Vietnam has prepared a “second U.S. invasion plan” amid fears of an American “war of aggression” more than half a century after the end of the Vietnam War, according to a leaked internal military report. There’s a “consensus here across the government and across different ministries,” said Ben Swanton, the co-director of human rights group Project88, which published the classified document. This isn’t “just some kind of fringe element or paranoid element within the party or within the government,” he said to The Associated Press. 

‘Hanoi’s duality’ 
Hanoi has “mastered the art of managing” President Donald Trump since he has been in office, said Le Monde. Vietnam has adopted an “accommodating attitude,” permitting a $1.5 billion Trump-branded golf project and joining the president’s Board of Peace “without much hesitation,” as the country seeks a “favorable trade agreement ahead of its neighbors.” Yet “deep distrust remains,” exacerbated by Washington’s recent “renewed aggression” toward Venezuela and Iran. 

As well as “exposing Hanoi’s duality” toward the US, the leaked report “confirms a deep-seated fear” of international intervention, said the AP. With precedents such as the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines, the Vietnamese Communist Party fears a similar “color revolution” against its internally unchallenged leadership. 

‘Deliberate strategy’ 
Vietnam is one of the world’s “fastest-growing economies,” said the Financial Times. Its government has an “ambitious” annual growth target of 10% for this year and aims to turn Vietnam into a “developed country by 2045.” Hanoi has also agreed to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the EU in recent weeks as part of a “deliberate strategy” to “diversify and balance its diplomatic ties” and “avoid becoming too dependent on any single center of power,” said DW. 

The country has to maintain a delicate “balancing act” between the U.S. and China, with the former its largest export market and the latter its largest two-way trade partner, said the AP. But even though China’s influence is more immediate geographically, the leaked invasion plan implies that China is seen “more as a regional rival than a threat” like the U.S.

Companies are exaggerating their AI capabilities to raise their value and, in turn, creating a host of problems for executives and employees alike. They are using this so-called AI washing to justify layoffs and avoid government scrutiny and public scorn. 

What does AI washing look like?
AI washing can appear in several ways, most commonly through company claims of “integrating the newest technology” and being a “technological front-runner,” even if they don’t actually have the technology to support the claim, said Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute, to The Guardian. Firms can also “showcase back-tested results where AI appears to outperform human analysts, while omitting real-world scenarios where the same models falter,” said the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA).

Another form of AI washing involves the “rebranding of traditional analytics as AI,” said the NYSBA. “Regression models, statistical analyses and even Excel-based automation tools are frequently repackaged under the AI banner.” This allows companies to “capitalize on AI’s market appeal without investing in the underlying technology.” 

Since 2023, AI has been cited in over 71,000 job cut announcements, according to research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But while AI may inspire layoffs with hopes of replacing workers with bots, it may not yet be possible. As a result, said research firm Forrester, “over half of layoffs attributed to AI will be quietly reversed as companies realize the operational challenges of replacing human talent prematurely.”

Why is it happening?
AI discussions are “full of wild exaggeration,” said Forbes. People say the technology “can do everything you have ever dreamed of.” That makes it a perfect scapegoat for laying people off. Using AI as a reason for layoffs “may be less controversial than other reasons, like bad company planning,” said The New York Times. CEOs could be “blaming layoffs on AI advancements when they actually just overhired during the pandemic,” said The Guardian. And blaming layoffs on AI instead of Trump administration policies like tariffs may reflect that companies “feel there will be consequences” if they “say anything negative” about government decisions, said Martha Gimbel, the executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale University, to The Guardian.

Bad Bunny holds the Puerto Rican flag with light blue — the original 1895 design representative of the island’s independence movement — during his Super Bowl halftime show. The performance was viewed by an estimated 135 million people, according to preliminary counts, making it the most-watched performance in the game’s history.
Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images

In the past, February would mark the beginning of the home stretch for network series that typically went on hiatus over the holidays and concluded in May. But in the streaming era, programs new and old can debut pretty much whenever they want, including these eagerly awaited shows.

‘How to Get to Heaven From Belfast’
The creator of the hit Irish comedy “Derry Girls,” Lisa McGee, returns with a highly anticipated new series for Netflix. The comedy-thriller combines “early ‘Derry Girls’ vibes from the female-friendship-group-plus-token-Englishman dynamic” with a “detectable hint of ‘Bad Sisters,’” said Jordan King at Empire. (Feb. 12 on Netflix)

‘Strip Law’
Adam Scott (“Severance”) and Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”) headline this Netflix adult animated comedy (pictured above). The series is a “raunchy parody of legal dramas and a salute to the topsy-turvy morality of Vegas,” said Noel Murray at The New York Times. (Feb. 20 on Netflix)

‘Scrubs,’ season 10
This unexpected 10th season revival stars virtually the entire core cast of the long-running series. A “pivotal show in recent television history,” it “straddled both the ‘very special episode’ tone of ’80s sitcoms and the joke-a-minute style that dominates the single-camera era,” said Ryan Vlastelica at AV Club. It also “helped usher in a new era of comedy” now associated with “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation.” (Feb. 25 on ABC)