Trump fires National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet over DEI support
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he had fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., describing her as a supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and saying she was inappropriate for the role.Trump did not cite any specific actions or comments by Kim Sajet that may have triggered her firing, which he announced in a brief social media post.advertisementRepresentatives for Sajet, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution, which owns the museum, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
"Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet," Trump said in his post on Truth Social."She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position." He added a new gallery director would be named soon.Sajet was the first woman to serve as director of the gallery, a landmark Washington institution that houses portraits of distinguished Americans, including every president. It contains over 26,000 works, according to its website.It was not immediately clear whether Trump had the legal authority to fire Sajet. The Smithsonian is technically independent of the federal government, despite receiving most of its budget from the U.S. Congress.advertisementSajet's firing is the latest salvo in Trump's war against DEI initiatives. It also comes as Trump seeks to reshape the capital's arts and culture scene, including by dismissing Kennedy Center board members and installing himself as chairman.Trump's DEI actions have alarmed advocates, who say they effectively erase decades of hard-fought progress on leveling the playing field for marginalized communities. Trump's administration claims DEI initiatives are discriminatory and stifle merit.Sajet, a Nigerian-born art historian, has served as the gallery's director since 2013. In a 2015 interview with the Washington Post, Sajet reflected on the gallery's efforts to examine issues of race and gender."Where are all the women and African Americans?" Sajet told the Post of the gallery's collection."We can't correct the ills of history. Women and men and women of color — their portraits weren't taken. How are we going to show the presence of absence?"Tune InMust Watch
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Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Harvard has trained so many Chinese Communist officials, they call it their ‘party school'
U.S. schools—and one prestigious institution in particular—have long offered up-and-coming Chinese officials a place to study governance, a practice that the Trump administration could end with a new effort to keep out what it says are Chinese students with Communist Party ties. For decades, the party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to pursue executive training and postgraduate studies on U.S. campuses, with Harvard University a coveted destination described by some in China as the top 'party school" outside the country. Alumni of such programs include a former vice president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's top negotiator in trade talks with the first Trump administration. In an effort announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. authorities will tighten criteria for visa applications from China and 'aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." The statement didn't say how the Trump administration would assess Communist Party ties or what degree of connection would result in revocation of visas. In China, party membership is widely seen as helpful for career advancement—in government and the private sector—and is typically a prerequisite for officials seeking high office. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Thursday that the U.S. move 'seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students." Alleged ties with the Communist Party have emerged as a leading line of attack in President Trump's pressure campaign against Harvard. The Trump administration said on May 22 it was revoking Harvard's authorization to enroll foreign students, accusing the university of working with the Communist Party, though it later gave Harvard 30 days to contest the decision. Harvard has filed a lawsuit to keep its foreign enrollments. Harvard didn't respond to questions for this article. Some U.S. politicians have said that China's Communist Party is harvesting expertise in American academia to ultimately harm U.S. interests. The Trump administration has cited these criticisms among others to back its efforts to force a major cultural shift in U.S. colleges, which many conservatives regard as bastions of liberal and left-wing ideology. American universities have played leading roles in shaping China's overseas training programs for mid-career officials, which Beijing started arranging at scale in the 1990s as a way to improve governance by exposing its bureaucrats to Western public-policy ideas and practices. Other U.S. colleges that have offered executive training to Chinese officials include Syracuse, Stanford, the University of Maryland and Rutgers, according to publicity materials and other disclosures. Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, for instance, helped set up postgraduate programs in public administration at Chinese universities in the early 2000s. Beyond the U.S., Chinese officials have also flocked to leading universities in countries including Singapore, Japan and the U.K. Singapore's Nanyang Technological University is among the most popular, having trained thousands of Chinese officials since the early 1990s, mostly through postgraduate programs colloquially known as the 'Mayors' Class." Li Yuanchao, shown during his time as China's vice president, went to Harvard Kennedy School in 2002. Harvard enjoys a sterling reputation among Chinese officials thanks to its record in training highflying bureaucrats who went on to take senior government roles and, in some cases, join the party's elite Politburo. Some observers dubbed Harvard a de facto 'party school," as the party's own training academies for promising bureaucrats are known. 