Members of Donald Trumps presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration, said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The plan, which aligns with Trumps longstanding criticism of the U.N. health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in U.S. global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major U.S. health agencies including the CDC and FDA.Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect U.S. contributions to domestic health initiatives.A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec. 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the U.S. time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.Critics warn that a U.S. withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.The U.S. would lose influence and clout in global health and China would fill the vacuum. I cant imagine a world without a robust WHO. But U.S. withdrawal would severely weaken the agency, Gostin said.Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein, Reuters

Local studio Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos has designed a concrete house with a large overhang and spaces designed to adapt to the varying needs of its residents near Quito, Ecuador.Known as the Binocular House, the 564-square metre (6,070-square foot) house is located on a residential development called Puembo. It is oriented with a western view of the city of Quito and a rear facade that welcomes the morning sun.Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos has designed a concrete home outside of QuitoGabriel Rivera Arquitectos designed the home during the COVID-19 pandemic and reevaluated the houses to serve as a residence, office, school, and green space all at the same time fostering family unity with a flexible design."From these needs, the architectural concept of the project was born: a solid home with a large interior connection space that relates to nature," the team told Dezeen.The rear facade faces the morning sunThe reinforced concrete house "gives the sensation of floating" with the glazed ground floor set back behind narrow, recycled metal columns and a large overhanging second floor.On the ground floor, screened windows close the home off from the street, while opening up to the back garden. Residents enter at the rounded southwest corner into a double-height living and dining space.The house was designed to function as a home, office, school and greenspace"The double height above the living and dining areas creates a connection between the upper and lower levels, achieving a fluid space that invites users to come downstairs," the team said.An adjacent multipurpose space can be opened to the dining area on one side, and aluminium and glass doors stack up, opening the other side of the social areas to the large covered back porch.Thin black metal cables line a central stairA guest ensuite is tucked away off the kitchen, and the northern end of the house holds the garage and service areas.A central floating staircase with a dark wood zigzag-shaped stringer suspended on thin black metal cables is integrated into the kitchen and leads to the upper level with three bedrooms, a terrace and a multipurpose area that can change based on the needs of the residents.Read: Brick and stucco meet for "harmonious flow" of Quito house"The master bedroom, located to the west with a view of Quito, provides security for the home, while the secondary bedrooms are sheltered and overlook the rear garden."The contemporary interiors are unified by grey porcelain tile floors, white-painted walls, black metal details, dark-coloured wood, and light grey furniture.The interior palette features concrete, dark wood, white-painted walls and grey porcelain floor tilesThe arrangement promotes natural ventilation and lessens the need for air conditioning."Binocular House enhances the quality of life of its users, as it is functional in its architectural design and promotes well-being by maximizing natural light while controlling direct sunlight on its facades, reducing the need for artificial lighting," the team said.Recently, Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos designed a brick house and riding school in the Andes Mountains and a house in Nayn that protected the site's existing trees, allowing them to grow through and around the residence.The photography is by JAG Studio.Project credits:Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos team: Gabriel Rivera, Diego Rivera, Beln Andrade, Danilo Yambay, Pedro Granizo, Margarita QuishpeThe post Gabriel Rivera Arquitectos creates adaptable concrete house in Ecuador appeared first on Dezeen.

Porsche is never shy of trying out new collaborations with creative brands that pitch to the emotions of young audiences who are open to fresh ideas. While Im a big fan of their 911 series sportscars, I would not settle for anything else on four wheels from the German high-performance sports car maker. Or is it?It looks like Porsche has other ideas under its cap to mystify loyal fans like me. Their latest collaboration is with Naughty Dog for their upcoming action-adventure game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, published by Sony. The plot is set thousands of years in the future where the bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun looking for a crime syndicate is stranded on an alien planet.Designer: PorschePorsche captures this sentiment with the the 984 Tempest NDX spacecraft featured in the game, and of course, the preferred space travel companion for the protagonist. Although the game is set in the future, nostalgic elements of the eras gone by are reincarnated to evoke interest. One of them being the jukebox-style Sony CD changer. We can expect to see more 80s stuff in the coming weeks, as confirmed by the Naughty Studio boss Neil Druckmann.The spacecraft has sleek aesthetics and an overdose of retro-futuristic flair. Itll be interesting to see if and when Porsche decides to create a reviewable version of the 984 Tempest NDX, or maybe a concept prototype for everyone to rejoice. We can expect to have more details about this luxury spacecraft set to acquire intergalactic fans. The game trailer already looks impressive, and we are sure Porsche will reveal the life-sized version of the spacecraft anytime before the PlayStation game is finally up for grabs.The post 984 Tempest NDX spacecraft is an intergalactic creation of the Porsche x Naughty Dog collab first appeared on Yanko Design.

