Rescue efforts for 18 trapped after Xinjiang gold mine collapse

A total of 40 people were working underground at the gold mine in Yining county at the time of the collapse.

Mine safety has improved in recent decades in China, but accidents still occur frequently

 [File: Luan Qincheng/Xinhua News Agency via AP]

Published On 25 Dec 2022

Rescuers are working to reach 18 people trapped underground after a collapse at a gold mine in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, state media reported.

A total of 40 people were working at the mine in Yining county, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border with Kazakhstan when the mine caved in on Saturday afternoon.

Twenty-two miners were brought to the surface but 18 remain trapped.

“A rescue operation is under way to retrieve the remaining miners,” Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday.

Mine safety has improved in recent decades in China, but accidents still occur frequently in an industry where safety instructions are often lax, especially at the most rudimentary sites.

In September last year, 19 miners stranded underground after the collapse of a coal mine in the northwest province of Qinghai were found dead after a long search.


In December 2021, 20 miners were rescued from a flooded coal mine in northern Shanxi province while two others died.

China is the largest producer of gold globally. Last year, the country mined 370 metric tonnes of gold, and has held its top position for more than 10 years.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Personalist Dictatorships Like Putin’s ‘Sooner or Later Begin to Make Fatal Mistakes,’ Golosov Says

 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin

Putin Trying To Build ‘An Anti-Soviet Empire’ Not A Remake Of The USSR – OpEd

 December 27, 2022 

By Paul Goble

Because Vladimir Putin talks about recovering territory that Moscow lost when the USSR disintegrated and because he has had positive things to say about Stalin, many people assume that he is trying to restore the Soviet empire. But that gets things exactly wrong, Andrey Kolesnikov says.

The New Times columnist argues that that Putin both because of his motives and because of his tactics is in fact “provoking an entirely different process – the continuing disintegration of the imperial space” and in a way that will involve the kind of violence the region generally avoided during the first three decades after 1991 (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/232864).

In fact, Kolesnikov says, Putin and his team are trying to build what one could call “an anti-Soviet empire,” one based almost entirely on the use of brute force rather than soft power and “along the way destroying the very legacy of the USSR,” including both its positive values and its physical infrastructure.

Putin’s “empire of the Russian world is destroying precisely the achievements of the Soviet empire,” at least after 1953, including the values of internationalism rather than the supremacy of one nation over all the others, and doing so in a way that is driving all those in the non-Russian countries who can to try to distance themselves as far from Moscow as possible.

The views driving Putin are not those of Khrushchev, Gorbachev or even Brezhnev; they are those of the last years of Stalin’s rule. And “so what is taking place now is in fact Stalinization, attempts to return” to the past Soviet leaders after Stalin’s death rejected, Kolesnikov continues. 

Two myths have gotten in the way of an understanding of this reality, the commentator says. On the one hand, many seem to think that a post-Putin future will be even worse than his current rule, a view that ignores the fact that after every period of repression in Russian history, those who are the successors have liberalized one way or another.

And on the other, many are convinced that Russia faces another round of disintegration, something possible but unlikely Kolesnikov says because of the situation the republics and regions within the Russian Federation find themselves in, a position which they could not improve, he suggests, by leaving.

“In sum,” he concludes, analogies between what Putin is doing and what post-Stalinist leaders of the Soviet Union did are possible, but they require significant modification. And it is becoming ever more obvious that “those who have built the current system” of Russian power for a Russian world “cannot restore the Soviet Union” or repeat the Soviet experience.

Personalist Dictatorships Like Putin’s ‘Sooner or Later Begin to Make Fatal Mistakes,’ Golosov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 25 – There are four basic kinds of authoritarianism – monarchies, military rule, party rule, and personalist dictatorships – Grigory Golosov says; and Putin’s regime falls into the last category, a tragedy for Russia because such regimes almost inevitably “sooner or later begin to make fatal mistakes.”

            That is because, the political scientist at St. Petersburg’s European University says, the leader is increasingly cut off from good information and can act without the constraints that either multiple centers or power or accepted rules of the game the other three kinds of authoritarianism feature (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/12/25/nikto-ne-skazal-net).

            An important distinctive feature of Putin’s personalist dictatorship, Golosov says, is that it had its origin in “the imperfect electoral democracy of the 1990s. Typically, such types of regime have a different trajectory and appear as the result of the degradation of other kinds of authoritarian regimes.”

