iPhone maker Foxconn buys huge site in India tech hub

Aishwarya KUMAR with Sean GLEESON in New Delhi
Tue, May 9, 2023 

Apple is making its own push into India and last month opened its first two retail stores in the world's most populous country

Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn has bought a huge tract of land on the outskirts of Indian tech hub Bengaluru, the key Apple supplier said in a filing Tuesday as it looks to diversify production away from China.

Also known by its official name, Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the world's biggest contract electronics manufacturer and a principal assembler of Apple iPhones.

Both companies are seeking to shift manufacturing away from China after strict Covid policies, a bout of industrial unrest and ongoing diplomatic tensions with the United States hurt production.

The 1.2 million-square-metre (13 million-square-foot) acquisition in Devanahalli, near the airport for Bengaluru, was announced in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

It said that subsidiary Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development was paying three billion rupees ($37 million) for the site, the size of more than 50 Manhattan city blocks.

Another Foxconn unit was acquiring land use rights to a 480,000-square-metre site in Vietnam's Nghe An province, it added.

Karnataka state chief minister Basavaraj S. Bommai said in March that Apple would "soon" manufacture iPhones at a new plant that would create "about 100,000 jobs".

Bloomberg News reported that month that Foxconn was planning to invest $700 million in a new factory in Karnataka.

Foxconn chairman Young Liu visited the state then and also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has urged foreign firms to manufacture goods in the South Asian nation.

Foxconn has manufactured Apple handsets in India since 2019 at its plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The company is expected to break ground on a new facility in Telangana state next week, local media reported.

Two other Taiwanese suppliers, Wistron and Pegatron, also manufacture and assemble Apple devices in India.

- 'Good growth' -

Apple has been making its own push into India and chief executive Tim Cook last month opened its first two retail stores in the world's most populous country.

The California-based firm is betting big on the nation of 1.4 billion people -- home to the second-highest number of smartphone users in the world, after China.

Navkendar Singh of market intelligence firm International Data Corporation told AFP that Apple had already proved "quite successful" in India, with domestic iPhone sales of 6.7 million last year.

"This is good growth considering that Apple plays at the price range of more than $500 all the time," he added.

The world's biggest company in terms of market value is also expanding its manufacturing footprint in India.

Apple said last September it would manufacture its latest iPhone 14 in India, just weeks after launching the flagship model.

The country last year accounted for seven percent of Apple's iPhone production, according to Bloomberg, lagging behind the United States, China, Japan and other countries.

China, by far the leading producer of Apple products, saw production disrupted by violent protests last November at the country's largest iPhone factory, also owned by Foxconn.

Hundreds of employees protested over conditions and pay at the plant in the central city of Zhengzhou, spurred in part by public frustration over the government's zero-tolerance approach to Covid during the pandemic.

"Having contingency or diversification plans helps so you are not too dependent on one region," Counterpoint Technology Market Research senior analyst Prachir Singh told AFP.

"It's not like the Chinese operations will come down to zero," he added. "It is about building a similar world in India so they have multiple locations to rely on."

ash-gle/mtp

ASEAN at a ‘crossroad’ as Myanmar violence escalates

ASEAN’s diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis have been fruitless as the junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents. Above, a vacant chair for the Myanmar delegation during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia on May 9, 2023. (AFP)

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Updated 09 May 2023
AFP

Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago


LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia: Southeast Asian nations are at a “crossroad,” a senior Indonesian minister warned Tuesday, as escalating violence in junta-controlled Myanmar loomed over a regional summit.

Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — long-decried by critics as a toothless talking shop — has led diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis.

But those efforts have been fruitless, as the junta ignores international criticism and refuses to engage with its opponents, which include ousted lawmakers, anti-coup “People’s Defense Forces” and armed ethnic minority groups.

An air strike on a village in a rebel stronghold last month that reportedly killed about 170 people sparked global condemnation and worsened the junta’s isolation.

It also fueled calls for ASEAN to take tougher action to end the violence or risk being sidelined.

“ASEAN is at a crossroad,” Mahfud MD, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for politics, legal and security, warned Tuesday on the first day of the summit.

