haha 777 games

One of my top shows of 2024 actually premiered in 2021. That’s because it took a couple of years for the Australian series “The Newsreader” to make its way Stateside. Alas, it was only legal to stream in the U.S. for a handful of weeks in September and then — pffft! — it was gone before most people had even heard of it. Well, I have great news. The show will be available once again, this time via Sundance Now (accessible through the AMC+ streaming platform), which has licensed the first season. Premiering Dec. 19, it stars Anna Torv (“Fringe”) and Sam Reid (“Interview with the Vampire”) as TV reporters in Melbourne, circa 1986. At the outset, Reid’s character exudes big loser energy, which is such an amusing contrast to his work as Lestat. The show is unexpectedly funny and terrifically Machiavellian in its portrayal of small-time office politics, and I’m thrilled audiences in the U.S. will get another shot at watching it. Overall, 2024 offered a modestly better lineup than usual, but I’m not sure it felt that way. Too often the good stuff got drowned out by Hollywood’s pointless and endless pursuit of rebooting intellectual property (no thank you, Apple’s “Presumed Innocent” ) and tendency to stretch a perfectly fine two-hour movie premise into a saggy multi-part series (“Presumed Innocent” again!). There were plenty of shows I liked that didn’t make this year’s list, including ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and CBS’ “Ghosts” (it’s heartening to see the network sitcom format still thriving in the streaming era), as well as Netflix’s “A Man on the Inside” (Ted Danson’s charisma selling an unlikely premise) and Hulu’s “Interior Chinatown” (a high-concept parody of racial stereotypes and cop show tropes, even if it couldn’t sustain the idea over 10 episodes). Maybe it just felt like we were having more fun this year, with Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” (Nicole Kidman leading a traditional manor house mystery reinterpreted with an American sensibility) and Hulu’s “Rivals” (the horniest show of 2024, delivered with a wink in the English countryside). I liked what I saw of Showtime’s espionage thriller “The Agency” (although the bulk of episodes were unavailable as of this writing). The deluge of remakes tends to make me cringe, but this year also saw a redo of Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” on Netflix that was far classier than most of what’s available on the streamer. Starring Andrew Scott, I found it cool to the touch, but the imagery stayed with me. Shot in black and white, it has an indelible visual language courtesy of director of photography Robert Elswit, whether capturing a crisp white business card against the worn grain wood of a bar top, or winding stairways that alternately suggest a yawning void or a trap. As always, if you missed any of these shows when they originally premiered — the aforementioned titles or the Top 10 listed below — they are all available to stream. Top 10 streaming and TV shows of 2024, in alphabetical order: The least cynical reality show on television remains as absorbing as ever in Season 4, thanks to the probing questions and insights from the show’s resident therapist, Dr. Orna Guralnik. Everything is so charged. And yet the show has a soothing effect, predicated on the idea that human behavior (and misery) isn’t mysterious or unchangeable. There’s something so optimistic in that outlook. Whether or not you relate to the people featured on “Couples Therapy” — or even like them as individuals — doesn’t matter as much as Guralnik’s reassuring presence. Created by and starring Diarra Kilpatrick, the eight-episode series defies categorization in all the right ways. Part missing-person mystery, part comedy about a school teacher coming to grips with her impending divorce, and part drama about long-buried secrets, it has tremendous style right from the start — sardonic, knowing and self-deprecating. The answers to the central mystery may not pack a satisfying punch by the end, but the road there is as entertaining and absorbing as they come. We need more shows like this. A comedy created by and starring Brian Jordan Alvarez (of the antic YouTube series “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo”), the show has a sensibility all its own, despite a handful of misinformed people on social media calling it a ripoff of “Abbott Elementary.” There’s room enough in the TV landscape for more than one sitcom with a school setting and “English Teacher” has a wonderfully gimlet-eyed point of view of modern high school life. I’m amused that so much of its musical score is Gen-X coded, because that neither applies to Alvarez (a millennial) nor the fictional students he teaches. So why does the show feature everything from Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” to Exposé’s “Point of No Return”? The ’80s were awash in teen stories and maybe the show is using music from that era to invoke all those tropes in order to better subvert them. It’s a compelling idea! It’s streaming on Hulu and worth checking out if you haven’t already. A one-time tennis phenom accuses her former coach of coercing her into a sexual relationship in this British thriller. The intimacy between a coach and athlete often goes unexplored, in real-life or fictional contexts and that’s what the show interrogates: When does it go over the line? It’s smart, endlessly