AFP USA

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors got underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats between the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. But Trump dialed back his rhetoric over the weekend, and by Monday morning traders appeared to have settled somewhat, with all three major Wall Street indices opening higher on the news. Both IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga are due to speak in Washington on Monday, with more substantial events scheduled for later in the week. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -Ahead of the meetings, Georgieva told an event in Washington that the world economy was doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, a short distance from the White House. For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.There will be another roundtable on Ukraine this week, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said in Washington last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

The US government shutdown dragged into a third week on Monday, with Congress gridlocked in a clash over spending and no resolution in sight to a crisis that has already cost thousands of jobs.With hundreds of thousands of federal employees already on enforced leave, President Donald Trump is following through on threats to take a hatchet to the workforce to pressure Democrats to agree to Republican funding demands.Trump has vowed to find a way to pay troops due to go without their paychecks for the first time, although the uncertainty is already leading to long lines of men and women in uniform at food banks.And Trump has warned that continued refusal by Democrats to support a House-passed resolution to fund the government through late November would result in mass layoffs targeting workers deemed aligned with the opposition party. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News at the weekend that Democrats could expect more pain ahead if they did not cave. “The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be and… to be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful,” he said.Court documents filed by the Department of Justice show more than 4,000 employees were fired on Friday, with the US Treasury and health, education and housing departments hardest hit.The reductions in the workforce are part of a campaign of threats on multiple fronts to amp up pressure on Democrats to back Republican moves to reopen the government. But Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House respectively, have dismissed the threat, predicting that layoffs will be reversed in court.- Sticking point -About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are set to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday.The Stronghold Food Pantry, a charity supporting military families, told Time magazine it had seen an “unprecedented increase in need since the shutdown began.”Trump announced on Saturday that he would direct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds to get our Troops PAID” by Wednesday.Pentagon officials are reportedly diverting $8 billion in research and development funding, and while it is not clear that the move would be lawful, it has received little pushback from either party.Republican Speaker Mike Johnson — who has kept the House on recess since September 19 — is resisting pressure to bring back members to vote on a standalone bill to release military salaries for the duration of the shutdown.”We have voted so many times to pay the troops. We have already done it. We did it in the House three weeks ago,” Johnson told reporters Friday. “The ball is in the court of Senate Democrats right now. That’s it.”The key sticking point is a Republican refusal to agree to Democratic demands for language in its government funding resolution to extend expiring health insurance subsidies for 24 million Americans.Congress was out Monday for a federal holiday — guaranteeing that the shutdown would enter a 14th day — and while Trump’s vow to ensure military pay was welcomed, it also eased pressure for either side to end the stalemate.The Senate was set to return on Tuesday to take an eighth swing at reopening the government — with little hope of a different outcome from previous votes.  Airports are seeing increasing delays as the shutdown drags on, with Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick rather than working without pay.The Smithsonian Institution has also closed its National Zoo and museums as of Sunday.

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors gets underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats from the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. Trump dialed back his rhetoric over the weekend, and by Monday morning traders appeared to have settled somewhat, with futures for Wall Street’s three major indices trading higher before markets opened. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva told an event in Washington last week that the world economy is doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings in Washington will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, a short distance from the White House. For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with bank President Ajay Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.At the annual meetings there will be another roundtable on Ukraine, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced Western economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

The Nobel prize in economics was awarded on Monday to American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France’s Philippe Aghion and Canada’s Peter Howitt for work on technology’s impact on sustained economic growth.Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.Aghion, 69, and Howitt, 79, shared the other half “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”, it added.John Hassler, chair of the prize committee, told reporters their work answered questions about how technological innovation drives growth and how sustained growth can be maintained.”During almost all of humankind’s history, living standards did not change noticeably from generation to generation. Economic growth was, on average, zero, and stagnation was the norm,” Hassler said.But over the last two centuries “things have been very different.”- ‘Creative destruction’ -“During the last 200 years, the world has seen more economic growth than ever before in human history,” Kerstin Enflo, a member of the economics prize committee, explained to reporters.However, she cautioned that “200 years is still just a short period compared to the long run history of stagnation that we saw before.””The laureates’ work reminds us that we should not take progress for granted. Instead, society must keep an eye on the factors that generate and sustain economic growth,” Enflo said. Mokyr, who is a professor at Northwestern University in the United States, “used historical sources as one means to uncover the causes of sustained growth becoming the new normal”, the jury said in a statement.Aghion and Howitt then created a mathematical model for “creative destruction”, which refers to the process “when a new and better product enters the market, the companies selling the older products lose out”.- ‘Openness’ -“I can’t find the words to express what I feel,” Aghion told reporters via telephone during the prize announcement.”I’m still speechless. It came really as a huge surprise,” he continued.Speaking about what could risk upsetting growth, he mentioned the threats of steep tariffs introduced since US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.”Openness is a driver of growth. Anything that gets in the way of openness is an obstacle to growth,” Aghion said.The economist also warned Europe not to let the United States and China dominate technological innovation. “I think European countries have to realise that we should no longer let (the) US and China become technological leaders and lose to them,” he said.The economics prize is the only Nobel not among the original five created in the will of Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.It was instead created through a donation from the Swedish central bank in 1968, leading detractors to dub it “a false Nobel”.But like the Nobels in chemistry and physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences chooses the winner and follows the same selection process.The economics prize wraps up this year’s Nobel season which honoured research into the human immune system, practical applications of quantum mechanics and the development of new forms of molecular architecture.The literature prize went to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was given the highly watched Nobel Peace Prize.In a surprise move, Machado dedicated the prize to Trump, who had made no secret that he thought he deserved it.The Nobel economics prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2 million cheque.The laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10.That date is the anniversary of the death in 1896 of scientist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his will.

The IMF and World Bank’s semi-annual gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors gets underway in Washington on Monday, against the backdrop of new trade threats from the world’s two largest economies.Last week, China unveiled new export restrictions on critical minerals, prompting a fierce response from US President Donald Trump, who said he would impose new 100 percent tariffs on Beijing in response.The news, delivered just after US stock markets closed on Friday, sent shares plunging after hours, as investors digested the prospect of a reinvigorated trade war. Last week, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva told an event in Washington that the world economy is doing “better than feared, but worse than we need.”She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next,” propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries. The annual meetings in Washington will take place at the IMF and World Bank’s headquarters, situated just a stone’s throw from the White House. – Economy, jobs in spotlight -For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with president Ajay Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.At the annual meetings there will be another roundtable on Ukraine, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.The event will be an opportunity to discuss “the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction,” according to the IMF. There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced Western economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China. – Ongoing trade tensions -Even before the most recent trade spat broke out, Trump’s tariff plans had raised US import taxes on goods to the highest level in decades, cooling growth and pushing up prices. So far, however, “all signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Georgieva said last week.”The world has avoided a tit-for-tat slide into trade war — so far,” she added. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of tariffs will be positive for the United States, pointing to their relatively muted economic impact thus far.

An escalating trade war between China and the United States faces another flashpoint Tuesday when Chinese ships will be required to start paying a special fee to dock at US ports.The move announced by the US Trade Representative (USTR) in April triggered reciprocal measures from Beijing, which will impose similar costs on US ships starting the same day.The tit-for-tat levies are just the latest in a series of disputes between the world’s two largest economic powers that have roiled financial markets and heightened fears of major disruption to the global economy.President Donald Trump massively upped the ante last week when he announced an additional 100 percent tariff on China and threatened to cancel a summit with Xi Jinping in retaliation for Chinese export curbs on rare earth minerals.The stated purpose of the US port fees is to address Chinese dominance of the global shipping sector and provide an incentive for building more ships in the United States.The non-partisan Alliance for American Manufacturing has called for the funds raised through the fees to be used in building up a new Maritime Security Fund.”The unfair economic practices of China present a sizeable obstacle to revitalizing shipbuilding in the United States,” the alliance said in a petition supporting proposed legislation aimed at developing the sector.  – A fading industry -According to the USTR, the port fee will be charged for each visit to the United States, a maximum of five times per ship per year.Chinese-made ships will pay $18 per net ton — or $120 per container — with an increase of $5 per year for the following three years.Vessels owned or operated by Chinese citizens, but not manufactured in China, will be charged $50 per net ton, with an annual increase of an additional $30 for the next three years.The United States is trying to boost a domestic industry that now represents only 0.1 percent of global shipbuilding.The Trump administration also sees US shipbuilding as tied to national security, given that China leads the world in ship manufacturing. In 2024, former president Joe Biden had tasked the USTR with an investigation to identify “China’s unfair practices in the shipbuilding, shipping, and logistics sectors.”His successor has kept up that focus. In March, Trump announced the creation of a White House Office of Shipbuilding with the aim of reviving that sector of US manufacturing. – Blow for blow -On Friday, Beijing fired back. As of Tuesday, the Chinese government announced, all ships manufactured in the United States or linked to an American company would have to pay “special” duties to dock at ports in China.They would be required to pay 400 yuan (56 dollars) per net ton, then 640 yuan (90 dollars) in April 2026, before further annual increases.”That’s a problem when you’re beholden to a global supply chain that you have no control over, that’s a national security risk,” Matt Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), which represents more than 150 US shipbuilding companies, told AFP.”We don’t want to be wholly dependent on communist-controlled state enterprises,” Paxton said, alluding to China.Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been working to recreate a thriving industrial base in the United States, notably by imposing sometimes prohibitive tariffs.As a result, many foreign and American companies have announced astronomical investments — worth trillions, according to the White House — in their factories and other sites on American soil.Paxton mentioned “a strong interest” in US-built ships, citing contacts from South Korea, China, Japan, Canada, and others.Many US shipyards are not operating at full capacity and have disabled dry docks, he said.In addition to increased foreign demand, the shipbuilding industry is also happy about the Trump administration’s goal of building 250 ships for the commercial fleet and the $50 billion budget for the Coast Guard and the Navy.”It’s very encouraging,” said Paxton. “It’s a historical moment.”

The US soybean harvest is underway and in rural Maryland, farmer Travis Hutchison cracks open a pod to show how a field is nearly dry enough for reaping.But a decent yield is not enough to secure his income this year — with China, once the biggest buyer of US soybean exports, halting orders in a trade row triggered by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs.Soybean prices “are really depressed because of the trade war,” Hutchison told AFP. His family tills 3,400 acres of soybeans, corn and other crops.”I wasn’t against the president trying it, because I think we needed better trade deals,” added the 54-year-old of Trump’s policies.But he expressed disappointment at how things played out: “I was hoping it would get resolved sooner.”Hutchison is among American farmers — a key support base for Trump — reeling from the trade impasse.The world’s second biggest economy in 2024 bought more than half the $24.5 billion in US soybean exports.But exports to China have fallen by over 50 percent in value this year, and Chinese buyers have held off on new soybean orders from the US autumn harvest.With lower demand, soybean prices are down about 40 percent from three years ago.This comes as American soybeans have become pricier for Chinese buyers.As Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese products in his second presidency, Beijing’s counter-duties on US soybeans rose to 20 percent.This makes them “prohibitively more expensive” than exports from South America, where US farmers face growing competition, said the American Soybean Association (ASA).Last month, Argentina suspended its export tax on key crops like soybeans, making them more attractive to Chinese buyers too.Trump vowed to tap tariff revenues to help US farmers but has not provided details, while prospects of a longer-term deal appear more distant than ever.On Friday, Trump promised additional 100-percent tariffs targeting China and threatened to scrap talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping over Beijing’s rare earth industry export curbs.ASA president Caleb Ragland said the group had hoped top-level talks would restore soybean exports to China.”These latest developments are deeply disappointing at a moment when soybean farmers are facing an ever-growing financial crisis,” he said.