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30,000 evacuated from the path of Cyclone Kenneth
Mozambique has once again been hit by a massive cyclone, prompting the evacuation of 30,000 people, but more than 680,000 are thought to be at risk (BBC News). Cyclone Kenneth follows last month's Cyclone Idai, which killed over 900 people. Kenneth, which has already caused three deaths on neighbouring Comoros, is the first hurricane-force weather system to ever make landfall on Mozambique's north coast.
Twitter insider says an algorithm to ban white supremacists would also silence US politicians
A Twitter employee working on the microblogging network's machine learning systems says that the company will not use automated systems to combat white supremacist content because they would also detect and ban accounts belonging to US Republican politicians (Motherboard).
Twitter already uses automated systems to delete accounts spreading Islamic extremist content. In the process, they also flag innocent accounts such as Arabic language media outlets, but the staff member says that "society" – or, at least, the white US culture in which Twitter operates – accepts such inconveniences to combat Daesh, but would not tolerate them if they affected US politicians.
Tesla's losses suggest it may not live to see the world that it created
Analysts expected Tesla to haemorrhage money in the first quarter of this year, but few predicted the eye-popping $702 million loss that the electric car company reported (WIRED). In a call with investors on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed to the difficulty of trying to produce a global mass-market car from a single factory. “This is the most difficult logistics problem I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some tough ones,” he said.
UK 'family' content filtering blocks thousands of legitimate sites
Research by Top10VPN and the Open Rights Group has found that ISP website filtering in the UK incorrectly blocks thousands of sites, including those belonging to schools, charities and mental health services.
The "family friendly" filters, automatically enabled by major ISPs TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Sky and BT, are intended to protect young people from adult content and potential online harms, but instead block many sites that help children, and incorrect blocks are often slow to be reversed.
Malaria vaccination programme begins in Malawi
A pilot programme for the world's first malaria vaccine has begun in Malawi, with Ghana and Kenya to add it to routine childhood vaccination schedules in the coming weeks (Ars Technica). However the vaccine – known as RTS,S – is only 39 per cent effective after a full course of four doses, so will be one preventative measure among many in combating the mosquito-borne disease.
The UK’s porn block explained
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
