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President Donald Trump is threatening to add an additional 10% tariff on countries that align with the so-called anti-American policies of BRICS, after the group, which is currently meeting in Rio de Janeiro, issued a joint statement on Sunday criticizing Trump’s massive tariffs as “unjustified unilateral protectionist measures, including the indiscriminate increase of reciprocal tariffs. The statement calls the tariffs “inconsistent with [World Trade Organization] WTO rules, and it says they threaten to disrupt the global economy. But what, or who, exactly, is BRICS? Here’s what to know about the group. Who are the BRICS nations? BRICS is an acronym for a trading block of nationsBrazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africathat are among the fastest-growing emerging markets in the world, primarily due to low labor costs and a large amount of natural resources. Originally dubbed “BRIC,” South Africa was later added to the list in 2010, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt joining in 2024. The term was first coined by economist Jim O’Neill, who argued that these developing economic powerhouses outside the United States and Europe would dominate global growth by 2050. The nations function as a unified trading organization, much like the European nations of the European Union, as a way to increase their global influence. They see themselves as counter measure to Western power, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. It’s unclear if Trump referred to BRICS as being “anti-American” due to the fact the bloc seeks to challenge the economic and political dominance of the West, as well as the U.S. dollar as the standard currency. China responds to new tariff threat In response to Trumps extra 10% tax, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that Beijing opposed any action of using tariffs as a tool to coerce others, per CNBC. As the Trump administration nears the end of a key self-imposed tariff deadline, the White House has pushed that date back from July 9 to August 1, as the U.S. races to brokers trade agreements with various countries around the world. On Monday, Trump indicated he was slapping 25% tariff rates on goods imported to the U.S. from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan; 30% on South African goods; and 40% on goods from Laos and Myanmar.
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Last week, Microsoft laid off about 9,100 workers, which came just months after the company announced it would invest $80 billion in data centers for Artificial Intelligence. The impact of the job cuts was widely felt, particularly in the gaming sector of Microsoft. However, in the wake of the company axing thousands of workers, one executive gave some pretty ill-timed advice: he told the folks who lost their jobs to AI to, ya know, turn to AI to help them cope. Yikes. “These are really challenging times, and if youre navigating a layoff or even quietly preparing for one, youre not alone and you dont have to go it alone,” Xbox executive producer Matt Turnbull wrote in a since-deleted post on LinkedIn. “No AI tool is a replacement for your voice or your lived experience. But at a time when mental energy is scarce, these tools can help get you unstuck faster, calmer, and with more clarity.” In his attempt to help laid-off employees, he shared a series of prompts which he believed could be helpful. “I’ve been experimenting with ways to use [large language model] Al tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss,” he wrote. However, many found the post to be utterly insensitive, mainly, due to its timing. Images of the post popped up on X (formerly Twitter) in droves with users calling it “tone-deaf” and “cruel. It’s not that AI isn’t useful. It absolutely is. It can help you write a killer résumé, and find your next job. The swift reaction to the post showcased, not that people hate AI, but that sensitivity, especially in regard to how companies treat workers in regard to AI, deeply matters. While the technology is being broadly embracedeven largely by those in gaming and other creative fields41% of employees are afraid of losing their jobs to AI. The onus is on leaders to ensure they aren’t making employees feel obsolete, insignificant, or useless, as AI uses expand. While the intentions may have been good, a post pushing AI on people who just lost their jobs to AI, doesn’t exactly say empathy. BlueSky user Brandon Sheffield hit the nail on the head in a post on the ill-timed advice, writing, “Something I’ve realized over time is people in general lack the ability to think in a broader scope and include context and eventualities. But after thousands of people get laid off from your company maybe don’t suggest they turn to the thing you’re trying to replace them with for solace.” It doesnt help that Phil Spencer, another XBox exec, has come under fire for a leaked email which was reportedly sent to the since-fired employees. In it, he seemed to rave about how well the company is doing. I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. In the wake of AI entering the workforce, empathy matters more than ever before. The one thing technology can’t do is feel. While ChatGPT may be able to help you find a job, or write lists, or even talk you off the ledge, it can’t empathize with you about your situation. That, my friends, is the work of the actual living, breathing humans. Not the bots. At least, for now. Fast Company reached out to Turnbull and Spencer but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star – a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface – larger than any observed from the sun – reaching several million miles (km) into space that over time may strip much of this unlucky world’s atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet’s interaction with the star’s magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. “A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you’re sitting as close up as this planet does,” said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system’s planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, but with only 5% of Jupiter’s mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy (candy floss). It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system’s innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star’s atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star’s magnetic field – either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet’s composition. “We don’t know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star’s magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave,” Ilin said. “As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake,” Ilin added. “The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected.” The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet’s atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet’s mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. “At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what’s called a sub-Neptune – a gas planet smaller than Neptune,” Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system’s gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA’s TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite. The plight of HIP 67522 b illustrates the many circumstances under which exoplanets exist. “It is certainly no sheltered youth for this planet. But I am not sad about it. I enjoy diversity in all things nature, and what this planet will eventually become – perhaps a sub-Neptune rich in heavy elements that did not evaporate – is no less fascinating than what we observe today.” Will Dunham, Reuters
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