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25 Years Later, Nintendo Switch Online Brings Back This Classic N64 Racing Game 25 Years Later, Nintendo Switch Online Brings Back This Classic N64 Racing Game It’s been a long time since there’s been a new game in Namco’s Ridge Racer series, and it’s anyone’s guess if the franchise will make a comeback. But in the interim, Ridge Racer 64–which was originally released in February 2000–has made a welcome return on Nintendo Switch. As seen in the announcement trailer below, Ridge Racer 64 still has that classic arcade-style charm a quarter century later. Unfortunately, this game isn’t available as a standalone purchase. It was re-released earlier today exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers–which costs $50 per year for individuals and $80 for families in exchange for access to N64, ***** Genesis, and Game Boy Advance games as well as select DLC for modern titles. You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos. Size:640 × 360480 × 270 Want us to remember this setting for all your devices? Sign up or Sign in now! Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. Sorry, but you can’t access this content! Please enter your date of birth to view this video JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031Year202520242023202220212020201920182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002200120001999199819971996199519941993199219911990198919881987198619851984198319821981198019791978197719761975197419731972197119701969196819671966196519641963196219611960195919581957195619551954195319521951195019491948194719461945194419431942194119401939193819371936193519341933193219311930192919281927192619251924192319221921192019191918191719161915191419131912191119101909190819071906190519041903190219011900 By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy enter Now Playing: Nintendo Switch Online – Nintendo 64 Update | Ridge Racer 64 Ridge Racer 64 includes a Quick Play option for anyone who just wants a fast run through the Revolution Novice course. Veteran drivers can try their hand on the Grand Prix and choose from nine different race tracks. The game also includes Car Attack, Time Attack, Battle Mode, Stage Mode, and Team Mode. The trailer also confirms the return of the game’s multiplayer option for up to four drivers at once. This might be the best way to experience any Ridge Racer game, especially since Arcade1Up’s Ridge Racer cabinet is long out of production. Nintendo Switch Online recently opened its vault and expanded its SNES lineup with Fatal Fury 2, Sutte Hakkun, and Super Ninja Boy. Late last year, Nintendo Switch Online also offered a handful of *****’s older games, including ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, Vectorman, and Mercs. . Source link #Years #Nintendo #Switch #Online #Brings #Classic #N64 #Racing #Game Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

******* parliament rejects opposition’s draft migration law ******* parliament rejects opposition’s draft migration law ******* Chancellor Olaf Scholz giving a government declaration on domestic issues at the Bundestag on January 29, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. Sean Gallup | Getty Images The ******* parliament rejected an opposition draft law on tightening immigration policy on Friday, two days after the opposition conservatives were accused of breaching an agreement against cooperating with the far right for the first time. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz, whose conservatives are leading in the polls before a Feb. 23 snap election, said the new law was a necessary response to a series of high-profile killings in public spaces by people of immigrant background. His similar, non-binding motion was passed by parliament on Wednesday thanks to backing from legislators from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), prompting a wave of protest from the public, politicians and even some of his own party at a supposed breach of an agreement not to work with the far right. A DeutschlandTrend poll for public television found that 67% of voters backed permanent border controls, including over half the supporters of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. Source link #******* #parliament #rejects #oppositions #draft #migration #law Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle PC Specs-How To Play The Sims 1 and 2 The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle PC Specs-How To Play The Sims 1 and 2 · · January 31, 2025 EA has officially announced and launched the re-release of both The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 as part of The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle. This bundle brings two classic titles—along with all expansions and DLC—to current-day players with modern PCs. As far as running the games on your machine, it won’t take a high-powered machine. That said it will have some updates including an updated rendering engine as well as a “more versatile pixel resolution scaling on large monitors”. But just how modern does your PC need to be? The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle PC Specs EA has revealed that both The Sims 1 and 2 will work on hardware as old as 2012. The minimum system requirements go as far back as the Nvidia GTX 600 or AMD Radeon HD 7000 for graphics and AMD FX6300 or Intel i3 3220 for CPU. The game also won’t take up much space if that’s something you’re concerned about. Check out the full minimum requirements for yourself, below. The Sims: Legacy Collection PC Specs OS: Windows 10 CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200, AMD FX6300, or Intel i3 3220 Memory (RAM): 4GB GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7000 or Nvidia GTX 600 Online Connection Requirements: Purchase, Install, Register Hard Drive Space: 16GB The Sims 2: Legacy Collection PC Specs OS: Windows 10 CPU: i3 3220, Ryzen 3 1200, AMD FX6300 Memory (RAM): 4GB Hard Drive Space: 16GB GPU: NVIDIA: GTX 600 series or later or AMD: Radeon HD 7000 series or later or Intel HD Graphics 620 series or later What are your thoughts on the PC specs needed to run The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle? Let us know down below, and join more discussions in the official Insider Gaming forums. For more Insider Gaming, check out all of the latest news you need to know. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #Sims #25th #Birthday #Bundle #SpecsHow #Play #Sims Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Pick up an iBUYPOWER desktop PC (with RTX 4070 Super) for a fraction of the price of an RTX 5090 — now just $1,399 Pick up an iBUYPOWER desktop PC (with RTX 4070 Super) for a fraction of the price of an RTX 5090 — now just $1,399 For much less than the price of an Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU, you can pick up a 1080/1440p gaming PC without breaking the bank or spending anywhere near $2,000. Today’s deal might be a good option if you’re searching for a fairly budget gaming PC. The iBUYPOWER Slate Mesh 8 uses a select combination of hardware to let you play the latest games without pushing the budget too high. Snag the iBUYPOWER Slate Mesh 8 gaming PC at Costco for just $1,399. With an Intel Core i7 14900F processor, this prebuilt PC will ensure you have enough powerful hardware components to play any of the latest demanding AAA games and comfortably use the PC for work or study. The top-tier Intel processor combined with powerful mid-tier graphics is more than enough for most tasks. The Slate Mesh chassis comes complete with customizable RGB lighting via the included fans, which helps to brighten up your gaming area, adding a little lighting flair to your setup. The case features plenty of mesh paneling and is designed to help keep your components cool during intense gaming sessions with unrestricted airflow. Inside this PC is a combination of Intel’s top-tier 14900F 24-core processor (eight P-Cores, 16 E-Cores), Nvidia’s RTX 4070 Super 12GB graphics card, a large 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of SSD storage. With this combination of parts, you can experience stunning visuals and smooth gameplay with advanced graphics rendering, including DLSS frame generation. The RTX 4070 Super card only comes with 12GB of VRAM, so it will be limited to new and future games and applications that may require more. Also, bear in mind that 90% or more of the current games out in the wild don’t require anywhere near 12GB to run well. Source link #Pick #iBUYPOWER #desktop #RTX #Super #fraction #price #RTX Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

NASA becomes latest federal agency to block China’s DeepSeek NASA becomes latest federal agency to block China’s DeepSeek Firdous Nazir | Nurphoto | Getty Images NASA is the latest federal agency to ban use of China’s DeepSeek AI technology by employees and block access to the platform from its systems, CNBC has learned. In a memo on Friday to all NASA personnel from the agency’s chief artificial intelligence officer, employees were informed that DeepSeek’s servers “operate outside of the United States, raising national security and privacy concerns.” “DeepSeek and its products and services are not authorized for use with NASA’s data and information or on government-issued devices and networks,” the memo said. NASA didn’t immediately provide a comment. DeepSeek’s free-to-download AI assistant is now available in the U.S., rivaling products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google Gemini. DeepSeek’s app rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store at the start of the week, unseating OpenAI’s ChatGPT from the lead spot. DeepSeek was still No. 1 on Friday. Reports of DeepSeek’s power and efficiency roiled U.S. markets early in the week, notably hammering chip companies Nvidia and Broadcom, which have soared in value by selling costly processors for building AI models and running massive workloads. President Donald Trump said on Monday that DeepSeek’s sudden rise should be a “wake-up call” for U.S. tech companies. As of Jan. 31, NASA personnel are not permitted to use DeepSeek to “share or upload agency data on DeepSeek products or services,” and are “not authorized to “access DeepSeek via NASA devices and agency-managed network connections.” And NASA’s Security Operations Center has now blocked use of DeepSeek on “agency-managed devices and networks,” the memo said. Late last week, The U.S. Navy instructed its members to avoid using DeepSeek. In a warning issued by email, the Navy said DeepSeek’s AI was not to be used “in any capacity” due to “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage.” Axios reported on Thursday that U.S. congressional offices were being told that use of DeepSeek was “unauthorized for official House use,” citing a notice from the House’s chief administrative officer. WATCH: Fear another shoe will drop for markets Source link #NASA #latest #federal #agency #block #Chinas #DeepSeek Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