- ‘Band-aid’ -Hutchison, whose family has been farming in Cordova for generations, acknowledges that farmers are easy targets in trade spats.But a government bailout is a “band-aid” rather than a long-term solution, he said.”I’m glad that he’s thinking of us,” Hutchison added, referring to Trump.But securing a reliable trading partner is more important: “We’re in the farming game for the long term.”Time is limited, as China’s soybean purchasing window from the United States usually runs from October through January, said farmer David Burrier, based in Union Bridge, Maryland.”This year’s going to be a very, very tough year,” he told AFP. “40 percent of our acres are probably going to be breakeven or under breakeven.”Burrier said it would be a “four-alarm fire” if China stopped soybean purchases for good.ASA chief economist Scott Gerlt warned the situation is especially harsh in Midwestern states like North and South Dakota.There, the soybean industry is built up around exporting to the Pacific Northwest and subsequently to China.They are hard-hit if they run out of storage and cannot ship their harvests out.- Worse than 2018 -Gerlt said farmers have it harder than in 2018, when they were also caught in Washington and Beijing’s tariffs war.From 2018 to 2019, retaliatory tariffs caused over $27 billion in US agriculture export losses. The government provided $23 billion to help farmers hit by trade disputes.But they enter this trade war under greater financial stress, Gerlt said.Crop revenues are lower, yet costs for everything from fertilizers to equipment have ballooned as Trump’s new tariffs bite.”Getting parts to fix your combines and your planters and everything is costing more because of the tariffs,” Hutchison said. “It’s going to affect our bottom line.”US farm bankruptcies this year have surged about 50 percent from 2024, said professor Chad Hart of Iowa State University.Asked if economic conditions have changed his feelings about supporting Trump, Hutchison paused: “It makes me think a little bit more.”

The quinceanera dress shops in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood are usually bustling enterprises, reflecting the buoyant mood of Latino families eyeing a brighter future. Not anymore.Businesses across the Midwestern city’s immigrant-heavy districts are in peril, as a crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration ripples through communities and sends terrified immigrants indoors and out of view — regardless of their citizenship status.At the heart of Little Village, nicknamed the Mexico of the Midwest for its vibrant Mexican culture and cuisine, streets were eerily empty Friday night — when the hub is usually thumping with energy. Restaurants are closing early and laying off staff. Construction sites are dark.One of the dozen quinceanera shops in Little Village — where families buy lavish gowns for their daughters’ coming-of-age parties — already went out of business, in September.For Ariella Santoyo, owner of My Quince World, the crackdown’s snowballing effect on a billion-dollar immigrant economy is reminiscent of Covid and how the pandemic devastated the area.”Definitely we have seen a decline this year” since Trump returned to the White House vowing to escalate deportations, Santoyo, 38, told AFP as she embellished the embroidery on a gown.Now with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detaining undocumented migrants and even US citizens in an escalating series of raids in the Democratic-run city, she has experienced “about a 40 percent loss” in business.Mike Muhammad, employed at a Latin-themed supermarket, put a similar estimate on the downturn.”People are not coming” to buy groceries, he said.Many men who work construction in Chicago are staying home too, said one contractor getting a haircut in Little Village.”No one is showing up to work. They’re scared,” said the man, who declined to be identified.Such income loss is putting tremendous strain on immigrant families, many of whom were already living on the margins.Many Mexican-American immigrants told AFP today’s conditions felt doubly dispiriting: Trump’s steep tariffs on Mexican imports, which are raising prices on the goods Chicago’s immigrant community purchases, and now raids that are keeping residents off the job. – Massive immigrant economy -Immigrants are huge contributors to the US economy, spending $299 billion in 2023 alone, according to non-profit advocacy group American Immigration Council.Chicago’s population of 2.7 million is 30 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2025 US Census figures show, and city Mayor Brandon Johnson — who has clashed with Trump over the ICE raids — warned of broader financial woes if the immigrant economy suffers.”President Trump is literally undermining the