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Commonwealth Games live: Australia finishes atop Birmingham 2022 medal tally as closing ceremony hands over to Victoria 2026

Commonwealth Games live: Australia finishes atop Birmingham 2022 medal tally as closing ceremony hands over to Victoria 2026

The closing ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has officially begun after 11 days of history-making sporting moments.

It comes after the Kookaburras won their seventh consecutive Commonwealth Games gold in the men’s hockey final, beating India 7-0 to give Australia its 67th and final gold of the Games.

Follow the closing ceremony live, see our athletes’ personal reflections of the Games and share your top moments from Birmingham 2022 by hitting the blue “leave a comment” button below.

live updates

By Kelsie Iorio

Our athletes: Clay Mason Stephens

Clay’s unwaveringly positive attitude (and incredible cork hat) really stood out to me these Games.

He said after his all-around final that despite missing out on a medal, he “enjoyed (it) regardless of the result because I chose to do so.” Something we can all take with us!

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By Kelsie Iorio

The athletes enter Alexander Stadium

Diver and Birmingham gold medalist Melissa Wu carried the Australian flag for us—this is her fifth Commonwealth Games.

Lots of athletes on Team Australia and from other nations have already gone home, so the closing ceremony is a little more casual. But it looks like they’re having fun.

By Jon Healey

Kashmir?

Sooooo, we have some more industrial workers doing some ‘Look down, look down’ type pushing and pulling of a very big metal structure. Looks like some sort of Mount Midoriyama.

But they’re playing Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, so all I can think of is this scene from Ocean’s 12.

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Ohhhhhhhhh, it’s a worker shortage. They couldn’t lift it by themselves, and then a huge influx of immigrant families have arrived to help them lift the big horizontal metal thing into a big vertical metal thing.

It lights up with the word “TOGETHER”, pointing to Birmingham’s famed multicultural diaspora.

Performers lift a metal structure at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.
(Getty)

By Kelsie Iorio

Our athletes: Kaye Scott 🥈

Referees stopped the 38-year-old’s gold medal bout in the light middleweight boxing division, putting a quick end to her hopes for gold.

But her Birmingham silver is still one-up on her Gold Coast bronze since 2018, and as she says herself: “Silver isn’t too bad.”

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By Jon Healey

Come On Eileen kicks us off

After a recreation of Birmingham rebuilding and industrializing after World War II, Dexys Midnight Runners are out there doing their banger while dancers… work on an Amazon production line?

A man wearing unique attire sings into a microphone.
(Supplied: Seven Network)

Now they’re on the beers?! Lord Bezos won’t approve of that.

Performers hold up pints of beer during the Birmingham Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.
Rapidly, rapidly.(Getty)

By Kelsie Iorio

Our athletes: Tinka Easton 🥇

Tinka won Australia’s first gold medal in judo in two decades on her Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham.

She says herself there are still big things coming — so it sounds like this won’t be the last we see of her.

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By Kelsie Iorio

Our athletes: Cedric Dubler 🥉

Cedric made headlines in Tokyo for his selfless drive that helped Ash Moloney to a bronze medal—well, this time, he’s got one of his own.

He stood alongside teammate and silver medalist Daniel Golubovic on the podium and says he’s “hungry for more”… or will, be after a nap. I’d be going for a lie-down after that too, mate.

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By Kelsie Iorio

Your thoughts on the Games:

Hey Jon 🙂 Hey Kelsie 🙂 I can’t recall a Comm games more awesome to watch than 2022.

-Natty

It’s been a good one, hey?

australian cricketers give each other a double high five
(Getty Images)

By Jon Healey

Our athletes: Emma McKeon 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉

What more can be said about this woman?

The swimming may feel like a lifetime ago, but six gold medals, one silver and one bronze in Birmingham is a pretty timeless achievement.

It adds to her haul from Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018, giving her TWENTY Commonwealth Games medals. The most of any athlete in history.

And let’s not forget she’s also Australia’s most decorated Olympian, with five golds and 11 medals overall. to freak.

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By Kelsie Iorio

Our athletes: Isabella Vincent

One of the babies of the Australian team and still in high school, Birmingham was Izzy’s first Commonwealth Games — but likely won’t be her last.

She says it’s been “an honor to rep the green and gold”and we hope to see this SA-based Para-swimmer again in Victoria in 2026!

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By Kelsie Iorio

Your thoughts on the Games:

Well donate all Australian athletes. I am so proud of you all. Each of you have given your all for our wonderful country.

-Lesley

We’re with you, Lesley!

Tell us your favorite moments of the games by hitting the blue comment button above ☝️

two australian athletes smile and wave on a podium wearing gold medals
Getty Images

By Kelsie Iorio

One final look at the medal tally

commonwealth games medal table with australia at the top followed by england canada india new zealand

It ended up pretty close — but Australia retains its place at the top of the tally with an incredible 67 gold, 57 silver and 54 bronze.

