PITTSBURGH: US President Donald Trump went to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to announce $92 billion in energy and infrastructure deals intended to meet big tech’s soaring demand for electricity to fuel the AI boom.
Trump made the announcement at the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, with much of the talk about beating China in the global AI race.
“Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh, and I have to say, right here in the United States of America,” Trump said at the event.
The tech world has fully embraced generative AI as the next wave of technology, but fears are growing that its massive electricity needs cannot be met by current infrastructure, particularly in the United States.
Generative AI requires enormous computing power, mainly to run the energy-hungry processors from Nvidia, the California-based company that has become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
Officials expect that by 2028, tech companies will need as much as five gigawatts of power for AI — enough electricity to power roughly five million homes.
Top executives from Palantir, Anthropic, Exxon and Chevron attended the event.
The funding will cover new data centers, power generation, grid infrastructure, AI training, and apprenticeship programs.
Among investments, Google committed $25 billion to build AI-ready data centers in Pennsylvania and surrounding regions.
“We support President Trump’s clear and urgent direction that our nation invest in AI... so that America can continue to lead in AI,” said Ruth Porat, Google’s president and chief investment officer.
The search engine giant also announced a partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to modernize two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania, representing 670 MW of capacity on the regional grid.
Investment group Blackstone pledged more than $25 billion to fund new data centers and energy infrastructure.
US Senator David McCormick, from Pennsylvania, said the investments “are of enormous consequence to Pennsylvania, but they are also crucial to the future of the nation.”
His comments reflect the growing sentiment in Washington that the United States must not lose ground to China in the race to develop AI.
“We are way ahead of China and the plants are starting up, the construction is starting up,” Trump said.
The US president launched the “Stargate” project in January, aimed at investing up to $500 billion in US AI infrastructure — primarily in response to growing competition with China.
Japanese tech investor SoftBank, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, and Oracle are investing $100 billion in the initial phase.
Trump has also reversed many policies adopted by the previous Biden administration that imposed checks on developing powerful AI algorithms and limits on exports of advanced technology to certain allied countries.
He is expected to outline his own blueprint for AI advancement later this month.
Trump unveils investments to power AI boom
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Trump unveils investments to power AI boom
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh demand safe return to Myanmar on 8th anniversary of exodus
- “We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar,” one of the protesters, 19-year-old Nur Aziz, told The Associated Press
- The Bangladesh government, which was led at the time by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ordered the border to be opened, eventually allowing more than 700,000 refugees to take shelter in the Muslim-majority nation
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in dozens of camps in Bangladesh marked the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding a safe return to their previous home in Rakhine state.
The refugees gathered Monday in an open field at a camp in Kutupalong, in the Cox’s Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh, the site of a large refugee camp. They carried banners reading “No more refugee life” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution.” They were marking what they called “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.”
“We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar,” one of the protesters, 19-year-old Nur Aziz, told The Associated Press. “The rights they are enjoying in Myanmar as citizens of the country, we too want to enjoy the same rights.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, urged the international community to facilitate a process for their safe return as he addressed a three-day conference on the Rohingya that began a day earlier in Cox’s Bazar.
International dignitaries, United Nations representatives, diplomats and Bangladesh’s interim government discussed supporting refugees with food and other amenities and how to speed up the repatriation process.
Yunus said that that the “relationship of Rohingyas with their homeland cannot be severed.”
“Their right to return to their homeland has to be secured,” he said. “Therefore, we urge all parties and partners to work hard for charting a practical roadmap for their speedy, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return to their homes in Rakhine as soon as possible.”
Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017 following insurgent attacks on guard posts in Rakhine state. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the UN
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims began leaving Myanmar then. They traveled by foot and boats during shelling, indiscriminate killings and other violence in Rakhine state, which was captured by the Arakan Army insurgent group that has battled against Myanmar government forces.
The Bangladesh government, which was led at the time by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ordered the border to be opened, eventually allowing more than 700,000 refugees to take shelter in the Muslim-majority nation. The influx was in addition to more than 300,000 refugees who already had lived in Bangladesh for decades in the wake of previous violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.
