Certain foreign firms must ‘self-certify’ with Trump diversity rules: US embassies

MERITOCRACY 4 STR8 WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN

By AFP
April 2, 2025


Republican enmity to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is premised on the suspicion that the people it rewards do not merit their success, while also depriving more deserving candidates from opportunities because they are not in a minority - Copyright AFP/File CHANDAN KHANNA

Delphine Touitou and Daphne Benoit

The United States is not planning to verify foreign firms over their diversity programmes but needs certain companies to self-certify compliance with new US rules, two of its main European embassies said Wednesday, after a furore over an apparent warning sent to European companies.

“There is no ‘verification’ required beyond asking contractors and grantees to self-certify their compliance — in other words, we are just asking them to complete one additional piece of paperwork,” the US embassies in Paris and Berlin said in identical statements to AFP.

The spokespersons for both missions emphasised that the rule applied only to firms having contracts with or grants from US missions.

But their statements confirmed that US missions were reviewing all contracts and grants to “ensure they are consistent” with recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, in particular his order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” that targets diversity programmes.

The controversy comes at a tense time for trade relations between Europe and the United States with Trump poised to unveil sweeping new “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday.

The European Union will respond to the new US tariffs “before the end of April”, according to the French government spokeswoman.

– ‘Not go back a millimetre’ –

France’s economy ministry said last week “a few dozen” French companies doing or looking to do business with the United States had received letters that included a questionnaire asking firms to certify they “do not practice programmes to promote diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).

Trump has issued an executive order on the issue 

– Copyright POOL/AFP/File Steve Parsons, Ben Gabbe

Designed to provide opportunities for people of colour, women and other historically excluded groups, DEI programmes have drawn the wrath of Trump and his followers, who say they are discriminatory and incompatible with meritocracy.

France’s foreign trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said on Monday that he was “deeply shocked” and French Economy Minister Eric Lombard’s office has said Trump’s views of DEI “are not ours”.

Denmark’s Industry Minister Morten Bodskov also told AFP that “a response must naturally be discussed with our European colleagues”.

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the country “will not go back a millimetre” on diversity efforts in response to the US letter, which Belgian firms had also received.

But the embassy statements said Washington was only asking “contractors and grantees around the world to certify their compliance with applicable US federal anti-discrimination laws”.

Swedish insurer drops $160 mn Tesla stake over labour rights


By AFP

April 2, 2025


Tesla has been involved in a labour dispute with Swedish unions since 2023 

- Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks

Swedish insurance company Folksam said Wednesday it had given up its $160 million stake in Tesla due to the electric carmaker’s approach to labour rights.

Folksam said that Tesla’s approach to its employees’ rights to unionise was “problematic” given its investment criteria, and that attempts to influence the company as a shareholder had been ineffective.

“Unfortunately, no improvement has been seen and a decision has therefore been taken to divest the holding,” Folksam said in a statement.

Folksam told AFP in an email that the market value of the holdings was about 1.6 billion kronor ($160 million).

The electric carmaker has been involved in a labour dispute with Swedish unions since 2023.

In late October of that year, the metal workers union IF Metall launched a strike against Tesla over its refusal to sign a collective wage agreement, and some 130 mechanics at 10 Tesla repair shops in seven cities walked off the job.

IF Metall then extended the strike to include work on Teslas at other repair shops which served multiple brands.

The strike then grew into a larger conflict between Tesla and almost a dozen unions seeking to protect Sweden’s labour model, including postal workers, dock workers and even spreading to neighbouring Nordic countries.

Negotiated sector by sector, collective agreements with unions are the basis of the Nordic labour market model.

Guaranteeing wages and working conditions, they cover almost 90 percent of all employees in Sweden and 80 percent in Denmark.

Tesla chief Elon Musk has long rejected calls to allow the company’s employees worldwide to unionise.

Musk’s close cooperation with US President Donald Trump has also led to calls for boycotts against Tesla.

Acts of vandalism against charging stations and the brand’s dealerships has increased, while several protests were held on Saturday outside retail locations in North America and Europe.

In Sweden, Tesla sales declined 63.9 percent in March and 55.2 percent in the first three months of the year, according to Mobility Sweden.

Tesla sales fall again in Germany amid Musk backlash


By AFP
April 3, 2025


Demonstrators protest at a Tesla service centre in Berlin - Copyright AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Tesla sales plunged again in Germany last month even as the broader electric car market rebounded, data showed Thursday, the latest sign of a growing backlash against billionaire owner Elon Musk.

Just 2,229 of Tesla’s electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in March, about 43 percent fewer compared with the same period last year, the KBA federal transport authority said.

Overall electric vehicle registrations rose 35.5 percent in Germany year-on-year as sales continue to rebound from very low levels seen in early 2024.

Like elsewhere in Europe, EV sales slowed in Germany last year against a weak economic backdrop, with the situation worsened in the region’s biggest auto market by the withdrawal of government subsidies.

Tesla’s sales have been slowing worldwide as Musk faces anger over his role overseeing cuts to the federal workforce in US President Donald Trump’s administration, and due to factory upgrades.

But he has faced particular hostility in Germany after he vocally backed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which is shunned by mainstream parties — ahead of February elections.

Some German Tesla drivers have put “I bought this before Elon Went crazy” stickers on their vehicles, Teslas have been targeted in suspected arson attacks in Berlin and Dresden, and protesters have staged demonstrations against the carmaker.

Over the first three months of the year Tesla registrations fell a whopping 62.2 percent compared to the same period in 2024, the KBA said.

Overall in March, the number of new vehicle registrations in Germany fell to 253,497, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, the latest sign of weakness in the market.

German auto manufacturers are now facing another headache after Trump slapped 25-percent tariffs on car imports into the United States.

Livestock theft is central to jihadist economy in west Africa


By AFP
April 3, 2025


Livestock is a major source of income in the Sahel region - Copyright AFP Jade GAO

Musa was asleep in the village of Dusuman in northeast Nigeria when he was awoken by a sharp burst of gunfire and Boko Haram stole his main source of livelihood — his livestock.

“They came at about one in the morning and started firing in the air,” said the Fulani herdsman, whose name AFP has changed for security reasons.

“My family and I fled into the bush. The jihadists took 36 of my cows and 40 sheep,” he added.

Livestock theft provides Boko Haram with a major source of revenue, as members resell some of the animals at local markets to support their operations in the Lake Chad region.

The method of criminal financing is also used by other jihadist groups in the Sahel region, where livestock is a coveted resource.

“It’s an economy that feeds the conflict,” Flore Berger, a researcher with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), told AFP.

In Burkina Faso, sources in the Ansarul Islam group “have declared earning, depending on the period, between 25 and 30 million CFA francs ($41,100 to $49,400) a month through livestock theft in the regions where they operate”, Berger said in a study.

Nigeria and Mali, which are the leading and second-leading livestock exporters in the region ravaged by jihadist violence, are particularly affected, she added.

Mali recorded nearly 130,000 thefts in 2021, more than the total combined from the three preceding years, according to the authorities in the Mopti region of central Mali quoted in the study.



– ‘Laundered’ –



“The practice has been happening for centuries across the Sahel,” added the study, noting that the thefts were once “almost cultural” and widely accepted.

But in the last 15 years, jihadists have got in on the act and thefts have become violent operations in which livestock farmers have sometimes been kidnapped or killed.

In Niger last year, “more than 600” animals were stolen by jihadists in a hamlet in the Ouallam region, near the Malian border, and an owner was killed, a local source told AFP.

In the Lake Chad basin of northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram is the main perpetrator of thefts.

Its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), instead prefers to impose taxes on local livestock farmers, said Nigerian GI-TOC researcher Kingsley Madueke.

In the central Sahel — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) dominates the illicit trade due to the vast territory under its control and its local networks.

Stolen livestock is then sold through well-established channels involving agents, intermediaries, transporters, traders, butchers or “corrupt” local officials, Berger said.

“Through these ‘commercial partners’, the jihadists have access to intelligence and sustain themselves in the forests,” said William Assanvo, a researcher from the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

Some of the livestock is sold at local markets, with the rest exported.

Stolen animals from Mali, for example, are “laundered” by being mixed with herds of legal livestock then sent to countries such as Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso or Niger, Berger said.



– ‘Slow-going’ –



As such, Madueke said there was a need to target auxiliary networks.

The cross-border nature of the illicit trade also requires regional cooperation that is not always easy given the geopolitical situation in west Africa.

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have all withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

“We sent at least three letters to the Malian authorities in 2024, as we recorded an increase in the influx of livestock from Mali,” an Ivorian security source said.

“We need collaboration to block the network. For the moment, it’s slow-going.”

According to the researchers, armies in the Sahel, bandits, civilian militia and rebel groups in Mali also steal livestock.

burs-bdi/pid/phz/kjm

Sri Lanka’s crackdown on dogs for India PM’s visit sparks protest


By AFP
April 3, 2025


Sri Lankan animal rights activists marched on Thursday to protest the round-up of stray dogs a day ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - Copyright AFP Ishara S. KODIKARA

Sri Lankan animal rights activists marched on Thursday to protest the round-up of stray dogs a day ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Authorities in Colombo and the Buddhist pilgrim city of Anuradhapura have reportedly deployed dog catchers to impound hounds ahead of Modi’s visit, which begins on Friday.

Many of Colombo’s strays are beloved by their adopted neighbourhoods despite lacking formal owners — and are dubbed “community” canines rather than street dogs.

Around a dozen protesters from the Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE) waved placards outside President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s office in Colombo after submitting a petition to India’s high commission.

“Stop the cruel removal of our community dogs,” one placard read.

Protesters said that many of the dogs in public parks had been vaccinated and neutered and were cared for by locals and animal welfare groups.

“How can Sri Lanka promote tourism when we are a country known for animal cruelty?” another placard read.

Protesters urged New Delhi’s intervention to “prevent the cruel and unnecessary removal of these dogs”, saying that the round-up of dogs would create “displacement, suffering, and potential harm”.

Modi is set to receive an official welcome at Colombo’s Independence Square, where dog catchers are reported to have been busy in this week.

He is also set to visit Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of the capital, to pay homage to a fig tree believed to have grown from a cutting from the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.

The tree is both an object of worship and a symbol of national sovereignty on the majority Buddhist island of 22 million people.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for STRAY

Australia sweats through hottest 12 months on record: official data


By AFP
April 3, 2025


Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching - Copyright AFP/File DAVID GRAY

Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a weather official said Thursday, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching.

Senior government climatologist Simon Grainger said the rolling 12-month period between April 2024 and March 2025 was 1.61 degrees Celsius (34.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average — the hottest since records began more than a century ago.

“This is certainly part of a sustained global pattern,” he told AFP.

“We’ve been seeing temperatures since about April 2023 that were globally much warmer than anything we have seen in the global historical record.”

The previous hottest period was in 2019, Grainger said, when temperatures were 1.51 degrees Celsius above average.

“That is a pretty significant difference,” Grainger said.

“It’s well above what we would expect just from uncertainties due to rounding. The difference is much larger than that.”

The record was measured on a rolling 12-month basis — rather than as a calendar year.

Australia has also recorded its hottest-ever March, Grainger said, with temperatures more than two degrees above what would normally be seen.

“There has basically been sustained warmth through pretty much all of Australia,” he said.

“We saw a lot of heatwave conditions, particularly in Western Australia. And we didn’t really see many periods of cool weather — we didn’t see many cold fronts come through.”



– Sickly white coral –



From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have been pummelled by wild weather in recent months.

Unusually warm waters in the Coral Sea stoked a tropical cyclone that pummelled densely populated seaside hamlets on the country’s eastern coast in March.

Whole herds of cattle have drowned in vast inland floods still flowing across outback Queensland.

And a celebrated coral reef off Western Australia has turned a sickly shade of white as hotter seas fuel an unfolding mass bleaching event.

The average sea surface temperature around Australia was the “highest on record” in 2024, according to a recent study by Australian National University.

This record run looked to have continued throughout January and February, said Grainger.

“We haven’t seen much cooling in sea surface temperatures.”

Moisture collects in the atmosphere as oceans evaporate in hotter temperatures — eventually leading to more intense downpours and storms.

Australia follows a slew of heat records that have been toppling across the planet.

Six major international datasets confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record.

Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming.

Australia sits on bulging deposits of coal, gas, metals and minerals, with mining and fossil fuels stoking decades of near-unbroken economic growth.

But it is increasingly suffering from more intense heatwaves, bushfires and drought, which scientists have linked to climate change.

‘It’s gone’: conservation science in Thailand’s burning forest

“We are doing something, but we are doing so little and potentially also so late.”

By AFP
April 3, 2025


In Thailand's Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, scientists confront the toll that human activity and climate change are having on forests that are supposed to be protected - Copyright AFP Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Sara HUSSEIN

Scientist Inna Birchenko began to cry as she described the smouldering protected forest in Thailand where she was collecting samples from local trees shrouded in wildfire smoke.

“This beautiful, diverse community of trees and animals is being destroyed as you see it, as you watch it,” she said.

Birchenko, a geneticist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was collecting seeds and leaves in Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary with colleagues from Britain and Thailand.

They will study how temperature and moisture affect germination and whether genetics dictate those responses.

That may one day help ensure that reforestation is done with trees that can withstand the hotter temperatures and drier conditions caused by climate change.

But in Umphang, a remote region in Thailand’s northwest, the scientists confronted the toll that human activity and climate change are already having on forests that are supposed to be pristine and protected.

Birchenko and her colleagues hiked kilometre after kilometre through burned or still-smouldering forest, each footstep stirring up columns of black and grey ash.

They passed thick fallen trees that were smoking or even being licked by dancing flames, and traversed stretches of farmland littered with corn husks, all within the sanctuary’s boundaries.

The wildlife for which the sanctuary is famous — hornbills, deer, elephants and even tigers — was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there were traces of the fire’s effect: a palm-sized cicada, its front neon yellow, its back end charred black; and the nest of a wild fowl, harbouring five scorched eggs.

