c örnek kodlar
Wildlife TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham has resigned as president of the RSPCA after an investigation made allegations of animal cruelty at some of the charity’s approved abattoirs. Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has also resigned as vice-president of the animal welfare organisation, with both of them expressing their “sadness” over leaving the roles. It comes after an Animal Rising investigation made claims of cruelty at “RSPCA Assured” slaughterhouses in England and Scotland, with the campaign group sharing footage of alleged mistreatment. RSPCA Assured is a scheme whereby approved farms must comply with the organisation’s “stringent higher welfare standards”, according to its website. Mr Packham shared the news of his resignation on social media, saying: “It is with enormous sadness that I have resigned from my role as president of the RSPCA. “I would like to register my respect and admiration for all the staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to protect animals from cruelty.” Ms Lucas said she and Mr Packham failed to get the charity’s leadership to act. She posted on X, formerly Twitter: “With huge sadness I’m resigning as VP of the RSPCA, a role I’ve held with pride for over 15 years. “But their Assured Schemes risk misleading the public & legitimising cruelty. “I tried with @ChrisGPackham to persuade the leadership to act but sadly failed.” In June, the RSPCA commissioned an independent review of 200 farms on its assurance scheme which concluded the scheme was “operating effectively” to assure animal welfare on member farms. Following Animal Rising’s release of footage last week, the charity said it was “appalled” by what was shown, adding that it launched an immediate investigation and suspended three slaughterhouses from the scheme. In the wake of Mr Packham and Ms Lucas’ resignations, an RSPCA spokesperson said it is “simply not true” that the organisation has failed to take urgent action. They said: “We agree with Chris and Caroline on so many issues and have achieved so much together for animals, but we differ on how best to address the incredibly complex and difficult issue of farmed animal welfare. “We have discussed our work to drive up farmed animal welfare standards openly at length with them on many occasions and it is simply not true that we have not taken urgent action. “We took allegations of poor welfare incredibly seriously, launching an independent review of 200 farms which concluded that it was ‘operating effectively’ to improve animal welfare. “We are taking strong steps to improve oversight of welfare, implementing the recommendations in full including significantly increasing unannounced visits, and exploring technology such as body-worn cameras and CCTV, supported by £2 million of investment.” The charity insisted that while 94% of people continue to choose to eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy, it is the “right thing to do” to work with farmers to improve the lives of animals. “RSPCA Assured visit all farms on the scheme every year, but last year just 3% of farms were assessed for animal welfare by state bodies,” the spokesperson continued. “No-one else is doing this work. We are the only organisation setting and regularly monitoring animal welfare standards on farms. “We have pioneered change through RSPCA Assured, which has led to improvements throughout the industry including CCTV in slaughterhouses, banning barren battery cages for hens and sow stalls for pigs, giving salmon more space to swim and developing slower growing chicken breeds who have better quality of life.”Speculation and rumors have circulated in the wake of the discovery, with various theories being put forward by members of the public and the media. However, authorities have urged caution and patience, emphasizing the importance of allowing the investigation to proceed methodically and thoroughly in order to uncover the truth behind this troubling incident.Packham resigns as RSPCA president after animal cruelty claims at approved farms
Looking ahead, the holiday season is expected to further boost sales for gaming console manufacturers, as consumers seek entertainment options at home amid ongoing social distancing measures. With the release of new and exciting titles, as well as potential Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, the outlook for the gaming industry remains bright as we head towards the end of the year.Balatro and AFK Journey among 2024 App Store Award winnersAs the La Liga season reaches its climax, the title race has never been more exciting and unpredictable. With three powerhouse teams vying for the top spot, each match promises to be a thrilling spectacle as the battle for supremacy intensifies. Only time will tell which team will emerge victorious and claim the coveted La Liga trophy.
- **Usage:** "I pulled an all-nighter last night to finish my research paper. I'm running on caffeine and sheer willpower today."As the weightlifting world continues to evolve and grow, the rivalry between North and South Korea adds a thrilling element to the sport, captivating fans and inspiring athletes to push themselves to new heights. The battle for supremacy in weightlifting is far from over, and the world eagerly awaits the next chapter in this captivating saga of strength and determination.Liu Damaeli's son, who is now facing the loss of his mother at such a young age, has become the focal point of public attention and concern. Many have expressed their sympathy for the young boy, offering words of support and encouragement during this difficult time. The tragic circumstances surrounding his mother's death have highlighted the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing our loved ones while we have them.
Tulane QB Mensah transfers to DukeShould Tesla Buy Cruise, And Other Strange Wonderings
Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Market to Grow by USD 68.16 Billion (2024-2028), Driven by Digital Art Demand and AI-Powered Market Evolution - TechnavioNEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street got back to climbing after the latest update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% Wednesday to break a two-day losing streak and finished just short of its all-time high. Big Tech stocks led the way, which drove the Nasdaq composite up 1.8% to top the 20,000 level for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a dip of 0.2%. Stocks got a boost as expectations built that the Fed will deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are rising Wednesday after the latest update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve . The S&P 500 gained 0.9% and is on track to break its first two-day losing streak in nearly a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.8% and was heading for a record. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market as expectations built that Wednesday’s inflation data will allow the Fed to deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. Traders are betting on a 95% probability of that, according to data from CME Group, up from 89% a day before. If they’re correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It’s hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. Wednesday’s report said U.S. consumers paid prices in November that were 2.7% higher than a year earlier. That’s a slight acceleration from October’s inflation rate of 2.6%, but it was exactly what economists were expecting. Another report on inflation at the wholesale level will arrive on Thursday. “The data have given the Fed the ‘all clear’ for next week, and today’s inflation data keep a January cut in active discussion,” according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times this year , with the latest coming last week. On Wall Street, Stitch Fix jumped 47.8% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue. Albertsons edged down by 0.6% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it’s seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger, whose stock rose 0.6%. A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington nixed the supermarket giants’ merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition. After terminating the merger agreement Albertsons said it plans to boost its dividend 25% and increased the size of its program to buy back its own stock. Mondelez, the company behind Oreo and other food brands, climbed 2.2% after announcing a plan to send cash to shareholders by buying back up to $9 billion of its own stock. The program replaces a prior $6 billion plan, which had about $2.8 billion of capacity remaining and would have otherwise expired at the end of next year. On the losing end of Wall Street, Macy’s fell 2.3% after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $1 of revenue. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment sank 18.7% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search firm for the last few months to find its next permanent leader. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.16% from 4.14%. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and slipped 0.8% as Chinese leaders convened an annual planning meeting in Beijing that is expected to set economic policies and growth targets for the coming year. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1%, up for a second straight day as it climbs back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law. ___ AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed. Stan Choe, The Associated Press
Figuring out who’s creditworthy is getting more complicated, and millions of Americans are stuck with “thin files” or are considered credit invisible. That means they’re struggling to borrow or access credit, while lenders miss out on potential customers. To tackle this, credit-scoring companies are stepping up and evolving. Recently, for example, last year, FICO launched a new program to help expand the use of alternative data for credit scoring. But years before that, Experian fired an opening salvo when it introduced Experian Boost , which helps consumers improve their credit scores by tapping into their payment histories for rent, insurance, and even streaming platforms. And now, the man behind Experian Boost, Jeff Softley, is helping transform Experian’s consumer business further, turning the company once known almost exclusively for credit reporting into what he describes as “every consumer’s financial copilot.” | Part of that strategy is the recent launch of Experian Smart Money, which, like Experian Boost, is a service devised to help consumers build their credit. But Smart Money allows them to do so without taking on debt. Instead, it works by having users pay their bills with