Hackers abuse popular Godot game engine to infect thousands of PCs
49ers QB Brock Purdy remains severely limited by injury to his throwing shoulderYears ago, every time the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots clashed, it was appointment viewing for NFL fans league wide. For more than a decade, each contest featured Tom Brady squaring off against Peyton Manning, and later Andrew Luck. However, the last three meetings ahead of the AFC foes' Week 12 contest have all featured different quarterbacks under center for Indianapolis. While each game between the two since 2018 saw Mac Jones take leadership of New England, 2024's contest in Massachusetts pits rookie quarterback Drake Maye against second-year gunslinger Anthony Richardson. Despite recent games between the Colts and Patriots not harboring nearly as much excitement as those in the past did, neither squad has been able to win consecutive games since New England beat Indianapolis eight straight times from 2010-2018. That trend may change in Week 12, as the Colts are favored to beat the Patriots by 2.5 points on the road, according to BetMGM . Indianapolis heads to Foxborough with a 5-6 record while New England sits at 3-9. The over/under set for the contest is at 42.5 points, considering the fact that the Patriots average 16.4 points per game and surrenders 23.5 through the first 12 weeks of the season. The Colts average 20.2 per contest while allowing 22.8 points per game. BetMGM's winning team model projects 75.5% confidence in an Indianapolis win, but it predicts New England to cover the spread with 59.3% confidence. Indianapolis has lost four of its last five contests whereas New England has lost three games in that same span. However, the Patriots are 0-3 against AFC South opponents this season while the Colts are 2-1 against AFC East foes, sporting a loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 10. MORE NFL: Where the Colts stand in the AFC playoff picture in Week 13BART Director Mark Foley will once again serve as president of the regional rail line’s board in 2025 after his eight colleagues unanimously elected him to the position Thursday. Foley, who previously served as the BART Board of Directors’ president in 2021 and its vice president in 2020, 2023 and this year, represents District 2 that includes the Antioch, Concord, North Concord/Martinez, Pittsburg/Bay Point and Pittsburg Center stations in Contra Costa County. He succeeds former BART District 9 Director Bevan Duffy , who represented the bulk of The City’s stations before opting not to run for reelection in 2024. District 5 Director Melissa Hernandez, whose district includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties, was elected vice president. The former Dublin mayor was the first Latina to serve on the agency’s board , according to BART. Foley and Hernandez face significant challenges atop the board in 2025, with BART staring down a deeply uncertain fiscal future. The pair will be tasked with identifying new funding sources and attracting more riders. “I look at 2025 as a year to invest in ourselves,” Foley said during Thursday’s nomination. “We need to let the public know how valuable BART is to their lives.” He said BART would have to continue providing clean, reliable, safe service in an effort to let riders know that public transit is a viable transportation option, as opposed to driving on the freeway. Foley also told the board that BART staff would need to identify how the agency could exist in the future, given that the COVID-19 pandemic upended the agency’s reliance on fares as the primary means of funding operations. November BART weekday ridership was down to 40.4% of pre-pandemic levels , according to Metropolitan Transportation Commission data, although the average station exits (166,035) were about level with the same month in 2023. BART continues to run using emergency funds that the agency says will run out in 2026. It faces a $35 million deficit in the fiscal year beginning July 1 and a $385 million deficit beginning a year later, according to the agency. Foley said regional transit operators were working alongside the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to determine how they could best progress toward placing on a future ballot a regional-transportation bond measure aimed at avoiding service cuts throughout the Bay Area. BART Board Director Janice Li, who served as president in 2023 while Foley was vice president, said Thursday that the job “is extremely thankless because it is truly the role of herding cats.” “It is a significant amount of work on top of everything we already have to do as board directors,” she said. Li told Foley the rest of the directors would support him in his new role to guarantee that “this board and this agency work well, competently and run the service we need.” Hernandez said during the meeting that she is looking forward to “getting stuff done” and “possibly doing some team-building in the next year because we do have so many new board members.” Among the agency’s highlights from this past year, Foley said that staff are “flying through” the installation schedule of new fare gates at BART’s network of stations , with crews expected to install the remaining fare gates next year. Foley said his term would also be focused on building the agency’s remaining electrical power substations, which help operate BART’s trains. A new train-control system is also in the works, which Foley said would improve the agency’s safety and reliability as the system would determine where to distribute power based on which parts of the track are being heavily used. “Folks’ daily schedules revolves around when we’re gonna be at the station, when they can leave, when they’re getting to work,” Foley said, adding that the ability to consistently provide power is critical for day-to-day activities. Looking ahead, Foley said he was also excited about upgrades being made to Clipper’s payment system , with the new technology expected to launch in April. New benefits of “Clipper 2.0” include the ability for riders to cover their fares by tapping onto Clipper stations using debit and credit cards that are capable of contactless payments. Other improvements rolling out later in the year include free and reduced price transfer among regional operators. Foley said the adoption of new technology would allow riders to make easier transactions, fulfilling the agency’s effort to “make transit as simple as possible for people to jump on and use.”Google executives held a 2025 strategy meeting with employees last week, setting the stage for a year of increased competition, regulatory hurdles and advancements in AI. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google will introduce a number of AI features in the first half of the year. He also warned it would be a challenging year, as "we are facing scrutiny across the world." Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees last week that "the stakes are high" for 2025, as the company faces increased competition and regulatory hurdles and contends with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. > 24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are At a 2025 strategy meeting on Dec. 18, Pichai and other Google leaders, donning ugly holiday sweaters, hyped up the coming year, most notably as it pertains to what's coming in AI, according to audio obtained by CNBC. "I think 2025 will be critical," Pichai said. "I think it's really important we internalize the urgency of this moment, and need to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of this technology and solve real user problems." Some employees attended the meeting in person at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, and others tuned in virtually. Pichai's comments come after a year packed with some of the most intense pressure Google has experienced since going public two decades ago. While areas like search ads and cloud produced strong revenue growth, competition picked up in Google's core markets, and the company faced internal challenges including culture clashes and concerns about Pichai's vision for the future. Additionally, regulation is now heavier than ever. Money Report How five top CEOs described the AI boom in 2024 If interest rates remain ‘higher for longer,' the winners are those with cash accounts In August, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally holds a monopoly in the search market. The Justice Department in November asked that Google be forced to divest its Chrome internet browser unit. In a separate case, the DOJ accused the company of illegally dominating online ad technology. That trial closed in September and awaits a judge ruling. That same month, Britain's competition watchdog issued a statement of objections over Google's ad tech practices, which the regulator provisionally found are impacting competition in the U.K. "It's not lost on me that we are facing scrutiny across the world," Pichai said. "It comes with our size and success. It's part of a broader trend where tech is now impacting society at scale. So more than ever, through this moment, we have to make sure we don't get distracted." A Google spokesperson declined to comment. Google's search business still has dominant market share, but generative AI has served up all sorts of new ways for people to access online information, and has brought with it a host of new competitors. OpenAI's ChatGPT kicked off the hype cycle in late 2022, and investors including Microsoft have since propelled the company to a $157 billion valuation. In July, OpenAI announced it would launch a search engine of its own. Perplexity is also promoting its AI-powered search service and recently closed a $500 million funding round at a $9 billion valuation . Google is investing heavily to try and stay on top, principally through Gemini, its AI model. The Gemini app gives users access to a number of tools, including Google's chatbot. Pichai said "building big, new business" is a top priority. That includes the Gemini app, which executives said they see as Google's next app to reach half a billion users. The company currently has 15 apps that have hit that mark. "With the Gemini app, there is strong momentum, particularly over the last few months," Pichai