Chinese and foreign scientists call for building global network for open science infrastructure

Science and Health

Photo: Courtesy of China Association for Science and TechnologyChinese and foreign scientists launched an initiative to call on joint effort to promote the construction of open science infrastructure at a thematic session during the World Science and Technology Development Forum (WSTDF 2024) held from October 22 to 24 in Beijing.The initiate, titled “Fostering Open Science Infrastructure Collaboration: A Vision for the Sciences Decade,” suggest building a global network, implementing open principles, promoting sustainable development, and enhancing mutual trust to deal with the challenges currently existing in the construction scale, political economy, technical standards, legal ethics, and other aspects of shared collaboration in open science infrastructure, according to Huang Jinxia, a professor from the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, when announcing the recommendations at the thematic session “Open Science Infrastructures: Building a Collaborative Platform for Sciences Decade (INFRASTRUCTURES) ” during the WSTDF 2024.Open science infrastructure is an important means to promote global scientific innovation and collaboration. Through a collaborative platform, the global scientific community can share data, resources, and technologies to jointly address global challenges such as climate change and energy crisis, Yang Wei, Professor from Zhejiang University, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Founding Chair of CAST UN Consultative Committee on Open Science and Global Partnership (CCOS), said at the session.Open science infrastructure supports researchers in building upon existing work, validating results, and generating new academic insights by promoting the public sharing of research findings. It was acknowledged as one of the key pillars of shared research infrastructure (virtual or physical) by UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UNESCO’s Strategic plan for the implementation of the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (2024-2033) (Sciences Decade), this initiative calls on the public, governments and infrastructure facilitators, to collaborate a highly open and high-quality network of open science infrastructure.In August 2023, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution Sciences Decade. This resolution offers a distinctive opportunity for humankind to advance and leverage science in the pursuit of sustainable development and cultivate a new science culture – to engage everyone to advance science further and equally benefit from it.As this year marks the first year of the resolution, the abovementioned thematic session was held to gather Chinese and foreign scientists to engage in in-depth dialogue focusing on open science infrastructure to promote global scientific collaboration, address major challenges, and advance sustainable development.Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office for East Asia Shahbaz Khan stressed in his speech at the session that open science is not only a key driving force for achieving global peace and sustainable development, but also an effective way to help scientists worldwide address global issues through the sharing of infrastructure, data, and knowledge.Open science infrastructure is highly aligned with the United Nations SDGs, particularly in tackling major challenges such as climate change and food security, where open science has unique advantages, he noted.Khan stressed the importance of international communication and cooperative platform like the WSTDF to promote the Sciences Decade. He said the key is to share knowledge with developing countries in the Global South to help them seek sustainable development, eliminate poverty and secure food safety.”How can we promote such knowledge to where it is needed? For example, for countries in need from Africa, developing countries, which are the Belt and Road Initiative partners like Pakistan and Afghanistan, this forum can help bring the benefits of science and technology to them for better livelihoods,” Khan told the Global Times.Echoing Khan, Yang said that sustainable development is the goal. Most of the UN’s SDGs focused on developing countries in the Global South. The level of sustainable development in these countries are relatively lagging behind.”There are many reasons for this, including lack of openness in scientific and educational knowledge, lack of food as well as diseases and lagging education systems. We hope to help these countries achieve SDGs through technology and other means. This is why we are dedicated to promoting open science,” Yang told the Global Times.Participants to the session also noted that open science infrastructure is crucial and urgent for promoting research innovation and global collaboration. They stressed the necessity to develop inclusive strategies tailored to the needs of different countries and institutions, ensuring the long-term operation of infrastructure through support from government, business, and philanthropic funding. To maintain the effectiveness of this infrastructure, it is essential to strengthen research ethics and integrity, ensuring the responsible use of open data, they said.

