Kenneth Branagh has confirmed his mercurial ability to inhabit Shakespeare’s flawed heroes over decades on stage and film. We have come to expect great things: energy, polish and accomplished verse diction.
That is what we get here, in his production of what some believe to be the most tragic of Shakespearean downfalls. But although Branagh delivers his Lear with slick, almost playful efficiency, it is not his towering achievement.
Some of the dissonance is down to pace which, under Branagh’s direction, is as fast and feverish as Macbeth. So much takes place amid the shadows on Jon Bausor’s set design that it bears more than a few shades of that tragedy in its look, with silhouettes of birds and an ancient warrior king who does not wear a crown or ermine but has a dagger tucked in his belt.
Staged at a hurtling two hours with no interval, it is almost cinematic in its action-packed speed, which on stage appears like haste. Actors barrel from one scene to another with too few pauses. This divests the play of its deep, meditative qualities on the nature of being, ageing and questions of the soul.
Branagh is a vital booming king, and a dangerously flailing creature as he loses his power. He flips from warm father at the start, sitting amicably downstage in wait for his daughters to flatter him, but shows a loud tyrant’s whimsy as he strips Cordelia (Jessica Revell) of her inheritance.
Branagh also gives him what appears to be a deliberate, impish madness, comic at times, rather like Hamlet’s antic disposition, until it tips over into genuine decline. Yet there is something that does not quite work, as he declares himself a “weak, and despis’d old man” in a voice that contains invulnerability.
Comedy rises in the role of Gloucester’s conniving son, Edmund (Corey Mylchreest), every bit the hammy evil villain, as is Cornwall (Hughie O’Donnell) when he gouges out Gloucester’s (Joseph Kloska) eyes with an evil chortle.
It is clear that Lear is king of an ancient England. The cast is dressed in animal skins and carry staffs, while a tribal beat of drums creates the tension in Ben and Max Ringham’s sound design – one of the production’s biggest strengths. Nina Dunn’s projections of planetary movement, ocean waves and tenebrous clouds are effectively imposed on to a backdrop of ramparts, which resemble Stonehenge-like slabs. But the closeups of eyes and faces which seem like filmic devices stapled on to the stage bring a hint of melodrama.
The actors deliver their verse with great fluidity but Deborah Alli (Goneril) and Melanie-Joyce Bermudez (Regan) do not bring enough distinction while Cordelia is faceless, although it is an inspired move to have Revell double up as the Fool. There is a wonderful, childlike affinity between the Fool and Lear, which is one of the few relationships that really sparks.
As a production it is packed with action and deft in its fight scenes, but remains rather flat, and perhaps unwilling to plumb this play’s tragic depths.
At Wyndham’s theatre, London, until 9 December. Then at the Shed’s Griffin theater, New York, in autumn 2024.
Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup and colorful iMacs just got even faster.
At an event livestreamed on Monday night, the company introduced its next-generation family of custom-made processors – the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max – and along with it, a handful of new computers.
The event’s tagline — “scary fast” — was an apparent nod to the unveiling of the next-generation silicon chip series, as well as the Halloween holiday Tuesday. In the beginning of the pre-recorded presentation, CEO Tim Cook appeared wearing all black within a dimly lit spot inside Apple’s Cupertino, California-based headquarters, standing in front of an apparent smoke machine.
Although unveiling a new processor may not sound sexy, it will serve as the backbone to Apple’s latest products, enabling faster speeds and more capabilities than ever. For example, Apple said the M3 speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips, and its core processing performance is up to 50% faster. The chips are built with 3 nanometer technology, which can support advanced graphics and artificial intelligence.
“It will bring a whole new level of graphics to the Mac,” an Apple executive said during the event. “They are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”
Apple announced a new MacBook Pro lineup featuring the all-new family of M3 chips: M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max.
Apple
During the presentation, Apple showed how an analysis could be conducted on an M3 device for complex tasks such as DNA/RNA sequencing, which can help detect early-stage cancers or help prevent pandemics, from anywhere in the world.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops will sport the M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max chips. Although the models look the same as their predecessors, they will come in a new “space black” color, replacing space gray. The MacBook Pro option with the M3 Pro Max processor comes with up to 8 TB of storage, 128 GB of memory and is about 11 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro line, according to Apple.
The models also promise 22 hours of battery life and a display that’s 25% brighter than its previous version. The 14-inch MacBook starts at $1,599; the 16-inch laptop will start at $2,499.
Meanwhile, Apple is also adding M3 chips to its 24-inch iMac line. The model still features the same 4.5K retina display as before and is available in up to seven colors but the company says is now 2 times faster than the first-generation M1 iMac. The new M3-powered iMac starts at $1,299 and starts shipping next week.
Over the past several years, the progression of Apple Silicon — the company’s custom-made silicon chip — has emerged as a significant storyline for Apple, culminating in the transition away from Intel chips. It’s also turned heads with the chips’ impressive performance in terms of processing, thermal efficiency and battery life.
The new products come at a time when it’s gaining substantial ground in the traditional PC and laptop market. At the same time, Mac sales have been down this year amid weaker demand, excess inventory and a worsening macroeconomic climate.
Last month, Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 devices with a slimmer design, a more-advanced main camera system, a customizable Action button, and USB-C charging.
Gripes about groceries in Canada are inescapable on social media — from prices, to the quality of products, to the experience itself — and users are widening their beef by placing a target on fast food giant McDonald's.
On the Toronto-specific thread toRANTo, which features rants about the city, a Redditor asked "why even eat here anymore" after buying a pricier-than-expected Big Mac meal.
“A Big Mac Meal is $13.10," the original poster wrote. “It’s no longer a poor man’s food. If I can get a proper meal that’s filling elsewhere with that amount of money why even go there anymore?"
Hundreds of other commenters chimed in.
"There is no such thing as cheap food anymore," one said.
"I ordered a large coffee and two hashbrowns and it was seven dollars. I’m never going back," another said about a recent visit.
McDonald's menu at the entrance to the Drive Thru outside McDonald's fast food restaurant in the central Edmonton. On Friday, January 7, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
McDonald's is affordable no more, customers lament
Many in the comments agreed that what was once considered an affordable guilty pleasure, is on par with regular dining options.
"The delta between fast food and lower tier sit down restaurants in terms of price is so small now," a commenter wrote. "Almost no point in eating fast food now."
Several users shared their woes over pricing of recent orders.
“Yeah, McDouble meal was my go-to and it was $5.25... got one recently and it was around $8 (prices obviously vary by location, I'm not in Ontario) and I was shocked. That used to be enough to get a regular quarter pounder,” a user remarked.
One commenter added they "lived off" Junior Chicken combos — one of the restaurant's less expensive meal options — in high school, which they remember being $5 "on the dot."
“(Junior Chicken) combo is over $8," they wrote. "We lived off it in high school. Inflation made McDonald’s go stupid.”
“I don’t mind a Big Mac once in a while, but I ate there recently and the burger was gone in like 4 bites. Why pay over $13 for a meal and feel just as hungry after,” another commenter questioned.
Some made the point that other fast food restaurants, like Subway, A&W and KFC, have also become unaffordable.
Experts say several factors at play
Chetan Dave, a professor of economics at University of Alberta, says these noticeable price increases are a result of several factors.
For one, the increase of minimum wages. When restaurants are required to pay their staff more, they pass on the cost of increased labour in the form of increased menu prices, Dave says.
Another reason could be linked to international affairs, like wars happening in Europe and the Middle East. These events have a direct impact on higher oil prices, which in turn ups the price of ingredients used at fast food restaurants, and beyond.
“That is passed on to farms, which is passed onto the restaurants, and then to customers via increased menu prices,” Dave tells Yahoo Canada.
Kelleen L. Wiseman, academic director of the Master of Food and Resource Economics at University of British Columbia, adds that all restaurants have fixed costs — things like labour costs, franchise fees and utilities. So when fixed costs go up, so do prices.
“Fixed costs don’t go up right away but go up as a lag,” she says. “So if they stay higher, that’s when there’s adjustments and that’s what we’re seeing now. We’re seeing strong adjustments.”
McDonalds Canada did not respond to several requests for comment.
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 14: Currently, McDonald's top-selling children's meals can range from 300 to nearly 800 calories across North America (Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday will sign a sweeping executive order to guide the development of artificial intelligence — requiring industry to develop safety and security standards, introducing new consumer protections and giving federal agencies an extensive to-do list to oversee the rapidly progressing technology.
The order reflects the government's effort to shape how AI evolves in a way that can maximize its possibilities and contain its perils. AI has been a source of deep personal interest for Biden, with its potential to affect the economy and national security.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients recalled Biden giving his staff a directive to move with urgency on the issue, having considered the technology a top priority.
“We can’t move at a normal government pace,” Zients said the president told him. “We have to move as fast, if not faster than the technology itself.”
In Biden's view, the government was late to address the risks of social media and now U.S. youth are grappling with related mental health issues. AI has the positive ability to accelerate cancer research, model the impacts of climate change, boost economic output and improve government services among other benefits. But it could also warp basic notions of truth with false images, deepen racial and social inequalities and provide a tool to scammers and criminals.
