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Outnumbered's creator has clapped back at critics after the show's Christmas special faced backlash for being "depressing". The much-anticipated festive episode of the beloved BBC series graced screens yesterday, reuniting viewers with the Brockman clan for one final family gathering. The original cast reprised their roles, with Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis returning as parents Sue and Pete, alongside Tyger Drew-Honey, Daniel Roche, and Ramona Marquez as their offspring Jake, Ben, and Karen. This time around, the narrative took a poignant turn, revealing that the couple had not only become grandparents but were also grappling with Pete's prostate cancer diagnosis. Crafted by the show's original creators Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, who also directed the special, the storyline struck a balance between the show's trademark wit and the gravity of Pete's health scare. Despite the cancer being treatable, the episode delved into Pete's internal struggle over breaking the news to his children, culminating in a heart-wrenching scene where Ben learns of his father's condition via video call due to travel disruptions. By the end, the family's resilience shines through, with the kids cracking jokes and Pete reassured by their strong reaction, reports the Mirror . Despite the writers' efforts to weave in significant issues, some viewers were left disheartened, taking to social media to express their discontent. One viewer lamented, "Pete having cancer, I f***ing hate this," while another questioned, "Why did they bring it back though just for it to have a depressing storyline on boxing day." A third viewer shared: "I wasn't expecting Pete to have c*ncer. They seriously put that in the Christmas special? ! And all the stuff with Jane being depressed and Jake being so tired he can barely function and the neighbours being noisy... This isn't Christmasy at all." The creator of the show Guy Jenkin explained the rationale behind the inclusion of such a weighty issue in the festive episode. Guy Jenkin spoke candidly about the decision, sharing: "People often remember Outnumbered for the delightful children, but it always dealt with quite serious things: dementia, death, homophobia. We dealt with that through how parents explain it to their children and this is the same except that the children are considerably larger. He further commented on the subject matter, adding: "There's still a stigma attached to the word cancer, and we just wanted to show how very, very normal it is, as well as how the Brockmans dealt with it with warmth, love, and especially humour, because that's a very British way of dealing with that sort of stuff." *Outnumbered is available to catch up on BBC iPlayer.
LAS VEGAS — Players Era Festival organizers have done what so many other have tried — bet their fortunes in this city that a big payoff is coming. Such bet are usually bad ones, which is why so many massive casino-resorts have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it doesn't mean the organizers are wrong. They're counting on the minimum of $1 million in guaranteed name, image and likeness money that will go to each of the eight teams competing in the neutral-site tournament that begins Tuesday will create a precedent for other such events. EverWonder Studios CEO Ian Orefice, who co-founded Players with former AND1 CEO Seth Berger, compared this event to last year's inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament that played its semifinals and final in Las Vegas by saying it "did really well to reinvigorate the fan base at the beginning of the year." People are also reading... "We're excited that we're able to really change the paradigm in college basketball on the economics," Orefice said. "But for us, it's about the long term. How do we use the momentum that is launching with the 2024 Players Era Festival and be the catalyst not to change one event, but to change college basketball for the future." Orefice and Berger didn't disclose financial details, but said the event will come close to breaking even this year and that revenue is in eight figures. Orefice said the bulk of the revenue will come from relationships with MGM, TNT Sports and Publicis Sport & Entertainment as well as sponsors that will be announced later. Both organizers said they are so bullish on the tournament's prospects that they already are planning ahead. Money made from this year's event, Orefice said, goes right back into the company. "We're really in this for the long haul," Orefice said. "So we're not looking at it on a one-year basis." Rick Giles is president of the Gazelle Group, which also operates several similar events, including the College Basketball Invitational. He was skeptical the financial numbers would work. Giles said in addition to more than $8 million going to the players, there were other expenses such as the guarantees to the teams. He said he didn't know if the tournament would make up the difference with ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorship money. The top bowl of the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be curtained off. "The math is highly challenging," Giles said. "Attendance and ticket revenues are not going to come anywhere close to covering that. They haven't announced any sponsors that I'm aware of. So it all sort of rests with their media deal with Turner and how much capital they want to commit to it to get these