Valentina Marinescu

'AI shamans' tell the fortunes of South Koreans. Many South Koreans still place great value in shamanic traditions, which purport to divine a person's future based on the day and time they were born. At Vinaida, a store in Seoul, the shamans are computer-generated avatars u.afp.com/SEXP

Why Oil Remains Irreplaceable — For Now youtu.be/BmVAg3q7P3I?si… via @YouTube

TRUMP: EUROPEANS SHOULD BE BUYING MORE GAS AND OIL FROM THE US

@Ichi_Italissimo @AgentiaBasilica Multumim pentru ca iubesti limba romana 😍🥰

@AgentiaBasilica @ValMarinescu Bună ziua din Japonia! Sunt japonez și învăț limba română pentru că iubesc România 🇷🇴 Deși România este o țară îndepărtată, sunt fericit că pot experimenta cultura românească în acest restaurant!

În Tokyo 🇯🇵 există un restaurant cu specific românesc intitulat „La Matei”

This is not necessarily a shortage issue—it's about economics. KLM is cutting 80 return flights on key European routes like London and Düsseldorf because soaring kerosene costs are making them unprofitable. Even after fuel surcharges, margins just aren’t there.

It took Isaac Newton's groundbreaking Principia Mathematica 50 years to become consensus. For energy investors, it feels like a similar timeframe for the oil paper market to better reflect the biggest energy crisis of our lifetimes. Imminent shortages = forced reality check!

Last year, the oil market was preoccupied with a question: why China was stockpiling so much crude. I wrote an @Opinion column about it in Sept, and re-reading it ⤵️ now, I must admit that all makes sense: Beijing was prudent. The link is here: bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

⚠️Europe has 'maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left,' energy agency head tells AP Europe has “maybe 6 weeks or so (of) jet fuel left,” the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a wide-ranging Associated Press interview, warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. “In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ It’s a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world," he said. The impact will be “higher petrol (gasoline) prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices,” Birol told AP, with some parts of the world “hit worse than the others.” (AP)

One of the best headlines I have seen so far: 🪔Hormuz: Not Closed — But Not Working from @MaritimeAn

How Crude oil is turned into fuel

I told you this over a month ago....

42% des citoyens ont déjà dû arbitrer entre l’achat de nourriture et celui de produits hygiéniques. →l.lefigaro.fr/9oYi

In 2016 Norway gave every 5-year-old child an iPad. Within a few years, Norway's reading scores plummeted and dropped below the OECD average. They ranked dead last out of 65 countries. Now Norway is spending millions of dollars to reverse this trend and get people reading.

Local governments in South Korea are stepping up efforts to build and maintain public bathhouses as a sharp nationwide decline in such facilities raises concerns about hygiene and public health, particularly in areas where basic shower access remains limited. koreaherald.com/article/107189…

Bypassing the Gulf? The Geopolitical Rebirth of the Nigeria-Morocco Pipeline Nigeria and Morocco aim to reach a final agreement on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) by the end of the year. 🧵

Australia is on the brink of entering the next stage of the government's emergency fuel plan, an expert has warned, which could include widespread calls for Australians to work from home. skynews.com.au/australia-news…

🚨 BREAKING: China's new law on AI anthropomorphism has been officially enacted, and it is the world's STRICTEST law on the topic: As I wrote earlier this year, to my knowledge, no AI law anywhere in the world regulates anthropomorphic AI systems with this level of detail, strictness, and concern for context-specific vulnerabilities and potential risks. Earlier in January, I wrote an article about the law's first draft (link below). The approved version is even more comprehensive, covering liability-related risks as well. Article 10, for example, establishes that providers of anthropomorphic AI must fulfill their security responsibilities throughout the service lifecycle and sets out detailed obligations for each phase of AI development and deployment. Regarding children specifically, among the prohibited anthropomorphic AI practices is generating content for minors that causes them to imitate unsafe behaviors, induces extreme emotions, or leads them to develop bad habits, which may affect their physical and mental health. Despite being a serious topic (which has led to numerous cases of suicide and mental health harm), most countries do NOT regulate AI anthropomorphism comprehensively. An important reason for that is that peer-reviewed studies about AI-powered emotional manipulation and mental health harm only became available recently (as only in the past years have millions of people started to engage in these types of relationships). China's new law is worth taking a look at, and hopefully, other countries, states, and regions will soon follow suit with their own protections against AI anthropomorphism. 👉 Lastly, if you are interested in China's AI policy and regulation, besides joining my newsletter's 93,200+ subscribers, I invite you to join my new Masterclass on the topic (only on June 1st). Links below.