G.O.P. Plans to Cut Medicaid Would Save Billions but Leave More Uninsured, Budget Office Says
G.O.P. Plans to Cut Medicaid Would Save Billions but Leave More Uninsured, Budget Office Says
As Republicans in Congress wrestle with options for cutting Medicaid costs, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the leading plans under consideration could yield significant savings — but would also increase the share of Americans who are uninsured.
The budget office considered several options as Republicans attempt to find hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts from Medicaid spending to help offset the costs of tax cuts they hope to extend. But two leading proposals that would help reach that goal would leave millions without health coverage, according to the office’s estimates.
One option, to limit the way states use a tax loophole to increase federal spending on Medicaid, would save $668 billion but cause 3.9 million Americans to go without health insurance.
Another option, which would lower federal spending on Medicaid beneficiaries who are part of the Obamacare expansion of the program, would save the government $710 billion over a decade, but cause 2.4 million people to become uninsured.
But after a meeting with centrist Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson said he had ruled out cutting the funding formula for working-age adults who are covered under the Affordable Care Act expansion.
The budget office released the estimates Wednesday in a letter to Democratic lawmakers in the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce committees, who had requested them from the office.
The budget blueprint passed by Republican majorities in both chambers asks the House committee that oversees Medicaid — which provides health coverage to around 72 million Americans who are poor or disabled — to find $880 billion in cuts, a difficult target to meet without including major program changes.
The analysis considered a few other policy options: One would change the structure of Medicaid from one in which the program pays for beneficiary medical bills to one in which states received a fixed payment for each person. This option would reduce the deficit by $662 billion, and lead to 2.9 million people without insurance.
Another proposal, which would allow states to require more paperwork from beneficiaries to sign up and stay enrolled, would save $162 billion and cause 600,000 people to be uninsured.
In every scenario, the reductions in Medicaid enrollment are larger than the projected increases in the number of people without insurance, because the budget office assumes some people currently covered by Medicaid would get insurance another way.
The analysis did not include one option Republicans seem to agree on: a policy that would require certain Medicaid beneficiaries to prove they are working a minimum number of hours in order to receive benefits. A previous budget office estimate suggested such a policy could reduce federal spending by around $100 billion, but that policy would probably overlap with the others, meaning the totals cannot be added together.
All of the budget office calculations assume states would respond to changes in federal policy by making changes to their own programs. The budget office said some states would stop covering those now covered under the Affordable Care Act expansion. Others would reduce benefits or payments to medical providers. Some would make changes to other parts of their state budgets to make up the difference.
Democratic leaders used the estimates to assail the Republican plan.
“This analysis from the nonpartisan, independent C.B.O. is straightforward: The Republican plan for health care means benefit cuts and terminated health insurance for millions of Americans who count on Medicaid,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Finance Committee.
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Kingdom Hearts Missing Link Canceled, Team “Hard At Work” On Kingdom Hearts 4
Kingdom Hearts Missing Link Canceled, Team “Hard At Work” On Kingdom Hearts 4
Kingdom Hearts fans eagerly awaiting more information on Sora’s next adventure were placing hope in a new mobile game, Missing Link, to ease the wait until they find out more about Kingdom Hearts 4. Today, those aspirations went up in digital smoke, as Square Enix has announced that Missing Link will no longer be released.
Official Kingdom Hearts Missing Link social media accounts announced the cancellation of the game, which was first announced in 2022 as a “GPS-based action RPG for iOS and Android.” The official statement also offered “heartfelt apologies to everyone who has been looking forward to the release.”
“Although we worked hard on developing and adjusting the game in the hope that it would be enjoyed by lots of players,” the statement reads, “we determined that it would be difficult for us to offer a service that players would find satisfactory over a long ******* of time, leading us to the decision to cancel development.”
The announcement also confirmed that “the Kingdom Hearts series will continue,” while also mentioning that “the team is hard at work on Kingdom Hearts 4.” No additional details were provided for either the cancellation or KH4.
Kingdom Hearts 4 was first announced in 2022, at the same anniversary event where Missing Link was unveiled. Missing Link was said to connect to KH4 in some way at the time, though it is unclear now how that connection will be established, or if it will remain at all.
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Oasis have ‘no plans’ to release new music
Oasis have ‘no plans’ to release new music
Oasis have “no plans” to release new music.
The Britpop legends will return to the stage on July 4th to kick off Oasis Live 25, their first tour in 16 years, but the group’s co-manager Alec McKinlay insisted this is not the beginning of new releases from the band.
“This is very much the last time around, as Noel’s made clear in the press,” the Ignition and Big Brother Recordings director told Music Week magazine.
“It’s a chance for fans who haven’t seen the band to see them, or at least for some of them to. But no, there’s no plan for any new music.”
More than 10 million fans from 158 countries attempted to buy tickets to brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher’s reunion tour, and McKinlay said Oasis were “bowled over” by the international demand.
“Probably the biggest and most pleasing surprise of the reunion announcement is how huge it was internationally,” he said.
“Honestly, we knew it would be big here, and that doesn’t take much intuition, but looking outside the ***, we knew they had a strong fanbase, we did all the stats.
“We were quite cautious about what that would mean when it came to people actually buying tickets but we were just bowled over by how huge it was.”
McKinlay said the reaction was “phenomenal” when Oasis confirmed their reunion tour, and the Wonderwall hit makers were pleased to be bringing some positive news to the world.
“We’d obviously been planning it for a while and the moment when it went live was a little bit of a step into the unknown in terms of how big the reaction would be,” he said.
“When it all hit home, it was just phenomenal.
“The reaction was very much one of, ‘Finally, some good news after all the nonsense that’s been going on in the world’.”
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GI Joe’s Snake Eyes Game Gets A New Teaser
GI Joe’s Snake Eyes Game Gets A New Teaser
The first reports about a G.I. Joe spin-off video game centered on Snake Eyes were revealed nearly three years ago. Atomic Arcade–one of Hasbro’s in-house video game developers–has been working on the title since that time. Now, Atomic Arcade has shared the first look at Snake Eyes from the upcoming game.
In a post on X, Atomic Arcade wrote “We are hard at work on our game centered on Snake Eyes, the legendary ninja/commando from G.I. Joe, and we wanted to share a glimpse of the awesome work our team is doing.”
The developer also included two pictures of Snake Eyes’ character model, which were rendered in-engine.
A close up of Snake Eyes’ bloody sword.
