January 2025 - Page 2 of 6

Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’ is No. 1 at box office, ‘The Brutalist’ expands

By Yeco on Sunday, January 26, 2025

New York — Critics lambasted it and audiences didn’t grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn’t a particularly triumphant result for Gibson’s directorial follow-up to 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.” Reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a “C” CinemaScore) were terrible.

President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a “special ambassador” to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.

Going into the weekend, Hollywood’s attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday’s Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region.

The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar “bump” that can sometimes follow nominations still exists. Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming.

But the weekend’s most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” a three–and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards, into wide release. Though some executives initially greeted “The Brutalist,” which is running with an intermission, as “un-distributable,” Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it’s managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release.

In wide release, it earned $2.9 million — a far from blockbuster sum but the best weekend yet for “The Brutalist.”

The audience was downright miniscule for another best-picture nominee: RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys.” Innovatively shot almost entirely in first-person POV, the Amazon MGM Studios release gathered just $340,171 in 540 locations after expanding by 300 theaters.

Coming off one of the lowest Martin Luther King Jr. weekends in years, no new releases made a major impact.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a well-reviewed horror film shot from the perspective of a ghost inside a suburban home, debuted with $3.4 million in 1,750 locations. The film, released by Neon and acquired out of last year’s Sundance, was made for just $2 million.

The top spots otherwise went to holdovers. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” in its sixth weekend of release, scored $8.7 million to hold second place. After starting slowly, the Barry Jenkins-directed film has amassed $626.7 million globally.

“One of Them Days,” the Keke Palmer and SZA-led comedy from Sony Pictures, held well in its second weekend, dropping just 32% with $8 million in ticket sales. In recent years, few comedies have found success on the big screen, but “One of Them Days” has proven an exception.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

“Flight Risk,” $12 million.
“Mufasa: The Lion King,” $8.7 million.
“One of Them Days,” $8 million.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $5.5 million.
“Moana 2,” $4.3 million.
“Presence,” $3.4 million.
“Wolf Man,” $3.4 million.
“A Complete Unknown,” $3.1 million.
“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” $3 million.
“The Brutalist,” $2.9 million.
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Economy

Taipei pet shop strives to break down anti-snake prejudice

By Yeco on Sunday, January 26, 2025

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As the Year of the Snake approaches, a pet store in Taipei is offering adventurous customers an opportunity to enjoy the company of snakes while sipping coffee, hoping to break down some of the prejudice against the animal.

Taiwan has been plastered with images of the reptile ahead of the start of the Lunar New Year, which starts on Wednesday and whose zodiac animal this year is the snake.

The snake has a mixed reputation in traditional Taiwanese and Chinese culture as a symbol of either good or bad.

Some of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples venerate snakes as guardian spirits, and while the island is home to species potentially deadly to humans, including vipers and cobras, deaths are rare given the wide availability of anti-venom.

Luo Chih-yu, 42, the owner of the Taipei pet shop Pythonism which opened in 2017, is offering potential snake owners the chance to interact with snakes over a cup of coffee.

“I provide a space for people to try and experience, finding out whether they like them without any prejudice,” he said.

Liu Ting-chih took his daughter to the shop, who looked curiously at the animals in their cages.

“Through this activity she can learn how to take care of small animals and cherish them,” Liu said.

Sub-tropical and mountainous Taiwan is home to some 60 native snake species.
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Economy

Indonesia showcases returned artifacts it had sought for decades from Netherlands

By Yeco on Sunday, January 26, 2025

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Centuries-old stone Buddha statues and precious jewelry repatriated by the Dutch government to its former colony are on display at Indonesia’s National Museum, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich heritage that the government had struggled to retrieve.

The collection is part of more than 800 artifacts that were returned under a Repatriation Agreement signed in 2022 between Indonesia and the Netherlands, said Gunawan, the museum’s head of cultural heritage. The objects are not just those looted in conflict but also those seized by scientists and missionaries or smuggled by mercenaries during the four centuries of colonial rule.

“I was so amazed that we have all of these artifacts,” said Shaloom Azura, a visitor to the museum in Jakarta. She hoped other historical objects can be repatriated too, “so we don’t have to go to the Netherlands just to see our own cultural heritage.”

The agreement to return cultural objects was inspired by the new era of global restitution and repatriation efforts.

In 2021, France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.

Cambodia in 2023 welcomed the return of priceless stolen artifacts that had been seized during periods of war and instability. Many of the items returned so far have come from the United States. And the Berlin museum authority said it would return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa.

The Dutch government announced the same year the return of the Indonesian treasures and looted artifacts from Sri Lanka.

Few objects made it back before deal was struck

The repatriation “is not something out of the blue” but followed a lengthy process, said I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, former Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands who also headed the government’s team tasked to recover the objects.

He said negotiations with the Dutch government have been ongoing since Indonesia’s independence in August 1945, but it was only in July 2022 that Indonesia formally requested the return of its cultural objects with a list of specific items.

“This repatriation is important for us to reconstruct history that may be lost or obscured or manipulated,” Puja said. “And we can fill the gap of the historical vacuum that has existed so far.”

The Dutch government in 1978 returned the famous 13th-century statue of Princess Pradnya Paramita from the Javanese Singhasari Kingdom. During the same visit to Indonesia, then-Queen Juliana also returned a saddle and spear seized from Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese nobleman considered a national hero for his struggle against colonial rule in the 19th century.

The prince’s scepter was returned in 2015. In 2020, Dutch King Willem-Alexander handed over Diponegoro’s gold-plated kris dagger in his first state visit to Indonesia.

Also pending is the return of the “Java Man” — the first known example of homo erectus that was collected by Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois in the 19th century.

“The importance of the most recent repatriation is knowledge creation, that will give society a more complete knowledge of our past history,” said Puja.

He said the recent repatriation efforts seem to also be motivated by practical considerations, such as when the Delf city administration sent back 1,500 objects in 2019. They were part of the bankrupted Nusantara Museum collection.

Focus on protection of repatriated artifacts

However, Marc Gerritsen, the Dutch ambassador to Indonesia, said the repatriation would only focus on cultural objects that are requested, rather than emptying out European museums.

“There is a huge interest from the Dutch public in Indonesian history and Indonesian culture, so we do know that if Dutch museums put these objects on display, there will be an interest,” Gerritsen said, “But again, the heart of the matter is that the colonial collections artifacts that were stolen during the colonial period are returned on the basis of this process that was established.”

He said the Netherlands, the largest investor from the European Union in Indonesia, has a unique relationship with Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

“Of course, we have elements of which we are not proud, but we are really grateful for the fact that Indonesia is so much attached to preserving that history,” Gerritsen said.

To support its former colony in safeguarding its repatriated cultural heritage, the Dutch government has offered to assist in improving museum storage conditions and staff expertise.

Some researchers have criticized Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation of 17,000 islands, for a lack of legal framework to protect its rich cultural heritage and natural conservation.

At least 11 cases of museum theft were reported between 2010 and 2020, according to a 2023 report by Rucitarahma Ristiawan, a lecturer of cultural science at Gajah Mada University, and two other researchers.

