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Modi to Meet Trump With Eyes on Trade and Immigration Modi to Meet Trump With Eyes on Trade and Immigration Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India began meeting senior U.S. officials in Washington ahead of his anticipated visit to the White House to meet President Trump on Thursday. Mr. Modi has a warm personal relationship with Mr. Trump, and the two leaders have called each other friends. But Mr. Trump has criticized India for its high tariffs, and India is the biggest source, outside of Latin America, of unauthorized migrants in the United States. After arriving in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Modi met Tulsi Gabbard on her first day as Mr. Trump’s director of national intelligence. They discussed the relationship between the two countries, Mr. Modi’s office said, without offering details. India and the United States, the world’s largest democracies, have grown closer in the face of an increasingly assertive mutual rival, China. India has traded more with the United States than it has with China, and spent billions on U.S. defense imports in recent years. Despite their strong rapport, both Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump are strongmen with largely transactional views on foreign relations and an eye on what will please their bases. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump said India had gained an unfair trade advantage against the United States through high tariffs. And India, like basically all countries that do business with the United States, runs a trade surplus. Last year, it shipped about $87 billion worth of goods and imported $42 billion, adding $46 billion to the U.S. trade deficit. Mr. Trump views the U.S. trade deficit as a sign of economic weakness. Economists say it is an indication of American consumers’ ability to spend on imports, backed by the strong U.S. economy. But Mr. Trump has made it a priority to try adjusting the trade imbalance by imposing tariffs. Mr. Modi may reveal new measures to ease friction on trade and immigration when he meets Mr. Trump on Thursday. Indian officials have said that companies have been in talks to buy more American energy supplies like liquefied natural gas. The two leaders could also discuss increased spending by India, the world’s largest arms importer, on U.S. defense equipment. India has its limitations, including its own trade deficit. The U.S. trade deficit amounts to less than 4 percent of its economy. The deficit in India, which relies on imports for most of its fuel needs, is worth between 8 and 12 percent in most years. Mr. Modi has offered concessions, though some have been largely symbolic. India recently reduced tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which Mr. Trump had zeroed in on as a symbol of India’s misuse of tariffs. The reduction, though, had little effect on the company. India has also raised the prospect of lower duties on goods like bourbon and pecans, which are produced mainly in Republican states. Mr. Modi has offered concessions on immigration, too, saying he would repatriate Indians deported from the United States, even as it caused an embarrassment for him. Just days before his trip to Washington, the arrival of more than 100 Indians on a U.S. military plane caused a domestic backlash. There was uproar in India’s Parliament last week over reports that migrants were mistreated on that journey, including being shackled and handcuffed. India is also hoping to move on from Biden-era legal actions against Indians, including those related to accusations of an Indian government plot to assassinate an American citizen on U.S. soil. There has also been speculation that the Justice Department could drop criminal charges of fraud and bribery against Gautam Adani, a billionaire ally of Mr. Modi. Source link #Modi #Meet #Trump #Eyes #Trade #Immigration Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Monopoly Go invites you to share the love this Valentine’s Day Monopoly Go invites you to share the love this Valentine’s Day Trade stickers to contribute to the community milestone Grab goodies once goals are reached Share the love until February 17th Scopely, Inc. is celebrating all the feels this love month within Monopoly Go, opening up the “Share the Love campaign” from now until the 17th. This means that while the Sweet Partners event is going on, you’ll be able to trade your Stickers with your buddies and add to the Share The Love Community Milestone. As you can probably expect, this will keep stacking up until the milestone goal is hit within Monopoly Go, and when the goal is reached, every player who took part will rake in Rolls and maybe even a Blue Sticker Pack. All you have to do is fill out a special form to reap the rewards of your generous contribution. As for the goals you need to keep an eye on, the first milestone will be 800k Trades for 70 Rolls, while the second one will be 1M Trades for 90 Rolls. And finally, the last milestone will be 1.3M Trades for the Blue Sticker Pack. The goodies will be given away on February 21st. Obviously, everyone’s going to want even more freebies with something like this, so if you’re keen on more rewards you can get your hands on, why not take a look at our list of free Monopoly Go dice links? It’s updated daily so you don’t miss out. In the meantime, if you’re eager to join in on all the fun, you can do so by checking out Monopoly Go on the App Store and on Google Play. It’s free-to-play with in-app purchases. You can also join the community of followers on the official Twitter page to stay updated on all the latest developments, visit the official website for more info, or take a little peek at the embedded clip above to get a feel of the vibes and visuals. Source link #Monopoly #invites #share #love #Valentines #Day Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

***** under wraps: how Tinder, Hinge and their corporate owner chose profits over safety | US news ***** under wraps: how Tinder, Hinge and their corporate owner chose profits over safety | US news The Dating Apps Reporting Project is an 18-month investigation. It was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network and the Markup, now a part of CalMatters, and co-published with the Guardian and the 19th. When a young woman in Denver met up with a smiling cardiologist she matched with on the dating app Hinge, she had no way of knowing that the company behind the app had already received reports from two other women who had accused him of *****. She met the 34-year-old doctor with green eyes and thinning hair at Highland Tap & Burger, a sports bar in a trendy neighborhood. It went well enough that she accepted an invitation to go back to his apartment. As she emerged from his bathroom, he handed her a tequila soda. What transpired over the next 24 hours, according to court testimony, reads like every person’s dating app nightmare. After sipping the drink, the woman started to lose control. Her memory blurred. She fell to the ground, and the man started to film her. He put her in a headlock, kissing her forehead; she struggled to free herself but managed to grab her things and leave. He followed her out the door, holding her shoes and trying to force her back inside, but she was able to call an Uber, vomiting in the car on the way home. She woke up at home, soaking wet on her bathroom floor, the key to her house still in her door. She continued vomiting for hours. When she came to, she reported the assault to Hinge. Hinge is one of more than a dozen dating apps owned by Match Group. The $8.5bn global conglomerate also owns brands like Tinder (the world’s most popular dating app), OKCupid and Plenty of Fish. Match Group controls half of the world’s online dating market, operates in 190 countries and facilitates meetups for millions of people. Match Group’s official safety policy states that when a user is reported for assault, “all accounts found that are associated with that user will be banned from our platforms”. So why, on the night of 25 January 2023, was Stephen Matthews still on the app? Just four days before, Match Group had been alerted when another woman reported him for *****. A little more than a week later, he was reported for ***** again. This time, the survivor went to the police. None of these women knew that the company had known about his violent behavior for years. He was first reported on 28 September 2020. By then, Match Group’s safety policy was already in place. Even after a police report, it took nearly two months for Matthews to be arrested – the only thing that got him off the apps. At least 15 women would eventually report that Matthews had ****** or drugged them. Nearly every one of them had met him on dating apps run by Match Group. ‘Even after a police report, it took nearly two months for Matthews to be arrested – the only thing that got him off the apps.’ Photograph: Anson Chan On 25 October, a Denver judge sentenced Matthews to 158 years to life in prison after a jury convicted him of 35 counts related to drugging and ********* assaulting eight women, drugging two women and assaulting one more for a total of 11 women. Attorneys for the women said much of that violence could have been prevented. “It is shocking that for years after receiving reports of ******* assault, Hinge continued to allow Stephen Matthews access to its platforms and actively facilitated his abuse,” said Laura Wolf, the attorney representing the woman whose police report led to the arrest. Following best practices for reporting on ******* assault, the Dating Apps Reporting Project is honoring survivors’ requests for anonymity. Matthews’s attorney, Douglas Cohen, declined to comment. A letter that the Dating Apps Reporting Project sent directly to Matthews in jail went unanswered. Match Group’s reach is so massive – its mission is “to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide” – that people are more likely to meet through its apps than out at the bars, at church or through friends. But Matthews’s case shows that even as these apps have made it easier for people to connect with a seemingly endless pool of potential lovers, they have also made it easier for people who commit ******* abuse to reach a seemingly endless number of potential targets. In 2022, a team of researchers at Brigham Young University published an analysis of hundreds of ******* assaults in Utah. They found that attacks facilitated by dating apps happened faster and were more violent than when the perpetrator met the victim through other means. They also found that perpetrators who used dating apps were more likely to target vulnerable people. Almost 60% of ******* assault survivors self-reported a mental illness. Match Group has known since at least 2016 which users have been reported for drugging, assaulting or raping their dates, according to internal company documents. Since 2019, Match Group’s central database has recorded every user reported for ***** and assault across its entire suite of apps; by 2022, the system, known as Sentinel, was collecting hundreds of troubling incidents every week, company insiders say. Match Group promised in 2020 that it would release what’s known as a transparency report – a public document that would reveal data on harm occurring on and off its platforms. If the public were aware of the scale of ***** and assault on Match Group apps, they would be able to accurately assess their risk. As of February 2025, the report has not been released. Instead, as people continued to get hurt, the company dithered over what damning information should be hidden. “Do we publish only where we are required by law?” reads a slide in a 2021 presentation shown multiple times to Match Group employees as well as to external safety partners. “Do we push back on how much we are required to reveal, or do we try to go beyond what is required?” Screenshot of an 8 April 2021 Match Group presentation about the company’s transparency-reporting strategy. Photograph: Markup No online space is risk-free. But while Match Group has long possessed the tools, financial resources and investigative procedures necessary to make it harder for bad actors to resurface, internal documents show the company resisted efforts to spread them across its apps, in part because safety protocols could stall corporate growth. “The obsession with metrics and having to stick with them is frustrating and potentially dangerous,” one employee wrote in 2021 after the company learned that the investigative news non-profit ProPublica was planning a story. “This is not the way we were meant to work and people’s lives are at risk.” Screenshot of a 2021 document with a Match Group employee’s feedback. Photograph: Markup The same person asked their superiors: “‘How much would you personally pay to stop just one person being ********* assaulted by a date, one child being trafficked or one vulnerable person being driven to suicide by a predator?’ I feel that if I asked members of our staff that question individually, they would put a high value of their own money on it – but as a group nobody is ready to hear that yet.” Since 2021, Match Group has publicly promised to improve the safety of their products and to share data, but company insiders say safety has not improved. A brief hiring spree sparked by congressional and media scrutiny has been largely scaled back, according to former employees. In 2024, the remaining employees from the central trust-and-safety team Match Group had set up in response to increased scrutiny were let go and their jobs outsourced to overseas contractors. Facing pressure from Wall Street, Match Group removed its CEO, Bernard Kim, in early February 2025 as he struggled to cut costs and end the steady decline in subscribers to Match Group’s most powerful app, Tinder. Members of Congress have repeatedly requested data from Match Group on ******* harm. In February 2020, 11 members of Congress wrote to then CEO Shar Dubey asking for details on how the company responds to reports of ******* violence. In July 2023, two Democrats, the then representative Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and the representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois followed up after we inquired on the status of their efforts. The company has still not provided the data. In September 2024, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have required consumers to be notified if they had interacted with a user on a dating app who had been banned for defrauding consumers of money or personal financial information. But the bill stopped short of addressing the issue of ******* assault on the apps, and it died in the Senate. Our review of hundreds of pages of internal company documents, along with thousands of pages of court records, securities filings and analyst reports, coupled with dozens of interviews with current and former employees and survivors of ******* violence found that women who report being ****** get no traction, while accused rapists like Stephen Matthews keep swiping – and assaulting. Our own testing on Match Group apps showed that as of February 2025, not much had changed. Banned Tinder users, including those reported for ******* assault, would easily rejoin or move to another Match Group dating app, all while keeping most of their key personal information exactly the same. The Dating Apps Reporting Project sent Match Group a four-page letter detailing our findings. The company responded with a short statement. The statement did not dispute that Match Group had carefully documented the extent of harm on company apps for years without sharing that information with the public. It also defended the company’s efforts to make platforms safe. “We recognize our role in fostering safer communities and promoting authentic and respectful connections worldwide,” the statement provided by Kayla Whaling, senior director of communications, read. “We will always work to invest in and improve our systems, and search for ways to help our users stay safe, both online and when they connect in real life.” The company said it vigorously combats violence. “We take every report of misconduct seriously, and vigilantly remove and block accounts that have violated our rules regarding this behavior,” its statement read. Our own testing found otherwise. Starting in April 2024, the Dating Apps Reporting Project created a series of Tinder accounts that we subsequently reported for ******* assault. Soon after, Tinder banned the accounts, and we started investigating how easy it would be for a banned user to create new accounts. Repeatedly, we found that users, soon after being banned, could create new Tinder accounts with the exact same name, birthday and profile photos used on their banned accounts. Users banned from Tinder were also able to sign up for Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish without changing those personal details. To get around the Tinder ban, we used techniques commonly suggested by online guides and forums that don’t require much technical knowledge to understand. We were able to verify three techniques that allowed banned Match Group users to repeatedly bypass being flagged when creating new accounts. In its statement, Match Group cast itself as an industry leader in deploying technology to promote safety, including “harassment-preventing AI tools, ID verification for profiles, and a portal that helps us better support and communicate with law enforcement investigating crimes. … Every person deserves safe and respectful experiences. We are committed to doing the work to make dating safer on our platforms and beyond.” 28 September 2020 – the date Denver cardiologist Stephen Matthews ****** a woman who reported him to Hinge – is also the date Tracey Breeden was brought on as Match Group’s head of safety and social advocacy. Breeden was a flashy hire. “With Tracey coming on board, we are reaffirming our commitment not just to be safety leaders in the dating space, but across the entire tech sector,” then CEO Shar Dubey said. Sporting a trademark ****** leather jacket and short, slick-backed hair, Breeden had gone by the nickname “Tornado” during her 15-year career in law enforcement. What made her attractive to Match Group was her most recent job at Uber: she had helped the global ride-hailing company revive its reputation after a series of scandals, from persistent reports of harassment of female employees to allegations that it was ignoring ******* assault that occurred during Uber rides. Breeden spearheaded a safety report in 2019 that told the public what Uber knew about nearly every problem, including nationwide reports of intoxicated drivers, traffic fatalities and incidents of ******* violence. The report became a key metric of success for the company. In hiring Breeden, Match Group hoped to replicate this success across its portfolio of apps. “Corporations,” she said in a press release announcing her arrival, “have a responsibility to help ensure safe experiences for their users.” Breeden’s team garnered public attention for their new safety measures, including partnerships with NGOs, optional AI-assisted photo verification and a law-enforcement portal where police and prosecutors could request data. She also fostered a partnership with Garbo, a startup that offered low-cost background checks. It launched on Tinder in 2022. Experts point out that background checks are not always reliable as they pull from outdated databases, and research suggests that most people who commit ******* abuse do not encounter the criminal justice system. For example, Matthews had no criminal record. During this time, Match Group invested $100m in safety, the company said, and boasted about Breeden’s “central safety team”. Her team of veteran safety professionals referred to themselves as “the Avengers”, even donning superhero costumes at company events. An Avengers Zoom background, displayed at a Match Group company event. Photograph: Markup But Michael Lawrie called this “safety theater”. Lawrie worked for Match Group for nearly a decade, shaping and leading a safety team for one of the company’s smaller brands, OKCupid. Sometimes working 80-hour weeks, he spent hours, even days, sniffing out savvy users who tried to thwart bans by creating multiple accounts. Over a 30-year career in content moderation, Lawrie said, he saw many users like Stephen Matthews. “You’re dealing with one repeat offender. I’ve dealt with God knows how many repeat offenders,” he said. A yellow Post-it note on the side of Lawrie’s work computer had listed out some of his responsibilities: “***** flags. … Investigate miscreants.” These days, Lawrie is trying to start an advocacy organization for content moderators and other frontline safety workers. But, he said, he’s done with dating apps. “I don’t think they’re safe enough at the moment,” he said. “They’re going to get worse. … I’m hoping dating sites vanish.” Lawrie said he was initially excited about Breeden’s hire. He said she spent her first few months on the job talking to each brand’s safety team, and told him that she was “very impressed” by the work OKCupid was doing. Michael Lawrie, former head of user safety and advocacy at OKCupid. Photograph: Courtesy of Michael Lawrie Leaders from each of Match Group’s biggest apps provided their self-described strengths and weaknesses to Breeden’s team, according to an internal spreadsheet. At Hinge, these weaknesses included a “very rudimentary warning system with no targeted comms and no follow through” and “no way to find” the original profile “of a bad actor who has created multiple profiles”. Breeden was confronted with an existential problem. “Our current ban categories won’t allow us to answer the public’s biggest question: Am I likely to be harmed on my date?” reads a slide in a presentation drafted by her team in April 2021. While each of Match Group’s apps had a system of reporting and banning violent users, the information was disorganized, and none of the apps talked to each other. A slide from a 2021 Match Group presentation. Photograph: Markup Lawrie hoped Breeden would improve safety at the company. But he quickly grew frustrated that neither she nor Match Group leadership listened to his pleas for what they really needed to make platforms safer: to hire trained – and expensive – investigators and integrate powerful moderation tools across all the apps. OKCupid already had those tools. Lawrie was using them every day. One of those was the Sentinel system, which had been up and running across Match Group’s apps for at least five years before Breeden arrived. It worked like this: when a user was banned for something serious – like ******* assault – a case was created in Sentinel with the phone number and email address associated with their account. In interviews, multiple current and former employees described how those reports circulated through each of Match Group’s apps. The system was designed to ban anyone who used that information. It also grabbed the original profile’s IP addresses, photos and birthdate. An example of a banned user in Sentinel, with sensitive information redacted by the Markup. Photograph: Markup Such a system seems robust at first glance – but none of the Match Group’s apps required users to provide photo identification (the kind needed to buy alcohol or board an airplane), so once a person was kicked out, they would easily start a new account with different contact information. A quick search yielded scores of online forums with clear steps and suggestions for how to rejoin the apps. In addition, internal company documents showed that information on IP addresses, photos and birthdate were not used to ban a user if they appeared on another Match dating app. Lawrie’s team at OKCupid knew Sentinel could only do so much. So his team deployed other tools to fix its shortcomings, including one that could automatically ban a profile that was linked to a phone number, photo or URL that had been previously banned – even if the user made an account with a different email or IP address. This tool was designed to be proactive rather than reactive, so that the profiles of alleged perpetrators like Matthews would not resurface after they had been reported. Internal company documents from 2019 and 2020 show thousands of reports of “serious physical assault”, abuse and violence on OKCupid that