“Crisis after crisis is testing our strength as a community. And failure to address them would risk jeopardizing our relevance,” he said according to a copy of his remarks, listing Myanmar among the emergencies facing the bloc.

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that last month’s air strike in the central Sagaing region was a “likely war crime,” and urged ASEAN to “signal its support for stronger measures to cut off the military’s cash flow and press the junta for reform.”

Pressure on the regional bloc increased Sunday after a convoy of vehicles carrying diplomats and officials coordinating ASEAN humanitarian relief in Myanmar came under fire.

Few details have been released about the shooting in eastern Myanmar’s Shan State, but a foreign diplomat in Yangon said diplomats from the embassies of Indonesia and Singapore were in the group.

Singapore confirmed two staff members from its embassy in Yangon were in the convoy but unharmed.

“Singapore condemns this attack,” its foreign ministry said late Monday.
Indonesia, the ASEAN chair this year, has not yet said if its diplomats were in the vehicles.

The shooting happened days before the May 9-11 ASEAN summit on the Indonesian island of Flores, where foreign ministers and national leaders will continue efforts to kick-start a five-point plan agreed upon with Myanmar two years ago after mediation attempts to end the violence failed.

The foreign ministers held talks Tuesday while their countries’ leaders were scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday.

Ahead of the arrival of officials in Labuan Bajo, the army deployed more than 9,000 personnel and warships to the small fishing town that serves as the entrance to Komodo National Park, where tourists can see the world’s largest lizards.

In her opening remarks Tuesday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the ministers had already discussed “the implementation” of the peace plan, but she did not elaborate.

A Southeast Asian diplomat said that Sunday’s shooting “raises the urgency of Myanmar as a key discussion point at this summit.”

The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” about the shooting and urged the junta to “meaningfully implement the Five-Point Consensus.”

Myanmar remains an ASEAN member but has been barred from top-level summits due to the junta’s failure to implement the peace plan.

Marsudi said Friday that her country was using “quiet diplomacy” to speak with all sides of the Myanmar conflict and spur renewed peace efforts.

ASEAN has long been criticized for its inaction, but its initiatives are limited by its charter principles of consensus and non-interference.

US-based analyst Zachary Abuza said the group was unlikely to offer more than “another milquetoast statement of condemnation” despite Sunday’s attack.

“Had a diplomat been killed, there would have been more pressure on the organization to do something, but frankly they’ve been so feckless in the past two years that it’s hard to see them actually acting in a meaningful way,” Abuza said.

1988 Halabja chemical attacks: European companies on trial in Iraqi Kurdistan

Issued on: 09/05/2023 

01:58 Video by: FRANCE 24

A chemical weapon attack on the town of Halabja killed more than 5,000 people in March 1988. FRANCE 24’s team met one of the leading plaintiffs in an ongoing trial against eight European companies accused of having provided Saddam Hussein with the means to carry out the attack.

More than 600 people killed in Haiti gang violence in April, UN says

NEWS WIRES
Tue, 9 May 2023

© Ralph Tedy Erol, Reuters

More than 600 people were killed last month in violence in the capital of Haiti, which is in the grip of a political-economic crisis, the United Nations said on Monday.

"In the month of April alone, more than 600 people were killed in a new wave of extreme violence that hit several districts across the capital," said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"This follows the killing of at least 846 people in the first three months of 2023, in addition to 393 injured and 395 kidnapped during that period – a 28-percent increase in violence on the previous quarter."

The Caribbean nation, the poorest in the Americas, has been gripped by a political and economic crisis since the July 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise, with gangs now controlling most of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

UN officials have for months asked the Security Council to send a specialised non-UN international armed force to help police restore order.

(AFP)

Autopsies reveal missing organs in Kenya cult deaths: police

By AFP
Published May 9, 2023

The discovery of mass graves last month near Kenya's Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi has stunned the deeply religious Christian-majority country - Copyright AFP Jameson WU

Autopsies on corpses found in mass graves linked to a religious cult in Kenya have revealed missing organs and raised suspicions of forced harvesting, investigators said, with a fresh round of exhumations set to resume Tuesday.

