Building a true meritocracy means removing barriers, not ignoring them
Building a true meritocracy means removing barriers, not ignoring them
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In the late 18th century, mathematician and physicist Joseph-Louis Lagrange made a shocking discovery: his star student, a Monsieur Le Blanc, was actually a woman.
Lagrange taught at France’s École Polytechnique, which allowed students to receive lecture notes and submit work without attending the university in person. This was particularly beneficial to Sophie Germain, who longed to study mathematics despite objections from her parents. She took up the identity of a lapsed student and might have got away with it, but Lagrange noticed the vast and sudden improvement in Le Blanc’s work and demanded to meet in person.
Germain isn’t the only person to note how the name we use changes the way we are perceived. As psychologist Keon West explains here, experiments using identical job applications show that those with names assumed to belong to a ****** person are less successful than those with names thought to belong to a white person.
In recent years, many organisations have adopted measures to combat the biases that lead to these outcomes, such as removing names from job applications. These measures fall under the umbrella of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Now, however, US President Donald Trump has ordered government agencies to dismantle DEI programmes, promising in his 20 January inauguration speech that society would be “merit-based”.
Trump’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion is unlikely to produce a meritocracy
Some DEI initiatives have firmer grounding in evidence than others. As the résumé test demonstrates, merit alone isn’t enough to overcome people’s biases, and a number of studies have shown that anonymising applications does tend to improve outcomes for disadvantaged groups. On the other hand, unconscious bias training, in the form of one-off sessions that aim to make employees aware of snap judgements they may make about people based on their race and gender, has been found to make little difference in changing people’s behaviour.
Trump’s heavy-handed approach to DEI, based in ideology rather than evidence, is unlikely to produce his desired outcome of a meritocracy. Instead of developing an organisation where the best people are encouraged to flourish, the current efforts seem to be fostering a culture of fear, with government workers being warned of “adverse consequences” for failing to identify and end DEI work.
Thankfully for Germain, there were no such consequences. Lagrange accepted her for who she was and championed her mathematical development. Despite this, she still used the Le Blanc pseudonym in some correspondence, most notably with mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who, on discovery of her true identity, wrote that she had “nobler courage, quite extraordinary talents, and superior genius”. If we want more Germains to flourish, we must acknowledge and address the barriers they face, not pretend that they don’t exist.
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Hilariously Blatant Mario Strikers Ripoff Is Now On Xbox
Hilariously Blatant Mario Strikers Ripoff Is Now On Xbox
The video game industry has plenty of titles that look like they were gently lifted from some other game that came before them. But few are quite as blatant about it as Mariostro Strikers Soccer League, a recent arrival on Xbox Marketplace. It could charitably be called an “homage” to Mario Strikers: Battle League, but it’s unlikely that Nintendo will let that go without a response.
Via Nintendo Life, LightGamess–with an extra “s”–is the publisher of Mariostro Strikers Soccer League, which was released January 10 on Xbox Marketplace. The description of the game adds some unexpected humor to the listing because someone seemingly forgot to put the actual name of the game in the opening paragraph and never bothered to fix the mistake.
“Dive into the thrilling world of arcade-style soccer with [Your Game Name Here]! Experience the excitement of 4v4 matches, where every player counts. With 10 unique and fun teams to choose from, you’ll dribble, pass, and shoot your way to victory while defending your goal with a skilled goalkeeper,” reads a line from the game’s official description.
The Mario-adjacent cover star of Mariostro Strikers Soccer League.
The cover art for Mariostro Strikers Soccer League doesn’t reflect the art style of the game itself, but it does have a very funny Mario-like athlete at the center of it. Mariostro’s moustache is apparently popular with the other players, or perhaps this is an AI-generated image that didn’t know when to stop trying to ape Mario.
Mariostro Strikers Soccer League is currently still available, but it’s anyone’s guess how long that will remain true once Nintendo finally notices it. Nintendo recently lost a copyright battle with a completely separate Super Mario, but it would be a mistake to assume that the company won’t go to court to protect its interests. Nintendo went after an alleged Switch pirate in court late last year after following clues online to deduce his identity.
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Yep, That’s 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit – Gizmodo
Yep, That’s 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit – Gizmodo
Yep, That’s 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit GizmodoAmateur fossil hunter finds 66-million-year-old animal vomit CNNFossilized vomit found in Denmark dates back 66 million years — prehistoric ***** hailed as national treasure New York Post
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OIG report finds Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office improperly blocked access to gift room with Gucci bags, other designer items
OIG report finds Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office improperly blocked access to gift room with Gucci bags, other designer items
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office improperly blocked public access to a City Hall room where they said they store Gucci bags, designer cufflinks and other gifts, according to an investigation by the city’s Office of the Inspector General.
A report released Wednesday by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg found Johnson’s office violated the city’s ethics policy that requires mayors to record gifts above $50 and “accepted on behalf of the City” in a publicly available log maintained on the 5th floor of City Hall. Covert OIG investigators visited the mayor’s office last June but were denied access to the log.
The report says Johnson’s staff refused to hand over the list of gifts and directed the undercover investigators to make a Freedom of Information Act request instead. The mayor’s office then allegedly blew past the deadline to respond and only produced an incomplete list of gifts over a month later after the OIG made an official document request.
“Notably, a response to the FOIA request OIG submitted as a member of the public came only after OIG also issued a compelled document request to the Mayor’s Office seeking the same information,” the report says.
After that, the investigators, no longer undercover, attempted an unannounced inspection of the gift room but were denied entry by the Law Department, which the report notes is a violation of the municipal code that requires all city employees to cooperate with OIG inquiries.
“Ultimately, (the Department of Law) — apparently representing the Mayor in opposition to OIG — communicated that OIG would not be granted access to the Gift Room,” the report says. “OIG was therefore unable to inspect the manner in which gifts are stored, audit the presence of gifts that were purportedly stored in the Gift Room as stated in the gift log, or to review controls around access to the Gift Room.”
Johnson’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. But the report says his chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas responded last week to the OIG’s recommendations by saying the mayor’s office will comply with public reporting requirements on gifts and allow OIG access to the gift room — but only via “properly scheduled appointment.”
The OIG report details various examples of some of the gifts received under Johnson that were stored in the mayor’s gift room: Hugo Boss cufflinks, a personalized Mont Blanc pen, a 2023 U.S. National soccer team jersey, a Gucci tote bag and crossbody bag, a Givenchy Bag, a Kate Spade red purse and a Carucci Size 14 Burgandy men’s shoes.
Some other items were marked as stored in Room 507, believed to be the mayor’s private office, according to the report. Those include a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged ********” from April 2022 and clothing from a boxing gear brand received last March.
Most gifts do not list an identity of the gift giver, per the OIG. The soccer jersey did come from a Nike representative, according to the list, while a set of Air Pods, a tote bag and a notepad came from an executive from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
In total, 360 gifts were logged in the list the OIG requested that spans from February 2022 to March 2024. Of that total, 144 were received under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and 236 under Johnson, with the rest missing a date.
The report ends with recommendations that the mayor’s office comply with disclosure and public inspection requirements surrounding gifts. In her response, Johnson’s chief of staff agreed to some of those conditions.
“This administration has and will continue to comply with all guidance from the Board of Ethics. … Our duty to do so is without objection,” Pacione-Zayas wrote. But she pushed back on the notion that mayoral staffers must allow unannounced inspections: “The Mayor’s Office shall make gifts available for inspection by the OIG as soon as practicable. The (municipal code) does not require the Mayor’s Office to make gifts available for unannounced inspections.”
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Garmin says it has fixed the blue triangle boot error that was bricking some devices
Garmin says it has fixed the blue triangle boot error that was bricking some devices
A day after the plight of Garmin users whose devices have been stuck in a boot error gained media attention, the company says it has found a solution. “We have resolved the underlying issue causing some devices to be stuck on the start up screen,” a Garmin spokesperson told Engadget, pointing us to a support page the company recently updated. Unfortunately, if your wearable or cycling computer is displaying a “blue triangle of death,” the potential fix may involve losing some data in the process.
Depending on the device, Garmin says a factory reset is required. In other cases, you may only need to reset the power on your wearable and sync it with either the Garmin Connect app on your phone or via Garmin Express on a PC. Garmin has provided additional troubleshooting information for those with devices that are still malfunctioning after a power reset, with the required steps varying by product line.
For instance, in the case of the company’s popular Forerunner family of running watches, you’ll need to power off your device, then press down and hold the Start/Stop and Back buttons until you hear a beep. At that point, release the Start/Stop button, but continue holding the Back button until you hear a second beep. Your watch will then display Garmin’s language selection screen. If it was previously paired with your phone, you’ll need to remove the device from your Bluetooth settings before you can continue the reset process.
If it’s been a while since you’ve synced your watch, Garmin warns a factory reset will result in the loss of some data, including information relating to Garmin Wallet, Connect IQ content such as watch faces and, most notably, Body Battery insights. However, once you sync your device with Garmin Connect, most (if not all) of that data should be restored.
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Quantum-inspired algorithm could enable better weather forecasts
Quantum-inspired algorithm could enable better weather forecasts
Simulating turbulent air flow accurately is vital for weather forecasts
EUMETSAT/ESA
Quantum-inspired algorithms can simulate turbulent fluid flows on a classical computer much faster than existing tools, slashing computation times from several days on a large supercomputer to just hours on a regular laptop. This could improve weather forecasts and increase the efficiency of industrial processes, say researchers.
Turbulence in liquid or air involves numerous interacting eddies that quickly become so chaotically complex that precise simulation is impossible for even the most powerful computers. Quantum counterparts promise to improve matters, but currently even the most advanced machines are incapable of anything but rudimentary demonstrations.
These turbulence simulations can be simplified by replacing precise calculations with probabilities. But even this approximation leaves scientists with computations that are infeasibly demanding to solve.
Nikita Gourianov at the University of Oxford and his colleagues have now developed a new approach that uses quantum computer-inspired algorithms called tensor networks to represent turbulence probability distributions.
Tensor networks originated in physics and came into common use in the early 2000s. They now offer a promising path to eke out much more performance from existing classical computers before truly useful quantum machines are available.
“The algorithms and the way of thinking comes from the world of quantum simulation, and these algorithms are very close to what quantum computers do,” says Gourianov. “We’re seeing quite a drastic speed-up, both in theory and in practice.”
In just a few hours, the team was able to run a simulation on a laptop that previously took several days on a supercomputer. The new algorithm saw a 1000-fold reduction in processor demand, and a million-fold reduction in memory demand. While this simulation was just a simple test, the same types of problem on a larger scale lie behind weather forecasts, aerodynamic analysis of aircraft and analysis of industrial chemical processes.
The turbulence problem, which has data in five dimensions, gets extremely difficult without using tensors, says Gunnar Möller at the University of Kent, ***. “Computationally, it’s a nightmare,” he says. “You could maybe do it in limited cases, when you have a supercomputer and are happy to run it for a month or two.”
Tensor networks work by, in effect, reducing the amount of data a simulation requires, drastically cutting the computational power required to run it. The amount and nature of the data removed can be carefully controlled by dialling the level of precision up or down.
These mathematical tools have already been used in the cat-and-mouse game between quantum computer developers and classical computer scientists. Google announced in 2019 that a quantum processor called Sycamore had achieved “quantum supremacy” – the point at which a quantum computer can complete a task that would be, for all intents and purposes, impossible for ordinary computers.
However, tensor networks simulating the same problem on large clusters of conventional graphics processing units later achieved the same thing in just over 14 seconds, undermining Google’s previous claim. Google has since pulled ahead once more with its new Willow quantum machine.
Large and fault-tolerant quantum computers, once they are created, will be able to run tensors on much larger scales with much greater precision than classical computers, but Möller says he is excited by what might be achieved in the meantime.
“With a laptop, the authors of this paper could beat what’s possible on a supercomputer, just because they have a smarter algorithm,” he says. “If you use this algorithm on a supercomputer, you may go way further than you could using any direct computational approach. It immediately has a tremendous benefit, and I don’t have to wait another 10 years to have the perfect quantum computer.”
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How to Make the Best Chili: The Ultimate Guide
How to Make the Best Chili: The Ultimate Guide
From equipment to ingredient selection to the step-by-step cooking, here’s how to make a superb version of this cozy staple.
By Sam Sifton
Sam Sifton is the founding editor of NYT Cooking, and an assistant managing editor leading culture and lifestyle coverage for The New York Times. He’s also a cookbook author and one of the writers of the Cooking newsletter.
Published Jan. 29, 2025Updated Jan. 29, 2025
A beef chili infused with red chiles, chocolate and beer for bold flavor.By Julia Moskin
Every practiced American cook’s recipe for chili is definitive and the best. A classic chili, the Texas bowl of red, is simply beef and hot peppers, simmered to perfection. But there’s no one recipe for the dish and no incorrect one — at least if we’re being honest with ourselves. You can make chili with beans; lamb or bison; venison, turkey or pork; with tomatoes or beer, with fresh chiles or dried, with chili powder or without. You should make chili as you like: delicious. We’ll help.
Must Have
A large, heavy-bottomed wide pot or Dutch oven. Enameled cast-iron is maybe best, because if you find yourself making chili with tomatoes in a plain cast-iron pot, the fruit’s acidity may react poorly with the metal, leaving the chili with an off taste. A heavy stainless pot will do, as will an aluminum one if you’re careful not to let the bottom of the chili burn.
Nice to Have
A food processor, blender or spice grinder. You can make a credible chili with ground chile powder, and indeed we do so all the time. You can certainly make one with fresh chiles as well. But it’s our view that there is little to match a chili made with a mixture of fresh and dried chiles either toasted and ground in a spice grinder, or simmered in chicken stock.
A mortar and pestle. Ground cumin from the store will work just fine, as will ground coriander, if you’re using it. But the flavor delivered by freshly toasted spices pulverized in a mortar is impossible to match.
Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has tips on finding the best Dutch oven, food processor and blender.
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Protein
A great chili rests on two foundations: its protein, and the peppers that flavor it. It is, essentially, a stew. We’ll get to the chiles, but let’s begin with the protein. If you’re cooking with meat, look for a cut high in **** and flavor. If you’re cooking with beans, find a sturdy variety: A pinto or navy bean is excellent.
Beef, Pork and Lamb
Chuck beef, from the steer’s shoulder, is great for chili. But you can also do very well with brisket and short ribs, and there are fantastic chilis made of lamb and pork shoulder. Whatever protein you use, cut the meat into 2-inch cubes, or, if you’d like to work faster or simply prefer the texture, use ground meat.
In much of Texas and at the butcher shop anywhere, you can get your meat coarsely ground, which just about splits the difference between cubes and ground. But you can also use a combination: Some cooks even like to use a number of different cuts, combining stew meat with ground. Consider ¼ to ⅓ of a pound per person. It should yield enough **** to flavor your chili well.
Whatever you choose, be sure to fry some bacon in the pot before you get started, and then set it aside to crumble into the chili later in the process.
