Israël: minute de silence pour le deuxième anniversaire du 7-Octobre sur fond de négociations en Egypte
Les proches des victimes du massacre du 7-Octobre ont observé une minute de silence mardi matin, pour marquer le deuxième anniversaire du jour le plus meurtrier connu par Israël, sur fond de négociations indirectes entre le Hamas et le gouvernement israélien portant l’espoir ténu d’une libération des otages à Gaza et d’une fin de la guerre ayant dévasté ce territoire.Des dizaines de membres des familles et d’amis des victimes ont observé le silence à 6H29 locale (3H29 GMT), selon des journalistes de l’AFP, à Reïm, sur le site du festival de musique Nova, où plus de 370 personnes ont été tuées par les commandos du Hamas dans leur attaque surprise sur le sud d’Israël au matin du 7 octobre 2023. Entre les cactus et les eucalyptus du désert du Néguev, une fresque représente les portraits de tous ceux qui ont été tués lors de la fête techno, ponctuée de nombreux visages souriants.Pendant que des proches des personnes tuées allument des bougies, l’écho de tirs d’artillerie et d’explosions se fait entendre depuis la bande de Gaza, le territoire palestinien voisin.L’autre temps fort de la journée devrait avoir lieu à la nuit tombée à Tel-Aviv, où une cérémonie organisée à l’initiative des familles des victimes de l’attaque du 7 octobre est prévue sur l’emblématique “place des Otages”, épicentre de la mobilisation pour la libération de toutes les personnes enlevées au cours de l’attaque du Hamas. Les cérémonies mémorielles officielles sont prévues pour le 16 octobre, à l’issue des fêtes juives de Soukkot. Hasard du calendrier hébraïque, le 7 octobre tombe cette année en même temps que le premier jour de cette fête joyeuse.Il y a deux ans, l’attaque avait eu lieu au dernier jour de cette huitaine de fête, en plein shabbat.Couverts par un déluge de roquettes tirés de la bande de Gaza, plusieurs milliers de combattants du Hamas et d’autres groupes palestiniens avaient percé la barrière de sécurité réputée infranchissable érigée par Israël le long de la bande de Gaza, attaqué des bases militaires et tué à l’aveugle sur les routes, dans des kibboutz, des villes et des villages.- “Vivre, malgré tout” -Il faudra pas moins de trois jours à Israël pour reprendre le contrôle du territoire au prix de lourdes pertes.Du côté israélien, l’attaque a entraîné la mort de 1.219 personnes, en majorité des civils, selon un bilan établi par l’AFP à partir de données officielles. Sur les 251 personnes enlevées ce jour-là, 47 sont toujours otages à Gaza dont 25 sont mortes selon l’armée.Depuis lors, plus de 67.160 Palestiniens ont été tués dans la bande de Gaza dans la campagne israélienne de représailles militaires, selon le ministère de la Santé de Gaza, placé sous l’autorité du Hamas.Le ministère, dont les chiffres sont jugés fiables par l’ONU, ne précise pas le nombre de combattants tués mais ses données indiquent que plus de la moitié des morts sont des mineurs et des femmes.Lundi déjà, des centaines d’Israéliens sont venus se recueillir sous les eucalyptus au mémorial de Nova.Evoquant un “sentiment d’unité” face aux “événements extrêmement difficiles, démesurés [qui se sont] réellement déroulés ici”, Elad Gancz, enseignant de 38 ans a déclaré à l’AFP que sa présence témoignait du fait que “nous voulons vivre, malgré tout”.De l’autre côté de la frontière, la bande de Gaza fait face à une situation humanitaire catastrophique. Dans des paysages de ruines, des centaines de milliers de déplacés s’entassent dans des camps de toiles surpeuplés, manquant de tout.- “Tout perdu” -“Nous avons tout perdu dans cette guerre, nos maisons, nos proches, nos amis, nos voisins”, a déclaré Hanane Mohammed, 49 ans, déplacée de Jabalia, dans le nord de la bande de Gaza et jointe par téléphone à Deir el-Balah, dans le centre. “J’attends avec impatience qu’un cessez-le-feu soit annoncé pour que cesse enfin ce bain de sang interminable”.Faisant pression à la fois sur le Hamas et sur le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu, le président américain Donald Trump a dévoilé le 29 septembre un plan destiné à mettre un terme à la guerre et prévoyant notamment une libération de tous les otages, un retrait progressif de l’armée israélienne et le désarmement du Hamas.Des pourparlers indirects entre le mouvement islamiste et le gouvernement israélien ont commencé lundi dans la station balnéaire égyptienne de Charm el-Cheikh.Elles ont pour but de poser à minima les bases concrètes pour la réalisation du premier acte du plan Trump: la libération de tous les otages en échange de celle de centaines de prisonniers palestiniens détenus par Israël dans le cadre d’un cessez-le-feu.”Je pense que nous sommes très très proches d’avoir un accord (…) Je pense qu’il y a beaucoup de signes de bonne volonté”, a déclaré Donald Trump lundi soir dans une interview télévisée sur Newsmax.Mais le défi est herculéen et, selon une source proche du Hamas, les pourparlers “pourraient durer plusieurs jours”.
