World Championship medalist and two-time Ukrainian Olympian Igor Chervynskiy has been “seriously wounded” in his country’s ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian Swimming Federation and fellow Olympian Sergiy Fesenko report to SwimSwam.
The 43-year-old was serving a combat mission on the front lines of the ongoing war when he was injured. While the exact nature of his injury has not been described, a photo shows him in a hospital bed with bandages on both legs and a metal medical device on his left leg. Fesenko says that he was hit by munitions dropped from a Russian drone.
Courtesy: Ukrainian Swimming Federation
Chervynskiy was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the country’s 6th largest-city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million. He was born there in 1981 when it was part of the USSR. That city near the Russian border has been a focal point of fighting in the war; as of April 2024, the Ukrainian government reported that almost a quarter of the city had been damaged or destroyed.
Chervynskiy was the 2003 World Championship silver medalist in the 1500 free and bronze medalist in the 800 free in Barcelona, part of Ukraine’s great distance swimming tradition. He was also the 1999 (SCM) and 2000 (LCM) European Champion in the 1500 free, two of five European medals in that event; a three-time World University Games Champion, the 2000 World Short Course Championship runner-up; and a three-time European Junior Champion in 1998 and 1999.
Prior to the start of the war, he was working as a swim coach at the youth sports school Spartak. Last year, at 42, and after two years of serving in the war, he won the Ukrainian Championship in the 5,000-meter swim in a 50 meter pool.
Fesenko was on the 2004 Olympic Team with Chervynskiy and his father, Sergey Fesenko senior, was a 1980 Olympic gold medalist in the 200 fly for the USSR. Fesenko currently lives in the United States.
Fesenko says that he is one of three known national swimmers who are currently fighting for Ukraine in the war.
Estimates of total fatalities from the war vary widely by source, but recent estimates by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies reports that Russia has suffered approximately 250,000 deaths and 950,000 casualties in the war since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while Ukraine has sustained an estimated 60,00-100,000 killed and up to 400,000 total casualties, including injured.
Photographs
Fesenko provided these photographs via Chervynskiy; SwimSwam could not verify the authenticity of the pictures.
Indie music distribution platform DistroKid has announced that artists can now upload music videos to Spotify via its DistroVid service – but the videos can only be viewed in the markets where Spotify has rolled out its music video feature.
Spotify has made music videos available in beta to Premium users in 98 markets. The US and Canada aren’t among them, although the service is available in a number of other major markets, including the UK, Japan, Germany, France, and South Korea.
To get their videos on Spotify through DistroKid’s service, artists have to sign up for DistroVid at USD $99 per year (or the equivalent in their local currency). For that fee, artists get an unlimited number of music video uploads.
DistroVid, which launched in 2022, also offers music video uploads to Apple Music, Vevo, Tidal, and Boomplay, and – like its music distribution service – it doesn’t charge a commission and remits 100% of earnings to the artist.
“DistroVid makes it easy for independent artists to get their music videos everywhere, with unlimited uploads and zero commission. We’re excited to now include Spotify as a destination,” DistroKid President Phil Bauer said in a statement on Wednesday (June 25).
Spotify rolled out music videos initially in 11 markets in March 2024, expanding it by another 85 markets last October. The move was widely seen as an attempt to challenge YouTube, which dominates the music video market among digital service providers.
Music tracks with an accompanying video appear on Spotify with a “switch to video” toggle that allows users to jump between the audio track and the video even in mid-stream.
“I’m so impressed by how seamlessly video has been integrated – listeners can instantly switch between the music video and audio track with a single tap, making it feel like a native, fluid part of the Spotify experience.”
Phil Bauer, DistroKid
“I’m so impressed by how seamlessly video has been integrated – listeners can instantly switch between the music video and audio track with a single tap, making it feel like a native, fluid part of the Spotify experience,” Bauer said.
“As an independent artist, growing my career is all about finding authentic mediums for discovery,” New York-based hip-hop artist Marlon Craft added.
“DistroVid and the ability to add music videos to Spotify creates an opportunity – if the visuals can live where people discover and listen to the music, it can allow visual art to market the music itself in a way that is super direct and impactful.”
