When NETL’s Dirk Van Essendelft first met with leaders of the American artificial intelligence company Cerebras Systems Inc. in October 2019, he quickly realized the potential of the company’s groundbreaking Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) to revolutionize how the Lab modeled energy systems.
More than five years later, the NETL-Cerebras collaboration has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments, several of which were featured during the Lab’s 25th anniversary poster event.
“Right from the beginning, we saw that the WSE was a much faster computational tool — hundreds of times faster — than the traditional high-performance computer hardware we were using to run our computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software,” Van Essendelft said. “Furthermore, it was achieving these speeds while consuming a fraction of the energy compared to traditional processing units. Based on these initial promising results, we formed a partnership that is still yielding powerful results today.”
NETL has been modeling complex energy systems for more than three decades with its renowned Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX), a versatile toolset for understanding the behavior and characterizing the performance of energy conversion processes. CFD software such as MFiX accelerates reactor development, reduces costs, optimizes performance and reduces design risk. The WSE could make all of this happen faster and with far less energy.
“We’ve accomplished much in the last five years,” Van Essendelft said. “From the development of a simple user interface that allows researchers to easily program the WSE to setting a world record for speed in several critical models, we’re seeing massive gains in compute speed in an extremely energy efficient manner. We also now have a very capable library to solve a variety of scientific problems related to materials and subsurface modeling in addition to CFD.”
Research using the WSE continues, and Van Essendelft and his team continue to pioneer applications of national importance that require increasingly advanced computing to model complex phenomena and manage extensive data. They plan to continue using the unique capabilities of the WSE to support technologies that will develop American energy technologies and help promote the use of the nation’s abundant, reliable, affordable, domestic energy resources.
NETL is a DOE national laboratory dedicated to advancing the nation’s energy future by creating innovative solutions that strengthen the security, affordability and reliability of energy systems and natural resources. With laboratories in Albany, Oregon; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, NETL creates advanced energy technologies that support DOE’s mission while fostering collaborations that will lead to a resilient and abundant energy future for the nation.
Peshay’s iconic 1996 Studio Set is back on YouTube following a copyright dispute and multiple takedowns.
Sharing the news on Instagram earlier this week, the UK drum & bass DJ confirmed that the 2025 remastered version and original fan-uploaded mix from 2018, which was uploaded with Peshay’s permission to Ambiance channel and has nearly 4 million plays, have both been restored. One of the mix’s featured tracks, ‘Links’ by Chameleon, aka Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard, has also been returned to the platform.
Peshay has been campaigning to have his legendary mix and ‘Links’ returned to YouTube following alleged “wrongful copyright claims” by Dice Ryu Sykes, who runs the Ninj Yang Productions channel. Sykes is reported to have registered ‘Links’, released by LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records in 1995, with the US Copyright Office earlier this year under a new title, ‘Tropical Jungle (Remade)’, and subsequently filed a DMCA claim with YouTube to have Peshay’s mix taken down.
Despite the restoration, Peshay has stressed that this is not the end of his campaign against what he describes as a trend of “abusive copyright strikes on legacy music”. “During this process, we were contacted by numerous artists who have also faced, and continue to face, alarmingly similar situations,” Peshay wrote.
“The fight is far from over. Whilst the infringing tracks, in our case, have been removed from YouTube, they remain live across other major platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. The individual’s US Copyright Office registrations are also still active, and tellingly, their YouTube channel has been restored with what appears to be zero consequences for their actions.”
He said his “management team has been in direct conversations with all major UK music bodies about this issue”, with hopes to continue to fight the alleged copyright abuse. “…The restoration of our content proves that when the music community speaks up, platforms listen. But this is just the beginning. Legacy music deserves proper protection, and artists should not have to fight tooth and nail to reclaim their own cultural heritage.”
A Change.org petition was launched by Peshay last month to help raise awareness of the situation and currently has over 2,600 signatures.
Revisit Anu Shukla’s in-depth report on Peshay’s campaign against “abusive copyright strikes” from May.
Read Peshay’s statement in full and listen to Studio Set (1996) below.
