Weekend exemptions spared the iPhone titan, but Apple is now at the mercy of Trump.

One day, in the near or far future, an asteroid about the length of a football stadium will find itself on a collision course with Earth. If we are lucky, it will land in the middle of the vast ocean, creating a good-size but innocuous tsunami, or in an uninhabited patch of desert. But if it has a city in its crosshairs, one of the worst natural disasters in modern times will unfold. As the asteroid steams through the atmosphere, it will begin to fragment—but the bulk of it will likely make it to the ground in just a few seconds, instantly turning anything solid into a fluid and excavating a huge impact crater in a heartbeat. A colossal blast wave, akin to one unleashed by a large nuclear weapon, will explode from the impact site in every direction. Homes dozens of miles away will fold like cardboard. Millions of people could die. Fortunately for all 8 billion of us, planetary defense—the science of preventing asteroid impacts—is a highly active field of research. Astronomers are watching the skies, constantly on the hunt for new near-Earth objects that might pose a threat. And others are actively working on developing ways to prevent a collision should we find an asteroid that seems likely to hit us. We already know that at least one method works: ramming the rock with an uncrewed spacecraft to push it away from Earth. In September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, showed it could be done when a semiautonomous spacecraft the size of a small car, with solar panel wings, was smashed into an (innocuous) asteroid named Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour, successfully changing its orbit around a larger asteroid named Didymos.  But there are circumstances in which giving an asteroid a physical shove might not be enough to protect the planet. If that’s the case, we could need another method, one that is notoriously difficult to test in real life: a nuclear explosion.  Scientists have used computer simulations to explore this potential method of planetary defense. But in an ideal world, researchers would ground their models with cold, hard, practical data. Therein lies a challenge. Sending a nuclear weapon into space would violate international laws and risk inflaming political tensions. What’s more, it could do damage to Earth: A rocket malfunction could send radioactive debris into the atmosphere.  Over the last few years, however, scientists have started to devise some creative ways around this experimental limitation. The effort began in 2023, with a team of scientists led by Nathan Moore, a physicist and chemical engineer at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sandia is a semi-secretive site that serves as the engineering arm of America’s nuclear weapons program. And within that complex lies the Z Pulsed Power Facility, or Z machine, a cylindrical metallic labyrinth of warning signs and wiring. It’s capable of summoning enough energy to melt diamond.  About 25,000 asteroids more than 460 feet long—a size range that starts with midsize “city killers” and goes up in impact from there—are thought to exist close to Earth. Just under half of them have been found. The researchers reckoned they could use the Z machine to re-create the x-ray blast of a nuclear weapon—the radiation that would be used to knock back an asteroid—on a very small and safe scale. It took a while to sort out the details. But by July 2023, Moore and his team were ready. They waited anxiously inside a control room, monitoring the thrumming contraption from afar. Inside the machine’s heart were two small pieces of rock, stand-ins for asteroids, and at the press of a button, a maelstrom of x-rays would thunder toward them. If they were knocked back by those x-rays, it would prove something that, until now, was purely theoretical: You can deflect an asteroid from Earth using a nuke. This experiment “had never been done before,” says Moore. But if it succeeded, its data would contribute to the safety of everyone on the planet. Would it work? Monoliths and rubble piles Asteroid impacts are a natural disaster like any other. You shouldn’t lose sleep over the prospect, but if we get unlucky, an errant space rock may rudely ring Earth’s doorbell. “The probability of an asteroid striking Earth during my lifetime is very small. But what if one did? What would we do about it?” says Moore. “I think that’s worth being curious about.” Forget about the gigantic asteroids you know from Hollywood blockbusters. Space rocks over two-thirds of a mile (about one kilometer) in diameter—those capable of imperiling civilization—are certainly out there, and some hew close to Earth’s own orbit. But because these asteroids are so elephantine, astronomers have found almost all of them already, and none pose an impact threat.  Rather, it’s asteroids a size range down—those upwards of 460 feet (140 meters) long—that are of paramount concern. About 25,000 of those are thought to exist close to our planet, and just under half have been found. The day-to-day odds of an impact are extremely low, but even one of the smaller ones in that size range could do significant damage if it found Earth and hit a populated area—a capacity that has led astronomers to dub such midsize asteroids “city killers.” If we find a city killer that looks likely to hit Earth, we’ll need a way to stop it. That could be technology to break or “disrupt” the asteroid into fragments that will either miss the planet entirely or harmlessly ignite in the atmosphere. Or it could be something that can deflect the asteroid, pushing it onto a path that will no longer intersect with our blue marble.  Because disruption could accidentally turn a big asteroid into multiple smaller, but still deadly, shards bound for Earth, it’s often considered to be a strategy of last resort. Deflection is seen as safer and more elegant. One way to achieve it is to deploy a spacecraft known as a kinetic impactor—a battering ram that collides with an asteroid and transfers its momentum to the rocky interloper, nudging it away from Earth. NASA’s DART mission demonstrated that this can work, but there are some important caveats: You need to deflect the asteroid years in advance to make sure it completely misses Earth, and asteroids that we spot too late—or that are too big—can’t be swatted away by just one DART-like mission. Instead, you’d need several kinetic impactors—maybe many of them—to hit one side of the asteroid perfectly each time in order to push it far enough to save our planet. That’s a tall order for orbital mechanics, and not something space agencies may be willing to gamble on.  