- AMD Positions for AI Leadership with Expanded Portfolio, Quadrupled R&D Investment Ahead of Major Computex Announcements Yahoo Finance
- AMD revamps 40th Anniversary special featuring Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — uses Ryzen AI to upscale old footage Tom’s Hardware
- AMD Firing On All Compute Engine Cylinders The Next Platform
- AMD Talks AI Capabilities of RDNA 3 GPUs & XDNA NPU: Radeon RX 7900 XT Up To 8X Faster Than Ryzen 7 8700G Wccftech
- AMD’s CTO has written about 55 years of AMD innovation. And the most common topic is obviously ‘AI’ despite not really saying much about ‘AI’ for the previous 54 years PC Gamer
Tag Archives: expanded
Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.1 Patch Notes Are Massive, Featuring Metro, Expanded Romance, and More – Push Square
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- View Full Coverage on Google News
Remarks by President Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine After Expanded Bilateral Meeting – The White House
- Remarks by President Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine After Expanded Bilateral Meeting The White House
- Zelensky’s mixed reception in Washington may be a taste of political storm to come CNN
- Zelenskyy says U.S. support has saved ‘millions of Ukrainian lives’ NBC News
- Despite threat of shutdown, Congress cannot afford to give up on Ukraine The Hill
- Stripping Russia’s veto power on the Security Council is all but impossible. Perhaps we should expect less from the UN instead The Conversation Indonesia
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Oscars: Industry Reacts to Film Academy’s Expanded Theatrical Release Requirements – Hollywood Reporter
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- View Full Coverage on Google News
ImmunoGen Touts Additional Positive Data From Ovarian Cancer Drug, Seeks Expanded Use Approval, Stock Soars – Yahoo Finance
- ImmunoGen Touts Additional Positive Data From Ovarian Cancer Drug, Seeks Expanded Use Approval, Stock Soars Yahoo Finance
- ImmunoGen Touts Additional Positive Data From Ovarian Cancer Drug, Seeks Expanded Use Approval, Stock Soa Benzinga
- ImmunoGen’s Elahere delivers landmark ovarian cancer win FiercePharma
- ELAHERE® Demonstrates Overall Survival Benefit in the Phase 3 MIRASOL Trial in Patients with FRα-Positive Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer Yahoo Finance
- Why ImmunoGen Stock Is Blasting Off Wednesday – Immunogen (NASDAQ:IMGN) Benzinga
- View Full Coverage on Google News
US military to gain expanded access to Philippines bases in efforts to counter China
CNN
—
The Philippines will provide the United States with expanded access to its military bases, the two countries said Thursday, providing US forces with a strategic footing on the southeastern edge of the South China Sea close to self-ruled Taiwan.
The newly announced deal will give the US access to four more locations under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) dating to 2014, allowing the US to rotate troops to a total of nine bases throughout the Philippines.
The US has stepped up efforts to expand its Indo-Pacific security options in recent months, amid mounting concerns over China’s aggressive territorial posturing throughout the region.
Speaking during a visit to Manila Thursday, US Defense Secretary Llyod Austin said the US and the Philippines remained committed to strengthening their mutual capacities to resist armed attack.
“That’s just part of our efforts to modernize our alliance. And these efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea,” said Austin, referencing China’s increased presence in waters close to the Philippines.
Austin did not give the location of the bases to which the US military will gain new access.
Thursday’s announcement follows a spate of high-profile US military agreements throughout the region, including plans to share defense technologies with India, and plans to deploy new US Marine units to Japanese islands.
The US Marine Corps also opened a new base on Guam last week, a strategically important US island east of the Philippines. The location, known as Camp Blaz, is the first new Marine base in 70 years and one day is expected to host 5,000 Marines.
Increased access to military bases in the Philippines would place US armed forces fewer than 200 miles south of Taiwan, the democratically ruled island of 24 million that the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its sovereign territory despite never having controlled it.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has refused to rule out the use of military force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control, but the Biden administration has been steadfast in its support for the island as provided by the Taiwan Relations Act, under which Washington agrees to provide the island with the means to defend itself without committing US troops.
In November, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines to discuss expanded US base access with the recently elected President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. Some experts said her visit sent an unambiguous message to Beijing that the Philippines is moving closer to the US, reversing the trend under the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte.
Washington and Manila are bound by a mutual defense treaty signed in 1951 that remains in force, making it the oldest bilateral treaty alliance in the region for the United States.
