00:00We're going to turn our attention now to the international newspapers.
00:02Debtika Laurent joins us in studio for that.
00:04And Debtika, in fact, you're picking up on this story of that plastic pollution,
00:08talks getting underway in Geneva.
00:09Quite a specific story on some of the front pages here in France.
00:14Yeah, that's right.
00:14As that gathering in Geneva gets underway,
00:17Libération, the French newspaper today,
00:19turns its attention to this poison that it calls mermaid tears.
00:25It's a term also known as plastic pellets.
00:27They're small in size and on purpose, about one to five millimeters,
00:32which make them easier to transport.
00:34They're classed as primary microplastics,
00:36using everything from single-use water bottles to TV sets.
00:41Often they're released en masse from industrial sites.
00:45They travel either through pipes or land,
00:47end up on the coastlines and riverbanks all over the world.
00:51in the EU alone, Libération says, around 184,000 tons of these microplastics
00:58escape into nature each year.
01:01Also through land spills, one particularly devastating incident in 2021,
01:06a cargo ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka,
01:08releasing into the sea 11,000 tons of this industrial plastic,
01:13which almost immediately killed the fauna.
01:15Sea turtle eggs, for instance, were crushed under the weight of the plastic.
01:20And also, the paper explains, as it travels,
01:22it collects noxious toxins on its surface,
01:25which are ingested by fish and crustaceans,
01:28in turn ingested by humans.
01:30And so the vicious spiral continues, Eve.
01:33Yeah, that sounds just all kinds of negative and only negative.
01:37But let's move on now, Dipteca, to some tech news.
01:39Silicon Valley has entered its hard tech era,
01:42the New York Times says.
01:43Tell us more.
01:44Yeah, it's this very eloquently written article here
01:47from the New York Times' correspondent, Mike Isaac.
01:51He's been a tech reporter for 15 years.
01:53He says, 10, 15 years ago, Silicon Valley was in its 2.0 era,
01:59building on consumer internet, streaming music services,
02:02photo sharing, that kind of thing.
02:03It was the antithesis of corporate America
02:05with its colorful beanbags and free employee restaurants
02:10and flexible work schedules.
02:12Well, that Silicon Valley is now mostly ancient history, he says.
02:17Today, tech is harder, the perks are fewer,
02:19and the mood is much more serious.
02:22Hiring has slowed, and those who do have a job
02:25are met with watchful eyes by management.
02:27And the political dial has also shifted rightwards.
02:31They're conservative socially,
02:33but still anti-government when it comes to business regulation.
02:37Okay.
02:38Meanwhile, a former CNN journalist has created controversy
02:42after interviewing an AI avatar of a young man
02:45who was, in fact, killed in a school shooting eight years ago.
02:48Well, Jim Acosta, former CNN White House correspondent,
02:52released his video on his ex-feed yesterday,
02:55an interview with an AI avatar of Joaquin Oliver,
03:00a 17-year-old boy who was killed in 2018
03:03in a school shooting at Marjory,
03:06the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
03:09Let's take a look at that video,
03:11and then we can talk about the reaction to it.
03:14Take a look.
03:15Joaquin, I would like to know
03:16what your solution would be for gun violence.
03:21Great question.
03:22I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws,
03:25mental health support, and community engagement.
03:27We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections,
03:31making sure everyone feels seen and heard.
03:33So, Eve, that's just a little snippet of that video.
03:36You can see it's clearly AI.
03:38It's got unnatural, jerky movements,
03:40but it's also the effect of it.
03:42Now, Oliver was, as I said, 17 when he was killed.
03:45Now, this AI avatar was conceived by his parents
03:48on what would have been his 20th, 25th birthday,
03:54and the idea was to send a very strong message about gun violence.
03:57They had also specifically requested that Jim Acosta interview him.
04:01It's very controversial, nonetheless.
04:03It's still a lot of criticism about, I think, on many levels,
04:07many saying why wasn't he able to interview
04:09a survivor of that school shooting
04:12rather than using this murky technology.
04:15Yeah, lots of questions there, Dipika.
04:17Finally, from you, though, she was the first woman
04:19to head any intelligence agency,
04:22and in particular, the MI5 Dame Stella Remington has died.
04:26And the press is awash with obituaries
04:29to Dame Stella Remington today.
04:32The first woman to head MI5,
04:34she died at the age of 90,
04:37surrounded by her family at her home.
04:38Now, her history is really interesting.
04:41Her story, rather, is really interesting.
04:43She started at MI5 in 1967, quite by accident,
04:48when, I quote, as a bored housewife,
04:50she became a part-time typist at the MI5 office
04:53in the British High Commission in New Delhi.
04:56During her time, as she rose through the ranks
04:59to eventually become chief of MI5 in 1992,
05:03she faced Russian agents and the IRA,
05:06as well as domestic subversives
05:08like the leaders of the 1984 miners' strike.
05:11In 1996, she left MI5
05:13and actually became a spy novelist.
05:16She even had a stint at Marks & Spencer's
05:19where she eavesdropped, you might read that,
05:21as spied on customers discussing products.
05:24Remington was also reportedly the woman
05:26who inspired Q in the James Bond movies, Eve.
05:29Okay, Dipika, we'll have to leave it there.
05:30We thanks a lot for that.
05:32That brings us to the end of this edition.
05:35Do take care.
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