Pita Limjaroenrat has resigned as leader of Thailand's Move Forward Party, paving the way for other members of the party to lead the biggest opposition group in the country's parliament."The current constitution specifies that the opposition leader must be [a member of parliament]," Pita said in his Facebook post on Friday. "However, I am still suspended as [member of parliament] by the court order. Then, I cannot work in the parliament as the opposition leader in the near future."
He did not mention who will replace him as party leader. Pita, 43, led the Move Forward Party in the May 14 general election, winning 151 of 500 seats and becoming the largest party in the lower house. But he failed to become prime minister in a parliamentary vote on July 13 as most senators did not support him due to Move Forward's progressive policies, including a proposed amendment to the country's lese-majeste laws. On July 19, Thailand's constitutional court suspended Pita as a member of parliament over his shareholdings in a media company. The suspension eventually blocked him from being renominated as the prime minister candidate for the second time. Pita's failure paved the way for the Pheu Thai Party, which won second place with 141 seats in the general election, to form the government. The party's Srettha Thavisin was elected Prime Minister on Aug. 22. Pita, however, vowed that he would continue to work with the Move Forward Party to push forward the agenda for change as well as to investigate and balance the power through the parliamentary process. The Pheu Thai party, which finished second in the May election, was able to form a coalition acceptable to the senators, and had one of its candidates, Srettha Thavisin, confirmed as prime minister. Srettha's coalition embraced military-supported parties that include members linked to a 2014 coup that ousted a previous Pheu Thai government. Move Forward’s bid to lead the opposition was complicated not only by Pita’s suspension, but also because one of its members is currently serving as the first deputy house speaker. Padipat Suntiphada was selected for the post while Move Forward was still seeking to form a government, but the rules bar members of parties leading the opposition from holding speakers’ positions in the House. It is not immediately clear if Padipat will resign from the post.
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Last week, the Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, in a shrewd attack on US President Joe Biden, 80, and on his main opponent, 77-year-old Donald Trump, called for term limits and mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75, saying that “they need to let a younger generation take over.”
“The American people are saying it is time to go. If they would approve term limits, the American people would show that,” the 51-year-old former UN ambassador said in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation. “But until then, they’ve got to know that, look, we appreciate your service, but it’s time to step away.” Haley’s remarks came just days after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader of all time, froze for the second time in as many months during a press conference. Much like with Joe Biden, America’s oldest-ever president who always has handlers nearby to navigate him when he wanders off the beaten path, an assistant quickly came to McConnell’s rescue. The tragi-comedy that ensued was almost as cringe-inducing as a politician not being able to find the exit, or uttering regrettable gaffes, as is Biden’s forte. McConnell could only understand the reporters’ questions with the help of his aide, who had to repeat them loudly into his ear. Still, the top-ranking Republican only managed to answer one question out of three, and just barely, before the press conference was hastily concluded. McConnell’s office explained that the 81-year-old Senator “felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference.” Haley is one of the few politicians in the US who has openly acknowledged what is becoming very difficult to ignore: Capitol Hill, which plays host to 105 lawmakers over the age of 70, is beginning to resemble a taxpayer-funded retirement home. According to data from the Pew Research Center, the median age for House legislators is 57.9, while in the Senate the median age is 65.3 years, thus comprising one of the oldest legislative bodies in the world. Yet neither the Democrats nor the Republicans, whose presidential front-runners are both long in the tooth, are in any positions to demand term limits and cognitive ability tests. From a historical perspective, it’s interesting to note that among the 46 men who have served as US president since George Washington’s election on April 30, 1789, it wasn’t until Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was elected on January 20, 1953, that America had its first 70-year-old leader in the Oval Office – and just barely. Eisenhower, who was first elected when he was 62 years old, left office when he was 70 years, 98 days old. With Joe Biden, 80, and Donald Trump, 77, America has its first and second oldest leaders, respectively (one could argue that people today simply live longer; to counter that, there’s John Adams, America’s second president, who lived to 90; Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, who lived to 83; James Madison, the fourth president, who lived to 85). In a new survey by The Wall Street Journal, conducted between Aug. 24 and 30, 60% of 1,500 respondents said they do not believe Joe Biden is mentally up to the job of president, and 73% said he is too old for the position. So this begs the question: why are so many