Retail giants Walmart ( WMT -1.22% ) and Costco Wholesale ( COST -1.72% ) have a lot in common. People go to these shopping hubs when budgets are tight. Actually, Walmart and Costco stay busy in any economy -- and despite their low-cost products and services, these companies make money by the truckload. Look up "consumer defensive" stocks in your favorite screener and sort the list by market cap . Walmart tops that list with a $734 billion market value on Dec. 27, followed by Costco at $415 billion. I'm talking about true business titans here. But should you buy Costco or Walmart stock today? You know how similar these companies can be, but let's check out how they differ, too. Retailer rockets in 2024 Both stocks have soared in 2024. Costco shares gained more than 41% this year, and Walmart investors saw a 73% share price increase. These stodgy old value stocks are behaving more like high-growth names from the tech sector. Walmart shares are trading at price-to-sales ( P/S ) ratios not seen in more than 20 years, and Costco's P/S valuation has never been this rich before. WMT PS Ratio data by YCharts. The growth gap narrows Costco used to grow its sales much faster than the retail giant from Arkansas. Costco's revenues rose 46% in the three-year period from fiscal year 2019 to 2022. Walmart's top-line growth stopped at 14.5% over that time span. But things have changed, and the two companies have shown very similar sales growth in the last two years. WMT Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts. Here's an unexpected AI leader Walmart's accelerated growth comes from a surprisingly high-tech setup. In the latest earnings call , Walmart's leaders highlighted growing e-commerce operations in places like Mexico and a growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools . "[W]e're learning and applying generative AI, AI, and machine learning to solve the practical opportunities right in front of us," said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. One generative AI tool is helping Walmart's staff access the proprietary business data they need. A customer-facing shopping assistant with machine learning smarts has been in beta testing since the summer, and should soon become widely available. E-commerce is also a large part of Costco's business plan, but the company appears to have fewer AI projects going on. Costco leaders haven't mentioned AI in a financial call since last spring , when (now retired) CFO Richard Galanti said that the company was in "early innings" of putting this technology to use. I'm almost shocked to see Walmart taking advantage of new technology faster than Costco. It can't be easy to drive that massive business in a new direction, given the unyielding law of large numbers . But that's what I see happening today. Great stocks, bad timing So Walmart is keeping up with Costco's business growth, with assistance from a promising set of AI tools. At the same time, the retail giant's stock is less expensive than Costco's across a wide range of valuation metrics. But that doesn't make Walmart's stock a slam-dunk buy today. With a price-to-earnings ratio ( P/E ) of 37.5 and price-to-free cash flow (P/FCF) of more than 43, even Walmart's lower-priced stock looks quite expensive. This malaise extends beyond Costco and Walmart. With a couple of exceptions, the entire category of discount-priced retail stores has enjoyed stellar market performance this year -- leaving their stocks stranded at very lofty valuation ratios. This secular trend makes sense, since people have been dodging inflation since the summer of 2021. Low-priced goods are worth their weight in gold these days. Yes, I'd rather buy Walmart stock than Costco shares at the moment. But even Walmart is more of a "hold" recommendation than a flat-out "buy" idea. This just doesn't look like the right time to start a position in most discount-store stocks.‘Major victory’: Trump’s massive new winWhat Men And Women ‘Envy’ Most About Each Other—By A Psychologist
Pep Guardiola denies rumours of a rift with Kevin De Bruyne
Andrew RT Davies' decision to quit as Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd in the face of a split among Tory politicians triggers a potential leadership contest, with no clear frontrunner to take over. It has been assumed in Welsh political circles for a while that a number of Tory MSs are interested in the leadership. As of late on Tuesday only one candidate had come forward - Darren Millar. In theory the group could coalesce around one candidate, and no contest will happen. Whoever wins will lead their party into crucial Senedd elections in 2026, where polling has recently suggested the party is in fourth place, behind Plaid, Labour and Reform. Davies quit on Tuesday after he narrowly won a vote of no confidence , with nine votes for and seven against. He has ruled himself out of the contest. Conservative chief whip Darren Millar was first out of the blocks on Tuesday afternoon. Promising to unify the Welsh Conservatives, the MS was first elected in 2007. Millar is a strong media performer who has been thought of as a leadership contender in the past, but has never run before. Millar made his name making punchy contributions on the Welsh health service when he was the party's NHS spokesman, particularly on North Wales' Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. He is a trustee of a Christian charity, the Evan Roberts Institute, which has attracted controversy for its association with a pastor called Yang Tuck Yoong, who was criticised for homophobic views . Millar has said he does not endorse those views. Millar is the only individual in this list who supported Andrew RT Davies in the vote of confidence - the rest of those below opposed him on Tuesday. There is a big element of speculation with the other names in this list - including Tory Shadow Transport Minister Natasha Asghar. Based in Newport, Natasha Asghar entered politics after the death of her father , the late MS for South Wales East Mohammad Asghar in 2020, winning election to the Senedd the next year. She was the first woman of colour to be elected to the Welsh Parliament, and made a BBC list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world in 2021. Asghar, who serves the same region, has shown ambition before when she made a bid to stand to be Conservative candidate for London mayor . The former TV presenter hit the headlines before she was elected after a YouTube video emerged showing her pretending to interview leading sportsmen - she said she was practising her editing . One Conservative MS thought to be interested in becoming leader is Tom Giffard. The MS for South Wales West was elected in 2021 after a selection process where he beat the incumbent Suzy Davies for a favourable place on a regional list . Giffard grew up between Swansea and Carmarthenshire, and learned Welsh as a second language. He led the Bridgend Conservative group for four years before joining the Senedd. He is thought to be respected in the wider Westminster Conservative party. Giffard speaks for the party on culture, tourism and sport. In 2023 he gave a speech about darts in the Welsh Parliament generated by the ChatGPT AI system - he said he made the speech to show how advanced the technology had become. At a time some Tory activists want to see the Senedd abolished, Sam Kurtz is solidly from the pro-devolution wing of the Conservative party. Back in 2022 he went against Tory policy and called for a larger Senedd, saying the current set up with 60 members "doesn't feel like it works properly" . Like the outgoing leader Andrew RT Davies his roots are in farming - born and raised on a farm outside Fishguard in north Pembrokeshire. He is currently chair of the Pembrokeshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, and worked as a reporter before becoming a parliamentary aide. He is seen as a potential leadership candidate but it is not clear if he is interested. Sam Rowlands was elected to the Senedd in 2021 to represent the North Wales region in Cardiff Bay. He has had experience as a frontline local politician in the past, having previously led Conwy council. Before that, he worked as a credit risk manager for HSBC bank. Rowlands was born in Bangor and grew up in Penygroes, near Carmarthen, until he moved to Abergele aged nine. He currently holds the high profile shadow health spokesman position and were he to win the leadership his more understated approach would be in marked contrast to Andrew RT Davies. Rowlands had proposed a law to give every