Latest news with #CultureMinister
LBCI
03-08-2025
- General
- LBCI
Culture Minister signs decision to list Beirut Port silos as historic site
Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh signed a decision Sunday morning to add the Beirut Port grain silos to Lebanon's General Inventory of Historic Buildings. The move comes in response to a request by the families of the victims of the port explosion, marking a symbolic step toward preserving the memory of the August 4, 2020, disaster.
CTV News
01-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Thousands in Norway mistakenly told they won big on lottery
Oslo, Norway -- A Norwegian lottery company on Monday apologized to 47,000 crestfallen gamblers who were mistakenly told they had won huge sums in a lottery, the firm blaming a currency conversion error. State-owned gambling group Norsk Tipping said they had published incorrect prize amounts after a Eurojackpot draw on Friday because of an error converting from euro cents to Norwegian kroner. The winnings had been multiplied by 100 instead of being divided by 100, the company said. Among the disappointed was Ole Fredrik Sveen, who was on holiday in Greece when he received a message from Norsk Tipping that he had won 1.2 million kroner (US$119,000). 'I thought: 'Wow, is it finally my turn? Could it be true?' I go onto the Norsk Tipping website, and there it says in black and white: 'Congratulations, you have won!'' Sveen told public broadcaster NRK on Monday. In reality, he had won 125 kroner (US$12). On Monday, Sveen and the 47,000 others received apologies by text message from Norsk Tipping for the snafu. 'The apology was a poor consolation. They should have sent it out after the mistake, not today,' he said. Norsk Tipping has been heavily criticized for the error -- not only from devastated players like Sveen but also from the authorities. The Lottery Authority said Monday it had launched a review to determine if gambling laws had been broken, and Culture Minister Lubna Jaffery called the error 'totally unacceptable.' The firm's chief executive Tonje Sagstuen resigned on Saturday after the scandal, leaving acting chief executive Vegar Strand to apologize on Monday. Strand said his company's state ownership made the mistake particularly problematic, noting that the firm was 'entirely dependent on the trust of the population.' 'We have deeply disappointed our customers and take full responsibility for rectifying the situation. Such errors are serious for a company that is supposed to manage the trust of Norwegians,' Strand said. 'The work to rebuild trust again has the highest priority going forward.' AFP
CNA
30-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Thousands in Norway mistakenly told they won big on lottery
OSLO: A Norwegian lottery company on Monday (Jun 30) apologised to 47,000 crestfallen gamblers who were mistakenly told they had won huge sums in a lottery, the firm blaming a currency conversion error. State-owned gambling group Norsk Tipping said they had published incorrect prize amounts after a Eurojackpot draw on Friday due to an error converting euro cents to Norwegian kroner. The winnings had been multiplied by 100 instead of being divided by 100, the company said. Among the disappointed was Ole Fredrik Sveen, who was on holiday in Greece when he received a message from Norsk Tipping that he had won 1.2 million kroner (US$119,000). "I thought: 'Wow, is it finally my turn? Could it be true?' I go onto the Norsk Tipping website, and there it says in black and white: 'Congratulations, you have won!'" Sveen told public broadcaster NRK on Monday. In reality, he had won 125 kroner (US$12). On Monday, Sveen and the 47,000 others received apologies by text message from Norsk Tipping for the snafu. "The apology was a poor consolation. They should have sent it out after the mistake, not today," he said. Norsk Tipping has been heavily criticised for the error - not only from devastated players like Sveen but also from the authorities. The Lottery Authority said on Monday it had launched a review to determine if gambling laws had been broken, and Culture Minister Lubna Jaffery called the error "totally unacceptable". The firm's chief executive, Tonje Sagstuen, resigned on Saturday after the scandal, leaving acting chief executive Vegar Strand to apologise on Monday. Strand said his company's state ownership made the mistake particularly problematic, noting that the firm was "entirely dependent on the trust of the population". "We have deeply disappointed our customers and take full responsibility for rectifying the situation. Such errors are serious for a company that is supposed to manage the trust of Norwegians," Strand said.
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features
The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice. The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people's identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe. Having secured broad cross-party agreement, the department of culture plans to submit a proposal to amend the current law for consultation before the summer recess and then submit the amendment in the autumn. It defines a deepfake as a very realistic digital representation of a person, including their appearance and voice. The Danish culture minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said he hoped the bill before parliament would send an 'unequivocal message' that everybody had the right to the way they looked and sounded. He told the Guardian: 'In the bill we agree and are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice and their own facial features, which is apparently not how the current law is protecting people against generative AI.' He added: 'Human beings can be run through the digital copy machine and be misused for all sorts of purposes and I'm not willing to accept that.' The move, which is believed to have the backing of nine in 10 MPs, comes amid rapidly developing AI technology that has made it easier than ever to create a convincing fake image, video or sound to mimic the features of another person. The changes to Danish copyright law will, once approved, theoretically give people in Denmark the right to demand that online platforms remove such content if it is shared without consent. It will also cover 'realistic, digitally generated imitations' of an artist's performance without consent. Violation of the proposed rules could result in compensation for those affected. The government said the new rules would not affect parodies and satire, which would still be permitted. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion 'Of course this is new ground we are breaking, and if the platforms are not complying with that, we are willing to take additional steps,' said Engel-Schmidt. Other European countries, he hopes, will follow Denmark's lead. He plans to use Denmark's forthcoming EU presidency to share its plans with his European counterparts. If tech platforms do not respond accordingly to the new law, they could be subject to 'severe fines', he said, and it could become a matter for the European Commission. 'That is why I believe the tech platforms will take this very seriously indeed,' he added.
Times
21-06-2025
- General
- Times
The two-decade battle to fell Italy's most hated crane
Roberto Amadori dismantled a large crane in Florence this week and was suddenly the most popular man in the city. 'There was a crowd cheering when I finished,' he said. 'An elderly women rushed up to thank me, saying, 'Florence shines once again'.' Amadori, who carries out such projects for a living, had pulled down not just any crane, but the most notorious and hated one in Italy. Known locally as the 'Metal Monster' it had stood obstinately for 19 years in the narrow piazza between the two wings of the Uffizi Gallery, home to fabulous Botticellis, Caravaggios, Raphaels and Titians: a giant yellow eyesore looming over one of the biggest concentrations of beauty anywhere in the world. Standing 60 metres high, it was a scar on a celebrated skyline which boasts Brunelleschi's magnificent cathedral dome, Giotto's bell tower and the 14th-century Palazzo Vecchio. 'This was a historic moment for our city — watching the dismantling of the crane after all these years was extremely emotional,' said the mayor Sara Funaro when the crane came down. The Italian culture minister travelled from Rome to celebrate the event. Loathing of the crane grew as its survival, year after year, summed up a very Italian culture of political squabbling, lethargic bureaucracy and the shunting of tough decisions between stakeholders. 'For 19 years no one knew how to get rid of the crane and no one really knows why it stayed there so long,' said a local official who declined to be named. First erected in 2006, the 33-tonne crane was put to use as builders started converting the first floor of the gallery, which was still used to store archives, into a exhibition space to add to the existing gallery area on the second floor. The metal structure was set up near the front door of the 16th-century building, opposite a statue of Giotto, the 14th-century painter and architect, who appeared to glower at it furiously. Planners said the crane would be needed for five years, but a decade later, with the conversion still continuing, Florentines began to question if the crane was really needed. By 2018 Marco Stella, a councillor, was raging about the 'unacceptable' presence of the crane. People lit 12 candles at its base and wished it happy birthday in an ironic protest. The crane, gru in Italian, was given its own Instagram page, 'Gru in Florence' which posted stunning photos of the city ruined by the crane sticking into them. The anonymous author of the cult page took on the persona of the crane, writing, 'Disclosure: I am 13 years old but in Gru-years that's 26,' and, 'If getting photoshopped out of pictures was a sport, I'd be [the record-breaking swimmer] Michael Phelps.' Behind the jokes, anger was growing. 'People were asking, 'Is there an alternative to the crane?' But there were restrictions and despite mayors and local culture chiefs trying to get rid of it, they all failed,' the official said. Almost inevitably, the crane became handy ammunition in local political battles. When Eike Schmidt, then director of the Uffizi, announced last year that he would stand for mayor — an election he lost — he took aim at the incumbent Dario Nardella. He claimed Nardella was only then waking up to the crane 'outside his office'. Nardella hit back that as head of the Uffizi it was Schmidt's job to get rid of it, and said: 'He claims he is a great manager but he has not been able to take down a crane. How can he govern a city?' The truth is the refurbishment, and the crane, were run by the local culture authority, part of Rome's ministry of culture, adding another layer of bureaucracy. Typically the regional culture authority, known as a soprintendenza, is often short-staffed, underfunded and wrapped in red tape. But in 2023 the ministry handed control of the crane to the Uffizi and the following year a new director, Simone Verde, planned a final assault on the monster. Rather than waiting for funds, he raised €175,000 from a coalition of rich benefactors to replace the crane with a less intrusive elevator to raise building materials to the first floor. Valerio Tesi, who is managing the refurbishment, says the elevator is needed because the job will not be finished for a few years. One reason it is taking so long is that the first floor has already been put to use as an exhibition space and work to finish it needs to fit in around millions of visitors, he said. 'We also dug down 80cm at the bottom of a lift shaft during the refurbishment and found at least ten buried corpses from the Middle Ages,' he added. Finally, on Monday, Roberto Amadori arrived in his lorry which has a telescopic crane and gently brought down pieces of the larger crane as workers unbolted them, taking care not to drop them through the roof of the gallery. 'Mostly I install air conditioning units on hotels, so as a Florentine, this job was a privilege and an honour since people in this city couldn't bear the sight of the crane anymore,' he said. Verde reported that residents of the city had been stopping him in the street to thank him. 'Before it came down, one man in his eighties stopped me and said, 'Please let me see the Piazzale degli Uffizi again without the crane before I die'.' Verde said the crane had been such an irritant for Florentines because they were so attached to their collection of art, churches and palazzos — even more so than Romans. 'The link between heritage and identity here is unique in the world,' he said. The day after the crane vanished, Lucia Manneschi, a Florentine security guard, was patrolling the piazzale where the crane had stood and stopped to blink up at the blue sky. 'I'm 55 now, so I was 36 when they put that thing up,' she said. 'I'm so happy — I can't believe it's finally gone.'
