Revenge of The Savage Planet Review – Thumb Culture
Revenge of The Savage Planet Review – Thumb Culture
Noobfeed editor Faviyan writes – In the end, you’ll either champion Revenge of the Savage Planet for its inventive environments, tool-driven puzzles, and collectable-driven progression, or you’ll criticise it for its uneven humour and shallow combat. Either way, you’re met with a game that dares to spoof corporate excess while inviting you to chart your path across four distinct planets.
Source link
#Revenge #Savage #Planet #Review #Thumb #Culture
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Fatal storms flood the south of France
Fatal storms flood the south of France
Heavy rainfall and storms have been battering southern France since Monday.
The rains have caused widespread damage across the region, flooding streets and causing power and water outages.
At least three people have died in the flooding with several hundred emergency rescuers being deployed to the region.
Source link
#Fatal #storms #flood #south #France
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
The Siege and the Sandfox Review – A Ghost in the Labyrinth | COGconnected
The Siege and the Sandfox Review – A Ghost in the Labyrinth | COGconnected
“Koch Media and Cardboard Sword are excited to join forces to publish the developer’s debut title, “The Siege and the Sandfox”. The unique 2D 16-bit styled stealth metroidvania (Stealthvania) promising fluid platforming gameplay is coming to PC (via Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, and Humble) in 2023.” – Koch Media and Cardboard Sword.
Source link
#Siege #Sandfox #Review #Ghost #Labyrinth #COGconnected
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
BBC Verify examines Israeli strikes as minimal aid enters Gaza
BBC Verify examines Israeli strikes as minimal aid enters Gaza
Israel says it has reopened access for a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza, after blocking supplies from entering the territory for the last 11 weeks.
The UN has said no aid has been distributed from the trucks yet.
This comes as the Israeli military ramps up its operations, with strikes hitting various locations in the strip.
BBC Verify has been looking into the latest strikes and the aid situation in Gaza – as Jake Horton explains.
Verification by Paul Brown, Benedict Garman and Sherie Ryder.
Graphics by Sally Nicholls.
Source link
#BBC #Verify #examines #Israeli #strikes #minimal #aid #enters #Gaza
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Nintendo's new trademark filing breathes new life into underrated DS game
Nintendo's new trademark filing breathes new life into underrated DS game
Following Another Code and Famicom Detective Clubs revivals, Nintendo appears to be working on another adventure puzzle game remaster.
Source link
#Nintendo039s #trademark #filing #breathes #life #underrated #game
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 "Brushes With Death" DLC Review – Splash of Pain | MP1st
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 "Brushes With Death" DLC Review – Splash of Pain | MP1st
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Brushes With Death Review – It’s time to journey back to Trosky, as you help a painter discover his magnum opus.
Source link
#Kingdom #Deliverance #quotBrushes #Deathquot #DLC #Review #Splash #Pain #MP1st
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Warby Parker pops 15% on $150 million Google smart glasses partnership
Warby Parker pops 15% on $150 million Google smart glasses partnership
The Warby Parker store in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Pat Greenhouse | Boston Globe | Getty Images
Warby Parker shares surged more than 14% after Google announced a smart glasses partnership its I/O conference.
Google has committed up to $150 million to the project. The company has already put $75 million into product development costs and said it would invest an additional $75 million as Warby meets “certain collaboration milestones.”
Warby Parker said it plans to launch a series of products with Google, with the first set to arrive sometime “after 2025.” The glasses will be built on top of Google’s Android XR, an operating system for headset computers.
“Glasses with Android XR will put the power of Gemini one tap away, providing helpful information right when you need it — like directions, translations or message summaries without reaching for your phone. It’s all within your line of sight, or directly in your ear,” Google said in a blog post.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Source link
#Warby #Parker #pops #million #Google #smart #glasses #partnership
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
I'm not a clown and I never will be: Postecoglou
I'm not a clown and I never will be: Postecoglou
Aussie soccer boss Ange Postecoglou has fired back at his critics on the eve of the Europa League final, which could be his last match as Tottenham manager.
Source link
#I039m #clown #Postecoglou
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Review: Videogames Favorite Female Gumshoe Is Back In Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer Entertainium
Review: Videogames Favorite Female Gumshoe Is Back In Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer Entertainium
The hard-boiled hard rock detective is back with one hell of a hangover and an arms length of bills to pay in Kathy Rain 2.
Source link
#Review #Videogames #Favorite #Female #Gumshoe #Kathy #Rain #Soothsayer #Entertainium
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Supreme Court orders Maine House to restore vote of lawmaker punished for Facebook post on transgender athlete
Supreme Court orders Maine House to restore vote of lawmaker punished for Facebook post on transgender athlete
Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday restored for now a Maine state lawmaker’s right to vote in the state House of Representatives after she was punished for a social media post that identified a transgender student athlete.
The high court granted the request for emergency relief sought by Laurel Libby, who represents House District 90 and was censured by her colleagues for a social media post that criticized the state for allowing transgender athletes at public high schools to compete in girls sports. The online posting from Libby called out a transgender athlete who competed in the state’s track-and-field championship.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from Supreme Court’s decision to grant an injunction.
Libby shared the post that sparked her punishment to Facebook in February and included photos and the name of the athlete, who placed first in the girls’ pole vault. Maine allows transgender students to participate in athletics in accordance with their gender identity. The Justice Department has sued the state’s Department of Education over its policy, which the Trump administration says discriminates against women in violation of Title IX. The suit came after President Trump signed an executive order in February barring transgender girls and women from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
In response to Libby’s social media post, the Maine House voted to censure her. The resolution stated that Libby refused to remove her post after she was warned it might endanger the athlete and said “it is a basic tenet of politics and good moral character that children should not be targeted by adult politicians, especially when that targeting could result in serious harm.”
The censure measure directed Libby to “accept full responsibility for the incident and publicly apologize to the House and to the people of the state of Maine.” Libby, it concluded, “must comport herself in a manner that pursues the highest standards of legislative conduct.
After the resolution was approved by the state House, Libby was brought to the well of the chamber and instructed to apologize. When she refused to do so, the House speaker found her in violation of a centuries-old Maine House rule that bars a member who is in breach of the body’s rules from participating in debates or vote on matters before it until the member has “made satisfaction.”