state school pupil the chance to go to an outdoor education centre, which ultimately failed to get the Senedd's support. Any runners and riders will need nominations from three other Tories submitted by 17:00 GMT on 5 December. If there are more than two candidates, the group will need to hold secret ballots until it is just two. If there are two candidates, then a ballot of the party membership will take place. The winner will not technically be the leader of the Welsh Conservatives as a whole - unlike Scotland, the leader only leads the group of Tories in the Senedd. They will be the leader of the opposition in the Senedd, however, taking on Eluned Morgan at her weekly first minister's questions. Additional reporting by Adrian BrowneThe governor of Georgia’s status as a Washington outsider helped him turn the page on a turbulent period for the US. Jimmy Carter’s ascent to the White House was something few people could have predicted when he was governor of the US state of Georgia. It was no different for Jimmy Carter in the early 1970s. It took meeting several presidential candidates and then encouragement from an esteemed elder statesman before the young governor, who had never met a president himself, saw himself as something bigger. He announced his White House bid on December 12 1974, amid fallout from the Vietnam War and the resignation of Richard Nixon. Then he leveraged his unknown, and politically untainted, status to become the 39th president. That whirlwind path has been a model, explicit and otherwise, for would-be contenders ever since. “Jimmy Carter’s example absolutely created a 50-year window of people saying, ‘Why not me?’” said Steve Schale, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaigns and is a long-time supporter of President Joe Biden. Mr Carter’s journey to high office began in Plains, Georgia where he received end-of-life care decades after serving as president. David Axelrod, who helped to engineer Mr Obama’s four-year ascent from state senator to the Oval Office, said Mr Carter’s model is about more than how his grassroots strategy turned the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary into his springboard. “There was a moral stain on the country, and this was a guy of deep faith,” Mr Axelrod said. “He seemed like a fresh start, and I think he understood that he could offer something different that might be able to meet the moment.” Donna Brazile, who managed Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, got her start on Mr Carter’s two national campaigns. “In 1976, it was just Jimmy Carter’s time,” she said. Of course, the seeds of his presidential run sprouted even before Mr Nixon won a second term and certainly before his resignation in August 1974. In Mr Carter’s telling, he did not run for governor in 1966, he lost, or in 1970 thinking about Washington. Even when he announced his presidential bid, neither he nor those closest to him were completely confident. “President of what?” his mother, Lillian, replied when he told her his plans. But soon after he became governor in 1971, Mr Carter’s team envisioned him as a national player. They were encouraged in part by the May 31 Time magazine cover depicting Mr Carter alongside the headline “Dixie Whistles a Different Tune”. Inside, a flattering profile framed Mr Carter as a model “New South” governor. In October 1971, Carter ally Dr Peter Bourne, an Atlanta physician who would become US drug tsar, sent his politician friend an unsolicited memo outlining how he could be elected president. On October 17, a wider circle of advisers sat with Mr Carter at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss it. Mr Carter, then 47, wore blue jeans and a T-shirt, according to biographer Jonathan Alter. The team, including Mr Carter’s wife Rosalynn, who died aged 96 in November 2023, began considering the idea seriously. “We never used the word ‘president’,” Mr Carter recalled upon his 90th birthday, “but just referred to national office”. Mr Carter invited high-profile Democrats and Washington players who were running or considering running in 1972, to one-on-one meetings at the mansion. He jumped at the chance to lead the Democratic National Committee’s national campaign that year. The position allowed him to travel the country helping candidates up and down the ballot. Along the way, he was among the Southern governors who angled to be George McGovern’s running mate. Mr Alter said Mr Carter was never seriously considered. Still, Mr Carter got to know, among others, former vice president Hubert Humphrey and senators Henry Jackson of Washington, Eugene McCarthy of Maine and Mr McGovern of South Dakota, the eventual nominee who lost a landslide to Mr Nixon. Mr Carter later explained he had previously defined the nation’s highest office by its occupants immortalised by monuments. “For the first time,” Mr Carter told The New York Times, “I started comparing my own experiences and knowledge of government with the candidates, not against ‘the presidency’ and not against Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It made it a whole lot easier”. Adviser Hamilton Jordan crafted a detailed campaign plan calling for matching Mr Carter’s outsider, good-government credentials to voters’ general disillusionment, even before Watergate. But the team still spoke and wrote in code, as if the “higher office” were not obvious. It was reported during his campaign that Mr Carter told family members around Christmas 1972 that he would run in 1976. Mr Carter later wrote in a memoir that a visit from former secretary of state Dean Rusk in early 1973 affirmed his leanings. During another private confab in Atlanta, Mr Rusk told Mr Carter plainly: “Governor, I think you should run for president in 1976.” That, Mr Carter wrote, “removed our remaining doubts.” Mr Schale said the process is not always so involved. “These are intensely competitive people already,” he said of governors, senators and others in high office. “If you’re wired in that capacity, it’s hard to step away from it.” “Jimmy Carter showed us that you can go from a no-name to president in the span of 18 or 24 months,” said Jared Leopold, a top aide in Washington governor Jay Inslee’s unsuccessful bid for Democrats’ 2020 nomination. “For people deciding whether to get in, it’s a real inspiration,” Mr Leopold continued, “and that’s a real success of American democracy”.Robbins LLP Urges XRX Stockholders with Large Losses to Contact the Firm for information About the Xerox Holdings Corporation Class Action Lawsuit
Tait-Jones scores 21 as UC San Diego defeats James Madison 73-67Most manufacturers recognise technology adoption as a critical driver of profitability and competitiveness, but current investments remain modest, with many allocating less than 10 per cent of their budgets, stated a Manufacturing Competitiveness Study of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for However, the report added that a shift towards higher investment--targeting 11-15 per cent of budgets--is expected in the next two years, particularly in Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Big Data. Challenges such as high costs, unclear Return on Investment, and the integration of legacy systems persist, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it said. Additionally, the report underscores the urgent need for workforce upskilling to bridge the skills gap and enable seamless adoption of advanced technologies. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) released Manufacturing Competitiveness Study, focusing on the transformative impact of smart technologies on India's manufacturing sector. 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The report showcases how cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), robotics, and automation are reshaping the manufacturing landscape, driving optimization, innovation, and global competitiveness. High-capital industries like Semiconductors, Aerospace, and Automotive are leading the charge in adopting these technologies, while traditional sectors like Textiles and Food Processing are gradually transitioning towards digitalization. To address these barriers, the study recommends fostering public-private partnerships to establish shared technology hubs, increasing budget allocations for technology, strengthening industry-academia collaboration, and implementing supportive policies to encourage broader adoption of smart manufacturing. Speaking about the report, Deepak Shetty, Chairman of the Council on Manufacturing Excellence, CII and CEO & Managing Director, JCB India Limited, said, "India's manufacturing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the rapid adoption of innovative technologies." Deepak Jain, Co-Chair of the Council on Manufacturing Excellence, CII and Chairman, Lumax Group, said, "This report highlights a transformative moment for India's manufacturing sector, where advanced technologies are reshaping processes and addressing challenges like supply chain visibility to drive industrial excellence." (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