The winners of next season’s AFC Champions League Two, Asia’s second-tier club competition, will receive about £1.8m. The winners of the Saudi King’s Cup will receive just over £1m. Prize money for the Saudi Pro League is not disclosed, but by the most recent available figures (for 2022-23) is in roughly the same area. Weekly attendances at the King Saud University Stadium, where top-tier ticket prices start at about £12, range between 10,000 and 25,000, although of course you also have to factor in pie and programme sales above that.
And so you really have to applaud Al-Nassr’s ambition in handing an estimated £492m to Cristiano Ronaldo over the next two years. Even if they sweep the board at domestic level, if they fight their way past Istiklol of Tajikistan’s 1xBet Higher League and Al-Wehdat of the Jordanian Pro League, if they extract maximum value from merch and sponsorships, you still struggle to see how they can cover a basic salary that comes to £488,000 a day, even before the bonuses and blandishments that will push the total package well beyond that.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring for Al-Nassr against Al-Wehda in May. Photograph: Reuters
According to reports, the deal also involves Ronaldo taking a 15% ownership stake in Al-Nassr, extra incentives for winning the Pro League or the Golden Boot, a private jet allowance, 16 full-time staff including two chefs and three gardeners, and a bonus for every time he successfully presses an opposition player. Last one was a joke, obvs. And amid the stultifying assault of numbers, Ronaldo’s new contract – announced to great fanfare last week – marks a significant shift in the evolution of the superstar athlete, a further blurring of the lines between what we used to call “sport” and what we used to call “the other stuff”.
The first question to put: what exactly is Saudi Arabia getting for its money? Because of course Al-Nassr are a majority fund-owned club, an arm of the Saudi state, which is funnelling untold riches into its domestic league free from the encumbrance of cost controls or financial fair play rules. Ronaldo himself is in effect a Saudi employee, albeit one who has enjoyed much better fortune then most migrant workers who have entered the country in recent years.
On the pitch, Ronaldo’s influence has been highly visible: 99 goals in 111 games under four coaches. Give him a half chance in a tight space and even at the age of 40, there are still few players you would back over him. At the same time Al-Nassr have won no major trophies since his arrival and the club’s two other big attacking talents, Jhon Durán and Sadio Mané, have found themselves overshadowed to such an extent that both may leave this summer. Let’s charitably describe this one as: jury out.
In recent months there was talk of Ronaldo getting a short-term deal to play in the Club World Cup, a competition that would seem perfect for him: based entirely around celebrity power, influencer fame and a distinct lack of running. Politically and commercially, there was literally no reason for this not to happen. And so we can conclude that while many clubs were interested in his star wattage, none were prepared to pay the going rate to remould their entire system around a 40-year-old striker who lost his last half-yard of pace in about 2017.
But of course these days what Ronaldo can do on a football pitch is but a fraction of his total appeal. In an age when power itself is being reimagined along the lines of social media clout, when the attention economy and the actual economy are rapidly converging into one and the same thing, the fact Ronaldo is the most followed person on Instagram – and the third-most followed on X behind Elon Musk and Barack Obama – matters. In a way Ronaldo’s fame renders him a kind of one-man city state, an influencer first and an athlete second, his goals and assists entirely tangential to the eyeballs he can garner in the process.
What we have, in essence, is the professional athlete reimagined as a kind of plutocratic demigod, able to construct entire new realities around themselves. One in which the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will be “the most beautiful ever”, or where the Saudi Pro League is “one of the top five leagues in the world”, as he recently put it. “It’s highly competitive, and those who don’t know that simply haven’t played here.” Fundamentally, this is not true on any measure: Opta ranks the Saudi Pro League as the world’s 29th best. And of course by his own criteria, Ronaldo would have had to play in all the others in order to make a reasoned assessment. But when you have 659 million Instagram followers, perhaps whatever you say becomes true simply by saying it.
Which is not to say the football is an irrelevance. Football is clearly still inherent to Ronaldo’s self-image, albeit these days more as an adjunct to his power than as the source of it. Ronaldo still plays football in the same way that Donald Trump plays golf: as part of a broader cult of personality, something to get photographed doing, content for the feed. A branding exercise stripped entirely of context or objective judgment, complete with massaged numbers and a coterie of obedient applauding acolytes. As is the continuing fixation on his physique, the positioning of Ronaldo as a kind of Übermensch, a transcendent individual, a higher form of biology, albeit one that still possesses an unerring ability to put free-kicks straight into the wall.
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And so Al-Nassr (and to a lesser extent the Portuguese national team) are no longer paying for Ronaldo the footballer. What they’re buying is Ronaldo the spiritual leader, the attention machine, the aura, the abdominals, the soft-power influence. They’re buying a place on his grid, the opportunity to allow one of the world’s most famous men to do their bidding. Perhaps it helps to think of his new contract as a kind of trade deal, a strategic alliance between two cynical regimes drunk on their own power and with largely congruent social views.
A billboard welcomes Cristiano Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia after he joined Al-Nassr at the end of December 2022. Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP
“I belong to Saudi Arabia,” Ronaldo stated proudly on announcing his new contract last week. And of course many star athletes in many sports have succumbed to the lure of the Saudi riyal, and will continue to do so. But there is a tonal difference between taking the money of a rogue state and actively advocating for them on the broadest possible stage. For years we have spoken of Saudi investment as a kind of moral dilemma, a fine balance of pecuniary motives, reputational concerns and human rights. For Ronaldo, it is clear that no such dilemma exists.
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Gracie Abrams had never set foot at Glastonbury before this year, but you couldn’t tell: the 25-year-old singer navigated the weekend at Worthy Farm like a seasoned pro, watching her friends Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX perform (she even stepped in as Charli’s “Apple” girl for the night), and dancing on the shoulders of Paul Mescal, all while nailing effortlessly cool festival fashion (Adidas trackpants and a nice top are officially a look). “I hear that [Glastonbury] is the mecca of community and culture and music and belonging, and I am really about that, so 100% of me is excited,” Abrams told Vogue ahead of the festival. It probably didn’t hurt that she’s also a fan of camping: “I like waking up with my friends.”
Off the back of her mega hit “That’s So True” topping the UK charts for eight weeks, it was perhaps no surprise that Abrams took to the stage—in a crimson Rodarte dress—to find an enormous, bandana-clad crowd waiting for her (with Sir Paul McCartney, no less, watching from side of stage), ready to sing along with every word. As for her pre-show ritual? “We always do a big huddle with the band and crew. Occasionally someone will share their secret of the day. We chant a bit. Very sweet and very grounding.”
Below, Gracie Abrams shares her Glastonbury camera roll with Vogue.
ISLAMABAD, Jul 01 (APP):In a series of consecutive meetings, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan has finalized nominations for appointment of the Chief Justices of four High Courts i.e Peshawar, Baluchistan, Sindh and Islamabad.
The JCP, in separate meetings held Tuesday at the Supreme Court premises, with majority votes of the total membership, nominated Mr. Justice S.M. Attique Shah, Acting Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court, as Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Mr. Justice Rozi Khan Barrech, Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Balochistan, as Chief Justice of the High Court of Balochistan, Mr. Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Sindh, as Chief Justice of the High Court of Sindh and Mr. Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, Acting Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court, as Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court.
Holders Bordeaux-Begles and last season’s finalists Northampton Saints have been drawn in Pool 4 for the 2025-26 Investec Champions Cup.
In May, Bordeaux defeated Saints 28-20 in Cardiff to lift their first Champions Cup title.
Premiership semi-finalists Bristol Bears, Scarlets, Top 14 side Pau and United Rugby Championship (URC) runners-up Bulls are also in Pool 4.
Three-time winners Saracens are in Pool 1 alongside record six-time champions Toulouse.
They are joined by Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, Clermont Auvergne and South African side Sharks.
Premiership champions Bath, who won last year’s Challenge Cup, are in Pool 2 with Munster, Gloucester, Edinburgh, Castres and three-time winners Toulon.
In Pool 3, Leinster, who lost to Northampton in last year’s semi final, again are drawn in the same pool as Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, who defeated the Irish province in back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023.
Leo Cullen’s team squeezed past the Top 14 side 16-14 in last year’s pool stage.
Leicester Tigers and Harlequins are also in Pool 3, with Bayonne and South African side Stormers.
Each team will play four different opponents in the pool stage, but not teams from their own league, with fixtures still to be announced.
In the Challenge Cup, Ulster, who finished 14th in last season’s URC have been drawn in the same pool as Parisian rivals Racing 92 and Stade Francais in Pool 3.
Ospreys and Connacht have a kinder draw in Pool 1, which contains Georgian side Black Lion.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill after spending all night voting on amendments. The bill, which the GOP has dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now returns to the House of Representatives, which passed their version last month, before a Friday deadline the president has imposed for the legislation to be on his desk.
Extending big tax cuts
After taking office in 2017, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered taxes and increased the standard deduction for all taxpayers, but generally benefited high earners more than most. Those provisions are set to expire after this year, but the “big, beautiful bill” makes them permanent, while increasing the standard deduction by $1,000 for individuals, $1,500 for heads of households and $2,000 for married couples, albeit only through 2028.
Cutting tax on tips or overtime
The bill has an array of new tax write-offs – but only while Trump is president. Several of the new exemptions stem from promises Trump made while campaigning last year. Taxpayers will be able to write off income from tips and overtime, and interest made on loans to purchase cars assembled in the United States. People aged 65 and over are eligible for an additional deduction of $6,000, provided their adjusted gross income does not exceed $75,000 for single filers or $150,000 for couples. But all of these incentives expire at the end of 2028, right before Trump’s term as president ends.
Money for mass deportations and a border wall
As part of Trump’s plan to remove undocumented immigrants from the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) will receive $45bn for detention facilities, $14bn for deportation operations and billions of dollars more to hire an additional 10,000 new agents by 2029. More than $50bn is allocated for the construction of new border fortifications, which will probably include a wall along the border with Mexico.
Slashing Medicaid and food stamps
Republicans have attempted to cut down on the bill’s cost by slashing two major federal safety-net programs: Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries. Both are in for funding cuts, as well as new work requirements. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the Medicaid changes could cost as many as 10.6 million people their healthcare, and about eight million people, or one in five recipients, their Snap benefits.
Cuts to green energy
The bill will phase out many tax incentives created by Congress during Joe Biden’s presidency meant to encourage consumers and businesses to use electric vehicles and other clean-energy technology. Credits for cleaner cars will end this year, as will subsidies for Americans seeking to upgrade their homes to cleaner or more energy-efficient appliances. While a draft of the bill targeted wind- and solar-energy projects with a new excise tax, senators voted to remove that at the last minute.
State and local tax relief (Salt)
One of the thorniest issues the bill addresses is how much relief to provide from state and local taxes (Salt), which many Americans must also pay in addition to their federal tax. Several House Republicans representing districts in Democratic-led states withheld their support from the bill until the Salt deductibility cap was raised from $10,000 to $40,000, but Senate Republicans made clear they would change that. The Senate’s version keeps the $40,000 cap, but only through 2028.
Raising the debt ceiling
The bill will increase the US government’s authority to borrow, known as the debt limit, by $5tn. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has predicted the government will hit the limit by August, at which point it could default on its debt and spark a financial crisis.
More benefits for the rich than the poor
Wealthier taxpayers appear set to receive more benefits from this bill than poorer ones, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. Taxpayers in the lowest-income quintile will see a 2.5% decrease in their incomes, largely due to the Snap and Medicaid cuts, while the highest earners will see their incomes grow by 2.4%, the Budget Lab estimated. The impact could change based on which amendments the Senate adopts.
A huge price tag
Despite the GOP’s attempts to use the bill as a vehicle to rein in government spending, the bill would increase the deficit by $3.3tn through 2034, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Most of that price tag is the extension of the 2017 tax cuts. The heavy budgetary impact could complicate the bill’s chances of passing the House, where fiscal hardliners have demanded budget-deficit reductions.
