As leaders of the world’s wealthiest large democracies gathered in
Japan for the
G7 summit, which begins today, with the leaders of five Central Asian countries. The split-screen diplomacy comes as tensions rise between the West and China. Beijing’s inaugural China-Central Asia summit, which began yesterday, is part of its effort to counter what it sees as a U.S.-dominated world order that is trying to contain and suppress China. (At the G7, leaders will address what the U.S. describes as .)
China greeted the leaders of five former Soviet republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — on the tarmac with a huge crowd of dancers and jumping children. With the two-day summit, China is trying to fill some of the void left by Russia. The war in
Ukraine has weakened some of Russia’s influence in Central Asia, and China sees an opening. China’s interest in the region also stems from concerns about violence and ethnic tensions in the country’s region of Xinjiang, which shares a border with Central Asian countries. China sees economic prosperity in the region as a way to further stabilize Xinjiang, analysts say. Some leaders fear that, unless Ukraine makes major gains in its anticipated counteroffensive, the war could settle into a bloody, frozen conflict. Expect some discussion of . And for the first time, the leaders are expected to . The tech industry’s race to develop
Artificial intelligence has been upended by a decision to . In February, Meta released LLaMA, an A.I. technology similar to the one powering ChatGPT, as open-source software that anyone can use to build their own chatbot. “Meta now has zero control,” our colleague Cade Metz told us. “It is out in the wild.” Meta, formerly known as
Facebook, believes that sharing its underlying A.I. engines will spread the company’s influence and undercut its rivals. Meanwhile, companies like
Google and OpenAI have grown only more secretive about their A.I. tools, fearing they will be used to spread disinformation, hate speech and other toxic content. “Open source tends to win,” Cade said. “The difference now: The tech is potentially dangerous.” OpenAI unveiled a new version of ChatGPT for the
iPhone that . Days after Cyclone Mocha made landfall in
Myanmar aid groups are . For survivors, threats are growing. Aid groups fear that the death toll — estimated by some at more than 450 — will only rise as people face food shortages, disease, a lack of clean water and the loss of their homes. Survivors also face the threat of unexploded land mines that may have shifted during the flooding. The civil war is also complicating aid efforts. The fighting is taking place in many of the areas hit by the cyclone. Rescue workers, activists and survivors say the junta is reluctant to give outsiders access because it wants to control who receives aid. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar and killed more than 135,000 people. The death toll also climbed in the storm’s aftermath and the
MILITARY government was . Most of the dead were Rohingya Muslims who were among those moved into relocation camps more than a decade ago, the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management for the rival National Unity Government said.
Singapore (about 1.6 kilograms). It is the country’s second drug-related execution in three weeks. Scientists said that climate change made last month’s heat wave in parts of southern Asia at least 30 times more likely, .
Rafael Nadal because of an injury. As U.S.-led peace negotiations flounder, experts warn that Sudan risks . President
Bashar al-Assad is expected to attend a today for the first time since Syria’s civil war started.
Russia attacked Kyiv for . One person was killed by
missile strikes in Odesa, a southern city. An
explosion in the Russian-occupied region of Crimea, the latest in a series of blasts to hit its infrastructure. A Chinese diplomat left Ukraine without on efforts to end the war. Japan said it would accept and treat wounded Ukrainian soldiers, . Montana’s governor signed a bill from operating inside the state. Researchers have constructed that shows the wreckage in new, 3-D detail. The restoration of a work by Pablo Picasso . Forests, a band from Singapore, ended its tour in
New York in high spirits, . What doesn’t your therapist tell you? There are certain things they just can’t say to your face. “Therapy itself, it’s a bit of a dance — you want to see what the other person is bringing, and you dance with them,” a psychologist said. “If they’re doing a waltz, you can’t break out hip-hop.” A dozen counselors shared with The Times . . In a 7 to 2 ruling, the justices said the artist was not entitled to appropriate someone else’s photo of Prince into a portrait series. The photographer’s “original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. The photographer, Lynn Goldsmith, received almost no money or mainstream credit for the image. In a dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the decision “will stifle creativity of every sort” and “make our world poorer.” The art world largely agrees: Many , arguing that artists borrow from each other all the time. (They also note that Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, altered the photograph in various ways.) “There’s a lot that judges can do with the stroke of a pen, but rewriting art history isn’t one of them,” a Warhol . “They’re stuck with appropriation as one of the great artistic innovations of the modern era. Their
Job is to make sure the law recognizes that.” Put . (Seriously.) “ ,” by Bea Setton, is a funny and unsettling debut about a young woman in a new city. In “ ,” a dark psychosexual romantic
comedy, a wealthy heir and his longtime employee vie for control over their relationship. is a real pain. Here’s how to treat it. Join , which starts next month. Play the , and a clue: Not difficult (four letters). Here are the and the . . P.S. Meet Milton Esterow, a 94-year-old Times writer who still drafts . “ ” is on the #MeToo movement.