Pelican Press

West Coast Eagles aren’t locking in an Elliot Yeo replacement, preferring to see who demands the spot on form West Coast Eagles aren’t locking in an Elliot Yeo replacement, preferring to see who demands the spot on form West Coast will hold their first training session since Elliot Yeo’s injury on Wednesday and the message for the players will be that his spot will be given to the person who seizes their opportunity. Source link #West #Coast #Eagles #arent #locking #Elliot #Yeo #replacement #preferring #demands #spot #form Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Swedish police arrest man trying to force his way into Russian embassy in Stockholm Swedish police arrest man trying to force his way into Russian embassy in Stockholm STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish police said they had arrested a man who tried to force his way through the gates of the Russian embassy in Stockholm in a car early on Tuesday morning. Police said the 45-year-old man had failed in the attempt and was arrested, suspected of aggravated trespass. The police gave no further information about the man’s identity. A police spokesperson said there was no indication of a motive and that the car had not contained anything suspicious. Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. The Russian embassy said no serious damage had resulted from the attempt. “On January 28, at about 7 a.m., a Ukrainian citizen permanently residing in Sweden attempted to ram the gates of the Russian Embassy in Stockholm in a passenger car,” the embassy said in a statement on its Telegram social media channel. “The culprit of the incident is well known to the Embassy and the local police.” Swedish police declined to comment further. “We do not comment on the nationalities of people who have been arrested,” a police spokesperson said. (Reporting by Simon Johnson, Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Ed Osmond) Source link #Swedish #police #arrest #man #force #Russian #embassy #Stockholm Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Dauntless and Fae Farm studio Phoenix Labs is laying off the ‘majority’ of its staff Dauntless and Fae Farm studio Phoenix Labs is laying off the ‘majority’ of its staff Dauntless and Fae Farm studio Phoenix Labs has announced another round of layoffs, this time affecting the “majority of the studio”. The studio suffered layoffs and project cancellations last May, with an engineer claiming at the time that “about 140” employees had been impacted. Now a second round of layoffs has been announced, with Phoenix Labs confirming that most of its staff is being let go. “Today is another difficult day at Phoenix Labs,” a statement reads. “We have made the tough decision to part ways with the majority of the studio as part of unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations. “We recognize and deeply appreciate the contribution of every individual impacted. Their talent, dedication, and creativity have left an indelible mark on our company and our games.” Phoenix Labs says it will update players on what the layoffs mean for the future of Fae Farm and Dauntless. “For now, our focus is on supporting those affected through this transition”, it says. “To our industry peers, we encourage you to reach out to these exceptional individuals – they are some of the best in the business.” After a PC and Switch release in 2023, Fae Farm was released on PlayStation and Xbox consoles in October 2024. Formed in 2014 by a trio of ex-Riot Games developers, Phoenix Labs has released two titles to date – 2019’s massively multiplayer RPG Dauntless and last year’s cozy farm-sim RPG Fae Farm, both of which were generally well received by critics. According to its website, it did have “several new projects in development spanning a wide range of styles and genres-fantasy, sci-f, action, strategy, and everything in between”. This marks the second significant instance of industry layoffs this week, following Ubisoft‘s confirmation that it plans to lay off 185 employees in Europe as a result of wider restructuring efforts. The move will see the company close Ubisoft Leamington, which is based in Leamington Spa, England, and make cuts at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Reflections. Source link #Dauntless #Fae #Farm #studio #Phoenix #Labs #laying #majority #staff Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

iOS 18.3—Update Now Warning Issued To All iPhone Users – Forbes iOS 18.3—Update Now Warning Issued To All iPhone Users – Forbes iOS 18.3—Update Now Warning Issued To All iPhone Users ForbesApple turns its AI on by default in latest software update CNBCApple Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Day Affecting iPhones, Macs, and More The Hacker NewsHow to Turn Off Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac WIREDiOS 18.3 is out with tweaks to AI notification summaries The Verge Source link #iOS #18.3Update #Warning #Issued #iPhone #Users #Forbes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cultivation Simulator codes (January 2025) Cultivation Simulator codes (January 2025) Updated January 3, 2025: Searched for new codes! Embark on a quest to achieve immortality by training hard, gathering resources, and learning new techniques and abilities. Using Cultivation Simulator codes to obtain Gems and other freebies will bring you one step closer to your goal, so act quickly and use the codes before they expire! All Cultivation Simulator codes list Working Cultivation Simulator codes ilovethisgame — 2000 Gems (New) 30klikes — 3000 Gems (New) 40klikes — 3000 Gems (New) halloween — 3000 Gems (New) artistkapouki — 3000 Gems (New) welcome — 3k Gems Expired Cultivation Simulator codes There are no expired Cultivation Simulator codes. Related: Souls Cultivation codes and Celestial Ascension codes How to redeem codes in Cultivation Simulator Consult our easy guide below to find out how to use Cultivation Simulator codes: Image by PC Invasion Launch Cultivation Simulator on Roblox. Click the cog wheel button in the top-right corner of the screen. Press the Gift Code button. Input your code into the Enter Gift Code text box. Click Use to claim your goodies. Finding the latest Cultivation Simulator codes isn’t always easy. That’s why you should save this article and come back regularly to find all the active codes in one place. PC Invasion is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy Source link #Cultivation #Simulator #codes #January Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

White House pauses federal grants and loans White House pauses federal grants and loans US President Donald Trump has paused grants, loans and other federal assistance, according to a leaked government memo verified by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News. In the memo, the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) calls on government agencies to ensure spending is consistent with Trump’s priorities – and nods to a number of executive orders that the returning president has made. The full impact of the pause is not yet clear, although the memo specifies that Medicaid and Social Security benefits are not affected. It comes days after the US halted nearly all foreign aid. The move has been criticised by members of the rival Democratic Party, and could face legal challenges. The memo, signed by acting OMB chief Matthew Vaeth, calls on government agencies to temporarily pause their financial assistance programmes, so they can review spending that could be impacted by the various orders Trump has signed . It says this encompasses “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”. A deadline of 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) has been set. Each agency is told to pause the issuing of new awards as well as the disbursement of funds under existing awards. The memo further demands that all agencies report which programmes have been paused by 10 February. The White House has not yet commented officially on the leaked document. Democrats in Washington DC were quick to sound an alarm of concern about the plan. The top Democratic appropriators in Congress – Washington Senator Patty Murray and Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro – sent a letter to the White House Monday evening expressing their “extreme alarm” with the memo. “The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” the congresswomen wrote. “We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law.” The Democratic ********* leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, was also critical of the pause: “Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law.” He added: “It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities.” The move follows last week’s news that the Department of State had issued a halt to nearly all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to an internal memo sent to officials and US embassies abroad. It appeared to affect everything from development assistance to military aid, making exceptions only for emergency food aid and for military funding for Israel and Egypt. Trump had earlier issued an executive order for a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance pending a review of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy. The US is the world’s biggest international aid donor, having spent $68bn (£66bn) in 2023 according to government figures. The State Department notice appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid. Source link #White #House #pauses #federal #grants #loans Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Buy this biotech stock that can rally more than 65%, Goldman says Buy this biotech stock that can rally more than 65%, Goldman says Investors should snap up Vera Therapeutics after a recent retreat, Goldman Sachs suggested. Analyst Paul Choi