Latest news with #Armageddon
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
‘Hopefully, Alireza can kick Magnus Carlsen's a**': Hikaru Nakamura after epic semifinal loss at Esports World Cup
Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura World no. 2 GM Hikaru Nakamura fell just short of a spot in the Esports World Cup 2025 chess final, losing to long-time rival and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in a dramatic 4–3 thriller that went all the way to Armageddon on Thursday. The five-time World Champion will now face GM Alireza Firouzja in Friday's Grand Final, while Nakamura will battle Arjun Erigaisi for third place and a $145,000 prize. After the match, Nakamura didn't hold back his feelings. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 'Hopefully, tomorrow Alireza can kick Magnus Carlsen's a**,' he said with a laugh, summing up the fierce rivalry and emotions of the day. The semifinal between Carlsen and Nakamura lived up to all the hype. Carlsen drew first blood in game one, but Nakamura hit back in style in game three, trapping Carlsen's queen with a sharp King's Indian Defense — the first loss Carlsen has suffered in the tournament. But the Norwegian, stung by the home crowd's cheers for Nakamura, bounced back immediately. Poll Do you believe Hikaru Nakamura will secure a victory for third place against Arjun Erigaisi? Yes, he will win No, he will lose 'It pissed me off when they cheered when Hikaru was winning!' Carlsen admitted. With the match tied 3–3 after a rollercoaster of wins and one quiet draw, it came down to Armageddon. Nakamura, known for his bold time bids, gave himself only 6 minutes and 12 seconds against Carlsen's 10, needing just a draw with Black. He came agonizingly close. 'I had a great position. If I had played Bxa4 instead of Rxa4, I think I'd be in the final. It's very disheartening, but that's how it goes,' Nakamura reflected. Carlsen, too, confessed the pressure got to him. 'I was so nervous. I was shaking. This was really tough!' Friday's final will now see Carlsen take on Firouzja for the $250,000 top prize, and Nakamura, clearly, will be rooting for his teammate. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How a mouse slip cost Gukesh's second Duda $20,000 (Rs 17.5 lakh) and forced him to resign in 5 moves
"It was a very unfortunate moment. It was fatal. What to do it is a part of online chess. It happens," Duda said in an interview afterwards. "It's kind of upsetting but also kind of funny. I will probably remember this for the rest of my life." By: Chess can be brutal at times. Especially when you are playing in an online tournament and have a technical issue like a mouse \-slip. That's exactly what happened to Jan-Krzysztof Duda at the ongoing Esports World Cup in Riyadh. Duda, who had helped Gukesh become the youngest world champion in chess history last year, had to resign in the Armageddon game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov after the fifth move because he pushed his pawn to d6 instead of the d5 square. Both players had drawn their first two games, so the Armageddon was meant to be decisive for who would progress to the next round. The mouse-slip thus ended up being the difference between Duda taking home at least $85,000 in the quarterfinals to taking home $65,000 instead.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Even nuclear experts are at a loss right now
Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, admittedly struck the wrong note in a melodramatic video she put out after visiting Hiroshima, which was destroyed by an atomic bomb exactly 80 years ago. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,' Gabbard said, 'political-elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.' That reference to unspecified warmongers hewed to her unfortunate pattern of spreading conspiracy theories. Her boss, President Donald Trump, wasn't pleased. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Project Management Design Thinking healthcare MBA Leadership Cybersecurity Product Management Operations Management MCA Data Science CXO Management Technology Digital Marketing Degree Data Analytics Others PGDM Public Policy Healthcare Finance Data Science Artificial Intelligence others Skills you'll gain: Portfolio Management Project Planning & Risk Analysis Strategic Project/Portfolio Selection Adaptive & Agile Project Management Duration: 6 Months IIT Delhi Certificate Programme in Project Management Starts on May 30, 2024 Get Details But Gabbard was right about her other point: that we — Homo sapiens — may be closer to the brink than ever before. That's what I keep hearing from experts on nuclear strategy in Washington. The danger today may not be as acute as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it is much more diffuse, complicated and unpredictable than it has ever been. And while those in the know can summarize how we got to this point, nobody, as far as I know, has any good ideas about where to go from here. The diagnosis is essentially a long list of separate but simultaneous developments that collectively upset the relatively simple balance of terror that stabilized the late Cold War. At that time, two nuclear superpowers held each other in check while a few other nations kept small arsenals for deterrence and almost all other countries abided by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, meant to limit the spread of these diabolical weapons. Entire ecosystems of expertise had blossomed in academia and government to model the scenarios that might lead to Armageddon, and the resulting game theory, though sophisticated, was relatively straightforward. Stipulating that a nuclear war 'cannot be won and must never be fought,' the big two — Washington and Moscow — negotiated arms-control treaties to reduce the number of warheads and weapons. After the Cold War, strategists shifted to studying other threats — terrorism and such — because nuclear annihilation seemed passé. Live Events Instead, it tops the horror rankings again. The last remaining arms-control treaty between Washington and Moscow, called New START, expires in six months, and no efforts are underway to extend or replace it. One of the two parties, Russia, has been acting in bad faith and breaking nuclear taboos by threatening to use lower-yield weapons (sometimes called 'tactical' or 'battlefield' nukes ) in Ukraine and stationing warheads in neighboring Belarus. Worse, a third nuclear superpower, China, is turning the former dyad into a triad. Whereas Beijing long maintained only a minimal deterrent, it has in recent years doubled its arsenal to about 600 warheads and is rapidly adding more, with the apparent goal of having 1,500 or so in a decade — roughly as many as the US and Russia each currently have deployed. This new reality forces strategists in Washington to contemplate what would happen if Russia and China ever coordinated attacks on, say, Eastern Europe and Taiwan. Such a two-front war could start 'conventional' (meaning non-nuclear) but escalate to the use of battlefield nukes, at which point further escalation spirals become incalculable. The US is already modernizing — albeit with huge delays and cost overruns — its missiles, bombers, submarines and warheads. Should it now also add to its arsenal overall, to deter or be able to fight both Russia and China at once? Experts agree that nuclear deterrence is not a pure numbers game (all sides would soon just be irradiating rubble). And game theory is far from clear about what is stabilizing and destabilizing in the real world; the math in such a 'three-body problem' becomes forbidding. Nor does the number three capture the horror of this analytical hairball. In total, nine countries have nukes. And even if the recent American strikes on Iran set back Tehran's program for a while, other countries may build their own. They could include US allies, such as South Korea or Poland, if they lose faith in the US nuclear 'umbrella.' More players mean more scenarios for people to miscalculate. (An especially dangerous period is the phase when countries are making nukes but do not yet have them because adversaries may contemplate preemptive strikes.) North Korea can already hit the US with its weapons; and Washington believes that Pakistan is also building missiles that can reach America. Even that catalog doesn't do justice to the new threat landscape because the types of warheads and delivery vehicles are changing. For example, more countries are investing in those tactical nukes I mentioned, which are 'limited' only in theory but in practice likely to set off uncontrollable escalation to full-scale nuclear war. China is also building hypersonic glide vehicles which, unlike ballistic missiles, can circle the Earth inside the atmosphere and disguise their destinations. Russia is thinking about putting nukes in space. And Trump wants to place a defensive 'Golden Dome' up there, which would pose its own strategic problems. Add to these twists the imponderable of artificial intelligence, which drastically accelerates human decision-making and thus increases the potential for human error, especially under pressure. Those risks become even worse wherever AI meets misinformation. (During the recent clash between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, fake photos of damage went viral in both countries.) Scientists warn about the combination of misinformation 'thickening the fog of war' and 'giving the launch codes to ChatGPT.' Bright minds are studying these developments, including Vipin Narang and Pranay Vaddi, two nuclear experts who served in the administration of Joe Biden and are now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But diagnosis is one thing, prescription quite another. The US 'will need innovative approaches,' they conclude — without listing any. 'We're approaching a tripolar world, and everything is different in that scenario,' says John Bolton, who was national security advisor in Trump's first term. 'All of our calculations on nuclear weaponry, the nuclear triad, where the stuff is deployed, how you create structures of deterrence,' he told me, 'how you engage in arms-control negotiations, all of it, all of that theorizing … all of that is on a bipolar basis.' Then he added dolefully: 'You make it tripolar and you got to start over again.' Trump seems to have grasped this reality. He has said repeatedly that he wants to restart arms-control negotiations and that he wants them to be at least trilateral, including both Russia and China. Whether his counterparts in Moscow and Beijing will rise to the occasion is unclear. Much divides those three leaders, and indeed humanity. But if we can't agree to sequester our hatreds and vanities to deal with this singular threat, none of those other things will matter.