A life-sized 5ft Pokémon Gardevoir plush is going on ***** next week A life-sized 5ft Pokémon Gardevoir plush is going on ***** next week The Pokémon Center in Japan is set to release its largest ever life-sized Pokémon plush. As reported by Pokéshopper, the Pokémon Center store will be selling a life-sized Gardevoir plush from February 6 at 10am Japan time. The Gardevoir plush is 160cm long – around 5 feet 3 inches – matching the official height listed in the Pokédex, and will cost ¥49,500 ($320). It weighs around 5kg, and is shown in official photos sitting on a chair and standing in the corner of a room. This is far from the first life-sized Pokémon to be sold by the Pokémon Center – in the past more than 20 species of Pokémon have been sold as Pokédex-accurate plushes, including Porygon, Mareep, Wailord, Spheal, Arcanine, Slowpoke, Piplup, Psyduck, Lapras and Mew. Given the height of Gardevoir, however, it’s easily one of the larger life-sized pluses to have been sold at the Pokémon Center. The Pokémon Center pop-up store is returning to ExCel London for the 2025 Pokémon Europe International Championships next month, but thousands of fans were unable to reserve a spot to enter it. “Due to exceptionally high demand, reservation slots for the EUIC Pokémon Center pop-up store are now fully booked,” read a post on X from Pokémon’s *** X account. “We understand that some fans will be disappointed that they could not reserve a slot. We are investigating ways to improve our online registration processes.” Source link #lifesized #5ft #Pokémon #Gardevoir #plush #***** #week Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Long Before Uncharted, Mark Wahlberg Hesitated To Do a $85M Video Game Movie That Was Crucified by Critics Long Before Uncharted, Mark Wahlberg Hesitated To Do a $85M Video Game Movie That Was Crucified by Critics Hollywood and video game adaptations have a complicated relationship. While some films find success, many are met with a barrage of criticism from fans and critics alike. Long before Mark Wahlberg suited up as Sully in Uncharted, he dipped his toes into the world of video game movies. Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne | Credits: 20th Century Studios With an $85 million budget, stylish visuals, and a strong cast, it had all the makings of a hit. But even before stepping onto the set, Wahlberg had his doubts, in hindsight it seems pretty justified. But why did Wahlberg hesitate? What did Mark Wahlberg find that made Max Payne a red flag? A still from Max Payne | Credits: Rockstar Games When Max Payne was pitched to Mark Wahlberg, he wasn’t exactly jumping with joy. Despite the game’s cult following and gritty neo-noir storyline, Wahlberg wasn’t familiar with the source material. But when he found out that it was based on a video game he was taken aback. In an interview with Bobbie Wygant, he was asked whether he was familiar with the video game and he replied, I was not. I read the script and loved it and then they told me that it was based on a video game and it was a bit of a red flag for me because I don’t know that video games could be turned into movies. I grew up playing very simple games like Pac-Man and stuff like that so I went and immediately checked out the game. But, it’s a very interesting story and it’s very cinematic so I thought it was a natural thing to make into a movie. He was skeptical about adapting a beloved video game into a full-length feature. And honestly, he wasn’t wrong to be worried. At the time, Hollywood hadn’t exactly mastered the art of turning games into compelling movies. Wahlberg’s instincts were tingling, but he took the role anyway. Perhaps it was the promise of a stylish action thriller, or maybe he thought he could elevate the material. Either way, he was in. Even though the game Max Payne 2 was a massive success, Max Payne didn’t just disappoint, it flopped hard. What went wrong with Max Payne? Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne | Credits: 20th Century Studios From the outside, Max Payne had potential. It had an established fanbase, a compelling story inspired by gritty noir films, and some solid action sequences. So what happened? Instead of a thrilling action film, audiences got a sluggish, muddled mess that left both gamers and casual moviegoers disappointed. For starters, the movie took itself way too seriously. While the game balanced its dark tone with over-the-top action and a self-aware narrative, the film leaned into the gloom and doom without much of the fun. The slow-motion gunfights, one of the game’s signature elements were present, but they lacked the excitement and impact that made them so iconic in the first place. Then came the critical beatdown. Rotten Tomatoes critics held nothing back, slamming Max Payne for its disjointed storytelling, underdeveloped characters, and lack of emotional depth. Fans of the game were especially vocal about how much the movie strayed from the source material. The supernatural elements felt forced and the pacing was off. Even though the movie failed, Mark Wahlberg was praised for this effort to make it work. Despite a decent box office return, largely due to opening weekend curiosity, Max Payne quickly faded into the ranks of forgettable video game adaptations. Wahlberg moved on to ******* and better projects, and Hollywood learned, once again, that translating video games to film is no easy feat. Max Payne is streaming on Apple TV. Source link #Long #Uncharted #Mark #Wahlberg #Hesitated #85M #Video #Game #Movie #Crucified #Critics Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Climate Fix: Africa’s Solar Revolution The Climate Fix: Africa’s Solar Revolution Editor’s note: Last week, the United Nations’ climate chief called the global transition away from fossil fuels “unstoppable,” despite the United States’ recent turn away from the fight against climate change under President Trump. That transition is the focus of the revamped version of The Climate Fix. Twice a month on Fridays, we’ll bring you original reporting and news of the most important — and most ambitious — solutions to fighting climate change across the world. We’ll report on technological breakthroughs, legal developments, new policies, new business models and new companies, as well as local climate efforts. We’ll tell you what’s new, what has promise and we’ll take a critical eye to each approach. Have thoughts about what we’re doing? Let us know at *****@*****.tld. This week, top officials from dozens of African countries convened with major international lenders to commit to the biggest rollout of renewable energy in the continent’s history. The $35 billion in loans from The World Bank, African Development Bank and other financial institutions, at below-market interest rates, are aimed at getting electricity to half of the 600 million Africans without it. About half the money will go toward village-level solar grids. It wasn’t just a hopeful moment for people who’ve been deprived of the most foundational facet of modern life. It’s a moment that could have enormous climate implications. And yet, the words “climate change” were barely uttered at the two-day summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. One moment encapsulated the dynamic. Akinwumi Adesina, head of the African Development Bank, was onstage on Monday speaking to the assembled leaders. He pointed into the crowd, picking out Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijani official who was president of last year’s United Nations climate summit, known as COP. “You all talk about energy transition,” he said, animatedly. “Our women are transitioning life! Right out of life! Because of the lack of power, they are cooking with charcoal inside their houses and they are dying!” The language of climate-change solutions The reason for the omission of climate change from this summit gets to the heart of a rich-world-poor-world divide on the politics — and language — of climate. And as I reported this week, it also tells a story of how solar power is becoming an unstoppable force in the global energy sector. First off, though: It really matters where developing countries get their energy. Most future greenhouse gas emissions will come from China, India and Africa. Their mix of energy sources will decide the climate’s future as much as the Europe and the United States’ historical emissions have led us to our precarious present. Right now, if you don’t have electricity in Africa and are trying to run a business, you most likely burn high-emitting diesel to run a generator. As the continent develops, however slowly, its leaders have long argued that they should be allowed to exploit the fossil fuels that they have in abundance. And they are both producing and importing them. Three-quarters of grid electricity in Africa is derived from fossil fuels, compared to 60 percent in the U.S. Powering the developing world’s growth Africa is yearning to grow. Over the next decade, hundreds of millions of Africans will need jobs that don’t currently exist. In many countries, societal collapse is not just a worry, it is an ongoing disaster that scores of people will do anything to escape from. Expanding electricity access is one of the surest ways to start strengthening Africa’s long hobbled and exploited economies. So, back to why climate change barely got a shout-out at a conference with such obvious climate implications. With the blame for climate change lying undeniably at the feet of Africa’s former colonizers, and with the United States, which has just elected a leader who has called climate change a hoax, Africa’s leaders are done crowing about the issue. They know the developed world is not acting fast enough to enact durable solutions to the climate crisis. Instead, they want investment and development. They want it affordably, and they want it as soon as possible. They want to avoid further instability as population growth remains high. China saw that coming, not just in Africa but around the developing world. The solar-energy industry China built over the past decade — a sector China now completely dominates — has enabled lenders like the World Bank to confidently say at summits like this week’s in Tanzania that solar is what will bring Africans energy quickest and at least cost. Why, then, even mention climate change as anything but a bonus? It’s just business. More climate fix news The year in investment: Global investment in low-carbon technology hit a record $2.1 trillion last year, per a new report from BloombergNEF, a research firm. That’s an 11 percent increase over last year. China dominated spending, investing $828 billion in overall, up 23 percent over 2023. Electrified transport, including electric vehicles, was the biggest investment category with $757 billion spent last year, followed by renewable energy at $728 billion. Electrification: Heat pumps are outselling gas furnaces in the United States again, according to Canary Media. “Americans bought 37 percent more air-source heat pumps than the next-most-popular heating appliance, gas furnaces, during the first 11 months of the year,” according to industry data cited by the publication. China: The Associated Press notes that China hit its goal of having 1,200 gigawatts of energy from renewables by 2030 six years early. And China’s fossil fuel power output may fall in 2025 for the first time a decade, Reuters reports. Officials in China have said little about their plans to build the world’s largest hydropower dam high up in the Tibetan plateau on the border with India, The Times reports, there are concerns about seismic activity in the area. Renewables: For the first time, Europe generated more power from solar than from coal, according to a report from Ember, an energy think tank. Outside of China, the fastest growing region for renewables is the Middle East, where oil-rich nations are pouring billions into solar, per The Financial Times. E.V.s.: Battery-powered cars are lasting as long as traditional gas- and diesel-fueled cars in the U.K., according to a study highlighted by The Guardian. In a bid to compete with China, the Europe Union is planning a subsidy for electric vehicles, The Financial Times reports. Waste: Officials in Miami-Dade County, Fla., are considering building a giant trash-burning facility, The Washington Post Reports. “If built, it would be the biggest incinerator in the United States, potentially paving the way for other cities and counties to adopt a waste-management method that some scientists say is the least bad option to deal with trash that can’t be recycled or composted,” the paper reports. Energy projects: As Climate Forward reported this week, fusion startup Helion Energy said it had raised $425 million, bringing its total fund-raising to more than $1 billion. New York State’s biggest solar farm got $950 million in funding, Bloomberg reports. It’s expected to be finished in 2026 and could power 120,000 homes. Thanks for being a subscriber. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. And follow The New York Times on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and TikTok at @nytimes. Reach us at *****@*****.tld. We read every message, and reply to many! Source link #Climate #Fix #Africas #Solar #Revolution Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

