The video shared on social media has been manipulated using deepfake technology and does not show an authentic interaction between ABC News journalist Sarah Ferguson and Bill Gates.
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Mar 10, 2023 A video of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates being grilled in an interview by a journalist has gone viral. In the video, the journalist accuses Gates of stealing Microsoft software and promoting COVID-19 vaccines to make billions. She grills him with tough questions, and the interview ends abruptly after Gates appears frustrated. We check the veracity of the claim in this video.
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Reuters Fact Check
March 24, 202312:51 AM Updated 3 months ago
Fact Check-Video of Australian news interview featuring Bill Gates edited using AI
A video of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that shows him abruptly ending an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News journalist Sarah Ferguson after facing questions about Microsoft and his involvement in COVID-19 vaccine distribution was edited using artificial intelligence, experts told Reuters.
Ferguson, in the clip, is heard asking Gates: “what have you contributed to the world?” and “what exactly makes you, a computer engineer who didn’t even program his initial product himself, a valid representative of the pharmaceutical industry?”
Reuters traced the video to a TikTok account that posted the clip on March 8 and captioned it: “How dangerous AI can be” with a face screaming in fear emoji (here).
This user told Reuters in an email that the original video came from a different TikTok account, adding “I managed to download it before it was banned. With a reverse search, I found the original interview. Then I concluded that this video was a deepfake.” The user said the post was captioned with reference to the dangers of AI, “to raise awareness of what can be done using AI.”
Bill Gates was interviewed by Ferguson on the ABC News show “7.30” on Jan. 30, 2023. However, in the original broadcast uploaded to YouTube by ABC News (here), the journalist does not ask the questions heard in the edited video. .
Among the topics discussed were Gates’ actions to combat COVID-vaccine conspiracy theories, according to the broadcast video and an ABC News recap of the interview on the network’s website (here).
The version of the clip with altered dialogue being shared was created using deepfake technology, which manipulates audio and visuals to make it appear that an individual is saying something (here). .
VERDICT
Altered. The video shared on social media has been manipulated using deepfake technology and does not show an authentic interaction between ABC News journalist Sarah Ferguson and Bill Gates.
Meet Kati. She is from Romania, and she came to Malaysia with no long-term plans in 2012. Eleven years, seven houses, and two kids later, she is still here. During our chat, Kati shared insights on how foreigners can build trust with Malaysians, the challenges of not understanding local English, and her reasons for buying a place on Borneo Island. Enjoy!
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. As of June 2016, 167 countries and the European Union are parties.Wikipedia
"China’s inclusion of part of the Paracel Islands in a military drill area from July 29 to August 2 seriously infringed on Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelago."https://t.co/FULrm9UNEa
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang: The sovereignty and jurisdictional rights over a country’s sea regions have been established in accordance with UNCLOS, and the legitimate rights and interests of coastal nations, including Vietnam, must be respected.
#Vietnam rejects #China's defense of illegal sea activities
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin said China had sovereignty over "the Spratly Islands & nearby sea regions."
"There is no way our vessels entered other countries’ EEZs," he said.https://t.co/d8vFDEbTSZ
China’s assertion that its survey vessel group found in Vietnamese waters had operated legally in the South China Sea is patently false, the Vietnamese foreign ministry stated Saturday.
At a press conference on June 6, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin said China had sovereignty over “the Spratly Islands and nearby sea regions” when he was asked to comment on the Xiangyanghong 10 vessel group’s encroachment on Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Wang said that it was legal for the vessels to perform normal research activities in sea regions under China’s jurisdictional rights. “There is no way our vessels entered other countries’ EEZs,” he claimed.
However, spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang rejected Wang’s assertions on Saturday, saying Vietnam has the full legal basis and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel islands.
“The legal status of the Spratly Islands, as well as entities of the islands, have been clearly determined in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” she said.
Hang said the sovereignty and jurisdictional rights over a country’s sea regions have been established in accordance with UNCLOS, and the legitimate rights and interests of coastal nations, including Vietnam, must be respected.
