AFP USA

Google’s parent company Alphabet on Tuesday reported revenue jumped in the recently-ended quarter, but shares sank on concerns it may be pouring too much money into artificial intelligence.Google and rivals are spending billions of dollars on data centers and more for AI, while meaningful returns on investments remain elusive and the rise of lower-cost model DeepSeek from China raises questions about how much needs to be spent.”We are pushing the next frontiers from AI agents, reasoning and deep research to state-of-the-art video, quantum computing and more,” Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said during an earnings call.”The company is in a great rhythm and cadence, building, testing, and launching products faster than ever before.”Pichai said this is translating into increased use of its products, including AI search summaries that are now available in more than 100 countries.Alphabet said revenues jumped 12 percent to $96.5 billion in the quarter, but the company’s share price sank more than 7 percent in after-hours trading as investors were disappointed by lower-than-expected revenue growth and the company’s ambitious capital spending forecast for 2025.Google Cloud revenue, while growing 30 percent to $12 billion, fell short of expectations, raising questions about the division’s ability to compete with rivals in the heated AI infrastructure market.”Q4 was a strong quarter driven by our leadership in AI and momentum across the business,” Pichai said.”We’ll continue to invest in our cloud business to ensure we can address the increase in customer demand.”Pichai added that Google is working on “even better thinking models” that it will share with developers soon.Alphabet announced plans to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, a figure that surprised analysts and highlighted the mounting costs of AI development.- ‘Chaotic backdrop’ -Like other tech giants, Alphabet is betting heavily on artificial intelligence across all of its products. “Part of the reason we are so excited about the AI opportunity is we know we can drive extraordinary use cases because the cost of actually using it is going to keep coming down,” Pichai said.”The opportunity space is as big as it comes, and that’s why you’re seeing us meeting that moment.”In December, the company announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced AI model to date.The company’s core Google Services segment, which includes search and YouTube, posted revenues of $84.1 billion, up 10 percent year-over-year.Within this segment, YouTube advertising revenue grew to $10.5 billion, while Google Search revenue reached $54 billion.Pichai told financial analysts that autonomous car division Waymo made “tremendous progress” last year and its robotaxi service is averaging 150,000 trips weekly.Waymo One robotaxi operations will expand to Austin and Atlanta this year, and to Miami next year, according to Pichai.”And in the coming weeks, Waymo One vehicles will arrive in Tokyo for their first international road trip,” Pichai said.The company’s workforce remained largely stable at 183,323 employees, reflecting ongoing cost control measures.Hanging over Google in 2025 are two major antitrust cases in the United States concerning the company’s dominant position in search engines and ad technology. A US judge has already found Google operating an illegal monopoly in search, and the company faces potential forced restructuring, including the possible sale of Chrome, its world-leading web browser.Meanwhile, Britain’s competition watchdog recently launched its own investigation into Google’s search engine market dominance and its impact on consumers and businesses. The decision in the US ad tech case is expected in the coming weeks.”Between defending itself against antitrust lawsuits from multiple governments, courting US TikTok advertisers to capitalize on a yet-elusive ban, reconfiguring search around generative AI, and convincing the market to invest in Gemini, Google is fighting ongoing battles on several fronts,” said Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.”Against this chaotic backdrop, Google’s core ads business has maintained healthy growth.”