“My heart is broken,” said Nattanit Yiamthaisong, a PhD student at Chiang Mai University’s Forest Restoration and Research Unit (FORRU) who is working with Birchenko and her Kew colleague Jan Sala.

“I expected a wildlife sanctuary or national park is a protected area. I’m not expecting a lot of agricultural land like this, a lot of fire along the way.”



– Global threat of wildfires –



The burning in Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary is hardly an outlier.

Wildfires are common in Thailand during the country’s spring burning season, when farmers set fields alight to prepare for new crops.

Some communities have permission to live and farm plots inside protected areas because of their long-standing presence on the land.

Traditionally, burning has helped farmers enrich soil, and fire can be a natural part of a forest’s ecosystem. Some seeds rely on fire to germinate.

But agricultural burning can quickly spread to adjacent forest — intentionally or by accident.

The risks are heightened by the drier conditions of climate change and growing economic pressure on farmers, who are keen to plant more frequently and across larger areas.

Experts warn that forests subjected to repeated, high-intensity fires have no chance to regenerate naturally, and may never recover.

Fire data based on satellite images compiled by US space agency NASA shows hotspots and active fires burning across many protected areas in Thailand over recent weeks.

Around tourist hotspot Chiang Mai, firefighting helicopters drop water on local wildfires, at a cost of thousands of dollars per mission.

But remote Umphang is far from the public eye.

Park rangers protect the area, but they are frequently underpaid, poorly resourced and overstretched, local environmentalists say.

It’s a long-standing problem in Thailand, whose Department of National Parks has sometimes closed protected areas in a bid to prevent fires from spreading. The department did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

And the challenge is hardly unique to Thailand. Devastating blazes have ravaged wealthy California, Japan and South Korea in recent months.



– Deforestation at ‘very high speed’ –



Still, it was a sobering sight for Sala, a seed germination expert at Kew.

“The pristine rainforest that we were expecting to see, it’s actually not here any more, it’s gone,” he said.

“It really shows the importance of conservation, of preserving biodiversity. Everything is being deforested at a very, very high speed.”

Sala and Birchenko work with Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which holds nearly 2.5 million seeds from over 40,000 wild plant species.

They want to “unlock” knowledge from the seed bank and help partners like FORRU, which has spent decades working out how to rebuild healthy forests in Thailand.

The partnership will map the genetic structure and diversity of three tree species, predict their resilience to climate change, and eventually delineate seed zones in Thailand.

“We hope that some of the population will be more resilient to climate change. And then… we can make better use of which populations to use for reforestation,” said Sala.

Back in Britain, seeds will be germinated at varying temperatures and moisture levels to find their upper limits.

Genetic analysis will show how populations are related and which mutations may produce more climate-resilient trees.

But first the team needs samples.

The scientists are focusing on three species: albizia odoratissima, phyllanthus emblica — also known as Indian gooseberry — and sapindus rarak, a kind of soapberry tree.

The three grow across different climates in Thailand, are not endangered and have traditionally been used by local communities, who can help locate them.

Still, much of the search unfolds something like an Easter egg hunt, with the team traipsing through forest, scanning their surroundings for the leaf patterns of their target trees.



– ‘Capsule of genetic diversity’ –



“Ma Sak?” shouts Sala, using the local name for sapindus rarak, whose fruits were once used as a natural detergent.

It’s up to FORRU nursery and field technician Thongyod Chiangkanta, a former park ranger and plant identification expert, to confirm.

Ideally seeds are collected from fruit on the tree, but the branches may be dozens of feet in the air.

A low-tech solution is at hand — a red string with a weight attached to one end is hurled towards the canopy and looped over some branches.

Shaking it sends down a hail of fruit, along with leaves for Birchenko to analyse. Separate leaf and branch samples are carefully pressed to join the more than seven million specimens at Kew’s herbarium.

The teams will collect thousands of seeds in all, carefully cutting open samples at each stop to ensure they are not rotten or infested.

They take no more than a quarter of what is available, leaving enough for natural growth from the “soil seed bank” that surrounds each tree.

Each successful collection is a relief after months of preparation, but the harsh reality of the forest’s precarious future hangs over the team.

“It’s this excitement of finding the trees… and at the same time really sad because you know that five metres (16 feet) next to the tree there’s a wildfire, there’s degraded area, and I assume that in the next years these trees are going to be gone,” said Sala.

The team is collecting at seven locations across Thailand, gathering specimens that are “a capsule of genetic diversity that we have preserved for the future”, said Birchenko.

“We are doing something, but we are doing so little and potentially also so late.”

Nepal capital chokes as wildfires rage

By AFP
April 3, 2025


Nepal's capital struggles with choking smog each year - Copyright AFP PRAKASH MATHEMA

Nepal’s capital was blanketed in acrid smog Thursday as wildfires across the country pushed air pollution levels to among the worst in the world.

