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DeepSeek, an AI startup just over a year old, has stirred awe and consternation in Silicon Valley with its breakthrough artificial intelligence model that offers comparable performance to the world’s best chatbots at seemingly a fraction of the cost. Created in China’s Hangzhou, DeepSeek carries far-reaching implications for the global tech industry and supply chain, offering a counterpoint to the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power and energy to develop. What exactly is DeepSeek? Source link

Los Angeles – On the side of a gym in downtown Los Angeles, two figures with angelic wings — Kobe Bryant, who won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, and his daughter Gianna — are depicted together in the clouds. Near one feather, the words “Do not touch this mural” are sprayed in a faded white script. No one has. The mural’s endurance is a testament to the legacy of Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash five years ago alongside Gianna and seven other people. There are more than 600 murals honoring Bryant around the world, according to one crowdsourced tally, a majority of them in Southern California. As she waited for an Uber near the heavenly mural one afternoon, Keeley Black, of Hollywood, rattled off locations of other Bryant murals she had encountered. One is near Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Another is in the Fairfax shopping district. Source link

Ube, Yamaguchi Pref. – A local civic group will launch another survey later this week to locate the remains of 183 people in an underwater coal mine that was flooded in an accident more than 80 years ago in the city of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Below two shafts sticking out of the Seto Inland Sea, the remains of 136 people from the Korean Peninsula and 47 Japanese nationals still lie in the flooded Chosei coal mine in Ube. On Feb. 3, 1942, during World War II, the flooding accident occurred in a tunnel located 1 kilometer away from the coal mine’s entrance. The entrance was sealed after the accident, with the remains of the workers still inside. Source link

Nissan Motor plans to repair its flailing business without closing factories, according to people familiar with the matter, as it looks to streamline its finances before a capital tie-up with Honda Motor. Nissan will instead focus on reducing and consolidating existing production lines both in Japan and overseas to cut costs, the people said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Employee work shifts may also be trimmed, the people said. Previously announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs globally and reduce production capacity by 20% are making progress, they added. Source link

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called on his former boss to uphold a law banning TikTok for national security reasons and to allow Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase U.S. Steel in support of global business ties, both positions more in line with traditional Republican orthodoxy. Pence, who served in President Donald Trump’s first term, has been seeking to steer the Republican Party toward a brand of conservatism that Trump has largely upended through his Make America Great Again movement. The relationship between the men has shattered since Pence refused Trump’s demands four years ago to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The former vice president said he wants to use “whatever remains of my bully pulpit” to be an anchor of “traditional conservatism.” Source link

The parliamentary questioning of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his Cabinet kicked off Monday, with the largest opposition party grilling the prime minister about the direction of Japan’s relations with the United States under U.S. President Donald Trump. Touching on political turbulence and rising populism around the world, Constitutional Democratic Party head Yoshihiko Noda, a former opposition party prime minister, raised concerns about the United States’ decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris agreement on climate change. “If the U.S., which plays a major role in terms of technology and funding, withdraws from the WHO, it will have a significant impact on international cooperation in the event of a global pandemic and on protecting people’s health, particularly in developing countries,” Noda said. Source link

Nippon Life Insurance will reorganize its overseas operations to better monitor risks from its recent spate of acquisitions abroad, according to people familiar with the matter. Japan’s biggest life insurer will establish a new headquarters division in late March to manage its foreign businesses, and its overseas insurance and asset management departments will be absorbed into that organization, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. Its overseas planning department will also be supervised by that division. A Nippon Life spokesperson said details of the reorganization will be released in early March. Like other Japanese life insurers, Nippon Life is expanding abroad as a shrinking population in its home market limits opportunities. The company has spent nearly ¥2 trillion ($13 billion) in overseas deals since late last year, taking over U.S. insurer Resolution Life Group Holdings and investing in Corebridge Financial and TCW Group, both also based in the U.S. Nippon Life sees the need to strengthen its internal management system to ensure it meets the firm’s goals on large-scale investments, and to avoid a repeat of the sorts of troubles faced after it acquired Australian life insurer MLC in 2016. MLC fell into financial difficulties, forcing Nippon Life to carry out three rounds of capital increases. Source link

U.S. President Donald Trump’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week came after a frenzy of executive orders, many of them targeting long-standing diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government. But he also sent a strong signal to the business world, instructing government agencies to identify “up to nine” companies and others in the private sector that should be investigated for their DEI practices. At Davos at least, corporate leaders were already channeling the message. Source link

STOCKHOLM – Russian President Vladimir Putin frequently boasts about the strength of his country’s economy, claiming that Western sanctions only made it stronger (while in the same breath demanding that they be lifted). In fact, “stagflation” — inflation combined with minimal growth — is coming to Russia. His war on Ukraine has caused both high and rising prices and labor shortages, because many workers have been mobilized or killed, while many others have fled the country. Heading into the Central Bank of Russia’s regularly scheduled board meeting in late December, most observers expected monetary authorities to raise the policy rate from 21% to 23%. Yet the CBR kept the rate unchanged, despite an increase in the official annual inflation figure, from 8.4% to 9.5% in the space of two months. It is easy to guess what happened. Just a day before, Putin said he had spoken with CBR Chair Elvira Nabiullina, and it is safe to assume that he told her to leave the policy rate where it is. Any illusion about the CBR’s independence vanished. Source link

ICE agents conducted at least one immigration raid on Thursday, detaining workers at a Newark, New Jersey, business. The group included U.S. citizens and a military veteran — all without a warrant. The raid by federal officials of the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agency prompted outrage among New Jersey officials. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka called it an “egregious” violation of Fourth Amendment rights against “unreasonable search and seizure” and vowed that Newark will not “stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized.” It’s a preview of the brewing showdown between President Donald Trump’s Justice Department and state and local officials over mass deportations. The consequences could shatter federal and state relations. Source link