Sheinbaum is elected first woman president of Mexico

Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first woman president by a landslide, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence.Flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music on Sunday in celebration of the ruling party candidate’s victory, in a nation where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.“I want to thank millions of Mexican women and men who decided to vote for us on this historic day,” Sheinbaum told the cheering crowd. The 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor thanked her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez, who conceded defeat.Mexico’s outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hailed Sheinbaum’s victory as a “historic event,” while US President Joe Biden said he looked forward to working with her “in the spirit of partnership and friendship.”Sheinbaum, a scientist by training, won around 58-60% of votes, according to preliminary official results from the National Electoral Institute, which estimated turnout at 60%.That was more than 30 percentage points ahead of Galvez, and some 50 percentage points ahead of the only man running, centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez.Maria de los Angeles Gordillo, a 37-year-old member of the Tojolabal Indigenous community, said she was moved to tears as she listened to Sheinbaum speak.“I’m here to celebrate this historic moment for our country and especially for women who carry these inequalities on their skin,” she said. Voters had flocked to polling stations across the Latin American nation, despite sporadic violence in areas terrorized by ultra-violent drug cartels.Thousands of troops were deployed to protect voters, following a particularly bloody electoral season that saw more than two dozen aspiring local politicians murdered.“Our society is violent, sexist, misogynistic and Dr Sheinbaum as president will really be able to help change not only the laws but society,” said Lol-Kin Castaneda, 48, who waited late into the night to hear the winner speak.“Mexico can’t stand any more violence,” she added.Women going to the polls had cheered the prospect of their favoured candidate breaking the highest political glass ceiling.“A female president will be a transformation for this country, and we hope that she does more for women,” said Clemencia Hernandez, a 55-year-old cleaner in Mexico City.“Many women are subjugated by their partners. They’re not allowed to leave home to work,” she said.Daniela Perez, 30, said that having a woman president would be “something historic,” even though neither of the two main candidates was “totally feminist” in her view.Nearly 100mn people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129mn people.Sheinbaum owes much of her popularity to outgoing president Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.In another win for the ruling party, its candidate Clara Brugada was elected mayor of Mexico City, one of the country’s most important political jobs, preliminary results showed.In a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled, drug cartels went to extreme lengths to ensure that their preferred candidates win.Hours before polls opened, a local candidate was murdered in a violent western state, authorities said, joining at least 25 other political hopefuls killed this election season, according to official figures.In the central Mexican state of Puebla, two people died after unknown persons attacked polling stations to steal papers, a local government security source told AFP.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684004/international/sheinbaum-is-elected-first-woman-president-of-mexico

Biden’s son Hunter stands trial on gun charge

Hunter Biden, the long-troubled son of Joe Biden, went on trial on Monday on gun charges in a historic first prosecution of a sitting president’s child — and potential threat to his father’s re-election.The only surviving son of President Biden, Hunter Biden is charged with lying about his illegal drug use when buying a handgun in 2018, a felony.The 54-year-old arrived in court in his hometown of Wilmington, accompanied by family members, including First Lady Jill Biden, although not the president. Jury selection got underway, with the trial expected to last one to two weeks.President Biden said he and the first lady, who was marking her 73rd birthday on Monday, were “so proud” of Hunter Biden.“As the President, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases, but as a dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength,” Biden said in a statement. The trial comes days after a jury in New York made history by finding Donald Trump guilty of business fraud, the first time a former president has ever been criminally convicted.Trump, who is running as the Republican challenger to Joe Biden in November, faces three other far more serious criminal cases, including his alleged attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.The Delaware trial — along with another in which Hunter Biden faces charges in California on tax evasion — is an embarrassment for Joe Biden, as he seeks a second term and hopes to keep the country’s focus on Trump’s behaviour. In addition to being a political distraction, Hunter Biden’s legal woes will reopen painful emotional wounds for the family from his lengthy period as a serious drug addict — a period that both he and his father have discussed publicly. Hunter Biden’s brother Beau died from cancer in 2015 and his sister Naomi died as an infant in a 1972 car crash.The Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist is charged with falsely stating on legal paperwork when buying a .38 calibre Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 that he was not using drugs illegally. He is also charged with illegal possession of the firearm, which he had for just 11 days in October of that year.Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty. He had earlier reached a plea deal with prosecutors but this collapsed, leading to the trial. Prosecutors are set to introduce voluminous — and often uncomfortable — evidence linked to Hunter Biden’s years as an addict. They have called as witnesses three of his former partners, including Lunden Roberts, the mother of one of his children.The president’s son, who has written unsparingly about his addiction, will contend that at the moment he bought the revolver, he did not consider himself to be an addict. He has stated that he has been sober since 2019.If found guilty, Hunter Biden could face 25 years in prison, although as a first-time offender he could get a far lighter sentence or escape any jail time.President Biden on Monday said that his son’s difficulties would resonate widely.“Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. A lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean,” he said.Hunter Biden has long been the target of Trump and hard-right Republicans, amplified by exhaustive coverage on Fox News.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/684003/international/bidens-son-hunter-stands-trial-on-gun-charge

