World
State of the Union: AI summit and Balkan EU push
This week, Bletchley Park made history again as host of the world’s first Artificial Intelligence Safety Summit.
The historic site between London and Birmingham is regarded as one of the birthplaces of computer science and is famous for its crucial role in World War II codebreaking.
It was there that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gathered big-name technology executives and global leaders to discuss the challenges and many unknowns presented by the rapid advancement of AI.
In other words, a perfect setting for what Sunak compared to an existential threat to humanity as we know it.
“There’s a debate about this topic. People in the industry themselves don’t agree, and we can’t be certain, but there is a case to believe that it may pose risks on a scale like pandemics and nuclear war,” he said.
“And that’s why, as leaders, we have a responsibility to act, to take the steps to protect people. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Participants, including, remarkably, the US, China and the EU, signed the Bletchley Declaration that aims to tackle the risks of so-called frontier AI language models developed by companies such as OpenAI.
That technology has the potential for serious, even catastrophic harm, according to the signatories.
Balkan momentum
Serious harm – that is what could befall some Balkan candidate countries if they do not step up efforts to get in line with the EU in order to gain membership.
That was the message delivered by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her trip to the region this week.
A major country that needed this reminder was Serbia, as Belgrade is still unwilling to recognise Kosovo and pass sanctions against Russia.
“So, my message is basically two-fold, let’s do the homework, please do your homework, and let’s get ready and let’s seize the moment to really have a substantial step forward in the enlargement process,” von der Leyen said
Not everybody is happy with the prospect of Serbia and Kosovo joining the EU, as both have not fully subscribed to democratic principles yet.
World
Fake news on the rise as the European elections draw near
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and new EU anti-money laundering rules have all been the target of misinformation recently.
Ahead of the European elections between 6 and 9 June, EU leaders and the European Union itself are increasingly finding themselves as the targets of misinformation campaigns.
Whether it’s an attempt to discredit political rivals or claims about EU regulations, social media is rife with false narratives.
One such example stems from the dramatic shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which has prompted swathes of politically-motivated misinformation online.
Social media users are claiming that this picture shows Fico’s alleged attacker alongside Martin Šimečka, the father of the leader of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia.
Slovakian media has identified the alleged shooter as self-described writer Juraj Cintula.
However, the picture in the post doesn’t show Cintula and Šimečka together. In fact, the second man in the picture isn’t Šimečka at all, and the photo itself comes from one of Cintula’s book launches in 2019.
Facebook itself has now labelled the post as false information.
The attempted false association of the attack on Fico with his political rivals remains particularly dangerous ahead of the European elections.
Is Donald Tusk ashamed of his Polish identity?
Across the border in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been accused of attacking the notion of Polishness as an identity.
A picture posted on TikTok claims that Tusk called Polishness ‘an abnormality’ that comes to him ‘with painful persistence’. However, this is misleading.
The prime minister did state those words, but they come from an article he wrote over 40 years ago.
According to Polish fact-checkers, Tusk’s article critically discusses Poles’ attitudes to reality before confirming that he identifies with his own Polishness, at a time when Poland was a communist satellite of the Soviet Union.
“Despite its oppressive heritage it remains our common conscious choice,” he said.
As a strongly pro-EU prime minister who previously served as president of the European Council, Tusk is a crucial target for misinformation mere weeks before the elections.
Is the EU banning cash payments of over €100,000?
Often, it’s the EU itself that’s under attack from those spreading false narratives.
Some social media users say the bloc has prohibited all cash payments over €100,000.
This is partly true: the EU has approved rules limiting cash transactions to €100,000 as part of a raft of new anti-money laundering measures, but these restrictions don’t apply to all transactions.
Specifically, there’s a limit on professional traders barring them from accepting or paying cash over €100,000.
Transfers between private individuals in a non-professional context are excluded.
Ahead of the European elections, it’s critical that news is shared accurately and fairly, so that the electorate can vote with the proper information at hand.
World
Despite polls, Biden aides insist Gaza campus protests will not hurt reelection bid
World
Images show spectacle of Indonesian volcano eruption as authorities evacuate 7 nearby villages
Indonesian authorities evacuated residents of seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius of a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera in Indonesia after it erupted and spewed ash about 2.5 miles into the sky.
Reuters reported that Mount Ibu erupted on Saturday night, turning the sky into a spectacle of gray ash spewing out of the volcano’s crater with flashes of purple lightning.
A crew consisting of police, military and search and rescue services was sent to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, according to a statement from the disaster mitigation agency.
The joint team reportedly assisted the elderly with evacuating the area while residents were moved out of the area in pickup trucks and taken to emergency tents to spend the night.
INDONESIA’S MOUNT IBU VOLCANO ERUPTS, AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO EVACUATE THOUSANDS
The agency did not specify how many people had been moved, though authorities recommended that a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) radius be evacuated.
Mount Ibu erupted last Monday for about five minutes, just days after it erupted on May 10. The eruptions caused the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation to raise the alert level for the volcano from 2 to 3, which is the second-highest level.
11 CONFIRMED DEAD, INCLUDING STUDENTS, IN INDONESIA BUS CRASH AFTER REPORTED BRAKE FAILURE
Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of Mount Ibu’s crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the northern side of the crater, Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency said.
VIDEO SHOWS LIGHTNING SHOOTING FROM TOXIC ASH CLOUD DURING POWERFUL VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN INDONESIA
Mount Ibu is a 4,347-foot volcano on the northwest coast of the remote island of Halmahera.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
INDONESIA’S RUANG VOLCANO SPITS MORE HOT ASH AFTER ERUPTION FORCES SCHOOLS AND AIRPORTS TO CLOSE
On Thursday, the agency raised the alert level to the highest level, following several eruptions.
On May 11, flash floods and “cold lava” flowed from Mount Marapi, one of the most active volcanoes in West Sumatra province, into nearby districts after torrential rains, killing more than 60 people.
North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano also erupted in recent weeks, prompting authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from a nearby island.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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