In addition to the expansion of the EDCA, the US is helping the Philippines modernize its military and has included it as a pilot country in a maritime domain awareness initiative. The two countries also recently agreed to hold more than 500 activities together throughout the year.
Earlier this month, the Philippines announced that 16,000 Philippine and US troops would take part in the annual Balikatan exercise, which is set to take place from April 24 to April 27.
That exercise will include “a live fire exercise to test the newly acquired weapons system of the United States and the Philippines,” an announcement from the state-run Philippine News Agency said.
Formal US ties to the Philippines go back to 1898, when as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War, Madrid ceded control of its colony in the Philippines to the US.
The Philippines remained a US territory until July 4, 1946, when Washington granted it independence – but a US military presence remained in the archipelago nation.
The country used to be home to two of the US military’s largest overseas installations, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station, which supported the US war effort in Vietnam in the 1960s and early ’70s.
Both bases were transferred to Philippine control in the 1990s, after a 1947 military basing agreement between Washington and Manila expired.
Austin’s Manila visit to bring deal on expanded base access – Philippines official
WASHINGTON/MANILA, Feb 1 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to the Philippines this week is expected to bring an announcement of expanded U.S. access to military bases in the country, a senior Philippines official said on Wednesday.
Washington is eager to extend its security options in the Philippines as part of efforts to deter any move by China against self-ruled Taiwan, while Manila wants to bolster defense of its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
Austin arrived in Manila on Tuesday night, and will meet his Philippine counterpart and other officials on Thursday “to build on our strong bilateral relationship, discuss a range of security initiatives, and advance our shared vision of a free and open Pacific,” he said on Twitter.
On Wednesday morning, Austin visited U.S. troops stationed at a Philippine military camp in the southern city of Zamboanga, according to Roy Galido, commander of the Western Mindanao Command.
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“Our working relationship to them is very strong,” Galido told reporters, adding that U.S. troops help in counter terrorism, and humanitarian and disaster response missions.
U.S. officials have said Washington hopes for an access agreement during Austin’s visit, which began on Tuesday, and that Washington has proposed additional sites under an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) dating back to 2014.
“There’s a push for another four or five of these EDCA sites,” the a senior Philippines official said. “We are going to have definitely an announcement of some sort. I just don’t know how many would be the final outcome of that.”
The official declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Manila and Washington have a mutual defense treaty and have been discussing U.S. access to four additional bases on the northern land mass of Luzon, the closest part of the Philippines to Taiwan, as well as another on the island of Palawan, facing the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
EDCA allows U.S. access to Philippine bases for joint training, pre-positioning of equipment and building of facilities such as runways, fuel storage and military housing, but not a permanent presence. The U.S. military already has access to five such sites.
The Philippines official said increased U.S. access needed to benefit both countries.
“We don’t want it to be directed to just for the use of the United States purely for their defense capabilities … it has to be mutually beneficial,” he said.
“And obviously, we want to make sure that no country will see … anything that we’re doing … was directed towards any conflict or anything of that sort,” he added.
Manila’s priorities in its agreements with Washington were to boost its defense capabilities and interoperability with U.S. forces and to improve its ability to cope with climate change and natural disasters, the official said.
He said that after cancelling an agreement for the purchase of heavy-lift helicopters from Russia last year, Manila had reached a deal with Washington to upgrade “a couple” of Blackhawk helicopters that could be used for disaster relief.
“The deal with Russia was very attractive because for a certain budget we were able to get something like 16 of these heavy-lift helicopters,” the official said. “Now with the United States, obviously their helicopters are more expensive, so we’re looking at how we can fit in the budget that we’ve had.”
Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said access to sites in northern Luzon would help U.S. efforts to deter any Chinese move against Taiwan by putting the waters to the south of the island within range of shore-based missiles.
He said the U.S. and Philippine marines were pursuing similar capabilities with ground-based rockets, with Manila’s particular interest being to protect its South China Sea claims.
The Philippines is among several countries at odds with China in the South China Sea and has been angered by the constant presence of vessels in its exclusive economic zone it says are manned by Chinese militia. China is also Manila’s main trading partner.
Reporting by David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S. military begins expanded training of Ukrainian forces in Germany
“We want the Ukrainians to have a capability to successfully defend their country,” Milley said. “Ukraine is doing nothing more than defending itself, and they are trying to liberate Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
The training, first disclosed in planning late last year, begins as the United States and its allies lock in an ever-growing list of weapons that could be used in an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive within months. The Biden administration approved the transfer of $3 billion in weapons on Jan. 6, marking the single largest transfer of arms to Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly a year ago, as the administration seeks cooperation from other allies to provide similar arms. Among the weapons in the U.S. package are 50 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and motorized howitzer artillery.