initiated coverage of the biotechnology stock at a buy rating. Choi’s $58 price target reflects potential for the stock to rally 66.5% from Monday’s close. Choi said positive topline results from a Vera study won’t be surprising, but should add to evidence showing the clinical differentiation of atacicept, a potential treatment for autoimmune kidney diseases. He said the firm’s model shows atacicept sales accelerating in the back half of this decade given its advantages over competitors. “Following the recent pullback, we see VERA shares at an attractive entry point given atacicept is largely de-risked with line of sight to commercialization starting next year,” Choi wrote to clients in a Monday note. Choi’s “pullback” comment refers to shares dropping more than 17% since 2025 began. However, the California-based company’s stock soared 175% in the prior year. VERA YTD mountain Vera, year to date The reasons to like Vera go beyond its shares being at an attractive entry point. Choi said the stock has a “competitive moat,” as well as a “best-in-class profile” and “substantial lead.” The analyst also said there’s “potential strategic interest” in Vera due to recent precedent transactions, as well as the potential to treat addition patients with a certain chronic kidney disease. The firm may also be able to expand its treatment focus to related diseases, he added. With his call, Choi joins the lion’s shares of analysts polled by LSEG with buy ratings on the stock. Source link #Buy #biotech #stock #rally #Goldman Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Pokemon Home is giving two extremely rare shiny Pokemon to players who complete Pokédexes Pokemon Home is giving two extremely rare shiny Pokemon to players who complete Pokédexes Pokémon Home is giving away two extremely rare Pokémon to players who complete their Pokédexes in specific games. By playing the Pokémon Home app, players can unlock a shiny Enamorus (for the first time) and a shiny Manaphy (which has previously been extremely difficult to get). Players can get the shiny Manaphy by completing the Sinnoh Dex in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, at which point they’ll be given the shiny Manaphy in Pokemon Home. The shiny Enamorous, meanwhile, will be given to players who can complete the Hisui Pokedex in Pokémon Legends: Arecus. Shiny Pokemon are versions of Pokemon that feature different colour schemes to their usual appearance. Typically, shiny Pokemon can be found in the wild, but with legendary and mythical Pokemon like Enamorus and Manaphy, these Pokemon are typically coded to never appear in their shiny form in the main series of games. スマートフォン版『Pokémon HOME』の「ソフト図鑑」完成で特別なポケモンをプレゼント！ 第2弾として『Pokémon LEGENDS アルセウス』のソフト図鑑完成で色違いのラブトロス、『ポケモン BD・SP』のソフト図鑑完成で色違いのマナフィがもらえるよ。 #ポケモンホーム pic.twitter.com/TSSuYzSIxz — ポケモン公式 (@Pokemon_cojp) January 28, 2025 This marks the first time that Enamorus has been made available in its shiny form. While Manaphy has been available in its shiny form beforehand, it was only available via an incredibly difficult set of circumstances. Previously, players needed to acquire Manaphy via the Pokemon Ranger spin-off series. Even then, players could only obtain one Manaphy per game, which then had to be traded to the main series, then hatched. Then, if a player’s Manaphy wasn’t shiny, they’d have to reset Pokemon Ranger and play it up until the point it could trade the egg, and try again. Source link #Pokemon #Home #giving #extremely #rare #shiny #Pokemon #players #complete #Pokédexes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Ex-Wallaby Nucifora appointed to Lions’ touring staff Ex-Wallaby Nucifora appointed to Lions’ touring staff Former Australia international David Nucifora will join the British and Irish Lions as general manager of performance ahead of this year’s tour of Australia. Nucifora has been seconded from Scottish Rugby while Aled Walters, from the Irish Rugby Football Union, will be the head of athletic performance. Completing the trio of recruits for the 10-fixture tour is Ireland’s Vinny Hammond, who will travel down under as head of analysis. Nucifora is ***********, won two caps in the early 1990s and worked closely with current Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt when they were both employed by the IRFU, while Walters helped South Africa win the 2019 World Cup. “In David, Aled and Vinny we have three of the absolute best joining us for the tour to Australia this summer, culminating in the highly anticipated Test series against the Wallabies,” Farrell said. “David’s unrivalled experience will help us shape and deliver such a challenging and exciting rugby program, whilst also bringing essential insight into *********** rugby and the country as a whole. “Aled is a World Cup winner who has worked with players across England and Ireland and has also coached in Australia and Super Rugby with the Brumbies. “And Vinny’s Lions pedigree from touring New Zealand and South Africa brings continuity and Lions experience, which will be crucial to success down under.” Source link #ExWallaby #Nucifora #appointed #Lions #touring #staff Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

“Darkest Dungeon II” just dropped it’s “Inhuman ********” DLC and “Kingdoms” mode for PC “Darkest Dungeon II” just dropped it’s “Inhuman ********” DLC and “Kingdoms” mode for PC “Darkest Dungeon creator Red Hook Studios is happy to announce that a new FREE game mode for “Darkest Dungeon II”, Kingdoms, along with its first of three adventure modules Hunger of the Beast Clan, and their next paid DLC, Inhuman ******** ($9.99 / 9,75 € / £8.50), released today for PC and Mac, with consoles set to follow soon.” – Red Hook Studios. Source link #Darkest #Dungeon #dropped #Inhuman #******** #DLC #Kingdoms #mode Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Is DeepSeek’s Rise the AI ‘Sputnik Moment’ for the US? Is DeepSeek’s Rise the AI ‘Sputnik Moment’ for the US? On Monday, markets were rocked by news that a ******** Artificial Intelligence model, DeepSeek, performed better than expected at a lower development cost. As we noted yesterday: “The 3% panic sell-off on the Tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 futures is focused on the view that China’s DeepSeek AI model rollouts show AI products can be created at a much cheaper cost than what the US hyperscalers are working on. There are many questions about the ‘true cost’ of DeepSeek AI rollouts, their capabilities, and the wide acceptability of their products. Arguably, the onus may be on the hyperscalers to justify their capex projections. Still, on a top-down basis, we see that if more companies create productive ways of using AI, hyperscalers should also benefit from this. If cost-efficient ways can be created, this has to be a net positive.” – Societe Generale There are two important points that investors should consider: First, everyone is suddenly an expert on DeepSeek and AI in general. Yes, there are certainly potential consequences to an AI that can potentially run more efficiently than other large-language models (LLMs). Many benefits will come from increased competition. Secondly, I will admit I am not an expert on “A.I.” and DeepSeek. Therefore, I can only tell you what we know so far. DeepSeek – What We Know So Far China’s DeepSeek AI model rocked current thinking due to its innovative approach and potential advantages over existing large language models (LLMs) developed in the U.S. Several key distinctions make DeepSeek unique, particularly its cost-efficiency, resource utilization, open-source nature, and performance. These characteristics present opportunities and challenges for the broader AI industry, especially for companies supplying technology to AI developers. One of the most striking differences is DeepSeek’s cost-effective development. Unlike U.S. models like OpenAI’s GPT-4, which require substantial financial resources—often hundreds of millions of dollars—DeepSeek’s R1 model was developed in just two months with an investment of under $6 million. This lean approach demonstrates that high performance can be achieved without the massive budgets typically associated with cutting-edge AI. DeepSeek’s innovative training methods allow it to operate effectively with less advanced hardware, unlike U.S. models that often depend on high-performance computing resources. This resource optimization reduces barriers to entry and makes advanced AI capabilities more accessible. DeepSeek’s open-source nature also sets it apart. By releasing its code openly, the model fosters collaboration and global contributions, enabling developers worldwide to adapt and improve upon it. On the other hand, U.S. LLMs are often proprietary, restricting access to their underlying code and limiting external innovation. Despite these differences in approach, DeepSeek delivers comparable performance to U.S. models in areas like problem-solving, programming, and natural language inference, challenging the notion that high costs and proprietary systems are prerequisites for success in AI development. The rise of DeepSeek presents significant implications for companies supplying AI developers with technology. The risk is that its efficiency and cost-effectiveness could reduce the demand for high-performance computing hardware, impacting suppliers specializing in this area. Furthermore, its success as an open-source model may shift the industry toward open-source AI development, reducing the proprietary software and support services market. This shift could also pressure existing AI developers to lower their operational costs, leading to a demand for more affordable hardware and software solutions. Suppliers may need to innovate and focus on products that support efficient AI training and deployment to remain competitive. However, for all the potential negatives, introducing