“[UNCLOS] shows the spirit of responsibility, constructiveness and practical contribution of relevant nations to the region’s peace, stability, cooperation and respect of the law, including in the South China Sea,” she added.
KLANG: Tindakan seorang kanak-kanak lelaki berusia 11 tahun yang tular memandu kereta milik bapanya di Jalan Banting-Pandamaran, kelmarin mengundang padah apabila ditahan polis hari ini.
Ketua Polis Daerah Klang Selatan, Asisten Komisioner Cha Hoong Fong, berkata
bapa kanak-kanak itu berusia 49 tahun turut ditahan di sebuah rumah di Pandamaran, kira-kira jam 1.15 tengah hari tadi.
Beliau berkata, terdahulu Bahagian Siasatan dan Penguatkuasaan Trafik, Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPD) Klang Selatan menerima satu klip video berdurasi 1.21 minit yang tular di media sosial.
Google Translation:
The child's 49-year-old father was also arrested at a house in Pandamaran, at about 1.15 this afternoon.
https://www.bharian.com.my/berita/kes/2023/06/1113096/budak-lelaki-11-tahun-ditahan-pandu-kereta-bapa
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Sentiasa awasi anak² kita. Budak sekolah bawah umur, lingkungan 11 tahun memandu kereta. Tengok pd video ni budak ni suka² hati siap gelak² lagi bwk keta. Kejadian berlaku di Kg pendamar, Klang. pic.twitter.com/PwPzaRWn9a
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) June 10, 2023
US confirms China has had a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019
A Biden administration official said the US has been aware of China’s spying from Cuba and an effort to set up global intelligence-gathering operations for some time
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island
China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, part of a global effort by Beijing to upgrade its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to a Biden administration official.
The official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US intelligence community has been aware of China’s spying from Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the globe for some time.
The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart the Chinese push to expand its spying operations and believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified action, according to the official, who was familiar with US intelligence on the matter.
The existence of the Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island. The Journal reported that China planned to pay a cash-strapped Cuba billions of dollars as part of the negotiations.
The White House and Cuban officials, however, called the report inaccurate.
“I’ve seen that press report, it’s not accurate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an MSNBC interview on Thursday. “What I can tell you is that we have been concerned since day one of this administration about China’s influence activities around the world; certainly in this hemisphere and in this region, we’re watching this very, very closely.”
The US intelligence community had determined that Chinese spying from Cuba has been an “ongoing” matter and is “not a new development,” the administration official said.
“In fact, the PRC conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well documented in the intelligence record.” https://t.co/AqNWtYU38r
“#China has been spying on the United States from a base in Cuba, a Biden administration official said on Saturday, claiming that “this is an issue that this administration inherited.””https://t.co/gsPMmxFFeq
“#China has been spying on the United States from a base in Cuba, a Biden administration official said on Saturday, claiming that “this is an issue that this administration inherited.””
“On Saturday, an administration official clarified by saying that the Chinese base in Cuba has already been established, noting that it didn’t happen on their watch.
The administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said the Chinese spying effort has been an ongoing concern and that the U.S. has been taking steps to deal with it.”
“When this administration took office in January 2021, we were briefed on a number of sensitive PRC efforts around the world to expand its overseas logistics, …
… basing, and collection infrastructure globally to allow the [military] to project and sustain military power at greater distance,” the official said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“This effort included the presence of PRC intelligence collection facilities in Cuba,” the official confirmed. “In fact, the PRC conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well-documented in the intelligence record.”
President Joe Biden directed his administration to address the issue. “Within months, we did so,” the official said, noting that the thrust of the engagement with Beijing over the spy post has been through diplomacy.
The official would not go into detail, but said the engagements have brought “results” and that “our experts assess that our diplomatic efforts have slowed the PRC down.”
“We think the PRC isn’t quite where they had hoped to be,” the official said. “The PRC will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it.”
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the administration following POLITICO’s report on Saturday.
“President Biden needs to stop ignoring the threat from China,” he said in a statement.
“In less than 48 hours, officials from the Biden administration have contradicted themselves multiple times about whether or not the Chinese Communist Party is spying on the United States. This is unacceptable.”
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“#China has been spying on the United States from a base in Cuba, a Biden administration official said on Saturday, claiming that “this is an issue that this administration inherited.””https://t.co/gsPMmxFFeq
The administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said the Chinese spying effort has been an ongoing concern and that the U.S. has been taking steps to deal with it.”
… basing, and collection infrastructure globally to allow the [military] to project and sustain military power at greater distance,” the official said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
President Joe Biden directed his administration to address the issue. “Within months, we did so,” the official said, noting that the thrust of the engagement with Beijing over the spy post has been through diplomacy.
“We think the PRC isn’t quite where they had hoped to be,” the official said. “The PRC will keep trying to enhance its presence in Cuba, and we will keep working to disrupt it.”
China will pay Cuba to host a secret spy base, where Beijing could monitor American ships and electronic communications across the southeastern U.S. https://t.co/KR8feLUc5a
It helps to have hairy legs when there are mosquitoes or ants around.
According to new research, being hairy is a good thing, if you don’t want to be bitten by a mossy that is. Apparently, having lots of body hair makes it harder for biting insects such as mosquitos and ants to get a good chomp of you. It also increases the chance of you noticing the bugs before they do any damage.
Having lots of body hair makes it harder for biting insects such as mosquitos to get a good chomp of you. It's pretty intuitive, but there's also a science paper documenting this
Although we are relatively naked in comparison with other primates, the human body is covered in a layer of fine hair (vellus and terminal hair) at a relatively high follicular density. There are relatively few explanations for the evolutionary maintenance of this type of human hair. Here, we experimentally test the hypothesis that human fine body hair plays a defensive function against ectoparasites (bed bugs). Our results show that fine body hair enhances the detection of ectoparasites through the combined effects of (i) increasing the parasite’s search time and (ii) enhancing its detection. .
2. Material and methods
(a) Hosts
Twenty-nine student volunteers in the University of Sheffield (10 females and 19 males) were recruited through opportunity sampling on the social networking site, Facebook. They were aged between 19 and 27 years (median age 21 years). All participants were made aware of the risk of being bitten (no volunteers were bitten during the course of this study) and the potential risks of adverse dermatological reactions if they were bitten [14]. Each volunteer was assigned an identifying number and all data collected were anonymized with respect to host. We followed the University of Sheffield ethics regulations [15] throughout.
(b) Parasites
The bed bugs used in this study originated from recently (2007) field-collected populations that have retained natural behaviours despite being reared in the laboratory. We used only imaginal females in this study. All were fed to satiation using standard protocols [11] exactly a week before a trial took place. This time frame matches C. lectularius natural feeding habits [11,16] and ensured all experimental bed bugs were (i) ready to feed and (ii) of similar ‘hunger’ status. Bed bugs which did not attempt to feed were excluded from the data. Because each host was tested twice, and because we wanted to use the same five bed bugs at each host’s test, we gave each bed bug a unique acrylic paint spot at the back of its abdomen (applied with the tip of a wooden cocktail stick).
4. Discussion
Our results show that the presence of fine body hair (i) prolongs the search behaviour of C. lectularius and (ii) enhances the detection of searching ectoparasites. Moreover, a higher hair index makes a host more likely to detect an ectoparasite. Because males have a higher hair index compared with females this result has implications for sex-differences in parasite detection. Unfortunately, we could not distinguish between vellus hair and terminal hair in our study and sexual dimorphism in terminal hairs may be partly responsible for the higher hair index in males in this study. Enhanced male detection of ectoparasites may be an evolutionary response driven by female mate choice directed at parasite-free males [17] and/or sexual dimorphism in investment in immune function [18]. .
Our data suggest that reduced body hair in humans functions, at least partly, as a defence against ectoparasites. On the basis of our results, and our conclusion that fine body hair functions to enhance ectoparasite detection, we predict that transient ectoparasites should show feeding preferences for relatively hairless parts of their host’s body.
weehingthong 