With the emergence of a "life-saving straw" in the market, is corn about to undergo a transformation? The subtle shift in market sentiment is raising eyebrows and sparking discussions among analysts and investors alike.
One of the key factors that differentiate the rules for new and old users lies in the loyalty and commitment they have demonstrated towards Tencent Video. Long-time subscribers who have been with the platform for an extended period may be rewarded with special privileges or incentives as a token of appreciation for their continued support. In contrast, new users may need to familiarize themselves with the platform's offerings and gradually build their relationship with Tencent Video to potentially unlock additional benefits in the future.
In the midst of transfer speculations and tactical analysis, Arsenal Football Club finds itself at a crucial juncture as they evaluate potential reinforcements for the left winger position. Over the years, the Gunners have been renowned for their attacking prowess and fluid style of play, but recent performances have raised concerns about their efficiency in the final third. As the team navigates through a period of transition under manager Mikel Arteta, the need for a dynamic and creative left winger has become increasingly evident.
In response to the changing landscape of the global economy, the “Spring Dawn Plan” has recently been launched, aiming to revolutionize the traditional retail model by introducing a new concept known as "Factory Direct Sales." This innovative approach is set to redefine the way consumers interact with products, providing them with a more transparent and efficient way to access goods directly from the source.In conclusion, the incident involving the mother and daughter carrying knives on a train has raised important questions about safety and security on public transportation. It serves as a sobering reminder of the need for vigilant enforcement of security measures and the importance of collaboration between railway authorities and law enforcement agencies to maintain a safe travel environment for all passengers.
Title: Nightly Updates in Football: Annual Best XI Revealed, Messi Absent, Klopp Referee Controversy, Real Madrid Dominates(From left) BJ Pascual, Denise Julia and Killa Kush. Images: Josh Tolentino via Instagram/@bjpascual, @denisejvlia, @killakushla Even Christmas was not spared from the drama that stemmed between Denise Julia , BJ Pascual and Killa Kush as the three-way feud made headlines in what was supposed to be a festive season. The controversial spat stemmed from Pascual making claims about Denise’s alleged “unprofessionalism,” which was agreed on by the content creator. However, the feud — which included several screenshots posted on December 25 — escalated with the R&B singer hinting at taking the battle to court. Curious how the feud began? Don’t miss out on the details behind their controversial spat, as well as other trending entertainment headlines from December 20 to 26. Denise Julia and BJ Pascual | Image: Instagram/@denisejvlia, @bjpascual The spat between Denise Julia , BJ Pascual and Killa Kush began after the celebrity photographer revealed that the singer-songwriter was his “worst celebrity experience” on Killa Kush’s “Bad B*tch Bible” podcast. “Nanggigigil pa din ako,” Pascual began. “Si Denise Julia. I have heard so many things about her,” he began. “I guess medyo kasalanan ko rin that I still took the job, and it was more like a passion project because her manager JV (Denise Julia’s manager) called me many times, like, would message me on Instagram, and so we had a meeting,” he admitted. Pascual detailed his experience being asked to work on Denise’s album cover and music video, and then the latter’s team questioned the expenses and canceling them. “Ang babayaran na lang nila is manpower and materials. There is no talent fee. This is charity work na,” he said. “Sabi ng manager ko, ‘They want to cancel daw the shoot.’ The reason was nag-flake daw ‘yung hairstylist nila.” “Girl... This was already 10 PM. Ang call time namin is 6 AM [the next day]. Sya [Denise] 8 AM. How many hours na lang before the shoot? We have been setting the set since 4 PM,” he added. Pascual also shared that Denise’s camp also declined to pay the cancellation fee, while adding that he ended up shooting another celebrity for the set so as not to go to waste. “After that, I never heard from her. No thank you, no sorry, no anything. No ‘what happened?’ Nothing,” he recalled. Denise Julia and BJ Pascual. Image: Instagram/@denisejvlia, @bjpascual Denise Julia spoke up on BJ Pascual ’s claims of “unprofessionalism” against her, clarifying that it was the photographer’s team who canceled their scheduled shoot due to their “differences in production processes.” She made a tell-all via her Instagram Stories on Christmas Day, including in her posts the screenshots of her manager’s conversation with Pascual’s manager regarding the shoot. According to the singer-songwriter, her team reached out to Pascual back in May, and they had an online meeting in June, and they also had personal calls to exchange ideas for the shoot. In July, Denise’s manager gave a budget of P650,000. But Pascual’s team—despite the former “following up many times”—did not immediately get back to the singer’s team if the “budget is doable.” “We can’t really have a shoot date without us being sure if the budget is even feasible to them. Because on our end, we understand if this is not something they can work with,” she said. “We would have pulled back immediately already from the start if they had only told us that this is not doable for them, that that’s not the price range they can work with,” she noted. However, three days before the shoot and already three weeks after Denise’s team sent their initial budget, Pascual’s team, according to Denise, sent a cost sheet of P1.2 million. The singer’s team tried to extend their budget to P800,000 because they “really wanted to do this.” Her manager gave out options so that “none of the efforts go to waste,” although Pascual’s team was only able to adjust the cost to P1 million two days before the shoot. Denise then showed a screenshot of the conversation between her manager and Pascual’s, in which the singer’s manager pointed out that from experience, “no vendors would do anything without a budget actually agreed upon.” “I think that’s where the confusion is,” Denise’s manager said in the screenshot. “I should have been more straightforward with how important it was that we agreed on a number before confirming anything. I thought that was a protocol for y’all as well so I apologize for me assuming that’s the case,” the manager regretted. Pascual’s manager then replied, “Okay, so due to the differences in our production processes. I think it would be best to cancel the shoot.” Denise added that her manager had suggested pushing the shoot to a later date. “But ultimately at the end, BJ’s team, not us, canceled the shoot.” “I am fully acknowledging my mistake for not reaching out after this anymore, but it was because I didn’t know the extent of his frustration until everything aired on social media and it blew off proportion,” Denise said. Denise Julia (left) and Killa Kush | Image: Instagram/@denisejvlia, @killakushla Apart from BJ Pascual, Denise Julia is also voicing her grievances against Killa Kush (also known by her real name Acushla Obusan), with a threat to file charges. On Christmas Day, Kush took to her Instagram stories to express her “devastation” over how her recent podcast episode with Pascual sparked controversy after they aired their experience with Denise. She shared the context and screenshots of her conversation with the singer and her team about their past collaboration. “It’s truly devastating how this has played out. I could play the receipts game all day long with all our projects since 2022, but it’s literally Christmas day,” Kush said. “As a collaborator, I’ve already spent 400K mounting her first album launch event with no down payment (and had to fulfill everything in 4 days), then got paid over a month after,” she wrote. Kush disclosed more details on the financial damage their previous podcast collaboration supposedly generated. As Kush detailed the effort and expenses she supposedly shelled out for Denise, she emphasized that airing her side of the story is an attempt to open the conversation about professionalism. “As a host, my questions and comments on the podcast were never meant to shame anyone but rather to open up the conversation on challenges in the creative industry,” she said. “I hope this discussion leads to more accountability and professionalism. My focus is to continue sparking meaningful conversations and challenging minds,” she pointed out, noting that she doesn’t want to drop more screenshots. After her statement, Denise took to X (formerly Twitter) to warn Kush about pursuing legal action, as she described the latter’s statements as a “twisted narrative.” “Hope you can back up all that when I see you in court,” Denise warned. “‘Check her stories’ and it’s all twisted narrative as usual with business that was between her and a label team; receipts are just her trash-talking behind me and my best friend.” Denise alleged instances of unprofessionalism on Kush’s part, including late payments for talent fees, exploitative use of her name and image for promotional purposes, and even inappropriate behavior during their initial encounters. The singer also shared a private conversation between her and Kush, stressing her intent to take the issue to court. “Lols. Biglang bait,” she captioned the screenshot. BJ Pascual. Image: Instagram/@bjpascual BJ Pascual clarified parts of the screenshots earlier made public by Denise Julia, stressing that he does not want to escalate the issue but that he just wants to “provide transparency and accountability.” Pascual, who recently named the singer as the worst celebrity he worked with, responded to Denise’s tell-all about their canceled shoot by sharing screenshots as well of the parts of the conversation between them. “I appreciate Denise’s recent efforts to address the situation and the conversation we had in the hopes of moving forward,” he said via his Instagram Stories on Christmas Day. “However, some claims and portions of the images she shared on her IG stories do not reflect the full context of what transpired,” he noticed. One of the points Pascual raised is that his team was supposedly able to cut the cost of the shoot to accommodate the budget of the group of Denise. To support his statement, Pascual added a screenshot of the cost sheet his team sent to the singer’s manager. “Our team made every effort to adjust the budget down to 371K for the one-day shoot, which was below industry standards,” he said. “This was part of our effort to accommodate their budget and fit within their specific range, contrary to the original P1.2M amount that Denise shared in her IG story. A detail that was not fully addressed in her video,” he explained. Pascual noted that after giving Denise’s team the discounted cost, the latter told them that they were “not ready” due to their glam team canceling on them. He said they had managed to secure another glam team for the singer, but her team “still felt unprepared.” “My intention in sharing the context is not to escalate the matter but to provide transparency and accountability... I hope this brings clarity and closure to the matter, allowing us to move forward constructively,” he said. “I have already responded personally to Denise yesterday, acknowledging her message and expressing my openness to resolving this further in person.” Denise Julia and BJ Pascual. Image: Instagram/@denisejvlia, @bjpascual After disclosing their private conversations regarding their canceled shoot, Denise Julia and BJ Pascual appear to be heading to a legal battle. This will apparently be the case as the singer expressed intent to file a defamation suit against the photographer, as per her statement on her X page on Christmas Day. Her post—which includes a screen recording of their managers’ full conversation—came after Pascual made clarifications and shared more images of their teams’ conversation to provide “full context.” “We went into this wanting to work with you—we’re genuine fans and were so excited about the collaboration,” she said. “From the very beginning, we were upfront about our budget and what we can afford to execute the music video, the photo shoot, the album art, the trailer and press photos,” she stressed. “I had moved my entire release date just to be able to work with you, out of respect for your time. I’ve stayed quiet for as long as I could, but I needed to say my piece,” she continued. Denise reiterated that her manager tried to make the negotiation between her and Pascual’s team work so that “no one’s effort goes to waste.” “You targeted me to bring me down,” Denise addressed Pascual. “I thought this was something we had agreed to talk about in person... We are now in contact with our legal team about a defamation suit. I hate that this had to go this way when it didn’t have to.” Pascual has yet to comment, as of press time. MJ Lastimosa at the media conference and red carpet premiere of “Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital” on Thursday, Dec. 19. | Image: INQUIRER.net/Jessica Ann Evangelista MJ Lastimosa was in disbelief after learning that her name was dragged into an “infidelity” scandal involving influencer Small Laude’s husband entrepreneur Philip Laude. During the media con and red carpet premiere of “Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital” last Dec. 19, Lastimosa was asked if she was aware that her name was recently mentioned in the viral screenshots involving the intimate exchanges between Philip and her alleged mistress. In the now-deleted screenshots, Philip was supposedly assuring a woman named Precious Mae Larra that she shouldn’t get jealous of a woman named “MJ” because they were not an item, at the same time trying to “belittle” MJ’s traits. “Pinagselosan ako? Saan? Hindi ako aware,” she said as reporters filled her in with the information. “Ang first and last encounter ko with them [Laudes] was in L.A. Nung na-invite ako sa mansion nila. After that, wala naman nangyari. Bakit ako?” she asked. “Nakilala ko si Ma’am Small and Sir Philip and the family. Lahat sila. Pumasok kami tapos kumakain na sila. Ayun lang. Hi, hello. Mga one hour. That was it. Paano ako nadamay dyan?” Lastimosa wondered with amusement. Lastimosa was in utter confusion as reporters filled her in with more details about the issue. “Pero ako ba talaga? Eh, hindi naman kami magkakilala. Sure ba kayong ako ‘yon?” she queried. “Mamaya naman... or baka kasi may mga relationship din na mga selosa lang talaga ‘yung partner. Pero hindi nya naman partner ‘yun, di ba?” she remarked. Lastimosa was also asked for her reaction, knowing that Philip allegedly “downgraded” her appearance. “Grabe. I love being maitim. Hindi ko sya kinakahiya. Nagbe-beach nga ako para umitim pa lalo,” she said. “[Pero] sa pageantry, usong uso naman ‘yang laitan. Parang wala na sa ‘kin ‘yan.” “Basta ako, naniniwala akong maganda ako. Basta pagtingin mo sa salamin, confident ka, okay na po ‘yon,” she maintained. Lastimosa said she would look for the screenshots to see them for herself. Meanwhile, Philip and Small Laude have remained quiet about the allegations. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Image: Scott A Garfitt, Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File Blake Lively has accused her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint. The complaint obtained by The Associated Press, which The New York Times reported was filed on Dec. 20 with the California Civil Rights Department, precedes a lawsuit. It names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants. In the complaint, Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation. This alleged plot followed a meeting in which she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie. The scheme, the complaint said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign, and place news stories critical of Lively. Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a “sophisticated, coordinated and well-financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively if she went public with her on-set concerns, the complaint alleges. “To safeguard against the risk of Ms. Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the Baldoni-Wayfarer team created, planted, amplified and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint states. “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him,” the document reads. The complaint also says Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.” Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.” He pushed back against Lively’s allegations of a coordinated campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.” Freedman also said Lively threatened to not appear on set and not to promote the film “if her demands were not met.” Those demands were not specified in the statement, but Lively’s complaint lists 30 demands that she said Baldoni and others agreed to after their tense sit-down over her hostile work environment concerns. “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over a discord between the lead pair. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for “Deadpool & Wolverine” at the same time.
The situation is further complicated by Barcelona's financial struggles, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The club's hefty wage bill and mounting debt have forced them to adopt a cautious approach in the transfer market, prioritizing cost-cutting measures over big-money signings. This frugality has put them at a disadvantage in negotiations with players like Dembele, who are seeking lucrative contracts to secure their future.
OpenAI, known for its groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence research, made waves with the release of its latest creation, Sora. The highly anticipated launch generated massive interest from the public, leading to a surge in traffic that caused the official website to crash temporarily. Tech enthusiasts and AI aficionados flocked to explore the capabilities of Sora, eager to experience the cutting-edge technology firsthand. The incident serves as a testament to the immense impact and influence that OpenAI continues to wield in shaping the future of AI-driven solutions.The white-hot competition at the top of Serie A has made for compelling viewing for fans around the world. With just three points separating the top five teams after 15 rounds, every match is crucial as the title race heats up. The battle for supremacy in Italian football is set to go down to the wire, with Juventus, Inter Milan, Napoli, AC Milan, and Roma all staking their claim for glory.In 2024, private banks are facing a life-and-death struggle as they navigate through a landscape of increasing polarization and competition within the financial industry. The year has brought unprecedented challenges and opportunities for private banks, leading to a stark divide between those able to adapt and thrive, and those struggling to survive.
Furthermore, the government is also likely to step up efforts to promote healthy and sustainable development in the real estate sector. This may involve encouraging the adoption of green building practices, promoting urban renewal and revitalization projects, and supporting the development of affordable housing solutions. By promoting sustainable development, the government aims to create a real estate market that is not only stable and affordable but also environmentally friendly and socially responsible.White House says at least 8 US telecom firms, dozens of nations impacted by China hacking campaignEurope has the introduction of its biometric-based traveler registration scheme, the Entry-Exit System (EES) but it continues working on tools that will help biometric identification at border crossings. EU border agency Frontex presented its EES pre-enrollment mobile app this week, showcasing how non-EU travelers will be able to register their biometric and biographic data before arriving in Europe. Frontex is calling the new app Quick Border. After checking their eligibility, travelers can scan their passport containing a chip and then take a live selfie, used to confirm that the person is the same as in the document. The last steps include a questionnaire which can be customized, according to the country’s specific requirements, explains Frontex’s Senior Research Officer Ricardo Neisse. The app was presented during a conference on ID fraud organized by iMars, the European Commission-funded project dedicated to uncovering document fraud. Led by and a consortium of 24 partners, the project also focuses on the development of mobile tools for European border guards that verify the authenticity of identity documents and detect manipulated face images. The EES will require non-EU citizens to submit fingerprint and face biometrics on their first crossing of Schengen borders. One thing that the Quick Border app will not be able to do, however, is scan travelers’ fingerprints. While companies such as have been working on , it comes with its own challenges. For now, travelers will have to visit self-service kiosks or border guards to enroll their fingerprints. “Some countries also foresee having border guards walking in the airport and enroll in the fingerprints as well,” says Neisse. Sensitive operations such as certificate checks, presentation attack detection and verification are not performed on the device but on the backend of the app. The raw data is sent to the destination countries which can double-check any data. Frontex has already conducted two tests of the app, including one in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport which tested the app’s usability. The second test was held at Stockholm Arlanda Airport as a fully fledged operational EES pilot which recruited almost 1700 people from 37 countries, mainly from the UK, U.S. and Australia. The pilot was completed at the end of August. “This project was rather quick, a little over 10 months,” says Neisse. “We are still evaluating findings, and we are working on a couple of research publications so we are going to have a paper on this.” Frontex is still working on improving chip reading and facial verification. Around 80 percent of facial images have passed the quality test while the remaining 20 percent mostly faced issues with lighting. The images are checked through eu-LISA, the European agency dedicated to large-scale IT systems, responsible for developing and managing the EES. Some questions about the Quick Border app still remain, including whether it will be separate from the which was recently announced by the European Commission. The platform allows both EU and non-EU citizens to create a digital passport. “I think this is not yet decided. But the goal of the European Commission is to have one app for all,” says Neisse. iMARS’ research does not just focus on tools that verify the authenticity of identity documents and detect counterfeits. The Horizon 2020 project is also exploring how biometric-based tools used by border authorities interact with European regulation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the AI Act as well as other privacy, data and border rules. To shed light on this issue, iMars is developing guidelines and best practices with the help of independent advisors exploring the legal, ethical and societal part of biometric border tools. Regulation is dependent on public opinion and iMars has found that the public has solid support for digital identity tools. In 2022, the project an analysis of societal acceptability of checking and proving identity which covered 3,000 respondents across European countries. “One thing was important to mention that the purpose and intended use of technology, technology, plus the personal data collection, should be clearly and carefully explained to citizens,” says Abdullah Elbi, a legal researcher at KU Leuven Center for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) in Belgium. Another important part is the accuracy and performance of systems. Even slight false negative rates, even below 1 percent, might affect settings such as border control which see hundreds of thousands of individuals monthly or even weekly. “Performance is very important, otherwise, the risk would be a violation of fundamental rights” says Elbi, who is also involved in iMars. Accuracy issues are not only a problem for citizens. If tools cannot catch morphed images, then border control may let some bad people into the country, he adds. On a positive note, more people are familiar with AI-fueled threats to identification such as deepfake thanks to the media attention to this topic in recent years. “One of the lessons learned from this work was that the social acceptability and public perception also changed by time, with new technologies, with new laws, with some bad news,” says Elbi. In April, iMars held a where it presented the latest findings on face morphing. Morphing involves combining images of two individuals to create a hybrid image that resembles both original faces. Aside from developing (MAD) solutions for enrollment, forensic investigation and border crossing, the project is also focusing on vulnerabilities in biometric systems and training people involved with ID checks. | | | | |
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes rose to more records Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to add to what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s the 56th time the index has hit an all-time high this year after climbing in 11 of the last 12 days . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record. Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short. CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock price of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, jumped 11%. Marvell Technology leaped even more after delivering better results than expected, up 23.2%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. All the optimistic talk helped Nvidia , the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rally 3.5%. It was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 by far. They helped offset an 8.9% drop for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this year. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods. Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market . This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A narrower report released Wednesday morning suggested employers in the private sector increased their payrolls by less last month than economists expected. Hiring in manufacturing was the weakest since the spring, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. The report strengthened traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. The central bank had appeared set to continue cutting rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. Trump’s preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , which could alter the Fed’s plans . Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank can afford to cut rates cautiously because inflation has slowed from its peak two years ago and the economy remains sturdy. A separate report on Wednesday said health care, finance and other businesses in the U.S. services sector are continuing to grow, but not by as much as before and not by as much as economists expected. One respondent from the construction industry told the survey from the Institute for Supply Management that the Fed’s rate cuts haven't pulled down mortgage rates as much as hoped. Plus, “the unknown effect of tariffs clouds the future.” In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% late Tuesday. On Wall Street, Campbell’s sank 6.2% for one of the S&P 500’s sharper losses despite increasing its dividend and reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the National Football League’s Washington Commanders hired Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse as its team president. Gains for airline stocks helped offset that drop after JetBlue Airways said it saw stronger bookings for travel in November and December following the presidential election. It also said it’s benefiting from lower fuel prices, as well as lower costs due to improved on-time performance. JetBlue jumped 8.3%, while Southwest Airlines climbed 3.5%. All told, the S&P 500 rose 36.61 points to 6,086.49. The Dow climbed 308.51 to 45,014.04, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 254.21 to 19,735.12. In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later. In the crypto market , bitcoin climbed near $99,000 after Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins , a cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.White House says at least 8 US telecom firms, dozens of nations impacted by China hacking campaign
Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it?
NoneIn response to the changing landscape of the global economy, the “Spring Dawn Plan” has recently been launched, aiming to revolutionize the traditional retail model by introducing a new concept known as "Factory Direct Sales." This innovative approach is set to redefine the way consumers interact with products, providing them with a more transparent and efficient way to access goods directly from the source.
December 9, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication proofread by TranSpread In an era where autonomous navigation, medical diagnostics and remote sensing are rapidly evolving, traditional cameras—limited to capturing only the red, green, and blue (RGB) light intensities—are falling short of data demands. These cameras often miss essential spectral and polarization details crucial for identifying materials, distinguishing healthy from diseased tissue, providing unique 3D situational awareness and tracking environmental changes. The fast development of artificial intelligence and the emerging field of "spatial intelligence" also drive the need for imaging technologies that can capture more information-rich data, empowering us to view and understand the world in unprecedented ways. Researchers from Purdue University have made a breakthrough stride in advancing spectro-polarimetric imaging by merging the fields of novel optical materials and computational imaging. Their advance is embodied in the development of a novel imaging device called the "Nonlocal-Cam," which is published in the journal eLight . Unlike traditional cameras that capture RGB images, the Nonlocal-Cam can extract additional spectral and polarization information that has remained inaccessible to conventional imaging systems. The team's work opens new pathways for applications ranging from machine vision and next-generation microscopes to heat-assisted detection and ranging (HADAR). Central to the Nonlocal-Cam's innovation is a new mechanism for dispersing light in a compact and effective way. Dispersion is a familiar phenomenon—such as in rainbows or Isaac Newton's famous prism experiment. In conventional dispersion, white light is split into spectral colors by passing through a dispersive material such as water droplet or glass prism. However, this type of dispersion is generally weak in transparent media, and it merely "bends" light, causing color (or wavelength) separation in the spatial domain. This spatial separation is not ideally suited for imaging applications. The Nonlocal-Cam addresses this limitation by leveraging a property known as 'nonlocal dispersion' in optical activity . Optical activity refers to the phenomenon where light's polarization rotates as it passes through specific materials. This effect arises fundamentally from the 'nonlocality' of optically active materials, where the refractive index varies with the light's momentum. Notably, the researchers have shown that this polarization rotation is always highly dependent on the light's wavelength, allowing for color separation in the polarization domain rather than the spatial domain. "Our Nonlocal-Cam merges the fields of nonlocal electrodynamics and computational imaging, enabling us to capture hidden information about light's spectrum and polarization," explains lead researcher Xueji Wang. The camera is based on a simple, robust design using α-quartz crystals—one of the most abundant and affordable materials—making it cost-effective and scalable for various practical uses. By leveraging advanced computational techniques, the Nonlocal-Cam achieves high spectral resolution with minimal hardware requirements while maintaining robustness against noise and measurement errors. The team demonstrated the camera's ability to capture images in laboratory and outdoor environments, showing its potential for applications such as physics-driven machine vision and high-precision imaging in extreme conditions. Most significantly, the researchers have demonstrated that the nonlocal dispersion of optical activity—the foundation of the Nonlocal-Cam's design—is universal. This phenomenon spans the entire spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared, and can be harnessed by choosing suitable materials, making the Nonlocal-Cam a versatile tool for advanced imaging applications. Prof. Zubin Jacob, the team leader of the study, highlights the technology's future potential: "This work paves the way for new imaging devices that could revolutionize fields requiring detailed spectral and polarization data. From environmental monitoring to advanced microscopy, the Nonlocal-Cam offers a new dimension of information capture." More information: Xueji Wang et al, Exploiting universal nonlocal dispersion in optically active materials for spectro-polarimetric computational imaging, eLight (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s43593-024-00078-2 Journal information: eLight Provided byTranSpreadDePaul cruises to win over Loyola MarylandAustralia is banning social media for people under 16. Could this work elsewhere — or even there?