watchable and the kind of series that would likely find a larger audience were it available on a more popular streamer. There’s real tenderness in this show. Real cruelty, too. It’s a potent combination and the show’s third and strongest season won it an Emmy for best comedy. Jean Smart’s aging comic still looking for industry validation and Hannah Einbinder’s needy Gen-Z writer are trapped in an endless cycle of building trust that inevitably gives way to betrayal. Hollywood in a nutshell! “Hacks” is doing variations on this theme every season, but doing it in interesting ways. Nobody self-sabotages their way to success like these two. I was skeptical about the show when it premiered in 2022 . Vampire stories don’t interest me. And the 1994 movie adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt wasn’t a persuasive argument to the contrary. But great television is great television and nothing at the moment is better than this show. It was ignored by Emmy voters in its initial outing but let’s hope Season 2 gets the recognition it deserves. Under showrunner Rolin Jones, the adaptation of Anne Rice’s novels is richly written, thrillingly inhabited by its cast and so effortlessly funny with a framing device — the interview of the title — that is thick with intrigue and sly comedy. I wouldn’t categorize the series as horror. It’s not scary. But it is tonally self-assured and richly made, rarely focused on the hunt for dinner but on something far more interesting: The melodrama of vampire existence, with its combination of boredom and lust and tragedy and zingers. Already renewed for Season 3, it has an incredible cast (a thrilling late-career boost for Eric Bogosian) and is well worth catching up with if you haven’t already. It’s been too long since the pleasures of banter fueled a romantic comedy in the spirit of “When Harry Met Sally.” But it’s all over the place in “Nobody Wants This,” one of the best shows on Netflix in recent memory. Renewed for a second season, it stars Kristen Bell as a humorously caustic podcaster and Adam Brody as the cute and emotionally intelligent rabbi she falls for. On the downside, the show has some terrible notions about Jewish women that play into controlling and emasculating stereotypes. You hate to see it in such an otherwise sparkling comedy, because overall Bell and Brody have an easy touch that gives the comedy real buoyancy. I suspect few people saw this three-part series on PBS Masterpiece, but it features a terrific performance by Helena Bonham Carter playing the real-life, longtime British soap star Noele “Nolly” Gordon, who was unceremoniously sacked in 1981. She’s the kind of larger-than-life showbiz figure who is a bit ridiculous, a bit imperious, but also so much fun. The final stretch of her career is brought to life by Carter and this homage — to both the soap she starred in and the way she carried it on her back — is from Russell T. Davies (best known for the “Doctor Who” revival). For U.S. viewers unfamiliar with the show or Gordon, Carter’s performance has the benefit of not competing with a memory as it reanimates a slice of British pop culture history from the analog era. The year is 1600 and a stubborn British seaman piloting a Dutch ship washes ashore in Japan. That’s our entry point to this gorgeously shot story of power games and political maneuvering among feudal enemies. Adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel by the married team of Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, it is filled with Emmy-winning performances (for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada; the series itself also won best drama) and unlike something like HBO’s far clunkier “House of the Dragon,” which tackles similar themes, this feels like the rare show created by, and for, adults. The misfits and losers of Britain’s MI5 counterintelligence agency — collectively known as the slow horses, a sneering nickname that speaks to their perceived uselessness — remain as restless as ever in this adaptation of Mick Herron’s Slough House spy novels. As a series, “Slow Horses” doesn’t offer tightly plotted clockwork spy stories; think too deeply about any of the details and the whole thing threatens to fall apart. But on a scene-by-scene basis, the writing is a winning combination of wry and tension-filled, and the cumulative effect is wonderfully entertaining. Spies have to deal with petty office politics like everyone else! It’s also one of the few shows that has avoided the dreaded one- or two-year delay between seasons, which has become standard on streaming. Instead, it provides the kind of reliability — of its characters but also its storytelling intent — that has become increasingly rare. Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.haha 777 games 。

Michigan upsets No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 for Wolverines' 4th straight win over bitter rivalPTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTCT) Price Target Raised to $68.00

Windsor cop's conviction, punishment for Freedom Convoy support gets court review