By Jason DeParle, New York Times Service WASHINGTON — Homelessness soared to the highest level on record this year, driven by forces that included high rents, stagnant wages and a surge in migrants seeking asylum, the federal government reported Friday. The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of 18% over last year and the largest annual jump since the count began in 2007. The report, released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed that homelessness rose by a third in the past two years, after declining modestly over the previous decade. While the report cited multiple reasons for the recent rise, including the end of pandemic-era measures to protect the needy, Biden administration officials, on a call with reporters, emphasized the role of asylum-seeking migrants who overwhelmed the shelter systems where much of the increase occurred. The officials argued that, since the annual count occurred in January, the migrant crisis had begun to abate. “This data is nearly a year old and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing,” Adrianne Todman, the acting housing secretary, said in a prepared statement. The government does not track the migration status of homeless people, so it is hard to disentangle the twin crises of domestic poverty and foreigners fleeing troubled lands — distinct challenges with different solutions. But the record-breaking rise in unhoused people is likely to widen the growing partisan divide over homelessness policy. Democrats typically blame housing costs, flagging wages and scarce rental subsidies, while supporting Housing First policies, which house the chronically homeless without requiring treatment for mental illness or substance abuse. Many Republicans seek cuts in housing aid and other social services and blame what they call liberal permissiveness. They want to require unhoused people to seek psychiatric or substance abuse help as a condition of support. President-elect Donald Trump has called for clearing cities of encampments and for placing unhoused people into camps. “This is just a horrible increase, and it shatters any myth that Housing First is working,” said Robert Marbut, who served as the federal homelessness coordinator during Trump’s first term. He dismissed the idea that migration was the primary reason homelessness rose. Nearly every category of unhoused people grew, with the rise especially steep among children (33%) and people in families (39%). The number of people in shelters rose by about a quarter, while unsheltered homeless rose 7%. The rise in homelessness among older adults continued as well, with a 6% growth in those 65 or older. The report found that veterans were the lone group to see a decline in homelessness last year. That continues a long-term trend driven by bipartisan support for housing and services for the politically popular group, a collaboration at odds with the rancor of the broader homelessness debate. The number of homeless veterans fell by 8% last year. More than a third of people experiencing homelessness — 274,000 — sleep in cars, encampments and tents under bridges, places where the risks of violence and illness are especially high. While California has recently been the epicenter of the homelessness crisis, homelessness there rose just 3%, much less than the national average. The state has invested tens of billions in recent years in housing and services. Dennis Culhane, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has long advised the government on homelessness data, said that about three-quarters of the increase in homelessness occurred in the four states hit hardest by asylum-seekers — New York, Illinois, Colorado and Massachusetts — along with Hawaii, where wildfires in Maui fueled mass displacement. Absent migration and natural disasters, he said, homelessness would likely have risen by single digits. “I’m concerned that people are going to misinterpret this report and think there’s been a big rise in domestic homelessness,” he said. “These numbers shouldn’t be used to attack Housing First.” Among the evidence pointing toward migration as a driving force, he said, were timing (the rise began with the surge in asylum-seekers in 2022), location and ethnicity. The number of Latinos experiencing homelessness grew by almost a third, nearly twice the national rate. Chicago and Denver are among cities reporting sharp declines in shelter populations since the January count. Some analysts, conservative and progressive alike, said that focusing on migration hides the larger issues at play, including economic inequality and homelessness policy. “As long as we are still in an affordable housing crisis, we are going to continue to see an increase in homelessness,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group that supports increased spending on homeless services. Oliva noted that homelessness grew among some groups, unlikely to include many recent asylum-seekers. They include the chronically homeless, whose numbers have grown nearly 20% over two years, and families in rural areas. Other advocates have quietly warned that emphasizing the presence of migrants in shelters could increase their risk of deportation. Stephen Eide of the conservative Manhattan Institute argued that migration did less to drive homelessness than to expose the flaws of the services system, which encourages people to enter shelters to get aid. “To some extent, homelessness policy can create homelessness,” he said. Conservatives have grown increasingly critical of Housing First policies, which guide federal aid and once enjoyed bipartisan support. Supporters say the approach is backed by evidence showing that Housing First policies get troubled people off the streets and save lives. Most veterans programs use the approach, and homelessness among that group has fallen by more than half over the past 15 years. But conservatives, including many faith-based service providers, say the approach allows people to avoid taking responsibility for their problems and leads to repeated bouts of homelessness. Housing First’s dominance of federal aid, they say, discourages innovation. “We’ve stopped treating mental illness and substance abuse,” Marbut said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times . Be civil. Be kind.LMD Egypt to launch New Zayed project with EGP 10bn investmentTua Tagovailoa sharp again as Dolphins dominate Patriots
It was with the DJI Air 2 and DJI Air 2S that DJI began to fork the road for some drone models. The Mavic 3 series then followed suit with several models available. As many have anticipated, we have now seen the release of the DJI Air 3S just over a year after the DJI Air 3 . The Air 3S is an impressive dual-camera drone. Although there are only a handful of upgrades, they are pretty impressive, making it a highly attractive mid-size drone. Before we get into the details, you can be sure that the Air 3S is one of the best drones . Thanks to the impressive dual camera capable of producing excellent image quality for photos and videos, it is also one of the best camera drones . Reaching a level where a drone fits comfortably into these prestigious categories is no mean feat, but the Air 3S has casually flown into both. Where the Air 3 sports two cameras using a 1/1.3-inch CMOS but with different focal lengths, the Air 3S features a 50MP 1-inch CMOS in the 24mm equivalent main camera, while the 70mm equivalent medium telephoto uses a 48MP 1/1.3-inch CMOS. Video can be captured in professional and enthusiast profiles up to 4K 120 FPS, while photos can be captured in Raw and JPEG at 12MP and the full resolution of each sensor. Both Air 3 drones look practically identical. The main differences aside from the camera are improvements to the Omnidirectional Vision Sensing System, which includes forward-facing LiDAR and downward ToF sensors to make lowlight flying and the advanced Return to Home functionality safer and more reliable. Of course, there are other improvements, and we