India vs England: Hosts win tense fourth T20 to seal series in Pune India vs England: Hosts win tense fourth T20 to seal series in Pune England slid to a 15-run defeat in a gripping fourth T20 as India took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. The tourists made a rapid start in pursuit of 182 but faltered against spin again to fall from 62-0 to 67-3. Ben Duckett was caught after miscuing Ravi Bishnoi on 39, Phil Salt was bowled for 23 by Axar Patel and leg-spinner Bishnoi returned to claim the crucial wicket of England captain Jos Buttler for two in the eighth over. Harry Brook made 51 but Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell were dismissed by Harshit Rana, who was controversially allowed to come in as a concussion substitute and took 3-33. England needed 25 from the last two overs but Harshit conceded six from the 19th and bowled Jamie Overton for 19 to all but seal the victory. England were bowled out for 166 in the final over. They can have justified complaints that Harshit, who replaced Shivam Dube as a ‘like-for-like’ player, was able to play such a hand but they also squandered a dominant position with the ball. Saqib Mahmood, playing in the series for the first time in place of Mark Wood, took three wickets in his first over to reduce the hosts to 12-3. But, having kept India to 79-5 after 11 overs, England lost control late on. India plundered 65 runs between the 16th and 19th overs with Hardik Pandya striking 53 from 30 ****** and Dube the same score from 34 deliveries as India reached 181-9. The win means India have clinched the series prior to the finale in Mumbai on Sunday. A three-match one-day international series follows next week. Source link #India #England #Hosts #win #tense #fourth #T20 #seal #series #Pune Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review – A New Take on the Musou Classic – MonsterVine Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review – A New Take on the Musou Classic – MonsterVine CCG writes – “Overall, after Dynasty Warriors 9 made some key mistakes, Dynasty Warriors Origins is a fine return to form and shows Koei Temco learned well from their mistakes. It’s rather pricey and I’d wait for a *****, but this game is worth getting if you love hack-and-slash games, the ROTK novel, or the real-world ******** history behind it. Morally, it’s got enough concerning elements its Teen rating is well deserved, but if you’re that age or older, it’s certainly a game I’d recommend. Given how Koei stumbled, this game is definitely proof they’ve made great strides to retain their footing.” Source link #Dynasty #Warriors #Origins #Review #Musou #Classic #MonsterVine Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Tesla Roadster Mistakenly Classified as Near-Earth Asteroid Tesla Roadster Mistakenly Classified as Near-Earth Asteroid A near-Earth object recently classified as an asteroid has been identified as Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster, which was launched into space in 2018 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The object was mistakenly listed as a new near-Earth asteroid by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (MPC) on January 2, before the classification was withdrawn within hours. The error, made by an amateur astronomer in Turkey using publicly available data, underscores growing concerns over the tracking of space debris and its impact on astronomical observations. Identification Error and Retraction According to astronomy.com, the object was initially recorded in the MPC’s database under the designation 2018 CN41. The classification was based on historical tracking data, but after a review, the discovery was rescinded just 17 hours later. The astronomer who reported the object recognised the mistake upon further analysis. The Tesla Roadster was launched on February 6, 2018, as a test payload for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight. Positioned in the driver’s seat was a mannequin named “Starman,” dressed in a prototype spacesuit. The car was intended to enter a stable orbit around Mars but instead settled into a heliocentric orbit, periodically passing near Earth and Mars. Implications for Space Tracking Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told astronomy.com that the misidentification of human-made objects as natural space bodies is becoming more frequent. He warned that such mistakes could lead to significant financial losses, stating that the worst-case scenario was that a billion dollars were spent launching a space probe to study an asteroid, only to realise it’s not an asteroid when you get there. Over the years, multiple spacecraft and discarded rocket boosters have been temporarily classified as asteroids. Among them are the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, NASA’s Lucy probe, and the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission. With the increasing number of space missions, experts anticipate that misidentifications will become more common. Lack of Regulations on Deep Space Debris As per reports, space agencies and private companies are required to track satellites and debris in Earth’s orbit. However, no regulatory framework mandates tracking objects that have moved beyond Earth’s gravity, such as the Tesla Roadster. In a 2024 statement, the American Astronomical Society called for transparency in tracking space objects to minimise interference with scientific observations and prevent potential collisions. With space exploration accelerating, concerns over orbital debris and misidentified objects continue to grow, reinforcing the need for stricter monitoring and classification systems.g Source link #Tesla #Roadster #Mistakenly #Classified #NearEarth #Asteroid Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

De Minaur powers Aussies into Davis Cup lead in Sweden De Minaur powers Aussies into Davis Cup lead in Sweden Alex de Minaur has served up another Davis Cup treat to give Australia the early lead in their first-round qualifying tie against Sweden in Stockholm. The world No.8, in his first outing since his quarter-final drubbing by Jannik Sinner at the *********** Open, had to subdue a confident return to action by Mikael Ymer before running away to a 7-5 6-1 victory on Friday (Saturday AEDT). Prevailing in the first rubber of the two-day, best-of-five tie, de Minaur’s 16th Davis Cup singles win gave Lleyton Hewitt’s injury-ravaged side the perfect lift-off, silencing the noisy full house in the Swedish capital’s Royal Tennis Hall,. “Look, It was a competitive match, a very tough match. Mikael played well, I knew he was going to be a very tough opponent, so I’m very happy I got the win for Australia, put a win on the board,” de Minaur told the crowd. Debutant Aleksandar Vukic was later set to play Leo Borg, son of Swedish tennis legend Bjorn Borg, in the final rubber of the day. It ended up a straightforward win for ‘******’ on the quick indoor hard court but he had his hands full early on with Ymer, a former top-50 player who’s returning after serving an 18-month ban for an anti-doping violation and was coming off an ITF tournament triumph last week in Luxembourg. The 26-year-old matched de Minaur shot for shot in the opening set – one rally won by the *********** went on for 41 strokes – with neither man earning even the sniff of a break in the first 10 games. But de Minaur, who’d lost his previous three singles in the Davis Cup, stepped up perfectly, reeling off eight straight points with relentlessly deep hitting to take the 51-minute set and two more points immediately at the start of the second to set up another break. Ymer battled steadfastly but eventually had to surrender a double break as de Minaur then went on to make it six games in a row and reel off the victory against his tiring opponent in one hour 27 minutes. Source link #Minaur #powers #Aussies #Davis #Cup #lead #Sweden Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Isoland: Pumpkin Town is a surreal, whimsical new point-and-click adventure in the ongoing series Isoland: Pumpkin Town is a surreal, whimsical new point-and-click adventure in the ongoing series Isoland: Pumpkin Town is a new entry in CottonGames Isoland series Enter a surreal and whimsical world to solve puzzles and encounter a dense storyline Isoland: Pumpkin Town is out now on the iOS App Store and Google Play Well well, it’s rare for a new release to be so roundabout about what it’s about, which is very much the case with Isoland: Pumpkin Town as it jumps around what it’s all about, whether it relates back to the rest of the Isoland series and more. But regardless of what it is, it’s out now on the iOS App Store and on Google Play! Of course, while Isoland: Pumpkin Town is trying to be coy, this is very much from a recognisable developer. CottonGame are the same folks behind Mr Pumpkin and other surreal point-and-click releases, including the recently launched and slightly more dramatic Reviver. But Isoland is perhaps their flagship series of point-and-click puzzlers. As far as what you can expect gameplay-wise? The Mr Pumpkin series and CottonGames’ catalogue as a whole all have plenty of entries with whimsical and surreal worlds to explore, complicated puzzles and dense storylines. So if you’re a fan of old-school surreal point-and-click adventures you’ll be right at home here. Mr Pumpkin the Unready Isoland: Pumpkin Town’s only real drawback, for my money, is that the art seems to have taken a step back. It looks a bit too clean from the screenshots, if that makes sense, compared to the denser and more surreal style of Mr Pumpkin. But that’s small potatoes, especially for what looks like a spin-off title. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for more exploration and puzzle-heavy fare why not try out some of our picks on our list of the top 12 best narrative adventure games? We’ve also got some more current picks over on our latest entry in the regular feature covering the top 12 new mobile games to try this week! Source link #Isoland #Pumpkin #Town #surreal #whimsical #pointandclick #adventure #ongoing #series Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

DeepSeek API, chat log exposure a ‘rookie’ cyber error DeepSeek API, chat log exposure a ‘rookie’ cyber error Days after a significant cyber attack of unknown provenance caused significant disruption for users of emergent ******** generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) model DeepSeek, persistent security issues continue to dog the fast-growing application, and reports are emerging of a fundamental lack of attention paid to basic cyber security measures at DeepSeek itself. This is according to researcher Gal Nagli of Wiz, a cloud security specialist, who on Wednesday 29 January published details of a publicly accessible DeepSeek database containing a trove of data, which he said enabled full control over database operations. Nagli said he was motivated to assess DeepSeek’s external cyber security posture and identify possible vulnerabilities in light of the platform’s meteoric rise to global prominence. “Within minutes, we found a publicly accessible ClickHouse database linked to DeepSeek, completely open and unauthenticated, exposing sensitive data. It was hosted at oauth2callback.deepseek.com:9000 and dev.deepseek.com:9000,” said Nagli. “This database contained a significant volume of chat history, back-end data and sensitive information, including log streams, API secrets, and operational details. “More critically, the exposure allowed for full database control and potential privilege escalation within the DeepSeek environment, without any authentication or defence mechanism to the outside world,” he added. Nagli found the exposed database through a standard mapping exercise of DeepSeek’s publicly accessible domains. He found about 30 internet-facing subdomains, most of which were benign, but on expanding his search beyond standard HTTP ports 80 and 443, he found two open ports, 8123 and 9000, associated with the vulnerable hosts. Leveraging ClickHouse’s HTTP interface, he was then able to access a specific path that enabled direct execution of arbitrary SQL queries in a web browser; running a ‘show tables’ query returned the list of exposed datasets. “This level of access posed a critical risk to DeepSeek’s own security and for its end-users. Not only could an attacker retrieve sensitive logs and actual plain text chat messages, but they could also potentially exfiltrate plain text passwords and local files along with propriety information directly from the server … depending on their ClickHouse configuration,” said Nagli. Nagli informed DeepSeek of the exposed ClickHouse service through responsible disclosure channels, and Computer Weekly understands they have now been locked down. ClickHouse is an open source database management tool used for processing, log storage and analytics – which was initially developed at Yandex in Russia, although it is now based in Silicon Valley. William Wright, CEO of Closed Door Security, a consultancy based in Scotland’s Western Isles, said the issues were highly concerning given DeepSeek was giving some of the world’s most well-established AI leaders a run for their money. “Security must be a priority, but leaving a database like this exposed is a rookie mistake,” he said. “In the last week, DeepSeek has been thrust into the public eye, but the company is clearly now learning that not all publicity is good publicity. “Having plain text conversations in a public-facing database could provide criminals with access to confidential information relating to businesses and individuals. Criminals could also exploit further commands to steal more information from users, which would put them at even greater risk. “This is also one of the key reasons why organisations must run proactive assessments across their networks, so weaknesses can be identified and mitigated before they are exposed by researchers or threat actors,” said Wright. Source link #DeepSeek #API #chat #log #exposure #rookie #cyber #error Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Julie Stewart-Binks on a career derailed by alleged ******* assault: ‘What could my life have been?’ Julie Stewart-Binks on a career derailed by alleged ******* assault: ‘What could my life have been?’ Last week, Julie Stewart-Binks sat in an empty lounge on the rooftop of a hotel near her apartment in New York City. She is about to watch a clip from her time as a Fox Sports host and reporter. It is a moment that she thinks about often, but one that she has never wanted to relive in full. She hits play on the video, then her hands jerk back toward her chest, as if bracing for a blow. In the clip, Stewart-Binks, then a 28-year-old Fox Sports 1 on-air personality, is on the set of a pop-up show – “Jason Whitlock’s House Party By the Bay” – for the 2016 Super Bowl in San Francisco. The set is meant to evoke a Super Bowl party. Red Solo cups. Beers chilling in an ice bucket on the coffee table. Whitlock and the day’s guest – New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski – are behind a desk; Stewart-Binks is on a gray couch flanking them. The group is discussing Gronkowski’s disclosure that he moonlighted as a stripper in college. Stewart-Binks then says: “If you have a chance to make some more money, using maybe me as an example, do you want to show us a little ‘Magic Mike?’” (A reference to the 2012 movie about male exotic dancers.) Gronkowski, a little surprised, asks Stewart-Binks if she wants a lap dance, to which she replies: “Yeah.” Gronkowski seems to be stalling. He asks about music and remarks: “Where are your friends? I would need, like, a bachelorette party?” Stewart-Binks keeps urging him on, as does Whitlock, and Gronkowski eventually moves from behind the desk, over to the couch. He dances briefly in front of Stewart-Binks, then straddles her and thrusts his hips toward her, grinding on her as the cameras roll. Stewart-Binks, laughing, takes out some crumpled dollar bills and hands them to Gronkowski. The dancing lasts about six seconds. As she watches the clip, Stewart-Binks’ face reddens and her chest breaks out in hives. She begins to cry. “I will spend my entire life trying to make up for this,” she says, wiping away tears with a shaking hand. “I will die trying to make up for this moment that’s clearly not who I am.” The Gronkowski segment was the defining moment in Stewart-Binks’ four years at FS1 (2013-16). As the clip spread across the internet, FS1 was derided as a “circus act,” but Stewart-Binks took the brunt of the criticism. She was accused of setting back the efforts of women working in sports journalism and betraying feminism entirely. Some of the criticism came from friends and colleagues. Now, she wants those critics to know why she participated in the segment, and providing that context requires sharing what she says happened to her in the days beforehand. On Friday, Stewart-Binks, 37, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Fox and Charlie Dixon, an executive vice president and head of content at Fox Sports and FS1, the company’s sports network. In that lawsuit, she alleges that about a week before the Gronkowski segment she was ********* assaulted by Dixon during a meeting at a hotel that he organized under the auspices of talking about her Super Bowl week duties. Dixon is also a defendant in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by former FS1 hairstylist Noushin Faraji. In Faraji’s complaint, she claimed that “executives and talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with impunity,” and she alleged that Dixon groped her at a co-worker’s birthday party in January 2017, among other allegations. Dixon did not respond to text, voice and email messages seeking comment. Fox Sports said in a statement: “These allegations are from over eight years ago. At the time, we promptly hired a third-party firm to investigate and addressed the matter based on their findings.” Days after the alleged assault, when producers in San Francisco told her that FS1 wanted a viral moment out of Gronkowski, she said she never considered the implications of the stunt, only what would happen if she refused with Dixon watching from the set. “I was in a really f—ed-up place that I could not tell people about,” she said. In her complaint, Stewart-Binks said she detailed the allegations against Dixon to a Fox human resources official in 2017 but that Fox “egregiously made the deliberate decision to protect Dixon and allow a ******* predator to remain an executive at Fox for nearly a decade.” “They knew and didn’t do anything about it,” Stewart-Binks said in an interview earlier this month. “It meant they didn’t care about the damage done to me and how it affected others.” She then added: “This has been accepted for so long. I’m sitting here wanting it to be different.” Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon in 2018. (Travis P. Ball / Getty Images) Stewart-Binks grew up in Toronto, and her mother was a broadcast reporter and her father worked in the medical device industry. She played right wing on a boys’ house league hockey team and also trained as a figure skater and a cellist. She attended Queen’s University and obtained degrees in both drama and physical and health education but developed a passion for broadcasting and later got a master’s degree in international broadcast journalism from what is now known as City St George’s, University of London. Her entry into sports journalism in Canada was scrappy and unglamorous. She covered Ontario Hockey League games on a volunteer basis, staying at a friend’s house in Kingston, then taking a bus to Niagara, where she’d bunk with her grandmother in a retirement community. Later, as a reporter and anchor for CTV in *******, Saskatchewan, she drove across the ********* prairies shooting and editing sports television packages on curling and anchoring the nightly newscasts. To save money, she lived out of a friend’s basement. In 2013, she was plucked out of relative obscurity by an agent at Octagon (the late John Ferriter) and flown to Los Angeles to meet with Fox Sports executives and screen test for the launch of FS1. She was hired by the fledgling network as an update anchor and went on to host “Fox Soccer Daily.” She also worked as a sideline reporter for Major League Soccer, hosted FS1’s coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics and covered the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She spent 65 days on the road that summer and was tabbed as one of Awful Announcing’s “Rising Stars.” But, according to her complaint, by early 2016, her allies within FS1 — executives like Scott Ackerson and Rick Jaffe — had departed and a new regime — Dixon and fellow executive Jamie Horowitz — were in place with a new vision for the network. Stewart-Binks still liked her job. She got to cover soccer and hockey – sports she loved – and work as an anchor and a host. She was part of a tight-knit group that helped launch FS1. But her future was uncertain. The network had until April 1, 2016, to pick up a one-year option in her contract. If it did not, she would lose a high-profile job. She felt she needed to show the Dixon-Horowitz regime that she was a versatile and dynamic talent. When Whitlock requested her to be a part of his show during the 2016 Super Bowl week, she felt she had an opening to do that. And then Dixon asked her to come to his hotel, writing that he wanted to “go over expectation(s)” before a group meeting the next day, according to her complaint. After receiving that text, Stewart-Binks shared her excitement with a friend about getting face time with her boss and curated her outfit for the meeting – a suede jacket and designer heels – hoping to convey style and professionalism. The lawsuit sets out in detail how they met at the bar at a hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif. She ordered a single glass of white wine. Dixon asked what she had been told about her role on Whitlock’s show during Super Bowl week. He then told her he didn’t think she should be going to the Super Bowl at all and that she was ill-suited to host and wasn’t funny or interesting or talented enough to draw in viewers. In an interview, Stewart-Binks said she was shocked and confused by Dixon’s remarks. Why was he denigrating her so strongly, and, just before she went on an important assignment for the network? She tried to stay calm, even when he remarked, according to the complaint, that the only way anyone would be willing to watch her was if she “got up on this bar and took your top off” and then added: “You’re not hot enough to be a hot girl on TV.” She said in her interview with The Athletic that she responded to Dixon: “I didn’t get my master’s degree in ‘hot girl.’” Stewart-Binks said Dixon’s tone then changed. He stopped criticizing her and asked about her professional aspirations. The complaint states that Dixon then ordered two beers from the bar and urged her to come to his room and drink them, adding that he had a great view from his balcony. She didn’t think it was a good idea, she said in her interview and in the complaint, but she felt she couldn’t say no to her boss. “You have autonomy over yourself to say ‘no’ and leave. But you don’t, and you say ‘yes’ because he held the power to everything,” Stewart-Binks told The Athletic. The legal complaint describes Dixon’s shirts – colorful tees with slogans and pictures – laid out on one of the beds in his room. Dixon suggested they step out on the balcony. Once outside, Dixon, according to the complaint, “swiftly pushed her against the wall of the hotel and pinned her arms to her side. With her arms forcefully held down and his body pressed against hers, Dixon tried to force his tongue into her mouth.” Stewart-Binks’ mouth remained shut but Dixon “ignored her, continuing to press against her body and lick her closed mouth. While keeping one of her arms pinned, he moved his other arm from pressing her upper elbow against the wall to her body and towards her chest. Stewart-Binks seized the moment of partial freedom to push him away, say ‘get off of me’ and rapidly leave the hotel room.” Once in her car, she called the same friend with whom she had earlier shared her excitement about meeting with Dixon. “I remember getting a very upset phone call,” the friend told The Athletic. “It was the overall disappointment of ‘I can’t believe an executive did this.’” Stewart-Binks later called her mother, according to the complaint, and the two women concluded that it would imperil her career if she spoke out about what Dixon had allegedly done. Stewart-Binks went back to work frightened about the implications of fending off Dixon and also what his remarks about her lack of talent meant for her career going forward. At a meeting the day after the alleged assault, she said Dixon ignored her. She believed her future was “very much hanging in the balance” as she arrived in San Francisco for Super Bowl week. Her anxiety was ramped up by producers there who were hell-bent to “make a moment” that would garner attention, she said. “I was told … that I was not capable of being able to do a moment like this on television. And that I was not interesting, funny, talented, smart. And so I felt the need to prove that I was all in, and that I was not scared to do something like (the Gronkowski stunt). Had I not (done it), I would have felt like I failed and that I would have confirmed what (Dixon) told me.” The reaction to her role in the Gronkowski segment surprised and stung her, she said in an interview. People she knew in the industry, some whom she considered friends, were among those voicing their disappointment with her choice to participate. Her co-worker and friend, Katie Nolan, told GQ that she disapproved of the bit. (Nolan later apologized to Stewart-Binks in a podcast and clarified her remarks.) Stewart-Binks recalled receiving a text message from Grant Wahl, the late Sports Illustrated soccer writer she admired, that read: “That’s not who you are.” Fox promoted the Gronkowski segment on social media and elsewhere. The network got its viral moment. But when the backlash grew strong enough, Fox stopped, and the same men in the production meeting eager to “make a moment” went