'If we were to rank the Chinese Communist Party's 'overseas party schools,' the one deserving top spot has to be Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in the U.S.," said a 2014 commentary published by Shanghai Observer, an online platform run by the city's main party newspaper. Li Yuanchao, a former Politburo member and China's vice president from 2013 to 2018, attended a mid-career training program at Harvard Kennedy School in 2002. He was the party boss of the central city of Nanjing at the time, and his first class at the school focused on crisis management, he recalled in a speech when visiting Harvard in 2009. The training proved invaluable when Li, after his return to Nanjing, had to deal with a mass poisoning in the city that killed dozens of people. 'More than 200 lives were saved in time, and the suspect was captured within 36 hours. We were praised by the local people and the central government for this," Li said in the 2009 speech. 'So, when I come here again today, I want to say: 'Thank you, Harvard!'" Liu He, a retired vice premier who was Xi's top trade negotiator in talks with the first Trump administration, earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School in 1995. Current Politburo member and senior legislator Li Hongzhong attended a short-term program at Harvard in 1999. Liu He, seen during a 2023 meeting with then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, attended Harvard in the 1990s. While Harvard Kennedy School hosted Chinese students as early as the 1980s, Beijing started sending officials for mid-career training there in a more organized manner in the following decade, according to Chinese media reports. One program, launched in 1998, offered fellowships and executive training courses to around 20 senior officials each year. In the early 2000s, Harvard launched another program, 'China's Leaders in Development," through which Chinese officials would undergo a weekslong training course split between Harvard and Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University. The program was designed to 'help prepare senior local and central Chinese government officials to more effectively address the ongoing challenges of China's national reforms," according to Harvard. According to newsletters published by the Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Harvard segment of the program has featured classes on subjects including public management, economic development and social policy, as well as visits to U.S. government organizations. Some children of top Communist Party officials have also attended Harvard for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Xi's daughter, Mingze, attended Harvard as an undergraduate in the early 2010s under an assumed name, though Harvard administrators and some faculty members were aware of her identity. She had enrolled while her father was China's vice president and leader-in-waiting and graduated after he took power. Other Harvard alumni with elite backgrounds include Alvin Jiang, a grandson of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, as well as Bo Guagua, the son of the former Politburo member Bo Xilai. Bo Guagua, son of former politician Bo Xilai, walks offstage after receiving his Harvard master's degree in 2012. Bo Guagua attended Harvard Kennedy School from 2010 to 2012 and earned a master's degree in public policy. His father was purged in 2012 and was sentenced to life imprisonment the following year on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. Harvard's China connections have also helped some of its top scholars gain access in Beijing. Graham Allison, a former dean of Harvard Kennedy School, has been granted meetings with Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the past year, during which the professor spoke about his views on U.S.-China relations. Write to Chun Han Wong at
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Weaponised storytelling: How AI is helping researchers sniff out disinformation campaigns
It is not often that cold, hard facts determine what people care most about and what they believe. Instead, it is the power and familiarity of a well-told story that reigns supreme. Whether it's a heartfelt anecdote, a personal testimony or a meme echoing familiar cultural narratives, stories tend to stick with us, move us and shape our beliefs. This characteristic of storytelling is precisely what can make it so dangerous when wielded by the wrong hands. For decades, foreign adversaries have used narrative tactics in efforts to manipulate public opinion in the United States. Social media platforms have brought new complexity and amplification to these campaigns. The phenomenon garnered ample public scrutiny after evidence emerged of Russian entities exerting influence over election-related material on Facebook in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Save Big on Makeovers Kitchen Magic Get Quote Undo While artificial intelligence is exacerbating the problem, it is at the same time becoming one of the most powerful defences against such manipulations. Researchers have been using machine learning techniques to analyze disinformation content. At the Cognition, Narrative and Culture Lab at Florida International University , we are building AI tools to help detect disinformation campaigns that employ tools of narrative persuasion. We are training AI to go beyond surface-level language analysis to understand narrative structures, trace personas and timelines and decode cultural references. Live Events Disinformation vs misinformation Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories In July 2024, the Department of Justice disrupted a Kremlin-backed operation that used nearly a thousand fake social media accounts to spread false narratives. These weren't isolated incidents. They were part of an organized campaign, powered in part by AI. Disinformation differs crucially from misinformation. While