The order builds on voluntary commitments already made by technology companies. It's part of a broader strategy that administration officials say also includes congressional legislation and international diplomacy, a sign of the disruptions already caused by the introduction of new AI tools such as ChatGPT that can generate new text, images and sounds.
Using the Defense Production Act, the order will require leading AI developers to share safety test results and other information with the government. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is to create standards to ensure AI tools are safe and secure before public release.
The Commerce Department is to issue guidance to label and watermark AI-generated content to help differentiate between authentic interactions and those generated by software. The order also touches on matters of privacy, civil rights, consumer protections, scientific research and worker rights.
An administration official who previewed the order on a Sunday call with reporters said the to-do lists within the order will be implemented and fulfilled over the range of 90 days to 365 days, with the safety and security items facing the earliest deadlines. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, as required by the White House.
Last Thursday, Biden gathered his aides in the Oval Office to review and finalize the executive order, a 30-minute meeting that stretched to 70 minutes, despite other pressing matters including the mass shooting in Maine, the Israel-Hamas war and the selection of a new House speaker.
Biden was profoundly curious about the technology in the months of meetings that led up to drafting the order. His science advisory council focused on AI at two meetings and his Cabinet discussed it at two meetings. The president also pressed tech executives and civil society advocates about the technology's capabilities at multiple gatherings.
“He was as impressed and alarmed as anyone,” deputy White House chief of staff Bruce Reed said in an interview. “He saw fake AI images of himself, of his dog. He saw how it can make bad poetry. And he’s seen and heard the incredible and terrifying technology of voice cloning, which can take three seconds of your voice and turn it into an entire fake conversation.”
The possibility of false images and sounds led the president to prioritize the labeling and watermarking of anything produced by AI. Biden also wanted to thwart the risk of older Americans getting a phone call from someone who sounded like a loved one, only to be scammed by an AI tool.
Meetings could go beyond schedule, with Biden telling civil society advocates in a ballroom of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel in June: “This is important. Take as long as you need.”
The president also talked with scientists and saw the upside that AI created if harnessed for good. He listened to a Nobel Prize-winning physicist talk about how AI could explain the origins of the universe. Another scientist showed how AI could model extreme weather like 100-year floods, as the past data used to assess these events has lost its accuracy because of climate change.
The issue of AI was seemingly inescapable for Biden. At Camp David one weekend, he relaxed by watching the Tom Cruise film “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” The film's villain is a sentient and rogue AI known as “the Entity” that sinks a submarine and kills its crew in the movie's opening minutes.
“If he hadn’t already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about,” said Reed, who watched the film with the president.
With Congress still in the early stages of debating AI safeguards, Biden's order stakes out a U.S. perspective as countries around the world race to establish their own guidelines. After more than two years of deliberation, the European Union is putting the final touches on a comprehensive set of regulations that targets the riskiest applications for the technology. China, a key AI rival to the U.S., has also set some rules.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also hopes to carve out a prominent role for Britain as an AI safety hub at a summit this week that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris plans to attend.
The U.S., particularly its West Coast, is home to many of the leading developers of cutting-edge AI technology, including tech giants Google, Meta and Microsoft and AI-focused startups such as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. The White House took advantage of that industry weight earlier this year when it secured commitments from those companies to implement safety mechanisms as they build new AI models.
But the White House also faced significant pressure from Democratic allies, including labor and civil rights groups, to make sure its policies reflected their concerns about AI's real-world harms.
The American Civil Liberties Union is among the groups that met with the White House to try to ensure "we're holding the tech industry and tech billionaires accountable” so that algorithmic tools "work for all of us and not just a few,” said ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU's racial justice program.
Suresh Venkatasubramanian, a former Biden administration official who helped craft principles for approaching AI, said one of the biggest challenges within the federal government has been what to do about law enforcement’s use of AI tools, including at U.S. borders.
“These are all places where we know that the use of automation is very problematic, with facial recognition, drone technology,” Venkatasubramanian said. Facial recognition technology has been shown to perform unevenly across racial groups, and has been tied to mistaken arrests.
Apple is set to host its second product event of the season, a month after introducing its new iPhone 15 lineup.
The event, which is online-only, will kick off on Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT, an unusually late start-time for Apple keynotes. Some analysts said the decision to hold an evening event may underline the fact that this likely won’t be one of Apple’s bigger announcements of the year.
The event’s tagline — “scary fast” — is an apparent nod to the likely unveiling of its next-generation silicon chip, M3, as well as Halloween. The company is expected to show off new iMac computers boasting the new powerful chipset in a move that should also boost Mac sales. Mac sales have been down this year amid weaker demand, excess inventory and a worsening macroeconomic climate.
Over the past several years, the progression of Apple Silicon — the company’s custom-made silicon chip — has emerged as a significant storyline for Apple, culminating in the transition away from Intel chips. Apple could further enhance performance with the M3 chip at a time when it’s gaining substantial ground in the traditional PC and laptop market.
“It is a huge endorsement of the massive investments Apple has made in this area,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.
Apple Silicon has turned heads over the years and the overall performance in terms of processing, thermal efficiency and battery life is “extremely impressive,” Wood said. “There is no question that the company is quietly taking share from rival laptop makers.”
In the second quarter of 2023, Apple computers made up about 8% global marketshare but saw 10% year-over-year growth, according to data from IDC Research.
Apple launched its first in-house M1 silicon chipset for its computer lineup in 2020, shifting away from years of using a one-size-fits-all option from Intel. At the time, Apple claimed it was the world’s fastest CPU core and fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer. Last year, Apple brought its M2 chip to its MacBook line.
This year, the company is expected to bring its M3 chip to a 24-inch iMac and perhaps some MacBook Pro models in various sizes. It’s unclear if any of the newer computers will be available ahead of the holiday shopping season.
“Despite the upgrades to its M chips offering incrementally better performance, it is nothing compared to the difference when Apple switched from Intel chips to its own silicon,” said David McQueen, a director at ABI Research. “We’ll need to wait and see if the M3 chip really offers a large enough jump in performance over its predecessor to re-stimulate demand.”
It’s also possible Apple may show off new accessories as the company moves to a USB-C universal charging system. At this point, there are no rumors of a new iPad launch.
Apple’s annual September event is typically its largest of the year. Last month, Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 devices with a slimmer design, a more-advanced main camera system, a customizable Action button, and USB-C charging.
AHMEDABAD: It was a moment of rare reverence for the Shah family in Kandivali (West) in Mumbai when their little girl, all of 16 years, went without food for three months and 20 days straight, thereby completing the arduous 110 days of fasting on Saturday.
A grand celebration was held by the family to celebrate the feat. Jain religion experts said that while some sadhus and sadhvis have performed such a penance, it is unusual for a young girl with no prior experience of long-term fasting.
Rupa Shah, Krisha's mother, said that the fasts started on July 11 with the initial vow for 16 fasts.She has had no major health complication from such a marathon fasting. "Krisha approached her guru Muni Padmakalash Maharaj for permission to embark on fasting and started fasting from July 11. She would only consume boiled water between 9 am and 6.30 pm. As she did not develop any health issues, she decided to extend it by 10 days," she said.
Krisha's father Jigar Shah is a stockbroker, whereas her mother is a homemaker. She is the elder of the two daughters of the family that traces its roots in Saldi village in Mehsana district. The family said that prior to the mega fast, Krisha had performed an eight-day fast when she was nine years old, and 16-day fast when she was 14 years old. Gurus were confident of her achieving target
But this time it was different. After 26 days, she aimed for 31 days. Soon after, the goal shifted to 51 days. She again took a vow of 20-day fast after successfully completing 51 days to end her fast in holy Paryushan month. Until 40 days, she was even going to college," said her mother, Rupa. Krisha Shah is a class 11 student at KES College in Kandivali.
After 71 days, the gurus were confident that she may achieve the difficult target of 108 days even as the family was sceptical. On 80th day, Krisha went to get blessings of the gurus when she got inspired by the sadhus who were there to take blessings for an eight-day fast. The family said that after three months, even Krisha was not sure whether she would be able to continue, but the gurus had faith in her and they said that all the gurus' blessings were with her. She outdid herself and even added two more days to round it off at 110 on October 28.
Both her gurus - Acharya Vijayhansratnasuri Maharaj and Muni Padmalakshvijay Maharaj - have roots in Gujarat. The grand event held to celebrate Krisha's fasting saw revered Jain blessing her. The family said that after a few initial days, Krisha said that she did not crave for food and also focused on religious scriptures and prayers to get strength. During three months, Krisha lost about 18 kilograms of weight, they added. Her spiritual guru Muni Padmakalash Maharaj said that there are a few devotees who generally take a vow for 108-day fasts but it happens over one or two years. "She did it at a go, and we do not know of someone who has achieved this feat with almost no prior experience of long-term fasting. It not only shows her self-control and discipline, but also presents an example to others that a human mind can set lofty goals and achieve seemingly impossible feats," he said.
With interest rates likely at or near their peak in Canada, experts say consumers shouldn’t expect rates to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The central bank is more likely to bring its overnight rate to between two and three per cent, though not anytime soon, said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“That’s a ways off. That’s not next year,” he said, adding that consumers may not have fully grasped this yet.
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its overnight rate at five per cent, after a breakneck tightening cycle from near-zero in March 2022. The overnight rate affects interest rates offered by financial institutions.