By Jon Healey

Key Event

🥈 Table tennis: Australia falls short in women’s doubles final

Table tennis players Jian Fang Lay and Minhyung Jee smile with their hands on their hips on the podium at the Commonwealth Games.
(AP)

Jian Fang Lay and Minhyung Jee were beaten 3-0 by Singapore pair Tianwei Feng and Jian Zeng.

Singapore started how they intended to go on, winning the first game 11-1. The last two were more contested, but both ended 11-8 in the favor of the Singaporeans.

Jee and Lay won bronze in the women’s team event last week as part of a six-medal haul for our table tennis team.

By Jon Healey

Key Event

🥈🥉 Diving: Silver and bronze in mixed events

Shixin Li and Maddison Keeney grab the back of their legs as they flip during a synchronized dive.
(AP)

last night Shixin Li and Maddison Keeney picked up silver in the mixed 3m springboard synchronized event.

They finished just 1.98 points behind winners Scotland, as both Aussie divers picked up their third medals of this Games.

climbing higher, Cassiel Rousseau and Emily Boyd added bronze in the synchro off the tall tower.

It’s Boyd’s first medal in Birmingham, while Rousseau added to his 10m gold and men’s 10m synchro bronze.

Emily Boyd and Cassiel Roussea touch their toes during a synchronized dive.
(AP)

By Jon Healey

Key Event

🥇 Hockey: Kookaburras maintain Commonwealth dominance against India

An Australian hockey player smiles and pumps his fists while holding a hockey stick.
(Getty)

SEVEN!

The Australian men’s hockey team have won Commonwealth Games gold seven straight times.

This time they did it with a thumping 7-0 win (how fitting) over India.

Jacob Anderson and Nathan Ephraums scored doubles, usual suspects Flynn Ogilvie and Blake Govers got on the board too, as well as Tom Wickham.

It’s Australia’s 67th and final gold medal in Birmingham.

By Jon Healey

It’s almost over, fam

Hello and welcome to this, our final blog of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

We’ve got a couple of medals to wrap up before the closing ceremony, and we’ll also bring you some athletes’ reflections on the 2022 Games.

Leave a comment and have a chat with us using that button up there!

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Categories
Australia

EPA investigates cause of Lake Macquarie fish kill as hundreds wash up dead at Mannering Park

dead fish on a swampy bank

Authorities are investigating what caused hundreds of fish to wash up dead on the banks of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales last week.

Lake Macquarie is a saltwater estuary that covers about 110 square kilometers on the state’s Central Coast.

Gary Graham has been living in Mannering Park for nearly 70 years and said he had “never seen a fish kill of this magnitude.”

“We’ve had a few fish kills previously… but this is an enormous fish kill,” he said.

Resident of 56 years Shane Peters felt the same.

“It’s very smelly. We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Both men believed the event could have killed most of the fish in the lake.

Man wearing fluro yellow polo shirt stands in front of a lake
Gary Graham and Shane Peters used a wheelie bin to clean up fish from in front of their homes.(ABC Newcastle: Andrew Lobb)

‘Greying around the gills’

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it collected water samples for laboratory analysis after they were alerted to the incident at Mannering Park on Friday afternoon.

Small white fish with yellow eye lays dead under floating grass
Hundreds of dead fish washed up on the shores of Lake Macquarie on Friday.(Supplied)

“Since initial inspections, the EPA has observed hundreds of dead fish of various species and sizes,” a spokesperson said.

“Field officers also noted graying around the gills, which could suggest oxygen depletion.

“A decrease in oxygen content in water is a natural event that can cause rapid fish deaths.”

Man standing in shallow water picks up a dead black ray
A NSW Fisheries officer removes a dead eagle ray from the banks of the lake.(Facebook: NSW EPA)

Residents embark on clean-up

Mr Graham estimated the number of fish that had washed up dead on the foreshore outside his home was in the order of thousands, not hundreds.

Prompted by the smell of rotting fish over the weekend, he said he and his neighbors filled an entire council wheelie bin with fish carcasses found out the front of four waterfront properties.

Black ray with white spots submerged in shallow water
An eagle ray was among the dead marine animals found by Lake Macquarie residents.(Supplied: Gary Graham)

He said these included juveniles, large flatheads and even a mature eagle ray.

“We’re probably looking at 100-plus kilograms of fish,” Mr Graham said.

“And I must say it was distressing picking up all sorts of fish. There was no discrimination.”

The EPA has instructed the local council to remove and dispose of the dead fish.

several dead, white fish on sand
Dead fish are still rotting on the shores of the coastal saltwater lake.(ABC Newcastle: Andrew Lobb)

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Categories
US

Torrents drench Denver as Death Valley recovers from 1,000-year deluge

Torrents drench Denver as Death Valley recovers from 1,000-year deluge

Comment

Flash flood warnings were posted for parts of Denver on Sunday night as exceptional downpours overwhelmed roads, stranded cars and forced high-water rescues.

