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In Taiwan and China, young people turn to AI chatbots for ‘cheaper, easier’ therapy

In the pre-dawn hours, Ann Li’s anxieties felt overwhelming. She’d recently been diagnosed with a serious health problem, and she just wanted to talk to someone about it. But she hadn’t told her family, and all her friends were asleep. So instead, she turned to ChatGPT. “It’s easier to talk to AI during those nights,” the 30-year-old Taiwanese woman, tells the Guardian. In China, Yang*, a 25-year-old Guangdong resident, had never seen a mental health professional when she started talking to an AI chatbot earlier this year. Yang says it was difficult to access mental health services, and she couldn’t contemplate confiding in family or friends. “Telling the truth to real people feels impossible,” she says. But she was soon talking to the chatbot “day and night”. Li and Yang are among a growing number of Chinese-speaking people turning to generative AI chatbots instead of professional human therapists. Experts say there is huge potential for AI in the mental health sector, but are concerned about the risks of people in distress turning to the technology, rather than human beings, for medical assistance. There are few official statistics, but mental health professionals in Taiwan and China have reported rising rates of patients consulting AI before seeing them, or instead of seeing them. Surveys, including a global analysis recently published by Harvard Business Review, show psychological assistance is now a leading reason for adults to use AI chatbots. On social media there are hundreds of thousands of posts praising AI for helping them. It comes amid rising rates of mental illness in Taiwan and China, particularly among younger people. Access to services is not keeping apace – appointments are hard to get, and they’re expensive. Chatbot users say AI saves them time and money, gives real answers, and is more discrete in a society where there is still stigma around mental health. “In some way the chatbot does help us – it’s accessible, especially when ethnic Chinese tend to suppress or downplay our feelings,” says Dr Yi-Hsien Su, a clinical psychologist at True Colors in Taiwan, who also works in schools and hospitals to promote mental wellbeing in Taiwan. “I talk to people from Gen Z and they’re more willing to talk about problems and difficulties … But there’s still much to do.” In Taiwan, the most popular chatbot is ChatGPT. In China, where western apps like ChatGPT are banned, people have turned to domestic offerings like Baidu’s Ernie Bot, or the recently launched DeepSeek. They are all advancing at rapid speed, and are incorporating wellbeing and therapy into responses as demand increases. User experiences vary. Li says ChatGPT gives her what she wants to hear, but that can also be predictable and uninsightful. She also misses the process of self discovery in counselling. “I think AI tends to give you the answer, the conclusion that you would get after you finish maybe two or three sessions of therapy,” she says. Yet 27-year-old Nabi Liu, a Taiwanese woman based in London, has found the experience to be very fulfilling. “When you share something with a friend, they might not always relate. But ChatGPT responds seriously and immediately,” she says. “I feel like it’s genuinely responding to me each time.” Experts say it can assist people who are in distress but perhaps don’t need professional help yet, like Li, or those who need a little encouragement to take the next step. Yang says she doubted whether her struggles were serious enough to warrant professional help. “Only recently have I begun to realise that I might actually need a proper diagnosis at a hospital,” she says. “Going from being able to talk [to AI] to being able to talk to real people might sound simple and basic, but for the person I was before, it was unimaginable.” But experts have also raised concerns about people falling through the cracks, missing the signs that Yang saw for herself, and not getting the help they need. There have been tragic cases in recent years of young people in distress seeking help from chatbots instead of professionals, and later taking their own lives. “AI mostly deals with text, but there are things we call non verbal input. When a patient comes in maybe they act differently to how they speak but we can recognise those inputs,” Su says. A spokesperson for the Taiwan Counselling Psychology Association says AI can be an “auxiliary tool”, but couldn’t replace professional assistance “let alone the intervention and treatment of psychologists in crisis situations”. “AI has the potential to become an important resource for promoting the popularisation of mental health. However, the complexity and interpersonal depth of the clinical scene still require the real ‘present’ psychological professional.” The association says AI can be “overly positive”, miss cues, and delay necessary medical care. It also operates outside the peer review and ethics codes of the profession. “In the long run, unless AI develops breakthrough technologies beyond current imagination, the core structure of psychotherapy should not be shaken.” Su says he’s excited about the ways AI could modernise and improve his industry, noting potential uses in training of professionals and detecting people online who might need intervention. But for now he recommends people approach the tools with caution. “It’s a simulation, it’s a good tool, but has limits and you don’t know how the answer was made,” he says. Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu and Lillian Yang

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Macron’s party moots banning headscarves in public for under-15s

Emmanuel Macron’s centrist political party has suggested banning girls under 15 from wearing the Muslim headscarf in all public places, as the president chaired a high-level government meeting to discuss what it called “political Islamism” in France. The French president’s office said he had asked ministers to come up with proposals before June to address the “serious” findings of a report that Macron commissioned last year into the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in France. The report found that the Muslim Brotherhood – the movement founded in Egypt more than 90 years ago that launched the modern phenomenon of political Islam – posed a “threat to national cohesion” in France and risked undermining “the fabric of society and republican institutions”. Before the meeting, Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister and now head of Macron’s party, Renaissance, proposed a ban on “minors under 15 wearing the veil in public spaces”. He said the Muslim head covering worn by young girls “seriously undermines gender equality and the protection of children”. Attal told Le Parisien he also wanted to introduce a criminal offence of coercion for parents who make their daughters aged under 18 wear the veil. Attal’s proposals were criticised by some on the left. The Socialist party lawmaker Jérôme Guedj said Attal was “chasing the far right” and turning French secularism against Muslims. Macron’s office said the report on the Muslim Brotherhood in France would be published by the end of this week. The Élysée Palace said that because of the “seriousness” of its findings, the government had been tasked to make proposals swiftly. Agence France-Presse, which obtained a copy of the report, said it pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up”. This was an apparent reference to municipal politics, charities, schools and sports groups. The report said this constituted “a threat in the short to medium term”. It is not certain if restrictions on the Muslim headscarf will be among the proposals made as a result of the report. In the 2022 presidential race, when Macron was re-elected, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who came second, proposed banning the wearing of the Muslim headscarf by any woman in all public spaces in France. Under current French legislation, civil servants in state buildings, including schools and hospitals, cannot wear obvious religious symbols such as a Christian crucifix, Jewish kippah, Sikh turban or Muslim headscarf. France is a secular republic built on a clear separation of church and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. The state remains neutral in terms of religion but must safeguard everyone’s freedom to practise their own faith. In 2004, France banned girls from wearing Islamic headscarves in state schools – along with banning all other religious symbols such as crosses or turbans – arguing schools must be free of all religion. There is also debate in government over proposing a new law to ban the Muslim headscarf in domestic sports competitions. The Élysée said it had been important to commission a report on the Muslim Brotherhood. “The movement is present in Europe and its target is clearly Europe,” an Élysée official said, adding that it was necessary to “raise awareness within the European Union”. But the Élysée also said: “We are all perfectly aligned in saying that we must not lump all Muslims together.” The official said: “We are fighting against Islamism and its radical excesses.” The report comes at a time when national politics in France is focused on issues of national identity and Islam, with Le Pen’s far right increasing its share of the vote. Bruno Retailleau, the hardline rightwing interior minister, was recently chosen to head the traditional right party Les Républicains, after its former leader Éric Ciotti left to join an alliance with Le Pen. Retailleau told the media before Wednesday’s meeting that political Islamism was “quietly infiltrating sporting, cultural, social and others associations” and its ultimate aim was to “tip the whole of French society into sharia [law]”. The French Muslim council issued a statement warning against targeting all Muslims. It said the state “must above all not feed a generalised suspicion towards Muslims in France”.

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Israel-Gaza war: Netanyahu says all of Gaza will be under Israel’s control by end of offensive – as it happened

It’s 10pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza. Here’s a recap of the latest developments: Palestinians in Gaza are still waiting for aid to arrive, UN officials said, two days after Israel said it had lifted an 11-week-old blockade that has brought the Palestinian territory to the brink of famine. A UN spokesperson said trucks were still in the loading area of the Kerem Shalom crossing, but sources told Reuters that at least 15 aid trucks left the crossing en route to World Food Program warehouses in central Gaza. At least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strike in Gaza on Wednesday, including several women and a week-old infant, according to Gaza’s health ministry and area hospitals. Israeli strikes targeted a bus station in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City and blew up residential buildings east of Jabalia, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces “probably” killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. He said Israel has achieved “a lot” in its “clear and justified” goal of defeating Hamas, but he adds that “our work isn’t over yet”. The Israeli leader said the entire of the Gaza Strip will be under Israeli security control by the end of its new offensive. Netanyahu said he is “prepared” to end the war “under clear conditions that ensure Israel’s security”, which would include the Palestinian territory being “completely disarmed” and Israel “making the most of the Trump plan”. Israel acknowledged firing “warning shots” at a group of 25 diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. The delegation comprised ambassadors and diplomats representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan and the UK, who were on an official mission organised by the Palestinian Authority to observe the humanitarian situation there. The Israeli military said the visit had been approved but the delegation “deviated from the approved route”. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, condemned Israel’s firing at diplomats which he said was “unacceptable”. Countries including the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and France all condemned the incident. The British, French and other European ministers summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their respective capitals to explain the “unacceptable” incident. Netanyahu said Israel’s government will appoint the next head of the domestic Shin Bet intelligence agency, despite Israel’s attorney general barring him from doing so. Israel’s supreme court ruled earlier on Wednesday that Netanyahu’s announcement that he was sacking Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar was “illegal and contrary to law”. The UK will send £4m worth of aid to Gaza as it ramps up pressure on the Israeli government to lift a blockade on the region. The aid will include essential medicines, safe drinking water and food parcels. It comes after the UK on Tuesday suspended trade deal talks with Israel, sanctioned West Bank settlers and summoned the country’s ambassador.

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Finland ‘preparing for the worst’ as Russia expands military presence near border

Finland has said it expects Russia to further build up troops along their shared border when the war in Ukraine ends, after reports that Moscow had strengthened its military bases near the Nato frontier. Maj Gen Sami Nurmi, the head of strategy of the Finnish defence forces, said the military is following Moscow’s manoeuvring “very closely” and that it was their job, as part of the Nato alliance, to “prepare for the worst”. The Finnish border guard announced on Wednesday it had completed the first 35km (22 miles) of a planned 200km fence on its eastern border with Russia, which has been closed for more than a year after Helsinki accused Moscow of directing asylum seekers to Finland in a “hybrid operation”. The fence also uses cameras and sensors to distinguish between people and animals crossing. Satellite images, published in the New York Times, appear to show an expansion of military infrastructure near the Finnish border, including rows of tents, military vehicles, renovations to fighter jet shelters and construction on a previously unused helicopter base. Nurmi said: “They are changing structures and we are seeing moderate preparations when it comes to building infrastructure close to our borders, meaning that they will, once the war in Ukraine hopefully ends, start to bring back the forces that have been fighting in Ukraine, especially land forces.” While this was not unexpected since Finland joined Nato at record speed in 2023 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nurmi said they were following the preparations “very closely”. “They are doing it in phases. I would say it is still moderate numbers. It’s not big construction, but in certain places building new infrastructure and preparing, bringing new equipment in,” he said. “You also have to evaluate whether they are preparing to send more troops to Ukraine or preparing to build up their forces close to our border. But I guess they are doing both.” Responding to Russia’s changing activities, Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday he was “not worried about it at all”, adding that Finland and Norway were “going to be very safe”. Echoing the president’s sentiment, Nurmi said there was “no immediate military threat towards Finland or Nato from this direction”. He added: “What happened right after the Ukrainian attack was we applied for Nato membership and then when we were accepted Russia announced they would start to change their military posture across the border.” Finnish citizens have become accustomed to the looming threat from its eastern neighbour but hundreds are still signing up for training courses to prepare for emergency situations. The Finnish Women’s National Emergency Preparedness Association (known as Nasta) said interest in its training courses was still high since it first soared in 2022, with more than 800 women applying for its spring course and most courses filling up in three to four minutes. But Suvi Aksela, Nasta’s communications and organisation manager, said the border buildup was not a big talking point in Helsinki. “It is not very alarming for us,” she said. “We are used to hearing stuff from Russia, like all these threats, and we knew once we joined Nato they said they were going to build up presence on the border, and they probably will, just because it’s Russia.”

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US deportations cast spotlight on South Sudan’s deepening political crisis

An attempt by the US to deport South Asian migrants to South Sudan has cast a spotlight on the world’s youngest country, which is experiencing a renewed outbreak of the political tensions that have plagued it over the years. On Wednesday, a US federal judge said the deportation of migrants from the US to South Sudan “unquestionably” violated a court order requiring that any people being deported to a third country should receive due process. US immigration authorities later confirmed that eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan were on the deportation flight and claimed that they had been convicted of offences including murder, armed robbery and other serious crimes. South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj Gen James Enoka, told the AP on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they’d be investigated and those found not to be from South Sudan “re-deported to their correct country”. If they do make it to South Sudan, they will find a country in the midst of political uncertainty and renewed fighting between rival factions. South Sudan became the world’s youngest country when it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a referendum. The country of 11 million people is rich in oil reserves and its economy is heavily reliant on exports of the product. But the sector is marred by mismanagement and corruption and despite its vast resources, the country is underdeveloped, with most places lacking electricity, paved roads and other infrastructure. About two thirds of its population live in extreme poverty. South Sudan also experiences some of the world’s most punishing climate phenomena, including extreme flooding, which displaced 380,000 people last year. In March, authorities put Riek Machar, the country’s first vice-president and main opposition leader, under house arrest, accusing him of agitating his supporters to cause a rebellion. Earlier that month, the White Army, a community militia loyal to Machar, had launched attacks against the country’s military in Nasir county and overran an army base. The militia said it had acted in self-defence. The government responded by bombarding areas where the group was based and arrested opposition figures. Machar’s party, SPLM-IO, said his arrest had in effect collapsed the peace deal that ended the 2013-2018 civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people were killed in fighting between Nuer fighters loyal to Machar and Dinka forces backing Salva Kiir, the current president. This year’s renewed tensions have put the deal to the test and shaken a fragile peace, with the United Nations warning that South Sudan was on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict. Machar remains under house arrest and government offensives have continued in many parts of the north-east, where Nasir is located. On Tuesday, Kiir promoted second vice-president Benjamin Bol Mel as the deputy chairperson of his SPLM party. In his new role, Bol Mel, who is widely viewed as Kiir’s chosen successor, would become acting president if Kiir stepped down. The news about deportations of South Asians to South Sudan comes weeks after a standoff between South Sudan and the US after the US sent a Congolese man to South Sudan, claiming he was South Sudanese.

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Russia accused of trying to hack border security cameras to disrupt Ukraine aid

Russia tried to hack into border security cameras to spy on and disrupt the flow of western aid entering Ukraine, the UK’s intelligence services and its allies have claimed. A unit of Russia’s military intelligence services is accused of using a host of methods to target organisations delivering “foreign assistance”, by hacking into cameras at crossings and railway stations and near military installations. GRU Unit 26165 is also accused of sending phishing emails containing pornography and fake professional information and obtaining stolen account passwords to get into systems. It was claimed the unit – also known as APT 28 and Fancy Bear – has conducted the malicious cyber-campaign against public and private organisations in Nato states since 2022. In its advisory note, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – part of GCHQ – called on private companies involved in the delivery of aid to “take immediate action to protect themselves”. “In addition to targeting logistics entities, unit 26165 actors likely used access to private cameras at key locations, such as near border crossings, military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine,” the advisory says. “The actors also used legitimate municipal services, such as traffic cams.” About 10,000 cameras were said to have been accessed near “military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine”, of which 80% were in Ukraine and 10% in Romania. It is claimed 4% of the cameras targeted were in Poland, 2.8% in Hungary and 1.7% in Slovakia. The locations of the remaining cameras targeted were not provided. The hacking would have provided access to a “snapshot” of the cameras’ images, it is said. Other attempts were made that were designed to gather sensitive information on shipments, such as train schedules and shipping manifests, it is claimed. “In at least one instance, the actors attempted to use voice phishing to gain access to privileged accounts by impersonating IT staff,” says the advisory from 10 countries including the US, France and Germany. It adds: “The subjects of spearphishing emails were diverse and ranged from professional topics to adult themes. Phishing emails were frequently sent via compromised accounts or free webmail accounts. The emails were typically written in the target’s native language and sent to a single targeted recipient.” Paul Chichester, the NCSC’s director of operations, said: “This malicious campaign by Russia’s military intelligence service presents a serious risk to targeted organisations, including those involved in the delivery of assistance to Ukraine. “The UK and partners are committed to raising awareness of the tactics being deployed. We strongly encourage organisations to familiarise themselves with the threat and mitigation advice included in the advisory to help defend their networks.” Actions suggested include increasing monitoring, using multi-factor authentication with strong factors – such as passkeys – and ensuring security updates are applied promptly to manage vulnerabilities. The advisory was drawn up with agencies from the US, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France and the Netherlands. The Russian unit has previously been accused of leaking World Anti-Doping Agency data, and played a key role in the 2016 cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee in the US.

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EU urged to act over Hungary’s plans to ‘effectively outlaw free press’

More than 90 editors-in-chief and publishers from across Europe have signed a statement calling on the EU to take action over proposed legislation in Hungary, warning that, if passed, it could result in “effectively outlawing the free press”. Earlier this month, Viktor Orbán’s rightwing populist party, Fidesz, put forward legislation that would allow the government to monitor, penalise and potentially ban organisations that receive any sort of foreign funding, including donations or EU grants. The proposal was immediately criticised by opposition politicians, who said it would pave the way for the government to potentially shut down all independent media and NGOs engaged in public affairs. The statement published this week, signed by leading media voices from 23 countries, described the draft bill as being in line with “the authoritarian tactics” seen in Russia under Vladimir Putin, in a reference to the country’s “foreign agent” law. The Hungarian legislation, which would allow the government to blacklist organisations, levy steep fines on them and ban them from receiving donations, had been written “so broadly that it could be applied to virtually any organisation involved in public life or debate,” it said. The latest move by Orbán – who is facing an unprecedented challenge from a former member of the Fidesz elite, Péter Magyar, before elections next year – was particularly significant given the wider political context, it added. “The survival of a free press is not a local issue, especially in a region where more and more populist leaders are borrowing techniques from Viktor Orbán.” The statement, whose signatories included the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, as well as editors from Libération in France and Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, called on the EU and governments across Europe to do all they could to prevent the draft law from being passed. Since Orbán’s return to power in 2010, he has been repeatedly accused of working to weaken democratic institutions and undermine the rule of law in Hungary. Those who have borne the brunt of this crackdown include independent media, with press freedom plunging as Orbán is accused of wielding state subsidies to reward pro-government outlets and starve critical media. Weakened media outlets have, at times, been snapped up by entrepreneurs loyal to Orbán and turned into government mouthpieces, resulting in Fidesz and its loyalists now controlling more than 80% of the country’s media. This month’s draft law, however, has been described by critics as one of Orbán’s boldest moves to date. “Its aim is to silence all critical voices and eliminate what remains of Hungarian democracy once and for all,” a joint statement, signed by hundreds of civil society and media organisations, recently noted. The Hungarian Helsinki committee (HHC), a human rights organisation, described the draft legislation as a “dark turn in Hungary’s erosion of democratic norms”. In a statement, Márta Pardavi, the organisation’s co-chair, added: “If this bill passes, it will not simply marginalise Hungary’s independent voices – it will extinguish them.” The HHC is among the many organisations that are scrambling to have the EU intervene before Fidesz uses its parliamentary majority to pass the legislation in mid-June. “The consequences reverberate beyond Hungary’s borders and are already spreading,” said Pardavi. “This model of illiberal repression is designed to be exported. The European Union must act decisively before this anti-democratic playbook becomes the new norm.” The sentiment was echoed by Transparency International. “If adopted, this law will be immediately weaponised against those trying to preserve the rule of law in Hungary,” said Nick Aiossa, the director at Transparency International EU, in a statement. “The EU institutions cannot and must not sit idly by while Hungary targets civil society and destroys democracy from the inside.” Zoltán Kovács, a spokesperson for the Hungarian government, had said the bill had been introduced amid worries that foreign-funded organisations, primarily from the US and Brussels, were being used to shape the country’s political discourse. On Wednesday, 26 EU lawmakers from across the political spectrum weighed in, signing a letter calling for Brussels to freeze all funding to Hungary. After years of being at loggerheads with the EU, there had been little meaningful progress, said the letter, written by German Green MEP Daniel Freund and seen by the Guardian. Instead the country had seen further “alarming regressions,” citing examples such as the recent law banning Budapest’s Pride parade and the draft legislation aimed at silencing government critics. “Continuing to fund a corrupt regime openly undermining European values is unacceptable,” the letter noted. “At a moment when Europe faces profound external challenges, we must stand united in defence of democracy and fundamental rights, resisting any drift towards authoritarianism in our union.”