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Chinese are criticizing zero-Covid — in language censors don’t seem to understand | CNN

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Chinese are criticizing zero-Covid — in language censors don’t seem to understand | CNN


Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

In lots of nations, cursing on-line in regards to the authorities is so commonplace no person bats a watch. But it surely’s not such a straightforward job on China’s closely censored web.

That doesn’t seem to have stopped residents of Guangzhou from venting their frustration after their metropolis – a worldwide manufacturing powerhouse house to 19 million folks – turned the epicenter of a nationwide Covid outbreak, prompting lockdown measures but once more.

“We needed to lock down in April, after which once more in November,” one resident posted on Weibo, China’s restricted model of Twitter, on Monday – earlier than peppering the publish with profanities that included references to officers’ moms. “The federal government hasn’t supplied subsidies – do you suppose my lease doesn’t price cash?”

Different customers left posts with instructions that loosely translate to “go to hell,” whereas some accused authorities of “spouting nonsense” – albeit in much less well mannered phrasing.

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Such colourful posts are exceptional not solely as a result of they characterize rising public frustration at China’s unrelenting zero-Covid coverage – which makes use of snap lockdowns, mass testing, intensive contact-tracing and quarantines to stamp out infections as quickly as they emerge – however as a result of they continue to be seen in any respect.

Usually such harsh criticisms of presidency insurance policies can be swiftly eliminated by the federal government’s military of censors, but these posts have remained untouched for days. And that’s, most certainly, as a result of they’re written in language few censors will totally perceive.

These posts are in Cantonese, which originated in Guangzhou’s surrounding province of Guangdong and is spoken by tens of thousands and thousands of individuals throughout Southern China. It may be tough to decipher by audio system of Mandarin – China’s official language and the one favored by the federal government – particularly in its written and infrequently complicated slang kinds.

And this seems to be simply the newest instance of how Chinese language persons are turning to Cantonese – an irreverent tongue that provides wealthy prospects for satire – to precise discontent towards their authorities with out attracting the discover of the all-seeing censors.

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People in face masks wait in line for Covid-19 tests in Beijing, China, on November 10.

In September this 12 months, US-based unbiased media monitoring group China Digital Occasions famous quite a few dissatisfied Cantonese posts slipping previous censors in response to mass Covid testing necessities in Guangdong.

“Maybe as a result of Weibo’s content material censorship system has problem recognizing the spelling of Cantonese characters, many posts in spicy, daring and easy language ​​nonetheless survive. But when the identical content material is written in Mandarin, it’s more likely to be blocked or deleted,” stated the group, which is affiliated with the College of California, Berkeley.

In close by Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong, anti-government demonstrators in 2019 typically used Cantonese wordplay each for protest slogans and to protect in opposition to potential surveillance by mainland Chinese language authorities.

Now, Cantonese seems to offer these fed-up with China’s steady zero-Covid lockdowns an avenue for extra refined shows of dissent.

Jean-François Dupré, an assistant professor of political science at Université TÉLUQ who has studied the language politics of Hong Kong, stated the Chinese language authorities’s shrinking tolerance for public criticism has pushed its critics to “innovate” of their communication.

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“It does appear that utilizing non-Mandarin types of communication might allow dissenters to evade on-line censorship, not less than for a while,” Dupré stated.

“This phenomenon testifies to the regime’s insecurity and rising paranoia, and of residents’ persevering with eagerness to withstand regardless of the dangers and hurdles.”

Although Cantonese shares a lot of its vocabulary and writing system with Mandarin, a lot of its slang phrases, expletives and on a regular basis phrases don’t have any Mandarin equal. Its written kind additionally generally depends on not often used and archaic characters, or ones that imply one thing completely completely different in Mandarin, so Cantonese sentences will be tough for Mandarin readers to know.

In comparison with Mandarin, Cantonese is extremely colloquial, typically casual, and lends itself simply to wordplay – making it well-suited for inventing and slinging barbs.

When Hong Kong was rocked by anti-government protests in 2019 – fueled partially by fears Beijing was encroaching on the town’s autonomy, freedoms and tradition – these attributes of Cantonese got here into sharp focus.

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“Cantonese was, after all, an vital conveyor of political grievances through the 2019 protests,” Dupré stated, including that the language gave “a powerful native taste to the protests.”

He pointed to how completely new written characters had been born spontaneously from the pro-democracy motion – together with one which mixed the characters for “freedom” with a preferred profanity.

Different performs on written characters illustrate the infinite creativity of Cantonese, equivalent to a stylized model of “Hong Kong” that, when learn sideways, turns into “add oil” – a rallying cry within the protests.

Protesters additionally discovered methods to guard their communications, cautious that on-line discussion groups – the place they organized rallies and railed in opposition to the authorities – had been being monitored by mainland brokers.

