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The World Bank has raised its growth forecast for the East Asia and Pacific region on the back of artificial intelligence-related exports, while warning that its reliance on the AI boom leaves it vulnerable to a potential global tech spending reversal.

The region includes 23 economies, including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

The EAP economy is expected to expand 4.5% this year, 0.3 percentage point more than the bank projected in April, according to its latest report released Tuesday. Growth is forecast to ease to 4.4% in 2027 and 4.3% in 2028. Vietnam received the biggest forecast upgrade among major economies of the region, up 1.1 percentage point to 7.4%.

The region's strength, however, is highly dependent on AI-related manufacturing and exports. Trade growth, excluding AI-related goods, has been "weak or negative," the bank said. Those products accounted for more than half of the export growth in most of the region's economies and more than 70% in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam shipped $1.4 trillion of AI-related goods in the 12 months through April, according to the report.

Official data showed that South Korea's exports grew 83.5% in September to a record $120.9 billion, with chips making up half of those shipments. Reflecting the dominance of semiconductors in the country's market, the World Bank highlighted that just two chipmakers — Samsung and SK Hynix — accounted for 43% of the benchmark Kospi index's value as of end-April.

The AI risk is on the spending side. AI-related capital expenditure has reached about 6% of U.S. GDP, similar to the 2000 peak in information-technology investment, and the current cycle "has risen faster than either previous cycle and is still gaining speed," the bank said.

The Bank for International Settlements in its annual economic report in June had warned that the boom's scale and pace bears resemblance to the dot-com frenzy of the 1990s and other "manias."

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The financing driving the boom is also less transparent. Of the $2.9 trillion in AI capex planned for 2025-2028, $800 billion is expected to come from private credit, the bank said, where AI-related lending rose to 34% of activity in 2025 from an 18% average over the prior five years. Private credit portfolios have experienced markdowns, outflows and defaults this year.

Private credit markets are "less visible, and have not been tested by a severe downturn," the bank said.

That said, the AI boom supported by abundant liquidity could slow due to the latest tightening of financial conditions as major central banks raise rates for the first time since 2023, according to the report. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates last month, its first increase in more than three years, and signaled one more to hike this year.

A correction may not necessarily mean a bust for the AI supercycle, but that investment "had run ahead of realized demand," the organization said.

A slowdown by 1 percentage point in U.S. growth cuts other emerging-market growth by an estimated 0.6 percentage point, with the hit to investment about twice as large, the bank said. "A slowdown concentrated in AI would be material for East Asia because of the region's prominence in the AI supply chain."

Bank funding is the broadest exposure. Foreign-currency-denominated liabilities of banks appeared significant in some countries — 29.2% of GDP in Malaysia, 20.7% in the Philippines.

Taiwan's statistics bureau recently raised its 2026 growth forecast to 11% from 9.6% on AI demand, while warning in June that "if the high-tech sector faces headwinds, the negative impact on the local economy could be bigger than expected." %!s()

A companion film rather than a direct sequel to David Fincher‘s The Social Network (2010), which Sorkin wrote, Social Reckoning tells the story of the 2021 Facebook leak that saw tens of thousands of internal documents about the company’s practices sent to the Wall Street Journal and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Per the film’s logline: “Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.”

Strong plays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the film, taking over from Jesse Eisenberg, who turned down the opportunity to play Zuckerberg once more. The stellar cast also includes Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen and Bill Burr.

As with all his directorial projects, Sorkin wrote the script. Interestingly, Jeff Cronenweth, Fincher’s longtime cinematographer who also worked on The Social Network, lensed the film and the music is by two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat.

Sorkin’s film comes at a time when Hollywood is applying much greater scrutiny to Silicon Valley’s tech titans. In recent weeks, Alex Gibney has released Musk, a searing documentary about polarizing trillionaire Elon Musk. On Monday, first reactions to Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman biopic Artificial started to hit social media. Also coming up is Nathan Fielder’s acclaimed docudrama You Can See Everything, about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

The Social Reckoning hits theaters on Oct. 9. Below is a selection of early reactions to the film.

Garfield, who spent “two to three months” listening and watching footage of Altman while preparing to play him, described feeling a moral responsibility to participate in a movie like “Artificial.” When they were filming, Garfield recalls, “there were news stories coming out every day” about the dangers of AI.

“I wish we could give it even more teeth in a way,” Garfield said. “We need to shine the light as bright as possible at the nooks and crannies of people we’re giving all of our autonomy and power to.”