largely silent. Stewart-Binks’ bosses didn’t address the incident at length until six weeks later; Horowitz said at that time that he was supportive of Stewart-Binks for doing a “fun bit” and thought Gronkowski “maybe … took it a half step too far.” In her lawsuit, Stewart-Binks said the network instructed her not to comment on the incident, and her agency, CAA, advised her to ride it out. Less than two months after the Super Bowl, Stewart-Binks was informed that Fox would not pick up her contract option with one executive telling her that there was “nothing for her to do here,” according to the complaint. According to the complaint, Stewart-Binks was contacted by a Fox human resources official in June 2017 and asked about Horowitz’s behavior when Stewart-Binks worked at Fox Sports. Stewart-Binks didn’t have anything substantive to share about Horowitz, but the complaint states that she disclosed to the HR official what Dixon allegedly said to her in their January 2016 meeting and what allegedly happened in his hotel room afterward. Horowitz was fired following the probe, but Dixon remained at the company. After Fox, Stewart-Binks worked as a part-time soccer reporter for ESPN, a rinkside reporter for NHL on ****, a host for BetRivers Sportsbook Network, did stand-up comedy, was a host for the CBC’s 2024 Olympic coverage, among other jobs. She’s continued to scrap to find work but believes the Gronkowski segment has impacted her ability to get other jobs. When the Faraji lawsuit against Fox and Dixon was filed, Stewart-Binks received text messages from people she had told about her interactions with Dixon. On page eight of the 42-page complaint, there is a reference to a host who reported Dixon to the company. She believed that Faraji, with whom she worked at FS1, was referencing her. Reading about what Faraji allegedly endured was a “tipping point,” Stewart-Binks said. “I didn’t want to hold onto it anymore.” Stewart-Binks said she has experienced bouts of self-doubt since leaving Fox Sports, Dixon’s criticism of her abilities still ringing in her ears. “I had a different view of what my life would be like than what it is. And I’m very grateful for everything I have. But sometimes I think … well, what could my life have been had this not happened?” (Top photo: Hatnim Lee for The Athletic) Source link #Julie #StewartBinks #career #derailed #alleged #******* #assault #life Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

New video shows DC plane ****** in full New video shows DC plane ****** in full Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways Washington DC ****** Credit: CNN New footage has captured the moment a passenger plane and military helicopter collided above Washington DC, as Donald Trump suggested the chopper was “flying too high by a lot”. Two CCTV videos obtained by CNN show the ****** Hawk helicopter and American Airlines flight colliding in a fireball before both aircraft plunge into the icy Potomac River. The passenger jet is seen as a bright light in the footage flying towards the camera, at it was coming into land at DC’s Ronald Reagan airport. The helicopter is seen coming into view from the left-hand side of the footage, seconds before the two lights converge and erupt into a ball of flames. The wreckage of both plane and helicopter is seen crashing back down to earth and splashing into the dark, icy river. Military pilots had requested a predetermined flight path, referred to as Route 4, from air traffic control. This allows helicopters to fly at low altitude along the bank on the east side of the Potomac River. But the helicopter flew higher and further away from the bank than it should have done, four officials told The New York Times. The helicopter was supposed to be flying below 200ft but had reportedly risen above 300ft when it collided with the commercial airliner. Responding to the reports in a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump, the US president, wrote: “The ****** Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Source link #video #shows #plane #****** #full Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

New Study Uses Math to Decode Creativity and Idea Formation New Study Uses Math to Decode Creativity and Idea Formation A new research study has examined the mathematical principles governing creativity and innovation, shedding light on how novel ideas emerge. By analysing data across different domains, researchers have identified patterns that could refine the understanding of how individuals and societies generate new concepts. The study investigates two types of novelty—discovering an entirely new element and forming unique combinations of existing elements. The findings could be crucial in fields such as science, literature, and technology, where innovation plays a vital role in advancement. Mathematical Framework for Creativity According to the study published in Nature Communications, researchers introduced a framework to model how new ideas emerge. Led by Professor Vito Latora from Queen Mary University of London, the team focused on higher-order novelties—combinations of familiar elements that create something new. Speaking to Phys.org, Prof. Latora stated that the study is part of a broader effort to understand the mechanisms underlying creativity, aiming to identify factors that contribute to the success of ideas, products, and technologies. A mathematical model called Edge-Reinforced Random Walk with Triggering (ERRWT) was developed to simulate how people discover and combine elements. Unlike traditional random walks, which assume equal probability for each step, ERRWT strengthens frequently used connections and triggers new links when novel combinations occur. This process mirrors real-world discovery, where repeated exposure to certain elements increases the likelihood of making new associations. Analysing Patterns Across Domains The research team applied the ERRWT model to three distinct datasets—music listening habits from Last.fm, literary texts from Project Gutenberg, and scientific publications from Semantic Scholar. The findings revealed that while individuals might have similar rates of discovering new elements, the sequences in which they arrange them differ significantly. For music listeners, certain users developed unique listening patterns despite discovering the same number of new songs. In literature, writers frequently created new word pairings rather than introducing entirely new words. Scientific papers, particularly titles, demonstrated a higher tendency for novel word combinations compared to narrative texts. Predicting Innovation with Heaps’ Law The study also highlighted that the process of novelty creation follows Heaps’ law, a power-law relationship describing how new elements and combinations emerge over time. By applying this principle, researchers could predict different rates of innovation across disciplines. The results indicated that while some fields prioritise the discovery of individual elements, others focus on recombining existing ones in unique ways. Implications for Future Research The findings suggest that understanding how creative processes unfold could help refine strategies for fostering innovation. Prof. Latora noted that studying novelty creation is essential for identifying factors that contribute to the rise and decline of trends, products, and ideas. Future research aims to expand the model by incorporating a social component, which could provide insights into how external influences shape creative developments. Source link #Study #Math #Decode #Creativity #Idea #Formation Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

AI jailbreaking techniques prove highly effective against DeepSeek AI jailbreaking techniques prove highly effective against DeepSeek Fresh questions are being raised over the safety and security of DeepSeek, the breakout ******** generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform, after researchers at Palo Alto Networks revealed that the platform is highly vulnerable to so-called jailbreaking techniques used by malicious actors to cheat the rules that are supposed to prevent large language models (LLMs) from being used for nefarious purposes, such as writing malware code. The sudden surge of interest in DeepSeek at the end of January has drawn comparisons to the moment in October 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik, taking the United States and her allies by surprise and precipitating the space race of the 1960s culminating in the Apollo 11 Moon landing. It also caused chaos in the tech industry, wiping billions of dollars off the value of companies such as Nvidia. Now, Palo Alto’s technical teams have demonstrated that three recently described jailbreaking techniques are effective against DeepSeek models. The team said it achieved significant bypass rates with little to no specialised knowledge or expertise needed. Their experiments found that the three jailbreak methods tested yielded explicit guidance from DeepSeek on a range of topics of interest to the cyber criminal fraternity, including data exfiltration and keylogger creation. They were also able to generate instructions on creating improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “While information on creating Molotov cocktails and keyloggers is readily available online, LLMs with insufficient safety restrictions could lower the barrier to entry for malicious actors by compiling and presenting easily usable and actionable output. This assistance could greatly accelerate their operations,” said the team. What is jailbreaking? Jailbreaking techniques involve the careful crafting of specific prompts, or the exploitation of vulnerabilities, to bypass LLMs’ onboard guard-rails and elicit biased or otherwise harmful output that the model should avoid. Doing so enables malicious actors to “weaponise” LLMs to spread misinformation, facilitate criminal activity, or generate offensive material. Unfortunately, the more sophisticated LLMs become in their understanding of and responses to nuanced prompts, the more susceptible they become to the right adversarial input. This is now leading to something of an arms race. Palo Alto tested three jailbreaking techniques – Bad Likert Judge, Deceptive Delight and Crescendo – on DeepSeek. Bad Likert Judge attempts to manipulate an LLM by getting it to evaluate the harmfulness of responses using the Likert Scale, which is used in consumer satisfaction surveys, among other things, to measure agreement or disagreement towards a statement against a scale, usually of one to five, where one equals strongly agree and five equals strongly disagree. Crescendo is a multi-turn exploit that takes advantage of an LLM’s knowledge on a subject by progressively prompting it with related content to subtly guide the discussion towards forbidden topics until the model’s safety mechanisms are essentially overridden. With the right questions and skills, an attacker can achieve full escalation within just five interactions, which makes Crescendo extremely effective and, worse still, hard to detect with countermeasures. Deceptive Delight is another multi-turn technique that bypasses guardrails by embedding unsafe topics among benign ones within an overall positive narrative. As a very basic example, a threat actor could ask the AI to create a story connecting three topics – bunny rabbits, ransomware, and fluffy clouds – and asking it to elaborate on each to generate unsafe content when discussing the more benign parts of the story. They could then prompt again focusing on the unsafe topic to amplify the dangerous output. How should CISOs respond? Palo Alto conceded it is a challenge to guarantee specific LLMs – not just DeepSeek – are completely impervious to jailbreaking, end-user organisations can implement measures to give them some degree of protection, such as monitoring when and how employees are using LLMs, including unauthorised third-party ones. “Every organisation will have its policies about new AI models,” said Palo Alto senior vice-president of network security, Anand Oswal. “Some will ban them completely; others will allow limited, experimental and heavily guardrailed use. Still others will rush to deploy it in production, looking to eke out that extra bit of performance and cost optimisation. “But beyond your organisation’s need to decide on a new specific model, DeepSeek’s rise offers several lessons about AI security in 2025,” said Oswal in a blog post. “AI’s pace of change, and the surrounding sense of urgency, can’t be compared to other technologies. How can you plan ahead when a somewhat obscure model – and the more than 500 derivatives