Once that date hits, “really that’s it,” Yellen said on “This Week.” “We have been using extraordinary measures for several months now, and our ability to do that is running out.”
The debate over the debt limit has left Democrats and Republicans in a deadlock, and so far neither side seems ready to budge. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Democrats are in “lockstep” with Biden, who has called for passing a clean debt ceiling, not tied to any of the spending cuts House Republicans proposed in the bill they passed last month.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said a letter had been sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying 43 Republicans backed House Republicans in saying they would not consent to passing a debt ceiling increase without “spending cuts and structural budget reform.” He said he expects Senate Republicans to stay united on the issue.
“As Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House, meets with the White House, it’s imperative that he arrive in a position of negotiating power,” Lee said.
Should Congress fail to come to an agreement before the X date, some analysts have suggested that Biden could invoke the 14th Amendment, which confirms “the validity of the public debt,” to raise the ceiling unilaterally. Legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe wrote of that option in the New York Times on Sunday: “For a president to pick the lesser of two evils when no other option exists is the essence of constitutional leadership, not the action of a tyrant.”
But it’s an option Yellen doesn’t want to White House to have to consider.
“Look, all I want to say is that it’s Congress’s job to do this,” she said. “If they fail to do it, we will have an economic and financial catastrophe that will be of our own making and there is no action that President Biden and the U.S. Treasury can take to prevent that catastrophe.”
If Congress does fail to find common ground, “there are simply no good options,” Yellen said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A Japanese startup attempting the first private landing on the moon has lost communication with its spacecraft and said that it assumes the lunar mission had failed.
Ispace said that it could not establish communication with the uncrewed Hakuto-R lunar lander after its expected landing time, a frustrating end to a mission that began with a launch from the US more than four months ago.
“We have not confirmed communication with the lander,” a company official told reporters about 25 minutes after the expected landing on Wednesday.
“We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” the official said.
Officials said they would continue to try and establish contact with the spacecraft, which was carrying payloads from several countries, including a lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates.
Takeshi Hakamada, the Ispace founder and CEO, said after the apparent failed landing that the company had acquired data from the spacecraft all the way up to the planned landing and would be examining that for signs of what happened.
The lander, standing just over 2 metres (6.5 feet) tall and weighing 340 kg, has been in lunar orbit since last month. Its descent and landing was fully automated and it was supposed to reestablish communication as soon as it touched down.
So far only the US, Russia and China have managed to put a spacecraft on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programmes.
In April 2019, Israeli organisation SpaceIL watched its lander crash into the moon’s surface.
India also attempted to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2019, but it crashed.
Two US companies, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are scheduled to attempt moon landings later this year. “We congratulate the ispace inc team on accomplishing a significant number of milestones on their way to today’s landing attempt,” Astrobotic said in a tweet.
“We hope everyone recognises – today is not the day to shy away from pursuing the lunar frontier, but a chance to learn from adversity and push forward.”
Ispace, which listed its shares on the Tokyo stock exchange growth market earlier this month, was already planning its next mission before the failure of Hakuto-R.
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The spacecraft, whose name references the moon-dwelling white rabbit in Japanese folklore, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 11 December, on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.
The lander carried several lunar rovers, including a round, baseball-sized robot jointly developed by Japan’s space agency and toy manufacturer Takara Tomy, the creator of the Transformer toys.
It also had the 10kg chair-sized Rashid rover developed by the United Arab Emirates, and an experimental imaging system from Canadensys Aerospace.
With just 200 employees, ispace has said it “aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the moon”.
Hakamada touted the mission as laying “the groundwork for unleashing the moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system”.
The firm believes the moon will support a population of 1,000 people by 2040, with 10,000 more visiting each year.
It plans a second mission, tentatively scheduled for next year, involving both a lunar landing and the deployment of its own rover.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
New Delhi: AI chatbot ChatGPT is still no match for humans when it comes to accounting and while it is a game changer in several fields, the researchers say the AI still has work to do in the realm of accounting.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI has launched its newest AI chatbot product, GPT-4 which uses machine learning to generate natural language text, passed the bar exam with a score in the 90th percentile, passed 13 of 15 advanced placement (AP) exams and got a nearly perfect score on the GRE Verbal test.
