First torch carrier in France French Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou holds the Olympic torch after leaving The Belem, the three-masted sailing ship in the Old port of Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. PHOTO: AP
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Torchbearers are to carry the Olympic flame through the streets of France’ southern port city of Marseille, one day after it arrived on a majestic three-mast ship for the welcoming ceremony.
The torch begins its 11-week journey across the country with about 10,000 bearers passing through more than 450 towns until the Games’ opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.
Former soccer player Basile Boli, who played with the Marseille team in the 1990s, will launch Thursday’s first relay from Notre Dame de la Garde basilica that overlooks Marseille and the Mediterranean.
Basketball player Tony Parker was to take his turn in the relay later Thursday. A fencing champion, a skateboarder, a Michelin-starred chef and a comedian were also chosen to carry the flame.
Participants were scheduled to run all day through the most emblematic places of the city to bring the torch on the roof of the famed Stade Velodrome, home to Marseille’s passionate soccer fans.
The city on Wednesday celebrated with great fanfare the flame’s arrival as Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan said that more than 230,000 people attended the ceremony in the Old Port.
“It’s just incredible, just magical,” resident Amel Sekko said. “We needed it. We never have events or beautiful things like this in Marseille.”
Mouna Boulhas, another Marseille resident, said: “It’s something you have to experience at least once in your life … We have the sun and the Olympic flame.”
During the Games, the sailing competition and some soccer matches will be held in Marseille.
BANGKOK (ANN/STRAITS TIMES) – Thailand’s Prime Minister announced on May 8th that the country would reclassify cannabis as a narcotic by the end of the year, reversing its earlier stance as one of the first Asian nations to decriminalise its recreational use just two years ago.
This decision comes amidst the rapid expansion of Thailand’s domestic cannabis retail sector, with tens of thousands of shops and businesses emerging in the past two years. The industry is forecasted to reach a value of up to USD1.2 billion by 2025.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin stated on social media platform X, “I want the Health Ministry to amend the rules and reclassify cannabis as a narcotic. The ministry should promptly issue regulations allowing its usage solely for health and medical purposes.”
Cannabis was initially decriminalised for medical use in 2018 and for recreational use in 2022 under a previous administration. However, critics argue that its liberalisation was rushed, leading to significant confusion regarding regulations.
(FILES) This photo taken on March 17, 2023 shows people walking past a cannabis dispensary store in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok. PHOTO: AFP
Srettha’s remarks followed a meeting with narcotics suppression agencies, during which he pledged to adopt a tough stance on illicit drugs and instructed authorities to demonstrate “clear progress” within the next 90 days.
“Drug abuse is a threat to the country’s future, with many young people falling victim. We must act swiftly, confiscate assets from drug dealers, and expand treatment options,” he emphasised.
The Prime Minister also urged authorities to redefine drug possession under the law, proposing a shift from “small amount” to “one pill” to facilitate stricter enforcement.
Earlier, Srettha’s government expressed intentions to enact a cannabis law by year-end, prohibiting recreational marijuana while permitting its use exclusively for medical and health purposes. However, the timeline for reclassifying cannabis as a narcotic and the necessary procedures remain unclear.
Prasitchai Nunual, secretary-general of Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network, warned that recriminalising cannabis would negatively impact the economy, leading to closures of small businesses and depriving consumers of access.
“Many individuals have invested in cannabis cultivation and retail operations. These businesses will now face closure,” he cautioned. “If scientific evidence demonstrates that cannabis poses greater risks than alcohol and cigarettes, then its reclassification may be warranted. Conversely, if cannabis proves to be less harmful, similar considerations should apply to cigarettes and alcohol.”
SINGAPORE (Bernama) — The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has temporarily suspended training for its F-16 aircraft fleet as a safety precaution following a crash incident on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), in a statement, said training is suspended until investigations show that it is safe to resume. “Detailed investigations are ongoing and updates will be provided,” the ministry said.
An RSAF F-16 jet crashed at the Tengah Air Base after experiencing an issue during take-off at 12.35 pm on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the pilot involved is revealed to have no major injuries after undergoing a full medical check-up.
“The pilot is conscious and stable. The serviceman is an experienced pilot with over 2,000 flying hours on the F-16 aircraft,” MINDEF said.
“According to the pilot, he encountered flight control issues upon lifting off the runway at Tengah Air Base for a routine training flight,” the ministry added.
In an earlier statement, MINDEF said the pilot responded in accordance with emergency procedures and succesfully ejected from the aircraft following the incident.