            While personalist dictatorships strive to eliminate all multiple centers of power and all rules, Putin’s began at a time when there were competitive centers of power in the form of the oligarchs and elections. He sidelined the former and he showed he could win the latter, something that led many to believe that he always could and thus deserved support.

            During Putin’s first two terms, there was a level of “informal institutionalization” that acted as a constraint; but after he returned to the presidency following the Medvedev interregnum, Putin moved quickly and consistently to destroy or at least divide all alternative centers of power and to reduce elections to a complete fiction.

            As a result, Golosov says, Putin’s rule was “transformed into a purely personalist dictatorship;” and the mistakes that have followed, in particular the disastrous invasion of Ukraine and the break with the West, are the result of that and the unique way in which he achieved his personalist dictatorship.

            In the coming years, there are compelling reasons to think that the country won’t become either a monarchy or a party regime and that a military rule is extremely unlikely. That is unfortunate because military rule is the kind of authoritarianism that most easily opens the way for democratization.

            “Of all authoritarian regimes,” the political scientist says, “military regimes more often than others can evolve toward democracy. Not because the military are democrats but because its members cannot establish a stable power, constantly fight with one another, and at a certain pont decide that it would be better to hand over power to civilian politicians.”

            According to Golosov, “democracy is a mechanism which allows that to happen,” especially if the successor democrats are careful to amnesty the military rulers they have replaced. Democratization, of course, doesn’t happen because of demands for it from the population: “ideologically motivated democratization is quite rare.”

            Those facts make Russia’s near-term prospects bleak indeed. The masses don’t want democracy, and neither do the elites. Instead, many in the elites still think Putin may manage to escape his current problems and that his having forced Western firms to leave Russia will offer them opportunities for enrichment.

            Consequently, Putin is likely to be able to hold on for some time; but he is also likely to make ever more “gargantuan” mistakes, the kind of mistakes that will cost his country even more dearly than the ones he has already made. The question really is which one of those will prove fatal.

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .

Forced participation in religious activities to be classified as child abuse in Japan

The law stipulates four types of abuse: physical, sexual, neglect and psychological. PHOTO: REUTERS

TOKYO - New health ministry guidelines in Japan will classify as abuse any acts by members of religious groups that threaten or force their children to participate in religious activities, or that hinder a child’s career path based on religious doctrine.

According to unnamed sources cited by Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun, the Health, Labour, and Welfare Ministry is preparing its first draft of guidelines to help local governments deal with issues of child abuse that have emerged in connection with religious groups such as the Unification Church, officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The controversial Unification Church came to attention this year after former prime minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot by a man with longstanding grudges against the religious group.

Children of religious groups’ followers have criticised the authorities’ handling of this issue in the past. They have said child consultation centres and the police did not respond to their complaints of abuse, telling the children there was nothing they could do because freedom of religion is protected under the Constitution.

In October, the ministry notified local governments not to make perfunctory responses simply because a problem is religious in nature. It is also working to outline specific points in the guidelines that authorities should be aware of when dealing with such cases.

According to the sources, the envisaged guidelines will be in a question-and-answer format and will specify what faith-based acts against children fall under the categories of abuse as stipulated in the Child Abuse Prevention Law.

The law stipulates four types of abuse: physical, sexual, neglect and psychological.

Inciting fear by telling children they will go to hell if they do not participate in religious activities, or preventing them from making decisions about their career path, is regarded as psychological abuse and neglect in the guidelines.

Other acts that will constitute neglect include not having the financial resources to provide adequate food or housing for children as a result of making large donations, or blocking their interaction with friends due to a difference in religious beliefs and thereby undermining their social skills.

When taking action, the guidelines will urge child consultation centres and local governments to pay particular attention to the possibility that children may be unable to recognise the damage caused by abuse after being influenced by doctrine-based thinking and values.

In addition, there are concerns that giving advice to parents may cause the abuse to escalate and bring increased pressure from religious groups on the families. In light of this, the guidelines will call for making the safety of children the top priority and taking them into temporary protective care without hesitation.

For children 18 years of age or older and not eligible for protection by child consultation centres, local governments should instead refer them to legal support centres, welfare offices and other consultation facilities.

Guidelines already exist for child consultation centres on how to respond to abuse, but this will be the first time for them to be devised specifically for children of religious followers.

The ministry has been developing these guidelines based on interviews conducted with some of the children in question. 

THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

The truth about 'medbeds' - a miracle cure that doesn't exist

THIS QUACKERY GIVES PSUEDOSCIENCE A BAD NAME

One TeslaBiohealing facility is in a converted motel in a small town on the Mississippi River

By Mike Wendling
BBC News, East Dubuque

Strange corners of the internet are awash with chatter about miracle devices that can cure nearly any ailment you can think of using the power of mystical energy. Some companies charge thousands for these "medbeds" - but their claims are far from proven.

A converted motel in a small town on the Mississippi River seems an unlikely home for a world-changing technology - what a flyer in the mostly deserted lobby calls a "new wave of scientific healing".

But since last summer, this building in East Dubuque, Illinois - three hours west of Chicago - has been outfitted with medical devices that supposedly imbue patients with "life force energy". It's one of a number of locations run by Tesla BioHealing - no relation to the car company - dotted around the US.

I tried out a medbed on a recent gloomy weekday afternoon. After being greeted at the front desk, a doctor tested my energy levels by having me place my fingers inside a metal box.

Then I was ushered into one of the rooms, mostly unchanged from its motel days, and I waited for "pure biophoton life-force energy" to stream into my body.


The company has placed its containers underneath ordinary beds in its facilities

The idea of medbeds - short either for "medical beds" or "meditation beds" - has become increasingly popular on fringe medical channels, on mainstream social networks and chat apps.

But people have very different ideas about what they actually are. Some insist that the technology is secret, unlikely to be encountered by mere mortals, hidden from the public by billionaires and the "deep state". The more conspiratorial theorising includes speculation about "alien technology" and bizarre claims like the idea that John F Kennedy is still alive, strapped to a medbed.

A separate, more earthly avenue of thought holds that medbeds are very real and publicly available, just not part of the medical mainstream.

It's this strand that Tesla BioHealing and a range of other companies are staking their rather expensive claims on. Tesla BioHealing offers home generators for prices up to $19,999 (£16,500), although an hour in one of their medbed motel rooms will only set you back $160 (£130).

But even in the consumer-focused medbed world, where there is no talk of aliens or JFK, there's disagreement about what a medbed actually is. And there's a very good reason for that, says Sara Aniano, a disinformation analyst at the Anti Defamation League's Centre on Extremism.

"It's really hard to define something that doesn't exist," she says.

Ms Aniano has been researching the spread of medbed chat online, and as part of her inquiries signed up for trial with a different medbed company, 90.10.

"The trial is nothing," she says. "It tells you to lay on your bed and think really hard about the medbed."

"In their defence, they do list on their website in the very fine print down at the bottom that the medbed is not meant to treat or diagnose illnesses," she says.

It's a common disclaimer that we saw used in some form by just about every company offering a medbed-related product. Even though companies put out long lists of ailments that can supposedly be helped by their technologies, and provide testimonials from satisfied customers, they say that their products are not meant to replace treatments by a qualified doctor.

Tesla BioHealing is no exception. The top of the company's website clearly states: "We cannot diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition."

And yet their promotional material states: "Many people note improvements in their wellbeing even after only an hour of resting on a Tesla MedBed." They also make a number of specific, unsupported claims about particular diseases.

Tesla BioHealing's website comes with a disclaimer at the very top of the page

The staff at the Tesla BioHealing motel in East Dubuque told me about legions of customers with all manner of ailments, all of whom they said had been helped by medbeds.

But in my room, I felt nothing more than curiosity and a slight sense of unease as I gazed out the window at a mostly empty car park. The Tesla Medbed cannisters were sealed in wooden boxes and a bedside table.

Cutting short my hour, I returned to the doctor's office where she repeated the test with my fingers in the metal box. Sure enough, my energy, as measured by the doctor's laptop, was already rising.



But neither the doctor nor anyone else at Tesla BioHealing could tell me what was inside the medbed cannisters themselves.

Some enterprising customers have taken it upon themselves to try to find out. We came across a TikTok video where an upset punter appears to have opened up a cannister, only to find a concrete-like substance.

"For anyone who's thinking about buying one of those Tesla biohealers, don't waste your money," she says.

The company wouldn't be drawn on what active ingredients, if any, are inside the cannisters. But they told us in an email: "There is much more going on with our technology than meets the eye."

And while they said the Tesla cannisters were not intended to replace a doctor's care, they also made further claims of cures and said: "Health benefits are priceless."


The Tesla BioHealing generators - with unknown contents


Both Tesla BioHealing and 90.10 pointed us to thousands of positive customer testimonials. And despite the prominent claim on the company website that 90.10 offers "Quantumfrequency medicine with scientific proof", 90.10 chief executive Oliver Schalke told us: "It is not a medical product and was never intended to be."


