Why Don Shula’s Grandson Isn’t the Poster Child for N.F.L. Nepotism
Why Don Shula’s Grandson Isn’t the Poster Child for N.F.L. Nepotism
“I never think of him as a Shula,” the Rams general manager Les Snead said. “That’s how Chris always wanted it.”
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Spider-Man 2 Dev Insomniac Is “Heartbroken” By Venom Actor Tony Todd’s ******
Spider-Man 2 Dev Insomniac Is “Heartbroken” By Venom Actor Tony Todd’s ******
Tony Todd ***** last week at the age of 69. While probably best known for his movie appearances in the Candyman and Final Destination franchises, the actor also has voiced some big roles in video games the past few years–such as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Developer Insomniac Games paid tribute to Todd over the weekend, posting a statement on X noting the team was “heartbroken” by his ******. “He brought so much joy to our studio during the production of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and to many fans around the world with his inimitable voice and presence. We are Venom… forever,” said Insomniac.
Spider-Man 2 saw the introduction of the symbiote, portrayed by Todd. Last year, the actor showed up with other big names from Spider-Man 2 for a Comic-**** panel called “Symbiotic Relationships.” Todd also told Marvel.com before the game launched that “Venom is one of the coolest Marvel characters ever created.” Last month, Insomniac revealed that Spider-Man 2 will arrive on PC on January 30.
Todd will also be featured in next month’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. MachineGames creative director Axel Torvenius shared a message on X, saying: “Tony’s kindness, warmth, professionalism, and the vast experience of his career inspired us, and filled us with respect and love for him. It was truly awe-inspiring getting the opportunity to know and work with him.”
Previously, Todd also voiced roles in Call of Duty: ****** Ops 2, Half-Life: Alyx, and Back 4 Blood as Doctor Rogers. Meanwhile, his film career spanned decades, showing up in Platoon, The Rock, and 2021’s Candyman.
We had the great privilege of working with Tony Todd and will miss him dearly. Sending our condolences to his family, friends, and many fans around the world. pic.twitter.com/2mPX8YlC9H
— machinegames (@machinegames) November 9, 2024
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Pizza Hut’s new pizza warmer uses the PlayStation 5’s heat to keep your pizza hot — you can 3D print the new PIZZAWARMR for free
Pizza Hut’s new pizza warmer uses the PlayStation 5’s heat to keep your pizza hot — you can 3D print the new PIZZAWARMR for free
Pizza Hut has melded the disparate worlds of bready, cheesy foodstuffs and console gaming with the new PIZZAWRMR. This innovation is designed to sit atop your Sony PlayStation 5 console and keep your takeaway of choice piping hot while you enjoy your heated gaming session. This isn’t a new retail product or a giveaway, though. Pizza Hut Canada has made the 3D printing source files free for anyone who signs up to download, modify, and print.
The PIZZAWRMR design is inspired by the pizza-centric restaurant’s red roof. The lid opens laptop-style for convenient pizza slice access. According to Pizza Hut, several slices of pizza can fit into the top box. Diagrams show that the hot exhaust from the console is channeled under and into the pizza area, which is the appliance of “science and engineering for the greater good,” says the Pizza Hut marketing team.
The archive includes STL files and a PDF guide, which are included in the Pizza Hut Canada download. You will find 3D printer files for the body, left stand, lid, manifold, and suitable stand. According to the PDF guide, the design, as provided, is “specifically engineered to be compatible only with the console that has rear ventilation measuring 11.7 x 1.31 inches.” Your 3D printer should have a bed at least 15 x 15 inches to accommodate the pizza, erm, PIZZAWRMR.
Image 1 of 3
(Image credit: Pizza Hut Canada)
(Image credit: Pizza Hut Canada)
(Image credit: Pizza Hut Canada)
Further user measures are needed to protect your expensive console from the real and present danger of crumbs and grease. Pizza Hut suggests PIZZAWRMR users insert a 34 x 23 x 2.5cm foil tray inside the warmer.
We don’t know why Pizza Hut switched to the metric system for foil trays—perhaps it’s a ********* thing. According to the fast food firm, the last piece of advice in the PDF is to start gaming to warm up the PIZZAWRMR and then place your pizza slices in the tray. Pizza Hut’s medium pizza slices will fit best.
catch our livestream on the 29th and witness the PIZZAWRMR in action – YouTube
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Fast food firms developing side-projects to appeal to gamers isn’t exactly a new marketing strategy. In 2020, KFC famously presented the bucket-shaped KFConsole. The idea started as a joke but snowballed into a fully-fledged Intel NUC-powered console with a fried chicken storage drawer.
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Russia denies Trump, ****** spoke in recent days: ‘Pure fiction’ – National
Russia denies Trump, ****** spoke in recent days: ‘Pure fiction’ – National
The Kremlin dismissed on Monday reports that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had spoken to Russian President Vladimir ****** in recent days as “pure fiction.”
A source told Reuters on Sunday that Trump, who has criticized the scale of U.S. military and financial support for Kyiv and said he will end the war quickly, had spoken to ****** in recent days.
The source told Reuters they were familiar with the conversation, first reported by The Washington Post, which cited unidentified sources as saying Trump had told ****** that he should not escalate the Ukraine war.
In an unusual move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday no such call had taken place between ****** and Trump.
“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,” he told reporters. “There was no conversation.”
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“This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,” he said.
Asked whether ****** had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”
1:08
U.S. calls out Russia, China for ‘shamelessly protecting,’ emboldening North Korea
Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last Wednesday.
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Asked about the purported Trump-****** call, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
*********** Trump will take office on Jan. 20 after winning the Nov. 5 presidential election. Biden has invited Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday Biden’s top message would be his commitment to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, and he will also talk to Trump about what’s happening in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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“President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the ******* States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show.
Sullivan was asked whether Biden would ask Congress to pass legislation to authorize more funding for Ukraine.
“I’m not here to put forward a specific legislative proposal. President Biden will make the case that we do need ongoing resources for Ukraine beyond the end of his term,” he said.
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One person is ***** and 16 are injured after a ********* at Tuskegee University
Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticized and rallied against with other *********** lawmakers.
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Trump said last year that if he had been in the White House at the time, ****** would not have invaded Ukraine. He told Reuters Ukraine may have to cede territory to reach a peace agreement, something Kiev rejects and Biden has never suggested.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday he was not aware of any details of Trump’s plan to end the war quickly and that he was convinced a rapid end would entail major concessions by Kyiv.
5:02
Zelenskyy unveils ‘victory plan,’ Russia suggests Ukraine ‘sober up’
According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress appropriated over $174 billion to Ukraine under Biden. The pace of the aid is almost certain to drop under Trump, with Republicans set to take control of the U.S. Senate with a 52-seat majority.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the next Congress is not yet clear, with some votes still being counted. Republicans have won 213 seats, according to Edison Research, just shy of the 218 needed for a majority. If Republicans win both chambers, it will mean the majority of Trump’s agenda will have a significantly easier time passing through Congress.
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*********** U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty, a Trump ally who is considered a top contender for secretary of state, criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine in a CBS interview.
“The ********* people want sovereignty protected here in America before we spend our funds and resources protecting the sovereignty of another nation,” Hagerty said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Brendan O’Brien and Moscow buro; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton, Editing by Bill Berkrot, Diane Craft, Timothy Heritage and Jon Boyle)
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Saudi Arabia’s first WTA Tour Finals: Tennis spectacle collides with everyday reality in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s first WTA Tour Finals: Tennis spectacle collides with everyday reality in Riyadh
RIYADH — On an otherwise unremarkable evening in May 2018, dozens of cars approached the Al-Hathloul household in Riyadh. Security officers got out the cars, broke down the door and took Loujain Al-Hathloul into custody.
Al-Hathloul, a prominent women’s rights advocate in Saudi Arabia, had led the campaign for the right for women to drive in the kingdom. When it was announced that women would be permitted to hold driving licenses in 2018, the Saudi authorities told Al-Hathloul not to comment nor push for more change, an order which she respected. In March 2018, she was kidnapped from the ******* ***** Emirates by the same state forces and placed under a travel ban. Then she was arrested on that May evening and, according to family members, subjected to electric shocks, whippings, and ******* harassment while imprisoned. They say that Al-Hathloul, 28 at the time, was tortured by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s right-hand man Saud al-Qahtani. Neither Al-Qahtani nor the Saudi authorities have commented on these claims.
Al-Hathloul’s detainment was part of 11 women protestors being arrested on account of “coordinated activity to undermine the security, stability and social peace of the kingdom,” according to the Saudi Arabian public prosecution office.
Al-Hathloul learned of that travel ban when trying to go and visit her sister Lina with her parents in April 2018. Lina had left Saudi Arabia to move to Brussels in 2011, initially to study, and then had last been back in December 2017. That ******** the last time she has been home, or has seen any of her family members who still live in Riyadh.
Now Lina wakes up each morning to check they are safe and communicates with them on FaceTime. Loujain was released from prison in February 2021 under strict conditions, including a travel ban. After it expired, two years and 10 months after her release, she was told that the ban had in fact been made permanent.
“My family lives under constant ***** of arrest,” said Lina, in a phone interview from Brussels where she is the head of monitoring and advocacy at the NGO ALQST for Human Rights. “I was on a video call with them recently and they were having dinner. And at one point there was a sound — something broke in the fridge or something. And I saw their frightened faces, how scared they were. It was really heartbreaking for me to see.
“This is the routine now in Saudi Arabia. People just living in ***** constantly.”
Loujain al-Hathloul ******** unable to leave Saudi Arabia (Lina al-Hathloul)
As Lina discussed her sister’s arrest, the city in which she was taken was preparing for day four of the WTA Tour Finals, the marquee tournament in women’s tennis. The top eight singles players in the world, including Aryna Sabalenka — the world No. 1 — Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, compete in the season-ending event, playing for a prize pool of more than $15million (£11.6m) — the largest in women’s tennis history. Gauff ultimately lifted the trophy by beating Zheng Qinwen in the final Saturday November 9, winning over $4.8m (£3.7m) in the process.
