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Since the Nvidia hack back in February, we've had a decent idea of what we might expect from Nvidia's RTX 40-series Ada Lovelace GPUs. Early figures put the maximum number of Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) at 144 for AD102, though we wouldn't expect Nvidia to launch with a fully-enabled GPU right off the bat. Today, during the GTC 2022 keynote (which you can view in its entirety on YouTube(opens in new tab) or in the above embed, though the "good stuff" starts at the 6:03 mark and runs until about 24:32), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed some of the specifications for the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, along with details of the Ada Lovelace architecture. Core counts and clock speeds (estimated to be within about 10 MHz based on Nvidia's official teraflops(opens in new tab) figures) are all basically known at this point. The RTX 4090 will have 128 SMs with a 2,520 MHz boost clock, coupled with 24GB of GDDR6X memory running at 21 Gbps with a 384-bit interface. The memory configuration basically looks unchanged from the RTX 3090 Ti, which on the surface is basically correct. However, much like AMD did with RDNA 2’s Infinity Cache, Nvidia will apparently be packing 96MB of L2 cache in AD102, compared to just 6MB of L2 cache in GA102 — that’s not yet officially confirmed, but we see little reason to doubt it at this stage. Core counts receive a greater than 50% boost over Ampere, with 128 SMs instead of only 84 SMs maximum — and there’s still room for a 140–144 SM model in the future, perhaps a new Titan RTX, or at least a future RTX 4090 Ti. Core counts alone would provide a big jump in performance, but Nvidia has also tuned Ada to reach higher clocks, again similar to what AMD did with RDNA 2, and the result is the expected 2.5–2.6 GHz boost clocks on the announced models. That’s nearly 50% more than the RTX 3090’s 1,695 MHz boost clock and 35% higher than the RTX 3090 Ti’s 1,860 MHz — and Jensen says that Nvidia has hit clock speeds in excess of 3.0 GHz with overclocking in its labs. (Hello, 800W custom RTX 4090 cards!) Combined, the GPU shader counts and clock speeds yield the theoretical maximum performance figure. RTX 3090 was rated at 35.6 teraflops, RTX 3090 Ti bumped that up to 40 teraflops, and now the RTX 4090 pushes the needle up to 82.6 teraflops — more than double the compute, in other words. While teraflops alone can be a somewhat meaningless figure, it’s still useful within similar architectures, and we’re looking at perhaps the largest generational jump in performance that we’ve seen from Nvidia since the GeForce brand first came into being. It's not just RTX 4090, either, though some will undoubtedly be unhappy with the launch prices for the RTX 4080 16GB and RTX 4080 12GB models. Yes, much to my chagrin, Nvidia will have two different 4080 SKUs separated by memory capacity. Based on the specs alone, these will deliver wildly differing performance levels, probably larger than the gap between the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3080 10GB. Of course, the price difference should make it immediately clear which model you’re buying, with the 16GB card starting at $1,199 and the 12GB model starting at $899. On paper, it looks as though the 16GB card will deliver about 20% more performance, give or take. Nvidia hasn't stated which GPUs specifically are used in the various cards, though previous rumors suggested we were looking at three separate chips: AD102, AD103, and AD104. That still seems likely, again considering the differences in core counts, though it's possible the 4080 12GB will use harvested AD103 chips — if not now, then at some point in the future. Note that Nvidia hasn’t specified a launch date for the RTX 4080 cards. We’re hopeful they’ll still arrive in October, or perhaps early November at the latest. Given AMD now plans to announce RDNA 3 GPUs on November 3, that sets a pretty firm time limit. We’ll probably see RTX 4080 GPUs arrive right before whenever AMD’s RX 7900 XT retail launch occurs. The bigger question will be real-world gains, of course, and the lack of substantial gains on memory bandwidth does raise some flags. However, keep in mind that when AMD basically slapped a bunch of L3 cache onto its RDNA design and then boosted clock speeds, cards like the RX 6600 XT were able to stay ahead of the previous generation RX 5700 XT, which had nearly twice the memory bandwidth — and that was with only 32MB on Navi 23. 96MB of L2 cache should give Nvidia cache hit rates of 50% or more, which means the effective memory bandwidth is doubled. Theoretical performance looks exceptionally strong, but what about the rest of the package? Nvidia provided the above benchmark results, comparing the three new GPUs against the existing RTX 3090 Ti. You can see that in traditional games, on the left, the RTX 4080 12GB can be slightly slower than the 3090 Ti up to quite a bit faster. Given other details, we suspect that some of the testing was done with DLSS enabled, where the 40-series cards likely see even bigger gains. On the right, that's certainly the case. RacerX, Portal RTX, and Cyberpunk 2077 "RT Overdrive" all crank up the ray tracing effects to new extremes. We don't have baseline fps figures, but the RTX 4080 12GB is over twice as fast as the 3090 Ti in some cases, while the RTX 4090 is up to four times as fast. Core counts and clock speeds have improved, but more importantly, there are architectural updates that can further boost performance. On the GPU shaders, Nvidia says Ada cores are up to twice the power efficiency. The shaders also support a new feature called SER, Shader Execution Reordering, which appears to mostly help with ray tracing performance but may also be useful in traditional rendering modes. Moving on to the RT cores themselves, Nvidia has added more ray/triangle intersection hardware, allowing for up to twice the throughput in that area. A new opacity micromap engine also speeds up ray tracing for transparent textures. A new micromesh engine apparently can add geometry "richness" without the BVH build and storage cost — meaning, fewer triangles for the BVH but more for the final render, presumably. Finally, the Tensor cores have been upgraded with Hopper's support of FP8 data types. That effectively doubles the compute throughput, assuming the workload can get by with the reduced precision. Note that the number of Tensor cores per SM appears unchanged, and throughput per Tensor core in FP16 operations remains the same. "Tom's Hardware"