politicians determined to stay in office long after the average retirement age? What makes these public servants want to continue working deep into their seventies, eighties and even nineties, as was the case with Senator Strom Thurmond? Is public service really that appealing? After all, many US legislators can take advantage of the infamous revolving door that exists between Capitol Hill and K Street, a highly questionable partnership that shuffles lawmakers into lucrative positions in the corporate world as lobbyists, consultants and strategists upon their retirement. Or maybe the unwillingness to retire from the halls of Congress is simply due to the desire for even more money than what the corporate world can offer? Although the media rarely mentions it, the public servants on Capitol Hill – half of whom are millionaires – are in the perfect position to enrich themselves due to their access to inside information. The 2020 congressional insider trading scandal provided a perfect example of this. On January 24, 2020, the Senate held a closed meeting to brief lawmakers about the Covid-19 outbreak and how it would affect the United States. Following the meeting, a number of Senate members immediately began to ditch their shares in companies that would eventually suffer severe financial losses in the wake of the pandemic. California Senator Dianne Feinstein (currently 90 years old), sold stock worth upwards of $6 million in Allogene Therapeutics; Richard Burr, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sold stocks with an estimated value between $628,033 and $1.72 million; Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, then 86, sold stocks that amounted to about $400,000. Perhaps the most shocking finding as far as insider trading goes involved Senator Kelly Loeffler, who, together her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, made twenty-seven transactions to sell stock worth between $1,275,000 and $3,100,000. They also purchased shares in Citrix Systems, which saw an earnings increase following the Covid-19 outbreak. Despite these transactions being a clear violation of the STOCK Act, no charges were brought against these public servants and all investigations into the matter were quietly swept under the congressional carpet with no explanation. While there are certainly politicians both young and old who take advantage of their positions for private gain, possibly opting to stay in office well past their ‘expiration date,’ how many is really anybody’s guess. The reality, however, is clear that financial gain is one motivating factor for keeping people inside the power loop for as long as possible. But are term limits the answer for ending the wave of greed and gerontocracy invading Capitol Hill? Personally, I doubt it. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed that the world is transitioning to a new diplomatic order in which Washington must lead the way in overcoming increasing threats from Russia and China by working with its allies to build trust among nations for whom the old system failed.
“One era is ending, a new one is beginning, and the decisions that we make now will shape the future for decades to come,” Blinken said on Wednesday in a speech at John Hopkins University in Washington. He said the “post-Cold War order” ended as “decades of relative geopolitical stability have given way to an intensifying competition with authoritarian powers.” Namely, those powers are led by Russia and China, Blinken said, adding that “Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is the most immediate, the most acute threat to the international order.” China poses the biggest long-term challenge, he claimed, because it aspires to reshape the international order and is developing the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so. “Beijing and Moscow are working together to make the world safe for autocracy through their ‘no limits’ partnership,” Blinken argued. He claimed that Russia and China have framed the existing order as a “Western imposition,” but that system is anchored in universal values and enshrined in international law. Ironically, he also accused the two rivals of believing that big countries can “dictate their choices to others,” a charge that is increasingly made against Washington. “When the Beijings and Moscows of the world try to rewrite – or rip down – the pillars of the multilateral system, when they falsely claim that the order exists merely to advance the interests of the West at the expense of the rest, a growing global chorus of nations and people will stand up to say, ‘No, the system you are trying to change is our system. It serves our interests,’” Blinken claimed. Blinken suggested that the US will lead “from a position of strength” largely because of its “humility.” He added, “We know we will have to earn the trust of a number of countries and citizens for whom the old order failed to deliver on many of its promises.” Alliances will be key to Washington’s success, Blinken said. He claimed that just a few years after the capabilities and relevance of NATO were openly questioned, the Western military block has become “bigger, stronger, more united than ever.” The Russia-Ukraine conflict proved that “an attack on the international order anywhere will hurt people everywhere,” Blinken said. He added that the US aims to ensure that Ukraine defeats Russia and emerges from the conflict as a “vibrant and prosperous democracy.” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to travel to Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin this month, the New York Times and Associated Press reported on Monday, citing US and “allied” officials.
