Japanese ivory trade attracts fresh global scrutiny


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Hajime Sasaki says there is little demand for the ivory ornaments he sells, which can legally only be bought and sold witin Japan - Copyright AFP JULIA MARETTO

Kyoko HASEGAWA

At his store in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district, Hajime Sasaki displays a disparate array of wares, from chopsticks to Buddha statues — including many made of ivory.

International trade in elephant ivory is illegal, but Japan hosts one of the world’s largest remaining legal domestic markets for the product, which can only be bought and sold within its borders.

It is fed with stockpiles of ivory imported before the international ban more than 30 years ago, or bought in one-off government auctions.

But conservationists warn Japan’s ivory often leaks overseas, fuelling black market trade, while driving demand and undermining bans in countries like China.

Sasaki’s shop displays pamphlets in Chinese and English explaining that ivory cannot be taken abroad, but he still “receives many Chinese customers”, he told AFP.

“Tourists give up buying ivory when I explain you can’t bring it outside Japan,” said the softly-spoken 69-year-old.

Conservationists estimate between 10,000 and 15,000 elephants from the two African species are killed for their tusks each year.

And seizure data suggests ivory is leaving Japan’s domestic market.

Since 2008, more than 3,600 kilograms (four US tons) of ivory linked to Japan has been seized by authorities around the world, according to data presented at a recent global wildlife trade meeting in Uzbekistan.

Dozens of interceptions were destined for China, according to the document presented at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The data suggests “some weakness in Japan’s law enforcement”, the document warned.



– ‘Organised criminals’ –



In 2023, a shipment reportedly bound for Thailand carrying 710 pieces was intercepted, another CITES document said.

Shipments of that size “suggest organised criminals are also involved”, said Matt Collis, senior policy director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

At the CITES meeting, four African nations unsuccessfully urged adoption of a document that would have called for the closure of all remaining domestic ivory markets.

And Japan fiercely denies that its national market impacts elephant conservation.

It disputed the interpretation of the data presented at CITES, and said it continues to “implement strict control measures” to prevent leakage.

Japan’s alleged leakage problem is particularly problematic for China, once the world’s biggest market for ivory, which banned trade in 2017 — around the same time as the United States.

“China is doing their best to enforce their domestic ivory ban and to change public perceptions,” said Collis.

“But you have a neighbouring country that is undermining these efforts by not enforcing controls and perpetuating demand.”

Ivory was once widely used in Japan for personal seals and musical instruments.

Today the country has a 250-tonne stockpile, boosted by two CITES-approved auctions in 1999 and 2008.

At Sasaki’s shop, shelves are lined with exquisitely-carved ornaments. A Buddha statue worth more than $1,500 (238,000 yen) is safely housed inside a gold-painted cabinet.

But there is little demand.

Sasaki says he has just one or two buyers a month, mostly older Japanese.

That is partly due to growing awareness of the ivory trade’s devastating impact, said Masayuki Sakamoto, director of the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF).

“So inventory in Japan is piling up, and demand from China and other countries persists,” he said.



– ‘Sustainable use’ –



Although China’s ban has tamped down interest somewhat, ivory carvings, jewellery and trinkets remain highly prized in Asia’s largest economy.

“Given the size of China, even lower levels of demand can provide powerful incentives for traffickers to seek to get ivory into China’s black market,” Collis said.

Experts also question Japan’s system for tracking its domestic ivory, which is based mostly on tracing whole tusks, even though trade is primarily in small, derivative products.

Japan has shown little interest in curtailing domestic sales, and supported a proposal by Namibia at CITES that would have allowed a one-off government auction of the African country’s ivory stocks to other governments.

The bid was defeated, to the relief of conservationists who argue further sales will only fuel demand.

But Sasaki said he felt the tusks should be sold to help conservation efforts, echoing the Tokyo Ivory and Crafts Association, which says it backs “sustainable use” of ivory, as a “form of conservation”.

“Smuggling is bad”, said Sasaki.

