WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) disclosed on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has sought documents related to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot driver-assistance systems as regulatory scrutiny intensifies.
The automaker said in a filing it “has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features.”
Reuters reported in October Tesla is under criminal investigation over claims that the company’s electric vehicles could drive themselves. Reuters said the U.S. Justice Department launched the probe in 2021 following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Autopilot.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has championed the systems as innovations that will both improve road safety and position the company as a technology leader.
Regulators are examining if Autopilot’s design and claims about its capabilities provide users a false sense of security, leading to complacency behind the wheel with possibly fatal results.
Acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Ann Carlson said this month the agency is “working really fast” on the Tesla Autopilot investigation it opened in August 2021 that she termed “very extensive.” In June, NHTSA upgraded to an engineering analysis its defect probe into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, a step that was necessary before the agency could demand a recall.
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Autopilot is designed to assist with steering, braking, speed and lane changes. The function currently requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous. Tesla separately sells the $15,000 full self-driving (FSD) software as an add-on that enables its vehicles to change lanes and park autonomously.
The automaker’s shares rose 2% in early trading.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a civil investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot statements, citing sources.
Tesla also forecast Tuesday capital expenditure between $7 billion and $9 billion in 2024 and 2025. The midpoint of that expectation is $1 billion higher than the $6.00 billion to $8.00 billion range provided for this year.
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Some of the spending will go toward a $3.6 billion expansion of its Nevada Gigafactory complex, where Tesla will mass produce its long-delayed Semi truck and build a plant for the 4680 cell that would be able to make enough batteries for 2 million light-duty vehicles annually.
Tesla said it recorded an impairment loss of $204 million on the bitcoin it holds, while booking a gain of $64 million from converting the token into fiat currency.
Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin were hammered last year as rising interest rates and the collapse of major industry players such as crypto exchange FTX shook investor confidence.
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and David Shepardson; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bernadette Baum
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Ukrainian breakthrough is fastest advance in months
Thousands of Russian troops face potential encirclement
KYIV/HRAKOVE, Ukraine, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials shared photos on Saturday showing troops raising the nation’s flag over the main railway city that has supplied Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine, as a collapse in Russia’s frontline threatened to turn into a rout.
A Reuters journalist inside a vast area recaptured in recent days by the advancing Ukrainian forces saw Ukrainian police patrolling towns and boxes of ammunition lying in heaps at positions abandoned by fleeing Russian soldiers.
With Ukrainians now having reached the city of Kupiansk, where rail lines linking Russia to eastern Ukraine converge, the advance had penetrated all the way to Moscow’s main logistics route, potentially trapping thousands of Russian troops.
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Natalia Popova, adviser to the head of the Kharkiv regional council, shared photos on Facebook of troops holding up a Ukrainian flag in front of Kupiansk city hall. A Russian flag lay at their feet. “Kupiansk is Ukraine. Glory to the armed forces of Ukraine,” she wrote.
Ukraine’s security service confirmed Kyiv had forces inside Kupiansk.
In Hrakove, one of dozens of recaptured villages, Reuters saw burnt out vehicles bearing the “Z” symbol of Russia’s invasion, and piles of rubbish and ammunition in positions the Russians had abandoned in evident haste.
“Hello everyone, we are from Russia,” was spraypainted on a wall.
Three bodies lay in white body bags in a yard.
The regional chief of police, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, said Ukrainian police had moved in the previous day, and had checked the identities of local residents who had lived under Russian occupation since the invasion’s second day.
“The first function is to provide help that they need. The next job is to document the crimes committed by Russian invaders on the territories which they temporarily occupied.”
The capture of at least part of Kupiansk, if confirmed, potentially leaves thousands of Russian soldiers trapped at the frontline and cut off from supplies, including in Izium, Russia’s main stronghold and logistics hub in the northeast.
Reuters could not independently verify the situation in either Kupiansk or Izium. Moscow has acknowledged that its frontline has buckled in Kharkiv but has said it is rushing extra troops to reinforce the area. Russian-installed regional officials have called for civilians to evacuate both cities.
A house damaged by shelling, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, is seen in the village of Hrakove, recently liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy
Britain’s Ministry of Defence in an intelligence update said: “A Russian force around Izium is likely increasingly isolated.