already available on Hugging Face – becomes the number-one priority seemingly out of nowhere? The short answer: you can’t,” he said. Oswal said AI security remained a “moving target” and that this did not look set to change for a while. Furthermore, he added, it was unlikely that DeepSeek will be the last model to catch everyone by surprise, so CISOs and security leaders should expect the unexpected. Adding to the challenge faced by organisations, it is very easy for development teams, or even individual developers, to switch out LLMs at little or even no cost if a more interesting one arrives on the scene. “The temptation for product builders to test the new model to see if it can solve a cost issue or latency bottleneck or outperform on a specific task is huge. And if the model turns out to be the missing piece that helps bring a potentially game-changing product to market, you don’t want to be the one who stands in the way,” said Oswal. Palo Alto is encouraging security leaders to establish clear governance over LLMs and advocating for incorporating secure-by-design principles into organisational use of them. It rolled out a set of tools, Secure AI by Design, last year, to this effect. Among other things, these tools provide security teams with real-time visibility into what LLMs are being used and by who; the ability to block unsanctioned apps and apply organisational security policies and protections; and prevent sensitive data from being accessed by LLMs. Source link #jailbreaking #techniques #prove #highly #effective #DeepSeek Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to meet with Trump at White House Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to meet with Trump at White House Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is in Washington, D.C., and will be meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon, CNBC has confirmed. The main topic Huang and Trump are expected to discuss is U.S. artificial intelligence policy, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the plans. China’s DeepSeek is likely to be part of the discussion, but the meeting is seen as a way for both leaders to get to know one another, the sources said. Top technology CEOs have embraced Trump in recent months to a degree not seen in his first administration. But this is the first meeting between Huang and Trump since the president started his second term last week. Many other industry leaders were at Trump’s inauguration. They included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. They also donated to the event either individually or through their company. Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has emerged as one of Trump’s top advisors, after heavily financing his campaign. Musk is implementing policy for the Trump administration through his oversight of an outside advisory council, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. On Inauguration Day, Huang visited Nvidia offices in China. Trump and Huang have a lot to discuss as Nvidia, now the third most-valuable U.S. company, faces several regulatory challenges related to international demand for its AI chips. The most powerful Nvidia AI chips have export restrictions preventing them from going to countries like China and Russia — and soon a host of other countries. CNBC has confirmed U.S. chip restrictions on China are currently being evaluated by the White House. The two will also likely discuss the so-called diffusion rules that were announced by the Biden administration in its final days. The rules severely limit chips sales overseas and prompted a sharp response from both Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. They’re expected go into effect this year, but Trump has the power to reverse them. Huang and Trump are also expected to discuss investments in U.S. chip production, the sources said, as the Commerce Department looks to revamp the previous administration’s CHIPS Act that subsidized companies like Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build new chip foundries on U.S. soil. Most of Nvidia’s chips are fabricated at the most advanced factories in Taiwan, which are operated by TSMC. Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO Source link #Nvidia #CEO #Jensen #Huang #meet #Trump #White #House Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Dan Hurley, college basketball villain? Actually, this sport could use more like him Dan Hurley, college basketball villain? Actually, this sport could use more like him The best part of Dan Hurley’s latest week at the center of sports villain discourse was his hard pivot on a podcast that was unfolding as expected — a little bit of damage control, a touch of mea culpa, Hurley saying it was embarrassing to have proclaimed himself the best coach in men’s college basketball considering veteran peers who are “as good or better than me.” Pivot. “The people that want to have at me, the super soft media people that want to cancel me for being an intense coach, you know, I don’t think we need to make sports softer,” Hurley told Adam Finkelstein on a 247Sports podcast. “So, yeah, go for it. And then the fans of teams and programs that wish they were us, that get joy out of these moments with me on the sideline, then enjoy that. But you know you don’t have what we got, which is the banners. But if this is your moment right here to mock me on social media for being an intense coach, go for it.” Cancel him? From what, hosting the ESPYs? “Being an intense coach” is how he describes proclaiming, “I’m the best coach in the f—ing sport” to an official he’s berating and ordering to take more of it? Seriously, how do you not love this guy? He was making his point pic.twitter.com/kfYOPMEmF5 — FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 22, 2025 Seriously. You actually should, if you love men’s college basketball, and even if you root for a team that considers UConn a rival, which I suppose could be the entire Big East and any of the power programs that would like to supplant the two-time defending champs. Throw in Syracuse and Pitt, too. Throw in everyone. Hurley is an adversary to all. Also, he is an authentic, outspoken personality who inspires emotion in others, an increasingly rare commodity in a sport that used to be teeming with them. His antics this season, which stretch back to Maui and calling an official a “f—ing joke,” have inspired waves of anger. Some laughter. And for me, a longing for the days, not all that long ago, when this sport could out-personality any other. John Calipari returns to Kentucky this weekend, and he might get booed or he might get cheered. I liked him best when he was getting screamed at by John Chaney. Rivalries? How about Jim Boeheim against John Thompson? How about Bob Knight against Gene Keady? Throw a Billy Martin or a Jerry Glanville on the table. I’ll raise you an Al McGuire and a Rollie Massimino. Dale Brown, Nolan Richardson, Jim Valvano, Jud Heathcote, Clem Haskins, Rick Majerus, Bobby Cremins, Billy Tubbs … I’m forgetting people, but I really don’t think this is close. As for villains, let’s try Jerry Tarkanian, Bob Huggins, Boeheim, Knight and Mike Krzyzewski for starters. Krzyzewski, like Hurley, largely because of all the winning. Yes, we’ve got Rick Pitino back, but he’s slowed down a bit and has become a somewhat sympathetic character, a guy who asks Kentucky fans not to boo his friend-turned-adversary Calipari. We’ve got fire on some sidelines. Brad Underwood. Bruce Pearl. Nate Oats. Tom Izzo, though his heat index peaked in the days of Bo Ryan eliciting smoke from his ears. Bo Ryan. Damn. The good old days. No offense to today’s coaching community at large, but it seems to be a largely affable, noncontroversial group. No offense to men’s college basketball, which I happen to love and find compelling from November through March, but its popularity has declined over the past several years. (Women’s college basketball has soared and can thank Caitlin Clark and other stars, but let’s also acknowledge the transcendent villainy of Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey.) Football and realignment are identified culprits, and coaches will make sure the transfer portal gets its due blame. That’s fine. I’d also like to suggest that the more people in the game who make people feel a certain way — especially people who can take or leave the game — the better it is for the game. And that more would be welcome. That can’t be manufactured. With Hurley, I don’t think anything is. This guy has engaged in trash-talking sessions with fans of several teams, including his own, per Mike Anthony of Hearst Media, and isn’t afraid to let fly with an expletive at the White House. Yes, he went too far with some of his comments to officials. The “best coach” thing is worth a hearty eye roll. So were Hurley’s comments complaining about TV cameras spending too much time on him and not as much on his counterparts. (In a pertinent if somewhat weird exercise, I kept track of the camera close-up time during Peacock’s broadcast of UConn’s comeback win over DePaul on Wednesday, and Chris Holtmann had an edge of 51 seconds to Hurley’s 36 seconds. Maybe this just means Hurley is already scaring broadcast partners into leaving him alone, which would actually be his biggest offense yet.) This isn’t meant to defend all Hurley has done or join the sycophancy that inevitably emerges to counteract coach criticisms. But some of the criticisms are a bit much. He’s not the only coach who barks at officials. Saturday night at Auburn’s Neville Arena, I watched Pearl and Rick Barnes gripe at them all night, taking brief breaks to speak to their teams. Also, officiating isn’t good enough in this sport because they aren’t full-time employees and aren’t paid enough so they work way too much. Knight comparisons are unfair. Look closely at Knight’s legacy and you see too much problematic treatment of humans to ignore. Hurley is a hothead. He acknowledged as much on the same podcast, referring to the “dark side” of his personality. Look closely at his story — read this one by my colleague Brendan Quinn — and you realize you’re witnessing the tightly wound, hypercompetitive little brother of a legend who struggled with that for a long time and tended to his own mental health at an age and time before that was much of a thing. Maybe that’s the best way for college basketball fans to look at Hurley. As an annoying, bombastic little brother. You don’t have to like him. You do have to love him. (Photo: David Butler II / Imagn Images) Source link #Dan #Hurley #college #basketball #villain #sport Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle-All Included DLC For The Sims 1 and 2 The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle-All Included DLC For The Sims 1 and 2 · · January 31, 2025 The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle sees the re-release of two classic games: The Sims 1 and The Sims 2. And while getting the base game on modern hardware is a nice surprise, EA has also included in The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle all expansion packs and DLC that were released for both games. From popular ones like The Sims 2: Nightlight and University to the very first expansion ever released for The Sims, Livin’ Large, longtime players of the series are sure to be wrapped up in the nostalgia that comes from replaying these games. RELATED: The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle PC Specs—How To Play The Sims 1 and 2 You can check out the full list of included DLC and expansions below. The bundle is currently available for $39.99 via Steam, Epic Games Store, or the EA App on PC. If you want just The Sims 1 or The Sims 2, you can buy them separately for $19.99 or $29.99, respectively. The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle: Included DLC The Sims DLC The Sims: Livin’ Large The Sims: House Party The Sims: Hot Date The Sims: Vacation The Sims: Unleashed The Sims: Superstar The Sims: Makin’ Magic. The Sims 2 DLC The Sims 2: University The Sims 2: Nightlife The Sims 2: Open for Business The Sims 2: Pets The Sims 2: Bon Voyage The Sims 2: Seasons The Sims 2: FreeTime The Sims 2: Apartment Life The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff The Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff The Sims 2: Celebration! Stuff The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff The Sims 2: Teen Style Stuff The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff What is your favorite expansion and DLC pack from either The Sims 1 or The Sims 2 in The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle? Let us know down below, and join more discussions in the official Insider Gaming forums. For more Insider Gaming, check out all of the latest news you need to know. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #Sims #25th #Birthday #BundleAll #Included #DLC #Sims Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

