It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
In June 2020, a military base was attacked by jihadists in Kafolo, in north-eastern Ivory Coast near the border with Burkina Faso, leaving 14 soldiers dead. Other attacks followed and the Ivorian authorities have been working to improve the security situation. Our correspondent Samuel Bernard was able to join the army on anti-terror patrols and meet local residents. In this border region, the Fulani people claim to be subject to special surveillance and denounce what they consider discriminatory measures. Security forces deny targeting any specific group in their fight against terrorism.
Chile expected to reject overhaul of dictatorship-era constitution
Paulina ABRAMOVICH, Paula BUSTAMANTE Sun, September 4, 2022
Chileans head to the polls on Sunday to choose whether to adopt a new constitution that aims to shift its market-driven society into one that is more welfare-based, while enacting broad institutional reforms.
Although Chileans previously voted in droves for a rewrite of the current constitution -- adopted in 1980 during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship -- opinion polls suggest the new text will be rejected.
Social upheaval that began in 2019 as tens of thousands of people demanded a more equitable society provided the impulse to overhaul the constitution, but several clauses of the 388-article proposed draft have proved controversial.
"I will reject it because it was a constitution that started badly," Maria Angelica Ebnes, a 66-year-old homemaker, told AFP in Santiago.
"It was forced, through violence."
In October 2019, protests sprung up mostly in the capital led by students initially angered by a proposed metro fare hike.
Those demonstrations spiraled into wider discontent with the country's neoliberal economic system as well as growing inequality.
Although polls predict the new constitution will be rejected, those in favor are still holding out hope, not least because of what they see on the streets.
On Thursday night, an estimated 500,000 people turned out for the official closing of the "approve" campaign in Santiago, whereas no more than 500 people did so for the "reject" gathering.
"People will go out to vote en masse and the polls will be wrong once again," said Juan Carlos Latorre, a legislator in the ruling coalition of leftist President Gabriel Boric, who supports the new text.
More than 15 million Chileans are eligible to vote in the compulsory referendum.
Chief among their concerns is the prominence given to the country's Indigenous peoples, who make up close to 13 percent of the 19 million population.
Proposals to legalize abortion and protect the environment as well as natural resources like water, which some say is exploited by private mining companies, have also garnered much attention.
The new constitution would also overhaul Chile's government, replacing the Senate with a less powerful "chamber of regions," and requiring women to hold at least half of positions in public institutions.
- 5% possibility of 'approve' -
While recent polls have had the "reject" vote leading by as much as 10 percentage points, sociologist Marta Lagos believes "approve" may yet carry the day.
In the vast Santiago metropolitan area, the majority of people appear likely to vote in favor of the new constitution, even though some parts of the city -- particularly in northern and southern areas -- are largely against the changes, Lagos said.
"There's always the possibility that all the polls are wrong and effectively the advantage for 'approve' in Santiago could compensate for the disadvantage in the north and south," Lagos told AFP.
"I don't think this possibility is more than five percent, and 'reject' is 95 percent likely to win."
But what she is certain about is that "the gap will not be 10 points like the three polls published in the last two weeks say."
Only a simple majority is required for the new constitution to be adopted.
Around 40 world-renowned economists and political scientists expressed their support for the new constitution in the last week.
Yet some fear the new text would generate instability and uncertainty, which could then harm the economy.
"What you can see is a certain conservatism in the Chilean electorate that we haven't seen for years," said Lagos.
It was certainly muted last December when millennial Boric was elected president. - Controversial Indigenous clauses -
Those in favor of the new constitution say it will prompt major changes in a conservative country marked by social and ethnic tensions and lay the foundation for a more egalitarian society.
They say the current constitution gave private enterprise free reign over crucial industries and created a fertile breeding ground for the rich to prosper and the poor to struggle.
Although the 1980 constitution has undergone several reforms since it was adopted, it retains the stigma of having been introduced during a dictatorship.
Chileans have already voted once to rewrite the constitution and then again to elect the representatives to do so, making Sunday's vote the third time in just two years that they have gone to the polls over this issue.
The new text was drawn up by a constitutional convention made up of 154 members -- mostly with no political affiliation -- split equally between men and women and with 17 places reserved for Indigenous people.
The resulting proposal recognizes 11 Indigenous peoples and offers them greater autonomy, particularly on judicial issues.
