Sonic booms – the psychological warfare Israel uses to sow fear in Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon – The first time Eliah Kaylough, 26, heard the thunderous blast, he was so terrified, he instinctively ran for cover. On Tuesday this week, he had just started his shift as a waiter at a restaurant on bustling Gemmayze Street in east Beirut when he was suddenly startled by the sound of a major blast. For Kaylough, it immediately triggered memories of the massive port explosion in 2020 and he was terrified the city was either experiencing a new explosion or that it was under attack. But as he was racing out of the restaurant, a man from a nearby shop stopped him and explained that Beirut wasn’t being bombed. The sound, Kaylough discovered, was a sonic boom, a thunderous noise caused by an object moving faster than the speed of sound. Israeli jets have been increasingly triggering these sonic booms over Lebanon since October 7 last year, following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas. But the booms which sounded over Beirut on Tuesday were the loudest that had been heard in the city, several residents told Al Jazeera. Kaylough said that it was the first time that he had heard one since Israel tends to launch sonic booms in other parts of the country and city. “The sound was terrifying and I really thought we were under attack,” Kaylouh told Al Jazeera on Thursday evening at the restaurant, where he was back working a shift. “I remember putting on my hat and grabbing my bag and I was ready to close up shop.” Since October, the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, and Israel have been engaged in a low-level conflict. On Friday, Israel stepped up its attacks, killing Hamas official Samer al-Hajj in a drone attack on the coastal city of Sidon, about 50km (30 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border. Throughout the Gaza war, however, Israel has been launching sonic booms by flying jets at low altitudes over Lebanon in an apparent effort to intimidate and terrify the population, analysts and residents told Al Jazeera. “We are concerned about the reported use of sonic booms by Israeli aircrafts over Lebanon that has caused great fear among the civilian population,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Parties in armed conflict should not use methods of intimidation against a civilian population.” Indeed, sonic booms heard earlier this week occurred just two days after the anniversary of the August 4, 2020 Beirut-port explosion, which devastated large swaths of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The blast was caused by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of highly combustible ammonium nitrate was being stored. Tuesday’s sonic boom was triggered just moments before Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was about to begin a speech. Last month, tensions between the foes escalated after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior commander, Fuad Shukr, in Lebanon and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital Tehran. Civil defence workers extinguish a fire in a car after it was hit by an Israeli strike, killing a Hamas official, in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, on Friday, August 9, 2024 [Mohammed Zaatari/AP] Systematic use of ‘sound terror’ The use of sonic booms is part of a broader trend of psychological warfare that Israel wages against the Lebanese population, according to Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a sound expert and the founder of Earshot, a nonprofit that conducts audio analysis to track human rights abuses and state violence. Abu Hamdan said that since the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, which lasted 34 days and left 1,100 Lebanese nationals and 165 Israelis dead, Israel has routinely violated Lebanese airspace with its fighter jets to scare civilians. “Since the truce of 2006, there have been more than 22,000 Israeli air violations of Lebanon. In 2020 alone, there were more than 2,000 [air violations] with no response from Hezbollah, Abu Hamdan told Al Jazeera. Abu Hamdan believes that, since last October, Israel has also been using sonic booms as an “acoustic reminder that [Israel] can turn Lebanon into Gaza at any point”. He said Israel’s increasing use of sonic booms reflects the escalation in conflict with Hezbollah over the past several months. “There is an escalation and we are seeing that escalation in sound. The next phase to the escalation is, of course, material destruction,” Abu Hamdan said. Beirut resident Rana Farhat, 28, said Israel’s scare tactics are having the desired effect. She heard the August 6 sonic booms while having dinner with her family at a restaurant in a town north of Beirut. They were startled when they heard the sound of an explosion, but her parents tried to reassure her and her siblings that Beirut was not being attacked. Everyone quickly checked their phones to find out what was going on. “We were all checking the news to see if it was an explosion or not,” Farhat, 28, said, while smoking shisha in a Beirut cafe on Thursday night. “There were little children in the restaurant and they were clearly scared. They don’t understand what such sounds mean.” Recurring trauma The murmur of fighter jets and other blast-like noises can re-traumatise populations that have survived previous explosions and wars, Abu Hamdan said. Over the long term, recurring jet and blast sounds can even increase the risk of stroke and deplete calcium deposits in the heart, according to medical studies he cited. “Once you have been exposed to [jet or blast] sounds that have produced the sort of fear that they have in this country, then whenever you hear it – even quietly – it will produce the same stress response [in an individual],” Abu Hamdan explained. Kaylough said that the sonic booms he heard on Tuesday this week transported him back to the Beirut port explosion. That day, he was working in a mall when a sudden blast shattered the glass around him and blew the doors off the hinges of the store he was working in. “The sound was so loud. I remember people were
‘Bloody massacre’: Reactions to Israeli attack on Gaza school