will delve into those later. Back to top DJI Air 3S: Design Standard DJI folding design Level 6 wind resistance 42 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot DJI consumer drones look remarkably similar and feature a practically identical folding design; this is where the propeller arms fold and twist out from a folded transport and storage position that makes the drone’s footprint significantly smaller to flight position when required. It’s a tried and tested design and clearly shows no signs of needing a revamp – it simply works. Unfolded dimensions are arguably negligible because the drone is in the air most of the time in this state, but at 8.43 x 3.96 x 3.51 in / 214.2 x 100.6 x 89.2 mm with a weight of 25.54 oz / 724 g, you can see just how compact it is. This is, of course, way above the 250 g threshold, which means that the Air 3S, like the Air 3, is subject to greater restrictions and pilot requirements in most regions including both the US and the UK. Despite this relatively compact size, weight aside because it is roughly three-quarters the weight of the DJI Mavic 3 Pro , it is a powerful and fast drone with some impressive credentials in this area. The Air 3S has a 47 mph top speed, Level 6 wind resistance which equates to 27 mph and the 4276 mAh batteries provide up to 45 minutes of flight time. This couldn’t be fairly tested in the cool fall temperatures in the UK, but flight times per battery were never an issue. The Air 3S also features 42 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot to expand storage potential if and when required. Plus, there’s a USB-C port that can be used for data transfer from the internal storage and/or to charge the currently installed battery. If you have the Fly More Combo, the included three-way charging hub is undoubtedly the better option for charging. You can buy the drone with either the DJI RC-N3 controller , which is a standard controller that requires a smartphone running the DJI Fly app to be attached, or the DJI RC 2 smart controller , with its bright 700 nit 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen and 32 GB of onboard storage. The DJI RC 2 is the more convenient of the two and doesn’t cost a huge amount more than the DJI RC-N3 Fly More Combo. DJI Air 3S: Functionality Omnidirectional obstacle avoidance with forward-facing LiDAR New Free Panorama feature 10-bit 04 Video Transmission In many respects, the Air 3S is the same drone as the Air 3, but it has a few aces beyond the improved camera that we will discuss in the next section. The most significant is the 360-degree omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, which has been upgraded with forward-facing LiDAR and downward infrared time-of-flight (TOF) sensors. The LiDAR and downward TOF sensors aim to improve obstacle avoidance at night. This could not be tested in the UK because night operations require special authorizations from the CAA. However, their inclusion on the Air 3S can only benefit pilots in countries where night flights are allowed without jumping through complicated regulatory hoops. One thing to bear in mind, however, is that collision avoidance, even in daylight, can never be fully relied upon because as effective as it is, and it is amazing, it is not a failsafe, and errors, however infrequent, can occur. So, pilot awareness always remains the most critical collision avoidance system with any drone and the two should supplement one another. The DJI Air 3S features ActiveTrack 360° subject tracking, which is highly effective and aims to keep the subject sharp and in focus in the center of the frame. This feature utilizes the collision avoidance system and is designed to maintain an optimum flight path during automated subject-tracking flights. The drone also uses the same DJI O4 HD video transmission technology that is used in the Air 3, which is claimed to be able to transmit 1080p 60 FPS video at up to 12.4 miles in the US and up to 6.2 miles in other regions. This could not be tested to its extreme, but suffice it to say that connection between the drone and controller was never an issue during testing within legal flight distances. Other useful new features include the new free panorama mode where panoramic shots are manually selected rather than simply selecting a panorama preset option, and the results are stitched together in-camera. Then there is Off-State QuickTransfer, which lets you connect the Air 3S to a computer to download files without switching it on. It's a simple feature that would have been great if it had been implemented in DJI drones long ago, but better late than never. Finally, let's not forget the DJI Cellular Dongle 2, which can be inserted directly into the Air 3S to provide 4G connectivity when there is interference or disconnection from DJI O4 HD video transmission. This is not a necessity for everyone, but for some pilots working in complex environments, it will provide enhanced reliability and peace of mind. Back to top DJI Air 3S: Performance 24mm and 70mm equivalent cameras 1-inch sensor in the main camera Up to 4K 120 FPS 1080p 240 FPS video Regarding camera performance, the Air 3S features a stunning pair of cameras that not only provide versatility for professionals and enthusiasts but also produce excellent image quality. The main camera is a real gem, and although it doesn't offer an adjustable aperture like the Mavic 3 models’ main camera, you can use ND filters to control shutter speed when shooting video. The main camera uses a 50MP 1-inch CMOS sensor and provides an equivalent focal length of 24mm, alongside a fixed f/1.8 aperture. Focus is from 1.64 ft / 0.5 m to infinity. The medium telephoto features a 48MP 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor and offers a 70mm equivalent focal length, alongside a fixed f/2.8 aperture and focus from 9.94 ft / 3 m to infinity. There’s also a digital zoom available for the cameras, but as always, the image quality drops as the zoom factor is increased since you’re cropping pixels rather than zooming optically. Overall image quality, as previously mentioned, is excellent from both cameras, with sharp and detail-packed photos and videos. There is a small amount of fall-off in sharpness towards the edges of the frame, but this is completely normal and minor. For photography, both cameras can be set to either their full resolution or 12MP if you only require a lower-resolution image. All resolution options allow for capture in RAW and JPEG formats, as well as all shooting modes including Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) and Burst Shot, etc. Some DJI drones don't allow for these modes to be used when shooting in their high-resolution option. Both cameras can capture video in 4K at 24/25/30/48/50/60/120 FPS and in 1080p up to 240 FPS. For both 4K and 1080p video, capture at 120 and 240 FPS, respectively, requires the Slow Motion video option to be selected. 2.7K vertical video in 9:16 can be captured at 24/25/30/48/50/60 FPS, which is ideal for social media; this is a crop of landscape format rather than a rotation of the camera and gimbal like the Mini 3, 3 Pro and 4 Pro. Please note the footage below was shot in 4K but our video player only plays in HD. Video can be captured in Normal, HLG (HDR capture), and D-Log M color profiles with the former available in 8-bit and 10-bit with H.264 and H.265 encoding, and the latter two being 10-bit in H.265. This provides options for both straight-out-of-camera footage, which will appeal to enthusiasts, and flat profiles for professional workflows with color grading. Both cameras can also capture up to 14 stops of dynamic range, which is fantastic in high-contrast situations. DJI Air 3S: Price The Air 3S is available in three well-priced kit options considering the features on offer. It naturally sits between the DJI Mini 4 Pro and DJI Mavic 3 models in terms of cost and offers something different to both. The standard kit uses the DJI RC-N3 controller and includes this, the drone, a battery, and a USB-C/PD cable. This base kit costs $1099 / £959. There are two Fly More Combos with the less expensive of the two offering the same controller as the standard kit, and this option costs $1,399 / £1,239. The premium kit is the DJ RC N2 smart controller option, and this costs $1599 / £1,439. The Fly More Combos include everything in the standard kit alongside the relevant controller, two additional batteries, a shoulder bag, a three-battery charging hub, and an ND filter set with three filters to help with controlling shutter