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TOPIC: south korea

In The News

Gaza Ceasefire, Altman Back As OpenAI CEO, K-Pop King Charles

👋 Om Swastiastu!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where Israel and Hamas agree to a four-day truce that will see the exchange of some hostages and prisoners, Sam Altman is back as OpenAI CEO just days after he was fired by the board, and King Charles compares Korea’s BTS to the Beatles. Meanwhile, Russian independent news outlet Vazhnyye Istorii analyzes Russia’s calls to label LGBTQ+ activists as “extremist.”

[*Balinese]

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How We May End Up Sliding Into The Real "War To End All Wars"

Considering that our "final war" may be arriving isn't so far-fetched when states like Iran, Russia and North Korea are courting confrontation and taking "crazy" risks, a little like the European powers of 1914. But let's proceed with caution.

Updated Nov. 1, 2023 at 6:50 p.m.

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — Imagining the arrival of the "final war" could be a hopeful prediction, if we were referring to how humanity may finally be ready to close its long history of bloody conflicts. It would mean that peace has at last come to stay, and we could all live carefree lives in a way the world has never known.

Unfortunately I mean it very differently, in the apocalyptic sense, that the next big war could be the last one, with the losers being the whole human race. Yes, in that scenario, the world would become uninhabitable, and we would die off: all of us, down to the last child in the deepest forests of the Amazon.

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I must admit I have a dreadful feeling that, unbeknownst to ourselves, we are sliding toward World War III. I hope I am mistaken, and this turns out to be mere pessimism, the result of the fears that come with age. If I believed in God, I'd ask Him to make time and reality prove me wrong.

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This Happened – October 19: Battle of Pyongyang Ends

The Battle of Pyongyang ended in a U.S.-led United Nations victory on this day in 1950. Hours later, the Chinese Army began crossing the border into Korea.

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Iran May Get $1.7 Billion More In Un-Frozen Funds, With Risk It Gets Funneled To Hamas

Iran says European courts have ordered repayments of $1.7 billion more of its money frozen in Western banks, which risks being transferred to help fund Hamas' war with Israel. Other observers suspect the news is meant to stop financial panic in Tehran.

Having launched a war against Israel, Hamas needs help.

Iran has a long history of supporting Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza and shares a deep hatred toward Israel. Contradictory reports have been circulating in and out of Tehran about what role Iran may have played in supporting Hamas assault in Israel that has killed more than 800 Israeli civilians and triggered what promises to be the region's largest and longest war in a generation.

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Geopolitics
Pierre Haski

What The China-Morocco Alliance Says About Our Geopolitical Future

As the world's technologies change, so do the countries with not only advantages in production, but also geography and diplomacy. China knows this, and sees that investing in Moroccan resources is a particularly smart bet in the long run.

-Analysis-

PARIS — Amid the global reshuffling triggered by both the ecological and geopolitical upheaval, there is one country that seems to be coming out ahead: Morocco.

Several major investments have already been announced, including one last week worth $2 billion by a Chinese group which aims to produce electric battery components. A significant detail, according to the Financial Times, is that the conglomerate Al-Mada, which is owned by the Moroccan royal family, is investing in the joint venture with the Chinese group CNGR.

Other South Korean and Chinese investments, still related to ecological transition minerals or the battery industry, have announced they will be setting up shop in Morocco in recent months. They are setting a record for the Mediterranean basin.

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Future
Gianluca Nicoletti

Re;Memory — A New AI Program Makes Talking To The Dead Come Alive

There are many frontiers being crossed by AI lately, sparking debate and anxiety. But now, we're entering strange, new territory: an algorithm that lets bereaved family members communicate with deceased loved ones in the most realistic of ways. Yet it comes with very real and complicated risks.

-Analysis-

TURIN — Generative artificial intelligence is said to be a threat to the jobs in a variety of creative professional fields. Are professional psychics next? Yes, communing with the dead, real or imagined, is an experience that the digital world may now be ready to outflank the human competition.

The technical term for these algorithms is "deadbots," which offer a sort of ephemeral evocation of the spirit of a deceased person. You don't have to look far to find them — even the usual suspect, ChatGPT, can light the path to the dead and establish a mutual, tangible dialogue between you and the dearly departed.

Yet the most realistic of these chatbot models is the consolatory Re;Memory. This ectoplasmic recreation, designed by South Korean company DeepBrain, comes almost as a natural evolution to the spiritual seances to which we're accustomed.

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In The News
Yannick Champion-Osselin, Valeria Berghinz and Marine Béguin.

Johannesburg Blaze Kills Dozens, North Korea’s Mock Nuclear Strike, Tomatina Extravaganza

👋 ሰላም ሃለው*!*

Welcome to Thursday, where at least 73 are killed in a Johannesburg building blaze, North Korea simulates a “tactical nuclear strike,” and Spain’s yearly tomato debauchery yields striking images. Meanwhile, Giulia Zonca for Italian daily La Stampa reports on the controversy caused after a Turin gym installed urinals shaped like a woman's open mouth.

[*Selam halewi - Tigrinya, Eritrea and Ethiopia]

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This Happened

This Happened — July 27: Korean War Armistice

The Korean War armistice agreement at Panmunjom was signed on this day in 1953, ending three years of fighting.

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In The News
Valeria Berghinz and Chloé Touchard,

G7 Security For Ukraine, North Korea Fires Missile, AI vs Human Workers

👋 Konta!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where Ukraine is set to receive a G7 security package at the NATO summit, North Korea fires a long-range missile ahead of a Japan-South Korea meeting and one Indian business owner is a bit overeager about the AI revolution. Meanwhile, Ukrainian news website Livy Bereg looks at the pros and cons of the “Israel Model” and its security guarantees as an alternative to Ukraine’s NATO membership.

[*Papiamento, Dutch Caribbean]

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This Happened

This Happened — June 30: Trump Visits North Korea

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, visited North Korea on this day in 2019. Trump and Kim Jong-un met at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), specifically at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the village of Panmunjom. This location is a historic site where previous meetings between North and South Korea had taken place.

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This Happened

This Happened — June 28: Bodo League Massacre

The Bodo League massacre refers to a series of mass killings that took place in South Korea on this day in 1950 during the early stages of the Korean War. It involved the execution of suspected communist sympathizers, mostly members of the Bodo League, a mass civilian organization.

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Future
Xu Kaiming

Will Hack For Nukes: Inside North Korea's Cryptocurrency Extortion Ring

North Korea has industrialized the theft of cryptocurrency to finance its nuclear weapons program and its state-sponsored hackers are getting better at emptying digital wallets. But global law enforcement agents are in hot pursuit, and cashing in crypto is harder than ever.

The threat on the screen was clear and simple enough: I've encrypted your files — and if you don't pay me within a week, you'll never be able to recover them.

At noon on May 12, 2017, a red alert page popped up on the computer screens of more than 300,000 Windows users worldwide, asking them to transfer approximately $300 worth of Bitcoin to recover their files.

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