Israel marks October 7 anniversary as talks held to end Gaza war
Israel marks the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Tuesday, as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in Gaza under a US proposed peace plan.Two years ago to the day, at the close of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas-led militants launched a surprise assault on Israel, making it the deadliest day in the country’s history.Palestinian fighters breached the Gaza-Israel border, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Militants also abducted 251 hostages into Gaza, of whom 47 remain captive, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.Memorial events were scheduled in Israel on Tuesday to mark the anniversary.Dozens of relatives and friends of those killed at the Nova music festival lit candles and held a minute’s silence at the site of the attack in southern Israel, where Palestinian militants killed more than 370 people and seized dozens of hostages.Many Israelis went to the Nova festival site on Monday.”It was a very difficult and enormous incident that happened here,” Elad Gancz, a teacher, told AFP as he mourned the dead.”But we want to live — and despite everything, continue with our lives, remembering those who were here and, unfortunately, are no longer with us.”Another ceremony was due in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where weekly rallies have kept up calls for the captives’ release.A state-organised commemoration is planned for October 16.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza by air, land and sea continues unabated, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and vast destruction.The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 67,160 people have been killed, figures the United Nations considers credible.Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that over half of the dead are women and children.Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, with homes, hospitals, schools and water networks in ruins.Hundreds of thousands of homeless Gazans now shelter in overcrowded camps and open areas with little access to food, water or sanitation.”We have lost everything in this war, our homes, family members, friends, neighbours,” said Hanan Mohammed, 36, who is displaced from her home in Jabalia.”I can’t wait for a ceasefire to be announced and for this endless bloodshed and death to stop… there is nothing left but destruction.”After two years of conflict, 72 percent of the Israeli public said they were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the war, according to a recent survey by the Institute for National Security Studies.- Herculean task -Israel has expanded its military reach over the course of the war, striking targets in five regional capitals, including Iran, and killing several senior Hamas figures and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.Israel and Hamas now face mounting international pressure to end the war, with a UN probe last month accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and rights groups accusing Hamas of war crimes in the October 7 attack. Both sides reject the allegations.Last week, US President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point plan calling for an immediate ceasefire once Hamas releases all hostages, the group’s disarmament, and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.Indirect talks began Monday in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, with mediators shuttling between delegations under tight security.Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence, said the discussions were focussed on “preparing ground conditions” for a hostage-prisoner exchange under Trump’s plan.A Palestinian source close to Hamas negotiators said the talks, which opened on the eve of the October 7 anniversary, may last for several days.Trump has urged negotiators to “move fast” to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued on Monday.The US president told Newsmax TV that “I think we’re very, very close to having a deal… I think there’s a lot of goodwill being shown now. It’s pretty amazing actually”.Although both sides have welcomed Trump’s proposal, reaching an agreement on its details is expected to be a Herculean task.The war has previously seen two ceasefires that enabled the release of dozens of hostages.However, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir has warned that if these negotiations fail, the military will “return to fighting” in Gaza.
