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    Physicists Say They May Have Found a Powerful Glitch in the Universe

    Peter Watson
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    Physicists Say They May Have Found a Powerful Glitch in the Universe

    “Once you reach a cosmic scale, terms and conditions apply.”

    Einstein 2.0

    Researchers have discovered what they’re calling a “cosmic glitch” in gravity, which could potentially help explain the universe’s strange behavior on a cosmic scale.

    As detailed in a new paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the team from the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia in Canada posit that Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity may not be sufficient to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.

    Einstein’s “model of gravity has been essential for everything from theorizing the Big Bang to photographing black holes,” said lead author and Waterloo mathematical physics graduate Robin Wen in a statement about the research. “But when we try to understand gravity on a cosmic scale, at the scale of galaxy clusters and beyond, we encounter apparent inconsistencies with the predictions of general relativity.”

    “It’s almost as if gravity itself stops perfectly matching Einstein’s theory,” he added. “We are calling this inconsistency a ‘cosmic glitch’: gravity becomes around one percent weaker when dealing with distances in the billions of light years.”

    Glitchuationship

    In response, the team came up with a new model of such a “glitch” that modifies Einstein’s theory to resolve these inconsistencies.

    “Think of it as being like a footnote to Einstein’s theory,” Wen said in the statement. “Once you reach a cosmic scale, terms and conditions apply.”

    It’s one possible solution for a problem that astronomers and physicists have been racking their brains over for decades.

    “Almost a century ago, astronomers discovered that our universe is expanding,” explained coauthor and University of Waterloo astrophysics professor Niayesh Afshordi. “The farther away galaxies are, the faster they are moving, to the point that they seem to be moving at nearly the speed of light, the maximum allowed by Einstein’s theory.”

    “Our finding suggests that, on those very scales, Einstein’s theory may also be insufficient,” he added.

    According to Afshordi, their suggested patch for a “cosmic glitch” is only the beginning.

    “This new model might just be the first clue in a cosmic puzzle we are starting to solve across space and time,” he said.

    More on the expansion of the universe: Physicists Suggest Universe Is Full of Material Moving Faster Than Light

    Your body needs three forms of movement every week

    Peter Watson
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    Your body needs three forms of movement every week

    Sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts.



    CNN
     — 

    Walking has earned a reputation as a great form of exercise that’s easy and accessible for many people, and scores of studies show the popular activity has numerous health benefits, too.

    Getting at least 2,300 steps per day reduces your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, according to one study published in a 2023 edition of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

    In addition, weight-bearing exercises such as walking help prevent osteoporosis, according to another study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

    Yet some experts in the health and fitness fields assert that while walking is certainly good for your health and fitness, it’s not really high-quality exercise. One such expert is Melissa Boyd, a certified personal trainer and coach with Tempo, an online personal training platform. Boyd is based in San Francisco.

    “Our lives have gotten so busy — we commute, sit all day, then are exhausted at night — that getting a short walk in makes you feel like you’ve done this big, exponential thing,” Boyd said. “But walking is really a baseline movement your body requires to function well, to help with things like circulation and digestion, and to decompress.”

    To help her clients better understand why a daily walk won’t result in a beach body — something many of them believe, thanks to various social media influencers — she discusses with them the three types of movement that are beneficial for overall health and fitness.

    First is the movement your body is owed or requires every day, such as walking, stretching and bending. Second is athletic movement, which you can do a few times a week to improve your fitness or to train for a sport. Third is social movement that you do for fun or to connect with others, such as dancing or playing volleyball.

    “It’s important to think of movement in these different categories because not moving throughout the day has become normalized,” Boyd said. “Our lives are so sedentary, many of us are trying to dig ourselves out of a movement deficit. But exercise is different from physical movement.”

    Walking is great, but it’s just one, unidirectional form of movement, and our bodies need more to be functionally fit, said Dr. Carl Cirino, a sports medicine surgeon at HSS Orthopedics with Stamford Health in Connecticut.

    People use the muscles and tendons in their bodies to assist with all the bending, twisting and rotating they do in their daily lives, Cirino said, so they need to work and stretch them in many different directions. Yoga and Pilates are two activities that are very effective and healthy in this regard, he said.

    “Stretching is also incredibly easy, and something you can do when you wake up and before you go to bed,” Cirino said.

    Having loose, pliable muscles also means you will have more balance and stability, which helps prevent falls and injuries in all physical activities, he said. It’s also good to get your heart rate up several times a week for cardiovascular health.

    Ideally, you should create a plan that incorporates daily “owed” movements, such as walking and stretching, with some cardiovascular work, strength training and social activity sprinkled throughout the week, the two said. That can seem overwhelming for many, however.

    Breaking down all these different movements into exercise snacks is one way to sneak in the movement your body needs, Boyd said.

    “Maybe get a walking pad and do some of your meetings while walking slowly on the pad,” she said. “Maybe every time you go to the bathroom, you do 20 squats, or every time you get water, you do 10 push-ups against a wall. If you attach these exercise snacks to something else you’re already doing, you can make it more of a habit. I’ve seen huge success with this.”

    Boyd also encourages her clients to find some form of movement they enjoy that doesn’t seem like a workout, such as playing kickball or pickleball. That way, you’re having fun and being social while getting fitter.

    Cirino agrees. “We see kids here in sports medicine whose parents want them to play baseball, but they don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s the same with exercise. You need to find something that’s interesting and easy — maybe an activity your friends are doing — and use that as the basis to build good habits.”

    Start slowly and build from there

    Rethinking exercise as regular movements your body needs for functionality, fitness and social connection also can be a means of giving yourself permission to carve out time for working out, Boyd said.