“It’s not perfect; you’re not going to be using it for everything,” said Jessica Wood, currently a freshman at Brigham Young University (BYU) in the US. “Trying to learn solely by using ChatGPT is a fool’s errand.”
Researchers at BYU and 186 other universities wanted to know how OpenAI’s tech would fare on accounting exams. They put the original version, ChatGPT, to the test.
“We’re trying to focus on what we can do with this technology now that we couldn’t do before to improve the teaching process for faculty and the learning process for students. Testing it out was eye-opening,” said lead study author David Wood, a BYU professor of accounting.
Although ChatGPT’s performance was impressive, the students performed better.
Students scored an overall average of 76.7 per cent, compared to ChatGPT’s score of 47.4 per cent.
On a 11.3 per cent of questions, ChatGPT scored higher than the student average, doing particularly well on AIS and auditing.
But the AI bot did worse on tax, financial, and managerial assessments, possibly because ChatGPT struggled with the mathematical processes required for the latter type, said the study published in the journal Issues in Accounting Education.
When it came to question type, ChatGPT did better on true/false questions and multiple-choice questions, but struggled with short-answer questions.
In general, higher-order questions were harder for ChatGPT to answer.
“ChatGPT doesn’t always recognise when it is doing math and makes nonsensical errors such as adding two numbers in a subtraction problem, or dividing numbers incorrectly,” the study found.
ChatGPT often provides explanations for its answers, even if they are incorrect. Other times, ChatGPT’s descriptions are accurate, but it will then proceed to select the wrong multiple-choice answer.
“ChatGPT sometimes makes up facts. For example, when providing a reference, it generates a real-looking reference that is completely fabricated. The work and sometimes the authors do not even exist,” the findings showed.
That said, authors fully expect GPT-4 to improve exponentially on the accounting questions posed in their study.
Mumbai: Amitabh Bachchan can’t be wrong with his social media posts as he believes in perfection.
So, the superstar posted a picture of himself in which his head is getting cut. Actor Angad Bedi has pointed out that and told him.
Accepting his suggestion, Amitabh tried to repost the picture. He failed. And then who helped him? She is none other than his granddaughter Navya Nanda.
Posting a picture where the ‘Piku’ actor dressed in traditional south Indian attire, he wrote on Instagram, “Posting again because @angadbedi told me your head in the picture is getting cut, and said it can be changed .. so tried failed .. finally got @navyananda to assist .. and BOOM !!!
So ..here goes all over again .. Wishing you all a very happy #Baisakhi, Bohag #Bihu, #Vishu, Puthandu, Poila Baisakh and Mahavishuba Sankranti!”
Navya reciprocated to his grandfather’s post saying, “You are welcome!” Angad Bedi also wrote, “@navyananda @amitabhbachchan sir there you go!! Well done navya. We got his back!!”
Mouni Roy and Shamita Shetty also extended their wish to Amitabh.
The actor has resumed work after getting healed from the injury, he incurred during the shoot of “Project K” in Hyderabad.
“In Hyderabad at shoot for Project K, during an action shot, got injured, rib cartilage popped broke and muscle tear to the right rib cage. Cancelled shoot, did doctor consult & scan by CT at AIG Hospital in Hyderabad and flown back home,” posted Amitabh.
Helmed by Nag Ashwin, ‘Project K’ is a bilingual film shot simultaneously in two languages i.e., Hindi and Telugu across various locations. Deepika Padukone and Prabhash are playing pivotal roles in the film. Apart from that, he will also be seen in Ribhu Dasgupta’s next courtroom drama film ‘Section 84’.
Stefanik’s tweet, which promised the opportunity to win a signed MAGA hat, included a link to her joint fundraising committee’s WinRed page, where users could donate. The tweets from Fetterman and Frisch included links to their respective campaign’s ActBlue pages. All three were labeled as “promoted” in users’ feeds and would seem to fall under Twitter’s political content policy, which allows for political ads — defined to include several types of promoted political content, including tweets that “solicit financial support” — but says they will be subject to public disclosure.
