Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 108

Trump wants India to buy US corn - but here's why it probably won't

Why won't India buy even a single bushel of American corn? That's the question US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised recently while criticising India's trade policies, taking a swipe at its market restrictions. In another interview, Lutnick accused India of blocking US farmers and urged it to open its agricultural market - suggesting quotas or limits as a possible approach.Agriculture is a

How China Is Training AI to Censor Its Secrets

A newly leaked database shows China is developing a large language model (LLM) system to automatically detect and suppress politically sensitive content, dramatically expanding the country's capacity for digital censorship, TechCrunch reports.The tool appears to serve the Chinese government's long-standing goals of controlling online narratives, using artificial intelligence to identify dissent

Economic Expert: China is laughing all the way to the bank on Trump’s tariff policy

Rana Foroohar and Shermichael Singleton debate the merits and the end game of President Trump’s tariffs. Foroohar says she isn’t against tariffs but there needs to be a more cohesive policy with America’s allies to make it successful. Singleton argues Trump is trying to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US and undo damage from the previous administration.CNN Video

US to send advanced military hardware to Philippines

The United States plans to deploy advanced military equipment to the Philippines to strengthen its deterrence against threats, officials from both countries said, as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made his first official visit to Manila. Hegseth met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Friday, reiterating that Washington’s defense commitment

Bhutan’s refers to Tibet as Beijing-preferred ‘Xizang,’ sparking pushback

 Bhutan became the latest nation to refer to Tibet as “Xizang,” prompting Tibetan politicians and advocates to urge Bhutan to stop using the term promoted by Beijing that they say contributes to China’s efforts to erase Tibetan identity. In a March 17 statement, Bhutan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade used the term “Xizang” to refer to the Tibet Autonomous Region, a Chinese

No more Uyghurs left in immigration detention center: Thai police

Thailand said Thursday there are no longer any Uyghurs stranded in its immigration facilities following the internationally criticized repatriation of 40 Uyghur men to China in late February, in an apparent move to put an end to the confusion over the total number of detainees. Thailand put the men on a plane to Xinjiang on Feb. 27, saying China had given assurances that they would not be

Indian mural that spent decades on Norwegian hospital wall sells for record $13.8m

A forgotten oil-on-canvas masterpiece by Indian painter MF Husain, rediscovered decades later, has rewritten the record books for Indian art. Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra), a sprawling 14-foot-wide mural, sold for an unprecedented $13.8m (£10.6m) at a Christie's auction in New York last week. It shattered the previous high for Indian art of $7.4m (£5.7m), fetched by Amrita Sher-Gil's The Story

Tibet’s remarkable linguistic diversity is in danger of extinction

Three days after he was released from prison in December, a Tibetan village leader named Gonpo Namgyal died. As his body was being prepared for traditional Tibetan funeral rites, marks were found indicating he had been brutally tortured in jail.His crime? Gonpo Namgyal had been part of a campaign to protect the Tibetan language in China. Gonpo Namgyal is the victim of a slow-moving conflict that

Taiwan is under a triple security threat

Taiwan’s national security is increasingly jeopardized – externally, from two different directions, and also from within. The largest and most direct threat, of course, is the People’s Republic of China. Beijing’s long-standing position is that Taiwan must not formally politically separate itself from China. The red line for military action by the PRC has never been crystal clear. Taiwan

Hegseth says US to boost ties with Philippines as deterrence against China: 'Peace through strength'

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Friday that the Trump administration intends to boost military ties with the Philippines to strengthen deterrence against Chinese aggression in the disputed South China Sea. The assurance came during a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines, part of Hegseth’s trip to Asia to reaffirm Washington's "ironclad" commitment to the region