The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said it would launch an in-depth probe into Synopsys $35 billion acquisition of Ansys, unless the chip-sector companies can offer a deal that eases the regulators concerns.

Nvidias takeover of Israeli streamlining provider Run:ai cleared a key regulatory hurdle with EU approval without conditions.

Delivering and supporting the right infrastructure for AI, a major challenge in 2024, will remain a top challenge in years to come.

US doctors write billions of prescriptions each year. During 2024, though, one type of drug stood outwonder drugs known as GLP-1 agonists. As of September, one of every 20 prescriptions written for adults was for one of these drugs, according to the health data company Truveta. The drugs, which include Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Victoza, are used to treat diabetes, since they help generate insulin. But their popularity exploded after scientists determined the drugs tell your brain youre not hungry. Without those hunger cues, people find they can lose 10% of their body weight, or even more. During 2024, the drugs popularity hit an all-time high, according to Tricia Rodriguez, a principal applied scientist at Truveta, which studies medical records of 120 million Americans, or about a third of the population. Among adults, 5.4% of all prescriptions in September 2024 were for GLP-1s, Rodriguez says. That is up from 3.5% a year earlier, in 2023, and 1% at the start of 2021. According to Truvetas data, people who get prescriptions for these drugs are younger, whiter, and more likely to be female. In fact, women are twice as likely as men to get a prescription. Yet not everyone whos prescribed the drugs ends up taking them. In fact, Rodriguez says, half the new prescriptions for obesity are going unfilled. Thats very unusual, she says, and could be due to shortages or sticker shock over the cost of the treatment. Many insurers don t cover weight-loss drugs, and the out-of-pocket price can be $1,300 a month, according to USA Today. For most medications, prescribing rates and dispensing rates are pretty much identical, says Rodriguez. But for GLP-1s, we see this gap, which is really unique. It's suggestive that people are really interested in getting these medications, but for whatever reason, they are not always able to. It also means the number of people taking these drugs could go highermaybe much higherif insurers would pay. I don't think that we are at the saturation point, or necessarily nearing the saturation point, says Rodriguez, noting that around 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. Use of the drugs may also grow dramatically if new applications are found. Companies are already exploring whether they can treat addiction, or even Alzheimers. Many of the clues about those potential uses are coming directly out of peoples medical records. Because so many people are on the drugs, it means researchers like Rodriguez have a gold mine to sift through for signs of how use of the drugs is affecting other health problems. Because we have so many patients that are on these medications, you're certainly likely to have a good number that also have all of these other conditions, she says. One of the things we're excited about is: How can real-world data help accelerate how quickly we can understand those? Here are some of the new uses of GLP-1 drugs that are being explored, based on hints from real-world patient records. Alzheimers disease This year, researchers poking through records of a million people found that taking semaglutide (sold as Wegovy and Ozempic) was associated with a 40% to 70% lower chance of an Alzheimers diagnosis. It's still a guess why the drugs might be helping (or whether they really do), but large international studies are underway to follow up on the lead. Doctors are recruiting people with early Alzheimers in more than 30 countries who will take either a placebo or semaglutide for two years. Then well see how much their dementia has progressed. Addiction The anecdotes are everywhere: A person on a weight-loss drug finds hunger isnt the only craving that seems to stop. Those are the types of clues Eli Lillys CEO, David Ricks, says his company will pursue next year, testing whether its GLP-1 drug, tirzepatide (called Mounjaro for diabetes treatment, and Zepbound for weight loss), could help with addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and other things we dont think about [as being] connected to weight. In comments he made in December, Ricks said the drugs might be anti-hedonicsmeaning they counteract our hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, be it from food, alcohol, or drugs. A study this year mining digital health records found that opioid addicts taking the drugs were about half as likely to have had an overdose. Sleep apnea This idea goes back a ways, including to a 2015 case study of a 260-pound man with diabetes and sleep apnea. When he went on the drug liraglutide, doctors noticed that his sleeping improved. In sleep apnea, a person gasps for air at nightits annoying and, with time, causes health problems. This year, Eli Lilly published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine on its drugtirzepatide , finding that it caused a 50% decrease in breathing interruption in overweight patients with sleep apnea. Longevity This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy as a cardiovascular medicine, after researchers showed the drugs could reduce heart attack and stroke in overweight people. But that wasnt all. The study, involving 17,000 people, found that the drug reduced the overall chance someone would die for any reason (known as all-cause mortality) by 19%. That now has aging researchers paying attention. This year they named Wegovy, and drugs like it, among their the top four candidates for a general life-extension drug.

