eyashadow

[eyashadow]

As avian influenza rages through birds and dairy cattle across the United States, Georgia has become the latest state to detect the virus in a commercial poultry flock, and on Friday, it halted all poultry sales to mitigate further spread of the disease. Nationally, egg prices are soaring—if you can find them at all in your local grocery store.The ongoing outbreak in animals has also led to at least 67 human cases of bird flu, with all but one causing mild illness. Earlier this month, a person in Louisiana died after being hospitalized with severe bird flu in December. It’s the country’s first recorded death attributed to H5N1.The US has previously licensed three H5N1 vaccines for humans, but they’re not available commercially. The government has purchased millions of doses for the national stockpile in case they’re needed. But even as the outbreak spread, federal health officials under President Joe Biden were hesitant to deploy them. Experts say the decision comes down to risk, and currently, the risk of H5N1 remains low. Rolling out a vaccine to farm workers and others at higher risk of infection would be a more targeted tactic, but even that measure may be premature. Now, with a changeover in federal health leadership imminent as President Donald Trump begins his second term, the decision rests with the new administration.“At the moment, from the point of view of severity and ease of transmission, it does not seem like an imperative to get a vaccine out to protect humans,” says William Schaffner, a physician and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.So far, no person-to-person spread of H5N1 has been identified, but health officials are monitoring the virus for any genetic changes that would make transmission among people more likely. Most bird flu infections are related to animal exposures. Of the 67 known human cases in the US, 40 have been linked to sick dairy cattle and 23 are associated with poultry farms and culling operations. In the other four cases, the exact source isn’t known.In the US, human cases have been mild, with many of them causing only conjunctivitis. In some cases, people have had mild respiratory symptoms. Aside from the Louisiana patient, all the individuals who tested positive for H5N1 recovered quickly and never needed to be hospitalized. Historically though, H5N1 has been fatal in around 50 percent of cases. Since 2003, a total of 954 cases of human H5N1 have been reported to the World Health Organization, and about half of them died. Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and China have reported the highest number of human bird flu deaths.Those numbers come with a few caveats. For one, many of those deaths occurred in places where people live very close to the sick poultry. “In those circumstances, the thinking is that they likely got a very large dose of the virus,” Schaffner says.Plus, the case fatality rate—the proportion of infected people who die from the disease—only takes into consideration known cases, and some cases of H5N1 are no doubt going undetected in part because bird flu symptoms are similar to other respiratory viruses. In the US, language barriers among farm workers, lack of testing, and a reluctance among workers to report that they’re sick are also factors. “We probably miss more cases than we detect, and we’re much more likely to detect a case that’s severe,” says Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine in Boston and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center. https://media.wired.com/photos/67854b30b8f5b6e673292544/191:100/w_1280,c_limit/GettyImages-642438634.jpg 2025-01-22 19:11:39

[eyashadow]

Clinton Bailey, an American-Israeli academic whose research and documentation of the ancient traditions of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Middle East helped preserve a vanishing culture for posterity, died on Jan. 5 at his home in Jerusalem. He was 88.The cause was heart failure, his son Michael said.A native of Buffalo, Dr. Bailey spent some 50 years recording the oral poetry, negotiations, trials, wisdom of the elders, weddings, rituals, proverbs and stories of the tribes of the southern Israeli Negev Desert and the Sinai Peninsula. Traveling by Jeep to desert Bedouin encampments, sometimes joining their migrations for weeks on camel back, camera and tape recorder in hand, he created a record of a largely unwritten culture.The task was urgent, he said, because Bedouin society, then largely illiterate, was on the cusp of rapid change. Modern borders, government restrictions and urbanization were beginning to encroach on their nomadic ways, and the advent of transistor radios, cars and mobile phones was sending the modern world swooshing in.“I decided to try to capture that culture,” Dr. Bailey said in an interview in 2021 marking the donation of his archive of 350 hours of audio tape and a trove of prints and slides to the National Library of Israel. “I could already see it was beginning to disappear.”The library described his collection in a statement as “a treasure of orally transmitted ancient culture, now irreplaceable, and not available via the younger generations of Bedouin who grew up exposed to modernity.”Dr. Bailey was revered by many tribespeople, who credit him with preserving their ancient traditions. Daham al-Atawneh, a retired publisher from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev, said Dr. Bailey had done “very sacred work,” particularly in collecting poetry.“This preserves it for eternity,” he said. “Maybe my children will want to go back to their history one day. There is a record now.”Dr. Bailey also advocated for the rights of the Bedouin who have been locked in an unresolved land dispute with the Israeli government since the founding of the state. Few Bedouin had documents or deeds proving land ownership.Dr. Bailey’s life appears to have been largely shaped by his curiosity and serendipitous encounters.Born on April 24, 1936, as Erwin Glaser, he was the younger son of Benjamin and Edna Glaser, Jewish immigrants from Russia. Benjamin Glaser, a self-made businessman, started out with a single gas pump and ended up owning a chain of service stations in Buffalo.While serving in the U.S. Navy after the Korean War, Erwin Glaser, while aboard a ship, met a rabbi who introduced him to the Jewish literature of Eastern Europe. That led to a meeting in New York with Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Polish-born Jewish American writer and Yiddishist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.After studying sculpture in Norway for a year, Mr. Glaser returned to the United States with the intention of studying Yiddish at Yeshiva University but ended up studying Hebrew in upstate New York. There he met his first Israeli, a member of a communal farm, or kibbutz. He moved to Israel in 1958, a decade after the establishment of the Jewish state.In 1959, he met and then married Maya Ordinan. Born in Czernowitz, now part of Ukraine, she had come to Israel as a child. After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he spent a year in an Arab village in the Galilee hills, in northern Israel, teaching English and learning colloquial Arabic. He returned to the United States and earned a doctorate in Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University before returning to Israel in 1967.At some point in the 1960s, he changed his name to Clinton Bailey, drawn from the intersection of Clinton Street and Bailey Avenue in Buffalo, the site of one of his father’s service stations. The change was in preparation for a trip to Pakistan, his son Michael, said, presumably to avoid sounding Jewish in an Islamic country, but, he added, the true reasons were never clear. Dr. Bailey was also known in Israel by his Hebrew name Itzchak, or the nickname Itzik.Jobless, and wandering around Tel Aviv one day near the home of David Ben-Gurion, the founding prime minister of Israel, Dr. Bailey bumped into Paula Ben-Gurion, the leader’s spouse. They got to talking, and she invited him in for tea.That chance meeting led to a friendship with the Ben-Gurions that proved formative for Dr. Bailey. Mr. Ben-Gurion helped him secure a job teaching English at an academy at Sde Boker, a remote kibbutz in the Negev desert. The Ben-Gurions later retired to Sde Boker, where they lived in a spacious but somewhat spartan cabin. Dr. Bailey would sometimes join the aging politician on his brisk walks around the kibbutz.When out jogging alone, he would encounter Bedouin shepherds and strike up conversations. They would invite him back to their tents. He found their story — a life in the desert that harked back to pre-Biblical times — compelling. “It was a story of survival going back 4,500 years,” he said.After the 1967 war, with Israel in control of the Egyptian Sinai, he gained access to even more remote tribes. He moved to Jerusalem in 1975.In the 1980s, as an adviser on Arab affairs in Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Dr. Bailey frequented southern Lebanon, where Israel occupied a buffer zone. He focused on building relations with the Shiite Muslims there and recommended that the Israeli government do the same. But Israel instead aligned itself with the Christian Lebanese militias that were leading the Lebanese government at the time.The partnership with the Christian militias led to one of the darkest moments in Israeli history, when the country was implicated in the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila perpetrated by the Christian Phalange militia. Soon Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Lebanese militia, would emerge as a bitter enemy of Israel.Dr. Bailey wrote four books on Bedouin poetry, proverbs, law and, most recently, “Bedouin Culture in the Bible,” published by Yale University Press in 2018. He also taught Middle East politics and Bedouin culture for many years at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.In addition to Michael Bailey, he is survived by his wife and their three other sons, Daniel, ⁠Benjamin and Ariel, and nine grandchildren.In 2016, at age 80, Dr. Bailey found a new kind of celebrity. He had interviewed his friend Mr. Ben-Gurion over three days in 1968 on film, recording him talking about his life and career and the birth of the Jewish state. The film was then lost for decades and largely forgotten.When it was rediscovered by accident — the silent film in one archive in Jerusalem, the soundtrack in another in the Negev — it became the basis for an acclaimed 2016 documentary, “Ben-Gurion, Epilogue.”In the interview, conducted five years before his death, Mr. Ben-Gurion offered an unusually raw, contemplative analysis of his life’s work. The documentary struck a chord in Israel, where many people were yearning for more humble leaders who showed more statesmanship.The simplicity of the Ben-Gurions’ cabin at Sde Boker was “a statement,” Dr. Bailey told The New York Times at the time, adding: “I don’t think Ben-Gurion wanted the perks of power.”The simplicity of desert life also drew Dr. Bailey to the Bedouin. In an effort to convey Bedouin ways to friends who were used to a more material world, he would occasionally relate the story of how he had turned up unexpectedly to visit some tribesmen. Offering hospitality was a cultural imperative, so they would procure some tea from here and eggs from there until they were able to offer him a meal.Although they had little material goods themselves, the men did not consider this a hardship. “A Bedouin would wake up in the morning with nothing,” Dr. Bailey said, “and would consider himself fortunate if he had acquired something by bedtime.” https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/20/multimedia/20Bailey-01-zlkv/20Bailey-01-zlkv-facebookJumbo.jpg 2025-01-22 19:00:00

[eyashadow]

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Inference-time scaling is one of the big themes of artificial intelligence in 2025, and AI labs are attacking it from different angles. In its latest research paper, Google DeepMind introduced the concept of “Mind Evolution,” a technique that optimizes responses of large language models (LLMs) for planning and reasoning tasks.  Inference-time scaling techniques try to improve LLMs’ performance by allowing them to “think” more when generating their answers. Practically, this means that instead of generating its answer in one go, a model is allowed to generate several answers, review and correct its answers, and explore different ways to solve the problem.  Evolving LLM responses Mind Evolution relies on two key components: search and genetic algorithms. Search algorithms are a common component in many inference-time scaling techniques. They allow LLMs to find the best reasoning path for the optimal solution. Genetic algorithms are inspired by natural selection. They create and evolve a population of candidate solutions to optimize a goal, often referred to as the “fitness function.”  Mind Evolution algorithm (source: arXiv) Mind Evolution starts by creating a population of candidate solutions expressed in natural language. The solutions are generated by an LLM that has been given a description of the problem along with useful information and instructions. The LLM then evaluates each candidate and improves it if it does not meet the criteria for the solution. The algorithm then selects the parents for the next generation of solutions by sampling from the existing population, with higher-quality solutions having a greater chance of being selected. It next creates new solutions through crossover (choosing parent pairs and combining their elements to create a new solution) and mutation (making random changes to newly created solutions). It reuses the evaluation method to refine the new solutions. The cycle of evaluation, selection and recombination continues until the algorithm reaches the optimal solution or exhausts a preset number of iterations. Refinement process for proposed solutions in the Mind Evolution algorithm (source: arXiv) One of the important parts of Mind Evolution is the evaluation function. Evaluators of inference-time scaling techniques often require the problem to be formalized from natural language into a structured, symbolic representation that can be processed by a solver program. Formalizing a problem can require significant domain expertise and a deep understanding of the problem to identify all the key elements that need to be represented symbolically and how they relate to one another, which limits its applicability.  In Mind Evolution, the fitness function is designed to work with natural language planning tasks where solutions are expressed in natural language. This allows the system to avoid formalizing problems, as long as a programmatic solution evaluator is available. It also provides textual feedback in addition to a numerical score, which allows the LLM to understand specific issues and make targeted improvements. “We focus on evolving solutions in natural language spaces instead of formal spaces. This removes the requirement of task formalization, which requires significant effort and expert knowledge for each task instance,” the researchers write. Mind Evolution also uses an “island” approach to make sure it explores a diverse set of solutions. At each stage, the algorithm creates separate groups of solutions that evolve within themselves. It then “migrates” optimal solutions from one group to another to combine and create new ones. Mind Evolution in planning tasks The researchers tested Mind Evolution against baselines such as 1-pass, where the model generates only one answer; Best-of-N, where the model generates multiple answers and chooses the best one; and Sequential Revisions+, a revision technique where 10 candidate solutions are proposed independently, then revised separately for 80 turns. Sequential Revisions+ is the closest to Mind Evolution, though it does not have the genetic algorithm component to combine the best parts of the discovered solution. For reference, they also include an additional 1-pass baseline that uses OpenAI o1-preview. Performance on the Trip Planning benchmark. As the complexity of the task increases, the gap between Mind Evolution and other methods grows (source: arXiv). The researchers carried out most tests on the fast and affordable Gemini 1.5 Flash. They also explored a two-stage approach, where the Gemini 1.5 Pro model is used when the Flash model can’t address the problem. This two-stage approach provides better cost-efficiency than using the Pro model on every problem instance. The researchers tested Mind Evolution on several natural-language planning benchmarks for tasks such as trip and meeting planning. Previous research shows that LLMs can’t achieve good performance on these tasks without the aid of formal solvers. For example, Gemini 1.5 Flash and o1-preview achieve a success rate of only 5.6% and 11.7% on TravelPlanner, a benchmark that simulates organizing a trip plan based on user preferences and constraints expressed in natural language. Even exploiting Best-of-N over 800 independently generated responses, Gemini 1.5 Flash only achieves 55.6% success on TravelPlanner. Performance on the TravelPlanner benchmark. As the complexity of the task increases, Mind Evolution remains consistently high-performing while other methods falter (source: arXiv). In all their tests, Mind Evolution outperformed the baselines by a wide margin, especially as the tasks got more difficult.  For example, Mind Evolution achieves a 95% success rate on TravelPlanner. On the Trip Planning benchmark, which involves creating an itinerary of cities to visit with a number of days in each, Mind Evolution achieved 94.1% on the test instances while other methods reached a maximum of 77% success rate. Interestingly, the gap between Mind Evolution and other techniques increases as the number of cities grows, indicating its ability to handle more complex planning tasks. With the two-stage process, Mind Evolution reached near-perfect success rates on all benchmarks. Mind Evolution also proved a cost-effective approach for solving natural-language planning problems, using a fraction of the number of tokens used by Sequential-Revision+, the only other technique that comes close to its performance.  “Overall, these results demonstrate a clear advantage of an evolutionary strategy that combines a broad search, through stochastic exploration, with a deep search that leverages an LLM for solution refinement,” the researchers write. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured. https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/cfr0z3n_vector_art_of_cybernetic_DNA_strands_with_a_padlock_ico_aaa71acb-75ba-41fc-9107-1c876666042a.png?w=1024?w=1200&strip=all 2025-01-22 17:24:32

[eyashadow]

Muammar Gaddafi’s former heir apparent has told FRANCE 24’s sister radio RFI that he was personally involved in giving Nicolas Sarkozy suitcases of cash ahead of his victorious 2007 presidential run. Saif al-Islam claims he was pressured to change his testimony by emissaries of the former French president, who is on trial over alleged campaign financing by Libya. [og_img] 2025-01-22 17:40:06

[eyashadow]

Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, has been cooking up a whole new fantasy universe, and the first book set in it is out now. Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, is an anthology that reads like a collection of myths and folklore. The stories are macabre with a touch of whimsy (as in, occasional animal narrators), ranging from a boy’s bizarre adventure after he becomes the unexpected wielder of a powerful dead hand, to the creation of the world and gods in the eponymous Lands Unknown.Mignola said when the project was announced last year that “it all started with an Italian folktale about a boy who goes bowling with corpses,” which he wanted to adapt, but also to “play fast and loose” in doing so. “So I created a whole new world,” he said. Bowling with Corpses hits comic stores today, and you can read a snippet from “Una and the Devil” (one of my favorite stories in the book) below.1 / 8Bowling With CorpsesThe cover of Mike Mignola's new book, Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown Unsurprisingly, Mignola’s style lends itself well to the concept of creepy folk tales, and there are some really stunning visuals that bring it all to life: a woman rising from a blood-filled casket; a man following a floating dagger through a forest bathed in red; a newly transformed creature of the night spreading her wings for the first time. The book contains eight stories across its 112 pages (and a promise for more to come!), so there’s plenty of good stuff to sink your teeth into.Mignola collaborated once again with Ben Stenbeck (Our Bones Dust) to create the Lands Unknown universe, and the book is the first to be published under Mignola’s new imprint, Curious Objects, from Dark Horse Comics. Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown was written and illustrated by Mignola, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Clem Robins. https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/aBsuqFzH_cVEG7qLUkwNAQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD02NzU-/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-01/9d729bc0-d518-11ef-b67f-7cee346f869e 2025-01-22 17:00:09

[eyashadow]

Iraq's parliament passed three divisive laws Tuesday, including amendments to the country's personal status law that opponents say would in effect legalize child marriage.The amendments give Islamic courts increased authority over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq's 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage in most cases.The changes passed Tuesday would let clerics rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow marriage of girls in their early teens — or as young as nine under the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many Shia religious authorities in Iraq.Proponents of the changes, which were advocated by primarily conservative Shia lawmakers, defend them as a means to align the law with Islamic principles and reduce Western influence on Iraqi culture.Rights groups and many Iraqi women feared the country's parliament will open the door to child marriages. (Hadi Mizban/The Associated Press)The parliament also passed a general amnesty law seen as benefiting Sunni detainees and that's also seen as giving a pass to people involved in corruption and embezzlement. The chamber also passed a land restitution law aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims.'Disastrous effects' on rights of women, girls: activistIntisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and a member of the Iraqi Women's League, said passage of the civil status law amendments "will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, through the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody and inheritance for women."The session ended in chaos and accusations of procedural violations."Half of the lawmakers present in the session did not vote, which broke the legal quorum," a parliamentary official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He said that some members protested loudly and others climbed onto the parliamentary podium.After the session, a number of legislators complained about the voting process, under which all three controversial laws — each of which was supported by different blocs — were voted on together."Regarding the civil status law, we are strongly supporting it and there were no issues with that," said Raid al Maliki, an independent MP.Amendments could lead to legal appeal"But it was combined with other laws to be voted on together ... and this might lead to a legal appeal at the Federal Court."Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani in a statement praised the laws' passage as "an important step in the process of enhancing justice and organizing the daily lives of citizens."Also Tuesday, at least three officers, including the national security chief of the al-Tarmiyah district north of Baghdad, were killed and four others wounded in an explosion at an ammunition depot, a security official said.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the explosion occurred as a joint force of the Iraqi army and the national security service conducted an operation following intelligence reports of the Islamic State group's activity and an ammunition cache in the area. https://i.cbc.ca/1.7438037.1737555466!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/iraq-child-marriage.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 2025-01-22 14:21:21

[eyashadow]

Today's top CDs offer APYs as high as 4.65%.Experts expect the Fed will pause rates at its next meeting, but rate cuts are likely later this year.Locking in your APY now allows you to shield your returns from future rate drops. The days of sky-high APYs may be over, but CD rates are still attractive. You can earn up to 4.65% annual percentage yield, or APY with today's best CDs -- more than twice the national average for some terms.Better yet, your APY is fixed when you open a CD, so you'll enjoy the same returns even if rates fall, as experts expect they will in the coming months. If you have some cash you won't need to access immediately, putting it in a CD can be a great way to maximize your earnings.Here are some of the highest CD rates right now and how much you could earn by depositing $5,000.Today's best CD rates Term Highest APY*BankEstimated earnings6 months 4.65%CommunityWide Federal Credit Union$114.931 year 4.45%CommunityWide Federal Credit Union$222.503 years 4.15%America First Credit Union$648.695 years 4.25%America First Credit Union$1,156.73 Experts recommend comparing rates before opening a CD account to get the best APY possible. Enter your information below to get CNET's partners' best rate for your area.Where are CD rates headed next?APYs on CDs and savings accounts have been falling for months after a series of Federal Reserve rate cuts. But with inflation inching back up, many experts believe the Fed will hold rates steady at next week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. That means there's still time to score a great APY."We expect no significant action at the next Fed meeting, as current signals suggest a cautious, wait-and-see approach to determine the pace of interest rate cuts this year," said Chad Olivier, Certified Financial Planner and CEO of The Olivier Group. "We still think there's going to be an easing environment for the Fed. However, all of the markets are, in some respect, waiting to see what happens with the new administration before they really step in and get aggressive on lower interest rates."Experts expect to see rate cuts later this year, so securing a high APY now can maximize your earning potential. Your APY is locked in when you open a CD, which means your returns will stay the same regardless of where overall rates go after that.How CD rates have changed in the last week Term Last week's CNET average APYThis week's CNET average APYWeekly change**6 months 4.09%4.05%-0.98%1 year 4.03%4.01%-0.50%3 years 3.50%3.50%No change5 years 3.45%3.45%No change Consider these factors when choosing a CDA competitive APY is important, but it's not the only thing you should keep in mind. To find the right CD for you, weigh these factors, too:When you'll need your money: Early withdrawal penalties can eat into your interest earnings. So be sure to choose a term that fits your savings timeline. Alternatively, you can select a no-penalty CD, although the APY may not be as high as you'd get with a traditional CD of the same term.Minimum deposit requirement: Some CDs require a minimum amount to open an account -- typically, $500 to $1,000. Others do not. How much money you have to set aside can help you narrow your options.Fees: Maintenance and other fees can eat into your earnings. Many online banks don't charge fees because they have lower overhead costs than banks with physical branches. Still, read the fine print for any account you're evaluating.Federal deposit insurance: Make sure any bank or credit union you're considering is an FDIC or NCUA member so your money is protected if the bank fails.Customer ratings and reviews: Visit sites like Trustpilot to see what customers are saying about the bank. You want a bank that's responsive, professional and easy to work with.MethodologyCNET reviews CD rates based on the latest APY information from issuer websites. We evaluated CD rates from more than 50 banks, credit unions and financial companies. We evaluate CDs based on APYs, product offerings, accessibility and customer service.The current banks included in CNET's weekly CD averages include Alliant Credit Union, Ally Bank, American Express National Bank, Barclays, Bask Bank, Bread Savings, Capital One, CFG Bank, CIT, Fulbright, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, MYSB Direct, Quontic, Rising Bank, Synchrony, EverBank, Popular Bank, First Internet Bank of Indiana, America First Federal Credit Union, CommunityWide Federal Credit Union, Discover, Bethpage, BMO Alto, Limelight Bank, First National Bank of America and Connexus Credit Union.*APYs as of Jan. 22, 2025, based on the banks we track at CNET. Earnings are based on APYs and assume interest is compounded annually.**Weekly percentage increase/decrease from Jan. 13, 2025, to Jan. 20, 2025.More on CDs !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('set', 'autoConfig', false, '789754228632403'); fbq('init', '789754228632403'); https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/f1f19487102f2be6595d95f224352342b2bccb2b/hub/2024/11/07/0a630bf1-b644-4625-93dc-b5cde9510bf7/gettyimages-1464476018.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&width=1200 2025-01-22 14:40:00