President Joe Biden arrived in London late Saturday for a two-day visit honoring Queen Elizabeth II, the long-reigning monarch he says “defined an era.” Biden is joining leaders from dozens of other nations to pay their respects to the late sovereign, whom he met last year and declared afterward reminded him of his own mother. On Sunday afternoon, the President and first lady Jill Biden will pay their respects to the Queen, whose coffin has been lying in state at Westminster Hall, before signing a book of condolence and attending a reception for visiting leaders hosted by Britain’s new king, Charles III. For Biden, it is a moment to reflect on a monarch who embodied a commitment to public service and whose life charted the major historical events of the last 100 years. Biden and the Queen first met in 1982, when as a young senator, Biden’s own Irish American mother instructed him: “Don’t you bow down to her.” He didn’t bow down then, or when he met the Queen as President last year while attending a Group of 7 summit in England. But his respect for a woman whose constancy on the world stage over the last century was unparalleled has been plain. “She was a great lady. We’re so delighted we got to meet her,” Biden said on the day that she died. The Queen’s surprise decision last year to travel to the Cornish coast to meet world leaders at the G7 summit was a signal of her desire to remain engaged in global affairs. Later that week, when she hosted Biden and first lady Jill Biden for tea at Windsor Castle, she inquired about two authoritarian leaders, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, the President told reporters afterward. “She had such curiosity. She wanted to know all about American politics, what was happening. So, she put us at ease,” Jill Biden said recently in an interview with NBC. At Sunday evening’s reception, Biden will see Charles for the first time since he became King. The two men have met previously and spoke last week by phone. As Prince of Wales, Charles was a passionate campaigner for certain issues Biden has also championed, including combating climate change. It remains to be seen how involved the new King will be on those issues going forward. Relatively close in age – Charles is 73, Biden is 79 – the two men have a shared experience of being in the public eye for decades before assuming their current roles as heads of state. On his call with the King, Biden “conveyed the great admiration of the American people for the Queen, whose dignity and constancy deepened the enduring friendship and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” the White House said. “President Biden conveyed his wish to continue a close relationship with the King.” Security in the British capital is at its highest level in memory as Biden and dozens of other world leaders convene to remember the late Queen, who met 13 sitting US Presidents during her reign. White House aides have declined to provide specific security details for the President’s visit but say they are working well with their British counterparts to ensure the demands of presidential security are met. Plans for the Queen’s funeral have been in place for years, allowing US advisers greater insight into precisely what will happen over the coming days as they make security arrangements. The White House said it received an invitation only for the President and first lady, making for a slimmed-down American footprint. Biden traveled with his national security adviser, communications director and other personal aides aboard Air Force One to London. When reports emerged last week that world leaders would be required to ride on a bus to the funeral, US officials were skeptical and shot down the suggestion Biden that would travel to Westminster Abbey in a coach. In 2018, when other world leaders traveled together in a bus to a World War I memorial in Paris, then-US President Donald Trump traveled separately in his own vehicle. The White House explained at the time that the separate trip was “due to security protocols.” The Queen’s death came at a moment of economic and political turmoil for the United Kingdom. A new prime minister, Liz Truss, entered office after months of uncertainty following the decision of her predecessor, Boris Johnson, to step down. Truss invited several visiting world leaders to meet individually at 10 Downing Street this weekend. In the role for only a little more than a week, it will be Truss’ first time meeting face to face with many of her foreign counterparts. While her office initially said Biden would be among the leaders visiting Downing Street, it was later announced that Truss and the President would meet for formal bilateral talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A host of issues are currently testing the US-UK “special relationship,” which has been heralded repeatedly in the days since the Queen’s death. It was only two days after Truss traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally accept the Queen’s appointment as prime minister that the long-reigning monarch passed away. Since then, the country has been in a formal period of mourning. Truss inherited a deep economic crisis, fueled by high inflation and soaring energy costs, that has led to fears the UK could soon enter a prolonged recession. The challenges have been aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has caused volatility in oil and gas markets. While few in the Biden administration shed tears at Johnson’s resignation– Biden once described him as the “physical and emotional clone” of Trump – the US and the UK were deeply aligned in their approach to Russia under his leadership. White House officials expect that cooperation will continue under Truss, even as she comes under pressure to ease economic pressures at home. Less certain, however, is whether Truss’s hard-line approach to Brexit will sour relations with Biden. The President has taken a personal interest in the particular issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a post-Brexit arrangement that requires extra checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The rules were designed to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open and avoid a return to sectarian violence. But Truss has moved to rewrite those rules, causing deep anxiety in both Brussels and Washington. Biden, who makes frequent references to his Irish ancestry, has made his views clear on the issue, even though it does not directly involve the United States. Congressional Democrats have similarly expressed concern over any steps that could reignite the Northern Ireland conflict. In their first phone call as counterparts earlier this month, Biden raised the matter with Truss, according to the White House. A US readout of their conversation said they discussed a “shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol.” "CNN"