DistroKid bills itself as “the world’s largest distributor of independent music,” claiming to distribute 30%-40% of all new music in the world. The company says it has processed more than 60 million songs and built a roster of 4 million artists, including “hobbyists, up-and-comers, top influencers, and international stars.”
Spotify took a minority stake in DistroKid in 2018 before selling most of it in 2021.
Based on Spotify filings, MBW estimates that Spotify owned around 17% of DistroKid (aka DK Holdco LLC) before the 2021 sale, and has owned around 4% of the distribution company subsequently.Music Business Worldwide
When discussing biodiversity, a powerful example often cited is the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone, which changed the course of the park’s rivers. This species was brought back to the U.S. national park in 1995, and soon after, the new predators reduced the deer population, allowing vegetation—especially aspens and willows—to recover. This, in turn, improved habitats for other species like beavers and birds, even altering river courses. This phenomenon is known as a “trophic cascade,” where the removal or addition of a species leads to unpredictable changes in an ecosystem. But how can we preserve biodiversity in the face of climate change and protect endangered species? Can technology help us in this effort?
Why is biodiversity being lost?
Before exploring the technologies that can help conserve species, it’s crucial to understand the main causes of biodiversity loss. According to UN data, one in eight species of flora and fauna worldwide is at risk of extinction due to four key factors:
Land-use change. This mainly involves converting forests and jungles into agricultural land, which destroys habitats and reduces biological diversity. This factor accounts for 30% of the global decline in biodiversity.
Overexploitation of resources. Overfishing, overhunting, and excessive harvesting of resources like timber deplete the planet’s renewable resources faster each year. This issue is responsible for 20% of global biodiversity loss.
Climate change and pollution. It is estimated that these factors contribute up to 14% of biodiversity loss. Some studies suggest that they could become the leading causes in the coming decades.
Invasive species. Species like the zebra mussel, lionfish, American crab, or Asian carp can become invasive, disrupting ecosystems and reducing biodiversity. They are estimated to be responsible for 11% of global biodiversity loss.
5 technological innovations for biodiversity conservation
In addition to transitioning to renewable energy, creating protected areas, and implementing similar conservation measures, technology offers valuable tools to support this mission. Here are five recent examples:
1. Genetic monitoring (eDNA). Environmental DNA (eDNA) technology has transformed how scientists monitor biodiversity. By detecting species through DNA traces left in the environment, such as in water or soil, it allows for the identification of rare or elusive species without invasive methods.
Example: Scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland are using drones equipped with adhesive to collect eDNA from tree branches.
2. Camera traps and drones. Camera traps equipped with motion and infrared sensors, along with drones carrying advanced cameras, enable the remote monitoring of wildlife and their habitats. These technologies can function in extreme conditions and transmit images in real time.
Example: The Australian Wildlife Conservancy used camera traps to capture footage of a rare Australian marsupial for the first time in history.
3. LiDaR for forest mapping. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) uses laser pulses emitted from aircraft or drones to map vegetation in high resolution. This technology helps scientists measure changes in forest ecosystems accurately and efficiently.
Example: In Indonesia, LiDAR has been used to assess the impact of logging in tropical forests.
4. Bioacoustics. Bioacoustics uses recording devices to capture the sounds of natural ecosystems. These sounds, from birdsong to frog croaks, are analyzed by AI to assess the health and biodiversity of ecosystems.
Example: Bioacoustics has been used to monitor the coquí llanero, a frog native to Puerto Rico’s dry savannah, over a ten-year period. The ongoing use of this technology is providing researchers with insights into the area’s biodiversity trends.
5. High-tech maps and big data. Advanced mapping technologies combine satellite imagery, sensor data, and data modeling to monitor vegetation and ecosystem changes on large scales. These platforms allow ecologists to observe forest loss in real time and respond more swiftly to threats.
Example: This technology extends beyond forests, as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) uses water quality sensors and satellite imagery to assess the health of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
To learn more about how technological advances can aid in conserving biodiversity, we recommend reading this article on the use of artificial intelligence and big data in preventing wildfires, one of the greatest environmental threats. And, of course, we encourage you to get involved in volunteer activities that contribute to the regeneration of natural ecosystems.
The complaint alleges that a law requiring the religious text violates ‘fundamental religious-freedom principles’ in the US.
A group of faith leaders in the United States have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the state of Texas from requiring the Ten Commandments, as detailed in the Old Testament of the Bible, to be displayed in public classrooms.
Their legal challenge on Tuesday comes just days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the legislation, which would make Texas the largest state in the country to impose such a requirement.
In the lawsuit, the Christian and Muslim faith leaders argue that the law would subject nearly six million students across Texas’s 9,100 public schools to “religious mandates, every single school day”.
“This is wholly inconsistent with the fundamental religious-freedom principles … upon which our nation was founded,” said the lawsuit.
It further noted that children who attend public schools in Texas “follow various faiths and religions, or do not practice any religion at all”.
The US Constitution protects the right to practice — or not practice — a religion without interference from the government.
Meanwhile, the concept of the “separation of church and state” has long been seen as a bedrock principle in US law. While it is not directly referred to in the US Constitution, its roots have been traced back to the US colonial period.
Thomas Jefferson, the country’s third president, used the phrase to discuss the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion”. The concept has also been upheld by several Supreme Court rulings.
Still, a handful of conservative-led states have sought to pass laws mixing public education with elements from the Christian religion.
In 2024, Louisiana became the first state in the US to mandate displaying of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Last week, a federal appeals court blocked the requirement.
Arkansas also passed a similar law in April, which several groups say they plan to challenge.
Proponents of those kinds of laws argue that the Ten Commandments have historical significance beyond their religious context and are foundational to US society.
A sponsor of the Texas bill, Candy Noble, said the requirement to show the Ten Commandments concerns “what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially”.
In Biblical narrative, the Ten Commandments were scrolled on two stone tablets and given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. Moses was then given the instruction to spread the teaching.
The commandments include rules such as “Thou shall not kill” and “Thou shall not steal”, as well as prohibitions against other gods, taking “the Lord’s name in vain” and not honouring the Sabbath day.
The Texas law requires public schools to display a poster or framed copy of an English version of the commandments, which should be no smaller than 16 by 20 inches or 41 by 51 centimetres.
Translations and interpretations, however, vary across denominations, faiths and languages and may differ in homes and houses of worship.
Several other groups have also vowed to challenge the law. They include the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
In a statement in May, the groups said the law “is religiously coercive and interferes with families’ right to direct children’s religious education”.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Nvidia shares hit a record high on Wednesday, marking a turnaround for the chip company following a rocky start to the year marked by US-China tensions over critical artificial intelligence technology.
The US chip designer’s shares rose 4.3 per cent, putting Nvidia decisively ahead of Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company, with a $3.77tn market capitalisation compared with Microsoft’s $3.66tn.
The rally came as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang gave a bullish outlook at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday about its ability to continue its explosive growth over the next decade. He cited the “multitrillion-dollar opportunity” of AI and robotics.
“We are at the beginning of a decade-long AI infrastructure build-out: demand for sovereign AI is growing around the world,” Huang told shareholders.
Concerns that tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon might pull back on their massive spending on the infrastructure behind AI have abated. During the most recent earnings season, tech companies reiterated their commitment to these investments.
Nvidia followed this with a solid earnings report at the end of May in which it beat Wall Street expectations.
Nvidia’s stock was dented earlier this year when a breakthrough by China’s DeepSeek led to concerns about the durability of Nvidia’s dominant position in the global AI infrastructure market. That event wiped nearly $600bn from the company’s market value.
Its stock was also knocked after US President Donald Trump introduced new restrictions on Nvidia’s China-specific H20 AI chips in his trade conflict with China.
The move has closed off Nvidia’s access to the Chinese market, which it says could reach $50bn in the coming years. Nvidia is considering a redesign to its Blackwell chips to continue to serve the China market while complying with the export controls.
Daniel Newman, chief executive of research company Futurum Group, said the rally was “about the ability of Nvidia to move as fast as it’s moving”.
“Even though cloud providers like Amazon and Microsoft want to build their own vertically integrated AI infrastructure, right now there’s no situation where the best technology stack isn’t Nvidia,” he said.
Threats from competitors such as AMD to take market share for advanced AI chips did not matter “if it’s a $400bn market in the next four years”.
Microsoft alone processed more than five times more requests to AI models such as ChatGPT last quarter compared with the year before, Huang told shareholders on Wednesday.
Other markets for Nvidia chips are also growing, including so-called neocloud AI companies, which offer access to leading AI chips. Nvidia-backed CoreWeave’s shares are up more than 300 per cent since its listing on Nasdaq in March, reflecting the return to investor optimism around the long-term growth prospects for AI.
Nvidia has committed to an annual release of AI chips and is positioning itself for the launch of Vera Rubin, which will follow its latest Blackwell systems that have seen massive demand, including from sovereign infrastructure deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Huang recently toured the Gulf states and Europe, announcing large deals as he touts a new era of “accelerated computing” and promises advances in productivity across all global industries.
“Nvidia is riding a general chip wave,” said G Dan Hutcheson, vice-president at TechInsights, with markets recovering from the impact of Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs and the DeepSeek breakthrough. “Nvidia was oversold because of both.”
At least 16 people have been killed and 400 injured in nationwide protests in Kenya against President William Ruto’s government, human rights group Amnesty Kenya has said.
Police clashed with protesters, who marched in their thousands – some chanting “Ruto must go” and waving branches as a symbol of peaceful opposition to his rule.
The government banned live TV and radio coverage of the demonstrations, but its decree was overturned by the High Court in the capital, Nairobi.
Ruto urged protesters not to threaten peace and stability, as crowds tried to reach his official residence but were pushed back by police.
“Protests should not be to destroy peace in Kenya. We do not have another country to go to when things go wrong. It is our responsibility to keep our country safe,” he said.
The president was speaking at a burial ceremony in the coastal county of Kilifi.
His absence from State House, his official residence, was notable as young protesters threatened to storm it.
Police used barricades and razor wire to seal off major roads – especially those leading to State House and parliament.
The protests were held exactly a year after demonstrators stormed parliament, setting part of the building ablaze.
At least 60 people were killed in a wave of anti-government protests last year.
The authorities have not yet given any casualty figures from Wednesday’s protests, but the Kenya Medical Association, Law Society of Kenya and the Police Reforms Working Group said in a joint statement that at least eight protesters were killed.
Of the 400 injured, 83 required “specialised treatment” and eight had suffered gunshot wounds. The injured included three police officers, the statement added.
Amina Mude told the BBC she joined the protests “to fight for the future of my kids”.
“I feel like as a country we’re not going in the right direction, especially in education and everything happening.
“I feel like it’s high time that the country and the leadership listens to us.”
Video footage showed plumes of white tear gas drifting between buildings in Narobi, sending protesters scrambling for cover, coughing, and shielding their eyes.
In the heart of the city, protesters marched pass shuttered shops and empty streets.
The fence around parliament was lined with wreaths and handwritten notes from grieving families and defiant youths – a reminder of last year’s unrest at the site.
A young woman draped in a Kenyan flag clutched a poster bearing the names of those killed a year ago by the security forces as they tried to end the protests.
As the Israel-Iran ceasefire staggered into effect on Tuesday, all of the combatants launched a plausible argument for victory.
In the United States, President Donald Trump claimed that both his diplomatic and military interventions had largely been responsible for halting the fighting, while the leaders of Iran and Israel each claimed to have secured a decisive win in a regional contest that dates back decades.
In Israel, however, the emerging narrative is that the end result of the conflict with Iran has solidified the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Just two weeks ago, Netanyahu was in real trouble. On the night before he ordered the unilateral strike on regional nemesis Iran, his governing coalition was only able to survive thanks to a last-minute deal with dissenting members. Public and political opinion had also appeared to have turned against his war on Gaza, and internationally, Israel’s allies were beginning to protest the blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
Now, he can argue that he has severely weakened Israel’s most dangerous regional enemy, Iran, and he claims that its nuclear programme has been destroyed and sent “down the drain”.
The Iran threat
Buoyed by rising poll numbers and the sense of having successfully confronted Iran, Netanyahu may, according to reports in Israel, seek to take advantage politically and call snap elections.