were deemed serious enough to get users banned from all of Match Group’s apps. This is among the information the company kept from the public. Breeden and Match Group leadership praised Lawrie and his team at OKCupid, he said, for their thorough investigative work and for handling some of the company’s most difficult cases. Yet, he said, Match Group never built out a skilled, experienced investigative unit at other brands like the one he headed up at OKCupid. Under Breeden’s leadership, he said, they faced pressure to speed up investigations and train outsourced labor to use complicated moderation tools. In 2021, a week after a damning article revealed that content moderators with little training were asked to rapidly deal with violent ******* content across Match Group’s brands, then CEO Dubey sent out an all-staff email addressing the controversy. She CC’d Breeden, acknowledging that the brand’s safety teams were not all on equal footing. As Match Group prepared internally for the story to break, Lawrie was asked to write a report for Breeden outlining his team’s accomplishments “to make sure when Tracey describes and acknowledges what you are doing individually to celebrate the good work that you are doing”. Lawrie used that report to protest. “Most professionals aren’t judged on how many cases they can hurry through in an hour,” he wrote. The way Match Group expected its trust-and-safety and support teams to work “basically diminishes their skills and makes them production-line workers”. Breeden declined to comment for this story, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Lawrie left the company in 2022 and said most of his small team that had been ferreting out malicious users also left due to a negative workplace environment. He said much of their work was outsourced to contractors with little training and severe quotas. He now cautions anyone using a dating app to understand that the apps are not in the business of protecting users. “You’re on your own pretty much,” he said. As Lawrie was getting pushed out of Match Group, Matthews kept appearing on the company’s apps. One crisp fall evening in 2022, one of the Denver cardiologist’s old medical school classmates was on Hinge when her phone screen filled up with a familiar face. Matthews was being promoted on the app as a Standout, a popular profile that Hinge’s algorithm thinks another user will like. To match with a Standout, users must send the person a rose. They get one free rose a week, but they cost $3.99 a pop after that. His classmate did not send Matthews a rose. Despite having been reported for ***** to Hinge, Stephen Matthews’s profile was promoted on the app as a Standout, as indicated by the rose icon in the bottom-right corner. Photograph: Pulitzer Center/Markup By this point, Matthews had already been reported for ***** at least once to Hinge. Court documents show that he had already allegedly ********* assaulted nine women and drugged 10. Not only did the apps allow him back on, they featured Matthews’s profile. As the Covid-19 pandemic dragged on, people got tired of forking money over for dating apps. Match Group still made a hefty profit, but its growth flatlined. Its stock cratered, losing nearly half its value between October 2021 and April 2022. That month, an analyst from JP Morgan wrote that the firm had received more messages about “the underperformance of MTCH shares in recent weeks than any other topic”. In May 2022, Match ousted Dubey as CEO and installed Bernard Kim, a former executive at the gaming company Zynga that had popularized viral games like FarmVille. While Dubey spoke frequently about trust and safety and worked closely with Breeden, Kim hardly mentioned safety when he began his time at Match Group, instead emphasizing the need for continued rapid expansion to drive long-term shareholder value. Lawrie said that Kim, with his background in gaming rather than dating apps, had no interest in love. “He just wants to make money. He’s just there to increase profits,” Lawrie said. “If he’s looking at a bottom line, then it’s easier to have a lawsuit than it is to provide safety. I know which one he’s gonna pick.” Match Group declined to make Kim available for an interview. Messages sent to Kim directly went unreturned. While the tension between growth and safety exists across the tech sector, it is especially high at dating-app companies where executives have to worry about constant churn – users leaving the apps when they are no longer looking for dates. Every time Match Group delivers on its promise, it loses customers. In February 2024, six dating-app users filed what they hope will be certified as a class-action lawsuit. They argue Match Group uses “addictive” features to encourage compulsive use while not leading to any real increase in off-app relationships. “The app is designed specifically to hook them, and to keep them paying subscription fees – not to help them find love,” attorney Ryan Clarkson said. Match Group filed to dismiss the lawsuit in September, noting in its quarterly report that it “will defend vigorously” against the allegations. Despite Kim’s efforts, Match Group’s stock price continued to drop, and during that time, so did any mention of trust and safety. In more than a year of quarterly investor calls, Kim only referenced safety efforts once. Employees who pushed for these initiatives were forced out or laid off, including Breeden – a leader who was so convinced of her own invincibility that she showed up to an event wielding a Captain America shield. Shar Dubey (left), then CEO of Match Group, speaking with Tracey Breeden (right). Photograph: Pulitzer Center/Markup Match Group fired its power hire in October 2022. Layoffs hit her team over the next several months. In February 2024, the remaining critical investigators and law enforcement liaisons on Breeden’s central safety team were shown the door. Lawrie said group chats of former Match Group employees have been gossiping about the cutbacks. “You’re not going to see them taking safety seriously ever again,” he said, adding that the only thing he thinks might change that is legislation. Four months before Matthews was arrested, a post on a Facebook group in Denver blew up, right around Christmas. Among posts warning other women about potentially harmful men, over and over again women furiously detailed negative experiences they or their friends had had with Matthews. Some women described him as “sketchy”. Others called him “terrible” and “not safe”. Multiple women told a similar, dark story: that they had been offered drinks, blacked out and were ********* assaulted. The thread reached 150 comments. Two women wrote the same thing: that they had been waiting for someone to post about the cardiologist. The flood of Facebook comments mirrored details in the police reports released the following year. Nearly all of the 16 women included in the district attorney’s initial complaints had been offered tequila. Eight recalled playing Jenga. Six mentioned a hot tub. As these stories circulated in this small corner of the internet in December 2022, the Denver cardiologist stayed on Match Group apps. Those fortunate enough to know about the Facebook group – and who had the foresight to check for Matthews on it – would be saved from a bad date or worse. But the fact that he could still log in to Tinder and Hinge left him with a pool of thousands of unsuspecting women whom he could – and would – continue to match with. The Dating Apps Reporting Project is aware of four additional women who have accused Matthews of drugging and/or raping them who were not part of the criminal complaint. Each of these women met Matthews on a Match Group app during a single year between the summers of 2020 and 2021. During the years Matthews was on their apps, Match Group hired and fired Breeden. It made loud promises on ******* violence, announced initiatives and product lines, and promised a transparency report. But it was not straight with the public, which meant the women matching with Matthews on Match Group apps were not aware of the risk they faced. Match Group’s partnership with Garbo, the background-check company, also fell apart in the summer of 2023. “It’s become clear that most online platforms aren’t legitimately committed to trust and safety for their users,” Garbo wrote in a searing blog post. After spending so much energy talking about monetization, gamification and growth, Kim began to publicly acknowledge this problem. Speaking at the Citibank conference in the fall of 2023, he said the company was investing in new features to make sure “women have a good experience while they’re in the product. They feel safe. They feel secure. Etc.” The “etc” does not seem to include increased transparency about safety. Instead, in May 2023, Tinder released a “female-focused package”, a curated list of “high-quality profiles”. It is unclear how Tinder determines these high-quality matches. Hinge’s Standout feature, which is similar, had previously promoted Matthews. In fact, under Kim’s leadership, all mentions of a transparency report disappeared from the company’s annual impact report. Ironically, this was around the same time that new legislation in Europe required tech companies to disclose reports of “non-consensual behavior” and other issues. Match Group will be required to submit a transparency report to the European Union on the scope of harm on their platforms later this month. Lawmakers in India and Australia are also demanding transparency. This is exactly the situation Breeden and her team pondered three years ago. “What if publishing in one jurisdiction sparks a requirement in another?” read a slide in the same internal presentation where Match Group’s trust-and-safety leaders wondered whether they should “push back on how much [they] are required to reveal”. After Match Group published a disappointing earnings report in February 2025 that fell below analysts’ expectations, it also announced that Kim would be replaced by the former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. Tinder’s revenue, sales and subscribers had all gone down. As Match Group struggles to reverse its decline, it’s also aware that its reputation is in the spotlight. Earnings calls and shareholder letters over the first three quarters of 2024 indicate that the company knows it is a business imperative to make women feel safer on its platforms. Match Group brought in a new vice-president of trust and safety whose job partly focuses on complying with increased global transparency requirements. The company is experimenting with requiring faces in photos and rolled out a “Share My Date” feature so you can be tracked while meeting up with an online stranger. On Tinder, it orchestrated a “major ecosystem cleanup” geared toward identifying fake profiles and getting scammers off the app. But neither the cleanup nor tracking a date from your phone would have stopped Matthews – a man who never sought to hide his identity, who assaulted his dates in his own home – from finding and harming women. Four years after Matthews’s first documented assault, he walked into a wood-paneled courtroom in Denver and was sentenced to 158 years to life in prison. “I will sentence. I cannot heal,” the judge, Eric Johnson, told the room filled with survivors and family members. “Countless women have suffered and will continue to suffer,” said Laura Wolf, an attorney who represented the woman whose police report triggered Matthews’s arrest. “Hinge and other dating platforms have taken no steps to ensure the safety of the product they are selling, matching unsuspecting women to known predators without pause or concern.” Match Group didn’t make it easy for the Denver prosecutors to convict Matthews. A search warrant was issued for Hinge in July 2023. Two months later, prosecutors were still empty-handed – with the judge in the case asking at a hearing whether he needed to start “dragging people in to get stuff done”. It wasn’t until February 2024 that the Denver district attorney’s office said they had finally received documents returned by Match Group. Matthews will likely never leave prison. Match Group executives currently face no charges. But the company knew about Matthews, and it knows about thousands of other abusive users. It has the data that could help people avoid dangerous situations, but it hasn’t shared it, leaving millions of people in the dark. Lawmakers around the world are starting to ask for answers from the most powerful force in modern dating. In June, Colorado passed a law, triggered by the Matthews case, that forces dating-app companies to tell the state attorney general which safety measures they are taking to protect users. Although the law leaves room for the possibility of additional transparency in the future, it does not currently require the company to tell the state, or the public, how many people are ****** or assaulted after using its platform. In the US, the surface has only been scratched. In most states, there’s little that requires Match Group to share information with users – or with Congress. The reality is that if Stephen Matthews were released today, he could get right back on a dating app. Match Group knows this – and now so do you. Stephanie Wolf contributed reporting. Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett led the Markup’s testing of Match Group apps. Methodology: How we tested Match Group’s dating apps The Markup created more than 50 accounts across Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish to test how Match Group treats reports of ******* assault and whether users banned from Tinder after a reported ******* assault could return to Match Group apps by creating new accounts. We conducted experiments in April and May of 2024 and again in January and February of 2025. The results were similar across both rounds of testing. To start, the Markup tested whether and how quickly Tinder would ban users who had been reported for in-person behavior. We found that Tinder consistently banned reported users within two days of receiving a report. Next, we tested whether a banned Tinder user could use their exact same basic account information to sign up for other Match Group dating apps: Hinge, OKCupid and Plenty of Fish. Hinge and OKCupid prevented us from creating accounts, but Plenty of Fish allowed us to create new accounts. Within 48 hours, the Plenty of Fish accounts were taken down. Our next tests focused on identifying what type of changes would allow banned users to rejoin Tinder or to create new accounts on other Match Group apps. To simulate what a typical user would try, the Markup utilized online guides and forums to identify commonly suggested techniques to get around a ban from a Match Group app. We then tried a combination of these suggestions, especially those that self-identified banned users claimed to have had success with. Across several rounds of testing, we found multiple ways to successfully create new Match Group accounts that bypassed the ban. Each method involved simple changes in how we signed up and the information we provided during the process. When attempting to rejoin or to create a new account on another Match Group app, we used the normal sign-up processes users go through and used the same phone number as the original banned account. During multiple tests, we successfully created new accounts without needing to change the user’s name, birthday or profile photos. The Markup did not test any methods that required significant technical knowledge and utilized only information that would be easily accessible to someone who did a cursory search of how to get around a ban. For example, the Markup did not test whether changing a profile photo’s metadata could alter the results. The Markup’s test accounts created for these experiments purposefully did not like, match with or message any real Match Group users. Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett Information and support for anyone affected by ***** or ******* abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the ***, ***** Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Source link #***** #wraps #Tinder #Hinge #corporate #owner #chose #profits #safety #news Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

‘Universal Language’ Review: If Tehran Were Winnipeg ‘Universal Language’ Review: If Tehran Were Winnipeg Actually, the onscreen text that I could read was in English subtitles, because the logo was rendered in Persian — unexpected for a purportedly Winnipeg-based organization. It’s the first indication that this movie is not set in a world strictly like our own. In their screenplay, Rankin, Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati came up with a world that is sort of a thought experiment: What if Tehran were Winnipeg? Or Winnipeg were Tehran? What if the landscapes were snowy, the Tim Hortons were teahouses and everyone spoke Persian? Persian and French, technically — this is Canada after all. There’s no reason given for this alt-historical fact: This is just normal Canada but with Iranian cultural traditions having fully melded with ********* ones for whatever reason. In fact, the first scene is set in a French-immersion language school full of rambunctious children, including one dressed up as Groucho Marx (cigar included) and one, named Omid (Sobhan Javadi), who insists that a turkey stole his glasses. The ill-tempered teacher (Mani Soleymanlou), who excoriates the children for not even having “the decency to misbehave in French,” declares that there will no school until Omid has glasses again. “A turkey stole my glasses” is the sort of thing that a kid would come up with only if turkeys were wandering around town, and indeed, this Winnipeg is obsessed with turkeys. Old men in the Tim Hortons teahouse (a Tim Hortons sign rendered in Persian is one of the film’s many sight gags) talk all day about their turkeys, the turkeys they’ve lost, the glory of their beautiful turkeys. Maybe it’s just the unfailingly snowy weather, but everyone seems to be sad about something — there’s a “Kleenex repository” in town to supply tissues to everyone and a resident lacrimologist studying tears at the cemetery, which is situated between a bunch of highways. Other characters wander through the story, which is shot in a richly textured style meant to mimic the films of the Iranian New Wave — essentially, Winnipeg as Tehran, circa 1970. There’s a tour guide (Pirouz Nemati) who has seemingly ensnared some rare Winnipeg tourists into following him around to see the sites of interest, all of which are fabulously commonplace, like the location of The Great Parallel Parking Incident of 1958, or the UNESCO-designated site where someone left a briefcase at a bus stop and nobody has moved it in years, nor peered into it. “The Forgotten Briefcase and its bench,” the guide tells the group, is “a monument to absolute inter-human solidarity, even at its most basic and banal.” In another small plot, two girls (Rojina Esmaeili and Saba Vahedyousefi) discover a 500-riel bill (the word seems to be a play on the Iranian currency, called rial) frozen in ice, and they realize this could be the answer to all of their problems: If they could get it out, then they could get glasses for Omid, and school could start again. But first they need an ax. Where will they get an ax? Source link #Universal #Language #Review #Tehran #Winnipeg Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

*** economy ekes out 0.1% growth in the fourth quarter, beating expectations – CNBC *** economy ekes out 0.1% growth in the fourth quarter, beating expectations – CNBC *** economy ekes out 0.1% growth in the fourth quarter, beating expectations CNBCBritain’s Economy Squeezes Out 0.1% Growth The New York TimesUK economy grows by 0.1% in unexpected boost for Rachel Reeves The GuardianGDP latest: *** economy unexpectedly grew at the end of last year, new figures show BBC.com Source link #economy #ekes #growth #fourth #quarter #beating #expectations #CNBC Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

For Trump and Fox News, New Policies Are Simply ‘Common Sense’ For Trump and Fox News, New Policies Are Simply ‘Common Sense’ President Trump’s rapid-fire policy actions are reshaping the federal government, and to Fox News, they are simply pursuing “common sense.” Enacting “bold and sometimes painful measures” is worth it, one Fox News host said, to arrive at “common sense.” Mr. Trump’s term so far, another Fox pundit concluded, could be summed up with that simple catchphrase: It’s a “restoration of common sense.” “Trump isn’t radical — he’s just radically changing our country back to normal,” Jesse Watters said during Monday’s episode of “Jesse Watters **********.” He said Mr. Trump’s plans to “deport migrants” and cut waste were “all common-sense moves.” The flood of “common sense” comments on Fox News echoes the language Mr. Trump and his new administration have used to justify his policies — many of which have deeply divided the country, polls have shown. The administration has deployed the slogan to support a range of actions, from banning paper straws to reversing efforts to stem climate change, and has described his first weeks as a “revolution in common sense.” “It’s easy to do a good job when you are acting on common sense and you are speaking the truth,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, at a recent briefing. The shared language reflects the deepening ties between the government and the right-wing media, especially Fox News, by far the nation’s most popular cable news network. Nearly 20 former Fox News alumni have joined the administration, including at the highest levels, with the former hosts Pete Hegseth taking over the Pentagon and Sean Duffy leading the Transportation Department. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, has received her own show on the network. Fox News declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The suggestion from Fox News and the White House is that Mr. Trump’s “common sense” policies are not only the right ones but also have wide support among the vast majority of Americans. Polling has offered a more complicated picture. Mr. Trump’s efforts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion — known as D.E.I. — evenly divide the country, according a New York Times and Ipsos poll from January, before his inauguration: 48 percent want to eliminate such programs while 47 percent support them. The same can be said for parts of Mr. Trump’s Middle East policy. (Mr. Trump has supported aid for Israel, while 53 percent in the same survey said the United States was spending too much to support the country.) Deporting all ******** immigrants, a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s immigration policy, has a slim majority of support, with 55 percent backing the idea. Some of Mr. Trump’s other policies are more popular: Most Americans — about 80 percent, including two-thirds of Democrats — said transgender women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, according to the January poll. (Mr. Trump signed an executive order barring their participation.) A larger share, about 87 percent, support deporting unauthorized immigrants with a criminal record, the poll found. (Mr. Trump signed a law in January that would deport undocumented immigrants charged with a variety of crimes, from shoplifting to *******.) Other policies pushed as “common sense” by Mr. Trump and conservative media do not have recent polling to assess their popularity, including ending the penny and requiring a photo ID to vote. The embrace of “common sense” has surged on Fox News, where the term was mentioned nearly 500 times in January, according to data from Critical Mention, a media monitoring company, an increase from around 200 per month in the years prior. Some of the mentions on Fox News come from its own “Common Sense Department,” a segment hosted by Trace Gallagher that reacts to news based on what “common sense” would dictate. As Mr. Trump moved to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development, which provides funding for humanitarian programs around the world, protests erupted and Democratic lawmakers held rallies in support of the group. Mr. Gallagher dismissed the fracas during a segment by highlighting some programs funded by U.S.A.I.D.: “Common sense would not describe this as foreign aid