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Japan Today
2 days ago
- Climate
- Japan Today
Heat wave scorches parts of Europe and fans wildfire threat in France
People cool off under showers at Paris Plage along the Seine river in Paris, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) By THOMAS ADAMSON A heat wave gripped parts of Europe on Monday, sending temperatures up to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in southern France and increasing risks of wildfires in wine country, while Bulgaria suffered blazes along its southern borders as Hungary saw record-breaking weekend temperatures and fires caused evacuations in Turkey's northwest. Scientists say Europe is becoming the world's fastest-warming continent. According to the U.K.-based Carbon Brief, 2025 is predicted to be the second- or third-warmest year on record. Europe's land temperatures have risen about 2.3 C above pre-industrial levels, nearly twice the global rate, intensifying heat waves, the EU's Copernicus climate service reports. EU data show burned area across the continent is already far above the long-term average this summer, with major outbreaks in Spain, Portugal and deadly blazes in Greece since late June. On Monday, the French national weather authority, Météo-France, placed 12 departments on red alert, the country's highest heat warning, anticipating exceptional heat stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean plains. Forty-one other departments were under lower-level orange alerts, as was the neighboring microstate of Andorra, between France and Spain. 'Don't be fooled — this isn't 'normal, it's summer.' It's not normal, it's a nightmare,' agricultural climatologist Serge Zaka, told BFMTV from Montauban in France's Tarn-et-Garonne department, where the blistering heat pressed relentlessly throughout the day. Social media images showed shuttered streets in Valence, residents shielding windows with foil to reflect the light, and tourists huddling under umbrellas along the Garonne in Toulouse. Across the south, café terraces stood empty as people sought cooler corners indoors. In France's Aude department, a patchwork of vineyards and Mediterranean scrubland, hundreds of firefighters remained in the rolling wine country guarding the edges of a massive, deadly blaze that scorched 16,000 hectares last week. Officials say the fire is under control but warn it will not be fully extinguished for weeks, with hot spots still smoldering and at risk of reigniting. The red alert in France has been issued only eight times since it was created in 2004 after a deadly summer the year before. It is reserved for extreme, prolonged heat with major health risks and the potential to disrupt daily life. The designation gives local officials powers to cancel outdoor events, close public venues and alter school or summer camp schedules. The heat wave, France's second of the summer, began Friday and is expected to last all week, carrying into the Aug. 15 holiday weekend. It is already pushing northward, with 38 C (100.4 F) forecast in the Centre-Val de Loire region and up to 34 C (93.2 F) in Paris. Across the English Channel, the U.K.'s Met Office expects the country's fourth heat wave of the summer to peak around 33 C (90 F) in London on Tuesday. The U.K. Health Security Agency issued a yellow health alert for older adults and those with medical conditions. In Bulgaria, temperatures were expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) Monday at the day's peak, with maximum fire danger alerts in place. Nearly 200 fires have been reported; most have been brought under control, localized and extinguished, but the situation remains 'very challenging,' said Alexander Dzhartov, head of the national fire safety unit. Three major blazes continue along the borders with Greece and Turkey, including one near Strumyani that reignited after three weeks. More than 100 firefighters and emergency personnel are battling flames in rugged terrain unreachable by vehicles, supported by army helicopters and two Swedish aircraft. In Turkey, a wildfire fueled by high temperatures and strong winds forced authorities to evacuate holiday homes and a university campus and to suspend maritime traffic in the country's northwest. The fire broke out in an agricultural field in the province of Canakkale and spread into surrounding forestland, just two days after firefighting teams had contained a similar blaze in the area. Canakkale Gov. Omer Toraman said the Dardanelles Strait — the narrow waterway linking the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara — was closed to allow water-dropping planes and helicopters to operate safely. Sunday brought a new national high of 39.9 C (104 F) on Sunday in the southeast, breaking a record set in 1948. Budapest also recorded a city record at 38.7 C (101.6 F). Authorities imposed a nationwide fire ban amid extreme heat and drought. __ Lydia Doye in London, Justin Spike in Budapest, and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Today