The first picture features a look at Snake Eyes’ recently used sword, which still has fresh blood on it. Note the Arashikage ninja clan insignia above the sword. That part of Snake Eyes’ history has been a part of his character since the early ’80s.
Snake Eyes isn’t solely reliant on swords.
The second picture features Snake Eyes holding one of his other weapons of choice. He’s so associated with his ninja skills that it’s easy to forget that Snake Eyes is also a trained commando. And he’s not above using firearms in battle if the situation calls for it.
Snake Eyes was one of the original G.I. Joe characters from the ’80s, and his enigmatic ninja persona made him a fan-favorite. He’s been featured in every G.I. Joe film to date, including the Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins movie from 2021 that featured Henry Golding in the title role. Snake Eyes’ backstory also features strong links to Scarlett, Storm Shadow, Zartan, and even the Baroness. However, it’s unknown if any of those characters will be featured in Atomic Arcade’s game.
Last year, Hasbro and its subsidy, Wizards of the Coast, invested $1 billion in its video game development business, including Atomic Arcade’s Snake Eyes game. Among the new titles in development are an original IP called Exodus and a new Dungeons & Dragons game.
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Limited scalability of AMD’s Instinct MI325X limits scale of its sales, says analyst firm
Limited scalability of AMD’s Instinct MI325X limits scale of its sales, says analyst firm
AMD’s Instinct MI325X accelerator was supposed to compete with Nvidia’s H200, but its limited scalability and delays with volume shipments greatly limit its commercial success, according to analysts from SemiAnalysis. One key reason for low interest in the Instinct MI325X is that it does not support rack-scale configurations, and another is the approaching launch of a more competitive Instinct MI355X.
AMD began to ship its Instinct MI355X accelerator for AI workloads in Q2 2020, three quarters after Nvidia initiated shipments of its H200 processors and in time with Nvidia’s B200 ‘Blackwell’ GPUs. So far, customers have largely favored Blackwell due to significantly better performance-per-dollar, and it does not look like the situation is going to get considerably better for the MI325X, according to SemiAnalysis.
EXCLUSIVE: There has been a lack of interest from customers in purchasing AMD MI325X as we’ve been saying for a year.Below we explain why! 1/7 pic.twitter.com/ep4y2fuV0VMay 12, 2025
First up, the maximum scale-up world size of AMD’s Instinct MI325X and Instinct MI355X— the maximum number of GPUs that can be interconnected within a single system or tightly coupled cluster, enabling efficient communication and parallel processing for large-scale AI and HPC workloads — is eight GPUs. By contrast, Nvidia’s B200 can scale to 72 GPUs in a cluster interconnected using NVLink.
To build AMD-based clusters with more than eight GPUs, one needs to move from scale-up to scale-out architecture and interconnect clusters using a networking technology, such as Ethernet or Infiniband, which reduces scalability.
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Secondly, AMD’s Instinct MI325X slow adoption was reportedly due to its high power consumption (1000W), lack of significant performance uplift from MI300, and requirement for a new chassis, offering no easy upgrade path from existing platforms.
Microsoft reportedly expressed disappointment with AMD’s GPUs as early as 2024 and placed no follow-on orders, though Oracle and a few others have shown some renewed interest due to AMD’s price cuts. Looking forward, AMD’s Instinct MI355X may gain some traction if priced aggressively and supported by strong software, but it remains non-competitive against Nvidia’s rack-scale GB200 NVL72, which supports up to 72 GPUs.
The MI355X may still find niche success in non-rack-scale deployments, assuming it has a competitive total cost of ownership (TCO) and mature software (good thing, it is reportedly improving), according to SemiAnalysis.
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The Biggest Medicaid Cut Left for House Republicans Would Hit Red States Hardest
The Biggest Medicaid Cut Left for House Republicans Would Hit Red States Hardest
For months, Republicans have been trying to figure out how to reduce Medicaid spending to help enact President Trump’s domestic agenda. But their list of possible cuts is shrinking.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that major cuts to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion were off the table. Now, the largest cut left among their whittled-down options would disproportionately hurt states that supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election.
Republicans have also been studying several other Medicaid changes for their budget bill, and a final package will probably include some of the smaller adjustments. But they have considered only two major policy pathways that can deliver the bulk of the $880 billion in spending cuts that the House committee overseeing Medicaid has been charged with finding.
One policy would significantly dial back funding for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday would save $710 billion over a decade. Some of the deepest cuts would be felt by rich, Democratic-led states. This was the option Mr. Johnson ruled out for now after meeting with moderate Republican members this week.
The remaining big cut on the table, limiting the way states use a tax loophole to increase federal spending on Medicaid, would save $668 billion, mostly by reducing Medicaid spending in poorer, Southern states.
Whichever states get hit hardest would face big budget shortfalls, and to compensate some could drop Medicaid’s health insurance coverage for some of their lower-income adults, cut hospital payments, or cut other government priorities.
The final package probably needs one of the two big cuts to achieve Republican goals of extending tax cuts.
“The headline number of the reduction in federal spending is similar, but everything else is extremely different,” said Morgan Henderson, a health economist with The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, which has been analyzing Republican Medicaid proposals.
At the core of the difference is Medicaid’s financing system for patients’ bills. The federal government covers a larger share of medical costs for patients in poorer states. It gives less money to richer states that can better support Medicaid with their own tax dollars.
In New York, this matching rate is 50 percent, and the money is split evenly. In Mississippi, the rate is 77 percent, and the federal government pays about three dollars for every one dollar of state funding.
The federal government gives all states an exceptionally generous matching rate for anyone who signs up through the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. For those enrollees, Washington covers 90 percent of the costs.
The option Johnson dropped
The first Republican policy option, reducing funding for the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, would decrease the 90 percent match back to whatever share a state normally gets from the federal government. That would hit richer, Democratic states in two ways: They’re more likely to participate in Medicaid expansion, and they have lower matching rates.
An analysis from the Urban Institute, a liberal policy think tank, estimates that California, New York and Washington are among the places that would see the steepest cuts under this plan.
The 10 states that do not participate in Medicaid expansion, most with Republican governors, would feel no effect. But not all red states would be spared: North Dakota, for example, has a robust natural gas industry that makes it a wealthy state; it has a low matching rate and has expanded Medicaid.
Those and a few other factors mean that it could lose about 19 percent of its federal Medicaid funds if Congress goes this route.
The alternative version that’s still alive
Mr. Johnson moved on from changes to the Medicaid expansion matching rates Tuesday afternoon after his meeting with moderate Republicans — many of whom represent districts in Democratic-led states.