Mint
2 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Even Nuclear Experts Are at a Loss Right Now
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, admittedly struck the wrong note in a melodramatic video she put out after visiting Hiroshima, which was destroyed by an atomic bomb exactly 80 years ago. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,' Gabbard said, 'political-elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.' That reference to unspecified warmongers hewed to her unfortunate pattern of spreading conspiracy theories. Her boss, President Donald Trump, wasn't pleased. But Gabbard was right about her other point: that we — Homo sapiens — may be closer to the brink than ever before. That's what I keep hearing from experts on nuclear strategy in Washington. The danger today may not be as acute as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it is much more diffuse, complicated and unpredictable than it has ever been. And while those in the know can summarize how we got to this point, nobody, as far as I know, has any good ideas about where to go from here. The diagnosis is essentially a long list of separate but simultaneous developments that collectively upset the relatively simple balance of terror that stabilized the late Cold War. At that time, two nuclear superpowers held each other in check while a few other nations kept small arsenals for deterrence and almost all other countries abided by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, meant to limit the spread of these diabolical weapons. Entire ecosystems of expertise had blossomed in academia and government to model the scenarios that might lead to Armageddon, and the resulting game theory, though sophisticated, was relatively straightforward. Stipulating that a nuclear war 'cannot be won and must never be fought,' the big two — Washington and Moscow — negotiated arms-control treaties to reduce the number of warheads and weapons. After the Cold War, strategists shifted to studying other threats — terrorism and such — because nuclear annihilation seemed passé. Instead, it tops the horror rankings again. The last remaining arms-control treaty between Washington and Moscow, called New START, expires in six months, and no efforts are underway to extend or replace it. One of the two parties, Russia, has been acting in bad faith and breaking nuclear taboos by threatening to use lower-yield weapons (sometimes called 'tactical' or 'battlefield' nukes) in Ukraine and stationing warheads in neighboring Belarus. Worse, a third nuclear superpower, China, is turning the former dyad into a triad. Whereas Beijing long maintained only a minimal deterrent, it has in recent years doubled its arsenal to about 600 warheads and is rapidly adding more, with the apparent goal of having 1,500 or so in a decade — roughly as many as the US and Russia each currently have deployed.(1) This new reality forces strategists in Washington to contemplate what would happen if Russia and China ever coordinated attacks on, say, Eastern Europe and Taiwan. Such a two-front war could start 'conventional' (meaning non-nuclear) but escalate to the use of battlefield nukes, at which point further escalation spirals become incalculable. The US is already modernizing — albeit with huge delays and cost overruns — its missiles, bombers, submarines and warheads. Should it now also add to its arsenal overall, to deter or be able to fight both Russia and China at once? Experts agree that nuclear deterrence is not a pure numbers game (all sides would soon just be irradiating rubble). And game theory is far from clear about what is stabilizing and destabilizing in the real world; the math in such a 'three-body problem' becomes forbidding. Nor does the number three capture the horror of this analytical hairball. In total, nine countries have nukes. And even if the recent American strikes on Iran set back Tehran's program for a while, other countries may build their own. They could include US allies, such as South Korea or Poland, if they lose faith in the US nuclear 'umbrella.' More players mean more scenarios for people to miscalculate. (An especially dangerous period is the phase when countries are making nukes but do not yet have them because adversaries may contemplate preemptive strikes.) North Korea can already hit the US with its weapons; and Washington believes that Pakistan is also building missiles that can reach America. Even that catalog doesn't do justice to the new threat landscape because the types of warheads and delivery vehicles are changing. For example, more countries are investing in those tactical nukes I mentioned, which are 'limited' only in theory but in practice likely to set off uncontrollable escalation to full-scale nuclear war. China is also building hypersonic glide vehicles which, unlike ballistic missiles, can circle the Earth inside the atmosphere and disguise their destinations. Russia is thinking about putting nukes in space. And Trump wants to place a defensive 'Golden Dome' up there, which would pose its own strategic problems. Add to these twists the imponderable of artificial intelligence, which drastically accelerates human decision-making and thus increases the potential for human error, especially under pressure. Those risks become even worse wherever AI meets misinformation. (During the recent clash between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, fake photos of damage went viral in both countries.) Scientists warn about the combination of misinformation 'thickening the fog of war' and 'giving the launch codes to ChatGPT.' Bright minds are studying these developments, including Vipin Narang and Pranay Vaddi, two nuclear experts who served in the administration of Joe Biden and are now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But diagnosis is one thing, prescription quite another. The US 'will need innovative approaches,' they conclude — without listing any. 'We're approaching a tripolar world, and everything is different in that scenario,' says John Bolton, who was national security advisor in Trump's first term. 'All of our calculations on nuclear weaponry, the nuclear triad, where the stuff is deployed, how you create structures of deterrence,' he told me, 'how you engage in arms-control negotiations, all of it, all of that theorizing … all of that is on a bipolar basis.' Then he added dolefully: 'You make it tripolar and you got to start over again.' Trump seems to have grasped this reality. He has said repeatedly that he wants to restart arms-control negotiations and that he wants them to be at least trilateral, including both Russia and China. Whether his counterparts in Moscow and Beijing will rise to the occasion is unclear. Much divides those three leaders, and indeed humanity. But if we can't agree to sequester our hatreds and vanities to deal with this singular threat, none of those other things will matter. More From Bloomberg Opinion: (1) 'Deployed' means ready for use at any time — for instance, on the tip of a missile in a silo. Washington and Moscow also have thousands more in storage each. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. More stories like this are available on
Qatar Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Qatar Tribune
Former Qatar-resident Dr Muqeem Khan bridges design and healing
Former Qatar-resident Dr Muqeem Khan is an internationally acclaimed transdisciplinary designer, educator, and herbal medicine practitioner whose work bridges Hollywood's visual effects, academic innovation, and Unani healing traditions. Dr Khan brings over a decade of academic leadership to Qatar, shaping design education as Associate Professor at Northwestern University (2010–2014) and Assistant Professor at VCU (2005–2010). His global career bridges continents and disciplines—from VFX contributions to George of the Jungle, Flubber, Armageddon, and Final Fantasy at Walt Disney and Square USA, to founding Hakeem Mursaleen Pvt Ltd, which integrates Unani medicine with preventive care. A PhD graduate from Charles Sturt University and recipient of Qatar's $1 million NPRP grant as Lead Principal Investigator, Dr Khan continues to inspire through multimedia design, indigenous knowledge systems, and holistic healthcare. Unani (Greek) medicine is one of the few ancient healing systems still practiced today. Medicine runs in Dr Khan's blood; it's a family tradition passed down from his father. His father, Hakeem Mursaleen, was a respected figure in this field. After a transformative year as a professor at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation, Dr Khan, a design visionary and Unani herbalist, returned to Karachi to uplift communities through his holistic health clinics and dynamic teaching at Aga Khan University. In a recent online interview with the Qatar Tribune, Khan shared insightful reflections on his dual journey as an academic and a practitioner of herbal medicine. Excerpts. You spent nearly a decade in Qatar, how did that experience shape you personally and professionally? My nine years in Qatar were transformative. I arrived with ink-stained fingers from the old fingerprinting process, and watched the country evolve into a tech-driven society. As an academic and designer at VCUarts and Northwestern University in Qatar, I contributed to shaping its creative and knowledge economy. Qatar didn't just offer me a career, it redefined me. As I often say: 'Qatar transformed me from a dreamer with ink-stained fingers to a designer of its knowledge economy.' How did your father's legacy and your early interests shape your path in both herbal medicine and design? My father's mastery of herbal medicine and calligraphy began in Delhi, rooted in a rich family tradition. After partition, he moved to Karachi with support from Hakeem Muhammad Saeed, evolving from pharmacist to practicing Hakeem. Named after the legendary Hakeem Muqeem of Delhi, I was expected to carry on that legacy—while cultivating my own passion for design. In 9th grade, my first computer sparked a love for digital creativity. I designed credits for a Gul Gee documentary, won art awards in Karachi and Geneva, and earned degrees in Interior and Industrial Design from The Ohio State University. Before finishing my master's, I joined Walt Disney as a Special Effects Artist, with my first major project being the digital elephant in George of the Jungle. Can you walk us through your journey from Hollywood to herbal medicine and academia? After years in Hollywood's VFX industry, I returned to family and taught design at the University of Sharjah for five years while studying Unani medicine under my father. I later served as Associate Professor at VCU and Northwestern University in Qatar. During a research residency in Australia, a call from my father reignited my commitment to Unani medicine. With formal education and a government license already secured, I pursued a PhD at Charles Sturt University to integrate traditional healing with design. This shift led to my clinical practice in Unani diagnosis and treatment. I now teach design thinking at Aga Khan University and work as a registered herbalist in FB Area and DHA, Karachi—merging Unani medicine, speculative design, and digital visual culture in a human-centered approach. What was your PhD about, and how does it involve multidisciplinary studies? My doctoral research explored Speculative Design as a tool to engage with intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions, rituals, and tacit knowledge like Unani pulse diagnosis. By bridging design with ancestral epistemologies, I aimed to reframe these practices within modern academic and digital contexts. This included examining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) transforms such knowledge into digital intangible heritage, a focus now recognised by UNESCO. How does pulse reading diagnose disease? The pulse reflects both body and emotion. Originating from Hippocrates' four humors and refined by Galen, ancient physicians read its patterns—frog-like, mouse-like—to diagnose. My father compared it to a sitar string: 'Learn to read it, and you'll understand a person completely.' What is the philosophy behind the Unani medicinal system? Unani medicine emphasises restoring the body's natural balance, considering individual temperament—hot, cold, moist, or dry—alongside lifestyle, digestion, and emotional well-being. Based on the four humors (Safra, Balgham, Soda, Khoon), it parallels systems like Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, relying on deep observation over lab tests. What's the core difference between Unani and other systems? Unani medicine treats root causes through a holistic mind-body-spirit approach. I think it should not compete with allopathy but complement it, especially where surgery or emergency care is needed. Together, both systems can offer more comprehensive healthcare. What else would you like to achieve in your life, and how does it relate to your work? I aspire to advance Unani medicine through the Hakeem Mursaleen Foundation ( inspired by my father's legacy and my journey in design and healing. The foundation seeks to preserve Unani's holistic principles, offering educational programs, awareness about health and lifestyle diseases, digital archives, and community help in Karachi and beyond. By blending traditional knowledge with design innovation, I aim to create culturally resonant, human-centered healthcare solutions that promote wellness globally.