KUCHING (Bernama) – The reinstatement of autonomous rights for the tourism sector in Sarawak under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) will allow Sarawak to facilitate various tourism matters, including cross-border tourism and promoting investment in local businesses.
Sarawak’s Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew said the state government has been actively pursuing the matter with the federal government to remove ‘tourism’ from Item 25A (Tourism) in List I (Federal List) to List III (Concurrent List) of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution. “With the collaboration and cooperation between Sarawak and the federal government under the Concurrent List, if the amendment is approved, the Sarawak government will have the authority to make legislation relating to tourism in Sarawak.
“Sarawak will also have the flexibility to adapt tourism matters into the local law in terms of developing tourism human resource, collection of tourism tax by Sarawak government and issuing tourist guide license,” he said in reply to Datuk Lo Khere Chiang (GPS-Batu Kitang) during a question and answer session at the state assembly sitting on Thursday.
Ting further explained that, originally, ‘tourism’ was not in any of the legislative lists in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution, however in 1994, the word ‘tourism’ was inserted into the Federal List of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution by Act A885 and come into force on the 26th of June 1994.
He said several discussions with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture and the Sabah government are being held before finalising the proposed amendments in the MA63 Implementation Action Council Technical Committee meeting.
HONG KONG (ANN/CHINA DAILY) – Nine-year-old Morris Kwok Yat-chun was overcome with emotion when he suddenly came face-to-face with a lifelike AI recreation of his late brother, Yat-lai.
“I missed him a lot,” Kwok said on Sunday at a press conference unveiling a project that employs AI and virtual reality technology to reconnect people with loved ones who have passed away.
According to Kwok’s mother at the conference, back in 2020, when Kwok was five, his seven-month-old brother, Yat-lai, was in the hospital battling a rare autoimmune disease and pneumonia.
After exhausting various medical interventions, including injections and medications, doctors informed Kwok’s family that the only hope of saving Yat-lai was through a cord blood transplant from his brother. Cord blood is the blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after the birth of a baby.
Years earlier, when Yat-chun was born, under medical advice, the family preserved his cord blood in the hospital as it could potentially be crucial for other people’s treatment in the future.
Incredibly, years later, the cord blood was a potential cure for his brother.
However, on the very day the cord blood treatment plan was proposed, Yat-lai passed away, which became an enduring regret for his family.
Last year, Kwok’s family enrolled Yat-chun in a voluntary program operated by the non-profit organisation Love Our Kids Foundation, which aims to grant children’s wishes.
When volunteers asked Kwok what he wanted, he said he missed his brother a lot and wanted to see him again.
Yat-chun’s mother, a 41-year-old former piano teacher, said that she wished to witness Yat-lai experiencing the joyous milestone of learning to walk, the next natural progression in his life had he survived.
The volunteer team thought AI technology may be a good way to realise Kwok’s wish, and reached out to local start-ups and technology firms.
After months of efforts by technicians and volunteers, Yat-lai reappeared via the virtual world, taking shaky steps and playing with toys.
“Witnessing his presence in the virtual world felt like having him by my side once again”, Yat-chun said.
“I want to play hide and seek, basketball, and swim with him within the virtue world.”
His mother said she never expected the reunion could be made possible by technology.
She was deeply touched at the moment Yat-chun shed tears upon seeing Yat-lai. She had not anticipated he still had such a profound emotional response after his life had restored normalisation for a long time.
Nine-year-old Morris Kowk Yat-chun engages with a lifelike replica of his late brother in the virtual world. PHOTO: ANN/CHINA DAILY
The recreation allowed Yat-chun to release his love and longing for his late brother, his mother said.
In addition to the efforts in creating the portrayal of Yat-lai, the voluntary team also used AI to reconstruct a deceased mother from another family.
The volunteers initiated the process by asking the three daughters to write a letter to their late mother.
Using the letter as a basis, the volunteers created a video in which the reconstructed AI version of the mother replied to her children. This involved reconstructing her appearance and replicating her voice, with the volunteers crafting a script that captured the essence of her personality, expressing her feelings to her daughters.
Lee Tan, an associate dean of education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s engineering faculty, was in charge of reconstructing the mother’s voice, and Tom Tong Kwun-wah, co-founder of a technology startup Softmind, created the mother’s facial expressions.
Tong said that he took on this project because it was meaningful. He said he came across some challenges in accurately synchronising mouth movements with Cantonese pronunciation, as most AI software and materials are predominantly designed for English speakers.