Having built up the threat of Iran over three decades, and repeatedly warned that his country’s principal bogeyman was about to build a nuclear weapon despite Tehran’s denials, Netanyahu can now take advantage of being seen as the man who ended that threat.
“Entire generations have grown up in Israel with this fear of Iran,” Israeli political scientist Ori Goldberg said. “There’s a foundational narrative that there’s this crazy state out there that, without any logic or reason, wants to destroy us.”
“My oldest daughter is 22 now, and has never known anything else,” Goldberg said. “Netanyahu is now getting the credit for having confronted that.”
In a video statement released earlier today, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich framed the conflict in characteristically apocalyptic terms, telling his social media followers, “The State of Israel has defeated in the last twelve days the empire of evil that threatened the entire world and sought the destruction of Israel.”
That argument is supported by much of the Israeli public – which has largely supported right-wing and far-right parties in recent years.
“Netanyahu is stronger than ever,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera. “No one’s going to bring him down, no one’s going to challenge him, not his opponents, not his detractors, nobody.”
“He showed that Israel can go it alone. He held off, before American help, then continued alone. Bennett, Lapid can’t challenge that,” Barak continued, referring to two former Israeli prime ministers, the right-wing Naftali Bennett and the centrist Yair Lapid, who are both opponents of Netanyahu.
Not so rosy
However, how long the Israeli prime minister’s perceived victory will last is uncertain. The Iranian government and its Islamic Republic form of governance remain in place, even as Netanyahu has repeatedly called for its overthrow. Netanyahu insinuated that regime change was a possible result of the conflict between Israel and Iran, and Trump used the term in a social media post on Sunday, before clarifying on Monday that he was opposed to regime change because it could lead to “chaos”.
And despite Israeli claims, it is too early to have a definitive answer on the condition of Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes. The former, despite Israel’s effective air defence systems, led to the deaths of at least 28 Israelis during the conflict, while Iran is likely to shroud its nuclear programme in secrecy going forward. Early intelligence assessments are reported to have determined that Iran’s nuclear timeline has been delayed, but not destroyed.
And analysts have previously suggested to Al Jazeera that Iran is likely to accelerate its nuclear programme, with hardliners within the Iranian regime now even more convinced of the need for a plausible deterrent against Israel.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions out there, such as how much uranium remains enriched, or even where it is, but, in the short term, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s been destroyed or not,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow with Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, told Al Jazeera. “Netanyahu and his allies in the White House will be able to spin it. What matters to them is that Iran has suffered a real physical and psychological blow.”
However, how long Netanyahu may be able to survive on spin alone remains far from certain, Mekelberg added. “Every Houdini eventually comes across a lock they can’t pick,” he said.
US President Donald Trump was unsparing in his criticism of Israel and Iran’s disregard of the ceasefire he brokered in remarks made on June 24 in Washington, DC, the US [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
Netanyahu’s actions since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023 have arguably made his country’s position weaker in the long term. Israel’s international isolation has increased, with revulsion worldwide at the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza, where it has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians. Netanyahu himself is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and South Africa has led a number of other countries in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of carrying out genocide in Gaza.
The images of those killed, including thousands of children, and the total destruction of Gaza, have spread on social media in particular, turning many in the West against Israel. This has become particularly noticeable in the US, where even on the right – traditionally a bastion of support for Israel – support for the country has become controversial.
And while Trump has shown himself to be a pro-Israeli president, the perception among many in his “America First” movement that Israel dragged the US into a war against Iran has led to anger and heavy criticism of Israel among many of Trump’s most prominent supporters.
Trump himself publicly reprimanded Israel after the latter planned to launch a large attack on Iran after the ceasefire began on Tuesday. Eventually, Israel conducted only a small and symbolic attack, following what it said was a ceasefire violation by Iran – one that Trump was clear did not warrant a response.
Some indication of the fury that has greeted Netanyahu’s decision to abuse the terms of Trump’s ceasefire was provided by Trump’s former chief strategist and ally Steve Bannon. Speaking on his War Room podcast on Tuesday, Bannon called Netanyahu a “bald-faced liar” and Israel a “protectorate”.
Appearing to address Netanyahu directly, Bannon continued, “You have the gall – particularly after what [Trump] did for you and the grief he’s taken over here – you have the gall … When he said, ‘This is what I’ve done, and I need you to be a partner, I need you to stand down first’, you lied to him. That’s why he’s furious”.
Gaza deal?
While Israel can put the conflict with Iran behind it – for now – the war on Gaza continues, with no sign of Israel finding an alternative force to Hamas to rule the enclave, and no deal to secure the release of the Israeli captives still held in the Palestinian territory.
That may put a wrench in any plans for Netanyahu to secure another term as prime minister in the short term.
“I’m not so sure about snap elections,” Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of parliament representing the Hadash-Ta’al Party, said.
“The polls are in Netanyahu’s favour, but it’s still not certain. I can’t see Netanyahu going to the polls with Gaza still going on,” she added, suggesting that the prime minister might wait for the summer parliamentary recess on July 26, when he would be freer to negotiate some kind of conclusion to the war on the enclave.
Based on Netanyahu’s attitude towards negotiations over the past 20 months, it is not clear that finding a deal to end the war on Gaza is something he wants. Instead, any deal is likely to require a significant push from Trump – if the US president wants to make one.
“I can’t see how Netanyahu can reach any kind of settlement in Gaza,” Goldberg said. “Everyone’s waiting for Trump to act again … Negotiations with Hamas may start again, but it’ll be Trump that imposes some kind of end to [the war].”
Mark Minevich is the president of Going Global Ventures and a strategic partner at Mayfield Venture Capital.
Computers now can write code, assess markets, prepare marketing campaigns, and carry out negotiation. As a leader, you must begin to ask yourself, where will we be when all of our people are no longer needed? Computers powered by AI can do nearly every task needed to run the technical aspect of an organization. Some in the field are sounding the alarm on potentially catastrophic effects to the labor market. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently warned that AI tools could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to as much as 20%.
But there is one indispensable thing machines can never do: Be human.
The future of leadership will be the result of working through this paradox.
Advances in hybrid intelligence
We are entering a time where machines and humans can join forces and work as one—aka hybrid intelligence. AI is being used as a tool by humans everywhere to enhance their abilities and productivity. Unfortunately, the fact that AI is primarily a tool and not a replacement for humans is not always well understood by the general public, or the workforce.
Simply putting artificial intelligence into a system isn’t enough for hybrid intelligence. How that AI is integrated is the crucial part. AI agents are not only used at the final stage of decisions, but they also partner with teams and sometimes even decide things by themselves. Because of this change, managers have to rethink their roles and how they control, supervise, and produce value.
Simply managing workflows is not enough for you to be a true leader anymore. Leadership in 2025 and beyond requires fitting humans, who supply feelings and ethics, together with technology that enhances the speed, reach, and uniformity of processes.
The human responsibilities in this era are not just crucial to the use of AI, they are the main ingredient to AI’s existence.
How to manage when AI rules the world
Last year, private investment in AI reached nearly $110 billion in the U.S. As AI agents quickly wrestle work away from us humans, how does management respond and truly lead? To lead organizations in the future, executives need to change how their org charts are written and begin focusing on human skills rather than divisions and ranks.
Always consider what only humans can do:
Emotions and political skills require better understanding of people. AI falls short here.
Strategic creativity is needed since innovation does not happen in a single direction. Only humans can make up the rules for games, rather than only focus on playing it faster.
Visionary leaders work on coming up with stories, judging ethical issues, building trust with all parties, and planning for various threats.
Some organizations are choosing to build teams now based on personal qualities. What does the human bring that is unique? Are they open-minded enough to use AI instead of deeming it a threat? Are they experienced with the technology and do they see it as an advantage rather than a personal detriment? These are the questions leaders of this new reality will continually ask.
Traditional leadership is becoming increasingly irrelevant
Middle management teams are being slowly removed in many organizations as more and more work can be automated and less human hours are needed. I am not talking about this happening over the course of the next five years—I mean now. So, your methods of leading and coaching these types of teams are no longer needed.
But not all the needs for humans will disappear. Leaders must figure out, in their specific business, what human skills are most relevant to the success of the company. Identify the employees in your business who possess these skills or are agile enough to be coached up. These are the workers you focus your coaching and development skills on.
Then, leaders must sell this approach, in essence, to all the major stakeholders in their business. This ensures that stakeholder confidence in the business is strong and well-maintained. Part of this sell is informing stakeholders that what you are keeping your human workforce for is to find better ways to think about a problem, rather than simply finding the fastest answers.
Can your culture keep up with technology?
Technologically everything moves at an ever-increasing pace. Culture in leadership is always much slower. While the worldwide move to automation is happening now, the majority of C-suites are sticking to ideas from the 20th century.
We already see that up to 99% of Fortune 500 companies use automation in hiring and resume screening and that AI is being used in sales andmarketing, as well as in nearly every other part of work as we know it. So, leaders must adapt their approach.
A large part of leading and coaching in the future will be showing your teams the ways in which AI is being deployed to their benefit, not as their replacement. You will need to let them behind the scenes as you create and implement new automations. You need to show them not only how this AI will work, but also why it is being used to their and the company’s benefit.
Who the new leader needs to be
In order to succeed in this new environment, leaders must be the director of societal ethics in their company. They must decide what is an ethical use of AI and when they are about to cross the line of pushing for pure profit at any human cost.
They must paint the picture for their teams of the full AI vision and make that picture related to every employee they want to keep in the fold.
They must also lead to create—or allow space for their teams to create—innovative approaches that make machine operations meaningful for people. They have to then be the orchestrators and bring people, platforms, and processes together without just sticking to antiquated organizational charts.
With less middle management, there is less delegation. Leaders must be the ones with the soft skills to work across divides. Whether those divides be cross functional, age gaps, or personality differences, leaders must speak all of these languages to get their teams working together. This allows them to foster quick and steady solutions.
The humanity dividend
Machines will keep getting better—there is no slowing that train. They will handle writing, building, forecasting budgets, and giving advice. Leaders earn the greatest advantage by having qualities that machines do not: judgment, empathy, and imagination.
In this era of AI, leadership means judging situations rather than controlling them. It means standing firm and seeing clearly, and being able to see all potential outcomes and how they affect your people, because AI will not know the best path for humans. That is your job, to make the decisions that benefit the most important part of your business: your people.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
Eurostar passengers are facing a second day of severe delays after two people died on the railway track in France and then cables were stolen.
The high-speed rail operators says repairs are complete and the railway line is open again, but delays will last until the end of the day.
Eurostar said passengers should postpone their journey, after the disruption saw services cancelled and delayed in both directions on lines connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Eurostar said there was already knock-on disruption on Wednesday after two people died in separate incidents on the LGV Nord line on Tuesday, but services were further impacted after cable was stolen on the same line.
The theft near Lille, which French media said was of around 600 metres of copper cables, caused trains to be rerouted, leading to extended journey times.
Further cancellations are not expected on Wednesday now that the railway line is repaired.
Eurostar said that so far, five trains between London and Paris have been cancelled.
“We’re very sorry for the impact this is having on our customers,” Eurostar said in a statement.
“Our teams are working closely with the French authorities and infrastructure teams to manage the situation and restore services safely.”
The operator earlier said one track had reopened, allowing some trains to run in both directions until full repairs were completed.
Water is being handed out to passengers onboard delayed trains, and stations are also very busy.
Hundreds of people are queuing at London’s St Pancras International railway station trying to access the service centre to rebook onto other trains.
Elizabeth Romijn, a yoga teacher from the Netherlands, told PA news agency at St Pancras that the situation was “very chaotic” and people were having to sit on the ground because there were not enough chairs.
The 75-year-old was planning to travel home to Brussels after visiting friends in Surrey.
“My plan is to just wait. Maybe I should go and be more proactive and go to ask one of the staff but nobody seems to know anything,” she said, adding that “it’s quite horrible long queues.”
The railway line in France was closed for much of the afternoon and evening on Tuesday after the two fatalities between Lille and Paris.
Services were cancelled on routes to and from Paris while trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam ran with delays.
Eurostar said disruption continued into Wednesday as trains and crew were displaced.