Poultry
There are those who swear by ground turkey chilis or who make the dish with chicken. Be careful when doing so, however, so that the meat does not dry out. Consider ¼ to ⅓ of a pound per person, supplemented perhaps with a few strips of bacon to help keep everything juicy. Or use chunks of dark meat from the richer, fattier thighs, or even duck.
Game
Farm-raised or wild-shot game — venison, buffalo, moose, marsh duck, goose — often bridges the distance between red meat and poultry: It delivers powerful flavor whether it comes from the field or the sky. Cook ¼ to ⅓ pound per person, substituting some ground beef or lamb if the game is very lean. As with turkey and other lean cuts, you’ll want to add some **** to the proceedings, for flavor and lusciousness.
Beans
There are those who consider beans in chili to be an apostasy. But they can be delicious and, indeed, are an easy way to “stretch” a chili from a dish that serves six to a dish that serves 10 or even 12. (Figure something in the neighborhood of a cup of cooked beans per person.) Pinto beans make a wonderful addition to a beef chili, and white ones are beautiful with poultry and lamb.
Some may cook only with beans, using chiles and spices to deliver big flavor into each legume. It is a good idea, in this case, to think about increasing the variety of chiles used, and to consider increasing the level of spice as well. A base of sautéed onions and garlic, heated through with oregano before adding chiles and beans, is a fine way to start a vegetarian chili. (Take a look at Melissa Clark’s recipe for a vegetarian skillet chili, if you want a starting point — or a finishing one.) All will defend their decisions as the only permissible ones. And do you need to cook the beans from scratch? You do not, unless you want to. Chili should never be a project.
Heat
Top row, from left: Dried ancho chiles, dried New Mexico chiles and fresh jalapeño peppers. Bottom row, from left: Dried chipotle peppers, dried pasilla peppers and fresh poblanos.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Traditional Texas chili is made with meat, chiles and little else. What kind of chiles and what form they take is a matter of some debate. Best in our view is a mixture: fresh jalapeños, dried anchos and pasilla powder.
Types of Chiles
Some varieties of chiles are hot, some sweet and some smoky. Some are dried and toasted and ground together; others are toasted and then simmered in water or stock before being blitzed in a blender or food processor or fished from the pot and discarded; still others are used fresh. As a general rule, you’ll want to add any chili powder early in the process, preferably after you’ve seared the meat and as you’re cooking down any aromatics. But whole chiles can be added along with the cooking juices, and pulled out before serving.
The world of chiles is broad, but here are a few varieties that work especially well in chili. There was a time when some of them were hard to find, even in large urban supermarkets. That is no longer true, save perhaps in the case of the delicious Chimayo. In which case, as ever, the internet can provide.
Poblano: A big green pepper that is not too punchy in its heat. As poblanos ripen, the fruit reddens.
Ancho: A dried, ripe poblano pepper becomes an ancho chile, sweet and smoky, mild to medium hot.
Pasilla: This is a dark chocolate-brown dried pepper of moderate pungency, and brings great deepness of flavor to a chili.
Jalapeño: Arguably America’s pepper, this fiery little fruit can provide real zip and freshness when added to chili. When it has been smoked and dried, a jalapeño is called a chipotle.
Chimayo: A New ******** pepper of extraordinary richness, which when dried and ground brings a deep redness to all that it touches. If you can’t find any Chimayos, note that any pepper from the state of New Mexico, usually labeled a “New ********” chile, is a worthy substitute, fresh or dried.
Homemade vs. Store-Bought Chili Powder
Homemade chili powder, left, and store-bought.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Confusingly, chile powder and chili powder are two different things. (More confusingly, The Times has conflated them for years.) Chile powder is just dried, pulverized chiles. Chili powder, on the other hand, is a mixture of dried, ground chiles with other spices, and it helps bring a distinctive flavor to the dish that bears its name.
Homemade Chili Powder: Come up with a good recipe for chili powder, and it will give you some of the confidence to call your chili the best you’ve ever made. To follow the Texas restaurateur Robb Walsh’s recipe, toast three medium-sized ancho chiles in a pan, then remove them and allow to cool. Do the same with a ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds. Seed the anchos and cut them into strips and then process them in a spice grinder with the cumin seeds, a big pinch of ******** oregano and, if you like, a shake of garlic powder. Use that in your chili, and then store what’s left over in a sealed jar. Use it quickly, though. It grows stale fast.
Store-Bought Chili Powder: Chili powder is, like the dish it serves, a Texas tradition, most likely dating to the arrival in the state of ******* immigrants who thought to treat the local chiles as their forebears did the hot peppers in Europe, drying and grinding them into a kind of New World paprika. Eventually other spices were added — cumin and oregano and garlic powder, for instance — and now each chili powder you see in a store is slightly different from the last. For some, using chili powder in chili is anathema. They don’t like the uncertainty of knowing what the mixture is going to taste like in their stew. They don’t trust that the powder is fresh. They believe the resulting chili won’t have layers of flavors. For many others, though, chili powder is a delicious timesaver, particularly if they’ve found a chili powder they like. If you do find one, use it a lot. The critics aren’t wrong about the freshness.
You’ve gathered your protein, and made executive decisions about your spices. It’s time to make the chili. Making one calls for layering flavors into the stew, deepening each as you cook.
1. Start by browning the meat in batches, then removing it to rest while you sweat onions, garlic and peppers, in whatever form you’re using them, in the remaining ****. If you’re making a vegetarian chili, start with the sweat!
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
2. Then comes liquid, which will deglaze the pot and add flavor, while also providing a flavorful medium in which to simmer your meats or beans. In her Texas-style chili (below), Julia Moskin here at The Times taught us to use dark beer along with water and some canned tomatoes, but you can use plain stock instead, or a lighter beer, or more tomatoes in their juices, or a combination, according to your taste. Some like to add body to their chili by adding masa harina to the stewing liquid, or a sliced-up fresh corn tortilla that will dissolve in the heat. Julia allows for both in her recipe, which we’ve taken as our standard, but we encourage you to use the information you’ve gleaned here to make chili your own. The dish is very simple: browned meat and chiles, or chili powder, or both, simmered until tender. Everything else is up to you.
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
3. Add a few dried peppers to simmer, and add the protein back. If you’re cooking beef or game, consider adding a tab of dark chocolate to help deepen the flavor of the sauce.
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
4. Simmer. Bring the heat to the lowest possible temperature until the protein is, as the saying goes, fork-tender. That could take 30 minutes if you’re working off coarsely ground beef. It could take four hours if you’re working with venison or a big clod of beef. If your stovetop can’t go lower than a fast simmer, cook the chili in the oven instead, partly covered, at 325 degrees. Or use a slow cooker set to low, and keep a good eye on it after four hours or so. Fish out the dried peppers, and you’re ready to eat.
Once you’ve aced Julia’s master recipe for Texas-style chili, you can explore other chili styles, whether it’s a vegetarian chili with winter vegetables, Cincinnati-style chili, chili-gumbo of south Louisiana, Pierre Franey’s lamb chili with lentils or his turkey chili. All reflect and celebrate America’s ever-changing relationship with the dish.
Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The chili’s done, but don’t eat it yet. As with gumbo and beef stew, chili is a dish that benefits mightily from an overnight “cure” in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in a low oven when you’re ready to eat, and top it with any or all of these fixings.
Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs
Chili gains a lot from the bright punch of alliums: Chopped onion and scallions are a great bet. As are avocado slices, or, one better, homemade guacamole.
Cut through the dish’s richness with the clean flavors of fresh chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves.
Or if a lightly vinegary finish is more your speed, top your chili with pickled jalapeños or red onions.
Dairy
To mellow your chili’s heat, pair it with a spoonful of sour cream, or some plain Greek yogurt.
Shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack can add a mellow saltiness.
And, lastly, consider the fried egg. A worthy companion, it can even make last night’s chili dinner into a hearty breakfast.
Starches
Pour the chili over rice, whether white or brown; spaghetti, as a nod to the Cincinnati style; or warm and ******* grits.
Or top it with corn or tortilla chips, crumbled Saltines, oyster crackers or Fritos. (Or, put the chili on top of those Fritos for a Frito pie.)
Serve it with warm tortillas or one of many kinds of cornbread.
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Liza Jernow.
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
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What Retail Investors Need to Know About DeepSeek’s Impact
What Retail Investors Need to Know About DeepSeek’s Impact
DeepSeek: Both Performant and Efficient
Having launched on November 29th, 2023, it took until January 20th for Deep Seek large language model (LLM) to make public waves with the following performance comparison chart across coding (Codeforces), software engineering and debugging (SWE-bench), math (AIME), and general purpose reasoning (GPQA/MMLU).
Image credit: @deepseek_ai
DeepSeek is fully open-source and already MIT-licensed. This alone is problematic for the Western sphere as DeepSeek can then disrupt all the efforts in the “AI safety” direction. Namely, actors within the West may tweak an AI model that is less aggressively controlled than the existing mainstream models from Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Google (NASDAQ:), Meta (NASDAQ:) and OpenAI.
A reminder that Alphabet’s Gemini AI was so tethered with narrative control that, in text-to-image generation, it kept replacing historical figures/groups of European descent with people of African descent. Even Elon Musk called Google’s AI for having “insane racist, anti-civilizational programming”.
Alongside loosening the AI leash potential, DeepSeek appears to be greatly more cost-efficient. By substituting 32-bit floating-point numbers with 8-bit level precision, DeepSeek significantly reduces memory consumption, in addition to using key-value joint compression.
Moreover, unlike ChatGPT’s single-token prediction, DeepSeek utilizes cutting edge multi-token prediction training that improves long-range dependencies. In other words, the 671B parameter model, DeepSeek-V3, can not only better understand context for superior results, but it can learn more efficiently from the same data sets.
Altogether, this allows DeepSeek to be the one of the cheapest AI models on the market, according to Artificial Analysis data.
Price comparison of token outputs across top AI models. ChatGPT’s o1 is by far the most expensive one. Image credit: Artificialanalysis.ai
Interestingly, DeepSeek has been trained with AMD’s Instinct AI chips, which once again bolsters the bullish position for Nvidia’s rival.
In short, the Hangzhou-based startup, funded by quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, appears to have accomplished in the world of AI what ******** automakers like BYD (SZ:) did to EV manufacturing scaling.
Examining the Stakes for AI Deployment
To put it succinctly, all governance systems derive legitimacy and stability from narrative control. Case in point, when there were voices countering the pandemic narrative, the governance system took unprecedented and coordinated measures to deplatform such voices. This included collusion with private companies, as demonstrated by Mark Zuckerberg’s apology letter and Twitter Files released by Elon Musk.
It is fair to say that narrative control is critical for various agendas to be conducted. For example, if one were to sabotage a pipeline between Russia and Europe, therefore significantly hurting economic interests of purported allies, such an action would have to be covered in layers of obfuscation.
And if there is more uncertainty and fragmentation when it comes to narratives, there is less likelihood for counter-narratives to gain traction. In turn, set agendas are more likely to be fulfilled. This is why the deployment of AI is so critical across the board for all governments. It represents the pinnacle of content moderation:
Active content monitoring across the entire social media space.
Identifying trends which can then be halted and redirected.
Funneling users to appropriate narratives as the most legitimate.
Auto-removing or shadowbanning content that counters narratives.
Altering historical records or search results.
AI is poised to transform governments from slow-moving to rapidly reactive and precise in their responses, which is why Palantir (NASDAQ:) has been gaining so many defence contracts. As examined previously related to Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change (TBI), this is also why AI is not a bubble but a natural step from controlling newspapers to controlling the digital space.
“They [AI systems] can make government more strategic in how it approaches complex decisions about the highest-stakes issues, with more accurate, more granular, more up-to-date information and insights.”
TBI’s Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State
The secondary effect of AI deployment is its impact on human labor. This is still uncertain given that AI’s confabulation tendencies remain unsolved, as demonstrated by Apple’s recent AI-driven news flop.
Implications of DeepSeek for the US-Centric BigTech
It has been a bipartisan consensus for decades to build China up into the world’s manufacturing and tech powerhouse. This process began in the 1970s under President Nixon, with China surpassing the US in the manufacturing arena by 2010.
This gives China much retaliatory leverage. Case in point, when the Biden admin expanded export restrictions for advanced chips, China responded with a ban on export of critical minerals used in high-end electronics – antimony, gallium and germanium.
Likewise, to ******** EV scaling operations, the USG/EU responded with ever-increasing tariffs, creating a much-needed breathing room for Musk’s Tesla (NASDAQ:). When it comes to electricity powering China’s economy, which is needed for AI-driven data centers, it is also notable that China is far ahead in nuclear power plant deployment, even having the world’s first 4th gen nuclear reactor.
In other words, against the most recent escalation of global AI/GPU chip restrictions, China has all the human and infrastructural capital at disposal. This includes the ever-important open RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) to make breakthroughs in China’s chip-making process that could counter Taiwan’s TSMC.
Therefore, it is uncertain what the USG can do at this point, that hasn’t already been done to counter China. In the meantime, DeepSeek appears to be tilting the hegemonic balance in the global AI race.
“DeepSeek is going to challenge Silicon Valley’s leadership, disrupting the global tech landscape and reshaping the direction of the AI arms race,”
Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, international finance consultancy firm
However, even if the US-based AI models become as efficient as DeepSeek, it is likely that the demand for AI chips and infrastructure will still follow existing trajectories. That’s because the main compute demand is yet to emerge in full force – text-to-video generation.
Ultimately, in the world of private-public partnerships (PPPs), the USG has tools to cordon off unwanted technological advances. But unlike tariffs against EVs, it will be more difficult to quarantine superior open source code.
***
Neither the author, Tim Fries, nor this website, The Tokenist, provide financial advice. Please consult our website policy prior to making financial decisions.
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Amazon cuts some jobs in its communications, sustainability units
Amazon cuts some jobs in its communications, sustainability units
A person walks by The Spheres at the Amazon.com Inc. headquarters on November 14, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Amazon is laying off some employees in its communications and sustainability units, an executive overseeing the divisions announced internally on Wednesday.
In a note to staffers viewed by CNBC, Drew Herdener, Amazon’s head of public relations, wrote that the company is eliminating some jobs in those groups as part of a wider review into the “current org design” of the divisions.
“As we examined our current org design and decided on the shifts outlined above, we identified some roles that were too narrowly scoped or that introduced unnecessary layers, where we couldn’t solve the challenge by flattening the structure or shifting workloads,” Herdener wrote. “To address this and do the right thing for the business, we’re eliminating a small number of roles in Communications and Sustainability. This is a difficult decision to make and one that my leadership team and I do not take lightly.”
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser confirmed the layoffs and said in a statement that the job cuts would “help us move faster, increase ownership, strengthen our culture, and bring teams closer to customers.” Bloomberg earlier reported the job cuts.