Tong had to record additional videos featuring people speaking Cantonese, capturing their unique mouth movements to achieve satisfactory results.
Lawrence Cheung Cheong-ming, the head of customer and product support for the virtual reality division at smartphone brand HTC, constructed the virtual reality living room where the mother was located for the filming.
Cheung said that his main task was compiling the materials he had gathered from Lee and Tong and integrating them into the virtual space station, which was relatively straightforward and uncomplicated.
Lee said that he had to produce a fluent minutes-long speech based on only a few seconds of voice recordings of the deceased mother.
From a technical standpoint, Lee said that the process itself was not difficult to execute. The true complexity of the task lay in the emotional significance it held for the family, Lee said.
He understood that while technological improvements could be made to the audio recordings, it did not guarantee an enhanced emotional experience for the family. In his opinion, in this case, improvements in technology should be in the service of the family’s feelings.
Lee said that he joined this project as he was deeply moved by the daughters’ grieving for their mother. Also, the family had given their consent for a limited reproduction of the mother’s voice.
Lee’s start-up, Vocofy AI, has developed a text-to-voice model that preserves the original voices of people who have lost the ability to speak.
Lee has been approached by various individuals seeking to use AI to generate content. However, he usually declines private requests to recreate the voices of deceased individuals.
He believes that any AI-generated content must adhere to ethical guidelines, and technicians must understand the purpose and implications of the resulting AI-generated content.
Compared to technical competency, whether the technology is well used is more important, Lee said.
KUALA LUMPUR (ANN/THE STAR) – The Bukit Aman Classified Crime Investigation Unit (USJT) is now leading the investigation into the assaults on national football players Akhyar Rashid, Faisal Halim, and Safiq Rahim, according to Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain.
He mentioned that these cases were initially managed at the state contingent level. Additionally, the USJT is investigating threats allegedly made against Selangor FC chief executive officer Dr Johan Kamal Hamidon, who was warned he could face the same fate as Faisal Halim, the victim of an acid attack.
Mohd Shuhaily stated that the investigation was being conducted from all angles and aspects, including whether it was related to the poison pen letter against the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) that went viral last month.
“We will examine whether the accusations levelled against the FAM a month ago – which the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had stated were unfounded – is it the statement that led to this kind of action?
“Dissatisfaction with FAM expressed against the national players?” he said at a special media briefing at Bukit Aman on Wednesday (May 8).
Mohd Shuhaily said investigations had so far found that the three cases of attacks that occurred two days apart, were not related to each other despite using the same modus operandi, namely involving two suspects who would tail the victim before carrying out the attack.
He said the police were still investigating the motive behind the three incidents and had recorded the statements of 15 individuals including family members and witnesses.
“For the second case (Faisal), we are waiting for several reports, especially chemical reports related to the acid used, as well as reports from officers on how the injuries, initially classified as second-degree, escalated to fourth-degree,” he said.
Mohd Shuhaily said for the case involving Faisal, one of the suspects, a man in his 30s, was currently remanded until May 11, with initial investigations revealing that he had seven criminal records, while another suspect, also a man, tested positive for drugs.
The attacks on the footballers started on May 2, when Akhyar Rashid, who was also a Terengganu FC player, got injured after being hit with a blunt object in a mugging in Terengganu, followed by the incident of Selangor FC star Faisal being splashed with acid in the parking lot of a shopping centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, on May 5.
On Tuesday (May 7), the rear mirror of former national football team captain Safiq Rahim’s car was reportedly smashed by two suspects riding a motorcycle at the Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) training centre in Johor Bahru.
File photo of Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain. PHOTO: ANN/THE STAR
LONDON (Bernama-dpa) – A British girl has had her hearing restored after becoming the first person in the world to take part in a groundbreaking new gene therapy trial, reported German news agency (dpa).
Opal Sandy, aged 18 months, was born completely deaf due to the condition auditory neuropathy, which is caused by the disruption of nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain.
Now, thanks to a “one and done” gene therapy being trialled in the UK and worldwide, Sandy’s hearing is almost normal – and could even improve further.
The little girl, from Oxfordshire, who has a genetic form of auditory neuropathy, was treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which is part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Professor Manohar Bance, an ear surgeon at the trust and chief investigator for the trial, said the results were “better than I hoped or expected” and may cure patients with this type of deafness.
Opal (centre) with her mother Jo, father James and sister Nora (left) at their home. PHOTO: DPA
“We have results from (Sandy) which are very spectacular – so close to normal hearing restoration. So, we do hope it could be a potential cure.”
