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COLLEGE FB NOTESIndia News Live Today December 14, 2024: Sambhal mosque imam fined ₹2 lakh for alleged loudspeaker noise violation, granted bailFelicia Schwartz in Washington Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday warned there would be “all hell to pay in the Middle East” if Hamas had not released the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza before he takes office in January. Trump’s comments came as Joe Biden’s administration is making a final push for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas after its success last week in brokering an end to the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon. If the hostages are not released by January 20 2025, when he takes office, “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform . He added: “For those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity, those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America.” It was not clear whether Trump was referring to US military action or other penalties and his campaign did not immediately respond to a request to clarify. US efforts to broker an agreement to end the conflict and secure the release of the remaining hostages have floundered for more than a year. Many diplomats have predicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would wait until after the US elections before agreeing a deal. Trump’s signal that he wants to see an agreement reached before he takes office could provide new momentum in the talks. US officials have said there has been more openness to the discussions from Israeli officials in recent days and that the Lebanon ceasefire has created new opportunities for diplomacy. Ron Dermer, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, was in Washington for meetings with officials in the Biden administration on Monday and will head to Florida for talks about a deal with Trump campaign officials, said people familiar with the matter. There are 101 hostages remaining in Gaza, about half of whom are believed dead. Trump’s post came several hours after Israel confirmed an Israeli-US hostage Omer Neutra, a soldier, was killed on October 7 2023. It was previously believed he was alive. More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s ferocious retaliation for the Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Hamas’s militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage during the assault, according to Israeli officials. Recommended Under Trump, the US approach to the Middle East is expected to place a greater emphasis on confronting Iran. The president-elect’s team is also expected to redouble efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. A Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal would free up his administration to focus on those priorities. Biden discussed the ceasefire negotiations with Trump when they met in the Oval Office last month. The president’s officials have also briefed members of the Trump team, including appointees Mike Waltz, as national security adviser, and Steve Witkoff, as Middle East envoy, about the talks. Comments have not been enabled for this article.
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A wealthy couple have appeared in court after a gardener died while working at their £2.5 million country mansion. Former Ministry of Defence chief Nicholas Prest, 71, and his wife Anthea, 70, have both denied being to blame for the death of gardener Paul Marsden, who was working on the grounds of their property at the time. Self-employed Mr Marsden, 47, had been using a quad bike to spray weed killer when he fell from the vehicle in April 2020. An inquest previously heard he was was discovered underneath the "all terrain vehicle" by another worker, and a post mortem examination revealed he had died of asphyxia. Mr Prest and his wife are each accused of two charges under the Health and Safety at Work act in relation to Mr Marsden's death They do not face charges of manslaughter, but instead are accused over charges of failing to check workers had protective equipment and that the quad bike was safe to use, reports Wales Online . Following a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive, the couple appeared together in the dock on Wednesday at Cardiff Crown Court, where they spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth, and address. They also spoke to plead not guilty to both charges during the brief hearing and will stand trial next October. One charge alleges the Prests didn't check that persons including Paul Marsden "were exposed to risks arising from the failure to provide suitable and sufficient training, plant and personal protective equipment when using all-terrain vehicles." The other charge alleges the couple failed to" take such measures as it was reasonable for you to take to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that plants provided for use, namely that an all terrain vehicle, was safe and without risk to non-employees, namely Paul Marsden, for use on the premises." Mr Prest, previously worked for the MoD before setting up his own companies and is now the chairman of defence technology giant Cohort. He lives with Mrs Prest at the sprawling countryside house close to the village of Llandogo in Monmouthshire, which overlooks the River Wye and across into the Forest of Dean. The couple have previously hosted a number of garden parties at the Pilstone House home as charity fundraising events for causes such as the NHS and Ukraine. The Prests, of Llandogo, were handed unconditional bail. Mr Marsden's brother Gary and father John followed the proceedings on video link after judge Eugene Egan granted them permission to attend remotely.Mark Clark Extension project likely dead after state declines to offer lifeline
The Role of Fraternity in a Divided NationHeisman Trophy finalist and two-way Colorado star Travis Hunter was named The Associated Press Big 12 defensive player of the year while also being a first-team selection at wide receiver on Thursday. Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders is the league's top offensive player. Kenny Dillingham, the 34-year-old in his second season at Arizona State, was the unanimous choice as Big 12 coach of the year after leading his alma mater to a championship and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. The Sun Devils (11-2) went into their league debut as the preseason pick to finish last among the 16 teams. At cornerback, Hunter had 31 tackles, tied for the Big 12 lead with 11 pass breakups and was tied for second with four interceptions. On offense, he leads the Big 12 with 92 receptions and 14 receiving touchdowns, and is second with 1,152 yards receiving. His 21 catches of at least 20 yards are the most nationally. He is also the AP's player of the year. Sanders is the Big 12 passing leader, completing 337 of 454 passes (74.2%) for 3,926 yards and a school-record 35 touchdowns with eight interceptions for the Buffaloes (10-2) Arizona State freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt, who is 11-1 as a starter, is the league’s top newcomer. The Michigan State transfer has 2,663 yards passing with 24 touchdowns and only five picks in 304 attempts. LAS VEGAS — Former Florida and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen has agreed to lead UNLV's 24th-ranked football program, two people with knowledge of the hire said Wednesday. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made. The 52-year-old Mullen replaces Barry Odom, who left for Purdue on Sunday after going 19-8 and helping the Rebels receive back-to-back bowl invitations for the first time in program history. UNLV will play California in the LA Bowl on Wednesday. UNLV athletic director Erick Harper wasted little time in finding Odom's replacement. Mullen, most recently an ESPN college football analyst, went 103-61 at Florida and Mississippi State. Rich Rodriguez is returning to West Virginia for a second stint as head coach at his alma mater. Athletic director Wren Baker announced the hiring on Thursday, 17 years after Rodriguez made a hasty exit for what became a disastrous three-year experiment at Michigan. “We are thrilled to welcome Coach Rich Rodriguez and his family back home,” Baker said in a statement. “Coach Rodriguez understands what it takes to win at West Virginia, and I believe he will pour his heart, soul and every ounce of his energy into our program. I am convinced Coach Rodriguez wants what is best for West Virginia, WVU and West Virginia football, and I am excited about the future of our program.” Rodriguez, who is the current coach at Jacksonville State, an architect of the spread offense and a polarizing figure in his home state, replaces Neal Brown, who was fired on Dec. 1 after going 37-35 in six seasons, including 6-6 this year. BRIEFLY BETS: Texas winning the national championship next month would be bad news for BetMGM Sportsbook. It would be similarly disappointing if Boise State, Indiana or Arizona State won the title. Texas has attracted a lot of money all season to go all the way. Those other schools provide the hope of a big payoff. The Longhorns are the co-favorite at BetMGM with No. 1 Oregon at 7-2 odds. The other three teams are least 40-1. FCS: The NCAA is taking its Football Championship Subdivision title game back to Tennessee. The FCS championship games at the end of the 2025 and 2026 seasons will be played in Nashville on the Vanderbilt campus. This season’s game will be played Jan. 6 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, which will host the game for a record 15th season in a row and was set for at least two more. OC: UCLA announced Tino Sunseri’s hiring as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Sunseri replaces Eric Bieniemy, who was fired on Dec. 5 after fielding one of the nation’s worst offenses this season. Sunseri spent one season as Indiana’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after following Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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While we are more technology-dependent by the day, the existence of safety measure protocols is definitely needed to protect us against various security risks. One of the tools that people commonly use today is the VPN. But when it comes to choosing a VPN service, things might get tricky. There are a lot of good options out there that often make people confuse. So to help you out, today we want to introduce you to the iTop VPN , one of the best virtual private network services you can try. VPN is a great choice if you’re looking for a quick solution to mask your real IP. After all, there are so many benefits you may gain from not using the real IP when browsing the internet, especially better safety. iTop VPN is a virtual network service that is now used by many. It quickly gained popularity as one of the best VPN services people can get for free. Through the free package, they offer various benefits that may be useful for some users. Among its features, some are worth noting, like the Kill Switch for connections and quality connection encryption. It uses the AES-256 encryption, which is powerful enough to protect your internet connection. Additionally, the performance of iTop VPN is known to be quite good. It’s best for file torrenting as well as streaming. Thanks to the huge number of servers they placed around the world, getting a stable connection through iTop VPN is such an easy task. By seeing the performance and features, we would consider iTop VPN to be safe to use. It has the standard features that may benefit many users and its performance is great. The encryption each user will get is already strong enough to protect them against various cybersecurity risks. The tunneling protocols are also reliable, which ensures you have a stable connection without any interruption. There’s also an ad-blocking feature that’s really useful to keep the user experience comfortable when surfing the Internet. Additionally, iTop VPN also offers a desktop app that’s really easy to install and use. Once the app is successfully installed, users can easily connect to one of the available servers nearby. Oh, some of the servers are already available for free packages too. So feel free to try the experience yourself. iTop VPN uses the standard AES-256 encryption, which many would consider to be the balance between connection performance and security. The encryption is more than enough to protect yourself against unwanted onlookers and most third parties who want to sniff your personal data. The encryption is also great to protect yourself against various cybersecurity risks, including hacking attempts. This feature is always important in any VPN service. It works by cutting all the internet connection if the VPN is failed. Therefore, you won’t be exposed to the risks without protection. Fortunately, iTop VPNn already included the feature in the apps on both desktop and mobile devices. So when you are trying the app for the first time, you can enable this feature to gain an additional layer of protection. With the feature enabled, your real IP won’t be accidentally leaked when the VPN is failing or switching to a different server. Although they do have the free package, users can opt for the Premium one if they desire more features and protections. iTop VPN uses subscription-based fees, which you can see below: As you may expect, the prices are lower the longer you subscribe. So if you feel really comfortable using the iTop VPN as your daily service, we couldn’t see any reason to not subscribe to the 3-year plan. It’s really affordable and it can get you protected for years to come. Additionally, iTop VPN also gives a 30-day money-back guarantee for every user. So if you don’t feel the experience, you can always get a refund worry-free. With the limited data protection on the Free version, you might need to consider the Premium one if you want to get long-term internet protection. The iTop VPN is easy to use. But first, you are required to download a suitable app according to the device you’re using. Simply follow the simple steps below: Upon opening the app, you may see the list of available servers along with their indicators. Green means a good connection, while red means the contrary. So, pick one that’s nearest to your area to get a more reliable and stable internet connection. While the app still has its ups and downs, we think iTop VPN is worth trying. Even the Free version of it is already quite decent if you only need to use the service from time to time. But for those who need daily protection, considering the subscription is also not a bad idea. Feel free to choose which plan suits you the most and all will be well!Titan submersible tragedy spurs sonar tech for super-fast deep-sea mapping
Companies tighten security after a health care CEO’s killing leads to a surge of threats
Even the most polite enquiry about New Year’s Eve plans can bring me out in hives. Could three words elicit more social pressure? To be doing something worthy of ringing in another year and seeing off the one passed? It used to be a big event, a small social gathering of 30 inebriated punters crammed into someone’s house, or a big ‘night’ with extortionate tickets, underwhelming cocktails and the feverish hunt for a snog at countdown. The best, in my experience, were the more spontaneous sort, the last minute invite or the scrambling together of plans and a borrowed sparkly outfit. The key, really, is to club together and get away. From cosy cabins for two, to party piles with sound systems and dance floors, here are best last minute New Year’s Eve (available at the time of writing). For the last minute splurge for the whole gang Nothing says New Year’s Eve quite like a country party weekend. Cowdray House, a stonking great pile in the watercolour-pretty South Downs is, remarkably, free for a group of 30 or so to see in the 2025. With 22 bedrooms, this unapologetic traditionalist house is dressed to the nines in silk drapes, detailed wallpaper, chandeliers and tapestries. What’s more, it’s wrapped in 110 acres of manicured parkland, where morning horse rides can be arranged, along with clay pigeon shooting and various other activities. Back at base, guests can wallow in a heated indoor pool, skip onto the bowling alley and don their glad rags for a Rivals-style feast, floating from the drawing room to the resplendent dining room as if they own the place. Rosalyn Wikeley £15,000 per night (with 22 bedrooms). For the coastal cravings It may feel counterintuitive to head South West for the sea in winter, but locals will say that, on a crisp, sunny