At the tournament media day, the players — who were involved in discussions about moving the event to Riyadh — spoke of the excellent facilities and conditions, and emphasized the benefits of opening up tennis in the kingdom for young women and ******.
They spoke of how humbling it was to see these youngsters, who wouldn’t have been allowed to play tennis not long ago, so thrilled to now be participating with the best women players in the world at coaching events and clinics. The players largely swerved questions on human rights and the LGBTQ+ community; only world No. 3 Gauff directly expressed reservations about hosting the event in the kingdom.
“If I felt uncomfortable or felt like nothing’s happening, then maybe I probably wouldn’t come back.
“I don’t live here, so I can only trust what people are telling me that live here,” she said.
In a statement sent to The Athletic, the WTA said: “We believe it is the right thing to open up new opportunities for women to play professional tennis in different countries, and to give audiences in those countries the opportunity to watch the world’s best players.”
Thousands of political prisoners are under arrest in Saudi Arabia for speaking out against the absolute monarchy and government. Last month, Amnesty International said that Manahel al-Otaibi, a Saudi fitness instructor and influencer, who was jailed in January for promoting women’s rights on social media, was stabbed in the face while in prison.
Human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have criticized Saudi Arabia’s record on freedom of expression, including the criminalization of same-**** relationships and the ‘Personal Status Law,’ which requires women to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry. Freedom House ranks Saudi Arabia as being one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to free speech, with a score of 8/100 in this year’s Freedom of the World report. The country is ranked 126th out of 146 nations included in the 2024 Global Gender Gap index.
In Brussels, Loujain al-Hathoul’s sister cannot divide the temporary spectacle of the Tour Finals from everyday reality.
“The same people who allow women to play tennis are also torturing the activists,” she said.
GO DEEPER
Saudi Arabia’s takeover of world sport: Football, golf, boxing and now tennis?
The WTA Tour and Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) announced the three-year deal to host the Tour Finals in April. The deal was particularly controversial because the founding principles of the WTA were based on equal opportunity.
Founding member Billie Jean King, who is openly gay, supported the deal based on the argument that only through engaging with countries like Saudi Arabia can tennis help to effect change. She did not attend the inaugural event in Riyadh.
Martina Navratilova, another tennis legend who is openly gay, and Chris Evert made the opposite argument: “We oppose the awarding of the tour’s crown jewel tournament to Riyadh. The WTA’s values sit in stark contrast to those of the proposed host,” they wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post in January.
Princess Reema bint ******* Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the ******* States, responded on X that by trying to keep the WTA Finals from going to Saudi Arabia, the stars had turned their back on women they had inspired.
“We lost our moral high ground when the women decided to go there,” Navratilova told the New York Times earlier this month. Another source who works in tennis, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athletic that: “I think we all understand that running a global tour takes a lot of money and so it was hard to turn this down. What’s hard for ******** fans, gay fans, fans who have concern around going to Riyadh is this feeling of: ‘Are we abandoning those original benchmarks that really made the WTA so unique and so special?’”
Speaking to other members of the LGBTQ+ community in tennis, The Athletic has heard similar arguments to those made by Navratilova and Evert — who are typically regulars at the Finals but have been conspicuous by their absence in Saudi Arabia. “It seems to me that it’s at odds with the whole legacy of the WTA,” said one person involved in women’s tennis, who requested anonymity to protect relationships.
“It feels like they’re selling out, and to so many within the sport. I’ve spoken to quite a few former women’s players, and some men. Would I personally feel comfortable about going there? I’d have to think long and hard about it.”
Coco Gauff won the first edition of the Tour Finals to be held in Riyadh; at least two more will follow (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Alison Van Uytvanck, the former world No. 37 and an openly gay player, told The Athletic in an interview published this week that she would have played the event, pointing out that there are other WTA tournaments played in places with similar laws on same-**** relationships, like Qatar and Abu Dhabi. World No. 9 Daria Kasatkina, who played one match at the event as an alternate, told BBC Sport that she had received “guarantees” over safety after previously expressing wariness at the prospect of tournaments in Saudi Arabia.
The WTA has defended the decision to stage the event in Riyadh. WTA chief executive Portia Archer said at the media day that some host nations do not share values with the organization, but then clarified that she had “misspoke”:
“My intention was to really say that we respect the values, even if they differ from other countries that we find ourselves in and compete in.”
In the statement sent to The Athletic, the WTA said: “As a global sport, with players from almost 90 nations, we go to many countries around the world that reflect different cultures, and we respect those local customs.
“The WTA has had a presence in the Middle East for many years and we have never had any issues with freedom of expression.”
The WTA has previously chosen to withhold events from certain countries. Russia has not hosted a WTA tournament since Vladimir ******’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It stopped holding events in China for nearly two years after the disappearance of women’s player Peng Shuai in 2021. Shuai accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of ******* ******** in social media posts that quickly disappeared, prompting the WTA to withdraw tournaments from the country in boycott. Zhang Gaoli denied the claims.
The WTA ended that boycott 16 months later, and Shuai described the situation as a “misunderstanding” in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe, conducted in the presence of a ******** Olympic official.
“The situation has shown no sign of changing. We have concluded we will never fully secure those goals, and it will be our players and tournaments who ultimately will be paying an extraordinary price for their sacrifices,” said a WTA press release last April. The boycott prompted China to terminate its 10-year deal to host the Tour Finals, which in part led to the event being staged in Saudi Arabia.
In the U.S. State Department’s most recent annual report on human rights practices for Saudi Arabia, the very first line in the executive summary reads: “There were no significant changes to the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia during the year.” It then lists what it calls credible reports of various human rights violations, including “arbitrary or unlawful killings… arbitrary arrest and detention… ******* involving ********* or threats of ********* targeting ********, gay, *********, transgender, ******, or intersex persons.”
Gauff and fellow ********* Jessica Pegula said they had been heavily involved in discussions about hosting the Finals in Saudi Arabia and were convinced that there would be sufficient social good through things like coaching clinics for local ******, which the players visited and took part in during the tournament. Some players, according to Romain Rosenberg, deputy executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), felt that the tournament did not make enough of the initiatives to improve tennis provision in the kingdom at the pre-event dinner.
Judy Murray, a well-respected coach and the mother of Grand Slam champions and former world No 1s Andy and Jamie, first agreed to hold tennis clinics for ****** in Saudi Arabia in 2022. Ahead of the 2024 WTA Tour Finals, Murray told The Athletic of her passion for the project and how much she too believes in engagement being the only way to bring about change. “I saw it as a massive opportunity for tennis to be a catalyst for women’s sport, for change, to open a sport up for the first time,” Murray said of accepting the role to help popularize tennis in Saudi Arabia — a position Amnesty International called “a sportswashing role” two years ago.
In tennis terms, things are changing for the better in Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi Tennis Federation, the country boasts three high-performance academies and since the 2019 Diriyah Tennis Cup, an exhibition event that marked Saudi’s first serious move into tennis, the number of registered players has risen by 46 percent to 2,300, while the number of tennis clubs in Saudi Arabia has risen to 177, an increase of nearly 150 percent.
There are barely any public courts in the country but more are being built, and children get access to tennis through a widespread schools programme. In 2023, the “Tennis for All” programme was integrated into the physical education curriculum at 90 schools (for around 29,000 children) through a partnership with the Ministry of Education, and plans are underway to expand to 200 schools within the next year. Saudi Arabia hopes to engage one million people in tennis by 2030. The figure includes off-court administration and infrastructure as well as direct participation.
During an ITF junior event held at the Mahd sports academy in Riyadh alongside the WTA Tour Finals, STF president Arij Mutabagani expressed the ******* to make tennis the nation’s most popular sport.
Arij Mutabagani (center) with tournament director Garbine Muguruza (left) and WTA player Ons Jabeur (right) on the opening day of the event (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia and tennis are becoming increasingly intertwined, with the country pushing to host a Masters 1000 event, the level of tournament one rung below the Grand Slams. This push has stalled recently, but the ATP and WTA have existing strategic partnerships with the Kingdom’s PIF, which sponsors both sets of rankings and whose logo can be seen at tournaments throughout the year. The proposal for a Masters 1000 event would commit $1bn (nearly £774m) of investment inclusive of those existing partnerships; the already-signed deals, including the one to host the Tour Finals, amount to several hundred million dollars. This is all part of Saudi Arabia’s recent string of investments in sports (most prominently football and golf) — to shift its image and economy from one built largely around petroleum into that of a modern society with broad cultural and economic interests that is open to the world.
Human rights experts and certain people from within the country, including Lina al-Hathloul, say that the argument for change via engagement does not stand up to scrutiny.
“That argument is horses*** and I’m happy to go on record calling it that,” says Nicholas McGeechan, the founding co-director of human rights advocacy organisation, FairSquare. “The entire purpose of these tournaments and ventures if you’re someone like MBS (Bin Salman) is not to start these conversations (about human rights) but to shut them down.
“There’s a whole architecture around players not to say anything — this is a huge cash cow and nobody wants to rock the boat. I really don’t buy that line at all, I think it’s a really insidious thing that people push.”
At the 2023 WTA Tour Finals in Cancun, players received a series of media talking points, including suggested responses to questions about playing in Saudi Arabia, as reported by The Athletic. The responses included: “I’m happy to play wherever the WTA Finals is hosted, it’s a prestigious event.” In the same year, U.S. Senate officials probing the deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF found that the PIF added a non-disparagement clause to the agreement which forbade the PGA Tour from criticizing Saudi Arabia, as reported by the Guardian.
The Saudi government and PIF declined to comment on this argument in 2023. At this year’s Tour Finals, Archer insisted in a news conference that the players in Riyadh on this occasion were not briefed on what to say about the country (a claim supported by sources close to some of the players involved).
McGeechan analogizes the example of a mutual silence between the PGA and PIF to what he calls the “hideous social contract” between MBS and the Saudi people.
“People who complain about how things are done in Saudi get decades-long jail sentences,” McGeechan says.