Experts say that widespread wildfires, fuelled by an exceptionally dry winter and stagnant atmospheric conditions, have caused the thick and throat-burning smog to cover the Kathmandu valley.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — registered above 178 micrograms per cubic metre on Thursday, according to Swiss monitoring firm IQAir.

A reading above 15 in a 24-hour period is considered unhealthy by the World Health Organization (WHO), and IQAir ranked Kathmandu the world’s most polluted city.

The Himalayan nation sees a spate of wildfires annually, usually beginning in March, but their number and intensity have worsened in recent years, with climate change leading to drier winters.

“The prevailing dry conditions have significantly increased the frequency of forest fires across the country, further worsening air pollution,” Khushboo Sharma, an air pollution analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD) told AFP.

“This year, precipitation was exceptionally low, with hardly any rainfall, leaving forests dry and more susceptible to fire,” she added.

Sharma said that stagnant meteorological conditions are also causing pollution to accumulate over the valley.

On social media, people complained of stinging eyes and itchiness because of the pollution.

Low visibility caused by the smog also disrupted flights at Kathmandu airport, sparking long delays.

“The mountain flights… as well as some other flights have been disturbed because of the pollution,” said Rinji Sherpa, the airport’s spokesman.

The health ministry issued a notice Wednesday requesting Nepalis to “avoid unnecessary travel” and to wear a mask when outside.

The government has also urged people to avoid construction and burning rubbish.

The Air Quality Life Index, issued by the University of Chicago, estimated that in 2024 air pollution stripped 3.4 years off the life of an average Nepal resident.

Experts warn ‘AI-written’ paper is latest spin on climate change denial


By AFP
April 4, 2025

Climate contrarians falsely claim a paper written by artificial intelligence chatbot Grok debunks the science on climate change - Copyright AFP Lionel BONAVENTURE

Manon JACOB

Climate change deniers are pushing an AI-generated paper questioning human-induced warming, leading experts to warn against the rise of research that is inherently flawed but marketed as neutral and scrupulously logical.

The paper rejects climate models on human-induced global warming and has been widely cited on social media as being the first “peer-reviewed” research led by artificial intelligence (AI) on the topic.

Titled “A Critical Reassessment of the Anthropogenic CO2-Global Warming Hypothesis,” it contains references contested by the scientific community, according to experts interviewed by AFP.

Computational and ethics researchers also cautioned against claims of neutrality in papers that use AI as an author.

The new study — which claims to be entirely written by Elon Musk’s Grok 3 AI — has gained traction online, with a blog post by Covid-19 contrarian Robert Malone promoting it gathering more than a million views.

“After the debacle of man-made climate change and the corruption of evidence-based medicine by big pharma, the use of AI for government-funded research will become normalized, and standards will be developed for its use in peer-reviewed journals,” Malone wrote.

There is overwhelming scientific consensus linking fossil fuel combustion to rising global temperatures and increasingly severe weather disasters.

– Illusion of objectivity –

Academics have warned that the surge of AI in research, despite potential benefits, risks triggering an illusion of objectivity and insight in scientific research.

“Large language models do not have the capacity to reason. They are statistical models predicting future words or phrases based on what they have been trained on. This is not research,” argued Mark Neff, an environmental sciences professor.

The paper says Grok 3 “wrote the entire manuscript,” with input from co-authors who “played a crucial role in guiding its development.”

Among the co-authors was astrophysicist Willie Soon -– a climate contrarian known to have received more than a million dollars in funding from the fossil fuel industry over the years.

Scientifically contested papers by physicist Hermann Harde and Soon himself were used as references for the AI’s analysis.

Microbiologist Elisabeth Bik, who tracks scientific malpractice, remarked the paper did not describe how it was written: “It includes datasets that formed the basis of the paper, but no prompts,” she noted. “We know nothing about how the authors asked the AI to analyze the data.”

Ashwinee Panda, a postdoctoral fellow on AI safety at the University of Maryland, said the claim that Grok 3 wrote the paper created a veneer of objectivity that was unverifiable.

“Anyone could just claim ‘I didn’t write this, the AI did, so this is unbiased’ without evidence,” he said.

– Opaque review process –

Neither the journal nor its publisher –- which seems to publish only one journal –- appear to be members of the Committee of Publication Ethics.

The paper acknowledges “the careful edits provided by a reviewer and the editor-in-chief,” identified on its website as Harde.

It does not specify whether it underwent open, single-, or double-blind review and was submitted and published within just 12 days.

“That an AI would effectively plagiarize nonsense papers,” does not come as a surprise to NASA’s top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, but “this retread has just as little credibility,” he told AFP.

AFP reached out to the authors of the paper for further comment on the review process, but did not receive an immediate response.

