Nation Glance
Chinese intelligence officers charged in aviation hacking
LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors say Chinese intelligence officers and hackers working for them have been charged with commercial espionage that included trying to steal information on commercial jet engines.
Prosecutors say the indictments announced Tuesday include officers working for the foreign intelligence arm of China’s Ministry of State Security.
Eight people were indicted in San Diego federal court with conspiring from 2010 to 2015 to steal sensitive turbofan engine technology used in commercial aviation.
Prosecutors say members of the conspiracy hacked into a French aerospace company that was developing the engines with a U.S. company. They also hacked into aerospace companies in Massachusetts, Oregon and Arizona that manufactured engine parts.
CNN goes after Trump in wake of explosive devices
NEW YORK — CNN’s management has taken an aggressive stance against attacks from President Donald Trump after the network was sent explosive devices from a man who allegedly targeted Trump’s perceived enemies.
In a statement, CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker was critical of the White House’s “complete lack of understanding about the seriousness” of its attacks against the media, and it was followed up by another statement this week calling on Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to understand that “words matter.”
The network has responded to specific provocations in the past. Yet it’s still considered unusual for a news organization, as opposed to an individual commentator or columnist, to take on a president. It’s the first time Zucker has done so this year.
Bulger, Boston gangster, found slain in prison
BOSTON — James “Whitey” Bulger, the murderous Boston gangster who benefited from a corrupt relationship with the FBI before spending 16 years as one of America’s most wanted men, was slain in federal prison. He was 89.
Bulger was found unresponsive Tuesday morning at the U.S. penitentiary in West Virginia where he’d just been transferred, and a medical examiner declared him dead shortly afterward, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Authorities did not immediately release a cause of death, but Justin Tarovisky, a prison union official, told The Associated Press it was being investigated as a homicide.
Bulger, the model for Jack Nicholson’s ruthless crime boss in the 2006 Martin Scorsese movie, “The Departed,” led a largely Irish mob that ran loansharking, gambling and drug rackets. He also was an FBI informant who rat- ted on the New England mob, his gang’s main rival, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was a top national priority for the FBI.
Google spinoff to test fully driverless cars in California
SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s robotic car spinoff Waymo is poised to become the first to test fully driverless vehicles on California’s public roads.
The regulatory approval clearing the cars to begin navigating the state’s highways and streets without a backup human driver behind the wheel comes nearly a decade after Waymo began as a secretive project within Google.
Its fully autonomous cars have been giving rides to passengers in Arizona since last year. That pilot program is supposed to be transformed into a ridehailing service open to all comers by the end of this year.
Waymo intends to start in California by confining the rides in driverless cars to its own employees before launching a pilot program similar to the one in Arizona.
Hawaii court upholds permit for giant telescope
HONOLULU — After years of delay, including lengthy court battles and passionate protests from those willing to be arrested for blocking construction crews, builders of a giant telescope plan to move forward with constructing the $1.4 billion instrument on a Hawaii mountain that is considered sacred.
The state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upholding the project’s construction permit Tuesday is a victory for the contentious Thirty Meter Telescope planned for Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea. Opponents say the telescope will desecrate sacred land on the Big Island. Supporters say it will bring educational and economic opportunities to the state.
Astronomy and Native Hawaiian “uses on Mauna Kea have co-existed for many years and the TMT Project will not curtail or restrict Native Hawaiian uses,” the ruling said. The advanced telescope will answer some of the most fundamental questions of the universe, and Native Hawaiians will also benefit from it, the ruling added.
Associate Justice Michael Wilson dissented but didn’t immediately release his opinion.