In that case, the best option might instead be to detonate a nuclear weapon next to the asteroid. This would irradiate one hemisphere of the asteroid in x-rays, which in a few millionths of a second would violently shatter and vaporize the rocky surface. The stream of debris spewing out of that surface and into space would act like a rocket, pushing the asteroid in the opposite direction. “There are scenarios where kinetic impact is insufficient, and we’d have to use a nuclear explosive device,” says Moore. MCKIBILLO This idea isn’t new. Several decades ago, Peter Schultz, a planetary geologist and impacts expert at Brown University, was giving a planetary defense talk at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, another American lab focused on nuclear deterrence and nuclear physics research. Afterwards, he recalls, none other than Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb and a key member of the Manhattan Project, invited him into his office for a chat. “He wanted to do one of these near-Earth-­asteroid flybys and wanted to test the nukes,” Schultz says. What, he wondered, would happen if you blasted an asteroid with a nuclear weapon’s x-rays? Could you forestall a spaceborne disaster using weapons of mass destruction? But Teller’s dream wasn’t fulfilled—and it’s unlikely to become a reality anytime soon. The United Nations’ 1967 Outer Space Treaty states that no nation can deploy or use nuclear weapons off-world (even if it’s not clear how long certain spacefaring nations will continue to adhere to that rule). Even raising the possibility of using nukes to defend the planet can be tricky. “There’re still many folks that don’t want to talk about it at all … even if that were the only option to prevent an impact,” says Megan Bruck Syal, a physicist and planetary defense researcher at Lawrence Livermore. Nuclear weapons have long been a sensitive subject, and with relations between several nuclear nations currently at a new nadir, anxiety over the subject is understandable.  But in the US, there are groups of scientists who “recognize that we have a special responsibility as a spacefaring nation and as a nuclear-­capable nation to look at this,” Syal says. “It isn’t our preference to use a nuclear explosive, of course. But we are still looking at it, in case it’s needed.” But how?  Mostly, researchers have turned to the virtual world, using supercomputers at various US laboratories to simulate the asteroid-­agitating physics of a nuclear blast. To put it mildly, “this is very hard,” says Mary Burkey, a physicist and planetary defense researcher at Lawrence Livermore. You cannot simply flick a switch on a computer and get immediate answers. “When a nuke goes off in space, there’s just x-ray light that’s coming out of it. It’s shining on the surface of your asteroid, and you’re tracking those little photons penetrating maybe a tiny little bit into the surface, and then somehow you have to take that micro­meter worth of resolution and then propagate it out onto something that might be on the order of hundreds of meters wide, watching that shock wave propagate and then watching fragments spin off into space. That’s four different problems.”  Mimicking the physics of x-ray rock annihilation with as much verisimilitude as possible is difficult work. But recent research using these high-fidelity simulations does suggest that nukes are an effective planetary defense tool for both disruption and deflection. The thing is, though, no two asteroids are alike; each is mechanically and geologically unique, meaning huge uncertainties remain. A more monolithic asteroid might respond in a straightforward way to a nuclear deflection campaign, whereas a rubble pile asteroid—a weakly bound fleet of boulders barely held together by their own gravity—might respond in a chaotic, uncontrollable way. Can you be sure the explosion wouldn’t accidentally shatter the asteroid, turning a cannonball into a hail of bullets still headed for Earth?  Simulations can go a long way toward answering these questions, but they remain virtual re-creations of reality, with built-in assumptions. “Our models are only as good as the physics that we understand and that we put into them,” says Angela Stickle, a hypervelocity impact physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. To make sure the simulations are reproducing the correct physics and delivering realistic data, physical experiments are needed to ground them. Every firing of the Z machine carries the energy of more than 1,000 lightning bolts, and each shot lasts a few millionths of a second. Researchers studying kinetic impactors can get that sort of real-world data. Along with DART, they can use specialized cannons—like the Vertical Gun Range at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California—to fire all sorts of projectiles at meteorites. In doing so, they can find out how tough or fragile asteroid shards can be, effectively reproducing a kinetic impact mission on a small scale.  Battle-testing nuke-based asteroid defense simulations is another matter. Re-creating the physics of these confrontations on a small scale was long considered to be exceedingly difficult. Fortunately, those keen on fighting asteroids are as persistent as they are creative—and several teams, including Moore’s at Sandia, think they have come up with a solution. X-ray scissors The prime mission of Sandia, like that of Lawrence Livermore, is to help maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. “It’s a national security laboratory,” says Moore. “Planetary defense affects the entire planet,” he adds—making it, by default, a national security issue as well. And that logic, in part, persuaded the powers that be in July 2022 to try a brand-new kind of experiment. Moore took charge of the project in January 2023—and with the shot scheduled for the summer, he had only a few months to come up with the specific plan for the experiment. There was “lots of scribbling on my whiteboard, running computer simulations, and getting data to our engineers to design the test fixture for the several months it would take to get all the parts machined and assembled,” he says. Although there were previous and ongoing experiments that showered asteroid-like targets with x-rays, Moore and his team were frustrated by one aspect of them. Unlike actual asteroids floating freely in space, the micro-­asteroids on Earth were fixed in place. To truly test whether x-rays could deflect asteroids, targets would have to be suspended in a vacuum—and it wasn’t immediately clear how that could be achieved. Generating the nuke-like x-rays was the easy part, because Sandia had the Z machine, a hulking mass of diodes, pipes, and wires interwoven with an assortment of walkways that circumnavigate a vacuum chamber at its core. When it’s powered up, electrical currents are channeled into capacitors—and, when commanded, blast that energy at a target or substance to create radiation and intense magnetic pressures.  