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Alibaba unveils AI model that rivals DeepSeek

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Alibaba has released a new AI model, Qwen 2.5-Max, that it claims surpasses DeepSeek’s V3 model. This announcement comes on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a time when most Chinese people are at home with their families, suggesting the intense pressure that DeepSeek’s rapid growth has put on its competitors, both domestically and internationally.

According to Alibaba’s cloud unit, Qwen 2.5-Max “outperforms almost all GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” referring to the advanced AI models from OpenAI and Meta, as stated in an announcement on their official WeChat account. The launch of DeepSeek’s AI assistant, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model on January 10 and the R1 model on January 20, caused shockwaves in Silicon Valley and a downturn in tech stocks. Investors began questioning the expensive strategies of leading U.S. AI companies due to DeepSeek’s low development and usage costs.

The rise of DeepSeek has also intensified competition among its domestic rivals, leading them to upgrade their AI models. Just two days after the release of DeepSeek-R1, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, launched an updated version of its flagship AI model, claiming it outperformed Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s o1 model on the AIME benchmark test, which evaluates AI models’ ability to understand and respond to complex instructions. This reinforced DeepSeek’s assertion that its R1 model was comparable to OpenAI’s o1 across various performance metrics.

The predecessor to DeepSeek’s V3 model, DeepSeek-V2, triggered an AI model price war in China following its release last May. DeepSeek-V2’s open-source nature and extremely low price of 1 yuan ($0.14) per 1 million tokens prompted Alibaba’s cloud unit to significantly reduce prices on a range of its models, with cuts reaching up to 97 percent. Other Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, which launched China’s first ChatGPT equivalent in March 2023, and Tencent, the country’s most valuable internet company, followed suit.

In a rare interview with the Chinese media outlet Waves in July, DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, stated that the startup “doesn’t care” about price wars and that its primary focus is achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence). OpenAI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass human capabilities in most economically significant tasks. Unlike large Chinese tech companies like Alibaba, which employ hundreds of thousands of people, DeepSeek operates more like a research lab, primarily staffed by young graduates and PhD students from top Chinese universities.

In an interview in July, Liang Wenfeng suggested that China’s largest tech companies may not be well-suited for the future of the AI industry due to their high operational costs and rigid structures, contrasting them with DeepSeek’s streamlined operations and flexible management style. He noted that “large basic models require constant innovation, while the capabilities of tech giants have limits.”

ASIA

Interest rates in Australia reduced for the first time since 2020

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The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years on Tuesday but warned it was too early to declare victory over inflation and was cautious about the possibility of further easing.

The rate cut will provide some relief to borrowers and will be good news for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces a tough election on May 17 at the latest. Speculation is growing that Albanese may use this opportunity to call for early elections.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which completed its February policy meeting, cut the cash rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.1%, the first cut since November 2020, when the pandemic crisis pushed interest rates to an all-time low of 0.1%.

Markets had largely bet on a quarter-point cut after core inflation surprised to the downside at 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Swaps pointed to only an 18% probability of the next cut in April, but a move in May is still almost fully priced in.

‘While today’s policy decision acknowledges the welcome progress in inflation, the Committee remains cautious about the prospects for further policy easing,’ the Committee said, noting that upside risks to inflation persist due to the strong labor market.

‘The Committee’s assessment is that monetary policy is restrictive and will remain so after this reduction in the cash rate.’

The Australian dollar fell 0.1 percent to $0.6352, while three-year bond futures fell 5 ticks to 96.08 as Governor Michele Bullock retracted market pricing of two more rate cuts this year at the press conference.

‘I want to be very clear that today’s decision does not mean that future rate cuts will come along the lines suggested by the market,’ said Bullock, who later described market pricing as “unrealistic.”

‘The Committee needs more data that inflation continues to fall before making decisions about the future,’ he added.

The board, which opened the door to a rate cut in December, warned that the decline in inflation could stall if monetary policy was loosened too much too soon.

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Disagreement with supreme leader: Sirajuddin Haqqani yet to return Afghanistan

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Reliable sources have said that Taliban Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani has not returned to Afghanistan after about a month. This is while the spokesperson of the Taliban 14 days ago said that Haqqani has returned to the country after the end of his trip from UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The Taliban has not published any news about Sirajuddin Haqqani’s activities in the past few weeks.

Two sources told Harici that the reason for Haqqani’s return is “dissatisfaction with the unilateral decisions” of the Taliban leader.

The Taliban announced a month ago that Sirajuddin Haqqani went to the United Arab Emirates together with Abdul Haq Wasiq, the head of the group’s intelligence.

Abbas Stanekzai, the political deputy of the Taliban’s foreign ministry, was also forced to leave Afghanistan and seek refuge in the United Arab Emirates due to criticism of the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s policies, especially regarding women’s education.

According to reports, Haqqani and Stanekzai are part of the pragmatic figures of the Taliban who are worried about the consequences of the Taliban leader’s decisions.

Haqqani is unhappy with Taliban leader’s decision on girls education and women’s work

A source told Harici that Haqqani is unhappy with the Taliban leader’s orders regarding the education of women and girls.

He added that Haqqani also considers the transfer of special forces, weapons and other military equipment to Kandahar as Akhundzada’s attempt to concentrate power and isolate influential figures of the Taliban.

In a new move, Akhundzada has ordered the transfer of the 313rd Badr Army Corps, which was under the influence of the Haqqani network, to Kandahar, which has increased the scope of disputes between Haqqani and Akhundzada.

It is said that Akhundzada removed Azizuddin, the former commander of Badr and the brother of the Minister of Interior, from the leadership of this unit after being summoned to Kandahar.

The Taliban leader has also dismissed Kandahar’s security commander, who was in charge of the interior minister’s responsibilities, in Haqqani’s absence, and appointed a new commander in his place.

By changing the positions under Sirajuddin Haqqani, Hebatullah Akhundzada has shown that he has the first and last word in determining the government of this group. Akhundzada recently appointed Maulvi Abdul Ahad Taleb, one of his trusted people, as the police commander of Kandahar. It seems that this designation has been made to protect the Taliban leader as much as possible against threats such as internal coups and ISIS attacks.

Haqqani and Stanekzai in Dubai, but Mullah Baradar in Doha

A credible source told Harici that Sirajuddin Haqqani lives in the United Arab Emirates with his mother, who is an Arab.

On his trip to Dubai, after meeting with the officials of this country, Haqqani went to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. He already went to Umran once but gong for the second time in one year could be described as an unusual decision.

On December 27, the UN Security Council announced that Mullah Baradar, the economic deputy of the Taliban prime minister, had traveled to Qatar for a one-month treatment.

The frequent and non-returning trips of senior Taliban officials in recent months have strengthened the speculations that the dissatisfaction in the Taliban group is increasing.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Security Council issued a travel ban waiver for three high-ranking Taliban officials to travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for religious and diplomatic purposes.

In the meantime, the aforementioned committee approved the exemption of Sirajuddin Haqqani’s travel on the second day of this year and allowed him to travel to Saudi Arabia from the 3rd to the 14th of the month to perform Umrah.

The UN Security Council also approved Mullah Baradar’s travel exemption for one month and he left for Qatar. Mullah Baradar met with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar in Doha last week.

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Afghan refugees: Between violence and misery from Iran to Pakistan

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Thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran are in misery and under the pressure of the violent behavior of the police of these countries. These asylum seekers, who have sought refuge in these two countries due to the fear of Taliban retaliation, increasing poverty and unemployment, and pursuing immigration cases to Western countries, are highly exposed to violence and forced deportation.

The police of Iran and Pakistan arrest, torture and deport hundreds of people every day and in this process, they blackmail them and ignore their rights to stay as a refugee in respective countries and humiliated their dignity.

The immigrants who have taken refuge in these two countries say that they do not have any kind of legal immunity and police forcefully and violently deport them whenever they want. Some refugees were deported even with the legal stay documents, and there is no accountable institution to hear their voices.

Some asylum seekers, who work in Iran, say that their employers sometimes do not pay their salaries and threaten to hand them over to the police if they demand their salaries.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans, who have sought refuge in Iran and Pakistan due to the fear of Taliban revenge, increasing poverty and unemployment, and pursuing immigration cases in Western countries, are severely facing the violent behavior of the police of these two countries and say that their lives and property are not protected in these countries.

According to them, Afghan refugees in these two countries are severely discriminated, oppressed and misbehaved, and the police of Iran and Pakistan, despite extortion and blackmail, forcefully and violently deport them.

Pakistani police even mistreat even Afghans who have legal stay doucments 

Farkhunda, one of the Afghan refugees, said that the Pakistani government should treat the Afghans in Pakistan like citizens of other countries who travel to this country with visas and legal documents.

“We traveled to Pakistan with a visa,” she says. We experienced a lot of pain in our homeland and we came to Pakistan with hope. We are Muslims and Pakistanis are also Muslims, so we expect them to treat us as Muslims as Mulims are brother and sister to each other.”

Another Afghan refugee in Pakistan, Ajmal said that he is fed up with the pressure of the Pakistani police. He furthered: “All our words are about the Pakistani police. Women, men and children all talk about the police and think about them. Police behavior is inhumane.”

On the one hand, people’s spirits are ruined due to the suspension of their cases, and on the other hand, the police have made their times bitter. “They (police) all come around every day and now they go around in plain clothes, which makes the situation more complicated and makes it difficult to identify them. We don’t know what to do.”

Meanwhile, following the suspension of the US refugee program, Pakistan has intensified the pressure on Afghan refugees who have gone to this country to process their immigration cases.

Pakistan Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif has recently ordered that Afghan Identity Card (ACC) holders should immediately leave Islamabad and Rawalpindi and be deported to Afghanistan along with other undocumented migrants.

According to the order of Sharif, Afghan immigrants who have gone to this country for resettlement in third countries, must leave these two states by March 31, 2025.

Afghans working in different Iranian companies complain of not receiving their wages

Meanwhile, a number of Afghan refugees who work in different cities of Iran say that in addition to the discriminatory and violent behavior of the police, they also face abuse from their employers.

According to them, Iranian employers in some areas do not pay their wages at the end of the month and warn that if they ask for their salaries, they will be handed over to the police to be fired. These asylum seekers remain silent because of the fear to be deported back to Afghanistan.

One of the asylum seekers in Iran, who does not want to be named, says that more than 10 million Iranian money of his salary remained with his Iranian employer, which has not been paid to yet.

“Imagine a person with all the problems, leaving his/her homeland, and being away from his parents and children, going through countless sufferings, and after going through many dangers, such as a car overturning and passing through difficult obstacles, he arrives in Iran. Enduring all this suffering and working from eight in the morning to five in the evening, he sweats with pox-ridden hands in the scorching heat of summer and the cold of winter, but in the end, the Iranian employer does not even pay his meager salary,” he lamented.

On the other hand, Afghan refugees in Iran, in addition to forced deportation, are also prohibited from employment in many jobs in this country. Iranian authorities have ordered employers to refrain from hiring Afghan immigrant citizens in various jobs and only employ them in a few sectors such as construction and hard work.

Also, shops and restaurants that employ non-Iranian workers will be closed.

Earlier, the International Organization for Migration reported that from January to December 2024, more than 1.2 million migrants returned to Afghanistan, of which 67pc were deported. According to this organization, approximately four million Afghan citizens have sought refuge in Iran, but Iranian officials claim that the number of these migrants reaches eight million.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran face many problems. Many families do not have the ability to send their children to schools and universities and are not recruited in government institutions. According to the refugees, in the last three years, thousands of migrant children have been deprived of education and live in complete uncertainty. They expect that the western countries, especially the United States, will not leave them in this situation and take action to evacuate them in other countries.

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