According to the NYT, Kim intends to travel to the city of Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific Coast, “probably by armored train,” where both leaders would attend the annual Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled for September 10-13, adding that Kim plans to visit a Russian naval base. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have commented on the matter. Kim, who rarely leaves the country and mostly travels by train, last met with Putin in Vladivostok in 2019. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made a surprise visit to Pyongyang in July, where he and Kim attended a military parade, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Shoigu later said that Moscow was open to holding joint drills with North Korea. Shoigu also delivered “a personal message” from Putin to Kim, according to the Kremlin. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to travel to Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin this month, the New York Times and Associated Press reported on Monday, citing US and “allied” officials. According to the NYT, Kim intends to travel to the city of Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific Coast, “probably by armored train,” where both leaders would attend the annual Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled for September 10-13, adding that Kim plans to visit a Russian naval base. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have commented on the matter. Kim, who rarely leaves the country and mostly travels by train, last met with Putin in Vladivostok in 2019. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made a surprise visit to Pyongyang in July, where he and Kim attended a military parade, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Shoigu later said that Moscow was open to holding joint drills with North Korea. Shoigu also delivered “a personal message” from Putin to Kim, according to the Kremlin.
Thaksin’s signature policies included a universal healthcare scheme opening virtually free treatment for basic ailments to tens of millions of poor for the first time, as well as village clinics and start-up funds. “He has always helped making our lives better,” 63-year-old Ankana Nattakit from Nakon Ratchasima said. “No other prime minister has done nearly anything as much for us. He’s the prime minister of the grassroots people.”
Vote on new PM Pheu Thai, the latest incarnation of Thaksin’s party, came second in elections held in May. After the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the election, was unable to form a government because military-appointed senators in the upper house refused to support it, Pheu Thai cobbled together a grouping of parties, including those backed by the military. A vote was underway on Tuesday that could lead to the party’s Srettha Thavisin, a property tycoon, becoming prime minister. Srettha has the backing of 314 legislators in the lower house but needs an additional 58 votes to secure the job, which requires the backing of a majority of both houses. New Zealand’s justice minister resigned Monday after police filed charges against her and said she was over the legal alcohol limit when she crashed into a parked car.The incident involving Kiri Allan was the latest in a series of missteps and scandals involving government ministers less than three months out from national elections. Polls indicate the conservative opposition has pulled level or moved slightly ahead of the incumbent liberals in what promises to be a close race. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Allan was involved in the crash soon after 9 p.m. Sunday in Wellington and was detained at the central police station for about four hours.Police have charged her with careless driving and refusing to accompany a police officer.Hipkins noted police reported that Allan’s breath test showed she was over the legal alcohol limit, although she was not charged with drunk driving. Police said they issued Allan an infringement notice in relation to the breath test. A court date has not been set. If found guilty, Allan could face fines and a suspension of her driver’s license. Once considered a rising star of the Labour Party, Allan had recently taken time off for her mental health after being involved in a publicized split with her partner. She also faced accusations of having poor working relationships with some staff.