It is the most controversial clause, with some critics accusing the authors of trying to turn the traditionally marginalized Indigenous people into a higher class of citizens.
If accepted, Chile's congress will then start deciding how to apply the new laws.
If the new text is rejected, the current constitution will remain in place.
pb/pa/bc/des/mca/aha
Chile at historic crossroads as country votes on new constitution
Chileans are set for a historic decision on Sunday: stick with a market-friendly constitution dating back to military dictator Augusto Pinochet or approve a progressive new text that promises to shake up the Andean country's political and social fabric.
The copper-rich country is sharply divided, with polls indicating that the new text will get rejected, despite huge popular support for tearing up the Pinochet-era constitution two years ago in the wake of months of fiery protests against inequality.
The vote is a crossroads for Chile, long seen as a bastion of conservatism and market-orientated economic policy, which underpinned decades of growth and stability that also created stark inequality between rich and poor.
"This is about settling a historical debt in Chile, because despite economic growth and lower poverty, we have outstanding debts to do with inequality and social welfare," said Vlado Mirosevic, spokesperson for the approve campaign.
Mirosevic said the new constitution was key to overturning decades of inequality and put progressive rights and the environment at the heart of the country's social fabric.
Nearly 80% of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution in October 2020. An elected 155-member assembly, consisting of mostly independent and progressive constituents, then began drafting it the following May, completing it earlier this year.
But enthusiasm has waned as Chile's economy has felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, spiraling inflation and the currency hitting historic lows. That's hurt support for the constitution and its backer, progressive President Gabriel Boric.
Polls indicate the reject camp holding a near 10 percentage point lead of around 46% to 37%, according to the most recent surveys. Some 17% remain undecided.
Ximena Rincon, a conservative senator campaigning against the new constitution, said people had lost faith in the assembly responsible for drafting the text. Lots of uncertainty and disinformation has bogged down the constitution also.
"The assembly wasn't representative of society," she said, calling for a smaller, more representative assembly to be elected if the new constitution was rejected on Sunday.
'I vote no'
Kenneth Bunker, a political analyst, said Sunday's vote might also act as a referendum on Boric, a young former student protest leader who took office in March and has supported the new constitution.
"There will be people who see the price of gasoline and food, and blame the government over the economy and say that they're the same ones who made the constitution, and so decide 'I vote no'," Bunker said.
Unpredictability remains, however, given the number of undecided voters and a mandatory vote as opposed to previous elections where voting was voluntary.
"That's probably the biggest uncertainty, a lot of people like to extrapolate results from polls," said Rossana Castiglioni, a professor of political science at Diego Portales University.
"But the truth is we know relatively little from this 50%, from this half of the population that abstains from electoral processes."
Boric has said he would launch a new process to draft another constitution if the current one fails on Sunday, while other political factions want to amend the current text. Regardless of the result, experts say Chileans still want the change that they clamored for in 2019-2020.
"People are still waiting for the social agenda that was outlined after the (2019) social uprising, a trend that brought Boric to the presidency," said Axel Callis, a political analyst for pollster TuInfluyes, adding protest anger could be reignited.
"If this doesn't lead to deep changes in terms of social rights, health and pensions, then we're going to be left with an explosive atmosphere."
(REUTERS)
BIDEN/POTUS IS THE 'DEEP' STATE
Trump calls Biden 'enemy of the state' in speech at Pennsylvania rally
Issued on: 04/09/2022 -
01:07 Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,
Donald Trump branded Joe Biden an "enemy of the state" Saturday as he hit back at the US president's assertion that the Republican and his supporters are undermining American democracy, and slammed last month's FBI raid of his Florida home.
Making his first public appearance since the August 8 raid, Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania that the search was a "travesty of justice" and warned it would produce "a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen."
"There can be no more vivid example of the very real threats from American freedom than just a few weeks ago, you saw, when we witnessed one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history," Trump claimed, despite long-standing protocols by which the Justice Department and the FBI act independently of the White House.
Trump told cheering supporters at the "Save America" gathering in the city of Wilkes-Barre that the "egregious abuse of the law" was going to produce "a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen."
He also hit back at Biden's speech this week in which the president said his predecessor and Republican supporters "represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."
Speaking in Philadelphia, the cradle of US democracy, on Thursday, the president launched an extraordinary assault on those Republicans who embrace Trump's "Make America Great Again" ideology -- and urged his own supporters to fight back in what he billed as a "battle for the Soul of the Nation."
Trump slammed it as the "most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president."
"He's an enemy of the state. You want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him," Trump said. 00:17
"Republicans in the MAGA movement are not the ones trying to undermine our democracy," continued Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, was rigged; and whose party has made unfounded claims of voter fraud a central plank of their platform.
"We are the ones trying to save our democracy, very simple. The danger to democracy comes from the radical left, not from the right," Trump added.
He was appearing at the rally ahead of November's midterm elections, which could see Biden's Democrats lose control of both houses of Congress.
'Top secret' files
Even although Trump is not on the ballot, Biden, 79, is seeking to turn the vote into a referendum on his predecessor in a bid to hold on to the Senate and House of Representatives.
At the Wilkes-Barre rally -- where Trump took to the stage to support his candidate in the Senate race, TV physician Mehmet Oz -- Trump supporter Edward Young said he had been "disgusted" by Biden's speech.
"He declared war on me. He declared war on half of America," Young told AFP.
The duelling visits by Biden and Trump to Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, come as the Republican is under increasing legal pressure over the documents found by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Justice Department has said in court filings that highly classified government documents, including some marked "Top Secret," were discovered in Trump's personal office during the raid.
A detailed list of what was seized also showed Trump held on to more than 11,000 unclassified government records that he claims are his to keep -- but legally are owned by the National Archives.
Among the papers seized were 18 documents labelled "top secret", 53 labelled "secret" and another 31 marked "confidential."
Of those, seven top secret files, 17 secret files and three confidential files were retrieved from Trump's private office.
Agents also found several dozen empty folders labelled "classified" in the office, raising speculation that sensitive documents may have been lost, destroyed or moved.
Trump, who is keeping supporters and commentators guessing about whether he intends to run for president again 2024, has sued to have the documents turned over to a neutral "special master," a move that could slow the government's probe.
(AFP)
REACTIONARY NATIONALISTS
Tens of thousands take to streets in Prague to protest against Czech government
wionnewsweb@gmail.com (Wion Web Team) - 1h ago
About 70,000 took part in protests in Czech Republic capital Prague on Saturday (September 4). The people demanded action from the ruling coalition government towards controlling soaring energy prices. The protesters also voiced opposition to the European Union (EU) and NATO
Organisers of the demonstration from a number of far-right and fringe political groups including the Communist party, said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and ensure direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia.
Police estimates said that by mid-afternoon the number of protesters reached the 70,000 mark by afternoon.
"The aim of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this autumn," event co-organizer Jiri Havel told iDNES.cz news website.
The protest was held a day after the governemnt survived a no-confidence vote. The Opposition is accusing the government of inaction against inflation and energy prices.
The vote showed how Europe's energy crisis is fuelling political instability as soaring power prices stoke inflation, already at levels unseen in three decades.
Czech Prime Minister Petre Fiala expressed displeasure at the protests and said the protesters did not have the country's best interests at heart
The protest on Wenceslas Square was called by forces that are pro-Russian, are close to extreme positions and are against the interests of the Czech Republic," he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
Tens of thousands protest against Czech government
Sat, September 3, 2022
PRAGUE (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters from the far right and far left joined forces to rally against the country’s pro-Western Czech government in the capital on Saturday.
Police estimated that the crowd at Prague's central Wenceslas Square numbered around 70,000.
Some of the groups represented at the demonstration included the major anti-migrant populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party and the Communist Party.
The protesters demanded the resignation of the current coalition government led by conservative Prime Minister Petr Fiala, criticizing it for a number of issues, including its Western-oriented policies.
They condemned the government for its support of the sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine and accused it of not being able to tackle soaring energy prices. The demonstrators also criticized NATO, and the European Union and the 27-nation bloc's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reach climate neutrality. The country belong to both organizations.
Fiala said everyone has a right to demonstrate, but said those protesting are expressing pro-Russia views “that are not in the interest of the Czech Republic and our citizens.”
The Czech Republic firmly supports Ukraine in its battle against Russia's invasion and has donated arms, including heavy weapons, to the Ukrainian armed forces.
The government is planning to call an emergency meeting of EU countries next week to seek a united approach to the energy crisis. The Czech Republic currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
The Associated Press
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M ECOCIDE
Vale-BHP nearly double offer in mine disaster settlement
Bloomberg News | September 2, 2022 | Samarco’s dam burst killed 19 people, wiped out several towns and polluted rivers.