“But I think reusing elephant tusks would be better (than disposing of them), and generate

 income.”

EU launches antitrust probe into Google’s data use for AI


By AFP
December 9, 2025


The EU has announced a probe into whether Google breached antitrust rules over its use of online content to train its AI - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

The EU announced Tuesday it had opened a probe to assess whether Google breached antitrust rules by using content put online by media and other publishers to train and provide AI services without appropriate compensation.

The European Commission said the investigation would look into concerns that the US tech giant might be distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to their output.

“A free and democratic society depends on diverse media, open access to information, and a vibrant creative landscape,” the European Union’s competition chief, Teresa Ribera, said.

“AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies”.

The commission, the European Union’s antitrust regulator, said the probe would focus on two issues.

It would look into whether Google used YouTube videos to train its generative AI models without adequately paying the creators who post the clips online — and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.

“Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does (it) allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data,” the commission said.

“At the same time, rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.”

The probe would also check whether the firm used online content from other sites, such as newspaper websites, to provide generative AI-powered services, again with no compensation or possibility to opt-out.

This relates in particular to Google’s AI-generated summaries that pop-up in response to a user’s search query and to the firm’s “AI Mode” — a search tab similar to a chatbot which answers users’ questions, the commission said.

“We are investigating whether Google may have imposed unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, while placing rival AI models developers at a disadvantage, in breach of EU competition rules,” Ribera said.

There is no deadline for the commission to complete its investigation and the opening of a probe does not prejudge its outcome. The company, however, risks a hefty fine.

Intel sees record EU fine reduced further

By AFP
December 10, 2025


Intel image: — © AFP

The EU General Court dealt a blow to the European Commission on Wednesday in reducing what was initially a record fine against US chipmaker Intel to 237 million euros ($276 million) — a quarter of the original sum.

Brussels imposed an initial 1.06-billion-euro fine on the group in 2009, then a record amount, for abusing its dominant market position between 2002 and 2007 and attempting to drive its only serious competitor, AMD, out of the microprocessor market.

Intel has since engaged in lengthy legal proceedings to have the fine overturned.

In 2022, it won its case when the General Court, based in Luxembourg, partially invalidated the penalty and ordered the Commission to reassess the total fine.

In September 2023, Brussels set a new amount of 376 million euros.

But the US group again appealed.

In the new ruling published Wednesday, the court said it had “substantially upheld the 2023 decision”, but reduced the fine to 237 million euros.

The court justified the move citing, firstly, the “relatively limited number of computers” affected by certain restrictions Intel imposed on computer manufacturers such as Acer and Lenovo to hinder AMD.

Secondly, it cited a 12-month interval between “some of the anti-competitive practices”.

US drops bid to preserve FIFA bribery convictions

TRUMP KICKBACK FOR PEACE PRIZE

By AFP
December 10, 2025


The case was one of several to emerge from a sweeping 2015 probe by the US Justice Department - Copyright AFP/File Michael Buholzer

The US government has moved to drop its case against a former Fox broadcasting executive involved in the FIFA corruption scandal that plunged the world’s footballing body into crisis.

Prosecutors told the Supreme Court on Tuesday they wanted to end their fight to preserve the convictions of Hernan Lopez and Argentine sports marketing firm Full Play.

Both were found guilty in March 2023 of paying bribes to secure lucrative television rights to international football officials. The convictions were overturned on appeal months later, before being reinstated this July.

The case was one of several to emerge from a sweeping 2015 corruption probe by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which ultimately led to the downfall of then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

In a filing to the Supreme Court, which Lopez had asked to review his conviction, prosecutors said that dismissal of the case is “in the interests of justice,” without giving further details.

They asked the case be returned to a lower court for its formal dismissal.

“I’m grateful the truth prevailed, and I’m also confident more of that truth will come out,” Lopez, a US and Argentine citizen, wrote on X late Tuesday.

While there was no indication of Donald Trump’s involvement, the US president has issued a string of pardons including for corruption related offenses.

In February, he ordered the DOJ to pause enforcement of a long-established law that prohibits American companies from bribing officials of foreign governments to gain business.

Lopez was facing up to 40 years in prison and millions of dollars in penalties after his conviction for money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

During the trial, a US court heard that the main beneficiaries of the kickback scheme were six of the most powerful men in South American football.

They included former CONMEBOL president Nicolas Leoz, who died in 2019, former Argentine football executive Julio Grondona, who died in 2014, and former Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira.

The United States will host the World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico next year.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has cozied up with Trump ahead of the sporting event, this month awarding him the governing body’s inaugural “peace prize.”

Racing towards great white sharks in Australia


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Hundreds of satellite-linked buoys lie off the eastern coast of Australia to catch sharks - Copyright AFP Saeed KHAN

Laura CHUNG

Sensible people might prefer to flee at torpedo speed from a great white shark, but there’s one job in Australia that pays you to race towards the predators.

And when you reach the big fish, you have to fix a tracker to its dorsal fin while bobbing in a boat on the ocean swell.

The job is key to a sophisticated protection network that lets swimmers, surfers and fishers check for the aquatic hunters in real time when they venture into the water.

Every day, workers lay 305 satellite-linked buoys at popular spots in waters up to 15 meters (50 feet) deep along the coastline of New South Wales as part of the state-run programme.

The so-called smart drumlines have baited hooks and when a shark takes a bite it is caught, sending a signal to the tagging team.

Then comes the hard part.

But it’s not the wild “rodeo” people might think, said Paul Butcher, principal research scientist for the state government shark tagging and tracking programme for the past 10 years.

“The sharks are really benign. The process has little impact on those sharks,” he told AFP.

A boat races to the buoy within 16 minutes of the alert.

If the fish is one of three potentially dangerous species — a great white, bull shark or tiger shark — team members get to work.

They wrap two ropes around the animal: one near its tail and another in front of the pectoral fin to support its body.



– Trance-like state –



Once the carnivore has been pulled close to the side of the boat, it is rolled to one side carefully while ensuring seawater is passing through its gills.

The position places the shark naturally into a trance-like state that minimises the risk of harm to the team and the animal.

Workers measure the shark’s length, collect tissue samples, and fit an acoustic tag to its dorsal fin.

Finally, the animal is released at least one kilometre (half a mile) offshore, vanishing into the blue with a flick of its tail.

The whole process takes about 15 minutes.

“You get some animals that have their own personalities,” Butcher said.

“Great whites, when we catch them, they’re easy to work on next to the boat. Tiger sharks, not so much. And bull sharks are really benign as well.”

In the past 10 years, the state’s programme — managed by the Department of Primary Industries — has tagged 1,547 white sharks, 756 tiger sharks and 240 bull sharks.

Tagged sharks are detected when they swim past one of 37 listening stations dotted along the coastline.

That sets off an alarm on the SharkSmart app, giving beachgoers an instant notification on their mobiles and smart watches.

The technology forms part of a multi-layered approach that authorities have adopted, alongside spotter drones and old-fashioned nets.



– Fatal attacks on the rise –



More than 1,280 shark incidents have been recorded around Australia since 1791 — about 260 of them fatal — according to a national database.

Though still relatively rare, fatal attacks are on the rise with 57 reported deaths in the 25 years to 2025, compared to 27 in the previous quarter-century.

In November, a three-metre (10-foot) bull shark fatally bit one woman and injured her boyfriend off a remote beach north of Sydney.

The Swiss tourists were reportedly filming a pod of dolphins.

Despite overfishing depleting some shark species, scientists say the rise in fatalities may be linked to the growing numbers of people taking to the water.

Rising ocean temperatures also appear to be swaying sharks’ migratory patterns.

Researchers say shark lives, too, need protecting.

Globally, about 37 percent of oceanic shark and ray species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a database for threatened species.

ISLAMOPHOBIC BABUSHKA BAN

Austria set to vote on headscarf ban in schools


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Austrian lawmakers are set to vote on a headscarf ban for girls in schools 

- Copyright AFP Alex HALADA

Austrian lawmakers on Thursday are expected to approve a law banning headscarves in schools for girls under 14, a move rights groups and experts say is discriminatory and could deepen societal division.

Austria’s conservative-led government — under pressure at a time when anti-immigration sentiment is running high — proposed the ban earlier this year. They argue it is to protect girls “from oppression”.

In 2019, when the country introduced a ban on headscarves in primary schools, the constitutional court struck it down, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory. This time however, the government insists that its law is constitutional.

The law, if passed, would prevent girls younger than 14 from wearing headscarves that “cover the head in accordance with Islamic traditions” in all schools.

“When a girl… is told that she must hide her body… to protect herself from the gaze of men, it’s not a religious ritual, but oppression,” Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said when presenting the bill.

The ban, which applies to “all forms” of the Islamic veil including hijabs and burqas, would take full effect with the start of the new school year in September, Plakolm said.

From February, an initial period would be launched during which the new rules would be explained to educators, parents and children with no penalties for breaking them.

But for repeated non-compliance, parents would face fines ranging from 150 to 800 euros ($175-930).

The government said that about 12,000 girls would be affected by the new law, basing its figures on a 2019 study that showed that approximately 3,000 girls aged below 14 wore a headscarf six years ago.



– ‘Stigmatised’ –



Rights organisations have criticised the bill, including Amnesty International Austria.

Amnesty said it “constitutes blatant discrimination against Muslim girls” and described it as an “expression of anti-Muslim racism”.

Such measures risk “fuelling existing prejudices and stereotypes against Muslims”, the group warned.

The draft law has also drawn criticism from the IGGOe, the body officially recognised as representing the country’s Muslim communities.

It said the ban “jeopardises social cohesion”, saying “instead of empowering children, they are stigmatised and marginalised”.

Angelika Atzinger, managing director of the Amazone women’s rights association, said a headscarf ban “sends girls the message that decisions are being made about their bodies and that this is legitimate”.

Her comments appeared in a statement published by the anti-racism group SOS Mitmensch, which also opposes the proposed law.

Austria’s anti-immigration, far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which won last year’s general election but failed to form a government, said the ban did not go far enough. They want it extended to all students, teachers and other staff.

The governing coalition said it was confident the revised ban would not be overturned a second time.

It argued that the law provides for such restrictions if the rights of a child, which are enshrined in the constitution, would otherwise be infringed upon.

But constitutional law expert Heinz Mayer has raised doubts that a ban can be constitutional, recalling the top court’s ruling in 2020, which found that “one religion was being discriminated against”.

It also ruled that “if the headscarf is a symbol of oppression”, a ban puts children in “an uncomfortable situation”, but not the people who impose it on them, he told AFP.

In France, authorities banned school children in 2004 from wearing “signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” — such as headscarves, turbans or Jewish skullcaps — on the basis of the country’s secular laws, which are meant to guarantee neutrality in state institutions.

Taiwan to keep production of ‘most advanced’ chips at home: deputy FM


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Taiwan makes more than half of the world's chips, and nearly all of the most advanced ones - Copyright AFP I-HWA CHENG

Taiwan plans to keep making the “most advanced” chips on home soil and remain “indispensable” to the global semiconductor industry, the deputy foreign minister told AFP, despite intense Chinese military pressure.

The democratic island makes more than half of the world’s chips, and nearly all of the most advanced ones, that power everything from smartphones to AI data centres.

Its dominance of the industry has long been seen as a “silicon shield” protecting it from an invasion or blockade by China — which claims the island is part of its territory — and an incentive for the United States to defend it.

But the threat of a Chinese attack has fuelled concerns about potential disruptions to global supply chains and has increased pressure for more chip production beyond Taiwan’s shores.

“We will try to maintain the most advanced technology in Taiwan, and to be sure that Taiwan continues to play an indispensable role” in the semiconductor ecosystem, Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Chih-chung Wu told AFP in an interview Wednesday.