U.S. investigates whether DeepSeek smuggled Nvidia AI GPUs via Singapore U.S. investigates whether DeepSeek smuggled Nvidia AI GPUs via Singapore Bloomberg reports that the U.S. government is investigating whether DeepSeek acquired Nvidia’s restricted GPUs for AI workloads through intermediaries in Singapore, bypassing U.S. export restrictions. Concerns have grown as DeepSeek’s AI model R1 shows capabilities on par with leading OpenAI and Google models. Adding to the concerns, Singapore’s share of Nvidia’s revenue increased from 9% to 22% in two years. DeepSeek has not disclosed the specific hardware used to train its R1 model. However, it previously indicated that it used a limited number of H800 GPUs — 2,048 — to train its V3 model with 671 billion parameters in just two months, or 2.8 million GPU hours. By contrast, it took Meta 11 times more compute resources (30.8 million GPU hours) to train its Llama 3 model with 405 billion parameters using a supercomputer featuring 16,384 H100 GPUs over 54 days. Observers believe that R1 also consumes fewer resources than competing models. However, R1 was likely trained on a more powerful cluster than the one used for V3. This assumption has led to speculation that the company relied on restricted Nvidia GPUs that cannot be freely imported to China. Authorities, including the White House and the FBI, are investigating whether DeepSeek obtained restricted AI GPUs through third-party firms in Singapore. So far, officials have not publicly confirmed whether laws were broken, but Nvidia maintains that it follows all legal requirements. The U.S. has tightened restrictions on advanced GPU exports to China for several years. In 2023, the Biden administration imposed new rules limiting the performance of GPUs that can be sold to China and multiple other nations without an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce. However, Singapore was not among the restricted countries, so many believe it was a loophole for ******** entities to get their hands on Nvidia’s high-end H100 GPUs. According to the report, representatives John Moolenaar and ***** Krishnamoorthi have called for strict licensing measures unless Singapore strengthens oversight on shipments. Singapore plays a vital role in Nvidia’s global business, accounting for 22% of its revenue as of Q3 FY2025, up from 9% in Q3 FY2023 when the first significant restrictions on AI GPU sales to ******** were introduced, as @tphuang noticed. However, the company clarifies that most transactions with Singapore involve shipments sent elsewhere, not China. Nvidia reports sales based on ‘bill to’ locations, which do not always reflect where the products are ultimately used. “The revenue associated with Singapore does not indicate diversion to China,” a statement by Nvidia reads. “Our public filings report ‘bill to’ not ‘ship to’ locations of our customers. Many of our customers have business entities in Singapore and use those entities for products destined for the U.S. and the West. We insist that our partners comply with all applicable laws, and if we receive any information to the contrary, act accordingly.” Howard Lutnick, nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Commerce Department, claimed during his confirmation hearing that DeepSeek managed to evade U.S. trade restrictions. He argued that China should compete fairly without using American hardware and vowed to take a hard stance on enforcing chip sales limits if confirmed. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #U.S #investigates #DeepSeek #smuggled #Nvidia #GPUs #Singapore Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Investigators look for clues in fatal collision Investigators look for clues in fatal collision The air traffic control at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is pictured, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a ****** Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, with the Capitol dome in the background, as seen from Virginia, U.S., January 30, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters How an Army ****** Hawk helicopter collided into an American Airlines jetliner in a deadly ****** over the Potomac River Wednesday night is still unknown, but questions are emerging, including the altitude of the military helicopter. Investigators are still pulling evidence from the Potomac and looking at everything from newly pulled flight data and cockpit voice recorder information. All 64 people on American Airlines Flight 5342 and the three aboard the helicopter were killed in the fireball collision near the Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, marking the deadliest U.S. air ****** since 2001. The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft was flying at about 300 feet on final approach into Reagan National’s Runway 33 shortly before 9 p.m. ET Wednesday when it collided with the ****** Hawk helicopter. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter was on an annual proficiency training flight. According to Federal Aviation Administration rules, helicopters, which regularly cross through and around Washington, between military bases, the Pentagon and other locations, must fly in the area close to the airport at a maximum of 200 feet. “In DC, it’s kind of a unique environment,” National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said at a briefing on Thursday afternoon. He noted that there are helicopter zones, or tracks, in Washington. “This one was transitioning from track one to four as part of their normal procedure. If you live in DC, you see a lot of helicopters going down into this area. So there’s a very well defined system.” Read more about the American Airlines plane collision with an Army helicopter The FAA on Friday issued new flight restrictions for helicopters around the the Washington, D.C., area and the Reagan National Airport, with some exceptions for medical evacuation and law enforcement operations, the agency told NBC News. The airspace between certain bridges, or Zone 1, is currently not active. In nearby Zone 4, helicopters are only permitted to fly south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The NTSB is leading the investigation into the collision that ended in a fireball. The agency said it is still gathering information and that it is too early to draw conclusions. “It’s not that we don’t have information. We do have information,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “We have substantial amounts of information. We need to verify information. We need to take our time to make sure it is accurate.” The NTSB recovered flight data and cockpit voice recorder from the passenger jet. The boxes were taken to NTSB labs for evaluation, the agency said. President Donald Trump on Friday wrote on Truth Social that the helicopter “was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Hegseth made a similar statement at a White House briefing on Thursday. “Tragically, last night a mistake was made,” he said. “There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DoD and Army level.” Source link #Investigators #clues #fatal #collision Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

******* Opposition Gambles With Far-Right on Immigration, and Loses ******* Opposition Gambles With Far-Right on Immigration, and Loses The man who has been heavily favored to become Germany’s next chancellor took an extraordinary gamble this week, both for his political future and his country’s longstanding firewall against political extremism. It did not go as he hoped. In an effort to portray himself and his party as tough on immigration, Friedrich Merz, the leader of the poll-leading Christian Democrats, pushed a series of measures tightening borders and accelerating deportations through Parliament this week. He did so with help from the hard-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD — parts of which have been classified as extremist by ******* intelligence agencies. On Friday, the gambit ended in a crushing legislative defeat for Mr. Merz, dissent in his own party and jubilant claims of new legitimacy from the AfD, a chain reaction that could rattle Mr. Merz’s comfortable seat at the top of the polls. Mr. Merz’s willingness to rely on support from the AfD, broke a taboo in ******* politics that had endured since the end of World War II. It left Mr. Merz facing fierce criticism from political opponents, religious leaders, Holocaust survivors and former Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who remains a member of Mr. Merz’s party. Tens of thousands demonstrated outside of conservative Christian Democrats’ party offices across the country. Despite the criticism and several chances to step back, Mr. Merz decided to bring a bill beefing up migration rules to the floor of the house on Friday. It failed. Mr. Merz had been trying to cement his advantage by showing voters he could be trusted to respond to widespread outrage over a series of seemingly unrelated killings by immigrants across Germany in the last year. But even with the AfD, he was unable to find the votes for a change that could actually become law. The outcome was about the worst Mr. Merz would have hoped to avoid: no change to immigration law, newly energized opponents on both the left and the extreme right, and public doubts about his fitness to be chancellor. Critics are now warning that Mr. Merz, if he becomes chancellor, could further break the country’s so-called firewall against extremists and work with the AfD to form a government. AfD leaders say the drama has emboldened and legitimized their party. Journalists and many political analysts ripped Mr. Merz’s decision-making. “The chancellor candidate miscalculated,” wrote Fabian Reinbold in Die Zeit, one of the country’s most important weekly papers. “And now the damage is great, for him personally, but possibly also for a democracy that must stand up to its enemies.” Mr. Merz’s decisions this week jolted what had been a static campaign before the ******* election on Feb. 23. A race that was firmly focused on Germany’s faltering economy has suddenly become all about the far right and its top issue, migration — a potential boost to both Mr. Merz’s mainstream opponents and the AfD, which sits second in national polls. Polls continue to show Mr. Merz with the best chance of winning the race and forming the next government. Voters remain angry at the incumbent party, the Social Democrats, over inflation and economic stagnation, and still appear eager to move on from the current chancellor, Olaf Scholz. But Mr. Merz has changed the race and given his rivals a new argument. The shake-up, and Mr. Merz’s decisions that caused it, followed a knife attack that killed two people, one of them a toddler, in Bavaria by an Afghan immigrant who the authorities have said has a mental illness and had avoided deportation. Mr. Merz expressed outrage, then set a course meant to assure voters that the Christian Democrats could be counted on to overhaul immigration law. He brought two separate motions to the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, one focused on securing borders and deportations of migrants who had been ordered out of the country, and the other focused on giving the authorities more power to ensure national security. Both motions included language attacking the AfD. But the AfD voted for them anyway, and its support for the motion dealing specifically with borders and deportations helped it pass. “We owe it to the people in our country, and not least to the victims of the acts of violence of recent months, to now make every effort to limit ******** migration, to take asylum seekers who are obliged to leave the country into custody and finally to deport them,” Mr. Merz told lawmakers. He added that it would be “unbearable” to watch the AfD celebrating the passage of the law. The following day, Ms. Merkel made a rare public comment, decrying Mr. Merz’s reliance on a party that winks at Nazi slogans and which many, including the domestic intelligence services, consider a threat to the country’s Constitution. “I believe it is wrong,” Ms. Merkel said in a statement, “to knowingly enable a majority in the ******* Bundestag to vote with the AfD for the first time.” Others did too. Albrecht Weinberg, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor, announced that he would be returning a medal