The discovery of mass graves last month near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi has stunned the deeply religious Christian-majority country in what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.

Police believe most of the bodies belong to followers of self-styled pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie who is accused of ordering them to starve to death “to meet Jesus.”

While starvation appears to be the main cause of death, some of the victims — including children — were strangled, beaten, or suffocated, according to the chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor.

Court documents filed on Monday said that some of the corpses had their organs removed, with police alleging that the suspects were engaged in forced harvesting of body parts.

“Post mortem reports have established missing organs in some of the bodies of victims who have been exhumed,” chief inspector Martin Munene said in an affidavit filed to a Nairobi court.

It is “believed that trade on human body organs has been well coordinated involving several players,” he said, giving no details about the suspected trafficking.

Munene said that Ezekiel Odero, a high-profile televangelist who was arrested last month in connection with the same case and granted bail on Thursday, had received “huge cash transactions,” allegedly from Mackenzie’s followers who sold their property at the cult leader’s bidding.

The Nairobi court ordered the authorities to freeze more than 20 bank accounts belonging to Odero for 30 days.

A total of 112 people have so far been confirmed dead, interior minister Kithure Kindiki said Tuesday after arriving in Malindi to supervise the resumption of exhumations, which were suspended last week because of bad weather.

“Search and rescue efforts for persons suspected to be holed up in the thickets and bushes have been going on,” Kindiki said.

Questions have been raised about how Mackenzie managed to evade law enforcement despite a history of extremism and previous legal cases.

The former taxi driver turned himself in on April 14 after police acting on a tip-off first entered Shakahola forest, where some 30 mass graves have now been found.

Prosecutors are asking to hold the father of seven, who founded the Good News International Church in 2003, for another 90 days until investigations are completed.

Senior principal magistrate Yusuf Shikanda said he would rule on the request on Wednesday.

Ukraine updates: Wagner boss says Russian army fled Bakhmut

DW

Pro-Kremlin paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin accuses a regular Russian military unit of abandoning its positions near Bakhmut. Meanwhile, Russia has launched a new attack on Kyiv. DW has the latest.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group that leads the ongoing assault on Bakhmut, on Tuesday accused the Russian army of fleeing its positions around the city.

"Today one of the units of the Defense Ministry fled from one of our flanks ... exposing the front," said Prigozhin.

Prigozhin, popularly known as Putin's chef because of the lucrative catering contracts he once held with the Kremlin, accused the Russian Defense Ministry of "scheming all the time" instead of fighting.

Prigozhin said soldiers were abandoning their positions because of the "stupidity" of Russian army commanders, who he said were giving "criminal orders."

"Soldiers should not die because of the absolute stupidity of their leadership," Prigozhin said, repeating his threat that Wagner would withdraw from the frontline city if Russia does not supply more ammunition soon.

The mercenary group has been at the forefront of Russia's efforts to take Bakhmut. Russian authorities committed to providing Wagner Group with more ammunition after Prigozhin publicly denounced Russia's military leadership in a confrontational video filmed while standing over the bodies of dead soldiers in Bakhmut.

The city has been the center of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces for months, and both sides have suffered severe casualties there. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw Wagner Group fighters from the city due to the shortage of ammunition.

"The people who were supposed to fulfill the (shipment) orders have so far, over the past day, not fulfilled them," Prigozhin said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had failed to capture the city before the May 9 Russian holiday that marks the Soviet Union's World War II victory over Nazi Germany.

A Ukrainian general had said on Sunday that Moscow Russia was still hoping to capture Bakhmut before Tuesday's Victory Day events.

Putin says Russians are united in 'sacred' battle with West over Ukraine

FROM IMPERIALIST INVASION TO WAR OF SELF DEFENSE

Issued on: 09/05/2023 - 

03:25  Video by: Philip TURLE

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russians were united in a "sacred" fight with the West over Ukraine that would end in victory, and accused the United States and its allies of forgetting the Soviet triumph over the Nazis in World War Two. Putin has repeatedly likened the war in Ukraine - which he casts as a defensive move against a West which wants to carve up Russia - to the challenge Moscow faced when Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Editor Philip Turle tells us more.



