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Police release new photos as they search for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEOA WALMART Christmas tree is back in stores for the holiday season. The mega-retailer offers a variety of artificial trees for Christmas, but one viral favorite is in stock. A design influencer, Simply Staged and Styled shared their Walmart find on Facebook . O CHRISTMAS TREE... The fake tree is sold under the brand name “ My Texas House .” It has a relatively sparse design that sets it apart from many other fake trees, which typically look very full and dense. Simply Staged and Styled said the "viral" tree was “back and better than ever.” Read More about Walmart “This year [it] comes with twinkle lights. It’s so pretty!” the account said. They said the sparse design is more realistic, and warned that they may sell out quick. “I would hurry!” they said. THE DESIGN The tree comes in various sizes. Most read in Money A 4-foot mini tree goes for $59 on Walmart’s website. The larger version is 7.5 feet. That one sells for $179. However, the influencer said there is also a 9 foot option, though it does not currently appear on Walmart’s website. It’s not clear the price of that largest size. The influencer said they would send links to anyone who commented “Christmas Tree” on their post. This engagement strategy seemed to work — dozens of Facebook users commented with the key phrase. MORE WALMART Walmart offers a variety of deals on its products, partly because of the scale of the business. For example, the store recently offered a sale on a usually pricey cologne. But those looking for discounts in the near future must plan their shopping carefully. Walmart will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving. Read More on The US Sun The chain started shutting its doors for turkey day a few years back, but the decision has not been without controversy . Some competitors are planning to stay open for the holiday.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Today, chatbots can answer questions, write poems and generate images. In the future, they could also autonomously perform tasks like online shopping and work with tools like spreadsheets. Google on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of this technology, which artificial intelligence researchers call an AI agent.B.C. football coach has both feet crushed after being hit by car in crosswalk
MILLIONS of Black Friday shoppers searching for bargains risk being conned by fake customer reviews. One in seven online testimonials are in fact false, according to government data. If you fall for a bogus review then you could end up wasting your money on poor or even dangerous products. Charlotte Sheridan, founder of The Small Biz Expert, which helps its clients get genuine reviews, says: “Unfortunately, there are a lot of fake reviews online, so it’s always best to delve a bit deeper, especially if you’re parting with a lot of money.” This Black Friday week, Mel Hunter reveals how to spot them. HOW DO FAKES HAPPEN? INCREASINGLY, AI -generated posts are cropping up online. Read More on Money It affects companies big and small. In 2023 alone, Amazon — which claims it has “zero tolerance” for fake reviews — blocked 250million of the posts. A new law, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, is due to come into force in April next year, banning fake reviews and making companies responsible for checking them. But in practice they can be hard to spot — and difficult to police. Most read in Money There are some tell-tale signs, though. Before you part with your money this Black Friday, sort out the real reviews from the false ones so you spend more wisely. LOOK FOR DETAIL WHEN it comes to sorting genuine experiences from those that have been made up, you need to read between the lines. Fake reviews are often vague and lacking in human detail. They might say a product is “great”, without explaining why. A review that repeats phrases from a product’s website can also be a red flag. Amy Cutmore, editor of Expert Reviews, says: “A real review is usually specific and descriptive. “For an air fryer, it might say ‘I cooked bacon in it and it came out nice and crispy’. “If a review reveals no details on the product or the use of it, be suspicious.” SPELLING MISTAKES POOR spelling should make you suspicious. It could be a sign that reviews have come from someone being paid to churn them out in bulk, and often not in their native language. Look at other review sites, too, to get a broader range of views. Charlotte says: “I would always recommend, where possible, looking at more than one platform for reviews. Whether it’s a combination of social media reviews and Google, or Trustpilot and Amazon, use more than one source.” SIZE MATTERS LOOK out for reviews that are very short, or too long. If someone has written a dubious review, they will probably keep it to just a few sentences. A bogus review, produced by AI, on the other hand, could ramble on far too long. A recommendation by a real person is more likely to fall somewhere in between. FIVE-STAR FAKES SHOPPING experts recommend skipping both five-star and one-star reviews, which is where most fakes tend to land. It may mean you miss some genuine recommendations, but you will also get a more rounded picture from three or four-star ones, where real customers weigh up the positives and negatives. Amy says: “If the review makes the product sound far too good to be true, it’s more likely to be fake feedback.” Be especially alert for five-star reviews on unbranded products. Shoppers are more than twice as likely to pick poor-quality products that have been boosted by fraudulent reviews, according to Which? RAINING REVIEWS ANOTHER sign of a dodgy write-up could be a deluge of reviews for the same product landing within just a short space of time, with long gaps between other reviews. It could happen around Black Friday or Christmas when a retailer is trying to shift stock, or around a new launch. Amy says: “This could be a sign that the seller has faked positive feedback in some way.” She recommends a tool that can help spot bogus reviews. Fakespot from Mozilla is a plug-in tool that will help single out false reviews. It can be added to a web browser for free, and it works with Amazon, eBay and Shopify , as well as other e-retail sites. POWER IN THE PROFILE DELVE a bit deeper into a reviewer’s profile. On sites including Google Reviews, Trustpilot and Amazon, you can see what other businesses or products someone has reviewed. Charlotte says: “Here there can be some obvious red flags — for example, if someone is not in the country where the business they are buying from is based. “Also, be sure to take a look at how often they review products and services. “Reviewing lots of different products within a short timeframe may also indicate a false review.” Amy says that if all the reviewer’s posts give five stars, or one, it might show they have been given an incentive to write the posts. £25? what an ice surprise! THOUSANDS of struggling households in more than a dozen postcodes are set to receive cash to help heat their homes as the cold