For instance, as a result of spoken Cantonese sounds completely different to spoken Mandarin, some folks experimented with romanizing Cantonese – spelling out the sounds utilizing the English alphabet – thereby making it nearly inconceivable to know for a non-native speaker.

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Protesters at a rally against a proposed extradition law in Hong Kong on May 4, 2019.

And, whereas the protests died down after the Chinese language authorities imposed a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in 2020, Cantonese continues to supply the town’s residents an avenue for expressing their distinctive native id – one thing folks have lengthy feared dropping as the town is drawn additional below Beijing’s grip.

For some, utilizing Cantonese to criticize the federal government appears significantly becoming given the central authorities has aggressively pushed for Mandarin for use nationwide in training and day by day life – as an example, in tv broadcasts and different media – typically on the expense of regional languages and dialects.

These efforts changed into nationwide controversy in 2010, when authorities officers urged rising Mandarin programming on the primarily-Cantonese Guangzhou Tv channel – outraging residents, who took half in uncommon mass avenue rallies and scuffles with police.

It’s not simply Cantonese affected – many ethnic minorities have voiced alarm that the decline of their native languages might spell an finish to cultures and methods of life they are saying are already below risk.

In 2020, college students and fogeys in Inside Mongolia staged mass faculty boycotts over a brand new coverage that changed the Mongolian language with Mandarin in elementary and center faculties.

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Related fears have lengthy existed in Hong Kong – and grew within the 2010s as extra Mandarin-speaking mainlanders started residing and dealing within the metropolis.

“Rising numbers of Mandarin-speaking schoolchildren have been enrolled in Hong Kong faculties and been seen commuting between Shenzhen and Hong Kong every day,” Dupré stated. “By these encounters, the language shift that has been working in Guangdong turned fairly seen to Hong Kong folks.”

He added that these considerations had been heightened by native authorities insurance policies that emphasised the function of Mandarin, and referred to Cantonese as a “dialect” – infuriating some Hong Kongers who noticed the time period as a snub and argued it needs to be known as a “language” as an alternative.

Up to now decade, faculties throughout Hong Kong have been inspired by the federal government to modify to utilizing Mandarin in Chinese language classes, whereas others have switched to educating simplified characters – the written kind most well-liked within the mainland – as an alternative of the standard characters utilized in Hong Kong.

There was additional outrage in 2019 when the town’s training chief urged that continued use of Cantonese over Mandarin within the metropolis’s faculties might imply Hong Kong would lose its aggressive edge sooner or later.

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“Given Hong Kong’s fast financial and political integration, it wouldn’t be stunning to see Hong Kong’s language regime be introduced according to that of the mainland, particularly the place Mandarin promotion is worried,” Dupré stated.

It’s not the primary time folks within the mainland have discovered methods across the censors. Many use emojis to characterize taboo phrases, English abbreviations that characterize Mandarin phrases, and pictures like cartoons and digitally altered pictures, that are tougher for censors to observe.

However these strategies, by their very nature, have their limits. In distinction, for the fed-up residents of Guangzhou, Cantonese gives an infinite linguistic panorama with which to lambast their leaders.

It’s not clear whether or not these extra subversive makes use of of Cantonese will encourage better solidarity between its audio system in Southern China – or whether or not it might encourage the central authorities to additional clamp down on using native dialects, Dupré stated.

A delivery worker delivers a package to the entrance of a locked-down neighborhood in Liwan, Guangzhou, on November 9.

For now although, many Weibo customers have embraced the uncommon alternative to voice frustration with China’s zero-Covid coverage, which has battered the nation’s economic system, remoted it from the remainder of the world, and disrupted folks’s day by day lives with the fixed risk of lockdowns and unemployment.

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“I hope everybody can preserve their anger,” wrote one Weibo person, noting how many of the posts regarding the Guangzhou lockdowns had been in Cantonese.

“Watching Cantonese folks scolding (authorities) on Weibo with out getting caught,” one other posted, utilizing characters that signify laughter.

“Study Cantonese properly, and go throughout Weibo with out concern.”

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Microsoft hires DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to run new consumer AI unit

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Microsoft hires DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to run new consumer AI unit

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Microsoft has hired Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google’s DeepMind and chief executive of artificial intelligence start-up Inflection, to run a new consumer AI unit.

Suleyman, a British entrepreneur who co-founded DeepMind in London in 2010, will report to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, the company announced on Tuesday. He will launch a division of Microsoft that brings consumer-facing products including Microsoft’s Copilot, Bing, Edge and GenAI under one team called Microsoft AI.

It is the latest move by Microsoft to capitalise on the boom in generative AI. It has invested $13bn in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and rapidly integrated its technology into Microsoft products.