How, then, are the medbed companies allowed to offer their products, hint at miraculous effects, but escape any regulatory oversight?


Several companies, including 90.10 pictured here, advertise medbeds or related products for sale

Dr Steven Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who has been investigating questionable claims for decades, says the health care regulator in the United States - the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - is partly to blame.

"FDA registration is required by any manufacturer who wants to market products, but it just means that you've notified the FDA that you exist," he says.

Tesla BioHealing and other companies advertise that they are FDA registered - but that is next to meaningless.

"FDA registration says nothing about whether a device is useful," says Dr Barrett.

When it comes to making vague claims about general well-being or unprovable statements about increased energy, authorities "do almost nothing about it", he says.

He speaks with a note of weariness, perhaps because of a lack of "biophotons" but more likely the result of spending decades tracking dubious health claims.

"Do I think that exposure to whatever it is that they're giving you in the bed is going to make you more energetic? I seriously doubt that," he says.

Indeed, as I began a long evening drive home from East Dubuque under cloudy skies, I felt distinctly lacking in life force energy.

With reporting by Elizabeth Hotson and Shayan Sardarizadeh

STATE CAPITALI$M IS MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Tencent billionaire goes on a tirade as cracks appear in empire

Mr Pony Ma’s tirade marked a rare show of frustration for the usually mild-mannered mogul who helped create China’s largest Internet firm away from the spotlight. 

DEC 22, 2022,

BEIJING - Many multinational CEOs like to close out the year with a message of congratulations. Tencent Holdings Ltd’s billionaire co-founder Pony Ma delivered a no-holds-barred rant about slacking, oblivious and even corrupt employees.

Mr Ma’s tirade marked a rare show of frustration for the usually mild-mannered mogul who helped create China’s largest Internet firm away from the spotlight.

Last week, the tycoon convened a town-hall meeting to personally deliver a blistering attack against the way staff managed businesses from social media and content to gaming.

The message: with the survival of some businesses in doubt, they all needed to get their act together, according to people who attended the 10-minute lecture.

“You can’t even survive as a business, yet you’re chilling on the weekends, playing ball,” Mr Ma told his audience, according to the people present, who asked not to be identified describing an internal event.

His remarks were first reported by local media outlet Jiemian. Tencent representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tencent, which with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd helped establish the modern Chinese Internet industry, has seen growth evaporate over the past year in the aftermath of a sweeping crackdown on private enterprise.

The company’s gaming business came under attack from regulations intended to curb youth addiction, while an economic slowdown twinned with punishing Covid-19 curbs eroded its advertising segment.

It cut jobs by the thousands this year, shrinking its workforce for the first time in almost a decade.

Mr Ma and his lieutenants have mostly maintained an upbeat tone in public, lauding efforts to clean up Internet content and restructure the gaming industry.

They also expressed hopes that the reforms are mostly completed and that Tencent can get back to quality growth.

But in last week’s internal address, Mr Ma laid into virtually every facet of his US$400 billion (S$539.77 billion) Internet empire.

He upbraided the bread-and-butter gaming division for frittering away money to acquire users for hastily churned-out titles, rather than focusing on quality.

Mr Ma accused employees of “superficial” reforms to spending and costs, according to attendees.

He even said corruption remained rampant across the ranks, without elaborating, the attendees added.

China's Tencent starts new round of layoffs

What the eclipse of Tencent by Moutai says about China

Even the relatively nascent cloud arm was accused of a wasteful market-share grab against Alibaba and Huawei Technologies Co, though Mr Ma acknowledged it corrected course quickly.

But he reserved his harshest comments for Tencent’s ageing social network and content empire, which is losing ground to mobile-native rivals like ByteDance Ltd, the Chinese owner of TikTok.

Tencent’s years-old news service is now finally in the black after some job cuts, but it could very well be culled if results don’t improve, Mr Ma was quoted as saying.

“Could that business get cut? I told the team - possibly,” Mr Ma told employees, according to the people present.

The one silver lining appeared to be WeChat’s short-video feed, Mr Ma said.

Tencent is laser-focused on growing that TikTok-style feature, which has yet to fully monetise content with e-commerce and advertising offerings.

Executives have said advertising revenue generated by the new service should surpass 1 billion yuan (S$193.36 million) in the fourth quarter.

But China’s biggest social media giant must continue to slash costs aggressively in 2023, or managers will do it for them, Mr Ma told the meeting.