Flanked by klaxons and flashing lights, it’s an intimidating sight. “It’s the size of a building—about three stories tall,” says Moore. Every firing of the Z machine carries the energy of more than 1,000 lightning bolts, and each shot lasts a few millionths of a second: “You can’t even blink that fast.” The Z machine is named for the axis along which its energetic particles cascade, but the Z could easily stand for “Zeus.” The Z Pulsed Power Facility, or Z machine, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, concentrates electricity into short bursts of intense energy that can be used to create x-rays and gamma rays and compress matter to high densities.RANDY MONTOYA/SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORY The original purpose of the Z machine, whose first form was built half a century ago, was nuclear fusion research. But over time, it’s been tinkered with, upgraded, and used for all kinds of science. “The Z machine has been used to compress matter to the same densities [you’d find at] the centers of planets. And we can do experiments like that to better understand how planets form,” Moore says, as an example. And the machine’s preternatural energies could easily be used to generate x-rays—in this case, by electrifying and collapsing a cloud of argon gas. “The idea of studying asteroid deflection is completely different for us,” says Moore. And the machine “fires just once a day,” he adds, “so all the experiments are planned more than a year in advance.” In other words, the researchers had to be near certain their one experiment would work, or they would be in for a long wait to try again—if they were permitted a second attempt.  For some time, they could not figure out how to suspend their micro-asteroids. But eventually, they found a solution: Two incredibly thin bits of aluminum foil would hold their targets in place within the Z machine’s vacuum chamber. When the x-ray blast hit them and the targets, the pieces of foil would be instantly vaporized, briefly leaving the targets suspended in the chamber and allowing them to be pushed back as if they were in space. “It’s like you wave your magic wand and it’s gone,” Moore says of the foil. He dubbed this technique “x-ray scissors.”  In July 2023, after considerable planning, the team was ready. Within the Z machine’s vacuum chamber were two fingernail-size targets—a bit of quartz and some fused silica, both frequently found on real asteroids. Nearby, a pocket of argon gas swirled away. Satisfied that the gigantic gizmo was ready, everyone left and went to stand in the control room. For a moment, it was deathly quiet. Stand by. Fire. It was over before their ears could even register a metallic bang. A tempest of electricity shocked the argon gas cloud, causing it to implode; as it did, it transformed into a plasma and x-rays screamed out of it, racing toward the two targets in the chamber. The foil vanished, the surfaces of both targets erupted outward as supersonic sprays of debris, and the targets flew backward, away from the x-rays, at 160 miles per hour. Moore wasn’t there. “I was in Spain when the experiment was run, because I was celebrating my anniversary with my wife, and there was no way I was going to miss that,” he says. But just after the Z machine was fired, one of his colleagues sent him a very concise text: IT WORKED. “We knew right away it was a huge success,” says Moore. The implications were immediately clear. The experimental setup was complex, but they were trying to achieve something extremely fundamental: a real-world demonstration that a nuclear blast could make an object in space move. “We’re genuinely looking at this from the standpoint of ‘This is a technology that could save lives.’” Patrick King, a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, was impressed. Previously, pushing back objects using x-ray vaporization had been extremely difficult to demonstrate in the lab. “They were able to get a direct measurement of that momentum transfer,” he says, calling the x-ray scissors an “elegant” technique. Sandia’s work took many in the community by surprise. “The Z machine experiment was a bit of a newcomer for the planetary defense field,” says Burkey. But she notes that we can’t overinterpret the results. It isn’t clear, from the deflection of the very small and rudimentary asteroid-like targets, how much a genuine nuclear explosion would deflect an actual asteroid. As ever, more work is needed.  King leads a team that is also working on this question. His NASA-funded project involves the Omega Laser Facility, a complex based at the University of Rochester in upstate New York. Omega can generate x-rays by firing powerful lasers at a target within a specialized chamber. Upon being irradiated, the target generates an x-ray flash, similar to the one produced during a nuclear explosion in space, which can then be used to bombard various objects—in this case, some Earth rocks acting as asteroid mimics, and (crucially) some bona fide meteoritic material too.  King’s Omega experiments have tried to answer a basic question: “How much material actually gets removed from the surface?” says King. The amount of material that flies off the pseudo-asteroids, and the vigor with which it’s removed, will differ from target to target. The hope is that these results—which the team is still considering—will hint at how different types of asteroids will react to being nuked. Although experiments with Omega cannot produce the kickback seen in the Z machine, King’s team has used a more realistic and diverse series of targets and blasted them with x-rays hundreds of times. That, in turn, should clue us in to how effectively, or not, actual asteroids would be deflected by a nuclear explosion. “I wouldn’t say one [experiment] has definitive advantages over the other,” says King. “Like many things in science, each approach can yield insight along different ‘axes,’ if you will, and no experimental setup gives you the whole picture.” MCKIBILLO Experiments like Moore’s and King’s may sound technologically baroque—a bit like lightning-fast Rube Goldberg machines overseen by wizards. But they are likely the first in a long line of increasingly sophisticated tests. “We’ve just scratched the surface of what we can do,” Moore says. As with King’s experiments, Moore hopes to place a variety of materials in the Z machine, including targets that can stand in for the wetter, more fragile carbon-rich asteroids that astronomers commonly see in near-Earth space. “If we could get our hands on real asteroid material, we’d do it,” he says. And it’s expected that all this experimental data will be fed back into those nuke-versus-­asteroid computer simulations, helping to verify the virtual results. Although these experiments are perfectly safe, planetary defenders remain fully cognizant of the taboo around merely discussing the use of nukes for any reason—even if that reason is potentially saving the world. “We’re genuinely looking at this from the standpoint of ‘This is a technology that could save lives,’” King says. Inevitably, Earth will be imperiled by a dangerous asteroid. And the hope is that when that day arrives, it can be dealt with using something other than a nuke. But comfort should be taken from the fact that scientists are researching this scenario, just in case it’s our only protection against the firmament. “We are your taxpayer dollars at work,” says Burkey.  There’s still some way to go before they can be near certain that this asteroid-stopping technique will succeed. Their progress, though, belongs to everyone. “Ultimately,” says Moore, “we all win if we solve this problem.”  Robin George Andrews is an award-winning science journalist based in London and the author, most recently, of How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense.

Working from home blurs the boundaries between "employee" and "mom." MoMo Productions/Getty Images 2025-04-14T10:19:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? At first, remote work gave me an amazing gift: more time with my kid. After several months, though, I felt something unexpected: a loss of self. My home had turned into a never-ending workplace, and I'd become its most overworked employee. Before remote work, my days were a blur of day care drop-offs, traffic jams, hastily packed lunches, and a mad dash home to cook dinner before bedtime routines.I spent most of my time feeling like I was failing at something — either at work, because I was leaving early to pick up my toddler, or at parenting, because I barely had enough energy to read a bedtime story without nodding off.When my company announced a shift to remote work during the pandemic, I thought I had won the ultimate prize.At first, it felt like a dreamNo more commutes, no more scrambling to get out the door with a cranky toddler, no more guilt about leaving the office at a respectable time.Instead, I was home — able to prepare healthy lunches, sneak in cuddles between meetings, and actually witness my child's milestones instead of hearing about them from a day care report.I felt like I had gained back something immeasurable: time.However, as the weeks turned into months, I started to feel something I hadn't expected: a deep, gnawing loss of self.My home became a never-ending workplaceThe blurred boundaries between work and home life meant I was never truly off the clock.I'd wake up and immediately check emails while still in bed. I'd play LEGOs with my child while half-listening to a Zoom call. I'd wrap up my workday and head straight into dinner prep without any mental transition from "employee" to "mom."My home had turned into a never-ending workplace, and I had become its most overworked employee.I found a new kind of guiltThe guilt I once felt about being away from my child morphed into a new kind of guilt: the guilt of never feeling fully present.When I worked from an office, at least I had a clear separation between "employee" and "mom." Working from home, though, meant my son would pull at my sleeve while I was finishing a report, his little face hopeful, only for me to say, "Just five more minutes," knowing full well it would be longer.I wasn't just missing out on time with him — I was physically there but mentally elsewhere, and that felt worse. Then came the isolationRemote work stripped away the casual office interactions I never realized I needed. The small talk by the coffee machine, the quick "How was your weekend?" chats in the hallway, the spontaneous lunch invites.Instead, my entire social interaction outside my immediate family was reduced to Slack messages and video calls that ended as soon as the work discussion wrapped up.I missed the commute I once hated. As annoying as it was, it had been a clear divider between my professional and personal life — a time to mentally switch gears. Now, that transition didn't exist.Despite the challenges, I've had moments of undeniable joyThe spontaneous lunchtime dance parties in the kitchen, the ability to witness my child's excitement when he discovers something new, the sheer relief of not having to race the clock every morning — it all matters.Remote work has been the best thing for me as a parent and the worst thing for me as a person.It's given me irreplaceable moments with my child, but it's also made me feel stretched thin, unsure of where parenting ends and work begins.Some days, I wouldn't trade it for anything. On other days, I fantasize about having a quiet office, a lunch break alone, and the ability to leave work behind at the end of the day.So where does that leave me?Like other parents navigating this newish reality, I'm still figuring it out.Maybe the answer lies in setting stronger boundaries, reclaiming faded parts of my identity, or simply accepting that balance is a myth and life is just a series of trade-offs.For now, I'll take the small wins — the midday snuggles, the absence of a long commute, and the simple joy of eating lunch together at the kitchen table.I'll cherish the privilege of being present for the little moments, like hearing my child's laughter down the hall or stepping away from my desk to help with a puzzle. Recommended video

In between jokes about identity politics and the taste of urine, massively popular podcaster Theo Von and his most recent show guest debated President Donald Trump’s tariff and trade policy. Would rising prices in the short term justify the supposed return of manufacturing jobs to America? Or would automation and artificial intelligence end up vaporizing those jobs as well?“Here’s the thing with tariffs. Is the goal of tariffs…if it costs more for people to bring their products in, then they’ll build them here?” Von asked comedian Mark Normand on the April 7 episode of This Past Weekend With Theo Von.“Yes, that’s part of it, yeah,” Normand replied. They continued:Von: “So it’s kind of a long-term play. It’s going to take a while.”Normand: “It’s going to be bumpy for a while, but that’s if it works. So we’ll see, but it might take 10 years.”Von: “Right, but if we don’t try this though, then I think it’s a wrap.”Von then recounted some memories from his stand-up tour across America: In many of the towns and smaller cities where he performed, “there’s nothing there.” No business, no industry, and abandoned downtowns. “You start to be like, nothing’s going to change. There’s nothing coming that’s going to make that different, right?”Tariffs, it sounded, might be a way to reverse that. But don’t forget, Normand replied, “We got automation coming, we got AI coming, so jobs are going away quick, and everything’s digital now. There’s nothing manufactured here.”Von was stumped. “That’s one of the things that people say, well, even if you bring jobs back here, those jobs are going to disappear because of AI anyway,” he said. “That’s one of the other arguments against doing the tariffs at all.”This excerpt is one of the