— BIRTH NAME: James Earl Carter, Jr. — BORN: Oct. 1, 1924, at the Wise Clinic in Plains, Georgia, the first U.S. president born in a hospital. He would become the first president to live for an entire century . — EDUCATION: Plains High School, Plains, Georgia, 1939-1941; Georgia Southwestern College, Americus, Georgia, 1941-1942; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 1942-1943; U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, 1943-1946 (class of 1947); Union College, Schenectady, New York, 1952-1953. — PRESIDENCY: Sworn-in as 39th president of the United States at the age of 52 years, 3 months and 20 days on Jan. 20, 1977, after defeating President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 general election. Left office on Jan. 20, 1981, following 1980 general election loss to Ronald Reagan. — POST-PRESIDENCY: Launched The Carter Center in 1982. Began volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in 1984. Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Taught for 37 years at Emory University, where he was granted tenure in 2019, at age 94. — OTHER ELECTED OFFICES: Georgia state senator, 1963-1967; Georgia governor, 1971-1975. — OTHER OCCUPATIONS: Served in U.S. Navy, achieved rank of lieutenant, 1946-53; Farmer, warehouseman, Plains, Georgia, 1953-77. — FAMILY: Wife, Rosalynn Smith Carter , married July 7, 1946 until her death Nov. 19, 2023. They had three sons, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff); a daughter, Amy Lynn; and 11 living grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Source: Jimmy Carter Library & MuseumLatest Market News Today Live Updates December 30, 2024: JSW Energy’s O2 Power acquisition tells us buying is better than building assets

Novato’s minimum wage will rise by about 40 cents on Wednesday. The city’s wage schedule outpaces state law, and is adjusted based on retail price data. While some leaders praised the increase, others worry about the effect it could have on small businesses. “Raising the minimum wage ahead of state law demonstrates our commitment to supporting our hardworking residents,” said Rachel Farac, a member of the Novato City Council. “This increase not only helps families make ends meet but also strengthens our local economy by putting more money into the hands of those who need it the most.” Novato’s wage schedule sorts businesses by the number of employees. Categories include “very large” for businesses with more than 100 employees; “large” for those with 26 to 99 employees; and “small” for businesses with 25 or fewer employees. In 2025, the city’s very large businesses will pay a minimum wage of $17.27 per hour; large businesses, $17 per hour; and small businesses, $16.42 per hour. The prior baseline was $16.86 an hour for very large businesses; $16.60 for large ones; and and $16.04 for small ones. State law requires all businesses to pay a minimum wage of $16.50 in 2025. In 2019, the City Council passed Ordinance 1653, which accelerated the state’s wage schedule and increased the wage by $1 per hour. The ordinance states that once $15 an hour is reached, it would be adjusted yearly by the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. The data for the index is derived from the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. Christina Mendes, the incoming chief executive officer of the Novato Chamber of Commerce, said the organization felt the state’s minimum wage schedule was adequate when the ordinance was first introduced. “As an organization dedicated to supporting the local business community, we understand the challenges this accelerated timeline presents, particularly for small businesses that form the backbone of our local economy,” Mendes said. “We acknowledge that adapting to these changes will be a challenge for many, but we remain committed to providing the resources and support necessary to help our businesses thrive during this transition.” Robert Eyler, a professor of economics at Sonoma State University, said Novato’s effort is noble, but from an economic standpoint, there are two issues. First, an effective minimum wage ordinance is a regressive tax — similar to a sales tax — with a bigger impact on smaller businesses, Eyler said. While larger businesses can bear the effects, smaller businesses might struggle. Second, Eyler said, raising the minimum wage does not always change the labor market. He said if the wage that is set by the local supply and demand for labor — a so-called equilibrium wage — is actually higher than the minimum wage, the minimum wage ordinance won’t effectively change labor market conditions. “So when you think about Novato’s increasing, on the one hand it’s good from the worker standpoint if it’s effective, it’s not good if it’s effective in terms for small business,” Eyler said. “Whether or not it’s effective or not is the big question.” Eyler said many ordinances take a business size approach to raising minimum wage. The issue, though, is determining what constitutes a large, medium or small business. Eyler said signs that a wage increase has had an impact on employers include business closures or hiring slowdowns. Mendes said adapting to increased labor costs while keeping affordable prices for customers is a complex challenge that businesses will need to navigate. She said the organization encourages businesses to connect with the Marin Small Business Development Center, which offers free resources and guidance to help plan for wage increases and other challenges. Novato is not alone in pursuing a higher minimum wage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 21 states will increase minimum wages in 2025, and nearly 30 cities and counties in California are doing so. “It’s been recognized that we need to do something for lower wage workers in the jobs that sort of carry a lower wage with them,” Eyler said. “It’s just very hard to do that without small business sort of bearing that cost.” Marin is ranked one of the most inequitable counties in California in a number of fields, including in wages, according to the county. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living-wage calculator sets a livable wage for an adult with no children in Marin County at $32.19 an hour. “We are proud to lead by example and this is a step to give everyone in Novato an opportunity to thrive,” Farac said. “This proactive step reflects our dedication to support all residents to achieve a better quality of life.” “By raising the minimum wage, we are not only supporting our hardworking community members, but also fostering a more robust and equitable local economy,” she said.Ehsan launches 8th Scientific Research and Innovation CompetitionMy PC setup is very important to me, as both a freelance writer who works from home and as someone who plays a lot of video games. While I’d love to upgrade all my components and tackle the cable monster that plagues the underside of my desk, neither of these tasks is at the top of my list when it comes to my tech New Year’s resolutions. Instead, that honor goes to finally buying my dream displays. Ever since I reviewed (and shortly after, purchased for myself) a laptop with a display, any display with lesser specs looks incredibly ‘meh.’ Of course, if I opt for a 4K OLED monitor, I’ll likely need to upgrade a few PC components as well. If you have a similar goal for your PC setup, read on to hear my plan. What specs am I looking for in my dream displays? Currently, my PC setup includes two 27-inch mounted with a . Each monitor features 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution, an IPS panel, and a 100Hz refresh rate, and while they’re not bad monitors, I’m well overdue for an upgrade. The first decision to tackle is deciding between display tech. While QLED displays are exceptionally bright and a good alternative to OLED, I think the vibrant colors and rich, deep blacks produced by OLED displays just can’t be beat, especially for gaming. Next up, resolution. In the debate of monitors, many gamers regard QHD resolution as the best because you’ll get a slightly sharper image compared to 1080p monitors and still manage higher refresh rates on average compared to 4K monitors. However, for photo editing and games that don’t require as high of a refresh rate, I want at least one of my monitors to have 4K resolution. When it comes to size, I’ve seen a lot of people mention that you can’t fully appreciate 4K resolution on smaller displays and recommend going for a 32-inch monitor if you want 4K. Whether or not that’s true, adding a 32-inch monitor to my setup sounds pretty sweet. However, adding two 32-inch monitors sounds like a bit much for my desk. For that reason, I’ve landed on my dream display setup including one 32-inch 4K OLED monitor and one 27-inch QHD OLED monitor, with both featuring a minimum refresh rate of 144Hz. What upgrades does my PC need to get the most out of my displays? Running a game at 4K resolution and 60Hz takes a lot of graphics power, so I’d definitely need to upgrade to one of the I can get. I currently have an PowerColor 6700 XT GPU that wouldn’t be able to seamlessly handle 4K gaming. Upgrading to a beefier GPU also means I’ll need a bigger case, as my existing mid-size tower only accommodates a 300-millimeter GPU length. Past upgrading my GPU and my case, the only thing I may want to upgrade for fear of bottleneck issues is my CPU. I currently have an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, and I’d likely want to skip up to a Ryzen 7 series chip instead. Other than that, my existing AM4 motherboard, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage don’t need to be touched. I ran all potential parts through PC Part Picker, too, and it doesn’t even look like I’d need to upgrade my power supply. Here are the specific upgrades I plan on making in 2025 With all these wants in mind, here’s exactly what I’m planning to budget for in the new year. Upgrading my PC comes first because I can’t take advantage of the glorious visuals new monitors have to offer until my components can handle the pressure. I plan on swapping out my PowerColor Fighter AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU for a more powerful (or the if the Fighter is out of stock). For a new CPU, I’m looking at the to replace my Ryzen 5 5600X. When it comes to cases, I’m not going to pick anything specific now. I’ll likely just see what’s on sale at the time I buy my new GPU and CPU and see what’s the best value that’ll accommodate a larger GPU. My opinion on which specific monitors I want could change between now and when I have enough saved to upgrade, but the specs I want are clear. I’m looking for monitors with a minimum refresh rate of 144Hz, one that’s a 32-inch 4K OLED monitor and the other a 27-inch QHD OLED monitor. Right now, my top picks are the with 4K resolution and refresh rate support up to 240Hz and the with QHD resolution and refresh rate support up to 360Hz. I know I’ll be paying a premium for monitors, but it feels worth it with the display specs I’m looking for. Now, all that’s left to do is start stashing away money for my very expensive 2025 upgrade and consider whether I want to to my wishlist as well.

Coastal Carolina wins 75-53 against WarnerStormont minister Maurice Morrow told an official he would not raise the issue with the Northern Ireland Executive, despite similar measures being considered in England and Wales. A file on planning arrangements for the jubilee celebrations reveals a series of civil service correspondences on how Northern Ireland would mark the occasion. It includes a letter sent on January 11 2001 from an official in the Office of the First Minister/Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) to the Department of Social Development, advising that a committee had been set up in London to consider a programme of celebrations. The correspondence says: “One of the issues the committee is currently considering is the possibility of deregulating liquor licensing laws during the golden jubilee celebrations on the same lines as the arrangements made for the millennium. “It is felt that the golden jubilee bank holiday on Monday 3 June 2002 is likely to be an occasion on which many public houses and similar licensed premises would wish to stay open beyond normal closing time.” The letter said a paper had been prepared on the issue of extending opening hours. It adds: “You will note that paragraph seven of the paper indicates that the devolved administrations ‘would need to consider deregulation separately within their own jurisdictions’. “I thought that you would wish to be aware that this issue is receiving active consideration for England and Wales and to consider whether anything needs to be done for Northern Ireland.” Some months later a “progress report” was sent between officials in OFMDFM, which again raised the issue of licensing laws. It says: “I spoke to Gordon Gibson, DSD, about Terry Smith’s letter of 12 January 2001 about licensing laws: the matter was put to their minister Maurice Morrow (DUP) who indicated that he would not be asking the NIE (Northern Ireland Executive) to approve any change to current licensing laws in NI to allow for either 24 hour opening (as at the millennium) nor a blanket approval for extended opening hours as is being considered in GB. “In both cases, primary legislation would be required here and would necessitate consultation and the minister has ruled out any consultation process.” The correspondence says individual licensees could still apply for an extension to opening hours on an ad hoc basis, adding “there the matter rests”. It goes on: “DSD await further pronouncements from the Home Office and Gibson and I have agreed to notify each other of any developments we become aware of and he will copy me to any (existing) relevant papers. “Ministers may well come under pressure in due course for a relaxation and/or parity with GB.” The document concludes “That’s it so far...making haste slowly?” Emails sent between officials in the department the same month said that lord lieutenants in Northern Ireland had been approached about local events to mark the jubilee. One message says: “Lord lieutenants have not shown any enthusiasm for encouraging GJ celebrations at a local level. “Lady Carswell in particular believes that it would be difficult for LLs to encourage such activities without appearing political.”

Fantasy football championships delivered by NFL's stars of tomorrow — today

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:21 p.m. ESTThe Minnesota Twins acquired infielder Mickey Gasper from the Red Sox on Tuesday, sending left-hander Jovani Moran to Boston. Gasper, 29, made his major league debut in 2024 with the Red Sox, going hitless with four walks and one run in 18 at-bats over 13 games. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Stacker examined Census of Agriculture data from the Department of Agriculture to see which states produce the most Christmas trees. Click for more. States that produce the most Christmas trees

Cardinals' sudden 3-game tailspin has turned their once solid playoff hopes into a long shot

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:21 p.m. ESTHow Is The Market Feeling About Reinsurance Gr?

Organised crime gangs lurking on motorways send cargo thefts soaring by half to £102m - with 'homegrown' groups blamed for majority of raids on lorry drivers to seize luxury brandsNegotiators have agreed to 'at least' $300 billion in climate funding at the UN climate summit after two weeks of tense negotiations that highlighted sharp divides between rich and poorer nations. But is it enough?Rarely has a climate summit venue so accurately reflected the mood and unfolding of negotiations. Also Read | World News | Rich Nations Offer USD 300 Billion Annually After 10 Years to Global South. For two bumpy weeks, the labyrinthine corridors in Baku's Olympic Stadium have echoed with the hurried footsteps of negotiators rushing from one windowless meeting room to the next, avoiding dead-ends and wrong turns among the endless passageways. Also Read | World News | Trump Taps Rollins as Agriculture Chief, Completing Proposed Slate of Cabinet Secretaries. Further characterized by missing global leaders, major disagreement and shifting geopolitical dynamics, the talks stretched deep into overtime before there was finally light at the end of the tunnel. And an agreement that sets a goal of at least $300 billion in climate financing per year by 2035 flowing from developed to developing countries. Failure in Baku was "not an option," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking on Thursday. But that failure looked possible late on Saturday when delegates from AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) and LDCs (Least Developed Countries) walked out of talks on the grounds their concerns were not being heard. "What is happening here is highlighting what a very different boat our vulnerable countries are in, compared to the developed countries," said Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the group. "After this COP29 ends, we cannot just sail off into the sunset. We are literally sinking." What have nations agreed — and is it enough? COP29's core aim was getting the near 200 countries to agree on a new climate funding target that could replace the current goal of $100 billion (about €95 billion) per year. This financial packageis intended to help developing countries tackle emissions, transition away from fossil fuels and adapt to a warming world. But the size of the finance pot and which countries should foot the bill were huge sticking points in negotiations. Developing countries pushed for at least $1 trillion per year, a sum leading economists have said is necessary for them to respond to the climate crisis. Anything else was lowballing and "divorced from the reality of what was needed," according to Champa Patel of environment non-profit Climate Group. But industrialized countries held off specifying concrete figures until the very last day and said they couldn't raise the money alone without private sector involvement. The $300 billion promised is far lower than what developing countries were hoping for. "At COP29, developed nations once again coerced developing countries into accepting a financial deal woefully inadequate to address the gravity of our global climate crisis," said Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. "The deal fails to provide the critical support required for developing countries to transition swiftly from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy systems, or to prepare for the devastating impacts of the climate crisis." Low-income countries are seeing increasingly extreme floods, droughts, heat waves, storms and rising sea levels and do not have the resources to deal with them. Developed countries are responsible for the majority of historical emissions causing the planet to heat up. By 2050 climate change is expected to cause $38 trillion in damages around the world, according one estimate. But the new text released early Sunday morning, attempted to reassure progress to the $1.3 trillion would happen. It referenced a "Roadmap from Baku to Belem," which calls on "all actors" to "scale up" climate finance to developing countries and includes access to finance through "grants, concessional and non-debt-creating instruments." Observers said negotiators from Africa and other developing countries had pushed for the changes to be included in the hope of creating a meaningful process to align the global financial system with the $1.3 trillion target by 2035. To date, much of the international climate finance has been provided to developing countries in the form of non-concessional loans. Organizations such as Oxfam have criticized this, pointing out that this increases the debt burden of some of the LDCs. Developed countries also pushed for China and wealthy Gulf states that are heavily dependent on oil and gas to contribute to the $300 billion climate fund and share the burden. China is the world's biggest carbon emitter. And although it's a major economy, the UN still classes it as a developing country. The final agreement didn't widen the donor base to include China, but it did introduce a fudge that would officially recognize the country's contributions. The new mechanism allows for voluntary recognition of cash flowing from developing countries through development banks as climate finance. What does the outcome mean for global emissions? When it comes to fossil fuels — the primary source of global emissions and drivers of climate change — proceedings this year didn't get off to a good start. The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev used COP29 as a platform to describe oil and gas as a "gift of God." But negotiators did reach a deal on controversial carbon markets that