The Bank of Canada’s overnight rate was 1.75 per cent throughout 2019, before the central bank dropped it to a quarter of a point to support the economy during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The central bank is widely expected to hold rates high in the near term as it seeks to quell inflation. But even once rates begin to fall, economists said ultralow rates aren't in the cards.
The Canadian economy, and consumers along with it, is going through an accelerated paradigm shift, said TD chief economist Beata Caranci -- less a gradual shift than a cold glass of water to the face.
Caranci thinks Canadians are aware that interest rates aren’t going back to pre-pandemic levels, but she also thinks they’re too optimistic about when, and how fast, rates will go down.
Borrowers have been increasingly opting for shorter terms on their mortgages, hoping rates will be lower in a year or two, she said.
That may well happen, but it’s not a guarantee, she said.
“If you look at our forecast, if you look at the consensus on the street ... Most people have some cuts coming in by the second half of next year. But that's presumed that the economy is weaker than it is today,” said Caranci.
“One of the points I've been stressing with our clients is, the speed at which rates went up will not be the speed at which they go down.”
In a report Wednesday, CIBC Capital Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld said the central bank will likely be able to ease its overnight rate to 3.5 per cent by the end of next year.
A term that’s often used to describe where the overnight rate may go -- or where it should go -- is the neutral rate. That’s essentially the “Goldilocks” of the central bank’s rate, explained Caranci: “It's an interest rate that allows the economy to grow neither too hot or too cold.”
In an Oct. 5 report, Caranci and senior economist James Orlando wrote that they believe the neutral rate in the U.S. is on the rise due to factors like climate change investment, changing supply chains and higher government deficits.
“A higher neutral rate means that the current policy rate may not be as restrictive as the (U.S. Federal Reserve) thinks,” they wrote.
A similar trend is at play in Canada, according to Caranci and Orlando, but Canadian consumers' high debt levels mean a lower neutral rate north of the border.
Prior to the pandemic, rates in Canada and globally had been historically low for years, said Macdonald -- because inflation had been low for decades.
Rates were as low as half a percentage point during the past decade, including for a two-year stretch between July 2015 and July 2017. Over the past 10 years, the average overnight rate was 1.27 per cent.
There are downsides to having very low rates, said Macdonald, including the fact that when recession hits, the central bank has very little room to stimulate the economy by lowering rates further.
Over the years, low rates also contributed to a housing boom, he said. The Bank of Canada’s mandate is to keep inflation in check, Macdonald said, but home prices aren’t included in the Consumer Price Index.
The seasonally adjusted average price of a home in September was $669,689, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, a 70 per cent increase from $392,647 a decade earlier and a 216 per cent increase from $211,893 in September 2003.
This “explosion” in home prices drove substantial wealth inequality over time, said Macdonald, as anyone lucky enough to have their foot in the door at the right time saw their wealth grow, while others were left behind.
He agrees that Canadians are now in a “difficult period of adjustment,” where household budgets are being eaten up by mortgage costs, rent is on the rise and house prices are expected to moderate. That adjustment has really just begun, he said.
“We’ve still got a long way to go at these much higher interest rates and much higher inflation.”
-- With files from Nojoud Al Mallees
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2023.
Pick any object in the Universe, and it is probably spinning. Asteroids tumble end over end, planets and moons rotate on their axes, and even black holes spin. And for everything that spins, there is a maximum rate at which it can rotate. The black hole in our galaxy is spinning at nearly that maximum rate.
For objects such as the Earth, the maximum rate of rotation is defined by its surface gravity. The weight we feel while standing on the Earth isn’t just due to the gravitational pull of the Earth. Gravity pulls us toward the center of our world, but the Earth’s rotation also tends to fling us outward away from the Earth. This “centrifugal” force is tiny, but it does mean that your weight at the equator is just slightly less than it is at the north or south pole.
With our 24-hour day, the weight difference between the equator and pole is just 0.3%. But Saturn’s 10-hour day means that the difference is 19%. So much that Saturn bows outward a bit at its equator. Now imagine a planet spinning so fast that the difference was 100%. At that point, the gravitational pull of the planet and its centrifugal force at the equator would cancel out. If the world were to spin any faster. it would fly apart. It would likely fly apart at an even slower spin rate, but this is clearly the maximum rate of rotation.
For black holes, things are a bit different. Black holes aren’t objects with a physical surface. They aren’t made of material that could fly apart. But they still have a maximum rate of rotation. Black holes are defined by their tremendous gravity, which distorts space and time around them. The event horizon of the black hole marks the point of no return for nearby objects, but it isn’t a physical surface.
