39 Going on 40 (Trillion)

US Tungsten Scrap Export Ban Takes Effect As Global Supply Crisis Deepens The Trump administration's export halt on tungsten scrap and shredded battery material took effect Thursday as the latest effort to retain critical supplies within the US. The measure comes as the US confronts a tungsten-supply crisis marked by limited to nonexistent domestic mine production and years of alarming dependence on China-dominated supply chains, even as Beijing increasingly uses critical-mineral exports as geopolitical leverage and curtails shipments abroad. The Commerce Department directive prohibits exports of tungsten scrap and so-called black...

Bill Gates Predicts A Billion Deaths Via Evolutionary Event Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Bill Gates is back on the Sunday-show circuit spreading doom and predicting a massive reduction in the human population. In an exclusive Meet the Press interview set to air this weekend, the Microsoft co-founder told Kristen Welker that artificial intelligence is "certainly powerful enough to drive events that... cause a billion deaths" - then used the line to demand federal legislation, law-enforcement monitoring, and an end to industry self-regulation. Gates is touting AI as a species-level emergency, and...

Regulators Circle StanChart After CEO's AI Layoff Comments Spark Uproar It has been a tumultuous week for Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters. Winters appeared out of touch with the growing anxiety surrounding mounting white-collar AI-related job losses. He described the bank's AI adoption push as "not cost-cutting," but rather as "replacing lower-value human capital with financial and investment capital." Such language ignited a firestorm for the CEO and the bank, and by the end of the week, regulatory scrutiny had descended on the firm. Reuters reports that authorities in Hong Kong and...