Pelican Press

Should NASCAR’s Cup Series return to Bowman Gray Stadium next year or look for change? – Charlotte Observer Should NASCAR’s Cup Series return to Bowman Gray Stadium next year or look for change? – Charlotte Observer Should NASCAR’s Cup Series return to Bowman Gray Stadium next year or look for change? Charlotte ObserverNASCAR’s preseason race comes home as Bowman Gray hosts Clash ESPNNASCAR Clash starting lineup – What channel is the NASCAR race on? Hendrick Motorsports Source link #NASCARs #Cup #Series #return #Bowman #Gray #Stadium #year #change #Charlotte #Observer Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Europe reacts to Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China Europe reacts to Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China There are fears steep US tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China might kick off a trade war that could dent global growth and stoke inflation. Here are some responses to the tariffs: * BRITAIN – Britain had a “fair and balanced” trading relationship with the US that benefited both sides, a government spokesperson said on Monday, after President Donald Trump hinted tariffs could be “worked out” between the two countries – “The US is an indispensable ally and one of our closest trading partners,” the spokesperson said – Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters at the weekend that his early talks with Trump had focused on building on strong trade relations * GERMANY – “Trump will now also realise that the tariffs he is imposing will not have to be paid by those who import into America,” Conservative Opposition Leader and chancellor hopeful Friedrich Merz said – “Instead, they will have to be paid for by consumers in America” – He said the tariffs could also fuel inflation in the US * SPAIN – The European Union must remain united to respond to Trump’s threats to levy tariffs on its products, Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said – The bloc should protect its companies and make sure they were in a position to compete on equal terms with rivals from other countries, Cuerpo told Spanish radio station RNE * FRENCH CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR VILLEROY – Trade tariffs imposed by Trump “will increase economic uncertainty”, French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told France Info, adding this was a worrying development – Villeroy, who is also a European Central Bank policymaker, said Trump’s tariffs were “very brutal” and would hit the autos sector especially – On possible retaliatory measures, Villeroy said such a response should not be excluded but he urged caution – “The key is to make our economy stronger,” he said Source link #Europe #reacts #Trump #tariffs #Mexico #Canada #China Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Without beach access, Palm Beach dune nourishment project risks yearlong delay, staff warn Without beach access, Palm Beach dune nourishment project risks yearlong delay, staff warn Palm Beach is running out of time to complete a dune nourishment project for the town’s southern coastline, Public Works Director Paul Brazil said during a recent Shore Protection Board meeting. With turtle nesting season starting March 1, town staff are grappling with how to move forward with the project to replenish the dunes on the coastline from Sloan’s Curve south to Lantana Municipal Beach. A recently unearthed 2009 voter-approved change to the city of Lake Worth Beach’s charter invalidated an interlocal agreement that would have granted coastline access via the city’s municipal beach, he said. Brazil told board members during the Jan. 30 meeting that since then, town staff have considered exercising Palm Beach’s right to use a 10-foot-wide stretch of land connecting the town’s coastline north and south of the Lake Worth Beach Municipal Beach as a pathway for the sand-filled trucks targeting the beach south of the Lake Worth Pier. The proposal was met with stiff resistance by Lake Worth Beach officials and residents. Brazil warned that the town could face a legal dispute if it chooses to follow that path. “I believe that they genuinely feel that it would be a problem for them. So, a legal challenge would be a reasonable next step on their part,” Brazil said. “That legal challenge, even if we were successful, stops us from doing it this year.” Brazil said Palm Beach’s attorney is discussing the issue with Lake Worth Beach’s attorney in hopes of persuading its officials that the 2009 referendum prohibiting beach nourishment and dredging projects at the city’s municipal beach does not bar the project because it is a dune restoration project, and as such, is a different process. “They are, by permit, by definition, (by) the engineering …. those two activities are very, very different,” he told the board. Part of the issue with that argument, Town Engineer Patricia Strayer said, is that the interlocal agreement referred to the project as a beach nourishment project, not a dune nourishment project. “Hindsight is always 20-20,” she told board members. “If we were aware that the terminology was critical, maybe we could have avoided it.” Considering Lake Worth Beach’s opposition, Board Member James McKelvy wondered why the town doesn’t take a more aggressive stance. “Because it won’t get us our project,” Brazil said, highlighting that Lake Worth officials originally voted 4-1 in favor of the agreement. “If we become completely adversarial, we could shut down any future ability to do business together … I think that possibility does exist and becoming adversarial doesn’t get us there faster.” Board Member Ronald Matzner agreed, noting that a legal challenge likely would drag on for years. “This is a political issue, and it needs to be treated that way,” he said. “I think over a ******* of time with our communication program, (we) can show them how important (this program) is for them.” Matzner highlighted the more than 150,000 cubic yards of sand that have been added to the Lake Worth Municipal Beach since 1990, when the town first began measuring the island’s coastline, which is more than 12 miles long. Board Member Peter Matwiczyk asked whether there is an additional offer Palm Beach could make to persuade Lake Worth Beach officials into reallowing access. The Palm Beach Town Council could be open to that, Brazil said, noting that the original agreement would have seen Palm Beach donate $80,000 to Lake Worth Beach for renovations to its municipal beach. Because the state grants the town has received were based on Lake Worth Beach Municipal Beach’s inclusion in the town’s coastal nourishment plans, Brazil said he would be in favor of increasing the donation amount. “So, spending some of that (grant money) on some of their beach accesses, seemed like the proper thing to do,” Brazil. “So, if the request got larger to accommodate their true inconvenience for doing this, I’d take that request to the Town Council.” McKelvy asked about the financial impact of the pause. Strayer said the impact is light because the trucking contractor is willing to delay its payments by a year if the project remains stalled. “So, as of right now, our costs are minimal,” said Brazil. The renourishment project will have to stop March 1 as sea turtle nesting season begins. Are there any other options? The town also has searched for a different access point it could use to replenish the dunes along the coastline between the Ambassador Hotel and la Bonne Vie Condominium, known as Reach 8, Brazil said. For example, town staff have reached out to the town of Lantana to see if its municipal beach could be used as an access point. However, upon further review, Palm Beach staff realized that Latana’s coastline is too thin, he said. If the town were to use the beach as its staging area and stockpile sand there for the project’s southern scope, waves could easily sweep some of the sand onto the federally protected hard bottom sea floor, which would violate the project’s permitting, Brazil told the board. Also, considering how narrow the coastline from Lantana to the town of South Palm Beach is, Brazil said trucks could likely find themselves stuck during high tide. Brazil said Palm Beach is left with one other option, reaching out to the condominiums in the town’s South End to see if any would be willing to host the project’s staging area. However, that comes with its own set of challenges. “At many of the condominiums, it’s just not physically possible,” since there isn’t enough space, Brazil said. If the town finds a willing condominium that has enough room to host the staging area, Palm Beach could move the sand onto the beach one of two ways, he said. The town could have trucks pick up the stockpiled sand at Phipps Ocean Park and have them dump it over the condominium’s seawall, after which another truck would collect the sand before placing it at the target location. Palm Beach could also stockpile the sand onto the beach via a conveyor belt. However, the latter requires the town to build a stockpile at the condo that would then be shoveled onto the conveyor belt, he said, noting that it would cost the town more time and money since the process is inherently slower and requires the town to build a larger staging area and rent additional equipment. That’s without mentioning the cost to repair damages the condominium incurs during the process. “If a condominium agrees to this, the restoration cost is going to be very, very high,” Brazil said. Regardless, Brazil encouraged interested condominiums to reach out to the town. “We are running out of time,” Brazil said. “Building dunes in Reach 8 this year is going to be very, very challenging and the window is closing quickly.” Fred Kamel, president of the condominium association for Atriums of Palm Beach, 3400 S. Ocean Blvd., told Brazil during the meeting that the building might be able to host a conveyor belt-based staging area. “At the end of the day, I’m not promising anything. All I can promise is that I can bring it up to my board, and ownership of the building, with a proposal,” he said. Dorchester Condominium Association President Irwin Meisler, who appeared last February before the Town Council to notify the town of the dune erosion experienced at the condo’s beachfront, pleaded for the town to do whatever it takes to replenish the dunes. “If we have a hurricane, we will have catastrophic damage to Reach 8,” he said. “I think that, and maybe I’m being over-simplistic, the Town (Council) should be going to Lake Worth, and offering them more money … see if you can make a deal.” Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at *****@*****.tld. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach dune nourishment project stalls following scrapped deal Source link #beach #access #Palm #Beach #dune #nourishment #project #risks #yearlong #delay #staff #warn Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Reef Sharks in French Polynesia Suffer Health Consequences From Feeding by Tourists Reef Sharks in French Polynesia Suffer Health Consequences From Feeding by Tourists Blacktip reef sharks in French Polynesia are experiencing adverse effects on their health due to frequent exposure to low-quality food scraps from tourists. Reports indicate that these sharks, commonly found in the waters around Mo’orea, are being fed everything from frozen squid to human leftovers. This feeding practice has led to significant changes in their metabolism, movement, and reproductive patterns. Concerns have been raised regarding the long-term consequences on the species, classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Shark Feeding Practices Impact Metabolism According to a study published in Animal Conservation, research conducted by marine behavioural ecologist Johann Mourier at the University of Montpellier and his team examined the metabolic and reproductive changes in these sharks. Over a three-year *******, blood samples from 117 blacktip reef sharks across 17 sites—five of which were known for frequent tourist-driven feeding—were analysed. The results indicated that sharks at feeding sites displayed lower red blood cell levels, a marker of overall health. Blood glucose levels in females were also found to be lower, suggesting that the scraps provided lacked adequate nutritional value compared to their natural diet. Reproductive Changes Observed in Feeding Site Sharks Data from the study also highlighted notable shifts in reproductive hormone levels. Males at feeding sites exhibited increased testosterone levels, potentially due to heightened competition over food. Female sharks at non-feeding sites were consistently pregnant and exhibited triple the estrogen levels compared to those at feeding locations, where not all females carried pups. Scientists suggest that an unpredictable and nutritionally insufficient diet may be impacting reproductive success, ultimately affecting population sustainability. Calls for Better Regulation of Shark Feeding In an interview with Science News, Natascha Wosnick, a biologist at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, stated that unregulated shark feeding can alter natural behaviour and compromise ********. Concerns extend beyond Mo’orea, as other species, such as nurse sharks in the Bahamas, may face similar risks due to increased energy expenditure linked to human-provided food. Experts suggest implementing regulations on the types of food offered to sharks, particularly during breeding seasons, to mitigate the negative impact on their health and reproduction. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Oppo Find N5, Find X8 Ultra Tipped to Feature Telephoto Macro Lens iQOO Neo 10R to Launch in India in an Exclusive Dual-Tone Colourway Source link #Reef #Sharks #French #Polynesia #Suffer #Health #Consequences #Feeding #Tourists Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Dollar surges on Trump's tariffs, sending peers to multi-year lows – Reuters Dollar surges on Trump's tariffs, sending peers to multi-year lows – Reuters Dollar surges on Trump’s tariffs, sending peers to multi-year lows ReutersTrump fired the latest tariff shot at China. Is Beijing prepared to make it a trade war? CNNAs Mexico and Canada hit back, China pulls punches on Trump’s tariffs Al Jazeera EnglishTrump tariffs latest: Global stocks tumble and dollar surges Financial TimesHow US Tariffs Challenge China The New York Times Source link #Dollar #surges #Trump039s #tariffs #sending #peers #multiyear #lows #Reuters Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cooper Connolly becomes first Perth Scorhcer to win Big Bash League PLayer of the Tournament Cooper Connolly becomes first Perth Scorhcer to win Big Bash League PLayer of the Tournament Cooper Connolly has made Perth Scorchers history after he was named the joint Big Bash League’s Player of the Tournament alongside Melbourne Stars’ Glenn Maxwell. In a competition first, the top award was shared with Connolly and Maxwell both finishing on 18 votes after outstanding individual campaigns. It caps off a stunning rise for Connolly, who has quickly risen from his BBL12 heroics to become one of the best players in the league while also making his first-class and One-Day and Twenty20 international debuts in the past 12 months. In what was an otherwise disappointing season as the Scorchers missed finals for the first time in five years, Connolly was a shining light. Having been promoted up the order with Josh Inglis and Aaron Hardie missing from the Scorchers at different times this season the 21-year-old took it in his stride blasting a maiden 50 in the opening match and never looking back. Connolly showed he had plenty of gears blasting 19 sixes but also guiding the Scorchers home with steady knocks on multiple occasions. He won the Golden Bat award finishing with 351 runs at an average of more than 50 while also claiming six wickets as his bowling output lifted towards the end of the tournament with an eye on Sri Lanka after he was a shock addition to the Test squad. Remarkably Connolly is the first Scorcher to win Player of the Tournament despite the Scorchers’ dominance of the competition highlighting how much of a one-man show he was at times this season. Connolly was the clear favourite for the award but in the end was forced to share it with Maxwell who came home in a blaze of glory averaging 59 while striking at a blazing 194 to lift his side from the bottom of the table into finals. Source link #Cooper #Connolly #Perth #Scorhcer #win #Big #Bash #League #PLayer #Tournament Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Grammys Audience Erupts Over Alicia Keys’ Apparent Slam Of Donald Trump Move Grammys Audience Erupts Over Alicia Keys’ Apparent Slam Of Donald Trump Move Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways Alicia Keys appeared to call out President Donald Trump’s efforts to nix diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as she accepted the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2025 Grammys ceremony on Sunday. “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift,” the musician said at one point during her acceptance speech, prompting applause from the audience. “This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices,” urged Keys. “We’ve seen on this stage, talented, hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view, and it changes the game. DEI is not a threat — it’s a gift,” she said. “The more voices, the more powerful the sound,” Keys added. “When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all, it’s so beautiful.” Keys did not mention by name Trump, who in recent days has drawn fierce blowback for trying to blame DEI for last week’s deadly American Airlines plane ****** in Washington, D.C. But the singer-songwriter has previously criticized the returned president and even used her performance at the 2020 awards to call for his removal from office. Watch here: Related… Source link #Grammys #Audience #Erupts #Alicia #Keys #Apparent #Slam #Donald #Trump #Move Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump Administration Moves to End Protections for Venezuelans in the U.S. Trump Administration Moves to End Protections for Venezuelans in the U.S. The Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States, leaving the population vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming months, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times. The move, President Trump’s first to remove such protections in his second term, signals that he plans to continue a crackdown on the program that began in his first administration, when he sought to terminate the status for migrants from Sudan, El Salvador and Haiti, among others. He was stymied by federal courts that took issue with the way he undid the protections. The decision is also the latest in a series of Trump administration moves to tighten the immigration system, including pausing programs that allow migrants to enter through previously legal pathways and freezing the refugee system. When the first Trump administration ended the protections for migrants from El Salvador and Haiti, officials allowed those affected to keep their status for 12 to 18 months before it ended. This time, the administration has decided to make the changes more immediate. Those under T.P.S. from Venezuela who received the protections in 2023 will lose their temporary status 60 days after the government publishes the termination notice. Republican critics of the program have said that it has been used to allow migrants to stay much longer than intended and that it has transformed from something temporary to a more permanent arrangement. Vice President JD Vance slammed the program in October and hinted at a new approach. “We’re going to stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status,” he said then. The notice indicates that more than 300,000 Venezuelans had T.P.S. through April. Another group of more than 250,000 Venezuelans have protections through September and for now will not be affected, but the decision suggests that they and others under T.P.S. could be in danger of losing their status in the future. Immigrant rights activists criticized the decision on Sunday. “The Trump administration’s attempt to undo the Biden administration’s T.P.S. extension is plainly ********,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, who helps lead the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the U.C.L.A. School of Law. “The T.P.S. statute makes clear that terminations can only occur at the end of an extension; it does not permit do-overs.” The termination also increases the number of people without any formal immigration status in the United States as Mr. Trump tries to carry out a mass deportation effort. The decision to revoke the protections could face legal challenges from immigrant rights activists who have been expecting such a decision. The program is meant for migrants who cannot be returned to a country that is facing a natural disaster or conflict of some sort. In recent years, migrants have fled Venezuela as its government has unraveled under President Nicolás Maduro. The Biden administration long struggled to remove migrants to Venezuela, as the country did not allow deportation flights. On Saturday, President Trump indicated on social media that the Venezuelan government had reversed course on that decision, though officials in Caracas had not publicly confirmed such an arrangement. “Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela ******** aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” he wrote. “Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back. We are in the process of removing record numbers of ******** aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these ******** aliens back.” During the past few years, the T.P.S. program grew dramatically. As of the end of the last year, more than one million people had the status, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is clear that Mr. Trump aims to change that. The decision this weekend, authorized by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, explained that T.P.S. was no longer necessary because it did not serve the national interest of the United States, according to the notice obtained by The Times. Just a few weeks ago, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, then the homeland security secretary, had found the opposite. In January, the Biden administration extended the protections for Venezuelans for an extra 18 months — a move the Trump administration quickly revoked — finding that the conditions in their country made such a move necessary. “Venezuela is experiencing ‘a complex, serious and multidimensional humanitarian crisis,’” the Biden Homeland Security Department wrote, citing an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on the country. “The crisis has reportedly disrupted every aspect of life in Venezuela.” Democrats in Congress had called on Mr. Trump to keep the status in place. “Given Venezuela’s increased instability, repression and lack of safety, and within all applicable rules and regulations, we demand more information on why the department has made this decision,” congressional Democrats wrote in a letter to the Homeland Security Department last week. “We also strongly urge you to re-extend the T.P.S. designation for Venezuela so that we can continue to provide safety and support to Venezuelans fleeing the political, economic and humanitarian crisis currently plaguing their home.” Source link #Trump #Administration #Moves #Protections #Venezuelans #U.S Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Emergency crews deployed on Santorini as an earthquake swarm worries Greek experts – The Associated Press Emergency crews deployed on Santorini as an earthquake swarm worries Greek experts – The Associated Press Emergency crews deployed on Santorini as an earthquake swarm worries Greek experts The Associated PressOver 200 undersea earthquakes hit Greece’s Santorini, authorities on high alert The Times of IndiaGreece sends rescue teams to Santorini amid fears of big earthquake The GuardianGreece’s tourism jewel Santorini on alert after seismic activity Reuters.com Source link #Emergency #crews #deployed #Santorini #earthquake #swarm #worries #Greek #experts #Press Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

State Government promises not to cut corners on environment in one-day exploration ticket trial State Government promises not to cut corners on environment in one-day exploration ticket trial The WA Department of Mines will have one business day to assess work applications for low impact mining activities under new measures to appease frustrated explorers. Source link #State #Government #promises #cut #corners #environment #oneday #exploration #ticket #trial Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Epidemiologist Flags Dangers Of Donald Trump’s ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Data Scrub Epidemiologist Flags Dangers Of Donald Trump’s ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Data Scrub Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways An epidemiologist has slammed the Trump White House’s deletion of public health data from federal websites as “deeply disturbing.” The “widespread tampering and dismantling of really critical public health data” at “the direction of politicos, not scientists” is not “in anyone’s benefit,” Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo told CNN this weekend. The removed data is “critically important” for health agencies to figure out how to best protect different communities and removing it “just makes that job harder,” said Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health in Rhode Island. “There’s never been this level of sort of dismantling and tampering with data that we’ve seen, and it is deeply concerning,” Nuzzo added. “It’s only going to sow distrust in the federal government.” Some outside groups have managed to download and save the data but it’s unknown whether those sets will now be updated, said Nuzzo. And with health agencies now not communicating with state and local health officials, Nuzzo warned how potentially deadly outbreaks now risk not being properly assessed and monitored. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “can’t even talk to our health officials, they cannot fulfill their statutory obligation to protect America’s health,” said Nuzzo. Watch the full interview here: Related… Source link #Epidemiologist #Flags #Dangers #Donald #Trumps #Deeply #Disturbing #Data #Scrub Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Euro zone inflation, January 2025 Euro zone inflation, January 2025 A person buys products at a Mercadona store in Lisbon, Portugal, on January 25, 2025. Luis Boza | Nurphoto | Getty Images The euro zone economy accelerated to a hotter-than-expected 2.5% in January on an annual basis, flash data from statistics agency Eurostat showed Monday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the January inflation print to come in at 2.4%, unchanged from December. Headline inflation in the euro zone hit a low of 1.7% in September, but has since re-accelerated as base effects from lower energy prices have faded. The European Central Bank last week said disinflation “is well on track.” “Inflation has continued to develop broadly in line with the staff projections and is set to return to the Governing Council’s 2% medium-term target in the course of this year,” the bank added. “Most measures of underlying inflation suggest that inflation will settle at around the target on a sustained basis.” The ECB on Thursday cut interest rates by 25 basis points, bringing the key deposit facility rate to 2.75%. Further rate reductions are expected from the ECB throughout the year. The Monday data comes after several key euro zone economies, including France and Germany, last week reported their latest consumer price index data. The annual rate hit 1.8% in France and 2.8% in Germany, according to preliminary data from the country’s statistics agencies. The figures are harmonized across the euro zone for comparability. This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates. Source link #Euro #zone #inflation #January Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Specifications, Images Leaked; Said to Get Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, 5,500mAh Battery Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Specifications, Images Leaked; Said to Get Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, 5,500mAh Battery Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is set to launch on February 6. The Taiwanese brand has already teased the handset giving us a glimpse of the design. Days before the official launch, the alleged renders and specifications of the phone have leaked online. In the images, the handset looks identical to the Asus ROG Phone 9. The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is tipped to come with a Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display, and a 5,500mAh battery. Tipster Roland Quandt and WinFuture.de have leaked the renders and specifications of the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra. The renders show a design resemblance with the Asus ROG Phone 9 family. It is seen with a centrally placed hole-punch cutout on the display. Further, it appears to include a triple rear camera unit comprising a 50-megapixel lens with OIS support. The renders show the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra in ******, green, and pink colours. It appears to have thin bezels on the display. Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra Specifications (Expected) The Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra is said to run on Android 15 and feature a 6.78-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,400 pixels) Samsung AMOLED LTPO display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The display is likely to offer up to 144Hz refresh rate while gaming. Like the Asus ROG Phone 9 series, the upcoming model could run on Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. For optics, the Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra will reportedly have a triple rear camera unit including a 50-megapixel Sony Lytia 700 sensor. It could pack a 32-megapixel selfie camera. It is said to carry a 5,500mAh battery with 65W wired and 15W wireless charging support. It is tipped to include a 3.5 mm headset jack and IP68 certification. Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra will launch globally on February 6 at 2:30pm Taipei time (12pm IST). Source link #Asus #Zenfone #Ultra #Specifications #Images #Leaked #Snapdragon #Elite #SoC #5500mAh #Battery Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