REPLAY - Victory Day in Russia: Putin delivers address to nation from the Red Square


Issued on: 09/05/2023 

14:07 Video by: FRANCE 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at Moscow's Red Square Victory Day parade that the world was at a "turning point" and claimed a "war" had been unleashed against Russia. He vowed victory and said Russia's future "rests on" its soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The traditional Soviet-style event celebrating Moscow's victory over the Nazis took place amid security fears, 15 months into Russia's Ukraine offensive.

Serbia protests: Thousands join anti-gun march after mass shootings



Issued on: 09/05/2023 -

01:54  Video by: Alison SARGENT

Tens of thousands of Serbians protested on Monday, demanding better security, a ban on violent TV content and the resignation of key ministers, days after two mass shootings killed 17 people. Crowds in numbers not seen in the Balkan country for years solemnly marched through the centre of the capital Belgrade behind a banner reading "Serbia Against Violence".

Serbia: Thousands rally in Belgrade after mass shootings

Serbians took to the streets to demand better security and the resignation of top officials after two mass shootings, including one at a school, in recent days.

Thousands of Serbians marched in silence on Monday in protest against the populist government's reaction to two mass shootings last week.

The country has been in shock after 17 people were killed in two separate onslaughts last week.

A teenage boy brought two handguns to school, killing eight pupils and a security guard. Just two days later, a 21 year-old man killed eight people in central Serbia.
What are protesters demanding?

Dubbed "Serbia against violence," the march in the capital saw members from across the country's political divide come together.

Demonstrators called for the resignation of top officials, including Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and Aleksandar Vulin, the director of the state security agency. Education minister Branko Ruzic resigned on Sunday, citing the "cataclysmic tragedy" caused by the school shooting.

Protesters also demanded the dismissal of the government's Regulatory Committee for Electronic Media (REM) within a week. They accuse some TV stations and tabloids of promoting violence.

"We demand an immediate stop to further promotion of violence in the media and public space, as well as responsibility for the long-standing inadequate response from competent authorities," the leftist Let's Not Let Belgrade Drown party said in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party decried the rally, saying the opposition was "using a national tragedy for their own interest."
President wants to 'disarm' Serbia

Vucic has vowed to "disarm" Serbia with a plan to crack down on gun violence. He proposed new measures that include a freeze on gun permits and more psychological checks for owners.

Mass shootings are rare in Serbia — and purchasing a firearm requires a special permit — but the country has one of the highest levels of gun ownership in Europe.

According to the Small Arms Survey research group, around four out of ten people in Serbia are in possession of a firearm.

Despite the requirements preventing people from acquiring a firearm, many are still left over from the wars of the 1990s and remain in circulation.

Vucic has pledged to remove those weapons.

Congress eyes new rules for tech: What’s under consideration

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

AP

yesterday

1 of 5
A person uses a smartphone in Chicago, Sept. 16, 2017. Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the federal government should better regulate the biggest technology companies, particularly social media platforms. But there is very little consensus on how it should be done.

 (AP Photo, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the federal government should better regulate the biggest technology companies, particularly social media platforms. But there is very little consensus on how it should be done.

Should TikTok be banned? Should younger children be kept off social media? Can the government make sure private information is secure? What about brand new artificial intelligence interfaces? Or should users be regulating themselves, leaving the government out of it?

Tech regulation is gathering momentum on Capitol Hill as concerns skyrocket about China’s ownership of TikTok and as parents navigating a post-pandemic mental health crisis have grown increasingly worried about what their children are seeing online. Lawmakers have introduced a slew of bipartisan bills, boosting hopes of compromise. But any effort to regulate the mammoth industry would face major obstacles as technology companies have fought interference.

Noting that many young people are struggling, President Joe Biden said in his February State of the Union speech that “it’s time” to pass bipartisan legislation to impose stricter limits on the collection of personal data and ban targeted advertising to children.