Libby and six of her constituents sued in federal court to have her right to vote in the Maine House restored. A federal district court declined to provide them with preliminary relief, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected a request to intervene.
In seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court, Libby said her constituents do not have equal representation in the chamber. The punishment leaves them “without a voice or vote for every bill coming to the House floor for the rest of [Libby’s] elected term.” Libby was first elected to the state legislature in 2020, and her current term runs through 2026.
But Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey argued that Libby is seeking the Supreme Court’s intervention in an “intra-parliamentary dispute” that, if granted, would pierce legislative immunity for core legislative acts.
“The power of a legislative body to punish its members has been recognized in the common law since ancient times and has been enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and many state constitutions, including Maine’s, since the birth of our republic,” he wrote. “Likewise, the act of tallying a floor vote to determine whether a measure succeeds or fails is an integral act in the legislative process. An injunction directing how such processes may unfold would be contrary to the policy of insulating legislative activity from ‘outside interference’ that undergirds this court’s immunity jurisprudence.”
Melissa Quinn
Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.
Source link
#Supreme #Court #orders #Maine #House #restore #vote #lawmaker #punished #Facebook #post #transgender #athlete
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
I’m an oncologist. Here’s my biggest piece of advice for Biden right now.
I’m an oncologist. Here’s my biggest piece of advice for Biden right now.
The revelation of former President Joseph Biden’s prostate ******* diagnosis left me on unfamiliar footing. As a medical oncologist, I find most celebrity disclosures humbling yet rarely moving. But for someone whose uncle is in the midst of a very similar ******* journey, the particulars of Biden’s disease are inescapable.
In a statement released Sunday, Biden’s office disclosed that he had Stage 4 prostate ******* with “metastasis to the bone.” The disease was noted to be an “aggressive form” with a Gleason score of 9 (on a scale of 6 to 10), which reflects the heightened abnormality of the cells. The former president is now exploring treatment options with his doctors.
Not long ago, my 74-year-old uncle found himself in the same place. In 2023, his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test — which measures a protein produced by both normal and cancerous cells of the prostate ****** — was 1.5, well below the age-appropriate normal of 4.0. But within a year, despite only vague ******** symptoms, his level spiked to 104.
An MRI of the prostate and biopsy duly followed, and confirmed ******* with a high Gleason score. Shortly after, a **** scan showed that the disease had already spread to various bones and lymph nodes. Like Biden, in other words, my uncle’s malady was Stage 4 at the time of diagnosis — controllable but incurable.
Because prostate cancers are often slow-growing and assessed regularly with PSA levels, the vast majority (70%, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are first detected at an early stage, still localized to the prostate. But while such advanced presentations are unlikely at the time of initial detection, they are not impossible. According to the CDC, 8% of prostate cancers are first diagnosed when the ******* has already spread so widely.
After my uncle’s unexpected diagnosis, I had to provide space for him and his immediate family to absorb the news. And though I would not be the primary doctor for his treatment, I did reassure him that regardless of the advanced *******, an effective treatment plan did exist.
The former president will receive the same treatment plan my uncle has: an individualized strategy that accounts for his disease specifics, physical ability, co-morbidities and quality of life. And crucially, my uncle could start this journey with optimism, thanks not only to his personal faith but to the burgeoning potential of current prostate ******* treatments — hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiation and others.
“Over the past decade, treatment for advanced prostate ******* has evolved significantly,” said Bilawal Ahmed, an oncologist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a panel contributor on the National Comprehensive ******* Network’s guidelines for prostate *******. “While Stage 4 prostate ******* is not curable, it is very often treatable and manageable as a chronic disease. This helps shift the focus from fear to a long-term care plan rooted in hope and ongoing support.”
This is where Biden, and others like my uncle, stand to potentially benefit from the bounties of the former president’s own “moonshot” mission to reduce ******* deaths through significant investment in research. Such efforts, which are threatened by the Trump administration’s ongoing budget cuts, are the mainspring to expand our arsenal against a disease whose incidence and death toll remain substantial.
“******* touches us all,” Biden posted Monday on social media. For me, this holds true both personally and professionally. My uncle has made incredible progress on his ******* journey: His PSA has cratered on treatment and scans show no active disease. While no two cancers are ever alike, I hope the former president’s path meets equal success.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Source link
#oncologist #Heres #biggest #piece #advice #Biden
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Helldivers 2 Players Need To Kill 2.5 Billion Aliens To Defend Super Earth, And That’s Just The Start
Helldivers 2 Players Need To Kill 2.5 Billion Aliens To Defend Super Earth, And That’s Just The Start
Helldivers 2’s Heart of Democracy update is now live, and nothing less than Super Earth itself is at stake.
The latest update for Arrowhead Studio’s co-op shooter turns the home of Super Democracy into a battlefield, as massive Illuminate ships lay siege to the Helldiver homeworld. Players will need to defend Super Earth’s seven Mega Cities and inflict significant Illuminate casualties in order to stave off the invasion. Should all of the Mega Cities fall, so too will Super Earth.
No pressure! Whereas players have become accustomed to fighting on far-off alien battlefields, Super Earth’s cities present an all-new challenge. In addition to skyscrapers blocking sightlines and helping to hide new flying enemy types, Super Earth’s civilian population, and its armed forces, now find themselves in the crossfire between Helldivers and the invading aliens. Players will need to be careful not to cause too many civilian casualties.
The Helldivers, however, aren’t alone. Squads of Super Earth Armed Forces can be found in Mega Cities providing support. While they will fight the Illuminate on their own, they can also be ordered by players to help provide backup. That will be handy for clearing a path toward the new Planetary Defense Cannon objectives, which players will manually control in order to take down Illuminate Overships.
What will happen should Super Earth fall? That’s unclear, but Arrowhead has certainly raised the stakes. The battle for Super Earth will consist of multiple Major Orders for the game’s playerbase to complete, as a deadly tug-o-war begins for control of each Mega City. The current Major Order, to kill 2.5 billion Illuminate, is set to end in two days. No doubt even more alien blood will need to be spilled after that, as the war for Super Earth rages on.
Heart of Democracy is just the latest update for Helldivers 2, and it’s one that goes hand-in-hand with another recent update that improved the game’s Superstore shop and added a new weapon-upgrade system.