more sophisticated conversations related to Trump and tariffs happening in the non-hard news space of podcasting. And it’s one of many.Trump’s tariff proposals, their partial delay, and their effect on the stock market have been a hot topic across the “manosphere” — the loose network of podcasters and influencers who market themselves particularly toward young men.Trump news is covered differently there than it is in the mainstream — often through personal anecdotes, comedy, and banter with non-subject matter experts. But it matters.How this manosphere reacts to Trump is a useful bellwether for the durability of the coalition that got Trump elected. These brocasters hold sway with tens of millions of Americans and were a crucial avenue for the Trump campaign to reach lower propensity and lower information voters, particularly younger men, for most of last year. They’re both a useful tool for tracking how Trump’s presidency is being received and processed by millions of people who tend not to keep tabs of political news, and as stand-ins for what subsets of the electorate might be feeling.For now, that seems to be confusion, fear, and, for some, resilient trust in Trump: In the wake of his “Liberation Day” tariff announcement — and the subsequent delay in their implementation, the internet ecosystem of podcasters, influencers, and streamers that make up the so-called manosphere don’t seem to understand what Trump is doing, seem hesitant to endorse it, or are just remaining quiet.In other words, they’re behaving just like the average American.You might know some of them: Von, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Huberman. Andrew Schulz, Shawn Ryan, Dave Portnoy, and Lex Fridman. All endorsed Trump, most hosted Trump on their shows, and all were excited for his term to begin. A couple of months later, things are very different.Some in the manosphere are becoming more critical of TrumpThe manosphere doesn’t move in unison: There’s no secret meeting where they convene to forge a consensus. But broadly, their reactions so far can be divided into three categories: those critical of Trump’s tariffs, those confused by them but willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt, and those who are sidestepping the topic entirely.The first category includes folks like conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, and podcasting king Joe Rogan. Aside from Shapiro, they don’t have deeply held ideological beliefs and seem more concerned with pocketbook consequences through the stock market.When Rogan has talked about Trump’s trade policy, for example, the podcaster has frequently expressed confusion, fear, and concern that Trump is acting erratically and going far beyond his campaign promises — especially when it comes to tariffs on close allies.“I’m scared of this tariff stuff because it’s radical change, and I’m scared of radical change,” Rogan said on his April 5 episode, in the week between Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement and their implementation on April 9. “Trump is used to being able to charm people. He’s very charming. But if you can’t speak his language, you’re like, ‘Fuck this orange asshole.’ You know what I mean?”Since then, he’s not really commented on Trump, save to say he understands the nostalgia for American manufacturing.Shapiro, too, was critical of Trump’s broad approach before he announced a rollback of tariffs on other countries. On his YouTube show last Monday, Shapiro called tariffs a “really problematic” tool to try to increase domestic production and wealth-building. “The idea that this is inherently good and makes the American economy strong is wrongheaded … It’s untrue. The idea that it is going to result in massive re-shoring of manufacturing is also untrue.” He’s since toned back his criticism — endorsing confrontation with China, but criticizing the bluntness of a tariff-fueled trade war. Meanwhile, Portnoy has more obviously seesawed from saying Trump “crashed the whole stock market” on “Orange Monday” to calling him the “best president ever” toward the end of the week. Still, he clarified on CNN this week that he “was never some crazy MAGA guy.” Aside from his personal concerns over the stock market, he did explain on his show that a tumultuous market would have downstream effects on small businesses, prices, and unemployment. It matched the sentiment another major influencer, Mr. Beast, expressed as tariffs were being announced: “We’ll figure it out. I feel for small businesses though. Could really be a nail in the coffin for them.”A second type of manosphere creator is confused about what the point of tariffs is and just what Trump’s rationale is for leading the country into trade wars. They aren’t necessarily opposed or enthusiastic about tariffs, reducing trade deficits, or recreating manufacturing jobs — they just want a better sense of Trump’s thinking and to be reassured that the guy they supported hasn’t lost all connection to reality.This category includes Von, who only releases an episode a week, as he expressed in his conversation with Normand. It includes the comedian Andrew Schulz, who had Trump defender Chamath Palihapitiya from the All-In podcast spend an hour and a half explaining why reciprocal tariffs were a good idea, how America has supposedly been saddled with unfair trade deals, and why universal tariffs were the only way to reorder the global order (only for Trump to walk it back the next day).A similar thing happened on entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David’s podcast and on the Nelk Boys’ Full Send podcast hosted by Kyle Forgeard: Both had Trump defenders (sycophantic commentator Benny Johnson for the former, Sean Hannity for the latter) on to try to make sense of Trump’s thinking. Both hosts remained Trump-friendly, but don’t seem sold on tariffs, even after the White House’s attempts to spin Trump’s delay.Others are avoiding tariff talk at allFinally, there’s a score of other commentators who either endorsed or hosted Trump who have yet to weigh in at all. Their silence is a