“The use of AI is just the latest ploy, to make this seem as if it is a new argument, rather than an old, false one,” Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard University, told AFP.

German industry grapples with AI at trade fair

An important step, Segedi said, will be convincing labour unions to not “see AI as a threat but as something that can contribute to their ideas”.

By AFP

April 5, 2025


A man interacts with humanoid robot at the booth of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research during the opening of the Hannover Messe - Copyright AFP/File RONNY HARTMANN

Clement KASSER

Artificial intelligence is set to bring sweeping change to modern life, but at an industrial fair in Germany many companies wonder how they fit into the tech revolution.

“We use ChatGPT a bit,” shrugged one business representative, from a metals processor based in southern Germany, at this week’s Hannover Messe.

The expo grouping 4,000 firms promised visitors ways to “experience the future” and explore AI’s “practical applications in areas such as production, robotics and energy, all at their own pace”.

One eye-catching display — a gigantic Rolls-Royce aircraft engine whose production was optimised by AI from Microsoft and German company Siemens — drew many curious onlookers.

But on the sidelines, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are the backbone of Germany’s economy — the so-called Mittelstand — often had less to say on the subject.

Andrea Raaf of Herz Aetztechnik, which uses lasers to make vehicle and electronics parts, said AI was not up to the job.

“The parts we manufacture are very individual, so we can’t really see the point of AI,” she told AFP.

Others have been more engaged, including family-owned Koerner Electric, which said it has been using AI for the past three years.

Standing in front of custom-built circuit boards, its technical director Dennis Koerner said AI had helped with the manufacturing process and to analyse optical and electrical measurements.

“We have written a small AI with which we can generate programming much faster,” said Koerner.

“It was necessary to get faster and more stable results without needing several employees for the job.”

– Lagging behind –

Once a byword for high technology, German industry knows that it is lagging behind US and Chinese competition when it comes to the digital technologies that will dominate the next century.

Many German firms remain unsure how to use the rapidly evolving technology in the kind of high-end engineering they specialise in.

“It’s important not to shy away from introducing AI,” said Agnes Heftberger, managing director of Microsoft Germany. “Otherwise Germany will find itself lagging behind in the face of international competition.”

Also featured at the fair were so-called “AI agents”, systems which autonomously perform tasks from writing code to assisting with conversations.

Microsoft offers systems to put machine data into simple language and identify maintenance needs in advance.

But Loke Olsen, an automation engineer at Confirm A/S, a Danish subcontractor to the pharmaceutical industry, was somewhat sceptical about AI’s potential errors and ability to correct itself.

“We have to be sure that AI works 100 percent because we have to comply with very strict health regulations,” he told AFP.

For some, cost is an issue. Koerner said that it seems like “we can hardly afford” some of the AI products being showcased at the fair.

– ‘Game changer’ –

Almost half of German industrial firms use AI for some business functions, a Microsoft survey found, but most are far more reluctant to use it to develop their products.

Only seven percent of machine builders plan to adopt generative AI to help with product design, said a study by the machinists’ association VDMA.

“There are some initial attempts, but investment is still too low,” said Guido Reimann, VDMA’s deputy managing director of software and digitalisation.

The study found that GenAI, by optimising efficiency and boosting sales, could raise the sector’s annual profits by many billions of euros.

But although 52 percent of managers saw AI as a potential “game changer”, it said, “its use has so far often been limited to experimental or proof-of-concept projects”.

The top concerns listed were a lack of data quality, shortages of AI specialists and technical challenges.

Germany’s Fraunhofer research institute has been touring Germany since 2023, showing manufacturers concrete AI applications from carpentry to healthcare.

“It often helps to network smaller companies with each other because AI always works with data,” said institute spokeswoman Juliane Segedi.

“The more data you have, the better an AI can become. And if you have a similar problem that needs to be solved, you can pool the data to come up with a solution that is good for everyone.”

Other challenges remain. Many people fear AI will one day steal their job.

An important step, Segedi said, will be convincing labour unions to not “see AI as a threat but as something that can contribute to their ideas”.

AI coming for anime but Ghibli’s Miyazaki irreplaceable, son says

By AFP
April 2, 2025


Artificial intelligence could one day replace Japanese anime artists, Studio Ghibli's Goro Miyazaki predicted - Copyright AFP Kazuhiro NOGI

Natsuko FUKUE

Artificial intelligence risks taking Japanese anime artists’ jobs but nothing can replicate Hayao Miyazaki, the creative lifeblood of the studio behind classics such as “Spirited Away”, his son told AFP.

Thanks to ChatGPT’s new image generator, the internet is awash with pictures imitating Studio Ghibli’s whimsical style, raising fresh debate over potential copyright infringements.

Movies such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” are famous for their lush nature and fantastical machinery, painstakingly drawn by hand.

