Special counsel moves to abandon election interference and classified documents cases against TrumpEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The New York Giants organization got exactly what it deserved in getting blown out by Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Giants were embarrassed in Sunday's 30-7 loss , taunted by Mayfield after a touchdown run just before halftime. And then they saw their fans walk out on them again when the Bucs extended their lead to 30-0 and sent New York (2-9) to its sixth straight loss. The losing streak is the longest for the Giants since 2019, when they dropped a franchise-record nine straight games to finish 4-12. That led to the firing of coach Pat Shurmur after two seasons. Third-year coach Brian Daboll is clearly in trouble, with the Giants guaranteed a second straight losing season. They were 6-11 in a 2023 season that featured a lot of injuries. Daboll, who denies he has lost the team, isn't the only one whose job is in jeopardy. General manager Joe Schoen is on the hot seat and so is this entire franchise, which is celebrating its 100th year. It's one thing to lose. It's quite another to give up, and that's what the organization did when it decided to bench Daniel Jones a week ago and then release him on Friday after the 27-year-old asked co-owner John Mara to let him walk away. While he wasn't playing well, Jones was the Giants' best quarterback. He gave them more a of chance to win than either Tommy DeVito or Drew Lock. Removing him from the picture was all but certain to make the Giants worse, even if it was a good business decision. If Jones was hurt and unable the pass his physical before the 2025 season, the team would have been on the hook for a $23 million cap hit. The problem is the players care about now. By getting rid of Jones and elevating DeVito to the starting role, the front office was telling the team it didn't care about winning with seven games left in the season. So the players gave a lackluster effort. Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence called the team soft. Rookie receiver Malik Nabers said he was sick of losing. Left tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said he saw a lack of effort by some players. What they all were saying was they were angry at being betrayed. Money is never more important than winning, and the Giants made that mistake. At this point in the season? Nothing. The offense once again. The Giants have scored a league-low 163 points, including only 60 in six games at MetLife Stadium, where they are winless this season. They have scored in double figures at home twice. Daboll's team has been held scoreless in the first half in three of 11 games and it has been held without a first-half touchdown seven times. Daboll said he will continue to call the offensive plays. S Tyler Nubin. The rookie has had a team-high 12 tackles in each of the last two games. His 81 tackles for the season are just two behind team leader Bobby Okereke. RB Tyrone Tracy. The rookie leads Giants running backs with 587 yards on 116 carries — a 5.1-yard average for the fifth-round pick. But holding onto the ball has been a big issue. Tracy's fumble in overtime cost New York a chance to win in Germany against Carolina. He also lost the ball in the third quarter at the Bucs 5-yard line with New York down 23-0. It earned him a seat on the bench. LT Jermaine Eluemunor (quad) and OLB Azeez Ojulari (toe) left Sunday's game in the first quarter. Chris Hubbard filled in at tackle and the Giants luckily got back DL Kayvon Thibodeaux this past week after he missed five games with a broken wrist. DeVito was banged up but Daboll expects him to start against the Cowboys. 10 — The Giants have gone 10 consecutive games without an interception, tying the NFL record held by the 1976-77 San Francisco 49ers and the 2017 Oakland — now Las Vegas — Raiders. The Giants and Raiders now share the single-season mark. A national showcase on Thanksgiving Day for the NFC-worst Giants at Dallas. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLNEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction , arguing that continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.“ In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that anything short of immediate dismissal would undermine the transition of power, as well as the “overwhelming national mandate" granted to Trump by voters last month. They also cited President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’" Trump’s legal team wrote. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, they claimed, had engaged in the type of political theater "that President Biden condemned.” Prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. They have said they will fight any efforts to dismiss the case but have indicated a willingness to delay the sentencing until after Trump’s second term ends in 2029. In their filing Monday, Trump's attorneys dismissed the idea of holding off sentencing until Trump is out of office as a “ridiculous suggestion.” Following Trump’s election victory last month, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed his sentencing, previously scheduled for late November, to allow the defense and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. He also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. He says they did not and denies any wrongdoing. The defense filing was signed by Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who represented Trump during the trial and have since been selected by the president-elect to fill senior roles at the Justice Department. Taking a swipe at Bragg and New York City, as Trump often did throughout the trial, the filing argues that dismissal would also benefit the public by giving him and “the numerous prosecutors assigned to this case a renewed opportunity to put an end to deteriorating conditions in the City and to protect its residents from violent crime.” Clearing Trump, the lawyers added, would also allow him to “to devote all of his energy to protecting the Nation.” Merchan hasn’t yet set a timetable for a decision. He could decide to uphold the verdict and proceed to sentencing, delay the case until Trump leaves office, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option. An outright dismissal of the New York case would further lift a legal cloud that at one point carried the prospect of derailing Trump’s political future. Last week, special counsel Jack Smith told courts that he was withdrawing both federal cases against Trump — one charging him with hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate, the other with scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost — citing longstanding Justice Department policy that shields a president from indictment while in office. The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial, resulting in a historic verdict that made him the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Prosecutors had cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him. Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels. Trump later reimbursed him, and Trump’s company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses — concealing what they really were, prosecutors alleged. Trump has said the payments to Cohen were properly categorized as legal expenses for legal work. A month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for official acts — things they did in the course of running the country — and that prosecutors can’t cite those actions to bolster a case centered on purely personal, unofficial conduct. Trump’s lawyers cited the ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some improper evidence, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form, testimony from some White House aides and social media posts made during his first term. Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case. If the verdict stands and the case proceeds to sentencing, Trump’s punishments would range from a fine to probation to up to four years in prison — but it’s unlikely he’d spend any time behind bars for a first-time conviction involving charges in the lowest tier of felonies. Because it is a state case, Trump would not be able to pardon himself once he returns to office.
SAP SE (SAP) Presents at UBS Global Technology and AI Conference (Transcript)Jean-Philippe Mateta struck in the second half with the only real piece of quality in a nervy encounter between two struggling teams. It is now two wins and three draws from the last six matches for Glasner’s side, whose winter revival is gathering pace nicely following a sticky start to the campaign. “I feel very happy, we’re all very pleased with the result, it was not the best performance but the result was more important,” said the Eagles boss. “Most of the time we controlled the game and we scored an amazing goal, a fantastic finish from JP. “We had more chances to decide the game but we couldn’t, but I think the win was well deserved. “We didn’t give them any chances from open play and with a clean sheet you can always take the win. “It’s a big win. Now it’s not time to sit back and relax but to keep going. In four days we face Manchester City. We stay humble. There are still many things to improve but we are on the right path.” Ipswich looked the likelier to score as a low-key first half drew to a close and were denied by a point-blank save by Dean Henderson from Harry Clarke’s near-post header. Shortly after the interval Wes Burns got clear down the right and lifted an inviting cross towards Liam Delap, whose header was straight at Henderson. However, from out of nowhere Palace conjured up a lightning counter-attack to go ahead on the hour. Eberechi Eze led the charge before feeding Mateta, who surged forward with a couple of stepovers before brushing off the attention of Jacob Greaves and finishing superbly past Arijanet Muric. It was the French forward’s sixth goal of the season, and his first away from Selhurst Park. Back came Ipswich with Leif Davis fizzing in another cross for Delap, who somehow mistimed his jump and completely missed the ball from six yards. As time ticked down Greaves looped a header against the far post, with the rebound just eluding substitute Ali-Al Hamadi. “Frustrating night,” said Town boss Kieran McKenna. “It was a tight first half, we weren’t fantastic in terms of the flow of the game and didn’t create as many opportunities as we wanted. But having said that neither did our opponents. “In the second half we conceded a really poor goal and that proved decisive. We can do better than we did tonight.”
After the Australian data watchdog that retail chain Bunnings was breaching the country’s privacy laws by using facial recognition, the company received some unexpected support. A conducted by news.com.au this week revealed that 78 percent of nearly 11,000 respondents supported the company’s use of the controversial program, calling it an “important tool.” The news comes after Bunnings showing its staff being abused at work, which supports its claims that facial recognition systems are necessary for security. The household hardware and gardening chain store also indicated that it may appeal to the decision of the Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC), adding that the technology reduced incidents of abuse, threats and assaults by half. Last week, the OAIC found Bunnings in breach of Australia’s Australian privacy law, which states that biometric data derived from facial recognition is highly sensitive and requires consent for collection. The company trialed the facial recognition system between November 2018 and November 2021, capturing the faces of customers in 63 of its stores across the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. Former Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow said that authorities are concerned about the technology despite “legitimate concerns” such as preventing crime. “What you’re creating with this sort of facial recognition is a kind of virtual line up and we’re always in it every time we walk into one of those stores,” he told the media outlet. The company has also worked with the police in testing the system. Faces were matched against a “limited database” of almost 500 banned people, created by Bunnings stores by trawling through CCTV footage and collecting independent records from the police. Santow points out that current facial recognition systems rely on data captured without “rigor.” The legal expert, who currently works as Director for Policy and Governance at the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, also questioned the bias leading to errors with people with darker skin, women and other categories. The OAIC decision was hailed as a “landmark decision” by consumer group Choice, which has been highlighting facial recognition use by retailers such as Bunnings and Kmart. The latter is also under OAIC investigation. The ruling, however, could have broader effects on any organizations that use CCTV in Australia, according to Mullins law firm. “This case serves as a wake-up call for all organizations to consider their privacy practices, including in relation to the information they collect and why,” writes Andrew Nichols, partner at Mullins. In September, the OAIC also wrapped up an ’s use of facial recognition technology, after the retailer promised it would not repeat its 2021 breaches of the Privacy Act. UK’s supermarket chain Iceland Foods is standing in support of facial recognition. The frozen food stores’ executive chairman Richard Malcolm Walker shared his reaction on social media to recently released statistics from a UK Parliament committee. The data showed that nearly 17 million shoplifting incidents are happening every year, costing retailers almost £2 billion (US$2.5 billion). “Whilst we don’t yet use it, I will HAPPILY trial and use legal, proportionate facial recognition technology as an effective response to the very real threat my colleagues face,” Walker on LinkedIn. The statistics were by the Justice and Home Affairs Committee which called for reforms to address organized retail crime. In a letter to Policing Minister Diana Johnson, the group highlighted an unprecedented spike in large-scale theft operations. Facial recognition tools could become a crucial asset in identifying and deterring habitual offenders in retail settings, the committee concluded. An Illinois federal court has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Target, that there was the plaintiff submitted enough sources to create a “plausible inference” that the retailer engaged in the alleged conduct. The Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) lawsuit was by a group of four customers who claimed that the retail giant was collecting and storing their biometrics without their consent. Target argued that the court should not accept the complaint because it is based on news articles and internet posts, USA Today . One of the women in the suit claims that Target employees followed her through the store and viewed her LinkedIn profile shortly after she entered it. The judge also noted that Target has declined to reveal the name of the video surveillance equipment provider to one of the plaintiff’s attorneys. And while retailers are struggling with facial recognition regulation, some companies are trying to find novel solutions. Paris-based company has developed AI technology that alerts store owners of shoplifting without collecting biometric data. Instead of facial recognition, the software detects gestures associated with potential shoplifting such as people putting items in their bags or clothes. A shoplifting attempt will generate a real-time video alert on the store owner’s mobile phone which allows them to approach the client and ask if they need help – warning them that they are being watched. Since the technology focuses on analyzing body movements, it does a better job at avoiding bias from store employees, Veesion co-founder Benoit Koenig CBS News. 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Nittany Lions will face No. 1 Oregon next Saturday in IndianapolisPlatform sharing is all but necessary to run a successful car company in the modern world, but which automakers have done it best? Last week we asked you that exciting question and you sounded off. From the logical answers to the absurd, our readers didn’t disappoint. My answer for the best example of platform sharing was the General Motors B Platform, which provided the underpinnings of some of my favorite cars from the nineties. I’m talking about the Buick Roadmaster, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and Chevrolet Caprice estate wagons of the early 1990s. Of course it also underpinned the sedans, but the wagons are so much cooler. From platforms that facilitated some of the finest family cars ever produced, to some of the finest sports cars ever produced, platform sharing allows automakers to invest massive sums of money into the development of new technology and new cars as a whole. We have platform sharing to thank for some of the most loved cars of all time, and these are the best of the best.
