A pregnant woman’s journey becomes a surreal exploration of class, gender and spiritual transformation in Sofia Alaoui’s striking debut

This film’s tagline tells only half the story: “A young pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.” Or possibly it suggests the wrong sort of story, like we’re in for a Roland Emmerich doomsday extravaganza or some high-concept M Night Shyamalan-style shenanigans. Instead, Moroccan film-maker Sofia Alaoui’s debut begins as insightful, sharply observed commentary on class and gender in her home country. The young pregnant woman of the tagline is Itto (Oumaïma Barid), who lives with her husband and his parents in palatial marble-and-gold luxury.

But Itto was not born into wealth: she is from a poor rural family, a fact that her stuck-up mother-in-law (Souad Khouyi) won’t let her forget. Itto is at home alone when a meteorological event hits, a flood that brings out the army in trucks. A neighbour is paid to drive her to the city where her husband and his family are stranded, but the neighbour abandons her in a village. Extremely pregnant and alone, Itto is vulnerabile which makes her fierce, conveyed by the intensity of Barid’s captivating performance. We’ve seen Itto being passive or sulky at home, but suddenly her face has the determination of an Olympic sprinter running towards the finish line.

A gripping film captures the fraught contests, lonely outposts and human toll of the Philippines’ struggle to assert sovereignty against China

Director Baby Ruth Villarama and her crew board an assortment of maritime vessels to record the ongoing strife and its consequences between the Philippines and China over control of what has recently been named the West Philippine Sea (WPS), formerly part of the South China Sea. This area, which is seen by just about everyone (apart from the People’s Republic of China) as part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, has been increasingly infiltrated by Chinese boats, some of them fishing vessels but mostly Chinese coast guard vessels that have harassed, rammed and attempted to board Filipino boats as part of the dispute over sovereignty in the area. Some of the footage seen here is pretty tense, although mostly it’s a game of bluster at sea, with officers on different vessels exchanging puffed-chest speeches peppered with legalese over short-wave radios, a kind of airwave diplomacy.

The film’s title refers to the ongoing efforts by the Filipino army to deliver foodstuffs to some of the tiny islands in the WPS where soldiers hold the line, literally, for long lonely stretches. And when we say “islands”, we’re talking about dollops of sand in shallow waters no bigger than a football pitch, accessible only by inflatable motorboats travelling at frightening speeds. They are certainly scary for the poor baby goats, loaded along with canned food and other supplies that we see scrambling for better footholds as the boats go zooming across the waves. Elsewhere, we follow fishers living in the more populated Scarborough Shoal who complain they are catching less due to Chinese fishing boats in the area.

A pregnant woman’s journey becomes a surreal exploration of class, gender and spiritual transformation in Sofia Alaoui’s striking debut

This film’s tagline tells only half the story: “A young pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.” Or possibly it suggests the wrong sort of story, like we’re in for a Roland Emmerich doomsday extravaganza or some high-concept M Night Shyamalan-style shenanigans. Instead, Moroccan film-maker Sofia Alaoui’s debut begins as insightful, sharply observed commentary on class and gender in her home country. The young pregnant woman of the tagline is Itto (Oumaïma Barid), who lives with her husband and his parents in palatial marble-and-gold luxury.

But Itto was not born into wealth: she is from a poor rural family, a fact that her stuck-up mother-in-law (Souad Khouyi) won’t let her forget. Itto is at home alone when a meteorological event hits, a flood that brings out the army in trucks. A neighbour is paid to drive her to the city where her husband and his family are stranded, but the neighbour abandons her in a village. Extremely pregnant and alone, Itto is vulnerabile which makes her fierce, conveyed by the intensity of Barid’s captivating performance. We’ve seen Itto being passive or sulky at home, but suddenly her face has the determination of an Olympic sprinter running towards the finish line.

European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage

• Business live – latest updates

The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.

European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage

• Business live – latest updates

The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.

European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage

• Business live – latest updates

The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Newsflash: The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into whether Google is breaching EU competition rules by using online content from web publishers and Youtube for artificial intelligence purposes.

The EC says:

The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage.

The content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services (‘AI Overviews’ and ‘AI Mode’) on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. AI Overviews shows AI-generated summaries responsive to a user’s search query above organic results, while AI Mode is a search tab similar to a chatbot answering users’ queries in a conversational style. The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search. Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it.

Video and other content uploaded on YouTube to train Google’s generative AI models without appropriate compensation to creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. Content creators uploading videos on YouTube have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models. Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data. At the same time, rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Newsflash: The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into whether Google is breaching EU competition rules by using online content from web publishers and Youtube for artificial intelligence purposes.

The EC says:

The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage.

The content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services (‘AI Overviews’ and ‘AI Mode’) on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. AI Overviews shows AI-generated summaries responsive to a user’s search query above organic results, while AI Mode is a search tab similar to a chatbot answering users’ queries in a conversational style. The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search. Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it.

Video and other content uploaded on YouTube to train Google’s generative AI models without appropriate compensation to creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. Content creators uploading videos on YouTube have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models. Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data. At the same time, rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Newsflash: The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into whether Google is breaching EU competition rules by using online content from web publishers and Youtube for artificial intelligence purposes.

The EC says:

The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage.

The content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services (‘AI Overviews’ and ‘AI Mode’) on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. AI Overviews shows AI-generated summaries responsive to a user’s search query above organic results, while AI Mode is a search tab similar to a chatbot answering users’ queries in a conversational style. The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers’ content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search. Indeed, many publishers depend on Google Search for user traffic, and they do not want to risk losing access to it.

Video and other content uploaded on YouTube to train Google’s generative AI models without appropriate compensation to creators and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. Content creators uploading videos on YouTube have an obligation to grant Google permission to use their data for different purposes, including for training generative AI models. Google does not remunerate YouTube content creators for their content, nor does allow them to upload their content on YouTube without allowing Google to use such data. At the same time, rival developers of AI models are barred by YouTube policies from using YouTube content to train their own AI models.