economic prowess of cities like Chicago,” Johnson said recently.Some Chicagoans are taking security measures into their own hands, establishing neighborhood patrols that sound out warnings when they see or suspect immigration enforcement operations.AFP tagged along with Pilsen Defense Access group as they patrolled the district on Chicago’s Lower West Side.”You do have these agents going through neighborhoods targeting people, and it makes people afraid, right?” said an activist who identified himself as Davis, a US military veteran, as he drove Pilsen’s streets. “To me that’s an act of terrorism.”No ICE personnel were spotted on the 90-minute patrol past schools, community centers and shopping hubs.But Davis said the surge in sweeps has residents scared and exasperated, triggering a trickle-down effect that can swamp a community’s economy.Pilsen was particularly vibrant on Sunday, however, as the Chicago Marathon snaked through the neighborhood where supporters waved Mexican flags and cheered.- ‘Back 50 years’ -Santoyo, the dressmaker, said the latest crisis “does bring the community together, helping each other through these tough times.” She choked up recalling how her immigrant father told her recently: “I feel like we went back 50 years in time.”But despite the ups and downs “we got through it all, so we will also get through this,” she said.Rosa, a 66-year-old born in Mexico, said at a local supermercado that today’s climate feels worse than Covid, because “now we can’t even go out to work or buy our things.”She remains fearful of how the crackdown will impact her community’s economy.”We all come here to work for a better future,” said Rosa, a US citizen who asked that her last name not be used.”If it weren’t for us — the Hispanics, the Mexicans — where would this country be?”

Artificial intelligence now makes it possible to mass-produce podcasts with completely virtual hosts, a development that is disrupting an industry still finding its footing and operating on a fragile business model.Since Google launched Audio Overview, the first mass-market podcast generator that creates shows from documents and other inputs, just over a year ago, a wave of startups has rushed in, from ElevenLabs to Wondercraft.No studio, no humans at the microphone, not even a recording — yet out comes a lively podcast, banter and all. Whether based on a legal document or a school handout, AI tools can deliver a state-of-the-art podcast at the click of a mouse.A pioneer in this movement is Inception Point AI, which was launched in 2023 and releases about 3,000 podcasts per week with a team of just eight people.The immediate goal is to play the volume game, said Jeanine Wright, Inception’s founder and the former number two at leading audio studio Wondery.With each episode costing one dollar to produce, a mere 20 listens is enough to turn a profit. Automation has lowered the threshold for selling advertising space — previously set at several thousand downloads.Wright gives the example of a “hyper-niche” program about pollen counts in a specific city, heard by a few dozen people that can attract antihistamine advertisers.With the rise of generative AI, many worry about synthetic content of poor quality — often called “AI slop” — flooding the internet, particularly social media.Inception mentions AI’s role in every episode, a disclosure that generates “very little drop-off” among listeners, Wright told AFP.”We find that if people like the (AI) host and the content, then they don’t care that it’s AI-generated or they’ve accepted it.”- Finding an audience -Martin Spinelli, a podcast professor at Britain’s University of Sussex, decried a flood of content that will make it “harder for independent podcasters to get noticed and to develop a following” without the promotional budgets on the scale of Google or Apple.The expected surge in programming will also cut into the advertising revenue of non-AI podcasts.”If someone can make 17 cents per episode, and then suddenly they make 100,000 episodes, that 17 cents is going to add up,” warned Nate DiMeo, creator of “The Memory Palace,” a pioneering podcast for history buffs.The industry veteran, whose program began in 2008, said he’s skeptical about the mass adoption of AI podcasts.But even if listener tastes don’t change significantly, a glut of AI podcasts can “still impact the art form,” independent podcasting where most programs are barely managing to stay afloat.Currently, the three major platforms — Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube — don’t require creators to disclose when a podcast was created by AI.”I would pay money for an AI tool that helps me cut through that noise,” said Spinelli, who finds the streaming giants ineffective at connecting niche content with its target audience.Wright argues it’s pointless to draw a dividing line between AI and non-AI content because “everything will be made with AI,” to one degree or another.She does believe, however, that AI-generated podcasts with synthetic voices will emerge as a distinct genre — somewhat like live-action films and animation, which have proven their storytelling potential and appeal over time.”People dismissing all AI-generated content as slop right now are being thoughtless, because there’s a lot of great, compelling AI content that deserves their interest.”DiMeo doesn’t see it that way. He compares podcasting to reading a novel or listening to a song. You simply want to connect “with some other human consciousness,” he said. “Without that, I find there’s less reason to listen.”