From Dune to Alien Romulus and Wicked, it was great year for CGI in movies.

The Trump transition team is looking for big changes at NASAincluding some cuts.

A lot of compute is needed, Mr. Musk said in a post about the financing, in which BlackRock, Fidelity and Sequoia participated.

Apple is ramping up research and development of its own AI chip to reduce its reliance on third-party developers, potentially finally completely ending its decades-long unhappy relationship with Nvidia.Siri icon in a datacenterIn November 2020, Apple announced the M1 chip, its first foray into in-house designed processors for its Mac lineup. The move effectively severed ties between Apple and Intel, the latter responsible for previous processors in Apple's computers.Now, it seems like Apple is gearing up to reduce its reliance on another third-party developer Nvidia. Currently, Apple works with Nvidia to power many of the features behind Apple Intelligence. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

An alarming new study produced by the University of Miami has shown 35 buildings to be sinking at depths of up to 8 centimeters (3.1 inches). They are all located in betweenMiami Beachand its northernmost Sunny Isles Beach neighbor. The subsidence has gone on since at least 2016 and affected multiple structures in the vicinity of the former Champlain Towers South in Surfside, where nearly 100 people were killed tragically in a 2021 building collapse. Roughly half of those documented by the survey were constructed after 2014, according to its authors. (h/t NBC 6 South Florida).

Metaphor: ReFantanzio is one of 2024s best games racking up a stack of Game Awards including best RPG, best art direction, and best narrative. But one category in which Metaphor particularly stood out was its music. The soundtrack, produced by Shoji Meguro the long-time music director of the Persona series, is one of the outstanding achievements in video game music this year, particularly its battle theme which became a viral hit. In an interview with The Verge, Meguro talked about his work on the Metaphor soundtrack including what went into what is perhaps the coolest piece of video game battle music ever made.Meguro, known for his work producing the pop-y, jazzy vibes of the Persona soundtracks, acknowledged that Metaphors heavy orchestral / choral sound is not something Persona fans would expect from him and definitely outside his own wheelhouse. He said in order to effectively change gears from Persona to Metaphor, he had to relearn classical music theory.But thats what makes creating this score so exciting, he said. When I was first told about Metaphor: ReFantazio, I was told it would be an epic, high-fantasy RPG. And immediately I heard the sound of great orchestras playing and thought this might be an opportunity to write songs Ive never really written before, which excited me greatly.In developing the music for Metaphor, Meguro said that he wanted to evoke a classical, fantasy experience but feature a unique twist that he said fans have come to expect from Atlus games. That twist became what Meguro called a spiritual musical style that defines the soundtrack, particularly the battle music.As it was nominated for Game of the Year, Metaphors music made an appearance during this years Game Awards.If youve spent any amount of time on gaming social media this year, youve probably seen tons of posts talking about Metaphors battle music. For a battle theme it goes extremely hard, with one version starting off with an orchestra-backed choir singing with the kind of gusto youd expect for a meeting with Sephiroth, not something that plays during every minor encounter in the game. Then, somehow, the song goes even harder with the addition of a Japanese monk chanting in a rapid-fire cadence that could go toe-to-toe with Eminem. To further elevate the songs, the chants were written in an original language inspired by Esperanto, a language that was invented in 1887 and designed to be used as an internationally universal secondary language.But finding the right voice for the job wasnt easy. I was looking for a specific type of voice that could sustain a fast rhythm while reading Esperanto-inspired scripture, Meguro said.His search led him to YouTube, where scrolling through performances was how he found a monk named Keisuke Honryo performing in Nam Jazz Experiment, a musical group that combines jazz with the recitation of traditional Buddhist sutras. It was so great, I immediately made [Honryo] an offer and luckily he accepted and was happy to be a part of this game.Your fairy sidekick in Metaphor is also your DJ throughout the game. Image: AtlusBut theres a reason why Metaphors battle music is so arresting and its not just because of the musical stylings of a Japanese monk chanting in an invented language inspired by another invented language. Meguro had to reframe his thinking in developing the soundtrack, leading to the creation of something truly unique that changes how players perceive the game.Ive always considered game scores to be similar to UI elements, constructs that exist solely to service the player, Meguro said. Although the score has to capture the atmosphere of the story for the user, its worth reminding ourselves that this music is not actually playing directly within the world the characters are in.Meguro explained that in conversations with the games director Katsura Hashino, the two discussed ways to connect what players are hearing to what the characters are hearing as well.He said the thought experiment allowed them to approach the music composition through a different lens. The idea wound up implemented in the game itself. In Metaphors opening hours, the players sidekick casts a spell that allows them to hear music as they roam about the world and, inevitably, get into fights.That moment dramatically changes the context of all of Metaphors music, especially its battle themes. Taking those songs from fun bits of ambience for solely players and turning them into something the characters experience too, explains why the songs go hard as they do. Every fight for us is one more event on the way to the credits, for the characters its life or death and it makes sense that the music they hear as they fight for their lives, reflects that gravity.Meguro used Metaphors music to bring the players further into the game and hes delighted by how well his work has been received. The two battle songs, called Warriors in Arms and Warriors in Valor instantly resonated with players, inspiring memes and even animated shorts.That brings me so much joy that fans are responding enthusiastically to the music of Metaphor, Meguro said. Its an honor to get that kind of reaction.

