AI's Thirst for Power Can Be Tamed With Flexibility
US power demand has soared in recent years with the growth of artificial intelligence, the building of factories and the electrification of the economy. Some analysts liken this unexpected surge to the jump seen during World War II.
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NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Why a 'mini Trump' is breaking through in Japan
TOKYO — As President Donald Trump's tariffs add to a sense of uncertainty in Japan, more voters here are embracing an idea inspired by their longtime ally the United States: 'Japanese first.' The nationalist slogan helped the right-wing populist party Sanseito make big gains in Japan's parliamentary elections on Sunday, as it capitalized on economic malaise and concerns about immigration and overtourism. Party leader Sohei Kamiya, who since 2022 had held Sanseito's only seat in the upper house of Japan's parliament, will now be joined by 14 others in the 248-seat chamber. It's a far cry from the party's origin as a fringe anti-vaccination group on YouTube during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though Japan has long had a complex relationship with foreigners and its cultural identity, experts say Sanseito's rise is another indication of the global shift to the right embodied and partly fueled by Trump, with populist figures gaining ground in Europe, Britain, Latin America and elsewhere. Kamiya 'fancies himself a mini-Trump' and 'is one of those who Trump has put wind in his sails,' said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies and history at Temple University's Japan campus. Speaking at a rally on Saturday at Tokyo's Shiba Park, Kamiya said his calls for greater restrictions on foreign workers and investment were driven not by xenophobia but by 'the workings of globalization.' He criticized mainstream parties' support for boosting immigration in an effort to address the labor shortage facing Japan's aging and shrinking population. 'Japan is still the fourth-largest economy in the world. We have 120 million people. Why do we have to rely on foreign capital?' Kamiya told an enthusiastic crowd. The election results were disastrous for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is facing calls to resign now that his conservative Liberal Democratic Party — which has ruled almost uninterrupted since the end of World War II — has lost its majority in both houses of parliament. The Japanese leader had also been under pressure to reach a trade deal with the Trump administration, which said Tuesday that the two sides had agreed to a 15% U.S. tariff on Japanese goods. On Wednesday, Ishiba denied reports that he planned to step down by the end of August. The message from his party's string of election losses is that 'people are unhappy,' Kingston said. 'A lot of people feel that the status quo is biased against their interests and it advantages the elderly over the young, and the young feel sort of resentful that they're having to carry the heavy burden of the growing aging population on their back,' he said. Kamiya, 47, an energetic speaker with social media savvy, is also a strong contrast to leaders such as Ishiba and the Constitutional Democrats' Yoshihiko Noda, both 68, who 'look like yesterday's men' and the faces of the establishment, Kingston said. With voters concerned about stagnating wages, surging prices and bleak employment prospects, 'the change-makers got a lot of protest votes from people who feel disenfranchised,' he said. Sanseito's platform resonated with voters such as Yuta Kato. 'The number of [foreign immigrants] who don't obey rules is increasing. People don't voice it, but I think they feel that,' the 38-year-old hairdresser told Reuters in Tokyo. 'Also, the burden on citizens including taxes is getting bigger and bigger, so life is getting more difficult.' The biggest reason Sanseito did well in the election, he said, 'is that they are speaking on behalf of us.' Kamiya's party was not the only upstart to benefit from voter discontent, with the center-right Democratic Party for the People increasing its number of seats in the upper house from five to 16. Sanseito, whose name means 'Participate in Politics,' originated in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, attracting conservatives with YouTube videos promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and pushing back against mask mandates. Its YouTube channel now has almost 480,000 subscribers. The party has also warned about a 'silent invasion' of foreigners in Japan, where the number of foreign residents rose more than 10% last year to a record of almost 3.8 million, according to the Immigration Services Agency. It remains far lower as a proportion of the population than in the U.S. or Europe, however. Critics say such rhetoric has fueled hate speech and growing hostility toward foreigners in Japan, citing a survey last month by Japanese broadcaster NHK and others in which almost two-thirds of respondents agreed that foreigners received 'preferential treatment.' At the Sanseito rally on Saturday, protesters held up signs that said 'No Hate' and 'Racists Go Home.' Kamiya denies that his party is hostile to foreigners in Japan. 'We have no intention of discriminating against foreigners, nor do we have any intention of inciting division,' he said Monday. 'We're just aiming to firmly rebuild the lives of Japanese people who are currently in trouble.' Despite its electoral advances, Sanseito doesn't have enough members in the upper house to make much impact on its own and has only three seats in the more powerful lower house. The challenge, Kingston said, is whether Kamiya can 'take this anger, the malaise, and bring his show nationwide.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. racket sport startup expanding at two waterfront locations