Auditory neuropathy can be caused by a fault in the OTOF gene, which is responsible for making a protein called otoferlin. This enables cells in the ear to communicate with the hearing nerve.
To overcome the fault, the “new era” gene therapy – from biotech firm Regeneron – delivers a working copy of the gene to the ear.
In Sandy’s case, she received an infusion containing the working gene to her right ear during surgery last September.
Her parents, Jo and James, both 33, noticed improvements to her hearing in four weeks when Sandy turned her head to loud clapping.
“When she first turned, I couldn’t believe it,” Jo said.
“I thought it was a fluke or like a change in light or something that had caught her eye, but I repeated it a few times.
“I picked my phone up and texted James, and said ‘I think it’s working’. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I thought it was a fluke.”
But even more impressive results were on the horizon.
Some 24 weeks after surgery in February this year, tests in Cambridge showed Sandy could also hear soft sounds, such as a whisper.
“The audiologist played back some of the sounds that she was responding to and they were ridiculously quiet sort of sounds that in the real world wouldn’t catch your attention during a conversation,” Jo said.
“Certainly since February, we’ve noticed her sister (Nora) waking her up in the morning because she’s running around on the landing, or someone rings on the door, so her nap’s cut short.
“She’s definitely responding more to sort of what we would call functional sounds rather than just sounds that we use to test her.
“We were told she had near normal hearing last time – I think they got responses at sort of 25 to 30 decibels.
“I think normal hearing is classed at 20 decibels, so she’s not far off. Before, she had no hearing whatsoever.”
Bance said Sandy’s hearing is now “close to normal”, adding: “We hope she’ll get back to normal by the next testing.”
He added that the treatment is “a one-and-done therapy, so hopefully, you have your treatment and then you go back to your life.”
A second child has also received the gene therapy treatment at Cambridge University Hospitals, with positive results seen recently, six weeks after surgery.
The overall phase 1/2 Chord trial consists of three parts, with three deaf children, including Sandy, receiving a low dose of gene therapy in one ear only.
A different set of three children will get a high dose on one side. Then, if that is shown to be safe, more children will receive a dose in both ears at the same time.
Up to 18 youngsters from the UK, Spain and the US are being recruited to the trial and will be followed up for five years.
Bance said: “My entire life, gene therapy has been ‘five years away’, and I’ve been in practice about 30 years.
“So, for me, it was almost unreal that this moment had arrived. It was just the fact that we’ve been hearing about this for so long, and there’s been so much work, decades of work… to finally see something that actually worked in humans… It was quite spectacular and a bit awe-inspiring really.
“It felt very special.”
At the moment, the gold standard treatment for auditory neuropathy is cochlear implants.
Sandy had one fitted to her left ear at the same time as she underwent gene therapy in her right ear, to ensure she got hearing as soon as possible.
The youngster is the first patient globally to receive the Regeneron therapy and “she’s the youngest globally that’s been done to date as far as we know,” Bance said.
China has also been working on targeting the same gene, with positive results, though Bance said theirs uses a different technology and slightly different mode of delivery.
Medics in Philadelphia have also reported a good outcome with a type of gene therapy on an 11-year-old boy, who was operated on after Sandy.
Bance said he believes the trial is “just the beginning of gene therapies”, adding: “It marks a new era in the treatment for deafness.
“It also supports the development of other gene therapies that may prove to make a difference in other genetic-related hearing conditions, many of which are more common than auditory neuropathy.”
He said it could take a while for more children to benefit from gene therapy. The treatment was currently not available on the NHS.
“What’s really helped though is that the NHS does pay for genetic testing now for hearing loss,” he said.
Sandy’s surgery, which was carried out under general anaesthetic, was very similar to fitting a cochlear implant, Bance continued.
“So basically, we find the inner ear and we open the inner ear and we infuse the treatment, in this particular case using a catheter, over 16 minutes,” he said.
“We have to make a release hole in another part of the ear to let the treatment out because it has to go all the way through the ear.
“And then we just repair and close up, so it’s actually a very similar approach to a cochlear implant, except we don’t put the implant in.”
Martin McLean, senior policy adviser at the National Deaf Children’s Society, welcomed the study, saying it would lead to learning regarding gene therapies for deafness with a specific genetic cause.
“We would like to emphasise that, with the right support from the start, deafness should never be a barrier to happiness or fulfillment.
“As a charity, we support families to make informed choices about medical technologies, so that they can give their deaf child the best possible start in life.”