    It’s also helpful to keep in mind that creating an exercise plan doesn’t require an immediate, massive change in your lifestyle. In fact, it’s better to start slowly with new, little chunks of movement.

    “What I usually see is that people love the way this starts to make them feel,” Boyd said. “Then the stronger they become, the more they want to move even more. Movement inspires movement.”

    Melanie Radzicki McManus is a freelance writer who specializes in hiking, travel and fitness.

    Young Democrats face Gaza blowback as they try to mobilize students for Biden

    Peter Watson
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    Young Democrats face Gaza blowback as they try to mobilize students for Biden



    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden’s support for the Israeli military offensive in Gaza mixed with student anger over police crackdowns on anti-war campus protests are complicating the work of Democratic youth groups trying to engage classmates and other Generation Z voters ahead of this year’s election.

    “If I’m talking about electric vehicles and climate change, and then (a student) asks me, ‘What about all the emissions caused by the bombing of Gaza?’ I’m like, well, you know, can’t help you there,” said Hasan Pyarali, the president of the College Democrats chapter at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and the national group’s Muslim caucus chair.

    “Same thing with abortion access. And as an organizer, going in with those set of facts is so difficult that a lot of the times I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’” he said.

    In his most pointed remarks to date, Biden on Thursday condemned what he referred to as “disorder” in the demonstrations, emphasizing reports of antisemitic intimidation on campuses. He said he supported “the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.” Asked if the protests had led him to change his thinking on the conflict, the president answered, “No.”

    Israel’s monthslong bombardment of Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ deadly cross-border attacks on October 7, has killed more than 34,600 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and the threat of starvation looms.

    The dire situation on the ground in Gaza, which many young Americans are routinely exposed to in real-time through social media apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, has emerged as a significant concern for many Democratic organizations, liberal outside groups and other Biden allies worried about youth voter turnout in the 2024 election.

    Those anxieties came into view again last week when the traditionally modest College Democrats of America sounded the alarm, saying in a statement, “The White House has taken the mistaken route of a bear hug strategy for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and a cold shoulder strategy for its own base and all Americans who want to see an end to this war.”

    “It should be made abundantly clear that calling for the freedom of Palestinians is not Antisemitic,” the group wrote, “and neither is opposing the genocidal acts of the far-right radical extremist Israeli government.”

    The decision by leaders of the CDA – which for many years operated under the wing of the Democratic National Committee – to take such a bold stand and potentially endanger its standing with senior party leaders drew immediate attention across ideological lines. But the College Democrats insist their worries are also rooted in what they see as the Biden campaign’s unwillingness to grasp the scope of how difficult it is becoming to engage young voters.

    Polling of young voters on the Israel-Hamas War, specifically about its effect on Biden’s campaign, presents a mixed picture.

    A Harvard/Institute of Politics poll conducted in March showed that young Americans supported a permanent ceasefire in Gaza (51% versus 10% who were opposed). An Economist/YouGov poll from April found that 32% of adults younger than 30 sympathized with Palestinians (compared with 13% who sympathized with Israelis). Only 18% of young voters approved of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Harvard/IOP poll.

    However, the Harvard survey also found that only 38% of young Americans were closely following news about the war. Asked which national issue concerned them the most, only 8% said foreign policy.

    Nicho Fernandez, a 21-year-old at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, admitted he hasn’t been paying close attention to the conflict in Gaza.

    “It’s a very complex situation, and personally, because of everything that I have, with internships, schoolwork, I haven’t been able to give a very close look to it,” Fernandez said.

    A majority of young adults (63%) in the Economist/YouGov poll said they haven’t attended any sort of political protest, rally or demonstration.

    “This is a different youth electorate than we saw in 2020 and 2022, and young voters are motivated by different things,” John Della Volpe, the Harvard Institute of Politics polling director, said when the results were released. “Economic issues are top of mind, housing is a major concern – and the gap between young men’s and young women’s political preferences is pronounced.”

    Biden allies frequently point to these constantly evolving dynamics as evidence that the domestic political stakes of the war in Gaza are being overblown by critics. Santiago Mayer, the founder and executive director of the Gen Z group Voters of Tomorrow, said that anger over the recent campus crackdowns has been directed more at college administrators and local officials than at Biden, and that observers shouldn’t draw a straight line between student unrest and how young people will vote.

    “I really don’t think that the protests themselves are an electoral conversation. I think there’s obviously an electoral component of it, but it is not something that we’re talking about right now,” Mayer told CNN. “It’s very important to remember that these young people, no matter how angry they might be at Joe Biden, will never vote for Trump.”

    But College Democrats national president Carolyn Salvador Avila, a 19-year-old student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, warned that while policy issues like the cost of living, climate change and abortion rights are, indeed, the most important to young voters, Biden’s Israel policy threatened to undermine his personal standing.

    “Even if it’s not the top at the list, it’s still something that’s keeping people who would otherwise fully support this party from being 100% sure that they’re going to cast their vote for Biden,” Salvador Avila said. “There are so many people on our campuses that are not as receptive anymore to our conversations about all the fantastic things that the president has accomplished because of this issue.”

    Those divisions exist now at almost every level of institutional Democratic politics, from local party chapters to Congress, and even within the College Democrats themselves.

    Allyson Bell, a graduate student at Meredith College in North Carolina and chair of the national College Democrats’ Jewish caucus, said she was taken aback by the group’s statement – in part because she, along with Pyarali, the Muslim caucus chair, had worked together on earlier drafts that, Bell said, contained more prominent denunciations of antisemitism on American campuses.

    Those versions were eventually voted down by the group’s executive council, she said, which ended up voting, 8-2, in favor of a statement that was more fiercely critical of Israel, Biden and police raids of protest encampments.