“Ukrainian units are now threatening the town of Kupiansk; its capture would be a significant blow to Russia because it sits on supply routes to the Donbas front line.”
Mark Hertling, a retired four-star general and former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe, tweeted: “Make no mistake, (Ukraine) is executing a brilliant maneuver focused on terrain objectives to ‘bag’ Russians. But the Russians are helping them — by doing very little to counter.”
ZELENSKIY HAILS SUCCESS
In an overnight video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 30 settlements had been liberated in Kharkiv region during the advance of recent days.
“Our army, intelligence units and the security services are carrying out active engagements in several operational areas. They are doing so successfully,” he said in a video address.
Ukrainian officials have released a barrage of images of troops sweeping into previously Russian-held towns and being embraced by local residents who had been under Russian military occupation for six months.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, in a video posted on YouTube, said the Russians in Izium were almost isolated.
Ukraine’s advance in the east is by far its most rapid success in months, after a long period in which the war had shifted into a relentless grind along entrenched front lines.
It came as a surprise just a week after Kyiv announced the start of a long-awaited counter-attack to reclaim Russian-occupied territory hundreds of kilometres away at the opposite end of the front in Kherson in the south.
Less information has been made public about that operation but Kyiv has also claimed some successes there, cutting supply routes to thousands of Russian troops isolated on the west bank of the Dnipro River.
“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference in Prague on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and Russian forces have destroyed entire cities since launching what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “disarm” Ukraine. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
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Reporting by Reuters reporters; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Jason Neely
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Zelenskiy says forces have recaptured towns and villages
Blinken visits Kyiv with new U.S. aid package
KYIV, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were approaching the main railway supplying Russian forces in the east on Friday, after the collapse of a section of Russia’s front line caused the most dramatic shift in the war’s momentum since its early weeks.
In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said troops had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km (385 square miles) of territory in Kharkiv region in the east and Kherson in the south in the past week.
Zelenskiy posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, which lies along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
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The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise.
It was the first lightning advance of its kind reported by either side for months, in a war mainly characterised by relentless grinding frontline battles since Russia abandoned its disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March.
Nearly 24 hours after Ukraine announced the breakthrough on the Kharkiv front, Russia had yet to comment publicly. The Kremlin declined to comment on Friday and referred questions to the Russian military.
Ukraine has not allowed independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances. But Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns, and Russian forces surrendering on the side of the road.
“We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very, very encouraging,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference with his Czech counterpart in Prague.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, an essential junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has long relied on to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east.
Since Russia’s forces were defeated near Kyiv in March, Moscow has used its firepower advantage to make slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia. Until now, Russia had successfully fended off Ukraine’s attempts to cut off that train line.
The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment near Kharkiv.
“Thanks to skilful and coordinated actions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of the local population, advanced almost 50 km in three days.”
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and Russian forces have destroyed entire cities since Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in February to “disarm” Ukraine. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
In the latest reported strike on civilians, Ukrainian officials said Russia had hit a hospital near the international border in the northeastern Sumy region on Friday morning. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Firefighters work at the site of a residential building hit by a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 6, 2022. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova/File Photo
“Russian aviation, without crossing the Ukrainian border, fired at a hospital. The premises were destroyed, there are wounded people,” regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyi said on Telegram.
BREAKTHROUGH
The surprise Ukrainian breakthrough in the east came a week after Kyiv announced the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive hundreds of km away at the other end of the front line, in Kherson province in the south.
Ukrainian officials say Russia moved thousands of troops south to respond to the Kherson advance, leaving other parts of the front line exposed and creating the opportunity for the lightning assault in the east.
“We found a weak spot where the enemy wasn’t ready,” presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube.
Less information so far has emerged about the campaign in the south, with Ukraine keeping journalists away and releasing few details.
Ukraine has been using new Western-supplied artillery and rockets to hit Russian rear positions there, with the aim of trapping thousands of Russian troops on the west bank of the wide Dnipro River and cutting them off from supplies.
Arestovych acknowledged progress in the south had not yet been as swift as the sudden breakthrough in the east.
Russia’s state news agency RIA quoted Russian-appointed Kherson authorities as saying some Ukrainian troops were captured during the counterattack and some Polish tanks they were using were destroyed. Reuters could not verify those reports.
The United Nations accused Moscow of denying access to thousands of prisoners of war, with the head of a U.N. human rights monitoring team in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, describing documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners held by Russian forces and their proxies.