X-ray spectra for Sag A* Credit: Daly, et al
The rotation of a black hole also isn’t defined by the spin of physical mass, but rather by the twisting of spacetime around the black hole. When objects such as the Earth spin, they twist space around themselves very slightly. It’s an effect known as frame dragging. The spin of a black hole is defined by this frame-dragging effect. Black holes spin without the physical rotation of matter, just a twisted spacetime structure. This means there is an upper limit to this spin due to the inherent properties of space and time. In Einstein’s equations of general relativity, the spin of a black hole is measured by a quantity known as a, where a has to be between zero and one. If a black hole has no spin, then a = 0, and if it is at its maximal rotation, then a = 1.
This brings us to a new study on the rotation of the supermassive black hole in our galaxy. The team looked at radio and X-ray observations of the black hole to estimate its spin. Due to the frame-dragging of spacetime near the black hole, the spectra of light from material near it is distorted. By observing the intensity of light at various wavelengths, the team was able to estimate the amount of spin. What they found was that the a value for our black hole is between 0.84 and 0.96, which means it’s rotating incredibly fast. At the upper range of the estimated rotation, it would be rotating at nearly the maximal rate. This is even higher than the spin parameter of the black hole in M87, where a is estimated to be between 0.89 and 0.91.
On October 23rd 2023, Premier David Eby and Workforce Development Minister Andrew Mercier introduced a new bill, Bill 38, which allows new arrivals to British Columbia to put their skills to work in the province as quickly and as easy as possible.
The goal of Bill 38, titled the International Credentials Recognition Act, is to attract foreign skilled workers to British Columbia from around the world while also strengthening the province’s economy.
The “General Responsibilities” laid out in the bill include establishing and implementing an international credential assessment process that is fair, efficient, and transparent.
If passed, the bill will require regulatory bodies to remove barriers in 29 professions and make it easier and faster for qualified professionals to seek credential recognition, regardless of where they received their training.
The 29 professions include lawyers, engineers, social workers, paramedics, and early childhood educators.
The legislation will also remove redundant language testing. If the applicant has already submitted valid language testing results as part of the application, a regulatory body is not allowed to impose submitting new language testing results.
Furthermore, there will be caps for maximum processing times and a guarantee that a determination will be made regarding an application within a reasonable time. Specifically, communication about determinations made in an international credential assessment must be given to the applicant within 14 days. The bill also requires credential-assessment information to be available online.
According to Eby, “we have many unfair processes that force new arrivals to British Columbia to go through incredibly complex, contradictory, hard-to-understand, expensive, repetitive processes that are frustrating and ultimately cause people to give up and work in a field that they're not trained in.”
"Too often, artificial barriers to working in their fields limit new immigrants from contributing right away to help build our province to the full extent of their abilities," wrote Eby in his mandate letter to Mercier in December of 2022.
Eby has promised to further admit and speed up the employment process for immigrants with foreign training since he became Premier in November of 2022.
If Bill 38 is passed, it would come into force in the summer of 2024 and a new superintendent will be appointed and responsible for promoting fair credential recognition.
LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - BP's (BP.L) electric vehicle charger unit is ordering $100 million worth of Tesla (TSLA.O) ultra-fast chargers for rollout in the United States, the first deployment of Tesla's chargers on an independent network, the companies said on Thursday.
The purchase is part of BP Pulse's plans to invest up to $1 billion in charging stations across the U.S. by 2030 and it offers EV market leader Tesla a new revenue stream.
"Selling our fast-charging hardware is a new step for us, and one we're looking to expand," Tesla's senior director for charging infrastructure Rebecca Tinucci said in a statement.
BP said the Tesla chargers will be rolled out as early as 2024 at BP brands including Travel Centers of America and Amoco, plus at third-party locations via partnerships with companies like rental car company Hertz (HTZ.O) - which has its own agreement to buy Teslas for its fleet.
The first charges will be installed in Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, BP said.
"(This) is a major step forward in our ambitions for high speed, open access charging infrastructure in the U.S.," BP Pulse global CEO Richard Bartlett said.
The 250 kilowatt BP Pulse-branded chargers will be compatible with both Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) and Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors enabling the charging of EV models from other carmakers.
Automakers have been moving to adopt Tesla's NACS, taking the Elon Musk-led company's superchargers closer to becoming the industry standard at the expense of the rival CCS.
Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
Apple may be planning to launch new Mac models announced at its "Scary Fast" event on Wednesday, November 8, MacRumors has learned.
At the start of the month, MacRumors reported that Apple was proceeding with plans to announce at least one new Mac model in October. Apple yesterday announced its "Scary Fast" event for Monday, October 30, featuring a Finder hint, which virtually confirms the arrival of new Macs. Now, related information provided to MacRumors suggests that new Mac models could launch on Wednesday, November 8 – nine days after the "Scary Fast" event.