    Bell said she was not consulted on the final draft, an “alienating” occurrence that led her to believe that the College Democrats’ leadership did not want to highlight “the experience that Jewish students are having right now across college campuses.”

    “I support peaceful protests, even if those protests don’t necessarily align with my own beliefs,” Bell said. “But I think it was important to also include the instances of harassment that we have seen.”

    The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee declined to address the specific policy points voiced by these groups, pointing to the president’s most recent comments and his work to facilitate a ceasefire in the region. Seth Schuster, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, touted its investment in engaging young voters.

    “We have launched a more robust youth outreach campaign led by a dedicated youth vote team earlier than ever before that will feature campus organizers across every battleground state and has already included seven figure advertising across social media,” Schuster said in a statement. “Our operation is bolstered by 15 endorsing youth vote groups who are leveraging their networks and resources to mobilize young voters to reelect the president and vice president.”

    Among those groups is the College Democrats of America, which says it remains committed to backing Biden’s reelection and helping drive young voters to the polls. Still, top CDA officials expressed frustration over what they described as a cold shoulder from the Biden team.

    “It’s been really hard for our organization to get in contact with the White House and with the Biden administration,” said Aidan DiMarco, the group’s director of membership. “This isn’t new. This didn’t happen when we released this statement. It’s been an issue for a long time now.”

    That frustration, DiMarco insisted, is not personal, but a simple matter of campaign strategy.

    “If the Biden campaign wants to win in November, they’re going to have to start building a stronger connection with our organization,” he said, “because we’re doing the groundwork.”

    In Wisconsin, a critical swing state that could be decided, again, by the finest of margins, 20-year-old Evelyn Schmidt, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College Democrats, said her group has sought to “hold two truths in our head” when it comes to Gaza and the election.

    “We care about this and want to be on the right side of history,” Schmidt said. “But then, also, making (clear) people know that the best situation in terms of the presidency and setting up that conversation is having Joe Biden reelected.”

    Democratic operatives working outside the White House with youth and local party organizations also said that their work has been complicated by the Israel-Hamas conflict, though they were less inclined to criticize Biden’s policies. That is in part, as one longtime Democratic strategist said, because the intractability of the issue makes it difficult to discuss in a campaign setting.

    “The problem is there’s not much conversation that can be had. It is even hard for young people to talk to other young people about how to do this,” the Democratic strategist said. “When I work with state parties and talk to people with the College Democrats, people with youth councils of the party, they ask, ‘How do I answer these questions for other young people?’ And that is a really hard challenge. There is so much emotion behind the issue.”

    Schmidt said her group’s message to young voters angry over Biden’s handling of the war is simple, delivered as straightforwardly as she and her colleagues can.

    “We say, ‘It’s not the ideal situation if that is your top issue,’” Schmidt told CNN. “But in Wisconsin, I think a lot of voters, their top issue is reproductive freedom, gun reform, and climate change.”

    Still, she added, delivering that message, day in and out, has put an added onus on young organizers.

    “It is frustrating because it does kind of put the weight on the individual organizers who are talking to people, to process with voters about how they should feel,” Schmidt said. “That weight of this issue is felt by organizers having to have those conversations.”

    Berkshire shareholders descend as Buffett hosts 60th Omaha meeting

    Peter Watson
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    Berkshire shareholders descend as Buffett hosts 60th Omaha meeting

    By Jonathan Stempel and Koh Gui Qing

    OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) -Warren Buffett will take center stage at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on Saturday as shareholders, some having traveled long distances, arrived to see the famed investor as well as his expected successor.

    The meeting is the 60th for Buffett, 93, since he took over Berkshire in 1965. He has largely stopped appearing publicly to discuss the company. He told investors in November that he felt good but knew he was “playing in extra innings.”

    Ahead of the meeting, Berkshire reported first-quarter earnings that showed that its cash pile swelled to $189 billion as of March 31 while the size of its stake in Apple fell. Buffett has long touted the iPhone maker’s leadership and market dominance. Some investors have expressed concern that Apple had become too large a part of Berkshire’s investment portfolio.

    In downtown Omaha, hundreds of shareholders waited in line overnight to get in early. When the doors opened, some shareholders ran in to get good seats and the auditorium quickly filled up.

    “I was here since 2:30 a.m.,” said Serena Lam, 32, an investment portfolio manager who flew in with 40 others from Hong Kong and was standing first in line at one of the entrances. “I want to see Warren Buffett. I want to get his perspective about Japanese stocks. I flew over 25 hours for this.”

    At a downtown arena, Buffett and Vice Chairman Greg Abel, 61, will answer about five hours of questions. Vice Chairman Ajit Jain, 72, will also join. Abel was designated Buffett’s successor as chief executive in 2021.

    Bill Gunther, 72, a retired state forester from Newfane, Vermont, brought a lawn chair to sit in while on line.

    “I feel very bullish about Berkshire. They’re so diversified and have a good company culture. That’s the one thing that I loved.”

    Investors are focused on how the conglomerate will evolve as it faces challenges including how best to grow without overpaying for acquisitions, whether to pay a dividend and how to deploy cash on hand that stood at $189 billion as of the end of March.

    The shareholder meeting is the first since Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime friend, business partner and foil, died in November at age 99.

    Munger was known for laconic and acerbic comebacks to Buffett’s often lengthy appraisals about Berkshire, the economy, Wall Street and life.

    “It’s going to be hard for Warren to not have Charlie there,” said Paul Lountzis, president of Lountzis Asset Management, attending his 32nd Berkshire meeting.

    SUCCESSION TOP OF MIND Berkshire is a $862 billion conglomerate with dozens of businesses including BNSF railroad, Geico car insurance, Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom. It also owns well over $300 billion of stocks, close to half of which is Apple.