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Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has given it an early lead in Silicon Valley’s race to deploy AI, leaving its biggest rival, Google, struggling to catch up. It also has invested in other AI start-ups, including French developer Mistral.

It has been rolling out an AI assistant in its products such as Windows, Office software and cyber security tools. Suleyman’s unit will work on projects including integrating an AI version of Copilot into its Windows operating system and enhancing the use of generative AI in its Bing search engine.

Nadella said in a statement on Tuesday: “I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection, and as a visionary, product maker and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions.”

DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 for $500mn, one of the first large bets by a big tech company on a start-up AI lab. The company faced controversy a few years later over some of its projects, including its work for the UK healthcare sector, which was found by a government watchdog to have been granted inappropriate access to patient records.

Suleyman, who was the main public face for the company, was placed on leave in 2019. DeepMind workers had complained that he had an overly aggressive management style. Addressing staff complaints at the time, Suleyman said: “I really screwed up. I was very demanding and pretty relentless.”

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He moved to Google months later, where he led AI product management. In 2022 he joined Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock and launched Inflection later that year.

Microsoft will also hire most of Inflection’s staff, including Karén Simonyan, co-founder and chief scientist of Inflection, who will be chief scientist of the AI group. Microsoft did not clarify the number of employees moving over but said it included AI engineers, researchers and large language model builders who have designed and co-authored “many of the most important contributions in advancing AI over the last five years”.

Inflection, a rival to OpenAI, will switch its focus from its consumer chatbot, Pi, and instead move to sell enterprise AI software to businesses, according to a statement on its website. Sean White, who has held various technology roles, has joined as its new chief executive.

Inflection’s third co-founder, Reid Hoffman, the founder and executive chair of LinkedIn, will remain on Inflection’s board. Inflection had raised $1.3bn in June, valuing the group at about $4bn, in one of the largest fundraisings by an AI start-up amid an explosion of interest in the sector.

The new unit marks a big organisational shift at Microsoft. Mikhail Parakhin, its president of web services, will move along with his entire team to report to Suleyman.

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“We have a real shot to build technology that was once thought impossible and that lives up to our mission to ensure the benefits of AI reach every person and organisation on the planet, safely and responsibly,” Nadella said.

Competition regulators in the US and Europe have been scrutinising the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI amid a broader inquiry into AI investments.

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Threats, debt and Trump's advances: 'Stormy' doc examines the life of Stormy Daniels

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Threats, debt and Trump's advances: 'Stormy' doc examines the life of Stormy Daniels

Stormy Daniels from the Peacock documentary Stormy.

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Stormy Daniels from the Peacock documentary Stormy.

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The new documentary Stormy begins in 2023 — around the time former President Donald Trump was indicted over hush-money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Stormy Daniels, who was paid by Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to keep quiet about their alleged previous affair, watches the news unfold on TV and then says, “Let’s go,” before she walks off screen.

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Stormy chronicles Daniels’ life from her childhood in Baton Rouge, La., to her rise as an adult film actor and then, in the opinion of some, a feminist hero. It also gives viewers a glimpse into how she went from friend to foe of a celebrity businessman who became president of the United States.

“I am here today to tell my story and even if I just change a few people’s minds, it’s fine. If not, at least my daughter can look back on this and know the truth,” she said in the film.

Trump’s criminal trial over the hush-money payments has been delayed until mid-April. He faces 34 felony counts, alleging he falsified New York business records to conceal damaging information before the 2016 presidential election. Trump denies the allegations that he had an affair with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

On Monday, a judge rejected Trump’s bid to block Cohen and Daniels — whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — from testifying. The trial date will be set at a hearing on March 25.

The film, released Monday on Peacock, mainly captures Daniels’ life between 2018 and 2023. Here are the main takeaways from the documentary:

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1. Daniels explains why she didn’t say no to Trump’s advances back in 2006

Daniels alleged that she was abused by a neighbor in Louisiana when she was 9 years old. She did not go into further detail except to say that the man, whom she did not name, had abused other young girls and has since died.

Later in the film, as Daniels explained why she did not refuse Trump’s advances when the two met in 2006, she said, “I didn’t say no because I just, I was 9 years old again.” At the time, Daniels was in her 20s and Trump was 60.

Though she described the alleged affair as consensual, Daniels said she did not want to have sex with Trump.

“To this day, I blame myself and I have not forgiven myself because I didn’t shut his a** down in that moment, so maybe make him pause before he tried it with someone else,” she said. “The hardest part about all of this is I feel like I am partially responsible for every woman that could have come after me.”

2. Threats against Daniels have become more disturbing

Throughout the film, Daniels is forced to navigate insults and threats hurled at her and her family.

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But she described herself as having thick skin. In one scene from 2018, Daniels joked that she was disappointed she could not find any hate comments on Twitter after she had received a key to West Hollywood from the city’s mayor.