EU readies for elections as far-right set to surge

EU voters go to the polls in a week’s time, with far-right, nationalist parties expected to do well in the bloc’s next parliament in a time of social and geopolitical uncertainty.The outcome of the June 6-9 elections will help determine the make-up of the next European Commission, whose chief Ursula von der Leyen is hoping to earn a second term.At stake is the posture the European Union will assume over the coming five years, globally in partnership with key Western ally the United States — which has its own electoral choice to make in November, between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.EU voters, according to surveys, are weighing up issues such as the war in Ukraine, economic prospects, trade protectionism including in the United States, the risk of AI to jobs, migration, and climate change.But with nearly seven out of 10 Europeans seeing the EU as “a place of stability in a troubled world”, according to a Eurobarometer poll, there is little appetite for Brexit-like moves in member states.Instead, far-right candidates are appealing to voters on nationalistic — often ethno-nationalistic — manifestos while pledging to stay in the European Union albeit with a marked Eurosceptic stance.They vow to champion cultural and economic preferences, tighten border controls, and have decision-making become more bilateral rather than Brussels-based.Their promises are resonating with key constituencies, such as European farmers and — through adept use of TikTok — European youth.The rise of nationalist governments in Italy, Hungary, and The Netherlands have also helped to normalise their appeal.The election is widely predicted to see a surge for extreme-right lawmakers, according to opinion polls that predict the two main far-right factions winning around a quarter of the seats in the next 720-member parliament.Overall, however, Europe’s political centre is expected to hold.The parliament’s two main groupings — von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists & Democrats — are forecast to come out on top, though maybe with the loss of a few seats.Yet to achieve parliamentary majorities, broader coalitions may need to be formed, at least on an ad hoc basis.One could, as now, incorporate the centrist grouping that includes the party of French President Emmanuel Macron, which looks headed for a midterm drubbing.Another could have the EPP working with far-right lawmakers, something von der Leyen has left the door open to — as long as they were not anti-EU or Moscow’s “puppets”.She explicitly ruled out partnering with Germany’s scandal-plagued Alternative for Germany (AfD). That could presage a bigger role for the post-fascist party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who seems keen to act as powerbroker in the next parliament.Investigations into allegations of Russian political meddling via right-wing lawmakers, mainly targeting the AfD, have dogged Europe’s far-right in the run-up to the vote.But arguably a bigger problem for the far-right is its divisions over Ukraine.One faction, the European Conservatives and Reformists that includes Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, supports Kyiv in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.The other — the Identity and Democracy group home to Macron rival Marine Le Pen’s National Rally — is sceptical about giving Ukraine further help.Surveys show the war is prominent in voters’ minds.More than three-quarters support a common defence and security policy and nearly as many want boosted military production, according to Eurobarometer. A majority approve sending military equipment to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.One of the main obstacles to EU support for Ukraine is Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban is close to Putin.Orban’s government will assume the rotating EU presidency in the last half of this year — setting the bloc’s agenda just as the new parliament sits and as the next European Commission is to be decided.A higher-profile far-right in Brussels and in the EU parliament could impact several EU dossiers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683954/international/eu-readies-for-elections-as-far-right-set-to-surge