The flooding in Denver came about 48 hours after a historic deluge in Death Valley, Calif., on Friday that stranded about 1,000 people and was classified as a 1-in-1,000 year event. And the Death Valley flood followed three 1-in-1,000 year rain events across the Lower 48 to close July and begin August in St. Louis, eastern Kentucky and southern Illinois.

Excessive rainfall continued to plague parts of the Lower 48 on Monday morning, with counties west and south of Chicago under flash flood warnings after seeing up to half a foot of rain.

Every deluge is operating in a warmer atmosphere because of human-caused climate change and is capable of unleashing more extreme amounts.

In Denver, thunderstorms blasted parts of the northern metro area on Sunday evening, drenching them with up to an inch and a half of rain in just 20 minutes. In some areas, rainfall of this intensity is only expected to occur every several hundred years.

Numerous roads were closed, including a section of Interstate 70. Denver’s ABC affiliate described a “traffic nightmare” with drivers stranded for hours along the interstate and nearly 20 people needing rescue.

“Looks like our heaviest report came in at 2.5 inches of rain,” said David Barjenburch, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Boulder, although radar showed the possibility of locally higher amounts.

I have explained that most areas only had storms for about 40 minutes at any given location. They were moving at about 15 mph.

“This is the peak [time of year] in terms of monsoonal rainfall,” said Barjenburch, referring to the Southwest monsoon — a seasonal wind shift that helps moisture to drift north over the desert Southwest, Four Corners region and, at times, the Colorado Front Range. “July, early August is typically our flash flood season. And this time we had abundant moisture, a lot more than we typically have here.”

He referred to infamous flood events, like one that struck Fort Collins in 1997 or the Big Thompson episode, which killed 144 people when a foot of rainfall gushed into the Big Thompson River in just a few hours’ time on July 31, 1976.

The people stranded in Friday’s Death Valley deluge were able to “carefully travel out through damaged roadways” over the weekend, according to the National Park Service.

About 1.46 inches of rain came down — just shy of the 1.47-inch record. The total equates to about three-quarters of a typical year’s worth of rain.

The lowest, driest and hottest location in the United States, Death Valley averages just 0.11 inches of rain in August.

Many cars were damaged by the sudden torrent and resulting mudslides.

The Park Service reported that the flooding destroyed a water system that serves numerous park residences and facilities. It also said that many thousands of roads were damaged and littered with debris.

Flash flood in Death Valley strands about 1,000 people in national park

Like Denver, its downpours were triggered by the Southwest monsoon.

Flooding in northern Illinois

Parts of Illinois west and south of Chicago were also visited by heavy rain early Monday, which sparked flash flood warnings in northwestern and north central parts of the state. The Weather Service office serving Chicago had received about a dozen reports of flooding, including around Rockford through midday.

“[T]he significant flash flooding has gotten as close to the metro as Rockford and Byron, Illinois, about 90 miles west of Chicago,” said Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist at the Weather Service. “DeKalb and Sycamore… about 70 miles west of Chicago… saw some flooding too.”

Friedlin said Rockford broke its Aug. 8 rainfall record with 2.62 inches as of 7 am One weather station south of Rockford posted 6.21 inches.

A brief slug of heavy rain passed through Chicago, but its impacts were limited.

Explaining the exceptional rainfall

The heavy rainfall has been driven by characteristic summertime moisture pooling along a stalled front draped from the Colorado Rockies into central states sitting atop a heat dome sprawled over the Southern US Such fronts wring the humidity out of the air like someone squeezing out a washcloth. That can lead to rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches — or more — per hour. These fronts also act like train tracks guiding developing thunderstorms over the same areas repeatedly.

That was the case eight days ago in St. Louis, where 7.87 inches of rain fell in six hours’ time. That prompted flash flood emergencies across the city, and cars inundated by rising floodwaters. Extreme flooding plagued eastern Kentucky just two days later, with 37 people now confirmed dead. President Biden, who visited the region on Monday, has pledged assistance from the federal government in recovery efforts. Another storm dropped up to 14 inches of rain late last week near Effingham, Ill.

Biden visits flood-stricken Kentucky ahead of bill signings this week

As the atmosphere continues to warm, events of this magnitude will become increasingly common. That will translate to increased economic losses, damage to vulnerable and aging infrastructure, and danger to the public, particularly in urban areas.

In the past two weeks, we’ve observed four 1-in-1,000 year rain events. That doesn’t mean that level of rainfall occurs once every thousand years, but rather that in any given year it should have a 0.1 percent chance of occurring.

A limitation of the 1,000-year rainfall metric is that it is based on historical data and on the assumption the climate isn’t changing. As the atmosphere continues to warm, and its capacity to store and transport moisture increases, this metric loses its meaning as previously rare events become more common.

Categories
Sports

New Zealander Aaron Gate wins road race and claims his fourth medal at Commonwealth Games

New Zealander Aaron Gate wins road race and claims his fourth medal at Commonwealth Games

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Aaron Gate of Team New Zealand celebrates winning Gold in the Men’s Road Race (Image credit: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

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New Zealand’s Aaron Gate took his fourth gold medal at the. 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, using his fast sprint finish to win the men’s road race after a tactical battle and an aggressive race between the leading nations.

Geraint Thomas (Wales) made a late solo attack with less than two kilometers to go but he was pulled back by the England and Australian riders, which in turn helped lead out Gate in the sprint to the line.

Categories
US

Trump complained his generals were not ‘totally loyal’ like Hitler’s, book reveals

Trump complained his generals were not 'totally loyal' like Hitler's, book reveals

Donald Trump complained to his most senior aide, then-chief of staff John Kelly, that he wanted the US’s top generals including retired military figures to show him absolute, unquestioning loyalty while specifically pointing to Nazi Germany as an example.

In a bizarre exchange described by reporters for The New Yorker and New York Times in an upcoming book Mr Trump is said to have asked his top aid, who himself was a four-star general in charge of US Southern Command, “[W]hy can’t you be like the German generals?”

A bewildered Mr Kelly reportedly responded, “Which generals?” to which Mr Trump supposedly shot back, “The German generals in World War II.”

His chief of staff then allegedly told the president, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”

But the president in response substituted his own version of history.

“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Mr Trump reportedly insisted to his aid.

The excerpts were published on Monday in The New Yorker. The Divider: Trump in the White House, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, is due to be released in September.

Mr Kelly served as chief of staff through the first half of Mr Trump’s tumultuous four years in office, joining after the exit of Reince Priebus. He has imposed some order on the rowdy group of Trump loyalists in the West Wing, including clashing with Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart News chief, and eventually ousting him.

He left the office in early January 2019. Surprisingly, the remarks reported on Monday are not the first approving words the ex-president has been accused of making about Nazi Germany and its leadership in conversations with Mr Kelly in particular. He is said to have told Mr Kelly, “Well, [Adolf] Hitler did a lot of good things” during a 2018 trip to France alongside his top advisers, a statement first reported by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal for his own book about the Trump presidency. Mr Trump denied making those remarks through a spokesperson after the book’s publication.

The former president had a troubled relationship with top American military brass while in office. He at first appeared to be seeking to align his administration with the views of the US military establishment by staffing a number of top positions in his White House, including his chief of staff position, with retired generals like Mr Kelly and James Mattis.

But by the end of his presidency he had clearly fallen out of favor with those same retired brass (and they with him as well) and was re-embracing the politicians and loyalists who made up much of his inner circle. In June of 2020 he received some of his most withering criticism made by a former member of his administration when Mr Mattis responded to the use of law enforcement officers to clear peaceful protesters from a park outside of the White House so that the president could take part in a photo op.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mr Mattis wrote at the time. “Instead he tries to divide us.”

Categories
Technology

Savic electric motorcycle launching this year in Australian first

Savic electric motorcycle launching this year in Australian first

The future is well and truly in 2022 as Australia’s first and only high-performance electric motorcycle revved its engine during its launch tour in Canberra last week.

Motorcycle pioneer and CEO and founder of Savic Motorcycles, Dennis Savic, is leading the Australian two-wheeled electric vehicle charge.

He designed, developed, and assembled the industry-leading motorcycle, and it’s set to roll off the assembly line later this year.

Hitting speeds of 100km in just three and a half seconds and reaching a range of 200km, the C-Series motorcycle’s riding ability is far from its only perk.

Features include on-board AI systems, customizable dash with on-board controllers continually collecting data and providing over-the-air software updates and remote diagnostics, and a versatile charging setup removing the need for special at-home equipment.

“Anywhere you can charge a phone, you can charge a Savic. Our motorcycles come with an adapter that plugs straight into a wall outlet, or you charge at a faster rate on a Level 2 charger, which are popping up in a lot of new residential apartments, shopping centers, hotels, and gyms,” Mr Savic said.

“We’ve also got our own app so you can connect to your bike through your phone and book services and see the status of it.”

This venture has been a long time coming for the almost 30-year-old. At 14, I decided he wanted to build an auto business in the future and while at university he “fell in love with motorcycles”.

Launched in 2015 as a humble start up, Savic Motorcycles is now emerging as a leading developer of high-performance electric vehicles, still within an affordable price range.

Based in Melbourne, Mr Slavic has built the bikes from the ground up, and says they’ve been passing some major engineering milestones lately.

“We like them for two reasons: one is freedom in terms of design, we really like that, and then, two, is the performance and the technology you can build into them. The whole team is very passionate about the product,” he said.

