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Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai have made their Broadway production debut this month with the musical Suffs. However, news of the show was not music to everyone's ears.

Critics took to social media to accuse the pair of double standards and silence over the plight of Palestinian women in Gaza amid ongoing Israeli bombardment, while producing and promoting a musical about the early 20th-century suffragette movement in the US.

Malala co-producing a musical about the American women's suffrage movement while being silent about the horrific atrocities being committed against women and girls in Gaza & actively collaborating with a vocal champion of Israel, posted one user on X, formerly Twitter. Irony has never been more stark.

Clinton, who ran for president in 2016, has promoted herself as an advocate for feminism and womens rights.

This has prompted many online users to highlight what they say is the"glaring hypocrisy"of Clintons backing of Israel despite several reports on Israels human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls, including sexual abuse.

Yousafzai, on the other hand, became a household name in the fight for girls educationafter she was shot in 2012 for speaking out against the Pakistani Talibans restrictions on girls access to education. At 17, she became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate in 2014 for her activism.

Social media users expressed their disappointment with her collaboration with Clinton amid Israels targeted strikes oneducational institutions in Gaza and the violence that has forced schools in the occupied West Bank to close and turn to remote learning.

Malala herself has been relatively muted on the devastation of the education system in Gaza. Whatever little shes said, has been muted platitudes, said one user.

Social media users have also criticised Yousafzai for partnering with warmonger Clinton, who as secretary of state under President Obama oversaw deadly drone strikes that killed hundreds of civilians, including children, in the activists native Pakistan.

Malala said drone attacks are fueling terrorism and killing innocents. She's now partnering with Hillary Clinton, who oversaw the drone campaign, said one user. She exposed her double standards with Palestine and can safely be called a pawn for the imperial powers.

Suffs has made its Broadway debut amid tension and fierce criticism of the country's unwavering support and arming of Israels war in Gaza as the US gears up for presidential elections later this year.

Israel's assault has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, 70 percentof whom arewomen and children.

In February, UN experts said they had received reports of Palestinian female detainees being subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault in Israeli detention since 7 October.

The experts added that hundreds of Palestinian women and girls have been arbitrarily detained since the war started.

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Malala Yousafzai criticised for 'feminist' Broadway collaboration with Hillary Clinton - Middle East Eye

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced former President Donald Trump over what she sees as a likely Supreme Court decision on abortion.

Clinton was referring to oral arguments in the Supreme Court over whetherIdahos near-total prohibition ofabortionsconflicts with federal emergency medicine statutes. The former unsuccessful presidential candidate laid the blame for the possible decision against a rescinding of the law at Trumps feet.

Breaking: The MAGA Supreme Court majority appears ready to rule that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness doesnt extend to women with pregnancy complications or who otherwise need abortions, she said Wednesday afternoon. This is horrifying, and it is because of Donald Trump.

We wont allow our daughters and granddaughters to grow up with fewer rights than we had, she added in another post.

Clinton has recently ramped up her criticisms of the Republican who defeated her in the 2016 election. In an appearance on the Defending Democracy podcast, she claimed that Trump was trying to kill and imprison journalists and his opposition.

Trump was like, you know, just gaga over Putin because Putin does what Trump would like to do kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance, Clinton said.Thats what Trump really wants.

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After her 2016 loss, the former first lady has continued to speak on behalf of Democrats and stay in the public spotlight, including by hosting a podcast with her daughter, Chelsea.

The Idaho abortion law that earned Clintons attention only allows exceptions for the life of the mother. The Biden administration sued the state under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, arguing that abortion is included under lifesaving medical care. The Supreme Court appeared divided, or even skeptical, of the argument.

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Hillary Clinton attacks MAGA Supreme Court and blames Trump for horrifying abortion possibility - Washington Examiner

It is still early days for quantum computing. Yet experts agree it is poised to play a key role in sectors ranging from secure communications to banking and aerospace. Quantums appeal lies in its ability to overcome computational bottlenecks.

Airbus purpose is to pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world. Although still in development, quantum computers have potential in two areas that are key to realising that ambition: busting the design logjam caused by limits on current computational power in time for the next generation of aircraft, and boosting the efficiency of airline operations.

Heres a roundup of some of the exciting quantum explorations Airbus is supporting.

Trajectory optimisation

In the future, quantum algorithms could help optimise an aircrafts trajectory in real time by taking air traffic restrictions and weather patterns into account. This has obvious safety, economic and ecological benefits.

Flights operate in a dynamic environment affected by an intractably large number of variables, especially during climb-out. The speed and accuracy of calculations are key. Quantum algorithms may be able to outperform current high-performance computers for each.