Une nouvelle espèce de grenouille venimeuse découverte en Amazonie péruvienne
Minuscule, colorée et venimeuse: une nouvelle espèce de grenouille a été découverte par une équipe de scientifiques en Amazonie péruvienne, a annoncé lundi le Service national des aires naturelles protégées par l’État (Sernanp). Dénommé Ranitomeya hwata, cet amphibien ne mesure que “15 mm de long”, a déclaré l’organisme dans un communiqué, sans préciser la date de la découverte. C’est une des “plus petites espèces du genre Ranitomeya”, décrit le Sernanp. Ce groupe se caractérise par des couleurs vives et un comportement reproductif unique. Les mâles recrutent “plusieurs femelles par site de reproduction”, a expliqué l’organisme. Ces grenouilles vivent exclusivement dans les forêts de bambous Guadua. Elles utilisent les cavités creuses des tiges, où l’eau de pluie est stockée, pour se reproduire. La nouvelle espèce a été observée dans le parc national Alto Purús, situé entre les régions d’Ucayalí et de Madre de Dios, à la frontière avec le Brésil. “Cette découverte souligne la valeur des zones naturelles protégées comme refuges pour la biodiversité et des espèces uniques”, a indiqué le Sernanp.
Open AI’s Fidji Simo says AI investment frenzy ‘new normal,’ not bubble
The dizzying investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure do not constitute a bubble but rather represent today’s “new normal” to meet skyrocketing user demand, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s de facto number two, said on Monday.The French-born executive made her comments in an interview with AFP, her first since taking up her role as Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI’s applications, including its flagship model ChatGPT.In the past few weeks, her company, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, has made a series of huge investments in data centers and AI chips, despite no real signs that the fast-emerging AI business is close to breaking even.The answers were lightly edited for length and clarity.- Is the AI investment frenzy a bubble right now? -What I am seeing here is a massive investment in compute (or computing power), with us meeting that need for computing power so incredibly badly for a lot of use cases that people want. [Video AI generator] Sora is a great example right now — there’s much more demand than we can serve.From that perspective, I really do not see that as a bubble. I see that as a new normal, and I think the world is going to switch to realizing that computing power is the most strategic resource.- What do you say to those who fret over AI’s dangers? -I see my job as really making sure that the good side of this technology happens and we mitigate the bad side.Take mental health, for example. I’m hearing tons of users say that they go to ChatGPT for advice in tough moments where they may not have other people to talk to. Many people can’t afford to go to a therapist. I talk to a lot of parents who are telling me: God, I got this really awesome advice that helped me unlock a situation with my child. But at the same time, we need to make sure that the model behaves as expected.On mental health, we have announced a very robust roadmap. We started with parental controls. We have plans to launch age prediction: if we can predict that the user is a teenager, we give them a model that is less permissive than we would give to an adult.Jobs are also very much on my mind, and it’s a similar approach. AI is going to create a lot of jobs, like prompt engineering, that absolutely did not exist before. At the same time, there are some professions that are going to be directly impacted, and we see our role as helping with the transition.- What are the next steps toward intelligent AI? -I think the breakthroughs are about models understanding your goals and helping accomplish them proactively.Not just give you a good answer to a question, not just have a dialog, but actually tell you, ‘Oh, okay, you’re telling me that you want to spend more time with your wife. Well, there might be some weekend getaways that would be helpful, and I know it’s a lot to plan, so I’ve already done all the planning for you and I’ve already made some reservations. Just tap one button to approve and everything gets done.’We’re still very early, but we’re on that journey to capture that.- In San Francisco, you sometimes hear: ‘America innovates, China copies, Europe regulates’ -As a European, every time I hear this saying, my heart breaks a bit. I think there has certainly been a tendency in Europe to focus on regulation a little too much.On China, we continue to be extremely focused on continuing to have a lead, because we see China continuing to invest heavily in being competitive — whether in terms of innovation or in terms of computing — and so we think it’s incredibly important to continue investing across a democratic bloc to advance AI that has these [democratic] values.- Do you let your child use ChatGPT? -ChatGPT is not supposed to be for under 13, but my kid is 10 — I still let her use it under supervision. It’s magical to see what she’s able to create. Just this weekend, she was telling me about creating a new business. She was using ChatGPT to make banners for the new business, to create taglines.In our childhood, we couldn’t turn our imagination into something real that fast. And I see that really giving her superpowers, where she thinks anything is possible.
Open AI’s Fidji Simo says AI investment frenzy ‘new normal,’ not bubble
The dizzying investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure do not constitute a bubble but rather represent today’s “new normal” to meet skyrocketing user demand, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s de facto number two, said on Monday.The French-born executive made her comments in an interview with AFP, her first since taking up her role as Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI’s applications, including its flagship model ChatGPT.In the past few weeks, her company, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, has made a series of huge investments in data centers and AI chips, despite no real signs that the fast-emerging AI business is close to breaking even.The answers were lightly edited for length and clarity.- Is the AI investment frenzy a bubble right now? -What I am seeing here is a massive investment in compute (or computing power), with us meeting that need for computing power so incredibly badly for a lot of use cases that people want. [Video AI generator] Sora is a great example right now — there’s much more demand than we can serve.From that perspective, I really do not see that as a bubble. I see that as a new normal, and I think the world is going to switch to realizing that computing power is the most strategic resource.- What do you say to those who fret over AI’s dangers? -I see my job as really making sure that the good side of this technology happens and we mitigate the bad side.Take mental health, for example. I’m hearing tons of users say that they go to ChatGPT for advice in tough moments where they may not have other people to talk to. Many people can’t afford to go to a therapist. I talk to a lot of parents who are telling me: God, I got this really awesome advice that helped me unlock a situation with my child. But at the same time, we need to make sure that the model behaves as expected.On mental health, we have announced a very robust roadmap. We started with parental controls. We have plans to launch age prediction: if we can predict that the user is a teenager, we give them a model that is less permissive than we would give to an adult.Jobs are also very much on my mind, and it’s a similar approach. AI is going to create a lot of jobs, like prompt engineering, that absolutely did not exist before. At the same time, there are some professions that are going to be directly impacted, and we see our role as helping with the transition.- What are the next steps toward intelligent AI? -I think the breakthroughs are about models understanding your goals and helping accomplish them proactively.Not just give you a good answer to a question, not just have a dialog, but actually tell you, ‘Oh, okay, you’re telling me that you want to spend more time with your wife. Well, there might be some weekend getaways that would be helpful, and I know it’s a lot to plan, so I’ve already done all the planning for you and I’ve already made some reservations. Just tap one button to approve and everything gets done.’We’re still very early, but we’re on that journey to capture that.- In San Francisco, you sometimes hear: ‘America innovates, China copies, Europe regulates’ -As a European, every time I hear this saying, my heart breaks a bit. I think there has certainly been a tendency in Europe to focus on regulation a little too much.On China, we continue to be extremely focused on continuing to have a lead, because we see China continuing to invest heavily in being competitive — whether in terms of innovation or in terms of computing — and so we think it’s incredibly important to continue investing across a democratic bloc to advance AI that has these [democratic] values.- Do you let your child use ChatGPT? -ChatGPT is not supposed to be for under 13, but my kid is 10 — I still let her use it under supervision. It’s magical to see what she’s able to create. Just this weekend, she was telling me about creating a new business. She was using ChatGPT to make banners for the new business, to create taglines.In our childhood, we couldn’t turn our imagination into something real that fast. And I see that really giving her superpowers, where she thinks anything is possible.