Scientists, entrepreneurs from China and abroad discuss trends, challenges in AI industry at key forum in Beijing

Science and Health

Photo: Courtesy of China Association for Science and TechnologyChinese and foreign scientists and entrepreneurs held lively discussions regarding technology trends in the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry during the 2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum (WSTDF), which held from October 22 to 24 in Beijing. They called for international cooperation to take full advantage of benefits from the development of the AI industry while enhancing global governance on AI development.Qiao Hong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, highlighted 10 trends in the AI industry at a thematic session titled AI Governance Innovation: Building an International Trust Foundation for Cultivating the Ecology of Science and Technology Governance (INTELLIGENCE), during the WSTDF on Wednesday.AI has become an important driving force in today’s technological revolution. It is changing our ways of living and working at an unprecedented speed. From smart manufacturing, smart cities, and healthcare, to financial services, the applications of AI are essentially ubiquitous, with a profound and extensive impact. The subsequent question we face is, in which direction will AI develop? Qiao said at the session.The first trend outlined by Qiao is small data and high-quality data.The importance of data to AI cannot be overstated. If the data is toxic, it will fail to lead to a stable result; if the data is too big, it will consume too much in terms of computing resources; not to mention the privacy leakage risk related to data, Qiao stressed.”In this context, how can we reduce the use of data, ensure its quality, and minimize its impact on people’s lives? These have all become very core issues,” Qiao said.Other trends and AI-related challenges Qiao mentioned include embodied AI and generative AI. “As a whole, the development of AI is advancing technological and social transformation at an unprecedented pace. We see limitless possibilities and potential in cutting-edge fields such as AI, large models, embodied intelligence, and generative AI. These advancements bring us greater convenience and a more efficient life, drive our innovation and development, and inspire us with bigger dreams. Let us look forward together to a future filled with opportunities and challenges,” Qiao concluded.At the thematic session on AI, Wang Haifeng, Chief Technology Officer of Baidu and head of the National Engineering Research Center of Deep Learning Technology and Application, also shared his insights into the trends and developments of AI technologies and industry.Wang believes that large models bring hope for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in terms of the generality of AI technology and the comprehensiveness of AI capabilities.In terms of generality, large models are becoming increasingly effective at addressing various tasks, languages, modalities, and scenarios. In terms of comprehensiveness, understanding, generating, reasoning, and memory are the four foundational capabilities of AI. The stronger these four abilities are, the closer we get to achieving AGI, Wang told the Global Times.According to Wang, Baidu’s generative AI product ERNIE Bot (also known as Wenxin Yiyan) has accumulated more than 300 million users with daily usage hitting 700 million and an average daily processing of over one trillion text tokens.The recent announcement of the 2024 Nobel Prizes marked a historic moment, as both awards in Physics and Chemistry went to achievements related to AI, heralding the dawn of an AI-driven era in scientific discovery.Wang predicts that, as AI continues to engage with and empower various industries, future Nobel Prizes will increasingly recognize contributions related to AI. “This prestigious acknowledgment will draw greater attention and resources to the field, further accelerating the rapid advancement of AI technology. Ultimately, this progress will yield more sophisticated technologies that enhance human life and promote societal advancement,” he said.Wang also highlighted China’s distinct advantage in possessing a vast industrial system that offers a wealth of application scenarios for the deployment of AI.According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the scale of China’s core AI industry was an estimated 600 billion yuan ($84 billion) by the end of 2023, supported by over 4,500 enterprises.This positions China as having the largest application market and the most diverse range of application scenarios in the world, along with unique strengths in AI applications and business models, Wang noted.While hailing the benefits brought about by AI, Chinese and foreign experts also emphasized the need for the world to cooperate to promote global management of AI-related risks and challenges. “The most important thing is that AI should not be utilized in the wrong manner. We can draw parallels to the time when nuclear physics was first discovered; initially, there was great excitement. However, the development of nuclear weapons led to devastating consequences, such as the Holocaust, which left a bitter legacy worldwide. Therefore, we must approach AI with caution and adhere to ethical guidelines to prevent similar outcomes,” Ashok Kumar Basa, Executive Vice President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, told the Global Times.”The power of AI is immense,” said Huang Tiejun, Chairman of Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence and Professor of the School of Computer Science, Peking University. Echoing Basa, Huang also stressed that “If AI is not jointly mastered by all of humanity, it will exacerbate the wealth gap and inequality issues. On the other hand, there is currently a possibility that AI could surpass human intelligence. It is essential for the international community to collaboratively explore governance solutions for artificial intelligence and to research technical means for its regulation.”Thus the WSTDF 2024 serves as a valuable opportunity to promote international exchange and cooperation.”Through open communication, barriers will gradually be broken down, and more and more consensus will be formed,” Huang said. “We need to join hands to address risks and challenges, as this concerns the common interests of all humanity.”

