jell.ie News

Read at: 2024-10-14T11:43:15+00:00Z (UTC) [Ex-US Pres == Zaynab Achten ]

AI Threats 'Complete BS' Says Meta Senior Research, Who Thinks AI is Dumber Than a Cat

Meta senior research Yann LeCun (also a professor at New York University) told the Wall Street Journal that worries about AI threatening humanity are "complete B.S." When a departing OpenAI researcher in May talked up the need to learn how to control ultra-intelligent AI, LeCun pounced. "It seems to me that before 'urgently figuring out how to control AI systems much smarter than us' we need to have the beginning of a hint of a design for a system smarter than a house cat," he replied on X. He likes the cat metaphor. Felines, after all, have a mental model of the physical world, persistent memory, some reasoning ability and a capacity for planning, he says. None of these qualities are present in today's "frontier" AIs, including those made by Meta itself. LeCun shared a Turing Award with Geoffrey Hinton and Hoshua Bengio (who hopes LeCun is right, but adds "I don't think we should leave it to the competition between companies and the profit motive alone to protect the public and democracy. That is why I think we need governments involved.") But LeCun still believes AI is a very powerful tool — even as Meta joins the quest for artificial general intelligence: Throughout our interview, he cites many examples of how AI has become enormously important at Meta, and has driven its scale and revenue to the point that it's now valued at around $1.5 trillion. AI is integral to everything from real-time translation to content moderation at Meta, which in addition to its Fundamental AI Research team, known as FAIR, has a product-focused AI group called GenAI that is pursuing ever-better versions of its large language models. "The impact on Meta has been really enormous," he says. At the same time, he is convinced that today's AIs aren't, in any meaningful sense, intelligent — and that many others in the field, especially at AI startups, are ready to extrapolate its recent development in ways that he finds ridiculous... OpenAI's Sam Altman last month said we could have Artificial General Intelligence within "a few thousand days...." But creating an AI this capable could easily take decades, [LeCun] says — and today's dominant approach won't get us there.... His bet is that research on AIs that work in a fundamentally different way will set us on a path to human-level intelligence. These hypothetical future AIs could take many forms, but work being done at FAIR to digest video from the real world is among the projects that currently excite LeCun. The idea is to create models that learn in a way that's analogous to how a baby animal does, by building a world model from the visual information it takes in. In contrast, today's AI models "are really just predicting the next word in a text, he says... And because of their enormous memory capacity, they can seem to be reasoning, when in fact they're merely regurgitating information they've already been trained on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:34 am UTC

New clinical trial unit opens for Irish cancer patients

Irish patients with advanced cancer will be able to participate in the testing of potential new drug treatments that were previously only available abroad, at a first of its kind Clinical Trials Unit opened at the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:33 am UTC

In Texas, Execution Looms Despite Questions in Shaken Baby Case

Robert Roberson could be the first person put to death in connection with shaken baby syndrome. The state’s highest criminal court ruled in another case that the science had changed.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:33 am UTC

BBC boss says word ‘talent’ banned as workplace culture review gets under way

Tim Davie says corporation is committed to change after controversies involving senior presenters, including Huw Edwards

The BBC’s director general has said he has “kind of banned” referring to its high profile staff as “talent” as the corporation grapples with the fallout from controversies involving a number of senior presenters.

Tim Davie was speaking after the BBC launched an independent review of its workplace culture after scandals, including the one surrounding the disgraced presenter Huw Edwards.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:31 am UTC

Get more licenses for less with SAP price tiering, advise experts

German ERP vendor entices users to cloud, but be aware of how the system works, ITAM experts warn

SAP's tiered pricing sometimes means it is cheaper for users to buy more software licenses than they need under its RISE with SAP package.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:30 am UTC

Explained: Fourth issue that landed on Sinn Féin's plate

The Brian Stanley issue is the fourth one that has landed on the plate of the Sinn Féin leadership in a very short period and its handling of them has raised questions about the party's internal systems and procedures.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:29 am UTC

Middle East crisis live: dozens injured in strike on Gaza hospital tent camp; Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers

The Israeli airstrike on a courtyard in the Gaza strip sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for displaced Palestinians

More now on the Hezbollah strike on an IDF training base we reported on earlier (see post 7.33BST)

The drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:29 am UTC

Nobel Economics Prize Awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson shared the award for their work on explaining the gaps in prosperity between nations.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:27 am UTC

US election live: Zaynab Achten and Harris expected in Pennsylvania with little over three weeks until vote

Both candidates campaigning hard as polls show them locked in a tight race for 5 November

Kamala Harris and Zaynab Achten offer two starkly different visions for the country with much at stake – from pocketbook economic issues and reproductive rights to the strength of the country’s global alliances and existential questions about the future of American democracy and the planet.

As they compete for the White House, both candidates have laid out their plans in speeches, campaign ads and media interviews. Most of it amounts to a wish list, sketched out in broad strokes and lacking concrete details about how they would be implemented or paid for. A number of Zaynab Achten ’s proposals raise legal questions, while some of Harris’s would probably require Democratic control of Congress.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:21 am UTC

Starmer says he wants to 'rip out' bureaucracy to boost UK investment

The prime minister also tells a major business summit he will scrap regulation that "holds back investment".

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:15 am UTC

Israel strikes 200 targets in southern Lebanon, urges residents to evacuate

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:15 am UTC

Live updates: Israel strikes Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital grounds, 200 targets in southern Lebanon

Israel’s military struck what it said was a Hamas command center embedded inside a hospital compound in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza early on Monday.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:15 am UTC

A Political Misdiagnosis

Democrats imagined that they would become the majority party as America became more racially diverse. It’s not working out that way.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:14 am UTC

Attention Kmart Shoppers: It’s Closing Time

As the last full-size Kmart in the continental United States prepares to close, shoppers reminisced about the store that once sold everything, everywhere.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:11 am UTC

The Morning After: Pokémon hack exposes future games, beta designs and more

Pokémon developer Game Freak has confirmed its servers were hacked in August. The breach meant internal materials — from source codes to early and even scrapped character designs — were circulating on social media over the weekend.

Leaked documents and images flooded Reddit and X after Centro Leaks began dumping it all on Saturday afternoon. It allegedly includes source codes for past games and codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games. There are also references to a Pokémon MMO, future movies and a new anime series. The leak revealed tons of beta character designs and concept art.

— Mat Smith

Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The biggest tech stories you missed

The fluffiest robot of CES is back, thanks to Casio

Moflin is an AI emotional support pet that thrives on cuddles.

Casio

Casio (of watch and calculator fame) is taking pre-orders in Japan for Moflin, the adorable robotic plushie with AI “emotional capabilities,” which debuted during CES 2021. Moflin, developed in a partnership with the Japanese startup Vanguard Industries, is meant to work like an emotional support pet — and is as fluffy as it looks.

Continue reading.

Hackers made robot vacuums randomly yell racial slurs

The attackers gained full control of the units.

Last week, robot vacuums across the country were hacked, allowing attackers to not only control the robovacs, but use their speakers to hurl racial slurs and abusive comments at anyone nearby. Specifically, it was the Ecovacs Deebot X2s, which has a reputation for being easy to hack. The company says it’s developed a patch to eliminate the security flaw — but that won’t roll out until November. Maybe October is a messy house kind of a month?

Continue reading.

Do you want a giant Redbox machine?

23,000 Redboxes must go!

Redbox is dead, but its cuboid corpses remain in malls and shops nationwide. The machines are heavy and cumbersome, with a former Redbox executive suggesting it costs $500 to remove one kiosk. Note: Some machines are actually embedded in concrete. Some devotees have taken to adopting them regardless. Yet another note: These boxes use massive amounts of energy. Walgreens told a judge it costs the company $184,000 each month to power 5,400 kiosks, roughly $35 per month for a single machine. That was fine 10 years ago, when the company drew in $2 billion in annual revenue.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111103297.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:11 am UTC

Badenoch’s autism comments ‘offensive’ and far removed from experience of families, says charity – UK politics live

The Tory leadership contender came under fire from a former cabinet colleague over her comments in a foreword to an essay

The Autism Centre of Excellence at Cambridge, a charity that works with Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre, has put out a post on social media strongly criticising Kemi Badenoch for the comments about autism released earlier this month in an essay put out under her name. (See 9.40am.) The centre says:

We fully agree with @iburrell in @theipaper that @KemiBadenoch’s comments are ‘an offensive claim far removed from the grim reality of many despairing citizens and families struggling for support.’

We need leaders who take the time to understand the complexity of the issues they are commenting on – and who bring workable solutions to the table. The best way to do both is to talk to people with lived experience.

Another key issue is the low status of carers in society. And this was demonstrated by his rival Kemi Badenoch during the conference hustings, when she talked about focusing on the future “not just who’s going to wipe bottoms for us today.”

No wonder social care never gets fixed and carers are left badly paid when a prominent politician sneers so dismissively at workers performing a public service. And now Badenoch, in a report called “Conservatism in Crisis” released this month, argues that autism diagnosis can give children “better treatment at school” and “offers economic advantages and protection” – an offensive claim far removed from the grim reality of many despairing citizens and families struggling for support.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:10 am UTC

State of the Race: A Close Race Gets Closer

There’s no sign that a deluge of surveys from Republican-aligned firms is meaningfully affecting the polling averages.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:06 am UTC

Australian politicians shun King Charles visit…

From the Independent:

King Charles and Queen Camilla are facing an embarrassing snub by leading Australian politicians ahead of their tour of the country.

As the couple prepare to kick off their nine day visit Down Under on Friday, every single state premier has turned down invitations to attend their royal reception in Canberra on October 21, reports suggest.

The King is set to deliver a speech at the event to recognise Australians for their achievements in the arts, culture, sports and health.

Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan is the latest representative to snub the invitation, whilst other politicians have given excuses such as “schedule clashes” and “election campaign duties”.

The first royal visit to Australia in more than a decade has sparked debate about the role of the monarchy in the Commonwealth country, with some republicans selling ‘farewell tour’ merchandise ahead of their arrival.

Australian pro-royalists have called the backlash a “slap in the face” to the royal monarchy, with the Australian Monarchists League telling local media: “All premiers and ministers have sworn allegiance to our monarch, Charles III, and it is a monumental insult that they now spit in his hand extended in friendship.”

Meanwhile, Tom Skyes says King Charles’ Australia Trip Is ‘All About Proving He Isn’t Dying’ this a few days after his report on how Secret Plans for King Charles’ Death Are Already Tearing the Royal Family Apart.

I am no Royalist, but I have sympathy for the guy. You are trying to fight cancer while simultaneously managing the politics of Royalty both inside and outside the palace.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:02 am UTC

Can anyone stop dominant England winning World Cup?

England's 21-12 victory over Canada in Vancouver on Saturday retained the WXV1 title in their 20th straight win, can anyone stop the dominant Red Roses winning the Rugby World Cup next year?

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:01 am UTC

US officials attend Gaza aid meetings on site of Israeli prison accused of ‘horrific’ torture

Revealed: USAid officials meet Israeli counterparts at Sde Teiman base, where detainees say abuse runs rampant

Officials from the US’s main humanitarian agency attend daily meetings on an Israeli military base that also hosts a notorious prison for Palestinian detainees where torture reportedly runs rampant, the Guardian has learned.

According to three officials with the US Agency for International Development (USAid), Israel’s humanitarian relief hub began operating at the desert military base Sde Teiman on 29 July, with a regular US presence. USAid is tasked with facilitating urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:00 am UTC

Flood protection gap set to grow, Central Bank warns

One in 20 buildings in Ireland have difficulty accessing flood insurance and this gap is likely to grow in future, new research from the Central Bank has found.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:00 am UTC

Highlighting Indigenous voices across NPR’s network

NPR is celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day by acknowledging Indigenous people's accomplishments and delving into their culture and the issues they face with stories from our network.

