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FRISCO - It was just three weeks ago that the Dallas Cowboys laid an embarrassing egg on national TV. Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals they'll attempt to reverse the trouble trend of prime-time flops. Dallas' 34-10 blowout loss to the Houston on Nov. 18 was apparently rock-bottom in a disappointing season. Since then they have produced consecutive wins over the NFC East rival Washington Commanders and New York Giants to climb to 5-7 and at least tiptoe onto the fringes of the Wild Card playoff discussion. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.US stocks rose Monday, with the Dow finishing at a fresh record as markets greeted Donald Trump's pick for treasury secretary, while oil prices retreated on hopes for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The Dow climbed one percent to a second straight all-time closing high on news of the selection of hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to lead the critical economic policy position. A widely respected figure on Wall Street, Bessent is seen as being in favor of growth and deficit reduction policies and not known overly fond of trade tariffs. The market "breathed a sigh of relief" at Bessent's selection, said Art Hogan from B. Riley Wealth Management. But after an initial surge Monday, the gains in US equities moderated somewhat. While investors are enthusiastic about the possibility of tax cuts and regulatory relief under Trump, "we do have to face the potential for tariffs being a negative as well as a very tight market around immigration, which is not positive for the economy," Hogan said. Earlier, equity gains were limited in Europe as growth concerns returned to the fore with Germany's Thyssenkrupp announcing plans to cut or outsource 11,000 jobs in its languishing steel division. Currently around 27,000 people are employed in the steel division, which has been battered by high production costs and fierce competition from Asian rivals. Elsewhere, crude oil prices fell decisively as Israel's security cabinet prepared to decide whether to accept a ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah, an official said Monday. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have all pushed in recent days for a truce in the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which flared into all-out war in late September. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official told AFP the security cabinet "will decide on Tuesday evening on the ceasefire deal." And bitcoin's push toward $100,000 ran out of steam after coming within a whisker of the mark last week, on hopes that Trump would enact policies to bring the cryptocurrency more into the mainstream. Bitcoin was recently trading under $96,000, having set a record high of $99,728.34 Friday -- the digital currency has soared about 50 percent in value since Trump's election. This week's data includes a reading of consumer confidence and an update of personal consumption prices, a key inflation indicator. Those reporting earnings include Best Buy, Dell and Dick's Sporting Goods. New York - Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 44,736.57 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 5,987.37 (close) New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.3 percent at 19,054.84 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 8,291.68 (close) Paris - CAC 40: FLAT at 7,257.47 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 19,405.20 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 38,780.14 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.4 percent at 19,150.99 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,263.76 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0495 from $1.0418 on Friday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2564 from $1.2530 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.23 yen from 154.78 yen Euro/pound: UP at 83.51 pence from 83.14 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.2 percent at $68.94 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.9 percent at $73.01 per barrel bur-jmb/dwEverything to Know About Amber Heard's Mom Life Away From Hollywood
AI Search Makes a Quick, Promising Splash in Palm Beach
MORAVIA — It could have gotten really ugly on Friday night. Hillcrest Academy just seemed to be a step ahead of Moravia on both ends of the court on the opening night of the Iowa High School girls basketball season. The Ravens had forced over 20 turnovers by the Mohawks with 20 steals mixed in and had opened a 39-13 lead midway thru the third quarter. Then, all of sudden, Moravia showed glimpses of what could be a bright future for the upcoming season. After struggling to put together scores and stops through the first 20 minutes, the Mohawks scored 14 of the next 17 points cutting a 26-point Hillcrest lead all the way down to 15. By the time the game was over, Moravia had played the Ravens to a dead heat in the second half with both teams scored 26 points in the final 16 minutes. Ultimately, a 21-6 lead after one quarter proved to be too much of a hill for the Mohawks to climb over. The Ravens came out on top, 58-39, in an opening game that left two teams that struggled at times last season with plenty to build on for a better campaigns this season. "We didn't get off to the best start, but we fought hard and made some changes," Moravia head girls basketball coach Matt Finley said. "We started to click on some things. It really helped us out. It gives us a lot of promise for the rest of the season where we can do those positive things and get off to better starts so we're not having to fight from behind." Jaida Spencer and Kaylen Robinson led the sudden charge by Moravia in the second half, combining for 17 of Moravia's 26 points all scored over the final 13 minutes. Spencer sank a pair of 3-pointers during a run of eight straight