“I think this should become a habit,” he emphasised, according to attendees. 

BLOOMBERG

BIOWARFARE TECH

100,000 New Viruses Identified in Breakthrough Israeli-Led Study

by Algemeiner Staff

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (blue) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (red), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. 

Photo: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS

Some 100,000 new viruses were identified in an Israeli-led study, marking a nine-fold increase in the amount of known ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, Tel Aviv University announced Monday.

The researchers used new technology to mine data from thousands of global samples — drawn from soil, oceans, lakes, sewage, geysers, and other ecosystems — to make the discovery, which they believe may help boost effort to develop anti-microbial drugs and protect agriculture from harmful fungi and parasites.

They also developed a tool to distinguish the RNA virus from the genetic makeup of its host, and then reconstructed how the virus evolved to adapt to different hosts, according to doctoral student Uri Neri, who led the study with the oversight of TAU Prof. Uri Gophna.

The results of the study — which was carried out in collaboration with the US National Institutes of Health and the US Energy Department Joint Genome Institute, along with the Pasteur Institute in France — were published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell in September.

While some viruses can cause diseases in humans, like coronavirus, “the vast majority of viruses do not harm us and infect bacterial cells — some of them even live inside our bodies without us even being aware of it,” a TAU statement publicizing the study noted.

The researchers identified specific organisms that the new viruses are likely to attack, with the findings expected to aid in the development of effective repellents for bacteria, fungi, and pests that threaten agriculture.

Gophna, who helped guide the study, noted that “compared to DNA viruses, the diversity and roles of RNA viruses in microbial ecosystems are not well understood.”

“In our study, we found that RNA viruses are not unusual in the evolutionary landscape and, in fact, that in some aspects they are not that different from DNA viruses,” he explained. “This opens the door for future research, and for a better understanding of how viruses can be harnessed for use in medicine and agriculture.”

Self-taught Trinidadian photographer Jason Audain pushes boundaries with the use of AI

'I decided this was not something to look past ...'

Written byJanine Mendes-Franco

Posted 27 December 2022 

‘The Devil of Blue': image of a Blue Devil or Jab Jab, a traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character, by Jason Audain, enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), used with permission.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in photography is becoming more and more common, expanding from its main role of automating tasks like photo editing, enhancement and organisation, to facial recognition and 3D effects, to now creating the images themselves. While some professional photographers may rue the day AI began to have such an impact on their profession, autodidact Jason Audain, who is best known for his striking images of traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival characters, has been exploring its potential as a tool to take his photography to the next level.

Could AI be the future of photography? What are the downsides? After noticing the interest generated by a series of AI-enhanced Carnival images he shared on his Instagram page, Global Voices had a chat with Audain via WhatsApp to pick his (very creative) brain.

Trinidadian photographer Jason Audain. Photo by Audain and used with his permission.

Janine Mendes-Franco (JMF): How did you get into photography?

Jason Audain (JA): My girlfriend at the time was into taking pictures of [Carnival] band launches, [so] I bought a cheap camera to help her take shots — just like a kind of backup singer — but then I saw men out there with proper cameras and I'm there with this stupid, little camera and I said, ‘Nah!’ You know … ‘man thing’ … I needed a bigger camera, so I ordered [one] but found my pictures weren't getting any better. All this time I was thinking the camera is what was taking the photos, until one day a [fellow] photographer played with the settings — [up to this point] I had been functioning on automatic — and I never went back. That's when my pictures started getting better, but even then, not up to the standard I wanted, which is when I found out editing is an integral part of photography, because back in the day, the darkroom was part of the process.

To me, a photograph is kind of a blank canvas. When you edit is when you really start to bring it to life; when you start painting. Editing is adding yourself to the photograph, which is why I don't let anybody else edit my work. Editing is what makes the photo mine.

JMF: What attracted you to photography?

JA: I have dyslexia, so that used to mess with me. Photography was something I was really good at [but] at first, I was just thinking about making money. At one point, I got a job that made me think, ‘Well, I don't need photography again.’ I sold all my equipment, got a PlayStation and big TV, until I realised something was missing, and it was the photography.

I wasn't a big reader [because of the dyslexia] so when I discovered audiobooks, the first I ever listened to was ‘The Alchemist‘ by Paulo Coelho, which talks about fulfilling your personal legend. I had the photos, so I started building a website, but of course I had to get new equipment. One day, close to Black Friday, my aunt called me and said she would help. After that, I couldn't fail. If ever I felt [discouraged] I would remember what she did, the faith she had in me. I went really hard at photography and gave up everything for it — work, woman. I would [shoot] every single day, come home, edit till three in the morning. I repeated that for about five years straight. I got good with repetition and determination.