He has, however, suggested he is open to a similar but less far-reaching policy that would eliminate the matching system for the expansion population altogether and replace it with a fixed payment to states for each enrollee.
The C.B.O. estimates that such a change would generate about $225 billion in savings over a decade. Over time, however, it could lead to larger funding reductions than would occur under the matching rate change, because the payment is designed to increase more slowly than the cost of health care.
The big cut on the table
The second large option, closing the medical provider tax loophole, would end a system in which states can use hospital and nursing home tax revenue to artificially inflate their Medicaid spending, allowing them to collect more matching funds from the federal government.
These policies tend to account for a large chunk of the Medicaid budget in poorer states, where each dollar they spend on the program gets matched twofold or threefold by the federal government.
“The incentives to use provider taxes in those states are really significant,” said John Holahan, a fellow at the Urban Institute who has studied Medicaid provider taxes for decades.
There are four Southern states — South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee — that arguably have the most at stake in which way Congress cuts Medicaid.
If legislators ended the provider tax loophole, those states could lose 30 percent of their federal Medicaid funding, according to an analysis from Mr. Henderson and his colleagues. They would have a gaping hole in their state budgets, and might need to consider raising taxes or cutting benefits.
(North Carolina, a swing state that voted for President Trump and that has a Democratic governor, may also experience large effects, which the analysis doesn’t capture; the state expanded Medicaid, and phased in a large provider tax, shortly after the measurement ******* used to crunch the numbers.)
At least some states would face major budget holes
How states would react to either type of cut would probably vary. Some might cut back on payments to medical providers, raise taxes or cut other state services to make up the shortfall. Some might reduce enrollment in Medicaid by dropping optional populations: Twelve states that expanded Medicaid have laws that require them to either automatically drop the expansion if the match rate declines or to formally study the question.
The reason the C.B.O. expects these policies to save so much money is that the analysts there assume states will choose a mix of these reactions, some of which, like reversing Medicaid expansion, will reduce federal spending by even more than the direct cut.
“You’re not just going to say, ‘Provider taxes are gone, we’re going to cut it from the hospitals,’” said Alice Middleton, Hilltop’s interim executive director, who previously worked at the federal agency that oversees Medicaid. “You’re going to have to try to fill those holes in different ways, and start getting creative. You’re looking at every single thing.”
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Kim Jong-un tells North Korean army to prepare for war
Kim Jong-un tells North Korean army to prepare for war
Credit: Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that the most “crucial task” for the country’s armed forces is to make “full preparations for war”.
In a message delivered after he observed special forces exercises, the dictator said that his country had to be ready for “all levels of modern warfare”, according to state media.
In a video of the drills, North Korean tanks can be seen manoeuvring over uneven, sandy terrain as Kim, in his usual leather coat and ****** trousers, looks on.
Kim Jong-un wants North Korea to ‘perfect military and technical preparations’ – STR/KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/Getty Images
He is surrounded by military officials in uniform, including the minister of national defence, the chief of staff and the director of the general political bureau.
Kim appears enthralled by the exercises, at one point holding up binoculars to watch the tanks fire into the distance.
The drills also involved physical exercises, as well as sea and air drills. In the video, the soldiers are seen disembarking from rubber boats and running to shore as well as rappelling from helicopters.
The dictator said his country’s “viewpoint on training” was changing in order to “perfect military and technical preparations” and enhance “the combat efficiency and effectiveness of our weapon systems”.
North Korean soldiers take part in the military exercises – Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP
Kim also emphasised the need to prepare for “all levels for modern warfare”, which includes introducing “IT system and scientific judgement system into training”.
It was recently confirmed by Kim and Vladimir Putin that North Korean forces fought alongside Russia against Ukraine.
Kim praised the soldiers for their “fighting spirit and heroism” and defined it as a “sacred mission for further consolidating as firm as a rock” relations between the two countries.
Credit: TASS
Pyongyang “regards it as an honour to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation”, state media reported.
The latest drills also follow a ballistic missile exercise in March, which Pyongyang held in the midst of South Korea’s annual drills with the United States.
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Chemists discover ‘anti-spice’ that could make chili peppers less hot
Chemists discover ‘anti-spice’ that could make chili peppers less hot
Piri piri or African bird’s eye chilli peppers
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Accidentally made your food too spicy? One day, you might be able to reach for an “anti-spice” condiment to tame the heat of a dish, thanks to the discovery of chemicals found in chilli peppers that counteract their spicy sensation.
A chilli’s heat comes from compounds called capsaicinoids, which bind to receptors on nerve fibres within your mouth, sending impulses to the brain that create a burning sensation similar to those caused by a fire’s heat or a sting.
Chilli aficionados compare the heat of different strains using the Scoville scale, which is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, yet some varieties aren’t quite as hot as their Scoville rating suggests they should be. To investigate, Devin Peterson at the Ohio State University and his colleagues used an analytical method known as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine how much of two capsaicinoids – capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin – were in powdered samples of 10 types of peppers, including chile de árbol, African bird’s eye and Scotch bonnet.
Then they gave samples of tomato juice containing powder from the different chillis to a panel of tasters. Each contained the same amount of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin – which should have been enough to give all the samples a relatively mild kick of 800 Scoville units.
But the tasters perceived the heat from the 10 peppers as different, so Peterson and his colleagues performed additional chemical analyses. This identified three compounds in the chilli powder – capsianoside I, roseoside and gingerglycolipid A – that were present in high quantities in the chillies that weren’t as intense as they should have been according to the Scoville scale. All three compounds are glucosides, molecules that contain the sugar glucose.
A group of 37 tasters then tested two samples at once, one containing these suspected spice-killing compounds and one without, placed on either side of their tongue to stop an enflamed tongue affecting a second taste test. Their feedback revealed that the compounds decreased the chilli intensity by between 0.7 and 1.2 points on a 15-point scale, on average.
“They are effectively anti-spice compounds,” says Peterson. He isn’t yet sure how they work, but says they could be altering receptors on nerve fibres in the mouth in a way that results in a reduction in their burning signals.
Knowing about these anti-spice chemicals could allow growers to breed or genetically modify plants so they lack them to create valuable, even hotter chillis, or breed very mild fruit with higher amounts of anti-spice, says Peterson.
Using the compounds could also enable the creation of a household ingredient to tone down excessive heat in dishes, he says, or they could work as relievers for severe pain by blocking pain signals.