The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has recently launched two investigations that could have implications for international shipping and U.S. trade. These actions reflect the FMC’s stated concern over regulatory practices by foreign governments and vulnerabilities in key global shipping routes which the FMC believes may be resulting in unfavourable shipping conditions in U.S. foreign trade.
The investigations are information-gathering, and specific measures have not been proposed or threatened. Nevertheless, due to the potential importance of the investigations, they bear monitoring.
What Is the FMC and What Does It Do?
The FMC is the U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the international ocean transportation system for the benefit of U.S. exporters, importers, and consumers. Its mission includes ensuring a competitive and reliable international ocean transportation supply system that supports the U.S. economy and protects the public from unfair or deceptive practices.
The FMC oversees common carriers, marine terminal operators, ocean transportation intermediaries, and carrier agreements. Amongst other activities, the FMC maintains and reviews service contracts, ensures common carrier tariffs are published, and regulates certain cruise ship bonds. Additionally, the FMC is authorized to investigate and take action when foreign laws, regulations, or business practices result in conditions that are unfavourable to U.S. shipping interests. The FMC has a range of tools at its disposal, including the ability to suspend service contracts, impose fees, restrict port access, and deny vessel clearance.
Focus on Global Maritime Chokepoints
An investigation announced earlier this year seeks to analyse the impact on U.S. trade of global transit constraints at maritime “chokepoints”. [1] The FMC identified seven such chokepoints: the English Channel, the Malacca Strait, the Northern Sea Passage, the Singapore Strait, the Panama Canal, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Suez Canal. The FMC questions whether delays or restrictions at these areas (whether due to infrastructure limits, geopolitical tensions, or natural factors) have ripple effects on costs, schedules, and cargo movement into and out of the U.S.
The FMC’s investigation aims to better understand how these chokepoints affect U.S. trade and what can be done to build resilience in the face of growing global instability and capacity constraints. The FMC will also consider whether the actions of any foreign government or other maritime interests might contribute to these delays/restrictions and constitute anticompetitive behaviour that is prejudicial to U.S. shipping interests.
The FMC’s findings have not yet been announced. The situation is being closely monitored by maritime stakeholders.
Investigation into Flags of Convenience
The most recent investigation launched in May focuses on foreign flagging practices, often referred to as “flags of convenience.” The FMC is reviewing whether the laws, regulations, or behaviours of flags of convenience are creating unfair conditions for U.S.-related shipping. These concerns stem from what the FMC describes as the “’race to the bottom’ – a situation where countries compete [for flag registration] by lowering standards and easing compliance requirements to gain a potential competitive advantage.” [2] The investigation intends to assess if foreign-flagged vessels may be benefiting from looser standards, such as lower labour or safety requirements, that put U.S.-flagged or U.S.-serving carriers at a competitive disadvantage.
The FMC is inviting comments from the public and industry stakeholders during a 90-day window through 20 August 2025, encouraging input from those directly affected.
What This Means for the Industry
While both investigations are still in early stages, the FMC has underscored its authority to act if it finds that foreign practices are harming U.S. interests. Under existing U.S. law, the FMC has the power to impose measures such as limiting port calls, suspending service contracts, or directing U.S. Customs or the Coast Guard to deny entry or clearance to certain vessels in extreme cases. Notably, the FMC has not proposed or threatened any such measures. These investigations are informational only at this stage.
For members and other industry stakeholders, these investigations are important to monitor. They reflect a more proactive regulatory approach that could eventually lead to changes in how certain carriers operate in U.S. trades or how disruptions at chokepoints are addressed from a policy standpoint.
We will continue to follow developments and provide updates as the FMC’s findings emerge. In the meantime, stakeholders are encouraged to review the public notices and consider submitting comments, particularly if they have insights or experiences relevant to the issues under investigation.
[1] The Federal Register notice announcing the investigation is available here.
[2] A copy of the FMC’s Federal Register notice announcing the investigation is available at here.