“We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit,” Biden said.

Tech companies have aggressively fought any federal interference, and they have operated for decades now without strict federal oversight, making any new rules or guidelines that much more complicated.

A look at some of the areas of potential regulation:

CHILDREN’S SAFETY

Several House and Senate bills would try to make social media, and the internet in general, safer for children who will inevitably be online. Lawmakers cite numerous examples of teenagers who have taken their own lives after cyberbullying or died engaging in dangerous behavior encouraged on social media.

In the Senate, at least two competing bills are focused on children’s online safety. Legislation by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last year would require social media companies to be more transparent about their operations and enable child safety settings by default. Minors would have the option to disable addictive product features and algorithms that push certain content.

The idea, the senators say, is that platforms should be “safe by design.” The legislation, which Blumenthal and Blackburn reintroduced last week, would also obligate social media companies to prevent certain dangers to minors — including promotion of suicide, disordered eating, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and other illegal behaviors.

A second bill introduced last month by four senators — Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Katie Britt of Alabama — would take a more aggressive approach, prohibiting children under the age of 13 from using social media platforms and requiring parental consent for teenagers. It would also prohibit the companies from recommending content through algorithms for users under the age of 18.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not weighed in on specific legislation but told reporters last week, “I believe we need some kind of child protections” on the internet.

Critics of the bills, including some civil rights groups and advocacy groups aligned with tech companies, say the proposals could threaten teens’ online privacy and prevent them from accessing content that could help them, such as resources for those considering suicide or grappling with their sexual and gender identity.

“Lawmakers should focus on educating and empowering families to control their online experience,” said Carl Szabo of NetChoice, a group aligned with Meta, TikTok, Google and Amazon, among other companies.

DATA PRIVACY

Biden’s State of the Union remarks appeared to be a nod toward legislation by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., that would expand child privacy protections online, prohibiting companies from collecting personal data from younger teenagers and banning targeted advertising to children and teens. The bill, also reintroduced last week, would create a so-called “eraser button” allowing parents and kids to eliminate personal data, when possible.

A broader House effort would attempt to give adults as well as children more control over their data with what lawmakers call a “national privacy standard.” Legislation that passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee with wide bipartisan support last year would try to minimize data collected and make it illegal to target ads to children, usurping state laws that have tried to put privacy restrictions in place. But the bill, which would have also given consumers more rights to file lawsuits over privacy violations, never reached the House floor.

Prospects for the House legislation are unclear now that Republicans have the majority. House Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.., has made the issue a priority, holding several hearings on data privacy. But the committee has not yet moved forward with a new bill.

TIKTOK BAN/CHINA

Lawmakers introduced a raft of bills to either ban TikTok or make it easier to ban it after a combative March House hearing in which lawmakers from both parties grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over his company’s ties to China’s communist government, data security and harmful content on the app.

Chew attempted to assure lawmakers that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned due to its Chinese connections. But the testimony gave new momentum to the efforts.

Soon after the hearing, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, tried to force a Senate vote on legislation that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States. But he was blocked by a fellow Republican, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who said that a ban would violate the Constitution and anger the millions of voters who use the app.

Another bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida would, like Hawley’s bill, ban U.S. economic transactions with TikTok, but it would also create a new framework for the executive branch to block any foreign apps deemed hostile. His bill is cosponsored by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.

There is broad Senate support for bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, that does not specifically call out TikTok but would give the Commerce Department power to review and potentially restrict foreign threats to technology platforms.

The White House has signaled it would back that bill, but it is unclear if it will be brought up in the Senate or if it could garner support among House Republicans.

TikTok has launched an extensive lobbying campaign for its survival, including by harnessing influencers and young voters to argue that the app isn’t harmful.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A newer question for Congress is whether lawmakers should move to regulate artificial intelligence as rapidly developing and potentially revolutionary products like AI chatbot ChatGPT begin to enter the marketplace and can in many ways mimic human behavior.

