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Australia Ditches Plans to Fine Tech Giants for MisinformationCHICAGO — After eight years on the waitlist, Mikia Knighten was excited to learn in October 2022 that she had received a housing voucher from the Chicago Housing Authority. The rental subsidy would allow her to move to a better neighborhood with better opportunities for her and her now 4-year-old daughter, she said. It was going to “take a little bit of a load off” in a high-cost housing market, she said. But after spending about eight months applying for apartments, Knighten found no landlord willing to accept her rental subsidy, and her allotted time from CHA to find a unit where she could use her voucher was up, according to the lawsuit she filed in August alleging that housing providers discriminated against her based on her source of income. Knighten’s lawsuit alleges that housing providers said they did not accept housing vouchers, did not work with CHA or did not respond when she told them she had a housing voucher. “It was really dehumanizing,” Knighten said. There’s “a real stigma behind having the voucher.” Within the last year and a half, housing attorneys have filed some of the first lawsuits, including Knighten’s, allowed under Illinois’ nearly two-year-old statewide law preventing discrimination on the basis of someone’s source of income. All the complaints allege that the plaintiffs, who had housing vouchers, were discriminated against. Advocates said the discrimination is still widespread across the city and state despite the law, and they’re eager for legal rulings to help hold real estate professionals accountable. As the cases wind their way through the court system, housing counseling and legal aid organizations are continuing to enforce the law through other means, such as filing claims with local and state human rights agencies. Before the new state law took effect, attorneys were not legally allowed to sue alleging source of income discrimination; the local human rights commissions in Chicago and Cook County were the primary route for holding housing providers accountable, and their rulings do not come with consequences as severe as lawsuit verdicts. Knighten, who lives in Lansing, is suing 14 parties, ranging from individuals to real estate brokerages to smaller corporations. Some defendants did not return requests for comment. Others said they did not know they were being sued, that they were no longer the owners of the property in question, had not heard of the plaintiff or declined to comment on pending litigation. Knighten’s voucher was through the Housing Choice Voucher Program, the primary federal housing voucher program. Formerly known as Section 8, it allows public housing authorities to provide subsidies to low-income residents to find housing in the private market. The multi-billion-dollar program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through local public housing authorities, helps more than 2 million households nationwide. The Chicago Housing Authority is supplying vouchers to more than 52,000 renters through the program, according to HUD data. Residents with vouchers from the CHA pay 30% to 40% of their income toward rent and utilities; the CHA covers the rest. It can take years, sometimes decades, to get off the waitlist for a housing voucher. About 18,000 households are on the CHA’s waitlist. When the agency last opened the waitlist for four weeks in 2014, it got 280,000 applications, 70,000 of which were approved for the list. In Illinois, the majority of voucher holders are Black, like Knighten, as the Black population has historically faced racial discrimination preventing them from building wealth, making them more likely to use vouchers. Housing advocates said source of income discrimination is another form of racial discrimination. For those who do get off the waitlist, in 2022 only 61% were able to use their CHA vouchers, the agency’s most recent year with complete data. The CHA data are consistent with national figures. Only 60% of voucher holders are able to use them to lease homes, according to a 2024 national study conducted with data from 2015 to 2019 by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The numbers are worse for markets with an older housing stock and for voucher recipients of color, the study says, both of which apply to Chicago. Michael Mini, executive vice president of the Chicagoland Apartment Association, a trade group that represents housing providers, said he has not heard of any problems or concerns related to source of income discrimination. The “vast majority” of his members are “very familiar” with the voucher program and had already been following the city and county laws prior to the statewide law’s passage, Mini said. He said his organization notified its members downstate and beyond when the state law was passed. “Source of income is a protected class. Like any other protected class, we expect our members to comply with the law,” Mini said. But housing advocates said source of income discrimination happens overtly and covertly. Sometimes real estate professionals explicitly say they will not accept a housing voucher; other times they do not count the voucher toward a renter’s income and say the renter does not have sufficient income to qualify for the unit. Many property owners and managers require a renter’s monthly income to be three times the monthly rent. And sometimes required