“He presents himself as a sort of benefactor but there are very strict terms to that, which is: ‘Don’t criticize anything I do. It’s the rights I allow you as women. It’s not the rights that you have’.” Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, meaning that laws can be changed at Bin Salman’s behest at any time.
“I’m so happy about Saudi women being able to play tennis,” Lina al-Hathoul says. “But what we have to focus on is the repression.
“When the WTA go to Saudi, I would say they should adopt a political prisoner’s case and take it on and say ‘OK, we’re going, but we are also advocating for them. And Manahel al-Otaibi (the jailed fitness instructor) is the closest case you could have to sports. Say, ‘We are happy to be in Saudi. We’re happy that Saudi women are to now play tennis. But what about Manahel al-Otaibi?’”
Manahel al-Otaibi pictured in Riyadh in 2019. Her 11-year sentence included a conviction related to her clothing; in 2019, she told ******* media that she felt able to dress how she wanted in Saudi Arabia (Fayez Nureldine / AFP via Getty Images)
When Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested in 2018, her charges explicitly mentioned her human rights work. She says she was blindfolded, thrown into the boot of a car and taken to a detention centre which she has called a “palace of *******”. She was tried under legislation in the specialised ********* court (SCC), which Amnesty International has described as “a ******* to systematically silence dissent”.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s judiciary system does not condone, promote, or allow the use of ********. Anyone, whether male or female, being investigated is going through the standard judiciary process led by the public prosecution while being held for questioning, which does not in any way rely on ******** either physical, *******, or psychological,” a Saudi official told CNN in November 2019 in response to a Human Rights Watch report on the alleged ****** of Loujain and other women campaigners for the right to drive who had been detained.
Speaking to media is completely out of the question for Loujain now, as it is for any dissenting voices in Saudi Arabia.
“I wouldn’t put any words in her mouth because she cannot speak,” Lina says.
At the King Saud University Indoor Stadium, the opening day of the WTA Finals is largely successful, with a decent crowd, made up largely of ******** supporters to see Zheng lose to world No. 1 Sabalenka. Though not briefed on how to discuss the event, Archer said in a news conference that players were briefed on appropriate clothing.
The crowd thins out for the second singles match between Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina and the following day there are swathes of empty seats. Despite tickets going for as little as 32.50 Riyals ($8.66, £6.66), the 5,000-capacity venue is never more than about 10 percent full and so the focus falls on the sense of hosting one of the WTA’s blue-riband events in a largely empty arena.
The WTA and the players insist that they are confident that over time interest in the event will build in Saudi Arabia and that these things take time (the Finals will also be held in Riyadh in 2025 and 2026). The Monday was a bit fuller, with the venue almost getting to halfway full, while on Wednesday it picked up again to a decent size, with a good number of women in the crowd. By Friday and Saturday, crowds picked up further, with Zheng, Gauff, and Swiatek all complimenting the noise of the crowd and their expression of support for players. In tennis terms, after a thrilling final in which Gauff beat Zheng in a final-set tiebreak in front of a lively crowd, you could ultimately argue that this was one of the most successful WTA Finals in years. The STF said 21,000 people attended across the week — eight days of full capacity crowds would have seen around 40,000. After some logistical issues early on and an internal sense of a lack of urgency from organizers, especially compared to previous events like men’s boxing and the recent ‘Six Kings Slam,’ things were said to really improve and run smoothly.
Saudi Arabia is currently the only bidder for the 2034 men’s FIFA World Cup, but in 2023, FIFA’s proposal of the kingdom as a sponsor for the women’s World Cup of that year received significant backlash, including from current USWNT coach Emma Hayes.
In Brussels, Lina al-Hathoul is describing more political prisoners in the country. Human rights activist Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 27 years in prison for “********** offences”. In June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Al-Shehab’s detention arbitrary and called for her immediate release. Al-Shehab has reportedly been subjected to solitary confinement and verbal ****** on the basis of her religion while in prison. She has also been denied access to a lawyer and family visits.
Saudi Arabian authorities and the PIF declined to comment on Al-Shehab’s case.
Al-Hathloul explains that the unpredictability of arrests and harsh sentences constitute much of her family’s *****. “It’s this thing of never knowing what the red lines are,” she says.
Some citizens support Bin Salman, who is seen as a great moderniser and someone who is promoting Saudi interests in the face of an inhospitable western world. There is a belief among some that an ignorance from many westerners towards Saudi leads to misconceptions of the nature of life in the country. This argument points to how alive the country feels now, and how different it is to a few years ago — the fact that women don’t have to wear traditional dress when out in public anymore.
Human rights campaigners ******* that argument when it comes to freedom of speech. “This is not western or eastern, northern or southern, these are human rights,” says Sarah Leah Whitson from Democracy for the ***** World Now.
“Rights that have been enshrined in international treaties ratified by most countries in the world — including the universal declaration of human rights. The notion that freedom from ******** is a western concept is absurd and ridiculous.”
For the LGBTQ+ community in Saudi Arabia, freedom means keeping sexuality private — both for ***** of punishment by the authorities but also to avoid being shunned socially. There are deeply-held religious and cultural views that mean many, according to those who have lived in the country, find the idea of homosexuality repulsive. Others said things are not so extreme, and one western visitor to the Kingdom said that while in Saudi he went to a party with many members of the LGBTQ+ community where alcohol, which is ********, was flowing.
Three years ago, The Athletic reported on allegations of gay men in Saudi Arabia being subjected to cure therapy, including one man alleging that he was made to ****** while watching gay ************, to try and alter their sexuality. The report wrote that: “A level of societal shunning left one interviewee concluding that homosexuality in Saudi Arabia means ‘misery, isolation or, worse, ******.’ The Athletic has been told of other medical sites where cure therapy is alleged to take place, including allegations that trans women have been forced to take male hormones against their will and threats of electric shock therapy.”
In its statement to The Athletic, the WTA said that it consulted a wide range of views before deciding to host the Tour Finals in Riyadh: “We recognize that Saudi Arabia’s investment in sport is a subject that provokes strong views.
“As part of our decision-making process, we engaged widely with people and organizations with a range of different views.”
Saudi Arabian authorities and the PIF declined to comment on any of the allegations in this story when put to them by The Athletic.
In Brussels, Lina al-Hathoul explains the limits of delivering a sporting spectacle without directly engaging with the system that helps to fund and stage it.
“If you go there, you are up to actively contributing to covering up the ******** of women were in prison. You are actively contributing to Saudi women getting arrested for not wearing an abaya. How I feel is that I’ve screamed enough for people to know what is happening in the country.
“I think that no one can say that they don’t know.”
(Top photos: Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton)
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Pokémon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick exploit—Explained
Pokémon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick exploit—Explained
The Pokémon TCG Pocket community has tried all manner of tricks since the card-collecting title’s launch. One of the most popular theories is the existence of a Wonder Pick exploit which allows you to pick the card you want every time—so let’s look at everything we know.
Obtaining Pokémon TCG Pocket cards is as simple as opening packs. You have the best packs to give yourself top-tier cards, and special, limited-time packs such as Promo A cards. Another way of adding to your Pokémon portfolio is Wonder Picks.
Wonder Picks are an easy luck-based mechanic giving you a one-in-five chance of getting a card. Depending on how complete your Pokémon TCG Pocket gallery is, the Wonder Pick may only have one card of the five you need, or the full five. This is why the rumored Wonder Pick exploit trick has given everyone hope, and we have our own findings.
Does Pokémon TCG Pocket Have a Wonder Pick Exploit?
If only. Credit to The Pokémon Company
Pokémon TCG Pocket doesn’t have a Wonder Pick exploit, and any method outed by influencers or social media personalities is purely coincidental.
If life was this simple, it would be ******* for The Pokémon Company to make money—don’t forget this! More pick success means less need to use Wonder Pick Stamina, and this reduces the need to spend Poké Gold.
What is the Pokémon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick Exploit?
Two Pokémon TCG Pocket Wonder Pick exploits have become commonplace in the community: Pressing the skip button, and using a slow-mo video.
Skip Button
When you begin a Wonder Pick, and the card-rotation animation happens, an option to fast-forward the visual appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Press to skip, and the game immediately presents you with five shuffled cards.
The idea is, that wherever the cards are initially, stay where they are if you press the skip button. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve tested multiple Wonder Pick packs, and while I’ve had some instances of it working, I can recall plenty of occasions where I haven’t gotten the card I wanted.
We can chalk this rumor up to hope more than science.
Slow-Mo Video Capture
Another Wonder Pick theory suggests you can track the movement of cards as they are shuffled. Screen record the pack animation, quickly watch it back, and using your powers of visual tracking, you can supposedly choose your card of choice without fail.
X user Loki The Bird posted a full tutorial showing how to do this. However, replies to the video, and my personal experience, have put this idea to bed. It’s nothing more than coincidence or clever trickery, but I do wish it was true, so I didn’t keep burning through my Wonder Pick Stamina.
You have a one in five chance of pulling a card with Wonder Picks, and this is how it is—as the developer intended. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility an actual working exploit pops up down the line. We’ll keep monitoring Wonder Picks as see if this happens, otherwise, put on your lucky hat and hope the RnG gods smile at you more than a Pikachu with an apple.
Many other outlandish Pokémon TCG Pocket ideas exist too including the fabled Bent Pack Trick, and we have also advice on how to get the Mewtwo Promo 10 card.
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Hyperscalers’ net-zero plans hit roadblock
Hyperscalers’ net-zero plans hit roadblock
By 2022, datacentres are forecast to consume about 2% of global energy. By 2026, that number is predicted to jump by 4%, to about 100 terawatt hours a year, which, according to Lloyd Jones, vice-president analyst at Gartner, is equivalent to the consumption of a country the size of Japan.
He said Gartner’s energy utility clients are telling the analyst they are saying no to datacentres because they cannot guarantee 24/7, 365 days a year uninterruptible supply.
But there is plenty of interest in the use of nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels to provide localised power for datacentres.