The lack of disclosure casts doubt on all of the political advertising data released by the platform and makes it hard to assess which groups are using Twitter to fundraise or sway voters ahead of 2024. It also highlights the hodgepodge of voluntary transparency efforts that experts say falls short when it comes to informing voters about who is trying to influence them online.
“Several of these social media companies have disclosure platforms that are imperfect, but at least somewhat useful, whereas Twitter is essentially non-disclosure masquerading as disclosure,” said Robert Maguire, a researcher with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit watchdog group. “It is really not a disclosure regime at all.”
While there are few standards around how digital companies have to disclose political advertising, companies such as Meta and Google maintain public libraries of all political ads on their platforms. In requiring users to submit requests for data, Twitter already added an additional step to making advertising information public. The omission of some tweets from the company’s publicly released reports makes it even harder to assess what paid political influence on Twitter looks like.
Twitter announced in January that it was resuming allowing political advertising, a reversal of the platform’s 2019 ban following Musk’s takeover. The company, which was never a major hub for political advertising and has seen traditional advertisers flee amid brand safety concerns, rolled out a Google Form linked on its website where members of the public could request information about the political ads run on the platform.
POLITICO requested data in late March and early April on all political advertising run on Twitter. In response, the company released a spreadsheet including just over 30 tweets from a handful of accounts, mostly linked to Republican candidates or groups. The disclosed ads included several promoted fundraising tweets from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that featured WinRed links, similar to the ads from political figures that the platform failed to disclose.
Twitter did not respond to additional questions about the reach of the Fetterman, Frisch and Stefanik ads and why they were not disclosed. After POLITICO inquired through Twitter’s form specifically about ads run by the three accounts, Twitter responded with the same spreadsheet that did not include tweets from those accounts. The email address previously used by the company’s press office auto-replies with the poop emoji, a change Musk announced a few weeks ago.
“When information about political ads isn’t fully disclosed, the public loses out on key details that can help people assess the merits of the messages and messengers of online political ads,” said Michael Beckel, research director at Issue One, a nonprofit that has supported reforms such as the Honest Ads Act, a bill that would model regulation of digital ads on the Federal Communication Commission’s long standing rules around political advertising on radio and television but has stalled for several years.
While federal campaigns are required to report spending in quarterly FEC reports, ad tracking is one of the few public ways to track spending from nonprofits and 501(c)(4) groups that often do much of their spending well prior to an election.
Digital ad disclosures, including those maintained by Meta and Google, also provide insight as to the demographics of users targeted by ads. Twitter’s limited data release also included information on targeting for the ads the platform did disclose; for example, a handful of fundraising tweets from the NRSC targeted users older than 35, according to the platform’s data (although some NRSC ads targeted younger users as well).
Other political advertising disclosed by Twitter from March include promoted tweets from Missouri State Sen. Bill Eigel, a New York State campaign to promote public financing of elections and a Texas group aiming to establish casino-style gambling in the state. The total spending on ads disclosed by the platform was just over $1,650.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping showed no sign of changing his position over Russia’s war on Ukraine after talks Thursday with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
On the second day of Macron’s state visit to China, Xi took his long-standing line on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — saying that “all sides” have “reasonable security concerns” — and gave no hint he would use his influence to help end the conflict.
“China is willing to jointly appeal with France to the international community to remain rational and calm,” was as far as the Chinese leader would go during a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“Peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible, taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all sides with reference to the U.N. Charter … seeking political resolution and constructing a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework,” he added, sitting next to Macron.
The French president arrived in China on Wednesday in the hope of pushing China to use its leverage with Russia to end the conflict, and to get Beijing to speak out against the Kremlin’s threat to host nuclear missiles in Belarus.
During his private meeting with Xi, Macron raised Western concerns that Beijing will deliver weapons to China, according to a French diplomat with knowledge of the talks. But the French leader didn’t seem to get far.
“The president urged Xi not to make deliveries to Russia that would help its war against Ukraine. Xi said this war is not his,” the diplomat said, speaking anonymously to describe the private session.
The talks — which an Elysée Palace official nonetheless described as “frank and constructive” — ultimately lasted an hour and a half.
