it’s freshly poured concrete.” Two days after that, a Cruise taxi had what might be its most serious accident yet, colliding with a fire truck in the Tenderloin neighbourhood, giving the taxi’s passengers non-severe injuries. A firefighter in the truck said the AV “lurched” as it passed through an intersection ABC 7 reports, while Cruise said its vehicle detected the emergency sirens but was unable to get out of the way in time from the truck, which drove into the oncoming traffic lane. “The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light,” the company wrote in a statement. “Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. “The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision,” the company added. Following the repeated mishaps, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked Cruise to cut its 400-strong deployment of AVs in San Francisco in half, with the agency saying it was “investigating recent concerning incidents.” As The Independent reported, critics of AVs warned ahead of their expansion in San Francisco that the driverless cars weren’t ready for primetime, particularly when it comes to interfacing with emergency vehicles. According to data Cruise shared with the state earlier this month, between January and mid-July of 2023, Cruise AVs temporarily malfunctioned or shut down 177 times and required recovery, 26 of which such incidents occurred with a passenger inside, while Waymo recorded 58 such events in a similar time frame. Meanwhile, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA), between April 2022 and April 2023, Cruise and Waymo vehicles have been involved in over 300 incidents of irregular driving including unexpected stops and collisions, while the San Francisco Fire Department says AVs have interfered 55 times in their work in 2023. Last year, Cruise lost contact with its entire fleet for 20 minutes according to internal documentation viewed by WIRED, and an anonymous employee warned California regulators that year the company loses touch with its vehicles “with regularity.” Since being rolled out in San Francisco, robotaxis have killed a dog, caused a mile-long traffic jam during rush hour, blocked a traffic lane as officials responded to a shooting, and driven over fire hoses. Jeffrey Tumlin, San Francisco’s director of transportation, has called the rollout of robotaxis a “race to the bottom,” arguing Cruise and Waymo weren’t yet definitive transit solutions, and instead had only “met the requirements for a learner’s permit.” Read More How a vote to empower autonomous ‘robotaxis’ from Cruise and Waymo has divided San Francisco GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as 'warning' after top island official stopped in US San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion

The city of St. George must issue a permit for a Utah-based group that organizes drag performances to host an all-ages drag show in a public park

Close to 250 of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have been killed or injured in southern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, a Ukrainian military commander said. Ukraine’s authorities said the casualties occurred on Saturday in Tavria, a village in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, just 23km from the major town of Tokmak, where Ukrainian forces are looking to advance for a strategic territorial advantage. “Over the last day, the enemy lost 248 people (84 dead, 163 wounded and one captured),” Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who is in-charge of the strategic and operational group of forces in Tavriia, said in his Telegram channel on Sunday. He said the Russian losses also include 20 units of military equipment, including a tank, three anti-aircraft guns and three ammunition depots. “In general, during the past day, the enemy attacked our positions 23 times and carried out 717 shelling and 23 airstrikes. Artillery units of the Defense Forces of the Tavriia direction performed 1,236 fire missions during the day,” he said, detailing the military offensive in the area. The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol direction and near Bakhmut. Russian forces continued limited ground attacks in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area on 30 September but did not make any confirmed advances, said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think-tank monitoring the war, in its latest assessment of the battlefield situation. “Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast on 30 September but did not make any confirmed advances. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol (western Zaporizhia Oblast) direction,” the ISW said. While the town is 12 miles from the existing front line, wrestling its control before the rains wet the battlefield will result in Ukraine taking over Russia’s key railway, command and logistics hub. Russia’s forces have reportedly guarded the prized town with fresh defensive networks to halt Ukraine’s push to the north. Ukrainian forces have around 3-5 weeks to dismantle the second layer of Russian defences laid on the road and fields to Tokmak. Earlier this week, military analyst Roman Svitan said there have been “three or four days of painstaking hard work by our assault group and commanders in the area which have led to very serious problems for the Russians”. “I would not speak of a breakthrough until we reach Tokmak.” Read More Grant Shapps reveals military training plans inside Ukraine Ukraine aid left out of government funding package, raising questions about future US support Ukraine-Russia war - live: Moscow could annex more Ukrainian regions, says Medvedev Putin marks anniversary of annexation of Ukrainian regions as drones attack overnight Putin launches overnight drone and missile attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine

Jackalynn D'Auria was found guilty of one count of manslaughter with a weapon or firearm in the death of her mother

The United Nations says Sudan’s escalating conflict has driven more than 4 million people from their homes, including over 884,000 who have fled to neighboring countries

The renowned YouTube star has achieved an impressive feat on the Threads app, surpassing its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, in terms of follower count

More than a dozen people were arrested after stores were looted when a large crowd gathered in Philadelphia's Center City district Tuesday night, police said.

Richard Jin was slapped with several charges including attempted felony murder, criminal mischief, and robbery

While Julie Mertins was declared dead on the spot, her husband Timothy was evacuated to a nearby hospital, where he died on the operating table

The phenomenon not only has an impact on weather conditions, but studies also show it can cause ripple effects throughout the global economy, impacting everything from food prices to tourism to the number of winter jackets sold in a given year.