speed when shooting video or for creative photographic effects. Should you buy the DJI Air 3S? The DJI Air 3S is an excellent drone. Although the main camera doesn't have an adjustable aperture like the Mavic 3 models, the Air 3S produces excellent image quality. The Omnidirectional Vision Sensing System, which includes forward-facing LiDAR and downward ToF sensors, makes lowlight flying and the advanced Return to Home functionality safer and more reliable. This is also a fast and powerful drone with respectable flight times per battery, and this additional power alongside the weight makes it much more stable in windy conditions than the DJI Mini 4 Pro . Ultimately, the question you have to ask yourself is do you go for the Air 3S (this drone) or the Mavic 3 Pro . Both are excellent drones, but the Air 3S does have the edge in a few areas, including cost. If this drone isn't for you If you would like a more powerful professional drone with three cameras, including an adjustable aperture in the main camera, the DJI Mavic 3 Pro is the flagship model and provides fantastic image quality and features. The DJI Mini 4 Pro is the best sub-250 g camera drone available, and it's much more regulator-friendly than the DJI Air 3S. Its photo and video quality are great, and its small size and light weight make it highly portable. If you would prefer to capture FPV video, and photos are not important, the DJI Avata 2 is incredibly easy to fly with the DJI RC Motion 3 Controller. Flight is intuitive, even for beginners, and the quality of the 4K video is fantastic. 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Shark Tank star’s warning to celebs. Picture: Instagram/Barbara Corcoran, Kylie Jenner, Ciara Celebrity real estate guru Barbara Corcoran has issued some words of wisdom for her fellow A-listers who are trying (and failing) to sell their homes. The 75-year-old, who founded the real estate company The Corcoran Group, offered up some advice to celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Ciara, both of whom have struggled to offload their pricey properties in recent years. During an interview on the podcast “Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin” , the famed real estate mogul had one clear message for any A-listers hoping to score a huge profit on a property sale: “Get realistic.” The “Shark Tank” star said that one of the worst things a celebrity—or indeed anyone selling a high-value home—can do is routinely lower the price of their mansion, because it suggests to buyers that they are struggling to sell and encourages interested parties to put in lower offers. According to Realtor , that is a mistake that many A-listers have made in recent years, particularly those who were hoping to sell megamansions in Los Angeles before the April 2023 implementation of a so-called “mansion tax,” which adds a 4 per cent tax to the total transaction for property sales over $US5 million and a 5.5 per cent rate for sales above $US10 million. RELATED: ‘Very rich’: Shark Tank star’s ‘golden rule’ exposed Celebrity real estate guru Barbara Corcoran. Picture: Mitch Haaseth/Disney General Entertainment Content / Getty Images The 75-year-old real estate guru shared some very frank advice with stars like Kylie Jenner and Ciara who have struggled to sell their homes in recent years. Picture: Instagram/Kylie Jenner, Ciara Real talk to celebrities on their property prices Jenner and Scott are two such celebrities called out by Corcoran after they listed their Beverly Hills house at a super high price of $US21 million ($A33.8 million) in 2022, and then, with no takers, slashed the price several times. The on-again, off-again couple, who share two children, initially listed the seven-bedroom, 8.5-bathroom home around the same time they split for a second time. Built in 1971, the mansion has since been extensively remodelled. It has a pool, spa, lounging area, and dining space. Other perks include a home theatre, wine cellar, smart home technology, and a three-car garage. The two snapped up the Beverly Hills mansion for $US13.4 million in 2018, and seem to believe they can walk away from the home with quite an upside. Corcoran noted, “You have to be realistic. I don’t think it’s a good idea to drop prices on expensive or lower priced real estate. It’s always a signal to the buyer there’s a problem and they’re encouraged to make an even lower offer.” She added, “You’re much better off taking your home off the market, waiting three to six months, listing with a new broker and coming on as a new listing.” She pointed out that if the listing drops in price, it causes the buyer to wonder, “What’s wrong?” She said, “It puts the emphasis, underlines what’s the new news there, which is the price dropped: why, why, why?” The couple appear to have taken her advice to heart. They recently removed the listing from the market after two years of trying unsuccessfully to sell the posh property. RELATED: Kylie Jenner takes down $16 million mansion listing Rare glimpse inside Kylie Jenner’s $56 million LA mansion Jenner and Travis Scott recently took their Beverly Hills, California, home off the market. Picture: Realtor NFL player Russell Wilson and music icon Ciara had faced a similar challenge. They put their Washington state mansion on the market for $US36 million ($A55 million) in 2022—at the time, it was the most expensive listing in the state. The couple did finally unload the property but only after making a steep price cut. They eventually slashed the ask by $US10 million ($A15 million) and sold the property earlier this year for $US21 million ($A32 million), a huge discount. However, Wilson also reportedly sold a lot next door, bringing the haul to somewhere around $US31 million ($A47 million). The entire transaction took over two years. Corcoran noted that she would give the couple struggling to sell their spread the exact same advice: Take it off the market for between three and six months, and then list at a new price. The Bellevue mansion had been on and off the market since April 2022, shortly after Wilson changed jobs and jerseys, from the Seattle Seahawks to join the Denver Broncos. Wilson and Grammy-winning wife Ciara picked up the compound for $US6.7 million in 2015 while he was still with the Seahawks. MORE: Scott Cam’s $3m+ Block house yet to find a buyer Wild reason Pink Floyd legend can’t sell $19m home Russell Wilson and Ciara sold their Bellevue, Washington, estate at a huge reduction. Picture: Realtor Most celebrities ‘overpay’ For most celebrities, Corcoran stated, the reality of real estate sales is “famous people always pay more for their real estate and almost always overpay.” She recalled when her colleague was working with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who splashed out millions more than the listing price for a property in New York City because he was so desperate to secure his dream home. “I distinctly remember being a young broker and one of my colleagues that worked for me was working with Jerry Seinfeld when he was at his peak, and he bought a magnificent apartment on Central Park West,” she recalled, referring to the primo park-facing street on the Upper West Side. “And once he saw the apartment, the owner increased the price I think it was by like $2 million on a $6 million home, thereabouts. Seinfeld says, ‘That’s OK’ and closed on it anyway.” But the funnyman wasn’t done overpaying. Not by a long shot. “Then he wanted to buy a townhouse building to house his collection of cars, next door, convert it into a multistorey garage; they raised the price on that. He said, ‘No problem, I really want it.’” Corcoran concluded, “Celebrities are used to being overcharged. When you’re coming in, there’s a lot of hoopla about you, the seller always knows it, they don’t want to leave any money on the table. Typically, a celebrity overpays for their real estate.” What about the other way around? Would a buyer want to pay a little extra for a celebrity-owned home for the bragging rights? “Sometimes people will pay a little extra if it’s not overpriced to begin with ... it gives you bragging rights,” she said, before warning: But “it’s a premium that isn’t worth all that much. It’s a little more sex appeal. In the end, people would like to pay the least amount for the house anyway.” Parts of this story first appeared in Realtor and were republished with permission.The Long Game: John McEntee on his vision for shaping the conservative movement over the next decade