Herdener went on to say that the company may rehire some employees for roles at lower levels, “and in others, we will redstribute the headcount to other areas within the org.” Amazon will provide financial support, continued benefits and job placement assistance to laid off staffers, Herdener said.
Amazon cut more than 27,000 jobs across the company in 2022 and 2023 as part of CEO Andy Jassy’s efforts to rein in costs. It had smaller rounds of job cuts in 2024 and stretching into this year. The company has also continued to wind down some of its more experimental or unprofitable initiatives, including a “Try Before You Buy” clothing service and a speedy brick-and-mortar delivery program.
WATCH: Amazon and Meta notch record highs
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Make Your Way to Huntersville in Fallout 76 for Power Armor and Loot
Make Your Way to Huntersville in Fallout 76 for Power Armor and Loot
You’re not alone if you’re trying to track down Huntersville. When I first started playing Fallout 76, I aimed to discover every point of interest. This one eluded me for a long time. Here is where to find Huntersville in Fallout 76!
Where to Find Huntersville in Fallout 76
You can find Huntersville in Fallout 76 by traveling to the Savage Divide. It’s just north of Spruce Knob and east of Mountainside Bed & Breakfast. It’s not too troublesome to track down. That said, Huntersville stands as the birthplace of Super Mutants in Appalachia, and, as such, you’ll find plenty of mutants who have nothing but disdain for humans. They will attack on sight.
I recommend bringing a suit of Power Armor, though you can find one at the nearby Brotherhood of Steel Graveyard, which is southeast of the town.
You’ll note that, along with being overrun by mutants, Huntersville is exceptionally bleak and foggy more often than not. It’s a chaotic battle through the town, with enemies popping up seemingly from nowhere.
Related: Where to Find the Sludge Works in Fallout 76
What You’ll Find in Huntersville
There’s plenty to see and do in Huntersville, especially for those who want to slay mutants and acquire loot. Here are some of the notable items you’ll find:
The Huntersville Incident (Holotape)
Vault-Tec Bobbleheads
Magazines
Power Armor
Workshop Plan
Fusion Core
Giddyup Buttercup Toy Parts
As for enemies, be wary because you’ll stumble upon Super Mutants and Mutant Hounds. At high levels, neither will pose much of a challenge.
What point of interest do you recommend for Power Armor in Fallout 76? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to snap a screenshot of your favorite Power Armor for the Insider Gaming community forum!
Huntersville is cool, but if you’re more concerned with participating in public events, tracking down Helvetia for Fasnacht Day in Fallout 76 is the go-to move!
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Experiment with 37 dimensions shows how strange quantum physics can be
Experiment with 37 dimensions shows how strange quantum physics can be
Particles of light helped test a quantum paradox
Arlume/Alamy
Researchers created particles of light that effectively exist in 37 dimensions at once so they could test an extreme version of a quantum paradox.
“This experiment shows that quantum physics is more nonclassical than many of us thought. It could be [that] 100 years after its discovery, we are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” says Zhenghao Liu at the Technical University of Denmark.
He and his colleagues focused on the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox, which shows…
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Trump says he will send migrants to Guantanamo Bay
Trump says he will send migrants to Guantanamo Bay
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign the Laken Riley Act, at the White House, in Washington, U.S., Jan. 29, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will order his administration to prepare Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military base on the island of Cuba where terrorism suspects have been held for decades, to detain migrants.
Trump, at a ceremony to sign an immigration detention bill into law, said he would also sign an executive order Wednesday instructing his Defense and Homeland Security departments to ready Guantanamo’s “migrant facility.”
Trump said there are thousands of beds in Guantanamo to “detain the worst criminal ******** aliens.”
“We don’t want them coming back,” Trump said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo.”
Guantanamo has held migrants for decades, though the facility’s maximum capacity is unclear. The New York Times, citing the Homeland Security Department, reported that just four migrants were being held there as of February.
The Global Detention Project, a research center that advocates for detainees’ rights, suggests on its website that the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center has a capacity of 130.
Trump claimed Wednesday that Guantanamo has 30,000 beds, and that opening it up to detain migrants “will double our capacity immediately.”
Read more CNBC politics coverage
He added, “It’s a tough place to get out of.”
Trump, since taking office last week, has taken numerous actions to crack down on ******** U.S. border crossings and deport undocumented migrants en masse.
******** crossings rose sharply during the Biden administration, but fell in the final months of President Joe Biden’s term.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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Ten Overdue Fighters for Smash Bros.
Ten Overdue Fighters for Smash Bros.
VGChartz’s Mark Nielsen: “While the future of Smash Bros. has been uncertain for a while – whether Nintendo will build on Ultimate or bring us a new entry entirely – within all likelihood a new Nintendo system still means something new for Smash Bros. is on the horizon, and that something will almost certainly include new fighters, however many or few. While this might be the gaming article equivalent of putting up Christmas decorations in October, it’s never too early to start speculations when it comes to Smash Bros. before two thirds of everything inevitably gets leaked ahead of time. Keep in mind that this is not a list of predictions for future newcomers, though a few could perhaps fit in that same category, but rather a small list of the characters that in this writer’s humble opinion are overdue an appearance in the gaming crossover to end all crossovers.”
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Bishop of Liverpool’s position is untenable, say church leaders
Bishop of Liverpool’s position is untenable, say church leaders
Lynette Horsburgh
BBC News, Lancashire
Church of England
The Right Reverend Dr John Perumbalath said he had “consistently denied the allegations”
A group of church leaders have said the Bishop of Liverpool’s position is “currently untenable” and he should “step aside” after allegations of ******* assault and harassment were made against him.
The Right Reverend Dr John Perumbalath has denied the allegations made by two women outlined in a Channel 4 News investigation.
Police concluded no further action was needed, while the Church of England said it had also investigated complaints and concluded there was no case to answer in a matter of alleged misconduct while a legal timeframe to investigate a second complaint had expired.
Local clergy have written to the Archbishop of York saying the matter should be “fully and properly” investigated.
The letter was signed by Debra Walker, chair of the house of laity, Peter Dawkin, chair of the house of clergy, Sue Jones, Dean of Liverpool, Pete Spiers, Archdeacon of Knowsley & Sefton, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool, and Simon Fisher, Archdeacon of St Helens and Warrington.
‘Unsubstantiated’
They told the Archbishop: “Having listened to clergy, congregations and staff at the diocesan offices and the cathedral it is with deep regret that the senior leadership of the Diocese of Liverpool feel the position of the Rt Revd Dr John Perumbalath is currently untenable.”
The group said the allegations needed to be “fully and properly investigated”.
“We also believe that while these proper investigations are conducted the Bishop of Liverpool will need to step aside from all ministry in the Diocese of Liverpool,” they added.
It comes after they wrote a letter on Tuesday to people of the Diocese of Liverpool, saying: “We understand some of allegations against the Bishop of Liverpool have been investigated and found unsubstantiated by the National Safeguarding Team.
“We are aware the police in Essex have taken no action with regard to one allegation.
“However, we understand an allegation of misconduct was not fully investigated, and we believe in the interests of justice this should now happen.”
Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Britain
They said they were “shocked and saddened” by the claims in Channel 4 News investigation, adding that churches should be “places where everyone is and feels safe”.
Bishop Perumbalath said he had “consistently denied the allegations made against me by both complainants”.
He added: “Whilst I don’t believe I have done anything wrong, I have taken seriously the lessons learnt through this process addressing how my actions can be perceived by others.”
Explaining further, the Church of England said the second complainant did not bring a complaint within a statutory one-year deadline.
“She later applied for permission to bring it after the deadline, which the Archbishop of York [Stephen Cottrell] fully supported,” it said.