Networks programmed directly into computer chip hardware can identify images faster, and use much less energy, than the traditional neural networks that underpin most modern AI systems. Thats according to work presented at a leading machine learning conference in Vancouver last week. Neural networks, from GPT-4 to Stable Diffusion, are built by wiring together perceptrons, which are highly simplified simulations of the neurons in our brains. In very large numbers, perceptrons are powerful, but they also consume enormous volumes of energyso much that Microsoft has penned a deal that will reopen Three Mile Island to power its AI advancements. Part of the trouble is that perceptrons are just software abstractionsrunning a perceptron network on a GPU requires translating that network into the language of hardware, which takes time and energy. Building a network directly from hardware components does away with a lot of those costs. One day, they could even be built directly into chips used in smartphones and other devices, dramatically reducing the need to send data to and from servers. Felix Petersen, who did this work as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, has a strategy for making that happen. He designed networks composed of logic gates, which are some of the basic building blocks of computer chips. Made up of a few transistors apiece, logic gates accept two bits1s or 0sas inputs and, according to a rule determined by their specific pattern of transistors, output a single bit. Just like perceptrons, logic gates can be chained up into networks. And running logic-gate networks is cheap, fast, and easy: in his talk at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference, Petersen said that they consume less energy than perceptron networks by a factor of hundreds of thousands. Logic-gate networks dont perform nearly as well as traditional neural networks on tasks like image labeling. But the approachs speed and efficiency make it promising, according to Zhiru Zhang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University. If we can close the gap, then this could potentially open up a lot of possibilities on this edge of machine learning, he says. Petersen didnt go looking for ways to build energy-efficient AI networks. He came to logic gates through an interest in differentiable relaxations, or strategies for wrangling certain classes of mathematical problems into a form that calculus can solve. It really started off as a mathematical and methodological curiosity, he says. Backpropagation, the training algorithm that made the deep-learning revolution possible, was an obvious use case for this approach. Because backpropagation runs on calculus, it cant be used directly to train logic-gate networks. Logic gates only work with 0s and 1s, and calculus demands answers about all the fractions in between. Petersen devised a way to relax logic-gate networks enough for backpropagation by creating functions that work like logic gates on 0s and 1s but also give answers for intermediate values. He ran simulated networks with those gates through training and then converted the relaxed logic-gate network back into something that he could implement in computer hardware. One challenge with this approach is that training the relaxed networks is tough. Each node in the network could end up as any one of 16 different logic gates, and the 16 probabilities associated with each of those gates must be kept track of and continually adjusted. That takes a huge amount of time and energyduring his NeurIPS talk, Petersen said that training his networks takes hundreds of times longer than training conventional neural networks on GPUs. At universities, which cant afford to amass hundreds of thousands of GPUs, that amount of GPU time can be tough to swingPetersen developed these networks, in collaboration with his colleagues, at Stanford University and the University of Konstanz. It definitely makes the research tremendously hard, he says. Once the network has been trained, though, things get way, way cheaper. Petersen compared his logic-gate networks with a cohort of other ultra-efficient networks, such as binary neural networks, which use simplified perceptrons that can process only binary values. The logic-gate networks did just as well as these other efficient methods at classifying images in the CIFAR-10 data set, which includes 10 different categories of low-resolution pictures, from frog to truck. It achieved this with fewer than a tenth of the logic gates required by those other methods, and in less than a thousandth of the time. Petersen tested his networks using programmable computer chips called FPGAs, which can be used to emulate many different potential patterns of logic gates; implementing the networks in non-programmable ASIC chips would reduce costs even further, because programmable chips need to use more components in order to achieve their flexibility. Farinaz Koushanfar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego, says she isnt convinced that logic-gate networks will be able to perform when faced with more realistic problems. Its a cute idea, but Im not sure how well it scales, she says. She notes that the logic-gate networks can only be trained approximately, via the relaxation strategy, and approximations can fail. That hasnt caused issues yet, but Koushanfar says that it could prove more problematic as the networks grow. Nevertheless, Petersen is ambitious. He plans to continue pushing the abilities of his logic-gate networks, and he hopes, eventually, to create what he calls a hardware foundation model. A powerful, general-purpose logic-gate network for vision could be mass-produced directly on computer chips, and those chips could be integrated into devices like personal phones and computers. That could reap enormous energy benefits, Petersen says. If those networks could effectively reconstruct photos and videos from low-resolution information, for example, then far less data would need to be sent between servers and personal devices. Petersen acknowledges that logic-gate networks will never compete with traditional neural networks on performance, but that isnt his goal. Making something that works, and that is as efficient as possible, should be enough. It wont be the best model, he says. But it should be the cheapest.