Less than two years after opening the Bay Area's first club dedicated to the fast-growing racket sport padel, the San Francisco startup Bay Padel is planning major expansions at both Pier 70 in Dogpatch and Treasure Island. Bay Padel, which recently opened a club next to the Google campus in Sunnyvale, will add four more padel courts and six pickleball courts outside at Pier 70's Building 12, the historic mixed-use complex that recently saw the opening of a Standard Deviant brewery and an outpost of the Asian American bakery Breadbelly. At Treasure Island four more pickleball and two more padel courts will be built in the historic Hangar 3, near the entrance to the island. When completed, the Treasure Island club will have eight padel courts and eight pickleball courts. 'Our thesis originally was to create as many clubs as possible in the next five years based on the hypothesis that with padel being the fastest growing sport in the world, it will eventually take off in the U.S.,' said Bay Padel co-founder Lucas Tepman. So far the thesis has been solid. The Treasure Island and Pier 70 clubs are at 85% capacity at peak hours. The Dogpatch courts are at 70% capacity in non-peak hours and Treasure Island is at 40%, according to Tepman and his partner Matias Gandulfo. Padel is played on a synthetic grass, glass-enclosed court, where players can hit the ball off the back wall. It is bigger than a pickleball court but smaller than a tennis court. The paddles are solid but perforated and the ball is like a tennis ball, but slightly smaller and softer. The game has the same scoring system as tennis. The rise of padel over the last two years has been similar to the growth pickleball saw during the first few years of the pandemic. In 2024 there was a 26% increase in new padel clubs opening around the world, with 7,000 new courts built, according to Playtomic, an app that allows padel players to reserve courts and find people to play with. Of the 7,000 new courts built in 2024, 352 were in the United States. For Pier 70, which is being redeveloped by Brookfield Properties, the Bay Padel expansion caps a flurry of activity at Building 12, a restored football-field-size historic structure that was originally built in 1941 for the World War II shipbuilding effort. In addition to Bay Padel, Standard Deviant and Breadbelly, tenants that have moved in include custom sneaker designer Studio Duskus, paper artist Zai Divecha, metalsmith and maker Emi Grannis, florist Marbled Mint, and motorcycle dealer Scuderia. In addition, Brookfield recently announced that Elevation XR has signed a five-year lease to put four structures (three geodesic domes and a pyramid) on a site between the bay and Building 12. The domes will feature live music, movies, educational programing like nature documentaries, and wellness-oriented offerings like sound baths and yoga. While Building 12 is being billed at the centerpiece of the Pier 70 development, the vast majority of the old shipyard redevelopment remains stalled, with Brookfield still struggling to attract capital needed to start on the 2,150 homes and up to 1.75 million square feet of commercial space the master plan calls for. The land that will be occupied by both Elevation XR and the Bay Padel expansion is slated for housing. Tim Bacon, senior director of development for Brookfield, which is redeveloping Pier 70, said Bay Padel is a good fit for Building 12 because it will bring activity at night and on weekends. 'I was there on Sunday and Breadbelly had a line out the door, the courts were all reserved at Bay Padel, and every seat was taken at Standard Deviant,' Bacon said. Bacon said the activation of Building 12 will bring other potential tenants and investors out to Pier 70 and eventually help build momentum for the larger project. 'We are creating a mixed-use destination — with a dome park and padel club — that is becoming a place where office tenants will want to be,' he said. 'We are continuing to work with our partners at the port and the city to find creative ways to unlock development opportunities.' Meanwhile there will be plenty of beer, bread, pickleball and padel at Pier 70. Tepman and Gandulfo said they are hoping to open the new courts in October — or as soon as possible since they said there is a waiting list for people trying to get into the padel clinics. 'We are hiring coaches,' Gandulfo said.
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Shunsaku Tamiya, Who Brought Perfection to Plastic Models, Dies at 90
Shunsaku Tamiya transformed his father's former sawmill into a leading manufacturer of plastic model kits, with a passion for detail that once led him to buy and disassemble a Porsche to make a perfect miniature version. He died on July 18 of undisclosed causes, at age 90. For more than four decades, Mr. Tamiya led the company that bore his family's name, turning it into one of the world's largest makers of build-it-yourself plastic model kits of racecars and military vehicles. Since producing its first such kit in 1960, of the Japanese World War II battleship Yamato, Tamiya Co. has become a globally known brand that also produces remote-controlled cars. Under the leadership of Mr. Tamiya, who replaced his father as the company's president, Tamiya won popularity worldwide for making kits that excelled in quality and historical detail. In 1967, one of its miniature models so faithfully reproduced a Formula 1 racing car, down to the location of a starter battery beneath the driver's seat, that the maker of the original vehicle, Honda Motor, wondered if he had access to trade secrets but decided to let it pass. His pursuit of accuracy also once took him to the embassy of the Soviet Union in Tokyo, where he sought details about Warsaw Pact tanks. This drew the attention of Japan's public security bureau, which placed him under surveillance for a time. Mr. Tamiya was serving as the company's chairman at the time of his death. According to the company, he still enjoyed standing at the entrance to an annual trade show near Tamiya's headquarters in Shizuoka, a city south of Tokyo, to watch the children come in. 'He turned our city of Shizuoka into a world center of plastic models,' Shizuoka's mayor, Takashi Namba, told reporters after learning of Mr. Tamiya's death. 'He also built a global brand. I truly respected him.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
