Trump Endorses Viktor Orbán, His Hungarian Role Model
By Ed Kilgore

Trump’s latest 2022 endorsee. Photo: Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images

Donald Trump has focused a lot of his energies lately on endorsing 2022 candidates for office, particularly in disputed Republican primaries where he can create a Trumpier-than-thou competition or settle old grudges with past detractors. It sometimes seems not a sparrow falls to the ground in GOP politics without the 45th president viewing the development narcissistically and interpreting it in terms of his own preoccupations.

But Trump’s latest endorsement on Monday shows him reaching pretty far:

Viktor Orbán of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people. He has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs, trade, and should be allowed to continue to do so in the upcoming Election. He is a strong leader and respected by all. He has my Complete support and Endorsement for reelection as Prime Minister!

Now given Trump’s well-known affinity for political strongmen, this may seem like a dog-bites-Hungarian story. But viewed historically, it’s very unusual, to put it mildly. Sure, presidents make nice with other heads of state in furtherance of foreign policy interests and as a matter of diplomatic protocol, as do former presidents and future presidential aspirants. And in the Cold War era, U.S. leaders often snuggled up to evil people who shared their antipathy toward communists. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had headed up the allied war effort in World War II, got buddy-buddy with Spain’s Francisco Franco, who not only killed an awful lot of innocent people and enslaved many more, but also sent troops (allegedly “volunteers”) to fight for Hitler on the Eastern Front.

Ike and Franco, 1959. Photo: Alamy

Anti-communist solidarity was also the ostensible reason for chumminess between the Nixon and Ford administrations and Chile’s murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet, as well as Reagan’s stubborn support for the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the latter case, Reagan may have also been currying favor with the southern white racists he was luring into the GOP at the time. That’s another rationale for American elected officials picking favorites in other countries’ political battles: a desire to pander to domestic constituencies. For many years pols in northeastern cities were tutored to express love for the “three I’s” — Ireland, Italy and Israel.

Occasionally U.S. leaders have such an obvious ideological and temperamental kinship with a particular foreign leader (e.g., Ronald Reagan with Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton with Tony Blair) that they can be described as strong political allies. That may largely explain Trump’s much-professed affection for Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a similarly fiery and erratic Cult of Personality figure who will almost certainly be the next foreign beneficiary of an explicit Trump endorsement. But in Orbán’s case, the scary thing is that Trump’s admiration of the Hungarian apostle of “illiberal democracy” is most clearly aspirational. As my colleague Jonathan Chait put it a couple of years ago, Orbán is what Trump dreams to become.

Like Trump, Orbán came to power democratically, and his regime still holds elections. But the Hungarian leader is a wizard at giving himself authoritarian powers that distort democracy into something very dissimilar, much like the heads-I-win tails-you-lose system Trump transparently favors where his manifest greatness cannot be legitimately repudiated.

So in Orbán’s Fidesz Party we see Trump’s vision for the GOP: a populist model featuring Christian nationalism seasoned with racism and xenophobia, endless attacks on “globalist elites,” and an ever-heavier thumb on the electoral scales. The only apparent domestic constituency for Orbán-mania is among the right-wing intellectuals seeking to develop a full-scale MAGA ideology, led by the pseudo-intellectual Fox News gabber Tucker Carlson, who in August spent an entire week hosting his show from Budapest.

Adulation for a right-wing authoritarian, central-European Big Man is quite unseemly for Americans with any sense of history. In 2017, former president Barack Obama endorsed the French presidential candidacy of Emmanuel Macron in what was ostensibly a step as unusual as Trump’s. But it really wasn’t the same: Obama has zero future in public office, and Macron was facing right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen, who is an ideological cousin to Orbán and to Trump.

Unlike Obama, Trump is not a retired politician who has been liberated from the usual rules about interfering in other people’s political business. And clearly Orbán doesn’t need his help in hanging onto power for the immediate future. So we can best understand Trump’s endorsement of his Beau Ideal on the Danube as yet another mirror in which can be discerned another image of the endlessly self-regarding Man Who Would Be King. It’s worth pondering, since a second Trump administration — this one without the disciplinary limitations that come with having to face reelection — is now by some accounts a better-than-even bet.

America's rare earth vulnerability deepens
Azhar Azam
Opinion , 04-Jan-2022

CGTN

Rocky Smith, plant manager of Molycorp Inc. Mountain Pass rare earths mining and processing facility, holds a handful of rocks containing rare earth elements during a media tour in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. /Getty

Editor's note: Azhar Azam works in a private organization as a market and business analyst and writes about geopolitical issues and regional conflicts. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Rare-earth elements (REEs), categorized as light and heavy subsets, are the necessary components of our everyday products. The critical minerals and materials have downstream applications in petroleum refineries, hard disk drives, TV and computer screens, wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs), medical technologies as well as precision guided munitions and a range of military systems.

Over the next two decades, global demand for many rare-earth metals is projected to grow as the world moves to cut down carbon emissions. For example, international demand for lithium and graphite, key elements for EV batteries, is expected to surge by more than 4,000 percent and 2,500 percent in 2040, respectively. According to Reuters, around 70 percent of graphite used in lithium-ion batteries comes from China and it is the only country that can provide the quantity of graphite the U.S. industry needs.

The global trade of REEs is just over 1 percent of $1 trillion world oil trade, according to an article by ChinaPower under the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but the value of goods they generate could be assessed from Apple's strong reliance of these metals to sell iPhones worth over $142 billion a year, or mere $613 million of the U.S. REE imports that unlock roughly $496 billion of economic activity in vital civilian sectors, such as petroleum refining, automotive, electro medical devices and aeronautical instruments.

According to a report by the official website of the Government of Canada, China is the world's largest producer of 15 elements referred to as lanthanide series in the periodic table of elements alongside scandium and yttrium, accounting for 62 percent of global 213,000-tonne production. Even as the U.S. (12.2 percent), Myanmar (10.3 percent) and Australia (9.9 percent) produce these materials, Beijing is also the only producer of the valued heavy REEs used in high-technology and clean energy applications.

Between 2008 and 2018, 42.3 percent of the REE exports came from Beijing. In 2019, about 87.8 percent of these supplies were exported to the world's major economic and technological powerhouses, which shows how the developed countries greatly benefited from the low-cost Chinese REEs, according to ChinaPower.

Molycorp Inc.'s rare earth mining and processing facility in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. /Getty


A document on the official website of the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that the U.S. became almost completely dependent on REE imports from China in late 1990s. Washington was particularly concerned about overreliance on Beijing for metals critical for defense applications, including jet fighter engines, missile guidance systems and electronic countermeasures. About 20 years on, the U.S. defense contractors still can't find any alternative REE source to keep its F-35 aircraft airborne, according to ABC News.

Reports by the United States International Trade Commission suggest that in 2019, America emerged as the top global exporter of REEs by volume in wake of its inability to process the materials, forcing Washington to export 100 percent of domestic production. In 2017, China became the world's largest REE importer by volume as worldwide states continued to ship the newly mined materials to Beijing for processing.

Over the years, Washington has been increasingly dependent on Beijing for processed REEs. The reports also point out that having exported 98 percent of its unmined production to China in 2019, 75 percent of U.S.'s predominantly processed rare earth imports were from China. America also secured materials from Malaysia, Estonia and Japan. These countries exported materials to the U.S. after importing semi-processed products from China. Estimated at 98 percent, America's imports of processed supplies from Beijing reflect the former's reliance on China and the latter's crucial role in global REE processing.

The drive to end the U.S. economic and military dependence on Chinese REEs in 2017 emboldened then-President Donald Trump to issue an executive order, and the country's Interior Department in 2018 added these elements to items deemed critical to the economic and national security. The Biden administration is doubling down on these efforts through its $2-trillion infrastructure bill; the push may stymie for it faces awkward challenges and China isn't ruled out either.

In recent years, the U.S. Defense and Energy Departments gave a myriad of grants and contracts to Las-Vegas headquartered MP Materials to ramp up the domestic REE supply chain from mine to magnet and Australia's Lynas to build a heavy REE facility in Texas. While heavy elements like dysprosium and terbium used in defense, technology and EVs are harder to find and their prices have risen by 50 percent in 2021, demand for light REEs such as neodymium and praseodymium has shot up with tech growth.

Washington's new plan would run into difficulties as Chinese REE processing and refining firm, Shenghe Resources, owns a stake in MP and is one of the largest company's customers. Through Shenghe, also a shareholder in the Australian Greenland Minerals, concentrate produced at the sole U.S. commercial Mountain Pass facility in California is distributed to refiners in Asia because the West simply lags behind in these capabilities.

As the journalist John Koetsier analyzed in his commentary for Forbes, the U.S. needs 10 times the amount of REEs to meet Biden's ambitious goal of selling 50 percent zero-emission EVs by 2030 in addition to 20 to 25 times more to satisfy the ever-growing requirements of the green economy. These grandiose objectives can't be achieved given Washington lacks an "apparatus" like that of Beijing and will rather consume another couple of decades.

An aggressive approach and fraying relations with China is doing an uncontrollable damage to the U.S. economic, industrial and technological future. It won't be wise on the part of Washington to expose its vulnerability to the world and waste the next twenty years in seeking "rare earth sovereignty." Only a truce and cooperation between the two major economies across all domains can fix many of America's predicaments including the REE nuisance and would allow the economic duo make progress on bilateral and global prosperity.

New hi-tech photo brings Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’ up close


A microscopic image enlarging a 4x6 millimeter part of the painting on Rembrandt's Night Watch, which will be restored next year in the public eye, is seen on a screen next to the painting at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Rembrandt van Rijn's iconic and huge painting "The Night Watch" is now also a supersized museum photo delivered right to your laptop in unsurpassed detail. The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum on Monday Jan. 3, 2022, put on its digital portal what it called "the most detailed photograph of any artwork" ready for assessment by scientists and art lovers alike. It is expected to draw widespread interest especially since the museum is closed because of coronavirus measures.

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)


AMSTERDAM (AP) — Rembrandt van Rijn’s iconic and huge painting “The Night Watch” is now also a supersized museum photo delivered right to your laptop in unsurpassed detail.

The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum on Monday put on its digital portal what it called “the most detailed photograph of any artwork” ready for assessment by scientists and art lovers alike. It is expected to draw widespread interest especially since the museum is closed because of coronavirus measures.

The 717-gigapixel photo allows viewers to zoom in on Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and see how the 17th-century master put the tiniest of white dots in his eyes to give life to the painting’s main character. It also shows the minute cracks in his pupils, brought on by the passage of time.



The real canvas measures 379.5 x 453.5 centimeters (149.4 x178.5 inches) canvas and each pixel represents 5 micrometers or 0.005 square millimeters.

Apart from simply showing the dazzling detail, it will also help researchers restore the work and assess its aging process over time.

The Night Watch will be removed from its wooden stretcher in two weeks and placed on a new one to remove rippling that was caused when the world famous painting was housed in a temporary gallery while the Rijksmuseum underwent major renovations from 2003-2013.

The oil-on-canvas painting depicts a group of Amsterdam civil militia and shows off Rembrandt’s renowned use of light and composition to create a dynamic scene filled with characters.

The painting has undergone many restorations over its existence. It was placed on its present wooden stretcher in 1975. Once the painting has been re-stretched, the museum will decide whether further restoration work is needed.

Congress’ doctor wants ‘maximal telework’ amid virus surge

By ALAN FRAM

A winter storm delivers heavy snow to the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress’ top doctor urged lawmakers Monday to move to a “maximal telework posture,” citing “unprecedented” numbers of COVID-19 cases at the Capitol that he said are mostly breakthrough infections of people already vaccinated.

The seven-day average rate of infection at the Capitol’s testing center has grown from less than 1% to more than 13%, Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders obtained by The Associated Press.

Monahan said there have been “an unprecedented number of cases in the Capitol community affecting hundreds of individuals.” Citing what he said was limited sampling as of Dec. 15, he said about 61% of the cases were the new, highly contagious omicron variant while 38% were the delta variant.

While providing no figure, he said “most” cases at the Capitol are breakthroughs. Of those testing positive, 35% are asymptomatic, he said.

Monahan’s letter came as the worldwide spread of the omicron variant has prompted a deluge of COVID-19 cases, now averaging 400,000 reported new infections in the U.S. daily. The growing caseloads have caused cascading absentee rates at workplaces around the country including among schools, health care providers, airlines, police and fire departments and other essential workers, sparking concerns that disrupted services will only worsen in the near future.

“The daily case rates will increase even more substantially in the coming weeks,” Monahan warned.

Congress has been in recess since mid-December. The Senate returned Monday and held an abbreviated 17-minute session, but postponed a scheduled evening vote after Washington was hit by several inches of snow. The House was not due to return to the Capitol until next week.

Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did not immediately have information on whether Monahan’s letter might prompt any changes in Congress’ operations. Regular lunches that Senate Democrats have together were expected to be virtual only for at least this week.

Monahan urged congressional offices and agencies — which employ thousands of food service, custodial and other workers who serve Congress — to reduce in-person activities “to the maximum extent possible” by using electronic communications instead.

Currently, the House requires lawmakers and aides to wear masks in the House chamber except when they’ve been recognized to speak and in most other settings in the Capitol and House office buildings. The Senate encourages mask wearing but doesn’t require it.

Monahan said people should wear properly fitted, medical grade KN95 masks or better. Blue surgical masks and cloth masks “must be replaced,” he said.

Mask wearing is “a critical necessity unless the individual is alone in a closed office space or eating or drinking in a food service area,” he said.

Republican lawmakers and aides from both chambers are markedly less likely than Democrats to wear masks around the Capitol, with some rejecting widespread scientific acceptance that proper mask wearing can reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 infections.

Lawmakers can be fined up to $2,500 each time they don’t wear a mask on the House floor, under a resolution the chamber approved last year. All fines announced publicly so far by the House Ethics Committee for flouting that rule have been against Republicans.

Monahan said breakthrough cases have not led to any deaths or hospitalizations among vaccinated lawmakers or congressional staff.

But he said that while people who’ve received two vaccinations and a booster generally suffer mild symptoms, even those can lead to six to 12 months of “long COVID.” That could include serious cardiovascular, neurological and cognitive problems, he said.

A “reasonable estimate” is that 6% to 10% of cases could end up that way, he added.

Germany calls nuclear power 'dangerous,' rejects EU plan

The Associated Press
 Monday, January 3, 2022

Steam rises from the cooling tower of the nuclear power plant of Gundremmingen, Bavaria, Germany, on Dec. 31, 2021. (Stefan Puchner / dpa via AP)

BERLIN -- The German government said Monday that it considers nuclear energy dangerous and objects to European Union proposals that would let the technology remain part of the bloc's plans for a climate-friendly future.

Germany is on course to switch off its remaining three nuclear power plants at the end of this year and phase out coal by 2030, whereas its neighbour France aims to modernize existing reactors and build new ones to meet its future energy needs. Berlin plans to rely heavily on natural gas until it can be replaced by non-polluting sources for energy.

The opposing paths taken by two of the EU's biggest economies have resulted in an awkward situation for the bloc's executive Commission. A draft EU plan seen by The Associated Press concludes that both nuclear energy and natural gas can under certain conditions be considered sustainable for investment purposes.

"We consider nuclear technology to be dangerous," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin, noting that the question of what to do with radioactive waste that will last for thousands of generations remains unresolved.

Hebestreit added that Germany "expressly rejects" the EU's assessment of atomic energy and has repeatedly stated this position toward the commission.

Germany is now considering its next steps on the issue, he said.

Environmentalists have criticized Germany's emphasis on natural gas, which is less polluting than coal but still produces carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas -- when it is burned.

Hebestreit said the German government's goal is to use natural gas only as a "bridge technology" and replace it with non-polluting alternatives such as hydrogen produced with renewable energy by 2045, the deadline the country has set to become climate neutral.

He declined to say whether Chancellor Olaf Scholz backs Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck's view that the EU Commission's proposals were a form of "greenwashing."

A Swedish-Italian Joint Venture Is To Build Novel Dual-Tilted Wind Turbines In Italy

Innovative dual wind turbines are coming to the Italian coastline.

Dec 31, 2021By  Christopher McFadden

Hexicon's innovative dual-tilted turbines.Hexicon

A Swedish company is hoping to kick-start Italy's offshore floating wind farm market with its innovative dual-tilted turbines. The Stockholm headquartered company Hexicon has recently been granted a 50-50 joint venture with Bologna-based clean energy developer Avapa Energy to develop offshore floating wind farms for Italy.

The new venture, imaginatively called AvenHexicon, will now begin to look for suitable sites for building wind farms. It will also seek planning permits from Italian authorities, where the wind farms are applicable. Under the venture, Hexicon will license its patented technology for use in projects and, where relevant, third parties.

The new wind farms will, as previously mentioned, primarily consist of Hexicon's floating platforms with tilted towers. The venture will also encourage other developers to make use of the technology where possible. 

"An important part of our business model is to enter new and promising markets as early as possible and to establish both our project development skills and technology together with local partners," explained Hecixon CEO Marcus Thor. 