An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City has killed more than 100 people including women and children, according to Palestinian officials, who expect the death toll to rise. The Israeli army on Saturday claimed its air forces struck a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders” at the al-Tabin school. It did not provide evidence and said it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians, while dismissing the death toll from Palestinian officials as inaccurate. Here are some reactions to the attack: Hamas “The massacre at al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighbourhood in central Gaza City is a horrific crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation,” said the movement that governs the Gaza Strip. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, said there were no armed men at the school. Hamas said in its statement that Israel’s claims of the school being used as the group’s command centre are “excuses to target civilians, schools, hospitals, and refugee tents, all of which are false pretexts and exposed lies to justify its crimes”. “We call on our Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and halt the escalating Zionist aggression against our people and defenseless citizens,” the statement ends. Ismail al-Thawabta, the director general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, called on the international community and United Nations Security Council “to pressure Israel to end this cascading bloodbath among our people, namely innocent women and children”. Fatah Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction that last month signed a “national unity” agreement with Hamas, said the attack was a “heinous bloody massacre” that represents the “peak of terrorism and criminality”. “Committing these massacres confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt its efforts to exterminate our people through the policy of cumulative killing and mass massacres that make living consciences tremble,” it said in a statement. Iran Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the Israeli government’s goal was to thwart ceasefire negotiations and continue the war. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Israel had again shown that it wasn’t committed to international law, as he condemned the attack as genocide and a war crime. He urged immediate action from the UN Security Council and said Israel’s actions in Gaza were a threat to international peace and security. Egypt The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israel’s “deliberate killing” of unarmed Palestinians shows that it lacks the political will to end the war in Gaza. It accused Israel of repeatedly committing “large-scale crimes” against “unarmed civilians” whenever there is an international push for a ceasefire, in a statement cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency. It said such attacks reflect “an unprecedented disregard” for international law. Egypt, the United States and Qatar have called for a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears grow of a broader conflict, involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned the world’s “indifference” to mass bloodshed in Gaza following the attack. “Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons,” Albanese posted on X. “May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honouring the most basic meaning of international law.” Gaza: In the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century, Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European… https://t.co/bHmrFbySYi — Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 10, 2024 Jordan The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said Israel’s attack goes against “all humanitarian values” and is “an indication of the Israeli government’s attempt to block [peace] efforts and postpone them”. It added that “the absence of a decisive international stance to restrain Israeli aggression and compel it to respect international law and stop its aggression against Gaza” was resulting in unprecedented killings, deaths and human catastrophe”. Adblock test (Why?)
Migrant workers sent $650bn overseas last year – what it means
Mina Hamid*, who hails from Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the Netherlands at the age of 11, says she will never forget the first time she sent money to help her family members back home. “I was in my late teenage years, and Afghanistan was reeling under the impact of natural disasters and conflicts, making it hard for my extended family members to afford basic necessities. So I began sending between 20 and 30 euros [$21 to $32] occasionally – money I earned from my student job – seeking to support them,” Hamid told Al Jazeera. The 36-year-old, who now lives and works for the European Union in Belgium, continues transferring money every three months to her extended family members in Afghanistan. “The man of the house works as a security guard and his wife is a teacher, but working conditions are hard and wages are low. Together, they earn around 200 to 300 euros [$217 to $325] a month. So the money I send covers their apartment’s rent, which is about 150 euros [$163] in Kabul and gives them the chance to spend their wages on food, clothes and other items their two children might need,” Hamid said. Like Hamid, millions of migrants around the world engage in the practice of sending money or in-kind transfers known as remittances to their family members or communities in their countries of origin. Remittances have grown substantially over the past two decades, rising from about $128bn in 2000 to $831bn in 2022, according to the World Bank. In June, the World Bank reported that remittances to low and middle income countries alone reached an estimated $656bn last year and surpassed foreign direct investment, which are investments made by companies in a foreign country, and development aid made by other countries. These remittances to low and middle income countries are expected to grow at a rate of 2.3 percent in 2024, the World Bank added. Where is money being sent from and to where? Many of the remittances to low and middle income countries originate from the United States, Western European countries and countries that are a part of the Gulf Cooperation Council like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In 2023, the US remained the largest source of remittances, according to the World Bank. The bank noted that strong labour markets in the US have made it a primary destination for migrants, leading to more remittances from the country. The Gulf is also a major hub for migrants, but in 2023, the World Bank noted that weaker oil prices impacted outward remittances. Remittance outflows to East Asia and the Pacific, excluding China, grew last year to $85bn. China alone received $50bn while remittances to South Asia grew by 5.2 percent to $186bn. India was the biggest recipient of remittances at $125bn. Strong labour markets in the US are one of the main reasons for the rise in outflows. Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa fell to $55bn, and sub-Saharan African and Latin American nations also saw declines, receiving $54bn and $156bn respectively. Remittances to Europe and Central Asia also fell by 10.3 percent to $71bn. Weaker oil prices in the Gulf and conflicts in these regions influenced remittances, according to the World Bank. Why has there been a rise in remittances? Killian Clifford, who focuses on migrant financial and economic empowerment at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that while there has been a general rise in remittances over the past 20 years, a spike over the past five years in particular is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of fintech (financial technology) platforms, which are enabling faster and cheaper transfers of money. “What we saw during the COVID pandemic was because borders were closed, informal routes of sending money did not work since people could not travel or pay in person. So there was a rise in formal remittance numbers – transfers that go through formal bank or money transfer organisations – which can easily be accounted for,” Clifford told Al Jazeera. Fintech and other digital payment platforms have successfully tapped into the remittance market, bringing down the average cost of remittances by 30 percent over the past 10 years, which has also boosted the number of money transfers being made, he added. Clifford said governments and financial regulatory bodies around the world have been creating an environment to enable remittance flows, such as allowing people who may have been excluded from the financial system to have payment accounts in banks, making it easier to send money. What do remittances mean to migrants? Manasse Massuama, whose family moved to Belgium in 1990 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), sees remittances as “a bridge that binds diaspora communities with the people living in their homelands”. “It’s a way of working together, a way of helping and a way of changing situations for friends and family,” said Massuama, who works as a financial consultant and has been sending money to his parents, who have moved back to the DRC, for the past eight years. Thanks to the support, he told Al Jazeera, his family has been able to buy land and become financially stable in the DRC, which has been racked for decades by conflict and poverty. Seventy-four-year-old Maria del Socorro Tejeda, who immigrated to the US from Mexico in 2002 with her three children, feels happy that she has been able to support her family members back home. “I came to this country when I was 52 years old, and I had been sending money every month since my mom was alive back in 2003. When she died, I started sending money to my brothers and my sister,” Tejeda told Al Jazeera. She added that even though she has recently retired, she continues sending a little money every month, which helps her family pay medical bills and other necessities. A man outside a money exchange in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico [File: Jose
Plane with 62 on board crashes in Brazil
NewsFeed Videos show a passenger plane falling from the sky and crashing in a residential area in Brazil. The airline VoePass said 62 people were on board the plane which was heading for São Paulo’s international airport. Fire officials confirmed the plane went down in Vinhedo in São Paulo state, but provided no further details. Published On 9 Aug 20249 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Order by Iran’s Khamenei to ‘punish’ Israel will be implemented: IRGC
Iran is set to carry out an order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination of a Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy commander has said. “The supreme leader’s orders regarding the harsh punishment of Israel and revenge for the blood of martyr Ismail Haniyeh are clear and explicit … and they will be implemented in the best possible way,” Ali Fadavi was quoted as saying by Iranian media on Friday. Hamas political chief Haniyeh, 62, was killed in Iran’s capital, Tehran in July, after attending the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Hamas and Iran have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, but the Israeli government has not confirmed or denied responsibility. Since then, Tehran has promised to retaliate against Israel, which has a history of assassinating foes across the region, including in Iran. Asked by reporters to respond to the Iranian remarks, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, said the United States was ready to defend Israel with plenty of resources in the region. “When we hear rhetoric like that we’ve got to take it seriously, and we do,” Kirby said on Friday. Last week, the United States military also announced the deployment of additional resources to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, amid growing concerns about the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. But the US and other Western countries have also been calling for de-escalation. On Thursday, the US, Qatar and Egypt, issued a joint statement urging Israel and Hamas to resume talks to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the US does not want a wider regional escalation so close to its elections in November. “The fact that Washington – alongside other mediating countries – is pushing for Gaza ceasefire talks to happen … is a sign it wants to put as much pressure on Iran as possible and to delay a potential strike on Israel,” he said. Bishara added, however, that the chances of Netanyahu agreeing to a ceasefire “has almost always been nil”. According to Bishara, Hamas will want real guarantees that the war will not continue, reconstruction will be allowed to take place and Israeli soldiers will withdraw from the enclave. It also remains unclear whether Iran would call off its response to Haniyeh’s assassination if a Gaza ceasefire is reached. On Wednesday, Hamas chose Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, to succeed Haniyeh as the new leader of its political bureau. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, has said that the Qassam Brigades endorses Sinwar and has “full readiness to carry out his decisions”. In a short statement on Friday, Obeida said naming Sinwar as the group’s new political chief proves that Hamas “is still alive and strong”. Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut noted that the potential resumption of ceasefire talks would mark the first round of negotiations with Sinwar acting as Hamas’s leader. It is unclear how Sinwar, who is wanted by Israel and remains at an unknown location in Gaza, will be able to convey messages to the mediators. Salhut added that Netanyahu “is seen as a hardliner himself and has released a list of non-negotiables going into mediation”. “So, it’s yet to be seen exactly what’s going to come of these discussions, but there is certainly a lot of tension throughout the wider region that countries like the United States are trying to quell saying that perhaps a ceasefire deal in Gaza prompt regional stability,” she said. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel steps up attacks in Lebanon, kills Hamas official
Israel carries out deadly air raid in Sidon, deep inside south Lebanon, amid intensifying regional tensions. Israel has stepped up its attacks in Lebanon, killing a Hamas official in the coastal city of Sidon, as the region continues to anticipate Hezbollah’s retaliation for the assassination of its commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut earlier this month. An Israeli drone raid in the coastal city of Sidon on Friday, about 50km (30 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border, killed Hamas official Samer al-Hajj – who was based in the neighbouring Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp. The attack also injured two civilians, according to Lebanese media outlets. Hamas hailed al-Hajj as a “martyr” on Friday. The Israeli military described him as a commander who was responsible for attacks on Israel from Lebanon. Lebanon National News Agency reported that impromptu protests broke out in Sidon on Friday to denounce the killing of al-Hajj. Israel also carried out attacks in border towns and villages, including in Kfar Kila and Meiss el-Jabal, Markaba. The Israeli raids come as Hezbollah officials say that the group will respond to the assassination of Shukr, who was killed along with several civilians in an Israeli air strike in Beirut late in July. Iran is also expected to launch its own retaliatory attack against Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. At the same time, Hezbollah has continued its near-daily clashes with Israel across the border. On Friday, the Lebanese group claimed several attacks against Israel, including targeting buildings used by troops in the northern Israeli town of Dovev and al-Manara and launching rockets against a military base in Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah started attacking military bases in northern Israel the day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian groups. The hostilities have been largely confined to the border region, forcing tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents to flee the area. But the assassination of Shukr in the Dahiyeh suburbs of the Lebanese capital have fuelled fears of escalation between the two sides. Hezbollah maintains that it is not seeking an all-out war, but that it is ready for one should it break out. Last week, the group’s chief Hasan Nasallah said Israel crossed red lines by attacking Beirut, stressing that the retaliation for the killing of Shukr is “inevitable”. The assassination of Shukr was the second Israeli assault on the Lebanese capital and its suburbs this year. In January, an Israeli air raid in Dahiyeh killed Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri. The killing of al-Hajj far from the border on Friday is likely to further fuel tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Reporting from Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig says the Israeli drone attack in Sidon came amid a busy day of cross-border attacks. “Sidon is roughly just over 50km [30 miles] from Lebanon’s southern border and around 40km [25 miles] from the capital, Beirut, and what it shows is that Israel is going deeper into Lebanon,” Baig said. He added that the strike is also “quite significant” due to its timing with Hezbollah expected to launch a major attack on Israel to respond to the killing of Shukr. Adblock test (Why?)
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?)
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?)
‘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
Socialist Salvador Illa elected leader of Spain’s Catalonia
Illa’s confirmation by Catalan parliament ends a decade of separatist regional rule in the northeastern Spanish region. Catalonia’s parliament has confirmed Salvador Illa, an ally of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez whose Socialists came first in May’s regional election, as head of the Catalan government, ending more than a decade of separatist rule. Sanchez praised Illa’s appointment on Thursday, saying that he will be a great president for the regional government in Catalonia. “We have worked together under the most adverse circumstances. I know about your love for Catalonia. I know your temperance, your common sense and your ability to work. Exactly what Catalonia needs,” Sanchez wrote in a social media post. Illa will succeed Pere Aragones, of the Republican Left of Catalonia, which favours Catalan independence. However, in a sign of potential further unease, Illa’s election was upstaged by separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who appeared at a rally in Barcelona, defying an arrest warrant after seven years of self-imposed exile, and then vanished before police could arrest him. Puigdemont told the crowd he aimed to revive the independence drive that plunged Spain into a deep political crisis seven years ago when Catalonia tried to secede from Spain following a referendum deemed illegal by courts. “I’ve come today to remind you that we’re still here,” Puigdemont told thousands of cheering supporters. “Long live Catalonia.” Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya party had come in second in the May elections as he campaigned from France. Independence in Catalonia, a region of 7.5 million people in northeastern Spain, has been a major sticking point in Spanish politics. The 2017 referendum, which was backed by Puigdemont, asked voters whether they “want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic”. The overwhelming majority of voters backed independence, but turnout was at 43 percent as unionists boycotted the election. Spain viewed the poll as illegitimate and cracked down on its organisers, arresting at least 14 officials involved in the push. In 2021, Sanchez pardoned nine Catalan separatist leaders, promising an “era of dialogue”. Puigdemont was not among them. Adblock test (Why?)