Amazon might have released a new Kindle Scribe earlier this month for $399.99, but after testing it, I still dont think it can compete with its rivals. If youre looking for a good e-reader with more useful note-taking capabilities, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is still one of my favorites, and its down to an all-time low of $349.99 ($50 off)atAmazonorTarget. Rakuten Kobo will also throw in $10 in credit when you buy a $50 gift card, which you can use toward buyingbooks or styli.RelatedIf youre the type of person who likes to scribble in margins while reading ebooks, youll likely prefer the Kobo Elipsa 2E. The Elipsa 2E lets you directly write on ebook pages, taking notes in margins or anywhere else youd like, just as you would on paper. The new Kindle Scribe lets you directly write on pages, too, but its a lot more complicated and you cant even circle phrases or words.The Elipsa 2E also offers other helpful features beyond just a more natural note-taking experience. It boasts double the storage (32GB) as the entry-level Kindle Scribe, for example, and accurately converts handwriting into typed text faster than the Scribe. The biggest drawback, of course, is that it doesnt natively support Kindle ebooks, so youll have to convert your library if you want to read them from your Kobo device. Just a few more dealsSonys WH-CH720N noise-canceling headphones are currently down to just $74.99 ($75 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is their all-time low price. Their noise cancellation isnt as effective as rivals like Sonys WH-1000XM5, but for the price, they do a decent job of tuning out noise. They also deliver good sound, support for multipoint Bluetooth connectivity,and up to 35 hours of continuous playback, rendering them a great option if youre on a budget.If youre in need of USB-C chargers, you can buy the Anker PowerPort III and the eco-friendly version of the 30-watt Anker 511 Charger bundled together for $24.99 ($29.99 off) from Best Buy. Both are USB-C chargers thatll quickly power up your phone, laptop, tablet, and electronics, but the 30-watt Anker 511 Charger is smaller and thus more portable with a single port. In contrast, Ankers PowerPort III is a 65-watt wall charger that lets you quickly juice up to three devices at once.If youre looking out for porch pirates, the Blink Outdoor 4 camera is on sale for $49.99 ($50 off) one of its better prices to date at Amazon with a Sync Module 2 included. Blinks 1080p security camera offers better image quality than its predecessor, two-zone package detection, and an impressive two years of battery life. You dont need a premium subscription to record motion events either, thanks to the included Sync Module 2, which lets you record motion-activated video locally (with a USB stick) for free.