While Apple product launches often take place on a Friday, there is precedent for Apple opting for the first Wednesday in November following an October event. For example, at its "There's more in the making" event on Tuesday, October 30, 2018, Apple announced new iPad Pro models. The machines launched on Wednesday, November 7 – eight days later.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple's upcoming event will focus on new MacBook Pro models with M3 series chips, which could include the 13-, 14-, and 16-inch models with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips. In addition to these machines, a new iMac featuring the M3 chip is also on the table for announcement at the event.
The M3 chip is widely expected to be fabricated using TSMC's 3nm process for performance and efficiency improvements compared to the current, 5nm-based M2 chip, which debuted in June 2022. It will also likely feature an all new GPU with hardware ray-tracing, first introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip last month.
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Apple is planning a Mac-focused product launch, likely including the announcement of a refreshed 24-inch iMac, for the end of this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple is "planning a Mac-centered product launch around the end of this month" that could see...
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Facing a skilled labour shortage that is expected to worsen in the coming years, the province unveiled new laws Monday aimed at getting foreign-trained professionals to work in B.C. sooner.
“We have one million-plus jobs that will be opening in the next decade in this province, and we know we will not be successful filling those jobs unless at least a third of them are filled by newcomers to British Columbia,” said Premier David Eby Monday.
The proposed legislation applies to 29 occupations, including early childhood educators and teachers.
“The need couldn’t be more urgent, I mean you’re talking about a problem that impacts every district in the province in our opinion,” said Clint Johnston, the president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.
The list also includes engineers, landscape architects, social workers, veterinarians, architects, biologists, real estate brokers and lawyers.
Alice Wong is a social worker from Hong Kong. After a year of struggling to get credentialed, Tuesday will be her first day in B.C. working in her trained profession.
“I was fighting in a battle all alone, without support, without resources, so it kept me very frustrated in the process,” said Wong Monday, as she recalled the challenges she went through becoming credentialed in B.C.
The legislation aims to remove some of those hurdles—eliminating the need for Canadian work experience, removing redundant language tests, making credentialing assessment information available online and setting maximum time limits for processing credentials.
“I spoke to an internationally trained professional that told me they spent 18 to 24 months on a website, clicking refresh to see if their application has been accepted,” noted Andrew Mercier, the minister of state for workforce development.
Not on the list of professions being streamlined are nurses and doctors, professions the province says it’s already addressed—including by tripling the number of spots available to foreign-trained doctors through its Practice Ready Assessment program to a potential 96 in 2024, compared to 32 this year.
“We started with health care on this to speed up approvals with the professional colleges and to get this model right,” said Eby.
Vitaliaa Atamaniuk was trained as a general surgeon in Ukraine. She is struggling to be accredited in B.C. to work as a general surgeon and thinks the model is far from right.
“It’s very difficult, it’s very expensive,” she said Monday.
If passed, the new laws will take effect next summer.
On October 23rd 2023, Premier David Eby and Workforce Development Minister Andrew Mercier introduced a new bill, Bill 38, which allows new arrivals to British Columbia to put their skills to work in the province as quickly and as easy as possible.
The goal of Bill 38, titled the International Credentials Recognition Act, is to attract foreign skilled workers to British Columbia from around the world while also strengthening the province’s economy.
The “General Responsibilities” laid out in the bill include establishing and implementing an international credential assessment process that is fair, efficient, and transparent.
If passed, the bill will require regulatory bodies to remove barriers in 29 professions and make it easier and faster for qualified professionals to seek credential recognition, regardless of where they received their training.
The 29 professions include lawyers, engineers, social workers, paramedics, and early childhood educators.
The legislation will also remove redundant language testing. If the applicant has already submitted valid language testing results as part of the application, a regulatory body is not allowed to impose submitting new language testing results.
Furthermore, there will be caps for maximum processing times and a guarantee that a determination will be made regarding an application within a reasonable time. Specifically, communication about determinations made in an international credential assessment must be given to the applicant within 14 days. The bill also requires credential-assessment information to be available online.
According to Eby, “we have many unfair processes that force new arrivals to British Columbia to go through incredibly complex, contradictory, hard-to-understand, expensive, repetitive processes that are frustrating and ultimately cause people to give up and work in a field that they're not trained in.”
"Too often, artificial barriers to working in their fields limit new immigrants from contributing right away to help build our province to the full extent of their abilities," wrote Eby in his mandate letter to Mercier in December of 2022.
Eby has promised to further admit and speed up the employment process for immigrants with foreign training since he became Premier in November of 2022.
If Bill 38 is passed, it would come into force in the summer of 2024 and a new superintendent will be appointed and responsible for promoting fair credential recognition.
Facing a skilled labour shortage that is expected to worsen in the coming years, the province unveiled new laws Monday aimed at getting foreign-trained professionals to work in B.C. sooner.
“We have one million-plus jobs that will be opening in the next decade in this province, and we know we will not be successful filling those jobs unless at least a third of them are filled by newcomers to British Columbia,” said Premier David Eby Monday.
The proposed legislation applies to 29 occupations, including early childhood educators and teachers.
“The need couldn’t be more urgent, I mean you’re talking about a problem that impacts every district in the province in our opinion,” said Clint Johnston, the president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.
The list also includes engineers, landscape architects, social workers, veterinarians, architects, biologists, real estate brokers and lawyers.
Alice Wong is a social worker from Hong Kong. After a year of struggling to get credentialed, Tuesday will be her first day in B.C. working in her trained profession.
“I was fighting in a battle all alone, without support, without resources, so it kept me very frustrated in the process,” said Wong Monday, as she recalled the challenges she went through becoming credentialed in B.C.
The legislation aims to remove some of those hurdles—eliminating the need for Canadian work experience, removing redundant language tests, making credentialing assessment information available online and setting maximum time limits for processing credentials.
“I spoke to an internationally trained professional that told me they spent 18 to 24 months on a website, clicking refresh to see if their application has been accepted,” noted Andrew Mercier, the minister of state for workforce development.
Not on the list of professions being streamlined are nurses and doctors, professions the province says it’s already addressed—including by tripling the number of spots available to foreign-trained doctors through its Practice Ready Assessment program to a potential 96 in 2024, compared to 32 this year.
“We started with health care on this to speed up approvals with the professional colleges and to get this model right,” said Eby.
Vitaliaa Atamaniuk was trained as a general surgeon in Ukraine. She is struggling to be accredited in B.C. to work as a general surgeon and thinks the model is far from right.
“It’s very difficult, it’s very expensive,” she said Monday.
If passed, the new laws will take effect next summer.
It's an effort to address the provincewide labour shortage which has hampered the economy.
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B.C. Premier David Eby.Photo by DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
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The government intends to fast-track the cumbersome accreditation process for internationally educated workers including engineers, social workers, early childhood educators, paramedics, teachers and biologists in an effort to address the provincewide labour shortage.
A total of 29 professions are covered in the International Credentials Recognition Act which was introduced in the legislation Monday morning by Minister of State for Workforce Development Andrew Mercier.
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During a press conference at the legislature Monday morning, Premier David Eby said the goal is to fix an “unfair processes” that force newcomers to B.C. to go through “incredibly complex, contradictory, hard-to understand, expensive and repetitive processes that are frustrating and ultimately cause people to give up and work in a field they’re not trained in.”
Considering the skills shortage B.C. is facing, “we can’t afford to leave anyone on the sidelines,” Eby said.
If passed, the legislation will require regulatory bodies to remove some of those barriers, including what Eby called the “Catch-22” of requiring Canadian work experience before being accredited in Canada. The legislation would also remove redundant language testing, set caps for maximum processing times, and require credential assessment information to be available online.
It’s something many have long been calling for following frustration from newcomers to B.C. and British Columbians who study abroad that they often spend years working in a lower paying job as they wait for their credentials to be recognized.
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A new superintendent position will be created to monitor the performance of regulatory bodies and ensure they are following the new rules, which will take effect in the summer of 2024.
Mercier said the proposed changes will require buy-in from the 18 professional regulatory bodies but there will be a government fund to help them meet the standards.
Alice Wong, who completed her masters in social work in Hong Kong, will start a new job Tuesday as a hospital social worker but that’s after more than a year of winding through the arduous accreditation process which she started last August from her home country.
“It was very challenging for me,” said the 40-year-old. “The feeling is, I was fighting in a battle alone, without a lot of support or resources. So it kept me very frustrated in the process.”
Last year, the B.C. NDP announced it would fast-track the credentialing process for internationally trained nurses and doctors, an effort to shore up the health care system as it grapples with a shortage of health care workers.
The 29 occupations are:
registered music teacher
professional engineer
professional teaching certificate holder
land surveyor
early childhood educator
landscape architect
early childhood educator assistant
applied science technologist
conditional teaching certificate holder
certified technician
social worker
veterinarian
registered clinical social worker
lawyer
professional biologist
architect
applied biology technician
notary public
registered biology technologist
emergency medical assistant, including paramedics
professional geoscientist
chartered professional accountant
registered professional forester
associate real estate broker
registered forest technologist
managing real estate broker
professional agrologist
real estate representative
technical agrologist
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Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.