US President Donald Trump heads to Pennsylvania on Tuesday in a bid to quell growing anger among Americans about the cost of living.Trump will return to the campaign-style rallies that brought him a second term in the White House as he pushes his message that he is cutting inflation.The 79-year-old has angrily rejected what he calls the Democrats’ “hoax” on the issue of affordability, but polls show that his approval ratings have slumped on the economy.The Republican billionaire also faces dissent from within his “Make America Great Again” movement, with calls for him to focus on the economy instead of foreign peace deals.Trump will “discuss how he and the administration continue to focus on delivering on his day one priority of ending Joe Biden’s inflation crisis,” a White House official told AFP.He will speak at the Mount Airy Casino resort in Pocono, Pennsylvania, US media said. Before becoming president Trump ran a number of casinos — several of which went bankrupt.The Republican insists prices are falling for key goods like beef, eggs and coffee, and he is fixing what he describes as a mess left by Biden, his Democratic predecessor.But this week he showed signs of softening his message a little on Monday, acknowledging an affordability “problem” after dismissing it as recently as last week as a “con job.””The Democrats caused the affordability problem and we’re fixing it,” he said.Trump’s approval ratings have slumped to their lowest point since his return to office in January, particularly over the cost of living, which Americans have blamed at least partly on his tariffs.US inflation accelerated in September to 2.8 percent on an annual basis.- ‘America First’ -The issue has caused a rift within the MAGA movement. Former close ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Trump in November, said Trump had failed to focus on affordability.”For an ‘America First’ president, the number one focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t,” Greene told the CBS News show “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday.Democrats meanwhile campaigned on affordability in elections that they swept last month for New York City mayor, and for the governors of New Jersey and Virginia.Blue-collar Pennsylvania is a key stop on the road to the White House. Trump narrowly won the northeastern state in 2016 and 2024, and lost it by a sliver to Biden in 2020.Trump is ineligible to run again in 2028 despite hints that he might try — but he is deeply focused on the 2026 midterm elections, in which affordability could hit Republicans.Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles told the Daily Caller she would “put him on the campaign trail” next year to get out loyal voters who might otherwise stay away from the polls.That would mark a major break from the past years when when US parties have often tried to keep their distance from often unpopular incumbent presidents in the midterms.Trump has also focused on other groups affected by his economic policies.A day ahead of his speech, Trump announced $12 billion in aid to US farmers who have also been hit by the impacts of his tariff and trade policy.”We love our farmers, and as you know the farmers like me,” Trump said at the White House, describing them as the “backbone” of the country.

At a Christmas market outside the US capital, festive cheer alone hasn’t been enough to drive affordability worries out of shoppers’ minds — as American households contend with creeping inflation this holiday season.”Prices are terrible. It makes it difficult to shop for a lot of your friends and family,” said James Doffermyre, a high school teacher.The 37-year-old was among visitors at the market in Gaithersburg — a Maryland suburb of Washington — browsing stalls selling everything from greeting cards to decorations.”We always have a big Christmas, and we get one or two gifts for everybody,” he told AFP.But this year, he added, “we said all the adults were okay, (let’s) just buy things for the kids.”His plans underscore the affordability pressures that American households are facing, with dissatisfaction mounting over costs of living.- ‘Problem’ -In particular, Democrats notched victories in off-year elections last month, fueled by voters being disgruntled about rising prices.Republican President Donald Trump too has acknowledged an affordability “problem” recently, after repeatedly dismissing it as a “hoax” and a “con job” by rival Democrats.While Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs this year have not sparked a broad surge in consumer inflation, companies have noted steeper business costs, with some opting to pass them on by raising prices.Inflation has edged higher, with the consumer price index rising 3.0 percent on an annual basis in September, up from 2.9 percent in August.Doffermyre, who has a six-month-old child, said he had been limiting his spending with fewer trips to restaurants.Another shopper, 73-year-old special education teacher Karen Jenkins, called grocery prices “outrageous.””We give food to a lot of students,” she said. “They’re always hungry because they don’t get any food at home.”For her part, she is buying less and cutting down on going out for shows.- ‘Make things work’ -Consumers were also frustrated by high prices in 2022, towards the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, economist Joanne Hsu recalled.But back then, “consumers were willing to spend through it because labor markets were very strong and they felt very confident about their income,” said Hsu, the director of a monthly survey of consumers at the University of Michigan.”This time is a very different situation,” she said.Pastry chef Olivia McPherson, 30, noted that prices have been rising during the past three years: “It’s been getting worse and worse.”She said that she rents from a friend because she cannot afford her own apartment, and buys less meat to cut costs.”I’m lucky enough to work at a place where I get meals provided for me,” McPherson added.But this year, she might not be able to buy gifts for all of her friends.”I would never ask them to get me a gift as well, just because I know everybody’s feeling it,” she added.Some, like 23-year-old machine operator Oscar, work two jobs to make ends meet.”If you work hard enough, you can get by,” he said, declining to share his last name.”But I feel like the prices aren’t going down any soon,” he added. “You just gotta make things work.”

The expansion of data centers to power the AI boom has more people wondering: what exactly is in a data center?AFP got a chance to take a look at what is inside.- Concrete warehouse -Data centers are the physical infrastructure that make our digital lives possible, yet most people have never seen one up close or understand how they operate.Roughly 12,000 data centers are in operation in the world, with about half in the US, according to Cloudscene, a data center directory.At its most basic, a data center is a concrete warehouse filled with thousands of computer servers working in tandem. Traditional facilities span one or two floors divided into vast rooms, though newer ones rise higher.A facility may serve a single company or be shared by several clients.The servers sit in standardized 19-inch (48 cm) racks — essentially metal closets lined up in rows.A large data center can house tens of thousands of servers running simultaneously, generating enormous heat and consuming significant energy for both power and cooling.High-speed networking equipment — switches, routers, and fiber optic cables — connects everything, moving terabytes of data per second.- Stay close -Having a data center close to end users improves speed, which is critical for things like trading and gaming where immediacy is paramount.Ashburn, Virginia, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, offers ideal conditions as it is located only about 30 miles from the US capital, Washington.However, building in densely populated areas costs more and faces local resistance. Companies increasingly turn to rural locations where land is cheaper and zoning less restrictive.But distance adds to loading times — that brief delay when a page loads or a feed refreshes.To balance cost and performance, operators typically house core infrastructure — or the training of AI models — in affordable rural regions while keeping equipment that handles time-sensitive requests closer to urban centers.- Stay Cool -Inside these bunker-like buildings, a single server rack generates as much heat as several household ovens running nonstop. Cooling consumes roughly 40 percent of a data center’s total energy.The most advanced chips — GPUs (graphics processing units) used for AI — can reach temperatures exceeding 90°C, threatening performance and causing permanent damage during extended operation. They are also much heavier than lower performing chips.Traditional facilities use computer room air conditioners with heat blasting out of mounted vents on on rooftops – but this is not fit for GPUs that mainly turn to water for cooling.Modern facilities are beginning to deploy “free cooling” that uses outside air when temperatures allow, and different water-based approaches: liquid cooling systems that pump coolant directly to components or evaporative cooling that works like perspiration on skin.Today massive amounts of water are still required for direct and indirect cooling in data centers. In 2014, US data centers used 21.2 billion liters of water, and that number rose to 66 billion liters in 2023, according to federal estimates.- Where’s the power? -Power supply — and the high voltage transmission lines needed to source it — is key for a data center and is only growing with facilities that run the powerful GPUs. “One of the biggest challenges for a lot of our customers is they buy the chips and then they don’t know where to go,” Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer at Digital Realty, which operates data centers around the world, told AFP.The big tech giants, caught up in the AI arms race, have spent tens of billions of dollars in just months towards building suitable structures for GPUs.Operators rely on the existing power grid but are increasingly seeking to secure their own resources — called “behind-the-meter” — for greater security and to limit rate increases for all users. Solar panels or gas turbines are sometimes installed, and many are also awaiting the arrival of the first small modular reactors (SMRs), a nuclear energy technology currently under development. Most data centers have to run 24/7 and every critical system has backups in case of power outages. This can come through massive battery banks or diesel generators. The best facilities guarantee power 99.995 percent of the time.

Jimmy Kimmel has extended his contract with Disney-owned ABC for a year, sources said Monday, months after his late-night show was yanked off the air in a confrontation with President Donald Trump’s administration.The late-night host will continue to front “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” into the middle of 2027, a person familiar with the matter told AFP.His contract had been due to expire in May of next year.The move comes after a spat pitting the White House against Kimmel in the wake of the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.Kimmel, who frequently skewers Trump and his inner circle, annoyed conservatives when he said “the MAGA gang” was trying to exploit the college campus murder.Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr appeared to threaten the licenses of ABC affiliates broadcasting the show unless they demanded Kimmel’s removal.Two companies that own dozens of those affiliates — Nexstar and Sinclair — then announced they would be removing the show from their schedules, prompting Disney to suspend the show nationwide.But after a huge public and Hollywood backlash, Kimmel was back on the air after a week-long hiatus, delivering a blockbuster monologue in which he slammed government attempts to censor him as “anti-American.”He has continued to take aim at Trump, mocking him for apparently falling asleep in meetings, and for mispronouncing the names of international leaders with whom he boasts he has brokered peace deals.Trump, meanwhile, shows no sign of giving up his crusade to get Kimmel cancelled.At a revamped awards ceremony at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night, he called the funnyman “horrible,” as he predicted bumper ratings for the show.”If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president,” he said.