    Berkshire’s stock is up 23% over the last year, lagging the Standard & Poor’s 500’s 25% gain. Over the last decade, it has risen 218% versus the S&P’s 172% gain.

    Buffett is expected to face a wide array of questions on Saturday from major investments such as Apple and Occidental Petroleum to how elevated interest rates have affected the company. “I want to see Warren’s energy,” said Steven Check, president of Check Capital Management, attending his 27th meeting. “It’s good that Greg and Ajit will be out front.” Berkshire will also release first-quarter results and shareholders will vote on six proposals about climate, diversity and China. Buffett opposes all six. The weekend features opportunities for shareholders to buy goodies such as Berkshire T-shirts and Squishmallows toys at exhibits featuring Berkshire-owned companies.

    Ruth Gearhart, 72, from Omaha, filled her bags with See’s Candies plus tongs and spatulas from Pampered Chef. A 15-year shareholder, Gearhart said she was mainly concerned with what Buffett might say regarding his succession. “I trust him,” she said. “He’s a brilliant man and he has a lot of brilliant people. He will get us through this. I’d hate to see him go, but I think they prepared for it well.”

    (Reporting by Gui Qing Koh and Jonathan Stempel; editing by Ira Iosebashvili, Megan Davies, Cynthia Osterman, Jason Neely and Diane Craft)

    On US President Joe Biden’s Awkward Jugglery With Domestic Politics And Foreign Goals

    Peter Watson
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    On US President Joe Biden’s Awkward Jugglery With Domestic Politics And Foreign Goals

    The outcome of the November 2024 US Presidential elections remains mired in uncertainty. The two main candidates, incumbent President Joe Biden and his immediate predecessor and rival reincarnate Donald Trump, continue to be statistically tied, gauged from opinion polls. This, in itself, is a challenge to US self-projection as a “beacon” to the world, given the ongoing criminal and civil cases against Trump, his past and promised rejection of unfavourable election outcomes, encouragement to supporters on January 6, 2021, to storm the US Capitol where his loss in the 2020 elections was being legislatively certified, and erratic personal interest-driven behaviour while in office from 2017 to 2020.

    Student Protests And A Growing Discontent Over Gaza

    Biden is facing his own political challenges, stemming from both domestic and external factors. There is an erosion of the support and enthusiasm of the African-American community, which had been one of the critical factors in his 2020 win. Republicans have been making inroads into the Hispanic and Jewish vote base, negating the earlier trend of minority groups generally favouring the Democratic party. The recent wave of student protests on university campuses, followed by donor and politics-driven responses by the university administrations as well as the police, could generate resentment among younger voters. 

    Read | Explainer: What Is Behind Pro-Palestinian Protests At US Universities?

    Biden’s external challenges are playing a huge role in these elections. Student protests have been galvanised by perceptions that the US is not doing enough to curtail or bring to an end Israel’s continued action in Gaza, where even the American administration has repeatedly reminded Tel Aviv of the need to observe international humanitarian law and avoid civilian casualties. The US has reiterated its “ironclad” guarantee for Israel’s security and has not conditioned any of its continued military supplies. It has also fully backed Israel’s decision to act to ensure that the October 7 Hamas attack last year is not repeated, placed two aircraft carrier battle groups in the Eastern Mediterranean to discourage regional escalation, actively collaborated with Israel to shoot down incoming Iranian drones and missiles, and along with the UK, carried out attacks against Houthi sites targeting shipping in the Red Sea.

    Balancing Competing Interests

    It’s in this climate that Biden has to deal with competing domestic and external interests and pressures.

    The over 7 million-strong Jewish community in the US strongly identifies with Israel and its security, mindful of the historical discrimination against and the persecution of the Jewish people in Europe and elsewhere, continued or revived anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, and memories of the Holocaust during the Second World War. The community has a significant influence on the funding and outcome of many elections. Traditionally, around 70-80% of Jewish votes have been for Democrats. 

    Republicans have been making concerted efforts to dilute this, claiming that they are stronger backers of Israel’s security interests. As President, Trump moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018 and closed the consulate there dealing inter alia with the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, signalling an acceptance of Israel’s claims. Contrary to international positions, in 2019, he unilaterally recognised Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which had come under its control from Syria in 1967. In April 2004, Republican US President George Bush, in a letter to then-Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, stated, “United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel’s security, including secure, defensible borders, and to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to defend itself…against any threat or possible combination of threats”. He also expressed support for Israel’s position that any Palestinian refugees be resettled only in a future Palestinian state and that realities on the ground, including the existence of some large settlements in the West Bank, be factored into any eventual agreement.

    Anger On The Arab Street

    While being mindful of the Jewish vote, Biden has to also contend with the views of many in the left wing of the Democratic party who are critical of Israel’s actions, as well the angst within the Arab and Muslim-American population, which has a significant presence in key swing states such as Michigan. In addition, in the face of growing anger and protests on the Arab street, the US needs to reassure its Arab allies and partners, such as Egypt, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, that it is also mindful of their regime and security interests. Hence, aside from cautioning Israel on some of its actions, the US has also pushed for the enhanced supply of relief material to Gaza and publicly expressed opposition to any major Israeli action in Rafah until the security of the civilian population is ensured.

    During his recent visit to the region (April 29- May 1), the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, demonstrably visited sites in Jordan and Israel that were on the route of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Many Arab countries want to sustain closer ties with the US given Iran’s enhanced strengths derived from military capabilities and links with non-state actors such as the Houthis in Yemen, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and so on.

    Read | Joe Biden slams Donald Trump for “bowing down” to Putin

    The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also brought an internal-external dynamic into play. Aside from reports and claims that Russia had access to a few in Trump’s campaign in 2016, the latter also wanted to showcase that he was following a policy distinct from Obama’s. Trump was often perceived as not being critical enough of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, the CAATSA (Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) passed in 2017 was also seen as a way to tie Trump’s hands. 

    Support To Ukraine, And A Complicated China Dynamic

    In contrast to Trump, the Biden administration has sought to project that it has added to America’s strengths and security by focusing again on its alliances and partnerships. It has galvanised Europe and NATO to supply more than $100 billion of economic and security assistance. The US Congress recently authorised $90-billion of assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, because of strong opposition from a section of the Republican party to additional support for Ukraine, the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives had to rely on Democratic votes to have the measure passed. There is now an ongoing move among Republican representatives to oust the Speaker.

    There is a similar dynamic regarding the China relationship, although with a different coalition of actors. There is broad convergence among Republicans and Democrats, as well as the strategic community, on the need to push back against China’s increasingly assertive and unilateral actions in the East and South China seas, the Taiwan Straits, Beijing’s build-up of excess industrial capacity to the detriment of others, and its subsidy to various industries, including electric vehicles. China is recognised as the primary economic, technological and military challenge to the US and the only global actor with the intent and capability “to replace the US in the international system”. 

    However, there has been a pushback from the US industry and financial sectors that are heavily engaged in the Chinese economy. They are looking more at their short-term balance sheets rather than the longer-term strategic challenge. The Biden administration’s articulation has thus shifted from “decoupling” to “de-risking”, with a “small yard and high fence” focusing on technologies with national security implications. Here, too, a few US allies are not entirely in sync with its strategy. German Chancellor Scholz, who recently visited China with a large business delegation, was criticised for not raising issues like excess capacity, subsidies, or human rights violations in Xinjiang or Hong Kong. 

    During Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign in 1992, it was famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid”, to draw attention to an often decisive factor in poll outcomes. In US foreign policy, it can similarly be said that “It’s (also) the domestic politics, stupid”.

    (The author is a former Indian Ambassador to the US, France and Israel)

    Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

    Trump Media’s newly hired auditing firm was just busted by the SEC for ‘massive fraud’

    Peter Watson
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    Trump Media’s newly hired auditing firm was just busted by the SEC for ‘massive fraud’

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group just 37 days ago with “massive fraud” — though not for any work it performed for former President Donald Trump’s media company.

    The SEC charged the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, with “deliberate and systematic failures” in more than 1,500 audits. The charges include failing to abide by accounting rules, fabricating documentation to cover up its shortcomings, and falsely stating in audit reports that its work met audit standards.

    To settle the SEC charges, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine while its owner agreed to pay a fine of $2 million, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

    BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers also agreed to permanent suspensions, effective immediately, that will prevent them handling SEC-related matters as accountants.

    Trump Media named BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28, according to the company’s most recent annual report filing. The company disclosed at the time that BF Borgers had also handled its audits before the company went public by merging with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.

    The company had previously cycled through at least two other auditors — one that resigned the account in July 2023 and another that was terminated by the board in March, just as it was re-hiring BF Borgers.

    In a statement, Trump Media said it “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”

    The SEC found that BF Borgers’ shortcuts included copying audit documentation from a previous year, changing relevant dates and then passing it off as current documentation. In addition to falsely documenting work that was never actually done, that fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never occurred and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had approved the audit work.

    “Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”

    Kristi Noem’s book rollout has put the governor in an unwanted spotlight. But she had already fallen off Trump’s VP shortlist

    Peter Watson
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    Kristi Noem’s book rollout has put the governor in an unwanted spotlight. But she had already fallen off Trump’s VP shortlist



    CNN
     — 

    For South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, much of the 2024 campaign cycle has turned out to be a case study in what not to do to rise into potential vice presidential contention.

    That includes the latest hiccup, with the second-term South Dakota governor – once considered a top potential running mate who has since fallen off former President Donald Trump’s shortlist, according to multiple Republicans with knowledge of that list – finding herself in an unwanted spotlight over questions about actions she describes in her upcoming book: “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.”

    Noem’s crisis hasn’t affected her standing on Trump’s vice presidential candidate shortlist – sources said she had fallen off that list long before that – but it has confirmed to skeptics in Trump’s orbit that she shouldn’t be in consideration and won’t be anytime soon.

    Noem’s book launch has become a problem for her for multiple reasons. First, there was Noem’s description of her decision to kill a 14-month-old wirehair pointer, named Cricket, who was not displaying the signs of an ideal hunting dog. The governor wrote that the dog was “untrainable,” according to excerpts first reported by The Guardian. She also described shooting a goat in the book.

    Noem has argued that those anecdotes were meant to show how capable she is of doing some of the more gruesome jobs in life when necessary.

    But the Cricket episode in particular instead resulted in days of Noem having to publicly defend the decision to put the dog down. A bipartisan group of members of Congress set up a Congressional Dog Lovers Caucus in a not so subtle dig to the South Dakota governor.

    Some Republicans came to her defense, like South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson, who acknowledged, “Life is a little different in rural America.”

    But South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds struck a different tone: “I don’t see how it helps,” he said Tuesday.

    Noem has repeatedly defended her actions this week. Appearing on Fox News Wednesday, Noem explained it was a “very aggressive dog” that “massacred” a local family’s chickens and attacked her, which ultimately led her to shoot the dog in a gravel pit. She argued it was the responsible decision to protect her children and those around her business.

    “Dogs that have this kind of a problem, that have been to training for months and still kill for fun, they are extremely dangerous and a responsible owner does what they need to do and what the law will allow,” Noem said.

    As many questioned why she volunteered this story in her book, Noem said it demonstrates how she doesn’t run from the truth.

    “What the point of the story is, is that most politicians, they will run from the truth,” Noem said. “They will shy away and hide from making tough decisions. I don’t do either of those.”

    Trump himself has privately criticized Noem about the story, a person with direct knowledge of the comments told CNN. The former president, however, appeared more dismayed that she chose to disclose the anecdote and at her faltering attempts to do damage control, than the story itself, they said.

    Stephen Colbert berates Kristi Noem over story about killing her dog

    On Thursday, the situation got worse for Noem when The Dakota Scout, an independent newspaper, reported that Noem suggested in her book that, as a member of the US House Armed Services Committee, she had met North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un. Noem, according to that excerpt, also said that she was set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron as governor before cancelling. In both cases, the Scout reported, records indicated that Noem did not meet with Kim or have a meeting scheduled with Macron.

    In another excerpt obtained by Politico, Noem described a 2021 phone call she says occurred with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley that she took as Haley trying to intimidate Noem from the national spotlight. That excerpt was first reported by Politico on Friday. A Haley spokeswoman though said that Haley called Noem in 2020, not 2021.

    In response, Ian Fury, Noem’s spokesperson, released a statement that these were small errors and would be changed.

    “It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book ‘No Going Back’ has two small errors. This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong Un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been,” Fury said in a statement to CNN on Friday. “The Governor spoke with Nikki Haley in 2020 and met with her in 2021. The book has not been released yet, and all future editions will be corrected.”

    Republicans have been befuddled how the book was published with these errors.

    “You would hope that these sort of anecdotes would be vetted prior to the release of a book, that would typically happen in most high profile book launches, and obviously there’s some orchestrated events going on here. She has several interviews set up,” Jesse Hunt, a Republican strategist and former communications director for the Republican Governors Association, said. “Clearly this was thought out. The advisers that she had involved didn’t see it as having any problematic narratives.”

    Noem’s standing

    While at one point considered a top contender for vice president, advisers to Trump have said for weeks that Noem no longer held that standing, even before she revealed she shot her dog and before she posted a bizarre infomercial for a Texas dental practice. However, she was included on the short list that the campaign compiled for vetting, with her advisers noting that no one should be entirely ruled out given Trump’s often spontaneous decision making. Despite this caveat, at least two advisers said she was currently not in the running.

    For Noem, the increasing scrutiny about her book is the latest bump in an ongoing list of her attempts to raise her profile on the national stage.

    On paper, Noem had all the markings of a strong contender to be Trump’s running mate. For the operatives that fixate on simplistic criteria in picking a running mate, the argument behind Noem is she’s an anti-abortion Republican who started out in humble means and rose to the governor’s mansion. Noem has also displayed comfort in front of large crowds or a camera.

    As governor of South Dakota during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she resisted lockdowns. While speaking at a National Rifle Association event, she said that her two-year-old grandchild has multiple guns.

    Noem also has been deferential to Trump and the Trump movement going back to before she was elected to her current job in 2018. She was one of the earliest governors to endorse the former president in the 2024 cycle.

    But her term as governor has been rocky. She’s received national criticism for her opposition to any Covid-19 lockdown measures – but not by hardcore Trump loyalists. Her office has seen significant staff turnover, with seasoned operatives leaving and Noem bringing in more controversial ones – like former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Noem has faced ethics complaints in South Dakota for inappropriately using her office to help her daughter with a real estate appraiser’s license. And more recently, she was banned from some tribal lands in her home state over comments the governor made about tribal leaders focusing more on benefiting from drug cartels than their children.

    Throughout it all, Noem has sought to boost her national profile. Early in the 2024 cycle, she set up a federal political action committee – a time honored move that future candidates for high office make. Noem has also had her political operation air ads on national television to highlight her state’s economy. In March, Noem opted to star in a near five-minute informercial for a dental practice based in Texas.

    At one point, some of these moves seemed to be working. But that was long before the public learned about Cricket or the unnamed goat.

    “He soured on her long before this,” a person close to Trump, who has spoken with the former president about his potential vice presidential contenders, told CNN.

    “He has questioned some of her choices. But where they may have been lingering questions over whether she could find herself back on the list, this story has killed that. It is totally disqualifying,” they added, referencing the story about how she killed her 14-month-old dog.

    Trump has often mentioned Noem in both private and public as a loyal supporter. The former president was particularly pleased after her August 2023 television appearance affirming her decision that she would not be running for president in 2024.

    Noem is still set to appear at a big fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, alongside other potential vice presidential picks for Trump. She’s also slated to headline a fundraiser in Jefferson County in Colorado on Saturday, according to The Denver Post. That’s a schedule a top tier Republican would have if they were in strong contention to be Trump’s running mate. But the last few weeks and months have cast strong doubt among Republicans about Noem’s viability.

    “You need to be skilled at defending Trump and the campaign but she’s having trouble defending herself in her own book,” said Matt Gorman, a veteran Republican strategist.

    Still, Gorman stressed that it’s important for Noem to attend the Mar-a-Lago spring retreat.

    “I think it’s important to go because one thing that’s important to remember is if you don’t like the current headline, make a new one. So going to Mar-a-Lago, if I were giving her team advice, it’d be be very visible. The worst thing you can do is hideout and let the headlines overtake you. You want to create headlines as much as you can, create your own news, your own content.”

    Google, Justice Department make final arguments about whether search engine is a monopoly

    Peter Watson
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    Google, Justice Department make final arguments about whether search engine is a monopoly

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Google’s preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than $20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.

    Google, on the other hand, maintains that its ubiquity flows from its excellence, and its ability to deliver results customers are looking for.

    “It would be an unprecedented decision to punish a company for winning on the merits,” Google’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, said late Friday afternoon in summation of the company’s closing arguments.