The 39-year-old has been a breath of fresh air since succeeding Erik ten Hag, with his personality and approach, coupled with promising early performances, bringing hope back to Old Trafford. Amorim has been touched by his warm welcome but repeatedly urged fans to avoid jumping the gun, having followed a draw at Ipswich with home wins against Bodo/Glimt and Everton. Wednesday’s trip to Arsenal is comfortably his biggest challenge yet and victory would see United move within three points of the Premier League title contenders. Put to Amorim it will be hard to manage expectations if they won in the capital, the head coach said: “I would like to say different things, but I have to say it again: the storm will come. “I don’t know if you use that expression, but we are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games. “And I know that because I’m knowing my players and I know football and I follow football, so I understand the difference between the teams. “We are in the point in that we are putting simple things in the team, without training, and you feel it in this game against Everton, they change a little bit the way they were building up. “They are very good team, and we were with a lot of problems because we cannot change it by calling one thing to the captain. A midweek trip to the capital awaits 🚆 #MUFC || #PL pic.twitter.com/1e6VrILJW3 — Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 3, 2024 “So, we don’t have this training, so let’s focus on each game, on the performance, what we have to improve, trying to win games. And that is the focus. “I know it’s really hard to be a Manchester United coach and say these things in press conferences. We want to win all the time. No matter what. “We are going to try to win, but we know that we are in a different point if you compare to Arsenal. “So, it is what it is and we will try to win it and we go with confidence to win, but we know that we need to play very well to win the next football match.” The trip to Arsenal is the second of nine December matches for United, who are looking to avoid suffering four straight league defeats to the Gunners for the first time. The Red Devils have not won a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium since 2017, but Amorim knows a thing or two about frustrating Mikel Arteta’s men. Arsenal thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 in the Champions League last week, but in 2022-23 he led the Portuguese side to a Europa League last-16 penalty triumph after a 1-1 draw in London made it 3-3 on aggregate. “Arsenal this year, they play a little bit different,” Amorim said. “They are more fluid. “For example, two years ago when we faced them with Sporting, you knew how to press because you can understand better the structure. “Now it’s more fluid with (Riccardo) Calafiori and (Jurrien) Timber in different sides. One coming inside, the other going outside. Also (Martin) Odegaard changed the team, and you can feel it during this season. “So, you can take something from that game, especially because I know so well the opponent so you can understand the weakness of that team. “But every game is different, so you take something, but you already know that you are going to face a very good team.” This hectic winter schedule means Amorim sidestepped talk of January transfer business ahead of facing Arsenal, although he was more forthcoming on Amad Diallo’s future. The 22-year-old, who put in a man of the match display in Sunday’s 4-0 win against Everton, is out of contract at the end of the season, although the club holds an option to extend by a year. Diallo has repeatedly spoken of his desire to stay at United and it has been reported an agreement is close. Amorim said: “I think he wants to stay, and we want him to stay. So that is clear and we will find a solution.”Traders Take Advantage of Lightchain AI's Presale As Cardano and Dogecoin Lose Steam
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After 125 years or so of being the most collectively Joe College nation on Earth, many Americans have turned sour on the idea that a higher education — or at least the four years we have traditionally set aside for young adults to get a bachelor’s degree — is key to an informed, successful life. Not me. But the varsity blues are otherwise rampant. Perhaps our culture had gone a little bit too all-in on the tradition, and this is just a course correction. I have noted before in this space that in my observations of car rear windshields in dozens of countries around the world, we are the only one that is positively bonkers in identifying the schools in which we, or our children, have matriculated, through decals and bumper stickers. The Citroens of Paris and the Jaguars of London are not adorned with signifiers bragging “Sorbonne” or “Oxford.” I don’t quite know if it’s simple humility or a lack of school spirit, but the fact is their license-plate holders do not announce, as does mine, “Go Bears!,” or the equivalent, to the driver behind them at the stop light. I do realize I was lucky in having been accepted into the University of California system during its golden age of taxpayer support. I got to study at the greatest public university in the world for a tuition that never varied from its annual $637.50 price tag from September 1973 through June 1977. That, the $200 monthly check my (sainted) mother sent me and the $15 a week I made for writing for the student newspaper covered everything: rent, books, meals, beer, whatnot. Undergraduate bliss. Or, if not always entirely that — there were inevitable heartbreaks, and the vague existential dread of adult life around the corner, in which you’d somehow have to make ends meet — four formative transitional years in between living under your parents’ roof and having to fend entirely on your own. If I was lucky, at least I knew that I was, and never took it for granted. I wasn’t smart enough to be a slacker. I never missed a single class, freshman through senior years. Of course, the information imparted wasn’t always at the hands of the professors. On a university campus, you have your beliefs challenged, or at least you ought to. For instance, as a perhaps naive believer in the essentially correct nature of American foreign policy, the Vietnam debacle aside, I had never for a minute as a high school student been exposed to any notion that Israel was anything but entirely righteous and correct in its dealings with its Arab neighbors. But walking through Sproul Plaza one day, with its ubiquitous “tablers” espousing various political causes, from Young Communists through Young Republicans, I stopped to read some pamphleteering giving the Palestinian side. You mean land was taken from families with an ancient claim to it without proper compensation? The world was more complicated than one had been led to believe. Related Articles Opinion Columnists | Thomas Elias: Expect Newsom to start his much anticipated run for president Opinion Columnists | Wishing for Santa-like efficiency in the USA Opinion Columnists | Jon Coupal: Santa Jarvis’s naughty and nice list Opinion Columnists | California is battling the future to protect performers Opinion Columnists | Politicians truly are the worst among us And now, as is only fitting, it’s time to play the role of old grouch. Students arrive on campus these days more set in their views, less open to conversion. You hang with the like-minded and issue trigger warnings to those who would challenge you. The Palestine-Israel situation is a sadly perfect example of that. And so, as someone who still spends a lot of time on college campuses, I was glad to read recently of efforts by college administrators to get young people to open up. In a story headlined “To Dial Down Campus Tensions, Colleges Teach the Art of Conversation,” New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis writes: “On a warm November day, a group of Columbia University professors set up ‘listening tables’ near the center of campus and hailed students rushing to class, inviting them to stop and talk.” They smartly bring pizza as an enticement, so some things never change. But it’s often the dire wolf of Gaza that still howls loudest at the tables. A woman in a kaffiyeh in one conversation talked about “this genocide.” “I wouldn’t call it a genocide,” said Scott Barry Kaufman, a psych prof moderating the group. “Do you hate me because I disagree with you?” “No, she did not hate him — ‘for that reason,’ she said,” Hartocollis reports. “Ouch,” Dr. Kaufman replied. Hey, at least they’re talking. Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.
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OTTAWA—The RCMP says it has “contingency plans” to deploy more Mounties to the Canada-U.S. border but needs answers from the Liberal government about how much more it intends to spend on additional drones, helicopters or other technology to surveil it. The Trudeau government says it has not yet “finalized” those decisions as it fended off Opposition criticism it is too slow to act to counter incoming president Donald Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products on his first day in office. RCMP Comm. Michael Duheme told reporters there are two “parallel” tracks to the Mounties’ plans — one contingent on how many illegal immigrants might be “removed” from America by an incoming Trump administration and drive a northward surge into Canada, and the other contingent on how much new technology the Liberal government will fund. Speaking after he testified at a public safety committee, the top Mountie said he is not opposed to expanding the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) mandate into the RCMP’s jurisdiction over territory between official border points of entry, as the border guards’ union has called for. “I think we have to do what’s right, to secure the borders. So if that’s increasing authorities to CBSA, I mean, that’s a discussion I would have” with the head of the CBSA and the government, Duheme said. He said it would be a “longer-term” move, “but I think we have to explore different ways of doing things.” Meanwhile, Duheme said the RCMP needs the “nimbleness” to reassign resources where needed, and he will deploy cadets from the RCMP training academy in Regina — as the national police force did in 2014 to provide additional security following the Parliament Hill attacks. “What you saw in Roxham Road (where migrants crossed illegally near Lacolle, Que.) may not repeat itself,” said Duheme. “It might come somewhere else, right? So that’s one thing, but on the parallel track is the planning a way forward with the asks that we’ve put in ... and the resources required to do it.” Defence Minister Bill Blair told the Star Monday night that Canadian Forces may be able to supply surveillance drones and other technological aids, but that soldiers would not be deployed to the border. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Chrystia Freeland — who co-chairs the Canada-U.S. cabinet committee — met with Opposition leaders Tuesday to brief them on the government’s work to address the Trump threat, and on Trudeau’s and LeBlanc’s trip to Trump’s resort at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Trudeau and LeBlanc discussed trade and the border over dinner with the president-elect at his Freeland later said she was not upset at not being included on the trip, and said “it was the right choice. The meeting was principally about the border. That is what was very clear from the conversation that the prime minister had with the president ahead of time.” Freeland called for a “Team Canada” approach to dealing with Trump, repeating a message she delivered to premiers last week, that it is “important for us to take care not to negotiate against ourselves.” However, when Trudeau’s Commons opponents emerged, they did not offer full-throated support for his efforts. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would take a “Canada first” approach,” stress the harm that tariffs would have on Canada and the U.S. and he put the blame for Canada’s problems with Trump squarely at Trudeau’s feet, a line of attack he continued in the Commons. “Whether one thinks that President Trump’s tariff threats are a negotiating tactic or a real plan, what we do know is what we can control. The prime minister has lost control of everything” including borders and control of immigration, he said. Poilievre said Trudeau is an unpopular leader in an “unbearably weak position” to counter Trump, and demanded an election to replace him. Trudeau in the Commons replied that Poilievre should guard against repeating “erroneous narratives that the Americans are putting forward,” saying amplifying “these ‘broken’ narratives is simply not responsible leadership.” New Democrat Jagmeet Singh said he told Trudeau in the meeting that he pressed Trudeau to hire “at a minimum” 1,100 more border guards. That’s a lot fewer than the union says are needed. Erin O’Gorman, head of the border agency, told MPs the CBSA currently has 16,300 full time employees, 8,500 of whom are front-line employees, compared to 13,700 it had in 2014 when the Conservatives were in power. However, the Customs and Immigration Union says only 6,500 are considered front-line employees, including those who work not just at land border points of entry, but at airports and who enforce customs laws at postal facilities. Union head Mark Weber, in an interview with the Star, said the union has called for an additional 2,000-3,000 front-line officers, and was encouraged by LeBlanc’s testimony that showed an “openness” to expanding the role played by border guards to include patrolling in between official points of entry with the RCMP. Weber reiterated in a letter to LeBlanc Monday the union’s request to the Liberal government to review a 1932 cabinet order that directed the RCMP to cover border areas between official ports of entry while leaving the official points of entry to border officers. ” LeBlanc told MPs Tuesday that the government is “interested in taking immediate steps that will reassure Canadians and the Americans that the border remains secure and the integrity of the border is protected ... We haven’t made any decisions in that regard. But are open to considering that as well.” Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said that the Liberals did not offer details, but seem to have a plan in the works. “We’ll see what it contains,” he said. “I don’t want to fight too much publicly about an issue which is very important for everybody, both in Canada and Quebec and Americans are looking at us now. So I will give some time to Mr. LeBlanc to provide us with the details of the plan.” Former Conservative leader Rona Ambrose in a CBC interview Tuesday said, “look, I think it’s easy to say everyone should be on Team Canada, but that doesn’t mean Team Trudeau.” Ambrose, who previously sat on Trudeau’s NAFTA advisory council, said Poilievre and Singh would all argue they are on Team Canada, but that they also have legitimate criticisms to make of how Trudeau has not positioned Canada’s economy to withstand Trump’s threats and the moves he will make to draw investors and capital away from Canada to the United States.