credit scores and high application fees are limiting factors for voucher holders. “There are always emerging strategies ... that a landlord can employ that really accomplish the same thing,” said Susan Theiss, an attorney focused on fair housing rights with Legal Aid Chicago. “Landlords are always shifting the ground when they really don’t want to rent to people with housing assistance.” Theiss and other advocates said the number of callers alleging source of income discrimination has increased since the state law passed, a sign that information about it is getting out. In one case, fair-housing counseling organization Open Communities and one of its clients filed a lawsuit in 2023 in federal court in Chicago against national property management company Harbor Group Management and software company PERQ. The lawsuit alleged that Harbor Group Management employed an artificial intelligence chatbot that systematically rejected online applicants who had Housing Choice Vouchers. In January, the parties settled for monetary damages and entered into a two-year consent decree that requires Harbor Group to provide Open Communities data and access related to its fair-housing policies and practices, including its use of PERQ software. Advocates and their clients are also using the new state law to help with eviction cases and are still filing cases through the local and new state human rights commissions. Allison Bethel, director of the Fair Housing Legal Clinic at University of Illinois Chicago, said she has clients who are voucher holders and are being evicted and/or are facing poor living conditions or fines because of their source of income. The clinic has settled cases where clients have stayed housed or received money, Bethel said. The Chicago Commission on Human Relations estimates it has received 1,700 complaints related to source of income discrimination since 1990, the year the agency began handling these types of complaints. The commission saw the number more than double from 2022 to 2023, with 101 source of income discrimination complaints filed in 2023, according to agency data provided to the Tribune. In Cook County, fewer than 75 complaints have been filed since 2013, when it made source of income discrimination illegal, according to the county. Since 2022 the Cook County Commission on Human Rights has seen an uptick in filings. The Illinois Department of Human Rights, which began accepting source of income complaints in January 2023, when the statewide law took effect, received 34 complaints in 2023 and 48 in 2024 as of November, according to data provided to the Tribune. Advocates and attorneys say some cases are settled before an investigation is completed. They also said it can take several months to over a year for the IDHR to process and investigate a complaint, with many of its cases still awaiting results. Some of those advocates said they hope this process can be sped up. As Illinois heads into year three of its statewide source of income protections, housing advocates will continue their work and await verdicts that they hope can help guide their paths forward. For Knighten — who works at a call center and is paying more than 1.5 times as much for rent as she would have with a voucher — she hopes her case raises awareness. “Just because people are getting assistance from the government doesn’t make them less of a person,” Knighten said. “(I want to) make sure no one else has to go through what I went through when they are just trying to get help to survive.” Gov. JB Pritzker announces Illinois' new "Help Stop Hate" program during an Oct. 30 news conference. Hate crime incidents are at a record high since the FBI began collecting the data in 1991. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!California governor says state could offer electric vehicle rebates if Trump eliminates federal tax creditxbol 。

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Massive Amazon UK Black Friday sale is live this weekend - here are 31 deals I'd buy nowIn one of the wildest finishes to a game in NFL history, the Dallas Cowboys used two kickoff returns for touchdowns in the final 2:49 to upset the Washington Commanders, 34-26. It felt like the Cowboys won this game three times and tried to lose it just as many. It's the biggest upset in the league this season, as Dallas was a 10.5-point underdog. ... while also taking some obvious steps toward tanking its way to a better pick in the April NFL Draft. But then the game got in the way of that plan ... Our Top 10 observations on the wackiest game in franchise history: 10. TOP 10 EDIT: And to think, this game was a 3-3 snoozefest at halftime. Not sure exactly where this unpredictable, amazing, history-making fourth quarter belongs in the annals of Cowboys-Commanders history , but it's got to wedge itself in there somewhere right? The last eight minutes were a heck of a football game in itself, featuring 41 points, a 99-yard kickoff return, an 86-yard touchdown pass, a two-point conversion, a missed extra point, an onside kick returned for a touchdown and a Commanders' Hail Mary intercepted by Israel Mukuamu to finally end it. Whew. 9. ONE OF THE AGES: This was the first game in NFL history to feature two kickoff returns to touchdown, two missed extra points and a blocked punt. It was an absolute cornucopia of dramatic plays both spectacular and down right stupid. 8. NOT-SEE TV: Let's admit it, the first half was wholly unwatchable. The Cowboys had a dropped pass by Jalen Tolbert on third down, a blocked field goal, a missed field goal by Brandon Aubrey, a fumble by Rico Dowdle, a shotgun snap that sailed over Cooper Rush's head and a punt blocked. Despite that comedy of errors, somehow it was 3-3 at the break. The Commanders should be embarrassed. And ultimately, they were. 7. FINAL, FATAL FLAW: In a loosey-goosey game that both teams made more than their share of mistakes to lose, the Commanders wound up making the biggest. After pulling within 27-26 with 21 seconds remaining, kicker Austin Seibert hooked the extra point wide left after a low snap. Seibert, who missed the last two games with a hip injury, missed two PATs after not missing one all season. The Cowboys had laughably bad coverage on Terry McLaurin's 86-yard touchdown pass and, yes, Juanyeh Thomas should have just fallen down after recovering an onside kickoff that would have ended the game. But in a game of top this, it was a simple extra point that sealed the shocker. 6. SEE CEEDE: For a guy roundly criticized for his seemingly negative body language, CeeDee Lamb sure looked like he wanted to have a positive impact on this game. He caught 10 passes for 67 yards, but it was his hustle play at the end of the first half that stood out. After Noah Igbinoghene picked off Rush and began running deep in Dallas territory in the last minute of the first half, Lamb sprinted back and made a tackle that jarred the ball loose. Hunter Luepke caught the ball out of the air and three plays later the Cowboys kicked a field goal for a halftime tie. 5. WACKY WIN: Still not sure how the Cowboys won this game on the road against a 7-4 team. They ... allowed 412 yards of offense, coughed up an 86-yard touchdown pass while trying to protect a seven-point lead with 30 seconds remaining, had a punt blocked, had a field goal blocked and missed a field goal. Given those elements - plus Dak Prescott not in uniform - the degree of difficulty was off the charts. Related: Cowboys’ Opening Drives End in Double Disaster 4. BUSTED GUYTON?: It's too early call Cowboys' first-round draft choice Tyler Guyton a complete bust, or is it? The rookie was called for four penalties including an illegal formation that negated a 23-yard completion to CeeDee Lamb. ... and he was eventually, to our eyes, benched. 3. UNSPECIAL TEAMS: Nothing like a blocked punt, blocked field goal, missed field goal and short kickoff that gift-wrapped the Commanders field position at their 40-yard line to start the second half. Not sure if Bones Fassel has endured a worse day as the Cowboys' special teams coach. Until ... 2. KAVONTAE KRAZY!: In a game that featured a season's worth of wacky, there was nothing crazier than KaVontae Turpin's touchdown return. With Washington having just scored and converted a two-point conversion to pull within 20-17, Turpin let the kickoff bounce and awkwardly go between his legs. He eventually picked the ball - with one hand, mind you - at the 1-yard line. From there he sort of slow-walked to the 10, where he made a remarkable spin move and then hit high gear in no time to ultimately go untouched 99 yards for a touchdown. It was the Cowboys' first kickoff return in 50 games. Par for the course on this zany day, they'd get another one from Thomas 2:35 later. 1. RARE RIVALRY: This shocking outcome - Washington was favored by 10.5 points - had all the feel of 1989. In that season, the lowly Cowboys went 1-15 with their only win in Washington ... in November ... using a backup quarterback. Sunday it was Rush ending Dallas' five-game losing streak; 35 years ago it was Steve Walsh leading a 13-3 upset. And in the end? Organic Tanking will have to wait. Related: Quinn Stoking Cowboys-Commanders Rivalry: Top 10 GamesBEIRUT — Israel's military launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, unleashing explosions throughout the country and killing at least 31 while Israeli leaders appeared to be closing in on a negotiated ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group. Israeli strikes hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut as well as in the port city of Tyre. Military officials claimed they targeted areas known as Hezbollah strongholds. They issued evacuation orders for Beirut's southern suburbs, and strikes landed across the city, including meters from a Lebanese police base and the city's largest public park. The barrage came as officials indicated they were nearing agreement on a ceasefire, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Cabinet prepared to discuss an offer on the table. Bulldozers remove the rubble of a destroyed building Monday that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations also expressed cautious optimism Monday about possible progress on a ceasefire. “Knock on wood,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said as he opened the Group of Seven meeting outside Rome. “We are perhaps close to a ceasefire in Lebanon," he said. "Let's hope it's true and that there's no backing down at the last-minute.” A ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon was foremost on the agenda of the G7 meeting in Fiuggi, outside Rome, that gathered ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, in the last G7 encounter of the Biden administration. For the first time, the G7 ministers were joined by their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League. Thick smoke, flames and debris erupt