Netflix has dropped Karla Sofia Gascon, the star of “Emilia Perez,” from its high-profile Oscars campaign and distanced itself from the best actress nominee over her offensive social media posts, Hollywood trade outlets reported Tuesday.Images of Gascon, who made history as the first openly transgender acting nominee in Academy Awards history, had adorned posters, billboards and advertisements for the musical film, which earned 13 Oscar nods — more than any other movie this year.But that campaign has abruptly changed tack, after old social media posts were uncovered and widely shared last week in which Gascon called Islam “an infection” and “deeply disgusting.”Gascon also denigrated or mocked wide-ranging subjects, including diversity efforts, China and George Floyd, the Black man whose 2020 killing by police spurred massive protests.The Spanish star, 52, initially apologized in a statement issued via Netflix and deactivated her account on X, formerly Twitter, but soon reversed course by defending herself publicly.She told CNN she is “not a racist” and will not withdraw from Oscar contention, and blamed “cancel culture” in an Instagram post.The Hollywood Reporter and Variety said streaming giant Netflix, which has invested heavily in hopes that “Emilia Perez” will provide its first ever best picture Oscar win, has now dropped Gascon from all campaign efforts.A Netflix web page promoting the film “for your awards consideration” on Tuesday contained an image of Zoe Saldana, the movie’s best supporting actress nominee.At a peak moment in Hollywood’s award season, Gascon will no longer attend events including Friday’s Critics Choice Awards gala as scheduled, trade magazines reported.Contacted by AFP, Netflix declined to publicly comment. “Emilia Perez” tells the story of a Mexican drug cartel boss who transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime.It had previously received criticism for its depictions of Mexico and its drug war, its representation of trans issues, and its use of artificial intelligence to increase Gascon’s voice range in musical scenes.But at least until now it had appeared to weather those storms, remaining a perceived frontrunner for multiple Academy Awards.Controversy has not always prevented films from going on to enjoy success at the Oscars.”Green Book,” a drama based on the real-life story of a Black musician and his white driver in the 1960s Deep South, was widely condemned for perpetuating “white savior” stereotypes.A tweet surfaced during Oscars campaigning, in which one of the movie’s producers expressed support for false claims that Muslims were celebrating in New Jersey following the 9/11 terror attacks.It went on to win best picture.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he still wants to work with Congress on the future of the department of education, as multiple reports suggested he was drafting executive orders to shut it down completely.Trump cannot abolish the department without the approval of Congress, which he is unlikely to get, but US media reported Tuesday that he would issue orders to effectively dismantle it from inside.”I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job,” Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday, referring to his pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon.Asked whether he plans to resort to an executive order or collaborate with Congress, Trump said: “I think I’d work with Congress.”He added that he would also have to work with teachers’ unions “because the teachers union is the only one that’s opposed to it.”The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country, described Trump’s plans as “a direct attack on our students, educators, and public schools.””We won’t let it happen. Congress must reject this extremist agenda,” the organization said on social media.In the United States, education infrastructure is mostly the purview of state and local governments. Launched in 1980, the US Department of Education currently has some 4,400 employees and a $79 billion annual budget. It is primarily responsible for managing federal loans for college and university students, collecting data on students’ progress and implementing anti-discrimination protections.The White House confirmed Trump was due to sign on Tuesday the latest in a slew of executive orders since his assumption of power on January 20, but did not specify what they were.The reports come amid a wider blitz on the federal government led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, that effectively shuttered the USAID humanitarian aid agency on Monday.Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is already probing data at the education department, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Monday.The tech tycoon referenced the report on his social media network X, saying that while former US president and conservative icon Ronald Reagan had not honored his vow to abolish the department in the 1980s, “President @realDonaldTrump will succeed.”During the 2024 election campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to do away with the department if he won a second term in power, returning decisions on the subject to US states.The Republican billionaire has repeatedly said the department has too much spending power, even as global metrics show the United States lagging far behind other countries in school standards.He has also criticized US schools as being too liberal. Last week, he signed several executive orders regarding hot-button topics in education — including race, gender, and college campus protests.Trump has nominated McMahon — the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment — to lead the education department, in a move widely seen as signaling his intention to downgrade it.At the culmination of a staged feud, Trump once body-slammed her husband, legendary wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.

