President’s decision to drop finance bill after deadly violence leaves protesters divided over how to achieve broader goals

Kenya’s youth-driven, leaderless protest movement finds itself at a crossroads this weekend, buoyed up by President William Ruto’s surprise decision on Wednesday to abandon a finance bill containing planned tax rises even as it mourns those killed in deadly violence the day before.

The movement that brought thousands of people out on to the streets in recent weeks, against the backdrop of a cost of a living crisis that has left many young people feeling hopeless, has little precedence in Kenya where protests are traditionally elite-led.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Edwin Ndeke/The Guardian

💾

© Photograph: Edwin Ndeke/The Guardian

A little something for everyone: lawsuits, fighter jets and Casey in a bucket hat.

© Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Getty Images

Every year, hundreds of Kenyans head off to study at elite universities in the US and UK. On graduating, many find themselves in a strange position: unable to fit in abroad, but no longer feeling like they belong back home. By Carey Baraka

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Drew Kamau

💾

© Photograph: Drew Kamau

The Pulitzer winner’s third novel My Friends is based on an event from 1984, when officials opened fire on protesters at the Libyan embassy in London

Pulitzer prize winner Hisham Matar has won this year’s Orwell prize for political fiction for his third novel My Friends, which follows three Libyan exiles in London.

Matthew Longo won the nonfiction counterpart – the Orwell prize for political writing – for The Picnic, about a group of Hungarian activists who staged a pan-European summer party near the militarised Austrian border in August 1989. During the picnic, 600 East Germans breached the border unhindered by guards – an event which came to be seen as a catalyst for the fall of the Berlin wall.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Awakening/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Awakening/Getty Images

William Ruto says he has listened to the people of Kenya, who gathered across the country to oppose the law

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, has withdrawn a bill to raise taxes a day after violent protests erupted around the country following its approval by parliament.

Ruto’s surprise decision not to sign the finance bill came after violent clashes between police and protesters at the Kenyan assembly and across the country left at least 23 people dead and scores wounded, according to medics.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Hiram Omondi/KENYAN PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION SERVICE HANDOUT/EPA

💾

© Photograph: Hiram Omondi/KENYAN PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION SERVICE HANDOUT/EPA

Kenya is in shock after unprecedented scenes in Nairobi left parts of parliament ablaze and gutted, as protests over proposed tax hikes turned deadly, prompting the government to deploy the military

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Ilya Sutskever’s new start-up, Safe Superintelligence, aims to build A.I. technologies that are smarter than a human but not dangerous.

© Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Christ may be able to live on cheeseburgers and Cokes, but Salinger wanted something more. This is his power and his downfall—his vampiric need to drain the potential of the young. Whether through his bohemian characters or the very real women in his own life, he was always ready to give a lecture and take power. Cute as Salinger's characters are, they live under his thumb. They're playthings, like dolls. We enjoy judging their powerlessness, but his fetish for purity was often what he tried to use to get off the hook for his ghoulish behavior. Marrying young women until they were no longer ingenues, feeding on the genre of YA as a source for so-called serious literary fiction, devouring Eastern prayers without regard for their context or specificity. YA is his Trojan horse. This is a grim realization. from Hagiography of a Narcissist: On J. D. Salinger's "Hapworth 16, 1924" by Grace Byron [LARB; ungated]

Un análisis de las vocalizaciones de los elefantes mediante una herramienta de inteligencia artificial sugiere que pueden utilizar y responder a retumbos individualizados.

An analysis of elephant calls using an artificial intelligence tool suggests that the animals may use and respond to individualized rumbles.

It turns out A.I. is surprisingly Canadian.

© Photo Illustration by The New York Times

A group of current and former employees is calling for sweeping changes to the artificial intelligence industry, including greater transparency and protections for whistle-blowers.

© Jason Andrew for The New York Times

In Kenya, Revital Healthcare is manufacturing medical products that Africa needs to take charge of routine health care and respond to outbreaks.

© Brian Otieno for The New York Times

Marc Andreessen, Chamath Palihapitiya and several other tech venture capitalists are increasingly criticizing President Biden and making their disaffection known in an election year.

© Barbara Gibson

It’s been a week of A.I. vertigo — the feeling that we’ve been dragged five years into the future and aren’t sure what to do about it.

© Photo Illustration by The New York Times

In November, Ilya Sutskever joined three other OpenAI board members to force out Sam Altman, the chief executive, before saying he regretted the move.

© Jim Wilson/The New York Times

The tech giant’s quarterly results included strong growth in cloud computing, fueled by its services in generative artificial intelligence.

© Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images