“However, this was refused by an independent judge, the Deputy President of Tribunals.
“Archbishop Stephen has supported the complainant pastorally throughout the process and continues to offer practical help.
“He had no part in the decision-making around safeguarding or disciplinary matters.”
‘Allow due process’
The Channel 4 News investigation said one woman was allegedly assaulted in the diocese of Chelmsford in Essex, where he was Bishop of Bradwell, on separate occasions between 2019 and 2023.
A female bishop also told Channel 4 News she was ********* harassed by him.
The Reverend Dr Charlie Bell, a member of the General Synod which considers and approves legislation affecting the Church of England, said he believed Bishop Perumbalath should step aside while an investigation takes place.
He told BBC Radio Merseyside: “For everybody’s benefit, actually, stepping back and allowing due process to take place is the right option, and that is not presuming guilt and it’s not presuming innocence.”
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Rihanna appears at LA trial of partner A$AP Rocky
Rihanna appears at LA trial of partner A$AP Rocky
Superstar Rihanna appeared at the trial of her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, as a key witness testifies about the moment Rocky allegedly fired a gun at him.
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Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years in federal bribery and corruption case
Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years in federal bribery and corruption case
NEW YORK — Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday afternoon in a Lower Manhattan court.
Menendez, 71, was convicted last July on 16 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors had been calling for Menendez to serve 15 years, citing “the seriousness of the defendants’ crimes, the immeasurable harm they have caused to the public trust, and the need to deter others from engaging in such egregious abuses of power.”
The defense had said Menendez should’ve received less than two years in prison, saying their client suffered financial and professional ruin and deserved mercy because of his age.
The judge sided more with the government.
Prior to learning his fate, sources close to the former senator told CBS News New York he had been praying a lot and spending time with his son, daughter and grandchildren. When addressed the judge during sentencing, Menendez got emotional, saying the trial ripped apart his work and what he stands for, and harmed his family and the community he represented.
“You have before you a chastened man,” Menendez said. “You really don’t know me.”
Menendez spoke of his upbringing, how he was the first in his family to go to college and law school and listed several things he did for members of the community. He said of the revelations revealed about him at trial, “none of it gets close to who I am. I dedicated my entire life to the service of others.”
Menendez, who had served as a U.S. senator since 2006, resigned last August. His seat was filled by Andy Kim.
Menendez acted as foreign agent for Egypt, prosecutors say
Federal prosecutors say Menendez acted as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt and abused his powerful post on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Investigators searched his home in 2022 and found more than a dozen gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, which officials say he had accepted as bribes.
Menendez denied violating his public oath, and his lawyers tried to have his conviction thrown out and his sentencing delayed, but a federal judge denied both requests.
Co-defendant Daibes gets 7 years, Hana gets 8+
Co-defendant Fred Daibes was given a seven-year term in the morning. Daibes cried as he asked for mercy from the judge, not for himself but for his autistic son that he cares for. The judge said he understands Daibes rose from poverty and is known for helping others, but told him, “There’s a dark edge to what you have done.”
The government was asking for nine years, but the judge granted a variance because of Daibes’ good deeds and age.
Co-defendant Wael Hana received eight years and one month in prison. The judge called the evidence against him, “very, very substantial.”
Prosecutors were seeking 10 years.
Daibes and Hana are required to turn themselves in to authorities on April 4.
More from CBS News
Christina Fan
Christina Fan joined CBS News New York as a general assignment reporter in spring of 2019.
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Nvidia’s CEO lays out his vision of what the next 10 years will look like — and his simple advice to young people
Nvidia’s CEO lays out his vision of what the next 10 years will look like — and his simple advice to young people
Jensen Huang said that if he were a student, he’d learn all about AI and how to successfully prompt the various models.Getty Images
Nvidia’s CEO spoke about his expectations for the future in a recent interview.
Jensen Huang said it will usher in the age of human robotics and the “application science of AI.”
Huang said that if he were still a student, the “first thing” he’d do would be to learn AI.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a particular vision for the future — and some advice for the coming generations that will have to navigate it.
In a recently released interview on Cleo Abram’s “Huge Conversations,” originally recorded on January 7, Huang said he expects massive leaps in what he calls “human robotics” within the next half-decade and a broadening in the applications of artificial intelligence.
Multiple companies across both the US and China, among others, are working to launch and scale the production of humanoid robots for use in manufacturing and consumer applications.
“The last 10 years was really about the science of AI,” the Nvidia cofounder said. “The next 10 years we’re going to have plenty of science of AI, but the next 10 years is going to be the application science of AI. The fundamental science versus the application science.”
AI will become pervasive, Huang said, weaving its way into nearly every industry.
“The applied research, the application side of AI now becomes: How can I apply AI to digital biology?” Huang said. “How can I apply AI to climate technology? How can I apply AI to agriculture, to fishery, to robotics, to transportation, optimizing logistics? How can I apply AI to, you know, teaching?”
Huang’s advice to future generations is simple: Learn how to use the technology in its various forms, including crafting smart prompts.
“If I were a student today, the first thing I would do is to learn AI,” Huang said. “How do I learn to interact with ChatGPT, how do I learn to interact with Gemini Pro, and how do I learn to interact with Grok? Learning how to interact with AI is not unlike being someone who is really good at asking questions.”
Huang, who is 61, said his generation had to ask themselves “How do we use computers to do our jobs better?” He said that the next generation, however, should be asking itself “How can I use AI to do my job better?”
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has echoed similar sentiments when asked what students should study, citing the experience of one of his daughters, who used Meta AI to illustrate a story she was in the process of writing.
“I think the most important thing is just, like, learning how to think critically and learning values when you’re young,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.
Story Continues
Huang took the idea further, posing a question: What if people had round-the-clock access to skills they never previously developed?
The Nvidia CEO pondered what would happen, for instance, if someone had a software programmer in their pocket capable of taking the “seed of an idea” to gain access to a “prototype” without needing to know how to manufacture it.
“How would that change my life and how would that change my opportunity?” Huang said. “And, you know, what does it free me to be able to do and so on, so forth?”
To fully grasp the scope of the new AI frontier, people just need to see it for themselves and how the technology has “lowered a barrier of knowledge,” Huang said.
“If I put a computer in front of somebody and they’ve never used a computer, there is no chance they’re going to learn that computer in a day,” the Nvidia CEO said.
“And yet with ChatGPT, if you don’t know how to use it, all you have to do is type in ‘I don’t know how to use ChatGPT, tell me,’ and it would come back and give you some examples,” he said. “The amazing thing about intelligence is it’ll help you along the way and make you superhuman along the way.”
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Powell says central bank is in no hurry to cut rates
Powell says central bank is in no hurry to cut rates
Range of possibilities is ‘very, very wide’ for tariff effects
There is a wide range of possibilities when it comes to the potential effects of tariffs, according to Fed Chair Powell.
“The range of possibilities is very, very wide,” he said. “We don’t know for how long or how much, what countries. We don’t know about retaliation. We don’t know how it’s going to transmit through the economy to consumers. That really does remain to be seen.”
“The best we can do is what we’ve done, which is study up on this and look at the historical experience, read the literature and think about the factors that might matter,” Powell continued. “And then we’ll just have to see … how it goes.”
— Sean Conlon
Fed Chair Powell says he’s had ‘no contact’ with Trump since the president called for lower rates
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that he’s had “no contact” with Donald Trump since the president said last week that he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”
“I’m not going to have any response or comment whatsoever on what the president said,” Powell said at his press conference on Wednesday. “It’s not appropriate for me to do so.”