“I think it’s the same logic for every country, even countries not under such a very complicated geopolitical situation.”

China has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, deploying on an almost daily basis fighter jets and warships around the island.

Taiwan has responded by increasing defence spending to upgrade its military equipment and improve its ability to wage asymmetric warfare.



– ‘Core interest’ –



The island does not have enough land, water or energy to accommodate the fabrication plants, or fabs, needed to meet soaring demand for chips, “so step by step we enlarge our investment in the world, but still linking with Taiwan”, said Wu, who was previously the representative to France.

Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, has already invested in fabs in the United States, Japan and Germany.

And earlier this year the firm pledged to spend an additional US$100 billion on US chip plants, as President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on overseas-made semiconductors.

However, replicating TSMC’s factories in the United States is full of challenges, said Wu, citing Taiwan’s “very special culture to make the semiconductors very well”.

The best way to reduce risks to the chip industry was not to move fabs abroad but to “prevent the war”, Wu said.

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said recently he had proposed to Taiwan a 50-50 split in chip production, an idea that Taipei rejected.

While Washington is Taiwan’s most important security backer, some of Trump’s comments about the island and flip-flopping on Ukraine have raised doubts over his willingness to defend it.

Wu, however, expressed confidence that the United States, as well as Europe, would respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan in order to protect their “national interest” in the region.

“It just happens that your interest and Taiwan’s interest we share together,” Wu said.

Those interests, he said, included the semiconductor industry but also peace, and freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait, which is a key international shipping route.

“I think Donald Trump understands better and better, day by day, the strategic importance of Taiwan… and will defend American interests in his own way,” Wu said.

“We are the core interest of China, but we are also a core interest of the US.”

AI’s $400 bn problem: Are chips getting old too fast?


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Jensen Huang is CEO of Nvidia, the leader among chip makers that are releasing new and more powerful processors much faster than before 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Andrew Harnik

Thomas URBAIN

In pursuit of the AI dream, the tech industry this year has plunked down about $400 billion on specialized chips and data centers, but questions are mounting about the wisdom of such unprecedented levels of investment.

At the heart of the doubts: overly optimistic estimates about how long these specialized chips will last before becoming obsolete.

With persistent worries of an AI bubble and so much of the US economy now riding on the boom in artificial intelligence, analysts warn that the wake-up call could be brutal and costly.

“Fraud” is how renowned investor Michael Burry, made famous by the movie “The Big Short,” described the situation on X in early November.

Before the AI wave unleashed by ChatGPT, cloud computing giants typically assumed that their chips and servers would last about six years.

But Mihir Kshirsagar of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy says the “combination of wear and tear along with technological obsolescence makes the six-year assumption hard to sustain.”

One problem: chip makers — with Nvidia the unquestioned leader — are releasing new, more powerful processors much faster than before.

Less than a year after launching its flagship Blackwell chip, Nvidia announced that Rubin would arrive in 2026 with performance 7.5 times greater.

At this pace, chips lose 85 to 90 percent of their market value within three to four years, warned Gil Luria of financial advisory firm D.A. Davidson.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made the point himself in March, explaining that when Blackwell was released, nobody wanted the previous generation of chip anymore.

“There are circumstances where Hopper is fine,” he added, referring to the older chip. “Not many.”

AI processors are also failing more often than in the past, Luria noted.

“They run so hot that sometimes the equipment just burns out,” he said.

A recent Meta study on its Llama AI model found an annual failure rate of 9 percent.



– Profit risk –



For Kshirsagar and Burry alike, the realistic lifespan of these AI chips is just two or three years.

Nvidia pushed back in an unusual November statement, defending the industry’s four-to-six-year estimate as based on real-world evidence and usage trends.

But Kshirsagar believes these optimistic assumptions mean the AI boom rests on “artificially low” costs — and consequences are inevitable.

If companies were forced to shorten their depreciation timelines, “it would immediately impact the bottom line” and slash profits, warned Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research.

“This is where companies get in trouble with creative bookkeeping.”

The fallout could ripple through an economy increasingly dependent on AI, analysts warn.

Luria isn’t worried about giants like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft, which have diverse revenue streams. His concern focuses on AI specialists like Oracle and CoreWeave.

Both companies are already heavily indebted while racing to buy more chips to compete for cloud customers.

Building data centers requires raising significant capital, Luria points out.

“If they look like they’re a lot less profitable” because equipment must be replaced more frequently, “it will become more expensive for them to raise the capital.”

The situation is especially precarious because some loans use the chips themselves as collateral.

Some companies hope to soften the blow by reselling older chips or using them for less demanding tasks than cutting-edge AI.

A chip from 2023, “if economically viable, can be used for second-tier problems and as a backup,” Peddie said.

Oracle shares dive as revenue misses forecasts

By AFP
December 10, 2025


Oracle founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison says the business cloud computing titan is going to work with all AI chip makers, not just Nvidia, as it invests in the technology - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Shares in business computing giant Oracle fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday on word its revenue missed heady expectations, dampening artificial intelligence euphoria in the market.

The slide in after-market trades came despite Texas-based Oracle reporting that net income in the recently-ended quarter nearly doubled to $6.1 billion in revenue, up 14 percent from the same period a year earlier to $16.05 billion.

Oracle’s cloud and business computing unit accounted for $8 billion of that revenue, an increase of 34 percent from the same quarter in 2024, according to the earnings report.

“AI training and selling AI models are very big businesses,” Oracle chief executive Mike Sicilia said in the release.

“We think there is an even larger opportunity — embedding AI in a variety of different products.”

But investors are wary of the massive investments tech companies are making in artificial intelligence models and infrastructure, wondering how and when they will pay off.

Oracle has taken on billions of dollars in debt to pay for AI infrastruture and is reported to be considering borrowing even more.

The company has also announced it is putting significant resources into partnerships with AI chip makers and model builders, such as OpenAI and Meta.

“We are now committed to a policy of chip neutrality where we work closely with all our CPU and GPU suppliers,” Oracle founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison said in the earnings release.

“There are going to be a lot of changes in AI technology over the next few years, and we must remain agile in response to those changes.”

Oracle shares were down some 10.7 percent to $199.50 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures.

TIME CELEBRATES THE U$ OLIGARCHY

Time magazine names ‘Architects of AI’ as Person of the Year


By AFP
December 11, 2025


According to Time magazine, 2025 was the year AI shifted from promise to reality - Copyright TIME / TIME Person of the Year/AFP TIME

Time magazine named the “Architects of AI” as its Person of the Year on Thursday, highlighting the US tech titans whose work on cutting-edge artificial intelligence is transforming humanity.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk are among the innovators who have “grabbed the wheel of history, developing technology and making decisions that are reshaping the information landscape, the climate, and our livelihoods,” Time wrote.

One of two covers of the magazine is a homage to the famous 1932 photograph of ironworkers casually eating lunch on a steel beam above New York City.

In the Time illustration, sitting astride the city are Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, AMD chief Lisa Su, Musk, Huang, Altman as well as Google’s AI boss Demis Hassabis, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li.

“Racing both beside and against each other, they placed multibillion-dollar bets on one of the biggest physical infrastructure projects of all time,” the magazine said of the group.

“They reoriented government policy, altered geopolitical rivalries, and brought robots into homes. AI emerged as arguably the most consequential tool in great-power competition since the advent of nuclear weapons.”

Alongside popular AI models like ChatGPT and Claude, Time credited investors like SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has plunged billions of dollars into the technology.

Time’s Person of the Year selection is an acknowledgement of the year’s most influential figure.

The title last year went to president-elect Donald Trump. Others have included singer Taylor Swift and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.



– ‘Gravitational center of 2025’ –



According to the magazine, which is owned by Silicon Valley billionaire Marc Benioff, 2025 was the year AI shifted from promise to reality and when ChatGPT usage more than doubled to 10 percent of the world’s population.

“This is the single most impactful technology of our time,” Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia — the most valuable company in the world — told Time.

He predicted that AI will eventually grow the global economy from $100 trillion to $500 trillion.

But the magazine also pointed to AI’s darker side.

Lawsuits have alleged that chatbots contributed to suicides and mental health crises, sparking debates about “chatbot psychosis,” where users may devolve into delusions and paranoia.

In one case, the California parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine are suing OpenAI after he took his own life. They claim that ChatGPT provided information about suicide methods.

Time noted too looming job displacement as more companies race to replace workers with AI models.

Yet the magazine notably steered away from using AI to generate its cover art, opting instead for human artists.

Thomas Hudson, chief analyst at US research firm Forrester, said the Person of the Year choice rightly reflected AI’s heavy influence this year.

“AI has been the gravitational center of 2025 for the economy and the source of endless discussions on how it will shape the future of our societies,” he said in a statement.

Windswept Kazakh rail hub at the heart of China-Europe trade


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Central Asia is in the midst of a logistics boom

 - Copyright AFP Ruslan PRYANIKOV

Bruno KALOUAZ

Operating a huge cargo lifter, Zhandos Nurmagambetov was stacking containers onto a train before it headed across the steppe of Kazakhstan on a new railway route vital for China-Europe trade.

Central Asia is in the midst of a logistics boom, as Beijing invests heavily in the New Silk Road — a vast overland transport network linking China to Europe that can help bypass Russia and shorten freight routes.

On Kazakhstan’s border with China, the once-sleepy small town of Dostyk, whose name translates as “friendship”, has become a surprisingly vital hub in global trade.

“We receive and ship goods mainly from Europe, Asia and Russia,” Nurmagambetov told AFP, as he moved 20-tonne containers using the industrial forklift.

“A 39-car train is about 900 metres (0.6 miles) long. We carry out this operation in 40 minutes,” Nurmagambetov told AFP as wind swept through the cargo terminal.

On the side of the metal boxes, the names of major Chinese logistics hubs — Xi’an and Zhengzhou — reveal the thousands of kilometres the goods have already travelled. Europe is another 4,000-plus kilometres away.

Located in the Dzungarian gate, a mountain pass that connects Kazakhstan to China’s Xinjiang region, Dostyk is near the “continental pole of inaccessibility” — the place on Earth furthest from the ocean, which is around 2,500 kilometres away.

Despite its geographic isolation, strong winds and frequent dust storms, Dostyk is the largest freight station in the country and a “hub for export and import trade,” according to Zhanat Utegulov of Kazakhstan Railways.



– Bypassing Russia –



Container trains going through Dostyk and Alashankou, the Chinese city on the other side of the border, have two options to reach Europe: the traditional route via Russia, or the new Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) through Central Asia.

Europe is backing the second, which bypasses Russia and has seen “increased interest since the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, the World Bank said in a report.

For landlocked Kazakhstan, an enormous country spanning almost 3,000 kilometres from east to west, the new route presents a huge economic opportunity.

Some 85 percent of all rail cargo between China and Europe passes through Kazakhstan, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said he wants the country to be “a golden bridge between China and Europe”.

The initiative demonstrates the strategic importance of Central Asia, where Europe and the United States also compete for influence.

Development of the route, which can cut delivery times and also avoids the Suez Canal, has been rapid.

Though Kazakhstan and China share a 1,800-kilometre border, the first container trains to Europe only launched in 2013, said railway official Utegulov.

Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and imposition of Western sanctions were a major boost for the TITR.

Trade volume jumped more than six-fold between 2021 and 2024, according to official Kazakh data.

At Dostyk, the recent opening of a double track could increase freight loads five-fold — from 12 to 60 daily train pairs with the Chinese side, Kazakhstan says.

On a platform currently under construction, a giant steel plate is set to bear the slogan “One Belt, One Road”, China’s official name for the New Silk Road, a favoured initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping.



– ‘Volume is increasing’ –



At the previously neglected outpost of Dostyk, westward-bound cargo is hoisted onto the wider-track gauges used across the former Soviet Union.

“Trains arrive from China to Europe. We transfer them onto the wider track, put them on the rails and send them on, the same for trains arriving from Europe,” Erlan Kazhibekov, a railway dispatcher, told AFP.

In front of him stood a huge screen where red, yellow and green traffic lights coordinate the flow of trains amid increasing volumes.

Serik Naymanchalov, a driver who remembers the quiet railway of the 1990s and now makes frequent journeys to China, hailed the progress.

“Upon arrival in Alashankou, we hand over the cargo documents. We uncouple the locomotive and leave the cargo. We are then given other cars to continue our journey (back) to Kazakhstan,” he said.

Amid the logistics boom, Tokayev has warned Kazakh citizens and businesses against “resting on their laurels”.

There is little sign of that along the route. As well as the expansion of Dostyk, an entirely new railway border crossing to the north is set to open in 2027.

South Korea exam chief resigns after tests dubbed too hard


By AFP
December 11, 2025


South Korea's college entry exam -- known locally as the "Suneung" -- is essential for admission to top universities - Copyright POOL/AFP/File KIM HONG-JI

The chief organiser of South Korea’s notoriously gruelling university entrance exams has quit — after complaints that an English test he designed was just too difficult.

South Korea’s college entry exam — known locally as the “Suneung” — is essential for admission to top universities and widely regarded as a gateway to social mobility, economic security and even a good marriage.

But this year just over three percent of those who took the exam scored top marks in the English test — the lowest since absolute grading was introduced for the subject in 2018.

Students were given just 70 minutes to answer 45 questions.

One question singled out for criticism asked students to assess the political philosophers Immanuel Kant and Thomas Hobbes and analyse their views on the rule of law.

Another asked students to consider the nature of time and clocks, while another probed how the idea of existence might apply to video game avatars.

That has sparked significant backlash in a country where the exam is taken so seriously that flights are grounded nationwide for 35 minutes during the English listening test to eliminate any potential noise.

In response, Oh Seung-keol, the chief of Korea’s Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, stepped down.

He felt “a heavy sense of responsibility for the English section of the test, which did not align with the principles of absolute evaluation,” the institution said in a statement sent to AFP.

He also apologised for “causing concern to test-takers and their parents, and for causing confusion in the college entrance exam process”.

The agency has also issued a separate apology, saying it “takes seriously the criticism that the test failed to meet the appropriate level of difficulty and the goal of reducing students’ academic burden”.

Enormous pressure placed on students in South Korea’s ultra-competitive education system has been partly blamed for teenage depression and suicide rates that are among the highest in the world.

This month, South Korea’s National Assembly approved an amended law banning private English-language educational institutes from administering entrance tests to preschoolers.

And test scores have long been a highly sensitive and scrutinised issue.

This week, the nephew of Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong — one of South Korea’s most powerful and wealthy families — made headlines after he reportedly missed just one question on the exam, earning him admission to the nation’s top Seoul National University.

US plans to order foreign tourists to disclose social media histories

Applicants would need to provide their social media histories from the last five years

By AFP
December 10, 2025


The US-Canada border. — © AFP Geoff Robins

The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to order visa-exempt foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories from the last five years before entering the country, according to an official notice.

The proposal laid out in a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register would apply to visitors from 42 countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Japan, who do not need a visa to enter the United States.

Currently, those travellers only need apply for a waiver known as the Electonic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which still requires them to provide certain personal details.

Under the proposed new rules, the collection of social media data would become a “mandatory” part of ESTA applications.

Applicants would need to provide their social media histories from the last five years, according to the notice.

They would also have to submit other “high-value data fields” including phone numbers from the last five years, email addresses from the past decade, personal details of family members and biometric information.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal.

The Trump administration has tightened curbs on entering the United States, part of a sweeping crackdown on migration.

Along with Mexico and Canada, the country will host the 2026 World Cup, which is certain to attract large numbers of soccer fans from across the world.