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. Later today, around 10 minutes after this email lands in your inbox, Ill be holding my four-year-old daughter tight as she receives her booster dose of the MMR vaccine. This shot should protect her from a trio of nasty infectionsinfections that can lead to meningitis, blindness, and hearing loss. I feel lucky to be offered it. This year marks the 50-year anniversary of an ambitious global childhood vaccination program. The Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched by the World Health Organization in 1974 with the goal of getting lifesaving vaccines to all the children on the planet. Vaccines are estimated to have averted 154 million deaths since the launch of the EPI. That number includes 146 million children under the age of five. Vaccination efforts are estimated to have reduced infant mortality by 40%, and to have contributed an extra 10 billion years of healthy life among the global population. Childhood vaccination is a success story. But concerns around vaccines endure. Especially, it seems, among the individuals Donald Trump has picked as his choices to lead US health agencies from January. This week, lets take a look at their claims, and where the evidence really stands on childhood vaccines. WHO, along with health agencies around the world, recommends a suite of vaccinations for babies and young children. Some, such as the BCG vaccine, which offers some protection against tuberculosis, are recommended from birth. Others, like the vaccines for pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, which are often administered in a single shot, are introduced at eight weeks. Other vaccinations and booster doses follow. The idea is to protect babies as soon as possible, says Kaja Abbas of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK and Nagasaki University in Japan. The full vaccine schedule will depend on what infections pose the greatest risks and will vary by country. In the US, the recommended schedule is determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and individual states can opt to set vaccine mandates or allow various exemptions. Some scientists are concerned about how these rules might change in January, when Donald Trump makes his return to the White House. Trump has already listed his picks for top government officials, including those meant to lead the countrys health agencies. These individuals must be confirmed by the Senate before they can assume these roles, but it appears that Trump intends to surround himself with vaccine skeptics. For starters, Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who has long been a prominent anti-vaxxer, has a track record of spreading false information about vaccines. In 2005, he published an error-laden article in Salon and Rolling Stone linking thimerosalan antifungal preservative that was previously used in vaccines but phased out in the US by 2001to neurological disorders in children. (That article was eventually deleted in 2011. I regret we didnt move on this more quickly, as evidence continued to emerge debunking the vaccines and autism link, wrote Joan Walsh, Salons editor at large at the time.) Kennedy hasnt let up since. In 2015, he made outrageous comments about childhood vaccinations at a screening of a film that linked thimerosal to autism. They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone, Kennedy said, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country. Aaron Siri, the lawyer who has been helping Kennedy pick health officials for the upcoming Trump administration, has petitioned the government to pause the distribution of multiple vaccines and to revoke approval of the polio vaccine entirely. And Dave Weldon, Trumps pick to direct the CDC, also has a history of vaccine skepticism. He has championed the disproven link between thimerosal and autism. These arguments arent new. The MMR vaccine in particular has been subject to debate, controversy, and conspiracy theories for decades. All the way back in 1998, a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published a paper suggesting a link between the vaccine and autism in children. The study has since been debunkedmultiple times overand Wakefield was found to have unethically subjected children to invasive and unnecessary procedures. The paper was retracted 12 years after it was published, and the UKs General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct. He was struck off the medical register and is no longer allowed to practice medicine in the UK. (He continues to peddle false information, though, and directed the 2016 film Vaxxed, which Weldon appeared in.) So its remarkable that his study still seems to be affecting public opinion. A recent Pew Research Center survey suggests that four in 10 US adults worry that not all vaccines are necessary, and while most Americans think the benefits outweigh any risks, some are still concerned about side effects. Views among Republicans in particular seem to have shifted over the years. In 2019, 82% supported school-based vaccine requirements. That figure dropped to 70% in 2023. The problem is that we need more than 70% of children to be vaccinated to reach herd immunitythe level needed to protect communities. For a super-contagious infection like measles, 95% of the population needs to be vaccinated, according to WHO. If [coverage drops to] 80%, we should expect outbreaks, says Abbas. And thats exactly what is happening. In 2023, only 83% of children got their first dose of a measles vaccine through routine health services. Nearly 35 million children are thought to have either partial protection from the disease or none at all. And over the last five years, there have been measles outbreaks in 103 countries. Polio vaccinesthe ones whose approval Siri sought to revokehave also played a vital role in protecting children, in this case from a devastating infection that can cause paralysis. People were so afraid of polio in the 30s, 40s, and 50s here in the United States, says William Moss, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. When the trial results of [the first] vaccine were announced in the United States, people were dancing in the streets. That vaccine was licensed in the US in 1955. By 1994, polio was considered eliminated in North and South America. Today, wild forms of the virus have been eradicated in all but two countries. But the polio vaccine story is not straightforward. There are two types of polio vaccine: an injected type that includes a dead form of the virus, and an oral version that includes live virus. This virus can be shed in feces, and in places with poor sanitation, it can spread. It can also undergo genetic changes to create a form of the virus that can cause paralysis. Although this is rare, it does happenand today there are more cases of vaccine-derived polio than wild-type polio. It is worth noting that since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of the oral polio vaccine have been administered to almost 3 billion children. It is estimated that more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented through these efforts. But there have been just under 760 cases of vaccine-derived polio. We could prevent these cases by switching to the injected vaccine, which wealthy countries have already done. But thats not easy in countries with fewer resources and those trying to reach children in remote rural areas or war zones. Even the MMR vaccine is not entirely risk-free. Some people will experience minor side effects, and severe allergic reactions, while rare, can occur. And neither vaccine offers 100% protection against disease. No vaccine does. Even if you vaccinate 100% [of the population], I dont think well be able to attain herd immunity for polio, says Abbas. Its important to acknowledge these limitations. While there are some small risks, though, they are far outweighed by the millions of lives being saved. [People] often underestimate the risk of the disease and overestimate the risk of the vaccine, says Moss. In some ways, vaccines have become a victim of their own success. Most of todays parents fortunately have never seen the tragedy caused by vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles encephalitis, congenital rubella syndrome, and individuals crippled by polio, says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit that conducts research on health risks to children. With some individuals benefiting from the propagation of scary messages about vaccines and the proliferation of social media providing reinforcement, its no surprise that fears may endure. But most Americans recognize the benefits of vaccines and choose to get their children immunized, she adds. Now, that is a sentiment I can relate to. Now read the rest of The Checkup Read more from MIT Technology Review's archive A couple of years ago, the polio virus was detected in wastewater in London, where I live. I immediately got my daughter (who was only one year old then!) vaccinated. Measles outbreaks continue to spring up in places where vaccination rates drop. Researchers hope that searching for traces of the virus in wastewater could help them develop early warning systems. Last year, the researchers whose work paved the way for the development of mRNA vaccines were awarded the Nobel Prize. Now, scientists are hoping to use the same technology to treat and vaccinate against a host of diseases. Most vaccines work by priming the immune system to respond to a pathogen. Scientists are also working on inverse vaccines that teach the immune system to stand down. They might help treat autoimmune disorders. From around the web A person in the US is the first in the country to have become severely ill after being infected with the bird flu virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared on December 18. The case was confirmed on December 13. The person was exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks in Louisiana. (CDC) Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, declared a state of emergency as the bird flu virus moved from the Central Valley to Southern California dairy herds. Since August, 645 herds have been reported to be infected with the virus. (LA Times) Pharmacy benefit managers control access to prescription drugs for most Americans. These middlemen were paid billions of dollars by drug companies to allow the free flow of opioids during the USs deadly addiction epidemic, an investigation has revealed. (New York Times) Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic have emerged as blockbuster medicines over the past couple of years. Were learning that they may have benefits beyond weight loss. Might they also protect organ function or treat kidney disease? (Nature Medicine) Doctors and scientists have been attempting head transplants on animals for decades. Can they do it in people? Watch this delightful cartoon to learn more about the early head transplant attempts. (Aeon)

"Klaus" is one of the most recently made movies to be considered a Christmas classic."Klaus" stars Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons and Rashida Jones. Netflix Summary: As Norway's worst postal student, Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) is exiled to Smeerensburg and instructed to deliver 6,000 letters within a year. Through befriending a carpenter named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) and a teacher named Alva (Rashida Jones), Jesper is able to bring joy back to the town.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%Why you should watch it: Critics praised the beautiful animation and hopeful narrative. "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey" is fun for the whole family."Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey" stars Forest Whitaker and Keegan-Michael Key. Netflix Summary: In this magical musical, toymaker Jeronicus Jangle (Forest Whitaker) teams up with his granddaughter Journey (Madalen Mills) to recover an invention stolen from him long ago and restore his legacy.