“Sometimes when I’ve ordered food with my kids and it’s too spicy, that’s a no-go,” says Peterson. “So, the idea of having some kind of a natural compound to dial it back may be appealing.”
“The way the study was done using the half tongue was very clever,” says Barry Smith at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, adding that it shows the Scoville scale isn’t a very precise instrument for describing how hot a chilli is.
Smith also wonders if the perceived intensity of menthol or mint, which cause a cooling sensation in a similar way to how capsaicinoids cause a burning one, could also be muted by these kinds of compounds.
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NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, May 15 (game #438)
NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, May 15 (game #438)
Looking for a different day?
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Wednesday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, May 14 (game #437).
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
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NYT Strands today (game #438) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Animal drives
NYT Strands today (game #438) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
BILE
MUSE
STAGE
BOOT
POEM
PEEL
NYT Strands today (game #438) – hint #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 11 letters
NYT Strands today (game #438) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: left, 4th row
Last side: right, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Today’s best Get Better At Wordle deals
NYT Strands today (game #438) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #438, are…
BEETLE
BRONCO
MUSTANG
RABBIT
IMPALA
JAGUAR
SPANGRAM: AUTOMOBILES
My rating: Hard
My score: 2 hints
It took me a while to get going today and the word my hint gave me – BEETLE – didn’t help much, as Beetle Drive is a game. Fortunately, another hint set me on my way: there’s no game called BRONCO Drive.
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From the Chevrolet IMPALA to the Ford MUSTANG, American car manufacturers love naming their AUTOMOBILES after members of the animal kingdom, particularly land animals or sleek aerodynamic creatures like the Baracuda or Falcon.
This is not the case in Europe, where they like giving their different models letters and numbers, winds or made-up word-sounds containing the letter Q. The exception, is of course, the Beetle, which was originally called the Volkswagen Type 1 until its nickname stuck.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, May 14, game #437)
HUSTLE
MACARENA
FOOTLOOSE
WOBBLE
LOCOMOTION
SPANGRAM: LINE DANCE
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
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House Republican Proposal Would Shrink Medicaid Coverage to Advance Trump’s Agenda
House Republican Proposal Would Shrink Medicaid Coverage to Advance Trump’s Agenda
House Republicans released a plan late on Sunday that would cause millions of poor Americans to lose Medicaid health coverage and millions more to pay higher fees when they go to the doctor, but that stopped short of an overhaul that would make the deepest cuts to the program.
The proposal, which is one piece of a sweeping bill to enact President Trump’s domestic agenda, including large tax cuts and increased military spending, omits the structural changes to Medicaid that ultraconservative Republicans have demanded. Instead, it bows to the wishes of a group of more moderate and politically vulnerable G.O.P. lawmakers whose seats could be at risk if they embraced deep Medicaid cuts.
It was published late Sunday night by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which under the G.O.P. budget blueprint had to find $880 billion in savings over a decade. The panel is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon to debate and refine the package.
Republicans have toiled to assemble a number of cuts large enough to meet that goal, which fiscal hawks have insisted upon, while appeasing lawmakers from districts where Medicaid enrollment is widespread.
Overall, the legislation would reduce federal spending by an estimated $912 billion over the decade and cause 8.6 million people to become uninsured, according to a partial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that was circulated by Democrats on the committee. Most of those cuts —$715 billion — would come from changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
The legislation’s remaining savings would come largely from changes in energy policy, including the repeal of two Biden-era regulations that affect car pollution and auto efficiency.
But the Medicaid portion was the most divisive and is likely to continue to be the most hotly debated as the proposal — which must be approved by the committee and then pass the House and Senate — makes its way through Congress.
The legislation released on Sunday tries to split the difference between Republicans agitating for deep cuts to Medicaid and those eager to protect their states from changes that could force them to shoulder much higher costs. It excludes several policies under consideration that would create large holes in state budgets and instead focuses on policies that cause Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly those who were covered as part of an expansion under Obamacare, to pay more fees and complete more paperwork to use their coverage.
“Congress didn’t take an ax to the expansion group,” said Julian Polaris, a partner with Manatt Health, a consulting firm that focuses on Medicaid. “But they have made it much more challenging to get covered for that group, and to get care for that group.”
It also adds a work requirement to Medicaid for poor, childless adults, mandating that they prove they are working 80 hours every month to stay enrolled. That is a less flexible version of a work requirement briefly imposed in Arkansas in 2018 that caused 18,000 people to rapidly lose coverage.
Even some Republicans in the Senate who have been vocal about their opposition to cutting Medicaid benefits, including Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have said they are open to adding some work requirements to the program. Mr. Trump, who has been adamant that he did not want to do anything that could be characterized as a Medicaid cut, has also endorsed the policy.
But despite the broad embrace of work requirements, the legislation notably delays implementation until January 2029, after the next presidential election.
But the legislation also ratchets up paperwork requirements across the program, by allowing states to check the income and residency of beneficiaries more often, and by permitting them to terminate coverage for people who do not respond promptly. The use of such strategies had been curtailed under a regulation published during the Biden administration.
An analysis of the paperwork change published by the Congressional Budget Office last week suggested that it would cause 2.3 million people to lose Medicaid coverage, many poor older and disabled people who are also enrolled in Medicare but use Medicaid to cover co-payments they cannot afford. Because this population is at special risk, the budget office found, the policy would cause only 600,000 more Americans to lose any form of health insurance, but it would cause many more to have trouble paying for medical care.
The bill would also require Medicaid beneficiaries who earn more than the federal poverty limit — around $15,650 for a single person — to pay co-payments for doctor visits. Typically, Medicaid requires very limited cost sharing from its beneficiaries, given their low incomes. The legislation would require co-payments of up to $35 for many medical services.
Democrats in Congress immediately assailed the package as an attack on health coverage for vulnerable populations.
“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage, hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes,” Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
The provision most likely to affect state budgets is a change to longstanding rules that allow states to impose taxes on hospitals, nursing homes and other providers and to use various accounting maneuvers to use the taxes to obtain more federal funding. The bill would freeze all state taxes at their current rates, and prevent states from using special related payments to pay hospitals higher prices for Medicaid services than Medicare pays.
The bill also takes direct aim at a handful of states controlled by Democrats that fund health coverage for undocumented immigrants, who are barred under the law from enrolling in Medicaid. The legislation would reduce federal funding for all childless adults without disabilities to 80 percent from 90 percent if the state subsidized coverage for such people. The change would mean significant funding cuts to states including California, New York and Washington unless they eliminated their state programs that enroll undocumented people.
The legislation includes numerous other small changes to Medicaid, including one to prevent owners of expensive homes from obtaining nursing home coverage, another barring coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender minors and several provisions meant to purge the program’s rolls of ineligible immigrants and people who have died.
One provision is aimed squarely at reducing federal money for Planned Parenthood. The bill would prevent Medicaid from funding health providers that also offer abortion services. House Republicans inserted similar language into their unsuccessful legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act — commonly known as Obamacare — in 2017.
The bill would also make numerous changes to enrollment processes for people who buy their own insurance coverage in Obamacare marketplaces. The legislation would shorten enrollment periods, tighten income verification, restrict access for immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and make it harder for some people to automatically renew coverage at the end of the year.
On energy, scrapping the Biden-era environmental rules is projected to increase federal revenues because drivers of less-efficient cars pay more in gas taxes. It would also rescind unspent money in a number of environmental programs that were created as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and that made it easier to construct new energy pipelines, a change that generates fees to the government.
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AMD announces $6 billion buyback; shares climb 6%
AMD announces $6 billion buyback; shares climb 6%
Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, talks about the AMD EPYC processor during a keynote address at the 2019 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 9, 2019.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
AMD said on Wednesday that its board of directors approved $6 billion in share buybacks. The stock climbed 6%.
The authorization is in addition to $4 billion in existing approved share repurchases, the company said.
“Our expanded share repurchase program reflects the Board’s confidence in AMD’s strategic direction, growth prospects, and ability to consistently generate strong free cash flow,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in a statement.
AMD, the most important artificial intelligence chip company aside from Nvidia, reported 96 cents in earnings per share on $7.44 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter.
AMD announced a deal potentially worth $10 billion in investment on Tuesday to support an AI company called Humain in Saudi Arabia with chips. Su was in Saudi Arabia this week to announce the deal.
AMD said that it would provide graphics processors for AI as well as central processors needed to build AI servers to Humain, which is also buying Nvidia processors. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya added $10 to his price target for AMD, bringing it to $130 per share, on the news.
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Nintendo Confirms Switch 2 Has Been In Development Since 2019
Nintendo Confirms Switch 2 Has Been In Development Since 2019
The Nintendo Switch successor, Switch 2, has been in development since the year 2019, according to President Shuntaro Furukawa.
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Baroque breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is unlike any game you’ve played before | Games
Baroque breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is unlike any game you’ve played before | Games
Much has been made of the fact that the year’s most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team. (It has just sold its two-millionth copy). It’s a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for £40, and everybody wins. But it’s not quite accurate.
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Sandfall Interactive, the game’s French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game’s credits – from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability.
Compared to the enormous teams who make the Final Fantasy games – a clear inspiration for Sandfall – Clair Obscur’s team is minuscule. The more interesting achievement isn’t that a small team has made a successful game – it’s that a small team has made the most extravagantly French thing any of us will ever play. Much to my partner’s annoyance, I’ve set the voice language to French with English subtitles, just to enhance the immersion.
In Clair Obscur’s belle époque-inspired world, a sinister entity called the Paintress daubs a number on a distant totem every year, descending from 100 – and every person of that age dissolves heartbreakingly into petals and dust, leaving behind devastated partners and orphaned children. (This and Neva are the only games in recent memory to make me shed a tear at their beginning.) The game starts as the Paintress counts down from 34 to 33, and an expedition of brave and slightly magic thirtysomethings from the dwindling population sets out, as they do every year, to sail across to the Paintress’s continent and try to kill her and stop the cycle. I was sad to leave this opening area, because the city was so beautiful, and everyone was impeccably dressed. Also, nothing was trying to kill me every few minutes.
The most French thing you’ll ever play … Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photograph: Sandfall Interactive
Many expeditions have gone before. You find their grisly remnants all over the place as you explore, their recorded diaries left to help whoever comes next. You start off in a kind of ravaged Paris, the Eiffel Tower distorting towards a distant horizon like a Dalí painting. The game looks like a waltz through a distinguished art museum that’s about to get sucked into a ****** hole. One early area of the continent is a waterless ocean, the wrecked vessel of one expedition wrapped around a dead leviathan of a sea creature, fronts of seaweed waving in the nonexistent currents. It’s beautiful but extremely dangerous: you quickly have to get the hang of a pretty complicated combat system to survive even the first few boss fights.
Clair Obscur’s fighting is inspired by classic and modern Japanese RPGs: rhythmic and flashy, it lets you supercharge a fireball or dodge the fist of a stone automaton with a well-timed button press. Combining your unusually distinctive characters’ abilities is the key. One of them wields a rapier and changes stance every attack, another attacks with an impenetrable system of sun and moon tarot cards, a third mostly with a gun and a sword. If this all sounds needlessly extravagant, it is – and I love it. The combat menus are a tinkerer’s dream, letting you pore over and combine characters’ esoteric powers and skills to create interesting combo attacks.
What I enjoy most about this game is that it doesn’t look like everything else or, indeed, anything else. The majority of games riff on the same few predictable references: Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel. Instead it draws from completely different aesthetic and thematic sources; this is a baroque fantasy that tells a story about fatalism and love and death and legacy, a European-style tale with Japanese-style action and flair. It plays very differently, but its distinctiveness and determination to actually say something with its story reminds me of last year’s excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio. (There is a strong correlation between intellectually ambitious RPGs and baffling titles, it seems.)
Clair Obscur also illustrates just how good game development tools are now: if you’re wondering how a smallish team could create something that looks this high-end, that’s a large part of the answer. This makes me feel pretty optimistic about the future of this middle sector of game development, in between blockbuster and indie. In the 00s and 2010s, that was where many of the most interesting games could be found. I can imagine several large publishers deeming this game simply too French to be marketable, but Sandfall was able to make it anyway. Expedition 33 is an encouraging commercial success that will be cited all year as a counternarrative to the games industry’s prevailing doomsaying, but it’s a creative success, too.
What to play
A thrill a minute … Doom: The Dark Ages. Photograph: Bethesda
A new Doom game is out very shortly and reviews suggest that it is a glorious heavy-metal orgy of violence. It has you massacring hordes of gross demons at once, impaling them with spikes, shredding them with a chainsaw-shield, even punching gigantic hellspawn from within a giant robot or shooting at them from the back of a mecha-dragon. Doom: The Dark Ages is slower than the other modern games in the series, with more up-close combat and (as the title suggests) a vaguely medieval flavour to its aesthetic, but it’s still thrill-a-minute.
Available on: Xbox, PS5, PC Estimated playtime: 20-plus hours
What to read
Chaos machine … Grand Theft Auto VI. Photograph: Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto VI, which is delayed until next May, left a crater in the 2025 release schedule that other game companies are scrambling to fill, reports Bloomberg (via Kotaku). Expect some serious rescheduling to be going on behind the scenes before the summer’s glut of game announcements.
The Strong National Museum of Play in the US has inducted four new games into its Hall of Fame: Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake and the (IMO) equally deserving Tamagotchi. They beat contenders from Age of Empires to Angry Birds.
After last week’s industry media drama, long-established podcast-video collective Giant Bomb has bought itself out and gone independent, joining a growing stable of worker-owned and reader-supported games outlets.
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Question Block
‘Read a book, rube’ … Bioshock Infinite’s Elizabeth. Photograph: 2K Games
Reader Travis sent in this week’s question:
“I’m planning to start a book club-style video game club. Two questions: what should I call it and what game would you love to share and discuss in such a setting?”
This is an excellent idea, and you’ve reminded me that I tried to do something like this a million years ago as a podcast on IGN, but I cannot for the life of me remember what we called it. Press Pause? Save Point? LFG? I would pick shorter games for a book club-style group (so that everyone could actually play them through), and I’d want ones that leave room for people’s personal histories to inform how they respond to it. I’d love to hear other people talk about Neva’s environmentalist and parental themes, or any Life Is Strange game’s mix of emerging-adulthood drama and quasi-successful supernatural storytelling, or even a game like While Waiting, what it made them think about. That would surely be more interesting than simply arguing about whether the latest Assassin’s Creed is any good.
I asked my partner what he’d call a video game book club, and he suggested Text Adventure, which is annoyingly better than anything I can think of. My pal Tom suggested Pile of Shame, One More Go and Shared Worlds. Readers: can you think of any more?
If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on *****@*****.tld.
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Video podcasts are having a moment at media upfronts – CNBC
Video podcasts are having a moment at media upfronts – CNBC
Video podcasts are having a moment at media upfronts CNBC
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CrashLands 2 review [SideQuesting] | N4G
CrashLands 2 review [SideQuesting] | N4G
Crashlands 2 is a charming, hilarious, and surprisingly heartfelt survival-crafting game that knows exactly what it is — and revels in it. While it has some bumps, repetitive enemies, vague quest tracking, and the occasional clunky combat moment, the overall experience is warm, witty, and wildly creative.
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Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, May 15 (game #1207)
Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, May 15 (game #1207)
Looking for a different day?
A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Wednesday’s puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, May 14 (game #1206).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc’s Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
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Quordle today (game #1207) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1207) – hint #2 – repeated letters
Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.
Quordle today (game #1207) – hint #3 – uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today’s Quordle answers.
Quordle today (game #1207 – hint #4 – starting letters (1)
Do any of today’s Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?
• The number of today’s Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you’re not ready yet then here’s one more clue to make things a lot easier:
Quordle today (game #1207) – hint #5 – starting letters (2)
What letters do today’s Quordle answers start with?
• P
• C
• P
• F
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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Quordle today (game #1207) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle, game #1207, are…
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Another case of right-letters-wrong-order again for me today, and a silly mistake using a letter I already knew was correct but in the wrong position.
One of the joys of Quordle is keeping your eyes across four columns, but it can also mean that you sometimes miss the obvious things – thus I guessed PLEAD instead of PEDAL and took eight turns instead of seven to complete the puzzle.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Daily Sequence today (game #1207) – the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1207, are…
Quordle answers: The past 20
Quordle #1206, Wednesday, 14 May: FAVOR, METER, PICKY, MAKER
Quordle #1205, Tuesday, 13 May: SCENT, AGAPE, POLAR, YEARN
Quordle #1204, Monday, 12 May: ROYAL, ARGUE, BUNCH, READY
Quordle #1203, Sunday, 11 May: QUASH, MUNCH, ALTER, UNDUE
Quordle #1202, Saturday, 10 May: RELIC, BADGE, CHAMP, SATIN
Quordle #1201, Friday, 9 May: MINUS, CRIME, NOSEY, SLAIN
Quordle #1200, Thursday, 8 May: ELUDE, GREET, POPPY, ELITE
Quordle #1199, Wednesday, 7 May: QUOTH, TRUNK, BESET, NAIVE
Quordle #1198, Tuesday, 6 May: UNITE, SOGGY, FILET, PORCH
Quordle #1197, Monday, 5 May: WREAK, COWER, STEAD, ******
Quordle #1196, Sunday, 4 May: PINCH, SMOKE, SCARY, CANNY
Quordle #1195, Saturday, 3 May: PLUSH, VERGE, WROTE, CONDO
Quordle #1194, Friday, 2 May: CAUSE, RISEN, MACAW, SMELT
Quordle #1193, Thursday, 1 May: IDIOM, EXILE, SPOOF, DRAPE
Quordle #1192, Wednesday, 30 April: BATON, TORSO, ANNEX, DROWN
Quordle #1191, Tuesday, 29 April: HOVER, HENCE, OCTAL, COPSE
Quordle #1190, Monday, 28 April: JAUNT, ALLOW, FRUIT, BURNT
Quordle #1189, Sunday, 27 April: PRIOR, YOUTH, CREDO, CHIDE
Quordle #1188, Saturday, 26 April: LINGO, LOCUS, THROW, CLICK
Quordle #1187, Friday, 25 April: SHALT, WRATH, MAMBO, HUMPH
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Jeremie Frimpong: How does Liverpool target compare with Trent Alexander-Arnold?
Jeremie Frimpong: How does Liverpool target compare with Trent Alexander-Arnold?
When it comes to going forward, Alexander-Arnold is crucial to everything that Liverpool do.
His 18 goals and 64 assists tell only half the tale of how vital he has been to their success in recent years.
But while Alexander-Arnold relies on his remarkable range of passing to create chances, Frimpong is a far more direct player, instead opting to dribble past his opponent.
A product of Manchester City’s academy, the 24-year-old is regarded as more of a wing-back or right-winger who can drive at a defence rather than a full-back.
“If you can find him quickly and he can approach a full-back, he’s lethal,” the Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman said earlier this year.
“He is a big threat and pressures well. His speed is an amazing weapon.”
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Square Enix Reveals Its Plan To “Reboot” The Company Over The Next Three Years
Square Enix Reveals Its Plan To “Reboot” The Company Over The Next Three Years
Square Enix plans to emphasize “quality over quantity” for its games business, and it has come up with a new strategy to help it realize these goals. The company has now revealed more details on its “Square Enix Reboots and Awakens” medium-term plan that will unfold over the next three years.
According to Square Enix, it plans to adopt a multiplatform approach for its games, leading to “major” titles being released on a consistent basis starting March 2027. All of its game titles will be placed “under the management of the same studio,” and this will allow all of its in-house knowledge to be “consolidated, accumulated, and shared,” Square Enix added. This new approach has also resulted in several in-development games being canceled, as Square Enix decided to focus its resources on funding other projects instead.
A closer look at Square Enix’s medium-term business plan.
“Under the new management structure, we reviewed all projects at our domestic studios, including HDG and SD titles, and decided to discontinue development of some titles and invest additional funds in titles that require refinement, thereby steadily implementing a strategy of selecting and concentrating development resources,” Square Enix explained in an update for its investors. “We will continue to control the scale of development investment in a disciplined manner.”
The new multiplatform approach is already active, as Square Enix recently announced that the entire Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will be coming to Nintendo’s Switch 2 console. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will be a launch game for the console alongside Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, but a release date for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth hasn’t been revealed yet.
Final Fantasy 14 also arrived on Xbox consoles last year, and Square Enix is looking to bring more games to the Microsoft platform in the future.
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AMD announces $6 billion buyback; shares climb 8%
AMD announces $6 billion buyback; shares climb 8%
Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, talks about the AMD EPYC processor during a keynote address at the 2019 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 9, 2019.
Steve Marcus | Reuters
AMD said on Wednesday that its board of directors approved $6 billion in share buybacks. The stock climbed 8%.
The authorization is in addition to $4 billion in existing approved share repurchases, the company said.
“Our expanded share repurchase program reflects the Board’s confidence in AMD’s strategic direction, growth prospects, and ability to consistently generate strong free cash flow,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in a statement.
AMD, the most important artificial intelligence chip company aside from Nvidia, reported 96 cents in earnings per share on $7.44 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter.
AMD announced a deal potentially worth $10 billion in investment on Tuesday to support an AI company called Humain in Saudi Arabia with chips. Su was in Saudi Arabia this week to announce the deal.
AMD said that it would provide graphics processors for AI as well as central processors needed to build AI servers to Humain, which is also buying Nvidia processors.
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AMD stock year to date
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US Regulators Target CrowdStrike: Is It a Signal or Noise?
US Regulators Target CrowdStrike: Is It a Signal or Noise?
On May 9, CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:) Inc. closed the week down about 7%. A key reason for the sell-off was news that the company was part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) probe involving the company’s $32 million deal with Carahsoft.
This may seem like bad form to bring up when the stock has made up that loss. All technology stocks are ripping higher on the positive trade news between the United States and China.
But after this initial euphoria is over, the regulatory probe will still be there. The question for current and potential shareholders is whether the probe is a signal of a possible correction or just noise that investors should discard.
Signal or Noise? You Decide
The issue seems straightforward. Carahsoft provides information technology (IT) solutions for the U.S. government, specifically for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The $32 million is for products the IRS never bought.
Investigators from the DOJ and SEC are trying to ensure the transaction was properly accounted for. Both CrowdStrike and Carahsoft stand by the transaction’s legality, which would seem to be easy enough to resolve.
However, when regulators get involved, it usually isn’t that simple. As investors have seen on a number of occasions, nothing can turn bulls into bears quite like reports of financial irregularities.
It’s too early to determine if that’s the case here. However, investigators are asking the “What did you know and when did you know it?” questions that suggest this could take some time to resolve. One concerning item is that the DOJ and SEC investigations look broader than just the Carahsoft transaction.
A Company is Different Than Its Stock
Investors can always find some reasons not to own a stock. For example, another reason CRWD stock faced some headwinds last week was its announcement that it was cutting about 5% of its global workforce.
Most investors understand that layoffs are about efficiency, but in the short term, many traders sought profit. That can cause many investors to question whether their thesis for owning the stock is wrong.
There’s still a lot to like about CrowdStrike. Remember that the company recently reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance of between $4.74 and $4.81 billion. The cuts will only increase efficiency, which should benefit the company’s bottom line.
Investors will learn more about that in June. For now, it’s important to remember that companies are willing to continue spending on cybersecurity, which is projected to become a $24 trillion industry by 2027.
CrowdStrike is capturing a significant amount of this business. It sports one of the highest operating margins in the sector. That’s reflected in its five-year total return over the last five years, which is 466.5%, over four times that of the S&P 500 over the same *******.
Plus, while CRWD stock is trading above the consensus average of the analysts tracked by MarketBeat, it’s still loved by analysts. In fact, on May 8, as the stock was falling, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated its Buy rating and $450 price target for the stock.
The Options Chain Suggests Volatility Ahead of Earnings
CrowdStrike reports earnings on June 3. The CrowdStrike Options Chain on MarketBeat provides interesting insight on investor sentiment. An equal number of calls and puts (38) have been purchased for June 6.
The strike price on the call option is $500, which would be an all-time high; the strike price for the put option is $380, which would retrace to a low around February 27. Of course, traders can let these options expire worthless, but it does suggest that they believe there could be significant volatility in CRWD stock.
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Peace be with Sinner: Italian gives Pope tennis racquet
Peace be with Sinner: Italian gives Pope tennis racquet
Pope Leo XIV has apparently made peace with Jannik Sinner.
The world’s top tennis player visited the new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racquet and offered to play against the pontiff, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.
Leo, the first American pope, is an avid tennis player and fan and had said earlier this week that he would be up for a charity match when it was suggested by a journalist.
But at the time, Leo joked “we can’t invite Sinner,” an apparent light-hearted reference to the Italian’s surname.
But by Wednesday, all seemed forgotten.
“It’s an honour,” Sinner said in Italian as he and his parents arrived in a reception room of the ********’s auditorium.
Holding one of his racquets and giving Leo another and a ball, Sinner suggested a quick volley. But the pope looked at the antiques around and smiled, “Better not.”
Leo, a 69-year-old from Chicago, then appeared to joke about his white cassock and its appropriateness for Wimbledon, noting the All England Club’s all-white clothing rule.
He asked how the Italian Open was going. “Now I’m in the game,” Sinner said. “At the beginning of the tournament, it was a bit difficult.”
The top-ranked player has a quarter-final on Thursday in his first tournament back after a three-month ban for doping that was judged to be an accidental contamination.
He’ll next face either freshly-crowned Madrid champion Casper Ruud or Spain’s Jaume Munar. while attempting to become the first Italian man to win the Rome title since Adriano Panatta in 1976.
During the audience, Angelo Binaghi, the head of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, gave Leo an honorary federation card.
“We all felt the passion that Leo XIV has for our sport and this filled us with pride,” Binaghi said in a statement. “We hope to embrace the Holy Father again soon, maybe on a tennis court.”
The pope and Sinner posed for photos in front of the Davis Cup trophy that Sinner helped Italy win for the second consecutive time last year. Also on display in the room was the Billie Jean King Cup trophy won by Italy in 2024, the biggest women’s team event in tennis.
Earlier in the week, after Leo’s first quip about not wanting to invite him, Sinner said it was “a good thing for us tennis players” that the new pope likes to play the sport.
In addition to tennis, Leo is an avid Chicago White Sox baseball fan.
His predecessor, Pope Francis, was a lifelong fan of Buenos Aires soccer club San Lorenzo.
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Reaction: Game Key PS5 Discs Are a Disgrace, and Sony Should Put a Stop to Them
Reaction: Game Key PS5 Discs Are a Disgrace, and Sony Should Put a Stop to Them
Push Square writes: “And just to be clear here, PlayStation is culpable in all this. While it may not be embracing the practice with its own software, it should be putting pressure on third-party publishers like Bethesda to either include a fully playable build on a Blu-ray or at the very least outright explain what it’s actually offering. It’s simply not acceptable to sell paying customers a borderline blank disc and never clearly disclose it.”
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Max out your RGB setup with this Razer Chroma Goliathus mouse pad for $24
Max out your RGB setup with this Razer Chroma Goliathus mouse pad for $24
Mouse pads are an often overlooked peripheral when it comes to your gaming setup. They can add comfort, styling, and color to your desk, from the material the pad uses, the print or design, and even lighting. Today’s deal features a mouse pad from Razer that features the RGB-laden Chroma lighting tech, on top of a Halo Infinite-inspired design. This is the extended size, so it can easily accommodate both your keyboard and mouse.
With a massive discount, plus a money-off coupon code, you can pick up this excellent deal from Newegg, where the Razer Goliathus Extended Chroma mouse pad is just $24, reduced from the original list price of $79. This is the Halo Infinite version, and has been reduced firstly to $49, and if you enter the code LEESA855 at the checkout, the price lowers to just $24, thanks to the $25 coupon code.
The Razer Goliathus Extended mouse pad measures 920mm wide by 294mm tall (36.22×11.57-inches), meaning you can quite comfortably fit both your mouse and your keyboard on the thing without worry. A smooth surface means your mouse sensor will be more accurate when tracking headshots, and the rubber bottom will stop any slipping as it grips your desktop. Plastic tubing stitched around the edge of the mat contains the RGB lighting and difuses the light for a more delicate hue.
Don’t forget to look at our Newegg coupon codes for May 2025 and see if you can save on today’s deal or other products at Newegg.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
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Why ON Holdings Could Be Entering a Long-Term Leadership Phase in Premium Retail
Why ON Holdings Could Be Entering a Long-Term Leadership Phase in Premium Retail
On Holding AG (NYSE:)’ stock price surged following the Q1 earnings release and 2025 update, leading its and other high-end retail stocks into technical price reversals.
The results are favorable for itself, distinguishing it as a leading footwear, athletic, and apparel brand, and indicate strength in a category that includes names like Lululemon (NASDAQ:), a more direct competitor, and Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:), similarly positioned in the lifestyle category.
The takeaway is that ON Holdings stock gained more than 10% on the news, confirming a stock price reversal that began in April. Other stocks in the group are set up to do the same.
The chart action for ONON is very bullish. The 10% stock price surge confirms a Head & Shoulders and could easily result in a move to $60 or $64, the 2025 highs. The $64 level is the critical resistance point; a move above opens the door to fresh all-time highs, a more significant rally and potentially triple-digit gains for long-term holders. The price action in Lululemon and Williams-Sonoma is following suit.
ON Holdings Accelerated in Q1, Raised Guidance for Q2
ON Holdings Q1 results were robust, highlighting its brand strength, global marketing success and resilience in end-market consumers. The company’s revenue surged by 43% YOY to an equivalent $862.9 million on strength in DTC, wholesale, all operating segments and regions. Direct-to-consumer sales increased by 42.4%, leading wholesale by nearly 400 basis points. Wholesales are up a solid 38.6% with systemwide strength in shoes, apparel, and accessories. Shoes, the core business, grew by 40.5% while Apparel and Accessories, both growth drivers, advanced by 93% and 97% respectively.
The margin news is more impressive. The company’s leaning toward efficiency, improving revenue leverage, and a full-priced selling environment aided gross margin improvement and better-than-expected bottom-line results. The only bad news is that earnings are down compared to last year, but the contraction was expected due to shifts in FX values. Despite this, profitability remains, the balance sheet is healthy, and equity is rising.
ON Holdings’ guidance is why the stock advanced strongly following the report. The company has momentum and plans to build on it this year, expanding into new markets and driving comps with its pipeline of products. Execs raised the forecast from at least 27% to 28% growth and may increase the forecast again later in the year.
Execs embedded a higher degree of uncertainty into the profit outlook, which was smart. However, they still expected expansion relative to the Q1 result and may be overly cautious given positive developments in trade relations. In the long term, ON Holdings is expected to sustain a double-digit top-line growth pace through the decade’s end.
Sell-Side Trends Align (NASDAQ:) With ON Holdings Stock Price Bottom
The sell-side trends, including analysts, institutional, and short-selling activity, align with a bottom in ON Holdings stock.
The short interest rate is still elevated at nearly 6%, sufficient to fuel a short-covering rally, but it has fallen since its peak and is near a long-term low in mid-May 2025. It will likely continue falling as the year progresses. Institutional activity is likewise bullish, with them buying on balance and increasing their net holdings in Q1 and Q2 2025.
Analysts provided a headwind for ONON stock before the release, with several making price target reductions. However, the stock is rated firmly as a Buy, and the revisions lead to the high-end range of targets, a 5% to 15% upside relative to mid-May trading levels when reached.
The trend in sentiment may revert to price target increases now that results are in, a positive catalyst for the stock price, leading to a new all-time high.
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