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DAKAR (AP) – For the artistic and cultural elites of Senegal, the month-long Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Arts is a celebratory moment. Every two years, hundreds of artists, curators and art lovers from across the world descend on the West African capital to attend the event, which was founded in 1989 by the Senegalese government and has over the decades become one of the most important showcases on the continent. Pop-up exhibitions are held in hundreds of venues, from stylish five-star hotels to local art galleries. Roads are even more crowded than usual, with traffic jams stretching out for miles along the Corniche, the city’s picturesque seaside boulevard. Every night, there are music concerts, fashion shows, talks with artists and movie screenings held against the backdrop of palm trees. But it wasn’t until this year that the local artisans in the Soumbedioune crafts market, just off the Corniche and at the doorstep on the Medina working-class neighbourhood, realised what the Biennale was. For years, “we saw the OFF signs, but we didn’t know what was going on,” said Ndiouga Dia, a 48-year-old leatherworker from Soumbedioune, referring to a series of events organised in parallel to the official government program, scattered all over the city. “Only the artists knew among themselves what was going on.” ABOVE & BELOW: President of the Soumbedioune craftsmen’s association Ndiouga visits the ‘rebondir’ exhibition in Soubedioune, Senegal; and jeweller Moussa Diop works on a bronze hippopotamus in his workshop. PHOTO: AP PHOTO: AP Woodcarver Papis Kanté sculpts a wooden hippopotamus. PHOTO: AP A woman walks through the Soubedioune craft market in Dakar. PHOTO: AP Craftsmanship is deeply rooted in the country’s culture. Senegal, like most African nations, has little capacity for industrial production and traditionally much of its economy has relied on locally produced goods. For centuries, craftsmen played a central role in Senegalese social life, sculpting religious statues and ceremonial masks, sewing boubous (traditional colourful wide-sleeved robes), moulding pottery and weaving baskets. But these days, their role is in decline. As living costs rise, many Senegalese opt for cheaper, often Asian products. And those that can afford it buy Western clothes and furniture to mark their social status. So when two designers approached Dia, who is also the community leader of the Soumbedioune artisans, with a proposal for a joint exhibition, he didn’t hesitate for a second. It felt good to be noticed and included, Dia said. Designers Kemi Bassène and Khadim Ndiaye asked five artisans – a sculptor, a painter, a jeweller, a leatherworker and a upholsterer – to interpret the theme of ‘hippo’. They chose the theme because it was easily recognisable across Africa, they said, bringing together people from different nations who live next to the water. The exhibition, held in the central square of Soumbedioune, surrounded by artisanal boutiques and restaurants selling thieboudienne, the most famous Senegalese dish, has been a hit among locals. There are hippo earrings and a hippo necklace; a giant wooden sculpture of a sleeping hippo; and a hippo-shaped bag. Papise Kanté, a 45-year-old sculptor who created two wooden hippo statues for the exhibition, said it allowed him to tap into a more creative part of his work, instead of just producing objects that he intended to sell. “I have been sculpting since I was a young child,” said Kanté, who comes from a long line of sculptors. “Every artist wants to get better.” But it also gave his work recognition. “It’s because of the Biennale that people know my work,” he said. If you participate in the Biennale, he added, “you are proud”. Bassène, the curator, grew up in Medina, next to Soumbedioune, but is now based in Paris. He said he wanted to bridge the divide between arts and crafts. “This is the first time in the history that artisans, especially those who are custodians of traditional craftsmanship, are invited to the Biennale,” Bassène said. “For craftsmen in Africa, there is a natural progression towards the world of modern design.” It was “normal”, he said, to include artisans in the Biennale “if we wanted to try to decolonise a little”. This year’s Biennale is being held as Senegal is undergoing profound political change, with the newly elected authorities charting a more self-reliant and pan-African course. Last month, the governing party, PASTEF, secured a resounding victory in legislative elections. Its win granted President Bassirou Diomaye Faye a clear mandate to carry out ambitious reforms promised during the campaign to improve living conditions for ordinary Senegalese – including greater economic self-reliance, revamping the fishing industry and making maximum use of natural resources. The theme of this year’s Biennale has been ‘The Wake’, alluding to the emancipation of the African continent from its remaining dependence on former colonial powers. The new government of Senegal has “a transformational agenda”, said Bassène. “I think that what we have experienced politically will impact all the social sciences and all art.”WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. (AP) — Abdi Bashir Jr. had 27 points in Monmouth's 88-74 victory against Fairfield on Saturday. Bashir shot 9 of 21 from the field, including 5 for 10 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 5 from the line for the Hawks (2-10). Jack Collins scored 13 points while going 5 of 8 (3 for 6 from 3-point range) and added five assists. Madison Durr shot 4 of 6 from the field and 4 for 5 from the line to finish with 12 points. Prophet Johnson finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Stags (5-7, 1-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference). Braden Sparks added 16 points and two steals for Fairfield. Deon Perry finished with 12 points, six assists and three steals. Monmouth took the lead with 16:32 left in the first half and did not give it up. The score was 43-33 at halftime, with Bashir racking up 11 points. Monmouth outscored Fairfield by four points in the second half, and Bashir scored a team-high 16 points in the second half to help their team secure the victory. Monmouth plays Auburn on the road on Monday, and Fairfield visits Columbia on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) will be at the center of Asia Pacific-based organizations in their cybersecurity strategy in 2025, according to global cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks. “In 2025, our region will face a perfect storm of AI-driven cyber threats, escalating in scale, sophistication, and impact. The days of fragmented security approaches are over—organizations must pivot to unified platforms powered by transparent and trustworthy AI to stay ahead. As quantum attacks loom and deepfakes become mainstream tools of deception, businesses will either innovate or risk being outpaced by adversaries. The stakes have never been higher, and trust will be the ultimate currency in this new era of cybersecurity. Those who fail to adapt risk not just breaches but irreparable damage to their reputation and resilience,” said Simon Green, President, Asia Pacific and Japan at Palo Alto Networks. In its recent study, Palo Alto also outlined five key trends that cyber practitioners can expect to unfold in the coming 12 months and for which they can position their organizations for a more secure future. First prediction, according to Green: cyber infrastructure will be anchored around a single unified data security platform. In 2025, Green said the organizations will address heightened complexity by reducing the number of cybersecurity tools in use, and shifting to a unified platform, offering enhanced visibility and control. Nevertheless, the ongoing dearth in talented cybercrime experts will continue to accelerate this trend. On the other hand, Green said there is a benefit as a unified platform will provide end-to-end visibility and context, spanning code repositories, cloud workloads, networks, and security operations centers (SOCs). “Ultimately this creates a more holistic security architecture with fewer dashboards,” he said. Green said demolishing the silos and ensuring the confluence of all security layers onto a unified platform will optimize resources, improve overall efficiency, and enable organizations to build more resilient, adaptive defenses against evolving threats. According to Green, the second trend to watch is the proliferation of deepfakes which, he added, are already being used for nefarious purposes in the APAC region. While some have been used to spread political misinformation, Green said cybercriminals used it to target corporations for financial gain, like the employee at a Hong Kong engineering firm duped into wiring millions of dollars to a scammer who had used deepfakes to imitate the chief financial officer and executive team on a video conference. Classified as a synthetic media, deepfake is typically a video or image that has been edited using AI to replace a person’s likeness with someone else’s. Deepfakes are so deceiving that their manipulation, in skilled hands, can be incredibly convincing, making it difficult to distinguish between real and fake content. Deepfakes are created using advanced AI techniques, such as deep learning and generative adversarial networks (GANs). They can effectively manipulate facial expressions, speech, and even body language to create highly realistic and often deceptive content. Deepfakes can be used maliciously to spread misinformation, create fake news, or harm individuals’ reputations. While detecting deepfakes can be challenging, there are ongoing efforts to develop tools and techniques to identify them. Green said it’s important to be aware of deepfakes and to critically evaluate the information you encounter online. Green pointed out that clever criminals will capitalize on the ever-improving generative AI technology to launch credible deepfake attacks. He warned that the use of audio deepfakes will also become more prevalent in these attacks, as the available technology allows for highly credible voice cloning. “We can expect deepfakes to be used alone or as part of a larger attack much more often in 2025,” he said. In 2025, there will be a growth in quantum computing projects across APAC, with governments and venture capital firms investing heavily in local initiatives. While quantum attacks on widely used encryption methods are not yet feasible, Green warned that nation-state-backed threat actors are expected to intensify their “harvest now, decrypt later” tactics, targeting highly classified data with the intent to unlock it when quantum technology advances. “This poses a risk to governments and businesses, with the potential to jeopardize civilian and military communications, undermine critical infrastructure, and overcome security protocols for most internet-based financial transactions,” he said. “We will likely also see nation-state actors target organizations developing quantum computers themselves, in corporate espionage attacks,” he added. To counteract these threats effectively, Green urged all organizations to act and adopt quantum-resistant defenses, including quantum-resistant tunnelling, comprehensive crypto data libraries, and other technologies with enhanced crypto-agility. Transitioning to these algorithms will help secure data against future quantum threats. Organizations that require high security should explore quantum key distribution (QKD) as a means of ensuring secure communications. As quantum computing continues to become more and more of a reality and potential threats loom, Green said it will be essential to adopt these measures to keep pace with the rapidly evolving cyber landscape, prevent data theft and ensure the integrity of their critical systems. For now, he said CIOs can debunk any hype around this topic to the board. Though significant progress with quantum annealing has been made, he said military-grade encryption has still not been broken. Green said regulators in the APAC region are starting to focus on the data protection and cybersecurity implications of the growing use of AI models. Further, he said this is part of an overall bid to build trust in AI use and encourage AI-driven innovation. In 2025, expect APAC legislators’ AI focus on ethics, data protection and transparency to remain. However, Green said increased use of AI models will lead to greater emphasis being placed on AI security and the integrity and reliability of the data being used. “Transparency and proactive communication about AI model mechanics—specifically regarding data collection, training datasets, and decision-making processes—will be essential for building customer trust,” he said. In 2025, Green said organizations are expected to focus more on product integrity and supply chain resilience. Furthermore, Green said organizations will conduct much more thorough risk assessments, consider accountability and legal implications of business outages and review insurance arrangements. In cloud environments, where complexity and scale amplify risks, real-time visibility has become a necessity. “Expect to see greater focus on comprehensive monitoring involving continuous tracking of both infrastructure and application performance metrics,” he said. Oscar Visaya, Country Manager, Philippines, at Palo Alto Networks, said the Philippines has shown improvement in its standing as far as cybersecurity security is concerned. “As cybersecurity takes center stage across public and private sectors, reflected in the Philippines’ rise from 61st to 53rd in the 2024 UN Global Cybersecurity Index, these predictions aim to help organizations navigate 2025,” he said. “With local insights—such as deepfakes and cyberattacks fueled by rapid digitalization—and trends across Asia-Pacific, prioritizing unified security platforms and AI advancements will be critical to securing the Philippines’ digital future,” he added. Image credits: PASAN JAYASEKARA ARACHCHI VIA DREAMSTIME.COM , TERO VESALAINEN VIA DREAMSTIME.COM Rizal Raoul S. Reyes has covered technology, science, business, property and special reports. He had working stints with the Business Star, Manila Bulletin and Independent Daily News.The pair rocketed into orbit on June 5 , the first to ride Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight. They arrived at the International Space Station the next day, only after overcoming a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks . NASA deemed the capsule too risky for a return flight, so it will be February before their long and trying mission comes to a close. While NASA managers bristle at calling them stuck or stranded, the two retired Navy captains shrug off the description of their plight. They insist they're fine and accepting of their fate. Wilmore views it as a detour of sorts: "We're just on a different path." "I like everything about being up here," Williams told students Wednesday from an elementary school named for her in Needham, Massachusetts, her hometown. "Just living in space is super fun." Both astronauts lived up there before, so they quickly became full-fledged members of the crew, helping with science experiments and chores like fixing a broken toilet, vacuuming the air vents and watering the plants. Williams took over as station commander in September. "Mindset does go a long way," Wilmore said in response to a question from Nashville first graders in October. He's from Mount Juliet, Tennessee. "I don't look at these situations in life as being downers." Boeing flew its Starliner capsule home empty in September, and NASA moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight not due back until late February. Two other astronauts were bumped to make room and to keep to a six-month schedule for crew rotations. Like other station crews, Wilmore and Williams trained for spacewalks and any unexpected situations that might arise. "When the crews go up, they know they could be there for up to a year," NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts NASA astronaut Frank Rubio found that out the hard way when the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement capsule for him and two cosmonauts in 2023, pushing their six-month mission to just past a year. Boeing said this week that input from Wilmore and Williams was "invaluable" in the ongoing inquiry of what went wrong. The company said it is preparing for Starliner's next flight but declined to comment on when it might launch again. NASA also has high praise for the pair. "Whether it was luck or whether it was selection, they were great folks to have for this mission," NASA's chief health and medical officer, Dr. JD Polk, said during an interview with The Associated Press. On top of everything else, Williams, 59, had to deal with "rumors," as she calls them, of serious weight loss. She insists her weight is the same as it was on launch day, which Polk confirms. During Wednesday's student chat, Williams said she didn't have much of an appetite when she first arrived in space. But now she's "super hungry" and eating three meals a day plus snacks, while logging the required two hours of daily exercise. Williams, a distance runner, uses the space station treadmill to support races in her home state. She competed in Cape Cod's 7-mile Falmouth Road Race in August. She ran the 2007 Boston Marathon up there as well. She has a New England Patriots shirt with her for game days, as well as a Red Sox spring training shirt. "Hopefully I'll be home before that happens — but you never know," she said in November. Husband Michael Williams, a retired federal marshal and former Navy aviator, is caring for their dogs back home in Houston. As for Wilmore, 61, he's missing his younger daughter's senior year in high school and his older daughter's theater productions in college. "We can't deny that being unexpectedly separated, especially during the holidays when the entire family gets together, brings increased yearnings to share the time and events together," his wife, Deanna Wilmore, told the AP in a text this week. Her husband "has it worse than us" since he's confined to the space station and can only connect via video for short periods. "We are certainly looking forward to February!!" she wrote.Musk's net worth surpasses $400 billion after Trump's Nov victory
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) proclaimed it a “new day in Washington and a new day in America” and said Thursday’s meeting marked “the beginning of a journey.” Earlier on Thursday, Ramaswamy met alone with GOP senators, some of whom stressed afterwards that it is still up to Congress, not Musk and Ramaswamy, to set spending levels. President-elect Donald Trump has described DOGE as a non-governmental project that would function as more of an advisory panel for ways to root out waste, rather than a traditional government agency. “They’re more of an advisory group that works behind the scenes with the White House,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told reporters after leaving the meeting. Greene also offered some insight into how DOGE would rate lawmakers: “Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators, and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” . reductions to Social Security and Medicare, which Trump has previously vowed not to touch. But Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), co-founder of the House DOGE caucus, told reporters that lawmakers would, in fact, examine cuts to “mandatory spending,” a category that includes these popular programs for older Americans. As he left the meeting, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on the DOGE mission. “If Congress doesn’t have the guts to do those things they’re talking real big about, it’s just a waste of time,” Burchett said. Related...
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