Mexico has arrested retired army general José Rodríguez Pérez in relation to the bloody disappearance of 43 students in the city of Iguala, nearly eight years ago. Deputy secretary of security Ricardo Mejía announced the news on Thursday, referring to Rodríguez only as “the commander of the 27th Infantry Battalion when the events in Iguala occurred.” He did not specify any allegations against Rodríguez. A Secretariat of Government’s spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Rodríguez Pérez has retired with the rank of general. CNN is working to contact Rodríguez’s defense. Mejía said that a total of four arrest warrants had been issued against unidentified members of the Mexican army. Three of the four have been arrested, he said. Mexico’s Secretary of Defense did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. The missing students were intercepted by local police and federal military forces on September 26, 2014, while traveling toward Mexico City from their teacher’s college near the town Ayotzinapa. They had intended to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, where government forces killed as many as 300 student demonstrators in Mexico City. But they never made it. The bullet-riddled buses were later seen in the streets of Iguala, and some remaining students who were on the buses accused security forces of opening fire. But forty-three of their peers were never found again. On August 18, a truth commission established by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador released a bombshell report concluding that the vanished students were victims of “state-sponsored crime,” alleging that agents from several government agencies concurred with elements of organized crime to commit the killings. According to the report, at least six of those victims were first abducted and later killed under Rodríguez’s oversight. “It is presumed that six of the students remained alive for four days after the events and that they were killed and disappeared on the orders of the presumably then-Colonel José Rodríguez Pérez,” said Mexico’s top human rights official Alejandro Encinas during the August press conference alongside Lopez Obrador. The report, Encinas added, alleges that on September 30, 2014, Rodríguez said that “they had already taken care of the six students that were left alive.” "CNN"

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SMIC ramps up 14nm production, proceeds with sub-10nm technologies. Chinese state media on Thursday said that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. had initiated mass production of chips on its 14nm-class fabrication process at its Fab SN1 near Shanghai, China, citing a local official. Perhaps more importantly, the report also claimed that despite being unable to procure advanced chip production equipment, the company is proceeding with its 7nm and 5nm-class nodes. "With the completion of Shanghai's industry cluster for the 14nm chips, more advanced projects in the 7nm and 5nm processes will be accelerated," said Chen Jia, a research fellow on strategy, in a conversation with state-owned Global Times. 14nm Is Here, So Is N+1 SMIC has been talking about its N+1 fabrication technology(opens in new tab) - loosely considered the company's 7nm-class node — since early 2020 and described it as a low-cost alternative to TSMC's N7 node that relies on deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography tools. N+1 aims to reduce power consumption by 57%, increase performance by 20%, and reduce the logic area by up to 55% – 63% (for select structures) compared to a similar chip implemented using SMIC's 14nm. Such improvements do not necessarily justify the '7nm class' label attached to the node by analysts and the media, but they are tangible enough not to call N+1 an iteration of SMIC's 14nm or 12nm processes. Recent findings from TechInsights(opens in new tab) prove that SMIC's N+1 resembles TSMC's N10-like technology with relaxed rules(opens in new tab) and extensive Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) features. In addition, it enables a logic transistor density of 89 million logic transistors per square millimeter (89MT/mm^2), which makes it a viable 7nm-class alternative (at least for logic, as scaling SRAM is tricky). SMIC has been producing MinerVa Semiconductor(opens in new tab)'s Bitcoin mining chip since July 2021(opens in new tab) without disclosing it. The company uses its DUV equipment to make those tiny ~25W mining chips. They are simple enough to achieve acceptable yields for commercial applications and serve as a vehicle to understand more about the process performance, power, and defect density (at least as far as logic cells are concerned). 5nm from SMIC? SMIC briefly mentioned its N+2 technology in 2020. While this one is yet another evolutionary step from its 14nm node, China's analysts seem to label it a '5nm-class' technology since it is one step ahead of N+1, considered a '7nm-class' node. However, DUV tools with 193nm ArF laser have known limitations regarding resolution, and intensive usage of multi-patterning to lower critical dimensions of circuits affects yields. Therefore, we would not expect N+2 to be a considerable step ahead of N+1 in terms of transistor density. Since SMIC has been working on its N+2 node for well over two years now (and companies tend to mention new nodes when they have a more or less clear vision of their goals and ways to achieve them), it is reasonable to expect this fabrication process to come to fruition sometimes in 2023. However, since entering the U.S. government's entity list in late 2020(opens in new tab), SMIC has been keeping a low profile on any announcements about its achievement. The company only said that it would focus on developing more advanced chip packaging technologies(opens in new tab) to enable heterogeneous integration and compensate for the inability to procure equipment necessary for sub-10nm technologies. That said, it is very intriguing to see a state media revealing SMIC's '5nm' technology in its rather detailed report about SMIC's mass production of 14nm chips. A Convoluted Announcement Truth to be told, SMIC has been producing chips using its 14nm-class manufacturing technology since late 2019(opens in new tab) (one of the products is Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 710A(opens in new tab)) at its SN1 fab. Still, while formally the process caters to mass production, actual volumes were so small that at some point the company ceased to report the contribution of the node to its revenue and merged it into one category with its 28nm node, which has not been a massive contributor to the company's earnings either. Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Digitalization, reiterated that SMIC had begun mass production of 14nm chips. He did not mention anything about more advanced nodes at a press conference on Wednesday, according to Global Times, which brought up 'independent' experts who spoke about N+1 (7nm-class) and N+2 (5nm-class) fabrication processes. Since all interested parties already know about SMIC's 14nm capabilities, the state media report from Shanghai looks like a convoluted way of re-emphasizing the company's '5nm' intentions as the U.S. government's plans to strengthen restrictions against the rapidly developing Chinese semiconductor sector. "The manufacturing of 7nm chips in China is also progressing faster than expected," said Xiang Ligang, a technology analyst, reports state-run Global Times. With SMIC's N+1 qualified and ready for at least limited production, it is evident that the company can live without extreme ultraviolet (EUV) production equipment which it cannot procure due to sanctions from the U.S. government. However, whether or not the company will be able to produce large and complex system-on-chips using its N+1 node is something that remains to be seen. From a logic transistor density standpoint, SMIC's N+1 could be an alternative for TSMC's N7. However, the world's largest contract maker of chips already has far more advanced fabrication technologies that appeal to developers of highly-complex CPUs, compute GPUs, and various sophisticated data center grade chips. As a result, landing high-profile customers for N+1 could be tricky for SMIC. Remember that to serve Huawei's HiSilicon (probably the largest chip developer in China); it will need to obtain an export license from the U.S., as many tools used at SMIC's fabs come from America and Huawei is under strict sanctions. "Tom's Hardware"