One parliament, 27 ways of voting

More than 350mn people across 27 countries are called on to participate in one of the West’s largest democratic events from June 6 to 9, when EU residents will elect 720 members of the European Parliament.Here are five things to know about the vote:Keeping things in proportionAll countries must use proportional representation, meaning that a party’s share of the vote is reflected in its seat tally.But each member state has its own variant.Here are the three main types of electoral system, ranked from least to most complicated:Closed-list votingSix countries, including Germany, France and Spain use this system, in which voters can only vote for a party list and cannot change the order of the party’s candidates on the list.Preferential votingVoters can express their preference for one or more candidates.In some countries, they may only change the position of candidates on a single list. In others, they can pick candidates from different lists.Candidates who win the most preference votes win seats.This method is favoured by 19 countries including Italy, Poland, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.Single transferable voteVoters rank candidates in order of their preference.Candidates are elected once they reach a certain threshold of votes.Any surplus votes are then passed down to the voter’s next-preferred candidate to help them get across the line. And so on down the choices, through successive rounds of counting, to the least-preferred candidate.Malta and Ireland both use this system.A right or a duty?Four countries have made voting in the EU elections mandatory: Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria and Luxembourg, though action is rarely taken against abstainers.In other countries, voters decide whether to make their voices heard or not.Lowering the voting ageIn most EU countries you must be 18 to vote.But Germany and Belgium have recently joined Austria, Greece and Malta in lowering the voting age for the ballot to 16.To stand in the European election, you have to be 18 in most countries.But in Poland and the Czech Republic, you have to be 21, in Romania at least 23 and in Italy and Greece at least 25.Postal voting in, e-voting outThirteen states, including Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries, allow postal voting, mostly for citizens living abroad. This year, Greece’s sizeable diaspora will for the first time test the procedure, which gained in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.As for voting online, forget it.Only tech-savvy Estonia allows its citizens to cast their ballots electronically.Gender quotasTen countries including France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg, impose gender quotas on party listsIn Spain, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia, parties must field at least 40% of candidates of each gender, compared with 35 percent in Poland.Romania passed a law to promote gender equality in its elections, but the vague wording made it ineffective.With a mere 15% of women in Romania’s current clutch of MEPs, it is the most male-dominated in the European Parliament.Luxembourg’s group has the most women (67%), followed by Finland (57%) and Sweden (52%) — the latter two notably electing more women without any quotas in place.Currently, 39.8% of MEPs are women.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683953/international/one-parliament-27-ways-of-voting

Boeing Starliner launch cancelled in final minutes of countdown

Boeing’s second attempt at launching a crew aboard its troubled Starliner spaceship was dramatically aborted on Saturday with just minutes left on the countdown clock, yet another setback for a programme that has faced years of delays.With the astronauts strapped in and ready for liftoff, the test mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was unexpectedly halted due to reasons that aren’t yet clear – closely mirroring events of just weeks prior.It is not uncommon in the space industry for countdowns to be halted at the 11th hour and for launches to be postponed for days or weeks, even when seemingly minor malfunctions or unusual sensor readings are detected, especially in new spacecraft flying humans for the first time.United Launch Alliance (ULA), responsible for the Atlas V rocket that Starliner sits atop, is now investigating why an “automatic hold” was triggered by its computer with three minutes and 50 seconds to go before launch.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams smiled and looked upbeat after they were removed from the capsule and were taken back to crew quarters.Mission commander Wilmore had earlier given a short but rousing speech, telling tens of thousands of people tuning into the live feed that “It’s a great day to be proud of your nation”.The former US Navy test pilots, who each have two spaceflights under their belts, were previously called back to quarantine hours before a launch attempt on May 6 because of a faulty valve on the rocket.The next available launch window for the mission is today about noon local time, followed by two more opportunities on Wednesday and Thursday.Starliner was poised to become just the sixth type of US-built spaceship to fly Nasa astronauts, following the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes in the 1960s and 1970s, the Space Shuttle from 1981 to 2011, and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon from 2020.Nasa is looking to certify Boeing as a second commercial operator to ferry crews to the ISS – something Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already been doing for the US space agency for four years.Both companies received multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to develop their gumdrop-shaped, autonomously piloted crew capsules, following the end of the Space Shuttle programme in 2011 that left the US temporarily reliant on Russian rockets for rides.Boeing, with its 100-year history, was heavily favoured over its then-upstart competitor, but its programme fell badly behind amid embarrassing setbacks that mirrored the myriad problems afflicting its commercial airline division.These ranged from a software bug that put the spaceship on a bad trajectory on its first uncrewed test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical tape after the second.While teams worked to replace the faulty rocket valve that postponed the previous launch attempt, a small helium leak located in one of Starliner’s thrusters came to light.However, rather than replace the seal, which would require taking the spaceship apart in its factory, Nasa and Boeing officials declared it safe enough to fly as is.When they do fly, Wilmore and Williams will be tasked with putting Starliner through the wringer, including taking manual control of the spacecraft.Starliner is set to dock with the ISS for eight days as the crew carry out tests, including simulating whether the ship can be used as a safe haven in the event there is a problem on the orbital outpost.After undocking, it will re-enter the atmosphere and carry out a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the western United States.A successful mission would offer Boeing a much-needed reprieve from the intense safety concerns surrounding its 737 MAX passenger jets.It’s also important for more immediate reasons.The Urine Processor Assembly on the ISS, which recycles water from astronauts’ urine, suffered a failure this week and its pump needs to be replaced, with Starliner charged with bringing up the spare part.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683853/international/boeing-starliner-launch-cancelled-in-final-minutes-of-countdown

‘No alternative’: Ramaphosa’s SA future hangs in the balance

It was predicted to go badly but turned out to be worse: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led the ANC to its worst election result since the end of apartheid, one which threatens his survival.Returns from more than 99% of the polling stations used in Wednesday’s election showed ANC had barely scraped past 40% of the vote, a spectacular drop from the 57.5 it won in 2019.The shock result will prove a litmus test for Ramaphosa, a popular party figure with a reputation as a fine negotiator beneath his affable demeanour, political commentators say.ANC, a now divided movement that led the nation out of white-minority rule and into democracy, will remain the largest party in parliament but will lose its majority, heralding choppy uncharted waters for the party once led by Nelson Mandela.It will have to forge alliances to re-elect Ramaphosa at the end of the month and stay in power, with its hand forced into possible concessions with minnows it failed to beat in the election.But Ramaphosa will first have to persuade his party’s all powerful yet split National Executive Committee to keep him in the job.In 2022, his party lawmakers closed ranks around him at an impeachment vote over a scandal subbed “farmgate” that nearly cost him his job, when hundreds of thousands of dollars were reported stolen from a sofa in his country home.He was also re-elected the ANC president that same year in a race that looked closer than expected.“The party has rallied around him to a certain extent. There have been very high level comments saying ‘we are not going to recall Ramaphosa’,” said Christopher Vandome, senior research fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank.The 71-year-old former trade unionist and mines boss came into power in 2018 as a graft-busting saviour after the corruption-tainted tenure of predecessor Jacob Zuma.A fluent speaker of all of the country’s 11 official languages, he took up anti-apartheid activism while studying law in the 1970s and spent 11 months in solitary confinement in 1974.Preferred by Mandela as his heir, he stood alongside the liberation hero when he walked out of jail in 1990. But the farmgate case dealt a massive reputational blow to the wealthy businessman and for many the storied ANC has become synonymous with corruption.Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing.South Africans remain vexed by a prolonged water and electricity crisis that has put a drag on Africa’s most industrialised economy with crime and unemployment rates running high.Yet the lack of a formidable successor could keep Ramaphosa in power, author and analyst Susan Booysen said.“The irony is that there are no real alternatives in the ANC at this point,” she told AFP, adding that names that were being floated had “too much baggage, too many skeletons.” “In how I read the signals at this stage is Ramaphosa is surviving despite the dismal and disastrous performance of the ANC,” Booysen said.CALLS TO QUITWith no unifying candidate to take over from Ramaphosa, the choice of a bedfellow could prove the next hurdle.Data from the Independent Electoral Commission showed the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) held second place with 21.71%, slightly up on its 20.77 showing in 2019.But it was not the DA that dealt the decisive blow.In third place was former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) on 12.6%, a surprise score for a party founded just months ago as a vehicle for the former ANC chief.The ANC could have no choice but to co-opt the DA into a national coalition government, analysts say, describing it as Ramaphosa’s best bet for survival.“The DA will want to keep Ramaphosa in charge and would not want the other alternatives,” said Vandome.Booysen agreed.MIRACULOUS CANVASSING“The possible coalition partners don’t pose an alternative, don’t bring an alternative, charismatic, dynamic, popular president.” Zuma’s MK has vowed to play hard ball, ruling out any partnership talks if Ramaphosa remained at the helm of ANC. “We will engage with the ANC but not the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa,” spokesman Nhlamulo Ndhlela said.Ramaphosa’s future nonetheless hangs fragile, threatening to follow the footsteps of his predecessors Zuma and Thabo Mbeki, who did not complete their tenures and were forced out by the ANC. “That man did very well for the ANC. He led from the front,” said ANC deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane, defending Ramaphosa’s record.“He did miraculous canvassing, criss-crossed the country. All those that are doing any speculation don’t know the ANC.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683850/international/no-alternative-ramaphosas-sa-future-hangs-in-the-balance

Five powers plan bigger, deeper Asia military drills

Australia, Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore have agreed to stage more complex military drills in the region this year involving drones, fifth-generation fighter planes and surveillance aircraft.The announcement yesterday by defence ministers from members of the 53-year old Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore comes as the tempo of military exercises in Asia increases along with tensions between global powers.“We are increasing the assets that we are bringing to bear in exercises so (at) Bersama Lima later this year, for the first time, Australia will be contributing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters,” said Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles.Bersama Lima, “Five Together” in the Malay language, is an annual military exercise held by the five powers. It was held last year in Malaysia.Marles said running more complicated exercises were an example of increasing ambition in the agenda of the FPDA.New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins said a P-8 Poseidon would be deployed to Singapore for the first time as part of the drills.The P-8 aircraft is the premier US submarine hunter-tracker and is increasingly deployed in the region against China’s submarine patrols.Singapore is close to important submarine channels in Indonesia linking the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.Marles said the FPDA was “not about China” but rather about “our desire to work closely together”. Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said this year’s exercises would involve drones, among other “non-conventional” elements.British representative Paul Wyatt, director general for security policy, said Britain planned sending an aircraft carrier to the region in 2025 and had discussed how the tour might fit with the FPDA’s exercise programme.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683800/international/five-powers-plan-bigger-deeper-asia-military-drills

Lawyers seek court nod to ditch robes

Soaring temperatures in India’s capital have proven to be too much for some courts and are putting to the test a law in place since 1961 that requires lawyers to wear heavy black robes and coats.At least three High Courts have permitted lawyers to discard the robes and coats for the summer, although the Supreme Court is being urged to make it a general rule for all lawyers in the country.Judges at one New Delhi court postponed a case this week until later in the year, complaining about a lack of air conditioning and water supply.While India’s Supreme Court and most high courts have air conditioning, many lower courts and consumer forums depend on fans and have poor ventilation.New Delhi recorded temperatures of around 50C for the first time this week, forcing authorities to restrict water supply, shut schools and set up heatstroke units at hospitals.They have also deployed paramedics to polling stations for the final day of India’s massive general election today in case any voters fall ill as they queue in the heat. A 40-year-old labourer died of heat stroke on Wednesday.The northwest of India has been experiencing high temperatures for several weeks. India’s meteorological department has predicted two or three times the usual number of heat wave days in the region this month, or days defined by abnormally hot weather.For Delhi, that means sweltering temperatures that are effecting people across the city, including its legal system.At a consumer court in the southwestern district of Dwarka, judges presided over cases against insurance companies in a courtroom fitted with two non-functioning air conditioners. Ceiling fans and open windows offered the only respite from the weather.Three of the court’s judges issued a written order this week stating they had declined to hear a case due to high temperatures in the court room. They adjourned the case for the cooler month of November.“There is neither air conditioner nor cooler in the court room... There is too much heat. In these circumstances, arguments cannot be heard,” the order said.In 2021, India’s then chief justice said courts “still operate from dilapidated structures without proper facilities”, which was “severely detrimental” for both litigants and lawyers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683799/international/lawyers-seek-court-nod-to-ditch-robes

Bird flu infects 3rd US dairy worker

A third US dairy worker tested positive for bird flu after exposure to infected cows, and was the first to suffer respiratory problems, US officials said yesterday. The infection was the second human case in Michigan, which has confirmed more cases of bird flu in cattle than any other state. It also expands the symptoms for human cases, after the two workers who previously tested positive experienced only conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and recovered.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683704/international/bird-flu-infects-3rd-us-dairy-worker