‘The Robber of Midnight': Image of a Midnight Robber, a traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character, by Jason Audain, enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), used with permission.

JMF: How did you begin to focus on photographing traditional Carnival characters?

JA: A friend wanted me to take some pictures at traditional mas. I was like, ‘This was here all the time?’ I couldn't ever remember seeing traditional mas. It blew my mind … even seeing [Carnival designer Peter Minshall's] ‘The Dying Swan‘ for the first time … my photography was suddenly starting to get some kind of meaning. Before, I was just taking pictures of any and everything. I did every kind of photography you could call: landscape, nature, macro, wedding, portrait, and it helped me become better; the combination of that knowledge gives my photos more power.

JMF: What is it about traditional mas that makes it so compelling for you?

JA: For me, I was watching Carnival all these years, and it was good, but it was always missing something…the spirit. Normal mas is good for a release, but to me, traditional mas is a spiritual thing. And especially being around it now, I know it's a spiritual thing. To them [the masqueraders] it's a ritual. It's not just putting on a costume; it's going through a transformation. Getting ready, putting on paint, getting their costume together is like prayer to some extent. To traditional mas characters, every day is the costume. Putting on the mas is them becoming themselves.

Image of a Moko Jumbie, a traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character, by Jason Audain, enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), used with permission.

JMF: Describe your style and purpose as a photographer.

JA: My style is chiaroscuro, extreme light and extreme shadow. I like drama and bringing out something that people can't see. My goal is to focus on what is important in the photograph. That's the reason I put traditional mas [usually performed in a busy, public space] on a backdrop: I wanted to take away the noise. My purpose is to help people see. Photographers convert reality in a more digestible form, taking the mundane and making it magical. A lot of people want to be able to take pictures, but they don't know how to see. I can dissect a scene into focal lengths.

JMF: You obviously enjoy experimenting with new tools and techniques. What made you curious about exploring AI?

JA: I didn't want to become like Blackberry — technology changed and they didn't change with it. So I started looking into AI and when I realised the potential of it, I decided this was not something to look past, because it's a tool that can really help with concepts; it can help people see your vision, and you yourself can use it as a template to make sure the final product looks as close as possible [to what you want]. I also have things in my head that are not real, things I dream and think about a lot, and AI helps me make it real. I punch it into Midjourney until I get something close to my vision.

‘The Sailor of Fancy': image of a Fancy Sailor, a traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character by Jason Audain, enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), used with permission.

JMF: Did you have any preconceived notions about the software before you used it?

JA: Of course! At first I thought it was a waste of time; that it would mess up photography. I was never threatened by AI in the sense that it would take over my job, but my concept of photography is different to most people's. I want to do photography that matters to me. I'm supposed to have some exhibitions next year and anything I do in the future will be based around me showing my work.

AI [can] use your photos and interpret them. Like that sailor mas [image] is an interpretation of one of my photos. I entered something like ‘realistic, as close as possible to the original, with a boat in the background.’ And these are just the basics. I haven't gone deep into AI yet. Right now, I want to understand the basics, see what the limits are, understand how far to push them, and then I can start moving in that direction.

JMF: When you think about the future of photography, what role does AI have to play in it?

JA: I think it has a big role to play. One of the main things is pushing photographers to the next level to be able to compete with it. It can make me more creative. AI will always have its limits, so if this is what it can do, I need to do a better job of making my stuff look realistic and not ‘AI-ish’ — because AI has a look. I know it will get better, because it's constantly learning, but it's something for designers to be aware of, as well. Because you can also create logos with AI, creating text as accurately as possible will probably be the next area for it to improve.

Image of The Bookman, a traditional Trinidad and Tobago Carnival character, by Jason Audain, enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), used with permission.

JMF: Do you think there are ethical considerations around the use of AI to either create or enhance images? And with the lines blurring between what is fake and what is real, is it consumers’ responsibility to educate themselves?

JA: With each app that is made, there are others being made to verify authenticity, so you can check to see whether or not the image is AI-generated. The average person may not be able to tell, but to me, AI images are too clean; they're missing nuance.

It's the responsibility of the people who created the monster. Midjourney, for instance, has had to put in safety mechanisms that govern its content, but they may have to work with social media platforms to make sure people know whether images are fake or real.

JMF: With an in-person Carnival celebration coming for the first time in two years, are you planning to use AI in any of your shoots?

JA: I've started using AI already to come up with concepts for future projects, and plan what I want them to look like so that everybody [involved] can be on the same page. I'm looking forward to see what people can do with AI and what AI itself becomes in the future.

Categories

• Caribbean
• Trinidad & Tobago

• Arts & Culture
• Ideas
• Technology

Written byJanine Mendes-Franco

Modi’s building boom setting up India as global steel saviour

Poised to overtake China as the world’s most populous country next year, India is in the midst of a building boom.

 PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW DELHI - With China’s massive construction sector still in a funk and the US and Europe likely heading into recessions, India has emerged as a saviour for flagging global steel demand.

Poised to overtake China as the world’s most populous country next year, India is in the midst of a building boom. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking to modernise roads, rail networks and ports in an attempt to vie with China as a manufacturing hub.

That’s set to translate into a 6.7 per cent jump in steel demand to around 120 million tons in 2023, according to the World Steel Association, the highest growth among major economies. India, which also saw a similar expansion this year, overtook the US to become the world’s No. 2 steel consumer after China a couple of years ago.

“The nation-building phase of any economy requires a lot of steel and commodities,” said Mr Jayant Acharya, deputy managing director at JSW Steel Ltd, the nation’s biggest producer. India is going through that phase in this decade, and it could boost the country’s steel consumption to over 200 million tons by 2030, he said.

The buoyant outlook has set off a flurry of activity. ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Ltd, a joint venture between India’s Mittal family and the Japanese producer, has plans to more than triple capacity to 30 million tons in the coming decade.

South Korean steelmaker Posco Holdings Inc and Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest person, are also exploring setting up mills in the country.

India produces the vast majority of the steel it uses, but it’s also being forced to import more to meet the surge in demand. Inward shipments rose 15 per cent in April through October from a year earlier to 3.1 million tons, according to government figures.

Local producers are becoming worried about the flood of cheap imports as demand dries up in traditional steel producers. China accounted for more than a quarter of imports in October, while some Russian steel is also reaching India, the government data show.

The quality of some of the steel coming in is “sub-standard,” said Mr A.K. Hazra, deputy secretary general at the Indian Steel Association, which has requested authorities look into the matter. “We are just asking that imports should be at competitive and international prices and the quality should adhere to Indian standards,” he said.

Despite the strong growth, India is still well behind its rival Asian powerhouse in terms of total steel consumption. Demand for next year will be less than a seventh of China’s 914 million tons, according to the World Steel Association data.

How fast India can narrow the gap will depend on the success of PM Modi’s construction roll-out, with the Ministry of Finance estimating US$1.4 trillion (S$1.88 trillion) of funding will be needed for the National Infrastructure Pipeline through 2025.

China’s real-estate problems and the lingering impact of Covid-19 will keep its steel demand suppressed next year, said Mr Jayanta Roy, senior vice president at ICRA Ltd, the Indian unit of Moody’s Investors Service.

“Over the long term, it would depend on the recovery of the property sector on the one hand, and the government’s policy of an infrastructure-led economic growth model in China.” 

BLOOMBERG

Opportunities and challenges of India’s G20 presidency

Assuming the platform’s mantle, New Delhi has an unprecedented chance to test its clout and credibility in tackling the fragmented global order.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi | Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images

BY MOHIT ANAND
DECEMBER 27, 2022 

Mohit Anand is a professor of international business and strategy at the EMLYON Business School in France.

The G20 summit that concluded in Bali last month provided the world’s leading economies with a platform to hear and be heard on global issues.

The core purpose of the G20 has always been to recognize the importance of collective action and inclusive collaboration among major developed countries and emerging economies around the world. And as a leading multilateral platform, it holds a strategic role in securing future global economic growth and prosperity, as its members represent over 85 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.

India assumed the G20 presidency in December and, not surprisingly, the ongoing Ukraine conflict, the COVID-19 recovery and global economic stability will all continue to be part of the major discourse for 2023. While at the helm of framing the platform’s priorities, however, New Delhi now has the chance to play an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues.

The war in Ukraine and its implications — including food and energy security — figured particularly highly in the talks in Bali. However, as expected, no diplomatic headway was made to arrive at a substantive breakthrough, despite the fact that most countries deplore Russia’s aggression, which is causing immense human suffering and exasperating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening food and energy insecurity and elevating financial stability risks.