The US Treasury said Tuesday that Elon Musk’s government reform team can read data from its highly sensitive payment system but not alter it, after Democratic lawmakers raised the alarm over the move and called for an investigation.Musk, the world’s richest person, is leading President Donald Trump’s federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).As part of that drive, he reportedly pushed for a team led by IT executive Tom Krause to be given access to the Treasury Department’s closely guarded payment system, which handles trillions of dollars of transactions, from Social Security and Medicare payouts to federal salaries.In response, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden sent a letter Tuesday to the congressional watchdog agency demanding it probe reports that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had personally granted Musk and his aides that permission.The Treasury, in a letter sent to Congress and shared with AFP, confirmed Krause’s team has access to the system, but said it is “read-only access… in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment.”They said the permission was “similar to the kind of access that Treasury provides to individuals reviewing Treasury systems, such as auditors.”Musk’s efficiency drive has run into strong opposition from Democratic lawmakers, who have raised a wide range of legal and ethical concerns about his moves to slash federal spending.In a separate letter sent to Republican President Donald Trump on Tuesday, other Democratic policymakers expressed concern over DOGE’s work involving government data and facilities.Labor unions and a grassroots advocacy group have also objected to the moves, filing a lawsuit calling on a federal judge to declare it illegal for Musk or others from DOGE to get personal information on taxpayers, and to block the Treasury Department from letting that happen.In a post on X, the social media platform that he owns, Musk said Monday that the “only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to follow the payment flows and pause suspicious transactions for review.”Musk’s access to the payments system was approved by Bessent and made possible when a career official was put on administrative leave after refusing to allow entry, according to the lawsuit. The official later retired.

World leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in Gaza, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said he believed people from the territory should be resettled elsewhere “permanently.””Our homeland is our homeland, if part of it is destroyed, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people selected the choice to return to it,” said Riyad Mansour. “And I think that leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian people.”On Tuesday, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, with the US leader saying he believed Palestinians should leave Gaza after an Israeli offensive that has devastated the territory and left most of it reduced to rubble.Speaking ahead of the meeting, Trump said he wanted a solution that saw “a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes where they can be happy.”At the United Nations, Mansour did not name Trump but appeared to reject the US president’s proposal.”Our country and our home is” the Gaza Strip, “it’s part of Palestine,” he said. “We have no home. For those who want to send them to a happy, nice place, let them go back to their original homes inside Israel, there are nice places there, and they will be happy to return to these places.”The war in Gaza erupted after Palestinian armed group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,518 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures as reliable.The UN says more than 1.9 million people — or 90 percent of Gaza’s population — have been displaced by Israel’s offensive, with the bombing campaign having leveled most structures in the territory, including schools, hospitals and basic civil infrastructure.The start of a ceasefire deal, which included the release of hostages held by Hamas and prisoners held by Israel, on January 19 saw Palestinians rejoice, with many returning to homes that no longer stood.”In two days, in a span of a few hours, 400,000 Palestinians walking returned to the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” said UN envoy Mansour. “I think that we should be respecting the selections and the wishes of the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people at the end will make the determination, their determination.”

Donald Trump’s demand for billions of gallons (liters) of water to be released in California, in what he said was a move to help combat fires in Los Angeles, was wasteful and pointless, experts say.The US president told military engineers to open two dams in the state’s central valley, claiming it would help put out blazes that have ravaged the city and would also irrigate farmland.”Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!” he boasted on social media last week.”I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!” But water experts say the order opening dams in California’s San Joaquin Valley sent water down channels and waterways into irrigation ditches in the same valley — nowhere near the fires, and at a time when farms there do not need irrigating.Water scientist Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute said the release amounted to Trump having “thrown away” billions of gallons of water.It will “not be used or usable for firefighting, not be used by farmers since this isn’t the irrigation season, and won’t be saved for the dry season, which is coming,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.”California’s water system is very delicately balanced among all of the competing interests, and this episode shows that even slight interference in that system can cause chaos.”Blazes that erupted around Los Angeles last month during hurricane-strength wind storms devoured 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) and destroyed thousands of homes.The battle to contain them was hampered in the first 24 hours by the fact that winds were too high for helicopters and planes to take to the skies.With no aerial support, firefighters were dependent on hydrants that in one area ran dry because of the unprecedented demand.Trump seized on that, claiming it was proof that California officials managed their water supplies badly, resurrecting erroneous claims about water from the north of the state spilling into the Pacific Ocean instead of being diverted to the south.But his order to the Army Corps of Engineers to “open up the valves” did nothing to improve firefighting conditions and has instead drained water that farmers will likely need later this year, said Democratic congressmen Jared Huffman and Rick Larsen.”These releases did not meet their stated intent of providing Los Angeles with additional water,” they said in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.They “could reduce the availability of critical municipal and agricultural water supplies later in the year, further exacerbating the fire, safety, and economic risks facing this drought-prone region for years,” the letter said.

