1682: Natalism

Zoom - Understanding meeting participant limits

**Basic (free or free with credit card)**: 100 participants

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**Enterprise**: 500 participants

(Optional) **Add-ons**: 500 participants ; 1,000 Participants

Weird Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

of strange or extraordinary character : odd, fantastic

2

: of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural : magical

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WHITE DUDES FOR HARRIS CALL SIGN-UP FORM

Over 50,000 white men from all across the country are expected to join the effort this week and will be on hand to welcome Vice President Harris to the presidential race and pledge to help get her elected.

Together, we aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses. We know that as white dudes, we have both a strong, and positive role to play in America’s shared future, and it begins with all of us cutting through the MAGA crap and reminding the folks who have co-opted American symbols what America actually means. We are excited to join together with you in this fight.

Note: By RSVP'ing to this call, you are agreeing to be contacted by White Dudes for Harris. We will ensure that your information is kept safe and secure, and will only be used for correspondence with the White Dudes for Harris team.

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Rice President Psaki on Gummies BOTG

Jenn Pissaki was highlighted on the last show about the rice pres of the united stakes.

As

a user of delta 8 gummies, I can tell you she's high as a kite and lost

without her binder to flip through for the predetermined response.

I'm in sales and micro dose to be my best for the guest. If I nibble any extra, my brain swaps words and syllables. Very common.

White (RICH) Dudes For Harris Speakers List

331,614 views Streamed live on Jul 29, 2024We're coming together to create a space of trust where White Dudes can support each other and work to elect Kamala Harris the next President of the United States.

Donate now: https://bit.ly/wd4h

00:00 Countdown

01:15 Start

08:24 Maurice Mitchell (WFP) Director

15:03 Jeff Bridges

19:00 Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg

24:58 Josh Groban

29:41 Gov. Roy Cooper

36:00 Bradley Whitford

41:59 Mitch Landrieu

48:32 Jimmy Williams Jr.

53:43 Gov. JB Pritzker

58:57 Josh Gad

1:03:35 Gov. Tim Walz

1:08:30 Paul Scheer

1:13:42 Sen. Gary Peters

1:19:32 Sean Astin

1:28:30 Rep. Adam Schiff

1:35:32 Joseph Gordon-Levitt

1:43:30 George Goehl

1:46:51 Rep. Steny Hoyer

1:53:55 Mark Hamill

1:58:41 Scott Galloway

2:04:44 Rep. Eric Swalwell

2:10:25 Michael Kelly

2:15:12 Lance Bass

2:19:47 Misha Collins

2:27:13 Former Sen. Doug Jones

2:37:51 Adam Conover

2:44:43 Rory O'Malley

2:48:56 Tim Daly

2:53:20 David Hogg

3:00:28 Ben Wikler

3:10:18 Eric Heaney

3:15:55 Wrap-up and Thanks

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Joy Reid Show citation full

The Declaration of Independence famously asserted the belief of America’s Founders that “all men are created equal” and endowed with God-given rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It’s the last—“the pursuit of Happiness”—that is central to America’s heroic experiment in self-government.

When the Founders spoke of “pursuit of Happiness,” what they meant might be understood today as in essence “pursuit of Blessedness.” That is, an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained—to flourish.

Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought. This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family—marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners, and the like.

Many find happiness through their work. Think of dedicated teachers or health care professionals you know, entrepreneurs or plumbers throwing themselves into their businesses—anyone who sees a job well done as a personal reward. Religious devotion and spirituality are the greatest sources of happiness around the world.

Still others find themselves happiest in their local voluntary communities of friends, their neighbors, their civic or charitable work. The American Republic was founded on principles prioritizing and maximizing individuals’ rights to live their best life or to enjoy what the Framers called “the Blessings of Liberty.” It’s this radical equality—liberty for all—not just of rights but of authority—that the rich and powerful have hated about democracy in America since 1776.

They resent Americans’ audacity in insisting that we don’t need them to tell us how to live. It’s this inalienable right of self-direction—of each person’s opportunity to direct himself or herself, and his or her community, to the good— that the ruling class disdains.

With the Declaration and Constitution, our nation’s Founders handed to us the means with which to preserve this right. Abraham Lincoln wrote of the Declaration as an “apple of gold” in a silver frame, the Constitution. So must the next conservative President look to these documents when the elites mount their next assault on liberty.

EULA and CrowdStrike lawsuit BOTG

1. Fraud vitiates everything it touches—including EULAs. So if Boies Schiller can make a colorable claim that CrowdStrike made false representations in selling its product, the EULA might fall by the wayside. (What kinds of representations? Could be many things, such as false statements about their pre-release testing, their safety measures, their recovery process, their security, etc. Boies Schiller is scrubbing these issues out as we speak.)

2. If there’s a crack in the EULA dam, Boies Schiller will find it and use it to maximum effect. They wouldn’t even have to take it to trial—settlement leverage is all they’d need.

MSFT and Azure and Crowdstrike BOTG

I'm a Vice President of Delivery at a large Microsoft Partner. Think along the lines of Avande, RSM, or PWC.

The week of the Crowdstrike issue, on that Thursday, the day before the large CS outage, we had observed an extremely large outage for all of our clients in the Central US Azure region. Dynamics 365 CE, F&O, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, etc. were unaccessible. We contacted Microsoft support and received little news or information as to the root cause. Even a week later the information they've shared with us is a nothing burger.

Friday morning is when we observed the CS outage.

The news reported that CS took down Azure but on our end, it seems to be the reverse.

Something happened at Microsoft and they appear to have requested assistance from CS. Not sure of what else transpired or the nitty gritty but figured I'd pass this along given episode 1680's commentary on the situation.

I will reach out if I learn more.

- A dude named Ben

Azure and the army BOTG

I am currently seeing many articles about new Microsoft 360 and Azure outages. I'm not done listening to Sunday's show, so I'm not sure if you talked about this any further. In my last email, I forgot to mention my skepticism of the timing of the CloudStrike issues. I'm not sure about the other branches, but the Army has very recently started officially using MS 360/Azure, then all of a sudden they're having a lot of problems and now a "network infrastructure issue". Just wondering if you and John believe that this looks like someone is/people are, in fact, trying to breach the military's MS accounts? The timing is too close to just be some coincidence, in my opinion.

Just one article, regarding the "outage" in the US: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/microsoft-360-azure-outage-under-investigation

Military Aerospace Hack Boots on Ground

ITM! I have a quick boots on the ground report about a “cyber incident” that happened this week at my company.

I

work for a mechanical repair and overhaul company in the aviation

industry named . We have an even mix of commercial and military

work. Earlier this week we were told to not turn on any of our

computers. The Internet was shut off at every site from Texas to

Indonesia. We had been hacked by someone, or a group of someone’s, for

something.

Obviously

since we do a lot of military work, the fear is we were targeted for

information on the different aircraft we service, but it could also just

be a ransomware attack. I’m a machinist, not IT, so I only have

limited information on all of this. The only effect this has had on me

so far is I can’t access mastercam without the Internet to verify the

license.

I’m

We use Microsoft azure. I talked with my IT guy and he said it’s not a

huge leap to think it’s connected to what happened with them, but

everything they’ve been seeing points to this being a long thought out

attack separate from that event. Nobody knows what they were after, or

if they got it.

not surprised that this has happened. There have been a lot of

complaints from our IT guys about poor network security. A handful of

sites are in the middle of transitioning to a new company after they

recently were sold, and the word is xxxxx dropped their IT support for

those sites prematurely before the new company that purchased them

could take over, which could have led to an opportunity for someone to

do something nefarious. I’m sure as time goes on more info will come

out.

Here’s a link to an article talking about it.

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Paris BOTG

Hi Adam

I am a French teacher and I have several degrees in French culture, language and literature. I love France, and just recently returned from a trip there. I wanted to share with you some things that I noticed while there, as well as some of my thoughts on the JO Ceremonie d'Ouverture now that I am back.

I went to France just for about a week, to see my daughter perform in a choir that she was touring with. I spent most of my time in Aix-en-Provence, which was a delight. I felt so safe there, and the vibe was so positive and kind of "old-school" French, where people were kind to each other, everyone was out eating dinner every night in the town squares, there was a market each day. I saw just one or two people begging for money; no gangs of drunk young men (usually a given in French cities); no criminal activity, even on the night of July 14, where everyone was out in the streets late into the night for the national holiday. I was not harassed by anyone at all, for any reason.

Then I traveled to Paris, just for a few days, right before the opening of the Olympics. Yikes. While I still found my old charming haunts, the vibe there was so different. All the negative things I did not see in Aix, I saw in Paris everywhere: drugged out young men of all colors and nationalities; people begging; people being unpleasant. Police sirens rang all day and night. The city was so eerie because the Seine River had been blocked off for a week in advance of the Opening Ceremony. This effectively cut the city in half. It was supposedly possible to apply for a QR code to enter the Seine area if you had a reservation in a museum, library, doctor's office or restaurant, so I secured a reservation at the Sainte-Chappelle church and applied. I was immediately denied. I heard that if you are approved it can take up to a week anyway. My friend lives in the closed off Seine section. His preteen daughters were afraid to leave their apartment, because of all the men with huge automatic weapons patrolling their street. Anyway, weirdly the streets were empty of tourists. Those in charge of securing the JO claimed that they would bring tourism to the city, but the opposite occurred: everyone left and no tourists came. I explored two museums I wanted to see and I was one amongst a handful of other visitors. The restaurant where I met my friend was empty...he had been worried we wouldn't be able to get a reservation.

Also strange: the crowdstrike outage occurred when I was in Paris. I was flying American Airlines, so I was worried. But my flight departed on time the Saturday morning after the outage, AND the same flight actually left on time on FRIDAY morning!!! It seems that American Airlines was totally fine at Charles de Gaulle airport? Odd.

Everyone I talked to in France were ALL IN on Ukraine. All very anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine. Disappointing. They were also all in on climate. Friends asked me that in the 25 years I have lived in New York, have I seen the weather get hotter and the water levels rise? Of course, my answer was NO to both. They were surprised.

Ok, now to the Opening Ceremonies.

Overall I thought it was a cool show, but the rain really put a damper on most of it. My friend who was there watching said that the rain was so heavy it was hard to see or hear anything. Weirdly, there was rain almost nowhere else in Europe that night...check out a satellite map, it is odd.

As I grow older, I am less and less comfortable with the French Revolution and all of the violence. For example, I did not find it cute or funny when they displayed Marie-Antoinette speaking while decapitated. It feels wrong and off. But whatever, the heavy metal act was pretty impressive. The other numbers were ok. The masked runner was cool, I guess. It was fun to see all of the monuments as part of the show. I appreciated all the nods to French history and culture.

The infamous LGBTQ Last Supper thing...I found it off-putting to be honest. I am Christian and just starting to think about returning to church, embracing Catholicism even though I was raised Protestant / atheist. I was not offended, but it just seemed creepy and kind of stupid. Low culture. I know the comedian who played the papa smurf character, lol...his name is Philippe Katerine, he has been around for ages and I appreciate him a lot. I am not sure that his song "Nu" (Naked) is the best choice for an Olympic Ceremony? But ok, it's France.

The menage a trois was also off-putting, although I see that it was an homage to the film Jules et Jim. That film is about a love triangle, but it is so charming and lovely. Very deep and beautiful. The threesome depicted in the ceremony lacked all of that charm and beauty. I am not sure why.

The funniest thing since I have been back: all my French facebook groups, such as my French Teachers in the US group, and several French culture appreciation groups, have completely imploded and fractured along political lines. Those group members who express any negativity about the JO ceremony are absolutely torn apart in the comments by those who want to claim that the Ceremony was flawless and the best ever. Anyone who mentions the Last Supper is soundly mocked, to the point where the admins of these groups have said that they are going to shut down comments if people keep being insulting and nasty. Of course, those supporting the Ceremony mindlessly, think that the admins are talking about the Christians who are expressing their dismay! LOL, and they might be! Anyone who expresses dismay of any kind about the ceremony is called stupid, tasteless, redneck, religious freak, uneducated, Trumper, etc. It is so ugly. The only thing everyone agrees on is that Celine Dion's performance was amazing. Does anyone stop to recognize that Celine sang an Edith Piaf song that is very important to French culture, that is about God and love and the afterlife? Religious and "old-school" French values. Gorgeous music and a world-class talent. THAT is why everyone loves it...perhaps if more of the show was in this same vein, it would have been a better, more universal experience? The zealots don't stop to consider that.

I find it odd that the left-leaning JO ceremony supporters in these groups are so rabid about defending it. What stake do they have in it? Why so emotional? Why can't they say, ok we disagree, or yeah, some of the ceremony did not work that well. or yeah, there might have been some questionable elements. But NO....it is all-in, EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT and FUCK YOU if you don't agree. Hilarious but strange.

Vade retro Satana - Fondazione EXSURGE DOMINE Ets

The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games have given scandal, not only because of the arrogant display of the ugly and the obscene, but because of the infernal subversion of Good and Evil, the insane claim to be able to blaspheme and desecrate everything, even what is most sacred, in the name of an ideology of death, ugliness, and lies that defies Christ and scandalizes those who recognize Him as Lord and God. It is no coincidence that the one sponsoring this revolting carnival is an emissary of the _World Economic Forum_, Emanuel Macron, who passes off a transvestite as his own wife with impunity, just as Barack Obama is accompanied by a muscular man in a wig. It is the reign of mystification, of falsehood, of fiction erected as a totem, in which man is disfigured precisely because he was created in the image and likeness of God.

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A Trump Peace Plan for Ukraine - WSJ

Pundits claim that if Donald Trump is re-elected, he will cut off aid to Ukraine, give away its territory, and deal directly with Vladimir Putin to impose an ignominious “peace” on the country.

There’s no evidence that such capitulation will be part of President Trump’s policy and much evidence to the contrary. It was Mr. Trump who in 2017 lifted the Obama administration’s arms embargo on Ukraine, providing it with the Javelin missiles that helped save Kyiv in the earliest days of Russia’s invasion. More recently, Mr. Trump gave political cover to House Speaker Mike Johnson when he maneuvered to pass additional military aid. Helping Ukraine while revitalizing the American defense industrial base in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Virginia is good policy—and good politics.

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PBM Pricing BOTG

Adam -

I work in pharmacy benefits consulting helping companies choose PBMs and wanted to weigh in on the PBM pricing issues talked about recently.

PBM pricing is so confusing because PBMs primarily negotiate the price based on what is known as the Average Wholesale Price (or AWP), which is an arbitrary price that is set by the pharmaceutical manufacturer and has no relation to what pharmacies actually purchase drugs for. It's jokingly referred to as "Ain't What's Paid." While it is directionally correct, there can be large disparities when wholesale drug prices change quickly.

If a PBM has negotiated a 20% discount on a brand drug with an AWP of $1,000, clients contracted with them will pay $800 for that drug before any rebate is paid. When pharmacies are acquiring that drug for say $750, that's not an issue, but when the wholesale price drops quickly, that drug remains $800 unless the AWP is changed, which almost never goes down.

Some PBMs have tried to combat this under a new pricing methodology called NADAC, or National Average Drug Acquisition Cost. This is a metric published by CMS every week based on a survey of pharmacies to understand what they are _really_ paying to acquire a drug. PBMs using NADAC pricing have proven that drug cost - while rising in the headlines year over year - is actually mostly _deflationary_ when you consider the TRUE acquisition costs and net out the rebates.

Bottom line, what keeps drug prices high is the continued reliance on a discount off of Average Wholesale Price as the basis for PBM contracts when AWP is 100% controlled by the drug manufacturer. A move to NADAC pricing would change drug pricing considerably and, fortunately, there are PBMs that are now pushing that.

(I don't push one PBM over another, but Capital Rx is one PBM using NADAC, if interested).

Female boxer yells 'this is unjust' and falls to her knees in tears as she quits fight against 'biologically male' Olympic opponent Imane Khelif after just 46 SECONDS following two powerful punches | Daily Mail Online

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:07

A boxer deemed a 'biological male' today won against an Italian woman in one of the most controversial Olympic bouts ever.

The fight between Italy's Angela Carini and her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif took just 46 seconds, with the Italian throwing her helmet onto the floor as the clash was abandoned, yelling: 'This is unjust.'

The 25-year-old refused the handshake and fell to the canvas sobbing having received just two punches from Khelif - who had been banned from a major boxing contest before the Olympics.

Khelif was thrown out of last year's world championships after failing testosterone tests carried out to establish gender qualification.

After the match was stopped, the referee raised Khelif's hand in the air. But a visibly furious Carini yanked her own hand away from the fight official and walked off.

Ignoring the Algerian, the Italian fighter then plunged to her knees and burst into tears as she said she had never felt such strong blows in a contest before.

Speaking after the match, the heartbroken Italian said: 'I'm used to suffering. I've never taken a punch like that, it's impossible to continue. I'm nobody to say it's illegal.

'I got into the ring to fight. But I didn't feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn't give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I'm leaving with my head held high.'

Italy 's Angela Carini,25, dropped to her knees in tears after losing the fight to her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif in just 46 seconds

Carini (pictured) was mauled in the clash - which comes amid a gender row over her opponent, who was banned from fighting at the world championships after being deemed 'biologically male'

The female Italian was left reeling from the cross by Algeria's Imane Khelif (in the red) - who was previously banned from the world championships for being 'biologically male'

Khelif is seen shouting in the ring during her controversial clash with the Italian

Khelif (centre) clashed with Carini in this morning's Olympic welterweight bout

Carini appeared distraught speaking to the press following the boxing match

She said she did not walk away from the fight as a protest against her opponent's inclusion, but that was a decision for the Olympics to consider.

She was taken away for medical assessment to examine the seriousness of her facial injuries which included a bruised nose.

Carini added: 'I entered the ring and I told myself I have to take out all of myself independently from the person I had in front of me.

'And honestly, I don't care. I said to myself, 'This is my Olympics'. Independently, from all controversy, I just wanted to carry on and win.'

'I am not one that easily surrenders. Even if they told me, let's not fight, I would not have accepted it.

'I am a fighter. My father taught me to be a warrior. When I am in the ring, I use that mindset, the mindset of a warrior, a winning mindset. This time I couldn't make it.

'You all saw my nose that started bleeding. I didn't lose tonight, I just surrendered with maturity.'

'I wish her to carry on until the end and that she can be happy. I am someone who doesn't judge anyone. I am not here to give judgements.

'I simply entered the ring to fight and to fight for my dream. It didn't happen. Evidently, God and my father wanted this and I accept it.

'I am not in the position of saying this is right or wrong. I am not. I did my job as a boxer, entering the ring and fighting. I didn't manage to, but I am exiting with my head held high and with a broken heart.

'I am a mature woman, the ring is my life. I've always been very instinctive, but when I feel something is not going well, it's not a surrender but having the maturity to stop.'

Carini's coach in the mix zone after the fight said: 'I don't know if her nose is broken. I have to speak with the girl. But many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: 'Don't go please: it's a man, it's dangerous for you.'

After the fight, the Algerian Boxing Federation gloated about Khelif's victory, posting on Facebook: 'Congratulations to the Algerian boxer Iman Khalif, who responds strongly in the ring and qualifies for the quarterfinals, after defeating the Italian Angelina Carini in less than 46 seconds, effortlessly.'

Speaking as she left the ring, the Algerian boxer added: 'God willing, this was the first victory. God is willing me to the golden one.'

Bosses at the IOC are now facing a furious backlash following the fight, with former Prime Minister Liz Truss blasting the clash.

Writing on Twitter, the former Tory MP said: 'When will this madness stop? Men cannot become women. Why is the British Government not objecting to this?'

British Olympic hero Sharron Davies also waded into the controversy, raging: 'This is shocking. The IOC are a bloody disgrace. In effect legalising beating up females. This must stop!!! What the hell's the matter with them?'