To this end, in 2023 Airbus Silicon Valley innovation centre Acubed carried out a study into quantum trajectory optimisation.

Efficient cargo loading

Loading of humanitarian goods on an Airbus A330neo test aircraft at Vatry, France

Half of global airfreight travels onboard passenger flights. Filling cargo containers and then fitting them into the hold of a jetliner is like a giant game of Tetris. Space is at a premium, and the loading of each container must be just so. If the overall centre of gravity in the hold is off, the aircraft will burn more fuel. If the cargo is stacked too far to the left, the left-hand engine has to work harder, consuming even more fuel.

Like trajectory optimisation, cargo loading is fraught with constraints. Quantum computers leverage the so-calledknapsack problem to calculate an optimum solution for loading packages into cargo containers, and the containers into the hold. In 2022, Airbus performed a use case demonstrator usingIonQs quantum computer.

To give an idea of the challenge loadmasters face, organising just 20 containers each stuffed with 30 packages in the hold produces a solution space the set of all solutions to a given problem that exceeds the total number of particles in the universe. No existing computer or analytic solution can solve that puzzle accurately.

Fuel cell simulation

Hydrogen-powered aircraft produce no carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide emissions during flight. They release only water vapour into the atmosphere.

There are two options for designing hydrogen propulsion systems: burning the gas directly in a turbine engine; or installing fuel cells which use hydrogen to create electricity through electrolysis.

Airbus has joined forces with the automotive sector to advance fuel cell development foraeronautic applications. However, the cells must be lightweight as well as powerful enough to get a plane off the ground.

This combination relies on some complex chemistry. Electrolysis requires a catalyst to get going. Platinum is particularly suitable for this purpose, yet relatively expensive. The alternative is to create alloys platinum with cobalt or nickel, for example which also show a higher beginning-of-life performance than pure platinum. However, lab testing these alloys can be an expensive task.

Instead, alongside colleagues at BMW Group, Airbusresearchers haveshown for the first time that quantum computing can perform atomic-level reaction modelling. Harnessing quantums exponential power that is beyond the reach of todays computers, engineers can model the relative catalytic behaviour of each alloy. Their observations contribute to propulsion and design choices that will one day have a significant, favourable impact on aerospaces carbon footprint.

Computational fluid dynamics: Where maths, physics and computer science intersect

The first port of call when designing a new aircraft is oftencomputational fluid dynamics, or CFD. This sophisticated digital simulation of airflow around an airframe informs its shape and aerodynamic efficiency. Today, CFD is performed by energy-intensive, high-performance computers (HPC) and it has become a bottleneck in the aircraft design cycle as HPCs reach their maximum processing power.

Airbus has signed a partnership with two leading European Research facilities, ONERA (French Aerospace Research Center) and DLR (German Aerospace Center) during an official ceremony at Paris Air Show.

Quantum computing is able to operate on a far larger canvas, or mesh, permitting CFD calculations to be performed at an exponentially higher scale. It has the potential to break the design bottleneck for future aircraft.

CFD is an area under study in theQuantum Mobility Quest and throughEQUALITY, a European consortium which counts Airbus as a member. The consortium is dedicated to developing quantum algorithms in order to solve a set of paradigmatic industry problems.

As these examples show, quantum computing clearly has the potential to support aviation on its decarbonisation journey.

Airbus and the BMW Group both recognise quantums promise. The companies joined forces in 2023 to launch theQuantum Mobility Quest. The Quests aim is to team up with leading players to accelerate and mature quantum solutions that could one day help the industry solve its most complex challenges.

The Quantum Mobility Quest

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Is quantum computing an enabler for the decarbonisation of aviation? - Airbus

A pioneering collaboration has been established to focus on using quantum computing to enhance genomics. The team will develop algorithms to accelerate the analysis of pangenomic datasets, which could revolutionize personalized medicine and pathogen management. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

A new project unites world-leading experts in quantum computing and genomics to develop new methods and algorithms to process biological data.

Researchers aim to harness quantum computing to speed up genomics, enhancing our understanding of DNA and driving advancements in personalized medicine

A new collaboration has formed, uniting a world-leading interdisciplinary team with skills across quantum computing, genomics, and advanced algorithms. They aim to tackle one of the most challenging computational problems in genomic science: building, augmenting, and analyzing pangenomic datasets for large population samples. Their project sits at the frontiers of research in both biomedical science and quantum computing.

The project, which involves researchers based at the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and EMBLs European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), has been awarded up to US $3.5 million to explore the potential of quantum computing for improvements in human health.