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%Why you should watch it: Critics said the film is creative and fun for adults and kids alike. If you love musicals and the magic of Christmas, "Jingle Jangle" is fun to watch. The likable cast of "Let It Snow" elevates a cliched story."Let It Snow" stars Odeya Rush, Liv Hewson, Kiernan Shipka, Shameik Moore, and Jacob Batalon. Steve Wilkie / Netflix Summary: "Let It Snow" is a holiday rom-com about a group of young people in a small town in Illinois who are forced together by a snowstorm.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%Why you should watch it: "Let It Snow" is more diverse than the typical Christmas rom-com, and critics praised the charming young cast. "White Christmas" is a fun Christmas musical."White Christmas" stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Paramount Pictures Summary: The 1954 musical follows two former soldiers-turned-performers as they meet a beautiful sister singing duo. The two groups must work together to save the lodge owned by the soldiers' former commander.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%Why you should watch it: Critics said "White Christmas" is warm and cozy. Perfect for a winter afternoon. "Hot Frosty" is not as bad as it sounds.Dustin Milligan as Jack Snowman and Lacey Chabert as Kathy Barrett in "Hot Frosty." Netflix Summary: Lacey Chabert stars as Kathy, a grieving widow who accidentally brings a snowman to life with a magic scarf. When she takes the responsibility of looking after the living snowman (Dustin Milligan), she gains a new perspective on life.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%Why you should watch it: On the surface, "Hot Frosty" seems like a silly film about a hot snowman, but it's also the perfect self-aware cozy movie to watch during the holidays. "Carry-on" is the new "Die Hard."Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek in "Carry-On." Sam Lothridge / Netflix Summary: Taron Egerton stars as a young, apathetic TSA agent who is blackmailed by a mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) into allowing a mysterious package through security checks. The agent instead tries to stop the package from reaching its destination while protecting his loved ones.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%Why you should watch it: This is the closest thing to "Die Hard" on Netflix's catalog. A fun, electrifying thriller set on Christmas Eve, where one man takes on a team of highly trained terrorists. The sequels to "The Princess Switch" are not as good as the original."The Princess Switch" series stars Vanessa Hudgens as lookalikes. Netflix Summary: In the "Princess Switch" franchise, Vanessa Hudgens plays numerous lookalikes who bump into each other during the Christmas season in the kingdom of Belgravia. Chaos ensues.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 53% - 56%Why you should skip it: While the first "Princess Switch" was received reasonably well, the sequels "The Princess Switch: Switched Again" and "The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star" overdid it with the switching. The sequels to "A Christmas Prince" are also disappointing.The "A Christmas Prince" series stars Rose McIver and Ben Lamb. Cos Aelenei / Netflix Summary: This franchise stars Rose McIver as a magazine journalist who falls for a prince while trying to write an expos about him.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36% - 50%Why you should skip it: "A Christmas Prince" was fun, but sequels "A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding" and "A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby" made this royal love story outstay its welcome. Critics slammed the "Holidate" for being bland."Holidate" stars Emma Roberts as Sloane Reed and Luke Bracey as Jackson. Steve Dietl / Netflix Summary: Sloane (Emma Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey) are sick of bad dates and meddling family members. When they have a chance encounter, they decide to pretend to be a couple for the holidays. The arrangement works until they start to grow feelings for each other.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45%Why you should skip it: Roberts and Bracey have great chemistry, but critics thought the film was mediocre. "A Bad Moms Christmas" was another poor Christmas sequel.Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell in "A Bad Moms Christmas." STX Entertainment Summary: In the Christmassy sequel to "Bad Moms," Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn return as three mothers living life to the fullest, defying social expectations. This time, they are rebelling against their mothers, who are making the holidays difficult.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 32%Why you should skip it: Critics said the sequel was not as funny or charming as the original "Bad Moms." "A Bad Moms Christmas" is fun to watch once, but it won't become a Christmas classic. "Our Little Secret," Lindsay Lohan's third holiday movie, disappointed critics.Ian Harding as Logan and Lindsay Lohan as Avery in "Our Little Secret." Bob Mahoney/Netflix Summary: Ian Harding and Lindsay Lohan team up as two exes forced to be nice to each other at a family Christmas gathering when they discover their new lovers are siblings.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%Why you should skip it: Lindsay Lohan's Netflix holiday movies are divisive: you either love how bad they are or are completely bored by them. Critics said "Our Little Secret" is better than Lohan's other two movies but still formulaic, and the two lead stars have poor chemistry. Critics said "Best. Christmas. Ever!" was not the best Christmas movie.Heather Graham, Brandy Norwood, and Madison Validum in "Best. Christmas. Ever!" Scott Everett White/Netflix Summary: Charlotte (Heather Graham) is envious of her old college friend Jackie (Brandy Norwood), who sends a Christmas letter every year about her family's accomplishments. When Charlotte and her family get stuck at Jackie's house for Christmas, Charlotte attempts to expose Jackie for lying about her perfect life.Rotten Tomatoes Score: 40%Why you should skip it: Critics were not enthused by this film, with most saying that the story was poor and did not make much sense.