Nvidia chief calls AI ‘the greatest equalizer' — but warns Europe risks falling behind
By THOMAS ADAMSON and KELVIN CHAN Will artificial intelligence save humanity — or destroy it? Lift up the world's poorest — or tighten the grip of a tech elite? Jensen Huang, the global chip tycoon, offered his opinion on Wednesday: neither dystopia nor domination. AI, he said, is a tool for liberation. Wearing his signature biker jacket and mobbed by fans for selfies, the Nvidia CEO cut the figure of a tech rock star as he took the stage at VivaTech in Paris. 'AI is the greatest equalizer of people the world has ever created,' Huang said, kicking off one of Europe's biggest technology industry fairs. But beyond the sheeny optics, Nvidia used the Paris summit to unveil a wave of infrastructure announcements across Europe, signaling a dramatic expansion of the AI chipmaker's physical and strategic footprint on the continent. In France, the company is deploying 18,000 of its new Blackwell chips with startup Mistral AI. In Germany, it's building an industrial AI cloud to support manufacturers. Similar rollouts are underway in Italy, Spain, Finland and the UK, including a new AI lab in Britain. Other announcements include a partnership with AI startup Perplexity to bring sovereign AI models to European publishers and telecoms, a new cloud platform with Mistral AI, and work with BMW and Mercedes-Benz to train AI-powered robots for use in auto plants. The announcements reflect how central AI infrastructure has become to global strategy, and how Nvidia — the world's most valuable chipmaker — is positioning itself as the engine behind it. At the center of the debate is Huang's concept of the AI factory: not a plant that makes goods, but a vast data center that creates intelligence. These facilities train language models, simulate new drugs, detect cancer in scans, and more. Asked if such systems risk creating a 'technological priesthood' — hoarding computing power and stymying the bottom-up innovation that fueled the tech industry for the past 50 years — Huang pushed back. 'Through the velocity of our innovation, we democratize,' he told The Associated Press. 'We lower the cost of access to technology.' As Huang put it, these factories 'reason,' 'plan,' and 'spend a lot of time talking to' themselves, powering everything from ChatGPT to autonomous vehicles and diagnostics. But some critics warn that without guardrails, such all-seeing, self-reinforcing systems could go the way of Skynet in ' The Terminator ' movie — vast intelligence engines that outpace human control. 'Just as electricity powered the last industrial revolution, AI will power the next one,' he said. 'Every country now needs a national intelligence infrastructure.' He added: 'AI factories are now part of a country's infrastructure. That's why you see me running around the world talking to heads of state — they all want AI to be part of their infrastructure. They want AI to be a growth manufacturing industry for them.' Europe, long praised for its leadership on digital rights, now finds itself at a crossroads. As Brussels pushes forward with world-first AI regulations, some warn that over-caution could cost the bloc its place in the global race. With the U.S. and China surging ahead and most major AI firms based elsewhere, the risk isn't just falling behind — it's becoming irrelevant. Huang has a different vision: sovereign AI. Not isolation, but autonomy — building national AI systems aligned with local values, independent of foreign tech giants. 'The data belongs to you,' Huang said. 'It belongs to your people, your country... your culture, your history, your common sense.' But fears over AI misuse remain potent — from surveillance and deepfake propaganda to job losses and algorithmic discrimination. Huang doesn't deny the risks. But he insists the technology can be kept in check — by itself. 'In the future, the AI that is doing the task is going to be surrounded by 70 or 80 other AIs that are supervising it, observing it, guarding it, ensuring that it doesn't go off the rails.' The VivaTech event was part of Huang's broader European tour. He had already appeared at London Tech Week and is scheduled to visit Germany. In Paris, he joined French President Emmanuel Macron and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch to reinforce his message that AI is now a national priority. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
The Paris robbery of Kim Kardashian changed how celebrities think about exposure