Garfield was joined at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall by Guadagnino, writer Simon Rich and actors Yura Borisov (as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever), Ike Barinholtz (as Elon Musk) and Cooper Hoffman (as OpenAI president Greg Brockman). Monica Barbaro, who portrays OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati, wasn’t in attendance. The movie charts the evolution of OpenAI and dramatizes the tumultuous time when Altman was controversially fired and then rehired by the AI giant.

Garfield has portrayed many real people on screen, including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in “The Social Network” and composer Jonathan Larson in “Tick, Tick… Boom.” It’s a responsibility the actor doesn’t take lightly.

“I feel a tremendous amount of compassion for what that must feel like, being on the inside of his soul, going like, ‘That’s not me,’” Garfield said of Altman. “I imagine it would feel confronting. I would feel that way. I’m projecting.”

In any case, the real Altman seems to be shrugging off “Artificial,” which he hasn’t seen. “I mean, they’re trying to make a good movie, and maybe it will be good,” Altman said in a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, adding that “it will not be good as an accurate depiction.”

Borisov, a recent Oscar nominee for “Anora,” admits he’s worried about what the real-life Sutskever — and the public — will think about the film. Borisov’s humble reaction is fitting because his character serves as the movie’s moral compass.

“I can’t answer so beautiful like Andrew. That’s why he’s playing Sam,” Borisov joked. “I was nervous to watch this. It was our first time. [I have] so much feeling now about this. It’s like a child just being born, and you’re waiting for it to start breathing.”

Barinholtz, meanwhile, doesn’t seem too concerned about Musk’s reaction.

“When you’re playing as someone universally beloved as Elon, and who everyone admires and who is a good person and walks normally…,” Barinholtz cracked. “When I first met with Luca, I said, ‘I have very complicated opinions on Elon.’ And Luca said, ‘It’s not about what you feel about Elon. It’s about finding what he loves about himself.’

Barinholtz found it “interesting” to play Musk at that particular moment in time. “It’s not at the RNC with the chainsaw. This is him in 2014 when a lot of people were like, ‘This guy is amazing. He’s going to save you.'”

Rich, a humorist who worked at “Saturday Night Live” and penned the 2020 satire “An American Pickle,” was inadvertently motivated to write “Artificial” by his childhood friend, Danny Selsam.

“He started warning me about artificial intelligence in 2008. My friends and I were so shocked by his predictions that we actually discussed potentially doing an intervention to get him medicated, or perhaps institutionalized. We thought he lost his mind,” Rich said. “We took him a little bit more seriously when he joined this new nonprofit called OpenAI.”

A year before ChatGPT was released by OpenAI, Rich says, “Danny started showing us stuff on his computer that was so terrifying that I felt the urge to warn people. When I told journalists what I had seen, they thought it was a hoax. They thought I was trying to prank them.”

Rich tried to vocalize his concerns, writing about the dangers in columns for outlets like Time magazine. But the public failed to take notice.

“I quickly realized there’s a limit to what I can do being a non-celebrity and not particularly charismatic or good-looking,” Rich said. “So this is kind of a last-ditch effort to warn mankind. I wrote this movie, and
I hope to God that a couple people pay attention.”

A late addition to the NYFF lineup, “Artificial” became one of the year’s buzziest releases after Amazon MGM dropped the nearly completed film, saying the movie would be “better served if it were released by a different studio.” That’s after Amazon signed a major $50 billion partnership with OpenAI. And Altman is close with Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, having attended his Venetian wedding to Lauren Sanchez in 2025.

Neon ultimately acquired “Artificial” and plans to release the film in theaters on Dec. 25.

Landing the world premiere of “Artificial” was a coup for NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim, who described the movie’s festival plans as a “genuinely up-in-the-air situation.” Lim noted that Guadagnino has a long history with New York Film Festival, having premiered movies such as “Call Me by Your Name,” “Bones and All,” “Queer” and “After the Hunt” at prior editions.

“I thought we would be a great launchpad for the film,” Lim told Variety prior to the premiere. “This is a film that deals with a very pressing situation. AI is in the news practically daily. The film recaps this trajectory that we’ve been on with alarming clarity. And it does this in the form of an incredibly entertaining movie. It has a very dark humor, which is certainly one valid way of approaching the dystopian present.” %!s()

It marks the first time the PQ has been in power since 2014, with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon set to become the province's new leader.