[eyashadow]

Prince Harry settles lawsuit against U.K. newspaper group owned by Rupert Murdoch - CBS News Watch CBS News Britain's Prince Harry settled a longrunning libel lawsuit against British tabloids owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News and newspapers in the U.S. CBS News' Imtiaz Tyab has more. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2025/01/22/2a2a95b7-3be6-49ca-be00-aad53fddc6bb/thumbnail/1200x630/658374dcaea3bb7ee5e7fd95bc0da17d/0122-cmo-harry.jpg?v=b37f0cace52a6645c18f53563f47da2c 2025-01-22 14:48:00

[eyashadow]

In an apparent effort to get tanned meatheads excited about products that were invented by a bunch of pasty-faced nerds, Meta is teaming up with sporty sunglasses firm Oakley to make a new breed of smart glasses. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the two companies had teamed up on a smart glasses partnership. The glasses will be marketed to athletes, according to the report. Citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” the news outlet lays out some of the ways in which Meta plans to diversify its smart glasses product base in the coming years: …First, the company is planning to introduce its current Ray-Ban glasses to new markets. Second, Meta is broadening its smart glasses technology to other fashion brands owned by partner Luxottica Group SA. That includes a new version — dubbed “Supernova 2” — that is based on Oakley’s Sphaera glasses. This model, which shifts the camera to the center of the glasses frame, will be aimed at cyclists and other athletes. What could help you ride a bike better than a pair of sunglasses that take pictures and field phone calls? While details about how such glasses would actually function are currently slim, the whole idea seems somewhat ridiculous. Bloomberg notes that though Meta’s glasses don’t currently provide a true AR experience, this is something that the company is working overtime to achieve. A newer model is currently being developed that will “include a display on the bottom portion of the right lens that projects information into a user’s field of view,” Bloomberg writes. Users will be able to “run simple software apps, view notifications, and see photos taken by the device,” it adds. Right, because that’ll really help you ride a bike. God knows why Zuck wants to make these things happen so badly but clearly it is the way of the future. Meta has already had a reasonable amount of success in the smart glasses market via its partnership with Ray-Ban. Now, as it seeks to expand its audience, it makes sense that the company is trying to reach different segments of the public. I guess as long he’s sucking up to Trump, he probably thinks he should suck up to Trump’s base too (which is to say, cops). Bloomberg notes that Meta’s push into the smart glasses market may also be a way for the company to find useful applications for the other product line it has spent years developing: metaverse stuff and its virtual reality software, which it has spent metric fucktons of money developing. Since full-blown goggles and headsets haven’t worked out so well, the next best thing is to convert everybody’s sunnies into little metaverse conduits. https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2025/01/Glasses.jpg 2025-01-22 15:15:26

[eyashadow]

To put on the Lingo, you unwrap it and place the carton in the dispenser. Clicking the dispenser on your arm, which sends the filament under your skin, stings only faintly. It feels like getting flicked with a finger. It is way less painful than pricking your finger with a needle until you bleed, many times a day, and I was an idiot and should have done this before.The sensor itself is fine. I don’t feel it most of the time, unless I change my clothes with much vigor and abandon, in which case I do have to be careful. You can pick where you put the sensor; most people pick their non-dominant arm. It’s water-resistant, so you can swim and shower with it, and you don’t have to charge it.Once I had the sensor on, I opened the Lingo app, registered, and waved my phone next to it. Done! I was ready to start monitoring.Sugar RushIf you’ve never monitored your blood glucose continuously, you’re probably in for a few surprises. Eating in a way that makes sense to a glucose monitor does not always mean eating healthier, objectively. For example, consider a typical lunch for me, which is a bowl of homemade pureed carrot soup and whole wheat bread. Because carrots and bread are carbs, this spikes my blood sugar to an alarming extent. An ultra-processed protein peanut butter bar, however, barely moves my blood sugar at all, even though if you’re healthy, one is not necessarily better than the other.If you reduce the number of carbs you consume, you will reach ketosis, which is when your body starts burning your body fat instead of your readily available blood glucose for energy, because you have none. This is different, and less dangerous, than getting ketosis as a diabetes complication, but I still hate it.I put the Lingo on during CES, where I did make one alarming discovery—I was walking around way too much for the amount of food that I was eating, and I was going hypoglycemic during the night. I thought my sleep disturbances were just due to work, stress, and being away from my family, but no, I was totally bottoming out. https://media.wired.com/photos/678dfa34a6503981c67ad250/191:100/w_1280,c_limit/TD_PEPCOM_2025_01_06_001.jpg 2025-01-22 14:11:00

[eyashadow]

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).More than one million people have fled the war in Sudan to seek refuge in neighbouring South Sudan, according to the United Nations. In its latest update on one of the world’s worst displacement crises, the UN issued new data on Tuesday showing that more than 770,000 people have fled through the Joda crossing on South Sudan’s northern border with Sudan in the last 21 months. Tens of thousands more have crossed the border at other points, bringing the total to have fled to South Sudan since the war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) erupted in April 2023 to more than a million, according to the statement issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “The arrival of over a million people into South Sudan is a stark and sobering statistic and truly shows the increasing scale of this crisis,” the UNHCR’s Sanaa Abdalla Omer said. Most crossing the border are South Sudanese nationals who had previously fled from civil war in the world’s newest country, the statement noted. “The people of South Sudan continue to show extraordinary generosity, welcoming those in need and sharing what little resources they have, but they cannot shoulder this massive responsibility alone,” Omer added. Two transit centres in Renk County on South Sudan’s northern border, which have been designed for fewer than 5,000 people, are now hosting more than 16,000. The UN has called for more support for both displaced people and the communities hosting them, warning that resources in South Sudan such as healthcare, water and shelter had become “dangerously overstretched”. Famine The war continues to rage as its second anniversary approaches, with the RSF and SAF accusing each other of war crimes, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. At least 20,000 people have been killed and some 25 million – half of the country’s population – are suffering from severe hunger and in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Last month, the UN-backed global hunger-monitoring group, the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published a report outlining famine in five areas, including in Sudan’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam, in North Darfur province. Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in el-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, as well as in residential and displaced communities in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan, according to the report.   https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/AFP__20230322__338P27T__v1__HighRes__SsudanClimateFlood-1731145763.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440 2025-01-22 13:38:13

[eyashadow]

The blockchain gaming sector reached 7.4 million daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) in 2024, marking 421% growth from a year ago, according to analytics platform DappRadar. And DappRadar said gaming accounted for 26% to 29% of the blockchain industry’s activity, fluctuating throughout the year as decentralized finance (DeFi) gained momentum during the first quarter and the fourth quarter. It helps that Bitcoin has reached all-time highs of $103,847 (for a market valuation of $1.9 trillion). DappRadar released its 2024 Blockchain Gaming Yearly Report, in collaboration with the Blockchain Gaming Alliance. DappRadar said, “2024 was a transformative year for blockchain gaming, marking a shift toward mainstream adoption. The year saw remarkable user growth, the launch of ground breaking technologies, and significant strides in engaging non-Web3 users. Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, the gaming sector remained resilient, showcasing its potential to redefine digital entertainment.” The report said Immutable outperformed Ethereum with $330 million in non-fungible token (NFT) trading volume, underscoring its growing influence in blockchain gaming. DappRadar’s data on growth of Web3 gaming unique active wallets. Meahwhile, blockchain gaming investments fell to $1.8 billion, representing a 38% decline compared to 2023, marking the lowest point since 2020. This mirrors the decline in VC investments in games that peaked in 2021 and then declined ever since. That has left a lot of companies that secured funding during the boom unable to get follow-on rounds for expansion. The 7.4 million daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) represented a new record for Web3 players, with over 5.7 billion on-chain gaming transactions. The addition of more than 1,600 new games on DappRadar2024 concluded on a high note for the blockchain gaming industry, marking another year of growth, innovation, and adaptation. However, DappRadar said 2024 was not without its challenges. The sector witnessed both groundbreaking achievements and notable setbacks, all of which shaped its evolution and highlighted its resilience. The metaverse sector experienced a sharp 80% decline in trading volume compared to 2023, with sales counts dropping 71% over the same period. Top-performing games of the year based on on-chain metrics included Pixels, which transitioned to the Ronin Network and launched Pixel Dungeon, and World of Dypians, which expanded its metaverse and introduced personalized user features. Gaming NFT trading volumes were dominated by Guild of Guardians, which topped the charts in 2024 following its global launch in May. The metaverse sector experienced a sharp 80% decline in trading volume compared to 2023, with sales counts dropping 71% over the same period. Blockchain gaming investments dropped 38% year-over-year, reaching a total of $1.8 billion,marking the lowest point since 2020. Yearly gaming leaders Top blockchain games of 2024 by unique wallets. By unique active wallets, here are the top 10 games that dominated the rankings. Pixels retained its top position throughout the year. In 2024, the game transitioned from Polygon to the Ronin Network, significantly improving scalability. Key milestones included the expansion of the Farm Land NFT collection, enabling players to customize and manage virtual plots. Additionally, December saw the launch of Pixel Dungeon, a collaborative effort with Crack and Stack, introducing fast-paced Web3 gameplay to its ecosystem. Among new releases, Off The Grid had a big release. On October 8, Gunzilla Games launched Off The Grid in early access for PlayStation 5 and PC via the Epic Games Store. Influencers such as Ninja helped the game get attention out of the gate, but traffic fell after the influencers moved on to other games. World of Dypians continued its rise, particularly following a major patch release on Epic Games in May. This update, developed in collaboration with Core DAO, Viction, and MultiversX, added new areas within the downtown section of its metaverse, enhancing exploration and gameplay. In December, the introduction of .wod domain names via SPACE ID Protocol allowed players to personalize their identities and foster community engagement. Seraph: In The Darkness gained traction with its dedicated fanbase, concluding a third round of alpha testing in January. By December, the game’s official Steam page debuted, featuring detailed information, media assets, and wishlist functionality—cementing its reputation as a compelling Web3 title. Despite the waning hype around move-to-earn mechanics, Sweat Economy remained robust. The platform introduced Magic Keys to bolster security within its Sweat Wallet app and launched multi-chain integration, starting with BNB Chain, for seamless cross-chain transactions. StarryNift stood out with innovative features like the build-to-earn citizenship system and decentralized identity (DID) card protocol. Enhancements included customizable bot tools, third-party integrations, and AI-driven NPC interactions via an advanced SDK infrastructure, elevating user experiences within the virtual world. Apeiron’s AGW Invitational Tournament in June attracted widespread attention, with top guilds competing in a double-elimination format. The game’s S3 release introduced revamped PvE dungeon modes, a mission system, and an immersive storyline, enriching its gameplay ecosystem. Another new release was RavenQuest, a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG, honored as the “Best Adventure Game” at the 2024 GAM3 Awards. The game captivated over 1.7 million Twitch viewers during its early access phases and hosted a sold-out Phase 3 land sale in December. Telegram-based gaming boom Top gaming chains by transaction count. Telegram emerged as a hotspot for casual blockchain games. Notably, Hamster Kombat, launched in March, amassed over 300 million players by mid-year. This game’s humorous Web3 elements encouraged viral sharing and user engagement. The Open Network (TON), associated with Telegram, became a leading platform for on-chain gaming, averaging around 108,000 daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) throughout the year. Top gaming dapps on TON included Catizen and Lingo. Additionally, other networks, such as Mantle, explored integration with Telegram, expanding the ecosystem’s versatility. Web2 gaming goes Web3 Web2 companies continued to move into the Web3 space, little by little. Ubisoft: The French video game giant continued exploring blockchain with Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. This top-down multiplayer shooter introduced Web3 elements like NFTs, featuring characters such as Rayman. Players needed a Niji Warrior NFT to participate. Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles: Despite offering engaging strategy gameplay, the game’s reliance on NFTs, priced between $7 and $63,000, sparked community debates. Sony and Soneium: Sony made strides in Web3 by launching its dedicated blockchain division, Soneium, emphasizing innovative gaming solutions in the decentralized space. Sega’s move: Sega partnered with Line and introduced Kaia, signaling its entry into blockchain-powered experiences, merging classic franchises with decentralized technology. CCP Games’ EVE Frontier: CCP Games expanded its EVE Online universe with EVE Frontier, integrating blockchain mechanics to enhance player-driven economies and interactions. Square Enix’s expansions: Square Enix developed Symbiogenesis, a blockchain-based narrative adventure, and invested in Soccerverse and Hyperplay, cementing its role as a Web3 innovator. NFTs in Gaming Top NFT sales for games in trading volume in 2024. DappRadar also revealed the top gaming NFT collections, evaluating them through trading volume and sales count metrics. Leading the pack is Guild of Guardians, the most traded gaming NFT collection by volume in 2024. Officially launched globally on May 15, 2024, this title is available on iOS and Google Play, making it widely accessible. Players assemble teams of heroes, known as “Guardians,” to explore dungeons, battle enemies, and collect resources, blending immersive gameplay with NFT utility. Gods Unchained maintains a strong presence on platforms like the Epic Games Store, its official website, and Google Play for Android users. This multi-platform availability ensures broad accessibility and enhances the user experience, solidifying its position as a key player in the NFT gaming market. Top NFT collections in games by sales count in 2024. Despite years in the market, Axie Infinity continues to hold its community, maintaining high engagement and commercial viability for its in-game NFTs. The game’s resilience and adaptability underline its sustained popularity. Pixelmon’s first-generation collection of 10,005 unique NFTs saw the highest volume increase in 2024. These NFTs offer exclusive perks such as token airdrops, enhanced in-game earnings, early access to alpha releases, and limited-edition items. In May 2024, Pixelmon introduced Warriors of Nova Thera, a dungeon crawler in closed testing. With the second-highest increase in trading volume, Mavia Land represents the virtual plots within the Web3 multiplayer strategy game Heroes of Mavia by Skrice Studios. It launched the Heroes of Mavia mobile game on iOS and Android in January 2024. When examining collections by sales count, the top titles mirror those ranked by trading volume, underscoring their widespread popularity and influence within the gaming NFT space. The gaming NFT market continues to thrive, driven by innovation, accessibility, and the sustained popularity of key titles. These collections represent the heartbeat of the ecosystem, bridging gameplay and blockchain utility for millions of players worldwide. Web3 metaverse trading volume has fallen in the past few years. In 2024, the metaverse saw a significant decline in both public interest and corporate investment. Once envisioned as the future of digital interaction, the concept struggled to meet its ambitious promises. Trading volume and sales counts for metaverse NFT projects reached their lowest levels since 2020, marking an 80% decrease in volumes and a 71% drop in sales compared to the previous year. This downward trend reflects the challenges facing the sector, DappRadar said. Sales counts have remained relatively steady, averaging around 23,000 per month. However, trading volumes were heavily impacted by token prices, particularly Ethereum’s fluctuations. The first quarter of 2024 performed better than later quarters, with a total trading volume of $60 million compared to only $21 million in Q4. Despite the overall decline, two new projects made a strong impact: Mocaverse and Pixels, DappRadar said. Launched by Animoca Brands, Mocaverse has emerged as a key player in the Web3 space. The project introduced the MOCA token and Moca ID, an on-chain decentralized identifier with over 1.79 million registrations and integration with 160+ Web3 applications. Mocaverse secured $20 million in funding to expand its ecosystem and launched the Realm Network, promoting interoperability across gaming, music, and education to realize its vision of a decentralized cultural economy. Originally launched in 2022, Pixels is a browser-based farming MMO that gained significant traction in 2024, surpassing a million daily active users. The project transitioned from Polygon to the Ronin Network, enhancing scalability and integrating its Farm Land NFTs into the Mavis Marketplace. With customizable plots and interactive gameplay, Pixels strengthened its Web3 ecosystem. While the initial hype around Yuga Labs‘ Otherside has waned, the project introduced “Project Dragon,” a series of monthly action-packed events for NFT holders. In August, “Otherside Poker” provided a unique metaverse poker experience, complete with a charity-focused VIP table. Otherside also rolled out the “Yuga ID,” allowing users to unify their accounts and NFTs. Despite turbulent times, The Sandbox announced plans for a mobile version to increase accessibility, collaborated with over 800 brands (a 10% year-on-year increase), and successfully closed Alpha Season 4, showcasing consistent user engagement and platform growth. Decentraland introduced a new desktop client, delivering enhanced performance and more immersive experiences. Advanced AI capabilities were integrated, enriching user interactions. The platform’s creator-first economy remained a standout feature, with creators retaining 97.5% of their sales and earning 2.5% royalties on secondary sales—the highest revenue share in the industry. The absence of a “killer app” capable of driving mass adoption led to reduced media attention and a pivot in focus among companies that had heavily invested in virtual worlds. Meta, for example, shifted its priorities from metaverse development to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as the year progressed, DappRadar said. Despite the setbacks, the integration of blockchain technology within metaverses continued to evolve. Platforms combining virtual worlds with blockchain aim to deliver on their initial promises, DappRadar said. One of the notable lack of mentions in the report was Infinite Reality, which raised $3 billion this year. The Web3 gaming investment landscape Web3 gaming and metaverse investments. The investment landscape for blockchain gaming in 2024 reached its lowest point since 2020, reflecting a shift in priorities within the industry. By year-end, a total of $1.8 billion was invested in blockchain gaming and metaverse projects, representing a 38% decrease compared to 2023. The year saw a strong performance in Q2, matching levels last seen in Q3 2022 and marking one of the best quarters since. However, activity slowed significantly in Q3 and Q4, contributing to the overall decline. That happened despite a big run upward in Bitcoin’s valuation. In 2024, the majority of investments were directed toward investment firms, which accounted for 58% of the total. Infrastructure received 23.5%, Web3 gaming titles secured 14.8%, and metaverse projects claimed only 3.6% of the funding. Top Investments of 2024 Top Web3 gaming and metaverse investments of 2024. A number of high-profile Web3 gaming investments highlighted the year’s activity: March 2024: Gunzilla Games raised $30 million for its upcoming cyberpunk-themed battle royale shooter, Off The Grid. March 2024: Parallel Studios raised $35 million to expand the Parallel TCG universe and develop additional blockchain-based projects, including Colony and Wayfinder. April 2024: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raised $7.2 billion for various venture strategies, including $600 million dedicated to gaming investments. April 2024: Bitkraft Ventures closed its third fund at $275 million, focusing on seed and Series A investments in gaming studios, platforms, and technologies. May 2024: Baby Shark Universe completed its seed round, achieving a $34 million valuation for its metaverse project on the Binance Smart Chain. DappRadar’s view of Web3 gaming investments. June 2024: The Sandbox raised $20 million through convertible promissory notes, focusing on advancing its decentralized virtual world and introducing a mobile version in 2025. October 2024: Accolade Partners launched its third blockchain-focused fund, raising $202 million for investments in DeFi, gaming, stablecoins, and supporting infrastructure. October 2024: Azra Games secured $42.7 million in Series A funding to develop “Project Legends,” a mobile RPG aimed at delivering console-quality experiences. The blockchain gaming industry has matured significantly over the past few years, DappRadar said. With the hype around play-to-earn (P2E) subsiding, investors have increasingly backed games with sustainable tokenomics and player-centric ecosystems. In 2022, the Web3 game industry attracted $7.6 billion in investments, much of which went toward play-to-earn models that have proven to be unsustainable. However, some of these investments have begun to bear fruit, as seen in the beta launches of games like Illuvium (announced in 2020), Shrapnel (in development since 2021), and Guild of Guardians (announced in 2020). Economic conditions in 2024 also played a role in the reduced investment activity. For 2025, DappRadar hopes that improved economic stability and the release of high-quality triple-A blockchain games will drive renewed interest and adoption, setting the stage for a rebound in investments. 2025 could be a pivotal year for blockchain gaming, particularly if the industry can attract new users and deliver on the promise of immersive, triple-A-quality titles, DappRadar said. This next phase of growth will be crucial for solidifying blockchain gaming’s role in the broader gaming ecosystem. Closing words Gaming chains with the highest increase in activity. DappRadar said the blockchain gaming sector has demonstrated resilience and adaptability amid challenges and evolving trends. From groundbreaking technological advancements to shifts in user engagement and investment landscapes, the industry has continued to redefine itself, paving the way for a promising future. The successes and lessons of 2024 underscore the importance of innovation, sustainability, and user-centric designs. With high-quality games on the horizon and growing infrastructure capabilities, the coming years hold immense potential for blockchain gaming to expand its influence and bridge the gap between Web3 and traditional gaming audiences, DappRadar said. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured. https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dappradar-1.jpg?w=1024?w=1200&strip=all 2025-01-21 21:05:00

[eyashadow]

President Donald Trump on Tuesday described the letter former President Biden left him inside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as "inspirational" and teased reporters that he may release the "very nice" note at some point.Trump was asked about the letter, which he found inside the Resolute Desk on Monday with a little help from Fox News Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy, during a press conference announcing a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure."It was a very nice letter," Trump told reporters. "It was a little bit of an inspirational-type letter. Enjoy it, do a good job. Important, very important. How important the job is."The president added that he appreciated the letter so much that he may release it to the public.TRUMP'S FBI OVERHAUL BEGINS AS ACTING DIRECTOR BRIAN DRISCOLL PUTS ‘UNTOUCHABLE’ FEDS ON NOTICE: FORMER AGENT President Donald Trump holds up the letter that former President Joe Biden left for him in the Resolute Desk as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)"It was a positive, for him, in writing it," Trump continued. "I appreciated the letter."Trump found the letter – addressed to "47″ – after Doocy asked if President Biden left him a letter while he was signing a flurry of executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday in front of a gaggle of reporters. Trump found the letter in the Resolute Desk after Fox News Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether Biden had left him a note. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)"He may have. Don’t they leave it in the desk? I don’t know," Trump told Doocy before discovering the white envelope. "Thank you, Peter. It could have been years before we found this thing."Trump had then teased reporters that they should read it together before pulling back the reigns. He said he’d open the letter later Monday night.POLITICO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CALLS TRUMP ‘GREATEST AMERICAN FIGURE OF HIS ERA’ DUE TO HIS INFLUENCEThe presidential tradition of leaving a letter to their successor began in 1989 when President Ronald Reagan left the White House after two terms in office, with former President George H. W. Bush taking over. Handwritten letters from former presidents left for their successors are photographed Saturday, Jan 18, 2025, in Washington. Every president since Ronald Reagan has left a note for his successor. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)Bush continued the tradition despite losing the White House to former President Bill Clinton after just one term in office. The tradition has carried on to this day through Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump and Biden.Biden, however, was the first president to find himself in the unique position of writing a letter to someone who is both his successor and the predecessor who left him a note four years earlier. Trump became the first president to serve nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPBiden has said Trump left him a "very generous letter," but has so far declined to share the content of what Trump wrote, deeming it private.Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/01/trump-finds-biden-letter2.jpg 2025-01-22 12:28:50

[eyashadow]

OpenAI will build and open AI infrastructure worth $500 billion in the United States over the next four years in partnership with SoftBank. The two entities have teamed up to establish a new company called the Stargate Project to build AI data centers for the ChatGPT maker, and according to their announcement, it will "secure American leadership in AI" as well as "create hundreds of thousands of American jobs." SoftBank will finance the project, while OpenAI will be in charge of its operations. Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will serve as its chairman.While OpenAI and SoftBank will serve as the Stargate Project's lead partners, there are several other companies involved in the initiative. In addition to OpenAI, Arm, NVIDIA, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft will be its key initial technology partners. The company's official announcement says OpenAI, NVIDIA and Oracle will work together to "build and operate this computing system," though it didn't expound on what that means.As for Microsoft, the company has posted an announcement about its involvement in the project and said that it will continue its "strategic partnership" with OpenAI. Microsoft will still have the right to use OpenAI IP on its products, and the OpenAI API will still exclusively run on Azure. However, it will no longer be OpenAI's exclusive provider for computing capacity. Whenever OpenAI needs additional capacity as its needs grow, Microsoft will have the "right of first refusal," which means the ChatGPT-maker has to check with it first before working with other parties.The Stargate Project is releasing $100 billion immediately for its first data center buildouts, starting with one in Texas. As TechCrunch notes, it was previously reported that OpenAI was in talks with Oracle to lease a data center in Abilene, Texas that can reach almost a gigawatt of electricity by 2026. It didn't mention any other sites, but it did say that it's "evaluating potential" locations across the country.If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission. https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/rqXx692KUG9RHwjkTlOm_A--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-01/a5bd4280-d897-11ef-9f9e-91dede7e4472 2025-01-22 12:00:18

[eyashadow]

Doug Gurr, Amazon's former U.K. head, has been appointed chair of the Competition and Markets Authority.David M. Benett | Getty Images for AmazonLONDON — The British competition regulator tapped a top former Amazon executive as its new chair after facing accusations from Prime Minister Keir Starmer of stifling growth.The Competition and Markets Authority announced late Tuesday that Doug Gurr, who was previously country manager for Amazon U.K. and president of Amazon China, would serve as its interim chair replacing Marcus Bokkerink.The move follows a meeting between CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell and other regulators with British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves to deliver ideas on how to stimulate growth. Regulators were told to "tear down the barriers hindering business and refocus their efforts on promoting growth."Cardell thanked Bokkerink for his leadership since taking the role of chair in 2022, telling CNBC Wednesday: "He has tirelessly championed consumers, competition and a level playing field for business, as well being steadfastly committed to openness and stakeholder engagement across the U.K.""The CMA has a critical role to play supporting the government's growth mission. I welcome the appointment of Doug Gurr as the CMA's new interim chair and look forward to working closely with him as we drive growth, opportunity and prosperity for the U.K.," she added via emailed comments.The government wants to see regulators like the CMA "supercharging the economy with pro-business decisions that will drive prosperity and growth, putting more money in people's pockets," U.K. Business and Trade Minister Jonathan Reynolds said in a statement.Reeves said the decision to replace Bokkerink was taken because the CMA needed to be led by someone who shared the government's "strategic direction.""He recognised it was time for him to move on and make way for somebody who does share the mission and the strategic direction that this government are taking," she said, speaking at a Bloomberg event Wednesday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Push to take growth 'seriously'Last year, Prime Minister Starmer told investors he wanted to make sure that "every regulator in this country — especially our economic and competition regulators — takes growth as seriously as this room does," suggesting a dissatisfaction with the work of the CMA.The U.K. has faced criticisms more broadly from technology executives and investors over a number of regulatory decisions, including an intervention into Microsoft's takeover of video game publisher Activision Blizzard and its decision to force Meta's Facebook to divest GIF database Giphy. "The announcement of the new Chair of the CMA cannot be pure coincidence, coming as it does at the same time as the UK Government is banging the drum for its growth agenda and calling regulators to account for their own policies on stimulating growth," said Alex Haffner, a competition partner at Fladgate."Mr Gurr has been appointed on an interim basis suggesting this is not about succession planning and far more a reaction to current events. His background is also unashamedly commercial as opposed to the consulting one of his predecessor," Haffner added.Gurr's appointment as the CMA's chair comes after the regulator received new powers to regulate large technology firms under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC), which seeks to prevent anti-competitive behavior in digital markets.It can designate large companies that have a significant amount of market power in a certain digital activity as having "Strategic Market Status." The CMA now has the power to impose changes to prevent potential anti-competitive behavior from any firm that is given Strategic Market Status. https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108090292-1737539651607-gettyimages-1045138364-img_3897.jpeg?v=1737539730&w=1920&h=1080 2025-01-22 10:58:42

[eyashadow]

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. If you don't like shopping for new clothes because it feels like a chore, you're not alone. It can be difficult to find clothes that fit your style and are comfortable enough, and it can get tedious to repeat the process every few months. If you can't find the right kind of clothes online, or if going to the store feels like too much hassle, you can give clothing subscription boxes a try. You can get clothes delivered to your home, saving you the time and effort of visiting a store. Finding the right clothing subscription for you can be tricky, so we've done the work for you. Our top picks are here to act as an ultimate guide, including choices for all bodies.If you do a quick Google search, you'll find dozens of clothing subscription services -- many of which you've never heard of. Each one has its own unique features, but the services ultimately all work the same way.When picking the right clothing subscription for you, you'll need to factor in your needs, style preferences, and whether it needs to be an affordable clothing subscription box are just scratching the surface. Some other questions may pop up: Do you want a monthly box? Or will something quarterly do? Do you want to buy the clothes or rent them? Do you want a personal styling service or an algorithm? Do you want brand-new clothes, or are you OK with curated thrift? Are you avoiding fast fashion in favor of something more sustainable? Do you have favorite brands you want to stick to?All of these questions are important, but the most important thing to remember about these services is that even the most expert stylists can't read your mind. The more information you provide about your needs, personal style, likes and dislikes, the better your curated box of clothing will be.I tried several clothing subscription boxes; here are the best of the bunch. Best clothing subscription boxes of 2025 Hide our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 As a Stitch Fix user, I can report a positive experience with this particular clothing subscription option. I'm always excited when I get a box, which you can customize to come at whichever frequency fits your schedule and budget -- no membership fee or monthly subscription required. My account is linked to one of my Pinterest boards, so my stylist can get more ideas of what I like, and she always leaves a thoughtful note in my box, which is a nice personalized touch. The Style Cards that come with each box also show different ways to pair the pieces (and often with basic items that are probably already in your closet). My advice is not to shell out cash on an item unless you're sure you're going to wear it often enough.Sign up online or in the app (available on iOS or Android). Fill out a detailed style profile, including your sizes, whether you detest or love shopping, if you wear heels, what features you most want to emphasize and other factors. Stitch Fix offers styled boxes for men, women and kids, and lets you set a preferred price point between $28 and $500 per item (kids items start at $12 per item). I picked the lowest price bracket when I signed up, and in my last box, none of my specific items were over $60. You pay a $20 styling fee when your box is assembled, you get three days to try on the clothes, and you can return anything you don't want or like. The $20 fee applies to whatever you keep, and if you don't keep anything, you pay only that fee. If you love your box and keep everything, you also get a 25% Buy All discount. Stitch Fix also has a direct-buy option, as well as a Shop Your Looks option. On the homepage of the app you can scroll down to see individual items sorted into occasion categories. At the top, you can go to Freestyle, and it will show you looks to shop from. These let you purchase individual items -- pants, shoes, accessories and more -- to match pieces you already have. These can be ordered without getting another box. Hide our expert take Show our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 Although the average US woman's clothing size is between a Misses 16 and 18, many stores still cater to smaller sizes. This can make for an uncomfortable and discouraging shopping experience.Dia & Co.'s style service defies the often limited and drab choices that make up extended sizes. The service offers sizes 10-32. My box was packed with vibrant, colorful items -- blouses, dresses, skirts, jeans, even a clutch. I always have trouble finding jeans that fit my waist and hips, and Dia nailed that. The box also mixed classic pieces, like a polka-dot blue wrap dress, with more colorful, patterned pieces that sat outside my comfort zone. To use Dia & Co., you first take a style quiz that asks about your sizes, how clothes typically fit you, your style preferences and your preferred price range for items like tops, pants and dresses. You pay a $20 styling fee to have your box assembled. When the box arrives, you can buy what you like and return what you don't. The $20 fee applies at checkout to whatever you keep. You can order style boxes to best fit your schedule -- every two weeks, three weeks, monthly, every other month or every three months -- as long as you try on and return clothes within five days. If keep at least three items from your box, you get a 20% discount. If you keep four to five items you can save 25%, or save 30% when you keep seven items. There's also a boutique if you're not quite ready to try a whole box.  Show our expert take Show our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 A Menlo Club shipment combines multiple aspects of menswear: clothes, shoes and athleisure. As with many other boxes, you first take a style quiz, and then you get two clothing items per month in the mail. The Menlo clothes are casual enough to wear on their own if you're a more subtle dresser, but the more items you acquire, the more you can put together new outfits and step outside of your fashion comfort zone. In addition, the Menlo store, which anyone can shop from without an account, often has good sales on designer brands -- like $58 pants for $10. If you're a member, you also get 25% off in the store.My husband's Menlo Club package consisted of dark-wash jeans and a white long-sleeve henley. His style is very laid-back, so those items would fit easily into his closet. The jeans would be easy to dress up or wear casually. Since he usually wears dark colors, the white was a nice change.A service membership to Menlo costs $60 per month, and it's easy to cancel (or skip a month) if you find out that it's not for you -- just make sure to do it before you're charged that month. Menlo doesn't offer returns on packages, but you can swap items if something doesn't fit. You can also subscribe to a seasonal membership, where a package is delivered every three months for that same $60 price only once every three months.  Show our expert take Show our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 Stylogic is a clothing subscription service that offers women's sizes 12 to 36. What I liked most about it was how fast the service picked up on my style based only on my style profile. I also liked that each box provides a full outfit, while other services tend to include pieces that may or may not go together. Stylogic included a skirt, a cardigan, a top, a pair of shoes and a bracelet. The outfit matched my style and was still a little adventurous.A Stylogic box includes five items, and you get seven days to try them on. There is a $20 styling fee that applies to whatever you keep, and if you don't keep anything, you pay only that fee. If you love your box and keep everything, you get a 20% discount. Show our expert take Show our expert take Photo Gallery 1/1 Each clothing subscription box from Trendy Butler includes at least two clothing items from brands like Eleven Paris, Civil Society, Zanerobe, WeSC and Superdry that are meant to build out your wardrobe. My husband's sample package included three items: a gray long-sleeve shirt, a dark blue button-down and a pair of dark blue slacks. The items were able to work together and could integrate easily into his closet, without stepping too far outside his comfort zone. The packages cost $65 per month with no styling fee -- you get to keep everything. The credit card on your account is charged the day you place your order and the same day the following month. Trendy Butler also has an online shop where you can buy specific pieces with your account.If something doesn't work in your box, Trendy Butler offers returns (but not refunds) and exchanges for members through its support email. You must have received the items in the last 60 days, explain why the items don't work so Trendy Butler can improve your profile, and have the clothes in "unworn condition" with the tags still on. If the items meet these criteria, you'll be sent a prepaid return label. Show our expert take !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('set', 'autoConfig', false, '789754228632403'); fbq('init', '789754228632403'); https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/cd35cb07108abe1d0b84e28f08b78d6654723e82/hub/2020/03/05/b22c8e16-6d77-46f4-a701-fdb6e139a3c8/sf-on-doorstep.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&width=1200 2025-01-22 09:15:00

[eyashadow]

AFPIsrael's prime minister said the operation aimed to "defeat terrorism" in JeninAt least 10 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 40 injured by Israeli forces during a major operation in the Jenin area in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.Palestinian media reported that on Tuesday there were several air strikes as a large number of troops entered the city and its refugee camp, backed by drones, helicopters and armoured bulldozers.Israel's prime minister said it launched an "extensive and significant" operation to "defeat terrorism" in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.It comes three days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and highlights the threat of more violence in the West Bank, where suspected Israeli settlers also went on the rampage on Monday night.Jenin's governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency that "what is happening is an invasion of the camp", adding: "It came quickly, Apache [helicopters] in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere."The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited local sources as saying that Israeli forces were "completely besieging" Jenin camp, and that armoured bulldozers had dug up several streets.It also cited the director of Jenin's Government hospital, Wissam Bakr, as saying that three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire.Palestinian security personnel reportedly withdrew from some of their positions around Jenin refugee camp before the Israeli forces moved in on Tuesday morning.Brig-Gen Anwar Rajab, a spokesman of the Palestinian security forces, told AFP that Israeli forces had "opened fire on civilians and security forces", resulting in a number of injuries. On Tuesday evening, the Palestinian health ministry reported that nine men and a 16-year-old boy, whom it named as Mutaz Abu Tbeikh, had been killed by Israeli forces in Jenin. Another man was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the village of Tianik, about 8km (5 miles) to the north-west, it added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that the Jenin operation - dubbed "Iron Wall" - was an "additional step in achieving the objective we have set: bolstering security" in the West Bank."We are acting methodically and with determination against the Iranian axis wherever it reaches: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and [the West Bank] - and we are still active."Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons and funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the West Bank to foment unrest.Israeli media cited a military source as saying that the goals of the operation were to preserve its "freedom of action" in the West Bank, dismantle armed groups' infrastructure, and eliminate imminent threats.The prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, condemned the raid, saying it was the latest in a series of "aggressive Israeli measures" against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Wafa.Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both called on Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate attacks against Israel in response to the Jenin operation.There have been a number of previous Israeli military operations in Jenin. And recently, the PA's security forces carried out a controversial, weeks-long operation against armed groups there, including Hamas and PIJ, trying to reassert their control.There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.AFPA shop in the village of Jinsafut was set on fire overnight, when suspected Israeli settlers went on the rampageIn another development in the West Bank overnight Monday to Tuesday, dozens of masked Israeli extremists attacked Palestinians in two villages east of Qalqilya, Jinsafut and al-Funduq, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars and smashing property.At least 21 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Two Israelis were also shot, apparently when an Israeli police officer opened fire while responding to the violence."If you were there last night, you would not hear anything more than screaming of women and children," said Mohammed, whose family home in al-Funduq was metres away from a garden centre that was torched."In the end, we have don't have anything to protect ourselves. But they have everything to attack us."The Israeli military said it was investigating the incidents, during which it said Israeli civilians "instigated riots, set property on fire, and caused damage". It also said they hurled stones and attacked Israeli security forces.It happened just as new US President Donald Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of carrying out attacks in the West Bank.The reversal of the Biden administration's sanctions targeting radical Israelis, could indicate the direction for the new White House that is expected to be more tolerant of Jewish settlement expansion.The far-right, pro-settler Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, welcomed the US move. In a post on X, he praised Trump's "unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel".Meanwhile, Palestinian officials condemned the change in policy. "Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people", the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.The mayor of al-Funduq, Luay Tayyam, told the BBC: "It is like a green light for the settlers, saying: 'Just go ahead, do whatever you want. You will not be persecuted.'""So they are happy with this news. And I think this was a big push for them last night. They feel encouraged by it."There are also rising tensions over the large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank this week, as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.The attack in al-Funduq was in an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month. It was the latest in a long series of settler attacks that have accelerated markedly since the start of the Gaza war.According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers also established 59 new outposts, without authorisation from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this - as did the previous Trump administration. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/0d06/live/bf06b830-d7f6-11ef-b838-1f1681f9d23f.jpg 2025-01-22 10:09:12