points for the Mohawks while Robinson scored and fed Spencer for her second 3-point make, pulling Moravia within 39-21. "I think what got us going is that we worked together," Robinson said. "We haven't run a man-to-man defense before, so we're still learning that. Getting into a 2-3 zone allowed us to make the stops that allowed us to put some runs together. "Most of the time in practice, we're working on the defensive end of the court. The offensive end is a little unfamiliar. We're going to work on using both ends to better ourselves." Those early struggles were evident for Moravia right from the start as Malia Yoder opened the scoring with a lay-up off an opening steal. Yoder would finish with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double while also collecting six steals helping the Ravens build a 32-13 halftime lead over the Mohawks. "Defense is going to be big for us this year," Yoder said. "If we can get that defense to open up those easier opportunities on the offensive end, we can have a pretty good year. I think we're much more confident this season. We've been building chemistry over the years." Moravia appeared to build chemistry together in one game, cutting down their turnovers from 22 in the first half to 12 in the second half while more than doubling their point total in just one quarter. If not for a pair of clutch 3-pointers late in the third by Claire Whitlow, who led Hillcrest Academy with a game-high 24 points, Moravia might have been on pace for a comeback win after three quarters trailing 45-27 entering the fourth quarter. Moravia twice got as close as 15 points in the fourth. Delaney Shaw sank a much-needed 3-pointer as the Ravens hit eight of their 23 attempts from 3-point range in the game to keep the Mohawks at bay. Spencer hit all three of Moravia's season-opening 3-pointers on Friday, finishing just two rebounds short of a double-double with 13 points and eight boards. Robinson was able to secure a double-double for the Mohawks, grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds while scoring 10 points. "It was tough in there, especially when you've got girls swatting away at the basketball," Robinson said. "It's hard to jump up there and get control of those rebounds. Fortunately, I've got hops, so I can jump up and take control of it." Hillcrest Academy, coming off a 6-15 season after winning just one of 39 games over the previous two years, will carry a 1-0 record into Tuesday's home opener with Cedar Valley Christian. Moravia (0-1) opens Bluegrass Conference play at Melcher-Dallas on Dec. 6 before hosting Cardinal in a non-conference contest the following day. "We kind of took charge and pulled together in the second half," Finley said. "We've got a bit of a brutal schedule coming up after the holiday break with a couple Friday-Saturday back-to-backs coming up. It's going to be tough, but we'll get things figured out."Voice cloning is an emerging technology powered by artificial intelligence and it's raising alarms about its potential misuse. Earlier this year, New Hampshire voters experienced this firsthand when a deepfake mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice urged them to skip the polls ahead of the primary. The deepfake likely needed only several seconds of the president's voice to create the clone. According to multiple AI voice cloning models, about 10 seconds of an actual voice is all that is needed to recreate it. And that can easily come from a phone call or a video from social media. "A person's voice is really probably not that information-dense. It's not as unique as you may think," James Betker, a technical staff member at OpenAI, told Scripps News. Betker developed TortoiseTTS, an open-source voice cloning model. "It's actually very easy to model, very easy to learn, the distribution of all human voices from a fairly small amount of data," Betker added. How AI voice cloning works AI models have been trained on vast amounts of data, learning to recognize human speech. Programs analyze the data and train repeatedly, learning characteristics such as rhythm, stress, pitch and tone. "It can look at 10 seconds of someone speaking and it has stored enough information about how humans speak with that kind of prosody and pitch. Enough information about how people speak with their processing pitch and its weights that it can just continue on," Betker said. Imagine a trained AI model as a teacher, and the person cloning the voice to be a student. When a student asks to create a cloned voice, it starts off as white noise. The teacher scores how close the student is to sounding correct. The student tries again and again based on these scores until the student produces something close to what the teacher wants. While this explanation is extremely simplified, the concept of generating a cloned voice is based on bit-by-bit, based on probability distributions. "I think, at its core, it's pretty simple," Betker said. "I think the analogy of just continuing with what you're given will take you pretty far here." There are currently some AI models that claim to only need two seconds of samples. While the results are not convincing yet, Betker says future models will need even fewer voice samples to create a convincing clone.For one to have a house standing strong, one needs to have laid a solid foundation for it. The same is true with identity, and digital public infrastructure more generally. Foundational identity is the bedrock of any legal or digital ID system, as it serves as the basis on which such systems are built to enable the provision of public services. The World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative foundational identity as a system established principally “to manage identity information for the general population and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for a wide variety of public and private sector transactions and services.” ID4D goes further