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Economic Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Senator Bill Cassidy receives $2.5 million support amid impeachment controversy
NYT News Service FILE -- Senator Bill Cassidy, (R-La.), talks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. The chairman of the Senate health committee, in his first significant break with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called for a delay in this week's meeting of a panel of vaccine advisers, saying the group Mr. Kennedy appointed lacks the experience and diversity of opinion necessary to ensure public faith in its recommendations..(Eric Lee/The New York Times) Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who is facing criticism from some Republicans due to his vote to impeach former President Donald Trump, is receiving financial support from a super PAC. The Louisiana Freedom Fund is set to announce it has $2.5 million to support Cassidy's reelection campaign, according to a source who spoke anonymously. Cassidy is being challenged by multiple Republican candidates who are critical of his 2021 vote to convict Trump for his role in the January 6th Capitol riot. This outside funding comes after Cassidy's campaign announced on Tuesday that it has a significant financial advantage over his opponents. Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Cassidy has $8.7 million. In comparison, State Senator Blake Miguez has $1.7 million, and State Treasurer John Fleming has $2.1 million. The reports also show Cassidy raised $1.6 million in the second quarter. Miguez raised $800,000 and loaned himself an additional $1 million, while Fleming raised $121,000 and loaned his campaign $2 million.
Economic Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Nicki Minaj and SZA Social Media Feud Explained: What sparked the online fight
NYT News Service Nicki Minaj and SZA engaged in an online argument on X involving legal hashtags and personal insults. (Nina Westervelt/The New York Times) A public argument between singers Nicki Minaj and SZA has drawn attention on social media. The feud began on X (formerly Twitter) on July 15, after Minaj posted multiple comments that appeared aimed at both SZA and Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence 'Punch' Henderson. Their exchange involved personal insults and references to ongoing Minaj began the exchange by recalling past criticism from TDE president Punch. She claimed that he bullied her on Twitter and shared, 'Yall remember that man from tde who kept bullying me on Twitter for no reason? We have the receipts.' Minaj added, 'I never even responded to him. What was his name again, yall? Ima call him 'Minus 30 million' from now on. #JusticeForDemoree.' She also used the phrase 'Tiny D–k Executive.' These posts referenced a legal case involving Desiree Perez, CEO of Roc Nation, and her daughter Demoree Hadley, who accused her mother of institutionalizing her without consent. Minaj has used hashtags related to this case throughout her posts. Shortly after Minaj's tweets, SZA wrote, 'Mercury retrograde .. don't take the bait lol silly goose.' Many online believed this was a response to Minaj, though SZA later denied it. She explained, 'I wasn't even talking about or to anyone I had just got off staged talkin bout retrograde.' She continued, 'N—AS @'d ME . The F–K YES IM MAD NOW DO YOU NEED THAT !??'Also Read: Good Trouble Lives On Protests Near Me: Which areas to avoid traffic closures? See cities, locations and timings of protests in US Minaj fired back directly, telling SZA, 'Go draw your freckles back on bookie #JusticeForDemoree #DepositionPerez. Liar liar pants on fire. Sounding like a fkng dead dog.' She continued with more insults, writing, 'Bi–i looking & sounding like she got stung by a f–king bee. dot dot dot Draws on my fake freckles #JusticeForDemoree.'The hashtags referred again to Desiree Perez and her daughter's legal complaint. Minaj has spoken about this case in several past reply, SZA said, 'I don't give a f–k bout none of that weird shit you popping.' When warned about Minaj's fan base attacking her, SZA highlighted her tour success and personal wrote, 'I stepped my a– out onna packed stadium tour where ppl show me REAL love . IN REAL LIFE.' She also mentioned her healthy parents and career achievements. When someone pointed out that she is co-headlining with Kendrick Lamar, SZA reminded users of her 2023 SOS Tour's $95.5 million earnings and the 2024 leg's $41.5 million gross. These placed her high on Billboard's top R&B tour rankings. Also Read: MLB All-Star Game 2025: Start Date, Time, Location, How to Watch, Pitchers, Lineups and Anthem Performers, Odds SZA signed off by posting, 'Lmao lemme go back to being calm shy and meek. Yall have blessed night! See you tomorrow for night 2 Paris!!' referring to her and Lamar's July 16 performance at the Paris La Défense Minaj had not ended her posts. She later commented, 'Shutup ugly. #JusticeForDemoree. I'm in a meeting so idk if u was still talking s–t or not so if you didn't I'll delete later. Hoe.' Why are Nicki Minaj and SZA fighting on X? Nicki Minaj started the argument by referencing past online bullying from Punch and used hashtags tied to a lawsuit. SZA responded, denying she aimed any post at Minaj. What did SZA say about Nicki Minaj's fanbase? SZA said she values real-life support from fans during her tours. She responded to warnings about Minaj's fanbase by highlighting her career success and personal happiness.
