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A cardinal of the Catholic church going viral for singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” was not on this year’s bingo card. Pope Francis’s passing on Easter Monday sent shockwaves around the world, with around 250,000 visitors flooding St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to say goodbye to the progressive Pontiff. As the Vatican readies for the conclave, speculations on who might take over the highest role in the Catholic Church is on the rise. But, on TikTok, users have already chosen its favorite contender: Filipino prelate Luis Antonio Tagle. Videos of Taglea liberal-leaning front runner for pope referred to as “Asian Francis”resurfaced in the days following the pope’s passing announcement, aimed to paint the contender in a bad light. “The song’s lyrics directly contradict Catholic doctrine…is this scandal or scandalous ignorance?,” the caption of the video posted by a conservative news agency read. Various users in the comment section denounced the contender, supporting a more conservative option like Guinean prelate Robert Sarah. Yet many came to Tagle’s defense, with one user commenting “The guy sang a song about world peace. If that’s really the most dirt you can dig up on him, he’d make an excellent Pope.” Another user commented on the same video, “God forbid a pastor advocates for peace.” God save the memes Now users are taking it the extra mile, resurfacing more videos and edits and slating Tagle as the internet’s pick for the next pope. On a video featuring Tagle smiling as he sways his hands and dances in a church, commenters showed their support, saying “I want this pope please god,” “with you, Francis II,” and “I like him, he has my vote from Uruguay.” Fans have taken to edits to show their support as well, with on video titled “Tagle core,” a spin off of a TikTok trend stitching together videos to the music of Aphex Twin, features the Filipino cardinal singing, dancing, and talking in between laughs. His support has also been memefied, with users jokingly creating videos “POV” videos, imagining a future where the Vatican is filled by dramatic singing interpretations. In another video, edited in Korean-fancam style, garnered more than 299,000 likes, with thousands of users debating between Tagle and Sarah on the comments.One user commented, “me following this pope election like it’s reality TV.” Another user captured the recurring sentiment of social media users, saying “first conclave in the tik tok era i’m so happy to be alive in these historic times.”
Category:
E-Commerce
President Trump issued an executive order ceasing public funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) late Thursday. The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to eliminate funding for the two news organizations, citing ideological bias. However, the question remains. Is it even possible for Trump to defund PBS and NPR? According to Trump, Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens, the order reads. I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors and all executive department and agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS. Patricia Harrison, the President and CEO of CPB, issued a statement on the order, stating that the President of the United States cannot exert power over CPB. CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the Presidents authority, she said in the press release. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government. The CPB was established in 1967 under the Johnson administration as a part of the Public Broadcasting Act (PBA). Within the Act, Congress explicitly forbids any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications, or over the Corporation or any of its grantees or contractors According to the history page on the CPB website, CPB registered as a nonprofit in 1968 and established PBS in 1969 as a means of connecting public television stations and distribute programming. NPR incorporated in 1970 as a public radio program service. In 1975, Congress amended the PBA to advance local programming and further protect public media from political interference. Now, both NPR and PBS are essential aspects of American media culture. PBS typically produces educational content, while NPR focuses on news and media. They cover almost 99 percent of the population, according to NPR, and are key components of local emergency and disaster warning systems. For the current fiscal year, Congress allocated $535 million for CPB, affirmed in a recent stop-gap bill passed by a Republican-controlled Congress. CPB remains fully funded by Congress through 2027. At a U.S. House oversight committee meeting in late March, leaders of both PBS and NPR spoke about the importance of providing news to Americans at no charge, according to NPR. They said that stations would feel the effects of a lack of funding the most. Most of the public funds available go to local stations, We will challenged this Executive Order using all means available, NPR president and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities. A much shorter statement from Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, echoed the same sentiment. The Presidents blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years, she said. We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.
Category:
E-Commerce
Half of Airbnb users in the U.S. are now using the companys AI-powered customer service agent, CEO Brian Chesky said Thursday during an earnings call. The tool was quietly rolled out last month and is expected to be available to all U.S. users in the coming weeks. Chesky said the AI assistant has already led to a 15% drop in users needing to contact live support agents. While the technology is still in its early stages, he expects it to steadily improve. Its going to get significantly more personalized and agentic over the years to come, he said following the release of Airbnbs first-quarter earnings. Compared with other travel platforms racing to apply AI for trip planning and other complex tasks, Airbnbs approach remains cautious. Expedia, for example, began promoting its ChatGPT-powered trip planning feature in 2023. Chesky has previously expressed a preference for a gradual rollout. During the companys last earnings call in February, he said Airbnb would begin by applying AI to customer service and expand from there. I dont think its quite ready for prime time, Chesky said of AI in trip planning, likening its current stage to the internet in the mid- to late 1990s. Airbnb reported higher revenue in the first quarter but warned investors of slowing booking growth in the current quarter, citing economic uncertainty in the travel sector. The companys stock was relatively flat as of Friday afternoon.
Category:
E-Commerce
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