Author: Nigeriabrief

One of President Donald Trump’s top aides has some thoughts about Elon Musk.In a series of interviews with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles addressed Musk’s time as the de facto leader of DOGE, her thoughts on the Musk-led shutdown of USAID, and some of Musk’s personality quirks.”Elon’s challenge is to catch up with Elon,” Wiles told the paper, adding that Musk is an “public ketamine” user who “sleeps in a sleeping bag” during the day in an office building adjacent to the White House. “He’s a quirky, quirky duck, as I think geniuses are.…

The Kremlin’s wartime pivot to Beijing helped keep the Russian economy afloat under the weight of widespread Western sanctions, but it also came at a high cost.This line, which now looks like a lifeline, could lock Russia into a long-term role as Beijing’s junior economic partner. Russia now relies heavily on China for key industrial products and advanced inputs that are currently blocked by Western sanctions, according to a report released Friday by the Atlantic Council think tank.“Economically and politically, Russia-China relations are at the same time highly asymmetric and mutually beneficial,” wrote Elina Rybakova, non-resident senior fellow at the…

When Gbenga Asilole thinks about the American job market, several things keep him up at night. They are slowing demand for entry-level talent, tariff confusion, and high interest rates.ChatGPT is not one of them.”There will come a time when AI is just part of everything we do, but we’re not there yet,” said Asilole, chief economist at the left-wing Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, adding that “the economy is paralyzed.”The labor market is showing clear signs of weakness. The long-term unemployment rate is on the rise, and the percentage of Americans looking for work these days has exceeded the…

Elon Musk’s net worth has soared to a record $648 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and his wealth added this year is more than LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault’s entire fortune of $205 billion.The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s wealth soared by $178 billion in just two days, taking his year-to-date profits to an unparalleled $216 billion.If this were his total wealth, he would rank sixth on the richest list — ahead of not only Arnault but also former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.Mr. Musk’s record wealth is partly a reflection of Tesla shares, which closed…

Former Liberal finance minister Josh Frydenberg has held Anthony Albanese personally responsible for the deaths of 15 people in the Bondi terror attack, saying the prime minister is blaming a “perverted ideology, a terrorist ideology”.The comments were part of an extraordinary escalation of political rhetoric on Wednesday, as the New South Wales premier said the government would consider new restrictions on protests, saying they would “tear apart our communities”.Mr Frydenberg accused the prime minister of “letting down” Australia’s Jewish community over the Bondi terror attack. His comments came amid bipartisan disagreement over the response to the shootings, with former coalition…

A trainee constable shot dead in Sunday’s Bondi Beach terror attack has been left blind in one eye, but questions remain about the experience and number of officers involved.Jack Hibbert, 22, joined the police force just four months ago and was on duty Sunday night.”While serving and protecting the community, Jack sustained two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the shoulder,” the 22-year-old’s family said in a statement.”When the incident first occurred, Jack was on duty patrolling a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, interacting with local residents. Jack was taken to intensive care, where he was intubated…

Britain’s inflation rate fell more sharply than expected last month to 3.2%, dispelling persistent doubts about whether the Bank of England will cut the country’s borrowing costs and provide an early Christmas present.Bank policymakers announced their December decision at noon on Thursday, and had already been widely expected to cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points from its current 4% level after a 5-4 vote last month.But they will be relieved that annual inflation, based on the consumer price index, has slowed significantly from 3.6% in October to 3.2% last month. After the snapshot fell, market bets on…

In a series of new letters issued late Tuesday, the two senators sounded the alarm about toys that use artificial intelligence and requested information from six toy manufacturers. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, and Richard Blumenthal, R-Connecticut, sent a letter to the CEOs of Little Learners Toys, Mattel, Miko, Curio, ForoToys, and Keiy Robots, asking for information about manufacturers’ data-sharing policies, testing of toys for potential psychological and developmental harm, and safety guardrails to prevent explicit and inappropriate content from being shared with children. “AI has great potential to benefit children in learning and accessibility, but experts have raised concerns about the…

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors announced Wednesday that it is recommending shareholders reject a hostile takeover bid by Paramount Skydance and its controlling shareholder, the Ellison family.The company’s board of directors said in a statement that it determined that Paramount Skydance’s proposal was “not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders.” The board’s recommendation to shareholders effectively invalidates Paramount’s proposal. However, Paramount may come back with an even higher offer.”This proposal once again fails to address the important concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of the previous six proposals,”…

PExactly 85 years ago, one of the most feared heavyweight boxers of all time stunk a joint. Joe Louis was in the midst of the “Bum of the Month Club,” which saw him rack up an astonishing 13 world title defenses in 29 months against a variety of hard-nosed men, wild men, and colorful characters. And when he arrived in Boston on December 16, 1940, most people believed that Al McCoy would soon become the next victim. However, it didn’t turn out that way.A correspondent for the New York Times wrote, “McCoy was expected to crumble at the first punch…