While the studio has not commented directly on the image trend, Goro Miyazaki, 58, predicted that artificial intelligence could one day replace animators.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if, in two years’ time, there was a film made completely through AI,” he said in an interview last week.

But whether audiences would want to watch a fully AI-generated animation is another matter, he added.

Despite the rapid changes, new technology also brings “great potential for unexpected talent to emerge”, added Goro, Studio Ghibli’s managing director.

He was speaking at the Ghibli atelier in western Tokyo, days before the San Francisco-based ChatGPT maker OpenAI released its latest image generator.

OpenAI, which is already facing a barrage of copyright lawsuits, said generating images in the style of individual living artists is banned, but “we do permit broader studio styles”.

“Our goal is to give users as much creative freedom as possible,” the US company said.



– Bittersweet –



Japan is grappling with a shortage of skilled animators, partly because most spend years in low-paid jobs to learn the ropes.

Digitally savvy Gen Z may be also less enthusiastic about the manual labour involved, Goro said.

“Nowadays, the world is full of opportunities to watch anything, anytime, anywhere,” making it harder to imagine making a living from the physical act of drawing, he added.

Goro’s father founded Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985, a year after directing the post-apocalyptic “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”.

After Takahata’s death in 2018, Hayao — now 84 and a heavy smoker — continued to create films with 76-year-old producer Toshio Suzuki.

“If those two can’t make anime or can’t move, then what happens?” Goro said when asked about Ghibli’s future.

“It’s not like they can be replaced.”

Despite his age, Hayao won his second Oscar last year with “The Boy and the Heron” — likely his last feature film.

Anime cartoons are usually for children, but Takahata and Hayao, men “from the generation that knew war”, included darker elements that appeal to adults, Goro said.

“It’s not all sweet — there’s also a bitterness and things like that which are beautifully intertwined in the work,” he said, describing a “smell of death” that permeates the films.

“That’s actually what makes the work so deep.”

For younger people who grew up in peacetime, “it is impossible to create something with the same sense, approach and attitude that my father’s generation had,” Goro said.

Even “Totoro”, with its cuddly forest spirit creatures, is in some ways a “scary” movie that explores the fear of losing a sick mother, he explained.



– ‘Insult to life’ –



As the Ghibli-style AI images proliferated, a 2016 video of Hayao resurfaced that many said showed his disdain for the technology.

“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” the director says in the short clip, taken from a documentary.

However, he was in fact reacting to an AI-assisted computer graphic of a zombie-like creature, which he calls “extremely unpleasant” in the full footage.

Goro joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed animations including the 2006 feature “Tales from Earthsea” and 2011’s “From Up on Poppy Hill”.

He also oversaw the development of the Ghibli Museum and newly opened Ghibli Park in Japan.

Goro enjoyed drawing as a boy and said he learned a lot watching his father’s and Takahata’s work, although he didn’t think he could live up to their talent.

“My mother, who was also an animator, told me not to pursue this career because it’s a tough and busy job,” Goro said, adding that his father was rarely at home.

“But I always wanted to do something creative.”

AI could impact 40 percent of jobs worldwide: UN


By AFP
April 3, 2025


AI is creating vast opportunities, but also risks deepening inequalities, the UN warns - Copyright AFP/File Philip FONG

Agnès PEDRERO

The global artificial intelligence market is projected to reach $4.8 trillion — roughly the size of Germany’s economy — by 2033, the UN said Thursday, warning nearly half of jobs worldwide could be affected.

While AI is transforming economies and creating vast opportunities, the technology also risks deepening existing inequalities, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD warned in a report.

In particular, the report cautioned that “AI could impact 40 percent of jobs worldwide, offering productivity gains but also raising concerns about automation and job displacement”.

While previous waves of technology mainly impacted blue-collar jobs, UNCTAD highlighted that knowledge-intensive sectors would be left most exposed by AI.

This means advanced economies will surely be hardest-hit, it said, adding though that these economies were better positioned to harness the benefits of AI than developing economies.

“The benefits of AI-driven automation often favour capital over labour, which could widen inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of low-cost labour in developing economies,” UNCTAD said.

In a statement, the agency chief Rebeca Grynspan underlined the importance of ensuring people are at the centre of AI development, urging stronger international cooperation to “shift the focus from technology to people, enabling countries to co-create a global artificial intelligence framework”.

“History has shown that while technological progress drives economic growth, it does not on its own ensure equitable income distribution or promote inclusive human development,” she warned in the report.



– $4.8 trillion –

In 2023, so-called frontier technologies like the internet, blockchain, 5G, 3D printing and AI, represented a $2.5-trillion market, with that number expected to increase sixfold in the next decade to $16.4 trillion, the report said.

And by 2033, AI will be the leading technology in this sector, with an expected value of $4.8 trillion, it showed.

But UNCTAD cautioned that access to AI infrastructure and expertise remained concentrated in just a few economies, with only 100 firms, mainly in the US and China, currently accounting for 40 percent of global corporate research and development spending.

“Countries should act now,” the agency said, insisting that “by investing in digital infrastructure, building capabilities, and strengthening AI governance”, they could “harness the AI potential for sustainable development”.

“AI is not just about replacing jobs,” it said, insisting the technology could “also create new industries and empower workers”.

“Investing in reskilling, upskilling, and workforce adaptation is essential to ensure AI enhances employment opportunities rather than eliminating them.”

The UN agency stressed the need for all countries to take part in discussions around how to govern AI.

“AI is shaping the world’s economic future, yet 118 countries – mostly in the Global South – are absent from major AI governance discussions,” it said.

“As AI regulation and ethical frameworks take shape, developing nations must have a seat at the table to ensure AI serves global progress, not just the interests of a few.”

Authors hold London protest against Meta for ‘stealing’ work to train AI


ByAFP
April 4, 2025


Image: — © AFP/File Ian Maule

James PHEBY

Around 100 authors on Thursday protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the US tech giant of “stealing” content to train its Artificial Intelligence models.

Writers chanted “Meta, Meta, book thieves” as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading “I’d write a sign but you’d steal it” and “Get the Zuck off our books”, in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library “LibGen”, which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books.

The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in “LibGen”, allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta’s AI models.

A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that “we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law.”

But AJ West, author of “The Spirit Engineer”, said he felt “abused and disgusted” when he found his work on the database.

“To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, without my permission, is so disgusting,” he told AFP.

“They’ve taken my books and fed them into a machine that is specifically designed to ruin me,” he added.

West attempted to deliver a letter, signed by leading authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, at the Meta front desk, but found the doors locked.

“It’s very telling that a company that saw fit to steal billions of words is now afraid of 500 words on one sheet of paper. It’s insult piled upon insult,” he said.

West called on the UK government to intervene, saying it was “reprehensible” that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had “said nothing” about “the biggest attack on British copyright in history”.



– ‘Has to be consequences’ –



Author and TV writer Gail Renard, 69, told AFP that “if you stole a diamond ring there’d be consequences and there has to be consequences”.

“The creative industry is Britain’s second-biggest industry. We bring in £125 billion ($164 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There’s a lot of anger here,” added the author.

Artist and author Sophie Parkin, 63, said the situation was “a life-changer for everybody, because what’s the point of going on writing?”

“They aren’t even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it,” added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading “AI pay authors”.

She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of “toadying up to these billionaires”.

The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works focusing anger on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models.

The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US “fair use” provisions, but that argument is started to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere.
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Shareg anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it,” added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading “AI pay authors”.

She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of “toadying up to these billionaires”.

The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works focusing anger on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models.

The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US “fair use” provisions, but that argument is started to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere.

Zuckerberg repeats Trump visits in bid to settle antitrust case


By AFP

April 3, 2025


Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, pictured at Trump's inauguration, has reportedly made repeat visits to the White House ahead of the trial - Copyright AFP Jade GAO

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has made repeated visits to the White House as he tries to persuade US President Donald Trump to settle a major antitrust case before it goes to trial on April 14, US media reported.

The case against Meta was filed in 2020 by the Federal Trade Commission and seeks to prove that the company formerly known as Facebook illegally acquired potential competitors, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp, to eliminate competitive threats.

The New York Times reported that Zuckerberg has visited Trump at both the White House and his Mar-a-Lago resort several times in recent weeks as he makes a last-ditch attempt to spare his company the seven- to eight-week trial.

The trial is to take place in a Washington federal court, with Zuckerberg and former executive Sheryl Sandberg among those to take the stand.

Contacted by AFP, a Meta spokesman said: “Mark’s continuing the meetings he’s been holding with the administration on American technology leadership.”

Since Trump took back the White House, Zuckerberg has courted the president with frequent visits and notable changes to corporate policies on matters like content moderation, aligning himself politically with the Republican administration.

Zuckerberg has also bought a $23 million residence in the US capital in recent weeks as he steps up his lobbying of Trump.

The case from the FTC focuses on Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, with the US government alleging Meta made the purchases while operating an illegal monopoly in the US social networking market.

It is seeking to force the company to divest from these platforms, but the final outcome could take years after appeals.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has yet to decide whether the administration will settle with the company, which would be a highly unusual decision at this stage of the proceedings.

Asked recently about his agency’s commitment to the case, Trump-appointed FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said his teams were “gearing up” for the trial.

“This trial has been five years in the making, was started by President Trump in 2020 and we have the resources ready to go,” he added in comments to Bloomberg TV last month.