competition could also be an enormous benefit. Is DeepSeek The Sputnik Moment Of Our Generation? The emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI model and its potential challenge to U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) development draw strong parallels to the “Space Race” of the 1950s and 60s. Much like the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 sparked a wave of competitive innovation and economic transformation, DeepSeek could serve as a modern-day “Sputnik moment” for the global AI industry. This dynamic could ignite a new era of technological progress and economic growth while presenting significant opportunities for technology companies. Parallels to the Space Race The Space Race was defined by intense competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to achieve technological superiority in space exploration. When the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, it shocked the world and spurred the U.S. to accelerate its science, technology, and education investments. This competitive drive led to landmark achievements, including the Apollo moon landing, and fueled economic growth by creating new industries, advancing technologies, and fostering innovation. Similarly, DeepSeek’s rise represents a competitive challenge to the U.S. in AI. DeepSeek’s cost-effective development and open-source model highlight alternative approaches to AI that challenge the resource-intensive methods commonly used by U.S. companies. The competitive pressure posed by DeepSeek could push U.S. companies to innovate even faster, refining their technologies, optimizing costs, and exploring new applications for AI. The Space Race demonstrated that competition drives innovation, fueling economic growth. The technologies developed during the Space Race, such as satellite communications, advanced materials, and computer systems, had far-reaching economic impacts. Similarly, the AI competition sparked by DeepSeek could lead to breakthroughs in computing power, software algorithms, and machine learning applications. These advancements would not only enhance AI’s capabilities but also create new markets, drive productivity, and foster economic expansion. The Bullish Case Of Competition As such, if DeepSeek serves as the “Sputnik moment” for AI, it could reinvigorate the global push for technological leadership. For U.S. companies like Nvidia (NASDAQ:), Google (NASDAQ:), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:), this could be a positive catalyst in several ways: Accelerated Innovation: Just as the U.S. ramped up its investment in space technologies after Sputnik, companies like Google and Microsoft may significantly increase their R&D spending to maintain their competitive edge in AI. This could lead to the development of more advanced models, better algorithms, and new use cases for AI across industries. Demand for High-Performance Hardware: Companies like Nvidia, a leader in GPUs and AI hardware, stand to benefit from the heightened competition. Advanced AI models require powerful computing infrastructure, and Nvidia’s products are essential for training and deploying these models. If the competition intensifies, demand for Nvidia’s hardware could rise significantly. Expansion of AI Applications: The competitive push could accelerate the adoption of AI in various sectors, from healthcare and finance to autonomous vehicles and education. This would benefit companies like Google and Microsoft, which provide cloud platforms and AI tools to support these applications. Increased Government and Private Sector Funding: As seen during the Space Race, heightened competition often spurs increased investment from both governments and the private sector. Governments may allocate more funding for AI research and development, while private companies may double down on their AI initiatives to maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving market. Broader Economic Benefits: A surge in AI innovation could lead to productivity gains across industries, boosting economic growth. The ripple effects of AI advancements could create jobs, transform industries, and enhance the quality of life, much like the technological spin-offs from the Space Race. What We Think Right Now Yes, the rise of DeepSeek poses competitive challenges. However, it also creates opportunities for U.S. companies to innovate and expand their markets. However, this competition will require significant investments, and companies must navigate potential risks, such as overvaluation and increased regulatory scrutiny. For investors, this environment underscores the importance of focusing on companies with strong fundamentals, competitive advantages, and a proven track record in AI development. Such was a point made by Chamath Palihapitiya yesterday: “Startups need to realize that they are “default dead” companies. This means they must, by definition, grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. Meanwhile, VCs are asleep at the switch – massively overfunding marginal ideas. We must improve at taking huge shots on goal and allocating capital to the best of these ideas. I worry that in this current melee, we’ve overspent billions on dumb features which these next-gen models will roll over in the next 12months or earlier. Lots of capital losses are coming.” The parallels between the Space Race and the current AI competition sparked by DeepSeek are striking. Just as Sputnik catalyzed an era of unprecedented innovation and economic growth, DeepSeek could serve as a similar wake-up call for the global AI industry. This competition presents an opportunity for technology-related investments and companies to accelerate innovation, expand markets, and drive long-term growth. While the road ahead is competitive, the potential rewards for staying ahead in the AI race are immense. The A.I. “Cyber Space Race” is only just beginning, and there are still many opportunities that we will want to participate in. So, why did the market react so negatively to the news if that is the case? The Selloff Just Needed A Catalyst A great note from Societe Generale sums up our current view on the magnitude of the early-week selloff in . “Market panics are common, and currently, it is understandable with American exceptionalism in full force. The Mag-5s (NVDA + its top 4 customers, i.e. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta) have contributed approximately 700 points to the S&P 500 over the last 2 years. In other words, the S&P 500 excluding the Mag-5s would be 12% lower today. Nvidia alone has contributed 4% to the performance of the S&P 500. This is what we find to be the ‘American exceptionalism’ premium on the S&P 500.” Moreover, Bernstein analysts Stacy Rasgon and team have published their take on this, concluding that: DeepSeek DID NOT “build OpenAI for $5M” The models look fantastic, but we don’t think they are miracles, and The resulting Twitterverse panic over the weekend seems overblown Okay, so why the panic selling? As we previously warned, when “everyone is on the same side of the boat,” an unexpected, exogenous event causes sharp reversals. Over the last two weeks, sentiment reversed from negative to extremely bullish following the inauguration. This week we stated, “The technical gauge reversed sharply for short-term oversold back to more bullish levels. While not at more severe “overbought” warning levels, current levels suggest that near-term upside could be somewhat limited.“ Furthermore, the investor “Fear/Greed” gauge moved from neutral territory back into extreme greed. This indicator is based on how professional and retail investors position themselves based on equity allocations, including options, bullish and bearish sentiment, and concerns about risk. We see the same surge in investor sentiment by the standard deviation of “net bullish sentiment.” After reversing rather sharply from the December highs, investing sentiment reversed sharply last week following the inauguration. While not back to more extreme levels, the swiftness of the reversal has been remarkable. Up until now, the A.I. field has been dominated solely by U.S. companies. That dominance led to a rise in markets driven by a handful of mega-capitalization companies. Suddenly, everything has changed, or at least it seems that way. With everyone short-term bullish on the market, the risk of a reversal was elevated. Such is particularly true when an unexpected event, like DeepSeek, causes the market to question current earnings growth assumptions. This is why, as investors, we must remain vigilant about the risks we take within our portfolios. S&P 500: Technical View Technically speaking, the selloff on Monday, while unexpected, only reversed some of the recent gains. The market remains on a buy signal and defended support at the 50 and 20-DMA. Could there be more selling pressure in the days ahead? Possibly. However, much of yesterday’s selling seemed to be a “shoot first, ask questions later” type of action. The current bull market is likely not over. Furthermore, the panic will subside as markets come to grips with DeepSeek and its real implications. However, our recent discussions have made our aversion to risk more apparent. DeepSeek only adds to why we are becoming more cautious on outlooks as we head into 2025. The risks seem obvious between high valuations, a slowing economy, and elevated earnings expectations. Does this mean we expect the market to ******? No. Not yet, anyway. But it is incredibly difficult to know with certainty, so we suggest that investors “.” Source link #DeepSeeks #Rise #Sputnik #Moment Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