Hipkins said he spoke with Allan on Monday morning and told her he thought she wasn’t in a fit state to remain a minister and it was untenable for a justice minister to be charged with criminal offending. She agreed and resigned her ministerial roles, Hipkins said. For now, Allan remains a member of Parliament. “While her alleged actions are inexcusable, I’ve been advised she was experiencing extreme emotional distress at the time of the incident,” Hipkins said. “Her recent personal struggles with mental health have been well documented and it appears some of those issues came to a head yesterday.” Hipkins said he felt sad for Allan. “Kiri is an incredibly talented person who clearly has been battling some demons, and has not won that battle,” he said. Allan said she was sorry for her actions and was heading home to consider her future in politics. “Over recent weeks I’ve faced a number of personal difficulties. I took time off to address those, and believed I was okay to juggle those challenges with the pressure of being a minister,” she said in a statement. “My actions yesterday show I wasn’t okay, and I’ve let myself and my colleagues down.” Last month, Transport and Immigration Minister Michael Wood resigned after failing to disclose a possible conflict of interest with stock he owned. In March, Police Minister Stuart Nash was fired after it came to light he had given confidential information to donors. In May, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri was fired after switching allegiance to another political party. Sigrid Kaag is a name that resonates with leadership, diplomacy, and remarkable accomplishments. Her life and career have been nothing short of inspiring, leaving a lasting impact on both national and international fronts. From her early days to her current role, Kaag's journey is a testament to dedication, resilience, and the pursuit of a better world.
Sigrid Kaag, a Dutch politician and diplomat, began her professional journey as a civil servant at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her innate talent and passion for diplomacy soon propelled her into the heart of international affairs. Kaag served in various crucial roles within the United Nations, including working on critical missions in the Middle East and leading the joint mission for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons. One of the defining moments of Kaag's career came during her tenure as the Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations in Syria. Her exceptional leadership skills, determination, and unwavering commitment played a pivotal role in ensuring the safe and successful removal of chemical weapons from Syria, a task considered to be highly challenging and fraught with risks. Kaag's accomplishments in the international arena led to her return to Dutch politics. In 2017, she became a member of the House of Representatives for the Democrats 66 (D66) party. Her political acumen and ability to bridge divides were evident as she assumed the role of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Dutch government. As Minister, Kaag championed key issues such as sustainable development, gender equality, and fair trade. She initiated several programs to support entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development in developing countries, further cementing her commitment to fostering global progress and prosperity. Beyond her professional achievements, Sigrid Kaag embodies leadership qualities that inspire and motivate others. Her calm demeanor, intellectual acumen, and ability to engage in constructive dialogue have earned her respect from colleagues and counterparts alike. She has consistently demonstrated a steadfast commitment to promoting peace, understanding, and cooperation in an increasingly complex world. Sigrid Kaag's life and career serve as a reminder that true leadership is not only about achieving personal success but also about making a positive impact on society. Her dedication to diplomacy, humanitarianism, and sustainable development sets an example for aspiring leaders across the globe. By striving for excellence and embracing empathy, Kaag has shown that it is possible to effect meaningful change even in the face of formidable challenges. In conclusion, Sigrid Kaag's life story is one of extraordinary accomplishments and remarkable contributions. Her unwavering commitment to diplomacy, her exemplary leadership skills, and her relentless pursuit of a more just and equitable world make her a true role model. Sigrid Kaag's life serves as an inspiration to all those who aspire to create a positive impact and shape a better future through leadership and diplomacy. Twenty people have been detained for rioting in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris, police said on Tuesday. The unrest broke out after an officer killed a 17-year-old man during a traffic stop.
The altercation occurred on Tuesday morning. According to police, the young man was shot after failing to comply with an order and attempting to ram an officer with his car. A video filmed by a witness shows that two officers had stopped a yellow Mercedes AMG. While one officer was standing outside the window and giving orders to the driver, his colleague stood next to him and was pointing a handgun at the driver. The car suddenly moved forward, prompting the officer to fire a single shot. The Mercedes crashed into a pole and the driver died, despite efforts to resuscitate him. The prosecutor’s office said the driver was known for having previously refused to comply with a police order during a traffic stop. Hours after the incident, around 50 people held a protest outside Nanterre police station, BFM TV reported. In other parts of the neighborhood, rioters smashed bus stops, set garbage containers on fire, and torched several vehicles. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said an investigation had been launched into the shooting. A separate investigation has been launched on suspicion of attempting to cause harm to a police officer. Iran is seeking to create a gas hub in cooperation with the country’s Eurasian trade partners, Oil Minister Javad Owji announced on Wednesday. The move is part of Tehran’s efforts to strengthen regional cooperation and enhance its position on the global energy market.