misinformation is simply false or inaccurate information - getting facts wrong - disinformation is intentionally fabricated and shared specifically to mislead and manipulate. A recent illustration of this came in October 2024, when a video purporting to show a Pennsylvania election worker tearing up mail-in ballots marked for Donald Trump swept platforms such as X and Facebook. Within days, the FBI traced the clip to a Russian influence outfit, but not before it racked up millions of views. This example vividly demonstrates how foreign influence campaigns artificially manufacture and amplify fabricated stories to manipulate US politics and stoke divisions among Americans. Humans are wired to process the world through stories. From childhood, we grow up hearing stories, telling them and using them to make sense of complex information. Narratives don't just help people remember - they help us feel. They foster emotional connections and shape our interpretations of social and political events. This makes them especially powerful tools for persuasion - and, consequently, for spreading disinformation. A compelling narrative can override scepticism and sway opinion more effectively than a flood of statistics. For example, a story about rescuing a sea turtle with a plastic straw in its nose often does more to raise concern about plastic pollution than volumes of environmental data. Usernames, cultural context and narrative time Using AI tools to piece together a picture of the narrator of a story, the timeline for how they tell it and cultural details specific to where the story takes place can help identify when a story doesn't add up. Narratives are not confined to the content users share - they also extend to the personas users construct to tell them. Even a social media handle can carry persuasive signals. We have developed a system that analyzes usernames to infer demographic and identity traits such as name, gender, location, sentiment and even personality, when such cues are embedded in the handle. This work, presented in 2024 at the International Conference on Web and Social Media, highlights how even a brief string of characters can signal how users want to be perceived by their audience. For example, a user attempting to appear as a credible journalist might choose a handle like @JamesBurnsNYT rather than something more casual like @JimB_NYC. Both may suggest a male user from New York, but one carries the weight of institutional credibility. Disinformation campaigns often exploit these perceptions by crafting handles that mimic authentic voices or affiliations. Although a handle alone cannot confirm whether an account is genuine, it plays an important role in assessing overall authenticity. By interpreting usernames as part of the broader narrative an account presents, AI systems can better evaluate whether an identity is manufactured to gain trust, blend into a target community or amplify persuasive content. This kind of semantic interpretation contributes to a more holistic approach to disinformation detection - one that considers not just what is said but who appears to be saying it and why. Also, stories don't always unfold chronologically. A social media thread might open with a shocking event, flash back to earlier moments and skip over key details in between. Humans handle this effortlessly - we're used to fragmented storytelling. But for AI, determining a sequence of events based on a narrative account remains a major challenge. Our lab is also developing methods for timeline extraction, teaching AI to identify events, understand their sequence and map how they relate to one another, even when a story is told in nonlinear fashion. Objects and symbols often carry different meanings in different cultures, and without cultural awareness, AI systems risk misinterpreting the narratives they analyze. Foreign adversaries can exploit cultural nuances to craft messages that resonate more deeply with specific audiences, enhancing the persuasive power of disinformation. Consider the following sentence: "The woman in the white dress was filled with joy." In a Western context, the phrase evokes a happy image. But in parts of Asia, where white symbolizes mourning or death, it could feel unsettling or even offensive. In order to use AI to detect disinformation that weaponises symbols, sentiments and storytelling within targeted communities, it's critical to give AI this sort of cultural literacy. In our research, we've found that training AI on diverse cultural narratives improves its sensitivity to such distinctions. Who benefits from narrative-aware AI? Narrative-aware AI tools can help intelligence analysts quickly identify orchestrated influence campaigns or emotionally charged storylines that are spreading unusually fast. They might use AI tools to process large volumes of social media posts in order to map persuasive narrative arcs, identify near-identical storylines and flag coordinated timing of social media activity. Intelligence services could then use countermeasures in real time. In addition, crisis-response agencies could swiftly identify harmful narratives, such as false emergency claims during natural disasters. Social media platforms could use these tools to efficiently route high-risk content for human review without unnecessary censorship. Researchers and educators could also benefit by tracking how a story evolves across communities, making narrative analysis more rigorous and shareable. Ordinary users can also benefit from these technologies. The AI tools could flag social media posts in real time as possible disinformation, allowing readers to be sceptical of suspect stories, thus counteracting falsehoods before they take root. As AI takes on a greater role in monitoring and interpreting online content, its ability to understand storytelling beyond just traditional semantic analysis has become essential. To this end, we are building systems to uncover hidden patterns, decode cultural signals and trace narrative timelines to reveal how disinformation takes hold.
