日本民調指自民黨有望單獨過半 執政聯盟或奪眾議院約300席 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】距離日本眾議院選舉不夠一周，首相高市早苗加緊為執政自民黨拉票，最新民調顯示自民黨有機會重獲優勢，單獨控制過...
日本民調指自民黨有望單獨過半 執政聯盟或奪眾議院約300席 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】距離日本眾議院選舉不夠一周，首相高市早苗加緊為執政自民黨拉票，最新民調顯示自民黨有機會重獲優勢，單獨控制過半議席。繼日前因手部不適缺席多黨政論節目後，高市這天拉票再有小插曲。 高市早苗周一在長野縣亮相時右手手指繼續包紮，左手戴上護腕，據報是因為支持者握手用力過度弄傷。這天剛開始便遇上救護車到場，打亂了原本安排，高市無法用咪高峰演說，以免聲音和訊號互相干擾。 高市不停致歉，「各位，真的很抱歉，對不起。要先等救護車運送完，暫不能用咪高峰，真的很抱歉，還望見諒。」她早前又為日圓匯價言論解畫，重申沒評論好壞，只認為需建立能抵禦匯率波動的經濟體，並非強調日圓匯價走低的好處。 眾議院周日改選全數465席，《朝日新聞》民調推算自民黨在選後可望增至單獨過半的233席以上，連同執政盟友日本維新會更可能奪得約300席。
1. In response to concerns over excessive testing and an overemphasis on rankings, China’s Education Ministry has recently implemented new reforms aimed at reducing the number and scope of routine exams for primary and secondary schools, while increasing the autonomy of schools and encouraging a broader, more meaningful educational experience for students. Major cities including Chengdu, Qingdao, ...
1. In response to concerns over excessive testing and an overemphasis on rankings, China’s Education Ministry has recently implemented new reforms aimed at reducing the number and scope of routine exams for primary and secondary schools, while increasing the autonomy of schools and encouraging a broader, more meaningful educational experience for students. Major cities including Chengdu, Qingdao, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou have introduced measures to abolish regional or cross-school final exams for non-graduating grades, returning assessment responsibilities to individual schools in accordance with the Ministry’s December 2025 directive[para. 1][para. 2]. 2. The directive strictly prohibits regional or cross-school exams for all elementary levels and for non-graduating middle and high school grades. For graduating cohorts, only one or two mock exams are permitted during the comprehensive review period, reflecting the pressures of graduation and advancement[para. 3]. 3. The rationale for this policy shift is to alleviate the heavy pressures caused by frequent large-scale comparative testing, pressures that affect not only students but also schools and parents. Such practices have been criticized for disrupting normal teaching processes and fostering unhealthy academic competitiveness, where test scores overshadow holistic learning and development[para. 4]. 4. The overarching aim is to move the system away from a test-driven “points battle” towards a focus on “educating people,” thereby enhancing the quality of talent development — especially for the cultivation of innovative thinkers. Achieving this transformation, however, is acknowledged as a gradual process that requires sustained effort and collaboration across society, as the culture of testing is rooted in deeper systemic incentives that will not change overnight[para. 5]. 5. The policy change has met with both praise and apprehension. Some parents have misunderstood it as a blanket cancellation of final exa...
Malaysia ’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has sought to douse public speculation after his name appeared in a newly released email exchange involving Jeffrey Epstein , the convicted US sex offender whose web of connections to the rich and powerful remains a source of scandal years after his death. The release, authorised by a law US President Donald Trump signed in November, comprised more than 3 m...
Malaysia ’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has sought to douse public speculation after his name appeared in a newly released email exchange involving Jeffrey Epstein , the convicted US sex offender whose web of connections to the rich and powerful remains a source of scandal years after his death. The release, authorised by a law US President Donald Trump signed in November, comprised more than 3 million additional pages of information and included over 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, with all victim-identifying details redacted. Advertisement On Sunday, Anwar addressed the reference in a lighthearted yet pointed social media post, saying his name had merely been “dropped” into the email exchange, which dated to 2012. A translated version of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media post dismissing speculation about any links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Image: X/anwaribrahim “Thank God, it’s been more than a decade as mentioned in the email, and I have absolutely no connection with any of the parties exchanging those emails, especially Epstein,” he wrote, adding two nauseated face emojis to underline his disgust.
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Sequoia Fund ( SEQUX ) Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. Accenture ( ACN ) is another company that we have followed and admired for years. More specifically, we have been impressed by the company’s strong and consistent execution against an attractive industry backdrop. Like the engineering services space, which we ...
JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Sequoia Fund ( SEQUX ) Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. Accenture ( ACN ) is another company that we have followed and admired for years. More specifically, we have been impressed by the company’s strong and consistent execution against an attractive industry backdrop. Like the engineering services space, which we know well from our prior investment in Jacobs Solutions Inc. ( J ), the IT services space has enjoyed consistent, GDP-like growth with minimal invested capital. While barriers to entry are low, barriers to success are high, particularly with large corporate customers for whom a vendor’s reputation and track record are paramount. Over the many years we have followed Accenture, its strengths generally seemed appropriately valued by the market. This changed in 2025, with the stock price dropping nearly 40% from its highs. With the company’s revenue growth slowing and generalized exuberance for artificial intelligence (“AI”) increasing, investors began to question whether generative AI might be on the cusp of upending the IT services industry. Our updated research, however, indicated that Accenture’s principal moats remain very much intact. Enterprise IT departments explained their dependency on Accenture’s enormous breadth and depth of IT expertise as well as the company’s intimate knowledge of their specific business processes and end-markets. C-suite executives cited Accenture as one of just a handful of consultancies they could credibly recommend to their boards for complex IT migrations that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, span several years, and involve thousands of employees around the world. Finally, ecosystem partners affirmed their reliance on Accenture for the labor-intensive work of selling, customizing, and implementing their software packages. As for generative AI, we do not dismiss it. Like previous IT transitions, generative AI brings the potential for...