Other nations, including Britain, Poland and France, have pledged complementary weapons, including battle tanks, and Ukraine has pressured Germany to do the same. Milley said the challenge will be determining how quickly the Ukrainian military will be ready and trained to use all of the new military equipment. The situation will be eased because some of the Ukrainian forces already are familiar with other armored weapons, such as the T-72 tank.
“It’ll take a bit of time,” Milley said. “Five, six, seven, eight weeks, who knows. We’ll see what happens here. But in terms of the criticality of it, the need is now.”
The general plans to spend the week in Europe, meeting with European counterparts, viewing the training, observing logistics hubs through which weapons flow, and participating in a planning conference that will include NATO allies and Ukrainian military officials. On Friday, he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will participate in a gathering of the Ukraine Contact Group, in which countries supporting the government in Kyiv come together, assess what Ukraine needs and make commitments about what they can provide.
Milley said that Ukraine’s first priority is finding more air defenses, a continuing challenge highlighted by a Russian missile attack on a civilian apartment complex in the city of Dnipro on Saturday that killed dozens of people.
“They’re getting hit every few weeks with really significant attacks, and their attacks on the civilian infrastructure,” the general said. “The Russians are consciously, as a matter of policy, attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure. That in of itself is a war crime.”
Putin signs expanded anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia, in latest crackdown on rights
CNN
—
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that expands a ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.”
The ban was rubber-stamped by Putin just days after a harsh new “foreign agents” law came into effect, as the Kremlin cracks down on free speech and human rights as its military operation in Ukraine falters.
The new laws significantly broaden the scope of a 2013 law which banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. The new iteration extends the ban on promoting such information to adults as well.
The new laws make it illegal to promote or “praise” LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are “normal.”
The package of amendments signed by Putin include heavier penalties for anyone promoting “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences,” as well as pedophilia and gender transition. Under the new law, it will be banned across the internet, media, books, audiovisual services, cinema, and advertising.
Under the new law, individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,370) for “LGBT propaganda” and up to 200,000 rubles ($3,185) for “demonstrations of LGBT and information that encourages a change of gender among teenagers.”
These fines rise to up to 5 million rubles ($80,000) and 4 million rubles ($64,000) respectively for legal entities.
The law was approved by the Russia’s upper and lower houses in recent weeks.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that the 2013 law is discriminatory, promotes homophobia and violates the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court found that the law “served no legitimate public interest,” rejecting suggestions that public debate on LGBT issues could influence children to become homosexual, or that it threatened public morals.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but homophobia and discrimination is still rife. It is ranked 46th out of 49 European countries for LGBTQ+ inclusion by watchdog ILGA-Europe.
Speaking before Putin signed the bill into the law on Monday, Tanya Lokshina, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of political homophobia, and the new draft legislation amplifies that in broader and harsher ways.”
But the broadening of the “LGBT propaganda” law is just the latest in many steps that Putin’s government has taken in recent months to crush the last pockets of opposition, liberal values and free speech in Russia.
A new, expanded version of the 2012 law on foreign agents came into effect last week. While the original version required organizations engaging in political activity and receiving funding from abroad to register as foreign agents and adhere to draconian rules and restrictions, the new law extends that requirement to anyone who has “received support and (or) is under foreign influence”.
In early March, just days after Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government adopted a law criminalizing the dissemination of what it called “deliberately false” information about the Russian armed forces. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison.
College Football Playoff: What would the 12-team expanded field look like this week?
Though not officially finalized, the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is expected to debut with the 2024 season. Each week for the rest of the season, The Athletic will test drive the proposed format using the CFP committee’s latest Top 25 rankings.
Here’s how the bracket would be seeded and the site locations determined using the committee’s Nov. 22 rankings and a 2024-25 calendar. Note: The Orange and Cotton Bowls were previously scheduled to host the 2024-25 semifinals and Atlanta was selected as the national championship game.
Top four seeds (first-round byes):
1. Georgia (SEC champion)
2. Ohio State (Big Ten champion)
3. TCU (Big 12 champion)
4. USC (Pac-12 champion)
Under the CFP board’s approved model, the top four seeds will be reserved for the four highest-ranked conference champions. For our purposes, we’re designating each conference’s top-ranked team as its champion. That means No. 1 Georgia (SEC), No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten), No. 4 TCU (Big 12) and No. 6 USC (Pac-12) would get a bye into the quarterfinals.
Nos. 5-12 seeds:
5. Michigan (at large)
6. LSU (at large)
7. Alabama (at large)
8. Clemson (ACC champion)
9. Oregon (at large)
10. Tennessee (at large)
11. Penn State (at large)
12. Tulane (AAC champion)
Under the same model, the six highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed berths along with the six highest-ranked at-large teams. Were the season to end today, the fifth- and sixth-highest-ranked conference champions would be No. 8 Clemson (ACC) and No. 19 Tulane (AAC).
Joining them in the field would be the six highest-ranked remaining teams: No. 3 Michigan, No. 5 LSU, No. 7 Alabama, No. 9 Oregon, No. 10 Tennessee and No. 11 Penn State.
The CFP schedule
All times Eastern.
First round
Friday, Dec. 13
- No. 9 Oregon at No. 8 Clemson, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 14
- No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Michigan, noon
- No. 11 Penn State at No. 6 LSU, 4 p.m.
- No. 10 Tennessee at No. 7 Alabama, 8 p.m.
The four first-round games will be played on the campuses of the No. 5-8 seeds over the third weekend in December. Which games get placed in which slots would likely be determined by ESPN, with Tennessee-Alabama as the obvious Saturday prime-time selection.
Quarterfinals
Tuesday, Dec. 31
- Peach Bowl: No. 3 TCU vs. LSU-Penn State winner, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan 1
- Fiesta Bowl: No. 4 USC vs. Michigan-Tulane winner, 1 p.m.
- Rose Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State vs. Alabama-Tennessee winner, 5 p.m.
- Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Georgia vs. Clemson-Oregon winner, 8:45 p.m.
It is expected the current New Year’s Six bowls will rotate hosting the quarterfinals and semifinals, with a goal of playing most quarterfinals on New Year’s Day. And the CFP board said in its announcement the top four seeds will be assigned “in consideration of current contract bowl relationships.”
Using those parameters, No. 1 Georgia would go to the SEC’s contract bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and No. 2 Ohio State to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champion. The Peach and Fiesta bowls do not have conference partners, but No. 3 TCU would likely get preference over No. 4 USC, and Atlanta is closer. That conveniently allows the Trojans to stay west.
Semifinals
Thursday, Jan. 9
- Cotton Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State/No. 7 Alabama/No. 10 Tennessee vs. No. 3 TCU/No. 6 LSU/No. 11 Penn State, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 10
- Orange Bowl: No. 1 Georgia/No. 8 Clemson/No. 9 Oregon vs. No. 4 USC/No. 5 Michigan/No. 12 Tulane, 7:30 p.m.
The commissioners have not officially determined the dates of the semifinals, but they would have to be at least a week later than the quarterfinals, and the CFP would avoid scheduling them opposite the NFL’s Wild Card weekend (Jan. 11-13). That likely means placing one Thursday night and the other Friday night.
In the CFP board’s announcement, it said “the higher seeds would receive preferential placement in the Playoff semifinal games.” That would depend on which teams win their quarterfinals, but if No. 1 Georgia advanced, Miami is closer than Arlington.
Monday, Jan. 20
- National championship game in Atlanta, 7:30 p.m.
The title game is expected to remain Monday night, as the NFL’s Divisional Round has a hold on potential weekend dates. The CFP had already selected Atlanta as its site for the 2025 national championship game, and it is expected to remain so even though the game will now likely be played two weeks later than planned.
And here’s how we predict the tournament would unfold in the quarterfinals and beyond:
- No. 9 Oregon beats No. 8 Clemson
- No. 5 Michigan beats No. 12 Tulane
- No. 6 LSU beats No. 11 Penn State
- No. 7 Alabama beats No. 10 Tennessee
- No. 1 Georgia beats No. 9 Oregon
- No. 5 Michigan beats No. 4 USC
- No. 6 LSU beats No. 3 TCU
- No. 7 Alabama beats No. 2 Ohio State
- No. 1 Georgia beats No. 5 Michigan
- No. 7 Alabama beats No. 6 LSU
- No. 1 Georgia beats No. 7 Alabama
Check out last week’s projection here.
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; photos: Tom Pennington, Jeff Moreland, G Fiume / Getty Images)