In 2023, dozens of ships dredged the bottom of the Batanghari River in Jambi province, and the crews looted archaeological objects including porcelain, coins, metal and gold artifacts, which are believed to have been sold abroad, the report said.

“I think there is a lot to be reviewed from our historical works that are still kept in other countries,” said Frengky Simanjuntak, who marveled at the Repatriation Exhibition at the National Museum, on display since October. “So it’s not just about bringing them back home, but how to protect them.”
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Economy Technology

Trump discussing TikTok purchase with multiple people; decision in 30 days

By Ytech on Sunday, January 26, 2025

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in the next 30 days.

“I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to Florida.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump’s administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s operations.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok’s Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

However, in his comments to reporters on the flight, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle’s Larry Ellison about buying the app.

Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: “No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing.”

The sources did say the terms of any potential deal with Oracle were fluid and likely to change. One source said the full scope of the discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S. operations as well as other regions.

National Public Radio on Saturday reported the deal talks for TikTok’s global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.

The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from ByteDance’s current U.S. investors, according to the sources. Jeff Yass’s Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Sequoia Capital are among ByteDance’s U.S. backers.

Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.

Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.

Oracle responsible

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users’ information to alleviate Washington’s worries about Chinese government interference.

TikTok’s management would remain in place, to operate the short video app, according to one of the sources.

The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.

Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.

Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been scheduled for next week, NPR reported.

Oracle was interested in a TikTok stake “in the tens of billions,” but the rest of the deal is in flux, the NPR report cited the source as saying.

Trump has said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in TikTok.

NPR cited another source as saying that appeasing Congress is seen as a key hurdle by the White House.

Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok’s ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.

The company has said U.S. officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S.
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Economy Science

CIA: COVID likely originated in a lab, but agency has ‘low confidence’ in report

By Yscien on Sunday, January 26, 2025

WASHINGTON — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.

The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director.

The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.

Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.

The CIA “continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.

Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China’s virology labs.

Lawmakers have pressured America’s spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It’s a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic’s legacy.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday he was “pleased the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation,” and he commended Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment.

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton said in a statement.

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Chinese authorities have in the past dismissed speculation about COVID’s origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics.

While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.

Some official investigations, however, have raised the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago, a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.

The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too.

“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.

The CIA said it will continue to evaluate any new information that could change its assessment.
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Economy Technology

Big Tech wants data centers plugged into power plants; utilities balk

By Ytech on Saturday, January 25, 2025

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — Looking for a quick fix for their fast-growing electricity diets, tech giants are increasingly looking to strike deals with power plant owners to plug in directly, avoiding a potentially longer and more expensive process of hooking into a fraying electric grid that serves everyone else.

It’s raising questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. Federal regulators are trying to figure out what to do about it, and quickly.

Front and center is the data center that Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, is building next to the Susquehanna nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania.

The arrangement between the plant’s owners and AWS — called a “behind the meter” connection — is the first to come before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For now, FERC has rejected a deal that could eventually send 960 megawatts — about 40% of the plant’s capacity — to the data center. That’s enough to power more than 500,000 homes.

That leaves the deal and others that likely would follow in limbo. It’s not clear when FERC, which blocked the deal on procedural grounds, will take up the matter again or how the change in presidential administrations might affect things.

“The companies, they’re very frustrated because they have a business opportunity now that’s really big,” said Bill Green, the director of the MIT Energy Initiative. “And if they’re delayed five years in the queue, for example — I don’t know if it would be five years, but years anyway — they might completely miss the business opportunity.”

Driving demand for energy-hungry data centers

The rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence has fueled demand for data centers that need power to run servers, storage systems, networking equipment and cooling systems.

That’s spurred proposals to bring nuclear power plants out of retirement, develop small modular nuclear reactors, and build utility-scale renewable installations or new natural gas plants. In December, California-based Oklo announced an agreement to provide 12 gigawatts to data center developer Switch from small nuclear reactors powered by nuclear waste.

Federal officials say fast development of data centers is vital to the economy and national security, including to keep pace with China in the artificial intelligence race.

For AWS, the deal with Susquehanna satisfies its need for reliable power that meets its internal requirements for sources that don’t emit planet-warming greenhouse gases, such as coal, oil or gas-fueled plants.

Big Tech also wants to stand up their centers fast. But tech’s voracious appetite for energy comes at a time when the power supply is already strained by efforts to shift away from planet-warming fossil fuels.

They can build data centers in a couple years, said Aaron Tinjum of the Data Center Coalition. But in some areas, getting connected to the congested electricity grid can take four years, and sometimes much more, he said.

Plugging directly into a power plant would take years off their development timelines.

What’s in it for power providers

In theory, the AWS deal would let Susquehanna sell power for more than they get by selling into the grid. Talen Energy, Susquehanna’s majority owner, projected the deal would bring as much as $140 million in electricity sales in 2028, though it didn’t disclose exactly how much AWS will pay for the power.

The profit potential is one that other nuclear plant operators are embracing after years of financial distress and frustration with how they are paid in the broader electricity markets. Many say they’ve been forced to compete in some markets flooded with cheap natural gas and state-subsidized solar and wind energy.

Power plant owners also say the arrangement benefits the wider public, by bypassing the costly buildout of long power lines and leaving more transmission capacity on the grid for everyone else.

FERC’s big decision

A favorable ruling from FERC could open the door to many more huge data centers and other massive power users like hydrogen plants and bitcoin miners, analysts say.

FERC’s 2-1 rejection in November was procedural. Recent comments by commissioners suggest they weren’t ready to decide how to regulate such a novel matter without more study.

In the meantime, the agency is hearing arguments for and against the Susquehanna-AWS deal.

Monitoring Analytics, the market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid, wrote in a filing to FERC that the impact would be “extreme” if the Susquehanna-AWS model were extended to all nuclear power plants in the territory.

Energy prices would increase significantly and there’s no explanation for how rising demand for power will be met even before big power plants drop out of the supply mix, it said.

Separately, two electric utility owners — which make money in deregulated states from building out the grid and delivering power — have protested that the Susquehanna-AWS arrangement amounts to freeloading off a grid that ordinary customers pay to build and maintain. Chicago-based Exelon and Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power say the Susquehanna-AWS arrangement would allow AWS to avoid $140 million a year that it would otherwise owe.

Susquehanna’s owners say the data center won’t be on the grid and question why it should have to pay to maintain it. But critics contend that the power plant itself is benefiting from taxpayer subsidies and ratepayer-subsidized services — and shouldn’t be able to strike deals with private customers that could increase costs for others.

FERC’s decision will have “massive repercussions for the entire country” because it will set a precedent for how FERC and grid operators will handle the waiting avalanche of similar requests from data center companies and nuclear plants, said Jackson Morris of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Stacey Burbure, a vice president for American Electric Power, told FERC at a hearing in November that it needs to move quickly.

“The timing of this issue is before us,” she said, “and if we take our typical five years to get this perfect, it will be too late.”
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Economy

How the oldest known Hebrew book landed in a Washington museum

By Yeco on Saturday, January 25, 2025

In 2016, Herschel Hepler was browsing Google Images to practice his paleography — the study of historical writing systems — when he stumbled upon an eerily familiar photo that would lead to a groundbreaking discovery.