but rather a domestic boondoggle, a multibillion-dollar boondoggle.” Recent polling shows that a majority of Americans — about 60 percent — support focusing on problems at home rather than abroad, a shift from 2019, when Americans were evenly split on that question. (A poll on foreign aid spending, from 2014, also showed that 95 percent of respondents overestimated or didn’t know how much the United States spent on foreign aid. The correct answer: less than 1 percent of the federal budget.) Mark Levin, a Fox News host and close ally of Mr. Trump, seemed to recognize the echo between the White House and Fox News when he raised the president’s catchphrase on his show. “What Trump is proposing is not radical, it’s ‘common sense,’ as he puts it,” Mr. Levin said. “When he says ‘common sense,’ for many of us, it means conservative. Because conservative is common sense.” Ruth Igielnik and Christine Zhang contributed reporting. Source link #Trump #Fox #News #Policies #Simply #Common #Sense Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ Review: The Master Blasters ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ Review: The Master Blasters A new documentary looks back at the band’s early years, featuring interviews with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in retrospective mode. Source link #Led #Zeppelin #Review #Master #Blasters Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Child autism assessment waits ‘soul-destroying’, say parents Child autism assessment waits ‘soul-destroying’, say parents Luned Phillips & Meleri Williams BBC News Contributor picture Lotus, nine, from Pembrokeshire, has waited three years for an autism assessment A mother has described her daughter’s three-year wait for an autism assessment as “soul-destroying”. Caroline, 48, from Pembrokeshire, said her daughter struggled to understand herself and could display challenging behaviour. BBC News research suggests the number of children waiting more than a year to be assessed in Wales has doubled in the past three years. The Welsh government said it would invest £13.7m in neurodivergence services and said long waits were “not acceptable”. Families face years on autism waiting lists Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that includes a number of conditions, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and dyspraxia. Caroline first asked her GP if her daughter, Lotus, nine, could go on a waiting list for a diagnostic assessment for neurodivergence in December 2021. More than three years later, the family is still waiting. “[Lotus] struggles with understanding herself, and that then manifests into behaviours that a lot of people would think were not acceptable,” Caroline said. Lotus is also under-sensitive to pain and has to follow routines, Caroline said, adding she thinks about the waiting list every day. ‘Hardest thing to watch her struggle’ “Until we actually know that she is autistic, it is very difficult to tailor your parenting to that,” Caroline said. “Although it is not a magic wand, a diagnosis for us would make our family life and her life, more importantly, so much easier. “From what I have heard, the waiting lists are just getting longer and longer, and it’s quite soul-destroying to not have anything close to rely on. “The hardest thing is to watch your child struggle.” Mum Gemma has been waiting nearly four years for a neurodivergence assessment for her daughter Alice Gemma, from Brynamman, Carmarthenshire, said her daughter Alice, eight, had been waiting almost four years for an assessment, which made her feel “angry”. “You wouldn’t expect anyone else to go through their whole childhood without having answers as to why they’re suffering,” she said. “We’re struggling to get her to school, she doesn’t like going to school, it’s full on school refusal. Noise is a big problem for her, she chews everything, she doesn’t cope in crowds.” Gemma herself was diagnosed with autism a little over a year ago, and said things could have been different for her if she had been diagnosed sooner. “We speak to her, we’re very honest about mental health and about autism, and we try and accommodate any sensory needs. “But [a diagnosis] would give her that approval and that it’s OK, the way she feels.” In response to both mothers, chief operating officer at Hywel Dda health board Andrew Carruthers said it was “constantly working to improve services” to ensure it sees as many of the young people who need help as soon as possible. BBC Freedom of Information requests to health boards in Wales found an increase in the number of referrals for assessments, as well as a jump in how long children are waiting. In Hywel Dda health board there had been a 12-fold increase in the number of children waiting more than a year for an autism assessment – from 194 children in 2019 to 2,391 in 2024. Hywel Dda has also seen more than a 400% increase in the number of autism referrals received – 614 in 2019 compared with 3,326 in 2024. One child in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area has been waiting more than five-and-a-half years for an assessment, the figures showed. In England, the children’s commissioner warned last October hundreds of thousands of children with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions faced “unacceptably long” waits to be diagnosed. Wales’ health minister, Sarah Murphy, said the Welsh government had recently invested £13.7m into neurodivergence services, as well as £3m to tackle the longest waiting times, with six-month targets given to health boards. “It’s not acceptable that they’ve been waiting so long,” Ms Murphy said. “That’s why we’re giving this additional money. We cannot let this continue. “The need has just shot up. There’s just been a huge increase in awareness. “That’s why we’ve had to create a whole new model now for delivery.” The Wales Neurodivergence Service welcomed the investment but said that did not mean the work was over to tackle increased demand for assessments. Head of Wales Neurodivergence Service, Wendy Thomas, says changes to assessment waiting times cannot happen overnight “It isn’t as straightforward as employing a couple of more people. They have to have the right skills, knowledge experience, and then the extra training possibly,” said the head of the service, Wendy Thomas. “If you look at things like the legislation, a child doesn’t have to have a diagnosis. There’s work to do around how we can better meet those children’s needs generally.” How to get help for neurodivergent children If a parent or guardian thinks their child may be neurodivergent, the NHS in Wales suggests they speak to their school teacher or the designated special educational needs co-ordinator in that setting. The NHS also advises going to your GP for support. The Wales Neurodivergence Service said that parents should try to access support even before an assessment, with school being one avenue and local authorities another. “If they have a positive or a negative assessment the child has the same needs at the end. So it’s about what you do along that path,” said Ms Thomas. “If their child isn’t sleeping – what can help that? Because just having a diagnostic assessment doesn’t address that.” She said that this did not deny the “validity of a diagnosis”, but stressed: “It shouldn’t just be that”. Additional reporting: Lola Mayor and Steve Duffy Source link #Child #autism #assessment #waits #souldestroying #parents Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Diplomatic thaw: the Trump-Putin relationship Diplomatic thaw: the Trump-Putin relationship Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. What do we know about the relationship between the US and Russian presidents? TRUMP ON PUTIN Trump has a history of positive and admiring comments about Putin that have long prompted criticism that he is “soft on Russia” He rejects that, saying that no US president was ever tougher on Moscow Trump has called Putin a strong and smart leader and has said he “got along great” with him during his first term in the White House Since the start of his second term, however, Trump has criticised Putin’s conduct of the “ridiculous” Ukraine war and said the conflict is “destroying” Russia Putin “can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well,” Trump told reporters on January 20 “Russia is *******, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country” Trump has threatened more sanctions and tariffs on Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war. PUTIN ON TRUMP Putin said last month he had always had “pragmatic and trusting” relations with Trump The Russian president voiced support for Trump’s false claim that he, not Joe Biden, was the real winner of the 2020 US presidential election Putin has spoken admiringly of Trump’s courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him last year, saying he behaved like a “real man” DOES PUTIN HAVE COMPROMISING MATERIAL ON TRUMP? Speculation that Putin might have some kind of hold over Trump, and be in a position to blackmail him, was fanned by the emergence in 2017 of a document known as the “Steele dossier”, prepared by a business intelligence company led by a former British spy It suggested, among other things, that Russia might have collected lurid details of an alleged interaction with prostitutes during a 2013 visit that Trump made to Moscow Trump said the dossier was “fake news” that was circulated by opponents to damage him Many of its claims were never substantiated, and Trump’s lawyers have said it was “egregiously inaccurate” and contained “numerous false, phoney or made-up allegations” At the Helsinki summit, Putin was asked directly whether Russia had any “compromising material” on Trump or his family. Putin said he had not been aware of Trump’s Moscow trip and it was “utter nonsense” to suppose that Russia gathered dirt on every senior American businessman who came to Russia Source link #Diplomatic #thaw #TrumpPutin #relationship Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Delta Force Mobile’s closed beta test goes live today Delta Force Mobile’s closed beta test goes live today Delta Force’s mobile adaptation is set to begin its first closed beta test today Team *****’s newest entry in the long-running series features a variety of multiplayer modes Whether that be extraction, or Battlefield-esque mass battles Delta Force, the recently-released revival of the hit tactical shooter series, is set to receive its first closed beta test for the hotly-anticipated mobile port. And it’s live as of today! That’s right, on a first-come-first-served basis, you can download Delta Force from Google Play (as long as you’re in the ***, Spain, Ukraine or Poland) right now and jump in to give it a test ride! Delta Force boasts a bevvy of multiplayer modes ranging from the highly popular extraction shooter to massive multiplayer battles on the scale of something like Battlefield. It’s little surprise then that with this scale of gameplay available, it’s been an eagerly anticipated release by fans. The test will run until March 6th and before you ask, yes there’ll be a progression wipe. However, the folks behind Delta Force have also confirmed that a number of unconfirmed cosmetics will remain available to players once the test has ended. Go big or go home While mass-scale warfare on mobile isn’t exactly new given the success of Warzone Mobile, I think Delta Force might present an intriguing new option. Call of Duty has always been about relatively small-scale battles (I still remember the halcyon days of CoD 3 and its vehicles) but Delta Force promises something closer to Battlefield in terms of its massive 64-player battles and destructible environment. Of course, on PC there’s been a mixed reaction to Delta Force on platforms like Steam. Issues with cheaters in particular seem to be an issue, so hopefully that’ll be rectified for mobile. In the meantime, if you’re not a shooter fan you can still get Ahead of the Game by checking out our latest feature of the same name. Catherine Dellosa digs into Hellic to find out what this isekai cat girl-collector has to offer. Source link #Delta #Force #Mobiles #closed #beta #test #live #today Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wichita will wake up to bitter cold temps. Here’s how cold it could get, and what’s next Wichita will wake up to bitter cold temps. Here’s how cold it could get, and what’s next Snowfall that ended Wednesday set the stage for bitter cold temperatures into Thursday. Wichita could see wind chills between -5 to -15 Wednesday night into Thursday morning, the National Weather Service Wichita office said Wednesday evening. A high temperature of 21 degrees Wednesday is expected to drop to a low of 4 at night, with a wind chill value of -6, an NWS detailed forecast shows. Thursday is forecast to be sunny with a high of 27 and an overnight low into Friday of 18. The morning wind chill value is expected at -7. “Use caution if you need to be outdoors tonight and wear appropriate clothing, hat and gloves” the weather service said. Friday is expected to be mostly cloudy with a high of 45 with a low of 33. Saturday is expected to have a 40% chance of rain and snow before noon. The high and low for that day is at 40 and 12, respectively. The weather service said two more storms are headed for the area. “The first storm system looks to bring more snow to the region for late Friday night into Saturday,” the NWS said. “Meanwhile a second system could bring yet another round of snow to the area on Tuesday. Stay tuned as we continue to refine forecast details in the coming days.” Source link #Wichita #wake #bitter #cold #temps #Heres #cold #whats Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Possessions invites you to change your perspective to uncover a wordless story, coming soon to iOS and Android Possessions invites you to change your perspective to uncover a wordless story, coming soon to iOS and Android Uncover the narrative without any dialogue Minimalist 3D puzzles Shift things around to solve each level Noodlecake and Lucid Labs have announced the return of Possessions on iOS and Android after its stint as an Apple Arcade exclusive, inviting you to view things around you with a fresh perspective. This minimalist puzzler features lovely dioramas of a family’s, well, possessions, with tidbits of the narrative unfolding as you go along. It’s interesting how these kinds of wordless experiences can sometimes tell a tale much more effectively even without any dialogue, and Possessions seems to know how to wield that kind of mechanic effortlessly. You’ll have to rotate the scenes in front of you to keep items in their right place, whether that’s a photo frame in disarray or a hanging cupboard door. I suppose you’ll need to keep your spatial awareness totally on point here, but just in case you get a tad frustrated, the soothing soundscape should at least help you keep the negative thoughts at bay. There’s a new AR mode too by the way, which means you can physically move around rooms to explore the different levels. As with anything, be careful when you start exploring in public – you wouldn’t want to stumble into places you shouldn’t be in or give some innocent bystander a heart attack. On the hunt for something similar? Why not take a look at our list of the best puzzlers on iOS to get your fill? Possessions is now open for pre-registration on iOS and Android, with an official global launch on February 27th. It’ll have a Try Before You Buy monetisation model on iOS, and a free-with-ads model on Android with a one-time purchase to remove ads. To celebrate the launch, there will be a 20% discount for the $4.99 in-app purchase for the first two weeks. You can also visit the official website, or take a little peek at the embedded clip above to get a feel of the vibes and visuals. Source link #Possessions #invites #change #perspective #uncover #wordless #story #coming #iOS #Android Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump not betraying Ukraine by seeking peace deal with Putin, US defence secretary says – BBC.com Trump not betraying Ukraine by seeking peace deal with Putin, US defence secretary says – BBC.com Trump not betraying Ukraine by seeking peace deal with Putin, US defence secretary says BBC.comDonald Trump starts “immediate” talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine The EconomistTalks to end the war with Russia are set to begin — but Ukraine could pay a high price for peace CNBCTrump says Russia agrees to ‘immediately’ begin negotiations to end war in Ukraine Fox NewsStocks Rise on US-Russia Talks; Pound Strengthens: Markets Wrap Bloomberg Source link #Trump #betraying #Ukraine #seeking #peace #deal #Putin #defence #secretary #BBC.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Oldham Council demands statutory public inquiry into child sex abuse in town Oldham Council demands statutory public inquiry into child sex abuse in town Charlotte Hall & George Lythgoe Local Democracy Reporting Service LDRS Shouts of “finally” followed the unanimous vote at Oldham Council Councillors in Oldham have voted unanimously to demand a statutory public inquiry into child ******* exploitation in the town, months after a government-led inquiry was turned down by ministers. An extraordinary meeting of Oldham Council was called by Oldham’s Conservative Group, who said a judge-led review would have more power than the currently planned local inquiry. Safeguarding minster Jess Phillips previously argued that locally led inquiries, like a similar one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to change. The motion calling for a statutory inquiry, which would compel witnesses to give evidence, was passed to applause from the public gallery, with some exclaiming: “Finally.” The BBC has asked the Home Office for a response. Conservative Councillor Lewis Quigg, who proposed the motion, said a judge-led statutory inquiry was required to “right an incredible wrong”. “It’s about time that the lid is lifted on this disaster, this national scandal of children who have been abused in some of the most evil acts.” Leader of the local Conservative group, Councillor David Arnott, said the issue had “hung over this borough for far too long” and added that the council had “failed many times to stop horrific abuses continuing for years”. The vote came after a lengthy and jumbled debate with multiple amendments to the motion, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. These included changes in language to avoid retraumatising survivors, a commitment to putting victims’ voices at the centre of any new inquiry and a call for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to lend its voice to the call for statutory powers. Councillors also discussed the singling out of men with Pakistani heritage within the original motion, with Liberal Democrat Councillor Helen Bishop arguing that it was “too narrow a focus” which could put people at risk of “not recognising predators within other communities”. ‘All ethnicities ‘ In Telford, the inquiry found up to 1,000 girls faced abuse over 40 years, with some cases overlooked due to “nervousness about race” as most suspects were men of south Asian heritage. A major report published in 2022, which examined the way child ******* exploitation was tackled in Oldham between 2011 and 2014, found children in the town had been failed by Greater Manchester Police and Oldham Council. But investigators found no evidence of a cover up of grooming gangs. Oldham Group Councillor Abdul Wahid said justice “must prevail”, adding that “even one predator in our community is one too many”. “That’s why we will do what we must here and within our communities to root out these criminals, who have tarnished the good name of British Pakistani Muslims across the country,” he said. “But let me be absolutely clear: this is not just about one community. “It has been carried out by organised criminals of different backgrounds and covered up by communities and institutions of all ethnicities. “The victims were failed by police who ignored them, social services who dismissed them and politicians who looked away.” Source link #Oldham #Council #demands #statutory #public #inquiry #child #sex #abuse #town Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Corey Rocchiccioli: West *********** spinner in early talks to play County Championship after *********** summer Corey Rocchiccioli: West *********** spinner in early talks to play County Championship after *********** summer West *********** spinner Corey Rocchiccioli is in early talks to play in the United Kingdom this winter, he has revealed after making his one-day debut. Source link #Corey #Rocchiccioli #West #*********** #spinner #early #talks #play #County #Championship #*********** #summer Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

C-17’s ‘Silver Bullet’ Airstream Trailer Pod Used By Secretary Of Defense Hegseth On First Overseas Trip C-17’s ‘Silver Bullet’ Airstream Trailer Pod Used By Secretary Of Defense Hegseth On First Overseas Trip During his first overseas flight as defense secretary, Pete Hegseth shared a video of himself aboard a C-17 Globemaster III transport jet sitting in a Silver Bullet Command and Control Module. The converted Airstream trailer is one of two the Air Force deploys to give senior leaders, like Hegseth and other VVIPs, a secure, quiet place to conduct business in the middle of a noisy, often-crowded cargo aircraft. The Silver Bullets’ days are numbered though. For a host of reasons, a replacement unit called the Roll-On Conference Capsule (ROCC) is scheduled to be fielded in December, the Air Force told us today. Unlike the adapted Silver Bullets, which first flew in the early 1990s, these were purpose-built for the mission. The short video showed Hegseth sitting on a brown leather chair at a small workstation inside the Silver Bullet, where he signed an order changing the name of Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Roland L. Bragg. It was during a long flight from Joint Base Andrews (JBA) in Maryland to Germany, where he visited U.S. Africa Command and U.S. European Command in Stuttgart on Tuesday, before heading to Brussels to discuss the future of U.S. support for Ukraine with NATO allies. Long airplane trips can interrupt critical functions of any executive, as well as add stress to already hectic schedules. In addition to giving Hegseth a place to do his job as defense secretary, the Silver Bullet – at best a homey hideaway reminiscent of a 1990s motorhome – also offered him a place to rest. SECDEF Hegseth at his desk in the Silver Bullet. (DOD Screencap) ***** Cheney in the Silver Bullet at the same desk area as Hegseth. (The U.S. National Archives) The Silver Bullet “was certainly comfortable and provided a relatively quiet place to work and concentrate.” Joseph Votel, the retired Army general who commanded U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019, told The War Zone in a 2022 story about the modules. “As a combatant commander, I had a need to stay in constant communications even during lengthy travel to the Middle East and do it in a place that I could work from. Purpose-designed aircraft and some other capabilities made available to us helped to make that possible — it was a multiplier for me. In the end – I just needed to be able to operate.” The Silver Bullet then-U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Joseph Votel used during a 2016 trip to the Middle East. (Howard Altman photo) The Silver Bullet aboard a C-17 on a flight to Afghanistan and other nations in the U.S. Central Command region with then-CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel in 2016. (Howard Altman photo) Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in an Airstream trailer aboard an Air Force C-17 as he heads to Iraq, Dec. 8, 2006. His aide, Col. Will Grimsley, is reflected in the microwave. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images) Then-Defense Secretary James Mattis (middle), with then-U.S. permanent representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison (left) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Silver Bullet. (DOD photo) The Silver Bullet is essentially a mobile SCIF, office, and apartment all in one. An arsenal of communications tech has been continuously upgraded that works to connect the pod to the outside world. This includes multiple options for unsecure and secure voice, data, and video teleconferencing. These systems “plug in” to the existing communications systems aboard a select number of C-17s via a set of umbilical cables. There is a large “mechanical caboose” that brings up the rear of the palleted Silver Bullet system where the communications technology and controls that support the pod are held and where the pod’s electronics are interfaced with the C-17. The updated version of this enclosure is called the “Silver Eagle” and it can support communications at the very highest levels. Above all else, this includes being able to connect with the National Command Authority that underpins America’s nuclear deterrent, anywhere and anytime. A very rare view inside the “Silver Eagle. (SelectTech) We reached out to the Pentagon to see how Hegseth liked the Silver Bullet, which, like its twin, is owned by Air Mobility Command and maintained by the 89th Maintenance Group at JBA. It was by chance, meanwhile, that Hegseth flew the Globemaster on his maiden voyage as SECDEF. He was scheduled to fly one of the four existing E-4B Survivable Airborne Operations Center jets. “Occasionally, due to routine scheduled maintenance, the small fleet of four aircraft cannot support additional tasking such as SecDef travel. In such cases, it is not uncommon for the SecDef to be supported with an alternative type of aircraft,” Justin R. Oakes, spokesman for the Eighth Air Force and the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center, told us earlier this week. In addition to better availability, the Globemasters have another advantage over the E-4Bs. They have a defensive suite that includes multiple types of expendable decoys and the laser-based Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure System (LAIRCM). This system uses missile launch detectors arrayed around the aircraft that alert the crew of an incoming missile via detection of the missile’s infrared plume and cue a number of laser turrets positioned around the jet’s fuselage to fire their blinding beams into the missile’s infrared seeker. This capability makes using the Silver Bullet a requirement for traveling into hostile locales. An Air Force E-4B flies over the ********* Pacific Coast on April 10, 2014. . (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mary O’Dell) An Air Force E-4B flies over the ********* Pacific Coast on April 10, 2014. This shot gives us a good look at the E-4’s spine, which is festooned with antennas. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mary O’Dell) Regardless, Hegseth has only about 10 more months to use the Silver Bullets. They are scheduled to be retired and replaced by the newer, safer ROCCs. In 2019, the Air Force awarded an $8.5 million contract to SelectTech Services Corp. of Centerville, Ohio, for the design, development, integration, test and delivery of two ROCCs to replace the aging Airstream units. As we noted in our previous coverage, the Silver Bullets were considered so unsafe they were deemed not airworthy back in 2000. It wasn’t until 2020 that the flying branch issued a memo authorizing occupancy of the modules, except during takeoffs and landings, refueling and “moderate turbulence in flight as determined by the aircraft commander,” Air Force officials told The War Zone. The Silver Bullets “did not meet the numerous airworthiness requirements, including ****** loads, egress, gusts loads, electrical system design, smoke and fumes, etc.,” the Air Force explained to us in 2022. In addition, a 2015 Air Force assessment “identified numerous risks which were generally associated with substandard electrical system design, improper use of materials for an aircraft environment, and inadequate structural design integrity for ****** scenarios, hard landings, and turbulence in flight.” The situation was of great enough concern that the House Armed Services Committee in its markup of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act asked the Air Force secretary for a full report by March 2023 on the Silver Bullet’s problems and plan for replacement. The ‘Silver Bullet’ airstream trailer carrying U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who is seen inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft transporting him and his staff from Kabul to Ramstein Airbase in Germany, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool) The ‘Silver Bullet’ airstream trailer carrying U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is seen inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft transporting him and his staff from Kabul to Ramstein Airbase in Germany, Monday, March 11, 2013. Hagel returned to Washington from his first visit to Afghanistan as Secretary of Defense on Monday. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool) The ROCC is designed to mitigate those concerns, the Air Force told us. “The intent is for [the ROCC] to be fully certified for all phases of flight when it is fielded,” Air Force Capt. Denise Guiao-Corpuz told us. Those modules will have “intercom systems, lavatories, Ethernet network, Wi-Fi, VTC system display, external voice and data connectivity (wideband or narrowband), 120V/60Hz outlets, sleeping quarters, and a 9-person conference room,” according to SelectTech. The new Roll-On Conference Capsule from SelecTech will replace the Silver Bullet. (SelectTech graphic) In 2019, the Air Force awarded SelectTech an $8.5 million contract for two Roll-on Conference Capsules to fly on C-17s. (SelectTech graphic) In 2019, the Air Force awarded SelectTech an $8.5 million contract for two Roll-on Conference Capsules to fly on C-17s. (SelectTech graphic) The Silver Bullets have a storied past, hosting U.S. cabinet members, service secretaries, other military leaders, vice presidents, and even celebrities like Robin Williams and Drew Carey. Considering their significance, these unique but dated VVIP pods will hopefully find their way into museums. Contact the author: *****@*****.tld Source link #C17s #Silver #Bullet #Airstream #Trailer #Pod #Secretary #Defense #Hegseth #Overseas #Trip Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Musk will pull OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker remains a non-profit, lawyers say – Reuters Musk will pull OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker remains a non-profit, lawyers say – Reuters Musk will pull OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker remains a non-profit, lawyers say ReutersOpenAI Questions Rationale of Elon Musk’s Bid to Control the Company The New York TimesElon Musk will withdraw bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit if its board agrees to terms TechCrunchSam Altman says Elon Musk is not a happy person: ‘Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity’ FortuneOpenAI’s board has not received Musk’s takeover bid, source says Reuters Source link #Musk #pull #OpenAI #bid #ChatGPT #maker #remains #nonprofit #lawyers #Reuters Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

*** says Ukraine must be part of peace talks after Trump-Putin call *** says Ukraine must be part of peace talks after Trump-Putin call There can be no negotiation “about Ukraine without Ukraine”, the ***’s defence secretary has warned. John Healey’s comments ahead of a Nato meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday come after US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to begin negotiations to end the war. Speaking to reporters, Healey said: “We’ve seen the calls from President Trump overnight and we all want to see a durable peace and no return to conflict and aggression.” But he added that Russia “remains a threat well beyond Ukraine”. He told reporters ahead of the meeting that “my message… Will be that there can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine and Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks”. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”. He did not set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters at the White House: “We’ll meet in Saudi Arabia.” He wrote on social media the pair had also invited each other to their respective capitals. On Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said European nations must provide the “overwhelming” share of funding for Ukraine. Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting on Thursday, Hegseth said the US’s attempts to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia was “certainly not a betrayal” of the Ukrainian soldiers who have been fighting against the invasion. Addressing fellow defence chiefs later, he added that the US was “committed to expediting the process” of foreign military sales, to ensure “our allies get what they need when they need it”. Healey said the *** had “heard a clear message from the US about stepping up and we are”, pointing out a new £150m package of military aid including drones, tanks and air defence systems for Ukraine. “The Ukrainians are fighting bravely,” said Healey. “Its our jobs as defence ministers here at Nato to put them in the best position to secure a lasting peace through strength.” The US indicated that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders under a deal, while there was not a realistic prospect of Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance. Nato members have previously pledged their support for an “irreversible path” to future membership for Ukraine. Healey said on Wednesday that welcoming the country to Nato would take “some time”, emphasising that the focus “for now” should be on ensuring Kyiv was in a strong position ahead of potential peace talks. Reform *** leader Nigel Farage also voiced his support for Ukraine joining the alliance, telling GB News the move was “essential”. Source link #Ukraine #part #peace #talks #TrumpPutin #call Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Where is Kylie Minogue? Princess of Pop nowhere to be seen ahead of Saturday concert at RAC Arena Where is Kylie Minogue? Princess of Pop nowhere to be seen ahead of Saturday concert at RAC Arena She was the name on everyone’s lips at the start of the week after forcing the Wildcats out of their beloved RAC Arena but no one has spotted Kylie Minogue since. The 56-year-old princess of pop arrived in Perth earlier this week ahead of her concert at the arena on Saturday, which marks the first stop on her Tension world tour. But Perth fans itching to catch a glimpse of their idol will be forced to wait until the weekend at this rate. Minogue and her team have gone to great lengths to stay low-key. Kylie-watchers have reported seeing the singer leave Crown Towers in the mid-afternoon, then being whisked away in a heavily-tinted van to rehearsals at RAC Arena where she is driven into the complex. Her social media channels, however, are anything but silent, with the Padam Padam singer regularly taking to Instagram with updates. Camera IconWork goes on at RAC arena for Kylie Minogue concert. Credit: Daniel Wilkins/The West *********** On Thursday, Minogue announced she has teamed up with DJ Alok, ranked fourth disc-spinner in the world, on a new song called Last Night I Dreamt I Fell In Love out on Friday. She also took the time to share a series of images of herself wearing a stunning blue dress in a mountainous location filled with red dirt. Minogue’s attempt to avoid publicity comes after ********* rapper Drake couldn’t stay away from the limelight while in WA. He was spotted at the Cottesloe Beach Hotel and restaurant Gibney twice in the space of a few days. While tour promoters have kept details of Minogue’s Perth concert under wraps, they have confirmed the style icon is excited to kick things off this side of the Nullarbor. “It’s been a while since Kylie has had the opportunity to start a tour at home in Australia so she’s excited Perth will host the very first show of the Tension Tour,” Matt Gudinski, chief executive of entertainment collective Mushroom Group, said. Mr Gudinski couldn’t give too much away about the show but promised: “Fans are in for a treat!” What we do know is that Brisbane singer Mallrat, 26, will feature as a guest on all *********** shows. The decision to choose the indie star to open the show coincides with Minogue going after young, cool and trending talent like Alok. And last year, she released My Oh My with stars Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo. Her Perth visit left basketball lovers outraged on Sunday after learning Minogue had booked the venue for six days to ensure plenty of time for rehearsing. This meant the Wildcats had their Tuesday game against South East Melbourne Phoenix moved to the smaller Perth High Performance Centre at Mt Claremont with more than half of members missing out on a seat. However, past dramas aside, super fans are counting down the last days until their idol takes the stage and all will be revealed. With 37 years of songs to play and plenty of new material, Perth can surely expect classics like Can’t Get You Out of My Head, and On a Night Like This. And her electro-pop single Tension will be a heavy feature. After calling Lights, Camera, Action and a lot of Padaming, the show is bound to leave fans spinning around in euphoria long after she leaves WA. Source link #Kylie #Minogue #Princess #Pop #ahead #Saturday #concert #RAC #Arena Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Honda-Nissan merger talks are off Honda-Nissan merger talks are off Japanese auto giants Honda and Nissan on Thursday confirmed they had scrapped merger talks announced in December, bringing an end to a tie-up that would have created the world’s third-largest automaker. The firms said in a joint statement that they “agreed to terminate the MOU (memorandum of understanding) signed on December 23 last year for consideration of a business integration between the two companies.” The firms’ intention to join forces had been seen as a bid to catch up with Tesla and ******** firms in the electric vehicle market. Honda’s CEO insisted in December that it wasn’t a bailout for Nissan, which last year announced thousands of job cuts after reporting a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit. Nissan Motor Corporation and Honda logos are seen at a joint press conference on their merger talks, in Tokyo, on Dec. 23, 2024. / Credit: Kim Kyung-Hoon / REUTERS Local media reports have said the discussions unravelled after Honda proposed making its struggling rival a subsidiary instead of the plan, announced in December, to integrate under a new holding company. In the joint statement, the automakers confirmed Honda “proposed changing the structure from establishing a joint holding company … to a structure where Honda would be the parent company and Nissan the subsidiary through a share exchange.” “As a result of these discussions, both companies concluded that, to prioritize speed of decision-making and execution of management measures in an increasingly volatile market environment heading into the era of electrification, it would be most appropriate to cease discussions and terminate the MOU,” the statement said. The cancellation of the merger talks won’t impact the earnings of either automaker, it said. Honda reported a 7% decline in profits Thursday for April-December, to 805 billion yen ($5 billion), while Nissan projected an annual net loss of $518 million due to sagging sales for the 12 months ending in March. That would be a drastic reversal from a profit of 426.6 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in the previous year. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. had said it was mulling joining the Honda-Nissan combination. A three-way merger could have resulted in a company worth more than $50 billion based on their market capitalization in December. The three automakers said Thursday they would keep working together on electric vehicles and smart cars, such as those with autonomous driving capabilities. The three-way merger would have created The merger was estimated to be worth more than $50 billion. Trump, Musk take questions at White House Flu deaths outpace COVID deaths in 22 states for first time since pandemic began What to know about the CFPB amid apparent DOGE efforts to shut it down Source link #HondaNissan #merger #talks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nissan and Honda end merger talks, scuttling $60 billion deal – Reuters Nissan and Honda end merger talks, scuttling $60 billion deal – Reuters Nissan and Honda end merger talks, scuttling $60 billion deal ReutersCarmakers Nissan and Honda call off merger talks CNNJapanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi drop their talks on a business integration The Associated PressMulti-billion dollar Honda-Nissan merger talks collapse BBC.comHonda, Nissan, Mitsubishi formally end plans for mega-merger Automotive News Source link #Nissan #Honda #merger #talks #scuttling #billion #deal #Reuters Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Lynx dumped in Cairngorms looking for new home Lynx dumped in Cairngorms looking for new home Steven McKenzie BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter Captured lynx waiting for their ‘forever home’ Three female lynx that were illegally released in the Cairngorms are looking for a new home after completing 30 days quarantine at Edinburgh Zoo. The wild cats were spotted in the national park in early January, sparking a search before they were captured near Kingussie, south of Aviemore. A fourth male lynx, died after being captured, and the three females are being cared for at Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo. The felines, all thought to be less than a year old, have been temporarily named A, B and C and RZSS said the challenge was now to find them a “forever home”. Quarantine has allowed RZSS to carry out health checks and feed them. Keepers say they have started to become more confident over the past month. Chief executive David Field said: “Illegally releasing these cats into the wild was highly irresponsible and it is likely they would have died had they not been rescued. “Our team of expert keepers and veterinarians have been delighted by how well they have settled in and have been observing closely how all three are becoming more confident and beginning to show their personalities.” He added: “Now they have successfully completed their quarantine, the challenge is to find their forever home. “They will continue to stay here whilst we consider our options.” RZSS Three of the four lynx survived their ordeal in the Cairngorms Police were first alerted to reports of lynx on the loose in the Drumguish area of the ***’s biggest national park on Wednesday 8 January. RZSS, which runs a wildlife park nearby, used cage-type traps baited with venison and quail, a small game bird, to capture the cats. By Friday 10 January all four had been caught. Lynx were once a native species in Scotland, but they died out several hundred years ago. There are suspicions the Cairngorms lynx are abandoned pets, or were let go by people who want to see the animals reinstated to wooded hills and glens. Conservation groups, such as Scotland’s Big Picture, that support a formal, legal release of lynx have condemned such behaviour, saying it sets back their campaign. RZSS The cats were in quarantine for 30 days Police Scotland continues to investigate the release of the cats. A spokesperson told BBC Scotland News: “Inquiries are ongoing and any update will be issued proactively on our website, social media channels and as a press release.” According to reports at the time there were some clues, including the discovery of straw bedding with porcupine quills in it. The cats were “shocked” and “traumatised” when captured. They were also cold, hungry and were found not to have developed a thick winter coat as they would if raised in the wild. RZSS Edinburgh Zoo is looking after three of the wild cats Another twist in the tale? On Monday, a group of wild boar-like feral pigs were seen near Uath Lochans, an area of woodland and small lochs near Kingussie, south of Aviemore – just a few miles from where the lynx were released. The Cairngorms National Park Authority said at the time the pigs were “relatively domesticated” and appeared to have been illegally abandoned. On Wednesday, public agency Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) said eight pigs had been caught and humanely killed. Free-roaming feral pigs are found in other parts of Scotland and culling is permitted by the Scottish government. The discovery of the Kingussie pigs prompted speculation it might be another suspected case of rogue rewilding – an attempt to reintroduce animals illegally, Wild boar, like the lynx – and the local area’s legally reintroduced beavers – were once a native species but were hunted to extinction about 700 years ago. Source link #Lynx #dumped #Cairngorms #home Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

West Coast Eagles fan rally behind star Tim Kelly after sad admission he lost his love of football West Coast Eagles fan rally behind star Tim Kelly after sad admission he lost his love of football West Coast fans have rallied behind star midfielder Tim Kelly after his sad admission he had lost his love of football. Source link #West #Coast #Eagles #fan #rally #star #Tim #Kelly #sad #admission #lost #love #football Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Between Two Rivers review: Exploring Mesopotamia, where the modern world began Between Two Rivers review: Exploring Mesopotamia, where the modern world began The Great Ziggurat of Ur, in present‑day Iraq Mohammed Al ali/Alamy Between Two Rivers Moudhy Al-Rashid (Hachette (***, 20 February); W. W. Norton (US, 12 August)) A new and spellbinding book tells the history of the very ancient past of Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Between Two Rivers by Moudhy Al-Rashid, a researcher at the University of Oxford, weaves together the many strands of the story of the region, which covers much of what is now Iraq. Ancient Mesopotamia has languished in obscurity, at least compared with the better-known Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations. So… Source link #Rivers #review #Exploring #Mesopotamia #modern #world #began Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Woman left bloodied on I-275 after medical emergency leads to shooting: FHP Woman left bloodied on I-275 after medical emergency leads to shooting: FHP TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — An investigation was launched Monday after Florida Highway Patrol troopers said an unknown assailant shot at a driver on I-275 in Hillsborough County. Troopers said the shooting happened shortly after 5 p.m. and followed a series of crashes. Crumbling portions of US-301 cause concern in Riverview The victim, a 63-year-old Lutz woman, was traveling south on the interstate near milepost 56 when officials said she suffered a medical emergency and lost control of her vehicle. Her GMC Yukon left the roadway and struck the 57 milepost road sign, the FHP reported. Troopers said the woman was able to get back on the interstate but collided with another vehicle shortly after. The car was described as a silver or white mid-sized sport utility vehicle. Suspect vehicle in shooting on I-275 in Hillsborough County. (Credit: FHP) After the second ******, authorities said someone opened fire, sending a bullet into the front driver’s side window of the woman’s GMC Yukon. Troopers said they found the 63-year-old woman bleeding profusely and applied life-saving measures to stop the bleeding. It was later determined that the woman’s injuries were from the shattered glass. Officials said the bullet went through the GMC Yukon’s front windshield. Portions of the expended round were found in the rear seat of the car. The unknown assailant fled the scene immediately after the shooting, authorities reported. No further information was immediately available. The Florida Highway Patrol is asking anyone with information on the incident to call *FHP (*347) or Crime Stoppers at **TIPS. This is a developing story. Stay up to date on the latest from News Channel 8 on-air and on the go with the free WFLA News Channel 8 mobile app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. Source link #Woman #left #bloodied #I275 #medical #emergency #leads #shooting #FHP Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]