London Police Arrest Over 500 This Year Using Facial Recognition
The Buffalo Bills will look to build on their six-game win streak when they host the San Francisco 49ers at Highmark Stadium for "Sunday Night Football." With the season getting deeper into the winter months, temperatures are beginning to drop, especially in Buffalo. Now, it seems that Sunday night is set to be a classic snow game in New York. According to the National Weather Service in Buffalo , temperatures are expected to reach below freezing with winds that exceed 20 mph. They're also projecting a high chance of lake-effect snow, and with the matchup happening at night, the temperature will likely reach its lowest point during the game. © Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports Bills players are used to playing in snow and below-freezing temperatures at this point, but San Francisco players aren't. If the weather forecasts hold up, it could give Buffalo an even bigger home-field advantage than they already had going into the game. Related: Bills ‘99-Percent’ Path to Title Perfectly Clear at Thanksgiving Although the 49ers are coming off a Super Bowl appearance last season, they have failed to live up to expectations so far. At 5-6, Sunday night could be a must-win scenario for San Francisco. Meanwhile, if the Miami Dolphins lose their game on Thanksgiving, the Bills will have the opportunity to clinch the AFC East on Sunday, making the game just as important for them. Buffalo is also just one game behind the Kansas City Chiefs for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, so getting a win in the snow would ensure that they're still in contention for a first-round bye. Related: It's Bills’ Josh Allen vs. 'The Unknown Mystery' of the 49ers
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Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva, stressed the importance of adapting Artificial Intelligence technologies and strengthening public-private task forces to accelerate the fight versus fraud and scams during a dialogue held at the GSMA Digital Nation Summit Manila at Shangri-La The Fort. GSMA research reveals that 29 percent of Filipino consumers have fallen victim to financial crimes like identity theft and security breaches. Similarly, the Digital Nations report shows a 4,500 percent surge in deepfake cases in the Philippines. The fintech visionary bannered RCBC’s use of AI to elevate the bank’s overall productivity, customer engagement, and management of risks. The emergent innovative technology is taking not only the developed world by storm, but even developing countries such as the Philippines. Villanueva shared that the country’s leading digital challenger bank continues to prioritize upskilling of all its top officers in the field of AI. “In fraud detection, AI's use of anomaly detection and behavioral biometrics has increased accuracy rates to as much as 85 percent. To bolster these efforts, under the leadership of our President and CEO Eugene S. Acevedo, we’ve prioritized upskilling—ensuring all senior officers undergo AI certification to strengthen expertise and align with our vision of building a workforce adept in data science and AI,” Villanueva said. Aside from AI-powered initiatives, Villanueva also said that the bank is committed to contributing to collaborative initiatives with other private sector players, members of civil society, and the Philippine government to address the rise of fraud and empower ordinary citizens. “Our collaboration with industry players and government agencies through Fintech Alliance.Ph has been instrumental in championing public awareness and financial literacy. Last year, we launched the “#WagMagpaLokoMagingScamAlerto” campaign. This advocacy promotes financial literacy and fraud awareness through multi-channel efforts, including social media, school partnerships, and community outreach programs,” Villanueva added. Villanueva joined other leaders such as Ret. Justice Andres Reyes Jr., a consultant of the Cybercrime investigation and Coordinating Center, and Mr. John Gonzales, President and CEO, PLDT ClarkTel, and FVP of Strategic Business Development for PLDT Enterprise in a panel discussion entitled “United Against Scams: Technological Solutions and Partnerships” moderated by Ewan Lusty, Director at Flint Global. The one-day summit gathered leaders from the Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Globe Telecom, Smart Communications, Meta, the Asian Development Bank, and RCBC to discuss the critical role of technology and collaboration in safeguarding consumers and sustaining trust in digital platforms.Trailblazing model Dayle Haddon dies from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning
LONDON (AP) — West Ham forward Michail Antonio was taken to hospital after being involved in a road traffic incident on Saturday. West Ham added the 34-year-old player was in a stable condition. “Michail is conscious and communicating and is currently under close supervision at a central London hospital," the Premier League club said in a statement. “At this difficult time, we kindly ask everyone to respect the privacy of Michail and his family. “The club will make no further comment this evening, but will issue a further update in due course.” Unverified images of a heavily damaged Ferrari in the Essex area were shared on social media on Saturday. It was not known if it was the car involved in the accident. Antonio signed for West Ham in 2015 and has made more than 300 appearances. West Ham doesn't have a league game until Monday. ___ James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer The Associated PressBloomberg's Anurag Rana [left] talks with Anthropic's Michael Gerstenhaber [center] and Scale AI's Vijay Karunamurthy, during Bloomberg Intelligence's conference on "Gen AI: Can it deliver on the productivity promise?" Large language models and other forms of generative artificial intelligence are improving steadily at "self-correction," opening up the possibilities for new kinds of work they can do, including " agentic AI ," according to the vice president of Anthropic, a leading vendor of AI models. "It's getting very good at self-correction, self-reasoning," said Michael Gerstenhaber, head of API technologies at Anthropic, which makes the Claude family of LLMs that compete with OpenAI's GPT. "Every couple of months we've come out with a new model that has extended what LLMs can do," said Gerstenhaber during an interview Wednesday in New York with Bloomberg Intelligence's Anurag Rana. "The most interesting thing about this industry is that new use cases are unlocked with every model revision." Also: Anthropic's latest AI model can use a computer just like you - mistakes and all The most recent models include task planning, such as how to carry out tasks on a computer as a person would ; for example, ordering pizza online. "Planning interstitial steps is something that wasn't possible yesterday that is possible today," said Gerstenhaber of such step-by-step task completion. The discussion, which also included Vijay Karunamurthy, chief technologist of AI startup Scale AI, was part of a daylong conference hosted by Bloomberg Intelligence to explore the topic, " Gen AI: Can it deliver on the productivity promise?" Gerstenhaber's remarks fly in the face of arguments from AI skeptics that Gen AI, and the rest of AI more broadly, is "hitting a wall," meaning that the return from each new model generation is getting less and less. AI scholar Gary Marcus warned in 2022 that simply making AI models with more and more parameters would not yield improvements equal to the increase in size. Marcus has continued to reiterate that warning . Anthropic, said Gerstenhaber, has been pushing at what can be measured by current AI benchmarks. Also: Anthropic brings Tool Use for Claude out of beta, promising sophisticated assistants "Even if it looks like it's tapering off in some ways, that's because we're enabling entirely new classes [of functionality], but we've saturated the benchmarks, and the ability to do older tasks," said Gerstenhaber. In other words, it gets harder to measure what current Gen AI models can do. Both Gerstenhaber and Scale AI's Karunamurthy made the case that "scaling" Gen AI -- making AI models bigger -- is helping to advance such self-correcting neural networks. "We are definitely seeing more and more scaling of the intelligence," said Gerstenhaber. "One of the reasons we don't necessarily think that we're hitting a wall with planning and reasoning is that we're just learning right now what are the ways in which planning and reasoning tasks need to be structured so that the models can adapt to a wide variety of new environments they haven't tried to pass." "We're very much in the early days," said Gerstenhaber. "We're learning from application developers what they're trying to do, and what it [the language model] does poorly, and we can integrate that into the LM." Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives Some of that discovery, said Gerstenhaber, has to do with the speed of fundamental research at Anthropic. However, some of it has to do with learning by hearing "what industry is telling us they need from us, and our ability to adapt to that -- we are very much learning in real time." Customers tend to start with big models and then sometimes down-size to simpler AI models to fit a purpose, said Scale AI's Karunamurthy. "It's very clear that first they think about whether or not an AI is intelligent enough to do a test well at all, then, whether it's fast enough to meet their needs in the application and then as cheap as possible." Google's new AI tool could be your new favorite learning aid - and it's free The best open-source AI models: All your free-to-use options explained I changed 5 ChatGPT settings and instantly became more productive - here's how The best AI search engines of 2024: Google, Perplexity, and moreA day after President Joe Biden took his oath of office, the Department of Education issued its first press release under the new administration. “At the request of President Biden, Acting Secretary Will Extend Pause of Federal Student Loan Payments,” read the headline of a Jan. 21, 2021, announcement. Under the president’s watch, the Department of Education issued more public statements touting student loan forgiveness than any other topic, according to The Epoch Times’ review of 958 news releases, media advisories, and speech transcripts. Earlier this year, the agency announced that Biden, “through more than two dozen executive actions,” has approved $138 billion in student debt cancellation for 3.9 million borrowers. State courts across the country and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Biden overextended his authority