US: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered an unconventional speech at the UN General Assembly Tuesday that referenced “terrifying limbless chickens” and “pink-eyed terminators” but only mentioned Brexit once.
During a late-night, 20-minute address that drew laughs and baffled looks from delegates, Johnson struck a light tone on a serious subject as he warned of technology’s capacity to control citizens.
He made no mention of Britain’s highest court ruling earlier in the day that his decision to suspend parliament amid a Brexit impasse was unlawful.
The shock ruling plunged his plans to exit the European Union by October 31 into crisis and sparked calls by opposition MPs that he resign immediately.
At the UN, Johnson painted the possibility of a future where devices in every household “monitor your nightmares, monitor your fridge,” and where smart cities are “as antiseptic as a Zurich pharmacy.”
“’Alexa’ will pretend to take orders but this Alexa will be watching you, clapping her tongue and stamping her foot,” Johnson boomed, suggesting “there may be nowhere to hide.”
“As new technologies seem to race toward us from the far horizon we strain our eyes as they come, to make out whether they are for good or bad, friends or foes.
“AI, what will it mean?” he asked of artificial intelligence.
“Helpful robots washing and caring for an aging population or pink-eyed terminators sent back from the future to cull the human race?” Johnson pondered.
He went on to wonder whether synthetic biology could restore tissues “like some fantastic hangover cure” or “bring terrifying limbless chickens to our tables.”
Johnson also referenced one of his favorite subjects, Greek mythology, by telling the story of Zeus punishing Prometheus by ensuring that an eagle ate his liver over and over again.
“This went on forever. A bit like the experience of Brexit in the UK if some of our parliamentarians had their way,” he said, drawing laughs from the remaining delegates in the largely deserted hall.
The Conservative leader made an impassioned plea for technology to be a force for good and said he was optimistic it could “serve as a liberator and to remake the world wondrously and benignly.”
He called on world leaders to agree to a set of guidelines to ensure that new technologies are designed ethically before inviting them to join him at a tech summit in London next year.
Whether Johnson is still prime minister then remains to be seen. Following his UN address he was due to fly back to Britain where a political storm awaits him, cutting his New York trip short.
He also poked fun at France during his speech, reminiscing about how when he was mayor of London the city had more Michelin stars than Paris.
“The French somehow rapidly recovered — by a process that I wasn’t quite sure was entirely fair,” he joked.
Limbless chickens, killer robots: UK’s Johnson bemuses in UN speech
Limbless chickens, killer robots: UK’s Johnson bemuses in UN speech
- Johnson warned of the dangers of technology spying on users
- He also referred to Greek mythology in his speech
Nigerian villagers are rattled by US airstrikes that made their homes shake and the sky glow red
- The strikes are the outcome of a months long tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the US
JABO: Sanusi Madabo, a 40-year-old farmer in the Nigerian village of Jabo, was preparing for bed on Thursday night when he heard a loud noise that sounded like a plane crashing. He rushed outside his mud house with his wife to see the sky glowing a bright red.
The light burned bright for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost like daytime.”
He did not learn until later that he had witnessed a USattack on an alleged camp of the militant Daesh group.
US President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that the United States had launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Daesh militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has since confirmed that it cooperated with the US government in its strike.
A panicked village
Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris said Friday that the strikes were launched from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight and involved “16 GPS-guided precision” missiles and also MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Idris said the strikes targeted areas used as “staging grounds by foreign” Daesh fighters who had sneaked into Nigeria from the Sahel, the southern fringe of Africa’s vast Sahara Desert. The government did not release any casualty figures among the militants.
Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday about panic and confusion among the villagers following the strikes, which they said hit not far from Jabo’s outskirts. There were no casualties among the villagers.
They said that Jabo has never been attacked as part of the violence the US says is widespread — though such attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.
Abubakar Sani, who lives on the edge of the village, recalled the “intense heat” as the strikes hit.
“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP.
“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens,” he added. “We have never experienced anything like this before.”
It’s a ‘new phase of an old conflict’
The strikes are the outcome of a months long tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the US
The Trump administration has said Nigeria is experiencing a genocide of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government has rejected.
However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now said the strikes resulted from intelligence sharing and strategic coordination between the two governments.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, called the airstrikes a “new phase of an old conflict” and said he expected more strikes to follow.
“For us, it is something that has been ongoing,” Tuggar added, referring to attacks that have targeted Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.
Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said the residents’ fear is compounded by a lack of information.
Nigerian security forces have since cordoned off the area of the strikes and access was not allowed.
Bukarti said transparency would go a long way to calm the local residents. “The more opaque the governments are, the more panic there will be on the ground, and that is what will escalate tensions.”
Foreign fighters operate in Nigeria
Analysts say the strikes might have been intended for the Lakurawa group, a relatively new entrant to Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
The group’s first attack was recorded around 2018 in the northwestern region before the Nigerian government officially announced its presence last year. The composition of the group has been documented by security researchers as primarily consisting of foreigners from the Sahel.
However, experts say ties between the Lakurawa group and Daesh are unproven. The Islamic State West African Province — a Daesh affiliate in Nigeria — has its strongholds in the northeastern part of the country, where it is currently involved in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.
“What might have happened is that, working with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as a threat and identified camps that belong to the group,” Bukarti said.
Still, some local people feel vulnerable.
Aliyu Garba, a Jabo village leader, told the AP that debris left after the strikes was scattered, and that residents had rushed to the scene. Some picked up pieces of the debris, hoping for valuable metal to trade, and Garba said he fears they could get hurt.
The strikes rattled 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, who has been preparing for her upcoming marriage.
“I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking,” she said. “The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo.”
