Pelican Press

Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl – The Mercury News Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl – The Mercury News Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl The Mercury NewsKendrick Lamar puts the final nail in his Drake feud with subtle (and not-so-subtle) digs at the Super Bowl halftime show Yahoo EntertainmentKendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show: Every Hidden References You Missed The Times of IndiaKendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Made Quite a Political Statement Harper’s BAZAARLook of the Week: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl pants signal the return of flares CNN Source link #Kendrick #Lamar #major #change #Super #Bowl #Mercury #News Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Lidl raises pay ahead of minimum wage rise Lidl raises pay ahead of minimum wage rise Lidl has become the latest supermarket to announce a pay rise for thousands of workers ahead of the increase to the minimum wage in April. The *******-owned discount chain says the pay rises, which include upping its entry-level hourly wage from £12.40 to £12.75, will affect about 28,000 employees. The increase will take Lidl’s pay rates above planned rises that have been announced by Sainsbury’s and Aldi. Many retailers have warned that the increase in the minimum wage this April, together with a rise in employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs), will lead to job losses, higher prices and store closures. From April, the statutory National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over will rise from £11.44 an hour to £12.21. Lidl employs more than 35,000 people across the *** in over 970 stores and 14 warehouses. It said its new hourly pay rate can rise to £13.65 depending on length of service. In London, new starters will see their hourly rate rise to £14.00, which can increase to £14.35 over time. This tops Aldi, which recently revealed it would pay all store assistants at least £12.71 an hour nationally, with higher rates in London. Last month, Sainsbury’s said its wages would rise from £12 to £12.45 per hour in March before a further increase to £12.60, with higher rates for workers in London. However, Sainsbury’s has also announced it will cut 3,000 jobs as it shuts down its remaining cafés and closes its patisserie and pizza counters. While Sainsbury’s was already in the midst of a plan to save £1bn over the next few years, it is understood the rise in employers’ NICs announced in the Budget was also a factor in the restructuring plan. The government has defended its tax rises as necessary to avoid cuts to public services, and the Treasury has said that exemptions for smaller businesses mean more than half of employers will either see a cut or no change in their NI bills. But many retailers have criticised the move, and on Sunday the boss of M&S, Stuart Machin, said retailers were being “raided like a piggy bank” given the changes to various taxes. Meanwhile, a survey of the jobs market by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has indicated that firms are holding back on recruiting new staff, as uncertainty over how the economy is performing is leading to a “wait and see” approach. It found vacancy numbers have fallen sharply for permanent workers, with a steep drop observed in January. “An autumn of fiscal gloom, difficulty navigating significant upcoming tax rises and little progress on the practicalities of a costly new approach to employment rights are all acting as brakes on progress,” said Neil Carberry, REC chief executive. Source link #Lidl #raises #pay #ahead #minimum #wage #rise Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Six Nations 2025: Ireland live rent free in Scotland heads again Six Nations 2025: Ireland live rent free in Scotland heads again Townsend will get heat for this latest loss, not just because they were beaten – most people predicted an away win – but because they were beaten playing the same brand of rugby that always sees them beaten by Ireland. On Townsend’s watch, Scotland have won five out of seven against England, with one draw. They’ve beaten France five times and have beaten Wales twice in a row – with historic away victories against both. They are four wins from five against the Wallabies and, in two Tests against the All *******, they were there until the end, losing one by five and the other by eight. But Ireland? It’s a recurring nightmare. There was a list of things that Scotland had to do, and could not do, that was as long as the Corstorphine Road and they barely ticked a box. Stifled, again. Unable to handle Ireland’s pressure, again. Error-ridden, again. Blair Kinghorn might play for the greatest club in the world, but he had no great protectors here as he does at Toulouse. The full-back had one of his worst days in a Scotland jersey. A talented athlete, the green shirt is his kryptonite and he is not alone in that. Scotland needed more aggression, more belligerence, more directness, but they cannot live with Ireland in those areas. They don’t have enough heavies. There is only a certain level of ****** in this team – and that’s part of the problem. Scotland can win, or at least be competitive, against most nations these days because their backs can have a devastating impact, but against the unrelenting Ireland machine, it’s a different story. Townsend badly missed captain Sione Tuipulotu’s dominant presence in the midfield and you sense that, if some of his other second rows were not injured right now, he would not have started with the two he started with. When they are back on their feet, the present, and future, in the second row are Scott Cummings and Max Williamson along with Gregor Brown and Cameron Henderson. Scotland need more thunder, more brutes. To get to another level, they need monsters to meet the likes of Ireland on the gainline and hammer them backwards. They don’t have anything like the carries or the force from their locks when it is Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray, fine players though they are. You can add Andy Onyeama-Christie into the mix of sadly absent warriors. Whether from the start or off the bench, the back row is part of the solution. In Dublin last year, in a game that went to the wire with only four points between them at the end, the Saracens forward had a fantastic edge to him and made 31 tackles. So, there is a cavalry, but it’s stricken right now. We won’t see them this Six Nations, which is painful, because it’s England away next and the odds are against Scotland making it five in a row. England are not Ireland, though. So the psychology is different and the hope is real. Scotland will not be beaten before the first whistle at Twickenham. That was the suspicion on Sunday. Outplayed, yes. Overpowered, undoubtedly. But you got a sense, too – and not for the first time – that it was over almost before it began. Source link #Nations #Ireland #live #rent #free #Scotland #heads Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The story behind Alps, Europe’s second largest computer The story behind Alps, Europe’s second largest computer The Swiss National Supercomputing Center, also known as CSCS, built and deployed a new supercomputer in collaboration with Nvidia and HPE. The machine, called Alps, came on line at the end of 2024, and is already listed as the world’s seventh most powerful supercomputer – and Europe’s second most powerful. Computer Weekly sat down with Thomas Schulthess, director of CSCS and professor of computational physics at ETH [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or Federal Institute of Technology] Zurich, to find out more. What is the history of Alps and what architectural decisions did you make along the way? Thomas Schulthess: I’ll start by explaining the difference between CSCS and Alps. CSCS is a centre with people. The main facility is in Lugano, near the football stadium and the ice hockey stadium. It was founded in 1991, long before I arrived, and it’s where we deploy and operate supercomputers, the biggest of which is Alps, which came online in 2024. Before Alps, we had already deployed many other supercomputers. For example, we had Piz Daint, a hybrid Cray XC40/XC50 machine, which was the first GPU-based supercomputer in Europe. We deployed it around 2012 to 2013, which was around the time of Jaguar in Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US. One of the things that makes us special is that we design, build and operate supercomputers for MeteoSwiss, the Swiss meteorological service. Normally, weather services run their own computers, but in our case, we do it for them. As a result, we have had a strong collaboration with MeteoSwiss for decades. Alps is an effort to bring different computers into one platform – and it was motivated by a peer review of the centre that we had in 2015, where we got the very strong message telling us we did a great job deploying Piz Daint, but now we must face the challenges of data and complex workflows in scientific computing. That’s when we started to look for options for how to evolve supercomputing. And what came out as a collaboration with what was then Cray, and now HPE, who acquired Cray in 2019. At the time, Cray was pushing its system in the direction of a micro-service architecture, which is sometimes called a cloud-native architecture. For us, this was a really good development, but it turned out to be very difficult, much more difficult than anybody predicted. But we decided to go this way around 2018 to 2019. We ran the procurement, and Cray won the contract. We then considered competing architectures – Nvidia versus AMD – and in the end, we went for both. We did the scale out with Grace Hopper [from Nvidia]; and now we also have a significant partition of MI300A accelerators [from AMD] on Alps. And how Alps is running today? Schulthess: The way Alps works today is it has a very large slingshot network, like Frontier and LUMI – and we can partition the network. At the end of every network endpoint is either a storage device or a compute node. And the compute nodes are either Grace Hopper (GH200)-based or AMD-MI300A based. We also have Nvidia A100 and AMD MI250X processors, which makes the node the same as in LUMI and in Frontier. We have AMD Rome-based nodes as well, so a traditional multicore partition. Hence, we support a multitude of compute architectures on Alps. The idea there is that we can serve different workloads. And we have a big focus on application software development. So, we can make all these kinds of architectures available to software developers. And that’s where we are today. How do you offer service on Alps? Schulthess: You can view Alps like a cloud-like experience, with different types of service. We can offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Typically, we offer IaaS to other research infrastructures, like for the Paul Scherrer Institute that runs several large user programmes, including access to a synchrotron [the Swiss Light Source], the free electron laser [SwissFEL], and the Swiss Spallation Neutron facility to study muon sciences. And so they get a partition on Alps and they run their own platforms on it. In other cases, we might create a platform for AI or traditional HPC or climate and weather for users. And then we have users or communities that run their own function as a service, and we provide them with a platform as a service. We are also involved with large experiments like the Square Kilometer Array or the Swiss tier two for LHC data analysis that is part of the world LHC compute grid, which is a partition on Alps. And probably the most important thing now is that where we used to have a separate computer for MeteoSwiss, with the new model, we run their numerical forecasting system ICON in a partition on Alps. It seems that the fact that ICON is now running in a partition is a good indication of the size of ALPS? Schulthess: Well, it shows you the size, but also the breadth that we can cover. Traditionally, a supercomputer is a unique system. It may be heterogeneous – for example, Piz Daint is heterogeneous in that it has multicore nodes, GPU-accelerated nodes. It may be heterogeneous, but it was architected as a uniform system in that it’s a one-size-fits-all solution, in terms of the programming environment and things like that. Typically, users have to adapt to a particular supercomputer. So, you basically have a hammer and you need to make everything look like a nail. Now on Alps, we can create partitions and the software environment in those partitions to adapt to users. Who funds CSCS and ALPS? Schulthess: Alps as a research infrastructure is funded by the ETH Domain. CSCS is a unit of ETH Zurich, where I am also a professor of physics. ETH Zurich and EPFL, the sister school in Lausanne, and four national labs are joined together under what is called the ETH Domain. The whole domain is funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation – that’s our main funding source. But the MeteoSwiss part is funded by MeteoSwiss and whatever their funding sources are. So, we have to maintain a clear separation there. And also have third-party funding, like most research infrastructures, in the range of around 20%. Because we are a publicly funded infrastructure, even if we work with other third parties and get full cost recovery, we are still subsidised, and subsidies don’t scale. We cannot have commercial activities on our infrastructure, though we can engage in research collaboration with commercial companies. And when we do collaborate with companies, they must fund the recovery costs of those collaborations. What about your involvement in the OpenCHAMI consortium? Schulthess: The OpenCHAMI consortium currently includes five partners: Los Alamos National Laboratory, NERSC [National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center], Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Bristol, HPE, and CSCS. The consortium is developing the system management infrastructure of the future. Alps is an essential use case in this development. So, that’s why the system management software will continue to evolve over the next two or three years – here at CSCS, but also in Bristol, in Los Alamos, and in Berkeley. Source link #story #Alps #Europes #largest #computer Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to make Australia’s case on tariff exemptions direct to Donald Trump Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to make Australia’s case on tariff exemptions direct to Donald Trump Anthony Albanese will push Australia’s case to be exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs to US President Donald Trump when they speak on Tuesday. Mr Trump vowed to impose the tariffs universally when speaking to reporters en route to the Super Bowl on Monday. “Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” Mr Trump said, adding “aluminium too”. The move left *********** officials and industry scrambling to assess the impact and the likelihood of getting a deal, with some in the Coalition questioning whether Kevin Rudd is the right envoy to be pressing Australia’s case. Mr Albanese told Parliament he already had a call scheduled with Mr Trump for Tuesday, during which he would make his case for Australia to avoid the tariffs. Last year, Australia exported 223,000 tonnes of steel and 83,000 tonnes of aluminium to the US. Australia managed to get a carve-out from the trade impost during Mr Trump’s first presidency after then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull argued that the US had an incredible trade surplus Down Under. Mr Albanese plans to mount a similar argument. “We will navigate any differences which are there diplomatically, and we will continue to make the case to the United States for Australia to be given an exemption to any steel and aluminum tariffs,” he said. “We regard this as also being in the US national interest as well, because tariffs, of course, don’t tax us. They tax the purchases of our products. And that is something that’s very clear. “It’s also a fact that the US has had a trade surplus with Australia since the Truman administration.” The US sells twice as much into Australia as it buys from here and is our top investment partner in dollar terms. Defence Minister Richard Marles also raised trade in talks with his counterpart in Washington over the weekend. Foreign Minister Penny Wong was invited to Mr Trump’s inauguration in January and ambassador Kevin Rudd briefly met the President at his Florida club, Mar a Lago, earlier this year. “We will continue to engage diplomatically with the United States — not with loud hailers but diplomatically,” Mr Albanese said. The bulk of the diplomacy is expected to fall on Mr Rudd in a key test of his influence within the new administration. Shadow minister Jane Hume cast doubt on Mr Rudd’s effectiveness. “The most important thing here is that — just like the last time that tariffs were imposed — that there are the right people in government, the right people that are our emissaries, that can negotiate directly with the Trump administration to ensure an exemption,” she said. But crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie said the PM and his ministers needed to stand up to Mr Trump and not “play his bluff”. Camera IconJacqui Lambie said the PM and his ministers needed to stand up to Mr Trump. Credit: News Corp Australia “They need our critical minerals. So if Trump wants to play with Australia, I suggest you start getting your cowboy hats on and start playing because, quite seriously, we are worth a hell of a lot more than what they are to us,” she said. “They need us. So you stand on him and tell them we’re not playing this tariff game, mate.” The tariffs were expected feature heavily in private talks between business leaders and Mr Albanese at an *********** Industry Group dinner on Canberra on Monday night. He also discussed them with Rio Tinto’s global chief executive Jakob Stausholm earlier in the day. The Anglo-*********** miner has substantial aluminium operations in Canada, where President Trump is already threatening a 25 per cent tariff on imported goods. Here in Australia, Rio mines bauxite in Queensland and Northern Territory and has refineries for both alumina and aluminium. The *********** Industry Group (AiGroup) boss Innes Willox warned Mr Trump’s move was a reminder Australia could not be sanguine about its ties with the US. “On trade, the President is simply doing what he said he would do. Pollyannaish hopes that we would fly under the radar have proven to be sadly misplaced,” Mr Willox said. Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran ****** said the Government should do everything possible to get the best outcome for the country while Tania Constable from the Minerals Council said the tariffs set a concerning precedent. Steel and aluminium producers were trying to assess the potential damage should the US President step up imposts on free trade. The largest exposed company in Australia is to be BlueScope Steel, a big exporter to the US based in Melbourne with 4000 employees stateside out of a global workforce of 16,500. “BlueScope abides by all trade rules and agreements. We will continue to work with the Trump administration and the *********** Government, as we await further details,” a company spokesman said. WA was unlikely to be directly impacted since there were no steel or aluminium manufacturers in the State, according to Chamber of Minerals and Energy boss Rebecca Tomkinson. But the raw commodities needed to produce these products are mined in WA. Resources giants BHP, Fortescue and Rio Tinto mine WA’s powerhouse commodity iron ore in the Pilbara. Bauxite is mined by Perth-based South32 at Boddington and by US miner Alcoa in the Peel region and Darling Range. South32 and Alcoa also refine bauxite into alumina at operations in Pinjarra, Wagerup and Worsley, with the product then sold on and used as a feedstock to make aluminium. Neither were willing to comment on the impact a 25 per cent tariff could have on their businesses. Ms Tomkinson said State played a key role in the global supply chain for both goods and that any protectionist measures were a worry for WA’s trade-reliant economy. “It is too early to assess the impact of this latest round of tariffs but the threat of an escalating trade war should be a concern for all West Australians,” she said. Top industry bodies the *********** Steel Institute and *********** Aluminium Council indicated they were waiting on the President’s next move. Source link #Prime #Minister #Anthony #Albanese #Australias #case #tariff #exemptions #direct #Donald #Trump Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Looming tariffs turned into a mad dash north for one US manufacturer Looming tariffs turned into a mad dash north for one US manufacturer By Timothy Aeppel (Reuters) – Stephen Bullock’s phone rang early Monday morning last week at his small factory in North Carolina with an urgent message from his distributor up in Toronto who was rattled by what looked like an unfolding U.S.-Canada trade war. Two of the machines Bullock’s company produces – bulky contraptions used to lay concrete curbs, highway barriers, and sidewalks – were due to be shipped to Canada in a few weeks. Was there any way to get the 25,000-pound machines on trucks, like, today? “They said get them here as quick as you can,” said Bullock, President of Power Curbers, who scrambled to pull two finished machines destined for other buyers the next day. By then, the panic over potential ****-for-tat tariffs between the two neighbors had subsided – though the trucks carrying the $350,000 machines still rolled the 700-plus miles north. Not even 48 hours after President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada to take effect on Tuesday, the second-term president put the levies on Canada on hold, hours after unveiling a similar reprieve for Mexico. Canada had vowed to retaliate with its own levies on an array of U.S. goods, including orange juice and trucks. Bullock and his sales team worried his machines would get caught up in the cross-border spat. That kind of factory floor turmoil illustrates how tariffs can swiftly ricochet through economies, in unpredictable and often costly ways. Canada is the single-largest U.S. export destination among countries, with roughly $350 billion of American goods sent there last year, roughly 17% of total goods exports of just under $2.1 trillion. Exports to our two bordering neighbors totals $683.4 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Trump, on the campaign trail and in his first weeks in office, has extolled tariffs as a tool to boost domestic producers and fill the U.S. Treasury. And to be sure, some manufacturers love them. Leon Topalian, CEO of top U.S. steelmaker Nucor praised Trump’s tariff plans in a brief statement released by the company last weekend. New tariffs would have boosted steel prices, at least temporarily. But many other business leaders and groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, said tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada – parts of a close-knit North American supply chain – would hurt many domestic producers. Even companies that sell mostly “Made in the USA” goods often rely on ********* and ******** suppliers for parts or produce some finished goods there themselves that they sell back in the U.S. Story Continues ‘DEAL WITH IT’ One big risk is retaliation. When the U.S. slaps tariffs on imported goods, the targeted countries usually hit back with their own fees. President Trump acknowledged last Sunday that his tariffs may cause “short-term” pain for Americans as global markets reflected concerns they could slow growth and fuel inflation. Economists warn a new surge in prices could slow the Federal Reserve’s moves to cut interest rates. Kip Eideberg, senior vice president of government relations at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, noted that 30% of all the equipment made in the U.S. – everything from tractors to bulldozers – is exported. Canada is their largest market. “Equipment manufacturers across the board, across product segments, are moving equipment up to Canada in anticipation of these tariffs being levied,” he said, referring to both U.S. tariffs and expected retaliation. The levies could come back into play in a month if a longer-term deal or another reprieve is not reached. Eideberg said that while there’s heavy focus on the auto industry, it’s not unusual for parts or materials in his industry to move across a North American border five times as it goes through the production process. Some domestic producers are resigned to rolling with the volatility of tariff threats, even when they know they may be hit. Speaking to investors in late January, Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby said: “We’ve been around a hundred years, and we’ve seen many different administrations with different attitudes on these issues (tariffs) – and we’ll deal with it.” Jochen Zeitz, CEO of Harley Davidson, struck a similar tone in an investor call last week, noting their manufacturing is concentrated in the U.S. and even their sourcing of parts is “U.S. centric.” Even so, motorcycles were on the list of products Canada planned to hit with retaliatory tariffs. CLOUDING THE OUTLOOK Some companies that stand to benefit from tariffs say they’re seeing gains even before the new taxes are implemented, as customers increasingly look for ways to minimize their exposure. For instance, Kaysun, a small maker of high-tech plastic parts used in medical, industrial, automotive, and consumer products in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, has seen more interest from prospects looking to buy American. Ben Harrison, the company’s CEO, said he got a visit from a company two weeks ago that currently has parts made in Mexico and Asia. “They’re looking to start bringing in products from those countries because of higher costs,” he said. Tariffs did go up this week by 10% on U.S. imports from China, which hasn’t yet forged an agreement to postpone the taxes. Back at Power Curbers, CEO Bullock said he’s continuing to plan for tariffs on more countries and regions, including the European Union, another big market for his machines. The company, which employs about 125 workers, exports to over 100 countries. Canada is its largest foreign market. He would like to rush more goods north now, he said, but his assembly line is constrained by the availability of parts and the need for additional workers. To get more goods to Canada, he said, he’ll need to juggle production schedules to see if he can postpone shipments to some domestic buyers to free up supply. Until recently, this was shaping up to be a good year. Bullock had projected business would grow about 10% in 2025 and had planned to expand production in April by hiring an additional half dozen workers. Tariffs have cast a shadow on that. “We can’t make that kind of long-term decision,” he said, “until we see how this all plays out.” (Reporting by Timothy Aeppel; Editing by Anna Driver and Dan Burns) Source link #Looming #tariffs #turned #mad #dash #north #manufacturer Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Travis Kelce says chiefs didn't have a 'spark' in Super Bowl 2025 loss: 'Haven't played that bad all year' – New York Post Travis Kelce says chiefs didn't have a 'spark' in Super Bowl 2025 loss: 'Haven't played that bad all year' – New York Post Travis Kelce says chiefs didn’t have a ‘spark’ in Super Bowl 2025 loss: ‘Haven’t played that bad all year’ New York Post View Full Coverage on Google News Source link #Travis #Kelce #chiefs #didn039t #039spark039 #Super #Bowl #loss #039Haven039t #played #bad #year039 #York #Post Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump says US is ‘committed to buying and owning Gaza’ Trump says US is ‘committed to buying and owning Gaza’ AFP Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times during the war President Donald Trump has said he is “committed to buying and owning” the Gaza Strip and relocating the two million Palestinians living there, despite global condemnation of the plan he unveiled last week. He told reporters that he might allow Middle East countries to be involved in rebuilding parts of the territory and that he would make sure the ************ refugees would “live beautifully”. Both the ************ Authority and the armed group ******, whose 16-month war with Israel has caused widespread devastation in Gaza, reiterated that ************ land was “not for *****”. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s proposal as “revolutionary and creative”. It comes three weeks into a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, during which ****** has released some of the Israeli hostages it is holding in exchange for ************ prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy ****** in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. More than 48,180 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s ******-run health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has also been displaced multiple times, almost 70% of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed, and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter. Trump repeated his pledge to take over post-war Gaza as he flew to New Orleans on Air Force One to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that ****** doesn’t move back,” he said, without explaining who he would buy Gaza from and how the US would own it. “There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site… The remainder will be demolished,” he added. “But we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody.” Trump said people from all over the world would be able to move to Gaza and promised to “take care of the Palestinians”. “We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they’re not murdered.” “They don’t want to go back to Gaza. They only go back because they have no alternative,” he added. The president also again expressed confidence that he could persuade neighbouring Egypt and Jordan to help, despite their previous public rejections of his requests to take in refugees from Gaza. Jordan’s King Abdullah is due to meet Trump in Washington on Tuesday, while Israel’s president said Trump would also hold talks with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the coming days. Reuters Donald Trump did not explain how or from whom the US would “buy” Gaza Israel’s prime minister praised Trump’s proposal at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday. “For a full year, we have been told that on the ‘day after’, the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation], the ************ Authority, needs to be in the Strip,” Netanyahu said. “President Trump came with a completely different vision, much better for the State of Israel, a revolutionary and creative vision, which we are discussing. He is very determined to carry it out. This also opens many possibilities before us.” The ************ Authority’s foreign ministry said: “The rights of our people and our land are not for *****, exchange or bargaining.” “The Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu are trying to cover up the crimes of genocide, forced displacement and annexation which they have committed against our people,” it added. “For this purpose, they continue to promote slogans and positions which are separate from the political reality and far from the requirements of the political solutions to the conflict.” A political official from ****** – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the *** and other countries – said Trump’s remarks were “absurd” and reflected “deep ignorance of Palestine and the region”. “Gaza is not a property to be sold and bought. It is an integral part of our occupied ************ land,” Izzat al-Rishq stated. The UN human rights office warned that any forcible transfer in, or deportation of, people from occupied territory was strictly prohibited under international law. Palestinians also fear a repeat of the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes before and during the war that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the West Bank, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz also strongly criticised Trump’s plan on Sunday, calling it a “scandal”. “I say this with the Egyptian government, with the Jordanian government and with the people who can count on human dignity: the relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law,” he said during a televised pre-election debate. AFP Returning Palestinians have set up tents in northern Gaza after finding their homes destroyed ************ officials and Arab states also condemned comments made by Netanyahu in a TV interview last week. An Israeli journalist was discussing efforts to normalise diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia when he mistakenly said there would be no progress without the creation of a “Saudi state”. “A ************ state.” Netanyahu corrected him, before adding: “Unless you want the ************ state to be in Saudi Arabia? They have a lot of territory.” Egypt called the suggestion “reckless” and something that “directly infringes upon Saudi sovereignty”, while Jordan said it was “a flagrant violation of international law”. Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it appreciated the “condemnation, disapproval and total rejection announced by the brotherly countries towards what Benjamin Netanyahu stated regarding the displacement of the ************ people from their land”. Source link #Trump #committed #buying #owning #Gaza Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton must prove his fitness by Wednesday to play for Indigenous All-Stars Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton must prove his fitness by Wednesday to play for Indigenous All-Stars Fremantle star Shai Bolton is in a race against time to play for the Indigenous All-Stars and he has a clear deadline to prove his fitness so he can run out on Saturday. Source link #Fremantle #Dockers #star #Shai #Bolton #prove #fitness #Wednesday #play #Indigenous #AllStars Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (NS) Review | VGChartz Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (NS) Review | VGChartz VGChartz’s Evan Norris: “While we await a brand new Donkey Kong 2D platformer, we can at least enjoy one of the better entries in the series — Donkey Kong Country Returns — via this new Switch version. Although it’s not the celebration DK deserves, it represents the finest version of the game, thanks to HD assets; 60 fps; the inclusion of all the extra material from the 3DS port; and everything that made the original so special, including spectacular level designs, high replay value, and weighty controls. Fans who own the previous versions don’t need to rush out to buy it, especially at $60, but those who never played the game on Wii or 3DS should take notice.” Source link #Donkey #Kong #Country #Returns #Review #VGChartz Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump could make changes to Medicare drug price negotiations Trump could make changes to Medicare drug price negotiations President Donald Trump arrives in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Oliver Contreras | Afp | Getty Images President Donald Trump likely won’t do away with a landmark process that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, even as he moves to erase Joe Biden’s other historic policy accomplishments. But Trump will likely make some changes to those price talks, and it may not require help from Congress. “Trump is looking to nibble around the edges of the law,” said Matthew Kupferberg, a partner in Frier Levitt’s Life Sciences Group, adding that the president is “not looking to completely abandon the drug negotiation process at this point.” It’s still unclear which way Trump will lean, however. While some lawmakers and health policy experts said Trump could weaken the negotiations in a way that helps the pharmaceutical industry, other experts said he could double down and try to save patients and the federal government even more money to outdo his predecessor. The path he takes could have huge stakes for the prices 68 million Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S. pay for their medications. It will also have big implications for companies like Novo Nordisk, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Merck, among others whose drugs were included in the first two rounds of talks. The negotiations are a key provision of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, that aims to lower prescription medicine costs for seniors and save the government nearly $100 billion in Medicare spending over the next decade. The pharmaceutical industry fiercely opposes the price talks, arguing in a flurry of lawsuits that they threaten profits and discourage drug innovation. The Trump administration has offered few specifics on its approach to the negotiations, apart from saying in January that it will aim for “greater transparency” in the ongoing second cycle of the process and hear any ideas for improving it from external stakeholders. Making significant changes to the law or repealing it altogether would be an uphill battle because it requires help from Congress, where Republicans hold slim majorities. Reining in high health-care costs has strong bipartisan support in a nation where patients pay two-to-three times more for prescription drugs than people in other developed countries, making it a potentially unpopular move for Trump. So the Trump administration could move to implement the provision differently than Biden did, including by changing how the government interprets the law’s selection criteria for drugs, among other potential changes. “I think it is a question of how they interpret some of the statutory language,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a health policy organization. Cubanski said we can expect a first glimpse at any changes in the coming months. The Trump administration will start the months-long negotiation process for a second cycle of 15 drugs, which will have new prices go into effect in 2027. The Biden administration selected those medicines in January before Trump took office. Drugmakers have until the end of February to decide whether to participate in the talks, which they likely will because they otherwise face stiff financial penalties. What Trump could do on his own Trump has so far only indicated the need for more transparency in Medicare drug price negotiations. Kupferberg said that could mean disclosing more information about the government’s rationale for selecting drugs or settling on prices. During the first round of the talks, Medicare provided opportunities for public input from patients, caregivers and consumer groups. But Kupferberg said the Trump administration could move to bring in other stakeholders beyond manufacturers and patients, like insurers or even middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. “It could be a much broader type of negotiation process,” he said. EHStock | iStock | Getty Images The administration could also reinterpret the guidelines of the law, which could change what products get selected and how much prices fall, according to Amy Campbell, associate dean for law and health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. For example, the IRA says the drugs selected for negotiations must have been on the market for at least seven years without generic competitors, or 11 years in the case of biologic products such as vaccines. But the Trump administration, when selecting another round of drugs, may have “******* standards” for determining whether a drug has competition in the market and should be exempt from negotiated prices, Campbell said. Trump could also revise what Medicare considers one drug for the purpose of negotiations, KFF’s Cubanski said. Currently, different products that share the same active ingredient can be selected as a single product, which the pharmaceutical industry opposes. The Biden administration, for example, included three of Novo Nordisk’s branded medications with the same active ingredient – semaglutide – as one product in the second cycle of price talks. That includes the weight loss drug Wegovy, diabetes pill Rybelsus and the obesity injection Ozempic. Of the three, Ozempic makes up the lion’s share of Medicare spending. Either of those changes to how Medicare selects drugs could benefit drugmakers and lessen the revenue they lose from lower prices. The ******* question is how aggressively Medicare will negotiate prices under Trump, Cubanski said. Currently, the final negotiated price for a drug cannot exceed an upper limit, or “ceiling” price, established by the IRA. Trump could influence whether Medicare’s initial price offer for a drug is closer to the ceiling price, which could weaken the program’s ability to secure a deeper discount. ******* changes in Congress are a challenge Major changes to the price negotiations are much less likely to occur, as they would require help from Congress. For example, one of the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest issues with the process is what drugmakers calls the “pill penalty.” The law essentially spares biologics like vaccines from new negotiated prices for 13 years after they receive U.S. approval, compared to just nine years for small-molecule drugs that come in a pill or tablet form. The industry argues that the discrepancy discourages companies from investing in the development of small-molecule drugs, which are more convenient for patients. Images By ***** Ming Tung | Digitalvision | Getty Images Cubanski said bipartisan legislation was introduced last year that proposes eliminating the pill penalty. If that bill makes it through Congress and to Trump’s desk, “I don’t see why he wouldn’t sign it,” Cubanski said. She added that there appears to be growing interest in legislative changes to the negotiation program, but “whether you get enough support in Congress is still really an open question.” There isn’t the same level of bipartisan support for changes to the IRA as there is for efforts like pharmacy benefit manager reform, said Jesse Dresser, partner in Frier Levitt’s Life Sciences Department. “I could see something like [PBM reform] happening a lot sooner than I could see trying to open up the IRA and tweak it, even if it’s something that the administration might ultimately get behind,” Dresser said. Legal fight is still pending It’s unclear how Trump will approach the ongoing legal fight between manufacturers and the federal government over the Medicare program. The pharmaceutical industry’s legal challenges, which argue that the talks are unconstitutional and should be stopped, have so far been unsuccessful in court. Nine lawsuits were ongoing as of January. “Will the Trump administration continue to defend the program? Or maybe not as aggressively defend the program?” Cubanski said. “I think those are some key questions.” If the Trump administration stops defending the program in court, judges could then make decisions on the matter without any opposition, Kupferberg said. But he said he doesn’t believe the administration will want that outcome. The Trump administration would likely “want to take control of that process, where the parties work out an agreement or revise and change the interpretation of the law,” Kupferberg said. He added that it doesn’t seem like Trump would want the entire negotiation program to disappear based on the lawsuits. That’s because it would leave Trump in the position to come up with a replacement for Medicare drug price negotiations, and we “just haven’t seen one yet” from him, Kupferberg said. Source link #Trump #Medicare #drug #price #negotiations Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Chicago doctor arrested after dog found starving in storage bin, police say Chicago doctor arrested after dog found starving in storage bin, police say CHICAGO – A Chicago doctor is accused of abusing a dog that was discovered barely breathing inside a crate. What we know A cleaning woman found the malnourished Portuguese water dog, named Betty, inside a plastic storage bin placed in a bathtub, according to police reports. The incident happened in March 2024 in the 2200 block of North Lakewood Avenue. The suspect, 38-year-old Anita Damodaran, a practicing pediatric physician, was being evicted at the time of the incident. “She had impact sores all over, ****** burns, her fur was extremely matted, and she was probably surviving on her own ******,” said John Garrido, with the Stray Rescue Foundation. Arrest Made Chicago police issued a warrant for Damodaran on animal cruelty charges. She was later arrested in Florida. In court, advocates said Damodaran claimed the dog belonged to her parents and that she had no idea Betty was inside the bin. The good news—Betty is alive and well. “She’s fully recovered, she’s in a new home, she’s living the life she deserves,” Garrido said. Garrido and his wife, founders of the Garrido Stray Rescue Foundation, support nearly 200 dogs a year. Three weeks ago, 20 **** advocates gathered in a Skokie courtroom, pushing for justice for Betty. “That is such a horrific act of cruelty, it can’t be forgotten… for the person who did it,” Garrido said. What’s next A judge denied a detention request for Damodaran. She was ordered to remain in Illinois and observe a 12-hour nightly curfew. Damodaran is due back in court on Friday, Feb. 14. Source link #Chicago #doctor #arrested #dog #starving #storage #bin #police Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Monster Hunter Wilds’ Open Beta Test 2 may get an extra day due to PSN outage Monster Hunter Wilds’ Open Beta Test 2 may get an extra day due to PSN outage The current Open Beta Test 2 event for Monster Hunter Wilds may get some extra time due to the recent PlayStation Network outage. The PlayStation Network was down for around 24 hours over the weekend, meaning many players weren’t able to connect their consoles online, making online multiplayer, PS Store purchases and using the PS Portal impossible. This also proved to be unfortunate timing for Monster Hunter fans, because the first of two Monster Hunter Wilds open beta sessions was running over the weekend. As a result, many players were unable to access the Open Beta Test 2 for the game for a large part of the weekend, something Capcom has now acknowledged. In a post on the official Monster Hunter account on X, the publisher said it was looking into adding an extra day to the Open Beta Test 2 at some point in the future. “PS5 hunters, thanks for your patience and understanding during this weekend’s PSN service issues,” the statement read. “To account for reduced Open Beta Test 2 play time due to the outage, we are considering running Open Beta Test 2 for an additional 24 hours at a future date. Exact details and timing are TBD, so please stay tuned.” The second Open Beta Test 2 session is expected to take place between February 14-17, and the full game releases on February 28, so it’s not clear whether Capcom’s plan is to potentially add another day onto the end of the upcoming beta, or to squeeze in one more day the following weekend, right before launch. Players who take part in Open Beta Test 2 will receive a special Bonus Pendant – the same one available for participating in the first open beta – as well as an OBT 2 Bonus Item Pack offering 54 consumable in-game items. Source link #Monster #Hunter #Wilds #Open #Beta #Test #extra #day #due #PSN #outage Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Macron unveils $112B AI investment package, France’s answer to US’ Stargate – TechCrunch Macron unveils $112B AI investment package, France’s answer to US’ Stargate – TechCrunch Macron unveils $112B AI investment package, France’s answer to US’ Stargate TechCrunchExclusive | France Taps Nuclear Power for New AI Training Cluster The Wall Street JournalFrance unveils 109-billion-euro AI investment as Europe looks to keep up with U.S. CNBCEurope ‘not in the AI race today,’ French President Macron says CNNMacron signals investments of 109 