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First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
'Catastrophic' job losses: Canada's steel industry trembles as Trump announces sharp tariff rise
The move to increase tariffs drew swift criticism from Canadian officials and industry leaders, who said the tariffs threaten to devastate a sector already under strain from earlier trade measures read more US President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 6, 2025. AFP Photo Canada's steel industry warned of 'catastrophic' job losses, factory slowdowns and supply chain disruptions after US President Donald Trump announced a sharp increase in tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, raising them to 50 per cent. Trump announced the tariff hike during a rally Friday (May 30) in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, framing the decision as a way to protect American industry and touting a $15 billion partnership between Nippon Steel and US Steel. He said the tariffs would take effect Wednesday and called them a 'fence' around domestic production. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The announcement comes less than a month after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the White House in an effort to repair strained relations. Carney had hoped to reset ties that had been damaged by previous threats from Trump to impose steep tariffs and even annex Canada. The two leaders had signalled a willingness to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement during Trump's first term and is scheduled for review next year. Tariff increase sparks criticism, fears The move to increase tariffs drew swift criticism from Canadian officials and industry leaders, who said the tariffs threaten to devastate a sector already under strain from earlier trade measures. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminium to the United States, accounting for nearly a quarter of US steel imports in 2023 and about half of aluminium imports. 'A 25 per cent tariff is difficult, but a 50 per cent one is catastrophic,' Financial Times quoted Catherine Cobden, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, as saying. The steel industry in Canada is valued at 15 billion Canadian dollars (US$11 billion) and supports 23,000 direct jobs, along with another 100,000 indirect positions, according to the association. 'Steel tariffs at this level will create mass disruption and negative consequences across our highly integrated steel supply chains and customers on both sides of the border,' Cobden said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Cobden said the new tariffs 'essentially close the US market' to Canadian producers and will 'have unrecoverable consequences.' The Aluminium Association of Canada said it was awaiting 'clearer and more formal legal confirmation' before offering a full response. Canada's international trade minister, Dominic LeBlanc, said the government remained 'resolute' in defending its workers and industries. 'As we negotiate a new economic and security relationship with the US, Canada's new government will stand strong to get the best deal for Canadians,' LeBlanc wrote Saturday (May 31) on X, formerly Twitter. Golden Dome and 51st state The latest tariff move coincided with remarks by Trump earlier in the week claiming Canada would have to pay $61 billion to participate in a proposed 'Golden Dome' missile defence system. Trump said the cost would be waived if Canada joined the US as its 51st state. A spokesperson for Carney said the prime minister 'has been clear at every opportunity, including in his conversations with President Trump, that Canada is an independent, sovereign nation, and it will remain one.' Canada responded to the new tariffs with its own set of retaliatory measures. Officials announced a 'dollar-for-dollar' response targeting C$12.6 billion in US steel products, C$3 billion in aluminium, and C$14.2 billion in other goods. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Those measures, launched in March, come on top of earlier retaliatory tariffs on C$30 billion worth of US products. However, Canada eased some restrictions in April, particularly those affecting US automakers and manufacturers. Canadian ministers and provincial leaders are scheduled to meet Monday in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to discuss economic diversification and strategies to reduce reliance on US trade. 'This isn't trade policy, it's a direct attack on Canadian industries and workers,' said Marty Warren, national director of the United Steelworkers in Canada. 'Thousands of Canadian jobs are on the line, and communities that rely on steel and aluminium are being put at risk. Canada needs to respond immediately and decisively to defend workers.' Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, urged caution, saying it was important 'not to take the bait' and instead remain focused on renewing the USMCA. 'These moving goalposts is just a strategy to try and get Canada to give more,' Hyder said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