Robots play soccer at Geneva AI showcase

Teams of robots jostled on a miniature artificial soccer pitch as androids answered trivia questions and took jabs at human ignorance yesterday at an artificial intelligence (AI) summit on the technology’s wide-ranging uses.Organisers said the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva showed the ways the technology could improve and even transform lives.“Sometimes we think about AI as just something big,” said Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary-general of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which staged the event. “At the same time AI can be embedded in so many more things in everyday life ... whether it’s for flood forecasting, disaster management and early-warning systems, in agriculture, in health. It’s across the board.”Displays showed off prosthetic limbs that could learn from a user’s behaviour and adapt to muscle activity, devices to help visually impaired people avoid obstacles in the street and bionic cats and dogs built to act as companions.The football-playing robots were the work of a group of students from the university of ETH Zurich.The team kicked, passed and kept track of the ball based on input from sensors.“The project allows our undergraduate and graduate students to collect experience on a full robotic platform,” Jan-Nico Zaech, the project’s scientific supervisor, said. “It’s a platform to test algorithms that can run in the real world afterwards.”Meanwhile, a top UN official warned that humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of AI for the good of all, while averting dire risks.“We’ve let the genie out of the bottle,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.“We are in a race against time,” she told the opening of a two-day AI for Good Global Summit. “Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary.”The thousands gathered at the conference heard how advances in generative AI are already speeding up efforts to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger and social care.“I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to guide AI to benefit all the world’s people,” Bogdan-Martin told AFP ahead of the summit.However, she lamented that one-third of humanity still remains completely offline, and is “excluded from the AI revolution without a voice”.“This digital and technological divide is no longer acceptable.”Bogdan-Martin highlighted that AI holds “immense potential for both good and bad”, stressing that it was vital to “make AI systems safe”.She said that was especially important given that “2024 is the biggest election year in history”, with votes in dozens of countries, including in the United States.She flagged the “rise of sophisticated deep fakes disinformation campaigns” and warned that the “misuse of AI threaten democracy (and) also endangers young people’s mental health and compromises cybersecurity”.Other experts at the conference agreed.“We have to understand what we’re steering towards,” said Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist who co-founded the Centre for Humane Technology.He pointed to lessons from social media – initially touted as a way to connect people and give everyone a voice, but which also brought addiction, viral misinformation, online harassment and ballooning mental health issues.Harris warned the incentive driving the companies rolling out the technology risked dramatically swelling such negative impacts.“The number one thing that is driving Open AI or Google behaviour is the race to actually achieve market dominance,” he said.In such a world, he said, “governance that moves at the speed of technology” is vital.Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, also stressed the need for a more robust institutional response.“This is a technology that tends to winner-take all, and the rewards are so high that there is quite the unseemly landgrab going on at the moment,” he told the gathering. – Reuters/AFP

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683720/international/robots-play-soccer-at-geneva-ai-showcase

India’s gruelling election campaign comes to an end

More than two months of gruelling and acrimonious campaigning in India’s general election that played out in sweltering heat ended yesterday, two days before the final phase of polling, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency will cast its votes.India began voting in seven phases in the world’s largest election on April 19 and it is set to conclude on June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4 although television channels conduct exit polls and project results after voting ends.Modi, who is seeking a record-equalling third straight term and is widely expected to win, began his re-election campaign by focusing on his achievements over the last 10 years but soon switched to mostly targeting the opposition by accusing them of favouring India’s minority Muslims.This change of tack, analysts said, was likely aimed at firing up his Hindu nationalist base after a low turnout in the first phase sparked concerns that supporters of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were not voting.India’s election rules stop campaigning about 36 hours before voting begins.Modi addressed one rally in the northern state of Punjab yesterday, while his main opponent, the Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, spoke at rallies in the states of Odisha and Punjab.“It is clear from the overwhelming support of people ... that there is going to be an unprecedented victory” for BJP and the alliance it leads, Modi posted on X minutes before campaigning ended. Modi will spend the next two days meditating at the southernmost tip of India at an island memorial for Hindu philosopher Swami Vivekananda, located at where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean converge.Opposition parties criticised his decision, saying it was a form of campaigning as his meditation would be shown on TV and so was in breach of the rules, with the Congress complaining to the Election Commission.“This is a blatant violation of the code of conduct. We don’t mind if he goes to meditate anywhere after June 1,” Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said.Modi meditated at a cave in the Himalayas two days before the last phase of voting in 2019, an election BJP won resoundingly.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683716/international/indias-gruelling-election-campaign-comes-to-an-end