Iran is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world, selling most of its energy to Asian markets despite the threat of US secondary sanctions. The new project is planned for the Asaluyeh region of the southern Bushehr province. “Having 33 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves and thanks to the cooperation of Turkmenistan, Russia and Qatar, we are trying to become a gas hub,” the minister told reporters, insisting that the conditions were in place to achieve that goal. The statement comes as Tehran has stepped up energy purchases from neighboring Turkmenistan, with the capacity to import between 40 and 50 million cubic meters of gas daily. Iran’s major gas fields are concentrated in the south, necessitating imports from its northern neighbor, particularly in the winter. Iran has also strengthened energy cooperation with Russia, which, according to Owji, could assist in the Islamic Republic’s energy hub ambitions. The two countries have joint investments in exploration and production, technology swap agreements, and a deal to jointly build oil pipelines from Iran to Oman and Pakistan. Last month, Tehran and Moscow sealed two major cooperation agreements and eight memorandums of understanding covering everything from energy and technology to the creation of a joint market. Imagine, for a moment, that the government of Cuba was demanding the extradition of an Australian publisher in the United Kingdom for exposing Cuban military crimes. Imagine that these crimes had included a 2007 massacre by helicopter-borne Cuban soldiers of a dozen Iraqi civilians, among them two journalists for the Reuters news agency.
Now imagine that, if extradited from the UK to Cuba, the Australian publisher would face up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison, simply for having done what media professionals are ostensibly supposed to do: report reality. Finally, imagine the reaction of the United States to such Cuban conduct, which would invariably consist of impassioned squawking about human rights and democracy and a call for the universal vilification of Cuba. Of course, it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to deduce that the above scenario is a rearranged version of true events, and that the publisher in question is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The antagonising nation is not Cuba but rather the US itself, which is responsible for not only the obliteration of Assange’s individual human rights but also a stunning array of far more macro-level assaults on people across the world. As per the US narrative, Assange’s WikiLeaks endeavours endangered the lives of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere – although it would seem like one surefire way to not endanger lives in such places would be to not blow them up in the first place. It is furthermore perplexing that a nation for which military slaughter is an institutionalised pastime should make such a selective stink about the exposure of certain gory details. Granted, footage of defenceless civilians being picked off at close range like videogame targets by a laughing helicopter crew does little to uphold Americans’ projected role as the “good guys” – a façade that is key in terms of justifying the country’s self-presumed right to wreak international havoc as it pleases. Had Assange wanted to save his own skin, he could have stuck to the sort of imperial propaganda that functions as mainstream journalism, a field that was itself instrumental in selling the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq to the US public. Instead, he is incarcerated at Belmarsh prison in southeast London, awaiting extradition to the so-called “land of the free” while serving as a veritable case study in prolonged psychological torture, as documented back in 2019 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. In a caustic letter addressed to King Charles ahead of his recent coronation, Assange described himself as a “political prisoner, held at your majesty’s pleasure on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign”. He observed: “One can truly know the measure of a society by how it treats its prisoners, and your kingdom has surely excelled in that regard”. The embarrassed foreign sovereign has certainly exhibited excellence in that realm, as well, boasting the highest incarceration rate on the planet and an impressive track record of executing innocent people. To be sure, domestic efforts to sentence a citizen of another country to 175 years in prison for telling the truth is also a pretty good indication that something is very, very wrong with a society. Then there’s the whole matter of the United States’ offshore penal colony in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the former CIA torture den and persistent judicial black hole into which the US has sought to disappear some of the human fallout of its forever wars. Indeed, the fact the US feels entitled to call out the Cuban government for its own “political prisoners” while operating an illegal prison on occupied Cuban territory can be safely filed under the category of mind-blowingly sinister hypocrisy. If only there were more journalists who wanted to talk about such things. But just like you can’t cover up the crimes of Guantánamo by classifying prisoners’ artwork, you can’t hide the horrors of US policy by effectively redacting Julian Assange out of existence. It’s the old kill-the-messenger approach – in which the “killing” takes the form of long-drawn-out psychological erosion conducted in tandem with a campaign to normalise the idea that Assange should be behind bars for eternity-plus. In the end, the assault on Assange is not just your average disproportionate imperial conniption fit. Whatever the ultimate outcome, it has already set a perilous precedent in criminalising not only freedom of speech and the press but also – if you think about it – freedom of thought. Although Australian officials are making increasing noise agitating for Assange’s release, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to say whether he will address the issue with US President Joe Biden at the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Sydney on May 24. And as the forever wars of the US rage on increasingly out of sight, so, too, does the forever war on Julian Assange. The Los Angeles city council has authorized the use of a robotic “dog” device by the local police department, despite protests from residents and some dissenting council members. New York previously unveiled similar tech and faced major public backlash.