Senate leader Schumer has made the emerging technology a priority, arguing that the United States needs to stay ahead of China and other countries that are eyeing regulations on AI products. He has been working with AI experts and has released a general framework of what regulation could look like, including increased disclosure of the people and data involved in developing the technology, more transparency and explanation for how the bots arrive at responses.

Schumer has said that any eventual regulation should “prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while simultaneously making sure the U.S. advances and leads in this transformative technology.”

The White House has been focused on the issue as well, with a recent announcement of a $140 million investment to establish seven new AI research institutes. Vice President Kamala Harris met Thursday with the heads of Google, Microsoft and other companies developing AI products.

Facebook has 3 billion users. Many of them are old.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY

AP

yesterday

 Facebook says it is not dead. It’s not even just for “old people,” as young people have been saying for years. The social media platform born before the iPhone is approaching two decades in existence. 

(AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Facebook says it is not dead. Facebook also wants you to know that it is not just for “old people,” as young people have been saying for years.

Now, with the biggest thorn in its side — TikTok — facing heightened government scrutiny amid growing tensions between the U.S. and China, Facebook could, perhaps, position itself as a viable, domestic-bred alternative.

There’s just one problem: young adults like Devin Walsh have moved on.

“I don’t even remember the last time I logged in. It must have been years ago,” said Walsh, 24, who lives in Manhattan and works in public relations.

Instead, she checks Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook parent company Meta, about five or six times a day. Then there’s TikTok, of course, where she spends about an hour each day scrolling, letting the algorithm find things “I didn’t even know I was interested in.”

Walsh can’t imagine a world in which Facebook, which she joined when she was in 6th grade, becomes a regular part of her life again.

“It’s the branding, right? When I think of Facebook, I think ugh, like cheugy, older people, like parents posting pictures of their kids, random status updates and also people fighting about political issues,” Walsh said, using the Gen Z term for things that are definitely not cool.

The once-cool social media platform born before the iPhone is approaching two decades in existence. For those who came of age around the time Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com from his Harvard dorm room in 2004, it’s been inextricably baked into daily life — even if it’s somewhat faded into the background over the years.

Facebook faces a particularly odd challenge. Today, 3 billion people check it each month. That’s more than a third of the world’s population. And 2 billion log in every day. Yet it still finds itself in a battle for relevancy, and its future, after two decades of existence.

For younger generations — those who signed up in middle school, or those who are now in middle school, it’s decidedly not the place to be. Without this trend-setting demographic, Facebook, still the main source of revenue for parent company Meta, risks fading into the background — utilitarian but boring, like email.

It wasn’t always like this. For nearly a decade, Facebook was the place to be, the cultural touchstone, the thing constantly referenced in daily conversations and late-night TV, its founding even the subject of a Hollywood movie. Rival MySpace, which launched only a year earlier, quickly became outdated as the cool kids flocked to Facebook. It didn’t help MySpace’s fate that it was sold to stodgy old News Corp. in 2005.

“It was this weird combination...no one knew how technology worked, but in order to have a MySpace, we all needed to become mini coders. It was so stressful.” said Moira Gaynor, 28. “Maybe that’s even why Facebook took off. Because compared to MySpace it was this beautiful, integrated, wonderful engagement area that we didn’t have before and we really craved after struggling with MySpace for so long.”

Positioning himself a visionary, Zuckerberg refused to sell Facebook and pushed his company through the mobile revolution. While some rivals emerged — remember Orkut? — they generally petered out as Facebook soared, seemingly unstoppable despite scandals over user privacy and a failure to address hate speech and misinformation adequately. It reached a billion daily users in 2015.

Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with Insider Intelligence who’s followed Facebook since its early days, notes that the site’s younger users have been dwindling but doesn’t see Facebook going anywhere, at least not any time soon.

“The fact that we are talking about Facebook being 20 years old, I think that is a testament of what Mark developed when he was in college. It’s pretty incredible,” she said. “It is still a very powerful platform around the world.”

AOL was once powerful too, but its user base has aged and now an aol.com email address is little more than a punchline in a joke about technologically illiterate people of a certain age.