U.N. monitors had also documented incidents of torture and ill-treatment of POWs by Ukraine, which had given them unimpeded access, she said. Ukraine has said it will investigate any violations and take appropriate legal action.
Moscow denies abusing prisoners. Dozens of Ukrainian troops died in a fiery blast while being held by pro-Russian authorities in July in what Kyiv called a massacre. Moscow blamed Ukrainian shelling.
North of the battlefield, Russian missiles struck multiple areas in Kharkiv on Thursday, causing widespread damage and casualties, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
“We are scared … You can’t get used to it, never,” resident Olena Rudenko told Reuters.
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Reporting by Reuters reporters
Writing by Peter Graff
Editing by Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Putin accuses Kyiv and West of flouting grain deal
Says wants to discuss changing terms of deal
Threatens to cut energy exports if Europe caps prices
KYIV, Sept 7 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he wanted to discuss reopening a U.N.-brokered deal that allows Ukraine to export its grain via the Black Sea and threatened to halt all energy supplies to Europe if Brussels caps the price of Russian gas.
In a combative speech to an economic forum in Russia’s Far East region, Putin made little reference to his invasion of Ukraine, but said in answer to a question that Russia would not lose the war and had strengthened its sovereignty and influence.
On the ground, Ukrainian officials remained guarded about how a counter offensive they began late last month was faring but a Russian-installed official in eastern Ukraine said Ukrainian forces had attacked a town there.
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The grain pact, facilitated by the United Nations and Turkey, created a protected export corridor via the Black Sea for Ukrainian foodstuffs after Kyiv lost access to its main export route when Russia attacked Ukraine via land, air and sea.
Designed to help ease global food prices by increasing supplies of grain and oilseeds, the agreement has been the only diplomatic breakthrough between Moscow and Kyiv in more than six months of war.
But Putin said the deal was delivering grain, fertiliser and other foodstuffs to the European Union and Turkey rather than to poor countries whose interests he said were the pretext for the deal and added that he wanted to discussing changing its terms.
“It may be worth considering how to limit the export of grain and other food along this route,” he said, while also saying that Russia would continue to abide by its terms in the hope that it would fulfil its original goals.
“I will definitely consult the President of Turkey, Mr. (Tayyip) Erdogan, on this topic because it was he and I who worked out a mechanism for the export of Ukrainian grain first of all, I repeat, in order to help the poorest countries.”
His comments raised the possibility the pact could unravel if it cannot be successfully renegotiated or might not be renewed by Moscow when it expires in late November.
Ukraine, whose ports had been blockaded by Russia after it invaded in February, said the terms of the agreement, which was signed on July 22 for a period of four months, were being strictly observed and there were no grounds to renegotiate it.
“I believe that such unexpected and groundless statements rather indicate an attempt to find new aggressive talking points to influence global public opinion and, above all, put pressure on the United Nations,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser. read more
The deal threw a lifeline to Kyiv, giving a much-needed source of revenue to an economy devastated by war. It does not say anything about which countries Ukrainian grain should go to and the United Nations has stressed it is a commercial – not humanitarian – operation that will be driven by the market.
According to data from the Istanbul-based coordination group which monitors the deal’s implementation, 30% of the total cargo, which includes that earmarked for or routed via Turkey, had gone to low and lower-middle income countries.
GRAIN AND GAS
Ukraine hopes to export 60 million tonnes of grain in eight to nine months, presidential economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said in July, cautioning that those exports could take up to 24 months if ports do not function properly.
Putin complained that another part of the deal meant to ease restrictions for Russian food exporters and shippers was not being implemented either.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cast doubt on the deal too a day earlier, accusing Western states at the United Nations of failing to honour reciprocal pledges to help facilitate Moscow’s shipments. read more
Russia’s grain exports in August are expected to come in 28% lower than the same period last year, according to a forecast from Russia’s Sovecon consultancy.
The other main global repercussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a surge in energy prices as the West responded with sanctions and Moscow restricted exports of gas to Europe, blaming Western restrictions and technical problems.
As the European Union prepared to propose a price cap on Russian gas to try to contain an energy crisis that threatens widespread hardship this winter, Putin threatened to halt all supplies if it took such a step.
“Will there be any political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfil them. We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests,” Putin said.
