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More bad news out of the federal government this week, and its only Tuesday: The Trump administration and its chaotic Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are now turning their sights on kids’ school lunches, the latest casualty in the administration’s war on the federal government’s budget. “Millions of children could lose free school meals,” the School Nutrition Association (SNA) said in a statement, as a result of the $1 billion in cuts to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). That means about $660 million of those funds will no longer go to feeding needy children in schools and childcare facilities, set up through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program. Those funds were meant to purchase healthy, local, and regional foods for school meals, supplied by local farmers and ranchers. Also cut: federal funds to purchase from those farmers for food banks and other organizations. These proposals [come] . . . at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs, said Shannon Gleave, president of the SNA. Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies. According to the SNA, one proposed cut to the Community Eligibility Provision would eliminate free meals available to some 12 million students in 24,000 schools nationwide, all with high-poverty rates. This is all bad news for our nation’s children and parents, as well as teachers and schools, which are already reeling from the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, which Trump has attacked, calling it a “big con job.” It’s also another blow to American families, who are already reeling from the rising cost of food and having to increasingly turn to food banks, while Republicans push for more cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for those with the lowest incomes, according to the Guardian.
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E-Commerce
Just five years ago, when the movie Parasite won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film, Bong Joon Ho, its South Korean director, said in his acceptance speech that American audiences needed to get over their issue with the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles. His point was that there’s a whole world of great cinema beyond English-language films, and we shouldn’t let subtitles be a deal-breaker. That compares to audio dubbing, the technique that places English dialogue over the moving lips of an actor speaking in another language. Americans maintain their hesitancy around dubbed movies. In a 2021 survey, 76% of Americans said they preferred subtitling over dubbing. Compare that to European countries such as France, Italy, and Germany, where the majority of moviegoers prefer dubbing. Even younger generations in the U.S. are leaning toward subtitles, according to a 2024 Preply survey. 96% of Gen Z Americans prefer subtitles to dubbings, compared to just 75% of baby boomers. But now, AI could change all that. Amazon just made a big bet on dubbing, introducing AI-driven audio translation to some of its Prime Video entertainment. Its still a pilot, though there are signs for how successful the AI audio-translation program will be. Meanwhile, video startups including ElevenLabs and InVideo are also dipping their toe into dubbing. Yet, the question of quality remains: Will these efforts make dubbing more lifelike and artful, or will it simply make it more common? The AI dubbing boom Amazon is slowly introducing AI dubbing to its Prime Video content, having started with just 12 licensed movies and series, including the documentary El Cid: La Leyenda and the drama Long Lost, translating between English and Latin American Spanish. These translations arent exclusively performed by AI; Amazon still employing localization professionals for quality control. From the outside, it looks like Amazon is employing AI to up the quantity of dubs, but not necessarily the quality. Amazon declined to comment, but pointed to a public blog post, which provides some clues. The blog notes that Amazon is only creating new dubs, not modifying preexisting ones. In his statement, Prime Video VP of technology Raf Soltanovich emphasized making international titles more accessible and enjoyable. Reactions to Amazons new tech have been mixed. Futurism called it an assault on cinema. On Saturday Night Live, Michael Che joked that the tool needed to translate Sylvester Stallone. Lifehackers Jake Peterson tried the tool himself. While Peterson maintained that there was no way [he] would genuinely enjoy watching an entire movie or series with an AI dub, he admitted that some of the tech was impressive, like when the AI muffled its own voice for the marshmallow-stuffing chubby bunny challenge. But Amazon isnt the only company investing in AI dubbing tools. ElevenLabs, most known for its AI voice generator, has its own dub software. So do a handful of other startups, including InVideo, Dubbing AI, and Dubverse. But all these toolsincluding Amazonsare still nascent. Even if their voices are monotone and robotic now, that could change in the coming months. Will dubbed media ever be watchable? In the world of anime, theres a common saying: Subs not dubs. The argument goes that an actors (or voice actors) performance is tied to their intonation and speaking style. Severing the voice from the body, and inserting a whole new voice in a new language, destroys the artistry. That’s not a problem for Western European audiences, where dubbing is often more common than subtitles. But, for Americans viewers, it can still be discomforting. The expectation is that AI can help here. Audio generators can replicate the sound of another actors voice. In some ways, thats scary: Much of the 2023 SAG strike revolved around protections against AI duplication. But, in the dubbing space, that offers promise. The viewer could hear the performance in the voice of the actor, but within their own language. AI tools have also been able to hear emotion in a voice; they could replicate that in the duplicated audio. Weve seen early-stage versions of this quality-altering AI voice tool. Respeecher lets audio engineers tinker with accents and fix pronunciations. Thats the tool that caused a ruckus for The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez during awards season. But, at scale, this kind of audio manipulation and regeneration could have seismic industry effects. Voice actors would be out of work. In their current form, subtitles still trump dubbing. But, with AI, that could all change sooner than we think.
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E-Commerce
Manchester United unveiled plans on Tuesday to build the worlds greatest” soccer stadium. A proposed 100,000-seater arena would replace its iconic Old Trafford home and surpass Wembley as the biggest in the United Kingdom. Manchester United is the worlds most favourite football club and, in my view, is the biggest and deserves a stadium fitting of its stature, part owner Jim Ratcliffe said. Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people, said the new venue could be a tourist attraction in the manner of the Eiffel Tower. We have 1 billion people around the world who follow Manchester United. They will all want to visit this stadium, he said. Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the first released images of the stadium include three giant tentpoles that would be seen from 40km away. They support a surrounding covered area, which he describes as arguably the largest public space in the world. Wembley is currently the biggest stadium in the U.K., with a capacity of 90,000, and is home to Englands national soccer team. Twickenham, which is home to the national rugby team, holds 82,500. Old Trafford is the countrys biggest dedicated soccer stadium with a capacity of just over 74,000, but is dated in comparison to the likes of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, which regularly hosts NFL games. Old Trafford, which was bombed during World War II, has been home to United since 1910. Under the plans, the 20-time English champion said it would build next to its current ground, meaning it would not need to relocate during the construction process. It is estimated it would then take around 12 months to disassemble Old Trafford. British billionaire Ratcliffe paid $1.3 billion for an initial 25% stake in United last year and made a new stadium one of his priorities. Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the worlds greatest football stadium, Ratcliffe said. Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport. The possibility of redeveloping Old Trafford was considered but an entirely new construction was the preferred option. United has not set a start date yet but Foster said building work, which could include pre-fabricated parts and a Meccano type construction, could mean it is completed in five years. Timings would likely rely on government involvement in what United wants to be part of a wider project to regenerate the surrounding Old Trafford area. It said it would be worth 7.3 billion pounds ($9.4 billion) to the U.K. economy, and the U.K. government has already voiced its support for the project. Our long-term objective as a club is to have the worlds best football team playing in the worlds best stadium,” United chief executive Omar Berrada said. Managerial great Alex Ferguson said the club “must be brave and seize this opportunity to build a new home, fit for the future, where new history can be made.” The announcement came days after thousands of United fans marched in protest against the club’s ownership in the face of cost cuts, ticket price rises and ongoing failure on the field. United is majority owned by the American Glazer family, which also owns the NFLs Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Upon investing, Ratcliffe vowed to return the once-dominant club back to the summit of European soccer after more than a decade since it last won the Premier League. But his first year in charge of soccer operations has been turbulent. United endured its worst-ever Premier League season last year and is on course to set a new low this term, with the team currently languishing in the bottom half of the standings in 14th position. James Robson, AP soccer writer
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