Last month, Alphabet signed a deal with Kairos Power to develop the use of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to complement the company’s use of renewables to power its datacentres. Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google, said in a blog post that the deal with Kairos Power would help the hyperscaler reach its net-zero targets for emissions.
In September, Microsoft announced a 20-year agreement to buy electricity from Constellation Energy’s Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant, and in March, Amazon acquired Talen Energy’s Cumulus Data Assets datacentre site, which is opposite the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station.
In a new report, Powering data centers with new nuclear capacity faces tech, regulatory challenges, ratings agency Moody’s notes that nuclear power enables electricity generating capacity free of greenhouse gas emissions and, unlike renewable energy sources such as solar or wind, nuclear reactors provide a 24/7, dispatchable source of electricity.
But the report also highlights the risk of SMRs, which are considered a new technology. As Moody’s points out, efforts to develop new nuclear generating capacity in the US have been frequently marked by construction holdups and cost overruns that have caused significant credit deterioration, severe financial distress and even utility bankruptcies. For instance, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and NuScale Power Corporation said in November 2023 that they had decided to terminate their plans to build an SMR because of rising development costs.
While hyperscalers are busy signing deals to build out nuclear power plants to power their datacentres, Jones said: “Take this with a pinch of salt, because we have not seen a small modular nuclear reactor being licensed and being built as a prototype, never mind receiving a licence for commercial manufacturers at industrial scale.”
Moody’s notes that the technology is still under development and is likely to face heavy regulatory scrutiny. In addition, the ratings agency noted that efforts in the US to develop new nuclear generating capacity have been frequently marked by construction holdups and cost overruns.
Given the fact that SMRs have yet to be built in a way that can make them operationally cost-effective, Jones predicts the hyperscalers will slowly roll back some of their net-zero commitments. The only thing they can do, he said, is use power from gas generators, which they will need to install on-site since the utilities firms are curbing applications for more datacentre power. “Commitments are being rolled back on quietly and we’re seeing artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) ****** secret puffing out as carbon intensity rises,” he added, referring to the vast power requirements needed to run machine learning and AI inference workloads.
However, building such microgrids onsite to generate electricity local to datacentre facilities is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny. In what amounts to a major setup for Amazon Web Services, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently ruled against regional electricity transmission firm PJM Interconnection’s request to increase the capacity of Talen and Amazon’s interconnection service agreement to 480MW from the currently approved 300MW.
Moody’s said the order is likely to slow the proliferation of “behind the meter” deals under which datacentres are able to purchase electricity directly from a power plant on the same site, enabling them to bypass transmission and distribution costs. “Such agreements would, in theory, provide datacentres with the quickest access to existing generation,” Moody’s said.
It’s likely there will be more regulatory barriers to overcome before microgrids and the idea of SMRs providing on-site power for datacentres gets any closer.
However, Moody’s believes that utility companies can help to de-risk the development of SMRs by working closely with the tech sector. Such partnerships would help to make SMRs commercially viable, and help both sectors’ carbon transition efforts. “The scale and financial resources of hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms position them well to shoulder the associated financial burdens of SMR development,” Moody’s said.
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Firefighters contain huge industrial blaze in Sydney
Firefighters contain huge industrial blaze in Sydney
Two people have been taken to hospital after a massive ***** at a car repair shop in Sydney’s southwest.
More than 100 firefighters were at the industrial site in Auburn on Monday night with crews taking about two hours to contain the blaze.
***** and Rescue NSW said the ***** started about 6pm and became intense, with aerial ladder platforms used to douse the flames from above and drones sent up to aid the effort.
“The roof of the building where the ***** started has collapsed however firefighters have protected neighbouring properties including an adjoining timber flooring warehouse and a petrol station,” the ***** service said in a statement on Monday night.
“It is currently unsafe for firefighters to enter the collapsed building to fully extinguish the blaze.”
Two people in the auto shop were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and burns.
People from surrounding businesses were moved away and residents in the area were warned to stay inside and close windows and doors.
A section of Parramatta Rd was closed in both directions with firefighters expected to work through the night.
Earlier, NSW Police declared an exclusion zone at the site and advised residents within it to leave.
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Inter Miami, Messi and Martino are out: What went wrong and what comes next?
Inter Miami, Messi and Martino are out: What went wrong and what comes next?
Fireworks shot out from the rafters of Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium on Saturday night, but there was nothing for the home team to celebrate. When the final whistle blew in Fort Lauderdale, Inter Miami had been beaten 3-2 by Atlanta ******* and eliminated from the MLS playoffs.
Atlanta had taken the decisive Game 3 of the series and will advance to MLS’ Eastern Conference semifinals. The pyrotechnics were an awkward way to end an otherwise successful season for Lionel Messi’s club. Wait. How can Inter Miami’s 2024 be considered a success?
To go out at this stage of the playoffs is an embarrassment for a team whose notoriety has skyrocketed since Messi’s arrival in July of 2023. In a temporary home stadium that has become a fortress for Miami this year, Messi and his teammates were eliminated by an opponent that was mediocre for most of the season.
Atlanta squeaked into the postseason as the ninth seed under the guidance of an interim manager, but have defied the odds and ended what could have been a dream season for Inter Miami. After setting the MLS regular-season points record (74) and claiming the Supporters’ Shield (awarded to the club with the best regular-season record), Miami were, in the minds of many, obligated to win the MLS Cup final at the end of these playoffs on December 7.
So what went wrong? And what does this exit mean for 37-year-old Messi and Miami’s manager Gerardo ‘*****’ Martino?
The 61-year-old Argentine Martino was forced to tinker with his lineup at the most inopportune moment of the season. The ever-reliable Sergio Busquets, suffering from a chest injury, was benched and Yannick Bright, a ball-winning holding midfielder with polished possession skills, was unavailable due to a muscle injury sustained in Game 2 in Atlanta. Messi stepped up last night, orchestrating the first goal of the game (scored by Matias Rojas) and then, after Atlanta took a 2-1 lead, scoring the equalizer himself, but the visitors’ winner came when midfielder Bartosz Slisz’s powerful header stunned the Chase Stadium crowd with 14 minutes of the 90 to go.
Miami had scored 79 goals during the regular season and routinely dominated possession, but their weaknesses were also there for everyone to see. Atlanta exposed Miami’s high line throughout the series and finished their chances clinically.
Despite their regular-season success, Martino’s side had always been susceptible to the counter-******* and that vulnerability after losing possession has cost them. Martino opted for a 4-3-3 formation on Saturday despite his recent tendency of setting the side up with three central defenders and two attacking wingers.
Miami were without Busquets (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
Six years ago, when Martino led Atlanta to the 2018 MLS Cup title, he did so by pumping the brakes on what had been a prolific scoring side and securing his defense with a five-man back line. But he showed little of that kind of restraint on Saturday. With two 20-goal attackers in Messi and Luis Suárez and the team’s proven ability to create chance after chance, Martino went for the knockout and started with creative midfielder Rojas.
“If there was an important difference between the first and second games relating to tonight, by playing with a back four and deciding to place an additional attacker on the pitch, the opponent was able to run into space, something that we had generally prevented in the first two games,” Martino said.
Additionally, 40-year-old Brad Guzan proved to be the thorn in the side of the MLS Cup favorites. The former Aston Villa and ******* States goalkeeper was in inspired form throughout the three-game series. His shot-stopping from close range and reflex saves frustrated Miami beyond belief.
“Their goalkeeper was spectacular,” said Miami’s Jordi Alba after the match. “That was the difference in the series. He saved everything and more.” Guzan told Apple TV in a post-match interview that belief, resilience and “some ****** dust in our locker room” led to what will go down as one of the biggest upsets in the short history of MLS.
Miami’s ownership group of David Beckham and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas have spent north of $70million on first-team signings, pushing the MLS salary cap rule to its limits. Messi, Busquets, Suárez and Alba brought their spectacular resumés to MLS with one thing in mind: winning titles. A Leagues Cup trophy in 2023 set the stage for a storybook run this season.
GO DEEPER
How Miami moved to the epicenter of the global game – with a little help from Lionel Messi
With Martino at the helm, a manager accustomed to the brightest lights in world football having led FC Barcelona and the Argentina and Mexico men’s national teams, Miami had all the tools, including home-field advantage, to win their first MLS Cup. To be out this early is a worst-case scenario for MLS and Apple, the league’s broadcast partner.
“It’s not a success when you lose in the quarterfinal round,” said Martino. “If one thinks about where we were last November, there has been progress for the club, not just the team. If one considers the expectations we had for these playoffs, we’ve come up very short.”
Martino admitted in August he prioritizes the MLS Cup over the Supporters’ Shield (Chris Arjoon/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s simple to claim the Inter Miami project has ******* to deliver. Martino downplayed the Supporters’ Shield when he spoke to The Athletic in August.
“When you win the MLS Cup, you earn that star above the badge,” Martino said. “The day that I’m given a star for winning the Supporters’ Shield, in that case, it’ll be worth it.”
He has a point. In a playoff format, the MLS Cup is the only trophy that matters. But Inter Miami are unlike any club MLS has seen since its inaugural season 28 years ago. Their success won’t be measured based solely on what they do on the pitch. In five years, Miami has gone from a start-up with a handful of eager employees to a global brand with extraordinary reach. Messi will forever be linked to this club, a reality that will outweigh any trophy he may win in the U.S.
GO DEEPER
Gerardo Martino Q&A: Managing Lionel Messi, the rise of Inter Miami, and the art of suffering
An MLS Cup will never define Messi’s legacy — nothing he does while in Miami’s pink and ****** uniform will dent or strengthen the career of the sport’s greatest player. As Beckham said in 2023, Inter Miami succeeded when they signed Messi.
Beckham and Messi are linked in more ways than one. The former England captain didn’t win an MLS Cup until his fifth year in the league, following two loan spells with AC Milan. Beckham’s LA Galaxy followed up that 2011 triumph with another MLS Cup the following year but it’s the designated player rule that he is remembered for in the ******* States.
