Author: Reporter

Tech stocks tumble with heavy losses for Nvidia as a Chinese competitor threatens to upend AI frenzy

Wall Street’s superstars tumbled on January 27 as a competitor from China threatened to upend the artificial intelligence frenzy they have been feasting on. The S&P 500 dropped 1.5%, dragged down in large part by a 16.9% fall for Nvidia. Other Big Tech stocks also took heavy losses, and they pulled the Nasdaq composite down 3.1% for its worst loss in more than a month. The damage was focused on AI-related stocks, while the rest of the market held up much better. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 289 points, or 0.7%, and the majority of U.S. stocks climbed....

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Naftali Furst: Auschwitz survivor tells stories from 80 years ago as witnesses to the Holocaust dwindle

Naftali Fürst will never forget his first view of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, on November 3, 1944. He was 12 years old. SS soldiers threw open the doors of the cattle car, where he was crammed in with his mother, father, brother, and more than 80 others. He remembers the tall chimneys of the crematoria, flames roaring from the top. There were dogs and officers yelling in German “get out, get out!” forcing people to jump onto the infamous ramp where Nazi doctor Josef Mengele separated children from parents. Fürst, now 92, is one of a dwindling number of...

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Eighty years after liberation: Global leaders confront modern atrocities on Auschwitz anniversary

The world’s focus will be on the remaining survivors of Nazi Germany’s atrocities on January 27 as world leaders and royalty join them for commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The main observances take place at the site in southern Poland where Nazi Germany murdered over a million people, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people, and others targeted for elimination in Adolf Hitler’s racial ideology. The anniversary has taken on added poignancy due to the advanced age of the survivors, and an awareness that they...

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Salute debate: Extremists are embracing Musk’s straight-arm gesture regardless of what he meant

Right-wing extremists have been celebrating Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a speech on January 20, although his intention was not totally clear. “I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk said during a speech at Capital One Arena, referring to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Then he pounded his hand on his chest, and extended his arm straight outward and upward with his palm facing downwards. He turned around and made a similar gesture facing the other way. “My heart goes out to you,” he said. Many social media users noticed that the...

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Trump calls Episcopal Bishop “nasty” and demands apology for appeal of mercy to vulnerable people

President Donald Trump on January 22 demanded an apology from the Episcopal bishop of Washington after she made a direct appeal to him during a prayer service marking his inauguration to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers who are in the United States illegally. Referencing Trump’s belief that he was saved by God from assassination, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde said, “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” After he returned...

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Pardons by Trump and Biden highlight the dread and distrust of each other and a broken justice system

A day that began with the outgoing president’s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president’s pardon of supporters who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago. The clemency grants by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump — one benefiting uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies — are vastly different in scope, impact, and their meaning for the rule of law. But the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men’s deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with...

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