Fast forward to this past year, after Trump’s indictment, Daniels said the hate comments had become more intense and disturbing.

“Back in 2018, there was stuff like ‘liar, s***, gold digger,’ ” she said. “This time around, it is very different. It is direct threats. It is ‘I’m going to come to your house and slit your throat.’ “

Daniels added that she did not feel protected by the justice system, and accused it of ignoring her concerns about her safety.

3. Daniels says her ‘soul is so tired’ but she is willing to testify against Trump

Amid the six-year conflict with Trump, Daniels’ marriage ended, her relationship with her daughter became strained, and she felt her safety was constantly jeopardized.

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But with Trump about to go on trial, Daniels said she’s willing to testify in court against the former president.

“I’m more prepared with my legal knowledge but I’m also tired. Like, my soul is so tired,” she said. “I won’t give up because I’m telling the truth. And I kind of don’t even know if it matters anymore.”

4. Daniels owes Trump over $600,000 in attorney fees

Near the end of the documentary, it’s clear that Daniels also suffered financially as a result of her years-long legal battle against Trump.

In 2018, Daniels sued Trump for defamation. The suit was based on a tweet Trump wrote that year, which suggested Daniels had lied about being threatened in 2011 to not speak out about her alleged previous affair with Trump.

A federal judge later dismissed the suit and ordered Daniels to pay the then-president’s legal fees.

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Daniels appealed but lost. She now owes Trump over $600,000 in attorney fees. The film asserts that Daniels is afraid she may lose her home.

5. Seth Rogen and Jimmy Kimmel speak on Daniels’ behalf

Among the people who appeared in the documentary were actor Seth Rogen and late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel.

Rogen, who worked with Daniels on the 2007 film Knocked Up, recalled talking with her about Trump. At the time, Daniels said she was communicating with Trump about possibly being on his former reality TV show Celebrity Apprentice.

“She didn’t realize she would one day be at the center of this giant thing as she was messing around with some game show host,” Rogen said. “She’s someone who made an enemy of the most powerful guy on the planet and didn’t, like, cower.”

Kimmel invited Daniels to his show in 2018, when Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement about her previous affair with Trump was still in effect.

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Kimmel described Daniels as having a good sense of humor but also afraid of violating her NDA. He nodded to this during their interview, in which he brought out puppets to reenact her interactions with Trump.

“She told the truth and she paid a price for that,” Kimmel said in the film. “It’s not something that just goes away.”

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Calpers to invest more than $30bn in private markets

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Calpers to invest more than $30bn in private markets

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Calpers, the US’s biggest public pension plan, is to increase its holdings in private markets by more than $30bn and reduce its allocation to stock markets and bonds in an effort to improve returns.

A proposal to increase the $483bn fund’s positions in assets such as private equity and private credit from 33 per cent of the plan to 40 per cent was approved on Monday, according to an announcement by the fund and notes from its board meeting. 

The formal approval comes two years after Calpers admitted that a decision to put its private equity programme on hold for 10 years had cost it up to $18bn in returns.

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However, a review of its investment policy found that, despite the gains it had already missed, private equity was still the asset class with the highest expected long-term total return.

“Strong and ongoing growth in private equity returns is behind this measured and appropriate increase,” said Calpers trustee David Miller, chair of the investment committee. 

“Market conditions are evolving and the investment team needs latitude to deploy capital intelligently to keep the fund on track for sustainable returns.”

According to analysis published by Calpers alongside its board notes, private equity was the top-performing asset class in the decade to June 30 2023, with annualised returns of 11.8 per cent. That compares with 8.9 per cent from public equities and 2.4 per cent from fixed income. The documents did not disclose if the figures took account of fees.

The portfolio shake-up, which was confirmed after a scheduled asset allocation review, will bring the California-based plan into line with other big retirement systems in the US, including Calstrs, which has just over 40 per cent of its portfolio in private markets.

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As part of the move, Calpers will increase its bet on private equity from 13 per cent to 17 per cent of its portfolio, although this could potentially rise as high as 22 per cent.

At the same time, it is pulling back from investing in stock markets, with its allocation to equities set to fall from 42 per cent to 37 per cent of its portfolio. It will also trim its allocation to fixed income from 30 per cent to 28 per cent.

In 2021, Calpers’ board approved an expansion into private assets including private equity, real assets and private debt, from 21 per cent to 33 per cent of the portfolio, and also gave itself the ability to borrow money to invest in assets that would help diversify its holdings.

Last year the Financial Times reported that Calpers was planning a multibillion-dollar move into international venture capital, as the fund moved towards investing in riskier assets to drive returns.

The fund also reported a return of 10.3 per cent last year. It is yet to announce a replacement for chief investment officer Nicole Musicco, who resigned last year after 18 months in the role.

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