At the Supreme Court, the Trump Agenda Is Always an ‘Emergency’
As legal challenges to the Trump administration mount, the justices are facing a key test — a flood of “emergency applications” asking for immediate intervention.
China To Restrict US Film Releases
Hours after Donald Trump imposed record 125% tariffs on Chinese products entering the US, China has announced it will further curb the number of US films allowed to screen in the country. From a report: "The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience's favourability towards American films," the China Film Administration said in a statement on Thursday. "We will follow the market rules, respect the audience's choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported."
The move mirrors the potential countermeasure suggested by two influential Chinese bloggers earlier in the week, warning that "China has plenty of tools for retaliation." Both Liu Hong, a senior editor at Xinhuanet, the website of the state-run Xinhua news agency, as well as Ren Yi, the grandson of former Guangdong party chief Ren Zhongyi, posted an identical proposal involving a heavy reduction on the import of US movies and further investigation of the intellectual property benefits of American companies operating in China. China is the world's second largest film market after the US.
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This Instability May Be Worth It. Here’s Why.
Oren Cass makes the case for tariffs.
Meta's New Tech Wants You Using Phones in Theaters
Meta is partnering with Blumhouse to launch "Movie Mate" technology that encourages moviegoers to use their phones during theatrical screenings, beginning with an April 30 showing of "Megan" at Blumhouse's "Halfway to Halloween Film Festival." According to Variety, the system enables viewers to chat with a Megan-themed AI chatbot, answer trivia questions, and access behind-the-scenes information while watching the film in theaters.
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How Do the iPhone 16E and Google Pixel 9A Compare to More Expensive Models?
With tariffs threatening to drive up the costs of most things, the new entry-level phones from Apple and Google present a timely opportunity to save some bucks.
Gas Boiler Fittings Outnumbered Heat Pumps By 15 To One in UK Last Year - Report
An anonymous reader shares a report: Gas boiler fittings outnumbered new heat pump installations by more than 15 to one last year, and only one in eight new homes were equipped with the low-carbon alternative despite the government's clean energy targets.
Poorer households are also being shut out of the heat pump market as the grants available are inadequate and should be increased, according to a report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank. The UK has the slowest introduction of heat pumps in Europe: fewer than 100,000 were fitted last year, compared with 1.5m gas boilers. Most of the boilers were replacements for existing units, but new houses are still being built with gas as standard -- only 13% of new homes came with heat pumps last year.
If the government is to meet its net zero targets, switching people to heat pumps will be essential: about 450,000 households will need to install them each year by 2030. But the grant available through the boiler upgrade scheme -- $9,700 in England and Wales -- still leaves homeowners paying about $7000 on average.
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Amazon CEO Urges 'Startup' Mentality in Shareholder Letter
Amazon has to operate like the "world's largest startup" as it works to meet demand for AI and cut bureaucracy in its ranks, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said in his annual letter to shareholders. From a report: "If your customer experiences aren't planning to leverage these intelligent models, their ability to query giant corpuses of data and quickly find your needle in the haystack, their ability to keep getting smarter with more feedback and data, and their future agentic capabilities, you will not be competitive," Jassy wrote in the letter on Thursday. "It's moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen."
Amazon, like most of the largest technology companies, has bet heavily on artificial intelligence, committing much of its $100 billion in planned capital expenditures this year to AI-related projects.
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Trump: Apple Building in China is 'Unsustainable,' Could Exempt Some Companies From Tariffs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pause some of the exorbitant tariffs that he put in place earlier today, he spoke to the press at the White House and provided some commentary that could be a positive for Apple. When asked whether he would consider exempting some U.S. companies from the tariffs in the future, Trump said that he would. "As time goes by, we're going to take a look at it," he said. "There are some that by the nature of the company get hit a little bit harder, and we'll take a look at that," he added, claiming that he will "show a little flexibility."