“I recognized it immediately and said, ‘That’s a manuscript in our collection,’” Hepler, a curator at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, recalls.

The museum had recently acquired the manuscript — a rare Jewish prayer book — believing it to be part of the famous Cairo Geniza, a trove of ancient Jewish documents uncovered in a Cairo synagogue in the late 19th century.

But the black and white picture in Tablet magazine described the manuscript as a “16th to 17th century Hebrew book of Psalms, said to be from the Bamiyan area” of central Afghanistan.

Stunned by the revelation, Hepler set out to verify it. Tracking down the author of the Tablet article, British historian and archaeologist Jonathan Lee, Hepler confirmed that Lee had in fact found the book in an Afghan warlord’s possession in 1998 and photographed the cover and two inside pages.

“Without Jonathan’s documentation from his trip to Bamiyan in 1998, we would still be assuming this is probably from the Cairo Geniza,” Hepler said.

But if Hepler was surprised to learn about the book’s origin in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, Lee was equally stunned when Hepler revealed that the manuscript had been carbon-dated to at least the 9th century.

“At that point, I realized that the discovery was of major importance,” Lee said via email.

Recognizing their combined expertise — Hepler in Hebrew manuscripts and Lee in Afghan history — the duo joined forces and invited in other experts.

Their yearslong research not only established the manuscript as the oldest-known Hebrew book but also unearthed evidence that Jews had lived in Afghanistan — and along the ancient Silk Roads — for longer than historians previously believed.

But the thrill of discovery was dampened by the realization that the manuscript had probably been smuggled out of war-torn Afghanistan and bought on the antiquities market.

At the time, the museum, founded by the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby arts and craft company, was still reeling from its acquisition of artifacts smuggled from Iraq and Egypt.

The museum faced a significant challenge: Before it could showcase it to the world, it needed to legitimize its ownership of the manuscript. This required years of delicate negotiations with New York’s small Afghan Jewish community and an Afghan government teetering on the brink of collapse. The stakes were high, and the path to secure the manuscript’s rightful place in the museum would prove be too complex and demanding.

Lee’s discovery

Lee, who has spent the better part of the last five decades researching and writing about Afghan history and archaeology, discovered the book by chance.

In April 1998, he was guiding a Japanese TV crew in Bamiyan and was on the lookout for a Bactrian language inscription and gold coins looted from an ancient Buddhist shrine.

At the time, the Bamiyan Valley, with its famed Buddha statues still standing, was controlled by a local Shiite insurgent group, while the Taliban ruled most of the rest of the country.

The anti-Taliban group’s leader, Karim Khalili, kept a collection of antiquities, among them the cache of gold coins Lee had been looking for. Lee photographed them.

“Then, his [Khalili’s] advisers brought in a miscellaneous collection of other antiquities that included the ALQ,” Lee said, using the acronym for the “Afghan Liturgical Quire,” the Hebrew book in the Bible Museum’s collection.

A local man affiliated with the Shiite insurgent group had found the book under a collapsed roof in a cave the prior year and given it to Khalili.

Unversed in Hebrew, Khalili apparently showed the book to other foreigners visiting Bamiyan, trying to figure out what it was.

“I was told it had been found in Bamiyan, but then everything is found in Bamiyan,” Lee said.

As Lee recalls, the pocket-size book looked remarkably well-preserved for its age.

“The cover was somewhat bent, damaged and watermarked, but the folios were relatively well-preserved, and most of the texts readable,” he said.

To Lee, that suggested the manuscript was “not that old.” He left Afghanistan and for years didn’t give it much thought.

How and when the manuscript left Afghanistan remains unknown.

The 1990s were a dark period for Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage. As armed groups fought over territory, their men — often directed by their commanders and guided by traffickers — plundered the country’s vast archaeological sites and ransacked its museums. Seventy percent of the national museum’s treasures vanished, according to one estimate, many ending up in private collections and some reputable institutions.

“There is a long history of illicit export of antiquities from the country that goes back for decades but ultimately back to colonial times,” said Cecilia Palombo, a University of Chicago professor who has researched the plunder of Afghan antiquities.

A leading researcher with extensive experience in Afghanistan said the manuscript was likely taken out of the country after the Taliban overran Bamiyan in late 1998. The researcher spoke on condition of anonymity.

Research by the Bible museum found that an unnamed Khalili deputy made multiple sales attempts in the United States and Europe between 1998 and 2001 before “apparently” offloading it to a private collector in London in fall 2001. The collector kept it for a decade or more before Hobby Lobby bought it in 2013 and donated it to the museum.

The office of Khalili, who later served as a vice president, declined a VOA interview request.

The Tablet article

Although Lee had found the book in Afghanistan, he didn’t know how significant it was. On returning to England, he showed his photographs to a Hebrew specialist, who thought it was from the 16th or 17th century.

Then, after a cache of ancient documents dubbed the “Afghan Geniza” surfaced on the international art market, Lee decided to publish his photograph, along with an article about Afghan Jewish history. Citing the book as an example of “Jewish material [turning up] occasionally” in Afghanistan, he wrote that the “whereabouts of this manuscript is now unknown.”

He would find out four years later. That’s when, “out of the blue,” Hepler contacted him via LinkedIn and told him the manuscript was not the Book of Psalms but a prayer book, comprising Sabbath prayers, poetry and a partial Haggadah, the Jewish text recited at the Passover seder.

The Green family bought the book from an Israeli antiquities dealer in 2013 during a buying spree of ancient artifacts. Some of these items were later returned after it was discovered they had been illegally taken out of Iraq and Egypt.

The Afghan Liturgical Quire came with a forged provenance of its own, tracing the manuscript to collectors in London in the 1950s, masking any ties to Afghanistan. With Lee’s documentation, the museum was able to correct its provenance.

The museum had initially thought the book was from the 9th century, but a second carbon-dating test performed in 2019 showed it dates to the 8th century, making it two centuries older than the previous oldest-known Hebrew book in the world.

The discovery electrified experts.

For Hebrew scholars, the discovery offered the earliest evidence of a bound Hebrew book.

For Afghanistan specialists, it highlighted “how significant this region was in respect of the history of the Middle East, Inner Asia and Northern India, and Afghanistan’s ancient connectivity with cultures and religious traditions,” Lee said.

Yet the realization that it had been smuggled out of Afghanistan cast a cloud over its legitimacy.

Afghan laws and the 1970 UNESCO Convention make it illegal to export cultural artifacts and heritage items without government approval.

To legitimize its custody of the manuscript, the museum adopted what it calls a “human rights-based approach” to cultural heritage.

Invoking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the museum argued that the Afghan people and Afghan Jews living in New York have a right to access the manuscript.

“One of the things this project is focused on is on access — so, access to the Afghan Jewish community, access to the people of Afghanistan,” Hepler said.

To get the backing of both stakeholders, the museum initiated discussions with officials of the former Afghan government and members of the Jewish community in New York.

These efforts culminated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2021 with the Afghan embassy in Washington before the Taliban takeover, ensuring the document would be held in custodianship.

The Afghan ambassador at the time, Roya Rahmani, did not respond to a request for an interview. Another former Afghan ambassador wrote a letter of support for the project.

Jack Abraham, head of the Afghan Jewish Federation who was born in Afghanistan, said his group offered its full support for keeping the manuscript in the United States.

“I told [Hepler], ‘What you have in your hands is our heritage. It belongs to us. It could be any of our forefathers,’” Abraham said.

But some Afghans see it as equally part of their heritage.

“This is the property of Afghanistan and must be returned to Afghanistan,” a senior former government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Barnett Rubin, a leading Afghanistan scholar and an advisor on the ALQ project, said both communities can legitimately lay claim to the book.

“The museum wanted to have the approval of any one of the two main entities that might have a claim on it to their custody of it,” Rubin said.

With a custodianship agreement secured, the museum launched an exhibit in September, celebrating the project as an interfaith collaboration among Jews, Christians and Muslims.

A second exhibit is planned for New York starting this month.

While the Bible Museum technically owns the manuscript, Hepler said Afghanistan and the Afghan Jewish community “have a lot of agency in this custodianship.” To that end, the museum plans to provide one high-quality replica to the Jewish community and three to major cultural institutions in Afghanistan.
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Economy Technology

App provides immediate fire information to Los Angeles residents

By Ytech on Saturday, January 25, 2025

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — From his home in northern California, Nick Russell, a former farm manager, is monitoring the Los Angeles-area fires.

He knows that about 600 kilometers south, people in Los Angeles are relying on his team’s live neighborhood-by-neighborhood updates on fire outbreaks, smoke direction, surface wind predictions and evacuation routes.

Russell is vice president of operations at Watch Duty, a free app that tracks fires and other natural disasters. It relies on a variety of data sources such as cameras and sensors throughout the state, government agencies, first responders, a core of volunteers, and its own team of reporters.

An emergency at his house, for example, would be “much different” from one at his neighbor’s house .4 kilometers away, Russell said. “That is true for communities everywhere, and that’s where technology really comes in.”

Watch Duty’s delivery of detailed localized information is one reason for its success with its 7 million users, many of whom downloaded the app in recent weeks.

It acts as a virtual emergency operations center, culling and verifying data points.

Watch Duty’s success points to the promise that technologies such as artificial intelligence and sensors will give residents and first responders the real-time information they need to survive and fight natural disasters.

Google and other firms have invested in technology to track fires. Several startup firms are also looking for ways to use AI, sensors and other technologies in natural disasters.

Utility firms work with Gridware, a company that places AI-enhanced sensors on power lines to detect a tree branch touching the line or any other vibrations that could indicate a problem.

Among Watch Duty’s technology partners is ALERTCalifornia, run by the University of San Diego, which has a network of more than 1,000 AI-enhanced cameras throughout the state looking for smoke. The cameras often detect fires before people call emergency lines, Russell said.

Together with ALERTCalifornia’s information, Russell said, “we have become the eyes and ears” of fires.

Another Watch Duty partner is N-5 Sensors, a Maryland-based firm. Its sensors, which are placed in the ground, detect smoke, heat and other signs of fire.

“They’re like a nose, if you will, so they detect smoke anomalies and different chemical patterns in the air,” Russell said.

Watch Duty is available in 22 states, mostly in the western U.S., and plans to expand to all states.

While fire has been its focus, Watch Duty also plans to track other natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, Russell said.

“Fire is not in the name,” he said. “We want to be that one-stop shop where people can go in those times of duress, to have a source that makes it clear and concise what’s happening.”
…

Economy

Lunar New Year travel offers boost to China’s economic woes

By Yeco on Friday, January 24, 2025

China’s annual mass migration ahead of the Lunar New Year will peak with billions of trips anticipated during this year’s holiday, which begins Tuesday.

An estimated 9 billion trips are expected. This year’s holiday lasts from Jan. 28 through Feb. 4 and marks the arrival of the Year of the Snake. Authorities in China extended the annual break an extra day, so the public holiday will last eight days this year.

During the holiday, travel is expected to pick up domestically and internationally. The government said it expects trips by train to surpass 510 million, with 90 million more traveling by air. Inside the country, most will travel by car.

For trips overseas, travel to Southeast Asia has surged, with ticket volumes to Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia rising by more than 50%, according to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council. Additionally, demand for travel to Hong Kong has nearly doubled, and Japan is seeing a 58% increase in airline ticket purchases.

While the Lunar New Year is known as a festive time characterized by colorful lanterns, parades and lion dances, it holds more than just cultural significance to Chinese authorities who see the period as an opportunity to boost a sluggish economy.

That is one key reason authorities increased the holiday to eight days. They also launched several efforts to help revive weak consumer spending, such as promoting winter-themed holiday destinations and ensuring affordable airfares, according to officials at a State Council press conference in Beijing.

Despite the efforts, Reuters reported businesses and consumers appear to be spending less than usual during the holiday season, citing concerns over a prolonged property slump and worries over job security.

Throughout the past year, China has implemented a series of measures aimed at addressing those concerns, including stimulus measures such as cutting interest rates, increasing pensions and widening trade-in programs for consumer goods.

One industry that appears to have gotten a boost from the festival season is cinema.

The film industry in China had struggled recently, seeing a 22.6% decrease in total box office revenue in 2024. However, according to data from Maoyan, a Chinese ticketing platform, movie tickets exceeded $55 million by Jan. 23, the fastest presales for the Lunar New Year season.

A large part of that increased demand has been from the film “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” starring Xiao Zhan, an actor and singer who is also a brand ambassador for luxury goods companies such as Gucci and Tod’s.

Shops and restaurants also hope to see an increase in spending that mirrors the film industry over the course of the holiday.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
…

Economy

Young rodeo riders compete in mutton bustin’

By Yeco on Friday, January 24, 2025

In the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, the National Western Stock Show hosts nearly 30 professional rodeo events. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns takes us to a stock show competition for younger riders. And sheep.
…

Economy Technology

Trump signs executive orders on AI, cryptocurrency and issues more pardons

By Ytech on Thursday, January 23, 2025

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order related to AI to “make America the world capital in artificial intelligence,” his aide told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office.

The order sets a 180-day deadline for an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan to create a policy “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

Trump also told his AI adviser and national security assistant to work to remove policies and regulations put in place by former President Joe Biden.

Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

Biden’s order required developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they were released to the public.

Trump also signed an executive order creating a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing a new regulatory framework for digital assets and exploring the creation of a cryptocurrency stockpile.

The much-anticipated action also ordered that banking services for crypto companies be protected, and banned the creation of central bank digital currencies that could compete with existing cryptocurrencies.

The order sees Trump fulfill a campaign trail pledge to be a “crypto president and promote the adoption of digital assets.”

That is in stark contrast to Biden’s regulators that, in a bid to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering, cracked down on crypto companies, suing exchanges Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and dozens more in federal court, alleging they were flouting U.S. laws.

The working group will be made up of the Treasury secretary, attorney general and chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with other agency heads. The group is tasked with developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The group is also set to “evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile … potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.”

In December, Trump named venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks as the crypto and artificial intelligence czar. He will chair the group, the order said.

Finally, Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House.

The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual March for Life.
…

Economy

VOA Mandarin: Chinese actor Hu Ge enters politics

By Yeco on Thursday, January 23, 2025

Hu Ge, a Chinese actor who is well-known in China for dramas including Flowers, was recently confirmed to serve as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Committee of the China Democratic League. He was invited to Taiwan in June 2024 to participate in a film exchange activity.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
…

Economy

‘Emilia Perez’ tops Oscar nominations in fire-hit Hollywood

By Yeco on Thursday, January 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Transgender cartel musical “Emilia Perez” topped this year’s Oscar nominations, earning 13 nods in an announcement on Thursday postponed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

French director Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical, released by Netflix, shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie.

It was followed by epic immigrant saga “The Brutalist” and show-stopping musical adaptation “Wicked,” which each picked up 10 nominations.

Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Vatican thriller “Conclave” bagged eight nods apiece.

Voting deadlines had to be extended this month, as Los Angeles — the home city of the Academy Awards — was devastated by multiple blazes that have killed more than two dozen people and forced tens of thousands to flee.

Nominees were unveiled in subdued circumstances, as a town that typically fixates on the Oscars race was instead fixated on new fires burning north of the city.

Even so, the glitzy Oscars ceremony itself is still set for March 2, and the stars and studios who have spent months and millions of dollars campaigning learned if they have made the coveted final shortlists.

“Emilia Perez,” in which a narco boss transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime, picked up nods for best picture, best director and best international film, as well as multiple song, score and sound nods.

Its star, Karla Sofia Gascon, became the first openly trans acting nominee in best actress, and Zoe Saldana was nominated for best supporting actress.

Their more famous co-star, Selena Gomez, who has been criticized for her Spanish-language dialogue, missed out.

Even so, the Netflix film easily surpassed the most nominated non-English-language movie ever — a record previously held by “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Roma,” each with 10.

In best actor, firm favorite Adrien Brody was nominated for “The Brutalist” along with Timothee Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”).

But in an unexpected pick sure to ruffle a few feathers in the new White House, the fifth and final spot went to Sebastian Stan, for his unsettling transformation into a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.” The movie drew threats of lawsuits from Trump’s attorneys, particularly for a scene in which the new U.S. president is shown raping his wife.

In arguably the morning’s biggest surprise, Jeremy Strong, who plays the youthful Trump’s sinister mentor Roy Cohn, was also nominated in his supporting role.

He edged out the likes of Denzel Washington (“Gladiator II”).

Meanwhile, in an intense race for best actress, A-listers Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman — who went all-out with their performances in “Maria” and “Babygirl,” respectively — missed out entirely.

Instead, comeback queen Demi Moore, who charmed the industry with her Golden Globes acceptance speech for body horror-satire “The Substance,” was nominated and is seen as the favorite.

Her rivals include Gascon, “Anora” star Mikey Madison, “Wicked” lead Cynthia Erivo and Brazil’s Fernanda Torres for “I’m Still Here.”
…

Economy Technology

UK watchdog targets Apple, Google mobile ecosystems with new digital market powers

By Ytech on Thursday, January 23, 2025

London — Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are facing fresh scrutiny from Britain’s competition watchdog, which announced investigations Thursday targeting the two tech giants’ mobile phone ecosystems under new powers to crack down on digital market abuses.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it launched separate investigations to determine whether the mobile ecosystems controlled by Apple and Google should be given “strategic market status” that would mandate changes in the companies’ practices.

The watchdog is flexing its newly acquired regulatory muscles again after the new digital market rules took effect at the start of the year. The CMA has already used the new rules, designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies, to open an investigation into Google’s search ads business.

The new investigations will examine whether Apple or Google’s mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers give either company a strategic position in the market. The watchdog said it’s interested in the level of competition and any barriers preventing rivals from offering competing products and services.

The CMA will also look into whether Apple or Google are favoring their own apps and services, which it said “often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices.” Google’s YouTube and Apple’s Safari browser are two examples of apps that come bundled with Android and iOS, respectively.

And it will investigate “exploitative conduct,” such as whether Apple or Google forces app makers to agree to “unfair terms and conditions” as condition for distributing apps on their app stores.

The regulator has until October to wrap up the investigation. It said it could force either company to, for example, open up access to key functions other apps need to operate on mobile devices. Or it could force them to allow users to download apps outside of their own app stores.

Both Google and Apple said the work “constructively” with the U.K. regulator on the investigation.

Google said “Android’s openness has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps. It’s the only example of a successful and viable open source mobile operating system.”

The company said it favors “a way forward that avoids stifling choice and opportunities for U.K. consumers and businesses alike, and without risk to U.K. growth prospects.”

Apple said it “believes in thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish. We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users.”
…

Economy Technology

Trump signals aggressive stance as US races China in AI development

By Ytech on Thursday, January 23, 2025

Before he had been in office for 48 hours, President Donald Trump sent a clear signal that to outpace China, his administration will be pursuing an aggressive agenda when it comes to pushing the United States forward on the development of artificial intelligence and the infrastructure that powers it.

On his first day in office, Trump rescinded an executive order signed in 2023 by former President Joe Biden that sought to place some guardrails around the development of more and more powerful generative AI tools and to create other protections for privacy, civil rights and national security.

The following day, Trump met with the leaders of several leading technology firms, including Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI; Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle; and Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, to announce a $500 billion private sector investment in AI infrastructure known as Stargate.

“Beginning immediately, Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI, and this will include the construction of colossal data centers,” Trump said in a media event at the White House on Tuesday.

Specifically, Stargate will invest in the creation of as many as 10 huge data centers in the United States that will provide the computing for artificial intelligence systems. The first data center is already under construction in Texas. The massive private sector investment will create up to 100,000 U.S. jobs, the executives said.

Keeping AI in the US

“What we want to do is, we want to keep it in this country,” Trump said. “China is a competitor, and others are competitors. We want it to be in this country, and we’re making it available. I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations, because we have an emergency. We have to get this stuff built.”

The assembled tech leaders took the opportunity to praise the new president.

“I think this will be the most important project of this era,” Altman said. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”

Janet Egan, a senior fellow in the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, said that all the signals Trump is sending indicate he is serious about maintaining the United States’ current advantages in the development of advanced AI.

“I think this shows that he’s going to have a really clear mind as to how to partner closely with the private sector to enable them to speed up and run fast,” Egan said. “We’ve also seen him take direct action on some of the bottlenecks that are impeding the development of AI infrastructure in the U.S., and a particular focus is energy.”

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has relied on Microsoft data centers for its computing. The firm reportedly discussed with the Biden administration the regulatory hurdles of planning and permitting when building data centers.

In a policy paper released earlier this month, OpenAI cited the competition with China, laying out its policy proposals to “extending America’s global leadership in AI innovation.”

“Chips, data, energy and talent are the keys to winning on AI — and this is a race America can and must win,” the paper said. “There’s an estimated $175 billion sitting in global funds awaiting investment in AI projects, and if the U.S. doesn’t attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects — strengthening the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence.”

Patrick Hedger, director of policy at NetChoice, a technology trade association, told VOA that the Stargate announcement “immediately signaled to me that private capital is more than willing to come off the sidelines these days with the new Trump administration.”