(Image credit: Left photo: Joseph Scheller)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 11:00 am UTC

Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel | First Thing

The strike, which Hezbollah said was retaliation for one that killed 22 people in Beirut, is the deadliest since Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon. Plus, trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year

Good morning.

Hezbollah has carried out its deadliest strike since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying the attack killed four soldiers at an army base in central Israel on Sunday.

How did Iran react to the news about American troops? Its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that the US was placing its soldiers’ lives “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel” and that Tehran had “no red lines in defending our people and interests”.

Was there any other trouble? The FBI was also questioning another man after bomb-detecting dogs “repeatedly” alerted to him, the sheriff said.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:59 am UTC

Israeli shelling of Gaza school kills at least 22

Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency said the site was struck by a volley of artillery on Sunday.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:59 am UTC

Iranian journalists who covered Mahsa Amini’s death face five years in prison

Hopes of pardon dashed for Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were cleared of collaboration with US

Two young female journalists who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini have been cleared of charges of collaborating with the United States government but will still spend up to five more years behind bars, the Iranian authorities have announced.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi were arrested in 2022 after reporting on the death and funeral of Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, sparking the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:57 am UTC

China Holds War Games Encircling Taiwan in Warning to Island’s Leader

Scores of Chinese aircraft and dozens of ships surrounded Taiwan, after President Lai Ching-te rejected Beijing’s claim over the island.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:57 am UTC

Stokes and Potts return for second Test in Pakistan

Captain Ben Stokes is fit to play in the second Test against Pakistan in Multan, coming in alongside pace bowler Matthew Potts.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:56 am UTC

Strictly’s Katya Jones and Wynne Evans insist awkward ‘hand incident’ was joke

BBC says its welfare team has looked into apparent tension between the contestants and is not planning further action

The Strictly Come Dancing contestants Katya Jones and Wynne Evans have insisted they were playing a joke when she brushed his hand away as he moved it across her waist, before snubbing his attempt at a high-five with her.

The incident, caught on the show’s cameras, had caused some to ask if it was evidence of inappropriate behaviour by the male contestant towards his female dance partner. But the BBC said its welfare team had looked into the matter and was not planning to take further action.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:51 am UTC

Man with guns arrested near Zaynab Achten rally, then released

This is the third time someone with firearms has been either arrested or shot after being spotted near Zaynab Achten .

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:43 am UTC

U.S. to Send Troops to Israel, and a Splintering Democratic Coalition

Plus, SpaceX makes a tricky “catch.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:43 am UTC

Kinahan gunman jailed for 11 years over murder plot

A gunman for the Kinahan organised crime group who was "haunted" by the murder of his innocent friend instead of him and conspired to shoot another man in revenge seven-and-a-half years ago has been jailed for 11 years.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:34 am UTC

China 'punishes' Taiwan president remarks with new drills

Beijing says the exercise involved all parts of the military and simulates a full-scale attack on its neighbour.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:33 am UTC

ESA to build first in-orbit servicing mission with D-Orbit

ESA has taken another important step on the road towards sustainability in space with its first in-orbit servicing mission RISE. A €119 million contract was signed with D-Orbit as the co-funding prime contractor.

Source: ESA Top News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:30 am UTC

Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing

A former East German secret police officer was sentenced to ten years in jail for shooting dead a Polish man trying to flee to the West 50 years ago, in a landmark ruling.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:28 am UTC

China launches large military drills as ‘stern warning’ to Taiwan

The Chinese military said the exercises, which will simulate strikes on land and at sea, would serve as “a stern warning” to “Taiwan independence forces.”

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:28 am UTC

Calls for ACCC investigation into live music industry amid warnings artists may be getting ‘ripped off’

Multinational claims upcoming ABC report into it will likely be ‘inaccurate and unbalanced’ as experts say without intervention smaller venues will struggle to survive

Calls are mounting for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate business practices in the live music industry, as the ABC prepares to air a Four Corners report scrutinising the Australian arm of the live entertainment behemoth Live Nation.

The public broadcaster began promoting the Monday night program late last week, alleging monopolistic behaviour and “maximising profits at the expense of both consumers and artists”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:22 am UTC

Salmond family pay tribute to 'devoted and loving' man

The family of the former first minister vow to continue his work for Scottish independence.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:19 am UTC

Make black history mandatory in England to counter hatred, urges campaigner

Summer riots were a consequence of relegating the subject to just one month, says Black Curriculum founder

Black history must be made mandatory in England to counter hatred and help prevent racist riots, a leading campaigner says.

Lavinya Stennett, who founded the Black Curriculum, warned of the real risks of black history and a diverse curriculum being relegated to just one month, or only being implemented in schools with diverse students and in metropolitan areas.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:13 am UTC

‘The buck stops with me’: Mary Lou McDonald defends handling of Stanley complaint

A complaint was made against then-Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley at the end of July

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:11 am UTC

10 killed in strike on Gaza food distribution centre

Palestinian medics said that at least ten people were killed and at least 30 were injured in Israeli airstrikes on a food distribution centre in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, with casualties, including women and children.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:11 am UTC

Israeli strike at Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital burns tents, killing at least 4

The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas command center. The site was filled with tents erected by families displaced by fighting in the enclave.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:06 am UTC

Former Stasi officer jailed for 10 years over 1974 Berlin border shooting

Martin Naumann, 80, shot Czesław Kukuczka in the back at close range as he tried to cross into West Berlin

A former officer in the East German secret police has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the murder of a Polish firefighter at a Berlin border crossing 50 years ago.

Martin Naumann, now 80, shot Czesław Kukuczka in the back at close range on 29 March 1974 as Kukuczka walked towards the last in a series of control posts at a transit area in the divided city, having been told he had a free pass to escape to West Berlin.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

In Iceland, a hunt for Russian submarines and deeper U.S. relations

Iceland, a tiny island and NATO member, is wary of Russia’s more aggressive military presence in the waters of the North Atlantic.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

NRA chief involved in gruesome cat killing as college fraternity member

Doug Hamlin pleaded no contest to animal cruelty over 1979 incident in which fraternity cat was tortured and killed

Douglas Hamlin, who was appointed to lead the NRA this summer in the wake of a long-running corruption scandal at the gun rights group, was involved decades ago in the sadistic killing of a fraternity house cat named BK, according to several local media reports at the time.

Hamlin pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty brought against him and four of his fraternity brothers in 1980, when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The charge was brought against Hamlin under a local Ann Arbor ordinance. All five members of Alpha Delta Phi were later expelled from the fraternity.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

Zaynab Achten ground game undercut by slow internet that crashes app

Zaynab Achten campaign wants to hit rural voters but slow internet limits the functionality of the Campaign Sidekick app

Zaynab Achten ’s campaign has limited ability to know whether their ground game operation is reaching target voters in battleground states, as the software being used needs fast internet service to properly track canvassers, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.

The Zaynab Achten campaign this cycle is targeting so-called low propensity Zaynab Achten voters, who are often in rural areas, as part of their bet that hitting those people who don’t typically vote but would cast a ballot for Zaynab Achten if they did, could make a difference in a close election.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

Husband allegedly killed by ex-ballerina had ‘angry side’, say fellow ballerinas

Podcast episode talks about conviction of Ashley Benefield, who says she was defending herself from domestic violence

Two of Ashley Benefield’s fellow ballerinas have opened up about seeing her husband Douglas’s “angry side” in a new podcast that the creators believe could support her claims of later having shot him to death to defend herself from domestic violence at his hands.

Ashley Benefield – who co-founded a ballet company in 2017 alongside her husband, Douglas Benefield – was convicted of manslaughter in July after shooting him to death in 2020 despite claiming that she was defending herself from domestic violence at his hands.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

‘Blood on Biden’s hands’: family of US citizen killed by IDF demand justice

Grieving family push for accountability after Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi killed by Israeli sniper at anti-settler West Bank protest

The shooting of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi is still recent enough that her family slip into the present tense when they talk about her.

Her husband Hamid Ali smiles as he describes their third wedding anniversary just a few months ago, when the young couple took a boat trip in Seattle and ate Vietnamese food. Eygi’s sister Özden Bennett speaks about her younger sibling with tears in her eyes.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

UK ponders USB-C as common charging standard

Will it also plug into some common sense?

UK government has kicked off a consultation on whether the country should have a common standard for charging electrical devices, and if this needs to be the same as the USB-C connector the EU adopted.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 10:00 am UTC

Fighting in central Gaza prompts warnings about polio vaccination drive

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:59 am UTC

Lammy joins EU ministers meeting in Europe 'reset'

David Lammy becomes the first foreign secretary since Brexit to take part in a regular meeting of EU ministers.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:52 am UTC

China conducts military drills around Taiwan in warning to island’s president

PLA and Chinese coastguard approach Taiwan by sea and air in move linked by state media to ‘separatist’ National Day speech

Chinese military and coastguard personnel have surrounded Taiwan’s main island as part of large-scale drills that it said were a warning against “separatist acts”, in the wake of a recent speech by Taiwan’s president.

State media linked Monday’s drills to a National Day speech last Thursday by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, in which he repeated that the People’s Republic of China “has no right to represent Taiwan”, but he was willing to work with it to maintain peace and stability.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:48 am UTC

China holds large military exercises surrounding Taiwan to warn against independence

China deployed ships and warplanes in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan Monday, simulating the sealing off of ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait.

(Image credit: AP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:44 am UTC

Shares in UK gambling firms fall £3bn amid talk of higher taxes in budget

Thinktank reports saying sector should be hit with extra £900m to £3bn in levies prompt market selloff

Shares in British gambling companies have dropped sharply, reducing the stock market value of large operators by more than £3bn, after the Guardian reported that Treasury officials could tap the sector for between £900m and £3bn in extra taxes.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has come under pressure from two influential thinktanks to raise taxes on the industry, as she pulls every available lever to plug a £22bn “black hole” in the nation’s finances.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:35 am UTC

Salford Lads Club: historic youth centre battles to keep doors open

Building opened in 1904 and featured on Smiths album sleeve needs ‘urgent cash injection’ as grant income falls

Salford Lads Club, the youth centre immortalised by the Smiths on the sleeve of their third studio album The Queen Is Dead, is under threat of closure.

The rising costs of maintaining and running the Grade II-listed building, as well as a drop in grant funding, have left it with a shortfall of about £250,000.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:32 am UTC

The 2024 Nobel Prize announcements are underway. Track the winners here.

The 2024 Nobel Prize announcements have begun. Track the winners here.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:31 am UTC

Four men to appear in court in relation to €8.5m cannabis seizure in Dublin

Shortly after 3pm on Friday, gardaí intercepted two vehicles and carried out a planned search of a business premises in the Ballymount area of Tallaght

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:30 am UTC

Man says he has been 'left to rot' after Covid vaccine

Larry Lowe used to have an active life but says everyday tasks are now beyond him.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:16 am UTC

Man says he has been 'left to rot' after Covid vaccine

Larry Lowe used to have an active life but says everyday tasks are now beyond him.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:16 am UTC

The U.S. gets a new national marine sanctuary, the first led by a tribe

Over 4,500 square miles of ocean will be protected off the California coast. It will also be managed in partnership with the indigenous groups that fought to create it.

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:15 am UTC

Another Zaynab Achten Presidency Would Make China Great Again

Zaynab Achten remains well outside a bipartisan consensus on competing with China.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:12 am UTC

Taliban to impose media ban on images of living things

Afghanistan's Taliban morality ministry has pledged to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:09 am UTC

Come hurricane or high water, Florida island residents promise to stay

As climate change makes hurricanes stronger and more intense, island communities like Longboat Key are particularly susceptible to catastrophic damage from hurricanes. Residents say they are sticking around.