Since 2017, Bangladesh has attempted at least twice to send the refugees back and has urged the international community to build pressure on Myanmar’s government to establish a peaceful environment that could assist their repatriation. The governments under Hasina and Yunus also have sought repatriation support from China.
But the situation inside Myanmar has remained volatile, especially in Rakhine state. In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees face challenges including aid cuts by donors.
Yunus urged the regional and international stakeholders to continue to support the Rohingya people, including with financial support.
“We urge upon all to calibrate their relations with Myanmar and the Arakan Army and all parties to the conflict in order to promote an early resolution of this protracted crisis,” he said.
Indonesia launches a measles vaccination campaign after 17 die in an outbreak
- A major outbreak occurred in the easternmost province of Papua in 2018, causing dozens of deaths
- Just 72 percent of Indonesia’s 22 million children under 5 received the measles vaccine last year, and in some provinces, vaccination rates were below 50 percent, according to data from Statistics Indonesia
SUMENEP, Indonesia: Hundreds of children in Indonesia lined up for free measles shots Monday as authorities rolled out a vaccination campaign in response to an outbreak that has caused 17 deaths.
More than 2,000 children were infected in East Java province over the past eight months, according to officials who said 16 of the 17 deaths occurred in Sumenep district. Sixteen patients were not immunized and one did not complete the vaccines, according to data from Sumenep District Health Agency.
Indonesia has reported previous outbreaks of the highly infectious disease, mostly driven by gaps in vaccination coverage in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
A major outbreak occurred in the easternmost province of Papua in 2018, causing dozens of deaths. That year, the Indonesian Ulema Council reported the measles and rubella vaccine used for mass immunization programs contained pork. Use of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India was permitted until a halal vaccine without pork could be found.
Just 72 percent of Indonesia’s 22 million children under 5 received the measles vaccine last year, and in some provinces, vaccination rates were below 50 percent, according to data from Statistics Indonesia.
Indonesian authorities have called on residents and community and religious leaders to support immunization efforts. The mass vaccination in Sumenep is targeting 78,000 children from 9 months to 6 years old.
“Otherwise, this disease, measles, will spread further among our children. It will be even more fatal in the future,” said Imam Hasyim, deputy chief of Sumenep district.
Globally, the World Health Organization says 84 percent of children received the first dose of measles vaccine last year, and 76 percent had received two doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95 percent to prevent outbreaks.
WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.
Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim again
- Trump contended that North Korea has been firing fewer rockets since he returned to the White House on January 20
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped to meet again with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea’s dovish new leader that got off awkwardly.
Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he said was a “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea, apparently over raids that involved churches.
Forty minutes into an Oval Office meeting in which Lee profusely praised Trump, the US leader dismissed his own sharply worded rebuke, saying, “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding” as “there is a rumor going around.”
Trump said he believed he was on the same page on North Korea as Lee, a progressive who supports diplomacy over confrontation.
Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the young totalitarian and said he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister.”
“Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.
Trump contended that North Korea has been firing fewer rockets since he returned to the White House on January 20.
The president has boasted that he has solved seven wars in as many months back in the job — a claim that is contested — but had been quiet on North Korea despite the unusually personal diplomacy during his 2017-2021 tenure.
Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love.” Their meetings reduced tensions but failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Pyongyang rebuffed overtures from Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, which Trump said showed they did not respect him.
But Kim has also been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight.
North Korea has dug in and refused any talk of ending its nuclear weapons program.
Lee, a former labor rights lawyer who has criticized the US military in the past, immediately flattered his host and said Trump has made the United States “not a keeper of peace, but a maker of peace.”
“I look forward to your meeting with Chairman Kim Jong Un and construction of Trump Tower in North Korea and playing golf” there, Lee told him.
He even cited propaganda from North Korea that denounced South Korea by noting that Pyongyang said the relationship with Trump was better.
Kim “will be waiting for you,” Lee told him.
