“One hundred and nine billion euros of investment in artificial intelligence [AI], over the next few years.” This is the amount announced by President Emmanuel Macron, speaking on Sunday, February 9, on France 2, on the eve of the opening of the AI Action Summit. Hosted at the Grand Palais, the event is expected to draw several dozen heads of state and 1,000 participants.

“It’s the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate,” added Macron, in reference to the $500 billion (€485 billion) investment announced in mid-January by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX for a gigantic data center complex, launched under the leadership of US President Donald Trump. At the time, the amount struck people as outrageous.

Read more Subscribers only Stargate, Trump’s $500 billion project to boost artificial intelligence

The figure of €109 billion is very significant. It mainly corresponds to data center projects, necessary to train and operate AIs, whose calculation chips cost several tens of thousands of dollars each.

A mega-project in Cambrai

On February 6, the United Arab Emirates announced between €30 billion and €50 billion of investment in a data center campus that would be the largest in Europe, as part of an AI partnership agreement signed with France. Although a location has yet to be named, the project will be developed by “a consortium of French-Emirati champions,” including the UAE-backed MGX investment fund, which has already invested in Stargate.

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Issued on: 11/02/2025 – 11:22

2 min

 After a record year for deaths in the Channel, crossing attempts have continued in the middle of winter, despite sometimes freezing temperatures.

The six people arrested are aged 19 to 50 and of Afghan, Sudanese and Iranian nationality, the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office said.

The first body, a man in his 30s of Afghan origin, was found on the sandy beach in Berck in the the Pas-de-Calais region, with a second spotted less than two hours later just 300 metres away, authorities said.

The men were migrants attempting to swim to a small boat already in the water that would take them across the Channel.

“Around 60 migrants were waiting in the water to board,” the prosecutor’s office told French news agency AFP.

Only 24 of them managed to board, while 37 others were rescued, it added. The two bodies were found a few hours later.

The migrants who did make it on board the vessel, however, later headed back to the French coast for reasons that remain to be specified, authorities said.

Bodies have repeatedly washed up on beaches around Calais in recent months as makeshift migrant boats capsize or suffer from chaotic embarkations that leave some passengers in the water.

“A total of 230 people” were rescued at sea on Sunday, according to French maritime authorities.

France rescues over 100 migrants from Channel, capping deadly year for crossings

Dozens rescued at the weekend

Among those rescued was a group that set off for Britain in the morning but their boat deflated, leaving 57 people in the water near Gravelines, including one person found unconscious and two who had hypothermia.

That was followed by a boat carrying 38 people that issued a distress call, and another 19 people who were pulled off a skiff that kept going with dozens more passengers aboard.

Near Dunkirk, 42 passengers were rescued, including two who had to be airlifted to hospital.

In the evening, a patrol boat rescued 33 people who failed to make it across the Channel after setting off that morning.

Migrants crossing Channel to Britain in 2024 soar by 25 percent

At least 77 migrants died trying to reach Britain last year, according to French authorities, making 2024 the deadliest year on record for the crossings.

Both London and Paris have vowed to crack down on the people smugglers who are paid sometimes thousands of euros by migrants to organise the crossing to England.

But the issue has also repeatedly caused tensions between the French and British governments.

Paris has claimed that London’s lax enforcement of employment rules attracts migrants.

There have been high-profile arrests of people smugglers, but activists say the traffickers are now trying to pack more people into the small boats, making the crossings even more dangerous.

(with AFP)

A major tremor shakes the tech world as Chinese start-up DeepSeek unveils a revolutionary AI model developed at low cost, sending shockwaves through the financial markets.

Disruptive innovation at a low price

DeepSeek is hitting hard with its new DeepSeek-V3 model, an intelligent assistant that rivals giants such as ChatGPT. The innovation lies less in its performance than in its development cost: between $5 and $6 million, a derisory sum compared to the massive investments made by the American giants. The announcement sent shockwaves through Wall Street, with spectacular falls in technology stocks: Nvidia (-17%), Broadcom (-17%), Oracle (-14%) and Cisco (-5%).

Open-source as a weapon of massive disruption

DeepSeek’s strategy is clear: democratize AI by making its model accessible and modifiable under an open-source license. This approach is reminiscent of the historic successes of Firefox and Android, which revolutionized their respective sectors by lowering barriers to entry.

A paradigm shift in the industry

This breakthrough challenges the “bigger is better” dogma that has dominated the AI industry until now. If DeepSeek’s model proves successful, the huge computing infrastructures currently under construction could find themselves oversized, threatening the entire semiconductor and cloud computing ecosystem.

Major geopolitical implications

The emergence of DeepSeek is part of the Sino-American technological rivalry. Based in Hangzhou and headed by Liang Wenfeng, the company offers an alternative to American technological restrictions. This frugal approach could benefit not only China, but also other regions such as Europe, traditionally limited in AI infrastructure.

Still some grey areas

Despite the enthusiasm, experts temper the euphoria by pointing to a likely underestimation of actual costs. Expenses linked to data cleansing, network equipment, energy and human resources have reportedly not been taken into account in the announced calculations.

Incumbent President Daniel Noboa clutched onto a razor-thin lead in violence-hit Ecuador’s election Sunday, after a stronger-than-expected challenge from a leftist rival who looked set to force a second-round run-off.

With about 90% of the ballots counted, Noboa had garnered 44.4% of the vote and rival Luisa Gonzalez was on 43.9%, official results showed.

Gonzalez, a 47-year-old single mother of two, told elated supporters in Quito that they had achieved a “great victory” by forcing what she called a “statistical tie.”

“We have won,” she claimed.

The telegenic lawyer-turned-lawmaker had trailed heavily in pre-election surveys. Some exit polls had even predicted that Noboa would garner the 50% of votes needed to avoid a head-to-head contest in April.

Read more Subscribers only Ecuador holds elections amid explosion of violence

But the election was seen by many as a referendum on the country’s stalled economy and on Noboa’s hardline security response in the face of record rates of murder, kidnapping and extortion. In just a few years, cartels vying for control of Pacific ports and lucrative cocaine trading routes to Europe and Asia have transformed Ecuador from one of the safest countries in the world to one of the most dangerous.

During his 15 months in office, Noboa has declared a state of emergency, deployed the army to the streets and gathered extraordinary executive powers to curb cartel violence. He deployed heavily armed soldiers to polling stations across the country on election day, and the land borders with Colombia and Peru were closed.

Both Noboa and Gonzalez were shadowed at public events by a phalanx of special forces, hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2023 election, when a leading candidate was assassinated.

“We’re only human. Of course, you feel afraid,” candidate Gonzalez told Agence France-Presse (AFP) from her childhood home on the eve of the vote.

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But this time round the only election-related incidents were about 20 people cited for breaking a strict three-day alcohol ban. More than 10 million votes have been counted so far, but it could be some hours before the full tally is known. Still, Noboa’s supporters were in a jubilant mood, lighting fireworks in Quito and Guayaquil, the country’s two largest cities.

Gonzalez’s political mentor – polarizing exiled ex-president Rafael Correa – was also bullish about the prospects of victory. “We are going to PASS Noboa,” he said in a social media post.

At 37, Noboa is one of the world’s youngest leaders. He has bet his political fortunes on a slick social media campaign that underscores his youth and vigor and a hardline approach to tackling crime.

On the eve of the vote, he posted a video of himself in a crisp white T-shirt and sneakers, strumming an acoustic guitar and crooning along in English – a striking contrast to his “mano dura,” or iron fist, security policies. Human rights groups believe the aggressive use of the armed forces has led to abuses, including the murder of four boys whose charred bodies were recently found near an army base.

‘Dark outlook’

The unrest has scared away tourists and investors alike, hitting an economy that likely entered a recession last year. Noboa has been forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund to build a $4 billion fiscal war chest. Easing fears that she may scrap that deal if elected, Gonzalez on Saturday told AFP that the IMF was “welcome” to help, so long as it does not insist on policies that hit working families.

Ecuador is also girding for the return of thousands of migrants who are expected to be deported by the administration of US President Donald Trump – meaning a drop in remittances, which total about $6 billion a year.

Gonzalez told AFP she wanted “appropriate” relations with Trump, while claiming Ecuador under Noboa “did not defend its citizens” against US mistreatment.

“I will always demand respect for our citizens. They cannot deport our brothers as if they were criminals, with chains on their legs and arms,” she said.

Voting is compulsory in Ecuador and between 13 and 14 million citizens are expected to have cast their ballot in Sunday’s poll.

Le Monde with AFP

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Issued on: 08/02/2025 – 19:20Modified: 08/02/2025 – 19:24

2 min

Speaking in Madrid during an event organised by Spain’s Vox party under the banner “Make Europe Great Again”, Le Pen said that Trump’s election triumph in November gave Europe a chance to change course.

“The election of Donald Trump cannot be analysed solely as a simple changeover in a democratic country,” Le Pen said.

“Nor even just as the patriotic awakening of a nation that would rightly dismiss the forces of decline. We are facing a truly global tipping point.”

She told around 2,000 delegates at the meeting that the EU had left the continent at the margins of technological revolutions in artificial intelligence and other realms.

Le Pen, whose National Rally party emerged from last July’s elections as the third largest force in the Assemblée Nationale, said that it was the European leaders at the gathering via their Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, who had the best chance of communicating and working with Trump.

“Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, everyone understands that something has changed,” she said. “The European Union seems to be in a state of stupefaction. We are the only ones that can talk with the new Trump administration,” Le Pen added.

Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, said: “The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks. Yesterday we were heretics, today we are the majority.”

Tariffs

Italy’s Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini and the Vox president Santiago Abascal downplayed Trump’s threat to slap higher tariffs on European imports. They claimed that the EU’s taxes and regulations were a bigger danger to Europe’s prosperity.

“The great tariff is the Green Deal and the confiscatory taxes of Brussels and socialist governments across Europe,” said Abascal.

Salvini said German electors faced a historic opportunity when they vote on 23 February in a general election. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is running second in the polls behind the centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz.

“The engine of Europe has come to a halt in the face of the most disastrous government of the post-war period,” Salvini said of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration.

During the opening sessions of the two-day event, each of the speakers touched on the defence of Europe’s borders against illegal immigration.

Last month, data collected by the bloc’s border control agency Frontex, showed that irregular border crossings into the EU fell 38 percent in 2024 to 239,000 – the lowest number registered since 2021 when migration plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party described the meeting as a clan of ultras. A statement added: “They will not succeed in making their black-and-white vision of the world prevail in this country.”

Despite the Patriots’ aim of uniting Europe’s nationalist conservatives, some of the EU’s most influential groups such as the Italian Brothers of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni , the AfD and Poland’s Law and Justice party have refused to join them.

Issued on: 06/02/2025 – 06:56Modified: 06/02/2025 – 11:38

2 min

Prime Minister François Bayrou conceded MPs had adopted an imperfect budget but added: “It is an urgent step because our country cannot live without a budget.”

Bayrou’s administration, which has no overall majority in the 578-seat Assemblée Nationale, used the 49.3 constitutional power to ram the budget bill through the chamber without a vote by lawmakers.

The move triggered the no-confidence motion.

Only 128 lawmakers approved the motion, far from the 289 votes needed for it to pass.

Both the Socialists and far-right National Rally lawmakers refused to support it.

Under France’s constitution, the motion’s failure automatically turns the 2025 budget into law.

Disputes

French politics have been in disarray since President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last year that left no party with a parliamentary majority.

Bayrou, a veteran centrist, was appointed in December amid a political crisis prompted by budget disputes that led to the collapse of Michel Barnier’s rule as prime minister.

French lawmakers oust Prime Minister Barnier after just three months in office

France has been under pressure from the European Union to reduce its huge debt and deficit, which in 2024 reached 6.1 percent of GDP.

The government has argued the country needs an operational budget at a time when the American President Donald Trump is threatening to impose new tariffs on the EU.

The budget is meant to reduce France’s deficit to 5.4 percent of gross domestic product this year via spending cuts and tax increases worth a total of €50 billion.

Talks

During discussions meant to seek a compromise in parliament, Bayrou agreed to provide an additional €1 billion for hospitals and agreed not to cut 4,000 jobs in national education.

He also said last month he was open to renegotiating a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

French PM Bayrou saves 4,000 teaching jobs in budget cuts reversal

The government said it intends to use its special powers next week to pass the social security budget, allowing key financial measures to be implemented by the end of the month.

In December, a no-confidence motion forced Barnier to step down after only three months in power as parties across the political spectrum joined forces to derail the veteran statesman’s proposals.

Barnier, 74, had been drafted in to solve the political impasse created by last year’s elections. But his proposed austerity budget deepened divisions.

Events in anticipation of the 2025 AI Action Summit kick off in Paris this week – ahead of what is being billed as a landmark meeting of world leaders and tech giants on Monday and Tuesday, aimed at positioning France as a central hub for AI partnerships.

The gathering is designed to catalyse a “European awakening” in artificial intelligence, following a recent declaration from the United States that it will channel some $500 billion worth of investment into artificial intelligence. 

Co-chaired by India, the Paris summit aims to ensure that AI development aligns with ethical values, accessibility and sustainability, while also fostering global cooperation in governance.

It marks a pivotal moment for France, as the country looks to put itself at the forefront of global AI governance and raise some €2.5 billion for AI development over the next five years.

India to co-chair Paris AI summit in February

Following on from UK and South Korean AI Summits – in 2023 and 2024 respectively – the Paris showcase aims to take the conversation further, by expanding the focus beyond safety to innovation, inclusivity and practical implementation.

The goal is to foster “trustworthy AI” through the development of artificial intelligence as a force for good.

Rémi Rostan, editor-in-chief of LHC magazine, told RFI that if AI is to be truly useful, it must be accessible to everyone.

“AI must not be a toy for experts or a black box that decides for us… As long as a part of the population sees AI as something vague or threatening, it will remain a subject of mistrust, rather than a lever for emancipation,” he said.

The summit will bring together leaders from nearly 100 countries, as well as major figures from the tech industry, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Demis Hassabis of DeepMind.

EU regulations kick-in

France’s push for AI leadership comes as the European Union has positioned itself as the vanguard of AI regulation.

The first provisions of the European AI Act came into effect on the even of the summit, marking a significant milestone in global AI governance.

Initial measures include banning unacceptable uses such as social scoring, predictive policing based on profiling, and emotion recognition in workplaces and schools.

By August, transparency obligations for AI models like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini will come into force across the EU, requiring greater disclosure about training data and technical specifications.

The broader framework of the regulations will be implemented in phases, with full enforcement expected by 2027.

However, these regulations face a major pushback from tech companies, and ongoing debates about intellectual property and data transparency put a question mark over the use of the large language models the new generation of AI is built with.

One key objective of this week’s gathering is to explore European perspectives on the sovereignty of AI and its autonomy, with a view to countering the hegemony of US developers with very deep pockets, and Chinese innovators who are slashing the cost of hosting data centres, a key element of AI development.

At present, only seven countries in the world are “stakeholders” in AI initiatives, meaning that some 119 states have no direct involvement in the AI revolution. 

Clashing with creativity

Over the next six days, AI workshops and seminars have been structured to balance policy discussions with public engagement and technical exploration.

Running from 6 to11 February, AI Week features a series of events, beginning with a scientific conference at the Polytechnique engineering school, where Nobel laureates and leading AI researchers will discuss the latest developments.

Cultural discussions on AI’s impact on arts and media will take place at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Conciergerie, showcasing AI’s potential beyond just business and governance.

AI steals spotlight from Nobel winners who highlight Its power and risks

As the impact of AI becomes apparent, the question arises as to what happens to humans in the world of work and arts.

For Rostan, the answer is clear: “It’s another brush in the box, not the hand that paints… It’s the human being who provides the breath, the intention, the subversion. 

“Innovation and tradition are not opposites. They must dance together, with AI serving as a catalyst for new forms of expression, without ever replacing the human voice.”

Only a few days ago, the US Copyright Office issued a ruling that AI-assisted work can be protected, provided that it contains a sufficient amount of human creativity.

“Clearly, the tool does not make the artist,” Rostan says. “It is the intention and human intervention that count.” 

The main summit on 11 February will gather global policymakers, business leaders, and experts at the Grand Palais, where discussions will focus on investment, infrastructure, and the strategic direction of AI.

The government’s budget for 2025, if passed, will see public spending slashed by €32 billion. While most ministries are impacted, funding for public development assistance (PDA) is facing cuts of more than €2 billion – 35 percent of its budget. Coordination Sud, an umbrella group for 180 French non-profit organisations working internationally, say they’re being disproportionately hit at a time when international solidarity efforts are needed more than ever. Elodie Barralon, the group’s advocacy officer, talks about the impact of such cuts and concerns that civil society is being rolled back in France. (Listen @0′)

As a three-year experiment with medical marijuana comes to an end, instead of generalising its use, as intended, authorisation has been stalled. Nadine Attal, head of the pain centre at the Ambroise-Paré hospital in Boulogne near Paris addresses the sticking points, which include France’s current government chaos and the lack of political will to move forward. She sounds the alarm over the hundreds of patients enrolled in the experiment who have benefited from medical cannabis but whose health is now being ignored. (Listen @20’20”).

French humourist Pierre Dac came to fame in the 1930s with a winning brand of absurdist humour that managed to get everyone laughing while ridiculing no one. When WWII broke out he turned his talents to fighting anti-semitism, Hitler, and the collaborationist Vichy regime, joining Free France’s Radio Londres in 1943. He also founded a political party that defended the place of laughter and flabbiness in politics.  Fifty years after his death, on 9 February 1975, he remains one of France’s most popular, and humanist of humourists. (Listen @14’20”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

Author of the article:

Celeste Percy-Beauregard , LJI reporter

Published Sep 10, 2024  •  Last updated Sep 10, 2024  •  3 minute read

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A shoebox full of end-of-life wishes, missing until after the funeral, initially inspired Dr. Laura Shoots to devise an online platform to share such information with loved ones.

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It was “heartbreaking” that her family found her grandfather’s wishes after the fact, so Shoots wants to help others avoid a similar situation, she told The Spectator in an interview.

In her work as an ER doctor, she regularly sees how unprepared people are for medical emergencies or death.

For instance, she has had patients leave the hospital against medical advice because they have a pet at home “and they don’t have any kind of emergency plan for what happens if they’re hospitalized,” Shoots said.

“We teach kids to do fire drills. And how often do we have a fire?” Yet, “everybody’s going to die,” Shoots said.

Her experiences spurred her to create Take Care, a digital platform to help people plan for emergencies and “deal with all of the decisions that come before you die, while you’re dying, and after you die,” the website explains.

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It gives prompts ranging from whether there is a safety deposit box people should know about, to what someone’s wishes are for their Facebook page — should it be memorialized? Who has the information needed to shut it down?

The idea is people will fill it out and share with their family, Shoots said.

She also hopes the process will facilitate an easier way to broach the sensitive topic of death.

The platform is scheduled to launch over the next several months, but in the lead-up, Shoots has been focus-group testing, meeting with various physicians, and reviewing the literature, because a lot of it is evidence based. “What I’m building is stuff that is proven to help,” Shoots said.

Someone Shoots spoke with in the process is Barb Longo, whose husband John died four and a half months ago from incurable cancer.

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His diagnosis gave them time to prepare and have lots of conversations around his end-of-life wishes, but still, there were surprises, Longo said.

The couple had their wills updated, and met with their financial planner. Longo knew where important documents were, like marriage and birth certificates, his social insurance card.

“It was also important for us to make a list of any subscriptions he had, memberships (like Costco and CAA), and his passwords,” Longo told The Spectator over a phone call.

They talked about his wishes, how and where he wanted to die when the time came.

“But the reality is, it doesn’t matter how much time people have — sudden death versus someone like us who had years — you’re never prepared,” Longo said.

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She said in retrospect, she wished they’d had more conversations about the things her husband normally took care of around car and home maintenance — when to change water softener filters or where the shut-off valves for the outside taps were, for instance.

“There were so many things we just overlooked,” she said.

The funeral home took care of some of the time sensitive notifications and had a binder of information, but it’s the kind of information that would have been helpful ahead of time, she said.

“People don’t know what they don’t know,” Shoots said.

She likened it to getting married. The marriage certificate is the legal aspect, but typically there are many more details to plan, like guest list, venue, food options, and music.

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“That’s what Take Care is,” it’s all the additional details, she said.

Her thought is that by providing a framework for people, it will help them get organized “and make these stressful things less stressful.”

She pointed to the recent societal shift that encourages talking about mental health. “I’m hoping to be a part of the shift that it’s OK to talk about end of life.”

To start the conversation, she’s hosting a series of free webinars, marketed to the Brantford-Brant community where she works and resides, with the next one on Sept. 19.

To register, visit takecaretogether.ca/upcoming-events.

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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