SYDNEY, Australia — Since Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen aired internal emails in 2021 showing that the tech giant knew of social media's mental health impacts on teenagers, world leaders have agonized over how to curb the technology's addictive pull on young minds. Even a 2023 recommendation by the United States surgeon general to put health warnings on social media, blaming it for what he called a teenage mental health crisis, could not help lawmakers from Florida to France navigate resistance on grounds of free speech, privacy and the limits of age-checking technology. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.Abiodun Hails FG On Customs Projects, Says Ogun Remains Industrial Hub Of ChoicePep Guardiola: If I can’t reverse Manchester City slide then I have to go
Foley Automotive Update 26 November 2024NASCAR: Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin Slam Truck Series Rule Shake-Up
A Boulder-raised student is one of 36 recent college graduates chosen nationwide for a prestigious scholarship to fund up to three years of graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Ghael Fobes was raised in Boulder and graduated from Syracuse University in 2022. He’s an associate White House producer for NBC and will use the scholarship to study data and artificial intelligence ethics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “I’m very excited,” Fobes said. “It was something of a process to apply and go through interviews, and I’m super excited about this opportunity to study in the UK and build relationships with journalists and researchers over there.” Fobes lived in Mexico with his mother before moving to Boulder when he was 5 years old. He came to live with his father, a University of Colorado Boulder professor, and didn’t speak English when he first arrived. Fobes attended Whittier Elementary School and Casey Middle School. He then attended Boulder High School for one year before attending an out-of-state boarding school. Audrey Wintory was Fobes’ fourth-grade teacher at Whittier. She’s amazed and excited by his accomplishment. “There’s some (students) that stick with you,” Wintory said. “He’s one that always stuck in my mind and wondered about and knew he’d be successful.” The Marshall Scholarship was created by an Act of the British Parliament in 1953 as a living memorial to former U.S. Secretary of State General George C. Marshall and American assistance provided following World War II. The scholarship funds up to three years of graduate study in any academic topic at any university in the United Kingdom, home to 17 of the top 100 universities in the world, according to a release. More than 2,200 Americans have earned advanced degrees through the program since its first class 70 years ago. The program has several notable alumni, including university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, two Nobel Laureates, 14 MacArthur Fellows, two-academy-Award nominees, two U.S. Supreme Court Justices and a NASA Astronaut. This year, the scholarship program received 983 applications and chose 36 candidates. The data and AI ethics program at the University of Edinburgh focuses largely on questions of what it means to adopt the new technology. His interest is in how people can use AI responsibly to gather and present news. He wants to better understand the limitations, obstacles, risks and opportunities it presents. “I think there’s a lot of opportunities on how we use AI to take on research tasks or sifting through databases or government data,” Fobes said. In his work covering the White House for NBC, he often writes up notes about the many events and White House briefings. With an AI tool, he could take a more than hour-long briefing and easily identify highlights and the news people need to know. “The most important thing as we’re beginning to adopt those things is to make sure we’re doing things accurately and are as rigorous and thoughtful in our approach as we would be without them,” Fobes said, adding, “It is a tool and not a replacement, and I think that’s really, really important.” His love for news and technology started early. When his dad was a graduate student, the two would go to Trident in downtown Boulder. While his dad graded papers, Fobes read the stacks of newspapers it had. At Casey Middle School, he started an entrepreneur’s club and became interested in how to use tools to make things faster. “When I was a middle schooler, I remember I was fascinated with Apple and ran a little early newsletter online where I complied Apple news,” he said. He remembers going on many outdoor adventures with his dad and riding bikes down the path near Boulder Creek. Fobes enjoys skiing and lived close to the CU Boulder campus. “I think one of the things my dad taught me early on ... he taught me early on there’s so much to learn from the people who live in the community,” Fobes said. His dad, Alex Fobes, said he’s proud and excited for his son. “I feel like he’s cut out his own path for himself,” Alex Fobes said. Wintory said Ghael Fobes was always a bright, hardworking and amazing kid all around. He was easy to connect with and got along with everyone. He was thoughtful and insightful. From her communications with him now, she can tell those parts of him are still core to who he is. “I really admire that he’s pursuing this field of study and I just think he’s so amazing that he’s pursuing it abroad,” Wintory said, adding, “He’s just really still working so hard and shooting for the moon and it’s really exciting. I have no doubt he’ll excel in his studies and whatever comes after.” Ghael Fobes will earn two one-year master’s degrees through the program. The first will be a master’s in data and AI ethics and the second will be a master’s in future governance. The scholarship will pay for his flights, living stipend, housing, food and research. “I want to ultimately go back to NBC and lead more efforts into incorporating these technologies into our daily workflows,” Ghael Fobes said. “I think that’s what I find most interesting and rewarding is the practical applications.” His dad is looking forward to where he goes from here. “I’m excited to see what path he chooses,” Alex Fobes said. “I expect it’ll lead to many more opportunities, and I’m curious to see what path he takes.”
Tafara Gapare propels Maryland men’s basketball to 91-67 romp over Bucknell
ASML FINAL DEADLINE: ROSEN, TRUSTED INVESTOR COUNSEL, Encourages ASML Holding N.V. Investors ...AP News Summary at 2:23 p.m. EST
The Northern Arizona women's volleyball team ended its season with a loss to Idaho State in the first round of the Big Sky Conference Championships on Wednesday in Sacramento. The Bengals needed four sets to defeat the Lumberjacks 25-12, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Blind date: 'we talked about weddings!'
By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA and MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police said Thursday they indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people for allegedly attempting a coup to keep him in office after his defeat in the 2022 elections. Police said their findings were being delivered Thursday to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which must decide whether to refer them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who will either formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial, or toss the investigation. The former right-wing president has denied all claims he tried to stay in office after his narrow electoral defeat in 2022 to his rival, leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro has faced a series of legal threats since then. Police said in a brief statement that the Supreme Court had agreed to reveal the names of all 37 people who were indicted “to avoid the dissemination of incorrect news.” The 700-page police document likely will take several days for the court to review, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes said. Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides also were indicted, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; and his veteran former adviser, Gen. Augusto Heleno. The investigation started last year. On Tuesday, four military men and one federal police agent were arrested as part of the same probe . Other investigations focus on Bolosnaro’s potential roles in smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring them, and in directing a subordinate to falsify his and others’ COVID-19 vaccination statuses. Bolsonaro has denied any involvement in either. Another probe found that he had abused his authority to cast doubt on the country’s voting system, and judges barred him from running again until 2030. The far-reaching investigations have weakened Bolsonaro’s status as a leader of Brazil’s right wing, said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “Bolsonaro is already barred from running in the 2026 elections,” Melo told the The Associated Press. “And if he is convicted he could also be jailed by then. To avoid being behind bars, he will have to convince Supreme Court justices that he has nothing to do with a plot that involves dozens of his aids. That’s a very tall order,” Melo said. On Tuesday, the federal police arrested four military and a federal police officer accused of plotting to overthrow the government following the 2022 elections, including alleged plans to kill Lula and other top officials.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets will be without point guard LaMelo Ball for at least two weeks because of a strained left calf. Ball felt discomfort in his calf after Wednesday night’s loss to the Miami Heat and did not play against the New York Knicks on Friday. The team said he will be reevaluated on Dec. 11, which is two weeks from the date of the original injury. Ball has been hot for the Hornets, averaging 40.3 points in his last four games. He is averaging a career-best 31.1 points and 4.7 3-pointers per game for the season, which ranks second in the NBA. He also is averaging 5.4 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 18 starts. Ball has had a history of injury problems, mostly to his ankles, since coming to the league as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Story continues below video The only Hornets player to ever receive a max contract extension, Ball has played in just 202 games with 182 starts in five seasons. The team also said guard Tre Mann’s lower back soreness has been diagnosed as a disk irritation. His absence from the lineup began on Nov. 23 against Milwaukee. He will continue his rehabilitation and be reevaluated in two weeks. “They are competitors and they want to be out there on the court to compete and hoop, but they also want to be out there for their teammates,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said prior to Saturday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks. "I just walked past ’Melo as I was coming in here to do media, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to take care of everything I need to do on this return to play program and I’m going to attack it with the right mindset.’ I have all the confidence in the world in our performance staff and in those guys.” AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBANetflix will have one of its biggest days Wednesday since the site launched in 1998 when it airs two NFL games for the first time. “NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix” begins with a two-hour pregame show at 11 a.m., before Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City. Baltimore faces Houston in the second game. The streaming giant agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix will have the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. The games will also air on CBS affiliates in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston. NFL policy dictates that games on cable or being exclusively streamed must also be on an over-the-air station in the competing teams’ markets. It will also be available on mobile devices in the U.S. for those who have NFL+. The biggest reason is money. The league is getting $150 million from Netflix for the two games this season. It also continues the NFL’s moves into streaming — Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video and the “Sunday Ticket” package moved to YouTube TV last year. That’s true, but the league wasn’t about to give up Christmas after seeing the ratings. Last year’s three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million. The Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and Texans played on Saturday, giving them the same turnaround they would have if they played on Sunday and then Thursday. All four have clinched playoff spots in the AFC, but seeding remains up for grabs. Kansas City (14-1) can clinch the top seed — which would mean a first-round bye and home field throughout the playoffs — with a win over the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied atop the AFC North at 10-5, with the Steelers holding the tiebreaker due to a better conference record. Houston (9-6) has wrapped up the AFC South and holds the fourth seed. Netflix hopes so. Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the system was stress tested, and then some, during the Nov. 14 bout, along with internet service providers reporting they were also overwhelmed by the surge that occurred before and during the fight. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season’s AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs. Nielsen will measure the ratings for the Christmas Day games, with early numbers expected late afternoon on Thursday. It will probably beat kickoff for both games, but especially around 5:45 p.m. EST. That would be near halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, and when Beyoncé will be performing. Mariah Carey will kick off the day with a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” There is no word if Taylor Swift will make the trip to Pittsburgh to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has been spending time in Kansas City since she wrapped up her Eras Tour two weeks ago. The NFL will have at least two games on Dec. 25 in 2025 and ’26, with Netflix slated to have at least one each year. Amazon Prime Video will have a night game with Christmas on a Thursday next year. Netflix’s worldwide partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment will begin on Jan. 6 when “Monday Night Raw” moves to the streaming service. On Friday, Netflix secured the U.S. rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death rowBy ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.Trump Cabinet picks, appointees targeted by bomb threats and swatting attacksOgun assembly passes 2025 budget, awaits assent
Global stock markets saw a slight uptick on Thursday, as investors digested projections from Nvidia and anticipated Bitcoin's approaching $100,000 milestone. The world's leading chipmaker Nvidia initially peaked early in the session but finished with just a 0.53% rise following its forecast for slowest revenue growth in seven quarters. In a volatile session on Wall Street, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all ended higher, fueled by gains in the utilities, financials, and consumer staples sectors despite a drag from communication services stock, particularly Alphabet's decline. Regulatory pressures mount as U.S. prosecutors urge for Alphabet's Chrome divesture to dismantle Google's search monopoly. Meanwhile, Bitcoin soared closer to the $100,000 threshold, bolstered by Donald Trump's election victory and expectations of a favorable cryptocurrency stance by his administration. Simultaneously, the dollar showed mixed movements on currency markets, reflecting labor market resilience and Federal Reserve interest rate pathways. (With inputs from agencies.)CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson reserve guard Trent Howard will miss the 12th-ranked Tigers game with No. 16 South Carolina after tearing the ACL in his left knee at practice this week. Tigers coach Dabo Swinney announced Howard's injury Wednesday. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.Hyun tabbed as DNR secretaryForget LEDs, researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a new type of incandescent light bulb. The device is capable of emitting elliptically polarized light, described as "twisted" light. The word "twisted" (aka " ") describes the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of the light's electric waves that mirror each other as it travels. By contrast, traditional light sources emit unpolarized light or linearly polarized light. It sounds weird, but this new design has the potential to transform optics and photonics. The bulb produces this twisted form of polarized light due to the intricate engineering of the filament itself. By integrating micro- and nanoscale twists into the tungsten filament structure, the light wave inherits that helical shape, effectively making it elliptically polarized. Changing the light's polarization characteristics in this manner mimics things found in nature, like the ridiculously sophisticated and specialized vision of the . With 12 types of photoreceptors (compared to humans' piddly three – red, green, and blue), mantis shrimp can see all the colors, including parts of the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. They can even detect circular polarized light. All of this excellent visual information makes them lethal underwater hunters (not to mention about 100 times harder than a human, but that's for another story, another time). We've all heard of polarized sunglasses, and the consensus is generally that they're better than non-polarized sunglasses. Yes and no, depending on your usage. Polarized light is simply the waves of light oscillating in a specific direction. Direct sunlight is usually scattered in all directions, but when sunlight hits water, the light reflects linearly and the waves travel to your eyes from the water's surface in a mostly uniform fashion, making it seem brighter or harsher to your eyes. The glassier the water or more reflective the surface, the more uniform the polarization goes straight into your eyeballs. This is why polarized sunglasses work so much better at the beach or lake or while driving. Next time you're wearing your polarized sunglasses – which are generally designed for horizontal polarized light – look at a reflective window, then and you'll see how they work in action. But back to why this old tech with a new twist is cool ... As mentioned earlier, certain animals are sensitive to polarized light. Bees, ants and birds, among others, use it for navigation. Octopi, fish and more use it to hunt or hide. The list goes on. One of the most promising uses of this twisted light technology is in robotic vision systems, giving robots the ability to see in spectrums similar to these specialized animals. Elliptically polarized light can better a robot's ability to interpret its environment far better than scattered light, by providing more layers of information. For example, it could improve object detection and surface texture recognition by providing more contrast. If you've ever used a camera with autofocus and you just couldn't seem to get it to focus on something plain or flat, it's usually because there isn't enough contrast for the sensor to distinguish how far away it is. The better that robotic vision systems can see, the better the results for activities like autonomous navigation or machine learning. Twisted light would be like throwing a 3-dimensional grid onto an object that robotic vision could map with far better precision. And mantis shrimp. "These findings, for example, could be important for an autonomous vehicle to tell the , which emit light with similar wavelengths but different helicity because deer fur has a different curl from our fabric," said Nicholas Kotov, Professor and director at the NSF Center of Complex Particles and Particle Systems, and co-author of the study. Robotics aside, this type of light has the potential for improving other imaging technologies such as more detailed medical diagnostics and materials science images. Communication system improvements are equally significant. Polarized light is already used in fiber optics and data transmission to carry more data on a single line. The ability to control light polarization with such precision could lead to more channels on existing infrastructure, making data rates faster and more secure. Incandescent lights, seemingly old and obsolete in the age of LEDs, have found purpose again to potentially brighten our future. But don't go digging out your hundred-year-old light bulbs from the closet just yet, there's still more work to be done. Source:
James, Quigley and Hayes combine for 59 points as No. 20 NC State women beat Coastal Carolina 89-68None