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Year: 2024

‘Great asset’: Radical Dems, socialists thrilled by Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz

‘Great asset’: Radical Dems, socialists thrilled by Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate has been met with delight by radicals and socialists throughout the U.S., fueling Republicans who say the two form a radical left-wing ticket. Walz was announced as the pick for the 2024 Democratic ticket Tuesday, shocking many who thought Harris might choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has been portrayed by Democrats as “more moderate.” Some left-wingers had lobbied against Shapiro and reacted with delight to the pick of Walz, who has embraced a number of left-wing positions on issues like immigration. Many heralded the pick as one of their own. ‘THANK YOU KAMALA!’: GLEEFUL REPUBLICANS RIP TIM WALZ AS GOP READIES TO BATTLE PROGRESSIVE DEM TICKET “Harris choosing Walz as a running mate has shown the world that [Democratic Socialists of America] and our allies on the left are a force that cannot be ignored. Through collective action, DSA and the US left more broadly have made it clear that change is needed. DSA members organized in our workplaces and unions to realign the labor movement to support Palestinian liberation,” Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist group in the U.S., posted to X Tuesday.  Democratic socialist icon Bernie Sanders, who had urged Harris to pick Walz as her running mate, was similarly delighted. “[Walz] is a great asset to [Harris’] winning campaign & administration. He is a former public school teacher, football coach, and strong union supporter,” Sanders said on X. “As governor, he delivered for working families in MN. As VP, he will deliver for the working families of the US.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., described the pick as an “excellent decision.” DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS GROUP BOASTS IT HELPED MAKE WALZ HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE “Together, they will govern effectively, inclusively, and boldly for the American people. They won’t back down under tight odds, either – from healthcare to school lunch,” she said on X. “Let’s do this.” Fellow “Squad” member Ilhan Omar was similarly gushing about Walz. “Our North Star state Governor has signed universal school meals, paid family and sick leave, marijuana legalization, and protections for reproductive rights into law,” she said. “Bringing Minnesota nice to the ticket.” “It’s Walz baby let’s go!!” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said. While there is rarely such a thing as a bad endorsement, it has given fuel to Republicans who have sought to paint the Harris-Walz ticket as far left. “Harris Feels the Bern and picks Walz. Thank you, Kamala! Governor Tim Walz is a dream for the radical Left,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE FACES RENEWED SCRUTINY AFTER HIS ‘WEIRD’ SOCIALISM COMPARISON RESURFACES “The Democrat Party makes history as they anoint Harris-Walz to the ballot this November representing the most radical Far Left wing ticket in history,” said House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. “Walz was a failed Member of Congress, is a failed Governor who supported Defund the Police BLM that torched cities to the ground. All while Kamala fundraised to bail out violent criminals from prison.” Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., of the neighboring state of Wisconsin, wrote in a statement, “While Minnesota burned, Tim Walz did nothing and watched. While Minnesota burned, Kamala Harris helped violent rioters get out of jail. This is the SOCIALIST dream.” Walz has been dismissive of socialist comparisons, even painting it in a positive light by associating it with “neighborliness.” “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” the Minnesota Democrat said on a “White Dudes for Harris” call last week. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Fox News’ Emma Colton, Liz Elkind and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

DR Congo military court sentences 26 armed group members to death

DR Congo military court sentences 26 armed group members to death

The Congolese government in March had lifted a moratorium on the death penalty that was in place since 2003. A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sentenced 26 people accused of involvement in armed groups, including the M23, to death after a high-profile trial that started late last month. Corneille Nangaa, the leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) was found guilty of war crimes, participation in an insurrection and treason. Nangaa and 20 other defendants were sentenced to death in absentia on Thursday, as they are currently on the run. The five accused who were present for the trial have five days to appeal the sentence, the president of the court said. The prosecutor in the trial, which began on July 24, had called for death sentences against 25 of the defendants and a 20-year jail term for one defendant. Nangaa, the former president of the DRC’s electoral commission, launched the AFC political-military movement in December with the aim of uniting armed groups, political parties and civil society against the government. One of its members is the M23 armed group accused of mass killings in eastern DRC’s decades-long conflict. The key M23 figures on trial included its president Bertrand Bisimwa, military chief Sultani Makenga and spokespeople Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka. In a text message from an undisclosed location, Nangaa told The Associated Press news agency that “this nauseating judicial saga reinforces our struggle for democratic normality in Congo”. In March, the Congolese government defied criticism from human rights organisations and lifted a moratorium on the death penalty that had been in place since 2003, aiming to target military personnel accused of treason. President Felix Tshisekedi, along with the United States and United Nations experts, accuses neighbouring Rwanda of giving military backing to the Tutsi-led M23, which has seized huge swaths of territory in eastern DRC since late 2021. Racked by conflict for more than 30 years, the DRC’s instability is caused by complex and deep-seated factors, as well as a multitude of actors. M23 is among dozens of rebel groups active in the DRC’s restive east, many the legacy of a regional conflict that erupted in the 1990s after the fall of longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Tshisekedi has accused his predecessor Joseph Kabila of preparing an “insurrection” and of belonging to the AFC. “The AFC is him,” he told the Congolese radio station Top Congo in Belgium, where he is staying for medical treatment, on Tuesday. In 2019, Kabila handed over power to Tshisekedi, a former opponent, proclaimed winner of the controversial December 2018 presidential election. Several members of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) party joined the AFC and are awaiting the verdict of a military court in Kinshasa, where they could face the death penalty. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Never say goodbye’: Can AI bring the dead back to life?

‘Never say goodbye’: Can AI bring the dead back to life?

In a world where artificial intelligence can resurrect the dead, grief takes on a new dimension. From Canadian singer Drake’s use of AI-generated Tupac Shakur vocals to Indian politicians addressing crowds years after their passing, technology is blurring the lines between life and death. But beyond their uncanny pull in entertainment and politics, AI “zombies” might soon become a reality for people reeling from the loss of loved ones, through a series of pathbreaking, but potentially controversial, initiatives. So how do AI “resurrections” work, and are they as dystopian as we might imagine? What are AI ‘resurrections’ of people? Over the past few years, AI projects around the world have created digital “resurrections” of individuals who have passed away, allowing friends and relatives to converse with them. Typically, users provide the AI tool with information about the deceased. This could include text messages and emails or simply be answers to personality-based questions. The AI tool then processes that data to talk to the user as if it were the deceased. One of the most popular projects in this space is Replika – a chatbot that can mimic people’s texting styles. Other companies, however, now also allow you to see a video of the dead person as you talk to them. For example, Los Angeles-based StoryFile uses AI to allow people to talk at their own funerals. Before passing, a person can record a video sharing their life story and thoughts. During the funeral, attendees can ask questions and AI technology will select relevant responses from the prerecorded video. In June, US-based Eternos also made headlines for creating an AI-powered digital afterlife of a person. Initiated just earlier this year, this project allowed 83-year-old Michael Bommer to leave behind a digital version of himself that his family could continue to interact with. Do these projects help people? When a South Korean mother reunited with an AI recreation of her dead daughter in virtual reality, a video of the emotional encounter in 2020 sparked an intense debate online about whether such technology helps or hurts its users. Developers of such projects point to the users’ agency, and say that it addresses a deeper suffering. Jason Rohrer, founder of Project December, which also uses AI to stimulate conversations with the dead, said that most users are typically going through an “unusual level of trauma and grief” and see the tool as a way to help cope. “A lot of these people who want to use Project December in this way are willing to try anything because their grief is so insurmountable and so painful to them.” The project allows users to chat with AI recreations of known public figures and also with individuals that users may know personally. People who choose to use the service for stimulating conversation with the dead often discover that it helps them find closure, Rohrer said. The bots allow them to express words left unsaid to loved ones who died unexpectedly, he added. Eternos’s founder, Robert LoCasio, said that he developed the company to capture people’s life stories and allow their loved ones to move forward. Bommer, his former colleague who passed away in June, wanted to leave behind a digital legacy exclusively for his family, said LoCasio. “I spoke with [Bommer] just days before he passed away and he said, just remember, this was for me. I don’t know if they’d use this in the future, but this was important to me,” said LoCasio. What are the pitfalls of this technology? Some experts and observers are more wary of AI resurrections, questioning whether deeply grieving people can really make the informed decision to use it, and warning about its adverse psychological effects. “The biggest concern that I have as a clinician is that mourning is actually very important. It’s an important part of development that we are able to acknowledge the missing of another person,” said Alessandra Lemma, consultant at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Prolonged use could keep people from coming to terms with the absence of the other person, leaving them in a state of “limbo”, Lemma warned. Indeed, one AI service has marketed a perpetual connection with the deceased person as a key feature. “Welcome to YOV (You, Only Virtual), the AI startup pioneering advanced digital communications so that we Never Have to Say Goodbye to those we love,” read the company’s website, before it was recently updated. Rohrer said that his grief bot has an “in-built” limiting factor: users pay $10 for a limited conversation. The fee buys time on a supercomputer, with each response varying in computational cost. This means $10 doesn’t guarantee a fixed number of responses, but can allow for one to two hours of conversation. As the time is about to lapse, users are sent a notification and can say their final goodbyes. Several other AI-generated conversational services also charge a fee for use. Lemma, who has researched the psychological impact of grief bots, says that while she worries about the prospects of them being used outside a therapeutic context, it could be used safely as an adjunct to therapy with a trained professional. Studies around the world are also observing the potential for AI to deliver mental health counselling, particularly through individualised conversational tools. These services may appear to be straight out of a Black Mirror episode. But supporters of this technology argue that the digital age is simply ushering in new ways of preserving life stories, and potentially filling a void left by the erosion of traditional family storytelling practices. “In the olden days, if a parent knew they were dying, they would leave boxes full of things that they might want to pass on to a child or a book,” said Lemma. “So, this might be the 21st-century version of that, which is then passed on and is created by the parents in anticipation of their passing.” LoCasio at Eternos agrees. “The ability for a human to tell the stories of

Thailand’s disbanded opposition party relaunches under new name, leader

Thailand’s disbanded opposition party relaunches under new name, leader

Move Forward Party has been renamed the People’s Party, the largest in parliament, and has promised to advance reforms. Thailand’s main opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) has relaunched with a new name and leader after being forced to disband by a court this week. The new party will be led by tech entrepreneur Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut and known as Prachachon, party representative Parit Wacharasindhu told journalists in the capital, Bangkok, on Friday. It will be referred to as the People’s Party in English. “The reason for this name is because we would like to be a party by the people, from the people, for the people, to move Thailand forward so that people can be the supreme power,” Parit said. MFP, which won the most seats in last year’s election, was blocked from forming a government and was ordered to dissolve in a unanimous ruling by the constitutional court on Wednesday. Its executive board members were banned from politics for 10 years. While 10 MFP members have been banned, 143 of the party’s politicians who kept their seats in parliament have joined the new party. The court said it violated the constitution when it pledged to amend the country’s strict royal defamation law. The European Union, United States, United Nations and human rights groups blasted the court’s decision, which the EU said harmed democratic openness in Thailand. Natthaphong, 37, told a news conference that Prachachon will carry on MFP’s ideology. “The mission for me and the party is to create a government for change in 2027,” he said, referring to Thailand’s next national election. MFP’s liberal agenda won significant support from young and urban voters – but also earned it some powerful enemies – with plans that include reforming the military and dismantling business monopolies worth billions of dollars each year. Its bid to amend a law on royal insults riled influential generals and royalists with far-reaching connections, who see the monarchy as sacrosanct. Thailand’s lese-majeste law is one of the world’s strictest, with punishments of up to 15 years for each perceived insult of the crown. Although the court in a January ruling ordered MFP to drop its campaign, Natthaphong said the new party would continue the push to change the law, known as Article 112. “We have said we propose to amend Article 112 to ensure that this law is not a political tool used to abuse others, but we won’t be careless,” Natthaphong said. The People’s Party is the third incarnation of the Future Forward Party, which was dissolved for a campaign financing violation in 2020, triggering nationwide antigovernment protests. Adblock test (Why?)