with those actions, so most borrowers may still be on the hook for student loans as the status of how and when those debts are to be repaid remains in limbo nearly four years after the president’s promise. The Department of Education also frequently issued media releases about the amended Title 9 provisions, which allow students to participate in sports according to their desired, not biological, gender. Announcements regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have also been commonplace in the past four years, including multilingual classroom initiatives, elevated funding for historically black colleges and universities, Pride Month, “Transgender Day of Visibility,” and a program to help prison inmates obtain Pell grants and federal student loans or reduce debts with existing student loans. “You reap what you sow, and it is very clear that this administration’s Department of Education has been incentivizing the advancement of far-left ideologies in place of rigorous, proven methods of education,” Rhyen Staley, PDE researcher, said in a Dec. 12 public statement. “The only people or groups to benefit from the enormous amount of grant funding are the universities, administrators, and DEI consultants, at the expense of children’s education. This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI.” Announcements regarding American Rescue Plan funding to help schools across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic and guidance for reopening schools were also frequent, as were releases identifying civil rights violations in school districts and higher learning institutions across the nation. There were also releases promoting career and technical education initiatives, rural education programs, teacher recruitment efforts, gun violence awareness, and social-emotional learning. “I visited a high school last year where every student had a learning period dedicated to social-emotional well-being or mental health supports in their daily schedule. Let’s see more of that,” Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said during a Jan. 27, 2022, speech outlying his vision for education in America, according to the agency website. “And let’s work together to meet the president’s goal of doubling the number of school counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals in our schools.” “We can’t lose this moment—this chance to reset education—by going back to the same pre-pandemic strategies that did not address inequities for Latino, black, and native students; students from low-income backgrounds; students from rural communities; students with disabilities; students experiencing homelessness,” he said during the same speech. Items recognizing high academic achievement (Blue Ribbon Schools) or acknowledging low performance in reading and math (Nation’s Report Card) were less frequent but still emphasized. On Oct. 27, 2022, Cardona acknowledged significant drops in average test scores for reading and math in Grade 4 and Grade 8 nationally. “I want to be clear: The results are appalling and unacceptable,” he said. “They are a reminder of the impact this pandemic had on our learners and the important work we must now do for our students.” The Department of Education was established in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. Its scope was and still is limited: to ensure equal educational opportunities; to share research and information that can help state and local education agencies; to provide additional funds to very low-income schools that cannot get by with just state aid and local property tax dollars; and to administer federal grant and loan programs for higher education. The federal agency cannot mandate curriculum, graduation requirements, or teacher and administrator credentials. Those decisions are made at the state and local levels, where governments provide most school funding. Special education funding, civil rights investigations, and guidance on technology and artificial intelligence education are more recent tasks taken on by the Department of Education. Still, all of those functions—new and old—could easily be absorbed into other federal agencies with massive savings to taxpayers, says Jonathan Butcher, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation Center for Education Policy. “Washington is paying an administration to do the work that state departments of education should already be doing,” Butcher told The Epoch Times, adding that federal aid to poor districts only amounts to less than 10 percent of per-student allocations. “Abolishing the U.S. Department of Education provides more authority for states and districts to make decisions for themselves.” Given the unsuccessful attempts to provide student debt relief, the continuation of low test scores, and the lack of support for allowing males to compete in female sports, Butcher said, the U.S. Department of Education “certainly did not advance policy in any meaningful way.” Butcher said he expects that the Department of Education in the next administration will work to cut redundant administrative costs, emphasize academic improvement, empower state and local education administrators to lead better, and promote universal school choice nationwide. The Epoch Times contacted the Department of Education with a request to interview officials or respond to an inquiry by email, but no information was