Misinformation and disinformation are major concerns worldwide. The federal government’s misinformation bill aimed to respond to the threats posed by false, misleading and harmful information. The bill met strong opposition in the senate and has just been withdrawn . Legal efforts to suppress misinformation are ongoing. Around the world, many countries are considering legislation to suppress specific types of misinformation or require online platforms to suppress it . Such laws are always controversial. They encounter some well-known practical and ethical problems – and some surprising ones. Most obviously, censorship restricts people’s right to free speech – an important natural freedom protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international law . Prohibiting speech is additionally concerning in democracies, because citizens have a civic responsibility to engage in debate about the laws that collectively bind us. Free speech also has many beneficial “ utilitarian ” consequences. It can allow truths that were once thought false to be reconsidered and accepted. It allows for existing truths to be better understood. As John Stuart Mill famously argued : “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.” Powers of censorship can also be abused to suppress political dissent . Even if we trust the existing government to be judicious in suppressing speech, we might be nervous about the way future governments could employ such powers. Finally, restrictions on speech can be difficult to target precisely. Even if the wording of a law is narrowly specified, it might chill speech. The threat of legal sanctions can encourage people and organisations to avoid speech anywhere near the legally specified boundary. These are all important ethical concerns – and many of them were raised by critics of the government’s withdrawn misinformation bill. ‘He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.’ John Stuart Mill – George Frederic Watts (1873). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Such concerns are not definitive, because prohibiting speech can also have socially desirable consequences. Laws against incitement to violence, prohibiting defamation, and even protecting things like copyright are all widely accepted limitations on our ability to speak freely. Yet if we want to understand how legal attempts to suppress misinformation might be counterproductive, it is not the restriction on what we say that matters, but the consequences for what we can hear . Suppression regimes can, perversely, undermine confidence in the very beliefs they wish to protect. Misinformation: cause or symptom? The problem of misinformation is easy to overestimate. It is intuitive to think that misinformed people will make bad personal or political decisions and be led to adopt worrying values. But as cognitive psychologist Hugo Mercier has argued , people often believe and share misinformation because of values they already hold and the actions they want to perform. In such cases, the misinformation may be a symptom as much as cause, and suppressing it will not change the underlying concern. Our cognitive biases also tempt us to overplay the significance of misinformation. Confirmation bias and self-serving bias encourage us to believe that those with different values and beliefs are manipulated, credulous and misguided. This is a much more comfortable belief than the disquieting alternative that our opponents are reasonable people with legitimate concerns. Read more: How the federal government's misinformation bill might impede freedom of speech A driver of distrust Misinformation suppression regimes can cause more – not fewer – false beliefs. Consider any important belief that you are confident is true. Think for a moment about why you believe that fact. The answer is probably that you have heard plausible evidence from credible sources supporting it. And you figure that, if there were substantial things to be said against your view, you would have heard about them. But suppose I were to tell you there was no way you could have heard about conflicting evidence, because you have lived for years under a misinformation suppression regime. Should you now rethink your confidence in that belief? Yes. The earlier grounds for your belief no longer apply. You can no longer justify your belief by appealing to the fact that you have heard what may be said for and against it. You are like a scientist who trusted the results of an experiment, but then discovers that any data that might have disproved the hypothesis has been systematically excluded. Despite this change in the grounds for your belief, you might not change your mind. After all, a government body – no doubt informed by experts – has judged the supporting facts to be true. If you trust the government body, both in its capacity to provide true information (its accuracy ) and in its intention to suppress only disinformation (its sincerity ), then you have a new reason to accept your belief. But here’s the problem. You need to really trust the government body. This is not the type of trust you might ordinarily put in, say, news networks or scientific experts. You might be willing to give those sources the benefit of the doubt, but remain open to the possibility their information might turn out to be false or misleading. In an information environment where there are many different sources of information, you don’t need absolute trust in any single source. You can weigh things up for yourself, working out which sources make sense and will likely prove reliable. But when a single body curates the entire information environment, you need near-absolute trust in that body, because its role involves actively suppressing evidence that is wrong. If you don’t have that level of trust, then the regime has removed your good reasons for accepting a true belief, without replacing them with something equally compelling. Perversely then, the rational response to a misinformation suppression regime can drive distrust. This concern applies even to to perfectly rational beings. But for imperfectly rational beings, the response to suppression can be even more dramatic. This is because the people who are most vulnerable to misinformation about important issues are those who are already sceptical about experts and government authorities. Once these sceptics realise that these untrusted authorities are in charge of suppressing information, they will feel like they have additional reason never to trust anything the authorities say. Understanding and autonomy Efforts to suppress misinformation imply that the critical goal is to ensure widespread true beliefs, at least about important issues. But true belief isn’t the only knowledge-related (“epistemic”) goal individuals and societies might have. Another goal is understanding . Someone might have a true belief, but only because they have uncritically adopted it, without any understanding of the evidence for or against it. A misinformation suppression regime might encourage sufficient trust that people accept its pronouncements. But if people do so based on faith, they do not understand their beliefs; they are not developing their critical and cognitive faculties . In this way, a system that achieves desirable initial outcomes might set the scene for worrying long-term results, as faith in authorities undermines genuine understanding and critical interrogation. Government bodies are exactly the type of institution that democratic citizens must be vigilant in appraising. It is a civic responsibility to try and sort out when and where authorities speak honestly and accurately – and to vote and act accordingly. We cannot fulfil this responsibility for misinformation suppression regimes, because they suppress information that could cause us to doubt its determinations. They require us to abdicate our civic responsibility to think for ourselves. Having right or wrong beliefs isn’t all that matters to people. They also care about how they came to have those beliefs. In particular, they care about whether they have made up their own mind. Being in charge of our beliefs is a necessary part of being autonomous – a self-governing agent, able to set one’s own goals. As John Locke argued : “he is certainly the most subjected, the most enslaved, who is so in his understanding.” John Locke – Godfey Kneller (1697). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons A misinformation suppression regime pays no heed to this source of respect. Every piece of information comes with the invisible but omnipresent qualification: You are not getting the full story, because you cannot be trusted with the full story . Suppressing misinformation in this way will be seen as insulting and manipulative to those deemed at risk of forming dangerously wrong beliefs. If our concern is with people who are vulnerable to misinformation because they make up their minds on the basis of emotion rather than reason, the last thing we should do is to insult them and treat them condescendingly and paternalistically. It’s easy to think that if we successfully suppress some information, it’s like that misinformation never existed. This is a mistake. The action of suppressing information itself has effects. The action has moral consequences: it disrespects people’s ability to make up their own minds, make their own mistakes and take responsibility for their beliefs. The action has democratic consequences: it weakens the civic responsibilities of citizens by demanding uncritical faith. Most perversely of all, the action has epistemic consequences: it undermines confidence in the very beliefs it hopes to safeguard. Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.None