Bernie Sanders says Elon Musk is using his wealth and political clout to undermine US democracy.Musk lambasted a government funding deal and said a shutdown would be the Democrats' fault."Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?" Sanders asked on X.Elon Musk is wielding his immense wealth and political power to pressure US lawmakers, shifting America from democracy to oligarchy, Sen. Bernie Sanders says.In two recent X posts, the Vermont senator called out Musk's influence over Republicans and his warnings to legislators if they don't vote the way he wants."The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government," he wrote late Wednesday. "Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected. Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk? This is oligarchy at work.""Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays," he said in a Thursday post. "Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?"Musk blasted the funding bill in question as bloated and overcomplicated and wrote on X that "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"He threw his weight behind Republicans' alternative bill, hailing it as cleaner and simpler. Moreover, he posted that it would be the Democratic Party's fault if an agreement isn't reached and the government shuts down.Both Trump's team and Musk have pushed back against the idea that he's pulling Republicans' strings. Musk has said he's only bringing things to the attention of his followers, and they're free to voice their support.The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's net worth hit a record $486 billion on Tuesday, up $257 billion from the start of the year a figure that exceeds the fortune of the world's second-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Tesla stock has slid since then, but Musk was still worth $455 billion at Thursday's close.As Sanders wrote, Musk's wealth surged after President Trump's election victory asTesla stock rode a broader market rally, and investors wagered the automaker would benefit from Musk's close ties to the White House. Additionally, SpaceX was valued at a record $350 billion this month, boosting the worth of Musk's stake in the rocket company.Sanders has called out Musk several times in his criticisms of wealth inequality, which often single out billionaires for having too much influence and paying too little in taxes."Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people had so much wealth and so much power," he said in a clip from "Meet the Press" that he recently shared on X."We can't go around the world saying, 'Oh well, you know in Russia, Putin has an oligarchy," Sanders continued. "Well, we've got an oligarchy here, too."The progressive lawmaker has also clashed with Musk's Big Tech peers. Sanders recently told Bill Gates that he was a "very innovative guy" who deserved to be financially rewarded for his contributions to society as Microsoft's cofounder but not to the tune of billions of dollars."How much do you deserve? Can you make it on a billion? Think you could feed the family? Probably. Pay the rent? Maybe," Sanders quipped.In response to Sanders saying billionaires shouldn't exist in 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now the world's third-richest person, agreed that "some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."

New legislation in New York intends to crackdown on the black market for restaurant reservations.The law will restrict third-party agents from selling reservations to the highest bidders.New York's Gov. Kathy Hochul says it gives everyone "a chance to get a seat at the dinner table."For the last few years, New York's dining scene hasn't exactly been a democracy. From Reddit users scalping coveted restaurant spots for $1,500 to third-party agents using AI bots to hoard reservations and sell them to the highest bidders, eating out in New York evolved into a gamified legal black market where the biggest spenders stood a better chance at winning a seat at the table.Now, a new law, signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday, seeks to democratize New York's renowned dining culture.Legislation S.9365A/A.10215A prohibits "third-party restaurant reservation services from arranging unauthorized reservations," per the governor's website.It intends to crack down on the "predatory marketplace" that requires diners to either pay extra before they set foot in a restaurant or make it "inaccessible" for those who refuse. Gov. Hochul says the new bill will end New York's "predatory" dining scene. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images "New York is home to some of the best restaurants in the world, and whether you're returning to your favorite local spot or trying out the latest in fine dining, you deserve a fair system," Gov. Hochul said. New York State Restaurant Association President and CEO Melissa Fleischut, echoed Gov. Hochul and said AI bots stockpiling reservations have "wreaked havoc" on New York restaurants by increasing "no-show" rates. "Food and beverage orders, employee schedules, and many other aspects of a restaurant rely on accurately predicting how many customers will show on a given night," Fleischut said. Third-party vendors charged diners for reservations before they set foot in restaurants. Lars Niki/Getty Images for HSN The bill doesn't impact legitimate reservation platforms like SevenRooms and Resy, which work directly with restaurants.Not everyone is convinced legislation S.9365A/A.10215A will protect both businesses and consumers.Speaking to Bloomberg, Jonas Frey, who founded the Appointment Trader website, said New York's dining scene will still favor the rich who can splurge on concierge services or book via prepay sellers."If Appointment Trader were to shut down tomorrow in New York City, no one that doesn't have a relationship or doesn't want to prepay $1,000 would be able to go to Carbone or 4 Charles Prime Rib or Tatiana for that matter," Frey, whose website will be impacted by the new law, said.