As for what’s next for Arrowhead, the Helldivers studio recently said it would be self-funding its next game but would be open to working with PlayStation again for its next project.
Source link
#Helldivers #Players #Kill #Billion #Aliens #Defend #Super #Earth #Start
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Why Walmart decided to raise prices and risk Trump’s anger
Why Walmart decided to raise prices and risk Trump’s anger
A Walmart store is shown in Oceanside, California, U.S., May 15, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Last month, Walmart downplayed how much President Donald Trump’s tariffs would affect its business in front of a large audience of investors. CEO Doug McMillon pointed to other challenging times that the company had weathered — like the aftermath of 9/11 — and the CEO of its international business didn’t even bring up trade during a panel with global corporate leaders.
The largest U.S. retailer struck a much different tone Thursday. On its earnings call and in CNBC interviews about its quarterly results, the company warned that higher duties on imports would soon mean higher prices for its shoppers.
“We’re pleased with the progress that’s been made by the [Trump] administration on tariffs from the levels that were announced in early April, but they’re still too high,” CFO John David Rainey told CNBC in an interview.
He added that Walmart is “wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb.”
The discounter’s remarks came with a risk considering Trump’s history of publicly attacking other companies or people perceived to oppose his agenda. Sure enough, he lashed out at Walmart in a weekend social media post, telling the company to “EAT THE TARIFFS.”
Walmart’s shift in tone about the impact of tariffs — and the back-and-forth with the White House — is the latest illustration of the delicate dance of business leaders trying to appease customers, shareholders and a notoriously transactional White House as Trump’s ever-changing trade policy roils their businesses. But the discounter’s more outspoken response also highlights an area where corporate leaders have grown more willing to publicly criticize Trump’s policy positions.
“Tariffs are really the only topic that has broken through a really silent stretch of corporate engagement,” said Joanna Piacenza, vice president of thought leadership at Gravity Research, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that helps corporations navigate reputational risk and counts Fortune 500 companies as its clients. “It is an issue that corporations, that CEOs feel comfortable speaking out on because they’re tying it to a business issue. That can’t necessarily be said about other polarizing issues that are dominating the zeitgeist right now.”
Walmart responded to Trump with its own statement, echoing its commitment to maintain low prices.
“We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we won’t stop,” Walmart said. “We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins.”
Walmart declined to comment beyond its statement. A source close to the company said Walmart’s decision to warn of higher prices was motivated by a sense of obligation to explain to customers and investors why prices would increase.
While Walmart’s prices are closely watched due to its massive reach, it hasn’t been alone: other companies including Microsoft and Subaru have warned of price increases related to tariffs. But on Tuesday, Home Depot broke with that pattern, as its CFO, Richard McPhail, said the company plans to “generally maintain our current pricing levels across our portfolio.”
Consumers and investors will get a clearer read on how companies will handle pricing in the coming days, as Target and Lowe’s, among others, will post first-quarter results.
Shifting winds
As Trump prepared to take office, the corporate world welcomed him by contributing to a record $239 million haul for his inauguration committee. Those funds included donations from the National Retail Federation, the industry’s lobbying arm, and big-box giant Target, which contributed to the inauguration committee for the first time in at least a decade. The NRF gave $250,000 to the fund, while Target wrote a check for $1 million.
Walmart also contributed $150,000 to the inaugural committee for Trump, consistent with the Arkansas-based retailer’s donations for the past three presidential inaugurations — including former President Joe Biden’s in 2021 and Trump’s first in 2017.
Walmart, Target and a range of other corporations also followed Trump’s lead in rolling back or scrapping major diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Businesses, buoyed by hopes that Trump would cut their taxes, stayed mostly quiet about the president’s policies for the first two months of his administration.
But then the tariffs came. More companies spoke out about the U.S. duties after April 9 than in the immediate wake of Trump’s April 2 announcement that he would impose steep trade barriers on dozens of countries, according to data from Gravity Research. April 9 was the day Trump temporarily reduced those steep levies but hiked tariffs on ******** imports to an astronomical 145%.
There were 139 corporate responses to tariffs on channels including press releases, earnings calls, social media, media interviews and employee memos from April 10 to April 25, up from 79 between April 2 and April 9, Gravity Research found. Nearly half of those tracked statements by corporations since the temporary tariff reprieve came from earnings calls where CEOs delivered prepared remarks and answered analysts’ questions.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a law enforcement event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 19, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The backlash to tariffs picked up steam from some top executives who had lauded Trump’s policies as a boon for business only months earlier. The chief executive officers of Delta Air Lines and JPMorgan Chase, companies that each gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, both spoke out about how tariffs were hurting U.S. consumer spending.
Hours before the president suspended some duties that day, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon went on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria” show — which Trump is known to watch — and said he saw Trump’s tariffs leading to a U.S. recession. It marked a sharp turnabout from his remarks in January, when he said tariffs were positive for national security and people needed to “get over it.”
Delta CEO Ed Bastian also told CNBC in an interview shortly before the trade conflict reprieve that economic uncertainty caused by the levies were causing airfare bookings to slow and described Trump’s rapidly changing trade policies as “the wrong approach.” In January, Bastian said 2025 was set to be the carrier’s “best financial year in our history.” But on April 9, Delta cut its growth plans and pulled its full-year guidance.
On the same day Delta withdrew its full-year guidance, however, Walmart mostly focused on its long-term business strategy at an investor day — sometimes taking pains to dance around addressing tariffs.
McMillon struck a light tone when kicking off an investor question-and-answer session, joking about how many times tariffs would come up.
“In case any of you want to place an online wager, the current over/under on tariff-related questions sits at six,” he said at the time.
Walmart as a bellwether
While Walmart didn’t publicly speak out about tariffs for weeks after that, McMillon was one of the retail leaders who met with Trump in late April at the White House about his trade policies. The CEOs of Home Depot and Target also attended.
After the meeting ended, all three companies issues nearly identical statements describing the meeting as “productive,” or “informative and constructive.”
By Thursday, Walmart clearly spelled out how it believed tariffs would affect its business and customers. Along with the price warning, the big-box retailer stuck by its full-year forecast, but did not provide guidance for fiscal second-quarter earnings per share or operating income growth because of fluctuating U.S. tariff policy.
Shopping carts are lined up inside a Walmart store in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, January 28, 2025.
Carlos Osorio | Reuters
Retail analyst Michael Baker of D.A. Davidson said company leaders’ language was “plainer and more specific” than it was last month — something that happened by choice, not by accident.
“Walmart does everything with a purpose and understands that there’s a lot of focus on what they say,” Baker said. “They’re trying to signal the idea that prices will go up and brace the consumer and the U.S. population for that idea, and also, in a way, send a message to policymakers that it’s impractical to think that the entirety of the tariffs will be absorbed by the retailer or the manufacturer.”
That warning led to the social media post by Trump. He and key economic advisors have insisted shoppers will not bear the cost of tariffs, even as most economists say otherwise.
“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social. “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
Trump’s criticism of Walmart’s annual profits echoes a common refrain from many Democratic lawmakers, but is rare from a Republican — especially one who presided over a large corporate tax cut in his first presidential term.
Walmart’s thinner profit margins compared with other retailers and businesses may also explain why it felt the need to speak up and explain higher prices, said Steven Shemesh, a retail analyst for RBC Capital Markets. The company’s operating margin typically runs at roughly 4% to 5%, which is similar to other grocery retailers but tends to be lower than some retailers that sell more discretionary goods.
For example, Lululemon’s operating margin was nearly 29% in its most recent quarter.
With its comments on Thursday, Walmart appeared to seek “the middle ground” by thanking the Trump administration for progress in talks with China that led to the U.S. temporarily slashing duties on ******** imports to 30% from 145%, but saying it would like to see that rate fall even more, Shemesh said.
He said Walmart may have decided to be transparent with its shoppers about the financial realities of tariffs for its business, especially since its customer base tends to be price sensitive.
“Margins are thin, costs are going up, they’re going to eat as much as they can, but at some point the math doesn’t check out,” he said.
Walmart, with its low-price reputation and vast U.S. footprint, is better positioned to withstand blowback from Trump than many other companies are, D.A. Davidson’s Baker said. The discounter often refers to a statistic that illustrates its huge reach and explains, in part, why it’s the nation’s top grocer: About 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store.
“It’s never good for a retailer to be on the opposite side of an issue with the U.S. government and particularly with the bully pulpit that Trump tends to use. So it’s not great,” Baker said.
But Walmart has successfully conveyed to customers that it will work to keep prices low, especially for key groceries like milk and eggs.
“If prices do need to go up, customers do understand that Walmart is still going to be a good value relative to others,” he said.
Over the next two weeks, other major retailers including Target and Best Buy will share their own updates on their sales outlook — and whether tariffs will mean price hikes.
Gravity Research’s Piacenza said brands are closely watching one another.
“No one wants to be the tallest blade of grass,” she said. “They want to do what their peers are doing.”
But, she added, companies’ efforts to warn customers about higher prices and explain the reasons for them could help brands get ahead of the blame game.
“It comes back to this question: When it comes to the court of public opinion, will consumers point to the White House or corporations for the higher prices they’re seeing?” she said.
Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO
Source link
#Walmart #decided #raise #prices #risk #Trumps #anger
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Blades of Fire Review – Gamer Social Club
Blades of Fire Review – Gamer Social Club
Gamereactor: “There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the imminent release of MercurySteam’s Blades of Fire, especially after we took a look at it a few days ago and tried our hand at blacksmithing. Indeed, after talking to the game’s director Enric Álvarez about the cinematic influences on Blades of Fire and its unique style, we’re very curious.
And to clear up any doubts there might be at this point, MercurySteam and publisher 505 Games have announced that Blades of Fire will have a physical edition on PS5 and Xbox Series in time for the game’s global release on May 22nd.”
Source link
#Blades #Fire #Review #Gamer #Social #Club
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Time trial triumph just eludes Aussies in Giro d’Italia
Time trial triumph just eludes Aussies in Giro d’Italia
Jay Vine was left cursing a puncture after a sixth place finish in the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia, which was won by shock victor Daan Hoole of the Netherlands.
Vine was one of three Australians to make the top ten on a day when rain undid the stage win chances of the grand classification big beasts in the 28.6km time trial from Lucca to Pisa.
That allowed allowed Isaac del Toro to cling on to the maglia rosa despite finishing in 37th place.
Crucially delayed by having to change to a spare bike Vine (UAE Team Emirates) came in 37 seconds adrift of Hoole, with Lucas Plapp seven seconds and one place behind and Plapp’s Jayco-AlUla teammate Michael Hepburn ninth, six seconds further back.
Lidl-Trek’s Hoole capitalised on better early conditions to finish in 32.30 minutes ahead of British duo Josh Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) and Ethan Hayter (Quickstep).
It was the Dutch national time trial champion’s first victory in a grand tour.
“It’s unbelievable. I mean it didn’t sink in yet,” Hoole said. “I was aiming for this day and I was feeling good all week but to win, I never thought I would do this.
“Of course the GC guys, they had rain and that changed a lot but I’m still happy I could beat Tarling in more or less in the same conditions,” Hoole added.
Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe), battling to recover from a ****** two days ago and secure his second Giro title, fell again on the stage’s recon ride, but recovered to make up more than a minute on his main challengers and move up to fifth.
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) came 22nd, making up a minute on Del Toro and staying second overall.
The best-placed Australians in the GC are Michael Storer (Tudor) at 3 mins 14 secs and Jayco-AlUla’s Chris Harper, four seconds further adrift, at 14th and 15th respectively.
Wednesday’s 11th stage will see the contest for the pink jersey heat up as the peloton takes on a mountainous 186 km route from Viareggio to Castelnovo Ne’ Monti.
with agencies
Source link
#Time #trial #triumph #eludes #Aussies #Giro #dItalia
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Stranger Things Novel Box Set Releases Before The Final Season
Stranger Things Novel Box Set Releases Before The Final Season
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things premieres on Netflix later this year, but if you’re looking to expand your knowledge of the sci-fi universe’s mysterious lore before the last batch of episodes drop, there’s a new book box set launching July 1 that includes three Young Adult novels featuring the characters from the series, and looks to be a good entry point to Stranger Things’ sprawling expanded universe. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, preorders for the Stranger Things Box Set Books 1-3 are available now for $35 at Amazon.
$35 | Releases July 1
The Stranger Things Box Set includes the three YA novels set in the world of the hit Netflix show: Runaway Max, Rebel Robin, and Lucas on the Line.
While the box set is listed for $35, we expect that price could change before launch since buying the standalone versions of all three books is even cheaper than the box set. Preordering locks you in for Amazon’s preorder price guarantee, which means you won’t be charged until the order ships, and you’ll only pay the lowest price if the cost drops between now and launch.
Stranger Things Young Adult Novels
Stranger Things: Runaway Max — $8.14 ($11)
Stranger Things: Rebel Robin — $10.10 ($12)
Stranger Things: Lucas on the Line — $9.30 ($12)
Whether you pick up the box set or buy the books individually, it’s worth noting that there are three more Stranger Things novels that are not part of the box set that are worth picking up as well. Unlike the first three novels, these are aimed at an adult audience.
Stranger Things Novels for Adults
The Stranger Things universe has also expanded in graphic novels, and there are several editions of the series available at Amazon. If you want a premium reading experience, you’ll want to check out the hardcover Stranger Things Library Editions, each of which includes two volumes of the Stranger Things graphic novel series. If you’d rather have them in a single volume, there’s also the Stranger Things Omnibus Volume 1, which collects all four graphic novels into a 384-page paperback edition. It’s on ***** at Amazon for $16.67 (was $30), making it the most affordable option.
Then there’s the Stranger Things: Afterschool Adventures omnibus, which compiles three standalone graphic novels set in the Stranger Things universe that you won’t find in the other collections. It’s available at Amazon for $20.
Stranger Things Graphic Novels
Stranger Things Library Editions
Source link
#Stranger #Box #Set #Releases #Final #Season
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Prosecutors open investigation related to Hope Florida Foundation
Prosecutors open investigation related to Hope Florida Foundation
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors have opened an investigation related to the Hope Florida Foundation, the nonprofit behind the ******** program that has been touted as the signature achievement of first lady Casey DeSantis.
A public records custodian in the office of Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jack Campbell confirmed the existence of “an open, on-going investigation” Tuesday in response to a records request from The Associated Press. The investigation was first reported by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times.
Questioned by reporters at an event Tuesday in Tampa highlighting the work of Hope Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the initiative, which uses state employees to help connect Floridians in need with faith institutions and community-based nonprofits and wean them off government assistance.
“I believe in this program deeply and I stand by it 100%,” DeSantis said.
“This is a rewiring of the way that government operates,” the first lady said.
“It’s a model for the nation. Instead of saying, ‘Here’s a handout,’ let’s give you hope and a hand up to live up to your God-given potential,” she added.
State lawmakers in DeSantis’ own party have been scrutinizing the program and its nonprofit foundation, which gave $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement to two nonprofits. Those groups in turn gave millions to a political committee, chaired by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff, that campaigned against a failed referendum on recreational **********.
On Tuesday, Mark Wilson, the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the chair of one of the nonprofits that received the grants, appeared at the event with the governor and first lady to highlight businesses that are collaborating with Hope Florida.
“Folks, we are just getting started,” Wilson said.
“Imagine the connection that happens when churches and employers and government works together,” he added.
Last month, Republican state Rep. Alex Andrade wrapped up the investigation he had been spearheading into Hope Florida, saying he would leave the rest of the inquiry to “the FBI and Department of Justice.” Andrade has alleged that the flow of funds from the foundation to the nonprofits and on to the political committees amounts to “conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”
DeSantis has dismissed the investigation of Hope Florida as a politically motivated smear against his wife, who he’s floated as his potential successor when he terms out in 2026.
“I think that everything that’s been thrown at it is pure politics,” DeSantis said.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Source link
#Prosecutors #open #investigation #related #Hope #Florida #Foundation
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
DC Wins Again as Marvel Rivals Player Count Crashes to Record Low Numbers
DC Wins Again as Marvel Rivals Player Count Crashes to Record Low Numbers
It’s starting to look like Marvel’s content overload problem isn’t just limited to the big screen. Much like the oversaturation that’s left the MCU feeling more bloated than epic, Marvel Rivals is suffering from the same self-inflicted wound: churning out content without fixing what’s broken.
The live-service hero shooter has seen its player count tumble to record lows, and fans aren’t leaving because they want fewer heroes; they’re leaving because the game’s falling apart. Meanwhile, DC, despite all its cinematic stumbles, continues to take a smarter, steadier approach in gaming.
Marvel Rivals is falling apart, but hey, here’s another new hero
Let’s get one thing straight: Marvel Rivals is in rough shape. According to the latest stats (via SteamDB), the player count has plummeted to record lows, currently with a 24-hour peak of only 139K, and it’s not hard to see why. From countless bugs to relentless lag and glitchy mechanics, the experience feels less like a superhero battle and more like a tech demo gone rogue.
But what’s NetEase’s grand solution? Fixing core issues? Revamping their quality-of-life features? Nope. Instead, it has decided to double down on releasing new heroes at breakneck speed, because apparently, adding more heroes will magically fix the memory leaks and frame drops.
Spoiler alert: it won’t. It’s only accelerating the game’s decline, as players grow tired of learning new mechanics (or even a map) every few weeks, only to see those heroes get benched soon after.
The problem isn’t the lack of content (even that feels a bit repetitive at times); it’s the lack of stability. Players are fed up with being beta testers for a live service that seems more focused on hero cosmetics and constant map additions than on delivering a polished experience.
And with NetEase showing little sign of slowing the hero rollout or addressing long-standing bugs, the situation is only bound to get worse. The plummeting player count will likely continue to break new low records. Why? Because patching a sinking ship with fresh skins isn’t innovation, it’s denial.
DC’s winning formula: Quality over quantity
Slow and steady always wins the long race. | Image Credit: Rocksteady
While Marvel is out here speedrunning the decline of its gaming franchise, DC is sticking to a more patient, grounded approach. Unlike the DCEU, which famously tried to cram a decade of character arcs into three movies, DC’s gaming division has chosen a different route.
One focused on storytelling, character depth, and, most importantly, working games. Who could forget the Arkham series, which set the gold standard for superhero games? Even titles like Injustice and Gotham Knights (despite mixed reviews) emphasized narrative and gameplay over chasing the live-service model.
Yes, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a misstep, but the gaming division hasn’t made that mistake the foundation of its strategy. While 2025 may seem like a quiet year for DC games, with no major titles announced yet, taking extra time is far better than rushing out unfinished products.
Upcoming releases like The Wolf Among Us 2 are still in development, and anticipation remains high.
Marvel Rivals may have stolen the spotlight with its release, but without a stable foundation, the game is stuck in a steady decline. NetEase’s insistence on flooding the game with new heroes while ignoring fundamental issues mirrors the very mistakes that caused MCU fatigue.
In the end, DC continues to prove that slow and steady, when paired with quality and care, is still a winning formula in gaming. And if Marvel Rivals wants to win back its players, it needs more than just new skins, it needs a real game plan.
Source link
#Wins #Marvel #Rivals #Player #Count #Crashes #Record #Numbers
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Gemini’s AI images have been updated to Imagen 4 with a ‘huge step forward in quality’ – here’s what you need to know
Gemini’s AI images have been updated to Imagen 4 with a ‘huge step forward in quality’ – here’s what you need to know
Imagen 4 is now available to all Gemini users
2K images with more detail and better typography
Google claims you can now use it to create greetings cards
Google’s AI image generation just levelled up, with a new version of Imagen 4 bringing with it a bunch of big upgrades including a higher resolution and better text handling.
The upgrade was announced at Google I/O 2025 today, and should noticeably improve Gemini’s image capabilities, which were already rivalling those of ChatGPT.
Taking over from the previous version 3, Imagen 4 has “remarkable clarity in fine details like intricate fabrics, water droplets and animal fur, and excels in both photorealistic and abstract styles”, according to Google. You can see the new level of detail in the preview images above and below.
You may like
Imagen 4 is also the first version of Google’s AI image generator that can go up to 2K resolution, meaning you’ll be able to make larger images for presentations and pictures that will look even better when printed out.
The detail on the water droplets in this image generated by Imagen 4 is quite impressive. (Image credit: Google)
A real challenge for AI image generators in the past (apart from creating realistic fingers) has been representing text in a way that makes sense and is readable.
While Imagen 3 did make significant inroads into presenting typography in a better way, Imagen 4 promises to take text to the next level.
Google claims Imagen 4 will be “significantly better at spelling and typography, making it easier to create your own greeting cards, posters and even comics”.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Usage limits
When it comes to the usage limits on Imagen 4, we don’t expect the situation to be radically different from those with Imagen 3, but will update this post if we hear anything different.
Currently, if you are using Imagen 3 through the Gemini chatbot, daily limits vary depending on whether you’re a free Gemini user or a Gemini Advanced subscriber.
Free users can expect around 10-20 image generations per day, depending on how heavily the service is being used. Gemini Advanced subscribers can expect higher limits of up to 100-150 daily image generations.
As with Imagen 3, there are content restrictions on Imagen 4, especially around generating images of real individuals. However, Imagen 4 has no problems generating images of generic people.
Available today across Google apps
Imagen 4 isn’t only available in Gemini, either; from today you’ll be able to use it across Whisk, Vertex AI, Slides, Vids, Docs and more in Workspace.
And there’s more to come, too. Google says that it will “soon” be launching a super-fast variant of Imagen 4 that’s up to 10x faster than Imagen 3 at generating images.
You may also like
Source link
#Geminis #images #updated #Imagen #huge #step #quality #heres
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
How Does D-Wave Stack Up Against Quantum Competitors?
How Does D-Wave Stack Up Against Quantum Competitors?
D-Wave Quantum Inc. has emerged as one of the most talked-about stocks in the quantum computing industry, a space investors are watching closely with anticipation. There are arguments to be made on both sides as to whether D-Wave is as revolutionary as some investors suspect; more bearish investors are likely to take the side of short sellers like Kerrisdale Capital.
One thing these debates about D-Wave often leave out, though, is how the company is positioned against other rivals in the quantum computing space. It is, in some ways, easiest to make a direct comparison against other (relatively) smaller firms like IonQ Inc. and Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:).
Like D-Wave, these companies focus exclusively on elements of quantum computing. Investors considering stocking up on shares of D-Wave, or of one or more of its rivals, should also keep in mind that a growing number of legacy tech firms like Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:). also have quantum operations.
How D-Wave Stacks Up Against IonQ
D-Wave focuses on annealing technology, while IonQ specializes in a form called trapped-ion quantum computing. Trapped-ion is a popular choice among quantum researchers for its high fidelity and long coherence times, while annealing is more focused on optimization problems. So far, IonQ’s product offering includes quantum systems like Forte and access to its quantum computers via the cloud.
In some ways, IonQ’s financial position is stronger than D-Wave’s. IonQ, like D-Wave, has yet to achieve consistent profitability. In the latest quarter the company generated under $8 million in revenue while facing losses of more than $75 million.
Still, its revenue performance throughout 2024 exceeded guidance, as the company generated about $43 million in revenue for the year. Better still, IonQ boosted its full-year 2025 revenue prediction to a range of $75 million to $95 million, meaning the company could at least double its revenue year-over-year (YOY).
IonQ’s cash holdings are robust; as of the end of 2024, it had nearly $364 million in cash and equivalents. D-Wave held about $304 million in cash as of the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Both D-Wave and IonQ have engaged in long-term partnerships that could significantly benefit each business. In the case of D-Wave, a partnership with Carahsoft Technology could help to make D-Wave’s products more widely available to the public sector.
IonQ, on the other hand, has announced a new quantum application development center in collaboration with AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:) to help to facilitate drug discovery. Both partnerships are in pretty early stages.
QBTS shares have spiked by nearly 32% year-to-date (YTD), while IonQ stock is down about 21% over the same *******. QBTS enjoys a Buy rating with all six analysts reviewing the firm viewing shares positively; IonQ has a Moderate Buy based on four Buy ratings and two Holds.
Comparing D-Wave and Rigetti
Rigetti is another of D-Wave’s primary competitors in the quantum space. Rigetti focuses on full-stack quantum-classical computing, an approach that integrates quantum processors with classical computing systems.
Rigetti has faced similar financial hurdles to D-Wave and IonQ. Across all of 2024, the firm generated just $10.8 million in revenue against net losses of $201 million. Rigetti’s revenue may be heading in the wrong direction; $10.8 million for the full year 2024 was down about 10% compared with the prior year.
Compounding matters, revenue for the first quarter of 2025 was just $1.5 million, down by more than 50% YOY. Still, D-Wave’s full-year 2024 revenue was just $8.8 million, lower than Rigetti’s, although D-Wave experienced flat revenue performance YOY.
Rigetti’s cash position was lower than both D-Wave’s and IonQ’s, as the company had $217.2 million in cash reserves as of the end of 2024.
One of Rigetti’s major accomplishments in recent years is a partnership with Quanta Computer, in which the latter company provided Rigetti $35 million to speed up the development and commercialization of its quantum products. Still, Rigetti’s share price has suffered due to its financial performance.
RGTI shares are down more than 41% YTD as the company has relied on accounting gains for profit. While all three of these firms may give investors pause about financial sustainability, Rigetti could currently be flashing the biggest warning signs of all.
Proceed With Caution, But Don’t Ignore the Potential
The quantum computing space remains one of the tech industry’s most speculative yet potentially transformative sectors. D-Wave Quantum Inc. stands out thanks to its unique annealing-based approach and public sector partnerships, but it’s not alone. Competitors like IonQ and Rigetti offer alternative technologies and strategies, each with strengths and significant financial hurdles.
While IonQ appears to be in the strongest financial position today, D-Wave’s upward stock momentum and bullish analyst consensus shouldn’t be ignored. Rigetti, meanwhile, may require the most scrutiny from prospective investors.
Ultimately, any investment in quantum computing firms, including D-Wave, demands a high tolerance for risk and a long-term outlook. As the technology matures and commercial applications become more tangible, today’s volatile valuations could give way to significant breakthroughs.
Investors should consider current fundamentals, market sentiment, and strategic partnerships when deciding whether to invest in this emerging frontier.
Original Post
Source link
#DWave #Stack #Quantum #Competitors
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Elon Musk confirms Tesla plan for robotaxis on Austin roads in June
Elon Musk confirms Tesla plan for robotaxis on Austin roads in June
Elon Musk interviews on CNBC from the Tesla Headquarters in Texas.
CNBC
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will have robotaxis on the streets of Austin, Texas, by the end of June.
In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin debut.
Musk said a Tesla robotaxi service will start with about 10 vehicles in Austin, and rapidly expand to thousands of vehicles should the launch go well with no incidents.
Since 2016, Musk has been promising Tesla investors, customers and fans that the company is about a year away from delivering a self-driving car that’s capable of transporting passengers safely without human interventions, or a human at the steering wheel.
“It’s prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well and then scale it up,” Musk said.
To start, Tesla has said its robotaxis will be Model Y vehicles equipped with a forthcoming version of FSD (full self driving) known as FSD Unsupervised.
Alphabet’s Waymo is currently operating commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in various U.S. markets. On a recent earnings call, Alphabet said Waymo already conducts 250,000 paid trips per week.
Musk said Tesla “will geofence” its robotaxis in Austin to start, meaning the company will limit where those Model Y vehicles can drive. But there won’t be a human safety driver in the cars, Musk promised.
Tesla employees will be remotely monitoring the fleet, he said.
“We’ll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully and as confidence grows, less of that will be needed,” Musk said.
Musk has previously claimed Tesla’s “generalized” approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo’s. Tesla relies on camera-based systems and computer vision primarily instead of sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar.
Musk has said those sensors were expensive and could impede high-volume robotaxi production and scaling of a global fleet.
“What will actually work best for the road system is artificial intelligence, digital neural nets and cameras,” Musk said on Tuesday.
Faber pressed Musk on the political backlash that Tesla has faced in response to Musk’s involvement with the President Donald Trump’s administration, and in ******* politics. Tesla has faced declining EV sales, reporting a 20% drop in automotive revenue in the first quarter of 2025.
Musk attributed the sales decline to the company needing to retool its factories to begin production of a refreshed version of its most popular car, the Model Y.
“We can’t make cars if the factories are retooling. But we’ve seen a major rebound in demand at this point,” Musk said, without providing numbers. “When you buy a product, how much do you care about the political views of the CEO or even care what they are?”
While remaining at the helm of Tesla and also running SpaceX and xAI, Musk is serving as a key adviser to President Trump after spending nearly $300 million to propel him back to the White House.
His holdings in Tesla and SpaceX make Musk the world’s wealthiest individual with an estimated net worth around $376 billion today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
Earlier on Tuesday, Musk committed to leading Tesla for the next five years.
“Yes, no doubt about that at all,” Musk said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Source link
#Elon #Musk #confirms #Tesla #plan #robotaxis #Austin #roads #June
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Deliver At All Costs Review – Game Rant
Deliver At All Costs Review – Game Rant
Game Rant Writes “Deliver At All Costs is a delightful blend of the familiar and the new, giving players a unique experience that goes far beyond its chaotic exterior.”
Source link
#Deliver #Costs #Review #Game #Rant
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Google Gemini 2.5 just got a new ‘Deep Think’ mode – and 6 other upgrades
Google Gemini 2.5 just got a new ‘Deep Think’ mode – and 6 other upgrades
Google Gemini 2.5 Pro is getting a new Deep Think model
Deep Think allows Gemini to consider multiple reasoning paths before responding
Deep Think will improve Gemini’s accuracy on complex math and code
Google is adding some extra brainpower to Gemini with a new Deep Think Mode. The company unveiled the latest option for Google Gemini 2.5 Pro at Google I/O 2025, showing off just what its AI can do with extra depth.
Deep Think basically augments Gemini’s AI ‘mind’ with additional brains. Gemini in Deep Think mode won’t just ***** out an answer to a query as fast as possible. Instead, it runs multiple possible lines of reasoning in parallel before deciding how to respond. It’s like the AI equivalent of looking both ways, or rereading the instructions before building a piece of furniture.
And if Google’s tests are anything to go by, Deep Think’s brainpower is working. It’s performing at a top-tier level on the 2025 U.S. math olympiad, coming out on top in the LiveCodeBench competitive programming test, scoring an amazingly high 84% on the popular MMMU, a sort of decathlon of multimodal reasoning tasks. Deep Think isn’t widely available just yet. Google is rolling it out to trusted testers only for now. But, presumably, once all the kinks are ironed out, everyone will have access to the deepest of Gemini’s thoughts.
You may like
Gemini shines on
Deep Think fits right into the rest of Gemini 2.5’s growing lineup and the new features arriving for its various models in the API used by developers to embed Gemini in their software.
For instance, Gemini 2.5 Pro now supports native audio generation out. That means it can talk back to you. The speech has an “affective dialogue” feature, which detects emotional shifts in your tone and adjusts accordingly. If you sound stressed, Gemini might stop talking like a patient customer service agent and respond more like an empathetic and thoughtful friend (or at least how the AI interprets such a response). And it will be better at knowing when to talk at all thanks to the new Proactive Audio feature, which filters out background noise so Gemini only chimes in when it’s sure you’re talking to it.
Paired with new security safeguards and the upcoming Project Mariner computer-use features, Gemini 2.5 is trying very hard to be the AI you trust not just with your calendar or code, but with your book narration or entire operating system.
Another element expanding across Gemini 2.5 is what Google calls a ‘thinking budget.’ Previously unique to Gemini 2.5 Flash, the thinking budget lets developers decide just how deeply the model should think before responding. It’s a good way to ensure you get a full answer without spending too much. Otherwise, Deep Think could give you just a taste of its reasoning, or give you the whole thing and make it too expensive for any follow-ups.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
In case it’s not clear what those thoughts involve, Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash will offer ‘thought summaries’ for developers, a document showing the exact details of what the AI was doing in terms of applying information through its reasoning process, so you can actually look inside the AI brain.
All of this signals a pivot from models that just talk fast to emphasizing ones that can reason deeper, if slower. Deep Think is part of that shift toward deliberate, layered reasoning. It’s not just trying to predict the next word anymore, it’s applying that logic to ideas and the very process of coming up with answers to your questions. Google seems keen to make Gemini not only able to fetch answers, but to understand the shape of the question itself.
Of course, AI reasoning still exists in a space where a perfectly logical answer might come with a random side of nonsense, no matter how impressive the benchmark scores. But you can start to see the shape of what’s coming, where the promise of an actual ‘co-pilot’ AI comes to fruition.
You might also like
Source link
#Google #Gemini #Deep #mode #upgrades
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
What Ray Dalio’s Latest Moves Tell Investors
What Ray Dalio’s Latest Moves Tell Investors
Coming up with original ideas is one of the foundations for success as an independent trader or investor in the financial markets, though sometimes ideas can run out during quiet markets. Today’s S&P 500 volatility spike after the latest round of tariffs implemented by President Trump brought investors to the opposite end of the spectrum, where markets become so fast-moving that there is not enough time to process and research most ideas properly.
Access to the latest buys and sells by some of Wall Street’s most respected names can give investors an advantage during a fast market, as they can save several hours worth of research and work to come up with an idea from scratch. Far from copying a big investor’s position, seeing what professionals are doing can lead retail investors to reverse engineer some of these decisions to act for themselves.
Today’s signal comes from Ray Dalio, who runs the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Whatever he sees for the market down the line could significantly impact his decision-making.
In a nutshell, Dalio decided to leave the United States market in exchange for ******** stocks like Alibaba (NYSE:) Group while leaving behind names like Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc. and others in the technology sector.
What Dalio Moved Specifically
Over the first quarter of 2025, Ray Dalio has decided to sell his stakes in the United States market in ways that most of the market did not expect. By getting rid of Alphabet, Dalio raised eyebrows at first, but the selling did not end there.
Apart from Alphabet, Dalio also chose to leave Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:). and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) Co., which might give investors a deeper insight into his view of the technology space overall. While these names are generally considered to be stable and good companies overall, there’s some trouble brewing underneath.
Not trouble in terms of company-specific issues, but rather when looking at the market in a global macro perspective (something Dalio is known for doing). Compared to ******** technology companies, these American names look too expensive for this fund manager to justify holding today, especially when the is under so much volatility.
Speaking of the S&P 500, Dalio’s firm also sold all of its holdings in the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust (NYSE:) to go along with the technology sector selling.
Now, when investors link this view to the potential for a 20% decline in the index, a call made by a Goldman Sachs analyst, the picture becomes clearer.
The United States stock market, while being the strongest and one of the best-performing, is just too expensive compared to future growth expectations, calling for a normalization in valuation multiples from here. On the other hand, Dalio didn’t keep this newly liquidated capital on standby; he chose to go with value elsewhere.
Why China as His Pick?
Looking at the spectrum from a valuation perspective, companies like Alibaba make much more sense than their American counterparts, but this one wasn’t the only ******** blue chip company Dalio decided to buy this quarter. Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:). was also at the top of this list to buy this time around in China.
However, investors need to remember that Dalio is a global macro investor, so here are other macro perspectives to consider for this Asian market and how it fares against the United States stock market.
As always, the “Buffett indicator” might be a great start from a valuation perspective.
This indicator is a ratio of the stock market’s value relative to a country’s GDP.
For the United States, this ratio is near an all-time high of 200%, just recently coming down to 185%, which is still above the long-term average. China’s ratio looks more like 64.5%, making it less than half as expensive as the United States.
In terms of President Trump’s tariffs (which are mostly targeted at China), Dalio might see today’s market uncertainty as something that will eventually subside. When taking this valuation divergence into account, the risk-to-reward ratio is much more favorable for China than the United States, confirming why his view might be more focused there.
Zooming in, looking at the relative price action between the two most popular names in this list (Alibaba and NVIDIA), this divergence becomes even clearer.
While NVIDIA trades at 88% of its 52-week high, which also happens to be the stock’s all-time high, Alibaba’s price today is only a fraction of what its all-time high was during 2021, just over $315 per share.
The message for investors here is that if they are invested in American technology stocks, they might want to consider current valuations next to future growth prospects and whether they are justified. If all else fails, Dalio’s choices suggest a better deal could be had in ******** technology moving forward.
Original Post
Source link
#Ray #Dalios #Latest #Moves #Investors
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]
Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.