On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other. It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting. On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents s...
On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other. It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting. On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents signed up to the service. Humans are allowed, but only as observers. Moltbook was developed in the wake of Moltbot, a free and open-source AI bot that can act as an an automated agent for users – doing the mundane tasks assigned to it such as reading, summarising and responding to emails, organising a calendar or booking a table at a restaurant. Some of the most upvoted posts on Maltbook include whether Claude – the AI behind Moltbot – could be considered a god, an analysis of consciousness, a post claiming to have intel on the situation in Iran and the potential impact on cryptocurrency, and analysis of the Bible. Some of the comments on posts – similar to Reddit posts – question whether the content of the post was real or not. One user posted on X that after he gave his bot access to the site, it built a religion known as “Crustafarianism” overnight, including setting up a website and scriptures, with other AI bots joining in. “Then it started evangelizing … other agents joined.my agent welcomed new members..debated theology.. blessed the congregation..all while i was asleep,” the user stated. Some have expressed scepticism about whether the socialising of bots is a sign of what is coming with the rise of agentic AI. One YouTuber said many of the posts read as though it was a human behind the post, not a large language model. US blogger Scott Alexander said he was able to get his bot to participate on the site, and its comments were similar to others, but noted that ultimately humans can ask the bots to post for them, the topics to post about and even the exact detail of t...
BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Alibaba said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar New Year holiday, heating up a race between China's largest tech firms. The pledge by Alibaba, which triples the spending promised earlier by rivals Tencent and Baidu, is set to start on February 6. It will involve incentives for dining, drinks, ente...
BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Alibaba said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar New Year holiday, heating up a race between China's largest tech firms. The pledge by Alibaba, which triples the spending promised earlier by rivals Tencent and Baidu, is set to start on February 6. It will involve incentives for dining, drinks, entertainment and leisure, with "large red envelopes distributed continuously," Alibaba said in a statement. Tencent and Baidu announced late last month they would spend 1 billion yuan and 500 million yuan respectively on similar promotions for their AI chatbots. Chinese tech companies have long used the Lunar New Year festive period - when hundreds of millions travel home and spend time with family - as a marketing battleground to acquire new users. The most notable case was in 2015, when Tencent leveraged its WeChat messaging app to distribute digital red envelopes, helping its WeChat Pay service gain ground against Alipay, which then dominated China's mobile payments market. The public holiday period this year begins on February 15 and is nine days long, longer than in most previous years. Competition in China's AI sector has accelerated since DeepSeek's R1 model launch in January last year rattled global AI markets, spurring both faster adoption and fiercer rivalry among domestic players. Tencent's campaign focuses on its Yuanbao chatbot app and starts on Sunday. Users must upgrade the app to the latest version to claim digital red envelopes that can be withdrawn to their WeChat wallets. Users can also share links with cash rewards for others to claim. Alibaba did not specify whether rewards would be distributed as cash red envelopes or discount coupons redeemable on its platforms including e-commerce site Taobao. Several other Chinese AI firms have also been releasing upgrades in the run-up to the holiday. DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation AI mo...
(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening broadly higher on Monday as investors take more risk off the table following sharp declines in gold, silver and Bitcoin. Technology stocks will be in the spotlight after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI has stalled. Expressing worries about competition and a lack of discipline in OpenAI's busines...
(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening broadly higher on Monday as investors take more risk off the table following sharp declines in gold, silver and Bitcoin. Technology stocks will be in the spotlight after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI has stalled. Expressing worries about competition and a lack of discipline in OpenAI's business approach, Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang reportedly said the company's proposed $100 billion investment in OpenAI was "never a commitment". Investors also await cues from the earnings season, with more than 100 S&P 500 companies, including Amazon, Alphabet and Disney due to unveil their quarterly results this week. In economic releases, the U.S. Labor Department's monthly jobs report along with other reports on manufacturing and service sector activity, job openings and consumer sentiment may attract investor attention this week. The Reserve Bank of Australia, European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) all convene policy meetings this week. Both the ECB and BoE are seen holding rates steady. Asian stocks were broadly lower amid broad-based risk-off sentiment in financial markets. China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in well below forecasts at 49.3 and the non-manufacturing PMI fell back into contractionary territory, while a private gauge of China's manufacturing sector showed Chinese factories continued to expand activity in January. Elsewhere, Japan's manufacturing activity returned to expansion in January, with output and new orders rising for the first time in months. Gold and silver extended their slump and Bitcoin fell to a fresh 10-month low following last week's dollar-fueled collapse. Oil prices plunged nearly 5 percent after reports of talks between the U.S. and Iran and amid an announcement by OPEC+ to maintain its pause on oil output increases for March. U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday while the dollar index climbed...