snap takes hold. Those eligible get £25 during each seven-day period of below-zero weather in their area until March 31. The Department for Work and Pensions provides the extra cash to low-income households. To be eligible, you must receive certain benefits, such as Pension Credit, Universal Credit and Income Support, or support for mortgage interest. Those who qualify will have the funds deposited automatically into their bank accounts within 14 days of their postcode being triggered. These postcodes, which have already experienced a period of very low temperatures, are now eligible for a single cold weather payment: CA9-12, CA16-17, DG14, TD9, LA8-10, LA21-23, NE19, NE47-NE49. If you think you could have received the payment, check your bank statement for an item with your National Insurance number followed by the code “DWP CWP”. Further cold weather could lead to additional payments in other areas, and there is no maximum limit to the amount you can receive. For example, almost 500 postcodes got up to £75 last winter . See coldweatherpayments. dwp.gov.uk to check if you will be due a cold weather payment . James Flanders Users are E.ON for payout A MAJOR energy supplier will give £144 in compensation to 250,000 customers. E.ON Next – part of the E.ON Energy Group – has been asked to pay up after it failed to give final bills and refunds to prepayment meter customers . Almost a quarter of a million accounts were affected between February 2021 and September 2023, an investigation by energy regulator Ofgem found. This was due to an error within its billing system, which E.ON Next self-reported to Ofgem. Prepayment customers who changed suppliers or terminated their contract did not receive final bills within six weeks, which is required under Ofgem’s rules. This failure meant existing customers were not aware of cash left over in their accounts, the watchdog said. It was found that some 100,000 of the accounts were in credit, with an average of £51 left over. Impacted customers have been contacted to inform them about the payment, E.ON said. The company also agreed to voluntarily write off debt held by almost 150,000 prepayment meter customers who closed their accounts between February 2021 and September 2023. READ MORE SUN STORIES Beth Martin, director for consumer protection and competition at Ofgem, said: “It’s encouraging that [E.ON Next] self-reported the issue and have worked with us to resolve it.” Laura McGuireColorado 85, Utah Tech 73None
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No. 7 Tennessee gives up 1st 14 points before rallying to rout Vanderbilt 36-23Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info They would call what Nils Koppen is trying to do at Rangers “double jobbing” in the political world. It’s the attempt to be two places at once, multi-tasking while avoiding falling between two stools. A large proportion of the Ibrox support do not support Koppen’s elevation to the role of technical director. Supporters were critical of Koppen when sourcing players was all he had to worry about. Is it feasible, at a club the size of Rangers, that the one man can now assume responsibility for transfers, operations, analysis, the youth academy and medical matters? There’s multi-tasking then there’s running around in never-decreasing circles. It should fall on a CEO to make appointments like the one the Belgian has been handed. So when are Rangers going to appoint a CEO? And what happens if they do and he doesn’t fancy multi-taskers and would rather it was a case of one man, one job? Follow Record Sport on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond. You can also follow our dedicated Rangers and Celtic podcast pages and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season. We've also entered the world of WhatsApp with our Rangers community and Celtic community up and running. Follow NOW to get your club's latest breaking news and transfer gossip directly to your phone. Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football.President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia. "Keith has led a distinguished Military and Business career, including serving in highly sensitive National Security roles in my first Administration," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!" Kellogg, 80, served as national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence during Trump's first term. He would play a pivotal role in potential negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine in his new position. Trump's new envoy has sharply criticized the Biden administration's approach to the Ukraine war, writing in April that the White House should have made a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2022, shortly before Russia invaded, to "delay Ukraine's admission into NATO for a decade" in exchange for Putin calling off the incursion. Kellogg made the argument in a paper he coauthored with another former Trump national security official, Fred Fleitz, for the America First Policy Institute. The paper also said that the Biden administration should have "provided Ukraine with the weapons it needed to expel Russian forces early in the war," and shouldn't have dismissed the option of holding peace talks with Moscow. It went on to argue that the U.S. should arm Ukraine on the condition that Kyiv agrees to enter peace talks with Moscow. Ukraine has agreed to several rounds of peace talks since Russian troops invaded in February 2022. The first discussions took place in Belarus four days after Moscow launched its military operation and concluded without agreement. Kellogg and Fleitz also argued in their paper that the U.S. should condition Ukraine's membership in NATO on a "comprehensive and verifiable deal with security guarantees." The Ukrainians, for their part, have said for months that they would not agree to a peace deal that hinged on Ukraine surrendering Russian-occupied territory. But with Trump's election this month, Kyiv appears to be placing at least as much emphasis on the guarantee that a ceasefire deal won't be violated. "Talks should be based on guarantees," Roman Kostenko, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament's Defense and Intelligence Committee, told The New York Times this month. "For Ukraine, nothing is more important." Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on the pledge that he would bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end in a day. "They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians," Trump said during a May 2023 town hall on CNN . "I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done—I'll have that done in 24 hours." "If we had a real president, a president that knew—that was respected by Putin ... he would have never invaded Ukraine," Trump added during his debate with Biden in June. The president-elect spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after winning the U.S. election. Zelensky described the conversation as "excellent," writing on X, formerly Twitter , that they "agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation. Strong and unwavering U.S. leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace."