The NFL has issued a security warning to players about a criminal network targeting their homes. Players have been urged to ramp up security and take care about what they post on social media. It comes after the homes of Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were burgled last month, while a property owned by Dallas Cowboys' Linval Joseph was targeted last week. An NFL security memo about the issue has been sent out to team security directors and the players' union. Reporting on the memo, the NFL website said it was understood the criminal organisation "use public records to find players' addresses and conduct extensive surveillance". "Then, by tracking team schedules and the social media accounts of players and their families, they wait until homes are empty - often during games." Players have also been asked to make it look like someone is at home when they are out, by leaving lights or a television on, for example. "I can't get into too many of the details because the investigation is still ongoing," Mahomes said when asked about the break in. "But obviously something that you don't want to happen to really anybody, but obviously yourself."Noah Waterman's driving, twisting shot in the lane with 1.2 seconds left rescued Louisville from a home upset bid by Eastern Kentucky, escaping with a 78-76 home victory on Saturday. The Cardinals (8-5) equaled their win total from the 2023-24 campaign. Louisville claimed a 71-61 edge on a James Scott dunk with 6:17 remaining, but Eastern Kentucky (6-7) followed with a 12-1 run to claim the lead on Devontae Blanton's layup with 2:20 to play. The teams traded baskets until Waterman's shot in the final seconds provided the difference. Terrance Edwards Jr. made one of two free throws to pad the Cardinals' margin with 0.4 seconds to play. Louisville grabbed a season-high 21 offensive rebounds in the win. The Cardinals were led by Edwards' 20-point performance on 6-for-12 shooting. J'Vonne Hadley dropped in 15 points and added 10 rebounds, four on the offensive end. Chucky Hepburn added 14 points despite six turnovers and guard Reyne Smith had 12 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Waterman contributed 12 points, none more significant than the game winner. Eastern Kentucky's George Kimble III keyed the Colonels' rally with 24 points, with 17 coming in the second half. Blanton scored 22 points on 10-for-23 shooting. Guard Jackson Holt added 15 points, shooting 3-for-5 from 3-point range. The game was a back-and-forth battle throughout. Louisville stretched a first-half lead to as many as 15 points, in part by canning nine 3-point shots in the first 20 minutes, as opposed to just two in the second half. The Cardinals led 46-37 at halftime and stretched their lead back to 13 before a 12-2 led by 3-pointers from Holt and Mayar Wol pulled the Colonels back into the game midway through the second half. The Cardinals will take on North Carolina at home on Wednesday. Eastern Kentucky opens Atlantic Sun play at Central Arkansas on Thursday. --Field Level Media
AP Trending SummaryBrief at 5:10 p.m. ESTForspoken probably isn’t destined for a comeback any time soon, but PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers on PlayStation 5 can try its surprisingly smooth fantasy parkour for free starting Dec. 17, Sony announced Wednesday . It’s joined by some other notable games this month, including Sonic Frontiers , A Space for the Unbound , PHOGS! , and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy . However, none of them can match the rush of vaulting and sliding through Square Enix’s pretty — if a little bland — open-world action RPG from last year. Although the critical response was mixed on whether or not Forspoken could stand next to the sprawling adventures in games like Final Fantasy 7: Remake , there were a few fans of main character Frey’s acrobatic finesse. Through her “Flow” ability, she can leap and slide over objects in the environment while you hold down a single button — no finger gymnastics required. And it works in combat, too, letting her dodge and flee from enemies unscathed. In our review , Grayson Morley praised the ability’s traversal and the many ways you can expand it throughout the story, but found that it’s cut short just as it all starts to come together. “By the time you get a fourth set of magical abilities, the game feels like it’s finally opening up, with a full suite of powers available to you, a feeling immediately undercut by the fact that it’s actually ending,” Morley wrote. That sounds like the perfect kind of game to sample guilt-free with a PS Plus subscription, if you ask me. Maybe it won’t satisfy you for 40 hours, but for 5 or 10? That’s a holiday treat. Forspoken’s story even takes place a few days before Christmas; this could be your new tradition. Forspoken will be available for both Extra and Premium PS Plus subscribers starting Dec. 17. Gaming News PlayStation Forspoken
Is Randy Fine, the pugnacious Florida lawmaker, the future of Republican Jewish politics?AGNC Investment Corp. Declares Fourth Quarter Dividends on Preferred StockVerisign Stock Dips As Sen. Warren Reportedly Demands Probe Into 'Excessive' Pricing: Retail Shrugs It OffBy Jim Salter St. Louis, Dec 13 (AP) Fourteen North Korean nationals have been indicted in a scheme using information technology workers with false identities to contract with US companies — workers who then funneled their wages to North Korea for development of ballistic missiles and other weapons, the head of the FBI office in St. Louis has said. The scheme involving thousands of IT workers generated more than USD88 million for the North Korean government, Ashley T Johnson, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office, said at a news conference on Thursday. In addition to their wages, the workers stole sensitive information from companies or threatened to leak information in exchange for extortion payments, Johnson said. Victims included defrauded companies and people whose identities were stolen from across the US, including Missouri, Johnson said. The indictments were filed Wednesday in US District Court in St. Louis. All 14 people face wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft and other charges. Most of those accused are believed to be in North Korea. Johnson acknowledged that bringing them to justice will be difficult. To help, the US Department of State is offering a USD5 million reward for information leading to any of the suspects. Federal authorities said the scheme worked like this: North Korea dispatched thousands of IT workers to get hired and work remotely or as freelancers for US companies. The IT workers involved in the scheme sometimes used stolen identities. In other instances, they paid Americans to use their home Wi-Fi connections, or to pose in on-camera job interviews as the IT workers. Johnson said the FBI is going after those “domestic enablers,” too. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Johnson said. “If your company has hired fully remote IT workers, more likely than not, you have hired or at least interviewed a North Korean national working on behalf of the North Korean government,” Johnson said. The Justice Department in recent years has sought to expose and disrupt a broad variety of criminal schemes aimed at bolstering the North Korean regime, including its nuclear weapons program. In 2021, the Justice Department charged three North Korean computer programmers and members of the government's military intelligence agency in a broad range of global hacks that officials say were carried out at the behest of the regime. Law enforcement officials said at the time that the prosecution highlighted the profit-driven motive behind North Korea's criminal hacking, a contrast from other adversarial nations like Russia, China and Iran that are generally more interested in espionage, intellectual property theft or even disrupting democracy. In May 2022, the State Department, Department of the Treasury, and the FBI issued an advisory warning of attempts by North Koreans “to obtain employment while posing as non-North Korean nationals.” The advisory noted that in recent years, the regime of Kim Jong Un “has placed increased focus on education and training” in IT-related subjects. In October 2023, the FBI in St. Louis announced the seizure of USD1.5 million and 17 domain names as part of the investigation. The indictments announced Tuesday were the first stemming from the investigation. Johnson urged companies to thoroughly vet IT workers hired to work remotely. “One of the ways to help minimize your risk is to insist current and future IT workers appear on camera as often as possible if they are fully remote,” she said. Officials didn't name the companies that unknowingly hired North Korean workers. (AP) IJT (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
A Nanaimo-area teen has been given a dream gaming rig intended to not only entertain him, but also enrich his life. Blair Haslam, 18, lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease which affects mobility. He is passionate about video games and with the assistance of the Help Fill A Dream Foundation, now has a gaming system, including high-end monitors, hardware, headset and microphones, and a custom-made gaming chair. He received the computer equipment Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Country Grocer in Cedar. The new gear will allow him to play games that wasn't able to play previously, as well as livestream his gaming. "I want to be a streamer, I want to stream games to people, hopefully to make them smile," said Haslam. Blair's mother Jennifer expressed gratitude to the foundation and said the fulfilled dream will do wonders. "Blair has had this dream for a long time, even when his sisters were trying to convince him that a trip would be a really good idea, he really has been focused on this one dream," she said. "It really helps him connect with friends, and puts him on the level playing field with all his peers, because he is an equal in those games." Haslam was given four shopping carts full of equipment. "This gives him the ability to do so much in terms of communication with other gamers and everything online,” said Craig Smith, foundation executive director. "There's also some educational components that he's built into there, but also it's giving him some freedom and a sense of self and independence." Haslam is currently playing Marvel Rivals, a third-person shooter featuring characters from the comic-book universe. Over the past two years, the Help Fill A Dream Foundation has raised more than $50,000.Bjork is 'absolutely' confident that Day will return next year at Ohio State
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