Samarco and its owners, Vale SA and BHP Group, agreed to almost double their offer in compensation for a 2015 mine waste disaster in Brazil, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
The mining companies raised the proposal to more than 100 billion reais ($19 billion) after Brazilian authorities showed disappointment to the 52 billion reais ($10 billion) offered. The new value is closer to a 155 billion reais public civil action for reparation used by prosecutors as a benchmark.
Officials said last week the two sides were still far from a final settlement, and would undertake the necessary measures to obtain reparation if the companies did not bring to the negotiation table a “minimally worthy” offer to repair the collapse that killed as many as 19 people and contaminated waterways in two states.
The increase in the amount should mean additional provisions for the companies that already disbursed 23 billion reais through Renova Foundation, which was created to compensate for and repair damages.
Talks for a final multibillion-dollar settlement advanced since last week, the people said, but are depending on an agreement on the time frame for disbursement. The negotiation involves the federal government, Mina Gerais and Espirito Santo states, judicial authorities, Samarco and its two parent companies.
Brazil’s Environment Minister Joaquim Leite said in a radio interview this week the deal will involve the creation of a fund to be managed by Brazil’s development bank BNDES with the purpose to create a green economy in the region affected by the disaster, Agencia Brasil reported.
Vale said it remains committed to repairing the damage caused by the dam collapse, and to the negotiation process.
Samarco also said it remains open to dialogue to reach an agreement that promotes efficiency in repairing the damage caused by the rupture of the dam.
BHP said negotiations are ongoing.
(By Mariana Durao)
Mining title applications in Colombia to include stricter environmental considerations
Colombia’s State Council, which is the supreme tribunal with jurisdiction over administrative issues, ruled that the national government and the National Mining Agency (ANM) must “correct thedeficit in environmental protection that is evidenced in the mining-environmental regulation when it comes to the granting of mining titles.”
In order for this mandate to come into effect, the Council said that the ANM, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Mines and Energy have to update the paperwork required for the granting of mining titles. Such an update would imply adding to the paperwork the prohibitions and restrictions on the exploitation of underground resources established in Constitutional Court rulings C-339 of 2002, C-443 of 2009 and C-389 of 2016.
“This is one of the eight orders issued by the high court as a result of a popular initiative that exposed the violation of the collective rights to enjoy a healthy environment, the existence of ecological balance, the rational management and use of natural resources, the conservation of animal and plant species, the protection of areas of special ecological importance and the defence of public heritage,” the tribunal said in a media statement.
According to the State Council, these rights were breached as a consequence of institutional disarticulation between the mining and environmental sectors, which was spurred by a lack of information and mining-environmental planning throughout the country. Shortcomings in the way mining concessions are monitored were also pointed out as issues affecting the proper application of mining regulations.
The court’s decision was issued following a complaint by eight organizations and 30 individual citizens, who presented evidence showing a number of loopholes in the current procedure for the evaluation of proposals and inspection of mining titles. According to the complainants, such weak spots could lead to actions that would irreversibly affect the environment.
What’s next
Following the ruling, the ministries of environment and mines, together with the relevant agencies, will have to conduct a study that involves an in-depth evaluation of:The mining projects whose titles overlap with protected areas
The environmental impacts of the exploration projects whose environmental licenses are being processed but haven’t been approved
Unmonitored mining projects in the exploration phase
“Once this characterization is done, the ministries must make an inventory of mining environmental liabilities and implement preventive and corrective measures for such problems,” the ruling reads. “Some of the measures should be implemented in the short-term (one year), others in the medium-term (two years) and others in the long-term (five years).”
The ministries were also exhorted to formulate new bills and regulations meant to fill the gaps in the procedure for evaluating mining titles; the legal mechanisms to preserve biodiversity; the process of extracting resources from protected ecosystems; the regulation related to environmental liabilities and the possibility of requiring an environmental license during the exploration phase.
The ministries were also ordered to update their mining-environmental guides and terms of reference, to adjust them to the provisions of article 19 of Law 1753 of 2015.
“To present and execute specific actions aimed at improving the relationship between the mining and environmental sectors, the ministries of environment and mines must also set up an inter-institutional working group that involves delegates from regional autonomous corporations, sustainable development corporations, the National Authority of Environmental Licences, large urban centers, Colombia’s National Parks, of the ANM, the Government of Antioquia, the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Comptroller General,” the tribunal’s decision states.
GEOLOGY
Africa's oldest dinosaur found in Zimbabwe Agence France-Presse September 01, 2022 The skeleton of Africa's oldest dinosaur was found during two expeditions in 2017 and 2019
Murphy Allen Virginia Tech University/AFP
Scientists in Zimbabwe have discovered the remains of Africa's oldest dinosaur, which roamed the earth around 230 million years ago.
The dinosaur, named Mbiresaurus raathi, was only about one metre (3.2 feet) tall, with a long tail, and weighed up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds), according to the international team of paleontologists that made the discovery.
"It ran around on two legs and had a fairly small head," Christopher Griffin, the scientist who unearthed the first bone, told AFP on Thursday.
Probably an omnivore that ate plants, small animals and insects, the dinosaur belongs to the sauropodomorph species, the same linage that would later include giant long-necked dinosaurs, said Griffin, a 31-year-old researcher at Yale University.
The skeleton was found during two expeditions in 2017 and 2019 by a team of researchers from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the United States.
"I dug out the entire femur and I knew in that moment, that it was a dinosaur and I was holding Africa's oldest known dinosaur fossil," said Griffin, who at the time was a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech University. His team's findings were first published in journal Nature on Wednesday.
Dinosaurs' remains from the same era had previously been found only in South America and India.
The paleontologists selected the Zimbabwe site for digging after calculating that when all continents were connected in a single land mass known as Pangea, it laid roughly at the same latitude of earlier findings in modern day South America.
"Mbiresaurus raathi is remarkably similar to some dinosaurs of the same age found in Brazil and Argentina, reinforcing that South America and Africa were part of continuous landmass during the Late Triassic," said Max Langer of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
The dinosaur is named after the Mbire district, northeast of Zimbabwe, where the skeleton was found, and paleontologist Michael Raath, who first reported fossils in this region.
"What this (discovery) does is it broadens the range that we knew the very first dinosaurs lived in," Griffin said.
Africa's oldest dinosaur found in Zimbabwe
By Shingai Nyoka & Oliver Slow BBC News, Harare & London
PublishedShare
IMAGE SOURCE,ANDREY ATUCHIN / VIRGINIA TECH
Image caption,
An artistic reconstruction of the Mbiresaurus raathi
Scientists have unearthed in Zimbabwe the remains of Africa's oldest dinosaur, which lived more than 230 million years ago.
The Mbiresaurus raathi was one metre tall, ran on two legs and had a long neck and jagged teeth.
Scientists said it was a species of sauropodomorph, a relative of the sauropod, which walked on four legs.
The skeleton was discovered during two expeditions, in 2017 and 2019, to the Zambezi Valley.
"When we talk of the evolution of early dinosaurs, fossils from the Triassic age are rare," Darlington Munyikwa, deputy director of National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, and who was part of the expeditions, told the BBC.
He said that fossils from that era - which ended more than 200 million years ago - had been unearthed in South America, India and now Zimbabwe.
The find is expected to shed more light on evolution and migration of early dinosaurs, back when the world was one huge continent and Zimbabwe was at the same latitude as those countries, he said.
Zimbabwe has been aware of other fossils in the area for decades and Mr Munyikwa said there were more sites that needed further exploration in the area, subject to funding availability.
"It shows that dinosaurs didn't start out worldwide, ruling the world from the very beginning," Christopher Griffin, another scientist involved in the expedition, told the BBC.
"They, and the animals they lived with, seem to have been constrained to a particular environment in the far south - what is today South America, southern Africa and India."
IMAGE SOURCE,STEPHEN TOLAN/VIRGINIA TECH
Image caption,
Christopher Griffin in 2017, excavating part of the Mbiresaurus raathi skeleton
He added that the find was the "oldest definitive dinosaur ever found in Africa".
Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, a palaeontologist at the University of Cape Town, told the BBC that the discovery was important because it was part of the lineage that gave rise to the sauropod dinosaurs, which includes the diplodocus and the brontosaurus.
"It tells us that when dinosaurs were evolving, they were found on different continents, but they seem to have followed a hot humid environment rather than dry inhospitable one," she told the BBC. "We hope there is more coming out of that area."
She added that the area where the discovery took place had seen recent gas mining exploration.
"I hope that there is a strict policy in place to ensure that if they encounter fossils, they hand them over to the museums, so we don't lose that material," she said.
The near-complete skeleton of the Mbiresaurus raathi is stored in a room in a museum in Zimbabwe's southern city of Bulawayo. It is thought to date to the Carnian stage of the Triassic period, when today's Zimbabwe was part of the massive supercontinent Pangaea.
Dinosaurs were believed to be well adapted to the high latitudes where today's Zimbabwe is located, which were humid and had ample vegetation.
GEMOLOGY Lucapa finds Angola mine’s sixth-largest white diamond
Australia’s Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) has recovered a 160-carat white Type IIa diamond at its prolific Lulo mine in Angola, the sixth-largest recovered at the operation to date.
The diamond was found at the same alluvial mining block as the Lulo Rose, a 170-carat pink-coloured diamond believed to be the largest of its kind found in Angola in 300 years.
Lucapa has a 40% stake in the Lulo mine, which hosts the world’s highest dollar-per-carat alluvial diamonds. The rest is held by Angola’s national diamond company (Endiama) and Rosas & Petalas, a private entity.
The partners have now recovered 28 stones exceeding 100 carats, with the Lulo Rose the fifth largest, regardless of its colour, found at the mine.
In 2016, the operation yielded the largest ever diamond recovered in Angola — a 404-carat white stone later named the “4th February Stone.”
Chief executive officer Stephen Wetherall told delegates at a conference on Friday that his company was working to discover the source of the large stones in Angola.
“Over eight years of consistent commercial mining, we have been recovering large, irregular shapes and high value diamonds consistently. Size and shape matters. Why? Because it’s an indicator of proximity to source,” Wetherall said in his presentation.
He also said the diamond market fundamentals are strong and will remain so as supply continues to decrease.
According to Lucapa, 177 million carats were produced in 2005, compared to only 116 million last year. The 2020 closure of Rio Tinto’s iconic Argyle diamond mine, the main global source of high-quality pink diamonds over the past three decades, and the imminent closure of Canada’s Diavik and Ekati mines, will accentuate this trend, Wetherall said.
Lucapa estimates that, as no new mines are being developed to make up for lost production, 15% of the global diamond supply will disappear from the market by 2030.
Artificial intelligence takes centre stage at an opera in Dresden
DPA September 02, 2022 The team behind a new opera taking the stage in the German city of Dresden are allowing artificial intelligence to take charge of one entire scene. Daniel Koch/Semperoper Dresden/dpa
The team behind a new opera taking the stage in the German city of Dresden are allowing artificial intelligence to take charge of one entire scene. Daniel Koch/Semperoper Dresden/dpa
When Dresden's opera house opens presents its latest show, one of the main characters on the stage will not be like the other ones.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be centre stage, composing, texting and singing in a world first at the opening of the new season with a piece later travelling on to Hong Kong in November.
"Chasing Waterfalls" is the first ever opera in which AI creates parts of the music, text and interpretation at times, live and with full autonomy, the opera house says.
The character starring at the Semperoper Dresden will appear as an 8-metre kinetic light sculpture operated by AI.
In one of the seven scenes, the AI takes sole charge while in others, it interacts with human performers.
Director and media artist Sven Sören Beyer says he finds the interplay between people and machines fascinating. "Dancing points of light in the sky touch us emotionally, for example, whether they are shooting stars or are generated by technology," he says.
"We try to fathom these mechanisms artistically: When does technology become emotional, how can people be touched by the use of technology."
Beyer sees "Chasing Waterfalls" as an important contribution when it comes to debates about the future, and questions about how far people will let artificial processes make decisions that influence their lives.
AI already surrounds us today, making profiles of us, sending us tailored ads and making suggestions of what to listen to, watch and buy.
"The digital world has long been influencing real decisions," Beyer says. He is excited about possibility of making something new with AI, in what he sees as a major creative opportunity.
While AI apps to create works of art are proliferating, Beyer believes the same creative approach can be applied to music, in his view.
"It's exciting to take this step and no longer have everything in your hands," he says, referring to the scene in which artificial intelligence writes, composes and sings its own aria - about itself.
The piece was created with the help of Norwegian soprano Eir Inderhaug, who spent two weeks in a recording studio to provide the voice for the technology.