Lee was elected in June after the impeachment of the more hawkish Yoon Suk Yeol, who briefly imposed martial law.
The raids denounced by Trump likely referred in part to investigations surrounding Yoon’s conservative allies.
Lee spoke through an interpreter, breaking the pace of Trump, who does not hesitate to pick fights with his guests.
Trump, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the United States, made clear he would press hard for greater compensation by South Korea over the 28,500 US troops in the country.
He suggested the United States could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee’s brethren on the South Korean left.
“We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.
He also spoke bluntly about one of South Korea’s most delicate issues: so-called “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery during Japan’s 1910-1945 rule.
The South Korean left has historically been outspoken about Japan’s legacy, although Lee visited Tokyo on his way to Washington, a highly symbolic stop praised by Trump.
Japan had agreed to compensate comfort women but the deal was criticized by survivors who questioned Tokyo’s sincerity.
Indonesian police clash with protesters against parliamentarians’ salaries
- Protesters marched through the streets around the parliament building, calling for a salary cut for parliamentarians
JAKARTA: Police fired tear gas and used a water cannon to push back hundreds of demonstrators trying to break into Indonesia’s parliament building on Monday to protest against what they called excessive pay and perks for legislators, witnesses said.
Some protesters, clad in dark clothing, threw rocks and set off fireworks at riot police in the capital Jakarta.
At least one motorcycle was set ablaze by protesters.
Protesters marched through the streets around the parliament building, calling for a salary cut for parliamentarians, according to a press release by Gejayan Memanggil, one of the groups organizing the protest formed by students in the Yogyakarta province.
This month, local media reported parliamentarians were paid upwards of 100 million rupiah ($6,150) a month, including a substantial housing allowance. While Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, that remuneration is far above the average income in the archipelago of 3.1 million rupiah.
Demonstrators also protested against what they termed policies that benefit conglomerates and the military, the press release said.
Some were seen on television footage carrying a flag from the Japanese manga series “One Piece,” which has become a symbol of protest against government policies in the country.
Jakarta police spokesperson Ade Ary Syam Indradi told reporters 1,250 police personnel were deployed to maintain security around the building.
The parliament’s speaker and deputy speakers of parliament, as well as a spokesperson for Prabowo, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Parliament speaker Puan Maharani told local media she would accommodate all aspirations from the public.
Norway teen suspected of terrorism after social worker murder
- In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them youths, by setting off a van bomb outside the government offices in Oslo and then opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya
- Norwegian media reported the suspect planned to attack a mosque, but the prosecutor did not confirm this
OSLO: An 18-year-old Norwegian is suspected of terrorism after the murder of a social worker in Oslo which may have been racially-motivated, authorities said Monday.
The woman, who worked in a home helping integrate vulnerable young people into society, was killed overnight Saturday to Sunday at her workplace. According to media, she was stabbed to death.
Lawyers representing the family identified the victim as 34-year-old Tamima Nibras Juhar, born in Ethiopia.
The suspect, a resident at the home, was arrested in Oslo after the attack and has admitted to playing a role in the murder, police said.
Police said Monday the preliminary charges against the suspect had been expanded to include terrorism.
“During his interrogation, he also said he planned to hurt several people,” deputy prosecutor Philip Green said.
“At this stage, we believe he planned to spread terror among part of the population and that’s why he is now the subject of a terrorism investigation,” Green said.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect “expressed hostile opinions toward Muslim people.”
Norwegian media reported the suspect planned to attack a mosque, but the prosecutor did not confirm this.
The teen, who is believed to have acted alone, was to appear before a judge before being placed in detention.
Norway has seen several far-right attacks.
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them youths, by setting off a van bomb outside the government offices in Oslo and then opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.
In August 2019, Philip Manshaus opened fire in a mosque on Oslo’s outskirts before being overpowered. No one was seriously hurt, but before the attack he killed his adopted Asian half-sister in a racially-motivated act.
Both men were sentenced to 21-year prison sentences, which can be extended as long as they are considered a risk to society.