provided. The Brookings Institution and the Learning Institute Policy also did not respond to inquiries. The National Education Association (NEA) teacher’s union, which endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, issued a public statement expressing disappointment with the election results but also claiming victory in that the referendum to end the taxpayer-funded private school voucher program in Nebraska passed, while referendums to codify school choice into the state constitutions in Colorado and Kentucky were defeated. David Ardrey, interim executive director for the National Rural Education Association, which represents schools in small communities across 48 states, said the past four years have been especially challenging because so many positions within the Department of Education specific to serving rural districts remained unfilled for long periods, perhaps due to pandemic disruptions. Regardless of administrations, not knowing if and when federal assistance will come through is “business as usual” for poor rural schools. Regardless of how the Department of Education changes, Ardrey’s biggest concern is preserving the federal liaisons who help district leaders in the smallest communities secure enough money and guidance to keep their schools open. “Kids don’t stop going to school because we’re going to transition the president,” he told The Epoch Times.
Stock market today: Wall Street ends mixed after a bumpy weekStanford knocks off Cal in both teams' ACC opener
Over 75,000 approved homes yet to commence construction
Major stock indexes on Wall Street drifted to a mixed finish Friday, capping a rare bumpy week for the market. The S&P 500 ended essentially flat, down less than 0.1%, after wavering between tiny gains and losses most of the day. The benchmark index posted a loss for the week, its first after three straight weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%, ending just below the record high it set on Wednesday. There were more than twice as many decliners than gainers on the New York Stock Exchange. Gains in technology stocks helped temper losses in communication services, financials and other sectors of the market. Broadcom surged 24.4% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after the semiconductor company beat Wall Street’s profit targets and gave a glowing forecast, highlighting its artificial intelligence products. The company also raised its dividend. The company's big gain helped cushion the market's broader fall. Pricey stock values for technology companies like Broadcom give the sector more weight in pushing the market higher or lower. Artificial intelligence technology has been a focal point for the technology sector and the overall stock market over the last year. Tech companies, and Wall Street, expect demand for AI to continue driving growth for semiconductor and other technology companies. Some tech stocks were a drag on the market. Nvidia fell 2.2%, Meta Platforms dropped 1.7% and Google parent Alphabet slid 1.1%. Among the market's other decliners were Airbnb, which fell 4.7% for the biggest loss in the S&P 500, and Charles Schwab, which closed 4% lower. Furniture and housewares company RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, surged 17% after raising its forecast for revenue growth for the year. All told, the S&P 500 lost 0.16 points to close at 6,051.09. The Dow dropped 86.06 points to 43,828.06. The Nasdaq rose 23.88 points to 19,926.72. Wall Street's rally stalled this week amid mixed economic reports and ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year. The central bank will meet next week and is widely expected to cut interest rates for a third time since September. Expectations of a series of rate cuts has driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year . The Fed has been lowering its benchmark interest rate following an aggressive rate hiking policy that was meant to tame inflation. It raised rates from near-zero in early 2022 to a two-decade high by the middle of 2023. Inflation eased under pressure from higher interest rates, nearly to the central bank's 2% target. The economy, including consumer spending and employment, held strong despite the squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. A slowing job market, though, has helped push a long-awaited reversal of the Fed's policy. Inflation rates have been warming up slightly over the last few months. A report on consumer prices this week showed an increase to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October. The Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures index, will be released next week. Wall Street expects it to show a 2.5% rise in November, up from 2.3% in October. The economy, though, remains solid heading into 2025 as consumers continue spending and employment remains healthy, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY. “Still, the outlook is clouded by unusually high uncertainty surrounding regulatory, immigration, trade and tax policy,” he said. Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.40% from 4.34% late Thursday. European markets slipped. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%. Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1% month-on-month in October, following a 0.1% decline in September, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Asian markets closed mostly lower.