As part of his flurry of executive actions on Monday, Trump eliminated several preexisting executive orders placing limits on fossil fuel extraction and power generation. In the White House event on Monday, Trump also noted that AI data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and said he would be clearing the way for Stargate and other private companies to invest in new energy generation projects.

China competition

While Trump eliminated many of Biden’s executive orders immediately on Monday, he does not appear to have taken action against some of the former president’s other AI-related initiatives. Last year, Biden took several steps to restrict China’s access to cutting-edge technology related to AI, specifically, restricting the ability of companies that sell advanced semiconductors and the machinery used to produce them to Chinese firms.

On that issue, Egan said, Trump and Biden appear to be on the same page.

“I think it’s important to also note the continuity in how Trump’s approaching AI,” she said. “He, too, sees it as a national security risk and national security imperative. … So, I think we should expect to see this run-fast approach to AI complemented by continued efforts to understand and manage emerging risks. Particularly cyber, nuclear, biological risks, as well as a more muscular approach to export controls and enforcement.”

Speed and safety

Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist at Unanimous AI and a prominent figure in the field for decades, told VOA he thinks there is a bipartisan consensus that AI needs to be developed speedily but also responsibly.

“At the highest level, the accelerating risks around frontier AI is not a partisan issue,” he wrote in an email exchange. “Both parties realize that significant safeguards will be needed as AI gets increasingly intelligent and flexible, especially as autonomous AI agents get released at large scale.”

Rosenberg said the most significant question is how the U.S. can remain the global leader in AI development while making sure the systems that are deployed are safe and reliable.

“I suspect the Trump administration will address AI risks by deploying its own targeted policies that are not as broad as the Biden executive order was but can address real threats much faster,” he wrote. “The Biden executive order was very useful in raising the alarm about AI, but from a practical perspective it did not provide meaningful protections from the important emerging risks.

“Ultimately we need to find a way to move fast on AI development and move fast on AI protection. We need speed on both fronts,” Rosenberg said.

VOA Silicon Valley bureau chief Michelle Quinn contributed to this report.
…

Economy Technology

TikTok’s US reprieve comes as other countries limit social media use

By Ytech on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Singapore — TikTok’s short-lived shutdown in the United States has opened a wider debate in other countries regarding access to popular social media platforms by children.

TikTok went dark temporarily Sunday in the U.S. after a new law banning it went into effect. The law required TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance to sell the app’s U.S. operation due to national security concerns over its ties to Beijing.

After his inauguration on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the ban for 75 days, giving ByteDance additional time to find a buyer.

The order provides relief to the app’s 170 million American users, many of them young adults. More than 60% of teenagers in the U.S. ages 13 to 17 use TikTok, with most of them accessing the platform daily, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

The U.S. is not the only country looking to regulate social media and other platforms such as online gaming. While the reasons behind the restrictions vary, a growing number of countries already regulate technology or are proposing legislation to restrict its use.

In Australia, a high-profile social media ban for young adults under the age of 16 will take effect at the end of the year, prohibiting them from creating accounts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and Snapchat. The government said the ban was a necessary measure to protect children.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters last November.

Websites like YouTube that do not require an account to view content will likely be excluded from the ban.

The Australian government said the onus will be on the social media companies to “take reasonable steps” to prevent children under 16 from creating accounts on their platforms. Companies that do not comply could face fines of more than $30 million. Details of how the law will be enforced remain scarce, with age verification technologies currently being trialed.

Some young Australian users of the platforms remain skeptical about how effective a ban will be.

“I think people will manage to find ways around it, maybe by lying about their age,” 15-year-old Theodore Cagé told VOA.

While Cagé concedes that social media can be a “big distraction from school,” he is against a blanket ban, favoring more measured approaches such as limiting screen time or blocking specific content.

“I reckon it definitely should be more targeted, not just a total ban on everything, because there’s a lot of good stuff out there. It’s not all bad,” he said.

The impending ban has also raised concerns that some children will be left isolated.

“Social media serves as a lifeline for those youth who do not have supportive homes or local environments. They can find supportive communities on social media”, Lisa Given, a professor of information sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne, told VOA.

Australia’s ban will be closely watched, especially by countries in Asia that are considering their own restrictions for young users.

Indonesia’s communications minister said the Southeast Asian nation is planning a minimum age for social media use and discussed plans last week with President Prabowo Subianto.

In neighboring Singapore, teenagers under 18 will be moved to a more restrictive Teen Accounts on Instagram starting January 21.

The city-state also issued guidelines in schools to limit screen time for children. Starting March 31, app stores in Singapore will block children under 12 from downloading apps, including TikTok and Instagram.

But in the Southeast Asian financial hub, which prides itself on technological advancements and connectivity, social media still plays a significant role in the daily lives of young people.

Platforms like Snapchat and Instagram “are pretty important for engaging in new relationships or finding new friendships,” 17-year-old Pablo Lane of Singapore told VOA. “It [social media] has had big benefits for me, just broadening the scope of people I can contact.”

China has gone further than other countries in Asia to control children’s access to online networks. In 2021, Beijing introduced new measures restricting children under 18 to just three hours a week.

And in late 2024, new guidelines from China’s cybersecurity regulator called for mobile devices to be equipped with a “minors mode” that would limit screen time for children under 18, including an overnight curfew.

The setting, which parents can turn off, restricts 16 to 18-year-olds to two hours of phone use a day, with eight to 16-year-olds allowed just one hour.

Jeremy Daum, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said China is also focused on protecting children from harmful content online rather than implementing blanket bans.

“They’re really trying, from a number of different angles, to make a safe web for kids,” he Daum.

Questions remain over whether China’s model could apply elsewhere.
…

Economy Technology

TikTok’s US survival hinges on President Trump

By Ytech on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Millions of U.S. TikTok users are looking to newly sworn-in President Donald Trump, who has given the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, 75 days to strike a deal with a U.S. buyer.
…

Economy Technology

Trump highlights partnership investing $500B in AI

By Ytech on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.

The new entity, Stargate, will start building data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum.

“It’s big money and high quality people,” said Trump, adding that it’s “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration.

Joining Trump fresh off his inauguration at the White House were Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle. All three credited Trump for helping to make the project possible, even though building has started and the project goes back to 2024.

“This will be the most important project of this era,” said Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Ellison noted that the data centers are already under construction with 10 being built so far. The chairman of Oracle suggested that the project was also tied to digital health records and would make it easier to treat diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a customized vaccine.

“This is the beginning of golden age,” said Son, referencing Trump’s statement that the U.S. would be in a “golden age” with him back in the White House.

Son, a billionaire based in Japan, committed in December to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years. He previously committed to $50 billion in new investments ahead of Trump’s first term, which included a large stake in the troubled office-sharing company WeWork.

While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout in data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI, which holds the promise of increasing productivity by automating work but also the risk of displacing jobs if poorly implemented.

The initial plans for Stargate go back to the Biden administration. Tech news outlet The Information first reported on the project in March 2024. OpenAI has long relied on Microsoft data centers to build its AI systems, but it has increasingly signaled an interest in building its own data centers.