bit perplexing, given that many of them claim to be focused on current events and trending topics.Hosts like Andrew Huberman, Lex Fridman, and Jake and Logan Paul have not addressed the tariffs or stock market shocks on their shows. Some have released episodes featuring interviews with guests who probably wouldn’t be inclined to discuss economics, talking instead about mental and physical health, foreign policy and war, homeschooling, or conspiracy theories.What these podcasters say, ask, and think mattersThese commentators reach and represent a new Republican constituency: those Americans who don’t tend to follow the news, who aren’t the most politically aware or engaged, or who consume information passively, through non-news programs.Tracking how they are responding to Trump’s economic agenda gives us an insight into what the political ramifications of that agenda might be. And they give us a temperature check of the new groups that joined the Republican coalition in November.Their consumers and followers are very different from the kind of people who are reading and processing developments through mainstream and traditional media: New York Times and Washington Post readers, for example, are probably already turned off by Trump and opposed to his tariff plans. Joe Rogan, Barstool Sports, and Theo Von listeners are probably more likely to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. But if the hosts that they trust and listen to for multiple hours every week start to break with the president, that distance might cause these listeners to second-guess Trump or look for more information on what he’s doing. And that could lead to longer-term defection or disillusionment — with time still left until midterm elections.See More:

Former Rockstar Games dev Leslie Benzies has said he's excited for GTA 6, despite leaving in 2016 to found his own studio – Benzies' first game since the split will launch this yearTech11:01, 14 Apr 2025MindsEye looks impressive already(Image: Build a Rocket Boy)Grand Theft Auto 6 is still expected to launch in 2025, and while developer Rockstar Games is being pretty quiet on the project, it appears that's all part of the marketing cycle.Still, one game definitely launching in 2025 is MindsEye, which is notable for being the first title from Build A Rocket Boy, the studio founded by former Rockstar Games visionary Leslie Benzies.‌Article continues belowBenzies is credited as the lead developer on GTA 5, GTA Online, and Red Dead Redemption, and his new near-future action game looks similarly impressive from early footage and screenshots.Now, Benzies has commented on going up against his former employers.MindsEye is the studio's debut title(Image: Build a Rocket Boy)‌Speaking to GamingBible, Benzies was very complimentary about Rockstar's next title – the studio's first in the GTA series without him on board.Asked if he's looking forward to GTA 6, Benzies replied "Absolutely"."[There's a] great amount of geniuses there always creating something new, unique, and of a scale that very few others can actually pull off".‌Elsewhere in the interview, Benzies promises the next trailer could be of huge interest to budding developers.“One of the things we're most excited about is the Arcadia trailer. Within MindsEye and the PC, there's a tool that's going to let players build AAA-quality games, so that'll be our next trailer for us; that'll be out in the next few weeks.”Players can explore a sci-fi world in just a few short months(Image: Build a Rocket Boy)‌Arcadia is planned as a game development tool, and preorder customers can gain access when purchasing MindsEye. It could help set the project apart from GTA 6, but Benzies acknowledges that those comparisons will remain.“There's always comparisons. The first question that gets asked is always about the old game, but I think that’s human nature,” Benzies explained.“You know, it’s what happened to Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, [people] were more interested in Nirvana. It’ll take a bit of time for us to find our own identity.”‌As for MindsEye, the game got a first look at a PlayStation event earlier this year, followed by a release date in June that's fast approaching."Fight to uncover Jacob’s truth in a world where AI, high-tech experimentation and unchecked military power shape every encounter. What starts as a personal quest unveils something so large it threatens the spark in everything alive, as the danger of the sentient robots rises propelled by human greed."For more on GTA 6, check out why Rockstar Games might follow a Nintendo-set precedent for its pricing, and how other publishers are scrambling to clear the game's inevitable 'blast zone'.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

How much would you pay for Marathon? (Sony) Bungie and Sony plan to sell the new Marathon as a ‘premium’ product though they have promised it won’t be a full price game. It’s been nearly two years since Sony announced it was reviving Bungie’s Marathon series, albeit as the publisher’s next crack at a live service game. After a long silence and a change in directors, Bungie finally lifted the lid on Marathon over the weekend via a livestream, where it shared proper gameplay details and a release date. It also shared what fans can expect from the game at launch and it sounds even less content rich than Concord, Sony’s last live service game attempt. As a reminder, Concord launched last August and was meant to be the first of many first-party PlayStation live service games. However, its launch was so disastrous that Sony killed the game after only two weeks and shut down developer Firewalk Studios. Although other live service games have reportedly been cancelled in the aftermath, Marathon’s development has chugged along, with it slated to launch later this year. Aside from establishing how this new Marathon is a PvP extraction shooter, with players forming teams of three to gather loot, Bungie also explained that there will be six playable characters and three maps at launch. Obviously, the plan is to add more content