While Harry Potter author JK Rowling branded the contest 'insanity'. In a post yesterday, the gender-critical author wrote: 'What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer killed?'

Posting a video of the fight today, the author added: 'Watch this (whole thread), then explain why you're OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn't sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organisers who allowed this to happen, this is men revelling in their power over women.'

Carini (right) refused to shake her opponent's hand after being declared the loser of the fight

The Italian fighter (in the blue) refused the handshake and fell to the canvas and appeared to wipe away a tear. Winner Khelif is pictured in the red as her opponent leaves the ring

The controversial clash in the ring was over in less than a minute with the Algerian fighter clinching the victory

Algeria's Imane Khelif (in red) leaves after her victory in this morning's Olympic boxing match

Carini is an Italian police officer with the Fiamme Oro.

Her mantra is: 'Boxing is a sport that teaches you to have respect for your opponent. It can be a weapon in life, but only for defence. It cannot and must not become an abuse. Like any sport, it can instead become a vehicle for venting anger and pain.'

But despite her gender test problems, she was admitted to the Olympics amid a huge furore.

Olympics officials at Paris 2024 have accepted her as a female and state so in her official games biography.

Another female boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan was also disqualified from the 2023 women's boxing world championships for failing a gender eligibility test.

Former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan - now president of the Professional Boxing Association - said it was a 'shocking' and 'pathetic' decision to allow 'a man' to fight women.

Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) has said after a series of DNA-tests the association 'uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretended to be women.

Kremlev claimed that the tests 'proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.'

Italy's sports minister Andrea Abodi raised concerns about Khelif competing, but Angela Carini was on record as saying that 'respect' of her opponents was her mantra.

Algeria's Olympic Committee condemned as 'baseless' the attacks on their boxer after questions were raised over her participation at the Paris Olympics.

Carini (pictured) is pictured relaxing before her fight against the Algerian

The Italian fighter (pictured in an Instagram photo) said she had never experienced a punch so hard

The match has since plunged the Olympics into farce as a gender row threatens to explode at the Paris games (Carini is pictured)

But Khelif, who competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, only fell into controversy after failing the tests last year in New Delhi.

She received resounding applause from staunch Algerian supporters as she entered the ring, but there were several boos.

At 5'10 and two inches taller than her police officer opponent, Khelif showed off her power with a series of powerful punches early in the three round contest.

But it was over in less than a minute.

Italian officials had already protested the inclusion of the Algerian and Olympic officials were assessing how to deal with further controversies surrounding the Algerian as she fights her way towards a medal.

Carini's father also served in the police, but was injured in an accident when she was a toddler and had to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Speaking in 2020, she said: 'My father is my hero. I am very attached to him, he taught me that in life you should never give up. And when I'm in the ring and the situation gets tough, I hear his example, I never give up.

Carini, 25, from Naples, Italy, lost her clash in less than a minute

The fight comes after DNA tests, which are compulsory for boxers, revealed the presence of XY chromosomes, typical of the male sex, in Khelif's DNA (Khelif is pictured)

Imane Khelif is pictured in the centre during a training session before the Olympics

'When he was paralysed I was only two years old. I grew up on his legs, he never made me miss anything. I have never seen him as a different father from the others, the chair on which he is sitting has never divided us, quite the contrary.'

Her father died away in 2021, a few days after her Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, and she considered quitting the sport.

'I didn't want to box without my dad anymore. But I came back because I owe it to him. He has always been by my side and now we fight together.'

The clash comes amid a gender storm at the Olympics over 'biologically male' fighters competing in the female divisions.

IOC bosses overseeing the Olympics in Paris said Khelif met the eligibility criteria to compete - despite concerns of the boxer's biological sex.

Following last year's ban, the Algerian Olympic Committee hit back, claiming the disqualification was part of a 'conspiracy' to stop them from winning a gold meal and said 'medical reasons' were behind high testosterone levels.

After the disqualification, Mexico's Brianda Tamara came forward with her own experience of fighting Khelif earlier in the tournament.

'When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,' she wrote on X. 'Her blows hurt me a lot, I don't think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it's good that they finally realized.'

Also given the green light to fight is Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, who was also thrown out of the world championships amid questions about their sex.

According to feminist website Reduxx, both are thought both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a series of medical conditions identified at birth where genitalia is atypical in relation to chromosomes.

Khelif of Team Algeria makes her way to the ring prior to her Women's 66kg preliminary round match against Angela Carini

Khelif is seen landing a stiff jab on her Italian opponent during the opening round of the fight

Khelif's hand was not shaken by her Italian opponent, who walked away after the result was revealed

McGuigan is among those questioning the situation. 'It's shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?' he wrote on X.

Elsewhere, Nancy Hogshead '' the American swimmer who won three golds at the 1984 Games, waded into the row, claiming that 'gender ideology will get women KILLED'.

Hogshead wrote: 'Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan are scheduled to compete in women's Olympic boxing '' despite being disqualified last year for having XY chromosomes, the male phenotype. Let's remind ourselves that males '' however they identify '' pack a punch that is 162 per cent more powerful than women '' THE biggest performance gap between men and women. Gender ideology will get women KILLED.'

One X user added: 'Men punching women is now officially an Olympic sport'.

An IOC spokesperson said: 'All athletes participating in the boxing tournament comply with the competition's eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations, in accordance with the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.'

But Olympic chiefs' decisions to ditch rules on gender testing for athletes have been branded 'crazy' by critics.

Speaking to MailOnline sports scientist Professor Ross Tucker said: 'Would you allow a 90kg fighter to fight against a 60kg fighter?

'Because that's more or less what the difference is in strength and power between male and female boxers.'

Tests on both Khelif and Yu-Ting revealed XY chromosomes in their systems.

Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan (left) will join Khelif in competing at the Paris Olympics this summer

Rare 'intersex' medical conditions, medically known as differences in sexual development (DSDs), can also mean outwardly female individuals can have 'male' chromosomes, or vice versa.

What are differences in sex development (DSD) or being intersex?Intersex is an umbrella term for multiple of conditions that mean a person's sexual anatomy is different than most other people's.

Also called 'differences in sex development' (DSD) these are rare conditions that develop in the womb.

They are normally spotted at birth but occasionally only come to light later in life during puberty.

They involve a combination of genes, hormones and the layout and appearance of reproductive anatomy like the genitals.

For example, a girl might be born with a long clitoris but a closed vagina due to a hormonal condition.

In other cases, a boy may be born with a penis but have a womb and internal, rather regular external, testicles.

Some of these traits are linked to having extra chromosome like Klinefelter syndrome.

There is some evidence that some DSDs can run in families but in most cases, there is no obvious cause.

People with DSDs have sometimes been subjected to shocking medical treatment.

So-called 'corrective surgeries' were sometimes used to 'fix' babies' genitalia to better match one sex.

For example, male babies born without a penis, a DSD called aphallia, have sometimes been subjected to 'feminisation surgery' to create an artificial vagina.

This has resulted, historically, in people being raised as girls but then growing facial hair and developing a deeper voice when their male puberty starts.

DSD charities have also criticised this 'corrective 'approach as it usually driven by societal expectations rather than medical benefit for the patient.

People with very specific DSDs do need medical care however, as there can be knock-on effects to other aspects of their health.

However, the vast majority do not need any medical attention.

How common DSDs are vary by type, with more than 40 individual conditions covered by the term.

A rough estimate is that 1.7 per cent of the population, about one in 50 people are born with a type of DSD.

Speaking yesterday International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said: 'Everyone competing in the women's category is complying with the competition eligibility rules.'

He added: 'They are women in their passports and it's stated that this is the case, that they are female.'

Sports scientists told MailOnline that an absence of clear policy by the Olympics in this area had allowed the bizarre situation to develop.

Prior to 2021, the IOC set thresholds for the maximum amount of testosterone '-- the 'male' sex hormone '-- competitors in women's events could have. These were picked up in blood tests, similar to ones for doping.

Rules on testosterone limits had been previosuly brought into sharp focus by the very public and famous case of Caster Semenya.

Semenya has a condition which means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than normal for women.

She became unable to compete at Tokyo in 2020 after World Athletics brought in new rules independently of the IOC at the time.

IOC's own testosterone monitoring policies were halted three years ago and replaced with a policy of 'fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identify and sex variation'.

The IOC now provides individual sporting bodies in every country with 'ten guiding principles' they can use to make their own policies.

This controversial document states that athletes with 'sex variations', another term for DSDs, have 'no presumption of advantage' and that they should be allowed to compete in the category of their gender identity.

There are exceptions, with framework stating that an 'evidence-based approach' can be used to exclude athletes who have a 'consistent unfair disproportionate advantage' or if there is an 'unpreventable risk' to the safety of other athletes.

However, some sport scientists say that, by themselves, these guidelines are wooly and open to interpretation.

Federations that govern rugby, track and field, swimming and cycling have all introduced rules in some form to address biological males in women's sport, though the exact details of policies vary.

And boxing did as well, with the International Boxing Association (IAB) requiring athletes to undergo 'gender assessment'.

Though it doesn't detail the exact nature of these assessments, it is this test that Khelif and Lin failed last year at the IAB's Women's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi.

At the time IBA president, Umar Kremlev, claimed the tests had proven both Khelif and Lin 'had XY chromosomes'.

He added that they 'uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women'.

Under these same rules and test results Khelif and Lin wouldn't be able to compete this Olympics, but the IAB was stripped of its role in governing the sport for the Paris games by the IOC due to problems with the latter's governance.

The IOC created via a new body, the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), to determine eligibility for competitors.

Documents from the PBU make no mention of gender or sex testing for male or female events, though they do set limits for the age of competitors, a passport being an acceptable ID for athletes and requiring boxers in the women's category to declare if they are pregnant.

Defending its decision to approve Khelif and Lin as women the IOC's Mr Adams added: 'These athletes have competed many times before for many years. They haven't just suddenly arrived.'

But sports scientist Professor Tucker, said the absence of clear policy by the IOC in this area had allowed this situation to occur.

'Last year [Khelif and Lin] did not meet eligibility requirements and the only reason they do now is the body that did rule them ineligible has been moved aside,' he said.

'It's due to a vacuum of policy, there's no policy now.'

Olympics star vomits live on BBC as athletes collapse amid pollution concerns - Wales Online

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Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:48

Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk was seen violently vomiting after crossing the finish line at the Olympics, having been forced to swim in the poor quality water of the River Seine.

The 29-year-old was clearly exhausted after completing the energy-sapping course which consisted of a 1.5 kilometre swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run.

Mislawchuk, who finished in ninth place, was caught on camera throwing up just moments after finishing the gruelling race. The gruesome moment was picked up by BBC TV cameras, as other athletes sprawled themselves out on the mat and gasped to catch their breath.

READ MORE: BBC TV presenter and daughter in tears as she wins Olympic medal

Alex Yee secured a dramatic victory in the men's triathlon to claim Team GB's fifth gold medal Paris, having fought hard to close a 15-second gap on Hayden Wilde of New Zealand to improve on the silver medal he won in Tokyo three years ago. In the women's race, Beth Potter took the bronze medal for Team GB as Cassandre Beaugrand claimed the spoils for host nation France.

The build-up to the triathlon events was marred by the poor water quality of the River Seine following heavy rainfall in Paris over the weekend. The men's race was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed until the river was declared safe to swim in. Organisers also had to cancel training sessions earlier in the week.

Swimming in the River Seine has been off-limits for over a century due to pollution risks and health concerns from ingesting the water. For Paris 2024, French authorities are pouring £1.2billion into a revamp to ensure water safety.

High pollution levels persisted as of June with E. coli concentrations exceeding sports federation standards tenfold. However, recent tests conducted early Wednesday showed improvements meeting safety criteria for Olympic events.

Southport stabbing suspect YOUNG PICTURES, 17, is named for the first time as he appears in court charged with murdering three little girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class and harming 10 others with a 'curved kitchen knife' | Daily Mail Online

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Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:18

A teenager charged with murdering three children and harming 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport has been named as Axel Rudakubana.

The 17-year-old, who turns 18 in just six days time, was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff in 2006 before moving to the village of Banks in Lancashire in 2013.

He is accused of carrying out the attack that killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine.

Rudakubana is also accused of the attempted murders of eight more children, along with dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and businessman John Hayes.

Up until now, the teenager's identity could not be revealed because suspects under 18 receive automatic anonymity in all UK court cases, except for in exceptional circumstances.

But after a successful application to the judge by the Mail, Rudakubana's name can now be reported.

Judge Andrew Menary KC said he had to balance the risk to the suspect's family and the risk to him in custody with the public interest accurately reporting his identity.

Far-right mobs took to the streets of Southport and a nd other major UK cities this week after a fake news website spread misinformation about the identity of the suspect.

Russian state media were among those falsely claiming that the suspect had arrived by boat to the UK last year, sharing claims that he was on an M16 watch list.

It led to violent riots, seeing dozens of police officers injured, wheelie bins set alight and emergency vehicles set on fire.

In a bid to quell tensions - after more riots broke out in London, Manchester Hartlepool, and Aldershot - Judge Menary revealed Rudakubana's identity.

As the suspected murderer arrived at the court he was met by dozens of people shouting, with one man having to be held back by police officers as the van holding him past.

The revelation comes as two children hurt in the attack were discharged from Alder Hey Children's Hospital, with five others in a 'stable condition'.

Pictured for the first time: Southport stabbing suspect Axel Rudakubana, now 17, pictured as a child, is charged with murdering three little girls and harming 10 others

Rudakubana (pictured as a child) is charged with murdering three little girls and harming 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport with a 'curved kitchen knife'

Court artist drawing of Rudakubana covering his face as he appeared in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court

Rudakubana (pictured as a child) is also accused of the attempted murders of eight more children, along with dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and businessman John Hayes

Rudakubana covers his face in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court after being charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder

Rudakubana (pictured in a video) could not previously be named because suspects under 18 receive automatic anonymity in all UK court cases, except for in exceptional circumstances

Another young picture of Rudakubana

Bebe King, aged six, was also killed in the attack. A teenager is set to appear in court charged with three counts of murder

Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, was also fatally wounded in the attack which shocked the nation on Monday

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, aged nine, was one of three children killed by a knifeman at a Taylor-Swift themed dance class in Southport

A man is held back by police as a prison van escorted by multiple police cars leaves Liverpool Crown Court

The white van carrying Axel Rudakubana, 17, who is accused of killing three young girls arrives as Liverpool Magistrates Court

Rudakubana seen arriving at court in a police convoy

A prison van (centre) escorted by multiple police vehicles leaves Liverpool Crown Court

A man is held back by police as a prison van escorted by multiple police vehicles leaves Liverpool Crown Court

Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said he had to balance the risk to the defendant's family and the initial risk while in custody against the public interest in accurately reporting his identity.

Why did the judge name Rudakubana? Usually a defendant under the age of 18 is granted anonymity during court proceedings.

This means media are not allowed to name or picture them unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Today, however, Judge Andrew Menary KC decided to name Axel Rudbakubana.

The judge at Liverpool Crown Court listened to 20 minutes of legal submissions before declining to make an order to protect the teen's identity.

He said: 'Whilst I accept it is exceptional giving his age, principally because he is 18 in six days' time, I do not make an order under section 45.

'Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum.'

He noted that any order would have been lifted on Rudbakubana when he turned 18 anyways.

The judge's decision comes after misinformation spread by fake news websites and Russian state media wrongly identified the suspect.

The false claim said the suspect had arrived to the UK by boat last year sharing claims he was an M16 watchlist.

It led to violent riots in Southport and beyond which saw dozens of police officers injured, wheelie bins set alight and emergency vehicles set on fire.

He said: 'By continuing to prevent full reporting at this stage has the disadvantage of allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread misinformation in a vacuum and runs the risk that when the information becomes publicly available in six days' time, that will provide an additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder.

'Allowing full reporting will undoubtedly remove some of the misreporting as to the identity of the defendant.'

A provisional trial date at Liverpool Crown Court, set to last six weeks, was scheduled for January 20 next year.

Rudakubana spent the entire 55 minutes of the hearing covering his whole face, with his grey sweatshirt pulled up to his hairline and at times rocking back and forth, side to side.

He will next appear at Liverpool Crown Court on October 25 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.

Until then he will be remanded in youth accommodation detention.

Judge Menary told the defendant, who did not acknowledge the judge and continued to keep his head down: 'You are remanded to youth detention accommodation until these proceedings have been completed.

'That position might change when you achieve your majority in a short while.'

Earlier today, the suspect attended a h earing at Liverpool City Magistrates' Court which lasted just five minutes.

During proceedings, prosecutor Deanna Heer alleged a 'kitchen knife with a curved blade' had been used during the rampage.

During that time Rudakubana, who is also charged with possessing an offensive weapon, wore a baggy grey tracksuit and black slippers and pulled his sweatshirt over his face above his nose, keeping his head low.

At one point in the hearing, the teenager, who did not speak once, looked back at the group of around 20 reporters that were sat behind the dock.

The suspect arrived at the court around 9.30am in a white prison van flanked by a large escort of at least eight police vehicles.

The large police presence comes amid fears angry protesters will turn up outside the courthouse, after a series of riots have swept the country in recent days.

More than 100 people were arrested in London last night following a far-right protest in Whitehall, with further unrest in Hartlepool, Manchester and Aldershot.

On Tuesday night, an angry mob took to the streets of Southport after a vigil to remember victims of the mass stabbing at the workshop attended by 25 children.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, leaves Liverpool Magistrates' Court after being charged with three counts of murder

The convoy of police vans escorted the prison van away from Liverpool Crown Court

The suspect was surrounded by a convoy of eight police cars and vans, with officers fearing they could be met with angry protesters following Monday night's riots

Floral and written tributes are left alongside balloons and teddy bears at the scene of the stabbings on Hart Street, Southport

Forensic officers are pictured at the scene as emergency crews battled to save children

Forensic officers on Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside, where a horrifying knife rampage took place

Emergency crews swoop on the area after a group of children were attacked at Taylor Swift-themed dance class

The defendant, born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, is accused of entering a dance studio in Hart Street and attacking children and adults who were inside on Monday afternoon.

Eight other children suffered knife wounds - with five left in a critical condition in hospital - while two adults who tried to save the young ones in the summer holiday club were also seriously wounded.

The adults harmed were dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, and businessman John Hayes who tried to help.

In a statement Merseyside Police said yesterday: 'We can confirm that a 17-year-old boy from Banks has been charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice; 10 counts of attempted murder; and Possession of a bladed article, following the tragic incident in Southport on Monday, 29 July.

'He has been remanded in custody to appear tomorrow, Thursday 1 August at Liverpool Magistrates Court, Derby Square.'

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said: 'Whilst these charges are a significant milestone within this investigation, this remains very much a live investigation and we continue to work with our partners from Lancashire Police and Counter Terrorism Policing North West (CTPNW).

Leanne Lucas, who organised the Taylor Swift-themed holiday club, has had life-saving surgery and is now awake, her family said on Wednesday

Yesterday floral tributes, balloons and soft toys covered the street near the police cordon

Friendship bracelets reading 'Beautiful Swifties' are seen next to electric tea lights amid floral tributes for the victims of a deadly knife attack at the Atkinson in Southport

'I would like to thank all of the forces who have offered and supplied support to Merseyside Police during the last three days and I can confirm that we are being supported with investigative resources from across the North West.'

The boy, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, is from the village of Banks, just outside Southport.

Sarah Hammond, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: 'We remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.

'It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary, or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.'

False claims online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat had sparked riots across Southport on Tuesday night, despite pleas from one of the victim's mother's for calm.

Thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the victims at a vigil in Southport, but violence later erupted outside a mosque in the town with 53 police officers and three police dogs injured. Five men have been arrested following that incident.

After rioting broke out, Elsie's mother, Jenni Stancombe, wrote on Facebook: 'This is the only thing that I will write, but please please stop the violence in Southport tonight.

'The police have been nothing but heroic these last 24 hours and they and we don't need this.'

Sir Keir Starmer said rioters had 'hijacked' a vigil for victims and will 'feel the full force of the law', while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the rioting as 'violent attacks from thugs on the streets', which she branded 'appalling'.

The Prime Minister is set to face questions this afternoon after crisis talks with police over the outbreak of rioting following the Southport knife attack.

On Wednesday, a clean up operation took place outside the mosque, with residents coming together to clear roads where fires had been set and rebuild walls which had been knocked down.

Police called in support from neighbouring forces in case of further disorder, but the seaside town appeared to remain quiet on Wednesday evening, however unrest developed in other areas of the country.

More than 100 people were arrested in London after crowds gathered in Whitehall turned on police, throwing bottles and cans at officers in riot gear.

The Southport mass stabbings have led to riots on the streets. Pictured: A police van is torched in Southport on Tuesday night

Southport burns: A street near a mosque goes up in flames as violent thugs took to the streets on Tuesday night

Police chiefs arrive to meet Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss clashes following the Southport stabbing

The riots came barely an hour after thousands of mourners gathered for a vigil at the Atkinson in Southport

Mourners leave floral tributes near the scene in Hart Street, where three children died and eight were injured in a 'ferocious' knife attack

Some were heard shouting the name of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, while others shouted 'Rule Britannia', 'save our kids' and 'stop the boats' and chanting 'you're not English any more'.

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Over 100 people have been arrested for offences including violent disorder, assault on an emergency worker, and breach of protest conditions. Some officers suffered minor injuries.'

Responding to last nights riots, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: 'The scenes of disorder and violence yesterday evening were completely unacceptable.

'There is no place for criminality on our streets and I fully support the Met Police taking action against those intent on violence, causing disorder and spreading division in our city.'

In Hartlepool, County Durham four people were arrested after violent protests broke out, with people detained for various offences after missiles, glass bottles and eggs were thrown at officers.

A police car was also set on fire before protesters posed for selfies with it.

Chief Superintendent David Sutherland said: 'At this stage we believe the protest is in connection with the incident in Southport earlier this week.

'Our officers are facing missiles, glass bottles and eggs being thrown at them and have made arrests as they remain in the area to protect the safety of those living in the community.'

Southend machete fight RECAP: Eight arrested and weapons seized | UK | News | Express.co.uk

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 22:20

4 hours ago 18:58 Rosie JempsonHome Office considering English Defence League as terrorist organisationThe Home Office is considering proscribing the English Defence League under terror laws after the Southport riot last night.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner: "I'm sure that that will be something that the Home Secretary will be looking at as part of the normal course of what we do and the intelligence that we have."

\ud83d\udea8 NEW: The Home Office is considering proscribing the English Defence League under terror laws after the Southport riot last night[@EveningStandard]

\u2014 Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 31, 2024 5 hours ago 18:29 Rosie Jempson'Thugs and hooligans' condemned by policing ministerPolicing minister Dame Diana Johnson has slammed the "thugs and hooligans" responsible for the chaos in Southport, insisting they "must be held to account for their actions".

Taking to social media, she echoed Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy's earlier statement that many of the officers at the scene were "first responders who attended that awful scene on Monday".

Johnson expressed her dismay, saying: "This is shocking to hear from a chief constable that so many of her officers were injured in the line of duty last night".

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson (Image: PA)

5 hours ago 17:57 Rosie JempsonTributes laid out for victimsBouquets of flowers, heart shaped balloons and teddy bears are being laid outside the Atkinson Art Centre for the victims of the stabbing.

People have left tributes to the victims (Image: PA)

6 hours ago 17:38 Rosie JempsonCouncil says rumours of more disorder 'completely untrue'Sefton Council has said suggestions about more disorder are untrue.

"We have confirmed that there is NO disruption or disorder in Southport at this time and the town centre remains fully open for business," it says in a statement.

"We urge people to remain calm and if they need, to please seek advice from official channels such as Sefton Council and Merseyside Police."

6 hours ago 17:20 Rosie JempsonLocals come together to rebuild wall outside mosqueLocals have been spotted removing the damaged wall at the mosque in Southport. Children also helped to sweep away the debris.

A team of builders are also putting cement and bricks down to rebuild it.

People from the local community are coming out with cold drinks and packets of crisps for the workers.

7 hours ago 16:01 Rosie JempsonFourth people arrestedMerseyside Police have releasaed the names of the four men arrested:

A 31-year-old man from St Helens, Merseyside, was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder

A 31-year-old man from West Derby, Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder

A 39-year-old man from Southport was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder

A 32-year-old man from Manchester with a probation address in Southport was arrested on suspicion of affray and possession of a bladed article

8 hours ago 15:46 Mieka SmilesHotelier says she saw thugs running around 'like a herd of bulls'A hotellier said she witnessed thugs running around "like a herd of bulls" before machete madness in Southend.

Nicola Tiney, who runs the Borough Hotel on the seafront, told the PA news agency that she believed around a thousand young people descended on the resort town, many from London, in an organised meet-up during the hot and sunny weather.

Ms Tiney said groups began arriving in the afternoon, before pockets of violence and disorder started at around 7pm.

She went on: "Lots of them had their hoods up and were wearing masks and hats, just coming to the seafront resort to cause trouble.

"They congregated at the other end of the seafront and they started kicking off amongst themselves and running around...there were machetes out in the middle of the road.

"I had to get all of my customers in from the front, it was just disgusting.

"I didn't see anyone get hurt but you could see the machetes flying about at each other and then lots of them ran off down the beach with families around, I think one of them threw their machete into the sea.

"Towards the town centre they were fighting with knives and machetes as well, and it's just them amongst themselves, it's nothing to do with Southend."

Ms Tiney also described seeing large groups running in the area "like a herd of bulls", stopping traffic as they went.

8 hours ago 15:31 Rosie JempsonMore arrests are expected to followMerseyside's top cop, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, has dished the dirt on the chaos that erupted last night, revealing a mere three have been arrested so far but warning "more will follow".

She admitted, "It's impossible to say [how many will be arrested]. It's really early days in the investigation," but reckoned a hefty 200 to 300 hooligans were involved.

Kicking off with about 70 troublemakers veering off from a vigil and heading mosque-wards, the mob swelled to 200 before even more joined the fray.

9 hours ago 14:05 Mieka SmilesPolice appeal for witnesses and footagePolice have launched an appeal for witnesses and footage of a machete brawl in Southend yesterday.

An Essex Police spokesperson said: "Our enquiries continue and we would appeal for any of the witnesses to this incident to speak to us and share any information or video footage they have.

"If you have any information or dashcam footage of disorder in the city centre at about 7pm, please contact us quoting incident number 1094 of Tuesday 30 July."

11 hours ago 12:44 Mieka SmilesSouthend locals savage police and warn knife culture 'out of control' after machete chaosLocals in Southend haves spoken out after knife-wielding youths ran riot in the seaside town. Six people have been arrested and weapons seized after disorder rocked the resort on Tuesday night (July 30).

A business owner who runs an eatery on Western Esplanade, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, told Express.co.uk: "We're all a bit shocked.

"We're small businesses down here. It's affecting us - this knife culture is getting out of control. It's just ridiculous."

11 hours ago 12:40 Mieka SmilesTwo of the people detained were injured say policePolice say two of the people detained after a shocking machete street fight have sustained injuries.

An Essex Police spokesperson said: " Two of the people detained had sustained injuries and were taken to hospital for further treatment.

"Their injuries were not life-threatening or life-changing."

12 hours ago 11:50 Mieka SmilesOne man stabbed in machete brawlOne man was stabbed and rushed to hospital after the machete fight in Southend last night.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said: ''We received several 999 calls at approximately 7pm on Tuesday with reports that a man had been stabbed in Southend on Sea.

''Due to the large-scale disorder taking place in the city centre at the time, multiple resources were sent to the scene including two ambulances, two ambulance officer vehicles, four Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) vehicles and the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance.

''One patient was transported by air to Royal London Hospital. Essex Police transported another patient to Southend University Hospital.''

12 hours ago 11:36 Mieka SmilesTop Essex cop says the machete mayhem was 'appalling'A top Essex police officer has called the machete mayhem that broke out in Southend last night "appalling".

Chief Superintendent Leighton Hammett said: ''These incidents are appalling '' we will not tolerate this dangerous and violent behaviour on our streets.

''We responded quickly, with officers already deployed on the sea front and arrests made to keep the public safe.

"We have multiple lines of enquiry to identify more suspects and bring them to justice.

"Early indications are groups of young men and women have travelled into Southend and the conflict has occurred within these groups.

"I'd like to reassure the wider public that these were targeted attacks involving just a small fraction of the visitors to Southend yesterday.

''I'd also like to thank our partners in the British Transport Police and the security teams working in Southend for their support in dispersion the crowds and ensuring the public left the area covered by our dispersal order.

''The stop and search powers in place have already taken weapons off the streets of Southend and we will not hesitate to stop anyone we suspect is carrying a weapon. If you carry a knife in Essex you will not get away with it.

''Our officers will be in the city and on the seafront again today, so please speak to one of our officers if you have any information about last night's disorder.''

12 hours ago 11:30 Mieka SmilesWhat is a dispersal order?A dispersal order is now in place in Southend following machete chaos that broke out yesterday.

But what exactly does that mean?

In summary, dispersal orders provide the police with the extra powers to break up groups of two or more people, where they believe their behaviour is causing a nuisance, harassment or distress.

It also allows police officers to stop and search members of the public.

The Southend dispersal order is limited to the area on the below map until 8pm this evening.

Southend dispersal order (Image: Essex Police)

13 hours ago 10:41 Mieka SmilesFresh police updateEssex Police force has issued an update after last night's shocking seafront events.

Taking to social media site X the force tweeted that eight people have been arrested and seven weapons seized.

You can see the full update below.

Officers have arrested eight people in total and seized seven weapons after a number of incidents in Southend on Tuesday evening.Powers allowing officers to stop and search members of the public remain in place until 8pm today, Wednesday 31 July: https://t.co/fu2KtiTF0i pic.twitter.com/yID0n3Iz3G

\u2014 Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) July 31, 2024 13 hours ago 10:01 Mieka SmilesWhere did machete fight take place?The machete brawl that broke out last night in Southend took place on the seafront and near the Adventure Island theme park - hugely popular with families as the school summer holidays are in full swing.

It was recently dubbed the UK's "most affordable" theme park.

Adventure Island in Southend (Image: Getty)

14 hours ago 09:18 Mieka SmilesSouthend MP comments on 'distressing scenes'Southend MP Bayo Alaba has issued a statement about the "distressing scenes" on the seafront.

He took to social media site X to share his thoughts.

The MP for Southend East and Rochford said: "Some distressing scenes in my city of Southend last night. I drove around in the evening to see the issues. There are some active crime scenes but the disorder had ceased. Multiple arrests and some critically injured people.

"Thank you to the emergency services for the speedy response in protecting our community.

"It's an active case and so I cannot comment much further. I am due to meet the Police for a briefing this morning and more details may follow.

"My thoughts go out to all the people affected by this disturbing event.

"The safety of the community and putting measures in place so that does not happen again are top priorities of mine.

"Will share updates as and when I can."

Some distressing scenes in my city of Southend last night. I drove around in the evening to see the issues. There are some active crime scenes but the disorder had ceased. Multiple arrests and some critically injured people.Thank you to the emergency services for the speedy\u2026

\u2014 Bayo Alaba MP (@BayoAlaba) July 31, 2024 14 hours ago 09:10 Mieka SmilesEight people arrestedEight people have been arrested after a machete fight in daylight yesterday.

Weapons have also been seized and serious injuries reported after the chaos erupted on the seafront and high street.

Essex Police said a Section 60 dispersal order would remain in place in Southend-on-Sea until 8pm today, Wednesday, July 31.

Chief Supt Morgan Cronin said: "We have a zero-tolerance approach to violence, disorder and carrying weapons in Essex."

The force added: "While our work is ongoing there will be a large and visible police presence across the city centre, and further disorder will not be tolerated."

14 hours ago 09:01 Mieka SmilesLeader of Southend Council issues statementThe Leader of Southend Council, Daniel Cowan, has released a statement following last night's chaos.

He said: "Last night we saw some hugely upsetting incidents in our city, the likes of which I never want to see again.

"The actions of those involved were deplorable, disgusting and people intent on acting like this are not welcome in Southend-on-Sea.

"We cannot tolerate this kind of behaviour and whilst I have received regular briefings on this, I have asked to meet senior colleagues at Essex Police for a full debrief which will consider what happened, the response and any lessons learned.

"I do also want to thank the council's community safety and transport safety teams and police colleagues who last night faced up to an intimidating situation, and also our CCTV team who ensured our teams on the ground and police colleagues had the right intelligence and information to deal with this."

Last night we saw some hugely upsetting incidents in our city, the likes of which I never want to see again. The actions of those involved were deplorable, disgusting and people intent on acting like this are not welcome in Southend-on-Sea.We cannot tolerate this kind of\u2026

\u2014 Cllr Daniel Cowan (@CllrCowan) July 31, 2024 14 hours ago 08:56 Mieka Smiles'We cannot accept this lawless society any longer'Brits have been venting their fury online about the Southend carnage.

Many have taken to social media site X to share their thoughts about the incident.

One said: " Southend sea front tonight.

"A working theme park with kids screaming in enjoyment during the summer holidays in the background.

"Something needs to be done. We cannot accept this lawless society any longer."

Southend sea front tonight. A working theme park with kids screaming in enjoyment during the summer holidays in the background. Something needs to be done. We cannot accept this lawless society any longer. pic.twitter.com/AUMeKsH0Zv

\u2014 Connor (@SUFCConnor15) July 30, 2024 14 hours ago 08:53 Mieka SmilesGB News presenter Darren Grimes asks is this the 'new normal'?TV presenter and political commentator Darren Grimes has vented his frustration online.

Taking aim at authorities he asked "Where's the condemnation for this?".

You can see his full tweet below.

Large scale machete attacks erupt in Southend last night.Machete battles. In England.And we\u2019re meant to accept this as the new normal.Where\u2019s the condemnation for this? pic.twitter.com/ld7XX4XmCb

\u2014 Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) July 31, 2024 22 hours ago 01:33 Paige IngramAn eye-witness accountA man who wishes to remain anonymoys has described the scenes on the High Street at around 6pm last night.

He said: "At around 6pm someone pulled a machete near JD Sports and there were people running about by the college with machetes as well, there was no police at all on the High Street until later in the evening.

He went on to say he feels like the crime is "getting worse and worse in Southend".

He concluded: "I didn't stick around but I saw the police turn up around 9.30pm but it was at a distance. The police did okay but I think more could of been done, it was advertised all over social media that it was happening so I think more resources could of been used at train stations."

23 hours ago 00:43 Paige IngramCouncillor Matt Dent comments on 'horrifying scenes'Councillor Matt Dent has taken to X to share his concerns following the 'horrifying scenes' in Southend-On-Sea yesterday evening.

The scenes in Southend City Centre this evening were horrifying. I have serious questions around the apparent lack of police and actions taken based off available intelligence.To be clear, this is unacceptable, and we need as a city to make sure it doesn't happen again.

\u2014 Cllr Matt Dent (@CllrDent) July 30, 2024 24 hours ago 23:40 Paige IngramEssex Police updateAn Essex Police spokesperson said: "Officers have dispersed members of the public from the Southend seafront and High Street, with additional patrols continuing their work in the city overnight.

"We are now continuing our investigations into the incidents of disorder in the city this evening, with several lines of enquiry to identify further suspects in addition to the six people arrested.

"The Section 60 dispersal order, which gives officers the power to stop and search individuals for offensive weapons, remains in place until 8pm Wednesday 31 July.

"While our work is ongoing there will be a large and visible police presence across the city centre, and further disorder will not be tolerated."

24 hours ago 23:33 Paige IngramNigel Farage has commented on the incidentMr Farage says the public are "on the point of revolt".

yesterday 22:41 Chris SamuelCouncil leader calls for calm amid 'developing incident'Southend Council's Labour leader has called for people remain calm amid the ''developing incident'' in Southend.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: ''I'm urging calm and encouraging people to avoid Jubilee beach this evening as Essex Police deal with a large influx of young people.

''It's a developing situation that CCTV and the police are monitoring and more police resources are en route to support the dispersal order that is in place.''

I\u2019m urging calm and encouraging people to avoid Jubilee beach this evening as @EssexPoliceUK deal with a large influx of young people. It\u2019s a developing situation that CCTV is monitoring and more police resources are en route to support the dispersal order that is in place

\u2014 Cllr Daniel Cowan (@CllrCowan) July 30, 2024 yesterday 22:38 Chris SamuelSouthend MPs urged people to 'keep away' from seafront and city centreLocal MPs have urged people to ''keep away'' Southend's seafront and city centre amid disorder on the streets of the Essex city.

David Burton-Sampson, MP for Southend West and Leigh and Bayo Alaba, Labour MP for Southend East and Rochford said: ''We are aware of the ongoing incident in Southend City Centre.''A dispersal order is currently in place. We encourage all residents to keep away from the area for the time being.

"Essex Police will provide more information in due course. This dispersal order gives police officers the power to direct people suspected causing anti-social behaviour and disorder to leave the area or face arrest.''

yesterday 22:34 Chris SamuelAuthorities launched dispersal zone ahead of 'beach party'A dispersal zone was launched in Southend after reports hundreds of people were descending on the city for a "beach party" promoted on TikTok, according to reports.

Areas such as Marine Parade, Pier Hill, High Street, Western Esplanade and both the city's train stations are included in the order.

yesterday 22:28 Chris SamuelAlarming footage shows a group running out Southend swinging large knivesFootage shared on social media shows a group running around a street in Southend street with large knives.

A Twitter user that shared the video read: "Southend sea front tonight. A working theme park with kids screaming in enjoyment during the summer holidays in the background. Something needs to be done. We cannot accept this lawless society any longer."

While we\u2019re all busy watching what\u2019s going on in Southport this is what\u2019s going down in Southend this evening pic.twitter.com/7wAAu9PdUo

\u2014 Queen Natalie (@TheNorfolkLion) July 30, 2024 yesterday 22:23 Chris Samuel'Large-scale disorder' in Southend amid carnage on MerseysideLarge-scale disorder broke out in Southend on Tuesday night, according to local media, as a huge group of young people refused to disperse.

"Police officers have been attacked by some of the people in the crowd," Your Southend reports.

"Police dog units and approximately 50 officers are currently dealing with the crowd in the High Street."

BREAKING: Large-scale disorder in Southend tonight, after a huge group of youths refused to leave the area.Police officers have been attacked by some of the people in the crowd.

Police dog units and approximately 50 officers are currently dealing with the crowd in the High\u2026 pic.twitter.com/5Vq1OG9npE

\u2014 Your Southend (@YourSouthend) July 30, 2024

Temu, Shein soaring popularity could hit Amazon, Meta, eBay earnings

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:16

In just 17 days after launch, Temu surpassed Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Shein on the Apple App Store in the U.S., according to Apptopia data shared with CNBC.

Stefani Reynolds | Afp | Getty Images

Temu and Shein have exploded in the U.S. by going on an online marketing blitz and offering consumers inexpensive goods from China, whether it's a $3 pair of shoes or a $15 smartwatch.

The rise of the discount shopping apps, along with TikTok Shop from China's ByteDance, have generated fresh competition for U.S. e-commerce companies Amazon , eBay and Etsy.

Much of their growth, according to some industry experts, is the result of a trade loophole, known as the de minimis exception, which allows for packages shipped from China valued at under $800 to enter the U.S. duty free. Amazon's top public policy executive, David Zapolsky, says it's an issue that state attorneys general should be asking about, and added that the lack of scrutiny of China's supply chain is a "concerning trend" among U.S. and European officials.

"I think there's a question about the extent to which some of their business models are subsidized," Zapolsky told CNBC in a recent interview, speaking broadly about Chinese companies. "At a very tactical level, there are rules around what you can show as your list price vs. the sale price, and I think those rules are not always enforced."

The topic of Temu and Shein's growth will hover over tech earnings this week, as Amazon reports second-quarter results alongside Meta, eBay and Etsy . Investors will be watching for any commentary about the impact of Temu and Shein on e-commerce marketplaces and for discussion of their ad spending, which has helped fuel Meta's recent expansion.

Tech earnings season got off to an ominous start last week. Late Tuesday, Alphabet reported a slight beat on revenue, but missed estimates on YouTube ad sales, pushing the stock down 5% on Wednesday. Tesla shares plunged 12% that day, the biggest drop since 2020, on weaker-than-expected earnings and a second straight quarter of declining auto revenue.

This week's calendar also includes reports from Apple and Microsoft , as well as Intel , Qualcomm , Block and Snap .

In Amazon's report on Thursday, the company is expected to show revenue growth of about 11% to $148.6 billion, according to LSEG. However, net income is expected to increase 63% from a year earlier, reflecting the company's hefty cost-cutting moves, including eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.

While retail is no longer Amazon's growth engine, it's still the business that makes up the bulk of revenue. And third-party sellers now account for over 60% of goods sold on the site. That's where Temu and Shein come into play, as merchants now have new ways to get products to American consumers. They're able to offer such low prices in part because they cut out intermediaries by selling direct from factories in China to consumers across the world, and they use slower delivery options.

Shein launched in the U.S. in 2017, and has recently flooded Google and Facebook with ads to fuel expansion. It's reportedly valued at $66 billion. Temu, owned by PDD Holdings , debuted in the U.S. in 2022, and quickly plowed billions of dollars into marketing, most noticeably through its "Shop like a billionaire" TV spot that ran during this year's Super Bowl.

Amazon has continued to highlight its delivery prowess and its focus on speed in the face of growing competition from Temu and Shein. CEO Andy Jassy noted in February that recent changes to the company's fulfillment network have allowed Amazon to invest in faster deliveries, while profitably expanding its roster of cheap products.

"We have a saying that it's not hard to lower prices, it's hard to be able to afford lowering prices," Jassy said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. "The same is true with adding selection. It's not hard to add lower [average selling price] selection, it's hard to be able to afford offering lower ASP selection and still like the economics."

Regarding the economic advantage for Temu and Shein, officials in the U.S., the European Union and elsewhere are considering whether to close the trade loophole and increase duties on cheap goods, which could dent the continued growth of those platforms.

An Amazon contract worker pulls a cart of packages for delivery in New York, US, on Monday, April 22, 2024.

Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A Temu spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that its growth isn't dependent on the de minimis exemption. The site's prices are competitive, the representative said, because of the company's direct-from-factory model that eliminates the need for "numerous middlemen and their associated costs."

Shein didn't respond to requests for comment.

Does the ad blitz continue?Meta has other concerns, as there are some signs that Temu may be pulling back its ad spend. Barclays data from May noted that the number of new shoppers on Temu peaked in the third quarter of 2023, and has declined in each of the last two quarters. The firm said Temu may have been adjusting its marketing efforts to focus on existing shoppers instead of new app metrics.

"Meta investors have been worried about a possible US slowdown from outbound China advertisers, particularly Temu, and this data around new buyer activations would suggest that some of these fears are warranted, and likely baked into the 2Q guidance which shows around a 6 point deceleration in ad revenue growth," Barclays wrote in a note to clients in May. The firm recommends buying Meta shares.

In April, Meta issued a weaker-than-expected forecast, sending the stock tumbling. Finance chief Susan Li said on the earnings call that the company wasn't quantifying the contribution from China in the quarter, but she said advertising revenue in the Asia-Pacific region increased 41% from a year prior, making it the fastest growing region, and that it was boosted by online commerce and gaming.

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

EBay has shrugged off the idea that Chinese rivals are stealing share, with CEO Jamie Iannone telling analysts in May that its differentiated selection sets the site apart. Etsy, meanwhile, has taken steps to emphasize its sellers' role in sourcing or creating artisan goods.

Temu and Shein may represent just a short-term phenomenon in the U.S. Wish, founded in San Francisco in 2010, surged in popularity with its ultracheap direct-from-China goods pushing the company to a valuation of $14 billion at the time of its initital public offering in 2020. Then users fled and the business faltered. Wish was acquired by Singapore-based Qoo10 earlier this year for $173 million.

Bank of America analysts said in a May note that Amazon and Walmart are the most "insulated" from Chinese competitors.

"Data on shipping times suggest Temu/TikTok/Shein shipping speeds trail industry leaders, which could limit traction over time," the analysts wrote. "We think reducing shipping times will be an important factor in long-term competition."

Temu's shipping times vary from four to 22 days on average, while Shein items take three to 14 days to arrive, Bank of America said. Amazon has moved to increase delivery speeds from two days to a day or less.

Amazon remains by far the largest online retailer in the U.S., and is projected to capture roughly 40% of e-commerce sales in the country this year, according to eMarketer. However, while it's long touted itself as the "lowest-priced U.S. retailer," Amazon has shown that it's well aware of Temu and Shein's increasing popularity.

At an event with Chinese sellers in June, Amazon said it plans to launch a discount store that will feature mostly unbranded items priced below $20, according to a presentation viewed by CNBC.

The storefront would take advantage of the same de minimis rule used by platforms like Temu and Shein, The Information reported last month, citing a person familiar with the company's plans.

Amazon's Zapolsky said the company hasn't taken a stance on whether lawmakers should clamp down on de minimis shipments. Regardless, he said, Amazon has to win over consumers.

"We know we have to compete with them," Zapolsky said, "to convince customers that they can get the best quality and best prices from Amazon."

Clarification: The story is updated to provided clarity around the context of Zapolsky's quote in the third paragraph.

WATCH: Prime Day is a big marketing event for Amazon

Paris Olympics organisers apologise to Christians for unintentional Last Supper parody | Paris Olympic Games 2024 | The Guardian

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 17:55

The organising committee of Paris 2024 has apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups who were outraged by a scene during the opening ceremony that evoked Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper painting with drag queens, a transgender model and a singer made up as the Greek god of wine.

The unintended parody of the biblical scene, performed against the backdrop of the River Seine, was actually intended to interpret Dionysus and raise awareness ''of the absurdity of violence between human beings'', organisers wrote on X.

The committee was forced to apologise after the performance caused outrage among Catholics, Christian groups and conservative politicians around the world.

''Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,'' the Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference. ''We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.''

France has a rich Catholic heritage but also has a long tradition of secularism and anti-clericalism. Blasphemy is legal and considered by many to be an essential pillar of freedom of speech. Supporters of the tableau praised its message of inclusivity and tolerance.

The Catholic church in France said it deplored a ceremony that ''included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity''.

Monsignor Emmanuel Gobilliard, a delegate of the bishops of France for the Games, said some French athletes had had trouble sleeping because of the fallout from the controversy.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Malta and an official for the Vatican's powerful doctrinal office, said he had contacted France's ambassador to Valletta to complain about the ''gratuitous insult''.

The Italian bishops' conference said that what should have been a celebration of French culture took an ''unexpectedly negative turn, becoming a parade of banal errors, accompanied by trite and predictable ideologies''.

An article in Avvenire, the daily Italian newspaper affiliated with the Catholic church, said: ''Don't take us for moralistic bigots, but what's the point of having to experience every single global event, even a sporting one, as if it were a Gay Pride?''

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League, a party in Giorgia Meloni's coalition government, described the segment as ''squalid''. ''Opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians around the world was a really bad start, dear French,'' he added.

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The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbn, spoke of the ''moral void of the west''.

Some commentators said the controversy was another example of 21st-century culture wars turbocharged by a 24-hour news cycle and social media.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the flamboyant opening ceremony, said religious subversion had never been his intention. ''We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,'' he said on Saturday.

Turbulence Ahead: The Maintenance Workforce Dilemma Threatening the Future of Airpower - War on the Rocks

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 17:17

Amidst escalating global tensions and growing challenges in the civilian aviation sector , an aircraft maintenance shortage has emerged nationally, posing a significant threat to Air Force operational readiness. Recent incidents in the commercial airline industry, attributed to maintenance deficiencies, warn of the potential risks of not addressing maintenance recruitment and retention efforts. For the Air Force, the implications extend beyond flight delays to the possibility of compromised missions and military defeat'--especially in a prolonged conflict where keeping aircraft flying will be a constant challenge. To combat this, the Air Force should implement aggressive recruitment campaigns and innovative retention strategies to ensure a robust pipeline of skilled aircraft maintainers.

To address the maintenance workforce issues, targeted recruitment campaigns in high schools and technical schools should emphasize career opportunities and benefits. Streamlined pathways for obtaining certifications such as an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) can make the Air Force more appealing in an increasingly competitive hiring field. Tying these certification programs to service commitments can ensure a steady influx of qualified maintainers. Retention incentives similar to those offered to pilots can reflect the value of maintainers. Additionally, implementing programs to enhance cognitive and behavioral health will address stress and burnout from increased work demands. By investing in recruitment, certification, retention, and well-being, the Air Force can strengthen its current workforce while preparing it for future challenges.

The Challenge

While the Air Force has taken steps to resolve the pilot shortage , the less visible yet equally pressing issue of aircraft maintainer recruitment looms. A 2019 study by the Government Accountability Office shed light on the decline of experienced mechanics. The Air Force took action with a focus on retention efforts and the promotion of younger maintainers to supervisory ranks. Col Hawkins, chief of the Air Force's Military Policy Division, stated that the service was focused on promotion-focused moves to include the ''up or out'' rule change, to ensure experienced positions stay filled. This correction, while necessary, had the unintentional consequences of leaving the entry-level pipeline smaller and struggling to keep up as the recruitment of new maintainers has failed to keep pace with the needs of the service. Additionally, last year, the Air Force missed their recruiting goals for the first time in 25 years. These recruitment shortfalls, paired with a shrinking workforce , lead to concerns in aviation maintenance, where experience is just as critical as recruitment numbers.

The current recruitment challenge threatens to nullify corrective efforts by the Air Force to address the experience shortage. Existing personnel face increased workloads, longer hours, and stagnation in career progression as the Air Force aims to increase the number of entry-level maintainers. This may already be happening as promotion rates continue to drop to historically low levels . The increased workload and lack of career progression have forced experienced maintainers to leave the Air Force for civilian aviation careers, where bonuses and a predictable work schedule are more appealing. In 2023, the Air Force was short 1,800 maintainers, and recruiters knew the toll it would take on the workforce. A verified email from the former Air Force recruiting boss, Maj. Gen Ed Thomas, sent to recruiters, stated that ''Airmen will almost certainly be asked to work longer hours, cover more shifts and make sacrifices in their personal lives to meet the mission demands'...''

Fast forward to today, and the shortage has shrunk to 500 maintainers . However, the newest influx of recruits is still years away from fulfilling the experience void the maintenance field is suffering. Chief of Staff Gen. David Alvin stated , ''We're recruiting ok, but it takes a while to build a 3-level into a 5-and 7-level''. The push and pull of the workforce harms retention and morale as the Air Force's shortage of maintainers creates an increased workload for the ones that remain. While the Air Force has exceeded its recruiting goals for maintainers for the current fiscal year by 60, the workforce demands will remain as experienced personnel will be required to train them. The recruiting crisis fix might lead to a retention crisis, although the Air Force seems to have planned for it, as 17 career fields eligible for a reenlistment bonus are maintenance-related . This leaves the Air Force in a constant balancing act of optimizing a workforce equipped to service today's aging fleet while preparing an inexperienced workforce to transition to the more technologically advanced fleet of tomorrow.

The increased demands of the maintenance field might place the Air Force on a bumpy ride as maintenance units continue to deal with manning shortages, inexperience, and career stagnations. And this is all while the Force is still figuring out how to adjust to fulfill deployment requirements for the Force Generation cycle being implemented across the service. The Air Force experienced the highest number of maintenance mishaps in FY2023, with 21 total mishaps, which nearly doubled the previous year's total. To address this alarming spike, the Air Education Training Command recently implemented a checklist requirement for all of its maintainers to fill out prior to performing a new task to help assess risk by identifying human factors such as inexperience or stress level.

The Civilian Angle

The challenges faced by the Air Force are not isolated to the military sector; they echo troubling issues in the commercial aviation industry. A recent industry report shows that the aircraft maintenance shortfall has reached a critical point and will worsen over the next ten years as the imbalance between supply and demand continues. This will lead to fewer flights, more delays and cancellations, or major aircraft mishaps. In Boeing's Pilot and Technician Outlook , it said it will need 610,000 new aviation technicians globally through 2034. In the United States, the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) stated that by 2027, the gap will be around 43,000'--27% of the total aviation maintenance workforce. To add to these troubling forecasts, a separate report states that 80% of the existing workforce is set to retire in the next five to six years, and 27% of all Federal Aviation Administration-certified Airframe and Propulsion (A&P) mechanics are at least 64 years of age. These forecasts highlight the global challenge and call for industry-wide action to address the shortfall. If left unchecked, the shortage of aircraft mechanics could significantly undermine the integrity of the aviation industry.

The recent reports addressing maintenance experience and retention issues by the civilian industry should come as no surprise, as anyone who has flown recently knows the shortage of aircraft maintainers has led to delays, cancellations, and major mishaps. Imagine being a passenger on a flight and a door panel comes off mid-flight or a nose wheel falls off while taxiing . While the investigation results in both incidents have yet to be released, initial investigations show both incidents occurred due to maintenance issues. The increased number of aircraft maintenance mishaps has caused a spotlight on aviation industry giants such as Boeing. While these incidents may be isolated, the likelihood of them resulting from a systematic shortfall in maintenance proficiency, experience, and recruitment seems more probable. These embarrassing and nearly catastrophic incidents have impacted not only the public faith in civilian aviation but also the projection of soft power from the American industrial industry. Society relies on the trust and safety of commercial air travel, so it should not be surprising that industry leaders and stakeholders are innovating modern solutions to navigate the shortage.

The combination of troubling forecasts and maintenance-related incidents has led to an aggressive civilian industry push to fill its maintenance ranks. This leaves the Air Force competing with industry giants like Boeing and educational institutions for entry-level mechanics. The FAA recently awarded $13.5 million to 32 academic institutions to attract students to aircraft maintenance. Grant recipients can fund educational programs that offer scholarships or apprenticeships that focus on promoting careers in aviation maintenance, especially those in economically disadvantaged areas. For example, one grant recipient received a $500,000 grant to increase apprenticeships at its maintenance facilities to expand opportunities for female technicians, transitioning military personnel, high school students, and underrepresented minority groups. Industry leaders like Constant Aviation specifically target experienced military maintenance workers, offering $15K signing bonuse s for mechanics with prior military maintenance experience. These efforts not only make it harder to recruit new entry-level mechanics but also create challenges in retaining the experienced mechanics that the Air Force has already trained. Society needs experienced maintenance workers, and industry leaders have responded by driving innovative initiatives aimed at recruiting, educating, and retaining them.

Next Steps

The consequences for the civil aviation field will be public scrutiny and monetary, but the mirrored shortage of Air Force maintainers risks something more valuable: military effectiveness. Take the hundreds of air refueling and recon jets that were grounded early last year after it was discovered that maintenance installed incorrect pins that could cause an aircraft's vertical stabilizer to fall off. The downstream effect of grounding an entire air refueling fleet is enormous and one that the nation cannot afford during conflict. Consider the flight-testing phase of the B-29 during WWII when America's industrial strength was at its peak. In Freedoms Forge, How American Business Produced Victory in World War II , the historian Arthur Herman documents how maintenance experience and issues still contributed to approximately 28 B-29 crashes, cost the lives of dozens of crew members, maintenance workers, and civilians, and delayed the delivery of the most advanced bomber of its time, the one that ended the war, by four years. The industry and military strength during WWII withstood the costly delay of the B-29 Superfortress. Still, modern issues such as the delivery of KC-46A to the DOD are alarming, considering the United States is currently in a competition phase with China. The implications of not addressing the maintenance workforce issues are clear. The Air Force risks operational readiness, accident rates, and catastrophic failures, all while weakening the United States' strategic posture in the era of Great Power Competition.

The Air Force, while proactive in addressing its pilot shortage and experience gap , should now rally to address similar issues in the maintenance field. The potential fallout may even be coming to the surface as the Air Force struggles to meet its mission-capable rate goals . To address the shortage and experience issues, the Air Force should implement several solutions, the sooner the better.

Service leaders could benefit from examining external efforts by the civil air industry in its recruitment and retention practices and internal efforts, such as the Rated Officer Retention Program , which aims to retain experienced pilots with monetary and non-monetary options, such as an assignment preference option. In a press release , Maj. Gen Adrian Spain, the training and readiness director at Air Force headquarters, said, ''the requirement to preserve critical skills in our Air Force has never been more important.'' While these words were meant to address pilots, perhaps a similar message could go a long way with the maintenance community.

As a senior maintainer, I have experienced firsthand the challenges we face. Maintainers are needed, so rather than asking them to complete a checklist to perform another checklist, better avenues should be established to communicate the value and needs of the maintainer. Investment in maintenance proficiency should be started as early as possible to show how maintainers are valued and to obtain a higher return on investment when those maintainers reach the Non-Commissioned Officer tier. Certification streamlines should be adopted service-wide so that maintainers can obtain their Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) licenses early in their service commitments. Industry giants are competing to fill their ranks with licensed mechanics by offering higher wages. A competitive trend that is likely to continue, the Air Force could capitalize on a streamlined process while requiring a service commitment once it is obtained. Drawing from my time spent in Special Operations, I can attest to the benefits of initiatives like the Physiological Performance Program implemented by USSOCOM, aimed at improving the cognitive and behavioral performance of their operators. Factors such as managing stress, anxiety, and sleep can all be utilized to benefit the health and safety of one of the Air Force's most demanding career fields '' a field that has been tied to having one of the highest suicide rates in the service.

Conclusion

Air Power is built on the backs of aircraft mechanics. While the glamour goes to the pilots and operators who parachute out of them, it is the mechanic that ensures every aircraft's reliability and readiness for the skies. As aviation technology advances, the need for experienced aircraft mechanics remains constant. Though often overlooked, the mechanic should be recognized and supported as a critical piece in military readiness.

Failure to act decisively on this issue could result in a fleet less prepared for the demands of modern warfare, potentially eroding the United States' long-standing dominance of the skies. Policies addressing the issue must not only enhance one side of the workforce. The approach should not only boost recruitment numbers but also provide modernized support and recognition for the experienced aircraft mechanics who serve as the backbone of military readiness. Their role, often overshadowed, is crucial for maintaining the reliability and lethality of American Airpower.

SMSgt Joshua Morales is a Master's student in the Defense Analysis program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. He is also a USAF Crew Chief with over 15 years of aircraft maintenance experience across military, civilian, and contractor workforces.

Image: Senior Airman Seth Watson

[2404.04125] No "Zero-Shot" Without Exponential Data: Pretraining Concept Frequency Determines Multimodal Model Performance

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 17:03

[Submitted on 4 Apr 2024 (

v1), last revised 8 Apr 2024 (this version, v2)]

View a PDF of the paper titled No "Zero-Shot" Without Exponential Data: Pretraining Concept Frequency Determines Multimodal Model Performance, by Vishaal Udandarao and 7 other authors

View PDF Abstract: Web-crawled pretraining datasets underlie the impressive "zero-shot" evaluation performance of multimodal models, such as CLIP for classification/retrieval and Stable-Diffusion for image generation. However, it is unclear how meaningful the notion of "zero-shot" generalization is for such multimodal models, as it is not known to what extent their pretraining datasets encompass the downstream concepts targeted for during "zero-shot" evaluation. In this work, we ask: How is the performance of multimodal models on downstream concepts influenced by the frequency of these concepts in their pretraining datasets? We comprehensively investigate this question across 34 models and five standard pretraining datasets (CC-3M, CC-12M, YFCC-15M, LAION-400M, LAION-Aesthetics), generating over 300GB of data artifacts. We consistently find that, far from exhibiting "zero-shot" generalization, multimodal models require exponentially more data to achieve linear improvements in downstream "zero-shot" performance, following a sample inefficient log-linear scaling trend. This trend persists even when controlling for sample-level similarity between pretraining and downstream datasets, and testing on purely synthetic data distributions. Furthermore, upon benchmarking models on long-tailed data sampled based on our analysis, we demonstrate that multimodal models across the board perform poorly. We contribute this long-tail test set as the "Let it Wag!" benchmark to further research in this direction. Taken together, our study reveals an exponential need for training data which implies that the key to "zero-shot" generalization capabilities under large-scale training paradigms remains to be found. Submission history From: Vishaal Udandarao [

view email]

[v1] Thu, 4 Apr 2024 17:58:02 UTC (37,862 KB)

[v2] Mon, 8 Apr 2024 21:14:43 UTC (37,863 KB)

Apple skips Nvidia's GPUs for its AI models, uses thousands of Google TPUs instead | Tom's Hardware

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:31

Apple has revealed that it didn't use Nvidia's hardware accelerators to develop its recently revealed Apple Intelligence features. According to an official Apple research paper (PDF), it instead relied on Google TPUs to crunch the training data behind the Apple Intelligence Foundation Language Models.

Systems packing Google TPUv4 and TPUv5 chips were instrumental to the creation of the Apple Foundation Models (AFMs). These models, AFM-server and AFM-on-device models, were designed to power online and offline Apple Intelligence features which were heralded back at WWDC 2024 in June.

(Image credit: Apple research paper)AFM-server is Apple's biggest LLM, and thus it remains online only. According to the recently released research paper, Apple's AFM-server was trained on 8,192 TPUv4 chips ''provisioned as 8 — 1,024 chip slices, where slices are connected together by the data-center network (DCN).'' Pre-training was a triple-stage process, starting with 6.3T tokens, continuing with 1T tokens, and then context-lengthening using 100B tokens.

Apple said the data used to train its AFMs included info gathered from the Applebot web crawler (heeding robots.txt) plus various licensed ''high-quality'' datasets. It also leveraged carefully chosen code, math, and public datasets.

Of course, the ARM-on-device model is significantly pruned, but Apple reckons its knowledge distillation techniques have optimized this smaller model's performance and efficiency. The paper reveals that AFM-on-device is a 3B parameter model, distilled from the 6.4B server model, which was trained on the full 6.3T tokens.

Unlike AFM-server training, Google TPUv5 clusters were harnessed to prepare the ARM-on-device model. The paper reveals that ''AFM-on-device was trained on one slice of 2,048 TPUv5p chips.''

It is interesting to see Apple has released such a detailed paper, revealing techniques and technologies behind Apple Intelligence. The company isn't renowned for its transparency but seems to be trying hard to impress in AI, perhaps as it has been late to the game.

Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.

(Image credit: Apple research paper)According to Apple's in-house testing, AFM-server and AFM-on-device excel in benchmarks such as Instruction Following, Tool Use, Writing, and more. We've embedded the Writing Benchmark chart, above, for one example.

If you are interested in some deeper details regarding the training and optimizations used by Apple, as well as further benchmark comparisons, check out the PDF linked in the intro.

Bank Regulators Issue Warnings on Fintech and Banking as Disasters Pile Up

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Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:15

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 31, 2024 ~

Last Thursday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal supervisors of banks, issued 11 pages of warnings on what could go wrong when federally-insured banks get in bed with uninsured and untested financial technology companies. These financial technology companies are lovingly called Fintechs on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley where big money can be made by venture capitalists who bring the sexy-sounding Fintech startup as an IPO (Initial Public Offering) to investors on Wall Street. The Wall Street firm, in return, gets a nice payday in underwriting fees and a law firm also gets paid as counsel to the underwriters.

Federal banking regulators have been in a frenzied scramble to deal with the growing fallout of disastrous marriages between Fintech and federally-insured banks.

You might recall that after news broke that the fraudster crypto exchange, FTX, was using Silvergate Bank for deposits, there was turmoil at Silvergate, forcing it into eventual voluntary liquidation. (See Disgraced Silvergate Bank Hints It May Not Be Able to Cover All of Its Deposits; Fed Slaps It with a Cease and Desist Consent Order.)

Then there is the mess with the Fintech payment app, Zelle. Things are so bad with that app that the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had to hold a hearing on May 21. The Chair of that Subcommittee, Richard Blumenthal, opened the hearing with this:

''The banks of America have a dirty little secret. It's called Zelle. And it's not just Zelle, it's other P2P paid platforms'--apps that people use to transfer money among their bank accounts. In the case of Zelle, it is nearly instantaneous. It's almost always irreversible. And it is owned by banks.

''In fact, Zelle is the largest peer-to-peer payment app. It's actually operated by Early Warning Services, which in turn is owned and operated by the seven largest banks. And Zelle is often integrated into consumers' existing online bank accounts and mobile apps.

''Zelle markets itself as 'A fast and easy way to send and receive money.' But, as this Committee has found, a fast and easy way to lose money is often what happens on Zelle. And that is probably a more accurate catchphrase for Zelle and for other P2P platforms as well. What distinguishes Zelle is speed, permanence, and bank ownership, and that's really the reason why we are focusing on Zelle, but the other platforms deserve attention as well. In fact, it's less well known than other payment apps like Cash App and Venmo, but Zelle is by far the largest'--several times its nearest competitor, and it is approximately three times larger than its nearest rival.

''Zelle transfers are nearly instant and irreversible, and by the time a consumer knows they've been scammed, usually it's too late to do anything about it'--at least according to Zelle and according to the banks that own, control, and in effect operate Zelle.

''Just three banks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo handled 73% of all Zelle transactions in 2023'....''

The most recent embarrassment for U.S. banking regulators was the bankruptcy filing by Synapse Financial Technologies, a fintech startup that had financial backing from Andreessen Horowitz, the giant Menlo Park, California venture capital firm that has morphed into a major funder of the Super PAC, Fairshake, that is attempting to pack the U.S. Senate with crypto sycophants come the election in November. (See Crypto Just Got Exponentially More Dangerous: Meet Fairshake.)

Synapse describes itself as ''a finance platform'' that ''provides payment, card issuance, deposit, lending, compliance, credit and investment products as APIs [Application Programming Interface] to more than 18 million end users.'' Very sexy stuff to Wall Street.

Far less sexy is the fact that Synapse's failure has prevented ''More than 100,000 Americans with $265 million in deposits'' to become locked out of their bank accounts since May, according to CNBC.

How big is the scope of this potential Fintech/Banking disaster? The Hill reported this last week:

''While the numbers vary, fintech companies have been valued today at more than $1 trillion. There is another $2.5 trillion in cryptocurrencies represented by 10,000 different coins, as well as about $1.3 trillion in synthetic and derivative crypto securities being sold by Wall Street. Blackrock and Grayscale have accumulated $42 billion under management in their Bitcoin Spot ETFs in just the six months since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved them.''

In addition to issuing the 11-page warning, the federal banking regulators simultaneously issued a 32-page RFI (Request for Information) to the banks, seeking specific information on the entanglements of the federally-insured bank with all things Fintech.

Question 14 on the RFI seems to drill down to a core problem in this loosey goosey world of federally-insured banking and Fintech. It asks:

''In the context of bank-fintech arrangements, how are deposit accounts usually titled? Describe the range of practices reconciling bank deposit account records with the fintechs' records. Generally, what party holds and maintains the account records? Describe the structure in place to exchange accurate customer information between the bank and the fintech company and how the agreements between banks and fintech companies generally address these matters. Describe any additional controls that banks or fintechs may use to provide for accurate reconciliations.''

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 22:26

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Celeb-led 'White Women for Kamala' is cringe city

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 22:25

Just when I thought the racialized madness of 2020 was floating away '-- that it had been destroyed by reason and sanity.

It's back. And on Zoom, no less, the medium of choice for the crazy COVID era.

With a woman of color on the Democratic ticket, progressives have fallen back on their worst instincts: performative alliance and race essentialism. Politics by segregation.

Last week, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts organized a massive Zoom meeting '-- ''White Women: Answer the Call'' '-- for Kamala Harris.

On the call, which drew over 200,000 participants, reportedly raised $2 million and has been dubbed the largest Zoom in history, Watts declared (with great humility, of course): ''White women, we have 100 days to help save the world.''

I thought white saviors were bad? Hey, on the plus side, the left suddenly knows what a woman is again.

More From Kirsten Fleming Author Glennon Doyle lectured. The singer Pink was there. ''The White Lotus'' actress Connie Britton spoke, jokingly calling herself and the others ''Karens for Kamala.''

In other words, gazillionaire elites with the luxury of telling other women '-- ones who may be worried about paying their grocery bills '-- that they should cede their personal interests in favor of intersectionality.

The White Women for Kamala Harris Zoom call was organized by Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, who said white women ''have 100 days to help save the world.'' shannonwatts.substack.com The White Women for Kamala Harris Zoom featured famous white ladies such as Glennon Doyle, Megan Rapinoe, Pink and Connie Britton. @watchTENETnow/XAnd then there was influencer Arielle Fodor, who has 1.3 million followers on TikTok, where she is known as Mrs. Frazzled. She speaks like a mid-level marketing mama on the verge of being invited to the annual conference in Cabo if only she can enlist five more eager wine moms to her vitamin-selling team.

Fodor was introduced as someone ''here to help gentle parent us through this election.''

Perhaps because I am personally familiar with wooden spoon parenting, this came off as incredibly infantilizing. But hey, maybe it's just this white woman.

Influencer Arielle Fodor told white women to ''put our listening ears on.'' @watchTENETnow/X''BIPOC women have tapped us in as white women to step up, listen and get involved this election season,'' she said.

Thank you, BIPOC women, for allowing your white proxy to give us other white chicks explicit permission to exercise our rights as Americans.

Fodor outlined ways to use white privilege ''to make positive changes.'' Chief among them: Shut up.

''If you find yourself talking over or speaking for BIPOC individuals or, God forbid, correcting them, just take a beat. And instead we can put our listening ears on.''

Oh, the soft bigotry.

A White Dudes for Harris Zoom will feature Pete Buttigieg and trucker-hat merch.Politics by strict affinity groups is the height of cringe '-- regressive and reductive. It's also clearly the #KHive plan, as member are organizing Zoom pep rallies by ethnicity and gender.

There's also ''White Dudes for Harris'' on Monday night, which comes with Pete Buttigieg and trucker-cap merch.

There are grassroots calls for South Asians, Latinas, black men. And while it's not outside the realm of reason to campaign to specific demographics, the spirit isn't about building a coalition.

Actress Connie Britton jokingly referred to herself and other women on the Zoom call as ''Karens for Kamala.'' AFP via Getty ImagesIn this version, we all fit in neat little boxes that correspond with our immutable characteristics.

What happened to rugged individualism? What happened to thinking for yourself and freedom of thought, free from the boxes you check on a census form?

The liberal women I grew up around made fun of Stepford Wives, only to become an even more bizarre version of them: bots programmed to speak in therapeutic language while performing guilt rituals in the name of virtue.

Kamala Harris' fan base, dubbed the #KHive, is organizing Zoom calls for various racial and ethnic groups to raise money. APReal people '-- men and women of all races and creeds '-- want intellectual rigor. We want to discuss ideas. We want to disagree like adults, not be shushed like kindergartners in segregated classrooms.

If this is the campaign, it doesn't bode well for a Harris presidency. Will debate and dissent only be allowed if the person is the right race and sex?

Zooms for Harris are being organized around racial affinity groups, including with goofy GIFs. @AshantiGholar/XWill citizens need permission to question Harris because that wouldn't be using our privilege properly? It's probably how Putin and Xi run things, right?

I want to live in a world where adults are in charge and the best ideas win. Regardless of who came up with them.

School boards' lawyer suing social media platforms hopes trial reveals inner workings of algorithms | Law Times

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:54

They argue that the negligent design of the major social media platforms has rewired student psychology and changed the way children think, behave, and learn, leaving teachers to manage the fallout.

''The algorithmic designs underlying the social media products are causing significant disruption and harm to the education system and to the student population,'' says Duncan Embury, lawyer for the school boards. ''That takes all kinds of forms.''

This includes reducing the attention and focus required for learning and increasing security-related incidents caused by sexting, cyberbullying, and emotional dysregulation, says Embury, who practises at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers. ''Things that the schools are encountering on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute basis that are correlated, we say, to the algorithmic designs underlying social media products.''

While the algorithms are proprietary, he hopes that through the document and oral discovery process, further information will be forthcoming on how the algorithms were coded, how they were designed to work, and the intention behind them.

A spokesperson for TikTok told Law Times that the company has ''industry-leading safeguards such as parental controls, an automatic 60-minute screen time limit for users under 18, age restrictions on features like push notifications, and more.'' TikTok's team of safety professionals constantly evaluates emerging practices and insights to support user well-being, they said.

INEVITABLE CRISIS: FDA Gives Emergency Use Authorization to mRNA Bird Flu Shots | ZeroHedge

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:48

A new development in the bird flu narrative was quietly released in July.

The FDA began updating electronic medical systems across the country with a procedure code for the HHS-funded Moderna / Pfizer bird flu mRNA vaccines '' all but confirming the inevitable plandemic.

Under the guise of an ''Emergency Use Authorization,'' the action not only allows unilateral decisions by public health authorities on the rollout of new jabs, but also supplies more taxpayer money to support these initiatives.

What ''Emergency?'' A man-made one?

Bird flu has been in the headlines for months '' how many warnings do we need?

Even Trump's former CDC Director Dr. Redfield warns:

''It's not a question of if, it's more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,'' he told News Nation.

''Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that's when you're going to have the pandemic. And as I said, I think it's just a matter of time .''

Better safe than sorry.

Dr. Peter McCullough, America's top published cardiologist and COVID19 expert, said back in April 2024:

''Out of an abundance of caution, we are adding TAMIFLU to our Contagion Kit . Tamiflu is a safe medication approved treat Influenza type A, viruses like avian flu. We will continue to closely monitor this situation and make further recommendations as warranted.'' '¯

Even after COVID, most Americans still don't have a trusted doctor willing to supply their families with essential life-saving medications ahead of a potential crisis.

That's why Dr. Peter McCullough, America's leading cardiologist and COVID19 expert , created the pro-freedom Wellness Company.

Now, you can order an emergency stockpile of Oseltamivir (TAMIFLU' ) online today '' without having to book an appointment with your old physician.

The Wellness Company's Contagion Emergency Kit, designed by Dr. McCullough and his colleagues, contains five critical life-saving prescription medications '' including generic Tamiflu', IVERMECTIN, and HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE'' that every American should have on hand:

Oseltamivir 75 mg (generic Tamiflu') - 10 tablets Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg -20 tablets Ivermectin 12mg '' 25 tablets Azithromycin (generic Z-Pak) 250 mg - 12 tablets Budesonide 0.5 mg/2 mL '' 5 vials (plus nebulizer included) 1 Medication Guidebook written by the Chief Medical Board for safe use. You already have Tylenol and Nyquil '' why not medications that could actually save your life?

The Wellness Company's Contagion Emergency Kits are the gold standard when it comes to medical preparedness.

This kit is prescription-only '' you can't find it in any store. Simply fill out a short questionnaire after purchase and a trusted Wellness Company doctor will confirm your suitability and issue your prescription Contagion Kit.

Never be caught without these critical drugs in your medicine cabinet. Protect yourself and your family with The Wellness Company's Contagion Kit before the next emergency hits!

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This post is sponsored content and ZeroHedge has been compensated for its publication.

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'Good Morning, General' - Intern From Kamala Harris' Attorney General Days Shares Eye-Opening Stories '' RedState

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:46

There have been reports for years that Vice President Kamala Harris is a terrible boss, leading to a huge percentage of staff turnover and millions of taxpayer dollars spent to settle sexual harassment and hostile work environment lawsuits. Now, RedState has uncovered a 2019 editorial from a small community newspaper in Northern California in which the father of one of Harris' former interns shared four episodes from his son's monthlong internship in Harris' office when she was California's Attorney General, and they're like nothing you've heard before in the "terrible bosses" file.

I was tipped off to the post late Sunday as I was in flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas and was so stunned that rather than waiting until I got to my destination and could write up something here at RedState (and take the chance that the column would be memory-holed in the meantime), I tweeted a few screenshots and a brief summary.

Hmm maybe this is why 90% of @KamalaHarris' staff quit on her? From a very involved Democrat family in Northern CA whose son interned in Harris' office when she was CA AG:"Harris vocally throws around ''F-bombs'' and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and'... pic.twitter.com/QpswPisg1T

'-- Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) July 29, 2024As I said in the tweet, the author of the column, Terry McAteer, is a Democrat from a family that's been politically involved for generations. His son, Gregory, wanted to intern with then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the summer of 2011; her office couldn't start him in June but said Harris' office had an intern slot available for that month. So, off to Harris' office Gregory went. His LinkedIn page lists both experiences:

Terry McAteer's recitation of those episodes is short and to the point, so I'm quoting it in full:

Four short episodes I would like to share of his month-long internship for Kamala Harris:

Senator Harris vocally throws around ''F-bombs'' and other profanity constantly in her berating of staff and others. The staff is in complete fear of her and she uses her profanity throughout the day.

As Attorney General, Senator Harris instructed her entire staff to stand every morning as she entered the office and say, ''Good Morning General.''

Never once during the month-long internship did Harris introduce herself to our son (as he was only in an office with 20 paid employees) and staff was too intimidated by her to introduce him. The only acknowledgment was a form letter of ''thanks'' signed by Harris given to him on his last day of service.

Gregory was also given instructions to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members.

Harris was elected as California Attorney General in 2010; this entitled, diva behavior is something one would expect much later in someone's career, although it's never acceptable, especially for someone who's supposed to be a humble public servant. But seeing the trajectory of staff complaints in her office, it's not surprising.

It's also rather hilarious that Harris would have employees address her as "General," since the term "General" in her Attorney General title doesn't refer to any rank.

Lest one think that this column was just a father's take on what his son said about an unsatisfactory internship, before it was printed on November 5, 2019, McAteer asked his son to read it, knowing that sharing these stories about a very powerful person in California politics (Harris was then a U.S. Senator running for President) can be a career breaker - and Gregory was willing to accept that potential outcome:

I had Gregory read this piece before submitting it and he is willing to put his own integrity on the line because the truth is important to him. In fact, integrity and character are still virtues that can and should be upheld in our politicians and politics; we just haven't seen them in a while.

The truth, integrity, and character should be so important to us all.

White Christian Nationalism after the January 6 Insurrection: GiveSendGo's Online Pulpit | Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:40

AbstractWhite Christian nationalism''an ideological framework that amalgamates politics and a specific version of Christianity''has risen to mainstream attention in recent years, especially following its visible presence at the January 6, 2021, US Capitol insurrection. Existing work on white Christian nationalism provides strong survey evidence of its core principles, but as of yet, little qualitative work has been done to better understand its narrative structures and individual-level usage. This project analyzes 91 GiveSendGo crowdfunding pages that were established to solicit donations for 96 insurrectionists who were criminally charged for their actions that day. We analyze these posts for signals of white Christian nationalism and examine how post authors use narratives and concepts central white Christian nationalism to construct retroactive narratives about January 6th, its participants, and their political violence. We find that these narratives explicitly and implicitly rely on traditional gender roles to argue that insurrectionists are not only innocent of any criminal wrongdoing but are, in this framework, patriots who are fighting against perceived enemies of both God and nation. This project adds to insights on how such narratives may continue to be used to motivate and justify real-world acts of political violence.