“We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil – we will not supply anything,” Putin said.
Europe usually imports about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia.
UKRAINIAN BATTLEFIELD SUCCESS?
Asked about what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine by a moderator at the economic forum in Vladivostok, Putin said:
“We have not lost anything and will not lose anything … In terms of what we have gained, I can say that the main gain has been the strengthening of our sovereignty.”
The governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which Russia has said it has taken over on behalf of separatist proxies, told Ukrainian television on Tuesday that Ukraine was fighting back.
A “counter-attack is underway and … our forces are enjoying some success. Let’s leave it at that,” Serhiy Gaidai said on Tuesday, without giving locations.
An official with the pro-Moscow self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Tuesday said there was fighting at Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 people between Kharkiv and Russian-held Izyum, site of a major railway hub used by Moscow to supply its forces.
“Today, the Ukrainian armed forces, after prolonged artillery preparation … began an attack on Balakliia … ” Daniil Bezsonov said on Telegram, adding that if the town were lost, Russian forces in Izyum would become vulnerable on their northwest flank.
Russia says it has repelled an assault in the south and has not reported any territorial losses.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken Kodema in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region from Ukrainian forces. The village of some 600 people is claimed by the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic as part of its territory.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield accounts.
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Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Philippa Fletcher
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SEOUL, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Jin-hui, a cream-coloured Pomeranian, was buried alive and left for dead in 2018 in the South Korean port city of Busan.
No charges were filed against its owner at the time, but animal abusers and those who abandon pets will soon face harsher punishment as South Korea plans to amend its civil code to grant animals legal status, Choung Jae-min, the justice ministry’s director-general of legal counsel, told Reuters in an interview.
The amendment, which must still be approved by parliament, likely during its next regular session in September, would make South Korea one of a handful of countries to recognise animals as beings, with a right to protection, enhanced welfare and respect for life.
The push for the amendment comes as the number of animal abuse cases increased to 914 in 2019 from 69 in 2010, data published by a lawmaker’s office showed, and the pet-owning population grew to more than 10 million people in the country of 52 million.
South Korea’s animal protection law states that anyone who abuses or is cruel to animals may be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison or fined 30 million won ($25,494), but the standards to decide penalties have been low as the animals are treated as objects under the current legal system, Choung said.
Once the Civil Act declares animals are no longer simply things, judges and prosecutors will have more options when determining sentences, he said.
The proposal has met with scepticism from the Korea Pet Industry Retail Association, which pointed out there are already laws in place to protect animals.
“The revision will only call for means to regulate the industry by making it difficult to adopt pets, which will impact greatly not only the industry, but the society as a whole,” said the association’s director general, Kim Kyoung-seo.
Kim Gea-yeung, manager of an animal shelter for abandoned dogs and cats, holds Jin-hui, a five-year-old Pomeranian dog, who was rescued from under the ground, in Anseong, South Korea, August 11, 2021. REUTERS/Minwoo Park
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Choung said the amended civil code will also pave the way for follow-up efforts such as life insurance packages for animals and the obligation to rescue and report roadkill.
It is likely the amendment will be passed, said lawmaker Park Hong-keun, who heads the animal welfare parliamentary forum, as there is widespread social consensus that animals should be protected and respected as living beings that coexist in harmony with people.
Animal rights groups welcomed the justice ministry’s plan, while calling for stricter penalties for those who abandon or torture animals, as well as a ban on dog meat.
“Abuse, abandonment, and neglect for pets have not improved in our society,” said Cheon Chin-kyung, head of Korea Animal Rights Advocates.
Despite a slight drop last year, animal abandonment has risen to 130,401 in 2020 from 89,732 cases in 2016, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency said. South Korea has an estimated 6 million pet dogs and 2.6 million cats.
Solemn with large, sad eyes, Jin-hui, which means “true light” in Korean, now enjoys spending time with other dogs at an animal shelter south of Seoul.
“Its owner lost his temper and told his kids to bury it alive. We barely managed to save it after a call, but the owner wasn’t punished as the dog was recognised as an object owned by him,” said Kim Gea-yeung, 55, manager of the shelter.
“Animals are certainly not objects.”
($1 = 1,176.76 won)
Reporting by Sangmi Cha, Minwoo Park, Daewoung Kim; Editing by Karishma Singh
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