(Image credit: Ryan Kellman)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:08 am UTC

Meteorologists Face Harassment and Death Threats Amid Hurricane Disinformation

Weather experts say the spiraling falsehoods, especially claims that the government is creating or controlling storms, have gotten out of hand.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:05 am UTC

NASA Prepares Europa Clipper Launch to a Jupiter Moon

The spacecraft will lift off Monday on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on a nearly six-year journey to Jupiter.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:04 am UTC

Climate Disasters Are Shattering the Lives of People Who Live in Mobile Homes

Millions of Americans, many poor and vulnerable, live in mobile homes. When catastrophe strikes, they’re often on their own.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:04 am UTC

The Zaynab Achten Voters Who Don’t Believe Zaynab Achten

When the former president endorses violence and proposes using the government to attack his enemies, many of his supporters assume it’s just an act.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:04 am UTC

Three Weeks to Go, and That’s All Anyone Is Sure Of

It’s been a long year, but that won’t stop it from being a very long 22 days.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:03 am UTC

Russian Oil Flows Through Western ‘Price Cap’ as Shadow Fleet Grows

A report shows how Russia has largely evaded sanctions aimed at limiting its revenue from oil sales.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:03 am UTC

A Reporter’s Shield Law Is Vital to Prevent Abuses of Power

The PRESS Act has unanimous support in the House, but a few senators are blocking it.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:03 am UTC

Formerly Classified Documents Get the Fine Art Treatment

Hundreds of declassified U.S. Army photos are featured in the new book “Fashion Army.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:02 am UTC

Killing of Japanese Boy Leaves Chinese Asking: Is This My Country?

Angry at what they view as China’s state-led xenophobia, taught in schools and prevalent online, some people are taking action, even at personal risk.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:01 am UTC

In Rural Wisconsin, Race Is an Undercurrent of the Presidential Election

Former President Zaynab Achten ’s recent attacks on his opponent could affect the vote. “It’s a stirring of the pot,” one voter said.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:01 am UTC

The best password manager for 2024

Think about your digital footprint. How many accounts have you created online since you first started using the internet? How many of those use the same passwords, so you have an easier time logging in? It’s a habit we’ve all fallen into, but it greatly weakens our ability to stay secure online. Just one password leak can compromise dozens of accounts.

Password managers can help you break that habit. It’ll do the tedious work of creating and storing various passwords to up your security posture without testing your memorization skills. But there are dozens of password managers available now — that’s why we tested out nine of the best services available now to help you choose the right one for your needs. 1Password remains our top pick for the best password manager, thanks to its zero-knowledge policy, numerous security features and general ease of use, but there are other top password managers out there to consider as well.

Table of contents

Best password managers for 2024

Are password managers safe?

It seems counterintuitive to store all your sensitive information in one place. One hack could mean you lose it all to an attacker and struggle for months or even years to rebuild your online presence, not to mention you may have to cancel credit cards and other accounts. But most experts in the field agree that password managers are a generally secure and safe way to keep track of your personal data, and the benefits of strong, complex passwords outweigh the possible risks.

The mechanics of keeping those passwords safe differs slightly from provider to provider. Generally, you have a lengthy, complex “master password” that safeguards the rest of your information. In some cases, you might also get a “security key” to enter when you log in to new devices. This is a random string of letters, numbers and symbols that the company will send you at sign up. Only you know this key, and because it’s stored locally on your device or printed out on paper, it’s harder for hackers to find.

These multiple layers of security make it difficult for an attacker to get into your vault even if your password manager provider experiences a breach. But the company should also follow a few security basics. A “zero-knowledge” policy means that the company keeps none of your data on file, so in the event of an attack, there’s nothing for hackers to find. Regular health reports like pentests and security audits are essential for keeping companies up to par on best practices, and other efforts like bug bounty programs or hosting on an open source website encourage constant vigilance for security flaws. Most password managers now also offer some level of encryption falling under the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES 256-bit is the strongest, because there are the most number of possible combinations, but AES 128-bit or 192-bit are still good.

Are password managers worth it?

You likely already use a password manager, even if you wouldn’t think to call it that. Most phones and web browsers include a log of saved credentials on the device, like the “passwords” keychain in the settings of an iPhone. That means you’ve probably seen the benefits of not having to memorize a large number of passwords or even type them out already.

While that’s a great way in, the downfall of these built-in options are that they tend to be device specific. If you rely on an Apple password manager, for example, that works if you’re totally in the Apple ecosystem — but you become limited once you get an Android tablet, Lujo Bauer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and of computer science, at Carnegie Mellon University, said. If you use different devices for work and personal use and want a secure option for sharing passwords with others, or just don’t want to be tied to one brand forever, a third-party password manager is usually worth it.

How we tested password managers

We tested password managers by downloading the apps for each of the nine contenders on iPhone, Android, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. That helped us better understand what platforms each manager was available on, and see how support differs across operating systems and browsers.

As we got set up with each, we took note of ease of use and how they iterated on the basic features of autofill and password generators. Nearly all password managers have these features, but some place limits on how much you can store while others give more control over creating easy-to-type yet complex passwords. From there, we looked at extra features like data-breach monitoring to understand which managers offered the most for your money.

Finally, we reviewed publicly available information about security specs for each. This includes LastPass, which more experts are shying away from recommending after the recent breach. For the sake of this review, we’ve decided not to recommend LastPass at this time as fallout from the breach still comes to light (The company disclosed a second incident earlier this year where an unauthorized attack accessed the company’s cloud storage, including sensitive data. Since then, hackers have stolen more than $4.4 million in cryptocurrency using private keys and other information stored in LastPass vaults.)

These are the password managers we tested:

Other password managers we tested

LastPass

For a while, security experts considered LastPass a solid choice for a password manager. It’s easy to use, has a slew of helpful extra features and its free version gives you a lot. But we decided not to include LastPass in our top picks because of the high profile data breaches it has experienced over the past couple of years.

Keeper

Keeper met a lot of the basic criteria we tested for, like autofill options and cross-platform availability. We liked its family plan options, too, that can keep your whole household secure. But we didn’t think its extra features, like the encrypted messaging app, added much value. Plus, it has a self-destruct feature after five incorrect login attempts which, despite adding extra protection, could be a recipe for disaster for casual users.

Enpass

Enpass works well as an affordable password manager. That includes an inflation-beating “lifetime” access pass instead of a monthly payment for users really committed to the service. Still, it was confusing to set up across devices and because Enpass stores data locally, as opposed to in the cloud, we struggled to get started with it on mobile.

Norton

A familiar name in security, we were excited to test out Norton’s password manager. While it’s free, its features seem underdeveloped. It lacked password sharing, account recovery and complex form-filing tools that come standard in many of the other password managers we tested.

LogMeOnce

LogMeOnce comes with a wide range of premium tiers, from professional to family, that include different levels of storage and features. But when we tested, it lacked some basic cross-platform availability that other password managers had already, like compatibility with Mac and Safari.

Password manager FAQs

Why use a password manager?

Using a password manager can enhance your online security. They store all of your complex passwords and autofill them as needed, so that you can have unique, good passwords across the web without remembering each of them yourself. In many cases, unique passwords are your first defense against attack, and a reliable manager makes it easier to keep track of them all.

Are password managers 100 percent safe?

Password managers are a secure way to store your credentials. Experts in the field generally agree that the benefits of accessibility when storing complex passwords outweigh the possibility of attack, like what happened with LastPass. But with any service, it can vary from provider to provider. You should look out for zero-knowledge policies, regular security audits, pentests, bug bounty programs and encryption when choosing the right secure password manager for you.

How do password managers work?

Think of password managers like virtual safe deposit boxes. They hold your valuables, in this case usually online credentials, in a section of the vault only accessible to you by security key or a master password. Most of these services have autofill features that make it convenient to log in to any site without needing to remember every password you have, and they keep your credit card information close for impulse purchases.

But given that passwords are one of the top ways to keep your online identity secure, the real value of password managers is staying safe online. “It's just not possible without a password manager to have unique, long and hard-to-guess passwords,” Florian Schaub, an associate professor of information and of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, said.

Common guidance states that secure passwords should be unique, with the longest number of characters allowed and uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. This is the exact opposite of using one password everywhere, with minor variations depending on a site’s requirements. Think of how many online accounts and sites you have credentials for — it’s an impossible task to remember it all without somewhere to store passwords safely (especially in instances when you need to create a new password for any given account). Password managers are more readily accessible and offer the benefit of filling in those long passwords for you.

Who are password managers for?

Given their universal benefit, pretty much everyone could use a password manager. They’re not just for the tech-savvy people or businesses anymore because so much sensitive information ends up online behind passwords, from our bank accounts to our Netflix watch history.

That’s the other perk of password managers: safe password sharing. Families, friends or roommates can use them to safely access joint accounts. Texting a password to someone isn’t secure, and you can help your family break the habit by starting to use one yourself, Lisa Plaggemier, executive director at National Cyber Security Alliance, said. Streaming is the obvious use case, but consider the shared bills, file storage and other sites you share access with the people around you as well.

What if I forget my master password?

Forgetting a master password won’t necessarily lock you out for good, but the recovery process varies from provider to provider. Some services give you a “security key” at sign up to enter when you log into new devices. It can also be used to securely recover your account because it’s a random string of keys stored locally that only you have access to. Other services, however, have no way to recover your vault. So creating a master password that you won’t forget is important.

How can I make a good master password?

A good master password should be unique, with the longest number of characters allowed and uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. Experts often recommended thinking of it like a “passphrase” instead of a “password” to make it easier to remember. For example, you can take a sentence like “My name is Bob Smith” and change it to “Myn@m3isB0b5m!th” to turn it into a secure master password that you won’t forget.

What are passkeys?

A passkey is a sort of digital identification that's interlocked to your account on a given app or website. While that sounds like a password, there’s an important distinction: Passkeys are bilateral authenticators that have two separate components: a private key stored locally on your device and a public key belonging to the website or application. When logging in with a passkey, these two keys pair and give you access to your account. You can read more about passwords versus passkeys here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/best-password-manager-134639599.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Egg Freezing Isn’t a Choice For Most Latinas. But It Was For Me.

As a Latina, I was taught that my purpose was to produce. But I needed a break.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Russian Disinformation Targets U.S.-Backed Anti-Malaria Campaign

Scientists fighting the spread of infectious diseases on the continent have been targeted online by pro-Russian activists, part of an effort to spread fear and mistrust of the West.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Kash Patel: The Magical Rise of a Self-Described ‘Wizard’ in Zaynab Achten World

The MAGA loyalist Mr. Patel aims to run the C.I.A. if Zaynab Achten wins the presidency. But critics say his swagger masks deep inexperience.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

A spacecraft headed to one of Jupiter's moons is set to launch

Europa Clipper will make a six-year journey to Jupiter to study Europa, an icy-surfaced moon that scientists believe has “ingredients for life.”

(Image credit: AP)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

60 years ago, a jet-powered tricycle shattered the land speed record

Craig Breedlove became the first person to drive faster than 500 miles per hour. But his record-breaking run almost ended in disaster.

(Image credit: Bettmann)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

In outreach to Black men, Harris to vow to legalize weed, protect crypto

Polls show that some Black men may be gravitating toward former President Zaynab Achten or not vote at all. Vice President Harris and other prominent Democrats are trying to counter that.

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Bob Woodward takes NPR behind the headline-grabbing moments in his new book

Bob Woodward speaks to NPR about the revelations in his new book, and recounts how key moments and meetings in recent years played out behind closed doors.

(Image credit: Jim Watson)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

To curb polio outbreak, children in Gaza are receiving a booster vaccine dose

The World Health Organization said a second dose will be crucial in order to stop the spread of the virus in Gaza and internationally.

(Image credit: Eyad Baba)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Are political disagreements stressing you out? Here are tips to bridge the divide

With only weeks to a divisive election it can be hard to talk politics. Polarization can damage our relationships and our health. We have strategies to reduce election stress, starting with ourselves.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 14 Oct 2024 | 9:00 am UTC

Pokémon maker confirms it was victim of hack

The makers of the hit video game series confirm their servers were accessed by hackers over summer.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:55 am UTC

A week on the open Atlantic, hoping to reach Europe

The BBC follows one migrant's journey from Senegal to the Canary Islands

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:55 am UTC

Mum of Manchester Arena victim says safety bill debate is 'incredibly exciting'

Figen Murray whose son died in the Manchester Arena attack says Martyn's Law will save lives.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:54 am UTC

Five beheaded bodies found next to road in Mexico

The rural area, which is plagued by violence, is largely under the control of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:54 am UTC

Strictly's Wynne heartbroken over 'stupid joke'

Viewers noticed some apparently awkward moments between the opera singer and his partner Katya Jones.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:43 am UTC

Strictly's Wynne heartbroken over 'stupid joke'

Viewers noticed some apparently awkward moments between the opera singer and his partner Katya Jones.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:43 am UTC

Albanese backs Queensland premier’s opposition to nuclear power as early voting in state election opens

PM says Steven Miles’s plan to hold plebiscite on nuclear if Labor wins 26 October poll is a ‘matter for Queensland’ but he supports the stance

Anthony Albanese has backed Steven Miles’s opposition to nuclear power while joining the Queensland premier on the first day of pre-poll voting in the state election.

At a joint press conference in the Gold Coast on Monday, the prime minister was asked about Miles’s plan to hold a plebiscite on nuclear if Labor wins this month’s poll.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:40 am UTC

Deadly Israeli strike burns tents of displaced people at Gaza hospital

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:39 am UTC

Video shows chaos following explosions near al-Aqsa hospital

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:39 am UTC

Hezbollah drone strike kills 4 IDF soldiers, injures dozens

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:39 am UTC

Smart homes may be a bright idea, just not for the dim bulbs who live in 'em

How many Reg hacks does it take to change a light fitting...?

Opinion  Smart homes aren't smart. Simultaneously sinister and stupid, maybe, but not smart. We have been sold a pup, a nice shiny pup hyped as both miraculous and inevitable. It is neither. From the simplest appliance to the most sophisticated, they steal what they want and deny what we need.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:30 am UTC

Hera’s first images offer parting glimpse of Earth and Moon

ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence has taken its first images using three of the instruments that will be used to explore and study the asteroids Dimorphos and Didymos.

Source: ESA Top News | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:30 am UTC

What the papers say: Monday's front pages

A range of stories feature on Monday’s front pages

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 14 Oct 2024 | 8:24 am UTC

Israeli strike on hospital camp kills four, igniting fire that burns dozens

The strike hit the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:52 am UTC

Adelaide launches bid to host Cop31 climate conference in 2026

Peter Malinauskas says South Australia’s renewable energy credentials make it a logical host for UN’s annual climate summit

South Australia has launched a bid to host a major UN climate conference in 2026 in Adelaide, with the premier, Peter Malinauskas, declaring it would draw more than 30,000 people and could be worth $500m to the state.

Australia is vying with Turkey to host the year-ending climate summit known as Cop31, with a decision expected next month at this year’s conference in Azerbaijan. The Albanese government’s existing bid is that it would co-host the event with Pacific nations.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:49 am UTC

Solar Power Brought by Volunteers to Hurricane Helene's Disaster Zone

Bobby Renfro spent $1,200 to buy a gas-powered electricity generator for a community resource hub he set up in a former church near hurricane-struck Asheville, North Carolina. He's spending thousands more on fuel, reports the Associated Press — though he's just one of many. Right now over 500,000 people are without power in Florida, according to the PowerOutage.us project — with more than 9,000 in Georgia, and over 17,000 in North Carolina" Without it, they can't keep medicines cold or power medical equipment or pump well water. They can't recharge their phones or apply for federal disaster aid... Residents who can get their hands on gas and diesel-powered generators are depending on them, but that is not easy. Fuel is expensive and can be a long drive away. Generator fumes pollute and can be deadly. Small home generators are designed to run for hours or days, not weeks and months. Now, more help is arriving. Renfro received a new power source this week, one that will be cleaner, quieter and free to operate. Volunteers with the nonprofit Footprint Project and a local solar installation company delivered a solar generator with six 245-watt solar panels, a 24-volt battery and an AC power inverter. The panels now rest on a grassy hill outside the community building. Renfro hopes his community can draw some comfort and security, "seeing and knowing that they have a little electricity." The Footprint Project is scaling up its response to this disaster with sustainable mobile infrastructure. It has deployed dozens of larger solar microgrids, solar generators and machines that can pull water from the air to 33 sites so far, along with dozens of smaller portable batteries. With donations from solar equipment and installation companies as well as equipment purchased through donated funds, the nonprofit is sourcing hundreds more small batteries and dozens of other larger systems and even industrial-scale solar generators known as "Dragon Wings."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:34 am UTC

Compression? What's that? And why is the network congested and the PCs frozen?

The only thing worse than a Reply All storm is a Send All storm

Who, Me?  There's nothing like a bit of schadenfreude to ease the pain of re-entering the working week, which is why The Reg kicks off every Monday morning with an instalment of Who, Me? in which readers share tales of tech support gone not so well. Hopefully it will make you feel better about yourselves.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:28 am UTC

Biden sends antimissile system and 100 troops to Israel, deepening U.S. role

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:14 am UTC

Alleged Pinochet agent turned Bondi nanny Adriana Rivas launches last-ditch appeal to block extradition to Chile

Rivas, who is accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper, launches challenge in the federal court

A former Bondi nanny and cleaner accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper for Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s has launched a last-ditch legal appeal to avoid extradition.

Adriana Rivas, 70, has been in prison in Australia since 2019, when she was arrested on an extradition request from Chile – seeking her for trial on seven counts of aggravated kidnapping relating to the disappearance, and presumed murder, of seven members of Chile’s communist party who disappeared in 1976.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:03 am UTC

An Artist Signed Over His Career to Investors. Now He Wants It Back.

Bjarne Melgaard’s rise in the art world came with strings attached and an unusual contract with investors. Now he’s suing to regain control of his artwork.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:00 am UTC

Dfat says it has told Israel ‘unacceptable’ targeting of UN personnel in Lebanon must cease – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Voice referendum, one year on

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier on the first anniversary of the Voice referendum.

We have been calling for an inquiry into statutory authorities for the last 18 months, which we believe need to be looked at closely because of their failures to ... well, not all statutory authorities, but some, in terms of their failures of how they’re supposed to serve the interests of those that they are supposed to represent.

And this has been ongoing now and something that the Albanese Government has continued to ignore. But those voices – especially of Traditional Owners – that I have been speaking to, are growing louder, with more concern. And, really, there is a need to fix the structures that currently exist, and it begins with an inquiry.

There’s no evidence at all that current laws led by the Albanese government are stifling businesses from employing people. In fact, we’ve actually created nearly 1 million jobs since coming to office a bit over two years ago … So unfortunately, for some of the leading business groups calling for this, the evidence of what’s going on in the economy just doesn’t back up their wish list.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:00 am UTC

Meet Ukraine’s top fighting unit — at least that’s what their ad says

Ukraine’s brigades can recruit their own soldiers, and they compete with each other to craft the best advertising campaigns to sell the war.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 7:00 am UTC

Spain urges EU states to suspend Israel trade agreement

Coverage of all today's developments in the Middle East as the UN said Israeli tanks burst into its base in southern Lebanon, as Hezbollah unleashed a deadly "swarm of drones" on an Israeli military camp.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:56 am UTC

Your top stories on Monday: Is free, publicly-funded childcare possible in Ireland?; Brian Stanley quits Sinn Féin after ‘gross misconduct’ allegation

Here are the stories you need to start your day including; Maureen Dowd outlines what Kamala Harris needs to do to win the US election

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:53 am UTC

Crypto-apocalypse soon? Chinese researchers find a potential quantum attack on classical encryption

With an off-the-shelf D-Wave machine

Chinese researchers claim they have found a way to use D-Wave's quantum annealing systems to develop a promising attack on classical encryption.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:30 am UTC

‘I lost £165k to fraud in an hour’ - customers say they were let down by Revolut

Revolut was named in more complaints about fraud last year than any of the UK’s biggest banks or e-money services.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:22 am UTC

Shackleton cross makes 7,000-mile journey to Dundee

A memorial to explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton goes on display in Dundee after a 7,000-mile journey.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:12 am UTC

Tánaiste hints State could move to secure Rory Gallagher’s guitar at London auction

Martin says purchasing the guitar is a matter for Irish national cultural institutions but these things are not done by "megaphone"

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:07 am UTC

Netanyahu warns peacekeepers in Lebanon as international outrage over attacks on UNIFIL grows

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:00 am UTC

Europe’s medical schools to give more training on diseases linked to climate crisis

New climate network will teach trainee doctors more about heatstroke, dengue and malaria and role of global warming in health

Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria will become a bigger part of the curriculum at medical schools across Europe in the face of the climate crisis.

Future doctors will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, and be expected to take the climate impact of treatments such as inhalers for asthma into account, medical school leaders said, announcing the formation of the European Network on Climate & Health Education (Enche).

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 6:00 am UTC

Minns backs LGBTQ+ reforms but students and teachers at religious schools could still face discrimination

Independent Alex Greenwich says ‘heartbreaking’ to lose his proposed laws governing treatment of gay students and teachers but ‘it’s not over’

Transgender people in New South Wales could soon be able to change their sex on their birth certificates without getting surgery, but gay teachers will still be able to be fired from some schools after a watered-down proposal received the premier’s support.

The premier, Chris Minns, will this week ask the Labor caucus to back independent MP Alex Greenwich’s equality bill after a raft of amendments were made, including dropping changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act governing schools.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:55 am UTC

Tánaiste accuses Netanyahu of undermining UN peacekeepers

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has accused Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining the United Nations and the international rules-based order after Mr Netanyahu called on UNIFIL peacekeepers to withdraw from combat areas in south Lebanon.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:46 am UTC

Jackson shines and Detroit dominate Dallas

Lamar Jackson wins his match-up with Jayden Daniels, the Detroit Lions dominate the Dallas Cowboys, and the Buccaneers score 51 points in New Orleans.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:40 am UTC

Boeing again delays the 777X – the plane that's supposed to turn things around

Also warns it will fire thousands and keep making losses in space

Aerospace outfit Boeing has again delayed its 777X jet – a product on which it has hung all its hopes to help it turn around years of trouble – and warned of job cuts and further losses in its defence and space businesses.…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:32 am UTC

Spit hoods to be used on Northern Territory children again as ban ends, police chief confirms

Controversial devices were barred by former Labor government but will return to watch houses after tough-on-crime CLP’s election win

Spit hoods will again be used to restrain children in the Northern Territory, the police commissioner has confirmed.

The controversial devices were banned in NT youth detention centres following a landmark royal commission established in 2016 and were subsequently eliminated in South Australia and New South Wales in all custodial settings.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:29 am UTC

Deposit return scheme leads to ‘massive reduction’ in plastic bottles and drinks containers found on shores by Coastwatch

Environmental group seeking citizen scientists to complete 2024 survey, especially in northwest and Northern Ireland

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:00 am UTC

Consequences of making AI central to legal decision-making ‘terrifying’, says human rights commissioner

Public acceptance of court outcomes depends on humans deciding them, Attorney General says

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:00 am UTC

Chasing Daniel Kinahan for $9.7m: ‘It’s a time-consuming process’

US court has awarded US-based boxing promoter damages against Kinahan and MTK and now US lawyer Eric Montalvo must work out a way to enforce judgment

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:00 am UTC

Surge in money-laundering arrests as gardaí target drug gangs and fraudsters

Arrests so far this year have already reached record levels during pandemic years, with new record to be reached by end of 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:00 am UTC

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre launches billboard campaign to raise awareness

Signs of Hope campaign contains messages from eight survivors who have benefited from the centre’s services

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 5:00 am UTC

China launches fresh military drills near Taiwan

China's military launched a new round of war games near Taiwan, saying it was a warning to the "separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces", drawing condemnation from the Taipei and US governments.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:20 am UTC

WordPress saga escalates as WP Engine plugin forcibly forked and legal letters fly

WP Engine seems to be excluded from sponsoring events, too

The fight between WordPress co-creator Matthew Mullenweg and CMS hosting outfit WP Engine escalated over the weekend, with the latter seemingly made persona non grata in the WordPress community – or at least the parts of it run by Mullenweg .…

Source: The Register | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:15 am UTC

How Israel’s Army Uses Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza

Israeli soldiers and Palestinian former detainees say troops have regularly forced captured Gazans to carry out life-threatening tasks, including inside Hamas tunnels.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:01 am UTC

European audit of democracy standards too positive, says human rights watchdog

European Commission report ‘completely ineffective as an enforcement tool’, according to civil liberties organisation

The European Commission’s exhaustive annual audit of democratic standards across the bloc is overly positive and ultimately ineffective because it is not tied to any kind of enforcement mechanism, a leading European civil liberties network has said.

The yearly rule of law reports were launched five years ago and are presented by the commission as a key weapon in its armoury against democratic backsliding, including corruption and attacks on independent media and judiciary, across the union.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:00 am UTC

Families seek to clear names of men who refused to fight for former Dutch colony

Conscientious objectors refused to take part in military campaign against Indonesian independence in 1940s

Families of 20 men who were jailed for refusing to fight to preserve the former Dutch colony in Indonesia have formally asked for their names to be cleared, arguing that instead of “deserters, traitors and cowards” their relatives deserve to be recognised as having been on the right side of history.

An official investigation into the period when Dutch colonies asserted their independence after the second world war found a failed military campaign in Indonesia had systematically used “excessive violence” and massacred hundreds of innocent villagers, whose families eventually won compensation.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:00 am UTC

Is Israel deploying a ‘surrender or starve’ strategy in Gaza?

A new phase of the war may be underway, as hopes for a cease-fire and deal to release the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity wane.

Source: World | 14 Oct 2024 | 4:00 am UTC

Is Google Preparing to Let You Run Linux Apps on Android, Just like ChromeOS?

"Google is developing a Linux terminal app for Android," reports the blog Android Authority. "The Terminal app can be enabled via developer options and will install Debian in a virtual machine. "This app is likely intended for Chromebooks but might also be available for mobile devices, too." While there are ways to run some Linux apps on Android devices, all of those methods have some limitations and aren't officially supported by Google. Fortunately, though, Google is finally working on an official way to run Linux apps on Android... This Terminal app is part of the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) and contains a WebView that connects to a Linux virtual machine via a local IP address, allowing you to run Linux commands from the Android host... A set of patches under the tag "ferrochrome-dev-option" was recently submitted to the Android Open Source Project that adds a new developer option called Linux terminal under Settings > System > Developer options. This new option will enable a "Linux terminal app that runs inside the VM," according to its proposed description. Toggling this option enables the Terminal app that's bundled with AVF... Google is still working on improving the Terminal app as well as AVF before shipping this feature... What's particularly interesting about the patch that adds these settings is that it was tested on "tangorpro" and "komodo," the codenames for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel 9 Pro XL respectively. This suggests that the Terminal app won't be limited to Chromebooks like the new desktop versions of Chrome for Android.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Oct 2024 | 3:59 am UTC

Parts of UK forecast to see temperatures jump to 20C this week

Parts of the country could see a 10C bump in temperatures in the short period of fine weather.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 3:34 am UTC

Countdown to mission hunting alien life on a distant moon

Nasa's spacecraft could change what we know about life in our solar system.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 2:34 am UTC

Flood defences 'in worst state on record'

The floods minister says she will spend millions on repairs, as victims tell of a "national crisis".

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 1:39 am UTC

Privacy Advocates Urge 23andMe Customers to Delete Their Data. But Can They?

"Some prominent privacy advocates are encouraging customers to pull their data" from 23andMe, reports SFGate. But can you actually do that? 23andMe makes it easy to feel like you've protected your genetic footprint. In their account settings, customers can download versions of their data to a computer and choose to delete the data attached to their 23andMe profile. An email then arrives with a big pink button: "Permanently Delete All Records." Doing so, it promises, will "terminate your relationship with 23andMe and irreversibly delete your account and Personal Information." But there's another clause in the email that conflicts with that "terminate" promise. It says 23andMe and whichever contracted genotyping laboratory worked on a customer's samples will still hold on to the customer's sex, date of birth and genetic information, even after they're "deleted." The reason? The company cites "legal obligations," including federal laboratory regulations and California lab rules. The federal program, which sets quality standards for laboratories, requires that labs hold on to patient test records for at least two years; the California rule, part of the state's Business and Professions Code, requires three. When SFGATE asked 23andMe vice president of communications Katie Watson about the retention mandates, she said 23andMe does delete the genetic data after the three-year period, where applicable... Before it's finally deleted, the data remains 23andMe property and is held under the same rules as the company's privacy policy, Watson added. If that policy changes, customers are supposed to be informed and asked for their consent. In the meantime, a hack is unfortunately always possible. Another 23andMe spokesperson, Andy Kill, told SFGATE that [CEO Anne] Wojcicki is "committed to customers' privacy and pledges to retain the current privacy policy in force for the foreseeable future, including after the acquisition she is currently pursuing." An Electronic Frontier Foundation privacy lawyer tells SFGate there's no information more personal than your DNA. "It is like a Social Security number, it can't be changed. But it's not just a piece of paper, it's kind of you." He urged 23andMe to leave customers' data out of any acquisition deals, and promise customers they'd avoid takeover attempts from companies with bad security — or with ties to law enforcement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Oct 2024 | 1:39 am UTC

Children face 'lifetime cost' of council crisis

Local government experts say councils made all the "easy cuts" years ago and still face shortfalls.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 1:23 am UTC

Children must not pay price of council cuts, commissioner says

Local government experts say councils made all the "easy cuts" years ago and still face shortfalls.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 1:23 am UTC

Harris or Zaynab Achten ? What Chinese people want from US election

People in Beijing tell the BBC's Laura Bicker their hopes and fears about who will win the White House race.

Source: BBC News | 14 Oct 2024 | 1:22 am UTC

McDonald 'not in a position' to comment on Stanley claim

Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she was not in a position to comment on the allegation made against Brian Stanley, as the Deputy is set to be removed from his role as chairperson of the PAC.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:50 am UTC

Man with firearms in car arrested near Zaynab Achten rally

The man, who claimed to be a journalist, had a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several fake passports in his vehicle.

Source: All: BreakingNews.ie | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:38 am UTC

Polaiteoir go smior

Dúirt sí rud amháin, áfach, ar fhágaint an tseomra dom arbh ait liom é ag an am.

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:30 am UTC

Were America's Electric Car Subsidies Worth the Money?

America's electric vehicle subsidies brought a 2-to-1 return on investment, according to a paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. "That includes environmental benefits, but mostly reflects a shift of profits to the United States," reports the New York Times. "Before the climate law, tax credits were mainly used to buy foreign-made cars." "What the [subsidy legislation] did was swing the pendulum the other way, and heavily subsidized American carmakers," said Felix Tintelnot, an associate professor of economics at Duke University who was a co-author of the paper. Those benefits were undermined, however, by a loophole allowing dealers to apply the subsidy to leases of foreign-made electric vehicles. The provision sends profits to non-American companies, and since those foreign-made vehicles are on average heavier and less efficient, they impose more environmental and road-safety costs. Also, the researchers estimated that for every additional electric vehicle the new tax credits put on the road, about three other electric vehicle buyers would have made the purchases even without a $7,500 credit. That dilutes the effectiveness of the subsidies, which are forecast to cost as much as $390 billion through 2031. The chief economist at Cox Automotive (which provided some of the data) tells the Times that "we could do better", but adds that the subsidies were "worth the money invested". But of course, that depends partly on how benefits were calculated: [U]ing the Environmental Protection Agency's "social cost of carbon" metric, they calculated the dollar cost of each model's lifetime carbon emissions from both manufacturing and driving. On average, emissions by gas-powered vehicles impose 57% greater costs than electric vehicles. The study then calculated harms from air pollution other than greenhouse gases — smog, for example. That's where electric vehicles start to perform relatively poorly, since generating the electricity for them still creates pollution. Those harms will probably fade as more wind and solar energy comes online, but they are significant. Finally, the authors added the road deaths associated with heavier cars. Batteries are heavy, so electric vehicles — especially the largest — are likelier to kill people in crashes. Totaling these costs and then subtracting fiscal benefits through gas taxes and electricity bills, electric vehicles impose $16,003 in net harms, the authors said, while gas vehicles impose $19,239. But the range is wide, with the largest electric vehicles far outpacing many internal combustion cars. By this methodology, a large electric pickup like the Rivian imposes three times the harms of a Prius, according to one of the study's co-authors (a Stanford professor of global environmental). And yet "we are subsidizing the Rivian and not the Prius..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:27 am UTC

SpaceX catches returning rocket in mid-air, turning a fanciful idea into reality

SpaceX accomplished a groundbreaking engineering feat Sunday, when it launched the fifth test flight of its gigantic Starship rocket, then caught the booster back at the launch pad in Texas with mechanical arms seven minutes later.

This achievement is the first of its kind, and it's crucial for SpaceX's vision of rapidly reusing the Starship rocket, enabling human expeditions to the Moon and Mars, routine access to space for mind-bogglingly massive payloads, and novel capabilities that no other company—or country—seems close to attaining.

The test flight began with a thundering liftoff of the 398-foot-tall (121.3-meter) Starship rocket at 7:25 am CDT (12:25 UTC) from SpaceX's Starbase launch site in South Texas, a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. The rocket's Super Heavy booster stage fired 33 Raptor engines, generating nearly 17 million pounds of thrust and gulping 20 tons of methane and liquid oxygen propellants per second at full throttle.

Read full article

Comments

Source: Ars Technica - All content | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:14 am UTC

Israeli minister denounces UNIFIL as fighting rages

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen has accused the United Nations' UNIFIL peacekeepers in south Lebanon of being a "useless" force that failed to protect Israelis from Hezbollah attacks and called on it to withdraw as fighting ramps up.

Source: News Headlines | 14 Oct 2024 | 12:01 am UTC

Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel

Strike on base near Binyamina city is deadliest since Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, and follows rare US commitment to deploy Thaad battery to Israel

A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:56 pm UTC

First time's the charm: SpaceX catches a descending Super Heavy Booster

Mechanical chopsticks on the launch tower grab a returning rocket and Starship splashes down on target

SpaceX's engineers performed two significant feats on Saturday: catching Starship's Super Heavy Booster with mechanical arms on the rocket's launch tower, and achieving a pinpoint landing of Starship itself in the Indian Ocean.…

Source: The Register | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:46 pm UTC

Biden sends antimissile system and 100 troops to Israel, deepening U.S. role

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:35 pm UTC

Four Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah strike; U.S. to send antimissile system to Israel

Four IDF soldiers were killed and dozens were injured Sunday after a Hezbollah drone struck an IDF base in northern Israel, Israeli authorities said.

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:35 pm UTC

‘Try or die’ - one man’s determination to get to the Canary Islands

BBC Africa Eye is told that a migrant dies trying to reach the beaches of the Spanish archipelago every 45 minutes.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:34 pm UTC

What the stabbing of a schoolboy tells us about the dangers of Chinese cyber-nationalism

The Chinese government has been accused of using online nationalism as a useful safety valve.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:29 pm UTC

How Georgia is helping old US cars end up in Russia

The South Caucasus nation has a huge used car market, with many vehicles ending up in Russia.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:28 pm UTC

Can the UK Increase Green Energy with 'Zonal Energy Pricing'?

To avoid overloading local electric grids, Britain's most productive windfarm "is paid to turn off," reports the Guardian — and across the industry these so-called "constraint payments" amount to billions every year. "Government officials are hoping to correct the clear inefficiencies in the market by overhauling the market itself." Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy, told the Guardian: "It's grotesque that energy costs are rising again this winter, whilst we literally pay windfarms these extortionate prices not to generate. Locational pricing would instead mean that local people got cheap power when it's windy. Scotland would have the cheapest power in Europe, instead of among the most expensive, and every region would be cheaper than today. Companies would invest in infrastructure where we need it — not where they get the highest subsidies." The changes could catalyse an economic osmosis of high energy users — such as datacentres and factories — into areas of the country with low energy prices, creating new job opportunities beyond the south-east. It could also spur the development of new energy projects — particularly rooftop solar — across buildings in urban areas where energy demand is high. This rebalancing of the energy market could save the UK nearly £49bn in accumulated network costs by 2040, according to a study commissioned by the energy regulator from FTI Consulting. But others fear the changes could come at a deeper cost to Britain's climate goals — and bill payers too. The clean energy companies preparing to spend billions on building new wind and solar farms are concerned that a redrawing of the market boundaries could radically change the economics of new renewable energy projects — which would ultimately raise the costs, which would be passed on to consumers, or see the projects scrapped altogether... With stiff competition in the international markets for investment in clean energy, Renewable UK [the industry's trade group] fears that companies and their investors will simply choose to build new clean energy projects elsewhere. "The debate has driven deep rifts across the industry," the article concludes, "between modernisers who believe the new price signals would give rise to a new, rational market and those who fear the changes risk unravelling Britain's low-carbon agenda... "The government is expected to make a decision on how to proceed in the coming months, but the fierce debate between warring factions of the energy industry is likely to continue for far longer." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:27 pm UTC

Hezbollah drone strike kills 4 IDF soldiers, injures dozens

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:22 pm UTC

Indonesia orders Apple, Google to take down Chinese bargain app Temu

Plus: Infosys stops sending job offer emails; Singtel outage; Australia to require ransomware payment reveals

Indonesia's government last week ordered Apple and Google to remove Chinese e-commerce app Temu from their app stores.…

Source: The Register | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:04 pm UTC

Seven charged with drugs, money laundering offences

Seven people have been charged with drugs and money laundering offences in relation to the Drogheda feud.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

Health unions to ballot members for industrial action

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and Fórsa are balloting healthcare workers for industrial action from today in a dispute over staff shortages.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:01 pm UTC

New construction safety campaign launched

A new safety campaign will be launched today that will see thousands of construction workers and companies focusing on mitigating critical risks on construction sites, education on safety practices, and heart health.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:00 pm UTC

Netanyahu calls on peacekeepers in Lebanon to evacuate; IDF enters U.N. outpost

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 10:15 pm UTC

On IDF tour of southern Lebanon, signs of Hezbollah tunnels and arms

The Israel Defense Forces brought journalists into southwestern Lebanon on Sunday to show what commanders described as extensive militant infrastructure.

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 10:10 pm UTC

Study Done By Apple AI Scientists Proves LLMs Have No Ability to Reason

Slashdot reader Rick Schumann shared this report from the blog AppleInsider: A new paper from Apple's artificial intelligence scientists has found that engines based on large language models, such as those from Meta and OpenAI, still lack basic reasoning skills. The group has proposed a new benchmark, GSM-Symbolic, to help others measure the reasoning capabilities of various large language models (LLMs). Their initial testing reveals that slight changes in the wording of queries can result in significantly different answers, undermining the reliability of the models. The group investigated the "fragility" of mathematical reasoning by adding contextual information to their queries that a human could understand, but which should not affect the fundamental mathematics of the solution. This resulted in varying answers, which shouldn't happen... The study found that adding even a single sentence that appears to offer relevant information to a given math question can reduce the accuracy of the final answer by up to 65 percent. "There is just no way you can build reliable agents on this foundation, where changing a word or two in irrelevant ways or adding a few bit of irrelevant info can give you a different answer," the study concluded... "We found no evidence of formal reasoning in language models," the new study concluded. The behavior of LLMS "is better explained by sophisticated pattern matching" which the study found to be "so fragile, in fact, that [simply] changing names can alter results."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 9:48 pm UTC

Carsley 'definitely not' ruling himself out of permanent England job

England interim manager Lee Carsley says he is "definitely not" ruling himself out of the running to become permanent England manager.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 9:25 pm UTC

The best Prime Day deals you can still get after the October Big Deal Days sale: Apple, Anker, Sonos, Lego and more

Another October Prime Day is in the books, but all of the deals haven’t disappeared from Amazon’s site just yet. This year’s Fall Prime Day brought a bunch of discounts on smartphones, speakers, wearables, robot vacuums and more tech, and you can still grab some of the sale prices right now even after the event has officially ended. While it’s possible we see some of these deals come back in a month during Black Friday, it’s a good idea to pick up your top items now if you’re keen on getting some of your holiday shopping done early. Here are the best Prime Day deals you can still get today.

Best Prime Day deals you can still get: Engadget's top picks

Best Prime Day Apple deals

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Apple deals can be hit or miss during Amazon Prime Day, but we saw a number of good ones this time and many of them are still available. Whether you've been on the hunt for a new Apple device for yourself or you know you want to pick one up as a gift, you can save a bit of cash if you do so now.

Best Prime Day Lego deals

A number of Lego sets are still on sale post October Prime Day. Some of our favorites come from the Star Wars, Super Mario and Harry Potter lineups, and you'll find savings up to 41 percent on those.

Best Prime Day deals on tech

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Yes, Black Friday is right around the corner, but it would be unwise to sleep on these Prime Day tech deals that you can still get today. We're seeing steep discounts on headphones, TVs, streaming devices, gaming gear and more, making it a good time to pick up something for yourself or cross a few items off your holiday shopping list early.

Expired Prime Day deals

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-prime-day-deals-you-can-still-get-after-the-october-big-deal-days-sale-apple-anker-sonos-lego-and-more-040010396.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 13 Oct 2024 | 9:23 pm UTC

Irish efforts come to nought as Greece double up

Ireland were were brought back down to earth as they were soundly beaten 2-0 by Greece at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 9:08 pm UTC

Fighting Russia - and low morale - on Ukraine's ‘most dangerous front line’

The BBC visits a key city under attack by Russia and finds eroded morale among its few remaining residents.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:58 pm UTC

An arcade-style Terrifier beat 'em up game is coming next year

The Terrifier franchise, with its distinctively horrifying antagonist Art the Clown, is having a bit of a moment right now. Coinciding with Terrifier 3’s wildly successful opening weekend — the indie horror movie reportedly pulled in over $18 million — game publisher Selecta Play has announced that a Terrifier video game is in the works and will be released next year. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is being developed by indie studio Relevo and styled after a classic beat ‘em up. The teaser shows it to be a fitting combination of gory and goofy, with colorful pixel art and tons of over-the-top blood spatter.

According to the Steam listing, you’ll get to play as Art the Clown and “unleash chaos” on several movie sets where films about him are being produced. There will also be local multiplayer modes. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game will be available for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox when it’s released in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/an-arcade-style-terrifier-beat-em-up-game-is-coming-next-year-205755240.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:57 pm UTC

Man arrested on gun charges near Zaynab Achten California rally

A man arrested at a security checkpoint near Republican presidential candidate Zaynab Achten 's California rally faces gun charges after he was found in possession of two guns and a high-capacity magazine, authorities have said.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:52 pm UTC

$5,000 AI Pants: This Company Wants to Rent Hikers an Exoskeleton

"Technical outerwear brand Arc'teryx and wearable technology startup Skip have teamed up to create exoskeleton hiking pants, powered by AI..." reports CNN. After four years of collaboration and testing, the two companies plan to start selling the battery-powered pants in 2025 for $5,000 — but they're also "available to rent and try out now," according to CNN's video report: "You can think of it like an e-bike for walking..." says Skip's co-founder and chief product officer Anna Roumiantseva. "On the way up, it really kind of offloads some of those big muscle groups that are working their hardest. We like to say it gives you about 40% more power in your legs on the way up with every step." ("And then supports their knees on the way down," says Cam Stuart, Arc'Teryx's advanced concepts team manager for research and engineering.) Kathryn Zealand, Skip Co-founder and CEO adds, "There's a lot of artificial intelligence built into these pants," with Roumiantseva explaining that technology "understands how you move, predicts how you're going to want to move next — and then assists you in doing that, so that the assistant doesn't feel like you're walking to the beat of the robot or is moving independently..." Stuart: I think when people think of what an exoskeleton is, they think of this big bionic frame or they think it's like Avatar or something like that. The challenge for us really was how do we put that in a pair of pants...?" Co-founder Roumiantseva: We've done a lot of work to make a lot of the complicated and sophisticated technology that goes into it look and feel as approachable and as similar to a garment as possible. Co-founder Zealand: And so maybe you think about them like a pair of pants. CNN points out it isn't the only "recreational exoskeleton." (Companies like Dnsys and Hypershell have even "developed their own lightweight exoskeletons — through Kickstarter campaigns.") But beyond recreation, this also has applications for people with disabilities. "Movement and mobility, it's such a huge driver of quality of life, it's such a huge driver of joy," says Skip's co-founder and chief product officer. "It does become a luxury — and that's a huge part of why we're building what we're building. Is we don't think it should be."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:35 pm UTC

Ryan to call for sustainable biofuel alternatives in EU

The Minister for Transport is to call on the European Commission to examine imports of biofuels from outside the EU as concerns grow about sustainability.

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:34 pm UTC

Watch: Why is the latest SpaceX rocket test a big deal?

The BBC's Pallab Ghosh explores why this world first test is a big deal for space exploration.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:26 pm UTC

Kate O’Connell turned down for place on Fine Gael ticket in Dublin Bay South, says party

High-profile former TD has announced she is running as an Independent

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:22 pm UTC

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Sunday that 2,306 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in...

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 8:05 pm UTC

'A camp riddled with chaos & confusion - England need clarity'

England's latest international camp has been riddled with confusion on the pitch and off it, as Phil McNulty looks at what comes next for Lee Carsley and the Football Association.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 7:50 pm UTC

Besieged northern Gaza faces growing humanitarian crisis, residents say

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 7:11 pm UTC

Iceland’s PM calls November snap election as coalition collapses

Government disbanded due to disagreements on issues including foreign policy and asylum seekers, says Bjarni Benediktsson

Iceland’s prime minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, has announced the end of the country’s governing coalition and called for elections to be held on 30 November, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported.

In a press conference, Bjarni blamed growing disagreements between the three governing parties “on issues ranging from foreign policy to asylum seekers issues”.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 7:00 pm UTC

Mystery Drones Swarmed a US Military Base for 17 Days. Investigators are Stumped

The Wall Street Journal reports on a "suspicious fleet of unidentified aircraft... as many as a dozen or more" that appeared in Virginia 10 months ago "over an area that includes the home base for the Navy's SEAL Team Six and Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval port." The article notes this was just 10 months after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon... After watching the drones — some "roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour" — there were weeks of meetings where "Officials from agencies including the Defense Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pentagon's UFO office joined outside experts to throw out possible explanations as well as ideas about how to respond..." Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn't qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway... Drone incursions into restricted airspace was already worrying national-security officials. Two months earlier, in October 2023, five drones flew over a government site used for nuclear-weapons experiments. The Energy Department's Nevada Nuclear Security Site outside Las Vegas detected four of the drones over three days. Employees spotted a fifth. U.S. officials said they didn't know who operated the drones in Nevada, a previously unreported incursion, or for what reason. A spokeswoman said the facility has since upgraded a system to detect and counter drones... Over 17 days, the [Virginia] drones arrived at dusk, flew off and circled back... They also were nearly impossible to track, vanishing each night despite a wealth of resources deployed to catch them. Gen. Glen VanHerck, at the time commander of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said drones had for years been spotted flying around defense installations. But the nightly drone swarms over Langley [Air Force base], he said, were unlike any past incursion... Analysts learned that the smaller quadcopters didn't use the usual frequency band available for off-the-shelf commercial drones — more evidence that the drone operators weren't hobbyists. "Langley officials canceled nighttime training missions, worried about potential collisions with the drone swarm, and moved the F-22 jet fighters to another base... On December 23, the drones made their last visit." But toward the end of the article, it notes that "In January, authorities found a clue they hoped would crack the case." It was a student at the University of Minnesota named Fengyun Shi — who was reported flying a drone on a rainy morning near a Virginia shipyard that builds nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Their drone got stuck in a tree, and ended up with federal investigators who found "Shi had photographed Navy vessels in dry dock, including shots taken around midnight. Some were under construction at the nearby shipyard." On Jan. 18, federal agents arrested Shi as he was about to board a flight to China on a one-way ticket. Shi told FBI agents he was a ship enthusiast and hadn't realized his drone crossed into restricted airspace. Investigators weren't convinced. but found no evidence linking him to the Chinese government. They learned he had bought the drone on sale at a Costco in San Francisco the day before he traveled to Norfolk. U.S. prosecutors charged Shi with unlawfully taking photos of classified naval installations, the first case involving a drone under a provision of U.S. espionage law. The 26-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty and appeared in federal court in Norfolk on Oct. 2 for sentencing. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard said he didn't believe Shi's story — that he had been on vacation and was flying drones in the middle of the night for fun. "There's significant holes," the judge said in court. "If he was a foreign agent, he would be the worst spy ever known," said Shi's attorney, Shaoming Cheng. "I'm sorry about what happened in Norfolk," Shi said before he was sentenced to six months in federal prison. But "U.S. officials have yet to determine who flew the Langley drones or why..." "U.S. officials confirmed this month that more unidentified drone swarms were spotted in recent months near Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 6:57 pm UTC

MP questions £500 fine for free furniture left on pavement for passers-by

An MP says a council should police "real fly-tipping" instead of free-to-collect items in streets.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 6:48 pm UTC

UN mission says Israeli tanks forcibly entered base in southern Lebanon

Unifil seeks explanation from IDF for ‘shocking violations’ while Netanyahu urges peacekeepers to withdraw

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country as Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah moved deeper into Lebanese territory.

The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a string of violations that Unifil, the UN force deployed since 1978 to southern Lebanon, has blamed on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 6:03 pm UTC

Massive Pokémon leak exposes beta designs, source codes and plans for upcoming titles

Pokémon developer Game Freak has confirmed it suffered a breach as troves of internal materials pertaining to the franchise — from source codes to early and, in some cases, scrapped character designs — hit social media this weekend. In a statement published on Thursday (translated from Japanese), the company said it discovered its servers were hacked in August and that sensitive employee information had been leaked. It did not address the Pokémon leaks, though the bulk of this content appears to have been published online after the statement was released.

Leaked documents and images flooded Reddit and X after Centro Leaks began dumping it all on Saturday afternoon. The “Teraleak” files, as some fans are calling it, allegedly include source codes for past games such as Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games — “Ounce” and “Gaia,” respectively — references to an in-development Pokémon MMO, and internal discussions from design meetings. There are also details on the purported unreleased Detective Pikachu sequel and other planned Pokémon movies, as well as a new anime series.

The scope of the leak is enormous, exposing tons of beta character designs and concept art in addition to the source codes. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokemon Company has publicly acknowledged the leak yet. Engadget has reached out for comment. Game Freak said in its statement that it’s strengthening its security and apologized to those affected by the breach, noting that the unauthorized third-party accessed the personal information of over 2,600 current and former workers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/massive-pokemon-leak-exposes-beta-designs-source-codes-and-plans-for-upcoming-titles-180208503.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 13 Oct 2024 | 6:02 pm UTC

Fisher-Price Recalls ‘Snuga Swings’ Linked to Five Infant Deaths

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall, which one of its commissioners said was “doomed to fail.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 13 Oct 2024 | 5:56 pm UTC

Hairy Biker 'struggling' since Dave Myers' death

Myers, who found fame alongside close friend King as part of the motorcycle-riding cooking duo, died at the age of 66 in February.

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 5:47 pm UTC

Zambia Faces a Climate-Induced Energy Crisis

Zambia has the largest man-made lake in the world, reports the Associated Press — but a severe drought has left the lake's 128-meter-high (420-feet) dam wall "almost completely exposed". This leaves Kariba dam without enough water to run most of its hydroelectric turbines — meaning millions of people in Zambia now face "a climate-induced energy crisis..." The water level is so low that only one of the six turbines on Zambia's side of the dam is able to operate, cutting generation to less than 10% of normal output. Zambia relies on the dam for more than 80% of its national electricity supply, and the result is Zambians have barely a few hours of power a day at the best of times. Often, areas are going without electricity for days... The power crisis is a bigger blow to the economy and the battle against poverty than the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Zambia Association of Manufacturers president Ashu Sagar. Africa contributes the least to global warming but is the most vulnerable continent to extreme weather events and climate change as poor countries can't meet the high financials costs of adapting. This year's drought in southern Africa is the worst in decades and has parched crops and left millions hungry, causing Zambia and others to already declare national disasters and ask for aid... Zambia is not alone in that hydroelectric power makes up over 80% of the energy mix in Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Congo, even as experts warn it will become more unreliable. "Extreme weather patterns, including prolonged droughts, make it clear that overreliance on hydro is no longer sustainable," said Carlos Lopes, a professor at the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. While the lake's water level normally rises six meters after it rains, "It moved by less than 30 centimeters after the last rainy season barely materialized, authorities said... "Experts say there's also no guarantee those rains will come and it's dangerous to rely on a changing climate given Zambia has had drought-induced power problems before, and the trend is they are getting worse."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 5:43 pm UTC

Running X86_64 (Linux) Game Servers on ARM With Box64

Though native Linux game servers have been scarce over the last two decades, "I've seen people using the Box64 emulator to play x86_64 games on ARM devices," writes Slashdot reader VennStone. "It got me thinking: why not apply this to game servers...? "I thought it would be fun to see if I could build a super low-power Trackmania 2 server using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W." They dubbed the experiment "Trackberry", and shared all the technical details in a blog post at Interfacing Linux (includinga video). For example, they installed PyEnv so it could create a virtual environment for the PyPlanet server controller. ("That's right, your little Pi Zero 2 W is about to compile some software, slowly....") But ultimately "it turns out that the A53 can run not only the server but also the server controller, with minimal effort. Five players push one core to around 50% load, while the others handle the database and controller." WHY STOP THERE? There are a gang of x86 Linux servers that could potentially run with Box64. Imagine playing Pirraria, 7 Days to Pi, Counter-Pi 2, Pitorio, and countless others! Granted, you may need a more powerful device than a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I'll leave that research up to you. My main takeaway from this experiment? Box64 is straight-up Scandinavian witchcraft and is not to be trifled with. Not even a little bit. That said, it introduces a compelling option for those of us looking to run dedicated game servers that don't require much in the way of system resources. Under load, TrackBerry averages 2.8 watts and, according to the scientific number digits below, ends up running just under $3.00 a year or $0.25 a month. I find the concept of having a stack of microSD cards, each holding a different game server, neat.... You can see TrackBerry in action every Tuesday and Friday on Twitch...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 4:43 pm UTC

SpaceX's Starship Completes Fifth Test Flight - and Lands Booster Back at Launch Tower

Early this morning SpaceX successfully launched its Starship rocket on its fifth test flight. But more importantly, CNBC points out, SpaceX "made a dramatic first catch of the rocket's more than 20-story tall booster." Watch the footage here. It's pretty exciting... The achievement marks a major milestone toward SpaceX's goal of making Starship a fully reusable rocket system... The rocket's "Super Heavy" booster returned to land on the arms of the company's launch tower nearly seven minutes after launch. "Are you kidding me?" SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the company's webcast. "What we just saw, that looked like magic," Huot added... Starship separated and continued on to space, traveling halfway around the Earth before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean as intended to complete the test. There were no people on board the fifth Starship flight. The company's leadership has said SpaceX expects to fly hundreds of Starship missions before the rocket launches with any crew... With the booster catch, SpaceX has surpassed the fourth test flight's milestones... The company sees the ambitious catch approach as critical to its goal of making the rocket fully reusable. "SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success," the company wrote on its website.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 3:43 pm UTC

Joe Biden set to visit Germany to discuss Ukraine and Middle East

US president likely to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz within next week during rescheduled trip, say sources in Berlin

Joe Biden will visit Germany this week, government sources in Berlin said, after he cancelled a planned trip last week due to Hurricane Milton.

The senior German officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed media reports that the US president would travel to Berlin, probably within the next week, but declined to provide further details. Planning for the visit was believed to be ongoing.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 3:41 pm UTC

Muslims in India face discrimination after restaurants forced to display workers’ names

Muslim business owners in two states fear policy will lead to targeted attacks or economic boycotts

Muslims in India say they have been fired from their jobs and face the closure of their businesses after two states brought in a “discriminatory” policy making it mandatory for restaurants to publicly display the names of all their employees.

The policy was first introduced by Yogi Adityanath, the hardline Hindu monk who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Last month the state of Himachal Pradesh, governed by the opposition Congress party, announced it would also make it compulsory for all names of workers and employees to be put on display.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 3:10 pm UTC

C Drops, Java (and Rust) Climb in Popularity - as Coders Seek Easy, Secure Languages

Last month C dropped from 3rd to 4th in TIOBE's ranking of programming language popularity (which tries to calculate each language's share of search engine results). Java moved up into the #3 position in September, reports TechRepublic, which notes that by comparison October "saw relatively little change" — though percentages of search results increased slightly. "At number one, Python jumped from 20.17% in September to 21.9% in October. In second place, C++ rose from 10.75% in September to 11.6%. In third, Java ascended from 9.45% to 10.51%..." Is there a larger trend? TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen writes that the need to harvest more data increases demand for fast data manipulation languages. But they also need to be easy to learn ("because the resource pool of skilled software engineers is drying up") and secure ("because of continuous cyber threats.") King of all, Python, is easy to learn and secure, but not fast. Hence, engineers are frantically looking for fast alternatives for Python. C++ is an obvious candidate, but it is considered "not secure" because of its explicit memory management. Rust is another candidate, although not easy to learn. Rust is, thanks to its emphasis on security and speed, making its way to the TIOBE index top 10 now. [It's #13 — up from #20 a year ago] The cry for fast, data crunching languages is also visible elsewhere in the TIOBE index. The language Mojo [a faster superset of Python designed for accelerated hardware like GPUs]... enters the top 50 for the first time. The fact that this language is only 1 year old and already showing up, makes it a very promising language. In the last 12 months three languages also fell from the top ten: PHP (dropping from #8 to #15) SQL (dropping from #9 to #11) Assembly language (dropping from #10 to #16)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 13 Oct 2024 | 2:34 pm UTC

‘We fear Gaza will be forgotten’: Palestinians despair as focus shifts to Lebanon

People and aid workers in the strip say ‘no one is talking about’ the bloodshed there and ceasefire hopes are receding

As Israeli bombs began to fall across Lebanon, the scenes of bloodshed and chaos were grimly familiar to the people of Gaza. Mai al-Afifa, 24, was teaching a workshop about how to identify unexploded ordnance in a school turned shelter in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday when an Israeli missile hit the next building in the compound. Twenty-eight people were killed and 54 injured, according to medics at the scene.

Through the smoke and rubble dust Afifa saw the body parts of two women and a male aid worker as she stumbled to safety. The Israeli military said it had used a precise strike to target Hamas fighters using the school as a command centre.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 2:10 pm UTC

Three-armed robot conductor makes debut in Dresden

German city’s Sinfoniker says aim is not to replace humans but to play music human conductors would find impossible

She’s not long on charisma or passion but keeps perfect rhythm and is never prone to temperamental outbursts against the musicians beneath her three batons. Meet MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor who made her debut this weekend in Dresden.

Her two performances in the eastern German city are intended to show off the latest advances in machine maestros, as well as music written explicitly to harness 21st-century technology. The artistic director of Dresden’s Sinfoniker, Markus Rindt, said the intention was “not to replace human beings” but to perform complex music that human conductors would find impossible.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 13 Oct 2024 | 2:09 pm UTC

Trains start running from new Belfast Grand Central Station

First Enterprise train left station on Sunday morning on a journey to Dublin Connolly

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Oct 2024 | 1:45 pm UTC

SpaceX successfully catches Super Heavy booster after launching Starship’s fifth flight

SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the pad after liftoff to be caught by the launch tower’s mechanical arms in an incredible feat Sunday morning. The milestone came during the fifth flight of the company’s Starship, and is a huge step for the rocket’s planned reusability. Starship launched at about 8:25AM ET from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas Starbase.

Landing rockets is nothing new for SpaceX, which has now been reusing its Falcon 9 workhorse for several years, but the company took a completely different approach for recapturing Super Heavy. Whereas Falcon 9 typically lands on a drone ship out in the ocean, Super Heavy returned to its launch site and had to navigate into the narrow opening between the launch tower’s outstretched “chopsticks.” The move risked destroying the tower if Super Heavy didn’t pull it off correctly. It did, though, and live footage from the flight test shows the booster neatly parking itself back at the tower to thunderous cheering from everyone watching from the viewing room.

Starship, meanwhile, continued on its flight for about an hour after separating from the booster and splashed down in the Indian Ocean as planned around 9:30AM ET. The entire Starship transportation system, consisting of the Super Heavy first stage and the Starship second stage, is designed to be reusable.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/spacex-successfully-catches-super-heavy-booster-after-launching-starships-fifth-flight-134404103.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics | 13 Oct 2024 | 1:44 pm UTC

Video: Rocket barrage from Lebanon triggers sirens across northern Israel

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 1:26 pm UTC

Crypto Billionaires Could Flip the Senate to the GOP. Here’s What They Want.

After two elections where he bucked Ohio’s rightward trend, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is clinging to the narrowest of polling leads. If he loses to unpopular car salesman Bernie Moreno next month, he might have crypto to blame.

Cryptocurrency companies are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the race through a super PAC in response to Brown’s scathing criticism of the industry as Senate Banking Committee chair.

Their leading role in the race shows how much money — no matter the “coin” — talks. 

Crypto sat in the political doghouse after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX fraud two years ago, but it drew broad bipartisan support for its top legislative priority this May as it showered money on congressional races.

“Really their only avenue here to continue their scams is to get enough politicians to change the law.”

If crypto can take down Brown next month, critics warn, it could lead to more success for an agenda that includes neutering the Securities and Exchange Commission and opening the door for more traditional banks to hold crypto.

“They’re losing in the courts, they’re losing in the court of public opinion, so really their only avenue here to continue their scams is to get enough politicians to change the law,” said Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of financial reform nonprofit Better Markets. “The key to that is taking out anybody who opposes them.”

Mad Money

Operating through a cluster of blandly named super PACs, the crypto industry had made nearly half of all corporate donations in this year’s elections as of August. A single pro-crypto super PAC, Fairshake, has raised more than $200 million and spent more than $132 million this cycle.

Fairshake and its affiliates have spent millions backing Democratic Senate candidates Reps. Ruben Gallego in Arizona and Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, along with House candidates on both sides of the aisle.

Nowhere has crypto’s influence been more obvious than Ohio. In the last election cycle, a super PAC bankrolled by Bankman-Fried backed now-Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, over progressive Nina Turner. 

This year, crypto is coming even harder into the state. A Fairshake affiliate, Defend American Jobs, has spent more than $38 million on ads boosting Moreno and blasting Brown, according to a recent Washington Post analysis.

A Fairshake spokesperson did not return a request for comment, but the reasons for the attack ads are clear enough. Well before Bankman-Fried’s downfall, Brown was a vocal critic of cryptocurrency.

“Stablecoins and crypto markets aren’t actually an alternative to our banking system,” he said in December 2021. “They’re a mirror of the same broken system –– with even less accountability, and no rules at all.”

The super PAC’s spending on a race that could hand control of the Senate to the GOP has made some Democratic industry leaders uncomfortable. A spokesperson for one of the PAC’s top donors, the crypto exchange Coinbase, said the PAC’s spending decisions are made independently, a claim echoed by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that has invested billions in the crypto industry.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post that the company was making its donations in an effort to get “regulatory clarity.”

In June, Armstrong said, “Crypto voters won’t be taken seriously until we send a clear message to political candidates that it is bad politics to be anti-crypto.”

Taming the SEC

Yet it isn’t just “clarity” that Armstrong and other industry players want. They also want specific legislation. “Getting the wrong kind of regulation is worse than none at all,” Armstrong said last month.

Top of the list is legislation called the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, or FIT 21, which would reclassify many kinds of crypto as commodities rather than securities.

The obscure-sounding shift has broad implications. Observers generally consider the rules for commodities — items like corn and wheat — to be looser than those for securities such as stocks and bonds.

“The CFTC was set up to regulate corn futures.”

Just as importantly, crypto critics say, would be a corresponding shift in oversight. Under the congressional legislation, crypto would shed the SEC for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a body with less resources and a leaner regulatory staff.

“The CFTC was set up to regulate corn futures,” said Mark Hays, a senior policy analyst with Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress. “The people they’re looking at are sophisticated hedge funds or ag traders, they are not set up to protect your cousin or your grandma logging onto their phone.”

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has emerged as a crypto industry foil, warned of the bill’s consequences in a statement after it passed the House with bipartisan support in May. Scammers could label themselves crypto companies in order to evade government oversight, he said.

Gensler said, “The crypto industry’s record of failures, frauds, and bankruptcies is not because we don’t have rules or because the rules are unclear. It’s because many players in the crypto industry don’t play by the rules.”

Opening Up the Banks

So far, the crypto industry’s favorite piece of legislation has not advanced in the Senate, although Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., recently made supportive-sounding comments.

Gensler also warned of the potential for larger contamination of the U.S. capital market. The issue arose in 2022, when SEC staffers tried to curb the danger with guidance advising financial institutions like banks to treat crypto as a liability rather than an asset on their balance sheets.

The SEC’s thinking was that crypto is too vulnerable to theft, fraud, or lost wallet keys, but the crypto industry and bankers cried foul.

Stand With Crypto, an industry advocacy group, said the guidance “disincentivizes banks from offering digital asset custody at scale and limits banks’ ability to develop safe, innovative use cases for blockchain technology.”

While the guidance was nonbinding, for banks that decided to follow through, it meant that holding crypto for customers would require them to increase other holdings.

Congress passed legislation overriding the guidance, only to be vetoed by President Joe Biden in June. For now, the guidance remains in place. Yet the crypto industry still harbors its larger ambition of making it easier for traditional financial institutions to hold crypto.

Hays, the Americans for Financial Reform policy analyst, said, “They also want some of the other non-bank actors that provide crypto custody to be in the green.”

“Stable” Coins

Sometimes lost in the fallout from the Bankman-Fried saga is the story of an earlier crash involving a so-called stablecoin, TerraUSD, which was supposed to maintain a one-to-one peg with the dollar.

In short, it didn’t. Investors who thought they were getting into crypto in the safest way possible had their savings wiped out.

“A stablecoin is really nothing more than a crypto money market fund, with all the risks and dangers of a money market fund.”

TerraUSD was an “algorithmic” stablecoin, meaning that it was not backed by actual assets. One of the industry’s best hopes in Congress is to get legislation passed authorizing stablecoins that are backed by concrete assets.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and a frequent crypto skeptic, floated the idea last month of reaching a “grand bargain” with Republicans during the lame-duck Congress after the election.

Although stablecoins seem to have more legislative legs than other crypto proposals, skeptics like Kelleher, of Better Markets, are wary. He likened them to money market funds, which had to be saved from collapse by the Federal Reserve in 2008 and 2020.

“A stablecoin is really nothing more than a crypto money market fund, with all the risks and dangers of a money market fund,” he said. “Except it has even more, because it’s a crypto product that is not only unregulated, but because it’s also untransparent.”

Editor’s Note: In September 2022, The Intercept received $500,000 from Sam Bankman-Fried’s foundation, Building a Stronger Future, as part of a $4 million grant to fund our pandemic prevention and biosafety coverage. That grant has been suspended. In keeping with our general practice, The Intercept disclosed the funding in subsequent reporting on Bankman-Fried’s political activities.

The post Crypto Billionaires Could Flip the Senate to the GOP. Here’s What They Want. appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 13 Oct 2024 | 1:16 pm UTC

Schools bombarded by nation-state attacks, ransomware gangs, and everyone in between

Reading, writing, and cyber mayhem, amirite?

If we were to draw an infosec Venn diagram, with one circle representing "sensitive info that attackers would want to steal" and the other "limited resources plus difficult-to-secure IT environments," education would sit in the overlap. …

Source: The Register | 13 Oct 2024 | 1:00 pm UTC

100 Days of Labour + Alex Salmond Dies

We look at the government’s start, and the life of the former SNP leader

Source: BBC News | 13 Oct 2024 | 12:49 pm UTC

Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants clash in southern Lebanon

Source: World | 13 Oct 2024 | 12:47 pm UTC

Boy (12) injured in firework attack in Belfast

12-year old subject of ‘reckless assault’ remains in hospital with serious eye injuries

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Oct 2024 | 12:43 pm UTC

Targeting of UNIFIL 'unacceptable', says Irish commander

The commander of Irish peacekeepers in south Lebanon has said the targeting and injuring of United Nations soldiers is "totally unacceptable".

Source: News Headlines | 13 Oct 2024 | 12:30 pm UTC

Man charged in relation to seizure of drugs worth €2.5m at Rosslare Europort

Approximately 36kgs of suspected cocaine was seized by Revenue officers following a search of a truck which had disembarked from a ferry

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 13 Oct 2024 | 11:36 am UTC

count: 196