"We have found a perfect partner in Avapa Energy, and with AvenHexicon we are looking forward to supporting Italy in its expansion of fossil-free electricity production," he added. 

Since Italy is one of the main recipients of the European Union's so-called "Green Deal", it has initiated the regulatory changes needed to develop offshore wind power. 

Floating offshore wind power is a great choice for Italy since it has very deep seas

The choice of floating wind farms is a great choice for locations like the waters off Italy as they are particularly deep in places. Fixed offshore alternatives are not really practical due to the need for greater subsea anchoring. 

Alberto Dalla Rosa, Partner at Avapa Energy, said, “Floating wind power with its advanced low-impact technology will play a material role in the Italian energy transition process, and we are happy to collaborate with Hexicon to develop floating wind parks in Italian waters.”

To date, Italy currently has no operating offshore wind farms, but its national wind energy association Anev has set a target of five gigawatts of floating offshore wind for the country by 2040.

"Italy has 55 offshore wind farm projects of which none [are] currently operating, none where construction has progressed enough to connect the turbines and generate electricity, one [is] in the build phase, and one [is] either consented or [has] applied for consent," reports 4COffshore. 

Italy’s recovery and resilience plan devotes 37 percent of total expenditure on measures that support climate objectives, reported the European Commission in June.

Scientist, enforcer, high-flyer: 3 women put a mark on tech

By MARCY GORDON

Lina Khan, nominee for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), speaks during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation confirmation hearing, Wednesday, April 21, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Khan is now the youngest person ever to lead the Federal Trade Commission, an agency now poised to aggressively enforce antitrust law against the tech industry. 

(Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner via AP, Pool, File)

 

Elizabeth Holmes, once worth $4.5 billion on paper, is now awaiting a jury’s verdict on criminal fraud and conspiracy charges that she misled investors and patients about the accuracy of a blood-testing technology developed at her startup Theranos. 

 Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington. Haugen made a significant mark on the embattled tech industry in 2021.

 (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Three bright and driven women with ground-breaking ideas made significant — if very different — marks on the embattled tech industry in 2021.

Frances Haugen, Lina Khan and Elizabeth Holmes — a data scientist turned whistleblower, a legal scholar turned antitrust enforcer and a former Silicon Valley high-flyer turned criminal defendant — all figured heavily in a technology world where men have long dominated the spotlight. Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk.

Haugen, a former product manager at Facebook, went public with internal documents to buttress accusations that the social network giant elevated profits over the safety of users. At 32, Khan is the youngest person ever to lead the Federal Trade Commission, an agency now poised to aggressively enforce antitrust law against the tech industry.

Holmes, once worth $4.5 billion on paper, is now awaiting a jury’s verdict on criminal fraud and conspiracy charges that she misled investors and patients about the accuracy of a blood-testing technology developed at her startup Theranos. The jury informed the judge Monday that it was deadlocked on three of the 11 charges against Holmes. The judge then instructed the jurors to do their best to reach a unanimous verdict, and they resumed deliberations.

Holmes’ story has become a Silicon Valley morality tale — a founder who flew too high, too fast — despite the fact that male tech executives have been accused of similar actions or worse without facing charges.

___

Haugen joined Facebook out of a desire to help it address misinformation and other threats to democracy. But her frustration grew as she learned of online misinformation that stoked violence and abuse — and which Facebook wasn’t addressing effectively.

So in the fall of 2021 the 37-year-old Haugen went public with a trove of Facebook documents that catalogued how her former employer was failing to protect young users from body-image issues and amplifying online hate and extremism. Her work also laid bare the algorithms Big Tech uses to tailor content that will keep users hooked on its services.

“Frances Haugen has transformed the conversation about technology reform,” Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook who became one of its leading critics, wrote in Time magazine.

Facebook the company, which has since renamed itself Meta Platforms, has disputed Haugen’s assertions, although it hasn’t pointed to any factual errors in her public statements. The company instead emphasizes the vast sums it says it has invested in safety since 2016 and data showing the progress it’s made against hate speech, incitement to political violence and other social ills.

Haugen was well positioned to unleash her bombshell. As a graduate business student at Harvard, she helped create an online dating platform that eventually turned into the dating app Hinge. At Google, she helped make thousands of books accessible on mobile phones and to create a fledgling social network. Haugen’s creative restlessness flipped her through several jobs over 15 years at Google, Yelp and Pinterest and of course Facebook, which recruited her in 2018.