December day, there are few places more beautiful. Sleeping eight, The Croft at Coverack ties the tradition of New Year’s Eve with a beach view, where a terrace with old balustrades sets a timeless, Agatha Christie-style setting for evening drinks and stargazing as New Year’s resolutions are proclaimed. Guests can stew in the house’s private hot tub, curl up by the fire (or the Aga) after long rambles along the beach (which the house’s gardens spill directly onto), or even defy the seasonal rhythms and crack open the Green Egg for a New Year’s Day barbecue, weather permitting. Beach retreats even offer a complimentary £100 for a food hamper of delicious local produce for each stay. £3,693.92 for a 5-night stay from 30th December. For Hogmanay A few hours north of Edinburgh, where the Cairngorms surge in all their smooth, rhythmic and peaty glory, lies a reimagined Victorian Coaching inn, snapped up by art power couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth. It is now the heart of film set-worthy Braemar, a town that, by virtue of its proximity to Balmoral (where Queen Victoria once roamed the heather-carpeted hills with Mr Brown), has received a sprinkling of regal fairy dust and architectural good looks. The Fife Arms taps into this era of eccentric Victoriana, just with lashings of contemporary art (think Freuds and Picassos casually hanging beside old watercolours). It's the sort of place that comes into its own during the winter months, with a fire-lit tavern of ale and venison pie, bedrooms dressed head-to-toe in tartan with deep, steaming baths and, on New Year’s Eve, a self-played Steinway to ease guests into a memorable Hogmanay and full black tie. This includes a four-course dinner in the taxidermy-centred Clunie Dining Room, fireworks lighting up the magnificent Cairngorms backdrop at midnight and various New Year’s Day feasts, including a Buck’s Fizz Scottish breakfast. A 3-night Hogmanay Celebration packages start from £2,848 based on two guests sharing a Croft Room. For the small group A few couples? Two families with children? A group of friends wanting to ring in the New Year’s in style, with a bucolic setting to wake up to the following morning? Perched on the edge of a fishing lake, like something from a Beatrix Potter tale, four-bed Hygge House in Wiltshire has only just become available to book. There’s an Alpine lodge sensibility to it – its blonde timber blends into the natural setting and, from inside, the views across the lake are instantly shoulder lowering. Interiors are plush and contemporary, with mood-setting light features, underfloor heating and head-turning art. You’ll be adding lakeside lifestyle to your New Year’s resolutions list. From £950 per night (sleeps 8). For the whole clan, even the dog In prime position at the footsteps of Landgate arch, gateway to the citadel of Rye, Landgate House is a handsome 700-year old building, whose renovation has preserved its original features and wonky spirit. With fiv bedrooms, it’s ideal for friends with children in tow (and the family hound), keen to ring in the New Year without all the babysitting palava and Rye’s medieval cobblestones and quirky cafes on their doorstep. This is the sort of house where memories are crafted, whether its children cavorting across the original flagstones in capes, little feet pounding the stairs before breakfast around a long, sun-drenched table, or sinking into frothy baths you rarely find time for back at base, with a glass of Champagne. Price on request. For the traditionalists Ensconced in 500 acres of parkland not far from Bath’s Georgian symmetry, Lucknam Park is the blue-blooded aunt who loves children, dogs and country pursuits. It’s the serviced cottages you’ll want to bag for a New Years bolt, scattered in the grounds for ultimate privacy and more diluted decor compared to the silk drapes, floral wallpaper and mahogany gilt and glory decking the sweeping rooms of the main house. Celebrations kick off in classic style with afternoon tea in the resplendent drawing room or library, followed by a champagne reception and Michelin Star Gala dinner. A brisk morning canter through the grounds or a long stint in the cavernous spa’s sauna can see of any hangovers – that, or a brisk walk through the mist followed by a hearty brunch in the house’s original ballroom. Doubles from £950 per night in a one bedroom . Two-night minimum stay. For the romantics There’s something wildly romantic about waking up to a mist-strewn lake, or plodding onto a terrace with breakfast as the morning sun moves it through various yolksy shades. The Lakes by YOO is that sweetspot between a rental and a hotel, where you’re guaranteed all the privacy of a rental with the service and stress-free meals of a hotel. As such, it’s the ultimate New Year’s Eve escape for families completely ‘done’ with the festive slog and in need of some TLC (and a healthy distance from the dishes). Whether it’s an apartment or sweeping cabin perched on the water’s edge, The Lakes by Yoo have a stay that suits all tribes of Urban escapees, with fireplaces to curl up beside after afternoons on e-bikes or kayaks, and The Spa By YOO for some ‘New Year, New Me’ facials. The New Year’s Eve Retreat package between 30th December and 1st January includes a New Year’s Eve bash in the lakes Bar & Kitchen, with a gourmet dinner and lakeside fireworks when the clock strikes midnight. New Year’s Eve Retreat from £4,740 for a two-night stay in a 3-bedroom lakeside apartment. For the oenophiles Gather nineteen of your nearest, dearest – and, crucially, most fun friends – and head to this country pile (it’s set within six acres) in the Lake District. With a 1,000-bottle wine cellar to sample, an ice cream maker, fully stocked bar and high-spec cinema, there is no chance of boredom at Cark Manor. Call in the caterers or head off for a Michelin-starred dining experience at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume five minutes away. For a real taste of the good life, ask the housemaster (it’s that sort of place) to get the hog roast going. From £20,400 for a five-night stay, sleeps 20, pet-friendly on request. For the party set The former family home of fashion and textile designer Pearl Lowe (mum to Daisy Lowe) is a wonderland. Each of the eleven bedrooms is unique with statement wallpaper, shag pile rugs and art deco mirrors. Baths are roll-top and the fires are roaring. Designed with ‘hedonism in mind’, this is one hell of a party pad with a hidden gypsy caravan and wood-fired hot tub. Near the fashionista hotspot of Bruton (Stella McCartney, Alice Temperley and Phoebe Philo all live nearby), this is a New Year’s Eve getaway for those that want to see and be seen. From £12,750 for a 7-night stay, sleeps 12, pet-friendly. Set on top of the city’s ancient Roman Walls with views of the majestic River Dee, the central Chester location makes a top spot for exploring - if you can be bothered to leave behind the roaring fires, cosy cinema room or copper free-standing bath tubs, that is. There’s also a games room with air hockey, table football, dart board and a Jukebox, as well as parking for eight cars and an electric charging point. Road trip up north, anyone? From £6,995 for a 5-night stay, sleeps 14. For the dinner party inclined Made famous by Channel 4’s Extraordinary Escapes, this 14th-Century former gatehouse is a regular bolthole for songwriters and artists — the Arctic Monkeys recorded an album there. Hidden away among the woodland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, close to Suffolk’s coast, it sleeps up to 19 but dinner parties can be even bigger with caterers on hand to put on a party to remember. Plus, there’s a gin bar. Interiors are light, airy and romantic with medieval touches throughout. From £10,000 for a 7-night stay, sleeps 19, pet-friendly. For the Historians History buffs will get their kicks knowing King Charles I stayed at the manor before the Siege of Gloucester in 1743. Everyone else? How does four acres, a heated swimming pool, fire pits and some serious luxury sound? Dance into the new year with a catered meal fit for a king in the ‘restaurant’ room followed by drinks at the bar. After midnight, slip into either Cleopatra, King Arthur or Lady Guinevere bedrooms for a royally good kip. From £24,175 for a three-night stay, sleeps 22.
Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet team is a “Conservative Aristocracy”, stuffed with Tory relatives, “pedigree parents” and nepo-babies, it can be revealed. Last week Tory Shadow Minister Alex Burghart lashed out at members of the government who are linked to other senior figures, saying: "It's all who you know or are related to." But research reveals an astonishing 16 members of Ms Badenoch's top team are related to or in relationships with other Tory politicians, advisors or officials - including Mr Burghart. Sir Reginald Eyre, Mr Burghart's father in law, is a former Conservative MP and vice-chairman, and served as a minister in the Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher governments. "How did Alex Burghart ‘forget’ his father-in-law was a Tory minister whilst he was howling about Labour MPs?" A Labour source said. "He’s now stitched up the Tory front bench by putting their own family links under the spotlight. He won’t be top of their Christmas card list." Ms Badenoch herself has family connections in high office - as the first cousin once removed of Yemi Osinbajo, the former Vice President of Nigeria. She’s also married to Hamish Badenoch, a former Tory councillor and parliamentary candidate. Victoria Atkins, the Shadow DEFRA Secretary, is the daughter of Sir Robert Atkins, a former Conservative MP and MEP, and Lady (Dulcie) Atkins, a Conservative councillor and mayor. Last year, she had to say she would recuse herself from any activity as Health Secretary that might conflict with her husband’s job as Managing Director of British Sugar. James Wild, the Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, is married to Natalie Evans, Conservative peer and former Leader of the House of Lords. Sophia True, the daughter of Lord True, the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, was a Special Adviser. to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2020-22. More recently she worked for his Shadow Cabinet colleague Claire Coutinho from September 2023 until the election. And Ms Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, is engaged to Adam Hawksbee, the former chair of Rishi Sunak ’s Town’s Unit. Gareth Bacon, the Shadow Transport Secretary, is married to Cheryl Cooley, a Conservative councillor in Bexley, who also works for Ms Badenoch according to the Register of Interests. Other members of her top team include relatives of a Tory baron, a former solicitor general, several councillors and candidates and a number of civil servants. The source added: “Despite losing scores of MPs in their election drubbing, the Conservative aristocracy is still going strong. Tory top brass remains packed with pedigree pals and parents. “Only bungling Kemi Badenoch and her team could sign off this attack for it to boomerang back on her own side.” A spokesperson for Ms Badenoch declined to comment. Kemi Badenoch's Tory aristocracy team in full Alex Burghart MP (Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary) Wife Hermione Eyre is a Contributing Editor of the Evening Standard and daughter of Sir Reginald Eyre, former Conservative MP and vice-chairman, and minister in the Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher governments. Kemi Badenoch (Leader of the Tory Party) Husband Hamish Badenoch is former Conservative councillor and parliamentary candidate. First cousin once removed of former Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Claire Coutinho (Shadow Energy Secretary) The former Rishi Sunak Special Adviser is engaged to Adam Hawksbee, Tory think tanker who was made Chair of the Prime Minister’s Towns Unit by Rishi Sunak in January 2024. Now External Affairs at M&S. Victoria Atkins (Shadow DEFRA Secretary) Daughter of Sir Robert Atkins, a former Conservative MP and MEP, and Lady (Dulcie) Atkins, a Conservative councillor and mayor. Last year, she had to say she would recuse herself from any activity as Health Secretary that might conflict with her husband’s job as Managing Director of British Sugar. Lord True (Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords) Daughter Sophia True was a Special Adviser. to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2020-22, and most recently for his Shadow Cabinet colleague Claire Coutinho from September 2023 until the election. Dame Priti Patel (Shadow Foreign Secretary) Husband Alex Sawyer is a Conservative councillor and Cabinet Member for Communities on Bexley Council. Gareth Bacon (Shadow Transport Secretary) Bacon is married to Cheryl Cooley (Bacon), a fellow Conservative councillor in Bexley, who also works for Kemi Badenoch according to the Register of Interests. James Wild MP (S hadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) Wild is married to Natalie Evans, Conservative peer and former Leader of the House of Lords. Ed Argar (Shadow Health Secretary) Partner Laetitia Glossop stood for the Conservatives for North Durham in 2015 and 2017. James Cartlidge (Shadow Defence Secretary) His father-in-law is former Conservative MP, Sir Gerald Howarth, who represented Cannock and Burntwood from 1983 to 1992 and then Aldershot from 1997 to 2017. Lord Johnson (Co-Chairman of the Tory Party) Father-in-law is Baron Hamilton of Epsom. Mark Garnier ( Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury) His cousin, Sir Edward Garnier KC, was Solicitor General from 2010 until 2012 and was the Member of Parliament for Harborough from 1992 until 2017. Dame Rebecca Harris (Shadow Chief Whip) Spouse/partner is a civil servant. Andrew Bowie MP (Shadow Scottish Secretary, and Shadow Minister for DESNEZ) Spouse/partner is a civil servant. Baroness Williams (Chief Whip in the House of Lords) A family member is a civil servant Gareth Davies MP ( Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury) Two family members are civil servants A family member works for an offshore wind company Be the first with news from Mirror Politics POLITICS WHATSAPP: Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here . We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice . NEWSLETTER: Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox. PODCAST: And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell , hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday.BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 22, 2024-- Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ: QTRX) today announced that it received a notice (the “Notice”) on November 21, 2024 from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) stating that because the Company has not yet filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 (the “Form 10-Q"), it is no longer in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) (the “Rule”), which requires listed companies to timely file all required periodic financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The Notice has no immediate effect on the listing or trading of the Company’s common stock on Nasdaq. Under Nasdaq rules, the Company has 60 calendar days from receipt of the Notice, or until January 20, 2025, to submit a plan to regain compliance with the Rule. On November 12, 2024, the Company previously announced that it would be delayed in filing the Form 10-Q due to the need to restate the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and its unaudited consolidated financial statements for the quarterly and year-to-date (as applicable) periods ended March 31, 2022, June 30, 2022, September 30, 2022, March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023, September 30, 2023, March 31, 2024 and June 30, 2024. The Notice from Nasdaq is standard practice in the event of a delayed periodic financial report filing and was anticipated. The Company is continuing to work expeditiously to complete the filing of the Form 10-Q and remains on track to complete the restatement and all required filings by the end of 2024. This announcement is made in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(b)(2). About Quanterix From discovery to diagnostics, Quanterix’s ultrasensitive biomarker detection is fueling breakthroughs only made possible through its unparalleled sensitivity and flexibility. The Company’s Simoa ® technology has delivered the gold standard for earlier biomarker detection in blood, serum or plasma, with the ability to quantify proteins that are far lower than the Level of Quantification (LoQ). Its industry-leading precision instruments, digital immunoassay technology and CLIA-certified Accelerator laboratory have supported research that advances disease understanding and management in neurology, oncology, immunology, cardiology and infectious disease. Quanterix has been a trusted partner of the scientific community for nearly two decades, powering research published in more than 3,100 peer-reviewed journals. Find additional information about the Billerica, Massachusetts-based company at https://www.quanterix.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend” and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release are based on Quanterix’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Each of these forward-looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Factors that may cause Quanterix’s actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, that the Company may have underestimated the scope and impact of the restatement of certain of its financial statement and the risk that the Company’s restated financial statements may take longer to complete than expected, as well as those described in our periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the “Risk Factors” sections contained therein. Except as required by law, Quanterix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations, even as new information becomes available. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241122959546/en/ CONTACT: Media: media@quanterix.comInvestor Relations: Amy Achorn (978) 488-1854 ir@quanterix.com KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HEALTH MEDICAL DEVICES SOURCE: Quanterix Corporation Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/22/2024 05:00 PM/DISC: 11/22/2024 05:02 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241122959546/enJudith Graham | (TNS) KFF Health News Carolyn Dickens, 76, was sitting at her dining room table, struggling to catch her breath as her physician looked on with concern. “What’s going on with your breathing?” asked Peter Gliatto, director of Mount Sinai’s Visiting Doctors Program. “I don’t know,” she answered, so softly it was hard to hear. “Going from here to the bathroom or the door, I get really winded. I don’t know when it’s going to be my last breath.” Dickens, a lung cancer survivor, lives in central Harlem, barely getting by. She has serious lung disease and high blood pressure and suffers regular fainting spells. In the past year, she’s fallen several times and dropped to 85 pounds, a dangerously low weight. And she lives alone, without any help — a highly perilous situation. This is almost surely an undercount, since the data is from more than a dozen years ago. It’s a population whose numbers far exceed those living in nursing homes — about 1.2 million — and yet it receives much less attention from policymakers, legislators, and academics who study aging. Consider some eye-opening statistics about completely homebound seniors from a study published in 2020 in JAMA Internal Medicine : Nearly 40% have five or more chronic medical conditions, such as heart or lung disease. Almost 30% are believed to have “probable dementia.” Seventy-seven percent have difficulty with at least one daily task such as bathing or dressing. Almost 40% live by themselves. That “on my own” status magnifies these individuals’ already considerable vulnerability, something that became acutely obvious during the covid-19 outbreak, when the number of sick and disabled seniors confined to their homes doubled. “People who are homebound, like other individuals who are seriously ill, rely on other people for so much,” said Katherine Ornstein, director of the Center for Equity in Aging at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. “If they don’t have someone there with them, they’re at risk of not having food, not having access to health care, not living in a safe environment.” Related Articles Health | Weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy are all the rage. Are they safe for kids? Health | Rural governments often fail to communicate with residents who aren’t proficient in English Health | Some breast cancer patients can avoid certain surgeries, studies suggest Health | Orlando doctor stripped of license following ‘Brazilian butt lift’ death Health | Orange and Volusia counties lead Central Florida restaurant shutdowns last week Research has shown that older homebound adults are less likely to receive regular primary care than other seniors. They’re also more likely to end up in the hospital with medical crises that might have been prevented if someone had been checking on them. To better understand the experiences of these seniors, I accompanied Gliatto on some home visits in New York City. Mount Sinai’s Visiting Doctors Program, established in 1995, is one of the oldest in the nation. Only 12% of older U.S. adults who rarely or never leave home have access to this kind of home-based primary care. Gliatto and his staff — seven part-time doctors, three nurse practitioners, two nurses, two social workers, and three administrative staffers — serve about 1,000 patients in Manhattan each year. These patients have complicated needs and require high levels of assistance. In recent years, Gliatto has had to cut staff as Mount Sinai has reduced its financial contribution to the program. It doesn’t turn a profit, because reimbursement for services is low and expenses are high. First, Gliatto stopped in to see Sandra Pettway, 79, who never married or had children and has lived by herself in a two-bedroom Harlem apartment for 30 years. Pettway has severe spinal problems and back pain, as well as Type 2 diabetes and depression. She has difficulty moving around and rarely leaves her apartment. “Since the pandemic, it’s been awfully lonely,” she told me. When I asked who checks in on her, Pettway mentioned her next-door neighbor. There’s no one else she sees regularly. Pettway told the doctor she was increasingly apprehensive about an upcoming spinal surgery. He reassured her that Medicare would cover in-home nursing care, aides, and physical therapy services. “Someone will be with you, at least for six weeks,” he said. Left unsaid: Afterward, she would be on her own. (The surgery in April went well, Gliatto reported later.) The doctor listened carefully as Pettway talked about her memory lapses. “I can remember when I was a year old, but I can’t remember 10 minutes ago,” she said. He told her that he thought she was managing well but that he would arrange testing if there was further evidence of cognitive decline. For now, he said, he’s not particularly worried about her ability to manage on her own. Several blocks away, Gliatto visited Dickens, who has lived in her one-bedroom Harlem apartment for 31 years. Dickens told me she hasn’t seen other people regularly since her sister, who used to help her out, had a stroke. Most of the neighbors she knew well have died. Her only other close relative is a niece in the Bronx whom she sees about once a month. Dickens worked with special-education students for decades in New York City’s public schools. Now she lives on a small pension and Social Security — too much to qualify for Medicaid. (Medicaid, the program for low-income people, will pay for aides in the home. Medicare, which covers people over age 65, does not.) Like Pettway, she has only a small fixed income, so she can’t afford in-home help. Every Friday, God’s Love We Deliver, an organization that prepares medically tailored meals for sick people, delivers a week’s worth of frozen breakfasts and dinners that Dickens reheats in the microwave. She almost never goes out. When she has energy, she tries to do a bit of cleaning. Without the ongoing attention from Gliatto, Dickens doesn’t know what she’d do. “Having to get up and go out, you know, putting on your clothes, it’s a task,” she said. “And I have the fear of falling.” The next day, Gliatto visited Marianne Gluck Morrison, 73, a former survey researcher for New York City’s personnel department, in her cluttered Greenwich Village apartment. Morrison, who doesn’t have any siblings or children, was widowed in 2010 and has lived alone since. Morrison said she’d been feeling dizzy over the past few weeks, and Gliatto gave her a basic neurological exam, asking her to follow his fingers with her eyes and touch her fingers to her nose. “I think your problem is with your ear, not your brain,” he told her, describing symptoms of vertigo. Because she had severe wounds on her feet related to Type 2 diabetes, Morrison had been getting home health care for several weeks through Medicare. But those services — help from aides, nurses, and physical therapists — were due to expire in two weeks. “I don’t know what I’ll do then, probably just spend a lot of time in bed,” Morrison told me. Among her other medical conditions: congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, an irregular heartbeat, chronic kidney disease, and depression. Morrison hasn’t left her apartment since November 2023, when she returned home after a hospitalization and several months at a rehabilitation center. Climbing the three steps that lead up into her apartment building is simply too hard. “It’s hard to be by myself so much of the time. It’s lonely,” she told me. “I would love to have people see me in the house. But at this point, because of the clutter, I can’t do it.” When I asked Morrison who she feels she can count on, she listed Gliatto and a mental health therapist from Henry Street Settlement, a social services organization. She has one close friend she speaks with on the phone most nights. “The problem is I’ve lost eight to nine friends in the last 15 years,” she said, sighing heavily. “They’ve died or moved away.” Bruce Leff, director of the Center for Transformative Geriatric Research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is a leading advocate of home-based medical care. “It’s kind of amazing how people find ways to get by,” he said when I asked him about homebound older adults who live alone. “There’s a significant degree of frailty and vulnerability, but there is also substantial resilience.” With the rapid expansion of the aging population in the years ahead, Leff is convinced that more kinds of care will move into the home, everything from rehab services to palliative care to hospital-level services. “It will simply be impossible to build enough hospitals and health facilities to meet the demand from an aging population,” he said. But that will be challenging for homebound older adults who are on their own. Without on-site family caregivers, there may be no one around to help manage this home-based care. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
There are plenty of programmes that have built up a loyal following providing some great stories and characters, which then seem to just ruin all that has come before. Creating that investment and then shattering it for most of the viewers can undoubtedly be a devastating experience. It's what prompted the question on the r/AskReddit thread : "What’s a show that completely betrayed the audience at the end?" 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Disclaimer: Some spoilers from certain TV shows, including Dexter and House of Cards, can be found below What TV shows 'completely betrayed' their viewers at the end? One of the more obvious examples of recent times which received a fair few mentions in the comments was the final season of Game of Thrones. The adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels was extremely popular building up to its eighth and final season, which created a huge amount of disappointment or many. One person responded to the Reddit post, simply saying: "Kind of expected to say but Game of Thrones." Many agreed, as one posted: "It was one of the most popular shows in TV history and praised for its world building, multiple complex plot lines, stunning visuals and acting standards "But it ended up a laughing stock, feeling like a wet fart after a night of heavy drinking." document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { iFrameResize({ }, '#exco-iframe-235896'); }, false); Another shared their disappointing experience watching the final season, saying: "My (then) partner and mother decided to join my dad and I in watching it in the final season. "I'll never forget sitting there every Sunday and ending each episode with, "It's usually better than this."" One that a lot of UK viewers might agree on is the final episode of BBC's Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. A viewer simply stated: "BBC Sherlock. We don’t talk about Season 4." In response, someone joked: "What are you talking about? It ended with season 2 with that great ending. Right?" An answer that might be more surprising to some that was featured in the responses was The X Files. Despite being a cultural juggernaut of the 1990s, it couldn't maintain its power at the end and its revival in the mid-2010s came across as unnecessary to some viewers. One person wrote: "X Files. Brilliant show that should have wrapped up appropriately so they could go into the hall of fame. "Nope "And it could be fairly easy imo because the story can be literally f****** anything as long as it answers 2-3 questions satisfyingly." Another said: "Agreed. One of my foundational favourite shows. But the last seasons sucked a**." document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { iFrameResize({ }, '#exco-iframe-238925'); }, false); Similar sentiments were shared by many, as one put: "When I first started watching, I thought it was all building to something absolutely sublime. Around Season 5, I realized that there was no plan for an ending." Dexter is another example of a hugely popular show that lost its way right at the end, which was an opinion shared by quite a few people. One wrote: "Dexter. After years of rooting for a lovable serial killer, he decided to become a lumberjack. No explanation. Just flannel and logs." Another shared: "Man, the whole Deb is in love with Dexter plot line was such a slap in the face." A third said: "I was looking for this. I loved Dexter but the ending was s****, he loved Deb so much and then just dumped her in the bay where he put all his victims." A favourite of the early Netflix era was also featured among the responses in House of Cards. The political thriller, which was an adaptation of the 1989 novel by Michael Dobbs and the 1990 British TV series, saw amoral politician Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) attempt to gain power in the US government. Not long after the fifth series was released Spacey faced several allegations of sexual misconduct which saw him removed from the show, with his character killed off. Recommended reading: The final series saw Frank's wife Claire (played by Robin Wright) take on the lead role, but some said he should have simply been recast to carry on the story. One person wrote: "House of Cards. Just f****** swap Spacey and move on. He's an actor not a character." Not everyone agreed though, as another said: "with who? let's be honest, that would've been way too jarring".STOCK MARKET SNAPSHOT FOR 19/12/2024
Kroger Announces Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer Succession
Micron’s second-quarter forecast disappoints; shares tumbleConsumers will be hit with another steep rise in their household and car insurance premiums this year as general insurers push revenue growth ahead of rising inflation costs. Actuarial group Finity is forecasting a 12 per cent jump in premiums this year for two of the biggest general insurance sectors – home and car insurance – based on industry statistics and recent forecasts from the industry including listed insurers like IAG and Suncorp. It says the big price rises have helped ensure that insurer’s profit margins are at the top of the curve, although that could change rapidly thanks to the volatility of climate change. The 2020 floods in northern NSW and southern Queensland provided a financial shock for insurers that is still being felt by customers across Australia. Credit: Josh Dye Rising premiums are just one of the fronts where general insurers have been coming under pressure over their actions in the $100 billion market – including an inquiry into their tardy response to flooding in Queensland and northern NSW in 2022. “The insurance sector has been under significant scrutiny, following the reviews into the devastating flood events, the challenges associated with affordability and accessibility and the media commentary on insurers’ strong financial results of the latest reporting season,” APRA’s Suzanne Smith told an insurance industry conference in October. “Consumers have now faced multiple years of substantial premium increases, driven by the rising costs of these natural disasters along with inflationary pressures, increased re-insurance costs, higher building standards and advanced technologies, to name just a few.” The soaring premiums provide a double-whammy for struggling households. The first hit is the direct cost of soaring insurance bills, the second is its outsized impact on inflation – ensuring interest rates also stay higher for longer. The cost of vehicle and household insurance has risen by $11.7 billion over three years, Finity estimates. So any suggestion that investors are profiting from customers’ financial pain is sensitive to say the least. “Profitability for the industry (last year) was towards the top end of the target range ... that was largely due to strong premium growth,” Finity principal Pravesh Ponna, says. This year is expected to be another stellar year for the owners of our big insurers with Finity forecasting that return on equity (ROE), a key measure of financial returns, is expected to be at the top end of the sector’s long-term average at 15 per cent. And it is reflected in the share prices of Australia’s listed insurers like the $20 billion IAG – the company behind brands like NRMA and CGU – which has only traded higher than its current share price for a brief period in 2018. IAG chief executive Nick Hawkins says insurance costs are easing but not enough to prevent premium increases well above the inflation rate. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer Suncorp – which owns AAMI, GIO and still tips the scales at a valuation of $25 billion despite the recent sale of its banking business to ANZ – has not traded this high since 2007. Both have said recently that their overall general insurance premiums are set to rise mid-to-high single digit amounts this year – above inflation but below the increases of recent years. IAG chief executive Nick Hawkins also said inflation is easing in motor vehicle policies, but double-digit inflation in costs for housing insurance will be reflected in its pricing. “We continue to see labour rates in the high single, or early double-digits, and we are seeing building supply costs still high,” he told analysts and investors. Loading The group is forecasting an insurance profit margin of up to 15.5 per cent this year. But following the release of Finity’s report on the sector last month, Ponna warned against reading too much into these fat financial margins. For one, investment returns on funds retained for potential insurance payouts – which hit a decade high of 6 per cent last year – helped boost financial returns. But more importantly, general insurers benefited from a respite from the perilous weather events that could quickly swamp this financially sunny outlook. Macquarie Research noted the Australian September quarter results for global insurer, Allianz, which reported a “benign NatCat” (natural catastrophe) experience, not just “very strong” premium rate rises. Catastrophe events are defined by the industry as an occurrence “which is sudden and widespread and which causes substantial damage to property over a large area”. To get an idea of the impact of catastrophe events, you only have to look back to the 2022 floods which triggered a fundamental restructure of the general insurance cost base in Australia. “That was a really big event for the industry,” Ponna says. “It caused a lot of losses for insurers, and caused a lot of losses for reinsurers.” Reinsurers – global financial giants which allow insurers to take out their own insurance against catastrophes – recalibrated both their costs and risk appetite in a manner which has filtered all the way through to consumer costs. Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather across the globe. Credit: AP Reinsurers increased the costs of their service significantly, says Ponna, and they also reduced their exposure to these perils in Australia. This means local insurers have had to take on significantly more risk for the next big catastrophe event. They have had to increase pricing significantly to both cover the higher reinsurance costs and build the financial buffers to protect themselves from higher financial exposure. “That happened over the course of two years. There were two pretty tough renewals for the insurance industry, and that obviously plays out in terms of more volatility for direct insurers to accept, and also higher reinsurance costs which flow through to the prices that consumers pay,” Ponna says. The issue for investors is that local insurers won’t really know how well protected they are until the next catastrophe occurs. IAG cites a recent reinsurance deal with Warren Buffett-backed National Indemnity Company as a significant mitigator for its business. Loading “The deal will provide greater certainty over the cost of natural perils cover for our customers, stabilise our earnings and reduce our capital requirements,” Hawkins says. While this year’s reinsurance increases are more benign, the growing weather volatility due to global warming means there is no assurance the new status quo will remain for any significant length of time. “What we’ve learned with climate change, and the impact of natural catastrophes, is there’s more volatility associated, and you get a more unique sort of events now that you haven’t seen in the past, which might trigger reinsurers to rethink those models again,” Ponna says. “We now think we’re in a steady state with the reinsurance market, but time will tell.” Unusually catastrophic weather is not the only cloud on the horizon for some insurers. IAG is still in a legal battle with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) which has alleged the insurer deliberately pumped up premiums for loyal customers. The matter, which IAG is defending, is now the subject of a class action. But this is a small problem next to the rising issue of insurance stress for cash-strapped households. A report in August from the Actuaries Institute detailed the growing problem which is leading to an insurance gap as more homes effectively become uninsurable. It said more than 1.6 million households were experiencing home insurance affordability stress as at March 2024 – defined as paying premiums equal to more than 4 weeks gross pay – up 30 per cent on the prior year. “The most significant driver of affordability stress is exposure to flood risk,” the report said. Across the country, the average flood premium paid by these stressed households is around 16 times higher than non-stressed households. The affordability problem is also on the radar of the prudential regulator, APRA. “What comes through loud and clear is that Australians continue to face significant challenges with the affordability and accessibility of insurance. Much more needs to be done to reduce the widening protection gap for consumers, who already struggle with the increased cost of living,” APRA’s Smith says. The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article General insurance IAG Suncorp Colin Kruger is a senior business reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Most Viewed in Business LoadingBOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — 2024 was a brutal year for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that’s a critical counterweight to climate change. A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since 2005. And those fires contributed to deforestation, with authorities suspecting some fires were set to more easily clear land to run cattle. The Amazon is twice the size of India and sprawls across eight countries and one territory, storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet. It has about 20% of the world’s fresh water and astounding biodiversity, including 16,000 known tree species. But governments have historically viewed it as an area to be exploited, with little regard for sustainability or the rights of its Indigenous peoples, and experts say exploitation by individuals and organized crime is rising at alarming rates. “The fires and drought experienced in 2024 across the Amazon rainforest could be ominous indicators that we are reaching the long-feared ecological tipping point,” said Andrew Miller, advocacy director at Amazon Watch, an organization that works to protect the rainforest. “Humanity’s window of opportunity to reverse this trend is shrinking, but still open.” There were some bright spots. The level of Amazonian forest loss fell in both Brazil and Colombia. And nations gathered for the annual United Nations conference on biodiversity agreed to give Indigenous peoples more say in nature conservation decisions. “If the Amazon rainforest is to avoid the tipping point, Indigenous people will have been a determinant factor,” Miller said. Wildfires and extreme drought Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon — home to the largest swath of this rainforest — compared to the previous year, the lowest level of destruction in nine years. The improvement under leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva contrasted with deforestation that hit a 15-year high under Lula’s predecessor, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who prioritized agribusiness expansion over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies. In July, Colombia in deforestation in 2023, driven by a drop in environmental destruction. The country’s environment minister Susana Muhamad warned that 2024’s figures may not be as promising as a significant rise in deforestation had already been recorded by July due to dry weather caused by El Nino, a weather phenomenon that warms the central Pacific. Illegal economies continue to drive deforestation in the Andean nation. “It’s impossible to overlook the threat posed by organized crime and the economies they control to Amazon conservation,” said Bram Ebus, a consultant for Crisis Group in Latin America. “Illegal gold mining is expanding rapidly, driven by soaring global prices, and the revenues of illicit economies often surpass state budgets allocated to combat them.” In Brazil, large swaths of the rainforest were from fires raging across the Amazon, Cerrado savannah, Pantanal wetland and the state of Sao Paulo. Fires are traditionally used for deforestation and for managing pastures, and those man-made blazes were largely responsible for igniting the wildfires. For a second year, the , leading some countries to declare a state of emergency and distribute food and water to struggling residents. The situation was most critical in Brazil, where one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries Cesar Ipenza, an environmental lawyer who lives in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, said he believes people are becoming increasingly aware of the Amazon’s fundamental role “for the survival of society as a whole.” But, like Miller, he worries about a “point of no return of Amazon destruction.” It was the worst year for Amazon fires since 2005, according to nonprofit Rainforest Foundation US. Between January and October, an area larger than the state of Iowa — 37.42 million acres, or about 15.1 million hectares of Brazil’s Amazon — burned. Bolivia had a record number of fires in the first ten months of the year. “Forest fires have become a constant, especially in the summer months and require particular attention from the authorities who don’t how to deal with or respond to them,” Ipenza said. Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Guyana also saw a surge in fires this year. Indigenous voices and rights made headway in 2024 The United Nations conference on biodiversity — this year known as COP16 — was hosted by Colombia. The meetings put the Amazon in the spotlight and a historic agreement was made to give Indigenous groups more of , a development that builds on a growing movement to recognize Indigenous people’s role in protecting land and combating climate change. Both Ebus and Miller saw promise in the appointment of Martin von Hildebrand as the new secretary general for the Amazon Treaty Cooperation Organization, announced during COP16. “As an expert on Amazon communities, he will need to align governments for joint conservation efforts. If the political will is there, international backers will step forward to finance new strategies to protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest,” Ebus said. Ebus said Amazon countries need to cooperate more, whether in law enforcement, deploying joint emergency teams to combat forest fires, or providing health care in remote Amazon borderlands. But they need help from the wider world, he said. “The well-being of the Amazon is a shared global responsibility, as consumer demand worldwide fuels the trade in commodities that finance violence and environmental destruction,” he said. Next year marks a critical moment for the Amazon, as Belém do Pará in northern Brazil hosts the first United Nations COP in the region that will focus on climate. “Leaders from Amazon countries have a chance to showcase strategies and demand tangible support,” Ebus said. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at . Steven Grattan, The Associated Press