South Korea's opposition-led parliament on Saturday rejected a bill proposing a special counsel investigation into First Lady Kim Keon-hee, reported Reuters. The opposition introduced the bill into parliament concerning allegations against the First Lady of stock price manipulation and poll result tampering through a power broker. 102 out of 300 lawmakers voted against the bill, reported Bloomberg . Also Read: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol apologises for martial law attempt Kim Keon-hee was acquitted in the case of stock manipulation linked to Deutsche Motors as the court ruled in favour of the defence, claiming that she was unaware of her account being used for transactions by an external manager, reported Korean daily Hankyoreh . However, links between her and self-proclaimed political consultant Myung Tae-Kyun have been called into question, as he is currently facing an investigation regarding the nomination of candidates to top positions in the government, reported The Korea Times . Also Read: Who is South Korea's first lady Kim Keon-hee and what are the charges against her? Kim Keon-hee has been at the centre of several controversies which have led to calls for investigations into her and her art exhibition company Covana Contents as well. She also faced the ire of the public after a secretly recorded video was released on YouTube, showing her accepting a Dior luxury handbag worth $2,200 from a pastor, in violation of Korean law, which prohibits public officials from accepting gifts worth more than $750. Also Read: ‘Go back in’: South Korean protesters urge lawmakers to be part of impeachment vote While Kim Keon-hee will not be required to face a special probe, President Yoon Suk Yeol still faces an impeachment vote in the National Assembly. Several ruling party members have walked out of parliament, which left too few members to pass the measure. However, the Speaker urged the parliament to vote as it is essential to democracy. The South Korean public also surrounded the parliament in protest against the ruling party, calling for the president's impeachment in light of his declaration of “emergency martial law” in the country on Tuesday. The declaration of martial law was swiftly overturned in 2 hours after a unanimous vote in parliament.Leaders of the Ruruma Community in Southern Kaduna State have called on the Federal Government to establish a military base in the community due to the hardship they have been through as a result of the insecurity in the state. This is even as they said that they have paid billions of Naira in ransom to kidnappers. The zone, like some parts of the country suffering from insecurity, had been dealing with the payment of ransom, killing, and inability to go to the farm and even harvest their crops for some time now. Recently, the Ruruma community, frustrated by the development, decided to voice out their concern and called on the authorities to come to their aid. According to a statement signed by their National President, Mr. Daniel Dallah, the community alleged that a staggering amount not less than N1 billion in ransom has been paid out to bandits and kidnappers by the communities in the last two years. They said in the recent past, not less than 13 people have been brutally killed, and over 200 abducted by kidnappers. “There has been a continued escalation of insecurity in our communities, leading to brutal killing and displacement of community members,” they said “A former CBN director was abducted in Kwasam where millions were paid as ransom. Also, communities like Fagen Rawa, Kaibi, Kusheka, Fadei, Ruruma, Rafin Rimi, Kurera, Kitimi, Kakude and Kiwollo are all displaced by bandits. “Bandits have rendered our communities incapacitated, as farmers are afraid to go to their farms for fear of being killed or kidnapped for ransom.” the statement said. Before now, the umbrella organization of all Southern Kaduna people, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) had also called for military assistance to the communities. Apart from military assistance, the last leadership of the union led by a one-time member of the House of Representatives, Jonathan Asake, had also contemplated the setting up of a security outfit like the one in the South West, Amotekun. The former SOKAPU National President had said: “As a peace-loving people, who do not want anything to happen to us and our desire to live in peace with all and sundry, irrespective of any difference, we are forced to look elsewhere for the protection of our people and we strongly believe that a security outfit such as Amotekun is an answer to our much-desired peace in Southern Kaduna.” Recently, the state Governor, Mallam Uba Sani, pardoned repentant