Scientists, entrepreneurs from China and abroad discuss trends, challenges in AI industry at key forum in Beijing

Science and Health

Photo: Courtesy of China Association for Science and TechnologyChinese and foreign scientists and entrepreneurs held lively discussions regarding technology trends in the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry during the 2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum (WSTDF), which held from October 22 to 24 in Beijing. They called for international cooperation to take full advantage of benefits from the development of the AI industry while enhancing global governance on AI development.Qiao Hong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, highlighted 10 trends in the AI industry at a thematic session titled AI Governance Innovation: Building an International Trust Foundation for Cultivating the Ecology of Science and Technology Governance (INTELLIGENCE), during the WSTDF on Wednesday.AI has become an important driving force in today’s technological revolution. It is changing our ways of living and working at an unprecedented speed. From smart manufacturing, smart cities, and healthcare, to financial services, the applications of AI are essentially ubiquitous, with a profound and extensive impact. The subsequent question we face is, in which direction will AI develop? Qiao said at the session.The first trend outlined by Qiao is small data and high-quality data.The importance of data to AI cannot be overstated. If the data is toxic, it will fail to lead to a stable result; if the data is too big, it will consume too much in terms of computing resources; not to mention the privacy leakage risk related to data, Qiao stressed.”In this context, how can we reduce the use of data, ensure its quality, and minimize its impact on people’s lives? These have all become very core issues,” Qiao said.Other trends and AI-related challenges Qiao mentioned include embodied AI and generative AI. “As a whole, the development of AI is advancing technological and social transformation at an unprecedented pace. We see limitless possibilities and potential in cutting-edge fields such as AI, large models, embodied intelligence, and generative AI. These advancements bring us greater convenience and a more efficient life, drive our innovation and development, and inspire us with bigger dreams. Let us look forward together to a future filled with opportunities and challenges,” Qiao concluded.At the thematic session on AI, Wang Haifeng, Chief Technology Officer of Baidu and head of the National Engineering Research Center of Deep Learning Technology and Application, also shared his insights into the trends and developments of AI technologies and industry.Wang believes that large models bring hope for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in terms of the generality of AI technology and the comprehensiveness of AI capabilities.In terms of generality, large models are becoming increasingly effective at addressing various tasks, languages, modalities, and scenarios. In terms of comprehensiveness, understanding, generating, reasoning, and memory are the four foundational capabilities of AI. The stronger these four abilities are, the closer we get to achieving AGI, Wang told the Global Times.According to Wang, Baidu’s generative AI product ERNIE Bot (also known as Wenxin Yiyan) has accumulated more than 300 million users with daily usage hitting 700 million and an average daily processing of over one trillion text tokens.The recent announcement of the 2024 Nobel Prizes marked a historic moment, as both awards in Physics and Chemistry went to achievements related to AI, heralding the dawn of an AI-driven era in scientific discovery.Wang predicts that, as AI continues to engage with and empower various industries, future Nobel Prizes will increasingly recognize contributions related to AI. “This prestigious acknowledgment will draw greater attention and resources to the field, further accelerating the rapid advancement of AI technology. Ultimately, this progress will yield more sophisticated technologies that enhance human life and promote societal advancement,” he said.Wang also highlighted China’s distinct advantage in possessing a vast industrial system that offers a wealth of application scenarios for the deployment of AI.According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the scale of China’s core AI industry was an estimated 600 billion yuan ($84 billion) by the end of 2023, supported by over 4,500 enterprises.This positions China as having the largest application market and the most diverse range of application scenarios in the world, along with unique strengths in AI applications and business models, Wang noted.While hailing the benefits brought about by AI, Chinese and foreign experts also emphasized the need for the world to cooperate to promote global management of AI-related risks and challenges. “The most important thing is that AI should not be utilized in the wrong manner. We can draw parallels to the time when nuclear physics was first discovered; initially, there was great excitement. However, the development of nuclear weapons led to devastating consequences, such as the Holocaust, which left a bitter legacy worldwide. Therefore, we must approach AI with caution and adhere to ethical guidelines to prevent similar outcomes,” Ashok Kumar Basa, Executive Vice President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, told the Global Times.”The power of AI is immense,” said Huang Tiejun, Chairman of Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence and Professor of the School of Computer Science, Peking University. Echoing Basa, Huang also stressed that “If AI is not jointly mastered by all of humanity, it will exacerbate the wealth gap and inequality issues. On the other hand, there is currently a possibility that AI could surpass human intelligence. It is essential for the international community to collaboratively explore governance solutions for artificial intelligence and to research technical means for its regulation.”Thus the WSTDF 2024 serves as a valuable opportunity to promote international exchange and cooperation.”Through open communication, barriers will gradually be broken down, and more and more consensus will be formed,” Huang said. “We need to join hands to address risks and challenges, as this concerns the common interests of all humanity.”

‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ singer leaving music industry one year after meteoric rise to start traveling ministry

Travel

Country sensation Oliver Anthony has decided to leave the music industry.

In a lengthy YouTube video this week, the 32-year-old, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford and who rose to fame a year ago with his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” sat in a wooded area with his two dogs opining on life and his career. 

“I’ve decided that moving forward, I don’t need a Nashville management company. I don’t even need to exist within the space of music. So, I’m looking at switching my whole business over to a traveling ministry,” Anthony revealed after discussing how he believes “our system is broken.”

He added that he wants to “kind of keep things in the family business,” noting that his great-grandfather had been a traveling minister. 

“I have this vision for this thing that I’m calling the Real Revival Project, and it’s basically going to start as a grassroots music festival, but hopefully it grows into something that can literally change our landscape and our culture and the way we live,” he said in the video posted Tuesday. 

Anthony said he’s doing his first “thrown together” show on Saturday, but he wants to create something that exists “parallel to Nashville that circumvents the monopolies of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and it goes into towns that haven’t had music in them in a long time.”

Anthony said he wants to stimulate the economies in these small towns, showcasing their culture while using local musicians and vendors, “so, you’re not having to drive to Pittsburgh to some concrete amphitheater to see a show.”

Earlier in the video, Anthony revealed he’s made enough money with his music success that “I never have to work another day in my life. I have everything that I wanted.”

Anthony said in the video he posted that he wants to “kind of keep things in the family business,” noting that his great-grandfather had been a traveling minister. FOX News

But he said he’s feeling “this calling” to “this voice from God that keeps putting this vision in my head of a way to make a real impact in this world, to make a real change, to help light a fire that no one really can extinguish in my lifetime or after.”

Reflecting on his political views, Anthony said, “I’m a conservative because I believe in the First and Second Amendment,” but he said he doesn’t know if he’s a Republican. 

“I’m just somebody who thinks the whole way we live is a–backward and so stupid, and it serves nobody but the people at the top of the hierarchy that we no longer really need to serve,” he explained.

Spending the last year in the music industry “has opened my eyes to how much control and how much visibility there is on the top down,” he added.

“Like, the analytics that I can pull on just my fan base is terrifying. It’s information that I feel the FBI shouldn’t even have, much less me.”

Anthony said he knows he’s not doing anything revolutionary: “I just want to help bridge the gap between millions of people who all believe in the greater vision of us all just getting back to living a normal life.”

Anthony, who lives with his wife and three children in Virginia, had a meteoric rise last year after “Rich Men North of Richmond” went viral online, propelling him to stardom. The song criticizes Washington, D.C., politicians who want “control.” 

Before making the video, Anthony said he was “in the process of getting out of the music industry. It’s a big joke,” while responding to a fan on Instagram, according to Rolling Stone. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Anthony as well as reps for Live Nation and Ticketmaster for comment.

Cannes’ Christian Jeune Is ‘Very Optimistic’ About New Generation of Japanese Filmmakers

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Christian Jeune, director of the film department at Cannes Film Festival, has hailed the next generation of filmmakers chosen for the Tokyo International Film Festival‘s (TIFF) Nippon Cinema Now strand.
“If I go back to six, seven years, I was a bit desperate to find new voices [from Japan], and I got the impression that there was nobody really, or maybe young directors had difficulties to finance or even to cross over,” Jeune said. He was speaking at the festival’s TIFF Lounge series of talks. “I must say, for the last three, four years, [I’ve been] very optimistic, because we have seen, not only at Cannes but other festivals, we see this new generation emerging.” Jeune provided the example of Hayakawa Chie and her film “Plan 75” which bowed at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2022.

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The talk, moderated by TIFF artistic director Ichiyama Shozo, saw the participation of Tokyo-born Kim Yunsoo, an alumnus of the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, whose feature debut “Or Utopia” premiered in the strand. Kim previously won the Amazon Prime Video Take One Award for best short at the 34th TIFF in 2021.

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Joining Kim was 2023 Amazon Prime Video Take One Award winner, Yang Liping, who graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media, Directing Course, and whose “Ashes” is showing at the strand; the U.K.’s Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Mark Gill, whose “Ravens,” starring Asano Tadanobu is another highlight of the strand; and Takino Hirohito whose “The Bear Wait” is premiering at Nippon Cinema Now.

“In some countries, of a sudden, there is a generation who has decided to express themselves, to reach a wider audience,” Jeune said. He highlighted the grants available in France and also spoke about the reality of second films being more difficult to fund than the first. “It’s not only in France, it is everywhere,” Jeune said.

Speaking about Japanese films travelling internationally, Jeune said, “Japanese films should be helped much more by the country itself, by the institutions. My feeling is that they should be pushing much more.”

The filmmakers shared their contrasting filmmaking journeys with the audience, recounting both the difficulties and positive experiences during the process.

Riga Book Festival returns November 8

Arts & Culture, Books

The Riga Book Festival will be attended by 34 publishers offering a wide range of books, various novelties, as well as meetings with authors, discussions, and concerts. There will be art, poetry, linguistics, research, children’s books, fantasy, romance, history, and much more.

The cultural program will also be varied and rich. This year, the National Library of Latvia has prepared a special program of events: on Friday, November 8, it invites you to take a guided tour of Immanuel Kant’s works, while on Saturday, November 9, you will have the opportunity to get to know the innovative exhibition “Text does not interest us” and listen to a talk by its creators, as well as try out a reconstructed 16th-century printing press.

On Friday, 8 November, the international conference for industry professionals, “Books and Reading in the Digital Age”, will also take place.

Admission is free.

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A scientist who researches healthy aging shares how she eats and works out

Science and Health

Health

A scientist who researches healthy aging shares how she eats and works out

Serafina Kenny

2024-11-01T11:24:20Z

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Mary Ní Lochlainn is a healthy aging researcher who does strength training and takes vitamin D to maintain her health into older age.

Mary Ní Lochlainn

Mary Ní Lochlainn researches the habits that lead to better health in older age.She incorporates some of these habits into her own life to be as healthy as possible as she ages.She does strength training, takes vitamin D, and does intermittent fasting.

Donald Trump Movie ‘The Apprentice’ Scores Theatrical Release in Russia (Exclusive)

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

The critically acclaimed Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice — which the former president has repeatedly denounced — is heading to cinemas in a somewhat surprising place: Russia. 

The film, written by veteran Vanity Fair reporter Gabriel Sherman and directed by rising Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, is opening on 800 screens across Russia on Friday. Moscow-based distributor Arna Media is handling the release after acquiring the local rights to the film last month from U.K. sales agent Rocket Science. Sources close to the film say that only modest cuts were required to get the movie into Russia. 

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The Russia release plan stands somewhat in contrast to the real Donald Trump’s reportedly cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has drastically curtailed any artistic expression he deems unwelcome to his regime’s interests. Moscow has raided concerts and fined musicians who have criticized the country’s war in Ukraine, put dissenting filmmakers on wanted lists, and censored books and art exhibitions.

Last month, journalist Bob Woodward reported that Trump has spoken with Putin repeatedly since leaving the White House. Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to sue the producers of The Apprentice and described the film as “a cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job.”

“So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement,” Trump added in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Film critics, however, have taken a different view. The Apprentice debuted to rave reviews and an eight-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The powerful work from the film’s key cast — Marvel star Sebastian Stan in a riveting turn as the young Donald; Succession favorite Jeremy Strong bringing his full method-actor intensity to the dark eccentricities of Cohn; and Borat 2 breakout Maria Bakalova as a vivacious young Ivana Trump — have made the movie an Oscars frontrunner in several categories for the 97th Academy Awards. 

Nevertheless, the movie’s journey to U.S. movie screens was fraught — and that was the case in Russia, too. 

Days after the premiere in France, Trump’s lawyers filed a cease and desist letter threatening to sue the producers and any future distributors of The Apprentice. Around the same time, reports emerged that the film’s principal financier, Kinematics — founded by producer Mark Rapaport, son-in-law of the billionaire and known Trump donor Dan Snyder — had objections to a pivotal scene in the movie where a young Donald rapes his then-wife Ivana Trump. 

A protracted struggle over the final cut of the film ensued, and the perceived risk of retribution from a potential second Trump presidency caused all of the major U.S. studios and streamers to pass on acquiring the movie for release. Eventually, a last-minute agreement between Kinematics and indie distributors Briarcliff Entertainment and startup outfit Rich Spirit cleared the way for the movie to open in North America on Oct. 11. The deal also returned the final cut of the film into the hands of its director, Abbassi, who gave it a rigorous re-edit, strengthening several sequences, including the sexual assault scene. 

For the Russia release, the producers initially received requests to remove the rape scene entirely. Abbassi is said to have argued strenuously for its importance to the film and a compromise was eventually reached. The final Russian cut restored the version of the assault scene that played at the Cannes premiere instead of the longer and more frank depiction of Abbassi’s final cut. 

That a Russian distributor would jump at the chance to try to release The Apprentice is perhaps no surprise. The country has been starved of Hollywood fare since the studios began their boycott of the Russian market in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Independent companies, which never stopped selling into Russia, have benefited from the lack of studio competition.

In North America, The Apprentice opened below expectations last month with $1.6 million in its first weekend. The domestic number has since grown to about $3.9 million for a worldwide total of $12 million. The film launches on premium VOD platforms — Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, etc. — on Friday, Nov. 1. 

“We’re pretty happy with that number,” says executive producer James Shani. “From the beginning, we expected this film to be a slow burn through awards season and beyond.”

Shani also says The Apprentice‘s global number has taken a slight hit because the film was forced to drop several international markets over censorship issues. Abbassi and his producers engaged in back-and-forth negotiations with film regulators in India, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, before ultimately concluding that the changes requested by these markets were beyond the pale. Some of the suggested cuts were in keeping with the usual policies of Saudi, Indian and Singaporean film regulators — all conservative and censorious territories in their own way. But it eventually became clear to The Apprentice team that regulators were taking a heavier-than-usual hand because of the film’s high-profile subject, who could soon return to the U.S. presidency.

“Our perception was that they were asking for more than usual, and trying to play it safer, because of the Trump of it all,” says Shani. 

Scott Roxborough contributed to this report from Germany.

Books by Jodi Picoult, John Green and Stephen King Among the Most Banned in Schools

Arts & Culture, Books

A record number of books were banned in districts across the country during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a free speech organization.Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” a novel about the aftermath of a school shooting, was banned in 98 school districts across the country in the last school year, making it the most frequently removed book in a period that saw a record number of book bans across the country, according to PEN America.When the novel was first published, in 2007, it was lauded for its nuanced depiction of bullying and violence in schools, incorporated into many high school curriculums and awarded multiple teen book awards.“It’s really alarming,” Picoult said of the shift. “What’s crazy is that the book hasn’t changed.”“Nineteen Minutes” was among 4,231 unique titles that were banned in schools across the country during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a new report from PEN America, a free speech organization.In total, when accounting for books that were banned in multiple districts, there were more than 10,000 book removals in schools across the United States during the school year, a rise of around 200 percent compared with the previous year, the report found.In addition to “Nineteen Minutes,” the most frequently banned titles included “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Sold” by Patricia McCormick and “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher. Other frequently banned authors include the blockbuster fantasy author Sarah J. Maas, Ellen Hopkins and Stephen King. King’s books were banned in 173 instances across 26 school districts.Classics like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” were also removed in multiple school districts.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.