Monday from an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon. Meanwhile, massive explosions lit up Lebanon's skies with flashes of orange, sending towering plumes of smoke into the air as Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs Monday. The blasts damaged buildings and left shattered glass and debris scattered across nearby streets. Some of the strikes landed close to central Beirut and near Christian neighborhoods and other targets where Israel issued evacuation warnings, including in Tyre and Nabatiyeh province. Israeli airstrikes also hit the northeast Baalbek-Hermel region without warning. Lebanon's Health Ministry said Monday that 26 people were killed in southern Lebanon, four in the eastern Baalbek-Hermel province and one in Choueifat, a neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs that was not subjected to evacuation warnings on Monday. The deaths brought the total toll to 3,768 killed in Lebanon throughout 13 months of war between Israel and Hezbollah and nearly two months since Israel launched its ground invasion. Many of those killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have been civilians, and health officials said some of the recovered bodies were so severely damaged that DNA testing would be required to confirm their identities. Israel claims to have killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Lebanon's Health Ministry says the war has displaced 1.2 million people. Destroyed buildings stand Monday in the area of a village in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon in early October, meeting heavy resistance in a narrow strip of land along the border. The military previously exchanged attacks across the border with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that began firing rockets into Israel the day after the war in Gaza began last year. Lebanese politicians have decried the ongoing airstrikes and said they are impeding ceasefire negotiations. The country's deputy parliament speaker accused Israel of ramping up its bombardment to pressure Lebanon to make concessions in indirect ceasefire negotiations with Hezbollah. Elias Bousaab, an ally of the militant group, said Monday that the pressure has increased because "we are close to the hour that is decisive regarding reaching a ceasefire." Israeli officials voiced similar optimism Monday about prospects for a ceasefire. Mike Herzog, the country's ambassador to Washington, earlier in the day told Israeli Army Radio that several points had yet to be finalized. Though any deal would require agreement from the government, Herzog said Israel and Hezbollah were "close to a deal." "It can happen within days," he said. Israeli officials have said the sides are close to an agreement that would include withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and a pullback of Hezbollah fighters from the Israeli border. But several sticking points remain. A member of the Israeli security forces inspects an impact site Sunday after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in Rinatya, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. After previous hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials cautioned that negotiations were not yet complete and noted that there could be last-minute hitches that either delay or destroy an agreement. "Nothing is done until everything is done," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday. The proposal under discussion to end the fighting calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River. The withdrawals would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, who have been largely sidelined in the war, to patrol the border area along with an existing U.N. peacekeeping force. Western diplomats and Israeli officials said Israel demands the right to strike in Lebanon if it believes Hezbollah is violating the terms. The Lebanese government says such an arrangement would authorize violations of the country's sovereignty. On paper, being more sustainable and eco-friendly while shopping sounds great—so why don't more people do it? There is growing consumer consciousness about the environmental impact of where people choose to shop and the sustainability of the products they buy. According to McKinsey, over 60% of individuals surveyed in 2020 said they would be willing to pay more for a product that is packaged in an eco-friendly way. Since 2019, products marketed as being environmentally sustainable have seen a 28% growth in revenue compared to 20% for products with no such marketing, a 2023 McKinsey and NielsenIQ report found. Much of this is thanks to the preferences and attitudes of Gen Z, who, on average, care more than their older counterparts about being informed shoppers. The younger generation also has more social justice and environmental awareness altogether. Shoppers are willing to spend around 9.7% more on a product they know is sourced or manufactured sustainably, with 46% saying they would do so explicitly because they want to reduce their environmental footprint, according to a 2024 PwC report. Sustainable practices consumers look for from companies include production methods, packaging, and water conservation. But despite the growing consciousness around being more environmentally responsible, consumer actions don't always align with their values. In psychology, this is defined as the "say-do gap": the phenomenon wherein people openly express concern and intention around an issue, but fail to take tangible action to make a change. According to the Harvard Business Review in 2019, most consumers (65%) say they want to buy from brands that promote sustainability, but only 1 in 4 follow through. So why don't people actually shop sustainably, despite how much they express a preference for eco-friendly products—and how can we close the gap? The RealReal examined reports from the Harvard Business Review and other sources to explore why some shoppers want to buy sustainably but struggle to follow through. This lack of action isn't due to a lack of caring—in many cases, it's hard to know how to be a sustainable consumer and other factors are often outside of shoppers' control. But the more people shop sustainably, the easier and more accessible that market will be for everyone—making it much easier for folks to buy aligned with their values. There are many obstacles preventing shoppers from upholding eco-friendly habits as much as they may want to—but not all of these barriers are necessarily real, or accurately understood. Shopping sustainably simply isn't convenient or accessible for many. Those who live in apartment buildings are 50% less likely to recycle , according to Ipsos. Reasons for this can vary from lack of space to buildings being excluded altogether because of recycling contamination issues. Many believe that sustainable products are too expensive or of a lower quality. The former is often true, which does create a hurdle for many: The manufacturing processes and materials for sustainable products are pricey. For instance, organic cotton requires an intensive production process free of certain chemicals or pesticides; by definition, true eco-friendly products can't be mass-produced, further upping their price tag. Using recycled materials for packaging, or obtaining an eco certification, can also be expensive. However, although the narrative of eco-friendly products being more expensive is true, there is often more of an effort to use better quality materials that last longer than their noneco-friendly counterparts. This could end up saving consumers money in the long run: By paying more upfront, they can get more wear out of sustainable fashion, for instance. There is also undeniable political rhetoric surrounding eco-friendly products—however, despite many Conservative politicians decrying sustainable products, members of all generations are increasingly choosing to prioritize shopping sustainably regardless of their political affiliation, according to research from NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business . This finding shows a trend toward seeing sustainability as a nonpartisan subject everyone can benefit from, no matter where they lie on the political spectrum. Some might think eco-friendly clothing, in particular, is not fashion-forward; after all, many of the top clothing retailers in the world partake in fast fashion. However, brands are increasingly being recognized as 'cool' and 'trendy' for supporting environmentally ethical practices, particularly as younger generations prioritize sustainability, as noted before. Many increasingly popular online stores are taking advantage of this paradigm shift by offering secondhand shopping options that are not only fashionable, but also more affordable, like ThredUp or Poshmark. Additionally, many legacy large-name brands are hopping on the sustainability movement and are gaining appreciation from loyal customers. Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly program partners with third-party certification bodies to make it easier for shoppers to identify eco-friendly products as they browse the website. H&M's newly launched H&M Rewear program debuts a resale platform that allows the resale of all clothing brands—not just their own. Similarly, Patagonia's Worn Wear program allows shoppers to trade in and buy used gear and clothing. The federal government is also working to close this gap. The Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program is attempting to make sustainable shopping easier for consumers and companies alike. It includes a directory of certified products, a list of safer chemicals to look out for on labels, a "Safer Choice" label that products can earn to denote they are eco-friendly, and resources for manufacturers looking to adopt more sustainable practices. Most of all, though, the biggest way shoppers can shift toward sustainable shopping is through their behaviors and attitudes amongst their peers and communities. Studies show that humans largely care what others think of their actions; the more shoppers make environmentally conscious shopping the norm, the more others will follow suit. From an economic perspective, the more consumers shop eco-friendly, the more affordable and accessible these products will become, too: Sustainable products are currently more expensive because they are not in high demand. Once demand rises, production rates and prices can lower, making these products more accessible for all. Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. This story originally appeared on The RealReal and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Oracle Corp. stock underperforms Wednesday when compared to competitorsPARIS: France threw open the doors of the capital’s Notre Dame cathedral after a half-decade closure, in a ceremony attended by dozens of world leaders celebrating the rebirth of the Paris landmark ravaged by a devastating fire. Held up as an example of French creativity and resilience by President Emmanuel Macron, Notre Dame’s renaissance so soon after a 2019 blaze that destroyed its roof and spire comes at a difficult time for the country. The re-opening officially took place when archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich opened the doors to the cathedral at 1800 GMT, by knocking three times, to herald the start of the almost two-hour ceremony. Macron scored a major coup by attracting US president-elect Donald Trump, on his first foreign trip since his election, for the ceremony along with some 40 other leaders, including Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and the UK’s heir to the throne, Prince William. It is “a cathedral like we have never seen before,” Philippe Jost, the head of the restoration project, told Franceinfo radio, saying he was proud to “show the whole world” a “great collective success and a source of pride for all of France”. In one last-minute hitch, harsh weather forced officials to move Macron’s planned speech indoors and pre-record a concert planned for after the ceremony, with forecasts for winds of up to 80 kilometers per hour. The service will feature prayer, organ music and hymns from the cathedral’s choir, followed by the televised concert—pre-recorded Friday night due to the weather—with performances by Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang, South African opera singer Pretty Yende and an orchestra conducted by Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel. US singer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams is also believed to have taken part. The sense of national accomplishment in restoring a beloved symbol of Paris has been undercut by political turmoil that has left France without a proper government and in a budget crisis. Macron is hoping the re-opening might provide a fleeting sense of pride and unity—as the Paris Olympics did in July and August. The scale of the immense security operation also recalls the Olympics—with some 6,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized. The re-opening “is the proof that we know how to do grand things, we know how to do the impossible” Macron said Thursday. During a visit with TV cameras last week. however, he somewhat undermined the suspense behind the re-opening, revealing the cathedral’s freshly scrubbed limestone walls, new furniture and vaulted wooden roof cut from ancient oak trees selected from the finest forests of France. The reconstruction effort has cost around 700 million euros ($750 million), financed from donations, with the re-opening achieved within five years despite predictions it could take decades. “This state-of-the-art restoration, the fruit of a worldwide collective effort and the use of many traditional French skills, has enabled this masterpiece to regain all its splendor,” said Audrey Azoulay, the head of the UN cultural agency UNESCO, describing the work as “dazzling”. Trump show? Trump accepted an invitation from Macron to attend earlier this week, saying the French leader had done “a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.” Travelling on a private plane, he landed at Orly airport in the south of Paris Saturday morning, followed by Zelensky a few hours later. US President Joe Biden will be represented by his wife, Jill. One surprising absentee will be Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, who is instead visiting the French island of Corsica. A message from Francis addressed to the French people will be read out to the congregation. Parisians watched in horror in 2019 as flames ravaged Notre Dame, a landmark famed as the setting for Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and one of the world’s most visited monuments. The apocalyptic images were seen by some as a sign of the demise of Western civilisation, with the 850-year-old wonder saved from complete collapse only by the heroic intervention of firefighters. The exact cause of the blaze has never been identified despite a forensic investigation by prosecutors, who believe an accident such as an electrical fault was the most likely reason. On Sunday, the first mass with 170 bishops and more than 100 Paris priests will take place at 10:30 am followed by a second service in the evening at 6:30 pm which will be open to the public. - AFP

Jamie Carragher pinpoints the one area Man City need to 'rebuild' after falling to five defeats in a row - as - Daily MailAffinity Bancshares director Roberts sells $15,114 in stock

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A new phishing scam targets Facebook business users with fake emails from Meta, claiming prohibited content on pages. Know how to keep your page safe. There are several startup businesses, small businesses and pages which rely on Facebook for marketing and promotion. If your business relies on Facebook for promotion, then know Kaspersky experts have uncovered a new phishing scam targeting businesses that use Meta for Business, Facebook’s platform for managing business pages. Scammers are sending emails pretending to be from Facebook’s Meta for Business team. The email claims that your business page contains prohibited content, and as a result, your account and page have been blocked. To resolve the issue, the email urges you to provide explanations or take action via a provided link. What the attackers really want is access to your business account. By tricking you into interacting with a fraudulent page, they hope to steal your login credentials and potentially gain control of your account. Why This Scam Is Different According to Kaspersky’s anonymized data, these phishing emails began circulating on December 14. Complaints have been reported globally, including in the Asia-Pacific region. A closer look at the “From” field in the email reveals that the domain doesn’t belong to Facebook. Scammers are using various unrelated domains to send these messages. Plus, the email link takes you to Facebook Messenger, where a fake account poses as Facebook’s support team. The setup looks convincing, which adds to the scam’s credibility. This phishing campaign stands out because, unlike earlier scams that accused users of copyright violations via email, this one mimics internal communication on Facebook’s platform itself. By using Facebook Messenger, the attackers create a false sense of trust. It’s easy for stressed users to miss subtle warnings, such as the account being labelled as a fan page instead of an official support account. “If you receive such an email, verify its authenticity before taking any action. Avoid clicking on suspicious links, and report the incident to Facebook’s support team immediately. Activating two-factor authentication and updating compromised passwords are critical steps to protect your account,” Andrey Kovtun, Email Threats Protection Group Manager at Kaspersky recommends. How to Protect Your Business Account To make sure you are never a victim of a phishing scam like the one above, here are some recommendations: Click for more latest Tech news . Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9. Divya is a Senior Sub-Editor with about 3 years of experience in journalism and content writing. Before joining News9live, she had contributed to Times Now and Hindustan Times, where she focused on tech reporting and reviewing gadgets. When she's not working, you can find her indulging in Netflix, expressing her creativity through painting, and dancing.

NoneA person’s face is covered by a Chinese flag fluttering in the wind in Beijing in an undated photograph.Photo: Bloomberg ‘UNITED FRONT’: Beijing provides Internet ‘influencers’ with templates and directions, such as criticizing Taiwanese politicians, the rapper said By Chung Li-hua and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer 請繼續往下閱讀... Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in a video showed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bribes Taiwanese online influencers in its “united front” efforts to shape Taiwanese opinions. The video was made by YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” and published online on Friday. Chen in the video said that China’s United Front Work Department provided him with several templates and materials — such as making news statements — with some mentioning Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politician Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and asking him to write a song criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party. 請繼續往下閱讀... He said he had produced content for China as requested, but did not receive the royalties as promised by a Beijing-based management company for his song Chinese Bosses (中國老總), which is sung in an exaggerated Taiwanese accent with lyrics implying a pleasant life for businesspeople in China. Chen said he also founded a company in China jointly with a business partner from the Jinjiang Taiwan Compatriots Friendship Association, who worked as his manager and later poached all his employees and capital invested in the company. He was labeled as a fraud and a “Taiwanese independence separatist,” and attacked by Chinese Internet trolls, after he released an online video condemning his former business partner for betraying him. “I finally realized the hard way that where I was staying [China] was not a place of democracy,” Chen said, adding that there is a huge difference between democratic Taiwan and autocratic China. The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday said it is in control of the situation where Taiwanese influencers allegedly vilify the government’s policies, lure Taiwanese to work in China or engage in “united front” campaigns requested by the Chinese government. The National Security Act (國家安全法) prohibits people from engaging, initiating, funding, hosting, manipulating, directing or developing an organization for a foreign country, including China, Hong Kong and Macau, external hostile forces, or any type of organizations, institutions, or groups established or controlled by them, or a representative dispatched by such organizations, institutions or groups, the council said. The Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) prohibits people from receiving instructions, being commissioned or funded by external hostile forces to engage in activities that disrupt social order, spread disinformation or interfere with elections, it said. Article 33-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) prohibits individuals, juristic persons, organizations or other institutions from engaging in any form of cooperation with the Chinese military, political parties or any organization of a political nature, it added. 新聞來源: TAIPEI TIMES 不用抽 不用搶 現在用APP看新聞 保證天天中獎 點我下載APP 按我看活動辦法Courtland Sutton's surge is helping rookie Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos make a playoff push