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “This trial will transform the life of 18-month-old Opal Sandy while offering hope to many others like her, and is another example of the NHS being a global leader in developing gene therapy for patients.
“The NHS has led the world in the development of a range of other innovations and therapies, and this is a very welcome addition to the work going on with life sciences organisations around England to expand the range of treatments available.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “I am delighted and proud of what this government-backed trial has done for Sandy, and what it could eventually do for children like her across the world.
“It marks an historic milestone as we develop a cure for this kind of deafness.”
ISLAMABAD (ANN/DAWN) – The Met Gala, hosted by Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, faced heavy criticism from netizens due to the escalating crisis in Gaza as Israel intensifies its military action.
The Met Gala unfolded in New York City on Monday. If you’re not familiar, it’s fashion’s biggest night, featuring a dazzling array of avant-garde outfits donned by Hollywood’s A-list celebrities. This star-studded event, which garners extensive media coverage, serves as a major annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
On the first Monday of May, the day that marks the celebration of the gala, Israel called on Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah, amid increasing global alarm about the consequences of an Israeli ground invasion of the city.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, condemned the order and said it would be “impossible to carry out safely”.
Millions of Palestinians lived and were taking refuge in Rafah, however, Tel Aviv has apparently moved several brigades close to the city.
As we watch the massacre of an entire nation from our phones and computers, it is incredibly difficult to celebrate the ‘first Monday of May’ and watch celebrities parade around in outfits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (which let’s be real, they will only wear once). Meanwhile, in Gaza, threats of famine loom amidst death and destruction.
The jarring juxtaposition of the two simultaneously occurring events feels dystopian (to say the least) and is reminiscent of The Hunger Games, as several X (formerly Twitter) users pointed out.
People maintained that the dystopian nature of the situation was “excruciating”, especially since pictures of injured children from Gaza were “interspersed” with images of Met Gala fashion online.
“Doing the Met Gala at this moment in time feels like how the Germans were still doing big movie premieres in Berlin in 1945,” an X user wrote, referring to the second world war when Hitler’s Nazi Germany persecuted Jewish people.
Others used their platforms to direct attention to the tragedy of Gaza, and called for “all eyes on Rafah”, with one individual emphasising that it was “insane” that some were “fretting over people’s fits”.
“I love fun. I love frivolity. I do. But wake up,” they urged.
There was also outrage over the cost of the Met Gala tickets, with each one selling for a whopping USD75,000. One individual highlighted that the cost of one ticket could evacuate up to three families from Gaza.
The jarring juxtaposition of the two simultaneously occurring events feels dystopian and is reminiscent of The Hunger Games, as several X (formerly Twitter) users pointed out. PHOTO: ANN/DAWN
“The entire event is a profit-oriented display of privilege and wealth which Isnotreal will probably use to distract from bombing on Rafah,” an X user wrote.
People were also quick to highlight that high-profile events featuring Hollywood’s elite were often used as a “distraction” to divert attention from Israeli aggression as people’s social media timelines flood with the latest pop-culture happenings. An X user maintained that “Israel always intensifies the bombing when they know the world will be distracted with a major event”.
“The Super Bowl, the Oscars, the Met Gala. They’re relying on you being distracted by terrible rich people parading around doing terrible rich people things while they invade Rafah and massacre thousands,” a netizen wrote, urging people to keep talking about Palestine.
“While you’re distracted by the Met Gala, people in Rafah, the last designated ‘safe zone’ in Palestine, are being murdered by Israel,” another user wrote.
Netizens were also quick to express severe disapproval of the Met Gala, with one individual calling it the “Met Gala Massacre”, indicating that Israel rushed to “mass evacuate Rafah and immediately start bombing” it because the gala served as a distraction. Other users maintained that they found it hard to care about the event “when Israel is actively bombing the last livable place in Gaza”.
“You think your respect for the ‘civilised’ world can’t get any more extinct but then they show you their evil, their callousness, their indifference.”
Celebrities attending the Met Gala also came under fire, with some claiming we live in a “deeply sick society”. Another user said celebrities looked “goofy… posing in their little outfits for the Met Gala”. They maintained that the celebrities’ energy was “clueless, classless and desperate.”
An individual highlighted that the “majority of these celebrities and their designers have shown no spine or remorse to what’s been happening since October 7”.
Some also made comparisons between the coverage received by celebrities on the red carpet and those mourning their deceased loved ones in Gaza.
“Nine men tenderly placed Cardi B’s dress on the Met Gala floor. Yet the solitary bodies of infants bombed in Gaza by the US and Israel weigh heavier.”