In his victory speech, St-Pierre Plamondon again raised his independence plans but vowed to be "the premier of everyone in Quebec".

The result could prove a fresh test for Prime Minister Mark Carney, also setting up confrontations with Québec over issues like immigration and the monarchy.

In its effort to achieve independence, the PQ has pledged to hold a referendum on separating from the rest of Canada.

The majority French-speaking province has held other votes on this, in 1980 and 1995. On both occasions, the independence movement was defeated. Polls indicate only about 30% of Quebecers back such a move this time.

St-Pierre Plamondon has previously said the vote would occur after President Donald Trump is out of office south of the border in the United States, explaining that would require "conditions that allow for an informed and serene debate". The US and Canada are in a trade war as a result of Trump's programme of tariffs.

In his victory speech after Monday's election results, St-Pierre Plamondon said of the potential referendum: "Our national destiny will be achieved one day."

The PQ leader will need to secure the support of rival parties to get the vote he wants, potentially from Québec Solidaire, a left-leaning sovereignist party that won nine seats.

Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard said his party, which won 40 seats, is prepared to support the PQ on a number of issues, but "there is no way we will collaborate on a potential referendum".

Despite winning the most amount of seats of any party, the PQ's share of the popular vote is only 28%.

With most votes counted on Tuesday morning, the party was set to win fewer than the 64 seats needed to command a majority in the province's assembly, according to projections from Canadian media.

The Liberals - the provincial party with links to Carney's federal Liberals - are projected to have increased their number of seats in the assembly, as have the Conservatives.

All parties benefited from the collapse of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which was previously the province's governing party but is not projected to have won a single seat this time.

Carney congratulated Plamondon, saying he looked forward to working with the new provincial leader, adding: "Building a stronger Quebec is at the heart of our mission to build a stronger Canada."

Carney may find himself managing dual unity crises in different parts of the country, depending on the outcome of a vote in Alberta on whether to have a referendum of its own.

Trump is due to leave office in just over two years, meaning that if Plamondon is able to enact his pledge, a third vote on independence would likely be scheduled for 2029 or 2030.

Monday's result is in part due to public fatigue with the previous CAQ government.

The party made the issue of safeguarding Quebec's identity and language central to its eight years in office, but its long-time leader, François Legault, eventually lost significant support among voters.

Efforts to revive the party by replacing Legault with a new leader, outgoing Premier Christine Fréchette, were unsuccessful.

Fréchette conceded her own re-election race in Trois-Rivières shortly before 22:00 local time. She said in a speech that she would work with St-Pierre Plamondon on the transition.

"Governing Quebec is the greatest honour I have ever had," she said. "I have Quebec tattooed on my heart."

The Quebec Liberal Party secured the second-most seats, while the Quebec Conservative Party gained seats.

Prime Minister Carney remains popular in Quebec, though support for him had recently dipped, external as US President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on Canada in August, following a breakdown in trade talks.

Quebec is among the hardest hit by the latest US tariffs, with experts at global forecasting firm Oxford Economics projecting a C$2bn blow for the province. %!s()

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on social media on Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had made the recommendation and President Donald Trump approved it.

It will be the first military execution by firing squad since the end of World War Two.

Parnell said the secretary of the US Army would set the time and place of the execution.

"Judgement day for Hasan has finally come," he wrote on X.

Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist from Virginia, killed 13 soldiers at the base in Texas in 2009 and later admitted in court he was the gunman and apologised for "any mistakes".

He said during his court-martial in 2013 that he believed he was protecting Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The killings on 5 November 2009 were the deadliest ever non-combat attack on an American military base.

The attack took place in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers were awaiting check-ups and vaccines.

Hasan is currently one of four inmates on the US military's death row.

A military execution requires approval from the US president, according to military law.

It also requires appellate review and a final judgment on its legality to move forward.

The US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces deemed the military death penalty unconstitutional in 1983 but it was reinstated the following year by an executive order under then-President Ronald Reagan.

Military executions differ from those carried out at the state level.

The majority of executions in the US are carried out on the state level, with 27 states, the military and the federal government still having capital punishment as a legally available option.

Death by firing squad is rather uncommon. There was an execution by firing squad carried out last year in South Carolina, a first for the state and the first time the method was used in the US in 15 years.

Four other states allow the use of a firing squad, including Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah. %!s()