A growth rate below 5% A growth rate below 5% Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images The imminent U.S. tariffs are likely to deal a significant blow to China’s already-faltering economy, reinforcing calls for more forceful stimulus measures to bolster the country’s growth. U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday followed through on a threat made after his presidential victory, imposing 10% tariffs on ******** goods, starting Tuesday, over Beijing’s alleged failure to prevent the flow fentanyl into the U.S. The blanket 10% tariffs will be levied on top of the existing tariffs of up to 25% that Trump had imposed on ******** goods during his first presidency. The additional 10% tariffs would reduce China’s real GDP growth by 50 basis points this year, economists at Goldman Sachs said in a report Monday. The investment bank expects China’s real GDP growth to slow to 4.5% this year while domestic price growth remains under pressure due to weak demand, with consumer inflation expected to rise just 0.4% in 2025. The consumer price inflation barely grew last year, rising 0.2% year on year. Higher U.S. tariffs could further strain domestic prices as external demand for ******** goods weaken. As Trump started his second term, he ordered his administration to investigate Beijing’s compliance with a trade deal struck during his first presidency in 2020. The final result of the assessment will be delivered to Trump by April 1, potentially setting the stage for further tariff actions, economists said. “Clearly the 10% tariff hike came in quickly and lower, but there remains a lot of uncertainty on the timing and scale of additional tariffs on China,” Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS Investment Bank told CNBC on Monday. “We are not revising our 2025 baseline forecast of 4.0% GDP growth for China,” she said, factoring in additional U.S. tariffs of 60% on a quarter of China’s exports and greater policy support from Beijing. Currency defense ******** yuan plunged 0.60% to 7.3631 against the greenback in offshore trading Monday, before trimming losses, according to LSEG data. The offshore yuan has lost 3.7% since Trump’s presidential victory in early November. Markets in mainland China were shut for the Lunar New Year and will resume trading on Wednesday. A primary tool used by the People’s Bank of China to manage the currency has been the daily reference rate — the onshore yuan is allowed to trade only within a 2% range of this reference rate. The spot level where PBOC sets the reference rate on Wednesday will be a key indicator to gauge Beijing’s reaction to the tariff hikes, said Ding Shuang, chief economist of Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. “We expect China to mainly rely on stimulus to boost domestic demand, instead of large devaluation, to offset the tariff impact,” Shuang added. Since last year, the central bank has been capping the exchange rate guidance at under 7.20 per dollar, a move seen as a signal of its determination to defend the currency. As the tariff rate climbs, the central bank could allow a “gradual drift higher” in the onshore yuan between 7.40 and 7.50 against the U.S. dollar, Goldman Sachs said, expecting the PBOC to prioritize FX stability ahead of monetary policy easing. The central bank could “skip” other easing measures like cutting the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, while seeking to manage liquidity via open market reverse repurchase operations, according to Goldman Sachs. Stimulus eyed China was able to “effectively bypass” the hefty tariffs during Trump’s first term, but it is “not so easy to escape the impact of tariffs this time around,” Barclays said in a note on Monday. Policy rooms to maneuver exchange rate depreciation, large-scale trade diversion and reduction in exporters’ profit margins have all “diminished significantly,” the bank said. As an external trade war looms, economists expect more fiscal spending to offset China’s deflationary pressures and boost consumer spending. While the economy hit the growth target of 5.0% last year, it struggled to emerge from a real estate collapse and weak consumer and business confidence, leaving exports as a key driver of growth. Even in 2023, exports contributed almost 20% of the country’s GDP, according to World Bank data. Pending ****-for-tat China’s Commerce Ministry said Sunday that it would challenge Trump’s tariff decision at the World Trade Organization, condemning the sweeping tariffs as a “serious violation of international trade rules.” While vowing to “take corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests,” China’s statement, however, stopped short of announcing any specific plans for tariffs. Filing a lawsuit with the WTO has largely been a symbolic move that Beijing has taken against tariffs on ********-made electric vehicles by the European Union too. In recent weeks, ******** officials have reiterated that Beijing believes there is no winner in a trade war. Beijing’s response so far has appeared “mild to start,” said Lynn Song, chief economist at LNG, but he cautioned some ******** policymakers may still be on holiday, hence delaying the announcement of any concrete retaliation until they return to work on Feb. 5. “If pushed into a corner, China’s retaliation could be stronger than what most expect,” Song added, suggesting Beijing has a range of tools to respond, including intensifying export controls or bans on rare earths, and measures targeted at American conglomerates with large reliance on the ******** market. Trump’s Saturday executive orders included additional 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico, one of China’s main export rerouting channels. That may prompt China to shift exports to ASEAN and Latin American countries, while boosting trade ties with these nations to help offset “a more protectionist U.S.,” Song added. Source link #growth #rate Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Book Review: ‘The Age of Choice,’ by Sophia Rosenfeld Book Review: ‘The Age of Choice,’ by Sophia Rosenfeld THE AGE OF CHOICE: A History of Freedom in Modern Life, by Sophia Rosenfeld For centuries the right to choose for oneself in virtually all the key aspects of life would have seemed either absurd or wicked. “What death is worse for the soul,” wrote St. Augustine, “than the freedom to err?” After all, death came into the world when the original humans, exercising their freedom to err, reached out and made their first catastrophic choice. In the wake of the expulsion from Eden, life was organized to reduce to a minimum the scope of decision-making. Anyone who was not perniciously rebelling against the order of things had to accept what the authorities in the family, the state and the church saw fit to impose. The notion that you should have some say in constituting those authorities — by giving or withholding your consent to this or that leader or by deciding for yourself how to worship God (let alone by considering whether to believe in God at all) — was fiercely denounced. And though obedience was expected of all, it was particularly insisted upon for women, for it was Eve who was the first and most disastrous chooser. In “The Age of Choice,” the historian Sophia Rosenfeld offers a rich, compelling account of how the experience of choosing ceased to be the object of suspicion and condemnation and became instead the hallmark, at least in liberal, democratic societies, of any life worth living. The transformation, she acknowledges, did not happen overnight, and its roots are too tangled to allow her to construct a single, straightforward narrative. But, locating crucial initial impulses in the 18th century, she first focuses attention on a London auctioneer named Christopher *****. ***** cleverly came up with sales techniques that engaged potential purchasers “in a form of carefully choreographed choice-making behavior.” Renting a large space, he artfully arranged the goods he was auctioning off and invited the public to stroll about and decide what they might want to acquire. In effect, he invented shopping. And shopping, Rosenfeld suggests, is at once the supreme model and the most powerful motor force for a society centered on choice rather than compulsion. The discovery of choice, wrote Immanuel Kant, at once awakened in whole nations the freedom to fashion their own futures and ******** ceaseless anxiety. By comparison, a shopper’s decision as whether to buy a purple or yellow calico seems too trivial to notice. But Rosenfeld convincingly argues that the republican agitator and the bargain hunter are bound up in the same story and that a surprisingly crucial role in this story is played by women. During the 18th century, shopping, and hence the whole culture of consumption engaged in fueling it, was, she writes, “increasingly coded as feminine.” Here, and throughout her book, the historian draws some of her most powerful evidence from fiction, and her analyses in turn illuminate that fiction. The novels of Jane Austen, with their multiple shopping expeditions, take on a different character. “I work with so fine a brush,” Austen wrote, “as produces little effect after much labor,” but generations of readers have thought otherwise, and Rosenfeld helps to explain why. As “The Age of Choice” abundantly shows, the internal drama over what to buy has surprisingly deep roots. Emma Woodhouse’s ditsy friend Harriet Smith, “still hanging over muslins and changing her mind,” turns out to be participating, on a very small scale, in the same vast forces that animated the revolutionary Milton and the republican Locke. From shopping Rosenfeld’s book moves on to the possibility of choosing what to believe, and the story becomes more complicated. It was Protestantism, she suggests, that made it possible to pull away from the enforcement of the uniformity of belief and toward the toleration of individual decisions in matters of faith. Of course, the founders of Protestantism were hardly apostles of tolerance. The last thing that Luther and Calvin would have wanted was what the economist Paul Seabright has termed “the divine economy,” a marketplace of competing beliefs any one of which — or none — potential believers may feel free to choose. Still, the Reformers’ refusal to submit to the authority of the pope ultimately licensed the claim to individual autonomy in religious belief. “The care, therefore, of every man’s soul,” Locke wrote in his “Letter Concerning Toleration,” “belongs unto himself.” The