WASHINGTON: The Library of Congress, repository of the world’s largest collection of books, has set for itself the enormous task of archiving something less weighty and far more ephemeral — Americans’ billions of tweets.
The venerable US institution is assembling all of the 400 million tweets sent by Americans each day, in the belief that each of the mini-messages reflect a small but important part of the national narrative.
“An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America, and to acquire collections that will have research value,” according to Gayle Osterberg, director of communications at the library.
The Library of Congress, located off the National Mall in Washington, houses millions of hard copy books and historic documents, and its online archives amass millions of additional works produced by Americans for more than two centuries.
Now it wants to be keeper of the nation’s brief Internet messages as well: Twitter in April 2010 inked a deal with the Library, giving it access to tweets dating back to the company’s inception in 2006.
Collecting the 140-character micro-missives, said Osterberg, is in keeping with the library’s main goal “to collect the story of America and to acquire collections that will have research value.”
One major challenge to the Library, however, is storing the messages from the popular social messaging site, which now number 170 billion. Twitter last month said the number of active users on the messaging platform has topped 200 million, most of whom are in the United States.
Tweets that have been deleted or that are locked will not be among those gathered by the Library of Congress.
Among the messages to be preserved for posterity are the first-ever tweets sent by one of the company’s founders, Jack Dorsey.
Also saved for all time is a famous tweet sent by President Barack Obama after his historic November 2008 victory to claim the White House in his first term.
“We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you. Thanks,” read the micro-message from the famously tech-savvy US president.
Unlike traditional bound books or even digital web pages, the real challenge of preserving tweets is keeping up with their number, which has continued to grow almost exponentially.
There were 140 million tweets sent each day in February 2011, but more than three times as many — about a half billion — by October 2012.
The Library of Congress’s tweets are being stored by Gnip, Inc., a social media aggregation company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, which has put more than 133,000 gigabytes of storage space available.
Gnip says it is a particular challenge to gather tweets during “peak” times, such as news event watched the world over like the Japanese tsunami in March 2011, which generated many thousand tweets per second.
It has proven to be a Herculean challenge for Gnip to make tweets accessible to all those who wish to view them.
So far it has been unable to meet the demands of researchers worldwide who hope to access the archive. Even a search among the first four years of tweets, from 2006 to 2010, could take about 24 hours.
“It is clear that technology to allow for scholarship access to large data sets is lagging behind technology for creating and distributing such data,” said a recent white paper published by the Library of Congress.
“This is an inadequate situation,” the Library concluded, calling the massive archiving project “prohibitively costly.”
And yet Lee Humphreys, a professor of communication at Cornell University in New York, said that the brief online messages can reveal volumes “about the culture where they were produced.”
America archives its billions of tweets
America archives its billions of tweets
WHO says Gaza health care at breaking point as fuel runs out
Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional
GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Tuesday pleaded for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to keep its remaining hospitals running, warning the Palestinian territory’s health system was at “breaking point.”
“For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks from evacuation zones have been denied,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories.
“Combined with critical supply shortages, this is pushing the health system closer to the brink of collapse.”
Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional. They have a total of around 1,500 beds — around 45 percent fewer than before the conflict began.
He said all hospitals and primary health centers in north Gaza were currently out of service.
In Rafah in southern Gaza, health services are provided through the Red Cross field hospital and two partially-functioning medical points.
Speaking from Jerusalem, he said the 17 partially functioning hospitals and seven field hospitals were barely running on a minimum amount of daily fuel and “will soon have none left.”
“Without fuel, all levels of care will cease, leading to more preventable deaths and suffering.”
Hospitals were already switching between generators and batteries to power ventilators, dialysis machines and incubators, he said, and without fuel, ambulances cannot run and supplies cannot be delivered to hospitals.
Furthermore, field hospitals are entirely reliant on generators, and without electricity, the cold chain for keeping vaccines would fail.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 5,194 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce.
The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry.
“People often ask when Gaza is going to be out of fuel; Gaza is already out of fuel,” said WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer Thanos Gargavanis, speaking from the Strip.
“We are walking already the fine line that separates disaster from saving lives. The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more difficult than the previous day.”
Hajj Ministry suspends 7 Umrah firms over transport violations
JEDDAH: The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah recorded violations by seven Umrah companies due to deficiencies in providing transport services to pilgrims, as stipulated in their approved programs.
It is part of the ministry’s efforts to enhance service quality for pilgrims and visitors of the Prophet’s Mosque, ensuring compliance with contracts in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to improve the pilgrim experience at every stage of their journey.
The ministry took regulatory measures against the violating companies, suspending their operations and liquidating their bank guarantees to cover alternative transport costs for affected pilgrims, ensuring services meet approved standards.
It highlighted its commitment to protecting pilgrims’ rights and providing services of the highest quality and professionalism.
The ministry also highlighted its zero-tolerance approach to negligence or breach of contractual obligations, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
It called on all Umrah companies to strictly adhere to approved regulations and deliver services according to designated schedules, ensuring quality and the comfort of pilgrims and visitors during their stay in the Kingdom.
French ex-PM Fillon given suspended sentence over wife’s fake job
- Francois Fillon, 71, had been found guilty in 2022 on appeal of embezzlement for providing a fake parliamentary assistant job to his wife
- The Paris appeals court also ordered him to pay a fine of $433,000 and barred him from seeking elected office for five years
PARIS: Former French prime minister Francois Fillon was on Tuesday given a four-year suspended prison sentence over a fake jobs scandal that wrecked his 2017 presidential bid.
Fillon, 71, had been found guilty in 2022 on appeal of embezzlement for providing a fake parliamentary assistant job to his wife, Penelope Fillon, that saw her being paid from public funds although the court found that she never did any work in the National Assembly.
The Paris appeals court also ordered him to pay a fine of 375,000 euros ($433,000) and barred him from seeking elected office for five years.
The sentence was milder than the one handed down in 2022, when he had been ordered to spend one year behind bars without any suspension.
But France’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, overruled that decision and ordered a new sentencing trial.
No change was made to the punishment for Penelope Fillon, who is British, and who was handed a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay the same fine as her husband.
The couple has always insisted that Penelope Fillon had done genuine constituency work.
Neither was present in court for the sentencing.
Fillon, a conservative, earlier this year called the ban on seeking public office a “moral wound.”
The scandal, dubbed “PenelopeGate” by the French press, hurt Fillon’s popularity and contributed to his first-round elimination in France’s 2017 presidential election that was won by current President Emmanuel Macron.
“The treatment I received was somewhat unusual and nobody will convince me otherwise,” Fillon said. “Perhaps there was a link with me being a candidate in the presidential election.”
Sarkozy and Le Pen
Fillon claimed that fake parliamentary jobs were common between 1981 and 2021, saying that “a large majority” of lawmakers had been in a “perfectly similar situation” to his during that time.
His wife’s fake contract ran from 2012 to 2013.
“It is the appreciation of the court that there is no proof of any salaried work in the case,” the court said in its ruling.
Fillon’s lawyer, Antonin Levy, welcomed the decision to spare his client time in prison.
“Francois Fillon is a free man,” he said.
In another recent high-profile case involving French politicians, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, also a conservative, was stripped of his Legion d’Honneur distinction following his conviction for graft.
Sarkozy, 70, had been wearing an electronic ankle tag until last month after France’s highest appeals court upheld his conviction last December of trying to illegally secure favors from a judge.
Sarkozy is currently on trial in a separate case on charges of accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Another case involves far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was convicted in an embezzlement trial over fake European Parliament jobs, and is appealing the verdict.
As well as being given a partly suspended jail term and a fine, she was banned from taking part in elections for five years, which would — if confirmed — scupper her ambition of standing for the presidency in 2027.
Closing Bell: Saudi main index slips to close at 10,714
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index slipped on Tuesday, as it shed 153.22 points or 1.41 percent to close at 10,713.82.
The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR4.97 billion ($1.32 billion), with 20 of the listed stocks advancing and 228 declining.
Saudi Arabia’s parallel market Nomu also shed 214.39 points to close at 26,458.24.
The MSCI Tadawul Index declined by 1.14 percent to 1,378.44.
The best-performing stock on the main market was Saudi Research and Media Group. The company’s share price increased by 6.88 percent to SR170.80.
The share price of SABIC Agri-Nutrients Co. advanced by 4.82 percent to SR108.80.
Zamil Industrial Investment Co. also saw its stock price climb by 4.71 percent to SR40.
Conversely, the stock price of media giant MBC Group Co. dropped by 6.56 percent to SR33.45.
On the announcements front, Tadawul, in a statement, said that shares of Saudi low-cost air carrier flynas will begin trading on the main market under the symbol 4264 from June 18.
The daily and static fluctuation limits for the company’s stocks will be set at 30 percent and 10 percent, respectively, during the first three days of trading.
On June 17, Saudi National Bank announced the issuance of US dollar-denominated Tier 2 debt instruments through a special purpose vehicle, targeting qualified investors both inside and outside the Kingdom.
The financial institution added that the final issuance value and offering terms will be determined based on market conditions, according to a Tadawul statement.
The minimum subscription value is $200,000, with a 10-year maturity period.
The debt instruments will be listed on the London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market.
The share price of SNB edged up by 0.58 percent to SR34.50.
Advance International Co. for Communication and Information Technology announced that it completed the offering and subscription of SR-denominated Murabaha sukuk valued at SR6 million.
Murabaha sukuk is a financial instrument based on Islamic finance principles, offering an interest-free investment option.
In a Tadawul statement, AICTEC said that the offering aims to strengthen the company’s working capital as well as support capital expansions.
The stock price of AICTEC rose by 3.57 percent to SR2.90.
How Israel used spies, smuggled drones and AI to stun and hobble Iran
- The Mossad and the military worked together for at least three years to lay the operational groundwork, according to a former intelligence officer who said he had knowledge of the attack
JERUSALEM: Israel stunned and hobbled Iran last week when it pulled off an intelligence and military operation years in the making that struck high-level targets with precision.
Guided by spies and artificial intelligence, the Israeli military unleashed a nighttime fusillade of warplanes and armed drones smuggled into Iran to quickly incapacitate many of its air defenses and missile systems. With greater freedom to fly over Iran, Israel bombarded key nuclear sites and killed top generals and scientists. By the time Iran mustered a response hours later, its ability to retaliate — already weakened by past Israeli strikes — was greatly diminished.
This account is based on conversations with 10 current and former Israeli intelligence and military officials, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss clandestine operations.
It was not possible to independently verify some of their claims. But the former head of research at Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad, confirmed the basic contours of the attack, saying she had inside knowledge of how it was planned and executed.
“This attack is the culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran’s nuclear program,” said Sima Shine, the former Mossad research director who is now an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Israel’s element of surprise was enhanced by Iranian officials’ apparent assumption that Israel wouldn’t attack while talks over its rapidly advancing nuclear program were ongoing with the US
A sixth round of talks had been planned for last Sunday in Oman, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu activated “Operation Rising Lion” on Friday – after his country first notified President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu has for years said neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program was vital for Israel’s security, and Israel had previously taken steps to set back Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to weapons grade. But Netanyahu said a more aggressive attack proved necessary, as Iran kept advancing its enrichment program despite US diplomatic efforts and warnings from UN watchdogs.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction. Iran’s political leaders say their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, though it was the only country without the bomb to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
Smuggling drones into Iran
The Mossad and the military worked together for at least three years to lay the operational groundwork, according to a former intelligence officer who said he had knowledge of the attack. This person spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject.
The attack built off knowledge Israel gained during a wave of airstrikes last October, which “highlighted the weakness of Iranian air defenses,” said Naysan Rafati, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.
To further diminish Iranian air defenses and missile systems at the start of last week’s attack, Mossad agents had smuggled precision weapons into Iran that were prepositioned to strike from close range, according to two current security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the missions. Those weapons included small, armed drones, which agents snuck into the country in vehicles, according to the former intelligence officer.
Mossad agents stationed weapons close to Iranian surface-to-air missile sites, Shine said. The agency works with a mix of people, both locals and Israelis, she said.
Using AI and human intelligence to select targets
To analyze information gathered from various sources, Israel used the latest artificial-intelligence, or AI, technology, said an intelligence officer involved with selecting individuals and sites to target. He said AI was used to help Israelis quickly sift through troves of data they had obtained. That effort began last October according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media; it was one month before Netanyahu said he had ordered the attack plans.
An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year uncovered that the Israeli military uses US-made AI models in war to sift through intelligence and intercept communications to learn the movements of its enemies. It’s been used in the wars with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The intelligence officer involved in identifying the possible targets said options were first put into various groups, such as leadership, military, civilian and infrastructure. Targets were chosen if they were determined to be a threat to Israel, such as being deeply associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — a paramilitary force that controls Iran’s ballistic missiles.
The officer was tasked with putting together a list of Iranian generals, including details on where they worked and spent their free time.
Among the high-level military officials killed since Friday’s attack were Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Mohammed Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces.
In addition to AI, the Mossad relied on spies to identify top nuclear scientists and members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to one security official. At least eight members of the Guard, including the head of its missile program, were killed in a single Israeli strike on an underground bunker.
Targeting Iranian vehicles
Another facet of the attack was to strike Iranian vehicles used to transport and launch missiles.
Shine said the strategy was similar to a Ukrainian operation earlier this month in Russia. In that operation, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones snuck into Russian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.
In an interview with Iranian state-run television, the country’s police chief, Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, said “several vehicles carrying mini-drones and some tactical drones have been discovered.” He added: “a number of traitors are trying to engage the country’s air defense by flying some mini-drones.”
How far back does this go?
The Mossad is believed to have carried out numerous covert attacks on the Iranian nuclear program over the years, including cyberattacks and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists. But it rarely acknowledges such operations.
In the 2000s, Iranian centrifuges used for enriching uranium were destroyed by the so-called Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation.
In 2018, Israel stole an archive of Iranian nuclear research that included tens of thousands of pages of records, said Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired general and former military intelligence researcher who now directs the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
In July 2024, Israel killed a senior leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with a bomb in a bedroom of a government guesthouse in Tehran.
Israel’s blistering attack last week on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure didn’t come out of nowhere, said retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, who heads the Israel Defense and Security Forum think tank.
It was the result of “Israeli intelligence working extensively for years in Iran and establishing a very strong robust presence,” he said.