Tom Alison, who serves as the head of Facebook (Zuckerberg’s title is now Meta CEO), sounded optimistic when he outlined the platform’s plans to lure in young adults in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We used to have a team at Facebook that was focused on younger cohorts, or maybe there was a project or two that was dedicated to coming up with new ideas,” Alison said. “And about two years ago we said no — our entire product line needs to change and evolve and adapt to the needs of the young adults.”

He calls it the era of “social discovery.”

“It’s very much motivated by what we see the next generation wanting from social media. The simple way that I like to describe it is we want Facebook to be the place where you can connect with the people you know, the people you want to know and the people that you should know,” Alison said.

Artificial intelligence is central to this plan. Just as TikTok uses its AI and algorithm to show people videos they didn’t know they wanted to see Facebook is hoping to harness its powerful technology to win back the hearts and eyeballs of young adults. Reels, the TikTok-like videos Facebook and Instagram users are bombarded with when they log into both apps, are also key. And, of course, private messaging.

“What we are seeing is more people wanting to share reels, discuss reels, and we’re starting to integrate messaging features back into the app to again allow Facebook to be a place where not only do you discover great things that are relevant to you, but you share and you discuss those with people,” Alison said.

Facebook has consistently declined to disclose user demographics, which would shed some light on how it is faring among young adults. But outside researchers say their numbers are declining. The same is true for teenagers — although Facebook seems to have stepped back from actively recruiting teens amid concerns about social media’s effects on their mental health.

“Young people often shape the future of communication. I mean, that’s basically how Facebook took off — young people gravitated toward it. And we we see that happening with pretty much every social platform that has come on the scene since Facebook,” said Williamson. This year, Insider estimates that about half of TikTok’s users are between the ages of 12 and 24.

Williamson doesn’t see this trend reversing, but notes that Insider’s estimates only go as far as 2026. There’s a decline, but it’s slow. That year, the research firm expects about 28% of U.S. Facebook’s users to be between 18 and 34 years old, compared with nearly 46% for TikTok and 42% for Instagram. The numbers are more stark for teens aged 12-17.

“I think the best thing they could do is get away from being a social platform. Like they’ve lost that. But hey, if they want to become the new Yellow Pages, why not?” said Gaynor, who lives in San Diego, California and works in government. “I really like Marketplace. I recently just moved, so that was where I got most of my furniture.”

NASA: Up to 4 of Uranus' moons could have water


A view of the planet Uranus in 2004. A new study by NASA says four of Uranus's moons could have oceans of water under its icy crust. File Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo

May 5 (UPI) -- NASA scientists concluded that four of Uranus' largest moons likely contain an ocean layer of water between its core and icy crust.

The NASA study announced Thursday is the first to detail the evolution of the interior makeup and structure of all five large moons -- Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda.

It suggests four of the moons hold oceans that could be miles deep after scientists had previously considered the other moons too small to keep an internal ocean from freezing, with Titania, the largest of Uruanus' seven moons the most likely to retain the necessary heat.

"When it comes to small bodies -- dwarf planets and moons -- planetary scientists previously have found evidence of oceans in several unlikely places, including the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto, and Saturn's moon Mimas," said Julie Castillo-Rogez of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement. "So, there are mechanisms at play that we don't fully understand."

 Czech Republic latest nation to sign on to NASA's moon-focused Artemis Accords

NASA said it came to the discovery after re-examining data originally gathered from its Voyager spacecraft that gathered detailed information on Uranus during two flybys in the 1980s.

Using that data along with traditional telescope observations on Earth, NASA scientists built computer models of the planet infused with additional findings from NASA's Galileo, Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons.

The researchers also added insights into the chemistry and the geology of Saturn's moon Enceladus, Pluto and its moon Charon, and Ceres. Those planets are also icy bodies around the same size as the Uranian moons.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope team wins Wernher von Braun award

NASA has been investigating possible water on other moons. In 2005, scientists saw what they believe were watery plumes erupting from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The space agency plans on launching the Europa Clipper spacecraft next year which will examine the possibility of water plumes and an ice-covered ocean world with possible plumes the Jupiter moon of Europa.