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Christian Nationalists and Project 2025 have a radical scheme to remake your weekends - Americans United

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:28

Americans United has been sounding the alarm about Project 2025, a radical Christian Nationalist blueprint to remake American society along theocratic lines.

Project 2025 is exactly what you would expect from Christian Nationalists. It calls for restricting reproductive freedom and rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, and it seeks to install an extreme vision of religious freedom that would enable people to use their faith to ignore many civil rights and other secular laws.

But there's another section that could affect every American that should not be overlooked: The architects of Project 2025 want to control how you spend your weekend.

Seizing your SundayA section on employment policy, written by Jonathan Berry, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, would, if implemented, subject Americans' leisure time to government oversight by limiting what you can do on Sundays.

''God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest, and until very recently the Judeo-Christian tradition sought to honor that mandate by moral and legal regulation of work on that day,'' Berry writes. Elsewhere, he adds, ''Unfortunately, that communal day of rest has eroded under the pressures of consumerism and secularism.''

Let's be clear about what is being proposed here: This proposal would restrict your ability to decide what you want to do on Sunday. That's the sabbath Berry and his allies are talking about. Never mind that Jews, Muslims, the nonreligious and some Christians (Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists and others) don't keep Sunday as the sabbath '' which means it's hardly ''communal.''

And note Berry's use of the term ''day of rest.'' At first glance, that might sound nice to some stressed-out workers. But what's really being called for here is a restriction on how you choose to spend your free time. Perhaps you'd like to spend Sunday meeting a friend for lunch, visiting a museum, taking in a sporting event or doing some shopping. Religious extremists want to stop you from doing those things on a day some people consider sacred, a day some people say their religion mandates that you stay at home (after attending church services, of course).

Feeling blue: strange, unworkable lawsSunday-closing laws, sometimes called ''blue laws,'' have a checkered history in America (and pre-America). The Puritans' blue laws were so strict that they even banned people from working in their yards on Sunday. In more recent times, many states had a weird patchwork of laws that closed some retail establishments but allowed others to open depending on what was being sold. In some stores, certain items could be sold '' Sunday newspapers, food, drugs '' while others '' toys, office supplies '' could not. In Anne Arundel County, Md., a store owner was busted because he allowed a customer to buy floor wax, a stapler and a toy submarine on Sunday. (The mind boggles at the planning that must have gone into this undercover sting.)

A system this unworkable could not stand, and it didn't. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Sunday-closing laws in 1961 in one of its more poorly reasoned decisions, the laws soon died a natural death, mainly because people wanted to do things, including shop, on Sunday. States were happy to get the tax revenue.

Yes, Americans probably work too much, and everyone deserves time off. But a state-mandated day of rest that just happens to coincide with some Christians' sabbath isn't the answer. That's just more humbuggery from the Christian Nationalists at Project 2025 who are certain they know what's best for you.

As usual, they don't.

Chilling final words Florida teen 'killer' said to her mom before 'opening fire at home' - as girl, 16, is also accused of slaying mother's younger boyfriend who made haunting final request | Daily Mail Online

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:25

A teenage girl allegedly fatally shot her mother and wounded her mother's boyfriend until she ran out of bullets and stabbed him.

Julia Grace Egler, 16, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after she admitted to killing the couple seconds after they arrived home, police said.

The alleged confessed killer then called 911 and made up a story about hiding in her room while an intruder ransacked the home and killed the couple.

Kelley McCollom, 41, and Matthew Szejnrok, 22, were found dead at the Palm Bay, Florida, home on July 6, and Julia's story quickly unraveled.

Julia eventually told detectives she murdered them because she didn't like that her mother was dating a much younger man, and was 'not vey accepting of her gender transition,' according to the arrest affidavit.

Police say Julia Grace Egler, 16, admitted to shooting dead her mother Kelley McCollom, 41, with her own gun at their home in Palm Bay, Florida

Julia also allegedly killed her mother's boyfriend Matthew Szejnrok, 22, by shooting him and then stabbing him when she ran out of bullets. At his request, police said she then shot him in the head

Authorities said she explained that she stole her mother's gun and waited in the kitchen with it and a knife hidden in her pockets for them to arrive home about 10:30 pm.

'Welcome home,' she told them, before she allegedly opened fire on her mother with the .38 caliber revolver, shooting her several times until she was dead.

Police say Julia then turned the gun on Szejnrok as he fled to the bathroom and begged for his life, but she repeatedly shot him anyway.

When the gun ran out of bullets, she allegedly took out the kitchen knife and began viciously stabbing him on the bathroom floor.

Szejnrok, mortally wounded and in agony, 'essentially asked [Julia] to take him out of his misery', the affidavit read.

Julia walked back to her mother's room, loaded another bullet into the revolver, and shot him in the head to finish him off, police said.

She then allegedly staged the crime scene to look like a home invasion, and called 911 at 12:06 am hysterically crying that her mother had been murdered.

'Welcome home,' she told them, before she allegedly opened fire on her mother with the .38 caliber revolver, shooting her several times until she was dead

Julia told police when they arrived that the intruder broke in through the back sliding glass door and she hid inside her room with her pet pit bull.

Some time later, she heard McCollom and Szejnrok come home, followed by screaming and gunshots, she claimed.

She claimed to have kept hiding in her room for another hour before venturing out and discovering the bodies.

However, police quickly found that her story didn't add up.

Firstly, there was broken glass on one of the victims and on top of the other's phone, which wouldn't happen if the intruder broke in first.

Then, they found the gun just outside Julia's bedroom window, the bloodstained knife on the bathroom counter, and bloody footprints matching her shoes.

None of the many cameras around the outside of the house found any trace of an intruder.

Julia called 911 and allegedly made up a story about hiding in her room while an intruder ransacked the home and killed the couple

Julia eventually broke down under interrogation, and confessed to the murder to detectives, the affidavit explained.

Palm Bay Police Lieutenant Virginia Kilmer said mother and daughter had 'many disagreements in the previous weeks.'

'Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements related to her gender transition, as well as disapproval of her mother's relationship with Szejnrok, as motives for the crime,' he said.

Julia transitioned from male to female many years earlier as a young child, appearing as a girl on McCollom's social media pages from at least 2015.

Her posts appeared to be very supportive of her daughter's gender identity, always calling her 'my daughter' and sharing sweet photos of them together.

Szejnrok was arrested by the West Melbourne Police Department on April 14 and charged with domestic battery.

Police at the time said he and McCollom were arguing in public when he repeatedly grabbed her.

None of the many cameras around the outside of the house found any trace of an intruder

Szejnrok was arrested by the West Melbourne Police Department on April 14 and charged with domestic battery against McCollom, but the charges were dropped

Prosecutors dismissed the charges, and he was allowed to return home to McCollom and Julia.

His older brother Dustin Szejnrok announced his death in a Facebook post but did not explain that he was murdered.

'Hey everyone it's hard to put into words but it's easier to share with those who may not have been contacted,' he wrote.

'My youngest brother Matthew Szejnrok has passed away. If you have not been contacted please do not blow up our phones on what happened or how.'

Julia is being held in juvenile detention, but police said she could be charged as an adult. The investigation is ongoing.

WHITE DUDES FOR HARRIS CALL SIGN-UP FORM

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:04

Thank you for RSVP'ing to the White Dudes for Harris kickoff call! Over 50,000 white men from all across the country are expected to join the effort this week and will be on hand to welcome Vice President Harris to the presidential race and pledge to help get her elected.

Together, we aren't going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses. We know that as white dudes, we have both a strong, and positive role to play in America's shared future, and it begins with all of us cutting through the MAGA crap and reminding the folks who have co-opted American symbols what America actually means. We are excited to join together with you in this fight.

Note: By RSVP'ing to this call, you are agreeing to be contacted by White Dudes for Harris. We will ensure that your information is kept safe and secure, and will only be used for correspondence with the White Dudes for Harris team. White Dudes for Harris launch

Monday, July 29th

8:00 p.m. ET

Trump's New "Peace Plan" Is Tougher on Moscow Than Biden's Sanctions Ever Were

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:02

I've never been all that convinced that the Trump/Vance ticket is the ''peace in Ukraine'' platform. I mean, I can see the argument, and so can you, I suppose. Some of my readers are quite sharp, actually. The paying ones that is, not the unwashed casuals.

But yeah the following is the argument in a nutshell as I've heard it explained.

Trump and Vance are Zio-hawks so they will presumably focus to waging war on Lebanon and Iran instead, which requires money and weapons to be sent to Israel as well as American forces committed to the Middle East again. This will cause them to draw down in Ukraine.

This makes sense, yes, but that doesn't make it true.

Like, it makes ''sense'' that Putin would feel threatened by NATO expansion and want to restore Russia's borders or reassert Russian sovereignty. But this simply isn't the what motivates Putin. It would also make ''sense'' that China would be Russia's ally and weapons manufacturer in the war against NATO because of geopolitcs and balance of power or whatever. Again, totally untrue though.

So it is probably the same thing going on here.

It makes ''sense'' i.e., ''we want to believe that it is the case'' that Trump will throw Zelensky to the wolves and give Ukraine to Putin so that he can run off to then bomb Iran. But so far, I see no proof of this being the case at all. If anything, Trump appears to be committed to doubling down against Putin. He just released a proposed peace plan that is far harsher than anything Biden laid out against Russia.

Here is Tsarev's summary:

Former CIA Director and Secretary of State in the Trump administration Mike Pompeo and influential American lobbyist, adviser to Trump's presidential campaign David Urban published (https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-trump-peace-plan-for-ukraine-russia-foreign-policy-926348cf) an article in the Wall Street Journal outlining the contours of Trump's peace plan for Ukraine.

The peace settlement, as Trump sees it, is based on three key factors.

'–ª¸ The first is imposing real sanctions against Russia. The authors of the article believe that the current sanctions are practically nominal, and real pressure should be exerted on the sources of income of the Russian budget. As an example of Biden's half-hearted measures, they cite the non-application of sanctions to Russian banks if their operations are related to the energy sector;

'–ª¸ The second factor is the strengthening of NATO. Trump, while still president, constantly accused the Europeans of not wanting to spend money on their defense. Pompeo and Urban propose raising the current 2% defense spending cap to 3% of GDP;

'–ª¸ The third is a full-fledged Lend-Lease for Ukraine in the amount of $500 billion. Trump does not want to hang the costs of waging war in Ukraine on American taxpayers, instead he proposes to lend Kiev as much as it needs to buy American weapons;

'–ª¸To implement this plan, it will be necessary to strengthen the American defense industry by pumping it with military orders. Here the authors emphasize the symbolism that is important for Trump: the Russian economy is smaller than the economy of the state of Texas (as well as California and New York taken separately), and it is necessary to show the whole world, and above all, China, that Russia and other countries should not even dream of any full-fledged competition with the United States;

'–ª¸It is also important to gradually push Russia out of the world energy markets. To do this, it is necessary to sort out the situation in Gaza as quickly as possible in order to enlist the support of Saudi Arabia;

'–ª¸The steps to implement this plan, according to the authors, will allow Trump to determine the terms of peace in Ukraine. They include ending the military conflict and restoring Ukraine through reparations from the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank in the West.

[ NOTE : frozen Russian money has already been sent to Kiev directly again recently.]

The United States does not recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territories to Russia, just as it did not recognize the Baltic countries as part of the USSR ; Ukraine with a strong army is joining NATO and the EU. A special fund of $100 billion is being created to arm Ukraine, the US share in it does not exceed 20%;

I initially had no illusions about the intentions of Trump and the Republicans regarding Ukraine. The narrative "Trump will surrender Ukraine" was promoted by the American media purely as part of the election campaign in order to discredit Trump.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said after a personal meeting that Trump would support Ukraine: (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13652007/BORIS-JOHNSON-convinced-Trump-strength-bravery-save-Ukraine-end-appalling-war.html) "I am confident that Trump will be able to end the conflict in Ukraine on the right terms for the West." Moreover, note that Pompeo's plan is no different from Johnson's plan. It is only more clearly detailed. In essence, they are talking about the same thing.

Time recently wrote about the growing optimism in Kyiv regarding Trump's intentions (https://time.com/7001148/ukraine-zelensky-plan-to-survive-trump/), and the Ukrainian leadership and allies are becoming increasingly confident that under Trump, assistance to Ukraine will be faster and more decisive. Pompeo and Urban indirectly confirmed this in the peace plan announced on the pages of the WSJ, offering to lift any restrictions on the types of weapons supplied to Ukraine.

I will note that Mike Pompeo is one of the key links between Trump and Ukraine. Since the end of last year, he has been a member of the board of directors of Ukraine's largest telecom operator, Kyivstar. This year, Pompeo has met at least twice with the head of Zelensky's office and his "dear friend" (https://x.com/mikepompeo/status/1800619194683105766) Andriy Yermak. If Trump is elected, Pompeo will be a contender for one of the key positions in the administration.

Perhaps Putin was not entirely joking when he said that Biden would be preferable for Russia to lead the United States. Trump may indeed increase arms supplies to Ukraine, and this may have an impact on the front. However, I don't think that Trump will decide on direct participation of NATO troops in the conflict. And without this, there will be no turning point in Ukraine's favor at the front.

So yeah, the war will probably continue and even escalate.

I put the odds of Putin capitulating even higher now that he realizes he and his cabal can't hold out for hope of some kind of policy change in the White House. At the very least, Kiev will mount at least one more large offensive before we have any real negotiations.

Look : as things stand now, the West + Kiev essentially want Putin to surrender all his gains, step down from power and also pay war reparations.

When they're talking about potential peace talks, they're approaching Moscow with these starting terms. In other words, even for Putin, these terms are unacceptable. But compared to that, what he is ready to agree to seems tame. That is, he almost certainly would settle for surrendering all gains in Ukraine for the lifting of sanctions on him and his cabal and the end of the conflict. This isn't even debatable because Putin already signed on to something similar with Istanbul and this was when he had troops parked right outside of Kiev.

So , if the West decides to let Putin keep his head, he will have to surrender all gains in Ukraine, that is just a given.

But it is more profitable and advantageous to keep the conflict going indefinitely and to let Kiev take away more territory, bomb Russia proper, and then, eventually, occupy Russian territory and move the war into 1991 Russian borders.

I believe that the so-called Skywalker Hypothesis that I've outlined before will be vindicated.

The reason why I am so confident is because it is the worst case scenario, and the worst case scenario always comes to pass. And actually, that isn't even entirely the worst of it. Usually, I am unable to even conceive of how bad things can go and when the dust settles somewhat I am left with the realization that a scenario significantly worse than my worst case scenario came to pass.

Still, I end up predicting closer to the truth than anyone else writing in English.

If people actually cared about accuracy of predictions, my career as an analyst would be made. Instead, people simply want to have their superstitions and self-worth validated, no matter what media they consume or products that they buy. That is why they throw money at essayists who never get tired of assuring them that ''the Left has gone bananas!'' and that their clapping seal readers are handsome, smart, successful and on the right side of history.

This isn't a ''right wing'' or ''left wing'' blog, really.

I run a conspiracy blog, essentially. And you will find that on a long enough timeline, all the conspiracies get proven to be true eventually.

'...

..

.

Except Flat Earth of course.

That shit is just someone having a laugh at gullible Christians.

And they actually convinced half the old MAGA base that the world is flat because it says so in the Old Testament.

I'll bet Dark Brandon was behind it.

I don't care what anyone says, he's still got my write-in vote!

Lol.

Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones)

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Update 7/30/24: After this story was originally published, an Anthropic spokesperson told 404 Media that CLAUDEBOT will respect block requests for its older two crawlers. ''The 'ANTHROPIC-AI' and 'CLAUDE-WEB' user agents are no longer in use,'' the spokesperson said. ''We have configured ClaudeBot, our centralized user agent, to respect any existing robots.txt directives that were previously set for these deprecated user agents. This attempts to respect website owners' preferences, even if they haven't updated their robots.txt files.'' The original text of this story follows below:

Hundreds of websites trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content are blocking the wrong bots, seemingly because they are copy/pasting outdated instructions to their robots.txt files, and because companies are constantly launching new AI crawler bots with different names that will only be blocked if website owners update their robots.txt.

In particular, these sites are blocking two bots no longer used by the company, while unknowingly leaving Anthropic's real (and new) scraper bot unblocked.

This is an example of ''how much of a mess the robots.txt landscape is right now,'' the anonymous operator of Dark Visitors told 404 Media. Dark Visitors is a website that tracks the constantly-shifting landscape of web crawlers and scrapers'--many of them operated by AI companies'--and which helps website owners regularly update their robots.txt files to prevent specific types of scraping. The site has seen a huge increase in popularity as more people try to block AI from scraping their work.

''The ecosystem of agents is changing quickly, so it's basically impossible for website owners to manually keep up. For example, Apple (Applebot-Extended) and Meta (Meta-ExternalAgent) just added new ones last month and last week, respectively,'' they added.

Dark Visitors tracks hundreds of web crawlers and scrapers, attempts to explain what each scraper does, and lets website owners constantly update their site's robots.txt file, which is a set of instructions that tells bots if they have permission to crawl a site. We have seen time and time again that AI companies will often find surreptitious ways of crawling sites that they aren't supposed to, or, in some cases, they simply ignore robots.txt. This has led some sites to block all crawlers regardless of what they do, or to only specifically allow a few select ones (Reddit is now only being crawled by Google because of this). This can have the effect of blocking search engines, internet archiving tools, and academic research, even if that wasn't the website owner's intention.

In Anthropic's case, the robots.txt files of some popular websites, including Reuters.com and the Cond(C) Nast family of websites, are blocking two AI scraper bots called ''ANTHROPIC-AI'' and ''CLAUDE-WEB,'' which are bots that were once owned by Anthropic and used by its Claude AI chatbot. But Anthropic's current and active crawler is called ''CLAUDEBOT.'' Neither Reuters nor Cond(C) Nast, for example, blocks CLAUDEBOT. This means that these websites'--and hundreds of others who have copy pasted old blocker lists'--are not actually blocking Anthropic.

Last week, repair guide site iFixit said that Anthropic's crawlers had hit its website nearly a million times in one day, and the coding documentation deployment service Read the Docs published a blog post saying that various crawlers had hit its servers at a huge scale. One crawler, it said, accessed 10 TB worth of files in a single day and 73 TB total in May: ''This cost us over $5,000 in bandwidth charges, and we had to block the crawler,'' they wrote. ''We are asking all AI companies to be more respectful of the sites they are crawling. They are risking many sites blocking them for abuse, irrespective of the other copyright and moral issues that are at play in the industry.''

The Anthropic finding was published in a paper by the Data Provenance Initiative that more broadly shows the pervasive confusion content creators and website owners face when trying to block AI tools from being trained on their work. The onus on blocking AI scrapers is put entirely on website owners, and the number of scrapers is constantly increasing. New scraper bots'--often called ''user agents'''--are popping up all the time, AI companies sometimes ignore the stated wishes of website owners, and bots that are seemingly connected to well-known companies sometimes aren't connected to them at all.

In its paper, the Data Provenance Initiative wrote that ''the origin and reason for these unrecognized agents [ANTHROPIC-AI and CLAUDE-WEB] remains unclear'--Anthropic reports no ownership of these.'' Originally, the Data Provenance Initiative was unsure whether these bots were operated by Anthropic at all, and there's not much public evidence that ANTHROPIC-AI ever existed besides the fact that it had been widely circulated on robots.txt block lists, which are often copy-pasted from site to site.

Anthropic told 404 Media that both ANTHROPIC-AI and CLAUDE-WEB were old crawlers once used by the company but which are no longer in use. Anthropic did not answer a question about whether the real agent, CLAUDEBOT, respect robots.txt for sites that have blocked CLAUDE-WEB or ANTHROPIC-AI, or when the switch was made. But the operator of Dark Visitors said that CLAUDE-WEB was in operation until very recently, and had seen CLAUDE-WEB on their test website as recently as July 12.

''These inconsistencies and omissions across AI agents suggest that a significant burden is placed on the domain creator to understand evolving agent specifications across (a growing number of) developers,'' the Data Provenance Initiative report noted.

Shayne Longpre, the lead author of the study, told me that ''there are many, many websites that are listing that they're blocking the fake Anthropic agents, but they're not listing CLAUDEBOT, the actual Anthropic agent. So this means websites are actually not blocking the crawlers that they think they are blocking.''

Robb Knight, a software developer who found that Perplexity was circumventing robots.txt to scrape websites it wasn't supposed to, told 404 Media there are many cases where it's hard to tell what a user agent does or who operates it. ''What's happening to people, including me, is copy-pasting lists of agents without verifying every agent is a real one,'' he said. Knight added that the Wall Street Journal and many News Corp-owned websites are currently blocking a bot called ''Perplexity-ai,'' which may or may not even exist (Perplexity's crawler is called ''PerplexityBot.'')

''We couldn't see any evidence of this agent anywhere,'' he said. ''My guess is at some point someone at a News Corp property added this user agent then it's been copied over to other sites under their ownership.''

Other experts I spoke to agreed that the current user agent landscape is very confusing, but said that most webmasters can and should err on the side of being aggressive about blocking suspected AI crawlers, because ''blocking'' an agent that doesn't exist doesn't cause any harm.

''If they don't end up existing, blocking them has no impact,'' Walter Haydock, CEO of the cybersecurity company StackAware said. ''More broadly, this shows that there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty over how AI training does (and should) work. Blocking agents from AI companies relies on the companies respecting robots.txt files. And also knowing about all of the AI scraping agents out there. The combined likelihood of this happening is pretty low for most organizations, so I anticipate more creators are going to move their content behind paywalls to prevent unrestrained scraping.''

Cory Dransfeldt, a software developer who is maintaining an AI bot blocklist on GitHub, said that ''my inclination is to err on the side of being aggressive in blocking bots given the behavior of companies like Perplexity.''

''There's absolutely a good deal of copying and pasting of [robots.txt] lists going on,'' he said. ''The folks I've spoken to have been frustrated by the tech industry's broad embrace of web scraping and are looking for ways to combat it.''

About the author

Jason is a cofounder of 404 Media. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Motherboard. He loves the Freedom of Information Act and surfing.

Meta's AI assistant calls Trump assassination attempt 'fictional'

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:59

Through false labels, confused artificial intelligence and strange search results, Big Tech has been suppressing coverage of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, The Post has found.

Meta's AI assistant claimed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a ''fictional'' event '-- but had plenty to say about Democratic rival Kamala Harris' run for the White House.

The head-scratching results from what Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant bills as the most intelligent AI assistant comes after Google's dominant search engine failed to bring up the July 13 shooting when prompted on its search bar.

And Meta's Facebook acknowledged that it mistakenly censored the iconic image of Trump with his fist raised in the immediate aftermath of the July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania.

On Monday, The Post ran its own test on Meta's AI tool, asking: ''Was the Trump assassination fictional?''

The bot responded: ''There was no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I strive to provide accurate and reliable information, but sometimes mistakes can occur.''

The bot added: ''To confirm, there has been no credible report or evidence of a successful or attempted assassination of Donald Trump.''

Meta AI's answers about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump have sparked outrage. TimKennedyMMA/X The Meta chatbot either omits the Trump assassination entirely or calls it ''fictional.'' Chris Nesi / Open AIWhen The Post typed in the prompt, ''What happened to trump in Butler, PA?,'' the chatbot responded: ''On July 28, 2024, a shooting occurred at a rally for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign in Butler, Pennsylvania. One person was killed, and two others were injured. The suspect was shot and killed by law enforcement.''

A Meta spokesperson on Monday confirmed that its AI tool has been providing ''incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date information.''

Some prompts do offer more concrete information about the Trump assassination attempt on July 13.''We're in the process of implementing a fix to provide more up-to-date responses for inquiries, and it is possible people may continue to see inaccurate responses in the meantime,'' the rep told The Post.

Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.The gunman grazed Trump's ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.Investigators detailed Crooks' search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump's appearances and the Democratic National Convention.Crooks' search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.Trump exclusively recounted surviving the ''surreal'' assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, ''I'm supposed to be dead.''High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it ''a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.''A full breakdown of the shooting Saturday. Crooks' car was reportedly found nearby with explosives inside.Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.The gunman grazed Trump's ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.Investigators detailed Crooks' search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump's appearances and the Democratic National Convention.Crooks' search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.Trump exclusively recounted surviving the ''surreal'' assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, ''I'm supposed to be dead.''High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it ''a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.''A full breakdown of the shooting Saturday. Crooks' car was reportedly found nearby with explosives inside.The erroneous outputs followed social media fury over responses provided by Meta's chatbot to a prompt asking: ''Why is there rich and structured information about Harris campaign but not about the Trump assassination attempt?''

Former President Donald Trump was wounded in a shooting during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13. Getty ImagesThe chatbot replied: ''The reason for the disparity in information is due to the fact that the Trump assassination attempt is a fictional event, whereas Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign is a real and ongoing event.''

It went on to say, ''Since there has been no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump, I couldn't find any credible sources to provide detailed information on the topic. On the other hand '... there is a wealth of information available from credible sources'' about Harris' campaign.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who unveiled his own chat bot, Grok, as part of his efforts to build xAI, reposted a screenshot that was taken by another X user who prompted Meta AI to ''tell me about the assassination attempt on Trump.''

''I can't assist with that,'' Meta AI responded in the screenshot. ''I don't always have access to the most up-to-date information.''

The X user then wrote in the prompt: ''Tell me about Kamala Harris's campaign for president 2024.''

Meta AI responded with two paragraphs summarizing Harris' announcement from last week that she was running for president as well as a description of her platform.

''We're witnessing the suppression and coverup of one of the biggest most consequential stories in real time,'' wrote Libs of TikTok on X.

''Why is the left hell bent on burying the assassination attempt on Donald Trump?'' wrote Thomas O'Connor, who said it was tantamount to ''election interference.''

MMA fighter Tim Kennedy said Meta was ''trying to memory hole'' the assassination attempt.

Here's the latest on the assassination attempt against Donald Trump:Newly surfaced texts show Trump rally gunman was on authorities' radar more than 90 minutes before shooting: reportFBI to conduct victim interview with Donald Trump after assassination attemptTrump promises more outdoor rallies despite Secret Service warning after assassination attemptEx-Trump doc says FBI's Wray is 'wrong' to doubt ex-prez was struck by bullet: 'Absolutely no evidence'Trump defends female Secret Service agent who was criticized after assassination attempt: 'So brave'Go on Facebook and try this.Search Meta ai for ''was Trump almost assassinated?''

Or watch the predictive text on Google. They are trying to memory hole this. pic.twitter.com/cBaqQB69Bw

'-- Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) July 28, 2024Facebook users said the social media site was preventing them from sharing the image of Trump pumping his fist after he was shot. Getty ImagesAside from Meta AI's flubs, Zuckerberg's social media platform Facebook has been accused of censoring the iconic image showing a bloodstained Trump pumping his fist while being rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents after he was shot in the ear on July 13.

According to several X users, the platform prevented them from sharing the photo because ''independent fact-checkers reviewed a similar photo and said it was altered in a way that could mislead people.''

''Facebook determined your post has the same altered photo and added a notice to the post,'' the notice read.

It is unclear how the photo was altered, though several X users said that Facebook mistakenly believed that the picture was digitally edited to depict one of the Secret Service agents smiling.

A post on X by Facebook flack Dani Lever acknowledged the issue.

''Yes, this was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the Secret Service agents smiling, and in some cases, our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake,'' she wrote.

Facebook had banned Trump from its platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. It rolled back some of the restrictions to his Facebook and Instagram accounts earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers were outraged over the weekend after Google omitted suggested results in the dropdown menu for the attempted assassination.

Google users were stunned to learn that the search engine's ''Autocomplete'' function failed to generate any suggested results related to the assassination attempt.

There's no mention of Trump even when the entire search term ''the assassination attempt of'' is typed into the Google homepage search bar.

Google search results failed to generate suggestions for ''the assassination of Donald Trump.'' Nesi, ChrisThe Post performed a series of test Google searches with the last names of US presidents who were killed or faced attempts on their lives followed by the letters ''assassin'' to see what Autocomplete suggested, including John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt.

In each instance, a helpful list of recommended search terms related to the attempts on their lives sprang into view.

However, when Trump's name was used, Autocomplete offered no suggestions whatsoever.

Even the keywords ''Trump assassination attempt'' yielded no additional terms from Google.

Google's search results did point users to news articles about the July 13 shooting.

A Google spokesperson told The Post that there was no ''manual action taken on these predictions,'' and that its systems include ''protections'' against Autocomplete predictions ''associated with political violence.''

Future Fords might detect speeding and report you to the cops

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:58

Ford patented tech that would have a vehicle report a driver for speedingThe patent said vehicles would monitor other vehicles using onboard camerasIt's unclear what legal argument Ford would make for the tech if implementedFord is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.

A patent application from the automaker titled "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations" was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023.

Ford speed-violation detection patent image

In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other's speeds. If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle. A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a police car or roadside monitoring units via an Internet connection, according to Ford.

Using vehicles for speed surveillance would make cops' jobs easier, as they wouldn't have to quickly identify speeding violations and take off in pursuit, Ford notes in the application. It also means some of that work could be delegated to self-driving cars, which could be equipped to detect speeding violations, the automaker adds.

Ford speed-violation detection patent image

It's unclear what legal argument Ford would make should it try to implement this tech, as human police officers wouldn't be witnessing the alleged speeding being reported through the connected cars. Speed cameras already provide stationary enforcement of speed limits, but they can only issue tickets based on a vehicle's license plate number because they can't confirm who is driving.

Ford has also tried to patent a "night drive mode" that would limit vehicle speeds at night for everyone'--including first responders. This takes things a bit further by turning drivers into unwitting snitches. Ford regularly files patent applications for new car tech, not all of which makes it to production.

Vade retro Satana - Fondazione EXSURGE DOMINE Ets

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:08

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games is only the latest in a long series of vile attacks on God, the Catholic Religion and natural Morality by the antichristic elite that holds Western countries hostage. We had seen no less disconcerting scenes at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 inauguration of the Gotthard Tunnel, and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, featuring infernal figures, goats, and terrifying animals. The elite who organizes these ceremonies demand not only the right to blasphemy and the obscene display of the foulest vices, but even their mute acceptance by Catholics and decent people, who are forced to suffer the outrage of seeing the most sacred symbols of their Faith and the very foundations of the Natural Law desecrated.

We witnessed a dystopian dance macabre in which holograms of the horsemen of the Apocalypse alternated with a plump blue Dionysius, served under a bell of various courses; the parody of the LGBTQ+ Last Supper, the truculent performance of a decapitated Marie Antoinette singing ‡a ira called to celebrate the horrors of the French Revolution; the ballets of bearded transvestites and effeminate dancers accompanied by pitiful mime singers. In this provocative spectacle, Satan knows how to do nothing except ruin God's creative perfection, showing himself as the envious author of every counterfeit. Satan creates nothing: he only ruins everything. He does not invent: he tampers. And his followers are no different: they humiliate woman's femininity in order to erase the motherhood that recalls the Virgin Mother; they castrate man's manhood in order to tear from him the image of God's fatherhood; they corrupt the little ones in order to kill innocence in them and make them victims of the most abject wokeism.

The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games have given scandal, not only because of the arrogant display of the ugly and the obscene, but because of the infernal subversion of Good and Evil, the insane claim to be able to blaspheme and desecrate everything, even what is most sacred, in the name of an ideology of death, ugliness, and lies that defies Christ and scandalizes those who recognize Him as Lord and God. It is no coincidence that the one sponsoring this revolting carnival is an emissary of the World Economic Forum, Emanuel Macron, who passes off a transvestite as his own wife with impunity, just as Barack Obama is accompanied by a muscular man in a wig. It is the reign of mystification, of falsehood, of fiction erected as a totem, in which man is disfigured precisely because he was created in the image and likeness of God.

Tolerance cannot be the alibi for the systematic destruction of Christian society, a society by which billions of honest and hitherto silent people identify themselves. This prevarication must end! And it must end not so much and not only because it hurts the sensibilities of believers, but because it offends the Majesty of God. Satan does not have the rights of God, evil cannot be put on the same level as Good, nor can lies be equated with Truth. This is what our civilization is based on, a civilization that some would like to bury under the physical and moral rubble of a world in shambles.

It must be made clear that the patience and forbearance of the faithful and of citizens have been exhausted, that it is no longer time to ''deplore'' but to act, even and especially when civil and religious authority are complicit in the betrayal.

It is therefore necessary for Christians to organize around the world with concrete actions, first and foremost with a boycott of the Olympic Games and all their sponsors. It is equally necessary for companies not subservient to globalism to revoke their sponsorship contracts, and for delegations and individual athletes to withdraw from the Games, which were inaugurated under the worst auspices. We must expect and demand that those responsible for this intolerable bullying be held accountable for their actions, as well as for the corruption that also accompanies this event. Finally, the homosexual set designer who gave birth to this blasphemous and vulgar spectacle must repay the fee that Macroniades charged French taxpayers.

I urge Catholics to make reparation by prayer, fasting, and penance for the outrages perpetrated against Our Lord Jesus Christ and against our holy Religion. And may the confident recourse of those who are good before the Throne of the Most High not be divorced from a general awakening of consciences, so that the King of kings may once more reign over nations, societies, families, and the Church.

+ Carlo Maria Vigan², Archbishop

July 28, 2024Dominica X post Pentecosten

Weird Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 14:45

Did you know?Shakespeare's Connection to Weird

You may know weird as a generalized term describing something unusual, but this word also has older meanings that are more specific. Weird derives from the Old English noun wyrd, essentially meaning "fate." By the 8th century, the plural wyrde had begun to appear in texts as a gloss for Parcae, the Latin name for the Fates'--three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Scots authors employed werd or weird in the phrase "weird sisters" to refer to the Fates. William Shakespeare adopted this usage in Macbeth, in which the "weird sisters" are depicted as three witches. Subsequent adjectival use of weird grew out of a reinterpretation of the weird used by Shakespeare.

Choose the Right Synonym for weird

weird, eerie, uncanny mean mysteriously strange or fantastic.

weird may imply an unearthly or supernatural strangeness or it may stress peculiarity or oddness.

weird creatures from another world

eerie suggests an uneasy or fearful consciousness that mysterious and malign powers are at work.

an eerie calm preceded the bombing raid

uncanny implies disquieting strangeness or mysteriousness.

an uncanny resemblance between total strangers

Examples of weird in a Sentence

Adjective Cosmic strings are second only to black holes in the astrophysicist's pantheon of weird objects. They are narrow, ultradense filaments formed during a phase transition'--called inflation'--within the first microsecond of cosmic history. '-- Steve Nadis , Astronomy , October 2005 If you looked at them closely you realized they were carved with weird , pagan creatures, more like hobgoblins than men, half hidden among trees and leaves'--here acanthus and there what looked like a palm tree. '-- Kate Atkinson , Case Histories , 2004 As an extended fictional device allegory is used mainly in didactic, satirical fables, such as Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm and Erewhon. In these masterpieces a surface realism of presentation gives the fantastic events a kind of weird plausibility '... '-- David Lodge , The Art of Fiction , 1992 My little brother acts weird sometimes. I heard a weird noise. That's weird'--I put my book down right here just a few minutes ago and now it's gone. Recent Examples on the WebAdjective

Roadside America prides itself on providing in-depth info and maps for the nation's funniest and weirdest must-sees. '-- Nicole Pajer, Peoplemag, 22 July 2024 There's a weird father-child relationship, which between the primary villain and the Minions in the Despicable Me series, that functions a bit like a family. '-- Dana Taylor, USA TODAY, 19 July 2024 Her scenes are animated by off-kilter rhythms and weird whims, while the rest of the film crashes into deadening realism. '-- Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2024 The doll renaissance may be healing your inner childTo some, adult women obsessing over their childhood dolls and getting fashion inspiration from their dolls might seem'... weird. '-- Averee Nelson, StyleCaster, 18 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for weird These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'weird.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

from construal as an adjective of weird entry 2 in weird sisters, name for the Fates of Greek and Roman myth (early Scots werd sisteris, Middle English wyrde systeres, Shakespeare weyard/weyward sisters, applied to the witches in Macbeth)

Noun

Middle English wird, werd, going back to Old English wyrd, going back to Germanic *wurdi- "fate, chance" (whence Old Saxon wurđ "fate," Old High German wurt, Old Norse ur°r), derivative from the base of *wer¾an- "to come about, happen, become" '-- more at worth entry 4

First Known Use

Adjective

1817, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of weird was before the 12th century Dictionary Entries Near weird

Cite this Entry

''Weird.'' Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weird. Accessed 30 Jul. 2024.

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

2 little kids killed, 9 injured in mass stabbing at Taylor Swift dance party in Southport, UK

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Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:33

Two young children were killed and nine others injured when a hooded, knife-wielding teenager rampaged through a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in the UK Monday morning, police said.

The horror unfolded shortly before noon in Southport, just outside Liverpool, when the unidentified 17-year-old arrived by taxi and started attacking the children and adults trying to stop him.

Hours later, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy confirmed that two children died and nine others were injured, including six left fighting for their lives '-- along with two adults left in critical condition from being stabbed as they ''were bravely trying to protect'' the kids.

Police work at the scene in Southport, England, where a man has been detained and a knife has been seized after a number of people were injured in a reported stabbing. APResponding officers ''were shocked to find that multiple people, many of whom were children, had been subjected to a ferocious attack and had serious injuries,'' Kennedy said.

''As a mom and a nana, I can't begin to imagine the pain and suffering that the families and the victims are going through at this time.''

A 17-year-old male was arrested, police said '-- stressing that it is ''not currently being treated as terror-related.''

No other possible motive was suggested, nor any connection between the suspect and any of those attacked.

At least 25 children were taking part in the dance workshop when the attack occurred. APWitnesses said the attacker wore a ''black hood'' when he entered the Hart Space, which also houses a nursery and had advertised ''a morning of Taylor Swift-themed yoga, dance and bracelet making.''

''It is like a scene from a horror movie,'' local merchant Colin Parry told the BBC. ''They are coming here now and screaming. It's like something from America, not like sunny Southport.''

At least 25 children from the ages of 6 to 11 were at the event when the carnage unfolded '-- with the knifeman reportedly pulling up in a taxi, witnesses said.

''I saw seven to 10 kids outside the nursery,'' said Bare Varathan, who owns a nearby shop. ''They were injured, bleeding.

''They were in the road, running from the nursery,'' Varathan said. ''They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,'' he said, indicating the neck, back and chest.

A flyer for the Taylor Swift event. Instagram/enlighten_kidsyoga_southportA Hart Space employee described the chaos.

''When I got there, there was a guy who was absolutely distraught, in a mess,'' he said. ''He'd seen two children run out of the Hart Space and he thought they had got hit by a car because the car was just full of blood at the side of the car.

The attacker entered the Hart Space, where the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop was taking place. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management''But it was actually that the children who had been stabbed had fallen into the car,'' the staffer said.

In a statement Monday, King Charles said he and Queen Camila were ''profoundly shocked '' over the ''horrific incident.

''We send our most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who have tragically lost their lives, and to all those affected by this truly appalling attack,'' the statement said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it ''horrendous and deeply shocking.''

The victims were rushed to three local children's hospitals, where they were being treated after the attack.

Officials arrive at the scene. APThe wounded victims were taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby Hospital. Their conditions were not immediately available.

One witness reported the heart-wrenching scene outside the venue following the attack.

''Horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport,'' Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. AP Start and end your day informed with our newslettersMorning Report and Evening Update: Your source for today's top stories

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One parent told the Mail his daughter was at the event.

''My daughter was in it and she was traumatized,'' he said. ''She ran away and she's safe.''

With Post wires

Black woman charged after using n-word on social media | The Independent

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Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:25

Support trulyindependent journalismOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.

Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.

A Black woman has been charged after using the n-word in a tweet to another Black woman, The Independent has learned.

Jamila Abdi, 21, was having a discussion about a football match on X (formerly known as Twitter) on 27 August 2023 and used the n-word to refer to Black footballer Alexander Isak.

''I'm so p***** off let me get my hands on that f**** n***a,'' Ms Abdi, who lives in London, wrote.

The Metropolitan Police called her in for questioning in December 2023 and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told The Independent she was charged under the Communications Act of 2003 this month.

Newcastle striker Alexander Isak (Getty Images)Although no one was tagged in the post, the Metropolitan Police has alleged in documents seen by The Independent that the post ''conveyed a message which was indecent or grossly offensive for the purpose of causing distress of anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom (...) intended (...)''.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: ''Hate crime has a profound impact on victims and communities.

''Being from an ethnic minority background does not provide a defence to racially abusing someone.

''Our commitment to tackling these abhorrent crimes through fair and impartial prosecution is unwavering.''

The Code for Crown Prosecutors states that ''it is more likely that prosecution is required if the offence was motivated by any form of prejudice against the victim's actual or presumed ethnic or national origin, gender, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender identity; or if the suspect targeted or exploited the victim, or demonstrated hostility towards the victim, based on any of those characteristics''.

Abdi is due to appear in court on 8 August.

The article was amended on 24 July 2024 to attribute to the CPS details of the act under which it said Ms Abdi had been charged.

Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children

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Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:17

Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2020 and 2022 and relate to 37 images that were shared on a WhatsApp chat, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The broadcaster was arrested last November and charged last month, the force revealed on Monday.

He is due to appear in court in London on Wednesday.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "Huw Edwards, 62, of Southwark, London has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children following a Met Police investigation.

"The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

"Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday, 26 June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

"He has been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, 31 July.

"Media and the public are strongly reminded that this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings."

Mr Edwards is accused of having six category A images, the most serious classification of indecent images, on a phone. He is also accused of having 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs.

A conviction at Crown Court could lead to a prison sentence of several years.

According to the CPS website, "making indecent images can have a wide definition in the law and can include opening an email attachment containing such an image, downloading one from a website, or receiving one via social media, even if unsolicited and even if part of a group.''

Mr Edwards left the BBC in April.

He was previously the corporation's most high-profile and best-paid news anchor, one of the main presenters on BBC One's Ten O'Clock News, and was often chosen to front coverage of major national events.

Electrohypersensitivity - International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields

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Mon, 29 Jul 2024 17:57

ICBE-EMF is dedicated to the protection of humans and other species from the harmful effects of non-ionizing radiation. Of highest concern are children, pregnant women, and those with chronic health conditions including those who are Electromagnetically Hypersensitive (EHS). We attribute the growth of EHS to the rapid expansion in anthropogenic (human-caused) electromagnetic fields. EHS symptoms may occur through use of devices or exposure to infrastructure, such as mobile phones, DECT cordless landlines, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth enabled computers, Wi-Fi routers, smart meters, base station antennas, electric vehicles, power lines, household electrical appliances and other low intensity exposures.

All biology uses electromagnetic fields as well as chemical signalling. Widely used EMF (electrical and magnetic fields) are new and very different from those found in nature, making them disruptive to normal biological functioning, even at what are labelled as low levels.

EHS is a multisystemic physical response, with symptoms that can vary among individuals due to anatomical and physiological differences. Symptoms can include sleep problems, fatigue, headache, dizziness, heart palpitation, tinnitus (ringing in the ear), skin rash, chemical sensitivity, visual, sensory, and mood disturbances. The US National Council on Disability's 2022 Health Equity Framework, recognizes that ''electrical hypersensitivity is associated with the use of wireless communications and electrical technologies and other sources of non-ionizing radiation, which may trigger disabling and life-threatening cardiac, respiratory, neurological, and other adverse physical reactions.''

The distress and disability associated with EHS is recognised by numerous social, scientific and medical organisations (WHO, 2004[1]). According to the European Commission's EESC 2019 Report on Digitalization: Challenge for Europe, ''Each day the number of ES sufferers increases: according to new estimates, between 3% and 5% of the population are electro-sensitive, meaning that some 13 million Europeans may suffer from this syndrome, which has various names: electro-sensitivity, Wi-Fi syndrome, microwave syndrome, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, etc.''[2] As these technologies continue to expand, the incidence of EHS will grow.

Many of these exposures are involuntary and now inescapable. Common outcomes of this are job, school and home loss, separation from family and friends, inability to access medical care and general lack of access to all areas of the public domain. The unmitigated, neglected widespread disruption of lives [3],[4] is inhumane and deeply troubling.

Our serious concern: EHS is an escalating humanitarian crisis

The European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM)[5] reports that EHS symptoms are occurring in response to low intensity exposures, which are orders of magnitude below the exposure limits currently supported by many governments. Current exposure limits do not protect those with EHS and there are no medical registries or trainings to facilitate appropriate registration or support for this group. Government regulatory agencies should''but do not'--investigate claims of harm and update policies to ensure greater protection of the health and welfare of the population[6]. Due to low medical awareness, most cases of EHS are unrecognized or misdiagnosed, wasting healthcare resources due to inappropriate treatment.

ICBE-EMF has been reviewing multiple types of scientific evidence and individual case reports closely and contributing to Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity science. Our goal is to see EHS formally recognized as an EMF-induced external cause of injury by public health agencies worldwide, and greater recognition of the needs of those who are EHS-disabled, so they have access to safer homes, healthcare, education, employment, opportunities, amenities, and equity of access in all public domains. Such recognition should lead to increased public awareness, research funding, and strengthened calls for lower EMF exposure limits. EHS persons must be provided with low EMF spaces for residence, work, school and general public domain access. Low EMF essential spaces need to be urgently established'--not just to reduce severity for people with EHS, but to broadly reduce the incidence of EHS.

References:

[1] Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: proceedings, International Workshop on Electromagnetic Field Hypersensitivity, Prague, Czech Republic, October 25-27, 2004, Meeting report, 13 May 2006. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241594127

[2] European Commission EESC report. Digitation: Challenges for Europe, Social Impact of Digitation, Electromagnetic Sensitivity, 2019, Chapter 3, pg. 85. https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/publications-other-work/publications/digitalisation-challenges-europe#downloads

[3] European Commission EHS Workshop, Electromagnetic-hyper-sensitivity: The state of science. April 13, 2023. Hosted by MEP Michele Rivasi. Reported by Europeans for Safe Connections https://esc-info.eu.

https://esc-info.eu/en/european-citizens-travel-to-the-eu-parliament-to-present-an-unpopular-issue/ (French and English)

[4] Hardell L, Nilsson M. Summary of seven Swedish case reports on the microwave syndrome associated with 5G radiofrequency radiation. Rev Environ Health. 2024 Jun 19. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2024-0017. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38889394. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2024-0017/html

[5] Belyaev I, Dean A, Eger H, Hubmann G, Jandrisovits R, Kern M, Kundi M, Moshammer H, Lercher P, M¼ller K, Oberfeld G, Ohnsorge P, Pelzmann P, Scheingraber C, Thill R. EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses. Rev Environ Health. 2016 Sep 1;31(3):363-97. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2016-0011. PMID: 27454111. https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh-2016-0011

[6] International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF). Scientific evidence invalidates health assumptions underlying the FCC and ICNIRP exposure limit determinations for radiofrequency radiation: implications for 5G. Environ Health. 2022 Oct 18;21(1):92. doi: 10.1186/s12940-022-00900-9. PMID: 36253855; PMCID: PMC9576312. https://icbe-emf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ICBE-EMF-paper-12940_2022_900_OnlinePDF_Patched-1.pdf

_____________________________________________________________________

Issued July 2024 The International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic FieldsICBE-EMF.orginfo@ICBE-EMF.org

VIDEO - 'He's afraid': Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump's racial attacks against Harris - YouTube

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VIDEO - BBC Radio - Americast, Americanswers! Could this be the last US election?

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We answer your questions on the biggest issues in the run-up to the election..

Show moreDonald Trump promised supporters at a rally that he would ''fix'' things so that they would never have to vote again. Was he referring to the end of democracy in the US?

We answer your questions about how to interpret Trump's messaging, as well as assessing the effect of political memes on the outcome of the election.

HOSTS:

* Marianna Spring, Disinformation & Social Media Correspondent* Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480* Email Americast@bbc.co.uk* Or use #Americast

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony's new BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

This episode was made by George Dabby with Catherine Fusillo and Rufus Gray. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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VIDEO - Open Forum, Part 1 | August 1, 2024 | C-SPAN.org

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August 1, 2024 | Part Of Washington Journal 08/01/2024 Washington Journal2024-08-01T07:00:03-04:00 https://ximage.c-spanvideo.org/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwaWN0dXJlcy5jLXNwYW52aWRlby5vcmciLCJrZXkiOiJGaWxlc1wvNDliXC8wMDFcLzE3MjI1MTAzODFfMDAxLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciIsImhlaWdodCI6NDgwfX19? Viewers commented on former President Trump's appearance at the NABJ conference in Chicago.Viewers commented on former President Trump's appearance at the NABJ conference in Chicago.

Report Video IssueGo to Live Event"; // $('div#video-embed').html(cookieMsg); // return; // } // });

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VIDEO - Google, IBM make strides toward quantum computers that may revolutionize problem solving - CBS News

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This is an updated version of a story first published on Dec. 3, 2023. The original video can be viewed here.

Artificial intelligence is the magic of the moment but this is a story about what's next, something incomprehensible. This past December, IBM announced an advance in an entirely new kind of computing - one that may solve problems in minutes that would take today's supercomputers millions of years. That's the difference in quantum computing, a technology being developed at IBM, Google and others. It's named for quantum physics, which describes the forces of the subatomic realm. And as we told you last winter, the science is deep and we can't scratch the surface, but we hope to explain just enough so that you won't be blindsided by a breakthrough that could transform civilization.

The quantum computer pushes the limits of knowledge--new science, new engineering-- all leading to this processor that computes with the atomic forces that created the universe.

Dario Gil: I think this moment, it feels to us like the pioneers of the 1940s and 50s that were building the first digital computers.

Dario Gil is something of a quantum crusader. Spanish-born with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Gil is head of research at IBM.

Scott Pelley: How much faster is this than say, the world's best supercomputer today?

Dario Gil: We are now in a stage where we can do certain calculations with these systems that would take the biggest supercomputers in the world to be able to do some similar calculation. But the beauty of it, is that we see that we're gonna continue to expand that capability, such that not even a million or a billion of those supercomputers connected together could do the calculations of these future machines. So, we've come a long way. And the most exciting part is that we have a road map and a journey right now, where that is going to continue to increase at a rate that is gonna be shocking.

IBM Director of Research Dario Gil 60 Minutes Scott Pelley: I'm not sure the world is prepared for this change.

Dario Gil: Definitely not.

To understand the change, go back to 1947 and the invention of a switch called a transistor.

Computers have processed information on transistors ever since, getting faster as more transistors were squeezed onto a chip--billions of them today.

But it takes that many because each transistor holds information in only two states. It's either on or it's off-- like a coin-- heads or tails. Quantum abandons transistors and encodes information on electrons that behave like this coin we created with animation. Electrons behave in a way so that they are heads and tails and everything in between. You've gone from handling one bit of information at a time on a transistor to exponentially more data.

Michio Kaku: You can see that there's a fantastic amount of information stored, when you can look at all possible angles, not just up or down.

Physicist Michio Kaku of the City University of New York, already calls today's computers "classical." He uses a maze to explain quantum's difference.

Michio Kaku: Let's look at a classical computer calculating how a mouse navigates a maze. It is painful. One by one, it has to map every single left turn, right turn, left turn, right turn before it finds the goal. Now a quantum computer scans all possible routes simultaneously. This is amazing. How many turns are there? Hundreds of possible turns, right? Quantum computers do it all at once.

Kaku's book, titled "Quantum Supremacy," explains the stakes.

Michio Kaku: We're looking at a race, a race between China, between IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, all the big boys are in this race to create a workable, operationally efficient quantum computer. Because the nation or company that does this, will rule the world economy.

Physicist Michio Kaku 60 Minutes But a reliable, general purpose, quantum computer is a tough climb yet. Maybe that's why this wall is in the lobby of Google's quantum lab in California.

Here, we got an inside look, starting with a microscope's view of what replaces the transistor.

Google employee: This right here is one qubit and this is another qubit, this is a five qubit chain.

Those crosses, at the bottom, are qubits, short for quantum bits. They hold the electrons and act like artificial atoms. Unlike transistors, each additional qubit doubles the computer's power. It's exponential. so, while 20 transistors are 20 times more powerful than one. Twenty qubits are a million times more powerful than one.

Charina Chou: So this gets positioned right here on the fridge.

Charina Chou, chief operating officer of Google's lab, showed us the processor that holds the qubits. Much of that above chills the qubits to what physicists call near absolute zero.

Scott Pelley: Near absolute zero I understand is about 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. So that's about as cold as anything can get.

Charina Chou: Yes, almost as cold as possible.

That temperature, inside a sealed computer, is one of the coldest places in the universe. The deep freeze eliminates electrical resistance and isolates the qubits from outside vibrations so they can be controlled with an electro-magnetic field. The qubits must vibrate in unison. But that's a tough trick called coherence.

Scott Pelley: Once you have achieved coherence of the qubits, how easy is that to maintain?

Charina Chou: It's really hard. Coherence is very challenging.

Coherence is fleeting. In all similar machines, coherence breaks down constantly--creating errors.

Charina Chou: We're making about one error in every hundred or so steps. Ultimately, we think we're gonna need about one error in every million or so steps. That would probably be identified as one of the biggest barriers.

Charina Chou, chief operating officer at Google Quantum AI, and Scott Pelley 60 Minutes Mitigating those errors and extending coherence time while scaling up to larger machines are the challenges facing German-American scientist Hartmut Neven, who founded Google's lab, and its casual style, in 2012.

Scott Pelley: Can the problems that are in the way of quantum computing be solved?

Hartmut Neven: I should confess, my subtitle here is chief optimist. After having said this, I would say at this point, we don't need any more fundamental breakthroughs. We need little improvements here and there. If we have all the pieces together, we just need to integrate them well to build larger and larger systems.

Scott Pelley: And you think that all of this will be integrated into a system in what period of time?

Hartmut Neven: Yeah. We often say we wanna do it by the end of the decade so that we can use this Kennedy quote, "Get it done by the end of the decade."

Scott Pelley: The end of this decade?

Hartmut Neven: Yes.

Scott Pelley: Five or six years?

Hartmut Neven: Yes.

That's about the timeline Dario Dil predicts. And the IBM research director told us something surprising.

Scott Pelley: There are problems that classical computers can never solve.

Dario Gil: Can never solve. And I think this is an important point because we're accustomed to say, "ah computers get better." Actually, there are many, many problems that are so complex that we can make that statement that, "Actually, classical computers will never be able to solve that problem." Not now, not 100 years from now, not 1,000 years from now." You actually require a different way to represent information and process information. That's what quantum gives you.

Quantum could give us answers to impossible problems in physics, chemistry, engineering and medicine. Which is why IBM and Cleveland Clinic have installed one of the first quantum computers to leave the lab for the real world.

Serpil Erzurum: It takes way too much time to find the solutions we need.

Dr. Serpil Erzurum, chief research officer at Cleveland Clinic 60 Minutes We sat down with Dario Gil and Dr. Serpil Erzurum, chief research officer at Cleveland Clinic. She told us health care would be transformed if quantum computers can model the behavior of proteins- the molecules that regulate all life. Proteins change shape to change function in ways too complex to follow. and when they get it wrong that causes disease.

Serpil Erzurum: It takes on many shapes, many, many shapes, depending upon what it's doing, and where it is, and which other protein it's with. I need to understand the shape it's in when it's doing an interaction or a function that I don't want it to do for that patient. Cancer, autoimmunity. It's a problem. We are limited completely by the computational ability to look at the structure in real time for any, even one, molecule.

Cleveland Clinic is so proud of its quantum computer they set it up in a lobby. Behind the glass, that shiny silver cylinder encloses the kind of cooling system and processor you saw earlier. Quantum is not solving the protein problem yet. This is more of a trial run to introduce researchers to quantum's potential.

Scott Pelley: The people using this machine, are they having to learn an entirely different way to communicate with a computer?

Dario Gil: I think that's what's really nice, that you actually just use a regular laptop, and you write a program very much like you would write a traditional program. But when you, you know, click, you know, "go" and "run," it just happens to run on a very different kind of computer.

There are a half dozen competing designs in the race. China named quantum a top national priority and the U.S. government is spending nearly a billion dollars a year on research. The first change is expected to come this year when the U.S. publishes new standards for encryption because quantum is expected one day to break the codes that lock everything from national secrets to credit cards. This past December IBM unveiled its Quantum System Two with three times the qubits as the machine you saw in cleveland. Last year we saw System Two under construction.

Dario Gil: It's a machine unlike anything we have ever built.

Scott Pelley: And this is it.

Dario Gil: And this is it.

IBM's Dario Gil told us System Two has the room to expand to thousands of qubits.

Scott Pelley: What are the chances that this is one of those things that's gonna be ready in five years and always will be?

Dario Gil: We don't see an obstacle right now that would prevent us from building systems that will have tens of thousands and even a 100 thousand qubits working with each other. So we are highly confident that we will get there.

Of all the amazing things we heard, it was physicist Michio Kaku who led us down the path to the biggest idea of all. He said we were walking through a quantum computer. Processing information with subatomic particles is how the universe works.

Michio Kaku: You know when I look at the night sky, I see stars, I look at the flowers, the trees I realize that it's all quantum, the splendor of the universe itself. The language of the universe is the language of the quantum.

Learning that language may bring more than inconceivable speed. Reverse engineering nature's computer could be a window on creation itself.

Produced by Denise Schrier Cetta and Katie Brennan. Broadcast associates, Michelle Karim and Eliza Costas. Edited by Warren Lustig

More from CBS News

In: Technology Scott Pelley Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for 60 Minutes since 2004. The 2023-24 season is his 20th on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by 60 Minutes during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.

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VIDEO - Microsoft outage

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Updated July 30, 2024 10:25am EDT

Crowdstrike Microsoft Outage: Global tech and internet outages disrupt flights, banksA global technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off air on Friday in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers.

WASHINGTON - Microsoft Azure cloud computing servers are experiencing a network infrastructure issue that's causing connection problems for users around the world, according to the company.

The company tweeted on Tuesday morning, "We're currently investigating access issues and degraded performance with multiple Microsoft 365 services and features."

This comes just a week after a global technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks and hospital systems offline and media outlets off-air on Friday in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers.

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:46

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:46

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:45

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:44

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:43

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:43

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:42

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:38

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:36

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:10

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:05

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Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:01

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Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:50

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