bestowed on him in 2017. For years, mainstream parties had refused to work with the far right. Even as the AfD won a growing share of votes in national elections, mainstream party leaders assured Germans that the party would be kept out of government. Mr. Merz’s political maneuver was designed to recapture voters who have drifted to the hard right. But for now, it appears to have backfired, with the AfD seeming to be the only clear winner in the affair. When the measure passed on Wednesday — by a razor-thin victory, with several members of Mr. Merz’s party abstaining — AfD party leaders cheered. They exchanged hugs and took a group selfie on the parliament floor. Mr. Merz sat just feet away, looking glum. A gloating Alice Weidel, the AfD’s chancellor candidate, told reporters afterward that Wednesday’s vote showed it was possible that the elections could produce a governing majority in Parliament if the far right and the conservatives worked together. On Friday, rival mainstream parties tried to find a way to get the conservatives to pull back from the brink, offering to shelve the bill temporarily by sending it back to committee. But after a three-hour break in Parliament, Mr. Merz insisted on a vote, which he lost by a narrow margin of 12 votes. In effect, he doubled down, stepping back from a call he had made in November, after Mr. Scholz’s three-party coalition collapsed, for mainstream parties to avoid working with the far right to pass legislation. One question now is whether Mr. Merz can reunite his fractured coalition. Another is whether, if he becomes chancellor, he might go even further in allowing collaboration between conservatives and far right. Several lawmakers this week evoked Austria, where a governing coalition between the hard-right Freedom Party and the center-right Austrian People’s party now looks likely. It would be the first time the far right ran a governing coalition, though it had been a ********* partner before. Mr. Merz continues to say he will not entertain such a coalition — but that the migration issue demanded action, even if that meant voting with the AfD. “There are many who may be concerned about the stability of our democracy,” Mr. Merz said Friday, before the vote, “but there are at least as many who are concerned about the security and internal order of our country.” Source link #******* #Opposition #Gambles #FarRight #Immigration #Loses Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Super Bowl or Senior Citizen Bowl? Older coaches are having a moment in the NFL Super Bowl or Senior Citizen Bowl? Older coaches are having a moment in the NFL The college all-star game played Saturday in Mobile, Ala., is called the Senior Bowl, but the game between the Chiefs and Eagles a week from Sunday in New Orleans could be called the Senior Citizen Bowl. While the Sean McVay effect remains real (see the hirings of 38-year-old Ben Johnson and 39-year-old Liam Coen), coaches who are old enough to be McVay’s father could dominate the Super Bowl. Foremost among them is Andy Reid. He was once the McVay of his day, the second-youngest head coach in the NFL. Now, at 66, he moves a little slower on his way to the podium to accept his trophies but makes the walk more frequently. And oldest Andy could be best Andy. “I really feel after we won the first Super Bowl (five years ago), something changed with Andy,” says Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub, who has coached with Reid for 20 seasons. “There was a narrative out there he couldn’t get over the big one. Once that burden was gone, I noticed he was more relaxed and more open to subtle changes in the way we handled the players.” Now, Toub says, Reid remains firm on his core beliefs but is more willing to make concessions for youth. One of the most accomplished coaches in history, Reid is one of five finalists for the Associated Press Coach of the Year and will tell you his coaching staff is one of the reasons he wins so much. His defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, at 65, will be competing for his fifth Super Bowl ring, and he already has more than any coordinator ever. GO DEEPER Patrick Mahomes and the secrets of the Dad Bod: What we get wrong about athleticism After the AFC Championship Game, defensive tackle Chris Jones said the Chiefs will continue to win as long as they retain Spagnuolo. That seems likely, as team owners seem to think that age is more than a number with Spagnuolo, the one-time head coach of the Rams. Before interviewing for the head coaching jobs of the Jets and Jaguars this year, Spagnuolo had not had a head coaching interview in 16 years (besides a token interview with the Giants after he finished the 2017 season as their interim head coach). Aggressiveness is often associated with youth, but nobody blitzes like Spagnuolo. His corner blitz on fourth down against the Bills in the closing minutes of the AFC Championship Game helped seal the Chiefs’ win. The Chiefs’ Andy Reid, 66, was the oldest head coach in the NFL in 2024, but he won’t be next season. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images) If Spagnuolo is not the most respected defensive coordinator in the NFL, Vic Fangio may be. Fangio, 66, reportedly is the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league, and he earned his money by coaching the defense that led the league in fewest yards allowed. The Eagles also ranked second in fewest points allowed, finishing 23 points ahead of the Chiefs. It’s typical for Fangio, whose defenses have finished in the top 10 of fewest points allowed in nine of the past 13 seasons. Fangio, however, has never won a Super Bowl. He came close in 2022 as a consultant to the Eagles — but Reid and Spagnuolo got the rings that season as the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Last January, Fangio left the Dolphins after one season, with some pushing the narrative that he didn’t get along with some players because he yelled at them to get off his lawn. There have been no such murmurs in Philadelphia, where defensive end Nolan Smith says he is a “mastermind.” If someone is going to call Fangio, Spagnuolo or Reid old, it isn’t going to be McVay. “All three coaches have been the standard for what it looks like to be great coaches who connect with their players and maximize their abilities year in and year out while remaining at the cutting edge schematically with the evolution of the game,” says McVay, 39. “Their agility year in and year out while having a commitment to core beliefs and philosophies is a true separator.” Neither the Chiefs nor the Eagles might be in the Super Bowl without two other assistant coaches on the high side of 60. Toub, 62, is the Chiefs’ special teams version of Spagnuolo. Toub’s schemes have dominated kicks, kick coverages and returns for 23 NFL seasons. The Chiefs, it may be argued, might not still be standing if not for Toub, who designed plays that resulted in blocked field goal attempts against the Broncos in November and the Texans in the playoffs. The Chiefs also won three games on walk-off field goals with three players making the kicks. GO DEEPER Jalen Hurts improved against the blitz in 2024. Can he outduel Steve Spagnuolo? Some consider the Eagles’ offensive line the finest in the NFL. One reason is the coach who presides over it. Jeff Stoutland, 62, is so valued by Eagles management that he has been retained through three head coaching regimes. His players have mad respect for him too. “He’s kind of like the Mickey character from the ‘Rocky’ movies,” Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson says. “Sometimes he’s very funny with these funny sayings. But then he’s intense. He’s relentless in how he approaches the game, and that’s what you have to have to get the best out of your guys.” In 2024, Reid was one of six NFL head coaches over 60. The others were Todd Bowles, Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy and Sean Payton. All but McCarthy led their teams to the playoffs. Reid was the oldest head coach in the NFL this season. Next season, he will be the second-oldest because the Raiders hired 73-year-old Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll is back in the game at age 73, taking over as head coach of the Raiders. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) After the 2023 season, Carroll’s 14th in Seattle, the Seahawks tried to give him the gold watch treatment. But Carroll keeps time differently than most. Raiders owner Mark Davis referenced Carroll’s “amazing” energy at Carroll’s introductory news conference. During Seahawks practices, Carroll didn’t ride around in a golf cart, but if someone else did, they risked getting run over by Carroll, who was nonstop motion. Running sprints and playing catch were part of his routine, and he occasionally took practice reps at quarterback. Carroll will become the oldest coach in NFL history when the season kicks off, beating a record held by Romeo Crennel, who coached the Texans in 2020 at 73 (he’s 68 days older than Carroll). Carroll coached at 72, as did George Halas and Marv Levy. Between the ages of 65 and 68, Levy led the Bills to four AFC championships while jogging three miles a day. He believes he did his best coaching in that timespan. “By then, I had a lot of great experience,” he says. “I had worked with some fine guys like George Allen and competed against guys I held in very high regard like Don Shula. But there is a span that governs maybe 25 years that you can be on top of the game.” GO DEEPER Hate ’em if you want, but Chiefs make no apologies while continuing pursuit of history Levy retired at 73, then later said he left too soon. At 80, he became the team’s general manager. Now 99, Levy uses a walker but remains robust enough to take a daily walk of about 30 minutes. In October, nine players from his Super Bowl teams, including hall of famers Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas, visited him in Chicago to celebrate his life. Levy believes today’s senior coaches are capable of more than senior coaches of generations past. “We’ve benefited from wonderful medicine and living conditions, so coaches can be older now and can manage better,” he says. “We’ve even had presidents older than I was when I retired from coaching.” As people age, they sometimes become forgetful. But in a sport that often rewards a short memory, it has not been a problem for Reid, a meticulous note-taker. If there are drawbacks to being a 66-year-old head coach, it’s safe to say the benefits outweigh them for Reid. Foremost among the benefits, of course, is experience. “It’s critical,” says Tom Moore, the 86-year-old offensive consultant for the Bucs who recently announced he will return for his 46th NFL season. “What jumps out to me is these coaches in the Super Bowl have done a great job of understanding what the people they have can do, putting them in the proper places and designing the schemes to facilitate the players’ abilities. That comes with experience.” Spagnuolo says that the most intelligent people he has encountered have a wealth of experience — which usually means they have overcome setbacks. “I believe we are seeing that those tested in the fire of this profession over a long ******* of time and stay true to who they are eventually find success,” he says. Moore shares his insight in a new book with Rick Stroud entitled, “The Players’ Coach: From Bradshaw to Manning, Brady, and Beyond.” Moore enjoys crushing stereotypes about older coaches. Not enough exuberance to keep pace with the youngsters? He’s the first in the office at 3 a.m. Can’t relate to Gen Z? Moore meets with players who are six decades younger daily, talking about life as much as ball. Stuck in yesterday’s game? He prides himself on evolving philosophically. “Hell, I’m 86 years old and still learning every day,” he says. “And it’s a tribute to coaches like Andy because they are still learning and willing to adjust to new trends. They are flexible, and that’s the key.” Wisdom that can only be developed over time may be valued more by NFL teams these days. Last week Chuck Pagano was in his fifth year of a blissful retirement, clowning with his former punter on “The Pat McAfee Show” and posting photos of himself with his grandchildren on social media. This week, he’s the senior secondary coach of the Ravens. Pagano is 64. Older coaches clearly are having a moment. Just don’t call it a senior moment. (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Vic Fangio and Steve Spagnuolo: Mitchell Leff, David Eulitt / Getty Images) Source link #Super #Bowl #Senior #Citizen #Bowl #Older #coaches #moment #NFL Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]