The team aims to develop quantum computing algorithms with the potential to speed up the production and analysis of pangenomes new representations of DNA sequences that capture population diversity. Their methods will be designed to run on emerging quantum computers. The project is one of 12 selected worldwide for the Wellcome Leap Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio) Supported Challenge Program.

Since the initial sequencing of the human genome over two decades ago, genomics has revolutionized science and medicine. Less than one percent of the 6.4 billion letters of DNA code differs from one human to the next, but those genetic differences are what make each of us unique. Our genetic code can provide insights into our health, help to diagnose disease, or guide medical treatments.

However, the reference human genome sequence, which most subsequently sequenced human DNA is compared to, is based on data from only a few people, and doesnt represent human diversity. Scientists have been working to address this problem for over a decade, and in 2023 the first human pangenome reference was produced. A pangenome is a collection of many different genome sequences that capture the genetic diversity in a population. Pangenomes could potentially be produced for all species, including pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2.

Pangenomics, a new domain of science, demands high levels of computational power. While the existing human reference genome structure is linear, pangenome data can be represented and analyzed as a network, called a sequence graph, which stores the shared structure of genetic relationships between many genomes. Comparing subsequent individual genomes to the pangenome then involves mapping a route for their sequences through the graph.

In this new project, the team aims to develop quantum computing approaches with the potential to speed up both the key processes of mapping data to graph nodes, and finding good routes through the graph.

Quantum technologies are poised to revolutionize high-performance computing. Classical computing stores information as bits, which are binary either 0 or 1. However, a quantum computer works with particles that can be in a superposition of different states simultaneously. Rather than bits, information in a quantum computer is represented by qubits (quantum bits), which could take on the value 0, or 1, or be in a superposition state between 0 and 1. It takes advantage of quantum mechanics to enable solutions to problems that are not practical to solve using classical computers.

However, current quantum computer hardware is inherently sensitive to noise and decoherence, so scaling it up presents an immense technological challenge. While there have been exciting proof of concept experiments and demonstrations, todays quantum computers remain limited in size and computational power, which restricts their practical application. But significant quantum hardware advances are expected to emerge in the next three to five years.

The Wellcome Leap Q4Bio Challenge is based on the premise that the early days of any new computational method will advance and benefit most from the co-development of applications, software, and hardware allowing optimizations with not-yet-generalizable, early systems.

Building on state-of-the-art computational genomics methods, the team will develop, simulate and then implement new quantum algorithms, using real data. The algorithms and methods will be tested and refined in existing, powerful High Performance Compute (HPC) environments initially, which will be used as simulations of the expected quantum computing hardware. They will test algorithms first using small stretches of DNA sequence, working up to processing relatively small genome sequences like SARS-CoV-2, before moving to the much larger human genome.

Dr. Sergii Strelchuk, Principal Investigator of the project from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, said: The structure of many challenging problems in computational genomics and pangenomics in particular make them suitable candidates for speedups promised by quantum computing. We are on a thrilling journey to develop and deploy quantum algorithms tailored to genomic data to gain new insights, which are unattainable using classical algorithms.

David Holland, Principal Systems Administrator at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, who is working to create the High Performance Compute environment to simulate a quantum computer, said: Weve only just scratched the surface of both quantum computing and pangenomics. So to bring these two worlds together is incredibly exciting. We dont know exactly whats coming, but we see great opportunities for major new advances. We are doing things today that we hope will make tomorrow better.

Dr. David Yuan, Project Lead at EMBL-EBI, said: On the one hand, were starting from scratch because we dont even know yet how to represent a pangenome in a quantum computing environment. If you compare it to the first moon landings, this project is the equivalent of designing a rocket and training the astronauts. On the other hand, weve got solid foundations, building on decades of systematically annotated genomic data generated by researchers worldwide and made available by EMBL-EBI. The fact that were using this knowledge to develop the next generation of tools for the life sciences, is a testament to the importance of open data and collaborative science.

The potential benefits of this work are huge. Comparing a specific human genome against the human pangenome instead of the existing human reference genome gives better insights into its unique composition. This will be important in driving forward personalized medicine. Similar approaches for bacterial and viral genomes will underpin the tracking and management of pathogen outbreaks.

This project is funded by the Wellcome Leap Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio) Supported Challenge Program.

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Quantum Computing Meets Genomics: The Dawn of Hyper-Fast DNA Analysis - SciTechDaily

A year of strong funding coupled with sturdy underlying fundamentals and significant technological advances reflected strong momentum in quantum technology (QT).

Updated McKinsey analysis for the third annual Quantum Technology Monitorreveals that four sectorschemicals, life sciences, finance, and mobilityare likely to see the earliest impact from quantum computing and could gain up to $2 trillion by 2035 (see sidebar What is quantum technology?).

Private and corporate funding for quantum technology start-ups in pursuit of that value, however, took a notable dip. Investments decreased 27 percent from the previous year, with the biggest drop in quantum sensing start-ups. This decline, however, was smaller than the 38 percent decline in all start-up investment worldwide. Notably, the majority of funding (62 percent) went to companies founded five or more years ago, reflecting a shift in investments toward more-established and promising start-ups, with a focus on scaling them.

In contrast to the private sector, public investments increased more than 50 percent over 2022, making up almost a third of all investments in quantum technology. A range of countries, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, have announced significant new funding for QT development, bringing the global public funding total to date to about $42 billion.

Underscoring this momentum was continued strong growth in QT foundations. There was a wave of new or enhanced offerings (for example, start-ups that made their quantum computing accessible through the cloud) and significant technological advancementsespecially in quantum error correction and mitigationas well as a small increase in patents filed. In addition, we found a notable increase in quantum technology programs offered by universities, with the European Union taking the lead in the number of graduates in QT-related fields.

In this article, well go into these and other findings in greater detail (for more on the research, see sidebar About the Quantum Technology Monitor research).

In 2023, $1.71 billion was invested in QT start-ups, which represents a 27 percent decrease from the all-time high of $2.35 billion in 2022 (Exhibit 1). Nonetheless, the decrease is smaller when compared to the 38 percent decrease for all start-ups globally. The slowdown in the number of new QT start-ups founded continues (13 in 2023 versus 23 in 2022). Deal sizes have decreased as well, with the average deal size being $40 million in 2023 compared to $105 million in 2022 and $107 million in 2021. In line with this development, deal counts dropped to 171 in 2023 from 206 in 2022.

There are several factors causing the decrease in private investment into QT, including a significant shift in focus toward generative AI as well as lingering perceptions of QT being a long-term technology whose potential in various sectors is still being understood and evaluated.

Public funding for quantum technologies, on the other hand, jumped more than 50 percent over 2022. While China and the United States have previously dominated QT public investment, new announcements from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United Kingdom reflected a growing realization among a broader range of governments of the importance of QT; South Korea and the United Kingdom, in particular, made significant increases to their funding levels (Exhibit 2).

Most of these national initiatives aim to establish technological leadership and sovereignty and spur private investments for quantum technology development. For example, the aim of the United Kingdoms National Quantum Strategy, which includes $3.1 billion in public funding over ten years, is not only to allow the United Kingdom to be a leading quantum-enabled economy but also to generate $1.3 billion in private investment in quantum technologies.

Where did the funding go? The vast majority of investments have been in US companies (more than two times the amount compared to the next country), followed by companies in Canada and the United Kingdom. The majority of venture capital funding went to scaling up established start-ups, with more than 75 percent of the total investment value going to series B or later funding rounds. This suggests the establishment of more-mature technological platforms for quantum computing and signals investors potential risk aversion to early-stage start-ups and unproven technologies or approacheswhich also partially explains the 43 percent drop in new start-ups compared to 2022.

Talent development took a notable step forward in 2023, reflecting a positive focus on building QTs foundations. There were 367,000 people who graduated in 2023 with QT-relevant degrees. Meanwhile, the number of universities with QT programs increased 8.3 percent, to 195, while those offering masters degrees in QT increased by 10.0 percent, to 55. The European Union and the United Kingdom have the highest number and density, respectively, of graduates in QT-relevant fields. This surge helps explain why scientists from EU institutions contributed most often to quantum-relevant publications.

Building off of this talent and these investments to generate value is still a challenge because of limited access to state-of-the-art hardware and infrastructure, limited awareness and adoption of quantum technologies, and a lack of interdisciplinary coordination (such as between academia and industry) required to bring technologies to market. Collaboration between industry, academia, and government is essential to accelerating development of quantum technology to industrialize technology, manage intellectual property, and overcome talent gaps.

To address this issue, innovation clusters are emerging worldwide. These clusters are coordinated networks of partnerships between researchers, industry leaders, and government entities that contribute to the technological advancement of quantum technologies and drive regional value creation (Exhibit 3).

Most clusters share the following elements:

Developing and scaling such regional innovation ecosystems (including research consortiums) will be a determining factor for achieving wide adoption and commercialization of quantum technology.

The past year marked continued advances for all quantum technologies, with a range of enhanced and new QT offerings coming to the market. One advance was the transition from the NISQ era to the FTQC era. Other key breakthroughs included the following:

For the full set of insights and data, download the entire Quantum Technology Monitor.

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Steady progress in approaching quantum advantage | McKinsey - McKinsey