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South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
US Indo-Pacific commander calls PLA operations in Taiwan Strait ‘rehearsals', not just exercises
The top US commander in the Pacific said on Monday that Beijing was on a 'dangerous course' and its operations around Taiwan were not mere exercises, but 'rehearsals'. Advertisement 'We face a profoundly consequential time in the Indo-Pacific. China is on a dangerous course,' said Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, in a special address to an AI expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project think tank. 'Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan are not just exercises. They are rehearsals,' he continued, without explicitly referencing a potential takeover of Taiwan. Beijing regards the self-ruled island as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force and is committed to arming it. In recent years, the US has grown increasingly anxious about a mainland takeover, with officials and lawmakers eyeing 2027 as a possible window, and pointing to more frequent People's Liberation Army sorties that cross the Taiwan Strait's median line as signs of growing aggression. Advertisement Tensions between Taiwan and mainland China have also grown in the year since Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing has called a 'destroyer of peace', took office. Without naming specific countries, Paparo said on Monday that China's aggression was compounded by 'a growing transactional symbiosis among an axis of autocracies,' evidenced by 'technology transfers and coordinated military activities'.
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
US judge blocks Trump's veto on union bargaining for transport security officers
A federal judge on Monday said the administration of US President Donald Trump probably broke the law by stripping 50,000 transport security officers of the ability to unionise and bargain over their working conditions. Advertisement US District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle, Washington blocked the US Department of Homeland Security from cancelling a union contract covering TSA (Transportation Security Administration) officers pending the outcome of a lawsuit by four unions challenging the move. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration ended collective bargaining for TSA officers, who staff checkpoints at US airports and other transport hubs, as retaliation against the unions for suing over administration policies. Trump, a Republican, has moved to curb union bargaining for wide swathes of the federal workforce. A US appeal court in May allowed those efforts to proceed, pausing a lower-court ruling that had blocked seven agencies from cancelling union contracts while it considers an appeal. Because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, TSA officers are not governed by the civil service system and do not have the same rights to unionise and collectively bargain over working conditions as most other federal employees. Advertisement During former president Barack Obama's administration, the TSA granted officers the ability to bargain over certain subjects. Former president Joe Biden's administration expanded the scope of bargaining in 2021.
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Microsoft sees future of the internet as AI agents crawling websites for us, tech willing
Microsoft sees artificial intelligence transforming the internet as fundamentally as mobile phones have over the past two decades. But the technology's limitations could curb its grand vision. Generative AI – which creates content based on a user's request – burst into the zeitgeist in late 2022 when Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT , a conversational chatbot that could take a simple request and generate anything from a limerick to a college essay. Less than three years later, Microsoft has a plan to move beyond ChatGPT and its copycats by creating the foundation for a new version of the internet. Microsoft calls it the 'open agentic web', with users sending AI-powered 'agents' out into the void to do their bidding. Casual consumers primarily interact with AI now through a Google search – one that repeatedly drums up false answers – or a ChatGPT-style chatbot that generates a conversation. Microsoft believes AI agents are the future of the internet. Photo: Reuters In Microsoft's eyes, chatbots are old news.
