keanwong
@keanwong.bsky.social
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keanwong
@keanwong.bsky.social
· Oct 30
Editors across the regional talk news trends by Double Take
In this episode of Double Take, South Asia media expert Kean Wong asks senior news editors what they're doing to stave off financial ruin in a media world hard hit by Covid-19, how they would like to ...
podcasters.spotify.com
great CMT podcast ep re: SEAsia media surviving/thriving amid dis/misinformation, tech dystopias & biz implosion trauma w. insights from @abscbnnews.bsky.social's Arlene, @idntimes.bsky.social's Uni, AstroAwani's Ash & Jubi's VictorM via ace CMT'er Alexia & co podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cen...
new digital caste to suit newly financialised economy: 'Scamming became the new farming. The fathers try a different crop every season; the sons, a different con.' #latecapitalism www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘Scamming became the new farming’: inside India’s cybercrime villages
The long read: How did an obscure district in a neglected state become India’s byword for digital deceit?
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
new digital caste to suit newly financialised economy: 'Scamming became the new farming. The fathers try a different crop every season; the sons, a different con.' #latecapitalism www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
better than Ponzi... "The awkward reality may be that if ChatGPT admitted 'I don’t know' too often, then users would simply seek answers elsewhere. That could be a serious problem for a company that is still trying to grow its user base and achieve profitability." www.science.org/content/arti...
AI hallucinates because it’s trained to fake answers it doesn’t know
Teaching chatbots to say “I don’t know” could curb hallucinations. It could also break AI’s business model
www.science.org
October 29, 2025 at 10:21 AM
better than Ponzi... "The awkward reality may be that if ChatGPT admitted 'I don’t know' too often, then users would simply seek answers elsewhere. That could be a serious problem for a company that is still trying to grow its user base and achieve profitability." www.science.org/content/arti...
Devil's in the lopsided details: "The benefits to 4 SEAsian nations were less clear.. failed to negotiate a lower tariff rate than 19-20% initially imposed... only about $1b of exports to the US, or 0.2% of Malaysia’s GDP, would receive a zero tariff rate." www.businesstimes.com.sg/internationa...
Trump’s newest trade deals give US an edge over South-east Asia
Asean is now a larger supplier of goods to the America than China Read more at The Business Times.
www.businesstimes.com.sg
October 28, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Devil's in the lopsided details: "The benefits to 4 SEAsian nations were less clear.. failed to negotiate a lower tariff rate than 19-20% initially imposed... only about $1b of exports to the US, or 0.2% of Malaysia’s GDP, would receive a zero tariff rate." www.businesstimes.com.sg/internationa...
another win? "This was, in retrospect, the Decade of the Hawks, the Washington-based China experts who forcefully made the case for confrontation...including China experts and Washington policy hands who have never set foot in the Middle Kingdom — shaped US policy." www.semafor.com/article/10/2...
Trump is poised to end Washington’s decade of the China Hawks
A decade of tough US policy toward China ends with a whimper.
www.semafor.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:51 AM
another win? "This was, in retrospect, the Decade of the Hawks, the Washington-based China experts who forcefully made the case for confrontation...including China experts and Washington policy hands who have never set foot in the Middle Kingdom — shaped US policy." www.semafor.com/article/10/2...
older #asean democrat &chair #AnwarIbrahim welcomes youngest democracy #timorleste in, while rakyat rally against older democracy's crumbling literally &figuratively amid genocide; its leader jigs 2 KL warmth,centring #pmx skills in historic week of superpower talks www.facebook.com/reel/7970968...
October 26, 2025 at 4:32 AM
older #asean democrat &chair #AnwarIbrahim welcomes youngest democracy #timorleste in, while rakyat rally against older democracy's crumbling literally &figuratively amid genocide; its leader jigs 2 KL warmth,centring #pmx skills in historic week of superpower talks www.facebook.com/reel/7970968...
breaking the silence: multigenerational Aboriginal Chinese families up north with poignant stories contesting colonial #auspol frameworks, the stolen generation finding chinese refuge from white colonialists, and some still living with traumas of White Aust Policy in their family legacies
October 14, 2025 at 1:36 PM
breaking the silence: multigenerational Aboriginal Chinese families up north with poignant stories contesting colonial #auspol frameworks, the stolen generation finding chinese refuge from white colonialists, and some still living with traumas of White Aust Policy in their family legacies
hearing legendary #HenryReynolds, 87, lucidly sketching out Cairns, Darwin, "multicultural Chinese towns" until WW2, & "Aboriginal people preferred working for Chinese, shared food, kitchens... a profound difference that the Chinese took responsibility for their children as part of new families.."
October 14, 2025 at 8:29 AM
hearing legendary #HenryReynolds, 87, lucidly sketching out Cairns, Darwin, "multicultural Chinese towns" until WW2, & "Aboriginal people preferred working for Chinese, shared food, kitchens... a profound difference that the Chinese took responsibility for their children as part of new families.."
Reposted by keanwong
This is a great, detailed piece of work. There is really no secret here: OpenAI fully intend to use fossil gas to power their data centres.
All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:
www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...
All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:
www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...
![John McCarrick, the company’s new head of Global Energy Policy, was a senior energy policy advisor in the first Trump administration’s Bureau of Energy Resources in the Department of State while under former Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.
As deputy assistant secretary for Energy Transformation and the special envoy for International Energy Affairs, McCarrick promoted exports of American liquefied natural gas to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and advocated for Asian countries to invest in natural gas.
The choice to hire McCarrick matches the intentions of OpenAI’s Trump-donating CEO Sam Altman, who said in a U.S. Senate hearing in May that “in the short term, I think [the future of powering AI] probably looks like more natural gas.”
It also aligns with the company’s early moves toward powering new data centers, huge warehouses full of linked-up computers that require enormous quantities of water and electricity, to run with gas. OpenAI’s U.S. Stargate Project site in Texas, which is slated to become one of the largest data center sites in the world, is already installing off-grid gas turbines to power its operations.
“Big Tech’s collusion with the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda for artificial intelligence is evident in their massive investment in methane gas power infrastructure — as well as pro-gas political operatives like McCarrick,” Tyson Slocum, director of consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said.
The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform. In a July speech to announce a $96 billion AI and energy funding package, Trump lauded fossil fuel and coal-powered data center development while flanked by oil and gas executives.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreice3v56innzwjfqpmcff42skczd2n6sbp4cbfauotonyx7somaic4@jpeg)
October 13, 2025 at 7:52 PM
This is a great, detailed piece of work. There is really no secret here: OpenAI fully intend to use fossil gas to power their data centres.
All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:
www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...
All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:
www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...
good points @mikeyslezak.bsky.social re: press freedom &false equivalences, breaking silence over #Gaza in #auspol newsrooms, targeted killings of journos & newsrooms jobs, power(points) barely scrutinised ... & industry implosion reveals fragmented startups? @withmeaa.bsky.social @MediaDiverseAU
October 13, 2025 at 12:17 AM
good points @mikeyslezak.bsky.social re: press freedom &false equivalences, breaking silence over #Gaza in #auspol newsrooms, targeted killings of journos & newsrooms jobs, power(points) barely scrutinised ... & industry implosion reveals fragmented startups? @withmeaa.bsky.social @MediaDiverseAU
'peacemaker-in-chief': "The White House is conditioning Trump’s attendance at the Oct. 26-28 ASEAN meeting on the Malaysian government agreeing to allow Trump to preside over a ceremonial signing of a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand on the summit sidelines" www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Trump seeks peace ceremony spotlight at ASEAN summit
Trump wants to preside over a Thailand-Cambodia peace deal ceremony — and Chinese officials aren’t welcome.
www.politico.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:10 AM
'peacemaker-in-chief': "The White House is conditioning Trump’s attendance at the Oct. 26-28 ASEAN meeting on the Malaysian government agreeing to allow Trump to preside over a ceremonial signing of a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand on the summit sidelines" www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
out at last: #OmarMusa Borneo novel, so fine & authentic, his imposter-syndrome musing may be book's patriarch too, always a step ahead of stifling post-colonial legacies. In uncertain nations, everyone's cosplaying, imposters abound because the feels triumph, the vibe swamps inconvenient facts...
October 2, 2025 at 1:06 AM
out at last: #OmarMusa Borneo novel, so fine & authentic, his imposter-syndrome musing may be book's patriarch too, always a step ahead of stifling post-colonial legacies. In uncertain nations, everyone's cosplaying, imposters abound because the feels triumph, the vibe swamps inconvenient facts...
birthdaydrinks: unraveling authenticity in desperately ambitious era of influencers, sophistry, genocide & that climate emergency, in handy stroll w. #markmordue
October 2, 2025 at 12:39 AM
birthdaydrinks: unraveling authenticity in desperately ambitious era of influencers, sophistry, genocide & that climate emergency, in handy stroll w. #markmordue
showmanship... or just learning from seAsia 🙃 “Trump is knocking off one by one all the late-night TV show hosts, but at the same time the actual ownership of the networks is changing as well ... There’s a sort of conservativisation taking place of big US media.” www.smh.com.au/business/com...
How Trump’s billionaire mate is reshaping America
Larry Ellison has long been overshadowed by tech luminaries such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Not any more.
www.smh.com.au
September 27, 2025 at 5:02 AM
showmanship... or just learning from seAsia 🙃 “Trump is knocking off one by one all the late-night TV show hosts, but at the same time the actual ownership of the networks is changing as well ... There’s a sort of conservativisation taking place of big US media.” www.smh.com.au/business/com...
like an ersatz outake from a Godfather movie, or nusantara nous... "We can do this the easy way or the hard way.. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” www.smh.com.au/world/north-...
Jimmy Kimmel show pulled by ABC in the US over Charlie Kirk assassination remarks
President Donald Trump celebrated after the Disney-owned network said it would stop airing the veteran late-night comic’s show.
www.smh.com.au
September 18, 2025 at 3:02 AM
like an ersatz outake from a Godfather movie, or nusantara nous... "We can do this the easy way or the hard way.. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” www.smh.com.au/world/north-...
"..protest& opposition to Suharto had spread on campuses,the middle class, among urban poor, laying the groundwork for 1998. Today, the dynamics are similar, 2025 didn't come out of nowhere. Instead, they're at least 5th wave of youth-led mass protest since 2019."
www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...
www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...
Mass protest and the two worlds of Indonesian politics - New Mandala
A subculture of street protest survives beyond Jokowi
www.newmandala.org
September 3, 2025 at 12:14 AM
"..protest& opposition to Suharto had spread on campuses,the middle class, among urban poor, laying the groundwork for 1998. Today, the dynamics are similar, 2025 didn't come out of nowhere. Instead, they're at least 5th wave of youth-led mass protest since 2019."
www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...
www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...
Reposted by keanwong
Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while operating a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, reported on the war's civilian suffering while living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.
OBITUARY Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza reut.rs/4n5R3TV
OBITUARY Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza
Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while operating a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, reported on the war's civilian suffering while himself living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.
reut.rs
August 27, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while operating a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, reported on the war's civilian suffering while living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.
"In this era of information deluge and weaponisation, where much is not what it seems and facts are optional, banning books and febrile campaigns against legacy media may be sideshows of a looming bigger opera." go.unimelb.edu.au/3q9p ..in part of @mariaressa.bsky.social event @rappler.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 10:30 AM
"In this era of information deluge and weaponisation, where much is not what it seems and facts are optional, banning books and febrile campaigns against legacy media may be sideshows of a looming bigger opera." go.unimelb.edu.au/3q9p ..in part of @mariaressa.bsky.social event @rappler.bsky.social
finding such weariness, hope and optimism for the #paxamericana to come, in these historic front pages of a newspaper i'd worked for decades later, as the ends close in on themselves and the centre doesn't hold
August 16, 2025 at 6:25 AM
finding such weariness, hope and optimism for the #paxamericana to come, in these historic front pages of a newspaper i'd worked for decades later, as the ends close in on themselves and the centre doesn't hold
our alumni chats blowup more... “I believe Chancellor Bishop is hostile and arrogant to staff. The previous VC Brian Schmidt kept the chancellor’s behaviour in check. Council's dysfunctional and toxic under the current regime, elected council members are afraid.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
August 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
our alumni chats blowup more... “I believe Chancellor Bishop is hostile and arrogant to staff. The previous VC Brian Schmidt kept the chancellor’s behaviour in check. Council's dysfunctional and toxic under the current regime, elected council members are afraid.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
the 21st-century Leni will do better heroic framing? www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
August 7, 2025 at 4:07 AM
the 21st-century Leni will do better heroic framing? www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
Reposted by keanwong
#BREAKING: IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE BETWEEN THAILAND CAMBODIA AT MIDNIGHT
Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces breakthrough after talks between acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia PM Hun Manet in Putrajaya.
Full speech below
Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces breakthrough after talks between acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia PM Hun Manet in Putrajaya.
Full speech below
July 28, 2025 at 10:08 AM
#BREAKING: IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE BETWEEN THAILAND CAMBODIA AT MIDNIGHT
Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces breakthrough after talks between acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia PM Hun Manet in Putrajaya.
Full speech below
Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announces breakthrough after talks between acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia PM Hun Manet in Putrajaya.
Full speech below
While big #turunAnwar rally obscured PN opposition's fractious politix, “The solution isn't more one-off aid or last-minute announcements. What we need is structural reform & consistent, empathetic leadership that engages w. rakyat beyond election cycles & crises.” #madani hipz.my/turun-anwar-...
‘Turun Anwar’ Rally a Wake-Up Call, Not a Threat, Says Klang MP
KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The recent Turun Anwar rally, though modest in turnout, sends a strong signal of growing public dissatisfaction, particularly over unaddressed socio-economic grievances, said K...
hipz.my
July 28, 2025 at 9:09 AM
While big #turunAnwar rally obscured PN opposition's fractious politix, “The solution isn't more one-off aid or last-minute announcements. What we need is structural reform & consistent, empathetic leadership that engages w. rakyat beyond election cycles & crises.” #madani hipz.my/turun-anwar-...
banishing Thaksin's chaos 'for good' in military's checkmate of dangerous civilians, via @joshkurlantzick.bsky.social: "The conflict has allowed the military to stoke nationalism, and the leaked phone call, amidst this spike of nationalism, got rid of Paetongtarn..." www.cfr.org/blog/real-re...
The Real Reasons for the Thai-Cambodia Conflict
While long-standing border disputes explain some of the current violence between Thailand and Cambodia, the conflict’s escalation is primarily driven by Thai elites’ drive to consolidate military and…
www.cfr.org
July 28, 2025 at 6:14 AM
banishing Thaksin's chaos 'for good' in military's checkmate of dangerous civilians, via @joshkurlantzick.bsky.social: "The conflict has allowed the military to stoke nationalism, and the leaked phone call, amidst this spike of nationalism, got rid of Paetongtarn..." www.cfr.org/blog/real-re...