to mention that common examples of foundational IDs include civil registries, universal resident or national ID systems, and population registers, depending on the context. In other words, foundational identity has been described by many as a major enabler of “platformification” – a new coinage in the digital transformation lexicon which denotes using digital technology to transform traditional business models into platform-based ecosystems through interconnected services for operational efficiency. In many African countries, foundational ID systems such as civil registries are the basis for legal and digital identification systems which are built as “general purpose” systems, to support the establishment of different components of DPI to facilitate access to a litany of services from government and the private sector. To obtain a national ID card in countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, South Africa or Tanzania, one needs to provide a birth certificate as a foundational ID document, which is what attests to the legal recognition and existence of that individual from the time of their birth. Sébastien Gueremy, VP Identification & Verification Solutions at discusses this in detail in an published by in September of 2023. In his write-up, Gueremy makes the case for having solid foundational identity systems, highlighting that they are crucial in establishing legal and digital identity which is critical in enabling citizens enjoy their fundamental rights such as having easy access to healthcare, education, enjoying the right to vote in elections or participation in other democratic processes, as well as the right to legal protection. While it is true that foundational identity systems are crucial in digital transformation efforts of countries, establishing them and ensuring their optimum performance still poses a significant challenge. This is reflected in a World Bank survey in 2021 and 2022 which examined the ownership of government-issued identity documents in 36 African countries. It noted that in many of the countries, over 70 percent of the population did not have access to a government-issued identity document and one of the reasons, as seen , was the lack of foundational identity documents like birth certificates. The United Nations estimates that about 850 million people around the world still do not have a legal identity, and therefore are cut out from enjoying some of the fundamental rights they normally should enjoy. That is why it is recommended that for countries to effectively handle situations like this and make legal ID more accessible for their citizens, major efforts must be deployed to put in place the right conditions for building foundational identity systems which can go a long way in closing the yawning digital identity gap in the world. So, in order to build robust, inclusive and effective foundational identity systems which can be used for general purpose service delivery, there are a number of things countries can do. These include putting in place workable policies and legal frameworks, setting up national population registers if need be and digitizing civil registration systems, making such systems interoperable and integrable with other existing systems, harmonizing siloed identity databases, deploying the right technology such as biometric or other AI-powered solutions, laying emphasis on data privacy and security and having guardrails in place, and if possible preparing the groundwork for integration with international identity systems. From the forgoing, it goes without saying that the impact of foundational identity on the advancement of the legal identity agenda cannot be undermined. It is a major step toward enabling countries attain their Sustainable Development Goals. | | | | | | |
Gran Tierra Energy Inc. Announces Exploration Success in Ecuador and Strategic Joint Venture Transaction and Partnership to Accelerate Value in High-Impact Canadian Montney Oil Play with Logan Energy Corp.Technology has arguably been Wall Street's hottest sector in 2024. Rapid growth in emerging industries, such as artificial intelligence (AI), has fueled a massive rally, making this year one of the best for technology stocks in recent memory. Now, it's time to turn the page to 2025. After doing some homework, three Motley Fool contributors identified Broadcom ( AVGO 24.43% ) , Qualcomm ( QCOM 0.18% ) , and Meta Platforms ( META -1.65% ) as stocks poised to win big in 2025 and beyond. All three stocks have a history of big-time investment returns, so you may already know them. But try not to overthink it; winners often continue to have success. Below is the pitch for why each should continue delivering fantastic returns for your portfolio. Broadcom closed out 2024 with a bang, setting the table for more gains Justin Pope (Broadcom): It's hard not to like Broadcom heading into 2025, even after the stock has galloped over 95% higher since January. The semiconductor and enterprise software company recently closed out its fiscal year 2024, a banner year that signals strong business momentum heading into next year. Broadcom's fiscal year 2024 revenue totaled $51.5 billion, a 44% increase over 2023. The company built its name on semiconductors, but Broadcom has expanded into enterprise software, including infrastructure and security. It acquired VMware for $69 billion late last year, and the incremental revenue helped Broadcom grow its software business by 181% in 2024. The company's revenue is now split roughly 60-40 between semiconductors and software. Semiconductor revenue exceeded $30 billion in 2024 but grew just 7% from last year. However, artificial intelligence has become an increasingly exciting growth opportunity. Broadcom began working with prominent AI developer OpenAI earlier this year, and recent reports indicate that Broadcom is developing a dedicated AI chip for Apple 's data center servers. It sets the table for big