players paid." David Carter, a University of Southern California adjunct professor who also runs the Sports Business Group consultancy, said even if the Players isn't a financial success this year, the question is whether there will be enough interest to move forward. "If there is bandwidth for another tournament and if the TV or the streaming ratings are going to be there and people are going to want to attend and companies are going to want to sponsor, then, yeah, it's probably going to work," Carter said. "But it may take them time to gain that traction." Both founders said they initially were met with skepticism about putting together such an event, especially from teams they were interested in inviting. Houston was the first school to commit, first offering an oral pledge early in the year and then signing a contract in April. That created momentum for others to join, and including the No. 6 Cougars, half the field is ranked. "We have the relationships to operate a great event," Berger said. "We had to get coaches over those hurdles, and once they knew that we were real, schools got on board really quickly." The founders worked with the NCAA to make sure the tournament abided by that organization's rules, so players must appear at ancillary events in order to receive NIL money. Strict pay for play is not allowed, though there are incentives for performance. The champion, for example, will receive $1.5 million in NIL money. Now the pressure is on to pull off the event and not create the kind of headlines that can dog it for years to come. "I think everybody in the marketplace is watching what's going to happen (this) week and, more importantly, what happens afterwards," Giles said. "Do the players get paid on a timely basis? And if they do, that means that Turner or somebody has paid way more than the market dictates? And the question will be: Can that continue?" CREIGHTON: P oint guard Steven Ashworth likely won’t play in the No. 21 Bluejays’ game against San Diego State in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Ashworth sprained his right ankle late in a loss to Nebraska on Friday and coach Greg McDermott said afterward he didn’t know how long he would be out. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!Trump threatens 100% tariff on the BRIC bloc of nations if they act to undermine US dollar
STATE COLLEGE – Another game, another couple of records for Penn State star tight end Tyler Warren. The No. 4 Nittany Lions lead Maryland 31-7 at halftime on Saturday at Beaver Stadium.NC Central 131, Va.-Lynchburg 51
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Allowing two kickoff return touchdowns and missing an extra point all in the final few minutes added up to the Washington Commanders losing a third consecutive game in excruciating fashion. The underlying reason for this slide continuing was a problem long before that. An offense led by dynamic rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels that was among the NFL's best for a long stretch of the season put up just nine points and 169 yards for the first three-plus quarters against Dallas before falling behind 20-9 and teeing off on the Cowboys' conservative defense. “We just couldn’t really get it going,” said receiver Terry McLaurin , whose lengthy touchdown with 21 seconds left masked that he had just three catches for 16 yards through three quarters. “We’ve got to find a way to start faster and sustain drives, and that’s everybody: the whole coaching staff and the offensive players just going out there and figuring out ways that we can stay on the field.” This is not a new problem for Washington, which had a season-low 242 yards in a Nov. 10 home loss to Pittsburgh and 264 yards four days later in a defeat at Philadelphia. Since returning from a rib injury that knocked him out of a game last month, Daniels has completed just under 61% of his passes, after 75.6% over his first seven professional starts. Daniels and coach Dan Quinn have insisted this isn't about injury. The coaching staff blamed a lack of adequate practice time, but a full week of it before facing the Cowboys did not solve the problem. It is now fair to wonder if opponents have seen enough film of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury's system to figure it out. “I think teams and coordinators are going to see what other teams have success against us and try to figure out how they could incorporate that into their scheme," Daniels said after going 12 of 22 for 80 yards passing through three quarters in the Dallas game. "We’ve been in third and longer a lot these past couple games, so that’s kind of where you get into the exotic pressures and stuff like that. We’ve just got to be better on first and second downs and stay ahead of the chains.” Daniels has a point there, and it predates this losing streak. The Commanders have converted just 36% of third-down opportunities (27 for 75) over their past seven games after 52% (31 for 60) in their first five. That challenge doesn't get any easier with Tennessee coming to town Sunday. The Titans, despite being 3-8, have the second-best third-down defense in the league at 31.6%. The defense kept the Commanders in the game against Dallas, allowing just 10 points until the fourth quarter and 20 total before kickoff return touchdowns piled on to the other side of the scoreboard. Even Cooper Rush's 22-yard touchdown pass to Luke Schoonmaker with five minutes left came after a turnover that gave the Cowboys the ball at the Washington 44. The defense spending more than 35 minutes on the field certainly contributed to fatigue as play wore on. The running game that contributed to a 7-2 start has taken a hit, in part because of injuries to top back Brian Robinson Jr. The Commanders got 145 yards on the ground because Daniels had 74 on seven carries, but running backs combined for just 57. Daniels could not say how much the rushing attack stalling has contributed to the offense going stagnant. “You’ve got to be able to run the ball, keep the defense honest,” he said. "We got to execute the plays that are called in, and we didn’t do a good job of doing that.” Linebacker Frankie Luvu keeps making the case to be first-year general manager Adam Peters' best free agent signing. He and fellow offseason addition Bobby Wagner tied for a team-high eight tackles, and Luvu also knocked down three passes against Dallas. Kicker Austin Seibert going wide left on the point-after attempt that would have tied the score with 21 seconds left was his third miss of the game. He also was short on a 51-yard field goal attempt and wide left on an earlier extra point. Seibert, signed a week into the season after Cade York struggled in the opener, made 25 of 27 field goal tries and was 22 of 22 on extra points before injuring his right hip and missing the previous two games. He brushed off his health and the low snap from Tyler Ott while taking responsibility for not connecting. “I made the decision to play, and here we are,” Seibert said. “I just wasn’t striking it well. But it means a lot to me to be here with these guys, so I just want to put my best foot moving forward.” Robinson's sprained ankle and fellow running back Austin Ekeler's concussion from a late kickoff return that led to him being hospitalized for further evaluation are two major immediate concerns. Quinn said Monday that Ekeler and starting right tackle Andrew Wylie are in concussion protocol. It's unclear if Robinson will be available against Tennessee, which could mean Chris Rodriguez Jr. getting elevated from the practice squad to split carries with Jeremy McNichols. The Commanders still have not gotten cornerback Marshon Lattimore into a game since acquiring him at the trade deadline from New Orleans. Lattimore is trying to return from a hamstring injury, and the secondary could use him against Calvin Ridley, who's coming off a 93-yard performance at Houston. 17 — Handoffs to a running back against Dallas, a significant decrease from much of the season before this losing streak. Don't overlook the Titans with the late bye week coming immediately afterward. The Commanders opened as more than a touchdown favorite, but after the results over the weekend, BetMGM Sportsbook had it as 5 1/2 points Monday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRIC alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the U.S. dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed up with America’s dominance of the global financial system . The dollar represents roughly 58% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves, according to the IMF and major commodities like oil are still primarily bought and sold using dollars. The dollar's dominance is threatened, however, with BRICS' growing share of GDP and the alliance's intent to trade in non-dollar currencies — a process known as de-dollarization. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said: “We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy." At a summit of BRIC nations in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake.” “It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” Putin said at the time. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.” Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network, SWIFT, and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners. Trump said there is "no chance" BRIC will replace the U.S. dollar in global trade and any country that tries to make that happen "should wave goodbye to America.” Research shows that the U.S. dollar's role as the primary global reserve currency is not threatened in the near future. An Atlantic Council model that assesses the dollar’s place as the primary global reserve currency states the dollar is “secure in the near and medium term” and continues to dominate other currencies. Trump's latest tariff threat comes after he threatened to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tax on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to do more to halt the flow of illegal immigration and drugs into the U.S. He has since held a call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States can be averted. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after meeting Trump, without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on Canada.GLOBALISATION AND IDENTITY: Australian scholar advocates unified, inclusive path forward
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jared Spurgeon scored 1:00 into overtime and the Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Saturday night. Kirill Kaprizov and Declan Chisholm also scored for the Wild, who are 5-1-1 in their last seven games. Filip Gustavsson stopped 25 shots. Fedor Svechkov and Ryan O’Reilly scored and Roman Josi had two assists for the Predators, who have lost four in a row — the last three in overtime. Juuse Saros had 25 saves. Spurgeon, who scored twice in Friday's win against Chicago, took a pass from Kaprizov in the slot and fired a high wrist shot that beat Saros for his third of the season. Takeaways Predators: Nashville is tied for the fewest road wins in the league with two, and this loss kicked off a four-game road swing that also includes stops in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Wild: For the second time in two nights, the Wild struggled to put away one of the bottom-dwellers in the Central Division. But they ran their record to 5-1-2 when tied after two periods and got just their second overtime win in six chances this season. Key moment With 3:44 to play in the third period, Zachary L'Heureux broke in alone on Gustavsson, but the Wild goalie kicked aside a wrist shot to keep the score tied. Minnesota Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm (47) celebrates with teammates after scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: AP/Bailey Hillesheim Key stat The Predators are 1-6 in overtime this season, and all six losses were by a 3-2 score. Up Next Wild host Vancouver on Tuesday, while the Predators visit Toronto on Wednesday.NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #302 (Monday, December 30 2024)
‘Buy now, pay later’ is more popular than ever. It can cost more than you think
Leading AI researchers caution that training systems on internet data may be hitting their limits, raising concerns about the future of data-driven business models across the digital economy. Warnings by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever about data training constraints, as reported by Reuters, have rattled technology markets. Speaking at the NeurIPS conference, Sutskever emphasized the need for innovative approaches, such as AI-generated data and enhanced reasoning capabilities, to advance artificial intelligence. He predicted that future AI systems will possess human-like reasoning abilities, making their behavior less predictable and necessitating a shift in AI development strategies. But other experts argue current methods still have room to run, leaving companies to navigate competing visions of how to value and deploy AI systems that power everything from fraud detection to inventory management. “Internet data is running out, and AI companies are feeling the pressure,” Arunkumar Thirunagalingam , senior manager of data and technical operations at the McKesson Corporation , told PYMNTS. “For years, they relied on scraping huge amounts of online content to train their systems. That worked for a while, but now the easy data is drying up. This shift is putting the spotlight on companies with unique data sources, like healthcare records or logistics information. It is no longer about how much data you can grab; it is about having the right kind of data.” Coming Data Drought? AI systems rely on vast amounts of data from the internet to train and improve. However, the pool of high-quality, diverse data is finite, and researchers may be nearing the limits of what’s available. As models grow larger and demand more input, the risk of recycling similar information increases, leading to diminishing returns. Additionally, much of the internet’s content is noisy or repetitive, reducing its usefulness for cutting-edge training. This scarcity challenges researchers to seek alternatives, like creating synthetic data , leveraging specialized datasets, or developing models that rely less on raw data and more on advanced reasoning capabilities. With less internet data to scrape, companies are getting creative, Thirunagalingam said. They turn to real-world sources like IoT devices and sensors to collect fresh information. Crowd-sourcing platforms are paying people to share their unique insights, creating even more options. “This shift is already making waves in farming, where AI uses real-time data to improve crop yields, and in urban planning, where city sensors help design smarter infrastructure,” he added. “Companies that once sat on overlooked datasets are now finding new ways to monetize them, from partnerships to licensing deals. What seemed unimportant before is now a goldmine, sparking fresh ideas and business models.” Komninos Chatzipapas , founder of HeraHaven AI , acknowledged that the industry is running into a data wall. “The biggest AI companies have basically already scraped everything on the internet,” he told PYMNTS. “Also, a lot of the new internet content being published is itself AI-generated (which cannot be used for training as it will reinforce the existing biases these AI models have), and more and more publishers are blocking scraping bots like GPTBot from crawling their sites via their robots.txt.” AI’s Data Crisis: Publishers to the Rescue For pre-training AI models, Chatzipapas said, the data wall primarily affects unstructured training data, such as news articles and forum discussions. Pre-training is the initial phase of AI model development where the model learns general language patterns and knowledge from vast amounts of text data before being fine-tuned for specific tasks. “There is still work to be done on creating great structured data for training AI models,” he added. This can be, for example, very complex math/science problems that are solved in a step-by-step manner so the AI model can learn to reason, he said. One solution to the data drought is emerging through deals with academic publishers, who are offering their scholarly articles in exchange for millions of dollars. Microsoft’s recent $10 million deal with Taylor & Francis opened the floodgates for AI companies to tap into academic publishers’ vast research archives.