OpenAI wrote in a letter to the Biden administration’s Commerce Department last fall that planning and permitting for such projects “can be lengthy and complex, particularly for energy infrastructure.”

The push to build data centers also predates Trump’s presidency. Last October, the financial company Blackstone estimated that the U.S. would see $1 trillion invested in data centers over five years, with another $1 trillion being committed internationally.

Those estimates for investments suggest that much of the new capital will go through Stargate as OpenAI has established itself as a sector leader with the 2022 launch of its ChaptGPT, a chatbot that captivated the public imagination with its ability to answer complex questions and perform basic business tasks.

The White House has put an emphasis on making it easier to build out new electricity generation in anticipation of AI’s expansion, knowing that the United States is in a competitive race against China to develop a technology increasingly being adopted by businesses.

Still, the regulatory outlook for AI remains somewhat uncertain as Trump on Monday overturned the 2023 order signed by then-President Joe Biden to create safety standards and watermarking of AI-generated content, among other goals, in hopes of putting guardrails on the technology’s possible risks to national security and economic well-being.

Trump supporter Elon Musk, worth more than $400 billion, was an early investor in OpenAI but has since challenged its move to for-profit status and has started his own AI company, xAI. Musk is also in charge of the “Department of Government Efficiency” created formally on Monday by Trump with the goal of reducing government spending.

Trump previously in January announced a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers tied to AI.
…

Economy Science

Namibia doctors fight cervical cancer

By Yscien on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — The cervical cancer rate in Namibia is 37.5 for every 100,000 women, about three times higher than the rate worldwide. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers and doctors in Namibia are advocating greater access to healthcare and the HPV vaccine to reduce the prevalence of the disease.

November 2009 was a turning point in the life of Barbara Kamba-Nyathi. At the tender age of 29, she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer.

Her doctors recommended radiation therapy as opposed to chemotherapy, because at that time she had not yet had children and radiation therapy would help her avoid premature menopause.

But that was not her only struggle. Kamba-Nyathi, who lived in Windhoek at the time, said she faced stigma for cervical cancer’s association with HIV and the human papilloma virus.

“One of the challenges that come with having a diagnosis like cervical cancer is that our African society its usually taboo to talk about things of our reproductive organs, you know, our reproductive system is taboo,” said Kamba-Nyathi. “We don’t talk about such things and in the end, we tend to normalize pain and even things that don’t feel right in our bodies we tend to normalize them and they become part of our identity.”

Rolf Hansen, the chief executive officer of the Cancer Association of Namibia, said a lack of education and a lack of access to healthcare prevent many women from getting tested or being treated for cervical cancer or HPV, which is the second-leading cause of cancer among sub-Saharan women.

“Like I said, HIV and HPV work hand in hand to fuel the cervical cancer pandemic,” said Hansen. “Now, in our country as well we see that in our low-income setting as well as our rural setting, we have high HPV prevalence, high cervical cancer so a lot of work needs to be done at a grassroots level so that we can actually combat this disease.”

Doctors Simon and David Emvula provide health services to underprivileged communities, together with the Be Free/Break Free program — an initiative of former first lady Monica Geingos — in Namibia’s largest township of Katutura. They are advocating for the rollout of the HPV vaccine for girls between the ages of 9 and 14, before they become sexually active.

Emvula said that during one screening in Windhoek on Saturday, they treated more than 100 patients, screening girls and women for HPV, cervical cancer, fibroids and other sexually transmitted infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

Emvula spoke to VOA at his practice in Windhoek.

“The turnout was actually beyond what we expected and once again it was an eye-opener … that there is definitely a need for that,” said Emvula.

Emvula said HPV vaccination is among the most effective ways to prevent cervical cancer but the government of Namibia is lagging.

HPV vaccines have been introduced in 129 countries worldwide and the Namibian government has endorsed the rollout of the vaccines for girls ages 9 to 14. Despite promises made as reported by VOA last year, the vaccines have not yet been made available.

Namibia’s executive director of health, Ben Nangombe, could not be reached for comment.
…

Economy

Historical novel offers lessons to next generation, says Afghan writer

By Yeco on Tuesday, January 21, 2025

An Afghan author’s latest book is a generational call to remember the country’s recent violent past, he says. But Taliban rules mean publishers and bookstores are wary of stocking it. From Peshawar, Pakistan, Muska Safi has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Roshan Noorzai contributed to this report.
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Economy Science

Bird migrations shifting with warming planet in US Southwest

By Yscien on Tuesday, January 21, 2025

In the Southwest United States, bird migrations are shifting as global temperatures warm. Gustavo Martіnez Contreras takes us to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in the state of New Mexico.
…

Economy

Starry Sundance fest moves ahead in wake of LA fires

By Yeco on Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Los Angeles — The U.S. film industry’s first big gathering since fires devastated Los Angeles will begin Thursday at the Sundance festival, where highlights include a glitzy new Jennifer Lopez musical and a dark Benedict Cumberbatch drama.

Hollywood’s annual pilgrimage to the Rocky Mountains to premiere the coming year’s most-anticipated indie films is taking place in somber circumstances, after the blazes that killed at least 27 people and brought the entertainment capital to a halt.

Festival chiefs held lengthy talks with filmmakers, including those “who lost homes or were displaced” by the blazes, before deciding to press ahead, said Sundance director Eugene Hernandez.

Organizers heard “harrowing stories of people running out of their homes, evacuating… with their hard drives under their arms” to ensure their films survived, he told AFP.

“Everybody to a person just wants to look forward and wants to look ahead… it’ll be a nice moment of reunion and community.”

Among the 88 features being screened in Utah’s Park City is “Rebuilding,” about a rancher who loses everything in a wildfire.

“It takes on an added poignance, for those who will watch it next week,” said Hernandez.

Josh O’Connor, known for “The Crown” and “Challengers,” plays the lead role.

“It’s an incredible film, and one that we felt was important to show, based on that spirit of resilience,” said Sundance programming director Kim Yutani.

“I think it will be a particularly moving one for people to see.”

J-Lo, Cumberbatch

A-lister Lopez brings her first film to Sundance, with “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

From “Dreamgirls” director Bill Condon, the film is based on the Broadway adaptation of Argentine author Manuel Puig’s famous novel.

Lopez plays Aurora, a silver-screen diva whose life and roles are discussed by two mismatched prisoners as they form an unlikely bond in their grim cell.

While harking back to grand Golden Age Hollywood musicals with its fabulous costumes and Lopez’s “knockout musical performance,” the film is a more dramatic and independent take on the genre, said Hernandez.

Cumberbatch stars in another literary adaptation, “The Thing With Feathers,” based on Max Porter’s experimental and poetic novel about a grieving husband and two young sons.

“It’s one of these juicy roles that big actors relish taking a bite out of,” said Yutani.

Family tragedy and fatherhood are also the themes of “Omaha,” with John Magaro (“Past Lives”) delivering “an emotional gut punch of a role” that could spell awards, according to Yutani.

Elsewhere, Olivia Colman plays a mother taking her non-binary teen to visit their gay grandfather (John Lithgow) in “Jimpa.”