a debit card that works in tandem with Boost, using eligible transactions to potentially increase a customer’s credit score. That’s really just the beginning, says Softley, who is on a mission to broaden Experian’s role in consumers’ financial lives. For some who have rightly grown skeptical of credit reporting bureaus, that may sound questionable, as those bureaus (Experian and its key cohorts, Equifax and TransUnion) have had their share of issues in the past . Experian, however, believes it has worked out a model for creating new services that have put it on another level relative to its competitors. “It’s a data business” “We were a very narrow business, delivering credit reports and scores to consumers,” Softley says of Experian’s former iteration. “We were the front end of a credit bureau. And today, it’s a totally different business. It’s a data business.” Reams of data are allowing Experian to step into its new skin. Softley notes that a decade-and-a-half ago, when fintech companies were popping up left and right, making it obvious that one-dimensional financial firms were going to need to innovate or get left behind, Experian found itself in no-man’s-land. The company had experienced 16 straight quarters of decline, and leadership was antsy to find new ways to expand or evolve. So Softley says they “took a small team, put them in a different office, and had them build a different platform. That’s the platform we use today.” That new platform involved moving away from a focus on supplying credit reports through FreeCreditReport.com—you may remember the catchy FreeCreditReport.com commercials , which were countered by the FTC’s own commercials —and double-down on Experian as a brand. Softley says that meant building new products and services that were unique and relevant, and above all, actually served a purpose. That’s how Experian Boost came about. It was in its conceptual stage in the early 2000s, he says, “on a sticky note.” Spirit of ’08 The financial crisis and Great Recession gave Experian an opportunity to put its plans for evolution into action. During that time, “new needs emerged, and new opportunities emerge if you’re listening to the consumer,” says Softley. And Experian was listening. In focus groups and interviews, consumers were saying that they didn’t want to be punished for their past financial behavior via a bad credit score, but instead wanted to be rewarded for what they were doing now and in the future. It was an ideal time to get the ball rolling on Boost, which gave consumers a sense of agency and control over their credit scores and rewarded them for sharing their information related to their finances and expenses. Still, the backend tech and infrastructure also needed to be in place to be able to aggregate the data, crunch it, and spit out an updated credit score. Experian had the ability and manpower to do it, so it was off to the races. “It was a watershed moment,” Softley recalls. “It was one of the first products that all of Experian built because it drew from so many capabilities across the organization.” Experian tested it out, and it actually “became a business case, and the business case became the platform rebuild.” From there, the company started to zero in on developing and launching “products that allow you to leverage your data to open up financial opportunities—Boost helped create the blueprint to intertwine data and technology.” Industry experts agree that Boost did push the envelope for consumer-facing credit products. “Experian was the first to come out with plain-English credit reports back in the day,” says Gerri Detweiler, a credit expert and the former director of Bankcard Holders of America, a nonprofit consumer credit and advocacy organization. “So while Boost is an innovation, they’ve been at the forefront of the consumer market for some time.” Detweiler says that Boost is also notable because it raised the visibility of alternative data for consumers, or their ability to leverage it to their advantage. “It’s helped open up the ecosystem,” she says. “There are some criticisms and limitations,” she adds. That’s true—a WalletHub ranking of credit-builder products released in August 2024 ranked Boost 15 out of 20, and noted that it didn’t report negative information to creditors, which may be problematic. Detweiler says that consumers (and creditors) should take that into account, and realize that Boost or similar services are “not going to be a cure-all” for people with thin or bad credit. “But it will open the door to other products that can further help people rebuild their credit.” A new trajectory That process has landed Experian with its current development model: Finding a consumer need, determining the best way to help them, and then creating a product or service that acts as a solution. Some trouble spots that the company could be looking at wading into include finding ways to help people buy homes or cars, or even developing tools for small business owners. But there are also areas that the company likely won’t explore, or at least not right now. That could be because the technology simply hasn’t caught up to the moment yet, which was the case with Boost, which ultimately incubated for a decade or so before the technology existed to create a fast, effective product. In the meantime, Experian is working on new AI features, such as a new virtual assistant. That will play a bigger role in 2025, with the aim of becoming a full-blown “financial copilot” for customers. Softley says that everything the company is doing now, though, can be traced back to the shift of thinking of itself as a data company first and foremost. “Viewing ourselves as a data company put us on a different trajectory,” he says. “And this next chapter is all about providing financial power to all consumers.”Southwest Airlines Co. Announcement: Southwest Airlines Co. Investors Are Encouraged to Contact ...