Bandits, who had decided to lay down their arms and renounce banditry. The governor, who spoke in Birnin Gwari, where he received the first set of repentant bandits, noted that he wants to be fair as a panacea towards tackling insecurity in the state. “I will be fair to everyone, be they farmers, herders and traders, to achieve lasting peace and development,” Mr Sani stated. Sani added: ‘’Through numerous meetings and extensive discussions, we have built bridges of trust. Several senior bandit leaders had laid their arms and embraced peace, along with their followers. “This programme adheres to international standards of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, ensuring that these individuals can return to society as productive citizens,’’ he said. The governor warned that the rehabilitation of the repentant bandits was based on the principle of carrot and stick. “While we welcome those who chose peace, we will not hesitate to take decisive action against anyone, who continues to perpetuate violence. “The security, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have already achieved significant results, neutralising bandits’ kingpins, dismantling criminal networks and rescuing kidnapped victims,’’ the governor stressed. However, on how to end banditry and kidnapping in their area, the Ruruma community said what was needed was a military base to assist them dislodge the criminal elements. The community appealed to President Bola Tinubu’s administration to establish a military presence in Kwasam, its local government headquarters to halt escalating killings and abduction of their people by bandits. The National President stressed that establishing a military presence in the Kwasam area would not only bring stability to the region but also help restore normalcy in neighbouring vulnerable communities that have been displaced over the years. “The military formation in the Kwasam axis will enable the communities that have been displaced to return to their ancestral land as they have abandoned their farms and farm produce. Currently, our Chief, Alhaji Dauda Abdulsalam, the Pogom Kumana, for some years, has not been at home, due to escalating insecurity in the region. “Bandits have continued to occupy surrounding communities and farmlands unchallenged by security operatives.” He lamented. Also speaking on how to find solutions to the challenges, the Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) Kaduna State chapter, Luka Binniyat, said the people desire more military formations and presence in Southern Kaduna as a whole. However, he said that the formation of the Volunteers Citizens Guards, where youths from the Middle Belt will be trained to assist the military will be an added advantage. Comrade Binniyat told Sunday Telegraph: “We very much desire more military and police formations in Southern Kaduna, being the larger part of Kaduna State. Kaduna State has a landmass of about 46,000 sq.km with 23 LGAs. Southern Kaduna occupies 26,000 sq.km and has 12 LGs. Yet, 80 per cent of military formations in Kaduna State are in the northern part. So, we need more permanent military presence.” He, however, said the way forward is a very simple: “We have always maintained in the MBF. We have millions of able bodied youths that are educated, easy to train and imbued with basic security training. And most of them are very willing to assist the military as Volunteers Citizens Guards. Why not train them and give them rudimentary arms? “With their sheer numbers and under the command of professional soldiers, I bet you that we can wipe out these bandits under a month. Imagine the billions of dollars or trillion of Naira used in importing jets and sundry arms and the little results we are getting. Deploy a fraction of that into training and arming our idle and willing youths and see the results.” According to him:” It is the refusal of the government to heed to this simple suggestions that makes us doubt the political will of the government to end this evil.” He, however, said the volume of attacks has reduced in the recent past, unlike what opens years ago, adding that, “the mass invasion, mass killings and arson in Zangon Kataf, Kaura, Jemaa, Sanga and Kachia LGAs parts of the Middle in Southern Kaduna has reduced drastically by about 90 per cent. We praise the efforts of the Nigeria military on this. But that has been replaced by mass kidnappings, target individuals and random kidnapping by bandits.” Binniyat, who alleged that those attacking the Southern Kaduna part of the middle belt are “Fulani Ethnic Militia” (FEM) also alleged that apart from the violence, they have “placed taxes on some captured communities before they can farm and before they can harvest their crops.”