City lawmakers voted 8-4 on Tuesday to approve a donation of a “Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle” to the LAPD from the non-profit Los Angeles Police Foundation, which supplied the $277,000-robot to the force free of charge. Designed and manufactured by Boston Dynamics, the robotic dog is capable of navigating terrain and buildings autonomously, and can be equipped with a wide range of surveillance gear, sensors and other “payloads.” For police, it is generally intended for use in dangerous situations that could put officers at risk, acting as an extra set of eyes and ears for the department. However, the new addition to the LAPD faced sharp criticism from residents, with several citizens slamming the council’s decision during public comments on Tuesday. One local said “I don’t want to arm [artificial intelligence],” while another declared that the use of the robot would eventually lead to “robot cops,” asking “Didn’t you guys see that movie iRobot or Terminator?” Yet another citizen said the city council’s public comment period was “clearly performative,” accusing local lawmakers of ignoring the wishes of their constituents.“After listening to overwhelming public comments, you vote the opposite way. New York City and San Francisco have already rejected these robot dogs. The LAPD does not need military weapons,” they said. New York’s decision in 2020 to employ the robotic dog, which the NYPD dubbed ‘Digidog,’ proved equally controversial, with the city cutting short its first contract to lease the device after New Yorkers decried the tech as Orwellian. However, officials later reversed course and returned the dog to the force last month, with police commissioner Keechant Sewell stating it would be used in a way that is “transparent, consistent and always done in close collaboration with the people we serve.” The Election Commission concluded its vote counting on Monday morning and announced the Move Forward Party’s victory in the May 14 general election.
EC chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said MFP won 112 constituency MPs and 39 list seats, followed by Pheu Thai with 112 constituency MPs and 29 list MPs, Bhumjaithai with 68 constituency MPs and 3 list MPs, Palang Pracharath 39 constituency MPs and 1 list MP and United Thai Nation Party with 23 constituency MPs and 13 list MPs. US Vice President Kamala Harris has been appointed to head a new artificial intelligence initiative in partnership with leading companies in the field, the White House announced in a press release on Thursday. Harris and other senior officials in the administration of President Joe Biden will meet with the CEOs of Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI to remind them of their “responsibility to make sure their products are safe before they are deployed or made public.” The meeting is intended to keep the companies on track toward “driving responsible, trustworthy and ethical innovation with safeguards that mitigate risks and potential harms to individuals and our society,” according to the White House, which referenced recent executive orders and official statements reminding tech companies that their products were subject to civil rights law and other protections against unlawful discrimination.
The four companies, along with Hugging Face, NVIDIA, and Stability AI, will also submit to a public evaluation of their capabilities by thousands of industry experts and other curious members of the public at DEFCON 31, the Las Vegas hacking convention that has repeatedly put the insecurity of the US’ voting machines on display by giving children a chance to hack them. The White House also announced the creation of seven new National AI Research Institutes focusing on climate, agriculture, energy, public health, education, and cybersecurity, explaining the new institutes would “support the development of a diverse AI workforce” with $140 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. The administration is also giving the public the chance to weigh in on government AI policy starting this summer, according to the press release. Tasked with stemming the flow of migrants over the US’ southern border upon taking office in 2021, Harris instead presided over a record amount of illegal immigration, earning her the lowest approval rating of any modern US vice president. Last year, she was assigned with developing a blueprint for fighting “disinformation,” harassment and abuse online despite having no experience in the technology sector. While hundreds of experts in the AI field have called for a moratorium on, or at least a dramatic slowdown of, AI development until internationally agreed-upon safety measures can be put in place, the US has thus far shied away from issuing any strong statements about the technology. Last month, Biden met with his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to discuss the “risks and opportunities” in the field but declined to address the experts’ warnings while admitting AI “could be” dangerous. Paris is an ally and not a “vassal” of Washington, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, defending his comments about “strategic autonomy” of the EU regarding the rising tensions between the US and China.
“Being an ally does not mean being a vassal... doesn’t mean that we don’t have the right to think for ourselves,” Macron said in Amsterdam at a joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Asked for the French position on Taiwan, Macron said Paris supports the status quo, meaning the “One China policy and the search for a peaceful resolution to the situation.” Returning from his trip to China on Sunday, Macron argued that the EU can’t just be “America’s followers,” and that it is not in the bloc’s interest to stoke tensions over Taiwan. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he told reporters. The remarks earned a swift rebuke from US Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican on the foreign affairs committee, who suggested Washington might leave the EU to handle the Ukraine conflict by itself. Taiwanese Parliament Speaker You Si-kun on Tuesday argued that France had forsaken its motto of ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’, and that advanced democracies should not “ignore the lives and deaths of people in other countries,” adding that Macron’s comments left him “puzzled.” Meanwhile, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that Macron was “perfectly right to demand European independence and sovereignty,” while the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, noted that “quite a few” leaders of EU countries think like Macron, even though they “wouldn’t say things the same way.” When asked about the French president’s comments on Monday, the US State Department said France is a long-standing ally and that occasional disagreements do not detract from the “deep partnership” with Paris. As for the EU position, a State Department spokesman cited a recent speech by the bloc’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, which described China as “a national and economic security threat,” and said there is “immense convergence” between Washington and Brussels on the matter. Tens of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s main opposition party have gathered in Dhaka to protest against the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and demand new elections. The protesters rallied on Saturday at the Golapbagh sports ground, where the crowd chanted “Sheikh Hasina is a vote thief” amid heightened tensions in the Bangladeshi capital. The rally comes days after security forces stormed the headquarters of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday. At least one person died and dozens of others were injured in the raid.
Anti-government protests have erupted across the country in recent months triggered by power cuts and fuel price hikes. The prime minister has rejected calls to stand down. A BNP official said that some 200,000 people had joined Saturday’s rally by mid-morning. Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruq Ahmed rejected the claim and said the venue could not hold more than 30,000 people. “Our main demand is Sheikh Hasina resign and parliament is dissolved and let a neutral caretaker government step in to hold a free and fair election,” BNP spokesman Zahiruddin Swapan said. The protests have been peaceful, but SWAT teams, counterterrorism units and canine squads were on standby, Ahmed said. Police have also set up checkpoints on roads to the city and increased security there. BNP officials accused the government of triggering an unofficial transport strike to try to prevent people from joining the rally. The rally comes a day after two BNP leaders were arrested on allegations of inciting violence. More than 2,000 activists and supporters of the opposition party have been detained since November 30 to prevent them from attending the protest. Western governments, the United Nations and human rights organisations have raised concerns over the political climate and human rights violations in Bangladesh. Independent observers have reported that the past two general elections were rigged by Hasina’s government, forcing losses by the BNP. On Tuesday, 15 Western embassies issued a joint statement, calling for Bangladesh to allow free expression, peaceful assembly and fair elections. The UN made a similar declaration a day later. Amnesty International’s Yamini Mishra said this week’s violence showed that authorities “have very little regard for the sanctity of human life and sends a chilling message that those who dare to exercise their human rights will face dire consequences”. |
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