The world’s tropical coral reefs have almost certainly crossed a point of no return as oceans warm beyond a level most can survive, a major scientific report announced on Monday.It is the first time scientists have declared that Earth has likely reached a so-called “tipping point” — a shift that could trigger massive and often permanent changes in the natural world.”Sadly, we’re now almost certain that we crossed one of those tipping points for warm water or tropical coral reefs,” report lead Tim Lenton, a climate and Earth system scientist at the University of Exeter, told AFP.This conclusion was supported by real-world observations of “unprecedented” coral death across tropical reefs since the first comprehensive assessment of tipping points science was published in 2023, the authors said.In the intervening years, ocean temperatures have soared to historic highs, and the biggest and most intense coral bleaching episode ever witnessed has spread to more than 80 percent of the world’s reefs.Understanding of tipping points has improved since the last report, its authors said, allowing for greater confidence in estimating when one might spark a domino effect of catastrophic and often irreversible disasters.Scientists now believe that even at lower levels of global warming than previously thought, the Amazon rainforest could tip into an unrecognisable state, and ice sheets from Greenland to West Antarctica could collapse.- ‘Unprecedented dieback’ -For coral reefs, profound and lasting changes are already in motion.”Already at 1.4C of global warming, warm water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point and experiencing unprecedented dieback,” said the report by 160 scientists from dozens of global research institutions.The global scientific consensus is that most coral reefs would perish at warming of 1.5C above preindustrial levels — a threshold just years away.When stressed in hotter ocean waters, corals expel the microscopic algae that provides their distinct colour and food source.Unless ocean temperatures return to more tolerable levels, bleached corals simply cannot recover and eventually die of starvation.Since 2023, marine scientists have reported coral mortality on a scale never seen before, with reefs turning ghostly white across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. “I am afraid their response confirms that we can no longer talk about tipping points as a future risk,” Lenton told reporters.Rather than disappear completely, scientists say reefs will evolve into less diverse ecosystems as they are overtaken by algae, sponges and other simpler organisms better able to withstand hotter oceans.These species would come to dominate this new underwater world and over time, the dead coral skeletons beneath would erode into rubble.Such a shift would be disastrous for the hundreds of millions of people whose livelihoods are tied to coral reefs, and the estimated one million species that depend on them.- ‘Danger zone’ -Some heat-resistant strains of coral may endure longer than others, the authors said, but ultimately the only response is to stop adding more planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.Exceeding 1.5C “puts the world in a greater danger zone of escalating risk of further damaging tipping points”, Lenton said, including the collapse of vital ocean currents that could have “catastrophic” knock-on impacts.Scientists also warned that tipping points in the Amazon were closer than previously thought, and “widespread dieback” and large-scale forest degradation was a risk even below 2C of global warming.That finding will be keenly felt by Brazil, which on Monday is hosting climate ministers in Brasilia ahead of next month’s UN COP30 conference in Belem on the edge of the Amazon.In good news — the exponential uptake of solar power and electric vehicles were two examples of “positive” tipping points where momentum can accelerate for the better, said Lenton.”It gives us agency back, policymakers included, to make some tangible difference, where sometimes the output from our actions is sometimes disproportionately good,” he told AFP.