By THOMAS ADAMSON The ring gleamed in Instagram posts. So did the diamond necklace and the luxury Paris address. For Kim Kardashian, sharing online was second nature — an extension of her fame. But in the early hours of Oct. 3, 2016, that openness turned against her. Five masked men posing as police officers stormed the residence where she was staying during Fashion Week. They bound her at gunpoint with duct tape and plastic cable ties, locked her in the bathroom and fled with an estimated $6 million in stolen jewelry. The robbery sent shock waves far beyond Paris, reverberating through the fashion world and the celebrity sphere. It marked a turning point in how public figures think about exposure — when curated glamour became a liability, and social media, once a tool of empowerment, became a roadmap for real-world risk. It also shattered the illusion that wealth and fame offered protection. On Tuesday, nearly a decade after the night that left her afraid to be seen in public, Kardashian will take the stand. She will face the men accused of carrying out one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history — a moment she once described as 'the scariest thing' that ever happened to her. What made the robbery extraordinary was not just its high-profile victim but how investigators believe she was targeted. Kardashian had posted real-time updates from her hotel suite. She showed off a 20-carat diamond ring, gifted by her then-husband Kanye West, hours before it was stripped from her hand. The attackers used no digital trackers or hacking tools. Instead, investigators believe they followed Kardashian's digital breadcrumbs — images, timestamps, geotags — and exploited them with old-school criminal methods. It was, some suggested at the time, a blueprint built from her own broadcast. Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld offered a blunt critique in the aftermath. Speaking to The Associated Press, he blamed Kardashian's hyper-visibility: '(She is) too public, too public — we have to see in what time we live... You cannot display your wealth then be surprised that some people want to share it.' But as chilling details of the heist emerged, public sympathy for Kardashian deepened. During the heist, the attackers dressed as police, spoke only French and overpowered the concierge, who was forced to act as a translator during the break-in. One defendant even later claimed he was unaware of Kardashian's identity during the heist. 'I thought it was terrorists,' Kardashian later told a French magistrate in 2017. 'That they were going to kill me.' While the robbery bore no connection to terrorism, the comment resonated in a city still shaken by the 2015 Bataclan attacks less than a year earlier. Kardashian, once mocked by some of the French press as a reality TV sideshow, is now at the center of a case with deep cultural resonance. The robbery forced her to consider how she lived, posted and protected herself. Her brand had been built on access, her life broadcast to millions. But that strategy had collapsed. 'I learned to be more private,' she later said. 'It's not worth the risk.' Kardashian enhanced her security detail by hiring people with backgrounds in elite protective services, reportedly including former members of the U.S. Secret Service and CIA. She stopped posting her location in real time. Lavish gifts and jewelry all but vanished from her feed. 'I was definitely materialistic before … but I'm so happy that my kids get this me," she reflected on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017. Later, Kardashian acknowledged that constant sharing had made her a target. 'People were watching,' she said. 'They knew what I had. They knew where I was.' Her retreat set off a ripple effect across Hollywood and the fashion world. Model Gigi Hadid increased her private security detail in the months after the heist. She was spotted at Paris fashion shows flanked by multiple guards. Kendall Jenner, Kardashian's sister, reportedly took similar steps ahead of the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris, following new protocols on personal protection and digital discretion. Publicists and managers began advising clients to delay posts, remove location tags and think twice before flashing luxury online. Visibility remained currency, but for some the rules had changed. Surveillance footage helped French police reconstruct the timeline of the robbery, but the breakthrough came from a trace of DNA left on the plastic ties used to bind Kardashian. It matched Aomar Aït Khedache, a veteran criminal whose DNA was in the national database. Phone taps and surveillance led police to others, including Yunice Abbas and Didier Dubreucq, known as 'Yeux bleus.' Most of the accused have long criminal records. Investigators say the men acted with detailed planning and discipline. Prepaid phones were activated the day before the heist and abandoned immediately afterward. But in the end, it wasn't enough. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