    Justice Department lawyer Ken Dintzer told the judge that “today must be the day” for him to step in and stop Google’s monopolistic behavior, which he likened to the tactics used by Microsoft two decades ago that prompted a similar antitrust battle.

    The U.S. government, a coalition of states and Google all made their closing arguments Friday in the 10-week lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now decide whether Google broke the law in maintaining a monopoly status as a search engine.

    Much of the case, the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades, has revolved around how much Google derives its strength from contracts it has in place with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and computers.

    At trial, evidence showed that Google spends more than $20 billion a year on such contracts. Justice Department lawyers have said the huge sum is indicative of how important it is for Google to make itself the default search engine and block competitors from getting a foothold.

    Google responds that customers could easily click away to other search engines if they wanted, but that consumers invariably prefer Google. Companies like Apple testified at trial that they partner with Google because they consider its search engine to be superior.

    Google also argues that the government defines the search engine market too narrowly. While it does hold a dominant position over other general search engines like Bing and Yahoo, Google says it faces much more intense competition when consumers make targeted searches. For instance, the tech giant says shoppers may be more likely to search for products on Amazon than Google, vacation planners may run their searches on AirBnB, and hungry diners may be more likely to search for a restaurant on Yelp.

    And Google has said that social media companies like Facebook and TikTok also present fierce competition.

    During Friday’s arguments, Mehta questioned whether some of those other companies are really in the same market. He said social media companies can generate ad revenue by trying to present ads that seem to match a consumer’s interest. But he said Google can place ads in front of consumers in direct response to queries they submit.

    “It’s only Google where we can see that directly declared intent,” Mehta said.

    Schmidtlein responded that social media companies “have lots and lots of information about your interests that I would say is just as powerful.”

    The company has also argued that its market strength is tenuous as the internet continually remakes itself. Earlier in the trial, it noted that many experts once considered it irrefutable that Yahoo would always be dominant in search. Today, it said that younger tech consumers sometimes think of Google as “Grandpa Google.”

    Government lawyers also argued the tech company should be sanctioned for the “systemic destruction of documents” that they argue was done to purposefully hide evidence of monopolistic intent and practices.

    Trial evidence showed that Google lawyers recommended employees ensure that their work chats were not saved because of their potential legal implications.

    The government asked Mehta to impose a sanction that allows the judge to infer that all the deleted chats were unfavorable to Google regarding their anticompetitive intent.

    Mehta said he was unsure whether he would grant the government’s request but he was sharply critical of their document-retention practices and speculated that there ought to be some kind of sanction.

    “Google’s document retention policy leaves a lot to be desired,” he said. “It’s shocking to me, or surprising to me, that a company would leave it to its employees to decide when to preserve documents.”

    Google lawyer Colette Connor defended the company’s practice of generally failing to preserve internal company chats. “Given the typical use of chats, it was reasonable,” she said.

    While Google’s search services are free to consumers, the company generates revenue from searches by selling ads that accompany a user’s search results.

    Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said during Friday’s arguments that Google was able to increase its ad revenue through growth in the number of queries submitted until about 2015 when query growth slowed and they needed to make more money on each search.

    The government argues that Google’s search engine monopoly allows it to charge artificially higher prices to advertisers, which eventually carry over to consumers.

    “Price increases should be bounded by competition,” Dahlquist said. “It should be the market deciding what the price increases are.”

    Dahlquist said internal Google documents show that the company, unencumbered by any real competition, began tweaking its ad algorithms to sometimes provide worse search ad results to users if it would increase revenue.

    Google’s lawyer, Schmidtlein, said the record shows that its search ads have become more effective and more helpful to consumers over time, increasing from a 10% click rate to 30%.

    Mehta has not yet said when he will rule, though there is an expectation that it may take several months.

    If he finds that Google violated the law, he would then schedule a “remedies” phase of the trial to determine what should be done to bolster competition in the search-engine market. The government has not yet said what kind of remedy it would seek.

    Israel-Hamas War and Gaza News: Live Updates

    Peter Watson
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    Israel-Hamas War and Gaza News: Live Updates

    Turkey’s decision to suspend trade with Israel underscores the rising global pressure to wind down the war in Gaza, even as Israel’s leaders insist that they will not end the campaign until Hamas’s rule in the enclave has been eradicated.

    Israel’s international isolation has mounted as its devastating military offensive in Gaza continues, with little end in sight. Some countries have downgraded or cut ties with Israel. Close partners like the United States, Britain and Germany, while remaining strongly supportive of Israel, have become more openly critical of its conduct and of restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza.

    Colombia this week became the second South American nation to break off ties with Israel, after Bolivia. On the day that Bolivia made its announcement, Colombia and Chile both said that they were recalling their ambassadors to Israel, and Honduras followed suit within days. Belize also cut diplomatic ties with Israel that month.

    Arab states like Jordan and Bahrain, with whom Israel cooperates closely on security, have also recalled their ambassadors amid public outcry over the rising death toll in Gaza. The Israeli offensive has also hampered U.S.-led efforts to forge an agreement to normalize diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel hoped would be a major part of his legacy.

    The Biden administration, Israel’s most important ally, has shown no sign of pulling back military support, even as it warns against an Israeli invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than a million people are sheltering. And Israel won a reprieve this week when a United Nations court declined to order Germany, Israel’s second-biggest supplier of weapons, after the United States, to suspend those arms sales.

    Still, the moves by Turkey and others highlight how the war in Gaza, now nearly seven months old, is exacting a growing toll on Israel’s global standing.

    Israel and Turkey had enjoyed a rapprochement in recent years. In 2022, the two countries announced that they would restore full diplomatic ties. They already were close trading partners, with Turkey sending roughly $4.6 billion in exports to Israel in 2023, according to Israeli government statistics.