Is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas coming soon? It depends who you ask. Since last week, multiple news reports have indicated there has been a breakthrough in negotiations between the two sides. But other reports indicate there are still large gaps to overcome, and the exact nature of the conditions necessary to get to a ceasefire and hostage deal remains murky.If one does emerge, however, one person will try to take credit for it: Donald J. Trump.On Monday, the president-elect held a press conference where he echoed remarks his account posted on Truth Social threatening all hell to pay if hostages held in Gaza were not released by the time he took office.Ill be very available on January 20th, he said. And well see. As you know, I gave a warning that if these hostages arent back home by that date, all hells gonna break out.Since the conflict erupted on October 7, 2023, a comprehensive hostage deal and ceasefire has remained elusive (though a pause in the Israeli offensive in November 2023 allowed for the release of 50 hostages taken on October 7 in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and more aid to Gaza). This week, however, a senior Palestinian negotiator told the BBC that talks are in a decisive and final phase and both Israeli and American officials were reportedly traveling to participate in ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar. Reporting by the Wall Street Journal and NBC suggests that Trumps decision to insert himself into negotiations has helped to push Hamas toward a deal. To understand what effect a looming Trump presidency might be having on the talks and the future of the conflict, Today, Explained sat down with Steven A. Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Cook spoke with Today, Explained co-host Noel King about the prospects for a ceasefire, Trumps track record on Israel, and how Trump might approach Israel and the ongoing conflict during his second term. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. Theres much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Noel KingHow did Trump approach Israel in his first term?Steven CookWell, Trump was a very pro-Israel president, which is saying something because most presidents actually are very pro-Israel. He moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, [a change] that had been law since the late 1990s but no president had ever acted on it. He recognized Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights and turned a blind eye to the worst excesses of the Israeli government when it came to settlements in the West Bank. Noel KingDonald Trump is always being buffeted by two competing narratives. One of them is that things in the Middle East are very hard to get done, to the degree that, often, nothing gets done. And the other is Donald Trump just gets things done. Was it hard for Trump to get done on Israel what he did in his first term?Steven CookWell, no, because he basically did it by presidential fiat. First, as I said, the move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was something that was a law that Congress passed, I believe, in 1998. So it just was a matter of the president saying, Im going to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Previous presidents had said, for national security reasons, we dont want to prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Therefore, were going to keep things as they are, even though we have the right to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump said, No, Im going to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He didnt get anything from the Israelis for it, which was likely a diplomatic mistake, but it was really something that he was doing to placate his evangelical base, which [wants] very, very strong US support for Israel and maximalist Israeli policies. Noel KingThe world has arguably gotten more complex since Donald Trumps last term. Russia, Ukraine, October 7th, every nation that was pulled in after October 7th. Do you think Trump and his foreign policy team recognize things may be more complicated this time around?Steven CookYoud like to think that they do, that theyre in touch with reality. Some of the statements that Trump has made about the region would suggest that he thinks hes just going to pick up where he left off when he reluctantly left office in January 2021. Hes been talking about expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia. That has been greatly complicated as a result of the war in the Gaza Strip. The Saudi price for normalization has gone up steeply since the war began. And now the Saudis are demanding an actual two-state solution, something that the Israelis are not prepared to even entertain at this moment.The president also seems to think that he can just say there needs to be a hostage deal and there will be a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip. I think he, at least in his statements, doesnt recognize how dramatically different the region is from when he left office.Noel KingDo any of his appointments reflect the major changes the region has undergone?Steven CookThe national security adviser-designate, Congressman Mike Walz, is someone who is a very pro-Israel personality. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), whos been designated to be the secretary of state, also has very strong pro-Israel credentials. And of course, his [designate for] UN permanent representative is Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman from New York, who made a name for herself for being pugnaciously pro-Israel, as well as taking on elite college presidents in those famous hearings after the October 7 attacks. And then there is Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, whos been named US ambassador to Israel, who is a very, very pro-Israel figure. He doesnt recognize the Palestinian people as a nation. And he doesnt regard Israels settlement in the West Bank as illegal. This is an administration that is very pro-Israel. But of course, these people may end up just being implementers, bit players in what President Trump decides to do. And based on his first term, what he decides to do is what his gut tells him. He sees himself as a great negotiator, and I think at least on the two-state solution and on Irans nuclear program, that self-perception as a great negotiator and dealmaker may cause tension with an Israeli government that has other views on these two issues.Noel KingWhat do we know of the truth about what Trump and Netanyahu think of each other?Steven CookWell, I read Jared Kushners memoir of his time in the White House so that no one else had to. It was truly a dreadful read. But one of the things I learned was that with Netanyahu and Trump, there was a very significant trust deficit between the two leaders. Trump was always concerned that Netanyahu was going to double-cross him and in those series of elections that the Israelis had while Trump was in office, Trump was actually rooting for Benny Gantz, who was the former IDF chief of staff who leads in an opposition party. Netanyahu was always worried that Trump would run afoul of Israels interests, like sit down and negotiate with the Iranians over a new nuclear deal. Add to that the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu relatively quickly called President Joe Biden when his election was confirmed in November 2020, [which] angered President Trump. So ever since Trumps reelection, Netanyahu has made a real effort to call Trump, placate Trump, what have you. But I still think that that trust deficit remains because Trump has a different view of things like the two-state solution and the Iran nuclear program than the Israelis do.Noel KingIt is Tuesday afternoon as we speak and were hearing a ceasefire may be near. When do you think well get a ceasefire? Steven CookIve been listening to columnists and others telling me that a ceasefire is imminent since at least February 2024. And what I know is that Hamas, and the person of [former Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar, who the Israelis killed a number of months ago, was not interested in a ceasefire, believing that Hamas was winning the conflict because theres a total war, and even though the Israelis were doing a lot of damage to Hamass cadres in the Gaza Strip, Israels international legitimacy was suffering greatly as a result of the conflict. And for Yahya Sinwar and others within Hamas, this was one of the goals, to undermine Israels legitimacy in the international order. And then, of course, on the Israeli side, the settlers did not want a ceasefire. They want the quote-unquote total destruction of Hamas to clear the way for the Israelis to resettle the Gaza Strip. So there was no real incentive for a ceasefire. Things have changed significantly since then, however. The Israelis have done a tremendous amount of damage to Hezbollah, Irans primary proxy in Lebanon, to the point that Hezbollah has been forced to cut a deal with Israel and theres now a ceasefire in Lebanon. That leaves Hamas standing alone, which means Hamas now needs to make a decision: Will it save the remnants of itself by cutting a deal with the Israelis, or will it fight on believing that the continued fight will damage Israel internationally and that theyre going to play the long game? Some of the indications coming from Israeli ministers and others, the Egyptians and others, are that Hamas has dropped a major sticking point, which is that they demanded that all Israeli forces leave the Gaza Strip. So that may pave the way towards a ceasefire and a hostage exchange. Noel KingThere are a million reasons to want a ceasefire here, not least of which is the humanitarian catastrophe, which has unfolded for more than a year. But in the blunt calculus of politics, if we do get a ceasefire before Donald Trump is inaugurated, who gets the win? Trump? Biden? Will they fight over it?Steven CookCertainly Trump will claim it. The Biden team will also claim it. Theyve been working at this since the very beginning. I would say that the credit goes to the IDF the IDF smashed Hezbollah, something that no Western analysts believe that they could do without utter destruction of Israeli population centers. And so once Hezbollah sued for a ceasefire, Hamas really was alone and without any recourse whatsoever. Of course Donald Trump will claim it. Thats why hes been posting on Truth Social and said in his first press conference that there would be hell to pay if the hostages werent returned by the time hes inaugurated. Hes essentially setting it up so he takes the credit for it.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: