VOUX MAG

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - As China prepares for Lunar New Year holidays starting on Sunday, rivals to DeepSeek are scrambling to releaseartificial-intelligencemodels a year after it burst onto the scene with its game-changing R1 and V3 models.

With DeepSeek set to launch ‌its next-generation V4 model soon, according to tech news site The Information, many other Chinese AI firms have released or are preparing to launch ‌their own models in the hopes of stealing the spotlight - or at least avoid being off-guard again during this year's Spring Festival.

Below are the companies and models looking to make a Spring Festival splash:

The ​Hangzhou-based startup's V4 would replace last year's V3 model, which powered the AI assistant app that overtook ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available onApple's App Store in the U.S. Investors and industry insiders are also on the lookout for R2, successor to the R1 model.

This week DeepSeek fuelled anticipation when its web and mobile chatbot upgraded its "context window" - the amount of information it can remember and handle in a single task, from 128,000 to 1 million tokens, the unit of data processed by ‌the AI model.

This means the chatbot can now process ⁠book-length passages of text to answer a single user command.

The makers of short-video platform TikTok are soon expected to release an upgrade of Doubao, China's most popular AI chatbot, in terms of active users.

Thursday's release of video-generation AI model Seedance 2.0 has generated ⁠comparisons to DeepSeek's global rise, going viral on Chinese social media and drawing widespread praise on X, including from the platform's owner, Elon Musk. Seedance 2.0 can produce high-quality cinematic videos based on a few prompts, or even one.

The tech giant released picture-generation model Seedream 5.0 Lite on Friday.

Alibaba, the first Chinese firm to respond to DeepSeek's viral ascent last ​year, ​with Qwen 2.5-Max, is preparing to launch Qwen 3.5.

The e-commerce giant's Qwen app is riding ​a wave of growing domestic usage after it spent 3 billion ‌yuan ($400 million) last week on a coupon giveaway campaign to promote "agentic commerce", where AI handles consumers' online shopping.

This drove more than 120 million consumer orders in the six days through Wednesday, the company said.

Zhipu AI released its open-source GLM-5 model on Wednesday, with enhanced coding capabilities and the ability to perform long-running agent tasks.

Zhipu is considered one of China's "AI tigers" - promising startups vying with the U.S. to win the AI race. Zhipu went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last month, alongside rival MiniMax, another AI tiger.

Both stocks have rallied strongly as investors bet on the companies benefiting from China's AI boom. Zhipu plans a secondary listing in Shanghai, ‌a regulatory filing on Friday showed.

MiniMax released its M2.5 open-source model on its overseas agent ​website on Wednesday. The company's Hong Kong listing raised HK$4.8 billion ($620 million), higher than Zhipu's $558 million.

Shanghai-based ​MiniMax has developed popular apps like Hailuo AI, a video generation tool, ​and Talkie, a character interaction app that enables users to engage with AI-powered virtual personas.

Tencent's Hunyuan team on Tuesday released a ‌low-storage, compressed AI model, HY-1.8B-2Bit, designed to be used on consumer ​hardware including mobile phones.

iFlytek on Wednesday released ​Spark X2, trained entirely on Chinese-made chips. The company said the upgrade focuses on practical deployment in sectors including education, healthcare, automotive and agent-based applications.

NETEASE YOUDAO

NetEase Youdao on Wednesday launched LobsterAI, a desktop-level personal assistant agent that can perform tasks such as information retrieval, scheduling and data analysis by executing ​workflows locally on a user's computer after authorisation.

The product ‌supports mobile and PC connections and allows remote interaction via enterprise apps popular among Chinese companies such as DingTalk and Feishu.

Embodied-intelligence startup Dexmal on ​Tuesday unveiled DM0, an AI model designed for robot-related scenarios. DM0 integrates multimodal internet data with driving, navigation and robotic operation data, ​and was trained across multiple robot platforms.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by William Mallard)

JC Olivera/Getty

Stephen Amellis going from the courtroom to the beach.

TheSuits LAstar has been cast in the series regular lead role of Hobie Buchannon in Fox and Fremantle's upcomingBaywatchreboot, which is slated to surf on to Fox as part of the 2026-2027 season.

"From the first conversation, Stephen Amell brought exactly what this new chapter ofBaywatchdemands: heart, intensity, and that undeniable hero energy," executive producer and showrunner Matt Nix said in a statement. "He's the kind of lead who can sprint into danger, carry the emotional weight, and still make it feel fun. We're so excited to get started."

In the reboot, the wild child from the original series (played byJeremy Jacksonfrom 1991-1999) is all grown up. He's now a Baywatch captain, following in the footsteps of his legendary father, Mitch (played byDavid Hasselhoffin the original). Hobie's world is turned upside down when Charlie, the daughter he never knew, shows up on his doorstep, eager to carry on the Buchannon family legacy and become a Baywatch lifeguard alongside her dad.

Cindy Ord/Getty;Corbis via Getty

The series is said to begin shooting this spring at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, as well as on the Fox Studio Lot in Century City. Additional casting details are not known at this time.

The originalBaywatch, which first debuted in 1989, would eventually become the most-watched show in the world, airing in over 200 countries, and at its peak, reaching more than a billion viewers every week. The beachy series starred Hasselhoff as Mitch, the dedicated leader of a group of lifeguards at Malibu Beach. In addition to the Hoff, the show helped launch the careers of international superstars from Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra to Jason Momoa and Yasmine Bleeth.

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Per a release, "The new series will celebrate the franchise's enduring legacy, while re-energizing it for today's global audience. Fans can expect all the adrenaline-fueled rescues, tangled relationships, complicated chemistry and beachside heroics that defined the original — now with an entirely new cast, contemporary trappings, tensions and challenges, and a renewed mission to protect Southern California's shoreline."

It's not known yet if Anderson or Hasselhoff or other familiar faces will have a part to play in the upcoming reboot, but if asked, Electra has previously said she'd be interested.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

"It could be fun" to join the cast of the reboot, which she said she's currently in talks over, ElectratoldTMZlast year. But she does have one stipulation: "I don't know if I'd want to be in the water."

"It's the ocean, you know?" Electra said, explaining, "I love being around the ocean. Working in it is very different. When you're working in the ocean, it is very complicated."

Baywatchis co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Fremantle with Nix (Burn Notice,TheGifted) serving as showrunner and executive producer alongside executive producers McG, Michael Berk, Greg Bonann, Doug Schwartz, Dante Di Loreto, and Mike Horowitz. McG will direct the series premiere episode.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

An Arizona sheriff defended sending evidence in the disappearance ofNancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show co-hostSavannah Guthrie, to a lab in Florida for DNA testing over the FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos also said the results that investigators have received from DNA testing so far haven't led to a suspect. Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was forcibly taken from her Tucson home during the middle of the night nearly two weeks ago.

Nanos told CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti in an interview Friday that his agency has been sending evidence to a Florida lab for years, and he doesn't want samples sent to two different facilities.

"It adds a step that's not needed," Nanos said. "If you have two labs you're looking at, and one's bad or one's better, that's fine. That's not the case here, nobody's saying that."

Nanos said the Florida lab has samples taken from the Guthrie family and people who have worked at Nancy Guthrie's home to compare against the evidence that has been gathered during the investigation.

"Let's just use one lab, they have it all, the reports are generated, those reports are shared between both agencies, and we keep moving," Nanos said.

The sheriff didn't provide details about what results investigators have gotten back from the lab amid the ongoing investigation.

"We did get some DNA back, and we are looking at all those things," Nanos said.

Asked if the results have led to a suspect, Nanos said, "Boy, I wish it did.  Not yet. We've got DNA, and it's still working, that's all I can tell you."

DNA that wasn't Nancy Guthrie's or that of those in close contact with her was collected from the property, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said in an update Friday afternoon. Investigators are working to identify who it belongs to. The department isn't disclosing where the DNA was found on the property.

Meanwhile, while Nanos said they haven't received proof of life, he also added that "there has been no sign of death." When asked if the suspect should be afraid, he responded: "I think the suspect should be afraid every night. We're going to find you."

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The FBIreleased a descriptionThursday of a person it referred to as a suspect who wasseen on videofootage from Nancy Guthrie's Nest home security camera on the morning of her disappearance.

The bureau described the individual as a male who is about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall with an average build. In the footage, the person is wearing a ski mask, gloves and what the FBI said was a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.

CBS News has learned the backpack is sold exclusively at Walmart. Sources with knowledge of the investigation told CBS News that law enforcement officials reviewed video at one Walmart location in Tucson. CBS News reached out to Walmart corporate offices, but a spokesperson declined to comment.

In addition to the description, theFBI doubled its rewardto up to $100,000 for information leading to Guthrie's location or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance. Guthrie was also added to the bureau's list of itsmost wanted missing persons.

Investigators have issued a wider call for video footage from Guthrie's neighbors. The Pima County Sheriff's Department asked people who live within 2 miles of her home to provide authorities with all footage of vehicles, people or anything that seems out of the ordinary from New Year's Day to Feb. 2, the day after Guthrie was reported missing.

Investigators recently found a pair ofblack glovesthat are being tested for DNA, sources close to the investigation confirmed to CBS News. Nanos told CBS News on Friday that the gloves have been sent out for testing.

In its update Friday, the sheriff's department said "several" gloves have been found during the investigation, and that the closest gloves were found about 2 miles from Nancy Guthrie's home. A glove seen in imagesfrom the New York Postresembles those seen in the security camera footage authorities released earlier this week.

The FBI said Wednesday that agents were conducting an "extensive search" along multiple roadways in the Catalina Foothills area where Guthrie lives.

On Thursday, Savannah Guthrie posted a message to social media featuring clips of a family home movie when her mom was younger, writing, "We will never give up on her."

White tent set up on Nancy Guthrie's front porch

New details from FBI on Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation

More potential evidence in Nancy Guthrie case discovered

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four people have been indicted on federal charges stemming from clashes with federal officers in Minneapolis, including one woman who is accused of biting off an immigration officer's fingertip.

The three others were charged in connection with threats made to FBI agents after documents containing the agents' personal information was stolen from a vehicle.

According to sworn statements filed in those cases, the FBI agents were investigating a shooting by an Immigration Customs Enforcement Officer on Jan. 14 when protests made the area unsafe and they had to flee on foot, leaving behind two of their vehicles. The vehicles were vandalized and broken into, and several things were stolen including guns, FBI identification cards and documents that included addresses, phone numbers and other personal information of some FBI employees.

That personal information was then posted on social media, according to the court documents, and that's when the officers began receiving threatening phone calls, text messages and emails.

Woman accused of biting off immigration officer's fingertip

Claire Louise Feng, 27, is accused of biting off the fingertip of a special agent from Homeland Security Investigations during a Jan. 24 protest that happened after immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti. Feng, who is from St. Paul, Minnesota, was indicted on the charge of assaulting a federal officer resulting in injury.

In an affidavit filed in the case, Homeland Security Investigations special agent Bronson Day said an immigration officer was attempting to arrest another protester when Feng tackled the officer. A Customs and Border Protection officer took Feng to the ground and was trying to secure her arms when Feng bit the officer's finger through a glove, Day wrote.

The day was very cold and the officer didn't immediately realize the severity of the injury, Day wrote, but when the officer removed his glove, he realized the tip of his ring finger had been removed, exposing the bone. He was able to get medical attention within an hour, Day wrote.

Feng's attorney, Kevin C. Riach, said she would fight the charge.

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"All you have to do to assess the credibility of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents when they make allegations like this is to look at yesterday's dismissal that confirmed ICE agents have made false allegations against a defendant," Riach said. "We look forward to fighting this case and clearing Ms. Feng's name."

3 people indicted in threats to FBI agents

Brenna Marie Doyle, 18, of Spokane, Washington, was indicted Thursday on charges of threatening to murder a federal law enforcement officer, threatening to murder a federal law enforcement officer's family member and interstate transmission of a threat to injure a person. The indictment alleges she left voice messages on the FBI agent's phone threatening to kill them and their spouse and child.

Doyle hasn't entered a plea yet, and her attorney Robert D. Richman said they were waiting to receive evidence from the government so they can evaluate the case. He noted Doyle lives in Washington state and has never been to Minnesota.

"There is no allegation that she took any steps whatsoever to carry out any of these threats or come within a thousand miles of the agent," Richman said.

James Patrick Lyons, 45, of California was indicted on five counts of interstate transmission of threats to injure a person, and Jose Alberto Ramirez, 29, of Illinois was indicted on one count of the same charge. Both men are accused of sending threatening text messages to FBI employees.

Attorneys for Ramirez and Lyons did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment. Neither man has had the opportunity to enter a plea.

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

Two golfers in Washington, D.C., sued the federal government on Friday to try to prevent the Trump administrationfrom overhaulinga more than 100-year-old public golf course, accusing the administration of violating environmental laws and polluting a park that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The suit is the latest in a series of legal battles challenging President Donald Trump's extraordinary efforts to put his mark on public spaces in the nation's capitol, includingshuttering the Kennedy Center.

At the end of last year, a group of preservationistsfiled a similar lawsuitseeking to prevent the administration from demolishing the East Wing of the White House in order to build a ballroom — a project slated to cost $400.

Trump, who is an avid golfer himself, also plans on renovating amilitary golf coursejust outside of Washington that has been used by past presidents going back decades.

The complaint filed against the Department of the Interior on Friday says that the Trump administration's reconstruction of East Potomac Park — which includes the East Potomac Golf Course — would violate the congressional act that created the park in 1897. The roughly 130-year-old act established the park for the "recreation and the pleasure of the people."

The golf course, which has since been recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in part for its efforts to racially integrate in the 1940s. Municipal golf courses make up only 18% of courses in America.

"East Potomac Golf Links is a testament to what's possible with public land and why public spaces matter," said Washington resident and plaintiff Dave Roberts. "It deserves better than becoming a dumping ground for waste and yet another private playground for the privileged and powerful."

The lawsuit came after the Trump administration in December ended a lease agreement the nonprofit National Links Trust held for East Potomac and two other golf courses in Washington. The Interior Department said it did so because the nonprofit hadn't implemented required capital improvements and failed to meet the terms of the lease.

The Interior Department press office said in an email Friday that it doesn't comment on pending litigation.

However, it said it would "ensure these courses are safe, beautiful, open, affordable, enjoyable and accessible for people visiting the greatest capital city in the world which is in line with President Trump's agenda."

The White House also didn't respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday evening.

Construction on the East Potomac course has already begun, according to the lawsuit. In October, the National Parks Service began dumping debris from the demolition of the East Wing of the White House onto the golf course, the complaint said, raising concerns that the materials could contain contaminants that could pollute the air.

As a result, the plaintiffs argued, the administration of also violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider the harmful environmental impacts of the project.

The National Links Trust said in December they were "devastated" by the decision to terminate the lease and defended their management of the courses.

They said $8.5 million had gone toward capital improvements at the courses and that rounds played and revenue had more than doubled in their tenure managing the courses. They also added that the termination of the lease jeopardized hundreds of local jobs.

The nonprofit has agreed to keep managing the courses for the time being, but long-term renovations will stop.

The first 18 holes of the East Potomac Park Golf Course were built from 1918 to 1923.

___ Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

A top New Mexico official is calling for an investigation into public land near Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch after a newly released email alleged that two foreign girls were buried there.

Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said she requested an investigation after learning about a 2019 email included in recently released Epstein-related documents. The email, sent to a conservative radio host, claimed that two girls were buried on public land leased near the ranch. The act was allegedly done at the direction of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for sex trafficking.

"There was a very disturbing allegation that came out that could potentially be linked to state land," Garcia Richard said. "Because I am the manager of that land. I'm the elected steward of that land and what occurs there and what the land is used for is of utmost interest and importance to us at the State Land Office."

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT |Lutnick confirms 2012 boat visit with Epstein amid Senate questioning

She said, to her knowledge, neither the state land nor Zorro Ranch has ever been searched as part of a criminal investigation.

From reviewing historical documents, Garcia Richard said it appears the leased state land may have been used as a buffer around the ranch.

"It seems like the state land was used almost as a buffer, a shield to hide what activity was occurring on the ranch ... to insulate visibility to what was occurring there," she said.

Garcia Richard said she is concerned the land could be a potential crime scene.

"If state land was used for criminal activity, that is definitely something New Mexicans need to know," she said. "Those are answers that victims and survivors need to have."

Garcia Richard said she has the authority to cancel leases on state land and confirmed that any party associated with Epstein was removed from the property. The lease was canceled in 2019 and has not been issued to anyone else.

However, she said the State Land Office does not have law enforcement authority.

RELATED STORY |FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn't running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men, files show

"We are looking to partner with other agencies that do have that capacity to investigate the land," Garcia Richard said.

Garcia Richard said technology exists in New Mexico to conduct searches for possible unmarked graves, including ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.

The land in question is "fairly large," she said, but investigators would likely focus first on a specific area referenced as the hills behind Zorro Ranch, which she said is state land.

Garcia Richard said she has asked the New Mexico Department of Justice and federal authorities to get involved and plans to pursue other state partnerships if necessary.

Garcia Richard also said she reached out to the attorney general's office in 2019 seeking an investigation, but nothing was done at the time.

The twice-postponed Clash is in the rearview mirror, and NASCAR's top drivers have headed to the Sunshine State for the 68th Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Two-time defending winner William Byron and Denny Hamlin arrive in Daytona Beach, Fla., on the verge of entering rarified air.

If Byron is the first to the checkers in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Sunday's 200-lapper, he would become just the fifth driver to click off three 500 wins.

But in the previous 67 runnings, no winner has ever reeled off three straight checkered flags. Not seven-time winner Richard Petty nor four-time victor Cale Yarborough, the only wheelmen ever to elevate themselves past three career victories.

Byron, 28, is one of five drivers to ever record consecutive 500 triumphs, after Hamlin (2019, 2020), Sterling Marlin (1994, 1995), Yarborough (1983, 1984) and Petty (1973, 1974).

Byron, who enters his ninth Cup Series season with 16 total victories, would give owner Rick Hendrick his 11th in the Great American Race and allow Byron to match Hamlin, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Allison and Jeff Gordon with exactly three wins of the sport's crown jewel.

"I get reminders of the previous races, whether I see just the videos or whatnot," Byron said Wednesday. "Yeah, it's great career-defining moments that we've had. It's awesome. It's special. But I don't really think ahead too much. I just think about what it's going to take in these next couple days leading up to it."

However, Byron ran into trouble Thursday, wrecking his No. 24 in Duel No. 1, and will race with a backup car Sunday.

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Meanwhile, Hamlin will try to find some sense of normalcy: in his life, with his health and on the track.

During a difficult, tragic November and December, Hamlin lost his chance at his first Cup championship in the final laps at Phoenix to Kyle Larson as Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, which led 208 laps, was driving away on an emotional win dedicated to his ailing father.

Then, as 2025 was ending, Hamlin's father died following a house fire at the parents' home. The son is also not fully healthy, as Hamlin chose not to have surgery for a torn labrum that had been surgically repaired before but was re-injured in a fall while walking through the house's burned wreckage.

"It's just going to take a little while to kind of get back in the swing of things," said Hamlin, 45. "You know, it certainly has not been an easy offseason by any means, and I'm sure I'm probably in a different headspace than most of the competitors that have been rip-roaring, ready to go racing the last month or so.

"I'm probably in a different spot than that. I would certainly appreciate a few more months, but I don't have that. But we'll just kind of see how it goes."

So there will be another season for Hamlin to grapple with, a new Chase point system to figure out and another Daytona 500 this Sunday.

Polesitter Kyle Busch will lead the pack to green, while Joey Logano and Chase Elliott will be ones to watch after their Duel qualifying victories Thursday.

Hamlin could certainly win Sunday -- his Daytona 500 record shows it. However, that next phone call he will want to make, to the person who started it all, will be his hardest to reconcile because it can't be made.

--Field Level Media