Afterward, the action moved to a signing ceremony, where officials and business leaders inked several deals, including the sale of 160 Airbus aircraft. According to the Elysée, the Chinese government approved the purchase of 150 A320 Neo planes and 10 A350s — a delivery that was part of a €36-billion deal Airbus announced last year. The information contradicted previous information from an Elysée official, who said a new sale was being negotiated.
During the deal-signing ceremony, every Chinese minister and business executive bowed deeply to Xi before signing the contracts with their French counterparts.
Xi and Macron then stepped in for their joint appearance, billed as a “press conference with Communist characteristics” — essentially meaning no press questions allowed.
The two leaders’ contrasting styles were immediately apparent. Xi read his carefully scripted remarks while staring straight ahead before ceding to Macron. The French leader then proceeded to speak for roughly twice as long as his host — a protocol faux pas that members of Xi’s Chinese entourage noticed.
Xi himself at times looked impatient and annoyed as Macron continued speaking. The Chinese leader heaved several deep sighs and appeared uncomfortable as Macron addressed him directly while apparently ad-libbing on the Ukraine war and their joint responsibility to uphold peace.
Macron also appealed to Xi to explicitly condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
“Speaking about peace and stability means talking about the war waged by Russia against Ukraine. You’ve made some important comments,” the French leader said. “This is a war that involves all of us because a member of the Security Council has decided to violate the U.N. charter. We cannot accept that.”
Macron and Xi spent one and a half hours in bilateral talks that were described as “frank and constructive” by an Elysée Palace official | POOL photo by Ng Han Guan/AFP via Getty Images
French lawmaker Anne Genetet, who also held talks Thursday with Chinese officials, admitted there were “no surprises” in the Chinese position on Ukraine, but argued it was still useful to lay some groundwork on the issue.
“It’s the beginning,” Genetet said. “There will be more talks and some private moments [between Xi and Macron]. Maybe we’ll get some other messages.”
Xi and Macron will head to the Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday, where they will hold more talks and a private dinner.
However, in what will be read as a concession to the French, Xi did talk about the need for the warring parties to “protect victims including women and children,” which comes after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin over his role in illegally transferring Ukrainian children to Russia.
Xi didn’t explicitly mention Russia in his remarks, though. And in a move likely to irk U.S. officials, Xi also said that China and France should “resume exchanges between the legislative bodies and militaries.” He then included France in a common refrain that Chinese officials use to criticize the U.S.
“China and France shall continue to … oppose Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, joining hands in addressing all types of global challenges,” Xi said.
On Thursday, Xi also held talks with Macron and with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was invited by Macron to showcase European unity but who will not take part in many of the events between the Chinese and French leaders.
Indeed, von der Leyen held her own solo press conference as night fell on Thursday in Beijing. Unencumbered by the formalities of a state visit, the EU leader took questions from reporters and sent several pointed messages to Beijing.
She warned it against aiding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine: “Arming the aggressor is a clear violation of international law — he should never be armed,” she said. “This would indeed significantly harm the relationship between the European Union and China.”
And she touched a diplomatic third rail: Taiwan.
“Nobody should unilaterally change the status quo by force in this region,” she said, alluding to China’s threats toward the self-governing island. “The threat of the use of force to change the status quo is unacceptable.”
Von der Leyen did echo Macron’s message, however, that China could play an important role in Ukraine, calling Beijing’s stance “crucial.”
She added: “We expect China will play its role and promote a just peace, one that respects Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.”
Clea Caulcutt and Jamil Anderlini reported from Beijing. Stuart Lau reported from Brussels.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
And then he said he was not — and would not be — “involved” in any extradition of the former president. “I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA,” he said. The governor added, “I’ve got real issues I’ve got to deal with here in the state of Florida.” As a side note: The governor would not be involved with extradition if Trump surrenders, but he could delay the proceedings if it’s contested.
Suffice to say, these comments did not assuage Trump world. Trump hit back, as did a host of other figures close to the former president, including his son Donald Trump Jr., who called DeSantis’ response “pure weakness.”
Trump himself took two swings at DeSantis on his social media channel. One said that “Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known.”
An additional post on Monday evening said that “Ron DeSanctimonious is dropping in the Polls so fast that he soon may be falling behind young Vivek Ramaswamy” and he then hit DeSantis over his past positions on Social Security and Medicare while he was in Congress.
The counterargument here is that no matter what DeSantis said, he would have gotten hit by Trump and his supporters because he appears poised to enter the presidential race in the next few months.
So far, DeSantis has avoided open confrontation with Trump. He has made a couple of slightly provocative comments but then has stepped back by saying he is focused on fighting Joe Biden instead of other Republicans.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: The meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to end the stalemate in the House ended without any result as none of the parties refused to give up their positions.
According to sources, both the Congress and BJP refused to soften their stand.
Leaders of all parties were present in the meeting.
Though Birla is said to have appealed to both the parties to allow the House to function, neither the ruling BJP nor the Congress showed any signs of softening their stance.
While the BJP has been stalling the Lok Sabha proceedings, demanding Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s apology over his remarks on democracy, the Congress-led opposition too has been protesting, seeking a probe by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on Adani issue.
Proceedings of both the Houses have been washed out for the past seven days owing to protests by both sides.
Owing to disruptions, the discussion and passage of union budget (finance bill) is yet to be taken up.
SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) on Tuesday said the budgetary allocations for J&K for the year 2023-2024 have failed to cater to the needs of people of J&K saying it has nothing substantial for J&K’s trade, industry and commerce.
In response to the budgetary allocations for J&K, the party’s state spokesperson, Imran Nabi Dar, stated that it was all “flamboyance and wordplay.”
According to him, “There is nothing for unemployed youth. No blueprint on job creation for youth. We have lakhs of unemployed youths in J&K. There was not even a single word about addressing the plight of contractual, daily wagers and need-based employees. There is no ray of hope for our unemployed and skilled youth. They have been forsaken.”
Imran commented on the budget, highlighting that it was the fifth budget in a row that was not passed by the elected legislature of Jammu and Kashmir. He questioned the reasoning behind this, stating, “The exercise itself raises a question why an entire populace of nearly 1.40 Cr people continues to remain without a representative Assembly. An elected Assembly could have discussed and ascertained the needs and aspirations of the people of JK before tabling annual budgetary allocations and estimates. It is again for the fifth time that the concerned stakeholders were not consulted before the tabling of the budget.”
“There is nothing substantial for the horticulture sector of J&K. We expected them to announce a waiver on the KCC loans and bring down the GST rates on packaging items. Their claims of boosting horticulture and other allied sectors have remained restricted to statements only. No steps have been taken to augment fruit processing infrastructure either,” he said.
There is no handholding of artisans, marginal traders, transporters, hawkers, and start-ups, he said, adding that the budget has failed to fulfill the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders across Jammu and Kashmir.
Ruing the failure of the government in upgrading the connectivity of Kashmir with the rest of the country, he said that there is nothing substantial for the upgradation and augmentation of Mughal road, Kishtwar-Sinthan road, Sadna top, and other road projects. (KNO)
Rubio agreed, saying Congress needs to review the classified documents found in the possession of the president, former president and former vice president to assess whether the response was appropriate.
“A special counsel cannot have veto authority over Congress’ ability to do its job,” Rubio said. “This is going to be addressed one way or the other.”
Warner responded: “Amen.”
None of the intelligence officials who testified on Wednesday, including Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, immediately responded to Warner or Rubio’s comments at the end of the open hearing.
The Justice Department has cited ongoing special prosecutor probes into Biden and Trump as limiting its ability to share the documents with the lawmakers.
Earlier in the hearing, both Haines and FBI Director Christopher Wray said under questioning from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that they had personally reviewed some, but not all, of the recovered classified documents. Specific teams conduct document reviews and provide reports following those, Haines and Wray said.
“Although I have not reviewed all of the documents myself, I have gone through a fairly meticulous listing of all the documents that includes detailed information about the content,” Wray said. “So it’s not reading every page.”
Cotton said members were “very frustrated” that the documents haven’t even been characterized to the committee, warning that “some of us are prepared to start putting our foot down” without better answers from intelligence community agencies.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