Rapper A$AP Rocky and late-night host Conan O’Brien make up the eclectic cast of mystery “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

And “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri teams up with John Malkovich for thriller “Opus,” about a young writer investigating the mysterious disappearance of a legendary pop star.

Music, politics

Music is also a prominent theme of Sundance’s documentary selection, which has launched several of the most recent Oscar-winning non-fiction films.

A new “must-see” Jeff Buckley documentary features never-before-seen footage from “three very important women in his life, including his mother,” said Yutani.

Elegance Bratton explores the Chicago roots of house music with “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House,” while Oscar-winning director Questlove examines funk pioneer Sly Stone in “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).”

Politics will again be prominent.

Former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern is expected in town to promote behind-the-scenes documentary “Prime Minister.”

“The Jinx” director Andrew Jarecki explores violence and corruption in the U.S. prison system with “The Alabama Solution.”

And, days after the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect, Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis will unveil her “groundbreaking” new film “All That’s Left of You,” which has been given a highly prominent Saturday evening premiere at Sundance’s biggest venue.

“That is not an accident. This is a really special one,” said Yutani.

“I have not seen a film about a Palestinian family told in quite this way.”

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival runs from Jan. 23 through Feb. 2.
…

Economy Technology

 TikTok restores US services after Trump promise to delay ban

By Ytech on Monday, January 20, 2025

Washington — TikTok restored services to users in the United States on Sunday after briefly blocking access due to a U.S. law banning the social media platform based on national security concerns.

The situation played out amid the change in U.S. administrations as President-elect Donald Trump said he would seek to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.”

He also proposed, in a post on his Truth Social platform, for the United States to take a 50% ownership stake in TikTok.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld legislation passed by Congress that called for banning TikTok unless its China-based parent company sold it by Sunday.

The Biden administration had said it would not seek to enforce the ban in its final days in office, leaving the issue to Trump after he took office on Monday.

TikTok credited Trump as it announced the restoration of its services, saying Sunday on X that he provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”

Trump’s actions marked a reversal from his first term in office when he sought to ban TikTok in connection with concerns that the service was sharing the personal information of U.S. users with the Chinese government.

At a briefing Monday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China believes companies should “decide independently” about their operations and agreements.

“TikTok has operated in the U.S. for many years and is deeply loved by American users,” she said. “We hope that the U.S. can earnestly listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for firms operating there.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Economy Technology

India’s ‘digital arrest’ scammers stealing savings of citizens

By Ytech on Monday, January 20, 2025

Bengaluru, India — Within five hours, while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police.

The cybercrime known as “digital arrest” — where fraudsters pose online as law enforcement officials and order people to transfer huge amounts of money — has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued warnings.

Singh told AFP that money was his life savings.

“Over the years, I have skipped having tea outside, walked to avoid spending on public transport,” the 62-year-old said, his voice breaking.

“Only I know, how I saved my money.”

Police say scammers have exploited the vast gap between the breakneck speed of India’s data digitalization, from personal details to online banking, and the lagging awareness of many of basic internet safety.

Fraudsters are using technology for data breaches, targeting information their victims believe is only available to government authorities, and making otherwise unlikely demands appear credible.

Indians have emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear,” Modi said in an October radio broadcast, adding fraudsters “create so much psychological pressure on the victim.”

‘Ruined’

Mobile phones, and especially video calling, have allowed fraudsters to reach straight into people’s homes.

India runs the world’s largest biometric digital identity program — called “Aadhaar,” or foundation in Hindi — a unique card issued to India’s more than one billion people, and increasingly required for financial transactions.

Scammers often claim they are police investigating questionable payments, quoting their target’s Aadhaar number to appear genuine.

They then request their victim make a “temporary” bank transfer to validate their accounts, before stealing the cash.

Singh, from India’s eastern state of Bihar, said the web of lies began when he received a call in December, seemingly from the telecom regulatory authority.

“They said… police were on their way to arrest me,” Singh said.

The fraudsters told Singh that his Aadhaar ID was being misused for illegal payments.

Terrified, Singh agreed to prove he had control of his bank account, and after spiraling threats, transferred over $16,100.

“I have lost sleep; don’t feel like eating,” he said. “I have been ruined.”

‘Rot in proverbial hell’

The surge of online scams is worrying because of “how valid they make it look and sound,” said police officer Sushil Kumar, who handled cybercrimes for half a decade.

The perpetrators range from school dropouts to highly educated individuals.

“They know what to search for on the internet to find out basic details of how government agencies work,” Kumar added.

India registered 17,470 cybercrimes in 2022, including 6,491 cases of online bank fraud, according to the latest government data.

Tricks vary. Kaveri, 71, told AFP her story, on condition her name was changed.

She said fraudsters posed as officials from the U.S. courier FedEx, claiming she had sent a package containing drugs, passports and credit cards.

They offered her full name and Aadhaar ID details as “proof,” followed by well-forged letters from the Central Bank of India and Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency.

“They wanted me to send money, which would be returned in 30 minutes,” she said, adding she was convinced when they sent a “properly signed letter.”

She transferred savings from a house sale, totaling around $120,000, in four instalments over six days, before the fraudsters vanished.

Kaveri says those days felt “like a tunnel.”

Meeta, 35, a private health professional from Bengaluru, who also did not want to be identified, was conned by fake police via a video call.

“It seemed like a proper police station, with walkie-talkie noises,” she said.

The scammers told her to prove she controlled her bank account by taking out a loan of 200,000 rupees, or $2,300, via her bank’s phone app, before demanding she make a “temporary” transfer.

Despite making it clear to the bank that she had been scammed, Meeta continues to be asked to pay back the loan.

“My trust in banks has mostly gone,” she said, before cursing the thieves.

“I hope they rot in proverbial hell.”
…

YCLOAK

Month: January 2025

Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’ is No. 1 at box office, ‘The Brutalist’ expands

Taipei pet shop strives to break down anti-snake prejudice

Indonesia showcases returned artifacts it had sought for decades from Netherlands

Trump discussing TikTok purchase with multiple people; decision in 30 days

CIA: COVID likely originated in a lab, but agency has ‘low confidence’ in report

Big Tech wants data centers plugged into power plants; utilities balk

How the oldest known Hebrew book landed in a Washington museum

App provides immediate fire information to Los Angeles residents

Lunar New Year travel offers boost to China’s economic woes

Young rodeo riders compete in mutton bustin’

Trump signs executive orders on AI, cryptocurrency and issues more pardons

VOA Mandarin: Chinese actor Hu Ge enters politics

‘Emilia Perez’ tops Oscar nominations in fire-hit Hollywood

UK watchdog targets Apple, Google mobile ecosystems with new digital market powers

Trump signals aggressive stance as US races China in AI development

TikTok’s US reprieve comes as other countries limit social media use

TikTok’s US survival hinges on President Trump

Trump highlights partnership investing $500B in AI

Namibia doctors fight cervical cancer

Historical novel offers lessons to next generation, says Afghan writer

Bird migrations shifting with warming planet in US Southwest

Starry Sundance fest moves ahead in wake of LA fires

TikTok restores US services after Trump promise to delay ban

India’s ‘digital arrest’ scammers stealing savings of citizens