Haugen’s revelations energized global lawmakers seeking to rein in Big Tech, although there’s been little concrete action in the U.S. Facebook rushed to change the subject by rolling out its new corporate name and playing up its commitment to developing an immersive technology platform known as the “metaverse.”

Haugen moved last year to Puerto Rico, where she says she can enjoy anonymity that would elude her in northern California. “I don’t like being the center of attention,” she told a packed arena at a November conference in Europe.

___

A similar dynamic prevailed for Khan, an academic outsider with big new ideas and a far-reaching agenda that ruffled institutional and business feathers. President Joe Biden stunned official Washington in June when he installed Khan, an energetic critic of Big Tech then teaching law, as head of the Federal Trade Commission. That signaled a tough government stance toward giants Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple.

Khan is the youngest chair in the 106-year history of the FTC, which polices competition, consumer protection and digital privacy. She was an unorthodox choice, with no administrative experience or knowledge of the agency other than a brief 2018 stint as legal adviser to one of the five commissioners.

But she brought intellectual heft that packed a political punch. Khan shook up the antitrust world in 2017 with her scholarly work as a Yale law student, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which helped shape a new way of looking at antitrust law.

For decades, antitrust work has defined anticompetitive conduct as market dominance that drives up prices, a concept that doesn’t apply to many “free” technology services. Khan instead pushed to examine the broader effects of corporate concentration on industries, employees and communities. That school of thought — dubbed “hipster antitrust” by its detractors — appears to have had a significant influence on Biden.

Khan was born in London; her family moved to the New York City area when she was 11. After graduating from college, she spent three years as a policy analyst at the liberal-leaning think tank New America Foundation before leaving for Yale.

Under Khan’s six-month tenure, the FTC has sharpened its antitrust attack against Facebook in federal court and pursued a competition investigation into Amazon. The agency sued to block graphics chip maker Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of chip designer Arm, saying a combined company could stifle the growth of new technologies.

In Khan’s aggressive investigations and enforcement agenda, key priorities include racial bias in algorithms and market-power abuses by dominant tech companies. Internally, some employees have chafed at administrative changes that expanded Khan’s authority over policymaking, and one Republican commissioner has assailed Khan in public.

“She’s shaken things up,” said Robin Gaster, a visiting scholar at George Washington University who focuses on economics, politics and technology. “She is going to be a field test for whether an aggressive FTC can expand the envelope for antitrust enforcement.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the leading business lobby, has publicly threatened court fights, asserting that Khan and the FTC are waging war on American businesses.

___

Holmes founded Theranos when she was 19, dropping out of Stanford to pursue a bold, humanitarian idea. Possessed of seemingly boundless networking chutzpah, Holmes touted Theranos blood-testing technology as a breakthrough that could scan for hundreds of medical conditions using just a few drops of blood.

By 2015, 11 years after leaving Stanford, Holmes had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for her company, pushing its market value to $9 billion. Half of that belonged to Holmes, earning her the moniker of the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire at 30.

Just three years later, though, Theranos collapsed in scandal. After a three-and-a-half-month federal trial, a jury now is weighing criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against Holmes for allegedly duping investors and patients by concealing the fact that the blood-testing technology was prone to wild errors. If convicted, Holmes, now 37, faces up to 20 years in prison.

When young, Holmes was a competitive prodigy who openly aspired to make a vast fortune. She started studying Mandarin Chinese with a tutor around age 9, and talked her way into summer classes in the language at Stanford after her sophomore year in high school.

In her sophomore college year, she took the remainder of her tuition money as a stake and dropped out to run her company.

As Theranos ascended, some saw Holmes as the next Steve Jobs. Theranos ultimately raised more than $900 million from investors including media baron Rupert Murdoch and Walmart’s Walton family.

The company’s fairy-tale success started to unravel in 2016, when a series of Wall Street Journal articles and a federal regulatory audit uncovered a pattern of grossly inaccurate blood results in tests run on Theranos devices.

The Holmes trial has exposed Silicon Valley’s “fake it ‘til you make it” culture in painful detail. Tech entrepreneurs often overpromise and exaggerate, so prosecutors faced the challenge of proving that Holmes’ boosterism crossed the line into fraud.


Follow Marcy Gordon at https://twitter.com/mgordonap