things ahead. These are early-stage opportunities for Broadcom, which grew its AI revenue by 220% in 2024 to $12.1 billion. The AI-driven hyper-growth Nvidia has enjoyed seems to be beginning to show up in Broadcom's business. That bodes well for the stock, which trades at 29 times 2025 earnings estimates. This is a solid buying level for a company that analysts estimate will compound earnings at a 20% growth rate over the long term. Broadcom was a star in 2024, and its strong business results and developing AI opportunities could continue rewarding investors in 2025 and beyond. Diversification may be the key to this stock's recovery Will Healy (Qualcomm): Qualcomm stock does not look like a winning stock at first glance. It has struggled since the summer as its 5G-driven growth runs its course. Moreover, Apple plans to launch a competing smartphone chipset in 2027, likely ending its relationship with Qualcomm. Such a move would probably reduce the benefits it would experience from an AI upgrade cycle. In fiscal 2024, its handset segment, which houses the smartphone chipset business, comprised 64% of company revenues, meaning the loss of Apple's business affects its largest revenue source. However, Qualcomm has long prepared for the day when its chipsets are less in demand. To that end, it has diversified into IoT and automotive, and its car-related segment has experienced particular success. Although its overall revenue grew by only 9% in fiscal 2024 (ended Sept. 29), automotive revenue grew by 55%. Additionally, Qualcomm released PC chips earlier this year. Its Snapdragon X Elite chips are faster than Apple's M2 chip in some respects. Also, assuming the rumors that it wants to acquire some or all of Intel are true, its influence in the chip industry could grow if such a buyout occurs. Despite these concerns, the semiconductor stock is up by 20% over the last year, even after dropping more than 30% from its June high. That decline has taken Qualcomm's P/E ratio to 18, far below its chip industry competitors. Admittedly, Qualcomm's path is somewhat uncertain as it prepares for a likely loss of Apple's business and invests more heavily in new market niches. Still, as it builds on its growth in automotive, PCs, and other businesses, investors may want to buy some Qualcomm shares while its earnings multiple is still low. Meta is a market-beating stock that investors shouldn't overlook Jake Lerch (Meta Platforms): Meta has been a market-beating stock for some time now. Since its debut as a public company back in 2012, Meta's shares have generated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.8%. That's nearly twice the return of the S&P 500 , which has generated a CAGR of 15.2% over the same period. More to the point, Meta's outperformance has been even more evident recently. As of this writing, Meta stock is up 75% year-to-date, as opposed to a 28% year-to-date return for the S&P 500. However, it's not just Meta's track record that should make it appealing to investors as we head into 2025. What I love about the stock is its cash-generating power. Over the last 12 months, Meta generated $156 billion in revenue, making it the 22nd largest American company by revenue (having just passed Home Depot earlier this year). But what truly catches my eye is how much free cash flow Meta generates. Over the last 12 months, Meta has tallied more than $52 billion in free cash flow. Simply put, Meta is a high-margin business that has a river of cash to return value to shareholders in any number of ways, including r epurchasing shares, p aying down debt, making s trategic acquisitions, and/or p aying out dividends. Indeed, Meta announced a $50 billion share buyback plan back in February, along with a first-ever quarterly dividend. Investors who are looking for a market-beating stock for the long term should consider Meta.
Ian Schieffelin came within two assists of a triple-double and Clemson handed Penn State its first loss with a 75-67 decision for the championship of the Sunshine Slam tournament Tuesday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Schieffelin finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for the Tigers (6-1), leading four players in double figures. Chase Hunter added 17 points, while Chauncey Wiggins scored 14 and reserve Del Jones chipped in 10 points. Clemson sank 9 of 19 3-pointers, converted 16 of 20 free throws and was able to limit the impact of the Nittany Lions' full-court pressure. The Tigers committed just 13 turnovers, helping them hold Penn State (6-1) to less than 85 points for the first time this year. Ace Baldwin starred in defeat with game highs of 20 points and 11 assists, while center Yanic Konan Niederhauser added 14 points. Nick Kern came off the bench to score 11 but Penn State was outscored 15-2 on the fast break and made just 4 of 18 attempts from 3-point range. Schieffelin came up big down the stretch, assisting on a 3-pointer by Jaeden Zackery with 6:04 left that made it 65-61. Then he made two foul shots and tossed in a jump hook from the lane to up the margin to 71-66 with 1:03 left. The big storyline going into this game was which team would be able to control the pace. Penn State came in averaging 96 ppg, while Clemson demonstrated its ability to enforce a slower tempo in March, advancing to a regional final in the NCAA Tournament. In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Tigers made the Nittany Lions play at a crawl, opening up a 17-10 advantage when Schieffelin converted a short hook in the lane. But Penn State answered with an 18-4 run over nearly six minutes, establishing a 28-21 lead when Kern shook free for a layup. Clemson rallied with nine straight points but the Nittany Lions had the last say as Baldwin converted a layup with 24 seconds left, cutting the Tigers' edge to 38-36 at halftime. --Field Level MediaCharlotte Crosby trebles security measures to ‘feel safe’ amid attempted robbery