principle applied to every woman’s soul as well. Hence in the 16th century the Protestant Anne Askew defied the Catholic authorities (including her enraged husband), just as a few decades later the Catholic Elizabeth Cary comparably defied the irate Protestants (and yet another enraged husband) arrayed against her. After commerce and religion, the other principal topics that Rosenfeld analyzes are “selecting a partner” and “voting by ballot.” Her point with all of them is that the arrangements that characterize our modern “age of choice” did not seem self-evident in the past and cannot be taken for granted now. They were areas of moral contention, political conflict and frequently uncomfortable compromise. In every case the object of pespecially intense dispute was a woman’s freedom to decide for herself. For the most part such disputes were settled by establishing what Rosenfeld calls varieties of “bounded choice.” The example on which she focuses most tellingly are the dance cards that governed the choices of partners on the 19th-century ballroom floor. “If marriage remained a metonym for the social order writ large,” Rosenfeld observes, “then the ball became a metonym for courtship and marriage.” Yes, men and women had choices, but their choices, like the dances themselves, were carefully choreographed. A final chapter in “The Age of Choice” concerns the specialists — psychologists, marketers, pollsters and the like — who emerged to understand, measure, anticipate and influence the myriad choices that constitute modern life. Innovations that initially sound like an unfettered triumph of Enlightenment freedom become increasingly compromised. In a somber epilogue, Rosenfeld calls into question the decision made by abortion rights groups to call their cause “pro-choice.” The rhetoric of choice seems to her too weak to secure the justice and equality essential to women. “Let’s start wondering,” she writes at the close, “if choice as we know it is really what freedom should be all about.” Perhaps; but which of our hard-won choices would we want to give up first? THE AGE OF CHOICE: A History of Freedom in Modern Life | By Sophia Rosenfeld | Princeton University Press | 462 pp. | $37 Source link #Book #Review #Age #Choice #Sophia #Rosenfeld Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Panama Canal Fees Have Become a Flashpoint. Here’s Why They’ve Risen. Panama Canal Fees Have Become a Flashpoint. Here’s Why They’ve Risen. The cost of using the Panama Canal has risen in recent years — excessively so, President Trump has asserted. The canal operator says droughts, investments in upgrades and sheer demand are among the reasons. But if Mr. Trump wrests lower canal fees out of Panama, American consumers may not feel much difference, because canal costs make up only a small part of the retail cost of most goods. One analysis concludes that going through the canal adds 10 cents to the cost of a coffee maker. Panama Canal shipping fees were not a big issue until Mr. Trump raised the matter last year. As well as highlighting the costs of using the canal, American politicians have security concerns. They point out that China has made big investments in Panama’s infrastructure and that a Hong Kong company operates ports at both the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a visit to Panama on Sunday, appeared to escalate those security concerns with Panama’s leader. China has no role in operating the canal, a job done by the Panama Canal Authority, a Panamanian agency. The United States built the canal in the early 20th century, mostly with laborers from the Caribbean, and ceded it to Panama in 1999 on condition that it be neutral. Mr. Trump has said that move, under a 1978 treaty, was a blunder by the United States, and he has refused to rule out military force to retake the waterway. In response, President José Raúl Mulino of Panama declared recently, “The canal is and will continue to be Panama’s.” He reiterated that on Sunday after meeting with Mr. Rubio: “There is no question that the canal is operated by Panama and will continue to be so.” The canal is crucial for the U.S. economy because it permits a shorter route between the East Coast and Asia than traveling across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Forty percent of United States container traffic and large amounts of U.S. energy exports travel through the canal on vessels paying tolls and other fees to use it. Canal revenues have risen faster than traffic. The canal authority did not respond to requests for a list of historical tolls and fees or other comment. But it annually discloses how much it collects from ships using the canal. That has surged in recent years by far more than the number of journeys through the waterway. In the 12 months through September 2023, the latest figures available, tolls and service fees totaled $4.8 billion, 62 percent higher than five years earlier. Over that *******, passages through the canal rose only 2 percent, to 14,080 from 13,795 in 2018. As a result, in 2023, the canal on average collected $341,000 a vessel, compared with $215,000 in 2018 — a 59 percent jump. Some funds go to Panama. Others are reinvested in the canal. Higher fees are certainly part of it, including increases this year in the charges to reserve time slots for passage. The Panamanian government depends on large payments from the canal, most recently receiving a nearly $2.5 billion contribution. But the canal authority also needs money for investments that ensure the canal’s smooth functioning. Droughts have sometimes forced the authority to slash the number of vessels using the canal as a way of conserving water. The canal’s locks use enormous amounts of water. A single ship’s passage is estimated to consume as much water as half a million Panamanians use in one day. A project intended to provide another water source could cost as much as $1.6 billion. The authority has also acted shrewdly to maintain revenue during challenging times, collecting more when passages were reduced during the last drought. Shippers scrambling to secure a spot were at times prepared to pay millions of dollars in special auctions. “While we from time to time complain about the price, which sometimes can be exorbitant, we generally think the price is right, but we want to maintain our right to complain about it,” Oystein Kalleklev, chief executive of Flex LNG, a shipping company that sends vessels through the canal, said in an email. Lower canal fees may not make much difference for consumers. Because about 70 percent of the cargo volume passing through the canal starts or finishes at U.S. ports, Americans would derive some benefit from lower canal tolls. But the saving might be only a small portion of an item’s retail cost. Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, a digital marketplace for shipping, estimates Panama Canal fees for individual consumer items. He said they came to around $11 for a French-door refrigerator, which sells for over $1,000, and as little as 10 cents for a roughly $40 coffee maker. (Big items cost more because fewer fit into a shipping container.) It costs around $6,600 to ship a container from East Asia to a port on the East Coast, with the canal fee accounting for about 4 percent of that sum, according to Freightos. “I don’t think many people in the industry point to canal fees as kind of a driver of high costs for shippers,” Mr. Levine said. Source link #Panama #Canal #Fees #Flashpoint #Heres #Theyve #Risen Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

iQOO Neo 10R Confirmed to Launch in India in a Raging Blue Shade iQOO Neo 10R Confirmed to Launch in India in a Raging Blue Shade iQOO Neo 10R will be unveiled in India soon, but an exact launch date is yet to be confirmed. Ahead of it, iQOO has revealed the the rear panel design of the handset and confirmed one of the colour options it will be offered in. Alongside, the Amazon availability and chipset details of the iQOO Neo 10R have been affirmed as well. Meanwhile, several key specifications about the smartphone have previously been leaked including its expected price range. iQOO Neo 10R Design, Colour Options The iQOO Neo 10R will be available for purchase in India in a dual-tone Raging Blue option, the company confirmed in an X post. Previously, the company claimed that the blue element in the design signified “strength and forward momentum.” An earlier leak suggested that the phone will be offered in a Lunar Titanium colourway as well. Designed to command attention, the fierce Raging Blue of the #iQOONeo10R exudes power from every angle. Elevate your game with a look that’s as bold as its performance—unstoppable, unyielding, and unparalleled! Step into the future of smartphones, exclusively on @amazonIN and… pic.twitter.com/lk24tpXMXD — iQOO India (@IqooInd) February 2, 2025 The rear panel of the iQOO Neo 10R appears with a squircle rear camera module placed in the top left corner. The slightly raised unit holds two circular camera slots. An elliptical LED flash unit is placed right next to the camera island. The power button and the volume rocker are placed on the right edge of the handset. iQOO has confirmed that the Neo 10R will be available via Amazon, alongside the official iQOO India e-store. The phone is confirmed to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC with LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 onboard storage. Earlier leaks claimed that the iQOO Neo 10R will cost under Rs. 30,000 in India. It is expected to sport a 1.5K OLED TCL C8 display with up to 144Hz refresh rate. The phone is expected to house a 6,400mAh battery with support for 80W wired *** charging. Some of the claims align with a previous Gadgets 360 exclusive report on the upcoming handset. The iQOO Neo 10R is expected to carry the model number ‘I2221.’ It may arrive in 8GB+256GB and 12GB+256GB RAM and storage configurations. For optics, the handset is tipped to get a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 primary sensor alongside an 8-megapixel ultra-wide shooter at the back and a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls. Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. DeepSeek Could Offer Apple an Opening to Bring Apple Intelligence to China Sony Said to Be Planning PlayStation State of Play Broadcast for February Source link #iQOO #Neo #10R #Confirmed #Launch #India #Raging #Blue #Shade Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Book Review: ‘A Matter of Complexion,’ by Tess Chakkalakal Book Review: ‘A Matter of Complexion,’ by Tess Chakkalakal A MATTER OF COMPLEXION: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt, by Tess Chakkalakal On Nov. 10, 1898, thousands of armed white supremacists stormed the streets of Wilmington, N.C., terrorizing ****** businesses and residents and overthrowing the port city’s biracial, “Fusionist” government. The state’s most populous and Blackest city had long been a symbol of ****** political power and economic possibility in the post-Reconstruction South, with its ******-owned banks, democratically elected ****** aldermen and nationally respected ******-owned newspaper, The Daily Record. The orgy of violence left businesses burned and as many as hundreds of ****** men dead, and led thousands more to flee their homes for good. After posing for photographs before the Daily Record building’s charred remains, the mob — led by the former North Carolina congressman Alfred Moore Waddell — made their way to city hall, where they forced the Republican government to resign. As white newspapers insisted that the violence had been instigated by Wilmington’s ****** people and not the paramilitary mob, Waddell and his supporters successfully recast the Wilmington Massacre into a “Lost Cause” narrative of rabid “****** rule” and virtuous white redemption. According to Waddell, who served as mayor of Wilmington for the next eight years, the only successful political coup in American history was actually a “perfectly legal” transfer of power by a Fusionist government that had “become satisfied of their inefficiency and utterly helpless imbecility.” Three years after the Wilmington Massacre, in 1901, the North Carolina-born writer Charles W. Chesnutt challenged Waddell’s narrative with the publication of his second novel, “The Marrow of Tradition”: a gripping tale of family secrets, white resentment and ****** ambition in the face of post-bellum racial reaction. Though Chesnutt’s masterpiece would later be called “probably the most astute political-historical novel of its day,” by the contemporary scholar Eric J. Sundquist, the book failed to make the commercial splash that its literary complexity deserved. At the height of literary realism, Chesnutt’s work was often overshadowed by contemporaries like Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Albion W. Tourgée, white authors who wrote about the so-called “****** problem” without accounting for the impact of white racial violence. Amid today’s movement against D.E.I. and ****** studies, Tess Chakkalakal’s “A Matter of Complexion” makes an urgent case for the importance of ****** artistry during racially reactive and violent times. In the first biography of Chesnutt in a generation, the professor of African American and American literature at Bowdoin College provides a sophisticated analysis of Chesnutt’s short stories — his dialect-heavy “The Goophered Grapevine” was the first work of fiction by a ****** writer to be published in The Atlantic, in 1887 — essays, letters and novels, while contextualizing their creation within Chesnutt’s life as a husband, father and sometimes court stenographer. Chakkalakal asks the reader to see the “First ****** Novelist” as he saw himself: a writer and student of American letters at a time when the literary marketplace struggled to take him seriously. The book examines Chesnutt’s relationships with his white publishing-industry contemporaries — Howells, who was both a novelist and the editor of The Atlantic, the most esteemed cultural journal of the time; Walter Hines Page at Houghton, Mifflin; and the Louisiana-born essayist and novelist George Washington Cable. These literary giants were often ambivalent toward Chesnutt’s intellectual prowess, even as they took a paternalistic interest in his work. “The only way Chesnutt was able to gain access to Cable, who at the time was almost as well known as Twain,” Chakkalakal writes of their first meeting in 1888, “was by using the fact of his authorship in The Atlantic.” The light-skinned, fine-haired Chesnutt’s ability to pass as white — he was one-eighth African — shaped much of his work. In the story “The Wife of His Youth” and his first novel, “The House Behind the Cedars” (1900), characters struggle with the personal and political consequences of America’s “one-drop rule.” The “unprecedented collaboration” between Cable and Chesnutt — one a former Confederate soldier and descendant of slaveholders; the other a child of free ****** North Carolinians who fled and then returned to the South to build schools for ****** children — pushed “American literary realism beyond the bounds of the Northern elite,” Chakkalakal writes. But this bond was tested by an 1891 political essay, “A Multitude of Counselors,” in which Chesnutt dared to critique Cable and Tourgée and the “conflicting” and condescending advice they gave to ****** people like himself, revealing them to be “as much in the dark as to what is best for him to do, or as to what will be the outcome of his presence in the United States, as he himself is.” Chesnutt was by then as prolific a fiction writer as these white contemporaries, and as Chakkalakal writes, now “the shift in their relationship became apparent.” Toni Morrison wrote that “literature has features that make it possible to experience the public without coercion and without submission.” Chakkalakal’s thoughtfully written biography is a timely reminder of the influence of artists like Charles W. Chesnutt today, when perhaps only literature has the power to sustain us. A MATTER OF COMPLEXION: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt | By Tess Chakkalakal | St. Martin’s | 369 pp. | $32 Source link #Book #Review #Matter #Complexion #Tess #Chakkalakal Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Map Shows Locations of NATO and Russian Military Bases in the Arctic – Newsweek Map Shows Locations of NATO and Russian Military Bases in the Arctic – Newsweek Map Shows Locations of NATO and Russian Military Bases in the Arctic NewsweekPolar politics heat up, with plenty at stake for Canada CBC.caCold War 2.0? Russia, China And The U.S. Clash Over Arctic Resources ForbesArctic to become focal point for geopolitical tensions Arab News Source link #Map #Shows #Locations #NATO #Russian #Military #Bases #Arctic #Newsweek Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Beyond the Gym: How AI Is Transforming Home Workouts in India Beyond the Gym: How AI Is Transforming Home Workouts in India For most of human history, working out has been a community activity, either outdoors or in designated spaces such as gyms and sports centres. However, with the rise of the Internet and other connected technologies, businesses have figured out ways to turn it into an “at-home” experience. This has its advantages as well. For instance, the average office-goer who spends a good chunk of his weekdays commuting and at work might find exercising at home more convenient than going to the gym after a long day. Another group of people who benefit from this are the elderly who might not enjoy travelling for exercise due to mobility issues. This is what led to the arrival of various home workout programmes, video tutorials, and online classes. While it did address the problem of accessibility to some extent, one area that was still largely unaddressed was personalisation. But not for long. Role of AI in Home Workouts The artificial intelligence (AI) discipline might thank the wave of generative AI that started in late 2022 for mainstream attention, but its impact on the lives of people was felt much before that. From smartphones to search engines and from Microsoft’s Clippy to Amazon’s website, AI technologies such as predictive analysis, rule-based AI, and machine learning (ML) have always been part of popular software. AI also made its way to the home workout space slowly. Products such as Fitbit and Apple Watch with health and fitness sensors gave people insightful data about their daily activity level. These devices also allowed users to make adjustments to get more out of their workouts opening the path for personalisation. While the pieces were being put together, the home workout space was missing one key ingredient — expert advice on type of workouts, posture, and an option to build a personalised routine. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the majority of the population was stuck indoors for months, businesses cracked the code. Carol Bike 2.0, OxeFit’s XP1, and Vitruvian Trainer+ were some of the home gym equipment that sought to bring AI personalisation to people. But they were largely catering to the Western countries and India was missing out. Sensing an opportunity to address this gap, Portl, a Hyderabad-based startup entered the space with its smart mirror-based AI home workout system dubbed Portl Studio. Gadgets 360 spoke with Indraneel Gupta, Founder and CEO of Portl to understand the tech behind Portl Studio and how the startup is leveraging AI to offer users a personalised experience. The Vision Behind Portl Studio Founded in 2021, Portl aimed to solve the same personalisation problem for those who prefer working out at home. Gupta said, “One common issue that persists even today is that gyms and fitness centres tend to follow a very cookie-cutter approach to fitness that doesn’t apply to everyone.” Portl Studio Photo Credit: Portl The company focused on the demographics of people aged 35 and above and found that fitness was as much a convenience issue as it was an engagement issue for them. Their solution? A device with a large smart mirror that can be spotted from a distance — which also doubles up as a display that shows personalised workout routines and follow-along guides to help them get the right motivation. But, how does it all work together? The Portl Studio Tech Stack Portl Studio is a 32kg device with dimensions of 5.8 x 2 x 0.1 feet. It is a fairly large and heavy device that requires experts to properly install it to either a free wall inside a house or on a stand. While this would make it a piece of unfeasible equipment for some, it would also be an ideal setup for those whose main struggle is to get out of the house and go to the gym after a long day. For those people, the device tries to fit in all the requirements that could eliminate the need for a social space. The Portl Studio’s mirror features several sensors that track the user’s posture in real-time. It also comes equipped with biosensors, similar to a smartwatch or a fitness band, that can scan health vitals. The device also implements several cameras to properly assess all of these parameters. There are two components that enable the data processing as well as allow the user to interact with the system. The first is the system-on-chip. For that, Portl uses Snapdragon chipsets to power the device. It handles all the computational power that the device would need. The second part is the touch screen, which is a multi-point touch display. The company said that the display is coated with a nano protection layer that adds durability and protects against breakages and damage. The device also connects with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to let the user either connect their earphones or stream their playlist from Spotify. “So the idea has always been, how do we create a scenario where the program constantly adapts to the user’s minimum level of performance? We designed a system that looks at variable data, the sleep routine, recovery rate, and more. All of these factors go into the next workout routine that they follow,” Gupta explained. Portl’s solution was an intelligent machine that prioritises real-time data to process what the user needs in terms of workout intensity. Interestingly, this heavy lifting was done by the company’s AI processes. AI Behind the Portl Studio Gupta explained that the entire data collection and AI processing occurs on-device and none of the personal user data ever leaves the system. To handle such complex tasks in real-time, the company included several AI-based processes. Notably, no generative AI tools were used for the system. Instead, the company uses classical rule-based algorithms to both analyse and predict user behaviour. Gupta explained that the decision to opt for a rule-based algorithm instead of something more dynamic was because fitness science, kinesiology, and body mechanics are not constantly changing and are well-defined. However, just like generative AI models, these AI systems are grounded at a first principles level to ensure that the system can gauge a base level of user performance. On top of that, the information provided by the user creates an extra layer of personalisation. Portl Studio AI interface Photo Credit: Portl To explain how it works, Gupta gave an example, “During the onboarding, a user tells the system about their current lifestyle, injuries, health conditions, and more. All of these factors determine the kind of exercises and movements that will be used to create the workout plan. Then, once a user starts the plan, a 45-second health scan measures the core vitals of the user. This includes metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac stress, etc.” As per the Portl CEO, the scan then creates a baseline for the individual. Further, the cameras also collect data on the user’s functional movement screen, which includes balance, range of motion, and mobility. All of the data is used to understand the user’s starting point. From there, the user gets a workout plan that both pushes them and notes their limitations. Portl Studio’s Use Case The Portl Studio offers 15 different workout formats, with calisthenics as its core principle. This means this device does not support weight-based workouts and only focuses on cardio and bodyweight exercises. It also comes with various yoga and meditation courses. Additionally, there are skill-based exercises such as Muay Thai and Kickboxing. At present, all 15 workout formats and guiding videos from experts are part of the device’s native offerings. This means the user does not need to pay subscription or add-on fees to access any of the content. As a result of all these offerings, the company claims it has more than 1,000 monthly active users despite a steep price of Rs. 1,25,000. While Portl Studio offers a lot in terms of personalisation, ease of access, and choice of workout, the lack of strength-based workouts does create a significant gap. Gupta realises this, and that’s why the company recently launched a product that caters to this segment — the Ultragym. Portl Ultragym Ultragym is a smart fitness device that takes up 2.4 sqft of space and weighs 12kgs. It features a board, cables, accessories, and a bench. The company claims that users can perform 150 different workouts using this device. The cables do not use weight plates and instead use a motor to increase the resistance. Portl Ultragym Photo Credit: Portl Each cable can be pushed to a maximum of 35kgs for a total of 70kgs of weight for a workout that requires both hands. The device also comes with a companion app that monitors and analyses workouts and creates personalised routines for users. Portl’s Ultragym is priced at Rs. 59,990. On ensuring safety while users performed workouts with heavy weights, Gupta explained that the device has inbuilt safety features. If a user struggles with the weight or loses balance, the sensors can automatically reduce the weight to allow them to get out of that position safely. The Future of Smart Home Workouts Smart home workout technology has come a long way. However, there are still several gaps to be filled. First, personalised routines and fitness tracking have enabled users to make progress without leaving the comforts of home, however, existing devices are not portable enough to be carried everywhere. People who travel frequently will not find such gadgets very useful. Second, these technologies are focused on basic fitness and do not have solutions for those who have competitive and advanced fitness goals. Further, most of these technologies do not emphasise the motivation element enough, which is a key factor in whether or not a user exercises consistently. As companies experiment with innovation, these gaps are likely to be filled in the coming years. Till then, whether working out can become an at-home experience or if a social institution such as a gym or fitness centre is necessary, debate is up the air. Source link #Gym #Transforming #Home #Workouts #India Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

What Is IEEPA, the Law Trump Used to Impose Tariffs? What Is IEEPA, the Law Trump Used to Impose Tariffs? President Trump said on Saturday that he would impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China using a decades-old law that gives the president sweeping economic powers during a national emergency. “This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) because of the major threat of ******** aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “We need to protect Americans, and it is my duty as President to ensure the safety of all.” On his first day back in office, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. On Saturday, he said he would expand the scope of the emergency and hit the country’s three largest trading partners with tariffs because they had “failed” to do more to stop the flow of migrants or ******** fentanyl into the United States. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump had threatened to use the law to impose steep tariffs on other countries like Colombia, which eventually agreed to allow U.S. military planes to fly deportees into the country after Mr. Trump said he would seek tariffs on all Colombian imports. “This is a very broad tool that affords the president a lot of latitude to impose potentially really substantial economic costs on partners,” said Philip Luck, the economics program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy chief economist at the State Department during the Biden administration. “This is a pretty big stick you can use.” What is IEEPA? The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 gives the president broad powers to regulate various financial transactions upon declaring a national emergency. Under the law, presidents can take a wide variety of economic actions “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy or economy” of the country. Presidents have frequently used the law to impose sanctions, justify export controls, and restrict certain transactions and outbound investment, said Kelly Ann Shaw, a partner at Hogan Lovells and a former economic adviser to the Trump administration. But legal experts have questioned presidents’ ability to use IEEPA to impose tariffs and said that the Trump administration’s use of the law could lead to court challenges. No president has previously used IEEPA to put tariffs on imported goods, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report. Instead, presidents have imposed tariffs in response to national security threats using Section 232 of a 1962 trade law. That legal provision differs from IEEPA in part because it requires an investigation and report that has to be issued within 270 days. The provision also focuses on certain imports that “threaten to impair” U.S. national security. Congress initially passed IEEPA in an attempt to restrict the emergency economic powers granted to the president under the Trading with the Enemy Act, a 1917 law that gave the president expansive authority to regulate international transactions during wartime. President Richard M. Nixon used the precursor statute to briefly impose a 10 percent universal tariff in 1971. Some scholars have questioned whether IEEPA grants the president “unchecked executive authority in the economic realm,” according to the C.R.S. report. Others argue that IEEPA is an effective foreign policy tool that allows the president to rapidly carry out the will of Congress. How has Mr. Trump used the law before? During his first term, Mr. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico using his authorities under IEEPA. In May 2019, he said he would use the law to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico, gradually increasing the tariff to 25 percent unless Mexico took effective actions to alleviate “the ******** migration crisis.” In June 2019, Mr. Trump backed down from the threat after the United States reached an agreement with Mexico to stem the flow of migrants to the southwestern border. Mr. Trump did use the authority, though, to impose sanctions against other countries. Mr. Trump used IEEPA to penalize Venezuela’s state-owned oil company in an effort to impair the government of President Nicolás Maduro by cutting off its main source of cash. He also used the law to impose sanctions on Iran in retaliation for what the administration said were aggressive acts by Tehran. In June 2020, Mr. Trump also invoked the law to authorize sanctions on top officials at the International Criminal Court after the court opened an investigation into potential war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. later revoked that executive order. How have other presidents invoked IEEPA? Presidents have used the law to address a variety of national security issues. In April 2015, President Barack Obama used IEEPA to authorize sanctions against foreign-based hackers targeting the United States. In September 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush used IEEPA to impede the financial support network for terrorist organizations by authorizing the United States to block the assets of foreign individuals who commit acts of terrorism. As of Jan. 15, presidents had declared 69 national emergencies invoking IEEPA, according to the C.R.S. report. Historically, these national emergencies have often lasted nearly a decade. Thirty-nine of the national emergencies were still in effect, according to the report. Source link #IEEPA #Law #Trump #Impose #Tariffs Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Audacious Choreographer Florentina Holzinger Is Back With Ballet Horror, ‘Tanz’ Audacious Choreographer Florentina Holzinger Is Back With Ballet Horror, ‘Tanz’ That weightlessness, or the effect of it, is “what Romanticism was about,” Cordua said. “They all wanted to get to a higher sphere. I found it really interesting to see and meet people that do all those scary things that I don’t find so scary — these artists that do all these extreme things with their bodies.” Holzinger sees the body modification scene similarly. In the circus sideshow world, people have trained their bodies “to deal with pain levels so that they can do this physical suspension,” Holzinger said. “People who have not seen or experienced this themselves, they think, this is physically not possible. The skin will rip. We will see all the skin rip! And then they see the skin doesn’t rip, and of course, for them, it’s like magic.” How different is it “to what people feel when they see a ballet dancer in pointe shoes looking like it’s completely effortless?” she said. “They are all also a bit like, ‘That is something I could not do. How is it possible?’” Holzinger continued, “A mainstream audience that goes to the ballet house would never question whether this is unhealthy for the ballerina to do,” Holzinger said. “Or that when we watch it, we are experiencing something violent. But when they watch ‘Tanz,’ and they see people suspended, they are shocked that I make my people do something as violent as that.” In the sideshow arena, people are proud “to call themselves pain artists,” Holzinger said, “but a ballerina would never call herself a pain artist. It’s exactly about the illusion: It is painful, but it should not look painful. And let’s not talk about the pain. It’s effortless.” Pain, she knows, can be even stronger and more intense in sports. But her experience in contemporary dance, with its focus on somatic ideas of internal attentiveness, was that pain was negative. “Like as a dancer, you should not feel pain,” she said. “When it’s painful, you stop. That was, I guess, also a big fascination for me, to deal with my body in a different way. — where it actually also gets interesting when it is painful. How can you still produce something that you have not felt before?” Source link #Audacious #Choreographer #Florentina #Holzinger #Ballet #Horror #Tanz Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Positive start but ‘more to do’ after first year Positive start but ‘more to do’ after first year The Northern Ireland Executive has achieved “significant” progress in its first year in operation but there is “much more to do” to improve public services. That was the joint verdict of First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly as they were asked about its track record to date. O’Neill told BBC News NI the four-party coalition is doing its best and must put its “shoulder to the wheel”. Little-Pengelly said the shortened term was always going to be a “challenge” and big issues like health waiting lists would never be eradicated in the 12-month *******. “But we’ve made a really strong start,” she added. Devolved government was restored at Stormont exactly 12 months ago after a two-year gap due to a stand-off over post-Brexit trade rules. Little-Pengelly said prioritisation was key and that was evident in the draft programme for government focusing on the issues that matter most to people. O’Neill said they had made “huge strides forward” including securing nearly £500m in extra funding for public services and settling public sector pay disputes. She added that the situation in health was not acceptable but does not believe the executive had ‘”left it all” to the health minister. “We need to see significant progress in this area, we know this is an area that will require significant investment and that’s why it has got over half of the budget” she added. O’Neill said the challenges in the health system have been here a long time and described the situation as “trying to turn a tanker”. Little-Pengelly said the executive needed a plan for the health department. “It is the case we can’t continue to spend as we doing, if we are prioritising health, we need that plan from health.” Source link #Positive #start #year Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Luka Dončić’s Move to LA Lakers Is So Unbelieveable That Even the NBA 2K Game Won’t Let You Do It Luka Dončić’s Move to LA Lakers Is So Unbelieveable That Even the NBA 2K Game Won’t Let You Do It You know how sometimes, game developers just announce a game that you didn’t even know was being made? Well the NBA just got the shocking news that Luka Dončić is now a Los Angeles Laker. The move is so out of nowhere that if you try to replicate it in NBA 2K25, the game will outright deny it. Luka Dončić | Credits: Erik Drost, licensed under CCA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons In what is one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks agreed to trade their 25-year-old franchise star to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a future first-round pick. As gamers, we can hardly speculate the reasons behind this but the added easter egg in NBA 2K25 is simply the cherry on top. Even NBA 2K25 can’t believe Luka Dončić’s move to the Lakers The game says “no.”| Image Credit: Visual Concepts/2K If you want to try and recreate this utterly bizarre trade in NBA 2K25, you’ll quickly find out that it’s not possible. As reported by Dexerto, The game’s trade system flat-out denies the deal. The in-game Mavericks’ GM labeled Dončić as “untouchable,” refusing to accept the deal for Davis and the accompanying assets. The Luka Doncic – Anthony Davis NBA trade is so one sided that NBA 2K25 doesn’t even allow it pic.twitter.com/0DtiqBPw4s — Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 2, 2025 NBA 2K’s trade logic has been praised by fans on occasion since it takes in player value based on their actual statistics like rating and potential. It would seem that in this case, it determined that Dončić was simply too valuable to be moved. Even 2K isn’t missing out on making big moves right now in its operations. Lakers turned on force trade — dustin (@DJ_DoesSports) February 2, 2025 When the 2K GM is more reasonable than the real GM. — Learning Everyday ||| (@drawingpython) February 3, 2025 A lot of fans online chimed in to share their opinions of this funny interaction. One fan joked, “The Lakers must have turned on ‘force trade’ mode,” while another commented, “Even a video game GM has more sense than the Mavericks.” One thing that a lot of fans said is that this was the type of trade that only happened in fantasy leagues or through unrealistic game settings. But it happened in real life. Since it was a 3 team trade though, we don’t know if it could work if a player sets all the right parameters. Video games aside, this is a trade that came out of nowhere There weren’t even rumors of this! | Image Credit: Visual Concepts/2K In a move that seemed almost too outrageous to be real, the Dallas Mavericks parted ways with their franchise superstar, Luka Dončić. The 25-year-old, who had led Dallas to the NBA Finals just last season, was sent to Los Angeles in exchange for 31-year-old Anthony Davis, young wing Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. #MFFL pic.twitter.com/qVMcV2uh5m — Luka Doncic (@luka7doncic) February 2, 2025 According to reports by ESPN, The Lakers also received Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris, while the Utah Jazz facilitated the deal by acquiring Jalen Hood-Schifino and multiple second-round picks. There were no rumors or leaks that hinted at this trade. And it has made this sudden announcement all the more shocking. The Lakers have now secured a new face of the franchise for when legend LeBron James inevitably retires. The task now is to navigate the challenge of building around Dončić’s skillset. On the other hand, the Mavericks might be banking on Davis staying healthy and anchoring their defense alongside Kyrie Irving. The fact that a real-life trade is so crazy that a video game refuses to allow it has just been the icing on the cake for fans. The Lakers have landed a generational talent but the Mavericks’ decision to part ways with Doncic will be one of the biggest head-scratchers. Source link #Luka #Dončićs #Move #Lakers #Unbelieveable #NBA #Game #Wont Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Taiwan bans government agencies from using DeepSeek AI Taiwan bans government agencies from using DeepSeek AI Democratically governed Taiwan, long wary of ******** technology, has banned government departments from using DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence service. Source link #Taiwan #bans #government #agencies #DeepSeek Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]