would allow polluting countries to buy carbon-cutting offsets. Supporters say the new rules would help boost investment in local-income countries, where the carbon projects are usually located. But critics say they could be used for greenwashing climate targets. "These decisions were taken behind closed doors," Tamra Gilbertson of the US-based non-profit Indigenous Environmental Network told DW. "We know that other carbon markets have completely failed to address climate change and emissions." Many were hoping for more progress to build on what was achieved at COP28 in Dubai last year, which concluded with a hard-won final agreement on "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems." But oil producer Saudi Arabia, tried to derail progress on moving away from fossil fuel, and was described as a "wrecking ball" to the agreement. "We are in the midst of a geopolitical power play by a few fossil fuel states," said Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock Saturday as talks spiraled. As with previous COPs, there were strong criticisms regarding the presence of over 1700 oil and gas lobbyists. They received more passes to COP29 than all the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined, according to one report. Richard Folland, head of policy and engagement with independent financial think tank Carbon Tracker said the talks in Baku had been "strangled by the second highest attendance of fossil fuel lobbyists on record" and that the summit had "taken us dangerously backwards on collective climate action as extreme weather events take their toll." The core goal of the Paris Agreement is to hold global average temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels, and to strive to stay under 1.5 C. The science is clear that this requires urgent and deep cuts to global emissions. However, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have hit new heights this year and 2024 is set to be the hottest ever on record. Dubbed the "finance COP," this year's conference highlighted the difficulties in reaching global consensus on climate action, and also drew calls for reform. In an open letter to the UN, a group of scientists and former leaders said COP was "no longer fit for purpose," and required a shift from negotiation to implementation to "deliver on agreed commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil energy." With reporting from Giulia Saudelli and Tim Schauenberg in Baku, Azerbaijan. Edited by: Jennifer Collins and Tamsin Walker (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 24, 2024 05:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com ).Best TV of 2024: A modestly better lineup than usual, but why didn’t it feel that way?

Facing rising competition in the AI chip space, Nvidia is reportedly turning to robotics. The $3.3 trillion company, whose tech has helped drive the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), will launch the next version of compact computers for humanoid robots — dubbed Jetson Thor — in the first half of next year, the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Dec. 29). According to the report, Nvidia is jockeying to become the top platform in what it argues is a coming robotics boom. “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI and robotics is around the corner,” Deepu Talla , Nvidia’s vice president of robotics, told the FT, adding that he believes the market is at a “tipping point.” The FT report noted that this effort comes as Nvidia is expecting more competition for its chips from rivals like AMD , as well as cloud computing titans like Google and Amazon. Now, the company is investing in the “physical AI” space to help the new robotics firms grow. For example, it joined Microsoft and OpenAI in a February funding round that valued humanoid robotics company Figure AI at $2.6 billion . While Nvidia does not break out figures for its robotics product sales, the FT report said that this part of its business represents a smaller share of its revenue. Data center revenue, for example, made up around 88% of the $35.1 billion in sales Nvidia reported in the third quarter . In other robotics/AI news, PYMNTS wrote recently about research at MIT that developed an AI system that could let warehouse robots deftly handle odd-shaped packages and navigate crowded spaces without putting human workers in danger. It’s a breakthrough happening at a moment when retailers and logistics companies are facing increasing pressure to automate amid surging eCommerce demand. Although robots excel at repetitive tasks such as moving pallets, MIT’s PRoC3S technology could finally solve the long-standing challenge of robots safely performing more complex warehouse jobs that usually require human dexterity and spatial awareness. “In theory, PRoC3S could reduce a robot’s error rate by vetting its initial LLM-based assumptions against more specific and accurate understandings of the warehouse environment,” Erik Nieves , CEO and co-founder at Plus One Robotics , told PYMNTS. “Think about it like this: A warehouse robot operating solely on LLM guidance has been described how to complete a task. The PRoC3S concept goes one step further by placing a digital robot in a simulated environment of that task. It’s essentially the difference between classroom instruction and a really good field trip.” As PYMNTS has reported, robotics and AI technologies are transforming traditional distribution yards via specialized autonomous vehicles outfitted with robotic arms that can handle complex tasks such as connecting brake lines and positioning trailers, operating alongside human workers.