Walmart is upgrading its virtual fitting room service by now allowing people to upload pictures of themselves and see how clothes fit on their bodies. The new tool is called Be Your Own Model(opens in new tab), a follow-up to Choose My Model. The old version had you choose a body that's similar to yours from a selection of 50 models to see how clothes may fit on you. It was a cool concept, but with notable limitations. You had to eyeball the whole process and hope you could find a body match. With Be Your Own Model, virtual clothes fitting aims to be easier and more accurate. Walmart states it uses “algorithms and intricate machine learning models” to help people better visualize how clothes look on them. You’ll have access to over 270,000 items across the company’s catalog, including some brand names, with plans to expand. According to the announcement, all of the items will be women’s clothing, but there are reports(opens in new tab) that Be Your Own Model will expand to include men’s and children’s clothing. The update is making its way to the Walmart app on iOS right now, and, soon, users will be able to upload their photos to a desktop computer and try out Choose My Model there. There will be a rollout to “Android devices in the coming weeks.” How it works To get started with Be Your Own Model, you find an article of clothing in the Walmart app that supports the new tool and then tap the Try It On button. From there, you prop up your iPhone and take a picture of yourself in a brightly lit room while you wear tight-fitting clothing. The app needs to be able to see your entire body. It’ll then ask you how tall you are, and after a brief moment, the app will show you the outfit on your body. The clothes fitting isn’t a simple overlay either as Be Your Own Model will simulate how a dress falls on a body as well as showing shadows and fabric draping. This is thanks to the “machine learning models,” according to Walmart. The tech will also take into account color, sizes, and even sleeve lengths on shirts. There is one major omission in the announcement and that is the level of security found in Be Your Own Model. As stated earlier, you will have to take pictures of yourself in tight-fitting clothing, but nowhere does it say how Walmart will protect these images. Not even a brief mention of what type of encryption tech is being used, if at all. We reached out to Walmart and asked them about Be Your Own Model’s security as well as any limitations the tool might have, like if it only accepts certain file sizes. This story will be updated if we hear back. Changing reality Thinking about Be Your Own Model made us realize how often virtual and augmented reality has been appearing in other factors of life besides video games. For example, virtual makeup started to appear back in 202. With it, people can upload pictures of themselves and see how a certain cosmetic would look on their faces before buying. Amazon has done something similar with Amazon Showroom, a service that lets you place virtual furniture in a virtual room to give you an idea of how it'll look in your house. It’s unknown if other big-name stores will incorporate virtual fitting rooms. Amazon’s smart mirror patent for virtual clothes hasn’t really gone anywhere, but there are apps out there like YourFit(opens in new tab), so the potential is there. But no one has capitalized on virtual fitting rooms quite like Walmart. "TechRadar"

Former President Donald Trump’s top general feared he would authorize a strike on Iran as his presidency ended. His intelligence chief wondered what Russia had on him. A billionaire friend convinced him to try buying Greenland. A half-dozen top officials considered resigning en masse. Even his wife, first lady Melania Trump, was “rattled by the coronavirus and convinced that Trump was screwing up,” according to a forthcoming book from New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser set to publish on Tuesday. In a phone call with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who maintained ties to the White House despite occasional criticism of Trump, Melania Trump sought help convincing her husband to take the pandemic more seriously. “‘You’re blowing this,” she recalled telling her husband,” the authors write. “’This is serious. It’s going to be really bad, and you need to take it more seriously than you’re taking it.’ He had just dismissed her. ‘You worry too much,’ she remembered him saying. ‘Forget it.’ “ The razor’s-edge instability clouding Trump’s four-year tenure in the White House led many of his senior-most advisers to worry about the fate of the country. The volatility is laid bare in new detail in “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021.” The reporting for the book included two interviews with the former President at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Baker and Glasser write that many of the well-known fears about Trump’s presidency were in fact closer to reality than previously reported, leading to widespread attempts among those who worked for him to head off disaster. The revelations could also foretell the presidency Trump might oversee should he return to the White House in 2025. Trump’s associates have told CNN he could announce a presidential bid after November’s midterm elections. But, as Trump told Baker and Glasser, he won’t invite former Vice President Mike Pence to join his ticket after Pence refused to interfere in the certification of the 2020 election. “It would be totally inappropriate,” Trump said. “Mike committed political suicide by not taking votes that he knew were wrong.” The book describes deep concerns among Trump’s national security team, led by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and others, that the then-President would ignite a conflict with Iran in the waning days of his presidency or that he could stumble into nuclear war with North Korea. One administration official told Trump before the 2020 election that if he lost, he should strike Iran’s nuclear program, the authors report. “Milley at the time told his staff it was a ‘What the f— are these guys talking about?’ moment,” they write. “Now, it seemed frighteningly possible.” The tensions with Iran even permeated the walls of Mar-a-Lago. Trump told guests at a cocktail party over the holidays in 2020 that he was leaving early to return to Washington because of fears Iran may be trying to assassinate him to avenge the US killing of the country’s top general a year earlier. Concerns over Trump’s behavior on the world stage began nearly as soon as he took office. More than simply a passing grudge, Trump’s desire to withdraw the United States from NATO was in fact a sustained effort that was “much more serious than people realized,” one senior White House official said – an outcome that could have dramatically altered the current war in Ukraine. Following a 2018 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland – after which Trump sided with Putin over US intelligence agencies who had determined Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election – the top US intelligence official was left wondering what Trump’s real motives were. “I never could come to a conclusion. It raised the question in everybody’s mind: What does Putin have on him that causes him to do something that undermines his credibility?” Dan Coats, the then-director of national intelligence, reflected to associates afterward, according to the book. And a months-long fixation with purchasing Greenland from Denmark went far deeper than previously disclosed, inspired in the early days of Trump’s presidency by a wealthy friend from New York, the cosmetics heir Ron Lauder. “I said, ‘Why don’t we have that?’ You take a look at a map. I’m a real estate developer, I look at a corner, I say, ‘I’ve got to get that store for the building that I’m building,’ etc. It’s not that different,” Trump told the reporters for their book. Lauder proposed to Trump’s then-national security adviser John Bolton that he act as a “back channel” to the Danish government. Instead, top National Security Council aides engaged for months in secret talks with Denmark’s ambassador to the United States about Greenland. Eventually, however, public revelations about Trump’s plans to buy the island prompted indignation in both Greenland and Denmark, scuttling any effort to enhance the US role in an increasingly strategic area. Trump called the Danish leader “nasty” for rejecting his idea and canceled a trip to Copenhagen. Trump enjoyed friendlier relations with other world leaders, but often imposed his own brand of chaos. Baker and Glasser report Trump once abruptly phoned Jordan’s King Abdullah II to inform him he was “going to give you the West Bank,” prompting the monarch to tell a friend he thought he was having a heart attack. “I couldn’t breathe. I was bent doubled over,” he said. And while Trump liked to frequently tout that then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – who was assassinated in July – had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump had actually explicitly made the request to Abe during dinner in New York. “The President asked Abe over dinner to nominate him,” a senior Trump national security official says in the book. Baker and Glasser describe previously unreported plans by members of Trump’s Cabinet to collectively resign amid the chaos, only to remain in their posts out of concern for whohe might select to replace them. In encrypted text messages, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a top aide that five senior officials in the Trump administration – including the secretaries of Defense, Education and Interior – were on the verge of quitting amid a particularly chaotic period ahead of the 2018 midterms. “Ok for the first time I am actually scared for the country. The insanity has been loosed,” she wrote in the messages. Trump’s demands on his team included outlandish requests like abolishing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after it blocked one of his immigration policies. “Let’s just cancel it,” he told Nielsen, according to the book. He told Nielsen if such a move required legislation, “then draft a bill to ‘get rid of the f–king judges’ and have it sent to Congress as soon as possible.” When it came to responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, it was his most trusted advisers who were encouraging him to do more, particularly in the early days when Trump appeared nonchalant about the severity of the crisis. "CNN"

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised China’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, though he conceded Beijing had “questions and concerns” over the invasion, in what appeared to be a veiled admission of their diverging views over the protracted military assault. Putin made the comments when meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in person for the first time since the invasion at a regional summit in Uzbekistan, days after Russia suffered a series of major military setbacks in Ukraine. Russian troops are retreating en mass, having lost more territory in a week than they captured in five months. China has so far refused to outright condemn Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine while stepping up economic assistance to its neighbor, boosting bilateral trade to record levels in a boon to Russian business amid Western sanctions. “We highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis. We understand your questions and concerns in this regard,” Putin said in an opening speech of the meeting. “During today’s meeting, of course, we will explain in detail our position on this issue, although we have spoken about this before.” Xi said China would “work with Russia to extend strong mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests” and “play a leading role in injecting stability and positive energy into a world of change and disorder,” according to a readout from the meeting provided by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Xi also said he appreciated “Russia’s adherence to the one-China principle and stressed that Taiwan is a part of China.” The two authoritarian leaders have emerged as close partners in recent years, propelled by growing conflict with the West and a strong personal bond. China has offered tacit support for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, while Moscow has backed Beijing and criticized Washington over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August. Beijing responded to her trip with unprecedented military drills around the self-governing democratic island, which it claims as its own territory. The White House sought to downplay the meeting between Putin and Xi on Thursday, saying Beijing had not yet violated Western sanctions on Moscow nor provided direct material assistance to Russia. “Our message to China, I think, been consistent: that this is not the time for any kind of business as usual with Mr. Putin, given what he’s done inside Ukraine. This is not the time to be isolated from the rest of the international community, which has largely condemned what he’s doing in Ukraine and not only condemned it, but stepped up to help the Ukrainians defend themselves and their territorial integrity,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told CNN. Kirby said Putin was “very much under strain and stress. In Ukraine, his army is not doing well, and I think it certainly behooves the Kremlin to want to cozy up to Beijing with respect to what’s going on there.” In their meeting Thursday, Putin condemned the United States for what he said were “provocations” in the Taiwan Strait, and criticized what he claimed were attempts to “create a unipolar world.” Those attempts, he said, have “recently taken an ugly shape and are absolutely unacceptable to most states on the planet.” The two are holding talks on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security-focused grouping that also includes India, Pakistan and four Central Asian nations. In a symbolic show of force and unity, Russian and Chinese navies conducted joint patrols and exercises in the Pacific Ocean just hours before their leaders’ meeting, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense. At the start of the meeting Thursday, Putin stressed the deepening economic ties between China and Russia, noting bilateral trade exceeded $140 billion last year. “I am convinced that by the end of the year we will reach new record levels, and in the near future, as agreed, we will increase our annual trade turnover to $200 billion or more,” he said. Putin last met with Xi during a visit to the Chinese capital for its Winter Olympics in February this year. It was at that meeting that the two leaders framed their “no-limits’ partnership, and released a 5,000-word document voicing their shared opposition to the “further enlargement of NATO.” For Xi, meanwhile, Thursday’s meeting comes as part of his first trip outside of China’s borders in more than two years, and just weeks before he seeks to secure a norm-breaking third term at a major political meeting in Beijing – a move that will cement his status as China’s most powerful leader in decades. China has turned increasingly inward since the beginning of the pandemic, and continues to maintain a strict zero-Covid policy that limits outbound travel. Xi’s trip to Central Asia is a return to the world stage and offers him an opportunity to show that despite growing tensions with the West, China still has friends and partners and is ready to reassert its global influence. Before arriving at the summit, Xi visited Kazakhstan, where he unveiled in 2013 his flagship Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project that stretches from East Asia to Europe. In a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday, Xi said China would like to partner with Kazakhstan to “remain pioneers in Belt and Road cooperation.” Xi also told Tokayev that “China will always support Kazakhstan in maintaining national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese state media reported. The Chinese leader traveled to Uzbekistan on Wednesday evening and met with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. He also met the presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Thursday. "CNN"

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No @DeepPurple?

Nickname : @Yeezuz Tag your opponent : @Dave Music genre : Hip Hop Number of votes ( max 10 ) : 7 Tag one leader to post your songs(only leaders of project): @Dave

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My partner has said everything that needs to be said, I think we won't need any more answers! CONTRA

I agree completely. Pro.

Accepted. T/C

The way someone expresses himself is very valuable and says a lot about himself. I think that your involvement as a moderator is not the best, you could get more involved with the activities of the forum and not just spam, collaborate with another project and be helpful and contribute to keeping the community on its feet. Still, I do not intend to give a verdict. I would like to ask you a question first: How could you help our community from your position if you were a moderator?

I did not like your application, you do not have activity for it either. Next time at least read the requirements and try to apply when you think you have time and take responsibility. CONTRA!

DH1 good song, love eminem

While thousands of climbers have successfully scaled Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, only two people have descended to the planet’s deepest point, the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. Located in the western Pacific east of the Philippines and an average of approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers) east of the Mariana Islands, the Mariana Trench is a crescent-shaped scar in the Earth’s crust that measures more than 1,500 miles (2,550 kilometers) long and 43 miles (69 kilometers) wide on average. The distance between the surface of the ocean and the trench’s deepest point—the Challenger Deep, which lies about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of the U.S. territory of Guam—is nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers). If Mount Everest were dropped into the Mariana Trench, its peak would still be more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) underwater. The Mariana Trench is part of a global network of deep troughs that cut across the ocean floor. They form when two tectonic plates collide. At the collision point, one of the plates dives beneath the other into the Earth’s mantle, creating an ocean trench. The depths of the Mariana Trench were first plumbed in 1875 by the British ship H.M.S. Challenger as part of the first global oceanographic cruise. The Challenger scientists recorded a depth of 4,475 fathoms (about five miles, or eight kilometers) using a weighted sounding rope. In 1951, the British vessel H.M.S. Challenger II returned to the spot with an echo-sounder and measured a depth of nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers). The majority of the Mariana Trench is now a U.S. protected zone as part of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, established by President George W. Bush in 2009. Permits for research in the monument, including in the Sirena Deep, have been secured from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Permits for research in the Challenger Deep have been secured from the Federated States of Micronesia. HISTORIC DIVE Because of its extreme depth, the Mariana Trench is cloaked in perpetual darkness and the temperature is just a few degrees above freezing. The water pressure at the bottom of the trench is a crushing eight tons per square inch—or about a thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. Pressure increases with depth. The first and only time humans descended into the Challenger Deep was more than 50 years ago. In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Don Walsh reached this goal in a U.S. Navy submersible, a bathyscaphe called the Trieste. After a five-hour descent, the pair spent only a scant 20 minutes at the bottom and were unable to take any photographs due to clouds of silt stirred up by their passage. Until Piccard and Walsh’s historic dive, scientists had debated whether life could exist under such extreme pressure. But at the bottom, the Trieste‘s floodlight illuminated a creature that Piccard thought was a flatfish, a moment that Piccard would later describe with excitement in a book about his journey. “Here, in an instant, was the answer that biologists had asked for the decades,” Piccard wrote. “Could life exist in the greatest depths of the ocean? It could!” WAITING IN THE DEEP While the Trieste expedition laid to rest any doubts that life could exist in the Mariana Trench, scientists still know very little about the types of organisms that reside there. In fact, some question whether Piccard’s fish was actually a form of sea cucumber. It is thought that the pressure is so great that calcium can’t exist except in solution, so the bones of vertebrates would literally dissolve. No bones, no fish. But nature has also proven scientists wrong many times in the past with its remarkable capacity for adaptation. So are there fish that deep? Nobody knows, and this is the whole point of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE project, to find answers to such fundamental questions. In recent years, deep-ocean dredges and unmanned subs have glimpsed exotic organisms such as shrimp-like amphipods, and strange, translucent animals called holothurians. But scientists say there are many new species awaiting discovery and many unanswered questions about how animals can survive in these extreme conditions. Scientists are particularly interested in microorganisms living in the trenches, which they say could lead to breakthroughs in biomedicine and biotechnology. The Mariana Trench’s microscopic inhabitants might even shed light on the emergence of life on Earth. Some researchers, such as Patricia Fryer et alat University of Hawaii, have speculated that serpentine mud volcanoes located near ocean trenches might have provided the right conditions for our planet’s first life-forms. Additionally, studying rocks from ocean trenches could lead to a better understanding of the earthquakes that create the powerful and devastating tsunamis seen around the Pacific Rim, geologists say.