said. "But we have some work to do in 2025 to close the gap and establish a leadership position there as well." "Scaling Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year," Pichai later added. At the meeting, Pichai showed a chart of large language models, with Gemini 1.5 leading OpenAI's GPT and other competitors. "I expect some back and forth" in 2025, Pichai said. "I think we'll be state of the art." He acknowledged that Google has had to play catchup. "In history, you don't always need to be first but you have to execute well and really be the best in class as a product," he said. "I think that's what 2025 is all about." Executives took questions that were submitted by employees through Google's internal system. One comment read aloud by Pichai suggested that ChatGPT "is becoming synonymous to AI the same way Google is to search," with the questioner asking, "What's our plan to combat this in the upcoming year? Or are we not focusing as much on consumer facing LLM?" For the answer, Pichai turned to DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, who said that teams are going to "turbo charge" the Gemini app and that the company has seen progress in the number of users since launching the app in February. He said "the products themselves are going to evolve massively over the next year or two." Hassabis described a vision for a universal assistant that "can seamlessly operate over any domain, any modality or any device." Project Astra, Google's experimental version of a universal assistant that the company announced in May, will be updated in the first half of the year. Another employee question asked whether Google will be able to get AI products to scale without charging $200 a month "like other companies." "Right now, we don't have any plans for this kind of subscription level," Hassabis responded, adding that he thinks the $20 monthly charge for Gemini advanced is a good value. "I wouldn't necessarily say never but there are no plans for that at the moment." Toward the end of the meeting, Google welcomed to the stage Josh Woodward, the head of Google Labs. He took the microphone as the Zombie Nation song "Kernkraft 400" played loudly in the background. "I'm going to try to do six demos in eight minutes," said Woodward, who's known for his high level of energy. Woodward started by showing off Jules, a coding assistant that's in a trusted tester's program. He said, "It's where the future of software development is headed." Woodward then shifted to AI notetaking product NotebookLM, which featured a series of updates in 2024, including a podcasting tool. Woodward demonstrated how the company is trying a new feature that allows the user to "call in" to a podcast. He then moved onto Project Mariner, an AI-powered multi-tasking Chrome extension. Woodward asked it to add the top restaurants from Tripadvisor to the Maps app. After a brief pause, the demo successfully worked, leading employees in attendance to erupt in applause. Throughout the meeting, Pichai kept reminding employees of the need to "stay scrappy." Google has gone through an extensive phase of cost cutting that included eliminating about 6% of its workforce in 2023 and a continued focus on efficiency. As of the end of the third quarter, Alphabet had 181,269 employees, down about 5% from the end of 2022. At one point, Pichai referenced Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin , who started the company 26 years ago, long before cloud computing or AI tools existed. "In early Google days, you look at how the founders built our data centers, they were really really scrappy in every decision they made," Pichai said. "Often, constraints lead to creativity. Not all problems are always solved by headcount." WATCH: Will AI stocks push higher in 2025? Also on CNBC Google CEO Pichai struggled to navigate a pressure-filled year OpenAI says it needs 'more capital than we’d imagined' as it lays out for-profit plan Waymo dominated the U.S. robotaxi market in 2024, but Tesla and Zoox loom
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UN urges Taliban to protect journalists, ensure media freedom in AfghanistanA WOMAN has claimed she fixed her thin hair with a weekly hack she swears by. Faith Drew took to social media to show off her thick, long locks while sharing her secret to healthy hair . She showed a picture of her hair a few years ago, which was much shorter and thinner than the locks on her head now and revealed it was all down to looking after her scalp. The beauty fan said: "Scalp health is so important. "Your hair grows from the root. "Our scalp actually ages 12 times faster than the skin on our body. READ MORE HAIR HACKS "So it's no wonder that as we age, our hair can be one of the first things to go." Faith said she began to notice excess hair fallout and her hairline had started to recede. But now her hair is so full she gets asked daily if she wears extensions - which she doesn't. Her secret? She revealed it was all down to one weekly beauty treatment, scalp oiling. Most read in Fabulous "I have done weekly oil treatments now for the last two and a half years," she explained. Faith also linked the product she used in her bio, the Monat hair thinning defense oil which costs £77. The product contains caffeine to promote new hair growth as it stimulates blood flow to the scalp - but you can also try the Plantur 39 Phtyo Caffeine Tonic from Boots for just £10.99. The clips were a hit on her TikTok account @ faithdrew_ where she boasts over 133k followers and 3.9 million likes. People were quick to take to the comments thanking her for the advice. One person wrote: "Explain howwww." We can lose between 50 and 100 hairs a day, according to the NHS. It is not usually something to worry about, but occasional it can be a sign of a medical concern. These include illness, stress, cancer treatment, weight loss and iron deficiency. The NHS advises to book an appointment with your GP to see if you can get to the cause of it. Experts at American Academy of Dermatology Association also recommend to eat healthy, limit curling irons and only use them for special occasions. They also recommend using a gentle shampoo, and make use of leave-in conditioners. Another commented: "Omg I need this BAD." "What did you use please," penned a third. READ MORE SUN STORIES Meanwhile a fourth said: "can you show your hair care products?" Fabulous will pay for your exclusive stories. Just email: fabulousdigital@the-sun.co.uk and pop EXCLUSIVE in the subject line .LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 21, 2024-- In today's fast-paced society, more and more singles with entrepreneurial spirit are looking for innovation, adventure, and independence. These individuals are often self-driven, eager to push boundaries in both their careers and personal lives. Unfortunately, traditional dating platforms often fall short in helping these individuals find like-minded matches who can share the similar worldviews, values, and passions. Founded in 2001, MillionaireMatch invented millionaire dating and has becoming the leading platform for ambitious individuals with entrepreneurial spirit. Voted as “Best of the Web” by Forbes and highlighted by the WSJ, MillionaireMatch is more than just a dating platform – it has also been a business networking community. Many singles with entrepreneurial spirit have joined to look for serious relationships, share career stories, discuss industry trends, and collaborate on business ventures. To better serve the community, MillionaireMatch has already introduced some business-focused features designed to help users share their entrepreneurial spirit, business stories, startup projects, and career aspirations. Such as: To further enhance privacy and security, MillionaireMatch introduces Confidentiality Guard TM, a feature designed to provide a secure and reliable dating experience for those looking for authentic, high-quality connections. It safeguards both online and offline interactions, proving comprehensive protection for all activities. For individuals with entrepreneurial spirit, they usually discuss career goals, startup ideas, or business plans with potential partners. Under this agreement, users are prohibited from sharing other users' profile details, private conversations, or any confidential information with third-party platforms. “MillionaireMatch goes beyond matchmaking; it’s a place where members expand their networks, explore business opportunities, and form deep, meaningful connections. Whether you’re looking for love or collaboration, we will help you build relationships that matter. While our subscription fees may be higher than those of typical dating platforms, the users of entrepreneurial spirit are more likely to purchase the premium membership than others. We connect you with like-minded, high-quality individuals who share your entrepreneurial spirit – helping you save valuable time, energy, and money. All these make the cost of a subscription a worthwhile investment,” stated Dani Johnson, spokesperson for MillionaireMatch. Navigating the dating world for ambitious individuals with entrepreneurial spirit can present unique challenges. Choosing the right platform and prioritizing emotional needs lay a strong foundation. Ready to meet individuals whose entrepreneurial spirit matches yours? Join MillionaireMatch today. About MillionaireMatch Founded in 2001, MillionaireMatch has grown to serve nearly 6 million of high-quality members such as executives, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and investors, alongside high-net-worth individuals including celebrities, influencers, millionaires, and billionaires. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241221333594/en/ CONTACT: Dani Johnson press@MillionaireMatch.com KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TECHNOLOGY WOMEN MEN COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE LIFESTYLE SOCIAL MEDIA CONSUMER DATA MANAGEMENT SOURCE: MillionaireMatch Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/21/2024 09:15 AM/DISC: 12/21/2024 09:15 AM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241221333594/en
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‘We Deserved More Than One Point!’ –Finidi Reflects On Rivers United’s Draw At Sunshine Stars