“The public should be confident that we will continue to do our work as we always have, focusing on using our tools to achieve our goals and really keeping our heads down and doing our work,” Powell added.
Read more about Powell’s comments from CNBC’s Jesse Pound here.
—Darla Mercado
‘Real progress’ on inflation needed before policy changes are made, Powell says
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank will need to see “real progress on inflation or some weakness in the labor market before we consider making adjustments.”
The Fed kept rates unchanged in January after three straight meetings that ended in cuts.
— Fred Imbert
Fed is sticking to its 2% inflation target, Powell says
Fed Chair Powell reiterated the central bank’s commitment to achieving a 2% inflation rate.
When discussing the Federal Open Market Committee’s plans to conduct a new review on its monetary policy framework this year, Powell said its inflation target is not subject to change.
“The committee’s 2% inflation goal will be retained and will not be a focus of the review,” Powell told reporters Wednesday.
— Hakyung Kim
Fed is not in a rush to change course on policy, Powell says
Fed Chair Powell said Wednesday that the central bank was not rushing to change its current course on its monetary policy framework.
“With our policy stance significantly less restrictive than it had been, and the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” he said.
— Brian Evans
Trump could successfully pressure Fed to lower rates, economist says
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the White House in Washington on Nov. 2, 2017.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House could have more sway on Fed officials to cut interest rates than some believe, according to Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS.
The central bank announced Wednesday that it would hold interest rates steady. But looking ahead, Rupkey said the presence of Trump, who has previously criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell, could pressure policymakers to further lower those levels.
“The 800 pound gorilla in the room with policymakers is the President,” Rupkey said, adding that one senior Fed official has already resigned to avoid clashing with Trump.
“The markets would be wrong to bet against additional Fed interest rate cuts this year simply because the President wants to see lower interest rates,” Rupkey said. “At the moment, he appears to be getting his way.”
— Alex Harring
Traders dial back rate cut expectations
The Fed’s decision to hold rates steady on Wednesday was expected, but it does appear to have spurred traders to lower their expectations for rate cuts the rest of the year.
Shortly after 2 p.m. ET, data from the CME FedWatch Tool showed that the fed funds futures market was pricing in a roughly 12% likelihood for no cuts this year, and 31% likelihood for one cut. Both of those numbers are slightly higher than they were Wednesday morning.
— Jesse Pound
The Fed has pressed the pause button, Goldman Sachs Asset Management says
The Federal Reserve has entered a wait-and-see mode on inflation, according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multisector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
“Pressing the pause button. The New Year saw the Fed entering a ‘new phase’ of its easing cycle, with strong growth and resilient labor market data providing scope for a more patient approach amid elevated data and policy uncertainty,” Rosner wrote.
“While we continue to think the Fed’s easing cycle has not yet run its course, the FOMC will want to see further progress in the inflation data to deliver the next rate cut highlighted by the fact they removed the reference on inflation making progress.”
— Sarah Min
Stocks slip further after Fed’s decision
A television station broadcasts the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave rates unchanged, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 29, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The major averages fell further after the Federal Reserve issued its rate decision. Policymakers opted to keep rates steady, but flagged that inflation remains “somewhat elevated.”
At around 2:12 p.m., the S&P 500 was down 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off more than 200 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.1%.
Treasury yields also jumped to their session highs. The 2-year rose to 4.253%, while the 10-year climbed to 4.589%.
— Darla Mercado, Gina Francolla
Fed statement omits language on inflation ‘progress’
The Federal Open Market Committee left a phrase out of its January statement that may be a ******* signal to markets than what the committee kept in.
The latest statement says “inflation remains somewhat elevated.” December’s version of that sentence was longer, reading “inflation has made progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective but remains somewhat elevated.”
That change could be part of the justification for the Fed pausing after three straight rate cuts.
— Jesse Pound
Federal Reserve holds steady on interest rates
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell takes a question during a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee kept a steady hand on interest rates, sticking to its target range of 4.25% to 4.50%.
The action comes after policymakers trimmed rates three times in a row last year.
Read about the Fed’s decision from CNBC’s Jeff Cox here.
— Darla Mercado
Where markets stand before the Fed’s decisionWith the Fed likely standing pat, it’s time to reassess cash allocations
The Federal Reserve’s moves on interest rates have an effect on what investors earn, particularly on fixed income and cash. Higher rates have led to higher yields on interest-bearing instruments.
To that end, now might be a good time to take a closer look at your cash holdings, said Brandon King, head of personal investor cash at Vanguard.
“From an investment perspective, make sure your cash allocation aligns with your investment goals, time horizon and risk tolerance, rebalancing as needed,” he said.
Investors should also make sure they are maximizing the interest they earn on emergency funds, shopping around for attractive alternatives. “The industry average savings account is offering just 0.41% APY,” he said. “That means you’ll only earn 41 cents annually for every $100 saved.”
Certain high-yield certificates of deposit and savings accounts, as well as money market funds, are offering yields exceeding 4%, and those deals may stick around a little longer as the Fed takes a slower approach on rate cuts.
— Darla Mercado
Here’s what investors are watching as the Fed prepares its decision
As the Federal Reserve readies its rate decision, Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference will likely be the main event of the day.
The Fed is expected to stand pat on interest rates, maintaining its benchmark rate in a target range of 4.25% to 4.50%. Policymakers will issue their decision at 2 p.m. ET.
Powell speaks at 2:30 p.m., and investors will eagerly await further details on the next direction for policy, as well as whether the Fed chair has anything to say in response to President Donald Trump’s call for lower rates.
Though the president has no authority over how the Fed proceeds on policy, he and Powell have butted heads on policy since Trump’s first term in Washington. Just last week, Trump said he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”
Read more about what’s ahead for the Fed from CNBC’s Jeff Cox here.
— Darla Mercado
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Bend Studio Cuts Contractors Following Live-Service God of War Cancelation
Bend Studio Cuts Contractors Following Live-Service God of War Cancelation
·
·
January 29, 2025
Several Bend Studio contractors have reported on their LinkedIn profiles that they will no longer be working at Bend Studio from February 14.
The news comes just two weeks after it was reported that PlayStation had cancelled two of its live service projects, one of which was a live-service God of War game by Bend Studio.
The number of those effected is currently unclear, but according to some posts, only a handful of contractors were given full-time opportunities, while others where let go.
Bend Studio’s game cancelled means that the studio has not published a game since Days Gone in 2019, which sold 7.32 million units by February 2022, a number obtained by the Insomniac Games leaks.
With current game development timelines, it means that almost certainly it will be a decade between Days Gone and whatever is next for Bend Studio.
It’s currently unclear on if anyone at Bluepoint, another studio who faced a project cancelation has been effected.
What do you think Bend Studio will be working on next? Would you like to see Days Gone 2? Let us know in the comments below or on our community forum!
For more Insider Gaming, check out our report on Marvel Snap finding a new publisher after the US ban fiasco. And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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What the Fed didn’t say is what mattered to traders
What the Fed didn’t say is what mattered to traders
When it comes to the latest Federal Reserve decision, it’s more what the central bank didn’t say than what it did that moved the market. The Fed held rates steady in a move almost universally anticipated by investors Wednesday. However, it was the removal of a key phrase in the very first paragraph of the post-meeting statement that raised eyebrows. The Fed eliminated the line that inflation “has made progress toward” its 2% target — which was present in the December statement — and left just the last part of the sentence that states inflation remains “somewhat elevated.” Stocks fell to session lows after the decision, as investors took note of omission suggesting the central bank has officially hit the pause button on easing interest rates until it sees further progress on inflation. Fed funds futures pricing showed a slight increase of no rate change in 2025 following the meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool . .SPX 1D mountain S & P 500 “In essence, the Fed took the active language out of the statement — ‘made progress’ dropped for inflation and ‘generally eased’ was removed for employment,” wrote Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. Rates Strategy at BMO Capital Markets Fixed Income Strategy team. “It’s a reasonable interpretation that the downward trajectory has stalled.” “The market is already jumping on the omission of inflation progress from the FOMC statement as a hawkish signal,” wrote Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. “Certainly, the plateauing in inflation improvement means that a rate cut is currently not a desperate requirement, so a pause makes sense.” To be sure, in response to questions from reporters at the presser, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the change in the post-meeting statement was done more for clarity than to convey a change, saying it was a “language cleanup.” Claudia Sahm, New Century Advisors chief economist and former Fed economist, said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” Wednesday that the changes in the statement conveyed nothing about inflation that investors didn’t already know. “We’ve got to be real careful today not to make news out of what is not news,” Sahm said. “Coming into this, we knew what’s left: inflation. That’s what’s left.” Still, for investors, the market response made one thing clear, which is that a data-dependent Fed has made the path forward for monetary policy for 2025 more murky. “The reality is that the Fed is simply trying to respond to the data and the new administration’s policies as they unfold. At times like these, when government policy – particularly tariff policy – is so uncertain, they do not have a forecasting edge,” Principal Asset Management’s Shah wrote. “Keeping policy rates on hold until a clear direction starts to emerge is sensible,” Shah continued. “But make no mistake, if next month brings a second consecutive soft inflation print, coupled with a slight weakening in jobs growth, we may start to hear a renewed dovish tone to Fedspeak.” — CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
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Fed’s Powell has had no contact with Trump after president said he’ll demand rates drop
Fed’s Powell has had no contact with Trump after president said he’ll demand rates drop
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he has not spoken to President Donald Trump since the newly inaugurated president told business leaders he would demand the central bank lower interest rates.
Speaking after the Fed’s decision to hold interest rates steady, Powell said he has had “no contact” with the president since Trump’s remarks last week.
“I’m not going to have any response or comment whatsoever on what the president said. It’s not appropriate for me to do so. The public should be confident that we will continue to do our work as we always have, focusing on using our tools to achieve our goals and really keeping our heads down and doing our work,” Powell said Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve is designed — since its founding in 1913 — to make interest rate decisions independent of pressure from elected officials. However, Trump in his first term as president was unusually vocal with his opinions on what the central bank should do. His remarks during the 2024 campaign and since his election victory have pointed to that continuing in his second stint in the White House.
“I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately,” Trump said during a virtual appearance before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week. “And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rates should follow us all over.”
Powell was originally nominated to be Fed chair by Trump, taking over the position in 2018. He is now in his second term in the position, which runs through May 15, 2026.
Powell has said that he would not resign from his position if asked by Trump and that he believes the president removing or demoting the Fed chair is “not permitted under the law.”
Wednesday’s interest rate decision was the first since Trump returned to the White House. The Fed had cut its benchmark interest rate in three previous meetings by a cumulative total of 1 percentage point. Inflation readings are still above the central bank’s 2% target.
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Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement – Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement – Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement Federal ReserveFed hits pause on interest rate cuts amid Trump’s flurry of economic plans CNNFed meeting live updates: Rate cuts paused as inflation, Trump’s plans create uncertainty USA TODAYFederal Reserve Pauses Interest Rate Cuts—First Meeting Without A Cut Since July ForbesHere’s what changed in the new Fed statement CNBC
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Rise of the Ronin heading to PC in March
Rise of the Ronin heading to PC in March
It’s Rise of the Ronin’s turn to shed that PlayStation 5 exclusivity and head to Steam. Right now it doesn’t require PSN, but get your hopes up just yet, we still have a whole month.
A Steam page is live, which goes into detail about the benefits of playing the title on PC. It’s also available to pre-order right now with nifty bonus items if you do.
8K resolution support
DirectX 12 Ultimate support
Ultra-wide and super ultra-wide monitor compatibility
120FPS support
Ray tracing support
3D audio support
Customizable keyboard and mouse controls
AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution support
NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex support
UI menu with mouse clickability
Intel XeSS graphics technology support
Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin puts you in the kegutsus of a nameless ronin in 1863. You can duke it out with multiple factions and historical figures, crafting your own bit of history in a multi-ending fashion.
Rise of the Ronin heads to PC on March 10.
Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger Editor-in-Chief
Gabe has been a gamer since he was young, playing games like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Guitar Hero, and whatever looked cool on GameFly. Ever since 2018, he’s been infatuated with the inner workings of the gaming and entertainment industries, covering a wide range of topics from video games to TV and film. Starting as a contributor for PSX Extreme, he’s worked his way up to its Managing Editor. Using what’s he learned over the years, he founded Smash Jump to remind everyone to smash jump.
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Ahmed al-Sharaa named president for transitional *******
Ahmed al-Sharaa named president for transitional *******
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has been named president for the “transitional *******”, state media report, seven weeks after he led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad.
Rebel military commander Hassan Abdul Ghani also announced the cancellation of Syria’s 2012 constitution and the dissolution of the former regime’s parliament, army and security agencies, according to the Sana news agency.
As president, Sharaa would form an interim legislative council to help govern until a new constitution was approved, he said.
All rebel groups which opposed Assad in the 13-year civil war would be dissolved and integrated into state institutions, he added.
The announcements came during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday attended by the commanders of factions who fought alongside the rebel alliance led by Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
HTS – a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the *** – previously dominated the last rebel stronghold in north-western Syria.
In 2011, Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a civil war in which more than half a million people were killed and 12 million others forced to flee their homes.
On 8 December, as the rebels entered Damascus after routing the army and sweeping down from the north in the space of only 12 days, Assad resigned the presidency and fled to Russia.
An interim government led by Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, has been tasked with running the country until March.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Syrian government called on Russia to address “past mistakes” by paying war reparations, during the first visit by a top Kremlin delegation since the fall of Assad, its staunch ally.
Sharaa and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov discussed “rebuilding trust with the Syrian people through concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction and recovery”, Sana reported.
The Russian foreign ministry said its delegation expressed “unwavering support” for Syria’s unity and readiness to assist its recovery from the civil war.
The Russian military carried out tens of thousands of air strikes on rebel-held areas after intervening in the conflict in support of Assad in 2015. A ***-based monitoring group says more than 21,000 people, including 8,700 civilians, were killed by those strikes and other Russian operations.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Russia has been withdrawing troops and weapons from its two bases on Syria’s Mediterranean coast – Hmeimim airbase near Latakia and the naval base in Tartous
Recent satellite photos analysed by BBC Verify showed that two Russian warships were docked at Tartous, which experts said suggested an evacuation of the facility had begun.
However, Russia is believed to be seeking to retain both bases, which give it a strategically important foothold in the eastern Mediterranean.
Following the Russian delegation’s visit to Damascus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow: “That was an important trip, and the contacts were important, too, because it is necessary to establish and maintain a constant dialogue with Syria.”
When asked about reports that the Syrian government had requested Assad’s extradition and war reparations in return, he replied: “I leave this without any comments. We will continue further dialogue with the Syrian authorities.”
In an interview with Al Arabiya TV late last month, Sharaa noted the “deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria” and said he did not want Russia to leave “in a way that undermines its relationship with our country”.
“All of Syria’s arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts,” he added.
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