billion euros in French AI by private sector Reuters.com Source link #Macron #unveils #112B #investment #package #Frances #answer #Stargate #TechCrunch Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Fortnite’s upcoming Disney universe has moved to a ‘stable build’, insider claims Fortnite’s upcoming Disney universe has moved to a ‘stable build’, insider claims Fortnite’s planned Disney universe has moved to a ‘stable’ build, according to a prominent Fortnite insider. HypeX, who regularly leaks Fortnite information, noted on X that the ‘Disney Collab’ planned for Fortnite had just moved into a “stable build/branch”. While this doesn’t pinpoint exactly how long it’ll be before the new universe is released – there’s no set rule for when a development roadmap reaches the creation of the first stable build – it does suggest that development is continuing on the seemingly major collaboration. In February 2024, Disney announced that it was investing $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games, and that as part of this the two companies would be partnering to create an “all-new games and entertainment universe” connected to Fortnite. A teaser trailer for the new universe showed what appears to be a large world divided into smaller islands, each with a different theme based on various Disney properties. This includes a central Disney Castle area leading out to separate islands, seemingly populated with attractions based on Wreck-it Ralph, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Monsters University, Iron Man, Star Wars, Disney Cruise Line and various other ESPN, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and 20th Century Fox IPs. Powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine and launching “soon(ish)”, according to the trailer, the new universe will let users create their own stories and experiences and share content with each other, according to Disney. “Our exciting new relationship with Epic Games will bring together Disney’s beloved brands and franchises with the hugely popular Fortnite in a transformational new games and entertainment universe,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said last year. “This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion. We can’t wait for fans to experience the Disney stories and worlds they love in groundbreaking new ways.” Disney has collaborated with Epic numerous times in Fortnite since the game started featuring guest character ‘outfits’ (skins) in 2017. Disney characters who have appeared as outfits in Fortnite have included Indiana Jones, Jack Skellington, Baymax, the Incredibles, Maleficent, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil and a wide variety of Marvel and Star Wars characters. Source link #Fortnites #upcoming #Disney #universe #moved #stable #build #insider #claims Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Southport mum says she will ‘never feel true happiness again’ Southport mum says she will ‘never feel true happiness again’ Stewart Whittingham BBC News Family handout Elsie Dot Stancombe’s mother described her as a “dedicated” Taylor Swift fan The mother of a seven-year-old girl who was murdered in the Southport knife attacks has said she will “never feel true happiness again”. Elsie Dot Stancombe was one of three girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on 29 July. The others were nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar and six-year-old Bebe King. Jenni Stancombe also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she welcomed the recently announced public inquiry into the Southport attacks. Axel Rudakubana, now 18 and originally from Banks in Lancashire, was last month jailed for a minimum of 52 years for their murders. Mrs Stancombe described Elsie as “very brave” and “fearless”, adding that it was a “privilege to be her mum”. Elsie’s parents have set up a charity, Elsie’s Story, to help children in need. In their first television interview, Mrs Stancombe said: “We feel like it’s our duty as her mum and dad to continue writing Elsie’s story for her. “So many times we’ve said: ‘We’ll never feel true happiness again, ever’. “We might just feel a little something else when we make another little girl smile, for Elsie. “We want to do her proud.” ‘Children need to be protected’ Speaking about the forthcoming public inquiry, Mrs Stancombe said: “It will hold people to account for some of the decisions that they’ve made and, as a result, allowed this to happen. “Our girls just need to be safe. Children need to be safer and protected.” Her husband, David Stancombe, urged the public inquiry to fully scrutinise the anti-terror scheme Prevent, which failed to stop Rudakubana. He said: “The fact that he’s been flagged up so many times and because he didn’t meet the criteria of certain things… It just doesn’t work like that, does it?” Rudakubana also attempted to kill eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as Leanne Lucas, who was running the dance class, and local businessman John Hayes. Southport: ‘We have to live for her’ – Bebe King’s parents Meanwhile Bebe King’s parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Good Morning Britain they had concerns about the televising of sentencing hearings. Bebe’s father said: “We understand it had to be heard in court, but that’s it. “It didn’t have to be televised at all. You know, that’s what’s really hurt us.” They also spoke about Bebe’s legacy. Her mother said: “I really, really hope that in spirit, she can still have an impression on the world. “She can help just the future, protecting children, and I believe she’s going to move mountains.” Bebe was “pure light and joy”, she said. “She was a beautiful, funny, crazy, gorgeous girl, and her legacy? “It can’t be defined by what’s happened.” Alice da Silva Aguiar’s parents have chosen not to speak publicly but support the other families. Family handout Alice da Silva Aguiar pictured during her Holy Communion Source link #Southport #mum #feel #true #happiness Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Clash of Clans Makes a Massive Change After Thirteen Years Clash of Clans Makes a Massive Change After Thirteen Years Clash of Clans has been around for almost a decade, and fans of the game have been waiting for this subtle but impactful change, and Supercell finally made it happen. Players now have the ability to clear obstacles without having a builder available. This is a small change, but a massive one. Think of all the Gems you would’ve gotten over the years if this had been implemented since day one. Apart from this QoL change, February brought a lot of new and exciting features, changes, and troops to the game, and we’ll get through all of them. Clash of Clans February 2025 Patch Overview Image via Supercell While Clash of Clans added the ability to clear obstacles without having a builder open, they also added an easier way of upgrading walls. You can now select multiple walls of the same level and upgrade them independently. Since walls get ridiculously expensive fast, there are times when you just want to upgrade to the lowest one first, and you can now do that through the new wall selection feature. Apart from these, players also receive a massive discount on almost every store (yup, no wall discounts here). Potions and other useful items will now cost fewer gems. Clan War League shop items will also see a reduction in price (Clan War League Medals). Players also get a Gold, Elixir, and Dark Elixir capacity boost at Town Hall 14 and above, with 28,000,000 Gold and Elixir maximum capacity and a 460,000 Dark Elixir capacity. There are time reductions all around. I am guessing their massive update last year of reducing the time and helping players, especially new players, progress helped keep their community engaged. Who knew this would work? Related: Clash of Clans Snake Festival Lunar New Year Event Details There’s a new siege machine called the Troop Launcher available at Workshop level 8. Troop Launcher launches a Giant, a couple of Barbarians, four Archers, and two Wall Breakers at defenses. They can attack up to seven times, creating so many troops in the process (at max level). A geared-up Cannon and geared-up Archer Tower will merge to create the Multi-Gear Tower. You can also upgrade the Multi-Gear Tower to level 2 once merged. The Minion Prince gets a new hero equipment called the Metal Pants. It is a defensive barrier, much needed for such a vulnerable hero. However, Minion Prince doesn’t need to be “tanky” or durable because you usually use the Minion Prince as an offensive unit with a few Ballons, Dragons, or even Minions (as well as guards from the equipment) to redirect attacks away from the Minion Prince. The Alchemist is available at Town Hall 11 at the Helper Hut. You have to unlock her using 100 Gems after reaching Town Hall 11. She helps you convert resources to another resource with a little bonus. For example, you can convert 1,500,000 Elixir to 1,515,000 Gold, giving you an extra 15,000 because of the 1% conversion bonus. The conversion bonus can be increased up to 10%, but it’ll take Gems to upgrade the Alchemist. As for troop changes, here are the troops that are getting some love with upgrades: Archer goes up to level 13. Healer goes up to level 10 (only hero heal increases). P.E.K.K.A goes up to level 12. Miner goes up to level 11. Bowler goes up to level 9. Poison Spell goes up to level 12. Haste Spell goes up to level 6. Here are the new upgrades to defense buildings as well: Mortar goes up to level 17. Scattershot goes up to level 6. X-Bow goes up to level 12 (with Supercharge levels). Hidden Tesla goes up to level 16. Overall, the changes are extremely positive, as players get a lot more at a cost of nothing. Huge win, Supercell. Prima Games is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy Source link #Clash #Clans #Massive #Change #Thirteen #Years Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Bond Market Gains Fade as Trump, Inflation Keep Yields High – Yahoo Finance Bond Market Gains Fade as Trump, Inflation Keep Yields High – Yahoo Finance Bond Market Gains Fade as Trump, Inflation Keep Yields High Yahoo FinanceView Full Coverage on Google News Source link #Bond #Market #Gains #Fade #Trump #Inflation #Yields #High #Yahoo #Finance Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Samsung Galaxy S26 Series May Use Exynos SoCs as Foundry Achieves More Than 30 Percent Yield: Report Samsung Galaxy S26 Series May Use Exynos SoCs as Foundry Achieves More Than 30 Percent Yield: Report Samsung just launched it’s Galaxy S25 series with all three models going on ***** in India. The smartphones are priced from Rs. 80,999 and offer Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processors in all markets. This was a noticeable shift from the Galaxy S24 series, which went with Samsung’s own Exynos 2400 SoC last year for all models except for its flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, Samsung may reportedly switch back to its Exynos chips for its next-gen Galaxy S26 series. A report by the Korean publication The Bell has pointed out that Samsung Electronics has witnessed success with its Exynos 2600 SoC yield. The Exynos 2600 SoC’s current success stems from its 30 percent yield, outperforming the Exynos 2500 SoC, which was never released. While achieving a 30 percent success rate is a big deal, we did see a similar report last year with the Exynos 2500 SoC, but as things panned out, Samsung clearly wasn’t in a position to roll them out with the Galaxy S25 series this year, opting for Qualcomm’s chipset instead. The source points out that the chip division is now planning for mass production in the fourth quarter of this year. However, this is provided Samsung can achieve a 60 percent success rate (or yield) with for its 2nm chipset. A 60 percent yield is usually the requirement before a chipset can enter mass production. The report also goes on to clarify that Samsung Electonics’ failure to deliver a better yield was the reason why Samsung opted for Qualcomm’s chipset in its latest Galaxy S25 series this year. Samsung had switched over to using its own Exynos 2400 SoC with its Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus models last year. As per the latest reports, Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series is set to debut around the same time its Galaxy S25 series was announced this year. Among the many upgrades, Samsung is said to finally switch to newer silicon carbon batteries, better cameras and even an under-display camera for its Galaxy S26 Ultra model. Source link #Samsung #Galaxy #S26 #Series #Exynos #SoCs #Foundry #Achieves #Percent #Yield #Report Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Monza manager back on the job seven weeks after sacking Monza manager back on the job seven weeks after sacking Monza have recalled Alessandro Nesta to take over as manager following the sacking of Salvatore Bocchetti by the Serie A club. Monday’s move follows a heavy defeat at the weekend that kept the club rooted at the bottom of the standings in Italy’s top league. Bocchetti replaced Nesta in December, signing a contract until June 2027, but his side registered only one win in seven league games, and Sunday’s 5-1 loss at Lazio was Monza’s fourth consecutive defeat. Monza also exited the Coppa Italia, losing 4-0 to Bologna, during Bocchetti’s time in charge. Nesta, a former Italy international and defender with Lazio and AC Milan, returns to the bench seven weeks after his sacking. He originally took charge when Raffaele Palladino left for Fiorentina at the end of last season, but his first managerial role in Serie A initially ended after Monza managed one league win in the opening 17 games. Monza, with two league wins this season, have 13 points from 24 games, and host Lecce on Sunday. Source link #Monza #manager #job #weeks #sacking Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Bank Seen With Smashed Windows in Philadelphia After Super Bowl Celebrations Bank Seen With Smashed Windows in Philadelphia After Super Bowl Celebrations A bank in Philadelphia was seen with its windows smashed early on Monday, February 10, after a night of revellry in the city following the Eagles’ Super Bowl win. Footage from Brendan Gutenschwager shows a Chase Bank branch with smashed windows. Philadelphia Police asked crowds downtown to “clear the streets” early on Monday morning, following reports of rowdy celebrations. Credit: Brendan Gutenschwager via Storyful Video Transcript Jo, det er sdan. i Jo, det. otte Jo. i Source link #Bank #Smashed #Windows #Philadelphia #Super #Bowl #Celebrations Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl – The Mercury News Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl – The Mercury News Kendrick Lamar does ‘Not Like Us’ — yet with one major change — at Super Bowl The Mercury NewsKendrick Lamar puts the final nail in his Drake feud with subtle (and not-so-subtle) digs at the Super Bowl halftime show Yahoo EntertainmentThe Making of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show The Wall Street JournalReview: Kendrick Lamar brings America and ‘Not Like Us’ into history-making Super Bowl halftime show The Associated PressLook of the Week: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl pants signal the return of flares CNN Source link #Kendrick #Lamar #major #change #Super #Bowl #Mercury #News Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Former World of Warcraft Developer Suggests Making “a good game” Is the Key to Ranking on Steam Former World of Warcraft Developer Suggests Making “a good game” Is the Key to Ranking on Steam In an industry obsessed with marketing tricks and algorithmic optimization, one veteran developer is taking a refreshingly straightforward approach. Chris Kaleiki, who spent 13 years designing classes for World of Warcraft, has a simple philosophy for his upcoming game: make it good, and players will come. No algorithm hacks are needed, just pure hack-and-slash fun. | Image Credit: Notorious Studios As his studio’s new PvPvE extraction RPG, Legacy: Steel & Sorcery, prepares for its Steam Early Access debut on February 12, Kaleiki isn’t losing sleep over visibility algorithms or marketing strategies. Instead, he seems to be focused on what really matters—designing an experience that players will genuinely enjoy. This approach might seem naive in today’s overcrowded market, but recent successes suggest he might be onto something. From the most recent record-breaking launch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to the pure, unadulterated fun of Helldivers 2, games that prioritize quality over quotas are having quite a moment. Ex-World of Warcraft dev on making games that players actually want to play While many developers scramble to crack the code of Steam’s mysterious algorithm, Notorious Studios is taking the road less traveled. Instead of chasing trends or checking boxes, they’re pouring their energy into creating something that stands on its own merits. It’s an approach that feels almost revolutionary in its simplicity. In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Kaleiki didn’t ****** words about his studio’s approach: Valve does a very good job of surfacing games that players like or that players are enjoying. The algorithm is almost impenetrable. It’s a refreshing take in an era where marketing meetings often seem to outnumber design discussions. While other studios hire consultants to decipher Steam’s algorithmic mysteries, Notorious Studios is betting on something far more fundamental: the power of genuine fun. If you watch some indie dev videos, they’ll often say we tried hacking the algorithm, we tried doing all these goofy things, and there’s not much you can do. All you can really do is make a good game, which, in a lot of ways, is good news for us. This philosophy seems to be paying off for them, as it should. During early playtesting, Legacy: Steel & Sorcery has already shown promising signs: There are some players who play the game literally, gosh, 60 hours during a week play test. So I think there’s a market for it. There’s a player who is interested in it. I think it’s fun. It’s a stark contrast to the approach taken by many Western studios lately, where checking diversity boxes and pushing agendas often seems to take priority over gameplay innovation and fun factor. When quality speaks louder than marketing Sometimes, your game’s quality does the marketing for you. | Image Credit: Warhorse Studios The past year has given us plenty of evidence that Kaleiki might be right. Games like ****** Myth: Wukong, Stellar Blade, Helldivers 2, and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 (to name a few) didn’t need elaborate marketing schemes or controversy to find their audience—they just needed to be good games. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2′s recent success is perhaps the most compelling example. Warhorse Studios focused on delivering exactly what their fans wanted: a deeper, richer version of what made the original special. The result? One million copies sold on day one, proving that word of mouth and genuine quality can still trump marketing budgets. And this is the bane to every game developer’s existence these days because marketing is completely shifting on how to market a game. There’s not much we can do there with the budget. The most important thing is the game has to be good. As Legacy: Steel & Sorcery prepares for its Early Access launch on February 13, it’s encouraging to see a studio so focused on the fundamentals. No gimmicks, no artificial controversy—just a team of passionate developers trying to make something worth playing. In today’s video game business, that might be the most radical approach of all. What do you think about Kaleiki’s approach? Are good games all we really need, or is there more to success on Steam? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Source link #World #Warcraft #Developer #Suggests #Making #good #game #Key #Ranking #Steam Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Perth Wildcats star Bryce Cotton’s love of basketball soared on the way to his fifth NBL MVP awrad Perth Wildcats star Bryce Cotton’s love of basketball soared on the way to his fifth NBL MVP awrad Bryce Cotton has dominated the NBL yet again, winning his fifth MVP award and while it’s tough for most people to stay at the top, the Wildcats star discovered a brand new love for the game this season. Source link #Perth #Wildcats #star #Bryce #Cottons #love #basketball #soared #NBL #MVP #awrad Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Tesla robotaxis by June? Musk turns to Texas for hands-off regulation Tesla robotaxis by June? Musk turns to Texas for hands-off regulation By Chris Kirkham and Abhirup Roy (Reuters) – Elon Musk told investors in late January that Tesla (TSLA) would roll out “autonomous ride-hailing for money” by June in Austin, Texas — a state where the company faces almost no regulation, raising questions about how much safety and legal risk Tesla is willing to take on as it deploys unproven driverless technology on public streets. Tesla has long blamed its customers for accidents involving the driver-assistance systems it calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), noting that it warns Tesla owners to stay ready to take over driving. Now Musk is vowing to deploy truly driverless taxis, a move legal experts say would place ****** liability squarely on Tesla. FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Tesla gigafactory in Austin Musk has promised fully self-driving Teslas for about a decade and failed to deliver. The promises have grown more frequent, with more immediate timelines, in recent months as Musk has shifted Tesla’s focus toward autonomous vehicles and away from mass-market EV sales. Yet Musk’s elusive comments continue to keep investors guessing about when — and at what scale, with what business model — Tesla will finally deploy fully self-driving technology that, to date, it has never displayed on public roads. Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. Nothing in Texas law would stop Tesla from launching a robotaxi service. The state takes a hands-off regulatory approach that aligns with Musk’s increasingly anti-government political stances as an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE PHOTO: Inauguration ceremony for Trump’s second presidential term State law allows autonomous-vehicle companies free access to public streets provided they are registered and insured, like any human-driven car, and equipped with technology to record data about any potential crashes. No state agency issues permits for or oversees driverless-taxi services — and state law forbids cities and counties from enacting their own driverless-vehicle regulations. State Senator Kelly Hancock, who sponsored the state’s 2017 autonomous-driving legislation, said the legislature wanted to promote the industry’s growth in a competitive marketplace and avoid barriers to entry. “Being a conservative, I wanted to minimize government’s impact,” he told Reuters. “We can’t have a thousand different regulations. That’s how you kill an industry.” Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters to Austin in late 2021 from California, where regulators tightly control where and how firms can operate autonomous vehicles. The only two companies that have secured permits to operate paid driverless taxi services to date, General Motors’ Cruise and Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo, logged millions of miles with regulators under more restrictive permits before getting approval to pick up passengers. (Cruise has since halted robotaxi operations). Story Continues FILE PHOTO: Waymo rider-only robotaxi test ride in San Francisco On a January 29 earnings call, Musk said he expects to release an “unsupervised” version of its Full Self-Driving system in California this year. The two California agencies that regulate the industry told Reuters that Tesla has not applied for required permits to operate driverless vehicles or carry passengers and hasn’t reported testing data to the state since 2019. California has no specific standards for how much testing is needed for approval, but other companies that have navigated the process logged millions of autonomous-vehicle testing miles under state oversight. Tesla has logged just 562 testing miles since 2016, state records show. Musk made his latest robotaxi promises the same day Tesla reported disappointing earnings, which missed analysts’ expectations and followed earlier news that Tesla posted its first-ever sales decline in 2024. Shares rose 3% the following day. He promised Tesla would launch “autonomous ride-hailing for money in Austin, in June.” Musk did not say how many cars, how customers would access them or whether the service would be available to everyone. The rollout of “unsupervised” FSD in California and “many regions of the country” would follow later this year, Musk said, without explaining whether that meant driverless-taxi services, a feature Tesla owners could buy, or some other offering. Musk did say “unsupervised” FSD would be capable of driving with “no one in the car.” Such comments often leave investors guessing what Tesla will actually deliver, and when, said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, a Tesla investor. “This is the challenge with Elon: You’re kind of reading through the tea leaves here and trying to extrapolate from some fragments what might actually happen,” he said. Mulberry added that he wasn’t particularly concerned about the specifics of Musk’s promises and timelines this year, provided Tesla shows progress: “The blueprint, I think, is there.” Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor focused on autonomous driving, said Texas requires no “pre-market approval” before Tesla can deploy driverless vehicles. Yet he doubted Tesla would attempt any broad deployment of autonomous technology – in Texas or anywhere – after what he called its underwhelming demonstration of a robotaxi concept, the Cybercab, last October on a Los Angeles-area movie-studio lot. “Tesla is not going to flip a switch and suddenly make all of their cars capable of driving by themselves, anywhere, under any conditions,” he said. Smith said the company might more likely attempt a small-scale test of its technology, possibly in limited areas of Austin in good weather, or with humans able to intervene by remote control to prevent crashes. “There are ways one could probably make that work,” he said. Autonomous vehicle testing and operation is allowed on Texas roads “as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road,” said Adam Hammons, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation. Austin has seen a surge in driverless vehicles on its streets over the last two years, which has led to resident and government concerns after a series of near-miss incidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. In 2023, a group of more than 20 Cruise robotaxis caused a traffic jam near the University of Texas campus, blocking the street as they struggled to navigate around one another. GM declined to comment. The city has logged 78 formal complaints from law enforcement, emergency responders and residents since July 2023, which officials say may not capture all incidents involving the vehicles. One resident complaint from December described a Waymo vehicle blocking a lane of traffic for half an hour, causing “at least three very close call accidents.” The complaint added: “I can’t believe that y’all are allowing potentially deadly technology to be tested on the citizens of this city.” A Waymo spokesperson said the company has worked with local leaders and first responders to “earn the trust of Austin’s communities” and is constantly working to improve its service. Police have run into problems where driverless vehicles don’t respond to hand signals from officers directing traffic, and the city has been unable to issue tickets to the vehicles, according to a spokesperson for Austin’s Transportation and Public Works department. The city recently came up with a way to submit complaints in municipal court when officers observe traffic violations. Tesla reached out to Austin officials last May, and city officials provided information about local fire and police procedures, maps of schools and school zones, and traffic rules during special events, the spokesperson said. Austin City Council member Zo Qadri, who represents downtown areas frequented by robotaxis, said he’s frustrated the city can’t impose rules on “private companies using these public roads as a testing ground.” “Ultimately,” he said, “we have no power.” (Reporting by Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; editing by Brian Thevenot and Claudia Parsons) Source link #Tesla #robotaxis #June #Musk #turns #Texas #handsoff #regulation Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]