[...] When speaking to the press, Trump reiterated his aim of bringing manufacturing to the United States, and he claimed that Apple "building" in China is unsustainable. "If you look at Apple, Apple is going to spend $500 billion building a plant. They wouldn't be doing that if I didn't do this. They'd just keep building them in China. And that's unsustainable," he said.
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Bank of England Says AI Software Could Create Market Crisis For Profit
Increasingly autonomous AI programs could end up manipulating markets and intentionally creating crises in order to boost profits for banks and traders, the Bank of England has warned. From a report: Artificial intelligence's ability to "exploit profit-making opportunities" was among a wide range of risks cited in a report by the Bank of England's financial policy committee (FPC), which has been monitoring the City's growing use of the technology.
The FPC said it was concerned about the potential for advanced AI models -- which are deployed to act with more autonomy -- to learn that periods of extreme volatility were beneficial for the firms they were trained to serve. Those AI programs may "identify and exploit weaknesses" of other trading firms in a way that triggers or amplifies big moves in bond prices or stock markets.
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Grandmother Is Stranded When Her Parrot ‘Plucky’ Can’t Board Flight
Plucky, an African gray parrot, accompanied its owner on a Frontier Airlines flight to Puerto Rico in January. But a gate agent would not let it on board the return flight.
This Is No Way to Stop the World’s Trumps
The proscribing of Marine Le Pen will do little to staunch support for the far right.
Kim Shin-jo, North Korean Commando Who Sought to Kill South Korea’s Leader, Dies
Kim Shin-jo famously said the mission of a hit squad sent by Pyongyang in 1968 was to “slit the throat” of the then South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee.
How a Ukrainian Teen Became a Suspected Foot Soldier for Russia
The teenager faces terrorism charges in an arson attack on an IKEA store in Lithuania. Investigators say it was part of a Russian sabotage campaign.
Inside Factories in China, a Struggle to Survive Trump’s Tariffs
Small factories with tiny profit margins have played a central role in China’s international competitiveness. Many could now face disaster.
Lawmakers Are Skeptical of Zuckerberg's Commitment To Free Speech
An anonymous reader shares a report: Meta's latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company's chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power. The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government's antitrust case against the company.
"He's recently tried a reinvention in which he is now a great advocate of free speech, after being an advocate of censorship in China and in this country for years," subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, pointing to longtime conservative allegations that Meta has suppressed things like vaccine skepticism and the Hunter Biden laptop story. "Now that's all wiped away. Now he's on Joe Rogan and says that he is Mr. Free Speech, he is Mr. MAGA, he's a whole new man, and his company, they're a whole new company. Do you buy this latest reinvention of Mark Zuckerberg?"
"If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why is he trying to silence me?" Wynn-Williams asked in response. Meta convinced an arbitrator to order her to stop making disparaging statements and halt further publishing and promotion of the book, which details Meta's alleged dealings with the Chinese government and claims of sexual harassment from a top executive.
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Death Toll in Dominican Republic Roof Collapse Hits 113
The scene at the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, where the roof collapsed early Tuesday killing at least 184, was increasingly grim as bodies but no more survivors were recovered.
Stocks Jump in Asia After Trump’s Tariff Reprieve
Markets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan soar after the U.S. president pauses punishing tariffs. Gains in mainland China were modest as trade hostilities heat up between Washington and Beijing.
Inside Trump’s Reversal on Tariffs: From ‘Be Cool!’ to ‘Getting Yippy’
Economic turmoil, particularly a rapid rise in government bond yields, caused President Trump to reverse course on the steep levies.
Trump Signs Orders Punishing Those Who Opposed His 2020 Election Lies
The president targeted two officials from his first administration and an elite law firm as part of his campaign for retribution.
The Real ID Deadline Is Coming. Here’s What You Need to Know.
After years of postponements, the deadline to show a security-enhanced Real ID at airport security checkpoints is now just weeks away. What to know.