• A brewing US-China cold war could drag global economic growth down as much as 7%, an IMF official said this week. 
• The emergence of "connector" countries is why the effect of ongoing tensions hasn't been bigger. 
• Trade fragmentation carries a higher price tag compared to the US-Soviet cold war, the official said. 

A more intense cold war between the US and China would have a potentially dire impact on the global economy, according to an official from the International Monetary Fund. 

Speaking at Stanford University on Tuesday, IMF deputy managing director Gita Gopinath said that while US-China tensions haven't yet devolved into a full-blown cold war, such an escalation would be a major headwind to global growth. 

The IMF predicts that the global economy could incur economic costs equivalent to as much as 7% of the world's GDP in the worst-case scenario and take a 0.2% hit to growth in milder scenarios. 

According to the fund, lower-income countries could suffer four times the loss of economic output compared to other nations if commodity markets split into blocs aligned with either China or the US. 

Conflict between the world's two largest economies has escalated to a new heights since the pandemic. With China's growing economic ambitions and recent aggressions against neighboring countries, the US has put up new guardrails in its dealing with China, including restricting trade in key areas both countries are racing to dominate, such as AI.

IMF data shows that more than 3,000 trade restrictions were imposed globally in 2022 and 2023, more than triple the count from 2019, with Gopinath saying that trade within the China and US blocs has dropped compared to intra-group trade.

The tensions have also dented flows of foreign capital to China, with the country suffering its first foreign investment deficit in November 2023 and seeing further declines in the first three months of 2024. 

The emergence of "connector" countries, which have acted as neutral go-betweens for the US and China, may be the reason the impact of tensions hasn't been greater. 

"The emergence of these 'connector' countries—perhaps most notably Mexico and Vietnam—may have helped cushion the global economic impact of direct trade decoupling between the U.S. and China," Gopinath said. 

Zooming out, Gopinath highlighted that geopolitical instability in regions like the Middle East and turmoil stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war has sparked trade turbulence unseen since the Cold War. 

The IMF emphasized that trade fragmentation carries a higher price tag today, with the goods trade-to-GDP ratio now at 45% compared to 16% at the onset of the Cold War.

• The US Marines' new amphibious combat vehicle made its first overseas deployment in the Philippines.
• US and Philippine troops conducted drills in the South China Sea to strengthen security in the region.
• The service temporarily suspended ACV operations following multiple rollovers in 2022.

The Marine Corps' new amphibious combat vehicle, or ACV, debuted in the Philippines as part of its first overseas deployment after more than a year-and-a-half of limited operations.

Marines aboard ACVs launched from amphibious ships in the Pacific on Saturday to conduct live-fire training in the Philippines, the service said in a statement. The Marine unit involved in the training was the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, a unit out of Camp Pendleton, California, which deployed this spring for partner exercises across the Pacific.

The ACV was involved in multiple rollovers in 2022, which did not result in any injuries or deaths then, but the Corps temporarily pulled the vehicles from service to better train Marines in operating them. Amid the preparation for its deployment to the Pacific this year, a Marine was killed in an on-land ACV rollover incident in December.

"The hard work and dedication of our Marines is what made today's training successful," Col. Sean Dynan, commanding officer of the 15th MEU, said in a statement Saturday. "Today's training is a proof of concept across the Marine Corps for successful ACV employment in its intended environment."

The deployment of the vehicle occurred during Exercise Balikatan '24, which involved US training with the Philippine military meant to build the partnership and counter Chinese influence in the region.

A platoon of ACV Marines left the USS Harpers Ferry and attacked targets along the shore of Oyster Bay, Philippines, with MK19 grenade launchers. After wrapping up the attack, the ACVs reembarked aboard the Harpers Ferry.

In 2022, the vehicle rolled over twice on land, which prompted the Marine Corps to pull the ACV from surf operations while it recertified crews to operate it. Late last year, a Marine with the 15th MEU, Sgt. Matthew Bylski, died after the vehicle rolled over on land during an exercise to prepare for the unit's current deployment.

The following month, after the Corps said it had recertify its crews, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Chris Mahoney, announced that the ACV was again operating in the surf and the 15th MEU would be deploying with them to the Pacific.

The new ACVs can deploy from amphibious ships, travel across the water and take beachheads. It replaced a decades-old platform that had a troubled history, including a 2020 incident that resulted in the deaths of eight Marines and one sailor.

That vehicle, called the amphibious assault vehicle, or AAV, had been used since the 1970s. It was lighter and had tracks, different from the wheeled ACV, which weighs roughly 70,000 pounds when fully loaded.