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Generative AI Market to grow by USD 97.75 Billion (2024-2028), driven by demand for AI-generated content, with a report on AI's market impact - TechnavioA young Florida resident became a millionaire after she bought a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket at a Publix grocery store, lottery officials said. Dominic Valerio, 24, claimed her winnings at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee, officials said in a Dec. 5 news release. The Orlando resident chose to receive her prize as a one-time lump-sum of $1,280,000, officials said. She bought the TRIPLE 777 ticket from the Publix store on South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. TRIPLE 777 has more than six million winning tickets with over $158.8 available in cash prizes and eight top prizes of $2 million, officials said. “With overall odds of 1-in-3.51, players can win up to 15 times, including DOUBLE revealing 77 and TRIPLE uncovering 777,” officials said. Scratch-off games are one of the lottery’s most popular games in Florida, making up 74% of ticket sales in fiscal year 2023-2024, officials said. Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families. If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website. Lottery player’s ‘extraordinary streak of luck’ lasts 3 months. How much did he win? Lucky gambler bets $66 on slot machine — then wins life-changing prize in Florida Three lottery players win big during lucky weekend in NC. Where were tickets sold?
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Bipartisan legislation would extend funding for national parks infrastructurePittsburgh Steelers predicted to lose $13 million star to Raiders | Sporting NewsIn the popular Malayalam movie Spadikam (Glass Prism, 1995), Chacko Maash (Master Chacko, played by late thespian Thilakan) says in Malayalam: “ Bhoogolathinte Spandanam Thanne Mathematicsilaanu” (the whole spirit of the earth lies in mathematics). Swati Sircar, a math educator at Azim Premji University, also speaks for the importance of math education and why learning math is inevitable. However, unlike Master Chacko, an apostle of indoctrination and “beat and learn” pedagogy, Ms Sircar follows the spirit of the Montessori method of education through self-understanding and fun. In Spadikam, Chacko’s pedagogical method involved telling his students to gulp down algebraic identities. If they didn’t, the cane was waiting for them. Ms. Sircar makes materials out of cardboard rolls accompanied with toilet paper as instructional aids to teach concepts such as Numbers and Operations, Geometry and Spatial Understanding, and Statistics and Probability. “I follow a low-cost, no-cost method of teaching,” says Ms. Sircar who has been teaching students for more than a decade through Math Space, an initiative by Ms. Sircar that works teachers, teacher educators and anyone who is helping teachers. Ms. Sircar uses used boxes and newspaper pages to upcycle. “Learning is a biological, neurological, emotional, and cognitive act. Learning is a thing that happens at every moment or any biological entity. But when it comes to education, that becomes a more social endeavor,” says Ishan Santra, a math education researcher at Michigan State University. According to Mr. Santra, education is a structured way of imparting knowledge through a system with the help of a set curriculum. As he puts it, education traditionally is an imposition of a set of expertise. Nonetheless, the Montessori way of education where Sircar grew up looks at education from the point of view of constant engagement and exploration on their own. “It is important to make everything one learns as practical as possible. And experiential learning is considered an accepted pedagogy,” says K Jayakumar IAS, the former chief secretary of Kerala, who played a prominent part in popularising the inspired education program Kerala named after the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). Although many critics have criticized the proposal, Mr. Jayakumar still believes that pedagogy works well when learning a subject such as mathematics. The many ways in which a puppet can face the banana illustrate three-dimensional space. | Photo by Special Arrangement Although Mr. Jayakumar is aware of the effectiveness of Montessori education, he is still determining how the program will be implemented, as he is pretty skeptical about whether the original methodology will be popularly followed. “The teacher I had during this primary was trained under Maria Montessori,” says Ms. Sircar. So Ms. Sircar got the Montessori spirit in full swing with very little loss in transmission. “Certain Montessori materials have already seeped into the mainstream, such as arrow cards. I have extended it to decimal numbers,” says Sirkar, who now teaches math at the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Arrow cards let children learn about place value in the number system. The arrow cards with labels are placed in a stack to get a sense of the order of the numbers. If a teacher says 25, the student picks the card labeled as 20 and pairs it up with 5, which makes the number 25 as the card 20 is in ten’s place and number 5 in unit place. Ms. Sircar states that mathematics is like a language. At one level, language is a means of communication. But it can also be used for weaving stories and poems. Likewise, mathematics helps us count in daily life, but it also has an element of beauty. Her philosophy is to make learning joyful so that children grasp it effortlessly. Math Space by Ms. Sircar was invited to conduct several workshops with government school teachers from several states with a strong emphasis on matherial making. In a typical Math Space workshop for teachers, “We explore concepts and all related aspects with suitable materials and activities. Each table of 4-6 teachers gets a full set of all necessary materials and stationery so that participants can engage with the materials directly.” These materials are upcycled from used cardboards and newspapers. Similarly, Vijay Ravikumar, a math communicator at APU, finds teaching math a fun activity through new ways like puppetry. He had his primary education and PhD entirely in the U.S. before he moved to Mumbai to work as a mathematician. Mr. Ravikumar’s other interest was in puppetry, and this hobby once crossed paths with mathematics to convey the concept of spatial orientation. “I never actually linked these together, but in this specific scenario, it made sense. There’s a certain idea in mathematics when studying geometry and topology, say in your PhD. It has to do with the set of ways in which we can orient ourselves in three-dimensional space,” says Ravikumar. “I had gone to a movement workshop by a group from Manipur and they used this a lot in their traditional style of movement,” Mr. Ravikumar reckons and adds, “it’s the fact that if you move your hand in a around in 360°, your arm will get quite twisted up. And if you rotate another 360 degrees, your arm will untwist and return to its starting point. This is just a property of space and how we move around.” Mr. Ravikumar, through his workshop, uses a puppet to perform this movement trick and then explains the complex concept of topology. Along with puppetry, Mr. Ravikumar also talks about concepts like geodesics through worksheet assignments and with bicycle rides along a long sheet kept on the floors. “For me, mathematics lets me connect with lots of different people that I may not be able to connect with easily otherwise,” Mr. Ravikumar says. While Mr. Ravikumar is sure about the universality of mathematics, education researchers like Mr. Santra feel that making math accessible requires much effort, such as breaking and tweaking the social barriers. According to him, making mathematics accessible to people from all backgrounds requires quashing the elite mentality of who gets to learn what mathematics since maths has been used in the past to marginalize the socially disadvantaged people further. Ms. Sircar, an advocate of math outreach, says that making mathematics accessible “is a prerequisite for equality”, pointing to her “low cost, no cost” way. Meanwhile, the scaling up of engagement activities should not unduly stress math teachers who are already swamped with strict timetables and lesson plans, says Mr. Ravikumar. “Making mathematics accessible through creative ways like Arrow Cards or Puppetry should be done with care and ensure the teachers themselves feel the joy of learning. Published - November 30, 2024 11:50 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit