Miscellaneous News

Biden-Xi Call Will Come Later Than the US Hoped as China Ties Fray​

Click to expand...

(Bloomberg) -- US officials now expect that a phone call between President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping won’t happen as soon as they had hoped, as ties between the world’s two biggest economies continue to fray, according to people familiar with the matter.

Click to expand...

China’s leaders still haven’t responded to US requests to set up the call, which American officials had said would take place soon after an annual meeting of the country’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, concluded March 13, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

Click to expand...

The US now expects a call won’t happen until after Taiwan’s president passes through the US in early April, the people said. That stop, which Chinese officials have already criticized, may include a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Click to expand...

(Poland) asks citizens to restrict clothes-washing​

Polish households have been urged by the country’s national grid operator to refrain from using washing machines and electric heaters in the evenings, to avoid straining the power supply. As the EU adapts to life without Russian gas, other states have issued similar advice.

PSE, a state-owned firm and sole operator of Poland’s national grid, has designated 6pm to 9pm “peak energy hours,” according to its website. The company explains on its site that with energy supplies “very tight,”increased demand during these hours forces the grid to “operate at the highest capacity,” and with the most environmentally-unfriendly coal-fired plants.

Click to expand...

baykalov said:

Read the full conversation

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639119881433124864

"Exchange of rockets between US forces and Iranian militia north of Deir_ez-Zor, Syria"

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639355654782476289

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639356006101848064

US military official confirms to Al Jazeera that one of the American military bases in Deir_ez-Zor has been targeted by about 6 to 8 rockets, adding that "American forces are assessing casualties and damage"

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639366161908260867

Click to expand...

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

has a report on Arm's "radical shake-up" of its business model. The new plan is to raise prices across the board and charge "several times more" than it currently does for chip licenses. According to the report, Arm wants to stop charging chip vendors to make Arm chips, and instead wants to charge device makers—especially smartphone manufacturers—a fee based on the overall price of the final product.

Let's say Motorola makes a phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Arm chip. Previously, Qualcomm would have signed a deal with Arm for an Arm license, and that license would extend to anyone that buys a Qualcomm Arm chip, like Motorola. Qualcomm contributes a lot to its own chip designs, but when it comes to the Arm license it is basically an Arm reseller. Arm would now want a licensing fee from Motorola (and not Qualcomm?), and it would ask Qualcomm to not sell chips to anyone that doesn't have a licensing agreement with Arm.

...
Right now, Arm is talking this over with partners and the plan is to roll out the pricing changes in 2024, but we presume in-place contracts will keep some companies on the old model for a few more years. The report says, "MediaTek, Unisoc and Qualcomm, and multiple Chinese smartphone makers including Xiaomi and Oppo, are among the companies that have been made aware of the proposed change to pricing policy," later adding that Arm has been "frustrated by customers’ reluctance to accept the new arrangement."

Click to expand...

baykalov said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639377796844724225

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639381612646354944

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639375613122461696

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1639355654065250315

Click to expand...

U.S. contractor killed, 5 service members and contractor wounded in suicide drone strike in Syria​

The United States launched airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria on Thursday after a U.S. contractor was killed and five U.S. service members and another contractor were wounded when a suicide drone hit

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

in the country's northeast.

The intelligence community believes the drone to have been of Iranian origin, the Defense Department said in a statement.


The U.S. retaliated with airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, which hit buildings housing drone/aviation assets and vehicles used by groups affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). One activist group said the U.S. strikes killed fighters on the ground.

During a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Joe Biden said, “Make no mistake, the United States does not, does not emphasize, seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people, that’s exactly what happened last night.”

Click to expand...

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Weapon in Several Months if It Decides to Do So, Mark Milley Says​

Estimate by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman is shorter than previous assessments by some officials​

Iran would need only several months to build a nuclear weapon if Tehran opted to produce a bomb, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress on Thursday.

Gen. Milley’s assessment provides a significantly shorter estimate for how quickly Tehran could become a nuclear power than other public estimates by Western officials and adds to mounting concern about the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.


“From the time of an Iranian decision…Iran could produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks, and would only take several more months to produce an actual nuclear weapon,” Gen. Milley said in his opening statement to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Click to expand...