COLLEGE FB NOTESHumans are well overdue for a technological revolution – not a profit-driven one like we’re having now, a human-centric one. Sci-fi is wonderful for having your brain run wild. Over the last century, we’ve had writers try and imagine what world would’ve had looked like if a new technology were to address different aspects of human condition, or, work to undercut us all in yet unseen ways, for a change. Quite a few have clear sci-fi inspiration, too, and same goes for a large number of Hackaday Prize entries. Over here, we live for fantasy made reality through skill, wit, and insights. Ever got a sci-fi-esque dream that you’ve tried to implement with modern-day tech, only to fail because something fundamental was missing about how your phone/laptop/smartwatch functions? You’re not alone here, for sure – this describes a large chunk of my tech journey. In real life, you work with audience-tailored devices, the few fun usecases pre-cooked into the hardware-firmware blob. Still, how much can you build on top of a consumer device? Alternative OSes that liberate you from the trend of enshittification, for instance, that one’s brilliant and a lifeline for preserving one’s sanity. Alternative platforms that bring a reprieve from a modern combative and ad-filled social media environment, sure. Still, feels limited How about diary keeping? Personal diaries are really rad, aren’t they? Surely, that one’s a low-hanging fruit? The first “hack on self”-like app I’ve ever built, was a parser/UI for our local public transport company schedules – letting me know when to run for a bus stop. I wanted to reduce resistance, and eventually, even integrate it into a portable device of some sort. I did bring that to a phone of mine, with help of Python SDK for Symbian S60, a wonderful if a little limited framework. The next app of mine was a diary, encrypted with Blowfish, because that’s what I found a pure Python implementation of. I always tried keeping a diary, in a number of different paper forms, and I always failed in the end. The app though, it was fun, just secure enough to avoid relying on obscurity, and it worked great – for two weeks! It was pretty easy for me to forget about its existence, and every time I wanted to log something, I’d need to log in. Sounds easy? Yeah. In retrospect, I would’ve added a diary entry function before the decryption prompt, because even that small of a delay has backfired. There’s a somberly fun saying, that with ADHD, a TODO list or a project can last at most two weeks. The diary is where I’ve really felt that one. Here I was, just having touched base with the dream of keeping a diary, and now it’s gone? How does that even work? How is it that I’m out of juice for it, somehow, why is it that opening the diary to make notes was fun two weeks ago, but is a chore today? No worries, though, the sadness didn’t last long, I avoided learning too much in the moment, and immediately found something else to hack on. Every time I heard about journaling, keeping a diary, an archive, it felt fun, but also a fair bit more unreachable than before. I still wanted it, and, I’ve had my share of sadness to process through. Of course, if you’ve failed at building something, one way of processing the resulting sadness is to get distracted by other projects until you’re interested in the goal again, try and remember your mistakes, wait for the perfect conditions, and then build a new system that avoids those mistakes as you remember them. Now, memories are fuzzy and malleable, so the “lessons from years ago” could be outright false, attention is hard to predict so it could take years to resume a project, and you’d want to reach for some actual insights, but whoops, you’d want some sort of diary to look back at, the whole thing is a chicken-and-egg problem yet again. We don’t let that get in the way – we just build new stuff, and on average, it magically turns out to be better, because we’re building it differently this time. Really, just how many times can you try the same thing and fail? This time, it will be different! Seriously, it’s been days/months/years, how could it be the same? Keep pulling the lever of one-armed bandit that is project enthusiasm, see if you win the lottery and transform an aspect of your life for the better. By that point, I had a few points of change filed away. I wanted some sort of daily notifications that’d motivate me to stick with it longer than two weeks, for sure. I also wanted to reduce resistance towards making entries – no more passphrase entry before logging, no more need for decryption. At the time, I spent 24/7 with my laptop on me, so that’s a low-resistance platform’s sorted out. I make it an Alt-Tab away, add regular notifications, should be easy this time. I recalled one thing – the diary logs were accessible as long as I could remember the password, sure, and at the same time, I was rarely interested in re-reading them. Things changed, because I got a new question, trying to piece together a narrative about myself. How’d my days actually go? Could I draw trends of happiness, productivity, energy, excitement? This time, I wrote a couple commandline apps with very simple text interfaces. The very first one, for proof-of-concept 1, used a non-dismissable notification service to poke me once every 24 hours, every morning, asking a very simple question – “how do you feel?”. Wake up, alt-tab into the commandline window, write in how I’m feeling as a baseline, then get up and go about my day. Really, I wanted my computer to care about me, because it felt like the only entity that possibly would and really could, even, had the energy to. It can be hard to untangle a brain’s inner workings, even though stars know we all try, and my country isn’t known for having quality therapists that are easy to find. So, my computer it is – non-judgmental by nature, giving me space to talk, space of the kind I lacked everywhere else. The next two scripts were about logging achievements and problems respectively, into the same logfile used by the . 10 minutes after I wrote both of them, I realized that they were a carbon copy of each other, and united them into – a script tailored for me to quickly log any sort of event into a commandline window at a whim. The aim was very simple – let a stream of thoughts flow as quickly as possible. Type up your thoughts or an event, enter, type another, enter. One letter in the beginning to indicate event type, for rudimentary categorization – the script will remind you if you forget to input it, too. Primarily, I wanted to use it to log my day-to-day achievements and problems alike, but also general thoughts and feelings I wanted to let out. Two scripts, one asks me every morning how I’m feeling, and another is a place I can put any sorts of thoughts at any point. I wanted to – how my day went, and how I feel about the previous day. It was also pretty easy to read through the logs, or parse them – my “linebreak-separated ” strategy remains undefeated. Every morning, I would wake up, look at my laptop, see a notification, and alt-tab the console window to talk about how I feel first thing in the morning. While writing my feedback, I could look to the side and see the achievements/problems/thoughts of the previous day. It was nice – and it’s still nice to use, even though I’ve definitely had gaps in its use. It wasn’t the nicest part about it! I realized that my feelings about the previous day had nothing to do with the previous day. Instead, it was defined by how I feel in the morning. My feelings were about how well I slept, what I ate, my dreams in the night, the first thought that came into my mind when I woke up, the last open window on my laptop. My feelings about yesterday were defined by anything except what I actually did yesterday. It was sobering to be reminded how much my assessments and decisions are influenced by my feelings and state in the moment, rather than a recollection of facts and a weighted assessment of them. A year or two later, I saw this fact in a Twitter thread, described as a piece of common knowledge about life logging as a practice. I don’t think I’ve ever bookmarked it, and, I’m yet to track that thread down again. Before, I used to put a lot of stock into the feeling of “how my last few days went”. Now, I keep it firmly in mind that I need strong references to make such conclusions. I still have big, months-long gaps in using the diary script, but I have not given up on it, or the idea – it’s not the only insight I’ve gotten from it. So, that was a quick and fruitful finding – we take those. Collecting more data has proven to be helpful yet again, and so has building low-interaction-resistance context-aware systems. What else... a system that taps into feelings, might give you insights you couldn’t even hope for – it’s not like most of us get a solid toolkit to navigate or analyze our feelings day-by-day. Still a few problems left to solve and tricks to try out, and it’s all pretty exciting. How can I make my diary keeping more consistent? Voice logging option for the days when text’s not as accessible? Building the diary system into multiple places at once, always having new aspects to switch to when one gets boring? Dynamic reminders that catch me exactly when I have some free time to write? More helpful event logging? Those are just a few of the directions I’m pursuing at once. In the meantime, hacking continues. You’ll see more concepts, new findings, and even some lovely hardware – especially given that a couple other hackers have joined the fight.Toshakhana case against Nawaz, Zardari, Gilani transferred to FIA court Case involves alleged irregularities in political figures’ acquiring luxury vehicles through Toshakhana ISLAMABAD: An accountability court has transferred the Toshakhana vehicles reference against Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Yousaf Raza Gilani, and others to the FIA Special Court Central (SCC). Judge Abida Sajad announced the reserved verdict, granting the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) request to shift the case to the FIA court. However, the court dismissed the defendants’ appeal to keep the case under NAB’s jurisdiction. The case involves alleged irregularities in political figures’ acquiring luxury vehicles through the Toshakhana (state repository). Further proceedings will now continue under the jurisdiction of the FIA Special Court Central.