RFK Jr. to face Senate confirmation hearings tomorrow. Here’s what to know. RFK Jr. to face Senate confirmation hearings tomorrow. Here’s what to know. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s controversial pick to head the federal Department of Health and Human Services, will appear Wednesday before a Senate panel that is crucial to advance his nomination. Kennedy is due to appear first at the Senate Committee on Finance, the panel that will ultimately be the committee with the deciding vote on whether his nomination to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services advances to the full Senate. He must receive a majority of senators to be confirmed to head HHS, which encompasses America’s federal health agencies. The committee’s jurisdiction largely focuses on the department’s mammoth Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs for seniors and low-income Americans, which make up the largest share of mandatory spending in the federal budget. He will head next to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, which is scheduled to question Kennedy on Thursday. That committee’s focus includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, all agencies that would fall under Kennedy’s authority if he is confirmed to lead the department. Trump’s picks to head all of those agencies will also need to face their own Senate confirmation hearings. While some have voiced different opinions from him in the past, Kennedy could have broad authority to override them as secretary. What is RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda? This week’s hearings will offer the first public window into Kennedy’s broad “Make America Healthy Again” agenda in many weeks, after Kennedy and other nominees retreated from public appearances and social media posts. Advisers have been huddling with Kennedy for months behind closed doors, multiple advisers say, hashing out how and whether to implement dramatic changes he has sought to the federal government’s health bureaucracy. Kennedy’s supporters say many of his stances, like questioning ultra-processed foods and the risks of synthetic food additives and dyes, have hit on broad appeal among both Republicans and some Democrats that could buoy his chances to clear the Senate. Through the FDA, Kennedy would be able to exercise substantial authority on how foods are regulated, labeled and recommended by the federal government. But Kennedy is also facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, setting up a confirmation battle that multiple allies say he has privately acknowledged will be an uphill fight. His aides are facing mounting criticism over a department-wide communications “pause” that has stymied releases across the health agencies, which is timed to end in the days after Kennedy’s confirmation hearings wrap up. What is RFK Jr.’s stance on abortion rights? Conservative groups have also been divided over Kennedy’s nomination, with some criticizing his past statements voicing support for abortion rights. The issue is expected to be a large focus of Kennedy’s hearings: as secretary, he would have authority over how the FDA regulates medications used for abortions. Kennedy has reassured conservative groups and lawmakers that he would hew closely to Mr. Trump’s campaign trail promise to defer the issue to the states. But Kennedy and the Trump administration will have little room to avoid the issue, given an ongoing federal court case against the FDA. Conservatives have called on the Trump administration’s FDA to roll back moves made since 2016 to ease access to abortion pills. The FDA’s decision to ease those so-called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies or REMS restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone were the focus of a Supreme Court case last year that ended in defeat for abortion opponents. “Walking back REMS has significantly increased safety risks for women. And so from our perspective, as directed by the administration, we do believe that an RFK HHS has the ability to direct the FDA to review safety,” said John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life. Mize’s group has petitioned the FDA “urging the reinstatement of basic safety measures” while additional data is collected on their risks. He cited the death of Amber Thurman in a high-profile case that made headlines last year after a medication abortion. “I’ve seen this from RFK in the past, that he is absolutely laser focused on the safety of pharmaceuticals. And so this gives us a really good opportunity to expose a safety issue,” said Mize. FDA officials have defended their decision to ease the restrictions, saying that multiple reviews by the agency’s staff support the safety of easing the limits on when during a pregnancy the pills can be taken and allowing mail-order and retail pharmacies to dispense the medication. What is RFK Jr.’s stance on vaccines? Many Democrats, nonprofits and health experts have also blasted Kennedy over his record of misleading and unfounded health claims, in addition to work by him and his allies opposing the approvals and authorizations of a range of vaccines, including COVID-19 and polio shots. Kennedy has sought to assuage concerns that he would upend vaccines using his authority, pledging in the days after the election not to ban any shots. In his government ethics agreement, Kennedy also promises for a year to not intervene in any matters involving a nonprofit he chaired, Children’s Health Defense, which has battled federal agencies over vaccine authorizations and requirements. “They’re not interested in validating the press narrative that Bobby’s going to come in and make sweeping changes in vaccine policy. That’s going to be kind of political suicide right now,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a close Kennedy ally who has fiercely opposed the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, told CBS News. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor and head of the Senate’s health committee, said he had “a frank conversation” on “vaccines at length” with Kennedy after voicing concern over his past statements. The FDA’s top vaccines official has also voiced optimism that he might find common ground with Kennedy over vaccines. “This is how the sausage gets made. And you know, it’s not always pretty and it isn’t always what you want, but I’m really encouraged to see Bobby be pragmatic about the political realities here,” said Malone. Who is RFK Jr? When Kennedy first announced his campaign as a Democratic presidential candidate in April 2023, he touted his decades-long record as an environmental lawyer. Kennedy — whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign — says he did not want to immediately enter politics, and instead “carried on his family’s legacy by devoting himself to environmental causes and children’s ********.” That followed a struggle with substance abuse when he was younger, which he says spanned 14 years after he started using heroin at 15 years old. Kennedy made headlines for his environmental work was as founder and president of the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance from the 1980s until 2020, ranging from local efforts to clean up the Hudson River to campaigning against an oil pipeline in North Dakota. What Kennedy has described as his “reluctant entrance into the vaccine debate” dates back to 2005, when he wrote an article in Rolling Stone exploring supposed evidence for a link between autism and an ingredient that had formerly been used in some vaccines. The article contained numerous scientific and factual errors and was eventually retracted. Decades of research has established there is no such link. In 2016, Kennedy joined a nonprofit focused on mercury, which later broadened its focus and rebranded to Children’s Health Defense. Kennedy chaired the group and served as one of its loudest voices raising doubts about vaccines and fighting against vaccine requirements and approvals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they clashed with federal health agencies over use of ivermectin and the federal mask mandate in travel. In 2021, the FDA denied their petition asking to revoke all COVID-19 vaccine authorizations and ban studies of the shots for children. As a candidate, Kennedy continued to say that he thought vaccines as well as “a toxic soup coming mainly from their foods” were to blame for rising rates of autism and other chronic diseases in U.S. children. Experts have attributed the global rise in autism prevalence in part to broader awareness and changes to how the disorder is classified and diagnosed. Kennedy’s longshot bid to challenge President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary ended in October 2023, when he switched his campaign to an independent presidential bid. He dropped out of the campaign and endorsed Mr. Trump in August 2024. Alexander Tin Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers federal public health agencies. Source link #RFK #face #Senate #confirmation #hearings #tomorrow #Heres Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