Another person maintained that a “man carrying a celebrity unable to walk in her tight dress at the Met Gala is getting more coverage than a father carrying his dead child in Rafah”, referring to singer Tyla, who had to be carried up the steps of the museum because she could not move in her dress.
One X user took a kinder approach, as they encouraged people to post “simultaneously” about both Gaza and the Met Gala.
“While the Met is very fun and exciting, please if you are posting about the Met Gala, please simultaneously post about Gaza and Palestine and everything [that is] happening.”
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine protesters in New York converged near the Met Gala in a rally against the ongoing war in Gaza, leading to several arrests, police said.
Among the rallying points were the gates of Columbia University, which has been the centre of spreading demonstrations, before protesters marched through Manhattan to American fashion’s biggest night — or at least as close as police would let them.
It was unclear how many arrests were made as stars walked the carpet and posed for photos, but AFP journalists confirmed several arrests while the New York Daily News reported the number was about a dozen, out of hundreds that gathered near the soiree.
Organisers on X posted a flyer for an event dubbed the “Citywide Day of Rage for Gaza.” Monday’s protest appeared unconnected to the demonstrations that have rocked Columbia’s campus, culminating in the university calling the police to clear out student protesters.
We can’t help but completely agree with all the tweets, it is extremely difficult to turn a blind eye to the suffering of an entire people and focus on what Zendaya and Chris Hemsworth were wearing, or who designed Lana Del Ray’s outfit.
SINGAPORE (ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES) – In a Facebook post, West Coast GRC MP Rachel Ong mentioned: “Today being PM Lee’s last Parliament sitting as PM, we invited all members of Parliament to a tea for PM. The PAP Women MPs got the PM a cake to show our appreciation for all he has done.”
After Parliament adjourned on May 8, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was given a personalised 3D cake, marking his final session in the House as prime minister.
Designed together with pastry chef Herve Potus from Shangri-La Singapore to honour PM Lee’s two decades of leadership, the cake reflected a selection of PM Lee’s favourite items such as a variety of Nonya kueh, a bowl of mee siam, a Peranakan table runner, and an assortment of books on mathematics, coding, technology and politics.
The cake was also decorated with the words “Kamsiah PM”, or “thank you PM” in Hokkien.
It also sported a “Table 72” tag – a nod to PM Lee’s age in 2024 – and a device displaying his post on his 12th anniversary of starting his social media journey with previously unreleased photos taken by him.
“Thank you, Prime Minister, for your exceptional leadership. We are grateful that you will continue to serve as Senior Minister,” Ms Ong added in her post.
In a Facebook post, PM Lee thanked the female People’s Action Party MPs for the “impressive” cake and said that it has been an eventful 40 years in Parliament, with 20 of them as prime minister, where he has overseen and participated in many substantial debates.
“I thank all MPs, NMPs and NCMPs, past and present, for your contributions to robust and serious debates in Parliament,” he said, adding that this is not the last time he will be in Parliament, and he will continue serving as an MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will assume the role of prime minister on May 15.
The cake reflected a selection of PM Lee Hsien Loong’s favourite items. PHOTO: ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES SOURCE
TOKYO (ANN/THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN) – Sources have revealed an artificial intelligence system capable of simultaneous interpretation with a smooth, natural conversational flow has been created by a Tokyo-based public research institute under the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The AI, developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), is set to be used at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.
The government is expected to use the technology for international negotiations that deal with highly confidential information by around 2030.
In simultaneous interpretation at summit talks and other occasions, interpreters begin translating from the middle of a speaker’s remarks. The workload is heavy, and there is only a small group of simultaneous interpreters for Japanese and English in Japan.
With the cooperation of simultaneous interpreters, NICT had the AI learn the timing of when interpreters start translations from a vast amount of text data. Combined with a glossary of terminology and other information, NICT developed an AI capable of simultaneous bidirectional interpretation in five languages — Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and French.
Google LLC of the United States and other companies are focusing their efforts on the development of AI translation technology, but there is a risk of information leakage if foreign technology is used and there has been a demand for the practical application of domestic AI for economic security reasons.
NICT will increase the number of languages handled by this AI technology to 15 by the end of this fiscal year. The technology will be used during lectures and seminars to be held at the expo next year and will be displayed on screens at the expo as well as on participants’ PCs and other devices.
A system that will incorporate this AI is being developed by a Tokyo-based company that is part of the TOPPAN Holdings Inc group.