Mexico on Tuesday began moving troops to its northern border as part of a 10,000-member deployment that President Claudia Sheinbaum promised US counterpart Donald Trump in exchange for a delay of his tariffs.”The deployment has already started,” Sheinbaum told reporters a day after announcing a last-minute deal with Trump to tighten measures against illegal migration and cross-border smuggling of the drug fentanyl.Several hundred members of the National Guard were seen boarding a military airplane in the southeastern city of Merida, heading for the Mexican-US border.Troops were seen arriving in Tijuana, just south of California, and Ciudad Juarez, bordering Texas.”There will be patrols along the entire US-Mexico border,” said Jose Luis Santos, National Guard coordinator in Ciudad Juarez.”Patrols will be conducted on foot and by vehicle, as well as patrols on various roads leading to the border,” he told reporters.Mexico also repeatedly pledged to Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden that it would tackle illegal flows of drugs and migrants, and border states already have a heavy security presence including thousands of troops.Trump on Saturday announced sweeping measures against the United States’ three biggest trading partners: Canada, China and Mexico.Its immediate neighbors were to face a tariff of 25 percent, the president announced, and China an additional 10 percent on top of existing duties.Canada and Mexico announced plans for reciprocal levies before both countries’ presidents managed to strike a deal with Trump Monday that saw him delay the tariffs by a month.Markets had slumped Monday after the weekend threats sparked fears of a global trade war.Sheinbaum said troops had been taken from parts of the country that “do not have as much of a security problem.”Several hundred thousand people have been killed since Mexico deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.The US border deployment “does not leave the rest of the country without security,” the president insisted.

Salvage crews have recovered the bodies of all 67 people killed when a passenger plane and a US Army helicopter collided near Washington and plunged into the Potomac River, officials said Tuesday.All but one of the bodies have been identified, said a statement from a variety of government agencies involved in the recovery effort after the deadliest US air crash in 20 years.The statement called the completion of the search for remains a “significant step” toward bringing closure to the families of the people who died in the accident last week.”Our hearts are with the victims’ families as they navigate this tragic loss,” the statement said. “We extend our deepest condolences and remain committed to supporting them through this difficult time.”Crews continue working to recover the wreckage of the passenger plane — a Bombardier CRJ-700 operated by American Eagle airlines — from the frigid waters of the Potomac.So far crews have retrieved pieces including the right wing, a center section of the fuselage, part of the left wing, the tail cone and rudder, the National Transportation Safety Board said.Work to recover the chopper will begin when the plane work is done, the city agencies said.Sixty passengers on the plane and four crew members were killed in Wednesday’s accident along with three soldiers aboard the US Army Black Hawk helicopter.There were no survivors.The plane was on a flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington when the collision occurred.President Donald Trump was quick to blame diversity hiring policies for the accident although no evidence has emerged that they were responsible.Trump also said the helicopter, which was on a routine training mission, appeared to be flying too high.According to US media reports, the control tower at the busy airport may have been understaffed at the time of the accident.The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to compile a preliminary report within 30 days, although a full investigation could take a year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday for crucial talks on the truce with Hamas, as the US president suggested permanently resettling Palestinians from war-battered Gaza.”It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return,” Trump said as he met Netanyahu in the Oval Office. “Why would they want to return? The place has been hell.”Trump earlier said Palestinians would “love” his plan to move them out of Gaza and into other Middle Eastern countries including Egypt and Jordan.Trump has claimed credit for securing the Israel-Hamas truce after more than 15 months of fighting and bombing, and he was likely to urge Netanyahu to move to the next phase of the ceasefire deal, aimed at a more lasting peace.Netanyahu said “we’re going to try” when asked by AFP how optimistic he was about moving on to phase two.”That’s one of the things we’re going to talk about. When Israel and the United States work together, and President Trump and I work together, the chances go up a lot,” Netanyahu said.The pair were later due to hold a joint press conference.Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Trump’s suggestion of moving Palestinians from Gaza. Gazans have also denounced Trump’s idea. “Trump thinks Gaza is a pile of garbage — absolutely not,” said 34-year-old Hatem Azzam, a resident of the southern city of Rafah.- ‘Beautiful piece of land’ -But in a break with previous US policy. Trump doubled down on his suggestion that Palestinians should get a “fresh, beautiful piece of land” in Egypt, Jordan, or other countries.”I think they’d love to leave Gaza if they had an option,” Trump said in the Oval Office ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu.Israel said hours ahead of the White House talks it was sending a team to mediator Qatar to discuss the second phase of the agreement.Palestinian group Hamas said Tuesday negotiations for the second phase had begun, with spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou saying the focus was on “shelter, relief and reconstruction”.Under the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Palestinian militants and Israel have begun exchanging hostages held in Gaza for prisoners in Israeli custody.The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, taking into Gaza 251 hostages, 76 of whom are still held in the Palestinian territory including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Families of the Israeli hostages have been urging all sides to ensure the agreement is maintained so their loved ones can be freed.- ‘Maximum pressure’ -Trump said he would be pushing efforts towards a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia which froze with the Gaza war.But they will also be discussing Iran, which backs Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.Ahead of the meeting Trump signed an order reinstating what he called the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran over allegations that the country is trying to develop nuclear weapons.Since the Gaza ceasefire took effect on January 19, Israel has launched a deadly operation against militants in the occupied West Bank’s north.UN aid agency UNRWA — which is now banned in Israel — warned that the heavily impacted refugee camp of Jenin was “going into a catastrophic direction”.On Tuesday, the Israeli army said a gunman killed two soldiers before being shot dead in an attack south of Jenin.Under the truce’s first phase, 18 hostages have been freed so far in exchange for some 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into Gaza, and allowed people displaced by the war to return to the north of the Palestinian territory.Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at least 47,518 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures as reliable.burs-dk/st

A meteorologist who caved to political pressure during Donald Trump’s first administration to mislead the public about a hurricane forecast was nominated by the president Tuesday to once more lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).Neil Jacobs, who previously helmed the renowned science agency from 2018 to 2021, was officially censured for his role in the infamous “Sharpiegate” scandal — one of the more bizarre episodes of Trump’s first term.Despite this, he has now been tapped to return to NOAA, which right-wing ideologues accuse of fueling the “climate change alarm industry.”The controversy erupted in September 2019 when Trump, relying on outdated information, wrongly claimed that Hurricane Dorian was set to strike Alabama. The National Weather Service’s local office in Birmingham swiftly corrected him to prevent unnecessary panic. But Trump refused to back down, lashing out with angry tweets and even displaying a doctored forecast map — apparently amended with one of the black Sharpie pens he favors using — to bolster his false claim.NOAA later issued an unsigned statement backing Trump’s erroneous assertion, sparking widespread backlash from meteorologists. Subsequent official investigations castigated Jacobs and another official for their roles in the drama.A report from the National Academy of Public Administration stated that NOAA’s defense of Trump’s claim “was not based on science but appears to be largely driven by external influences.” It also warned that such actions corrode public trust in scientific institutions.Jacobs’s new nomination has already drawn sharp criticism.”If the data used to help protect people and the economy becomes less reliable, the result will be very real harm to everyone, especially those on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists.She added that if Jacobs is confirmed, he must “commit to upholding NOAA’s scientific integrity policy and standing up to any attempt to dismantle NOAA or commercialize its forecasting work, which proponents of Project 2025 have called for.”Developed by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 calls for breaking up NOAA, which it says is one of the “main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”It also seeks to fully privatize the functions of the National Weather Service so that forecasts are only provided by companies like AccuWeather.Although Trump distanced himself from the plan during his 2024 campaign, it appears to be gathering momentum now that he is back in office.