The 15th MEU is deployed as part of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, or ARG, which includes the Harpers Ferry and USS Somerset.

Part of the 15th MEU's deployment in April was met with trouble due to the readiness of the USS Boxer, the ARG's namesake. After suffering engineering issues, the Boxer returned to San Diego, causing Marines and sailors to be offloaded so repairs could be made.

The Boxer had already been delayed by months, Military.com previously reported, due to maintenance issues.

Editor's note: this story has been updated to correct the name of the amphibious combat vehicle.

• A Tesla owner posted a video trying out the new Cybertruck frunk update by closing it on his finger.
• The experiment led to his finger getting hurt and ending up in a splint.
• The video follows a trend of testing the frunk's safety by closing it on body parts, which isn't advisable.

Tesla owner Joseph Fay said the trend of sticking body parts in the Cyberfrunk frunk to test if it'll close on them needs to end, following an experiment that left his finger in a splint.

Fay stitched a video of a Cybertruck owner closing the frunk on his finger and initially tried out the trend himself prior to the update, which was said to improve the sensor. He placed his arm, hand, and finally finger in the frunk. The frunk left him sore the first time but didn't make a major impact, he said.

After receiving comments that he pointed his finger upward, which may have prevented the frunk from crushing it, Fay said he decided to retry the video with the new update.

Fay was heard struggling in the video and yelling "ow" as he tried to remove his finger from the frunk. The next shot in the video showed him with a splint on his finger. He said the whole trend of sticking body parts inside Tesla's frunk should stop.

"We can kind of cancel that now," Fay said in the video. "I think we can end that. Big thumbs down."

Fay told BI he didn't go to the doctor after he hurt his finger, but he probably should have. He said a previous video showing the wound was removed by TikTok. Business Insider viewed two videos that showed the injured finger, including one with a clear opening in the skin that appeared to extend down to his tendon. In the current version, viewers can see a less graphic version of a deep dent on both sides of his finger.

"The first couple days, I couldn't move my finger at all and I had it in that splint," Fay told BI. "The past couple days, I've had it out and could move it around but it's very tender."

The original video came from Tesla vlogger Jeremy Judkins, who tested out the new Cybertruck update by closing the frunk on his finger, leaving it with a dent and a small skin tear. Others have since tried out the experiment, with one user testing it with a pinky.

After making the video, he released a follow-up saying a Tesla engineer had told him about a new algorithm with the update that makes it close harder each attempt after it senses an obstruction.

Fay said he didn't realize there was an algorithm that made the frunk close harder when it senses resistance. The Cybertruck owner said he closed the frunk on multiple items off-camera before eventually trying his finger.

"Unfortunately when I tried my finger, it was at max strength," Fay said.

Fay said he regrets putting his finger in the frunk and said the biggest lesson is that no one should put anything they don't want breaking in the way of something automatic.

"It got a lot of views and earned a little bit of money," Fay said. "But at the sacrifice of my finger, no I am not glad I did it."

Judkins, whose video of the finger test initially went viral, told BI he didn't mean to start a trend and made the original video as a "little experiment." While the update made it safer, Judkins concluded in his video that it still wasn't fully safe for a finger — and abstained from trying it again.

Tesla has a warning in the owner's manual that says to "use caution around the panel edges on Cybertruck," including the powered frunk. The manual states "neglecting to follow the correct opening procedure for front and rear doors can lead to injury."

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

• An ayahuasca-inspired commencement speech didn't go too well at Ohio State University.
• Alum and jewelry entrepreneur Chris Pan lauded bitcoin and sang songs. He got booed.
• Pan said he was surprised by the hate and wants to talk to his critics.

A commencement address at Ohio State University (OSU) over the weekend took a wild detour.

Speaker Christopher Pan lauded the benefits of bitcoin — prompting groans and boos from the college students gathered in the stadium.

But Pan tells Business Insider he was surprised and pained that his well-intentioned speech became overshadowed by a "bitcoin rabbit hole," and that he's talking with angry detractors on social media in order to grow from the experience.

During his remarks on Sunday, Pan — an OSU grad who founded the inspirational jewelry brand MyIntent — called the cryptocurrency "a very misunderstood asset class," as the audience booed, according to a video posted on Reddit.

The boos could even be heard on the school's livestream of the speech, which featured Pan putting up a slide comparing bitcoin's value to that of a home.

He then did a magic trick on stage — calling up the university's president and turning quarters into a golden physical bitcoin.

He then tried to lead sing-a-longs and sang "What's Going On?" by the 4 Non Blondes and "This Little Light of Mine."

During the speech, he promised audience members free bracelets from MyIntent as an apology for the bitcoin remarks.

It was an unconventional address, to say the least.

"Would I have done it differently knowing what I know now? Yeah."

Before the commencement, Pan wrote on LinkedIn that he'd taken ayahuasca to help prepare the speech.

Pan told BI that he's been working with ayahuasca since 2019 to heal lifelong bullying. OSU even operates a psychedelic research center, he noted.

He also told BI that he'd always intended to donate the bracelets, which he said cost his company $250,000.

The taunts in and out of the stadium were painful, he told BI.

"Have you ever been booed by 70,000 people? It fucking hurt," Pan said. "I've never experienced this much hate in my life."

He said he only brought bitcoin up to underscore the importance of investing, having gotten into the cryptocurrency himself three months ago.

Still, bitcoin supporters have been cheering him online, and Pan said he thinks the hate was coming from a "vocal minority."

"I came in heart wide open," he said. "I came in wanting to really give the best I could to this community."

In the aftermath of the speech, Pan said he is communicating with angry commenters, while also feeling grateful for support during a difficult time.

He's working on a letter to students and parents to bring whatever resolution he can.

"Do I stand by the speech? A hundred percent because it's my truth," he said. "Would I have done it differently knowing what I know now? Yeah. I would've reshaped it to make it more of a traditional experience."

By Allison McLellan, Indeed senior content writer, employer content marketing

A staggering 99% of 300 US hiring managers say sourcing qualified talent is a challenge, according to a recent Indeed-commissioned survey with Harris Poll¹, and over half of them have seen reductions in their recruiting personnel. With Indeed's new AI-powered Smart Sourcing tool, hiring managers can automatically receive a list of quality candidates who match the requirements of a job description.

Building on the Indeed Resume tool, which allows recruiters to search the 245 million resumes on Indeed, Smart Sourcing uses AI-powered algorithms to match active candidates to open roles, cutting back on time spent manually filtering through talent. Custom-generated messaging and collaboration tools can further streamline your workflow while maintaining an individualized approach to candidate communication. In fact, 90% of users agree that Smart Sourcing is the preferred product for sourcing quality talent.²

"Indeed has been invested in AI for a long time," Jason Kudrikow, Indeed senior talent strategy advisor, said. "Now, with the recent acceleration of large language models and generative AI technology, we're able to combine our enormous database of resumes with what we know employers are looking for in order to make smart matches — and help you connect with them faster."

Here are three ways Smart Sourcing can help you hire smarter and faster.

1. You're automatically matched with quality candidates

The Indeed-commissioned Harris Poll survey found that 74% of hiring managers would prefer to automatically match with qualified talent based on skills and relevant experiences instead of manually searching for them. Smart Sourcing's matched candidates does exactly that: Simply toggle between your jobs on Indeed via a drop-down menu to instantly view recommended candidates and then invite them to apply.

"As you accept or reject candidates, the Smart Sourcing AI will learn what you prefer over time," Kudrikow said. "It lets you curate your matched candidates' results like a Spotify playlist, tailored to your unique preferences."

You can still manually search and filter resumes or use automated recommendations to expedite the process. Matches are based on three things: The keyword relevancy of your job post, job seekers' resumes, job seekers' search activity on Indeed, and how recently job seekers have been on the site. This helps Indeed's matching algorithms present you with the most relevant candidates who are demonstrating interest in new opportunities.

Universal Health Services (UHS), a leading hospital and healthcare provider with 400 facilities across the US, Puerto Rico, and the UK, reported its candidate-response rate improved by 30% since using Smart Sourcing. "Smart Sourcing serves up appropriate candidates that tend to be more eager to respond and are active on Indeed. So we get both quality candidates that are a fit and a higher response rate than with another similar tool," said one director of recruiting at UHS.

In the survey, 70% of 1,107 US workers agree that companies who have contacted them in the past could have done a better job of reviewing their skills and experience beforehand. This lack of preparation, personalization, and attention to detail in recruiting can reflect poorly on your company.

That's why matched candidates include candidate highlights, a generative AI capability that analyzes and summarizes each resume. This can help suggest why the candidate could be a great fit for your role, or point out potential gaps in their experience. This accelerated evaluation enables you to make better-informed hiring decisions to preserve both your employer brand and the candidate experience.

Matched candidates you invite to apply are 17 times more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it when searching on Indeed, and employers who use this feature when sponsoring their jobs hire 20% faster.^3,4

2. AI-powered messaging accelerates and personalizes candidate outreach

On average, employers contacting candidates through Indeed's resume search receive a positive response from a job seeker in just 10 hours.⁵ But, 95% of hiring managers believe that their productivity would be even better if administrative tasks like candidate outreach could be assisted by AI. Indeed's customizable AI-powered messages reduce the time and effort it takes to manually write, personalize, and proofread candidate communications.

This allows you to generate a customized message based on the content of the candidate's resume and your job posting. You can generate message variations by desired tone and refine the information before sending it."The AI-powered messages are very effective because they're personalized for each individual candidate. It's amazing how the AI pulls in the right pieces of a job description to describe the highlights of the job and uses information from a candidate's resume to say why it's a great fit," said the UHS recruiting director.

With a Professional Subscription, hiring managers gain the ability to automate post-outreach and follow-up with custom reminder messages. Message analytics track how your templates perform and provide actionable insights on candidate engagement, helping you maximize ROI.

3. Collaborative tools make the feedback process easier

Recruiting and hiring can be a complex task with work distributed across multiple people and platforms. To simplify the process, Smart Sourcing Professional Subscriptions allow you to invite collaborators to sourcing projects and accelerate the candidate feedback process with collaborative task management tools.

If you need to continue the hiring process on your company's applicant tracking system (ATS), Indeed offers integrations with Workday, iCIMS, and Greenhouse that automatically transfer candidate information for you. You can also take your sourcing with you on the go with the Indeed Connect for Employers app. Once you've reached out to potential candidates, notifications let you know when they respond to an application invite or a message, allowing you to reply in real-time and keep the hiring process moving forward.

Getting started with Smart Sourcing

Smart Sourcing subscriptions are available starting today, and existing Indeed Resume subscriptions have transitioned to Smart Sourcing. Available in both Standard and Professional options, subscriptions include access to candidate search and filters, matching quality candidates to your job, and offering faster candidate connections.

"No one gets into talent attraction for the legwork," Kudikrow said. "Indeed is harnessing the power of AI to make it easier than ever to get your opportunities in front of qualified talent, fast, and focus on what makes the profession so rewarding — the human connection."

Learn more about how Smart Sourcing can help you make better hiring decisions.

This post was created by Indeed with Insider Studios.

---

Survey methodology: 

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Indeed from February 12–20, 2024, among 1,107 employed adults, ages 18 and older, and 300 hiring managers (those with sole or primary decision making in the recruiting and hiring process) with 2,000+ employees. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the employee sample data is accurate to within +/– 2.6 percentage points and the hiring manager sample data is accurate to within +/— 5.6% using a 95% confidence level.

¹Harris Poll survey of U.S. hiring managers with 2,000+ employees (n=300) and employed adults, ages 18 and older (n=1107), conducted on behalf of Indeed, February 2024

²Indeed U.S. Survey, 2024 (n=300)

³Indeed data (U.S.), August 2023

⁴Indeed data (U.S.), 2023

⁵Indeed data (worldwide), 2023

• In 2000, the largest iceberg ever recorded — Iceberg B-15 — broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. 
• Underwater explorer and photographer Jill Heinerth dove inside B-15 and snapped photos of this hidden world.
• Today, nearly the entire Jamaica-sized iceberg has melted away. Heinerth's photos offer the first and last look inside it. 

In 2000, when an iceberg the size of Jamaica cleaved away from the Ross Ice Sheet in Antarctica, Jill Heinerth saw an opportunity to make history.

Heinerth is a professional underwater explorer, cave diver, and photographer. She's been diving in the most remote parts of Earth's oceans for 35 years. Her trip inside B-15 marked the first time anyone ever dove beneath an iceberg.

It's not uncommon for Heinerth to be among the first humans to venture inside these hidden places. But with B-15, she was also among the last.

When B-15 broke free, it was among the largest moving objects on the planet. Today, it's lost 99% of its size and only one piece remains — a chunk measuring roughly 40 square miles, smaller than Disney World.

Luckily, Heinerth and her dive team seized the opportunity to explore and photograph the inside of B-15 while it was still a behemoth 23 years ago. And they risked their lives to do it.

But for Heinerth, the work is worth the risk. "For me, diving in these icy environments is almost like documenting an endangered species," she said.

Through her underwater photography, she brings the story of these disappearing ice caves to the surface, aiding scientific discovery and raising awareness about the rapid progression of climate change.

Swimming in uncharted waters

To reach B15, Heinerth and her dive team sailed for 12 days across the tumultuous Southern Ocean, weathering 60-foot swells and knocking ice off the boat with baseball bats. When they finally reached their destination, even more dangers lay ahead.

"During the trip, we had many close calls," Heinerth said. She tells the full story of her three death-defying dives in a 2019 WBUR article.

On the initial dive, the team faced its first brush with danger. After descending through a long vertical crevasse in B15 all the way to the sea floor, 130 feet down, Heinerth spotted the entrance to a cave leading into the iceberg.

Once inside, Heinerth described it as "this dynamic environment that's beautiful. You see how the sea has sculpted the ice, like there's these great scallops that are carved by the hand of the sea," she told BI.

But suddenly, they heard a deep groaning sound.

Massive chunks of ice had fallen into the cave entrance, blocking their way out. Luckily, they found a way through and escaped with their lives, ready to return the next day.

During their second dive inside B15, they got caught in a powerful current sucking them deeper inside the iceberg. They couldn't fight it and instead rode the current through until eventually it took them to another exit on a completely different side of the iceberg.

But even that wouldn't prevent them from taking a third and final visit, when they faced the most dangerous dive of all. On that day, the powerful current hit again. This time, there was no backdoor to escape through, and the flow was so intense that even when they fought their way back to the cave entrance, they couldn't rise back up through the crevasse.

"On our very last dive in this environment, we were pinned down from the currents inside the ice and having difficulty getting out," she told BI. "Our one-hour dive turned into a three-hour flight for our lives."

What saved their lives was when Heinerth remembered the burrows that fish make in the crevasse walls. Using these holes as climbing holds, she and the team slowly climbed their way against the current and eventually made it to the surface.

Then, just hours after they resurfaced, "The entire piece of ice that we'd just been inside of literally exploded and turned into a sea of slush ice as far as the eye could see," Heinerth said.

"I was just standing there, gobsmacked on the ship's rail. I realized that if we had been in the water, we'd be dead," she wrote for WBUR.

Documenting a disappearing world

Between moments spent fighting for her life, Heinerth managed to snap photos of B15's inner world. As a citizen scientist, she hopes that documenting these rapidly changing environments helps researchers better understand them.

"We are now living in a time of very clear existential threats — a time when we need an army of citizen scientists that can provide reflections, anecdotal evidence, but also data gathering streams," she said.

Over the last two decades, Antarctica has lost an average of 150 billion metric tons of ice per year, NASA reports. This rapid melting means iconic arctic species like humpback whales and emperor penguins are losing critical resources and habitat.

It also means sea levels are rising. "When [B15] broke off — when you have ice that moves from land to sea — that's going to change sea levels globally," Heinerth said. "And that's the thing we need to be concerned about."

Exploring the below-surface geomorphology (the shape and structure) of icebergs like B15 can help climatologists understand how quickly they're disappearing, she said. As they melt, water moves downward through cracks in the iceberg, carving out new caves and crevasses for intrepid folks like Heinerth to investigate.

Through her dive photography, she hopes to spread awareness about how quickly these hidden ice environments are changing.

"We're at the point where we need to make some climate interventions, and that is going to require political will. And it's going to require a global citizenry to be relatively educated about what we face in the very near future," Heinerth said.

Photos courtesy of Jill Heinerth. Learn more about her work at: www.IntoThePlanet.com

• Donald Trump is spending his day off of court thanking NFT buyers.
• The former president will host a reception at Mar-a-Lago for people who spent roughly $10,000 on digital collectibles.
• Trump gets little time away from Manhattan court during the week. 

Former President Donald Trump gets rare reprieves from his Manhattan criminal trial. He's spending one of them thanking buyers of his latest digital collectible series.

On Wednesday, Trump will host buyers who spent roughly $10,000 on the "Mugshot Edition" of the Trump digital trading cards at his private Mar-a-Lago resort. Wednesdays are typically an off day for Trump's trial, where he's facing charges of falsifying business records to cover up alleged hush money before the 2016 presidential election.

It's the latest example of how Trump has spent part of his time seeking a second term on private business interests. The former president previously appeared at a shoe-focused convention in Philadelphia to tout his officially licensed $199 shoes. (There was also a limited-edition gold $399 offering, which the company has said sold out.)

According to his most recent financial disclosure, Trump reported income of between $100,001 and $1 million from past NFT sales.

Like many Trump products over the years, he licenses his name and the respective companies handle the rest. Still, the deals underline a mixing of private interests and public service, a major feature of Trump's presidency. The largest deal of all, Trump's social media platform Truth, would be nowhere near as large without his backing.

In comparison, President Joe Biden spent part of his day in the key state of Wisconsin. While Biden's was official, he could also tout a $3.3 billion investment at the site of a mostly failed Trump-era project.