The AI then developed the content alone, after being given the following instruction: "Write an opera aria in which you reflect on yourself. You are allowed to be cynical and humorous."
The author of the opera's script, librettist Christiane Neudecker, initally had her doubts even though she has experimented with AI text generators in the past.
She later came to accept AI as a creative partner, however. "The exchange was surprisingly inspiring, also on a poetic and content level," says Neudecker.
The passage of text will be created shortly before the performance, though Beyer will sign off on each text the AI writes.
"We were surprised in one of the scenes as it now contains content that we weren't familiar with. That's the experiment," says Beyer.
That doesn't mean it has to apply to the whole of the opera though, he says. The team felt it was important to have a plot line. "The human ego winds up in an identity crisis, amid all its digital projection surfaces and representations of itself, and is forced to re-locate itself."
Soprano Inderhaug stars in the work, playing herself as well as her digital twin.
In all, the performance features six vocal soloists, a virtual voice and a chamber orchestra, in a piece that lasts 70 minutes.
The opera is a co-production of the Semperoper Dresden and phase7 performing.arts Berlin with the New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong artist Angus Lee, as co-composer and conductor, will be on the podium leading the musicians.
The work is then set travel to the New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong for a performance in November.
Val Demings says she supports abortion up to ‘time of viability’ after Rubio attacks
2022/09/02
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS
MIAMI — U.S. Rep. Val Demings said Friday she supports women or girls having the right to an abortion “up to the time of viability of the fetus,” a day after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio attacked the Florida congresswoman for supporting “abortion on demand, taxpayer-funded at any point in a pregnancy.”
During a campaign stop at the University of Miami, Demings told the Miami Herald that while she knows fetus viability is widely considered to be at 24 weeks, she believes that every woman or girl should have the right to consult with a doctor to make a decision to end a pregnancy.
“Marco Rubio has a lot of damn nerve to talk about me. ... A woman or girl should have the right to an abortion up to the time of viability of the fetus. So which part of that does Marco Rubio not understand?” Demings said.
She went on to say that the conversation around abortion should be particularly nuanced when it comes to victims of abuse, and making individual and private decisions about their bodies.
“Yes, we’ve heard 24 weeks, but a medical professional should be able to help a family who’s having to make that tough decision, answer that question. So Marco can say whatever he wants to say. And his enablers can say whatever they want to say,” Demings said.
“A part of this whole discussion about a woman’s right to choose is also about her right to privacy, that she should be able to make that decision with her family ... based on her faith and with her doctor. I think that women, each woman, each child who may be the victim of abuse, sexual abuse, should be able to sit down with the doctor and let their doctor tell them what the point of viability is,” Demings added.
Last week, Demings gave a similar response on her position on access to abortion during an interview with CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede. When pressed on the issue, she said she supported access to abortion up to the point when a fetus becomes viable.
On Thursday, Rubio attacked Demings over her stance on abortion, an issue that has defined much of Demings’ campaign after the U.S. Supreme Court oveturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. During an event with religious leaders in Davie, Rubio said society should give precedence to “life” if the rights of a mother and a fetus are in conflict.
“You have the right of what happens to her (the mother) which she possesses from God, and a right of an unborn innocent human being to live, and these rights are in conflict, as rights sometimes are. A society has to decide which of these two rights are we going to give precedence. And I just believe with all my heart, that if you’re not a society that gives precedence to life, above every other right, then you’re headed in a very dangerous direction,” Rubio said.
When asked by journalists why he supports making abortion illegal despite broad support for access to abortion by most Florida voters, Rubio said the issue would now be up to the states to discuss.
“I would argue that people like Val Demings and others need to tell us what abortions do they think should not be allowed. Should we be allowed to abort a child in the ninth month? In the day they’re supposed to be born? I think that’s pretty egregious. They refuse to answer that question,” Rubio said.
Demings also reacted to Rubio’s comments on giving precedence to the life of a fetus, saying his position was “dangerous” and “un-American.”
“I’m just absolutely shocked and extremely disappointed,” she said. “Senator Rubio believes that there should be no exception, regardless of the circumstances of that conception. Regardless, if the person was raped, sexually abused the victim of incest, or regardless of the age. But then to say that the seed of the person’s rapist matters more than the person? The mother? I think that’s disgraceful.”