over time (a fourth map is already confirmed), but this means Marathon is arriving with far less than what Concord offered. By comparison, Concord launched with 16 playable characters and 12 maps. It also had six different gameplay modes to try out whereas Marathon only has the one. One similarity Marathon does share with Concord, though, is that it won’t be free-to-play. Speaking with GameSpot, Bungie described the game as a ‘premium’ product, adding that it will include a battle pass but clarifying that the game won’t be sold at full price. Neither was Concord, which was sold at £34.99, but that clearly proved too high an asking price. Marathon is at least an established franchise, but it’s not particularly well known, and it could face the same struggles if it launches at a similar price. Among the initial fan reactions, plenty of people have been quick to draw Concord comparisons and seem to have little faith in its chances. ‘Concord tripped and broke its neck so that Marathon could jump off a cliff spread eagle,’ wrote discolunk on Bluesky. More Trending ‘Why would I pay to try Marathon when I already have The Finals for free?’ questioned berserker-thiis. Meanwhile, elhyana, despite loving the new trailer, unfavourably compared Marathon to Valorant, saying, ‘This might be another Concord moment.’ One James Galizio has bleakly predicted the same thing, pointing out that Concord’s own failure may have doomed Marathon to the same fate: ‘Players still remember how that went, why would they commit time to the game when history shows if it flops Sony will unexist the game?’ When will Marathon launch? Marathon is scheduled to launch on September 23. While Sony is publishing it, it will be a multi-platform release and be available for PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. A closed alpha test will take place beforehand on April 23 though the only way to sign up for it is by joining the official Marathon Discord. Do you think Marathon will meet the same fate as Concord? (Sony) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

While tariffs threaten to push prices up through the roof in America, you should consider every single opportunity to get products at their lowest possible prices. Among the best deals available today on Amazon, there’s an offer on the Dyson V8 Extra cordless vacuum cleaner which is sold for $349, a 26% discount from its existing list price of $469. This is just a few dollars shy of its Black Friday all-time low, so it’s a great opportunity to pick up this high-performance vacuum at a near-record low price. Even Dyson’s website can’t beat this offer! See at Amazon Powerful Cordless Vacuum The Dyson V8 Extra is a cordless vacuum that provides power and convenience for almost any households. Dyson’s digital motor V8 offers a huge 110,000 RPM spin speed for creating robust suction on every surface. With carpet or hardwood surfaces, the Dyson V8 Extra achieves perfect cleaning by having its motorbar cleaner head include stiff nylon bristles that push out ingrained dirt on carpet and anti-static carbon fiber strands to collect finer dust particles on hardwood. What’s more, its de-tangling mechanism eliminates long hair and animal hair from the brush bar automatically. We also love how lightweight and ergonomically it is designed: At 5.6 pounds, it feels super comfortable to push around and to use for extended periods without tiredness. Its motor and battery are carefully situated around the handle to maximize balance which makes effortless floor-to-ceiling cleaning easy. Dyson also offers an advanced filtration system that traps 99.99% of particles as minute as 0.3 microns. The Dyson V8 Extra has a maximum of 40 minutes of fade-free cleaning on a fully charged battery which provides you with all the time you require for almost any cleaning task. You can choose between two modes—standard mode for regular cleaning and max mode to eliminate tough dirt—with which you can adjust the desired power level according to your personal needs. Super useful is also the fact that the vacuum easily detaches to act as a handheld cleaner for surfaces on stairs, upholstery, and automobiles plus other difficult spots. The vacuum comes with nine Dyson-developed accessories that include the anti-tangle hair screw tool that allows for an easy removal of pet hair on tight spaces and an extension tube that provides an additional 24 inches of rubberized reach. With the upcoming tariff increases that will drive prices up on everything, we really recommend you to buy now what you really need – and this Dyson vacuum cleaner is probably the bet you can get for such a discounted/low price. See at Amazon

High-Level Realism: Cinematic Rendering Powered by Real-Time Path TracingSponsored ContentSave this picture!Courtesy of D5 RenderReal-time rendering technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and D5 Render 2.10 sets a new benchmark with the introduction of real-time path tracing. In addition to this cutting-edge advancement, the update brings significant improvements to AI-driven post-processing, procedural city generation, weather effects, animation controls, and team collaboration features, elevating both rendering quality and workflow efficiency.What Makes Real-Time Path Tracing a Transformative Feature?For years, achieving realistic lighting, reflections, and global illumination (GI) in real-time rendering has been a complex challenge. Traditional workflows often relied on manual adjustments, intensive post-processing, and prolonged rendering times to create high-quality visuals. With the release of D5 Render 2.10, these constraints have been significantly reduced, marking a new era in real-time visualization. Save this picture!Save this picture!This update introduces a fully D5's Real-Time Path Tracing, ensuring: Physically accurate reflections, soft shadows, and global illumination—without sacrificing speed. Superior lighting realism that competes with offline rendering engines, making real-time rendering more cinematic and immersive. Efficiency in workflow, allowing users to instantly preview high-quality lighting without extensive trial and error. Accumulate Mode – Progressive refinement of renders by accumulating pixel samples over time for ultimate realism. Other Key Features in D5 Render 2.10Night Sky Simulation – Night Renders New Day-Night Cycle with seamless transitions. Customizable Moon & Star Intensity for realistic night skies. Milky Way Simulation for added depth and cinematic quality. Optimized Rain & Snow Effects – More Realistic Weather Conditions More detailed raindrop and snowflake particles. Enhanced puddle and ripple effects for wet surfaces. Water Mist simulation to create a humid atmosphere in rainy scenes. City Generator with OpenStreetMap (OSM) Integration Automates urban environment creation using real-world GIS data. Supports Shapefile (.shp) Import for more accurate city modeling. Customizable building heights, materials, and road widths for flexibility. AI Post-Processing Upgrades – Smarter Enhancements, Less Manual Work AI Inpainting – Fills missing elements like sky, vegetation, or water. Motion Blur – Adds natural motion effects for dynamic scenes. AI Enhancer – Optimized text and logo sharpness. AI Style Transfer – More refined artistic and realistic effects. AI Make Seamless – Improved algorithms for seamless material tiling. Optimized Terrain & Scatter Workflow – Better Landscapes, Faster Results Improved Terrain Tool with range settings, erosion layers, and heightmap controls. Live terrain height indicators for more precise sculpting. Quick Scatter Templates for more natural object distribution. Animation Enhancements – Smoother, More Intuitive Motion Optimized Direction Controller for Fly-in/Out Animation Templates. New horizontal and vertical rotation degree settings for precise movement paths. D5 for Teams – Enhanced Collaboration & Cloud Integration OneDrive & SharePoint Integration for seamless project file storage and sharing. Custom Brand Watermarks to add company logos to renders. Optimized 3D Dollhouse Animation for improved virtual tour experiences. Expanded Asset Library – More Ready-to-Use Models 240+ Hotel & Resort Models, including business attire characters, vacationers, and lobby decor items. New Scatter Templates to speed up vegetation and object placement. System Optimizations and Fixes French and Japanese Language Interface support. Customizable Model Position & Size Units (millimeters, centimeters, meters, inches, feet). DLSS 4 Support for enhanced real-time performance on RTX 50 GPUs. Batch Scene Deletion for faster project management. Auto-Save Before Canceling Rendering to prevent data loss. Improved Rendering Queue Management with auto-close options. Final Thoughts: A New Era in Real-Time RenderingThe introduction of real-time path tracing in D5 Render 2.10 represents a groundbreaking leap forward, combining exceptional realism with high-speed performance. This update goes beyond lighting advancements, incorporating AI-powered enhancements, an automated city generator, dynamic weather effects, and an optimized animation system, redefining the possibilities of real-time visualization.Whether you're designing architectural spaces, developing game environments, or exploring the boundaries of 3D artistry, D5 Render 2.10 enables you to achieve cinematic-quality visuals with remarkable efficiency.Step into the future of real-time rendering—download D5 Render 2.10 today and bring your creative vision to life with state-of-the-art technology. Image gallerySee allShow less Cite: "High-Level Realism: Cinematic Rendering Powered by Real-Time Path Tracing" 14 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028360/high-level-realism-cinematic-rendering-powered-by-real-time-path-tracing&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

You don’t need to be a finance wizard to know that software subscriptions aren’t easy on the wallet. Whether you’re starting your own business or a freelancer side hustling your way through a modern economy, it’s important to make sure you know what’s happening in the bank. That means keeping some good accounting software on hand, and is there anything better than QuickBooks for the job? Intuit QuickBooks is an all-in-one accounting tool that actually just went on sale. Instead of paying for lesser software every month forever, you can get a QuickBooks lifetime license on sale for $249.99 (reg. $699).  Quickbooks, software you can account on QuickBooks Pro Plus gives you the full suite of accounting tools to stay on top of your finances without needing a finance degree. You can generate invoices, track expenses, manage sales, and even follow job costs or inventory levels—everything in one place. It’s meant for people who actually need their software to work as hard as they do, whether you’re billing clients, running payroll, or just trying to keep your books clean before tax season. You don’t need to worry about an internet connection, either. QuickBooks runs right on your Windows computer. Your files stay with you, not on some mystery server, and updates are included, so you’re not stuck with outdated tools a year from now. There’s no ongoing cost, no data tracking, and no waiting on a cloud connection to get your numbers. You pay once, and it’s yours for life. And if you’re upgrading from an older version, just ensure your files are compatible.  It’s only $249.99 to get an Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus Lifetime License for one user, but it won’t stay that way.  StackSocial prices subject to change.  Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024 (1 User) for Windows: Lifetime License – $249.99 See Deal What makes this deal special QuickBooks is an accounting staple, but it’s often too expensive for small businesses or freelancers to use. This deal creates a single-user version of enterprise-grade software, and it doesn’t have any subscriptions or hidden fees.

Nature, Published online: 14 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01145-5More Everything Forever dissects the techno-utopian vision gripping Silicon Valley and Washington DC.