From a geopolitical perspective, this means India could take the opportunity to leverage its historical and amenable ties with Russia, and bring a more isolated Moscow to the discussion and diplomacy roundtable of over 200 G20 meetings to follow. It could use its platform to address the Ukraine conflict, strategizing for peace and a path toward reconciliation as much as possible. After all, the G20 communique that “today’s era must not be of war” echoes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin from just a few months ago.

And while it’s recognized that the G20 isn’t necessarily the forum to resolve security issues, it’s evolved into a leading platform for economic cooperation. Such matters still have significant consequences for the global economy. Hence, it’s incumbent upon the G20 to address these issues as much as possible, particularly when the U.N. and other bilateral interventions have failed to diffuse the conflict.

This is another way in which India’s role can be critical, as it can reflect upon the hits and misses of the Bali summit and learn how to make this multilateral forum more relevant. And even though the Ukraine conflict, coupled with heightening geopolitical tensions due to the rise of an assertive China, will test India’s leadership and its ability to revive the G20’s credibility in an otherwise declining era of multilateralism, New Delhi aspires to a presidency that will be “inclusive, ambitious, decisive and action-oriented.”

India is also at the center of a troika of G20 presidencies — of Indonesia, India and Brazil, respectively — all of them emerging economies, thus, providing a greater voice for making the concerns of the “Global South” heard at a very crucial juncture for the international community. This could be another anchor for India, bridging the gap between the West and the Global South on issues such as climate change, trade facilitation and health care resilience support.

Whether at climate talks, negotiating for a fairer deal in terms of technological and financial support for developing countries; at the World Trade Organization, on issues related to lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers for vulnerable economies; or at the World Health Organization, for a patent waiver on COVID-19 vaccines, India has championed the cause of low-income nations in the past — and it could now do so again. This time, working toward adopting a Sustainable Development Goals stimulus package to provide these governments with investments and liquidity, offering debt relief and restructuring.

Continuing to underscore these issues, India has identified six shared priorities in areas including public digital goods and digital infrastructure; climate action, climate finance and technology collaborations; the clean, sustainable and inclusive energy transition; accelerated progress on sustainable development goals; women-led development; and multilateral reforms.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi | Ian Forsyth / Getty Images

Prime Minister Modi also suggested that “data for development” will be an integral part of India’s presidency. The digital transformation shouldn’t be confined to a small part of humanity, and its greater benefits will be realized only when digital access becomes truly inclusive. India’s own experience in the past few years has shown that if digital architecture is made widely accessible, it can bring about socioeconomic transformation.

Thus, under its presidency, India will have to navigate a delicate balance, overcoming partisan pressures from both sides to bridge the East-West conflict. And it will have to do so while carefully wading through issues central to its own strategic self-interests as well as those of the global community, creating an archetype for substantive talks, implementation and outcome for the G20 next year, culminating with a leader’s summit to be held in New Delhi in September 2023.

Championing the virtue of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — the world is one family — as its G20 theme, India needs to skillfully manage this disorderly family in the year ahead. And through this leadership role, it must give priority to a developmental agenda, while creating a blueprint for a faster, more resilient and inclusive global economic recovery.

The G20 presidency gives India an unprecedented opportunity to test its clout and credibility in tackling the fragmented global order — and now it needs to embrace it.

CRIMINAL CAPPLETALI$M
Apple Japan hit with $98 million in back taxes- Nikkei

Mon, December 26, 2022

A customer looks at Apple's new iPhone XS after it went on sale at the Apple Store in Tokyo

TOKYO (Reuters) -Apple Inc's Japan unit is being charged 13 billion yen ($98 million) in additional taxes for bulk sales of iPhones and other Apple devices to foreign tourists that were incorrectly exempted from the consumption tax, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Citing unidentified sources, the Nikkei reported on Tuesday that bulk purchases of iPhones by foreign shoppers were discovered at some Apple stores with at least one transaction involving an individual buying hundreds of handsets at once.

Japan allows tourists staying less than six months to buy items without paying the 10% consumption tax, but the exemption does not apply to purchases for the purpose of resale.

Apple Japan is believed to have filed an amended tax return, according to Nikkei.

In response to a Reuters' request for comment, the company only said in an emailed message that tax-exempt purchases were currently unavailable at its stores. The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau declined to comment.

The iPhone maker's Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook visited Japan earlier this month and announced that the company had invested more than $100 billion in its Japanese supply network over the last five years.