S&P, Nasdaq futures regain some ground after tech rout S&P, Nasdaq futures regain some ground after tech rout (Reuters) – Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were higher on Tuesday after steep losses in the previous session, when the popularity of a low-cost ******** artificial intelligence model rattled stocks of U.S. companies invested in the technology. Monday’s selloff came after ******** startup DeepSeek launched AI models it says are on a par or better than industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost. “The narrative on Monday was that the eye-watering sums spent on AI capex by mega-cap tech companies could be somewhat obsolete if a cheaper solution exists,” analysts at BCA Research said in a note. AI chip leader Nvidia rose 4.8% in premarket trading, a day after $593 billion was wiped off its market value in the biggest single-session loss for any company. Other AI-linked stocks also regained some ground, with Oracle and Broadcom rising 3.5% and 4%, respectively. Power companies, which are expected to see a surge in demand from energy-intensive data centers needed to develop AI technology, were broadly higher after tumbling a day earlier. Vistra and GE Vernova added 4.6% and 3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 3% on Monday, its worst single-day showing in more than a month, while the benchmark S&P 500 fell close to 1.5%. At 04:51 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Dow E-minis were up 25 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 19.5 points, or 0.32%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 125.75 points, or 0.59%. Company earnings are likely to take center stage this week. Boeing, General Motors and Lockheed Martin are among the companies due to report quarterly results later in the day, while “Magnificent 7” members Microsoft, Facebook-parent Meta, Apple and Tesla are slated for later this week. Also in focus, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold its lending rate steady in its first interest-rate decision of the year on Wednesday, while the December reading of personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is scheduled for Friday. A January consumer confidence reading is due at 10 a.m. ET later in the day. U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported computer chips, pharmaceuticals and steel. A media report said newly elected Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has been pushing for new universal tariffs on U.S. imports to start at 2.5% and rise gradually by the same amount each month. Markets have been on edge about Trump’s proposed tariffs on concerns they could exacerbate inflationary pressures and slow Fed rate cuts. (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath) Source link #Nasdaq #futures #regain #ground #tech #rout Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ninja Gaiden 4 collaboration was Phil Spencer’s idea, producer says Ninja Gaiden 4 collaboration was Phil Spencer’s idea, producer says The forming of a partnership between Team Ninja and PlatinumGames to work together on Ninja Gaiden 4 was Phil Spencer’s idea, the game’s producer says. Xbox announced last week that Ninja Gaiden 4 is in development, with both studios collaborating on the game, and that it’s set for release later this year. In an interview with Game Watch, Team Ninja producer Fumihiko Yasuda explained that the studio had been trying to make a new Ninja Gaiden game for some time but couldn’t come up with any definitive plans. However, according to Yasuda, it was Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer who proposed that Team Ninja team up with PlatinumGames to make a Ninja Gaiden game together. “I think everyone knows that the Ninja Gaiden series has been on hold for more than a decade, but Team Ninja has been considering making a new title for a long time,” Yasuda said (via machine translation). “However, we were having difficult deciding on a plan. Then [Team Ninja parent company] Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma and PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba, who are from the same generation and are good friends, had a chance to discuss the matter. “After that, Phil Spencer from Microsoft suggested that the three companies – PlatinumGames, Koei Tecmo and Microsoft – work together on a new numbered title in the Ninja Gaiden series, and that’s how the project got started. “We have developed action games ourselves, but because we were going to be making a new Ninja Gaiden for the first time in over a decade, PlatinumGames had already made a number of great action titles, such as Bayonetta and NieR: Automata, so we wanted to work with them, and that’s how the collaboration began.” Spencer also touched on the initial deal in an interview on journliast Destin Legarie’s YouTube channel posted on Monday, in which he explained that the plans to bring back Ninja Gaiden started around eight years ago. “It was multiple trips [to Japan],” Spencer explained. “I think I have a picture of me in their offices holding a Ryu [Hayabusa] statue – that was probably 2017, when we started going ‘hey, we should go do something’. “Then I’d go over, Sarah Bond and I, multiple times a year, we needed to find the right studio to do the game. So with Platinum, when we got them signed up, it’s been a good journey. “It’s been a long journey, but we waited, because obviously the game’s coming out in 2025, so in terms of announce then launch this is a pretty tight turn for us.” Accompanying last week’s news that Ninja Gaiden 4 is in development, a surprise remaster of Xbox 360 Ninja Gaiden 2, titled Ninja Gaiden 2 ******, was released on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Source link #Ninja #Gaiden #collaboration #Phil #Spencers #idea #producer Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Oklahoma parents enrolling kids in school might have to prove kids’ citizenship status Oklahoma parents enrolling kids in school might have to prove kids’ citizenship status Parents enrolling children in Oklahoma public schools would be required to provide proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status under a proposal aimed at helping President Trump’s immigration policies. The proposed rules, which Oklahoma’s education board was set to vote on Tuesday, are in the early stages and would still need approval from lawmakers and the governor to take effect. The proposal from Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the state’s education chief, wouldn’t prohibit students without legal status from attending schools but would require districts to keep a tally. Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters speaks during a special state Board of Education meeting in April 2023 in Oklahoma City. Sue Ogrocki / AP A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1982 affirmed the right of children living in the country illegally to attend public schools, although some conservative lawmakers have questioned whether immigrants without legal residency should have the right to a public education. Walters has said he would support efforts by Mr. Trump to enforce immigration laws, including allowing federal agents with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement into Oklahoma schools. But there haven’t been any instances yet of immigration agents agents entering schools in Oklahoma, reports CBS Tulsa affiliate KOTV. “Schools are crippled by the flood of ******** immigrants and the Biden/Harris open border policy,” Walters said in a statement. “Oklahomans and the country elected President Trump and we will do everything possible to help put Oklahoma students first.” Walters has spent much of his first term in office attacking what he describes as “woke” ideology in public schools, requiring ****** instruction in Oklahoma classrooms and attempting to ban books from school libraries. The plan has been sharply criticized by teachers and civil liberty groups and caused fear within Oklahoma’s immigrant communities, said Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City’s heavily Hispanic south side. “The community is scared, obviously,” Alonso-Sandoval said. “The conversations I’ve had with parents, all they’re doing is trying to provide the best opportunity for their kids, like any parents. They are starting to question: Do I unenroll my child from school?” At Oklahoma City Public Schools, one of the state’s largest districts with a student population that is 57% Hispanic, Superintendent Jamie Polk said in a letter to parents and staff last month after the rule was first proposed that federal law guarantees every child’s right to public education regardless of immigration status. “OKCPS does not, nor do we have plans to, collect the immigration status of our students or their families,” she said. For decades, children of families living in the country illegally have had the right to attend public school based on the 1982 Supreme Court decision known as Plyler v. Doe. In a 5-4 vote, justices held it is unconstitutional to deny children an education based on their immigration status. Alabama attempted a similar requirement for public schools to ask the immigration status of students as part of a sweeping immigration law in 2011, but the state ultimately agreed to permanently block those provisions after they had been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court. Immigration experts say attempts to undermine the Plyler decision should be taken seriously, pointing to recent Supreme Court rulings that have overturn longstanding precedents over abortion rights and affirmative action in higher education. More Source link #Oklahoma #parents #enrolling #kids #school #prove #kids #citizenship #status Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

HSBC to exit M&A, capital markets businesses in ***, Europe and U.S. HSBC to exit M&A, capital markets businesses in ***, Europe and U.S. Branch of HSBC bank on 15th January 2024 in London, United Kingdom. HSBC Bank plc is a British multinational banking and financial services organisation. HSBCs international network comprises around 7,500 offices in over 80 countries globally. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images) Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images HSBC is preparing to wind down its M&A and equity capital markets businesses in Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. amid a broader overhaul of its investment banking operations. “As part of our ongoing efforts to simplify HSBC and increase leadership in our areas of strength, we are finalising a review of our Investment Banking business,” a spokesperson said Tuesday. “We will retain more focused M&A and equity capital markets capabilities in Asia and the Middle East and will begin to wind-down our M&A and equity capital markets activities in the ***, Europe, and the US, subject to local legal requirements.” London-listed shares of HSBC were down 0.36% at 10:41 a.m. London time. The news comes as HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery, who stepped into the leadership role last year, embarks the lender on a broader overhaul targeting cost-cutting efforts. Back in October, the bank unveiled plans for a new geographic setup and set out to consolidate its operations into four business units, divided between an “Eastern markets” branch — reuniting Asia-Pacific and the Middle East — and a “Western markets” division, comprising the non-ringed-fenced U.K. bank, the continental European business and the Americas. This breaking news story is being updated. Source link #HSBC #exit #capital #markets #businesses #Europe #U.S Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Amazon has some of the best MacBook Air deals I’ve seen since ****** Friday Amazon has some of the best MacBook Air deals I’ve seen since ****** Friday I love my Apple MacBook and wouldn’t choose any other laptop to work on. I have the Pro version, which gives me a little bit more power, but if you’re after something smaller and more portable, then the MacBook Air is the best option for you. And we’ve just spotted that the MacBook Air 13-inch (M2) is on ***** at Amazon US for $799 (was $999). If you’re in the ***, you can also get the MacBook Air 13-inch (M2) at Amazon *** for £849 (was £999). This is for the newest model with 16GB of RAM that will give you a welcome performance boost. It was $50 cheaper during ****** Friday but is still a significant discount. Getting one of the best MacBooks for under $800 is an absolute steal and this offer won’t be around for long. Today’s best Apple MacBook Air deals Our MacBook Air (M2) review gave this laptop an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars for its performance, fan-less design, battery life, and relatively modest price given the power on offer. While the newer M3 variant is the one that features in our best laptop buyer’s guide, the older M2 remains a good choice, especially at this deal price. Besides the core essentials, the MacBook Air (M2) also has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera so you look sharper on video calls, along with a four-speaker sound system with spatial audio and a three-mic array. It’s a great all-rounder that is built to last thanks to MacBooks generally lasting a long time without any slowdown issues. If you’re torn between different models, you can compare them in our MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro guide to see what’s best for you. If you’re looking for something Windows-based, take a look at the other laptop deals we’ve spotted. Source link #Amazon #MacBook #Air #deals #Ive #****** #Friday Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Helldivers 2 Creative Director is Taking Time Off Before the Next Arrowhead Game Helldivers 2 Creative Director is Taking Time Off Before the Next Arrowhead Game · · January 28, 2025 The creative director of Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead Games has announced that he is taking a sabbatical before starting work on the studio’s next game. Helldivers 2’s CCO, Johan Pilestedt, recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that he is taking some time off. Pilestedt explained that while players started enjoying Helldivers 2 last year, he has worked on the game since 2016 and the Helldivers franchise since 2013. As he worked for 11 years “around the clock” on the same IP, Pilestedt had to sacrifice time with his family, friends, wife, and himself. As a result, the Helldivers 2 CCO will take some time off to “redeem what was lost” from those who have been supporting him for more than 10 years. Pilestedt has ensured the community that all the developers at Arrowhead Game Studios will be hard at work to deliver amazing Helldivers 2 content to the players while he’s on sabbatical. And once he returns, work “on the next Arrowhead Game” will begin. Pilestedt has also posted an update since beginning his sabbatical, revealing that the first thing he did was start “a game jam with the most senior devs/founders” at Arrowhead Game Studios. In other news, the Helldivers 2 CEO wants A-listers to be violently killed in the upcoming movie, as the director talks about Arrowhead’s involvement with the adaptation. What are your thoughts on the Helldivers 2 creative director taking some time off? Let us know in the comments below or our community forum! For more from Insider Gaming, read about Phoenix Labs laying off more than 50 employees, and don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #Helldivers #Creative #Director #Time #Arrowhead #Game Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Are Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPUs about to arrive? Rumor hints they might be – with the RTX 5060 Ti potentially coming with 16GB VRAM Are Nvidia’s RTX 5060 GPUs about to arrive? Rumor hints they might be – with the RTX 5060 Ti potentially coming with 16GB VRAM Maxsun has filed RTX 5060 models with the Eurasian Economic Commission Those filings could be a hint that a previously rumored Q1 2025 launch is still possible They show the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB and 8GB models, but the RTX 5060 has just an 8GB flavor Nvidia’s RTX 5060 models haven’t yet been announced, but a graphics card maker has just dropped a clue about the memory configurations of the 5060 Ti boards – and that they might remain the same as with the RTX 4060 Ti (and this doubles as a hint that these GPUs could be coming sooner, rather than later). In case you’d forgotten, the RTX 4060 Ti comes in two varieties, one loaded up with 16GB of VRAM, and another that has 8GB, and this appears to be the same with the RTX 5060 Ti, at least based on a filing made by Maxsun with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC). Maxsun is a popular board maker over in Asia, and these filings include vanilla RTX 5060 models, too, although in that case, there are only 8GB variants. VideoCardz reported on the presence of these filings, as first flagged by Olrak29 on X. However, just because these filings exist, doesn’t mean that they aren’t speculative placeholders, as opposed to genuine info this graphics card making partner has obtained from Nvidia on the specs of the RTX 5060 models. (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: New info, or just a guess based on the existing state of play? The RTX 5060 remains something of a mystery, and we haven’t heard that much about this GPU on the rumor mill so far. However, some of the speculation that we have been treated to is on the topic of VRAM, and aligns with what we see here. In the past we have seen claims of 8GB for the RTX 5060 itself, and 16GB for the RTX 5060 Ti. This was from the same vein of rumors that correctly asserted 12GB for the RTX 5070, it should be noted – though back then, those whispers on the grapevine didn’t mention a choice of 8GB or 16GB for the 5060 Ti. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Of course, what Maxsun has put forward with these filings is also notable because it’s the same scheme of things with the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti, memory-wise, as we mentioned at the outset. So, if these are speculative filings, it’d make sense to just stick to the current-gen VRAM loadouts – and it could be the case that the board maker is just mirroring those as a likely choice for Nvidia (especially given those past rumors). Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait to hear more from the rumor mill, and for a weight of evidence to accumulate regarding these theoretical video memory pools. And we may not have to wait long, if previous chatter regarding a possible March 2025 launch for the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti is correct. Indeed, this filing could indicate that these GPUs are on the horizon, but I’m not convinced given how close this timeframe is now, and the lack of other speculation around the RTX 5060 models. (We don’t have purported core counts at all yet, for example, a major piece of the puzzle). Although that said, maybe a flood of these rumors is about to kick off. Given that the RTX 5070 has 12GB, though, it feels very likely that the RTX 5060 will be equipped with 8GB (and, of course, the assistance of Nvidia’s special AI texture compression sauce to help cope with the demands of more taxing PC games). You might also like Source link #Nvidias #RTX #GPUs #arrive #Rumor #hints #RTX #potentially #coming #16GB #VRAM Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Defending Michigan’s Auto Industry, Whitmer Warns of Tariff Risks Defending Michigan’s Auto Industry, Whitmer Warns of Tariff Risks Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a leading Democrat from a critical battleground state, on Wednesday subtly warned against President-elect Donald J. Trump’s tariff threats targeting Canada, even as she stressed her broader willingness to work with him on the cusp of his second inauguration. Her speech, at the Detroit Auto Show, offered among the clearest examples yet of how Democrats from states that Mr. Trump carried are seeking to balance fresh overtures to the incoming president with their staunch opposition to some of his policy proposals. Speaking at a convention center just across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ont., Ms. Whitmer described strong cultural and industrial ties between the two cities. Using tariffs as punishment, she said, risks “damaging supply chains, slowing production lines and cutting jobs on both sides of the border.” Ms. Whitmer did not mention Mr. Trump by name as she broached the subject, but he has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Canada if the country does not reduce the flow of migrants and fentanyl to the United States. The Ontario Premier Doug Ford has discussed retaliation, including threatening to disrupt the electricity supply from the province to the United States. “I am not opposed to tariffs outright, but we cannot treat them like a one-size-fits-all solution, and we certainly shouldn’t use them to punish our closest trading partners,” Ms. Whitmer said, arguing that such an approach could embolden China. “They would love nothing more than for us, to watch us cripple America’s auto ecosystem all by ourselves,” she said. “This is a matter of national security.” Ms. Whitmer also noted that components of automobiles often cross the U.S.-Canada border more than once in the production process. Tariffs imposed each time, she suggested, could mean “you’ll pay more to buy a Silverado, fix the engine of your Mustang, or replace the fender on your Jeep Grand Cherokee.” The comments were part of a wide-ranging speech about her economic vision and about responding to the challenges and competition confronting Michigan’s auto industry, both internationally and from other states. The broader industry accounts for 20 percent of Michigan’s work force and contributes $304 billion to the state’s economy annually, according to the Detroit Regional Chamber. “We must stay nimble to support businesses that are already here and win new ones, too,” she said. “We can’t just unilaterally disarm, like some on the far left and far right would have us do.” She told Republicans that to truly fix the state’s roads, new revenue would be necessary, while telling Democrats that “fiscally responsible cuts” were also needed. Throughout, Ms. Whitmer peppered her remarks with promises to work on a bipartisan basis both locally and nationally, an approach that has taken on new urgency after Democrats in November lost control of the Michigan House of Representatives. She also extended those gestures explicitly to Mr. Trump, who flipped Michigan in November, four years after President Biden won the state. Noting that Michiganders had twice supported both herself and Mr. Trump, Ms. Whitmer said, they “expect us to find common ground.” Ms. Whitmer’s comments stood in contrast to the more combative stances that elected officials from some deeply Democratic states have taken. “I don’t want to pretend we’re always going to agree, but I will always seek collaboration first,” said Ms. Whitmer, who has clashed for years with Mr. Trump. “I won’t go looking for fights. I won’t back down from them either.” In an interview on Tuesday, Ms. Whitmer said she wanted to “redouble my efforts to connect with him after the inauguration.” “President Trump cares about Michigan, he spent a lot of time here in Michigan and Michigan helped elect him to the White House,” she said of a man who has often been described as susceptible to flattery. “I want to make sure that we don’t take our eye off the ball and that we are really focused on using tariffs as a scalpel and not a, you know, a sledgehammer.” During her speech, Ms. Whitmer walked a careful line on a hot-button issue in the state: the transition to electric vehicles. She said the definition of the auto industry had expanded to include not only part makers and assembly plants, but also “battery factories, software companies, chip fabs and startups.” “We don’t care what you drive,” she said to applause. “We just care that it’s made right here in Michigan, by Michigan workers.” Source link #Defending #Michigans #Auto #Industry #Whitmer #Warns #Tariff #Risks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cardiff University jobs under threat due to funding ****** hole Cardiff University jobs under threat due to funding ****** hole Meetings are being held with staff and unions amid concern that hundreds of jobs are under threat at Cardiff University. Academic departments have been summoned to briefings with managers with speculation that some departments could be merged and subjects affected. Chair of the University and College Union (UCU) Cymru Estelle Hart said there had been a “lack of communication” by university bosses which was causing “anxiety” to staff. A Cardiff University spokesperson said that staff and students would be the first to know if any changes were proposed. The university had previously said it had to take action to address a £30m ****** hole in its budget with the pressure of increased costs and falling international student numbers affecting the whole higher education sector. An offer of voluntary severance between June and September 2024 was taken up and approved for 155 staff and a second round closed earlier this month. But the latest announcement is set to go further with staff fearing that “hundreds” more jobs will go from the 7,000 strong workforce. Refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies, Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner said in the autumn that the university would develop new sources of income and different ways of delivering courses as well as looking at usage of the university’s buildings. She said the university would also be looking for international partnerships and in December 2024 it announced that there were discussions about opening its first overseas branch in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Staff in departments across the university have received invitations to meetings to discuss “academic futures”. One email said: “I appreciate that a meeting of this kind will cause anxiety” referring staff to an Employee Assistance Programme for support, should they need it. Speaking on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Estelle Hart from UCU Cymru said management at Cardiff University had “caused speculation by not communicating”. “I think it’s fair to say the sector’s in crisis but what we’ve seen in Cardiff is a real lack of engagement with alternatives from the management. “Sending emails out inviting people to meetings seemingly without any pre-warning is going to cause such anxiety.” Large scale “town hall” meetings are also planned for this week. A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation or anonymous claims. If any changes are proposed, then our staff and students will be first to be informed”. “We will not be offering further comment, at this stage,” the spokesperson added. Source link #Cardiff #University #jobs #threat #due #funding #****** #hole Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Infinix Smart 9 HD With 90Hz Display, Helio G50 Chipset Launched in India: Price, Specifications Infinix Smart 9 HD With 90Hz Display, Helio G50 Chipset Launched in India: Price, Specifications Infinix Smart 9 HD was launched in India on Tuesday. It is the first smartphone in the company’s new Smart 9 lineup and arrives as the successor to the Smart 8 HD, which debuted in December 2023. The phone boasts a 6.7-inch HD+ screen with 90Hz refresh rate. For media consumption, it gets dual stereo speakers and DTS audio processing. Infinix says the Smart 9 HD has an IP54-rated build which makes it resistant to splashes. Infinix Smart 9 HD Price in India Infinix Smart 9 HD is priced in India at Rs. 6,699. However, it will be available at Rs. 6,199 as part of a special day one offer, according to the company. The phone can be purchased starting February 4 on Flipkart in four colourways — Mint Green, Coral Gold, Neo Titanium, and Metallic ******. Infinix Smart 9 HD Specifications Infinix Smart 9 HD sports a 6.7-inch HD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. It has a hole-punch cutout which houses the front camera. The company says it has equipped the phone with dual speakers with DTS audio processing and sound boost technology. It measures 165.7 x 77.1 x 8.35mm in dimensions and weighs 188g. It is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G50 processor with a 2.2GHz peak clock speed. The chipset is complemented by up to 6GB of RAM (3GB physical+3GB virtual) and 64GB of onboard storage. The latter is expandable up to a 1TB via a microSD card. It runs on Android 14 Go edition which is optimised for lower-spec handsets. For optics, the Infinix Smart 9 HD has a 13-megapixel dual rear camera unit with quad LED and zoom flash. The lenses are vertically stacked in a camera island on the back panel. It also gets an 8-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls, in addition to LED flash and screen flash features. The camera system offers beauty and portrait modes for photography. The phone packs a 5,000mAh battery, which is claimed to deliver up to 14.5 hours of video playback and up to 8.6 hours of gaming. The company has provided an AI charge protection feature which is claimed to protect the device from overcharging and prolong the battery’s health. Connectivity options on the Infinix Smart 9 HD include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Source link #Infinix #Smart #90Hz #Display #Helio #G50 #Chipset #Launched #India #Price #Specifications Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What Did Trump’s Tax Cuts Do? What Did Trump’s Tax Cuts Do? Seven years ago, when Republicans passed the most significant overhaul of the tax code in a generation, they were sure the law would supercharge investment, raise wages and shift the American economy into a higher gear. So did it? The answer, at least for now, is largely lost to history. A pandemic and a surge in inflation convulsed the global economy not long after the law passed in 2017, scrambling the data that analysts would have typically relied on to draw conclusions about whether the tax cuts helped the economy grow the way Republicans had promised. As a result, policymakers in Washington are now relying on only a partial understanding of the law’s past as they weigh committing roughly $5 trillion toward continuing it. “Basically, from 2020 the data is kind of useless,” said Alan Auerbach, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who counts Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, among his former students. Economists have focused on just two years before the coronavirus pandemic, 2018 and 2019, to measure the law’s consequences for the most important economy in the world. But that’s a limited window for trying to discern whether the tax cuts prompted a cycle of investment and growth that can take years to play out. “In terms of looking at longer-run effects, pretty much just forget about it,” Mr. Auerbach said. “There’s just no way to control for the effects of Covid.” Not that everything about the 2017 tax law is a mystery. The legislation slashed marginal tax rates for almost every individual income bracket, created a larger standard deduction and expanded the child tax credit. For businesses, the law cut the corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, temporarily incentivized new capital investments, overhauled the taxation of earnings overseas and offered a new deduction to owners of many typically smaller companies. To Republicans, who passed the law over unified Democratic opposition in the first year of Mr. Trump’s first term, these changes amounted to an unqualified economic success. They credit the tax cuts with strong growth and wage increases in the years before the pandemic, warning that letting many of the 2017 cuts expire, currently scheduled to happen at the end of the year, would create an economic drag. “We saw the power of these tax cuts in ’18, ’19 and going into January of ’20 before they were interrupted by Covid, and the great success that we had,” Scott Bessent, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. “If we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity.” Economists are more circumspect. Trying to pinpoint the role that any single factor plays in a sprawling economy shaped by changing interest rates, oil prices and dozens of other variables is an inherently difficult task. Only with carefully constructed models do economists offer some findings about how a tax cut affects the economy. They generally view tax cuts for individuals as having little effect on the economy overall, despite their popularity. Economic research suggests that marginally lower tax rates do not motivate people to work more, which could bolster growth, and the money that Americans save from lower taxes does not affect the economy in a lasting way, either. So some of the most expensive pieces of the 2017 law — the lower individual rates and larger standard deduction — are most likely the least important to the economy. “If you look at the bang for the buck of different kinds of tax reforms, you’ll find broad individual tax cuts aren’t as growth enhancing as something targeted at capital investment,” said Erica York, the vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally favors lower taxes. That leaves much of the scholarly focus on the corporate tax cuts included in the 2017 law. Textbook economic theory states that lower taxes cause companies to invest more in their businesses, which in turn helps make workers more productive, lifting wages and the prospects of the entire economy. In a paper last year, a team of researchers from Harvard, Princeton and the University of Chicago reviewed several different ways of measuring the corporate response to the tax cuts. Despite some of the scattered data, the academics concluded that the lower corporate tax cuts had in fact helped stimulate more corporate investment. The team then used what Eric Zwick, an economist at the University of Chicago and one of the paper’s authors, called “back of the envelope” modeling to extrapolate the effect of higher corporate investment to the performance of the entire economy. They estimated that the law would help the economy become 1 percent larger over 10 years, growth that in turn pointed toward roughly $750 more in wages for each American worker. Such an increase would still be far below the $4,000 per employee that Mr. Trump’s White House had originally promised the corporate tax cuts would generate. Mr. Zwick said he felt confident about the general conclusions of his research, even if he acknowledged the added challenge of understanding long-term economic effects from only two years of Covid-free data. “It’s not ideal,” he said. “Having at least five years of data would have been really helpful for thinking through dynamic effects.” The research from Mr. Zwick and his colleagues threw cold water on the Republicans’ insistence that the tax cuts paid for themselves. Even with the added growth that Mr. Zwick and his co-authors found, they maintained that the lower corporate taxes had cost the U.S. government billions. Estimates at the time of the 2017 law’s passage found that it would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. Republicans have long argued that lower tax rates will stoke so much economic activity that the government will collect just as much revenue as it did before it cut taxes. More recently, they have cited higher-than-forecast tax revenue in the years since the pandemic as evidence of the tax cuts’ success. Seemingly in response, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office explained in a recent publication that much of the higher tax revenue was a result of higher inflation’s pushing up prices and earnings. Other analysts have found that the benefits of the tax cuts have gone largely to the rich. One study by economists at the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation and the Federal Reserve looked at the near-term corporate response to the tax cuts, finding that employees saw higher earnings as a result. But those increases went entirely to the people who were already the top earners at their companies, with the bottom 90 percent of employees seeing no gains, the researchers found. The finding comes on top of the fact that the individual income tax cuts, while affecting many Americans, skewed toward most benefiting the rich, who pay the bulk of the nation’s income taxes. “There are two things we know it did: It increased the deficit, and it redistributed resources toward the wealthy,” said Bill Gale, a co-director at the Tax Policy Center, a think tank, of the 2017 tax law. “The things that are harder to pin down are whether and how much it raised investment and whether and how much it affected wages.” Source link #Trumps #Tax #Cuts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Sciver-Brunt makes it personal for final Ashes Test Sciver-Brunt makes it personal for final Ashes Test England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt wants to salvage “personal pride” in this week’s prestigious Test match at the MCG. Source link #SciverBrunt #personal #final #Ashes #Test Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Meta AI Is Getting a New Memory Feature and Personalised Recommendations Meta AI Is Getting a New Memory Feature and Personalised Recommendations Meta AI is getting a couple of new upgrades, the company announced on Monday. Meta wants its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to offer a more personalised experience to users, and the two new features will enable it to learn more about users. The first is a memory feature that will allow the chatbot to remember certain information shared by the user in individual chats, and the second is a personalised recommendation feature that will allow Meta AI to look through the user’s social media profiles and in-app activities to suggest relevant information. In a newsroom post, the social media giant announced two new ways it is making Meta AI more personalised for users. The company said it has been experimenting with a new memory feature that allows the chatbot to remember certain information about the user. Memory in Meta AI can only be saved in individual chats. Users can either specifically tell the AI to remember particular details, or it can remember certain information automatically during conversations. For instance, if a user asks the chatbot to suggest breakfast ideas and it suggests an omelette, the user can tell Meta AI that they are vegetarian and it will remember this. In future conversations, the AI will then only suggest vegetarian meal ideas. Memory in Meta AI Photo Credit: Meta AI Meta did not share what kind of information can be saved by the AI, and whether it will include sensitive information such as financial and medical details. However, users will be notified whenever the chatbot saves a new piece of information and they will be allowed to delete memory manually. Memory in Meta AI is rolling out to Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp for iOS and Android in the US and Canada. The second feature allows the chatbot to collect information about the user to generate personalised recommendations. The social media giant highlighted that the information will be taken from user profiles on Facebook and Instagram as well as in-app activities such as watching Reels, liking and commenting on posts, and more. Explaining how the feature would work, the post stated that if a user asks for recommendations for a fun activity with the family on the weekend, Meta AI can find the user’s home location from Facebook, go through recent views of Reels to find the activities the user might be interested in, and information from the memory feature to recommend a music concert. This feature will be available on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram in the US and Canada. Notably, the company did not address if users will have a choice in deciding whether to share this information with Meta AI. Source link #Meta #Memory #Feature #Personalised #Recommendations Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]