You may be familiar with a range of tips for living a healthy life: Watch your weight, exercise, eat nutritious food and don’t smoke, for example. What if you could combine these lifestyle factors with a host of other variables to learn your risk of developing specific diseases, to help catch and treat them early or prevent them altogether? Dr. Victor Ortega, associate director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine in Arizona, explains how science is drawing ever closer to making such personal health forecasts possible. Previously inconceivable, such personal guides to well-being are becoming increasingly possible because of new and sophisticated genome-wide technologies that capture data spanning entire genomes, Ortega says. The complex scores are compiled from a combination of data from thousands to hundreds of thousands of a person’s DNA sequence variants. This type of large genome-wide data has the potential to predict disease risks, such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma and specific cancers. “Imagine knowing your genetic predisposition for having a heart attack in your 50s, or if you’re in the top 5 percent of the population for the risk of cancer or diabetes based on data from your whole genome. With this knowledge, you could make informed lifestyle choices and receive enhanced screenings to mitigate that risk,” Ortega says. Assessing polygenic risk As a pulmonologist and genomic scientist, Ortega is leading a charge to breathe new life into precision medicine advancements. His mission is rooted in a deep commitment to health equities and inspired by his grandmother. “My grandmother died of asthma, and that should not have happened. She was Puerto Rican like me, and Puerto Ricans have the highest severity and frequency of asthma of any ethnic group in the world,” Ortega says. “They also represent less than 1 percent of people in genetic studies. So, I’ve made it a life mission to develop cures and diagnostics for people like my grandma, and for all people.” Each person has millions of genetic variants, each having a small effect. But together, these variants can increase the risk of getting a condition. A polygenic risk score estimates the overall risk someone has of getting a disease by adding up the small effects of variants throughout an individual’s entire genome. Polygenic risk scores are not used to diagnose diseases. Some people who don’t have a high-risk score for a certain disease still can be at risk of getting the disease or might already have it. Other people with high-risk scores may never get the disease. People with the same genetic risk can have different outcomes depending on other factors such as lifestyle which determine one’s lifelong environmental exposures, also called the exposome. Ortega says that getting to the point where all people know their polygenic risk scores will require a solid foundation of “omics” research and datasets, cutting-edge technologies and further discoveries of gene-disease links — all of which are within his team’s expertise and capabilities. ‘The way of the future’ Omics is an emerging multidisciplinary field of biological sciences that encompasses genomics, proteomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and more. “It’s going to take considerable work and planning, but it really is the way of the future,” he says. In the shorter term, Ortega plans to transition more omics discoveries from research laboratories to the clinic. Omics data can help identify the molecular culprits driving a person’s disease, as well as biomarkers that can lead to the development of targeted treatments and diagnostics. Recent omics discoveries at the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine have enabled scientists to predict antidepressant response in people with depression and discover a potential therapeutic strategy for bone marrow cancer. Scientists have also used omics to pinpoint genetic variations that potentially increase the risk for severe COVID-19, uncover potential clues for preventing and treating gliomas and unravel the genetic mystery of a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Drawing from his years of extensive clinical experience in treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses, Ortega is also working to expand genomic testing to a broader set of diseases. He highlights the center’s collaborative Program for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases as an effective model that he hopes to amplify. The Program for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases proactively engages health care teams across Mayo’s clinical practice to conduct targeted genomic testing for patients with a suspected rare genetic disease. He says expanding this strategy to more diseases will help build collaborations across Mayo and educate more clinicians on genomics. It may also ensure the most effective genomic sequencing tests are given to patients, ultimately improving patient care and outcomes.Trump threatens 100% tariff on the BRIC bloc of nations if they act to undermine US dollar