    Just a few weeks before Hamas’s attack against Israel on Oct. 7, Mr. Netanyahu and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met for the first time, in New York during the United Nations General Assembly meeting. The two leaders agreed to visit each other’s countries, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said at the time.

    Now, however, hopes for warmer relations appear to have been dashed. After the Hamas-led assault on Israel, Mr. Erdogan quickly took a strong rhetorical tack in favor of the Palestinian armed group, which he called “an organization of liberation”; he met with Hamas leaders in late April, drawing further Israeli ire.

    On Friday, Mr. Erdogan said the decision to suspend trade was an attempt to pressure Israel into reaching a cease-fire with Hamas. Both Israel and mediators like Qatar, Egypt and the United States are still awaiting Hamas’s response to a truce proposal presented this week. U.S. officials, including William J. Burns, the C.I.A. chief, who was in Cairo on Friday for talks, have blamed Hamas for the failure to reach a deal.

    “We have one single goal, to force the Netanyahu administration which got out of control with the West’s unconditional military and diplomatic support, to a cease-fire,” Mr. Erdogan said in an address in Ankara on Friday. “Once the cease-fire is announced and adequate humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza, that goal would be reached.”

    The decision to shut down imports and exports with Israel is highly unusual for Mr. Erdogan, who has generally allowed close economic ties to flourish in the shadow of high political tension, said Gallia Lindenstrauss, an expert on Turkey’s foreign policy at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank in Tel Aviv.

    Mr. Erdogan likely hoped to leverage the issue to stave off growing domestic frustration with his two-decade-long rule, as opposition leaders won a string of municipalities during local elections earlier this year, Ms. Lindenstrauss said. But there was also an attempt “to exploit Israel’s weakness, and specifically Netanyahu’s weakness, to continue to weaken Israel and gain regional influence,” she added.

    Many of Israel’s closer allies are now calling for a cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza. In March, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

    The war has also prompted renewed calls by some countries to recognize a Palestinian state, a move that is largely symbolic but strongly opposed by Mr. Netanyahu. Spain and Ireland, among other European nations, have said that they are working toward recognizing a state of Palestine.

    Washington has long said that while it backs the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, any recognition should come after negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

    The shifting tone reflects the war’s tremendous cost for Palestinians. Over the past seven months, the war has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. Israel’s offensive followed the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 that left about 1,200 dead and another 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

    — Aaron Boxerman and Gulsin Harman

    What ‘Starfield’ Needs To Launch Alongside Its ‘Shattered Space’ Expansion

    Peter Watson
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    What ‘Starfield’ Needs To Launch Alongside Its ‘Shattered Space’ Expansion

    Starfield has just launched a new patch into its beta that adds some legitimately useful quality of life elements, difficulty toggling, ship decoration, inventory tabs, actual city and surface maps. Later, it will add vehicles. But I’m most excited about this new update, which they’re calling Starfield: Visions:

    • Discover a more varied, more diverse universe in the Visions update. Introducing new planetary biomes, more colorful worlds, new fauna and flora, archaeology, salvaging, and much more…
    • New anomalous planet biomes create a weirder, more diverse universe to explore.
    • Bizarre creatures have evolved on anomalous planets, bringing new life and movement to these eerie landscapes.
    • The universe has become more alien, vibrant and exciting to explore. New shades of sky and grass enable more unique worlds and a more diverse set of science fiction aesthetics.
    • New types of water create stranger worlds to be discovered both above and below the surface.
    • Atmospherics and skies have been improved and stormy weather conditions can now produce rainbows in planetary atmospheres.
    • Exotic planets can be searched to discover mysterious artifacts which can be claimed as trophies. These otherworldly objects can be rehoused in habitable bases to create a showcase of your voyages across the universe.
    • With more varied planets come more reasons to explore. Unleash your inner archeologist and search the galaxy for planets containing the ancient bones of alien lifeforms. Complete, intact skeletons are particularly rare and especially valuable.

    Oh I’m sorry, that was a typo. I mean to say that was the No Man’s Sky Visions update, back from November 2018. But the point I’m trying to make is well, yeah, other than new missions and an expansion storyline, I think something like this is what Starfield needs the most.

    No Man’s Sky has done update after update building out the game, but this is one that was attempting to get it back to the original missions of exploring cool planets that at launch, were pretty barren and often not very cool at all.

    Starfield is at least ahead of where No Man’s Sky was at launch in this department as I think it often does have beautiful landscapes, but I think it would benefit from significant overhauls to its procedural generation systems to make these planets more interesting to explore, and give players a reason to go places they wouldn’t otherwise to find things they can’t predict, rather than landing anywhere and finding the same eight types of civilian or pirate bases spaced 500 meters apart.

    The ultimate goal of Starfield, both conceptually from Bethesda and in-game when you join Constellation, is exploring the universe. But in doing so, you will find that probably 950 of Starfield’s promised 1,000 planets contain nothing of note, or at least nothing you haven’t seen before a dozen times already by the endgame. Every so often I’d find one thing maybe I didn’t see previously, but those instances became few and far between over time.

    Starfield needs more interesting planets, both in terms of the visuals and biomes, but weather, flora, fauna and of course, POIs that need to be well beyond what it has now rather than as repetitive as they can be. I also like the NMS idea of rare trophies or relics to find as you explore, as the game doesn’t have anything crazily “rare” like that, and it would fit with base/ship decoration well.

    I think at least in this specific area following No Man’s Sky, with a budget 10x higher at least, is a good plan. I mean hell, they’re already doing the No Man’s Sky land vehicle update, right?

    Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.

    Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

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