Mr Savic believes the whole motorcycle industry is transforming towards electric models.

“We do see this as the future of motorcycles… but we’re a bit biased,” he smiled.

“Our goal is to disrupt the world’s two-wheeled EV industry as a revolutionary brand and share our passion for carbon-free travel without ever compromising on performance.”

After receiving some funding to help his electric motorcycle venture along, he said they’re continuing to work with government to scale manufacturing in Australia, boosting the country’s renewable economy and resources.

“The environmental impact is a by-product. I’m more passionate about the design and performance, and the environmental thing is a bonus,” Mr Savic said.

“We’ve also made sure the structural parts of the motorcycle are made out of aluminum, which is able to be recycled in the second life battery recycling program.”

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Categories
Sports

Nathan Buckley’s five takeaways from Round 21

Nathan Buckley's five takeaways from Round 21

The Buck Stops Here.

Nathan Buckley has gone through his five biggest takeaways from the weekend of footy.

Buckley has touched on Patrick Cripps, Lance Franklin, Zac Bailey and Brayden Maynard.

Winning form is the best form

“Clearly, winning form is the best form.

“We’ve got two teams in Geelong and Collingwood that have been 11-0 in their last 11 games and are clearly out in front when it comes to sides with winning form at the moment.

“We’re talking about winning form and what context we’re putting it. We’re putting it in teams that over the next six or seven weeks are going to have the capacity to challenge and ultimately win the comp.

Geelong and Collingwood are right up there.

“The next team in the last 10 weeks that are really in the green is Sydney who have won eight of their last 10. They’re slowly building their form and some of their numbers are stacking up.

“Melbourne, on the flip side, despite Melbourne and Collingwood being so close on the weekend, they’ve only won four of their last 10 games as has Carlton.”

Cripps made a stand after Blues’ poor start

“Vossy’s (Michael Voss) attitude is that this is a competitive, physical game and we need to be competitive, physical players.

“You get the captain of a side who needs to win, who has been dominated in the early stages of that game, and Vossy would’ve been in this situation himself a lot, you need to make a stand, you need to change the flow of a contest.

“You can do it with an act of brilliance and skill, but the main way is to go harder and lower often than your opponent and win a hard ball.

“He was a captain trying to make a stand and for 10 minutes after that the Carlton side popped up and we saw some real fight, but we didn’t see it for long enough in that game against a good opposition until the last quarter.

“I reckon Patty Cripps’ actions were around leadership and trying to drive his group with a solid contest at the footy.”

Swans’ mature handling of Franklin contract

“I reckon this has been handled in a really mature manner.

“This player has contributed so much to this team that he’s earned the right to play it out and to have the decision in his own grasp to what he wants to do at the end of the year.

“I loved the way that John Longmire handled that. I love the way that Buddy played.”

Garry Lyon: “Damian Barrett called it a provocative statement. Kane Cornes said it was, ‘me, me, me’, it was a selfish and really strange decision to release that statement.”

Buckley: “That frustrates the hell out of me.

“Are we mature enough as an organization to get to the point where players say, ‘I’m actually going to be heading over here’?

“Say (Daniel) McStay is definitely going to Collingwood and Daniel McStay says, ‘Look, I’ve had a great time here at Brisbane and I’m going to Collingwood at the end of this season’ and Chris Fagan goes, ‘We ‘re aware of that, but Daniel McStay is in our best side now and he gives us the best chance of playing in a premiership this year’ and then we just move on.

“The people who are least mature to handle that situation is actually us in the media.

“The timing of the statement is in answer to the questions that have been posed through scuttlebutt over the last two or three weeks.”

Bailey’s importance to Lions’ flag hopes

“I just think its importance to the Lions cannot be understated.

“In amongst some great players, he had a fantastic game with four goals, 20 touches on the weekend.

“This kid could be, and he’s still a kid, their most important player.

“We talk about ground level top-end speed and pace, work rate, he’s got class to finish off.

“When he went off against Richmond the game totally turned.”

Magpies defend Maynard built for September

“I needed to address this.

“Brayden Maynard’s tackling and physical presence is something that every team needs going into September and the big games in finals.

“I definitely produced on Friday night against Melbourne.

“The first tackle on (Ed) Langdon off the ‘all duck, no dinner’ comments. Brayden Maynard is a physical player, he loves making a stand, he plays the game hard and tough.

“The tackle against Langdon set it up and the tackle on (Alex) Neal-Bullen late was the bookend.

“Wear his heart on his sleeve, great kid and built for September action.”





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Categories
US

Trump complained his generals were not ‘totally loyal’ like Hitler’s, book reveals

Trump complained his generals were not 'totally loyal' like Hitler's, book reveals

Donald Trump complained to his most senior aide, then-chief of staff John Kelly, that he wanted the US’s top generals including retired military figures to show him absolute, unquestioning loyalty while specifically pointing to Nazi Germany as an example.

In a bizarre exchange described by reporters for The New Yorker and New York Times in an upcoming book Mr Trump is said to have asked his top aid, who himself was a four-star general in charge of US Southern Command, “[W]hy can’t you be like the German generals?”

A bewildered Mr Kelly reportedly responded, “Which generals?” to which Mr Trump supposedly shot back, “The German generals in World War II.”

His chief of staff then allegedly told the president, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”

But the president in response substituted his own version of history.

“No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” Mr Trump reportedly insisted to his aid.

The excerpts were published on Monday in The New Yorker. The Divider: Trump in the White House, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, is due to be released in September.

Mr Kelly served as chief of staff through the first half of Mr Trump’s tumultuous four years in office, joining after the exit of Reince Priebus. He has imposed some order on the rowdy group of Trump loyalists in the West Wing, including clashing with Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart News chief, and eventually ousting him.

He left the office in early January 2019. Surprisingly, the remarks reported on Monday are not the first approving words the ex-president has been accused of making about Nazi Germany and its leadership in conversations with Mr Kelly in particular. He is said to have told Mr Kelly, “Well, [Adolf] Hitler did a lot of good things” during a 2018 trip to France alongside his top advisers, a statement first reported by Michael Bender of The Wall Street Journal for his own book about the Trump presidency. Mr Trump denied making those remarks through a spokesperson after the book’s publication.

The former president had a troubled relationship with top American military brass while in office. He at first appeared to be seeking to align his administration with the views of the US military establishment by staffing a number of top positions in his White House, including his chief of staff position, with retired generals like Mr Kelly and James Mattis.

But by the end of his presidency he had clearly fallen out of favor with those same retired brass (and they with him as well) and was re-embracing the politicians and loyalists who made up much of his inner circle. In June of 2020 he received some of his most withering criticism made by a former member of his administration when Mr Mattis responded to the use of law enforcement officers to clear peaceful protesters from a park outside of the White House so that the president could take part in a photo op.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mr Mattis wrote at the time. “Instead he tries to divide us.”

Categories
Technology

What Is Bluetooth Multipoint?

What Is Bluetooth Multipoint?

Earbuds next to a phone and a computer
Kris Wouk / How-To Geek

Multipoint Bluetooth aims to let your earbuds, headphones, or portable speaker pull double duty, switching between taking calls on your phone and watching a movie on your laptop. But how does that work, and how can it work for you?

The History of Multipoint Bluetooth

While Bluetooth makes life easier in a few ways, it’s incredibly frustrating in others. Pairing a Bluetooth device isn’t a fun process when it works seamlessly, and it’s just plain painful when your devices aren’t cooperating. Bluetooth multipoint was created to help alleviate this issue by letting you connect to multiple devices with one headset or speaker.

While multipoint has been around for longer than you may think, Bluetooth itself predates multipoint by 10 years. The first Bluetooth devices launched in 1999, and Bluetooth really began to take off in 2000.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, or SIG, introduced Bluetooth multipoint in 2010, but you probably didn’t hear of it until long after. Initially, multipoint Bluetooth was aimed at professionals making calls, and it’s only relatively recently multipoint has made it into consumer devices.

What is Multipoint Bluetooth Good For?

As mentioned above, Bluetooth’s pairing process isn’t one most people are keen to repeat. Multipoint Bluetooth lets you connect one headset or speaker to two playback devices. The Bluetooth device then switches between devices depending on a variety of contexts.

For example, imagine you’re wearing a set of earbuds connected to your phone. With multipoint, you can pair with your computer as well and use your earbuds to watch YouTube videos. When your phone rings, you can answer it and your earbuds will automatically switch over to take the call.

The above example is how most people tend to use multipoint Bluetooth, but as mentioned above, it was originally meant for people who spent most of their time making calls. Multipoint lets you easily switch between a work phone and a personal phone, for example.

How Does Multipoint Bluetooth Work?

All Bluetooth devices work by an ad-hoc mini network. This lets you use multiple wireless mice, game controllers, or other devices without needing to have any sort of hub, as you would with a Wi-Fi network. The downside is that Bluetooth is limited to a relatively short range, around 30 to 100 feet depending on the technology used, but that’s plenty of range for most cases.

When it comes to Bluetooth audio devices in a typical connection, there would only be two devices on the network: your Bluetooth audio device, and your playback device. The audio device would be your headset or speaker, while the playback device is your phone or computer.

Bluetooth multipoint slightly adjusts the above by allowing multiple source devices connected to the playback device. The playback device controls both source devices, choosing which one to play audio from.

WIth the above example of earbuds connected to a phone or a computer, tapping the pause / resume button would pause and resume your video. Once your phone rings, however, tapping the same button would pause the video, switch audio to your phone, and answer the call. At least, that’s how it should ideally work.

RELATED: How to Connect Your Bluetooth Headphones to More Than One Device at a Time

Limitations of Multipoint Bluetooth

In every scenario we’ve looked at, there is a single audio device like a speaker or headphones, then multiple playback devices. This is the only way that multipoint Bluetooth works.

Multipoint Bluetooth doesn’t let you connect a speaker and a headset to a computer, then switch back and forth based on which one you press play on. While this may be possible, it’s not part of the multipoint Bluetooth specification.

Multipoint is also typically limited to a pair of source devices, though with a version of multipoint known as Triple Connectivity, that number goes up to three. That is the upper limit, and so far, there is no version of multipoint that lets you connect four or more source devices.

Another limitation of multipoint Bluetooth is that it won’t play sound from each source device at the same time. This isn’t something most people would use very often anyway, but keep in mind that this may mean your earbuds will stop playing audio from a YouTube video to play a notification chime from your phone, for example.

Finally, multipoint Bluetooth doesn’t come free. Manufacturers need to build it into their headphones or other audio products, and this raises the overall cost of the product.

For this reason, you didn’t find multipoint in many consumer devices for years. Even now, while multipoint is available in more products than ever, it’s still far from ubiquitous.

If you’re wondering if you already have multipoint built into a device you already own, it can be tricky to find out. There isn’t just one way to pair with multiple devices using multipoint, so you can’t always just try and see if it works. The easiest way to find out if a product you own supports multipoint is to check via the manufacturer’s website.

RELATED: How to Connect Your Bluetooth Headphones to More Than One Device at a Time

Different Types of Multipoint

The most basic form of multipoint Bluetooth is known as simple multipoint. This lets you connect to multiple devices, including multiple phones, but answering a call on one while connected on the other will hang up the other call when it switches. Simple multipoint is the type you find most often in consumer devices.

Advanced Multipoint Headphones

Bose Quiet Comfort 45

Bose QuietComfort 45 wireless headphones feature advanced multipoint, making them perfect for busy professionals who want to make the most of their downtime.

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Advanced multipoint is meant more for business users. It’s mostly similar to simple multipoint, but when switching calls, this type of multipoint puts the first call on hold instead of simply hanging up. Triple connectivity, as the name implies, allows three source devices instead of two.

Finally, you have proprietary solutions that do what multipoint Bluetooth does, only in a different way. Both Apple and Samsung, for example, have an alternative that uses your account details to intelligently switch audio to whichever device you may be using at a given moment.

Triple ConnectivityBluetooth Headset

Jabra MotionOffice

If you don’t need music or entertainment, but you’re just looking for a headset to get serious work done, the Jabra Motion Office’s lets you communicate from three different devices.

As mentioned above, multipoint doesn’t allow audio from one source to play on multiple devices. That said, Bluetooth 5.0 introduced a feature that allows just this. This feature may have different names from manufacturer to manufacturer, but it’s part of the core Bluetooth 5.0 specification.

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US

Here’s what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

Here's what's in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

The Senate passed Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act on a party-line vote Sunday afternoon, delivering the long-awaited centerpiece to President Biden’s agenda.

Democrats rallied behind the $430 billion climate, health care and tax overhaul after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) reached a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), who had held up previous proposals.

The House is expected to approve the legislation on Friday and send it to Biden’s desk.

Here’s a summary of what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act:

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE

Businesses would get incentives for deployment of lower-carbon and carbon-free energy sources.

  • Tax credits are extended for energy production and investment in technologies including wind, solar and geothermal energies. The investment tax credit also now applies to battery storage and biogas.
  • Tax credits would be created or extended for additional technologies and energy sources including nuclear energy, hydrogen energy coming from clean sources, biofuels and technology that captures carbon from fossil fuel power plants.
  • Many of the incentives also contain bonuses for companies based on how much they pay their workers and offer credits for manufacturing their steel, iron and other components in the US

Consumers and businesses get incentives to make cleaner energy choices.

  • Tax credits are extended for residential clean energy expenses including rooftop solar, heat pumps and small wind energy systems. Consumers can get credits for 30 percent of expenditures through 2032, and the credit phases down after that.
  • Tax credits of up to $7,500 are offered to consumers who buy electric vehicles — but this credit comes with stipulations that may make it difficult for vehicles to actually qualify.
  • A tax credit would be expanded for energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

Some fossil fuel production on public lands would be bolstered.

  • The future of solar and wind on public lands and wind in public waters would be tied to requirements to hold lease sales that open up new oil and gas production.
  • The bill reinstates the results of a recent offshore oil and gas lease sale that was struck down on environmental grounds. The Interior Department would be required to hold at least three more offshore oil and gas lease sales by next October.

New programs boost investment in climate.

  • A new program aims to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane from oil and gas by both providing grants and loans to help companies reign in their emissions and levying fees on producers with excess methane emissions.
  • $27 billion would go to a green bank that would provide more incentives for clean energy technology.

Costs increase for fossil fuel production on public lands.

  • Minimum royalties increase for companies to pay the government for oil and gas they extract on public lands and waters. A royalty is added to the extraction of gas that is later burned off or released as waste instead of sold as fuel.

Communities that face high pollution burdens get relief.

  • $3 billion would go to environmental justice block grants — community-led programs addressing harms from climate change and pollutants, including $20 million for technical assistance at the community level, through fiscal 2026.
  • More than $3 billion is allocated to funds for air pollution monitoring in low-income communities. Nearly half of the funds — $117 million — would specifically go to communities in close proximity to industrial pollutants.
  • An excise tax on imported petroleum and crude oil products to fund the cleanup of industrial disaster sites increases from 9.7 cents to 16.4 cents per barrel. The reinstatement of the tax is projected to raise $11 billion.
  • The bill permanently extends and increases the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a tax on coal production to finance claims from workers with the condition. Black lung, caused by long-term exposure to and inhalation of coal dust, is believed to affect at least 10 percent of coal miners with at least 25 years’ experience, according to a 2018 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

— Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk

HEALTH CARE

Medicare can negotiate lower prices.

The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs for the first time, a policy Democrats have been trying to enact for years over the fierce objections of the pharmaceutical industry. The provisions save more than $200 billion over 10 years.

  • It would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, ramping up to 20 drugs by 2029. There is a steep penalty if a drug company doesn’t come to the table: a tax of up to 95 percent of the sales of the drug. There is also a ceiling that the negotiated price cannot rise above.
  • In a deal with moderates including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), only older drugs are subject to negotiation after a period of nine years for most drugs and 13 years for more complex “biologic” drugs. That means the negotiations are more limited than many Democrats wanted.

Drug costs can be capped but largely only for Medicare.

The bill includes other measures to cap drug costs. The provisions still largely apply only to seniors on Medicare, not the millions of people who get health insurance through their jobs, in part because complex Senate rules limited how expansive the provisions would be.

  • If drug companies raise prices in Medicare faster than the rate of inflation, they must pay rebates back to the government for the difference.
  • Democrats tried to apply this provision to the private market, but the parliamentarian ruled it violated the Senate rules used to bypass a GOP filibuster.
  • In one of the most tangible provisions for patients, the bill caps out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors on Medicare, starting in 2025.
  • The bill also caps patients’ insulin costs at $35 a month, but only for seniors on Medicare. Republicans voted against overruling the Senate parliamentarian to extend that protection to patients with private insurance.

People enrolled in ACA plans get an extension on premium assistance.

The measure also builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by extending enhanced financial assistance to help people enrolled in ACA plans afford premiums for three years. The extra help would otherwise have expired at the end of this year, setting up a cliff. The provision expands eligibility to allow more middle-class people to receive premium help and increases the amount of help overall.

—Peter Sullivan

TAXES

Large corporations will pay for climate and health measures within the bill.

The bill introduces new taxes on corporations to pay for its climate and health care measures.

The centerpiece of its tax plan is a 15 percent minimum tax on the income that big corporations report to their shareholders, a tax known as the minimum book tax. Initial proposals put the amount of revenue raised by the book tax at $313 billion — more than 40 percent of the $740 billion raised by the legislation as a whole.

The tax applies to companies reporting $1 billion in annual earnings. It would impact only around 150 large firms, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Sinema demanded some last-minute exclusions to the minimum tax that were favorable to the US manufacturing sector and private equity firms.

  • The tax will exempt companies taking advantage of accelerated depreciation, a popular deduction that helps pay for capital investments such as new equipment.
  • Small businesses that are subsidiaries of highly profitable private equity firms will also be exempted from the minimum tax.

The IRS gets a funding boost.

Another key measure allocates $80 billion to increase enforcement at the IRS. Democrats hope that, with more employees and better technology, the IRS can more closely examine wealthy individuals and ensure they aren’t dodging taxes. That extra revenue is expected to lower the deficit by $203 billion over the next decade.

Stock buybacks will get an additional tax.

The bill enacts a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks to replace the revenues lost by appeasing Sinema. Democrats expect the provision to raise $74 million over a decade.

Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies have soared in recent years and are on track to surpass $1 trillion this year. Companies buy back their stock to reward shareholders and increase their stock price by artificially limiting supply.

  • The tax will impact the nation’s largest companies that rely on multibillion-dollar buybacks to raise their stock price, including Apple, Nike and Exxon Mobil.
  • Democrats have criticized the practice, arguing that companies should invest in workers and innovation instead of repurchasing stock.

To further recover revenue lost to the private equity sector, the bill also extends a set of limitations on losses that businesses can deduct from their taxes. The limits prevent wealthy individuals from significantly bringing down or even wiping out their income tax liability. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that extending the caps would raise $52 billion.

— Tobias Burns and Karl Evers-Hillstrom

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