Economic Times
14-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Centre to provide technology to private factories to ramp up rare earth magnet production after China's decision to impose export controls
NYT News Service Private factories to produce rare earth magnet in India (Representational Image) The Centre is trying to make available technology in three to four months to different private factories to ramp up rare earth magnets production in India, said Union Minister for Coal and Mines, G Kishan Reddy. "We used to be 100% dependent on China for permanent magnets of the rare earths. But recently, China has refused to supply. With this view, the Indian government is making efforts for permanent magnet manufacturing," Kishan Reddy told ANI. "Our mining ministry's institute in Hyderabad has made efforts and prepared a permanent magnet processing unit with equipment. After three to four months, we will try to manufacture permanent magnets by giving the technology to different private factories. For this, the Indian government has also started some PLI schemes to encourage it. We are paying attention to this subject," he said that PM Modi has continuously discussed the production of magnets in India. "Recently, during his (PM Modi) visit to 5 countries, discussions were held with different countries on this subject. The raw material of rare earth is also available in less quantity in India. Importing that raw material, processing it, making permanent magnets for it, which is used from cell phones to space technology, including defence, there is a huge demand for this. The Indian government is working seriously for this. This scheme has also been brought under it," he said. The central government has earmarked Rs 1,345 crore to incentivise rare earth magnets production in India, aimed at building domestic capacity when there are reports of global short this April, China announced a decision to implement export controls on certain rare earth-related items, pushing a supply shortage across the world, including was in touch with the Chinese side, seeking predictability in the supply of rare earth metals -- which had been put under the export controls regime by the Xi administration. China's overwhelming control of global rare earth processing - commanding over 90 per cent of the world's magnet production capacity - has created significant vulnerabilities for industries worldwide. These materials are critical across multiple sectors, including automobiles, home appliances, and clean energy systems. Beyond China, there are only a few alternative suppliers of critical minerals. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of the Critical Mineral Mission in the Union Budget for 2024-25 on July 23, 2024. The Union Cabinet in January 2025 approved the launch of the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) with an expenditure of Rs 16,300 crore and an expected investment of Rs 18,000 crore by Public Sector Undertakings.
Economic Times
14-07-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
The future of weather prediction is here. Maybe.
Synopsis WindBorne, a startup, leverages AI and weather balloons to enhance forecast accuracy, potentially outperforming traditional methods. This innovation arrives amidst concerns over Trump administration cuts to NOAA, threatening the public-private data exchange crucial for AI-driven weather models. NYT News Service An assembly technician makes the envelope for a weather ballon at Windborne headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., April 29, 2025. Thanks to Aritificial Intelligence, companies like WindBorne hope to usher in a golden age of forecasting -- but they rely in part on government data and the agency that provides it is in turmoil. Weather forecasts, believe it or not, have come a long way. A five-day forecast today is as accurate as a three-day forecast four decades ago. But the 10-day forecast? That's still a coin flip -- or an opportunity if you're in the weather prediction business. There are two ways to better predict the weather: Measure it more accurately, or describe how it works in more excruciating scientific WindBorne, a startup in Palo Alto, California. When its CEO, John Dean, was driving a battered Subaru around the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago, using tanks of helium to launch weather balloons in front of potential investors, the company's plan was to do the first thing. Its balloons fly longer than most, collecting more measurements of temperature, humidity and other indicators in the upper atmosphere to create a more precise intelligence has allowed WindBorne to do the second thing, too. Thanks to leaps in deep learning, the observations picked up by WindBorne's far-flung balloons can be turned into a more robust picture of the future. The combination could finally make longer-term forecasts as useful as a look at tomorrow's weather. A little extra notice is a big deal. The recent flash floods in Texas underscore that lives are at risk from extreme weather events that climate change has made more common. And researchers have found that shorter forecast lead times since 2009 have prevented hundreds of millions of dollars in hurricane damage -- per beyond headline-making events, the weather next week has economic implications. Businesses of all stripes make or lose money based on the forecast: retailers with far-flung supply chains, energy companies moving fuels around the country, even baseball teams watching for a good news is that we may be poised to enter a new golden age of AI-enabled weather prediction. That heat wave that scorched the East Coast last month? WindBorne says its software first flagged that 15 days out, two to four days before competing forecasts. There's a catch, though. These new deep learning forecasts are built on data provided for free by public science agencies. In the United States, that relationship is threatened by the Trump administration's heavy cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, which houses the National Weather Service. The Public-Private Symbiosis Every day, at more than 100 weather stations across the United States, a weather service worker fills a latex balloon with helium and launches it to collect atmospheric measurements -- until it flies too high and pops. These flights, which began in the 1930s, have been reduced because of staff cuts during the chaotic first months of the second Trump the government, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Pentagon, the Trump administration's appointees have aimed to push the government's technical capacity into the private sector. Some in the weather industry -- and free-market Republicans -- see NOAA's forecasting work as a prime candidate for outsourcing and have called for the agency to be "dismantled." NOAA is also a target of the fossil fuel industry because its scientists contribute important climate change research. The White House has proposed $2 billion in cuts to the agency, or 28% of its entrepreneurs and meteorologists say this binary view of public and private threatens to upset the mutually beneficial symbiosis between them and the government."I would love to see a version of NOAA where there are more public-private partnerships," Dean said. "And then those benefits, some of them become public good and some of them are commercialized."As meteorology evolved, governments were often best positioned to assemble local data into a national and then global picture, with an emphasis on coordination and public safety. Now the weather service's key job is maintaining and operating physics-based models of the atmosphere -- software that describes the weather in precise mathematical detail -- to generate private sector, meanwhile, tailors forecast services for specific customers. Companies like AccuWeather and the Weather Company combine public data with their own models and third-party data to provide forecast products for local news stations or the weather app on your phone. Other firms sell data to the weather service itself -- some monitor with buoys, others with satellites. The agency even buys readings collected by passenger falling costs of computer chips and cloud computing have made companies less reliant on the government in recent years, but the expense of operating physics-based models on powerful supercomputers means government agencies still do most weather prediction. Some of the missing data from the recent NOAA cuts is being replaced by WindBorne's fleet of weather balloons, from which the National Weather Service buys sensor readings each month. Dean said they collected as much data as the weather service balloons, for a fraction of the budget. But the bulk of the weather service's raw data comes from sensors that the private sector can't quite match, notably a network of weather radar and a constellation of satellites. And the private innovation at WindBorne is still seeded by NOAA's observations and forecasts. A Student Project Goes BigWindBorne's story began in 2016 when members of Stanford's student space club took on a novel engineering project. They built a long-lasting weather balloon by taking advantage of newly cheap satellite communications that could talk to it wherever it flew over the globe. Moving the balloon up and down with prevailing winds allowed it to make observations in several locations of interest, like a tropical cyclone or the poorly observed environment over the middle of the Pacific student club broke records for the longest flight time of a latex balloon, keeping one aloft for 70 to 80 hours. (The company has since smashed that record, recently keeping a balloon in the air for 57 days.)Venture investors hanging around campus encouraged their club's efforts, and five members -- Dean, Paige Brocidiacono, Joan Creus-Costa, Kai Marshland and Andrey Sushko -- founded WindBorne in 2019. They set out to capture a comprehensive set of global data, a real-time picture of the atmosphere, including places not currently company builds and launches 300 balloons a month at those 10 sites around the world, flying them on average for 12 days, with about 100 aloft at any given time. (Its ultimate goal is 10,000 balloons flying at once.) But the founders knew when they started the company that it would be more lucrative to produce forecasts rather than sell their data to someone else who could. "The big hole in the plan," Dean said, "was 'How do you actually go do global weather forecasting?'" The cost seemed prohibitive. "You need $100 million to do this," he said. (WindBorne has raised $25 million in venture funding.) That was about to change. New data sets released by public weather agencies were ideal for training deep learning software, and researchers using it upended the weather ecosystem. In 2022, teams at chipmaker Nvidia and Chinese tech giant Huawei demonstrated that machine learning could forecast accurately. Ryan Keisler, a physicist working alone during a sabbatical, drew attention not just for the influential weather prediction model he published but for the cost of training it: $ and Creus-Costa, the company's head of AI, bought a bunch of powerful gaming computers -- picking them up at a McDonald's from a Craigslist vendor -- and got to work feeding their balloon data into this new approach to as these AI forecasts begin to outperform traditional methods, their developers don't fully understand how they work. The software could be learning physics, simply matching patterns or using some effective combination of the two."When you do a physics-based model, you're being smart," Creus-Costa said. "When you do a deep learning model, you don't have to be smart. We're not writing down the physics. We're just having it learn."Using artificial intelligence modelling, WindBorne says, its day-ahead temperature forecasts are 37% better than those performed by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, an organization that supports the European equivalents of the National Weather Service. (WindBorne releases the data so others can validate it.)In addition to NOAA, the startup sells its weather insights to investment funds and is working with arms of the U.S. military, which has a vital interest in the weather. The Limits of Deep LearningFor all the excitement about these new techniques -- Microsoft and Google also have AI weather models, as does the Air Force -- they have their Chantry, a mathematician who leads the operational AI weather forecasting project at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said the field of meteorology was still figuring out what the relationship between physics-based and AI models would be. The weather service, whose forecasts have fallen behind those at the European center, does not operate its own AI forecasting model, but teams up with private companies to support their learning models have proved uniquely useful for complex events that are tricky for physics-based models, like the paths of hurricanes or cold fronts over the Midwest, a notably tricky place to forecast because of the Rocky models tend to be better at analyzing fine details. AI forecasts typically cover areas of 25 to 50 square miles. Most people need to know the weather in a much smaller area; government-run physics models analyze areas of around 6 square miles or less. WindBorne spotted heavy rains before the Texas floods, but not with the kind of granularity to deliver evacuation warnings. The company's goal is to reach a much smaller resolution in the years ahead, said Todd Hutchinson, WindBorne's chief the influential weather-model creator, said WindBorne "is one of a few companies trying to do both data acquisition and also do the modelling." He added, "They also seem to be quite good at both."The Trump administration's cuts have imposed another limit, too. For now, weather forecasting models based on deep learning remain dependent on data releases from the physics-based models at the public weather agencies. Those paint a wide-ranging universe of observations onto a 3D grid as often as four times a day, from which the AI models can learn. Keisler cofounded Brightband, a company that is developing software that can ingest observation data directly into AI models, but its work is in its early President Donald Trump's inauguration, NOAA employees have been pushed to resign, resulting in nearly 2,000 departures. While the White House budget doesn't reduce forecasting spending directly, it cuts spending on satellite and radar systems, and Trump's recently enacted domestic policy bill cut millions of dollars in leftover Biden administration funding for improved forecasts. Some changes seem ideological -- the removal of a data set about extreme weather events -- while others baffle meteorologists: NOAA will no longer distribute data from a U.S. military weather satellite program that is seen as vital to hurricane nominee to lead NOAA, Neil Jacobs, who was cited for violating the agency's code of scientific ethics during the president's first term, endorsed the White House's cuts at his confirmation hearing last week, but also promised to restore the extreme weather data set and invest in computing. He told lawmakers that "even if artificial intelligence can't do something better, if it can do it faster and more efficiently, I think it's worth using."Congress could still reverse some or all of these cuts through the budget process in the months ahead, but current and former members of the weather service's staff say the loss of data and human expertise will degrade the accuracy of forecasts and potentially endanger lives."We will continue to fulill our core mission of providing lifesaving forecasts, warnings and decision support services," a NOAA spokesperson said in a the fast changes happening in U.S. weather research put WindBorne in a complicated spot. The company needs NOAA's data, wants its business and hopes to do a better job of forecasting weather than the government currently can -- but the team of balloon-flying, AI-training techies are regular people, too."I have my personal philosophies that are not aligned with, like, what's best for our private weather company," Dean told me. "You don't want to live in this capitalist nightmare of like, 'Pay 10 bucks for today's weather.' That's too far."
Economic Times
10-07-2025
- General
- Economic Times
Who is Lila Bonner? Texas flood victim at Camp Mystic, who had a dream of opening an animal rescue
Synopsis The Texas Hill Country floods on July 4, 2025, claimed the lives of at least 119 people, including 9-year-old Lila Bonner, a Camp Mystic camper. Remembered for her love of animals and leadership qualities, Lila's family is planning to establish Lila's Light Foundation to support animals affected by natural disasters. Bonner, whose family described her as a natural-born leader and an animal lover, had a dream of opening an animal rescue before the devastating Hill County floods took her life. NYT News Service A service for the Texas flooding victims is held at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas on Sunday, July 6, 2025. The church is the home parish of Lila Bonner, 9, one of several children who died at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp, where another 10 girls remained missing. (Ruth Graham/The New York Times) The devastating floods swept through the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, leaving at least 119 people dead statewide, with the bulk of deaths reported in Kerr County, where the toll reached 95. Meanwhile, officials said over 150 people were still missing. The people who lost their lives in floods included several young campers at Camp Mystic. Among the Camp Mystic campers who died was 9-year-old Lila Bonner, who died with her best friend and Camp Mystic cabinmate, Eloise Peck. The two had recently finished second grade at Bradfield Elementary, according to news station KDFW. Bonner, whose family described her as a natural-born leader and an animal lover, had a dream of opening an animal rescue before the devastating Hill County floods took her life."Lila was a natural-born leader who loved all creatures, big and small,' Bonner's family said in a GoFundMe. 'Her confidence and determination left no doubt she would one day fulfill her dream of opening and operating an animal rescue,' the family girl, according to the family, had an electric smile and soulful eyes. She was one of 27 campers and counsellors who perished at Camp Mystic in Hunt. The catastrophic floods occurred in the early hours of July 4, 2025. Floodwaters quickly overtook the all-Christian, all-girls camp when the nearby Guadalupe River rose by 22 feet in just a few hours. Lila Bonner's body was found, her family confirmed in a statement, according to media Light Foundation, an animal care initiative, will work to realize the North Texas girl's dream of caring for creatures who are devastated by natural disasters like the one that killed her.'While Lila's life was tragically cut short, her legacy and story will not end there. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support for our beautiful and precious girl and look forward to honoring her love for animals by creating a foundation, Lila's Light, to help animals affected by natural disasters—just as she would have wanted,' the Bonner family said.'While we are still in the process of setting up her foundation, please trust that no funds will be for expenses. Our aim is to help ensure her legacy—and radiant light—continues to shine,' the family further stated The fundraiser has so far collected over $407,975 USD and aims to raise $450,000. Milliard Diamond Concierge, a Dallas-based jewelry company, is also selling a 14k yellow gold cross pendant in honor of Lila Bonner. All proceeds will go towards Lila's Light.