Messi with teammate Luiz Suárez (Chris Arjoon/AFP via Getty Images)
Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup hero for Argentina’s triumphant side in 2022, is also playing in MLS for reasons that go far beyond the touchline. Miami signed him to change the trajectory of ********* soccer, to become an icon in a country that still turns its back on the global game.
The marketing machine that Messi commands has made inroads in a nation cluttered with celebrity and mainstream sports. The 2024 season began with a global tour in Central America, Asia and the Middle East. In February, Inter Miami chief business officer Xavier Asensi said the club had achieved revenue that was more than the preseason figures of Europe’s biggest clubs, with estimates near $20million for a U.S. preseason tour.
Internationally, the Inter Miami project has been a smashing success, but in America, the Messi phenomenon has been normalized. It was almost unbelievable to suggest he would ever come to MLS. Now, after just one and a half seasons, MLS fans complain of Messi fatigue.
On Friday, with Miami facing elimination, there was one lone television camera at their pre-game media availability.
Other than the Diario Olé newspaper from Argentina, the global press, which had landed in Fort Lauderdale in hordes a year ago, was nowhere to be found. Inter Miami are covered by a dedicated group of local reporters, but on some days, there are no more than two or three journalists at the training facility. It doesn’t help that Messi has given just one press conference (in August of 2023) since arriving.
He has been a model teammate and a joy to watch, but his unwillingness to talk to the press has lessened his impact stateside. When Messi speaks, the world listens. When he doesn’t engage with the press in a country whose media landscape is dominated by sports talk shows that discuss anything but soccer, the silence, as they say, can be deafening.
In late October, Messi spoke to journalist Fabrizio Romano. He touched on Inter Miami’s ambitions. “The club doesn’t set any limits for itself,” Messi said. “The club’s philosophy is to always go for more and that’s been proven with what they’ve achieved so far. They want to continue to grow within MLS, and why not, globally as well.”
Thank you for all the love and support this season pic.twitter.com/J6dYyAtGu8
— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) November 10, 2024
Messi also said his desired superpower would be invisibility. One can empathize with somebody whose life has been anything but private for more than 20 years. In Fort Lauderdale, thousands of miles away from the football paparazzi that followed him in Barcelona and Paris, after his move to PSG, for years, Messi has as normal a life as he has ever had. But MLS cannot afford for him to go unnoticed in America.
This playoff loss against Atlanta proved big moments can be fleeting. It’s no secret Messi, who will turn 38 next June, is nearing the end of his illustrious career. He hasn’t ruled out playing at the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs through the 2025 MLS season, a year before that World Cup and a year before the club’s new Miami-based stadium opens.
With that in mind, Miami’s early elimination puts additional pressure on the club’s owners to maximize Messi’s talent and his massive brand appeal. The clock, seemingly, is running out. But in speaking to reporters after the shock loss, Martino tempered any concerns about Messi’s timetable in MLS. “Honestly, I don’t know how limited (his time here) is,” said Martino. “Time passes and clearly it’s on the horizon, but I wouldn’t say that it’s coming anytime soon.”
MLS and Messi’s millions of fans can breathe easier. Perhaps Messi will still be wearing pink in 2026. Inter Miami, though, have been busy reshaping the sporting department. In June, the club named former Arsenal director of football Raul Sanllehi as president of football operations. Sanllehi has said that he isn’t replacing current sporting director Chris Henderson, but Henderson’s time in Miami, unlike Messi’s, is nearing its end. Change is coming.
Martino came to the Miami job after a disastrous World Cup with Mexico in 2022. It might sound dramatic but returning to MLS was his moment for redemption. At a club that wants to set a standard, his seat has naturally gotten warmer.
On Saturday, Martino reiterated his side had not met the club’s ambitious expectations — yet he painted a promising picture of where the project stands amid the pain of the night’s result.
“If you look at how this club started, the progress made is noteworthy,” he said. “From our final match of the season last October to tonight’s souring loss in the playoffs, it’s clear that the club’s objectives have changed and I don’t think that the club has any reason to not go for it next season. Everything that has happened this year, both the good and the bad, has been better than anything that has taken place during the club’s existence.”
The MLS playoffs will continue without Messi and, for a league that needs as much attention as it can get, Saturday’s outcome in Fort Lauderdale is deflating.
But this is soccer in America. There’s a long way to go towards relevance.
(Top photo: Chris Arjoon/AFP via Getty Images)
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Either Space Marine 2 Brings a Much Needed Accessory in December Update or We Embrace Chaos
Either Space Marine 2 Brings a Much Needed Accessory in December Update or We Embrace Chaos
There’s no doubt that Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 enjoyed a phenomenal launch back in September and has continued to evolve both in terms of popularity and content, with new updates providing gamers with new features and items to explore.
Saber Interactive has big plans for the future of Space Marine 2. (Image via Focus Entertainment)
Much like its rivals, Space Marine 2 dropped with a roadmap that will see new additions come to the game on a seasonal basis. Sometime in December, we’re supposed to get an update that changes how we experience the title. However, if it doesn’t bring one of the most iconic helmets of the series, the game might see another round of review-********.
It’s Time For Saber Interactive to Give Us This Special Helmet in Space Marine 2
In Warhammer 40k‘s universe, helmets are one of the many protective gears worn by humanity’s greatest soldiers, Space Marines. They’re designed to shield them from hazardous environments, providing enhanced vision and targeting capabilities. Helmets are a crucial part of a Space Marine’s arsenal as they allow them to be a menace on the battlefield.
Developer Saber Interactive has done quite an incredible job when it comes to honoring Space Marines and their armor pieces in Space Marine 2. The studio has provided players with tons of customization when it comes to helmet pieces. Unfortunately, the game still doesn’t have the iconic red Seargant helmet.
In Warhammer 40k, red helmets signify a special rank within Space Marine 2 chapters. For instance, for Ultramarines and other Codex-compliant chapters, red helmets mark the rank of the members of Veteran Sergeant. It’s a helmet that separates the legends from the ordinary and looks quite fantastic.
Saber also must give players the option to customize their lens colors. Currently, we can only switch between red and green, which restricts gamers from truly personalizing their super soldiers. Many in the community believe that Saber must allow players to choose any ****** they want.
Comment byu/reddit_bot21 from discussion inSpacemarine
One player wishes for Saber to even bring the Ultramarine Sergeant logo in Space Marine 2. Currently, it can only be used on the knee, but it should be a shoulder emblem as well.
Comment byu/reddit_bot21 from discussion inSpacemarine
Others speculate that Saber might not add different lens colors because the franchise’s creator, Games Workshop, wouldn’t allow such things.
Comment byu/reddit_bot21 from discussion inSpacemarine
Let’s hope Saber Interactive listens to the player feedback and finally brings the much-requested red Seargent helmet and allows us to customize lens colors. It’s truly mind-boggling how the developers didn’t bring such basic accessories and customization options right along with the game’s release.
What’s Coming in Space Marine 2‘s December Update?
The Dark Angels are finally coming to Space Marine 2. (Image via Focus Entertainment)
While we still don’t know if Saber will expand upon the customizability of Space Marines with the upcoming update for the game, there’s a lot to be excited about. The December update will finally bring the Dark Angel Chapter and a new ******, the Tzaangor Enlightened.
Dark Angles have been rumored to drop in Space Marine 2 since its release. In Warhammer 40k‘s universe, The Dark Angels were the very first of the Empreor’s Space Marine Legions and are considered to be the pinnacle of marine chapters. These warriors are recognized by their green and off-white robes.
The game will also receive a brand-new map set on Demerium dubbed Obelisk and various tweaks to blocking weapons, which many players have claimed to feel unsatisfying to use.
There’s plenty to look forward to as Space Marine 2 continues to grow, and 2025 will undoubtedly bring even more new content to the game.
With that said, do you think there’s anything Saber needs to add in Space Marine 2 with upcoming updates? Let us know in the comments below.
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*** Bolt drivers win legal claim to be classed as workers
*** Bolt drivers win legal claim to be classed as workers
*** drivers working for ride-hailing and food delivery app Bolt should be classed as staff rather than self-employed, the Employment Tribunal has ruled.
Being classified as workers means more than 100,000 Bolt drivers are now entitled to better workplace conditions and protections for the first time under *** employment law, including the right to be paid the national minimum wage, and to receive statutory minimum holiday pay and rest breaks, as well as protection from unlawful discrimination and whistleblowing.
The Employment Tribunal specifically rejected Bolt’s claim that drivers are self-employed contractors running their own businesses, finding instead that the terms and conditions the firm applies to its relationship with drivers, as well as the level of control it has over their day-to-day work, means they are in fact workers.
“Overwhelmingly, the power ***** with Bolt,” said the ruling. “There is nothing in the relationship which demands, or even suggests, agency. The agency notion is posited simply to defeat the obvious interpretation which the facts invite – that Bolt employs the drivers to provide their labour in furtherance of its transportation business.”
It added: “The supposed contract between the Bolt driver and the passenger is a fiction designed by Bolt – and in particular its lawyers – to defeat the argument that it has an employer/worker relationship with the driver.”
While Bolt currently only pays its drivers for time spent on trips, the Employment Tribunal also ruled they should be paid for time spent logged into the Bolt app, providing they are not also logged into apps for other private hire operators such as Uber or Deliveroo – a practice those operators refer to as “multi-apping”.
Lawyers from Leigh Day representing the drivers said the employment tribunal decision – which was handed down on 8 November 2024 following a three-week hearing in September – could lead to drivers receiving collective compensation worth more than £200m. They added that, on average, drivers could be entitled to compensation of over £15,000.
While the ruling means Bolt will need to provide paid holiday and ensure drivers earn the minimum wage for any periods they work, the Employment Tribunal will hold a further session to decide exactly how much compensation the drivers are entitled to.
“We are very pleased that the employment tribunal has found in favour of our Bolt driver clients,” said Leigh Day employment team solicitor Charlotte Pettman, who represented roughly 15,000 current and former Bolt drivers in their legal action.
“This judgment confirms that gig economy operators cannot continue to falsely classify their workers as independent contractors running their own business to avoid providing the rights those workers are properly entitled to. We call on Bolt to compensate our clients without further delay.”
Bolt driver Shuhel Ahmed also welcomed the ruling, adding: “It’s satisfying to know that our hard work and long hours have been recognised, and that we can ****** on for better pay and conditions, and compensation will make a huge difference to my family’s life.”
A spokesperson for Bolt – which is currently reviewing its options, including grounds to appeal the decision – said: “Drivers are at the heart of what we do, and we have always supported the overwhelming majority’s choice to remain self-employed, independent contractors, protecting their flexibility, personal control and earning potential.”
Long-running legal disputes
The legal claim from Bolt drivers followed the *** Supreme Court determining in February 2021 that Uber drivers – who were also represented by Leigh Day – should be classified as workers rather than self-employed. That specific legal challenge was brought by private hire driver Yaseen Aslam and his union, the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU).
However, although Uber agreed in March to pay its *** drivers the minimum wage, it said this would only apply for the time they are assigned to trips, rather than, as the Supreme Court explicitly ruled, from the time they log in to the app.
Commenting on the latest Employment Tribunal hearing decision regarding Bolt – which explicitly noted that drivers should be paid for all time spent logged into the app – ADCU general secretary Zamir Dreni said it “vindicates our position on working time and demonstrates that neither Bolt nor Uber have never fully complied with the Supreme Court ruling, which means that between 40% and 60% of true working time ******** unpaid.
“Rather than force workers back into courts for another decade of litigation, the government needs to step in now and fix the current employment bill, which omitted protections for gig workers, so that Britain’s hard-working minicab drivers and delivery couriers get the protections they deserve.”
However, different rulings related to the working relationship between drivers and other operators have come to different conclusions.
In June 2021, the *** Court of Appeal ruled in a case – originally brought by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) in 2017 – that Deliveroo riders are self-employed, further finding they do not have the right to organise via a trade union.
Despite this, one judge conceded that the ruling could be seen as “counterintuitive” because “it is easy to see that riders might benefit from organising collectively to represent their interests, as against Deliveroo”.
Another judge agreed that the decision “may seem counterintuitive”, adding: “I quite accept that there may be other cases where, on different facts and with a broader range of available arguments, a different result may eventuate.”
Lord Justice Underhill added that the Uber case, which largely revolved around ***-specific employment law, had no bearing on this Deliveroo case because it did not engage Article 11 of the ********* Convention on Human Rights (which protects the right to form and join trade unions), adding that unlike Deliveroo, “Uber did not rely on any substitution clause” that meant others are allowed to complete the work.
In September 2022, the IWGB once again appealed the ruling, arguing that riders have been denied collective bargaining rights and once again seeking to establish their worker status. However, this was dismissed by the Supreme Court in November 2023, which noted the way riders work with Deliveroo is inconsistent with an employment relationship.
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Mexico to renew food price control measures
Mexico to renew food price control measures
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -******** President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that she would renew an agreement with food producers and retailers to keep the price of a set of basic groceries affordable for consumers.
The measure had been rolled out by her predecessor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in 2022 as inflation was the highest it had been in two decades.
“We want prices to come down for consumers, especially for those who don’t have much,” Sheinbaum, who took office at the beginning of October, said in her morning press conference.
The new accord will be signed on Wednesday or Thursday, she added.
Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum’s mentor, launched the price controls in collaboration with the private sector on a set of groceries including corn tortillas, rice, soap, tomatoes and ******* paper.
Inflation has come down sharply since the agreement went into place, according to data from national statistics agency INEGI. In October, the annual inflation rate for food, drinks and tobacco was 3.81%, compared to the 13.95% rate two years earlier.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle)
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Top tech fund manager at T. Rowe Price gives best postelection picks
Top tech fund manager at T. Rowe Price gives best postelection picks
A top technology fund manager is laying out his favorite names in the sector going forward. “It’s an exciting time where we’re seeing productivity really get enhanced, and perhaps this being a really big industrial economic productivity increaser,” Tony Wang, portfolio manager of T. Rowe Price’s science and technology equity strategy told CNBC’s ” Squawk Box ” on Monday. For nearly two years since the debut of ChatGPT companies have poured money into semiconductor and infrastructure names underpinning the build out of AI tools. Now, Wang believes the tide is shifting in favor of software companies and app developers launching and integrating AI products. APP YTD mountain Applovin shares this year Along with Nvidia, Wang views Marvell Technology as a key long-term AI play with a “strong future” given its custom chip products with hyperscalers such as Amazon . He also highlighted the company’s CEO as a strong “capital allocator.” And, while the Magnificent Seven stocks should continue to lead given their data access, large customer base and capital to train, build and deploy AI models, Wang anticipates a new crop of beneficiaries emerging. This includes Palantir and Applovin . Wang highlighted Applovin’s digital advertising moat and strong ********** among the reasons he favors the stock. Applovin surged 77%, scoring its best week on record, following a strong earnings report . Shares are up more than 590% this year. “A lot of them had really quite big moves recently in the last earnings and I think that’s driven largely by their AI data flywheel,” he said of the picks. “Technology trends are often on an exponential adoption curve, and a lot of times the market … underestimates these tech transitions.”
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Post-election rally boosts wealth for top billionaires
Post-election rally boosts wealth for top billionaires
CNBC’s Robert Frank joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to report on the latest news.
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What to know about Tom Homan, Trump’s new “border czar”
What to know about Tom Homan, Trump’s new “border czar”
Tom Homan, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his incoming administration’s “border czar,” is a veteran immigration official and immigration hawk whose law enforcement career spans decades.
Once a police officer in New York state and Border Patrol agent, the Obama administration tapped him to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation branch in 2013. During Homan’s time at ICE under President Obama, the agency carried out record numbers of formal deportations. Obama gave Homan a Presidential Rank Award, the highest civil service recognition.
Trump early in his first term named Homan acting director of ICE. He quickly generated controversy when he suggested undocumented immigrants “should be afraid” under the Trump administration.
Homan was one of the masterminds of the first Trump administration’s infamous “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. The parents were prosecuted for ******** entry, while the children were sent to shelters for unaccompanied minors — without a plan to reunite them. He was one of the three officials who signed the policy memo that then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen approved to greenlight the separations. He left ICE in June 2018.
During an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” last month, Homan outlined how the U.S. government would carry out the largest deportation operation in ********* history, one of Trump’s signature pledges on the campaign trail.
“It’s not threatening to the immigrant community,” Homan said of Trump’s campaign promise. “It should be threatening to the ******** immigrant community. But on the heels of [a] historic ******** immigration crisis. That has to be done.”
He suggested to CBS News correspondent Cecilia Vega that he would target ********** and national security threats first, and then seek to deport non-********* migrants who are in the country illegally and are ordered deported. That would require reversing Biden administration rules that currently instruct ICE to focus on arresting and deporting serious **********, national security threats and recent border crossers and that effectively shield undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time without committing serious ******* from deportation.
Homan also indicated he would revive large-scale immigration arrests at workplaces, which the Biden administration discontinued in 2021. “That’s gonna be necessary,” he said of worksite immigration enforcement.
But Homan said the deportation operation would not involve “concentration camps” or a “mass sweep of neighborhoods.”
Asked if mass deportations could be carried out without separating families, Homan said, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.” One study shows roughly 4 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented parent.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.
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GM’s Wall Street vindication is here as it outperforms peers in 2024
GM’s Wall Street vindication is here as it outperforms peers in 2024
Mary Barra, chair and chief executive officer of General Motors Co., during a news conference at the Hudson’s building in Detroit, Michigan, US, on Monday, April 15, 2024.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT — General Motors is proving it’s a standout among automakers this year as it continues to consistently outperform Wall Street’s earnings expectations and its competitors.
Shares of the Detroit automaker have risen 54.7% ahead of Monday’s opening, outperforming legacy competitors, Tesla and U.S. electric vehicle startups Lucid Group and Rivian Automotive.
“You may still not believe it, but it’s true, GM keeps on trucking,” BofA Securities analysts John Murphy wrote in an investor note last month after the automaker beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations.
GM has done so with the assistance of $12.4 billion in stock buybacks since last November, which the automaker said will continue for the foreseeable future. But it’s also proving itself to be operationally better than its crosstown rivals Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis, as well as other sector peers.
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General Motors vs. Ford Motor stock
CEO and Chair Mary Barra has touted that kind of differentiation for years, but it has largely fallen upon deaf ears. For the most part, GM stock has traded in lockstep with Ford due to their histories and the cyclical nature of the automotive industry.
But not this year. Ford stock is off 10% as of Friday’s close. Others, including Ferrari, which has been among Wall Street’s top auto performers, are also trailing GM.
Even with shares of Tesla surging more than 30% during the past week following President-elect Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election, the electric vehicle maker continues to trail GM. Tesla CEO Elon Musk heavily campaigned for Trump.
General Motors (GM): 54.7%Ferrari (RACE): 34.3%Tesla (TSLA): 29.3%Hyundai Motor* (HYMTF): 27.9%BYD Co.* (BYDDF): 27.2%Toyota Motor (TM): down 6.2%Ford (F): down 10%Honda Motor (HMC): down 13.3%Volkswagen* (VWAGY): down 28.2%Nissan Motor* (NSANY): down 36.1%Li Auto (LI): down 36.8%Stellantis (STLA): down 42.5%Nio Inc. (NIO): down 43.9%Lucid (LCID): down 47.5%Rivian (RIVN): down 54.9%* Over-the-counter shares
GM, unlike many competitors, has not lowered its 2024 guidance or underperformed Wall Street’s quarterly earnings expectations. Instead, it’s actually raised key financial targets despite facing ongoing market challenges in the U.S. and its ******** operations losing hundreds of millions of dollars amid increased competition.
While GM has said it’s cutting costs, it has not had to be as aggressive as other automakers this year. Nissan, Volkswagen and Stellantis are conducting massive business restructurings that include layoffs, production cuts and other cost-saving measures.
Shares of GM under Barra, who started leading the automaker in January 2014, have been lackluster for investors for most of her tenure. The stock’s average closing price under her tenure is $38 per share —lower than the $40.02 per share closing price before she became CEO, according to FactSet data.
Cumulative, as of Friday’s close, shares are up 38.9% under Barra’s tenure. That compares to a nearly 300% increase for the S&P 500 during that timeframe. GM’s all-time high stock price under Barra was $67.21 on Jan. 5, 2022, as Barra presented GM’s EV ambitions and growth plans.
Whether GM can continue its hot streak going into next year is yet to be seem, but the automaker has advised it expects the 2025 performance of the company to be in line with this year, including signaling a weaker fourth quarter.
Barra, when discussing quarterly earnings Oct. 22, reiterated her stance that GM will continue to “build on our competitive strength and deliver the performance that differentiates us from others in the industry.”
“We’re going to be disciplined and we’ll be resilient, and we’ll make adjustments to the extent that we can to continue to drive growth and profitability,” Barra said. “In the weeks and months ahead, you’ll see more clearly than ever how we intend to leverage the tailwinds that are within our control to deliver strong results in 2025 that are in a similar range to 2024.”
GM stock on average is weighted overweight with a price target of $59.85 per share, according to average Wall Street estimates compiled by FactSet.
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Who’s to blame on the Bears? Accountability for such a bad loss goes through whole franchise
Who’s to blame on the Bears? Accountability for such a bad loss goes through whole franchise
CHICAGO — Fans booed and chanted to ***** the head coach. They headed for the exits in droves.
The locker room had an all-too-familiar silence to it. The players who spoke were stunned and lacked answers to the obvious.
How did the Chicago Bears get here?
“Can’t put it into words,” wide receiver DJ Moore said. “Difficult loss. Go back to the drawing boards and just be real with ourselves.”
No one in the locker room will play the blame game, but to lose 19-3 at home to the New England Patriots is an institutional ********. Every decision that led to this point deserves scrutiny, whether it was something as micro as quarterback Caleb Williams throwing a swing pass to Moore instead of handing it off or something as franchise-altering as the front office deciding to keep head coach Matt Eberflus.
That’s how bad a loss in this situation was. As Eberflus said when asked about the offensive coordinator position, “Everything is going to be looked at.”
“It was pretty bad,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “We’ve got a lot that we’ve got to get corrected.”
Only 14 days ago, the 4-2 Bears played a flexed late-afternoon game against the Washington Commanders. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction coming off a three-game winning streak and a bye to fix what wasn’t working: the first-quarter offense and run defense.
GO DEEPER
The Bears offense is broken. They can’t afford to let it break Caleb Williams, too
Now the Bears are 4-5. They’ve been shut out in the first quarter in five consecutive games. They had one of their worst offensive performances in years against a 2-7 Patriots team that ranked 26th in yards per play allowed, 27th in yards per pass allowed, 28th in sacks per pass and 27th on third down.
The Bears responded by putting up 142 yards of offense and 4.0 yards per pass. They allowed nine sacks for the seventh time in franchise history and went 1-for-14 on third down.
If that juxtaposition sounds familiar, it was a similar refrain last week after a 29-9 drubbing at the Arizona Cardinals.
When given an opportunity to respond to losing in an unimaginable fashion against the Commanders, the Bears were beaten in all three phases by the Cardinals. When given an opportunity to bounce back and get a needed win before division play against a last-place team, they couldn’t move the football.
Rookie quarterback Drake Maye and a two-win Patriots team embarrassed the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
One of the themes after the game from Eberflus and Williams was that the Bears have the players. If you go up and down the roster, they do. The offensive line was in tatters Sunday and even when healthy has struggled, but this is one of the better Bears rosters in the post-Lovie Smith era.
Williams accepted the blame for his role in the losing. He has completed 50.5 percent of his passes in the past three games. His accuracy has been off. He’s not getting the ball out quickly enough. A lot of that is to be expected, though, from a rookie, even one as heralded as Williams.
If the Bears have the quarterback and the players around him, how did the organization ****** this up?
• Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron simply has not put the offense in a position to succeed. Running back D’Andre Swift had his moments Sunday, but then we’d see the run abandoned. Too much was put on a banged-up offensive line and, therefore, Williams. The rookie quarterback acknowledged his errors on third down, but like the past two weeks, this scheme isn’t giving him layups. We saw Patriots quarterback Drake Maye get some nice, easy chunk plays to open receivers. That didn’t happen for Williams, and he has better receivers.
• On Feb. 22, Eberflus stood at the lectern at Halas Hall to introduce Waldron. He lauded the team’s two-week process that landed its coordinators. He thanked his bosses for the resources that allowed him to travel the West Coast and interview play callers. The stakes were high with the No. 1 pick and the fact that Eberflus’ first choice as offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy, didn’t work. He chose Waldron. He chose to promote Chris Morgan to run game coordinator and pair him with Waldron. However the Bears got to Waldron, and however they built this offensive staff, is rightly under heavy criticism.
For the second week in a row, Eberflus took full accountability after the game, saying, “I’ll take responsibility for it.”
“The whole thing,” he said. “The operation of it: offense, defense, kicking. That’s the job of the head coach. So, to me, that’s accountability for everything.”
Eberflus knows that everything that goes on reflects on him, but the coordinator decision goes above him too, as does blame for Sunday’s dismal performance. The Bears put themselves in this position. Their performance on offense means a serious examination of everything that led to it.
GO DEEPER
NFL Week 10 takeaways: Who’s more disappointing, Jets or Cowboys? Are Steelers Super Bowl worthy?
• General manager Ryan Poles and his staff built a roster that looks nothing like the one he inherited in 2022, but a three-game losing streak that has put heat on the coaching staff raises the ultimate question: Should Eberflus have been retained after last season? Though Poles improved the offensive line depth, as he sees how many times Williams has been sacked, should more have been done to fortify the starters?
• This goes above Poles, too, to president/CEO Kevin Warren, who had an opportunity in his first offseason to make a major change to help the infrastructure that would get its best chance to right the quarterback ship. Warren, whose downtown stadium plans are stalled while the team sits on land in Arlington Heights, could still be the wild card that would allow this iteration of the Bears to make in-season moves.
• And then it goes to chairman George McCaskey, whose hiring committee identified Poles and Eberflus nearly three years ago. Under McCaskey’s tenure, the Bears have won zero playoff games, are on their fifth head coach and third GM and could be moving on to their 10th offensive coordinator.
With Williams, Moore, Swift, Kmet, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze on offense, the Bears scored 3 points against the Patriots at Soldier Field.
For the offense to combust in such spectacular fashion after back-to-back weeks of chatter about team meetings and accountability, that’s the type of loss that falls on everyone in the organization.
Sunday was supposed to be a return to .500, an opportunity to take advantage of a rebuilding Patriots team before the Green Bay Packers come to town. Instead, it was one of the Bears’ worst losses in years.
And that’s saying something.
(Top photo of Caleb Williams getting sacked by Jahlani Tavai: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
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xAI’s Grok-2 might be available for free on X soon
xAI’s Grok-2 might be available for free on X soon
Elon Musk’s xAI launched its AI chatbot, Grok, at the end of 2023 and it has remained exclusively available to X (formerly Twitter) premium users since. Now, one year later, Grok is seemingly coming to free X users in select areas, TechCrunch reports.
The news comes from multiple reports on X by researchers and users who spotted updates to Grok. According to X user Swak, there are stipulations to who can access Grok for free and how much they can use it. For starters, accounts need to be at least seven days old and have a phone number attached to them. Free users are also reportedly limited by how many things they can do in two hours. They can ask the Grok-2 model 10 questions and the Grok-2 mini model 20 questions within that time frame. Furthermore, free users only get three image analyses each day.
The Grok-2 and the Grok-2 mini models are relatively new, releasing late summer of this year. Grok-2 is xAI’s most advanced AI chatbot to date and pulls real-time information right from X, while the company claims the mini version “offers a balance between speed and answer quality.”
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Scientists unlock mechanisms of liquid-repellent surfaces
Scientists unlock mechanisms of liquid-repellent surfaces
Credit: Griffith University
Griffith University scientists have made significant strides in understanding and controlling liquid interactions on tiny, advanced surfaces, a breakthrough that could impact a wide range of industries, from self-cleaning materials to medical devices.
In a study published in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces, researchers at Griffith’s Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Center explored how specific surface structures—called re-entrant microstructures—could repel water and other liquids.
The paper—chosen as the Editor’s Choice and set to feature on the journal’s cover—revealed how factors such as shape, material, and spacing of these microstructures influenced their ability to resist wetting or liquid spreading.
“Our research dives deep into why some surfaces are better at repelling water than others,” said Dr. Navid Kashaninejad, one of the study’s lead researchers.
“This understanding allows us to design surfaces that can either repel or attract liquids, which is important for applications like self-cleaning materials or surfaces that avoid fouling.”
The team focused on two materials, silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and silicon carbide (SiC), which each offered unique properties.
While SiC is known for its inherent hydrophobic (water-repelling) nature, the researchers found the overall geometry—especially the spacing and shape of these tiny cap-like structures—played a more significant role in influencing liquid behavior than the type of material itself.
Credit: Griffith University
They found re-entrant structures with larger gaps between them effectively trapped air pockets, enhancing water repellence and preventing the liquid from fully wetting the surface.
This intricate balance between material properties and structure provided a new perspective on designing highly efficient, liquid-repellent surfaces.
Dr. Kashaninejad said the implications of these findings were wide-reaching. “In environmental technology, self-cleaning surfaces could reduce maintenance costs and improve performance in sectors such as solar panels and water-repellent coatings.
“In the biomedical field, liquid-repellent materials could help develop medical devices that resist bacterial build-up, improving hygiene and patient safety.
“These findings also open doors to creating materials that can withstand extreme conditions, such as high temperatures or harsh chemicals, using materials like silicon carbide.
“This study not only contributes to the growing body of knowledge in surface science but also positions Griffith University at the forefront of innovative materials design.”
Dr. Kashaninejad said the team was hopeful further exploration of these properties would lead to even more advanced applications across multiple industries.
More information:
Hoang Huy Vu et al, Exploring Wettability of Re‐Entrant Microstructures: Effects of Geometry and Material Composition, Advanced Materials Interfaces (2024). DOI: 10.1002/admi.202400626
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Fresh concerns over NHS England registries procurement
Fresh concerns over NHS England registries procurement
The ongoing procurement process for NHS England’s Outcomes and Registries Platform (ORP) continues to draw concerns over the state of the project’s data security practices, amid claims that the whole enterprise may be riding roughshod over compliance with public sector procurement regulations.
The ORP project is designed to bring together various, world-renowned clinical devices registries, established over many years by medical specialists and technologists, that act as a repository of data to support the NHS in the nationwide operation and management of clinical services. They enable the commissioning of services, the introduction of new treatments and better identification of effective (or ineffective) treatments, a large range of quality assurance processes, research and policy development, and help to ensure patient safety.
Earlier this year, Computer Weekly reported how the project’s login page was accessible to anybody with an internet connection, rather than via the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN), and was not protected by multifactor authentication (MFA), which runs contrary to NHS England rules.
Responding at the time, NHS England said that it was moving to enhance security on the ORP platform and MFA has been implemented since that article was published.
This has gone a little way to alleviating some of the worries previously highlighted by the Federation of Clinical Registries (FCR), a group of registry lead healthcare professionals and technologists who are concerned at the ORP programme’s direction of travel, and say they are being repeatedly sidelined by NHS England when they try to raise their doubts.
According to the FCR, other security concerns are going unaddressed by NHS England, allegedly including far deeper data protection issues that have been ignored.
“Even though they’ve introduced MFA, what have they done about the fact that practically anybody can register for that system? Things are being sent around on spreadsheets and users are being pre-registered in bulk without even asking whether they want to be on the system,” an FCR representative said, speaking to Computer Weekly on condition of anonymity. According to responses supplied to the FCR, there are at least 6,000 registered users, and only 900 of those are classed as “active” users.
“It’s [also still] sat on the internet, which goes against the cloud security guidelines for Class Five data. The FCR has repeatedly chased the NHS England Cyber Security Department for clarification on these security issues.”
Class Five data is defined within the NHS as cloud-hosted data that carries the highest level of risk. Official guidance holds that operating services at this level requires “board-level organisational commitment, following specialist advice and guidance”.
The FCR representative said that NHS England should be aware of the risks to the various datasets because one of the existing registries, the National Major Trauma Registry (NMTR), previously known as the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN), was compromised by a ransomware gang in a 2023 ******* on the University of Manchester. The university no longer runs the registry in question.
Responding to questions over the ongoing security concerns, NHS England told Computer Weekly that the system conformed to NHS cyber security guidance and that there was no specific requirement for it to be part of the HSCN.
Contract award
The FCR also said that it has significant concerns over the process of how the ORP contract was awarded in the first place. The genesis of the FCR was a perceived threat to established world-renowned registries following the issue of a new draft contract by NHS England, which the established registries say they saw as “essentially a notice to quit”.
In the wake of this, the FCR said it found many issues, including instances where registry contract payments were withheld, data flows to key registries stopped, registry projects stalled, and historical data left unavailable or deleted because legal contracts had been allowed to expire. Subsequently, FCR contacts within NHS England told the group that ********* supplier NEC had been tapped to develop the wider ORP platform and the various registries in scope, in light of which the FCR set out to try to find out more about how that contract came to be awarded.
What it uncovered was a contract worth about £1m dating to March 2023, described as “somewhat vague” in its nature, that covered the initial development of ORP including integration of two of the clinical registries, vascular ********* and ****** conditions, into the platform. At the time of writing, this has not yet been delivered.
However, the FCR was unable to establish any other details of the contract via the government contract finder service – which is where they would normally be published, albeit often in redacted form.
“We then became aware that they [NEC] were working on multiple other registries which didn’t get any mention in what we could see about the contract. All we had was the title, so it was very difficult for us to know what it was covering and what it was not,” said the FCR representative.
“Every time we asked them, they just kept pointing back to the original contract and saying it covers all this work on cochlear, ******* implants, ligaments, everything. But there was no reference to that in the title, so we thought this can’t be true.”
The FCR started to file freedom of information (FoI) requests to try to establish the costs of the development of the individual registries and their integration into ORP, but was told there were no further details to share.
Undeterred, the group continued to escalate through the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which over the summer of 2024 found that NHS England had ******* to comply with the group’s requests appropriately.
However, according to the FCR’s version of events, its contacts within NHS England subsequently found another ORP contract for £1.24m, awarded to NEC on 23 February 2024 but officially unpublished until 11 July 2024, almost three months after a question had been raised about it in the House of Commons.
“They didn’t disclose it in response to the MP in Parliament, they didn’t disclose it when we were doing all the FOIs, they didn’t disclose it on the public website where all the contracts are meant to be published. It wasn’t on there and when the FCR asked the senior responsible owner [SRO] for that programme, they didn’t disclose it either. They kept pointing back to that original contract.
“We couldn’t understand how all these other registries were being developed under that initial contract, and they kept saying, it’s covered by that. Well, actually they’re all in the second contract,” said the FCR representative.
A further claim made by the FCR is that both of the contracts were directly awarded to NEC without following proper process and without a proper market evaluation. Responding to the FCR’s questions, the NHS England ORP SRO at the time said that a market evaluation was conducted, but subsequently the NHS England transformation director has changed tack on this, saying they were not. This situation has led to resentment among FCR members who feel it is they – rather than NEC – who have proven expertise in the delivery of medical registries.
NHS England said that its response to the ICO related to the contracts and expenditure in place at the time of the FCR’s initial request, and that it has now provided “further details to the ICO’s satisfaction”.
Following the rules
Additionally, the FCR said the publication of the second NEC contract some months after it was awarded suggests that those in charge of the procurement are trying to retroactively wave it through and give the appearance that the rules have been followed.
The ORP contract timeline became murkier still in August and September 2024, when a new procurement process appeared to kick off, which this time took the form of a request for information (RFI), followed by a demonstration from suppliers and then the award of a contract, initially appearing to cut out the tender process entirely.
“Suppliers asked, ‘What’s the specification for the system?’, and NHS England said, ‘We’ll only disclose the specification for the system to the winning bidder’. How does that make any sense?” said the FCR representative.
Coupled with the publication of the second NEC contract some months after it was awarded, the convoluted processes involved in what should have been a straightforward procurement has lent additional weight to the FCR’s belief that the ORP project is being retroactively given the green light.
“They know they haven’t followed the right processes and now it’s just a case of trying to protect themselves. All of these non-responses to FOIs, they’re trying every trick in the book to avoid landing themselves in it,” said the FCR’s whistleblower.
NHS England said that the contracts had been awarded under established framework agreements – details of both being available via Contracts Finder, located here and here. However, responding to the FCR’s concerns over costs, it said these were withheld for commercial confidentiality reasons under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The organisation confirmed that it had issued a single RFI for the new contract, which is currently live, and said all respondents were being kept informed of progress and timescales for engagement.
An NHS England spokesperson told Computer Weekly: “The tracking and monitoring of devices and implants is crucial for patient safety, and the Outcomes Registries Platform meets all appropriate standards in cyber security and data protection. We are running an open and transparent procurement process for the next phase of the programme.”
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Market vendor describes fatal ****** *******
Market vendor describes fatal ****** *******
BBC
Adam Kadirzadah told BBC London how a man with a big ****** attacked his customers
A market vendor has described the moment his customers were stabbed in front of him, one of them fatally.
Adam Kadirzadah, who sells fruit in East Street in Walworth, south London, told BBC London how a man approached shoppers from behind.
“It was a nice morning, there were a lot of customers in the market, it was a busy time,” Mr Kadirzadah said. “The guy was shouting out with a big ******… It was really shocking, I couldn’t sleep all night. It was really bad.”
One man was ******* in Sunday morning’s *******, while a man and a woman were taken to hospital. Their condition is unknown. A man, believed to be in his 60s, was arrested at the scene.
This article contains detail that some may find distressing.
PA Media
Mr Kadirzadah said his customers were shopping for fruit when the ******* happened
“We had a few customers at my stall, they were buying the fruit for the family,” Mr Kadirzadah told BBC London.
He said some people ran away when they saw the man with the ******, adding: “The two customers we had at the front of my stall, they couldn’t see it.
“The customer was picking up a lemon and he [the attacker] was stab-stab-stabbing. He stabbed from the back.”
Mr Kadirzadah said two of the victims fell to the ground, and the man with the ****** fled.
“As soon as he left my stall, a lot of people were running after him to not let him go until the police came,” he said.
“Luckily, the police came quick or it could have been more than 20 or 30 people.”
The stabbing happened in East Street in Walworth on Sunday morning
Cdr Peter Stevens of the Met Police said his thoughts and sincere sympathies were with the family of the man who was ******* and the people who were injured.
He said officers were working hard to establish exactly what happened, adding that nobody else was being sought in relation to the *******.
Police tape continued to surround the market area on Monday, with debris scattered across the road.
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Xbox Teases Spyro Coming to Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Teases Spyro Coming to Xbox Game Pass
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November 11, 2024
Xbox has teased that Spyro will be added to Xbox Game Pass in the near future.
The tease came from the official Xbox Game Pass X handle (formerly Twitter), which posted a 27-second short video on a chest from Spyro. Several minutes after the post, the official Spyro X handle replied with several eye emojis, suggesting that an announcement was on the horizon.
Earlier this year, rumors surfaced that several Activision games, including Spyro, would be coming to Game Pass, but the exact timeframe could never be determined.
In October, Game Pass saw the addition of Call of Duty to the service, which some analysts believed increased the service’s subscriber count by several million. Now, though, it seems like Xbox and Activision are gearing up for another huge release in the form of your favorite purple dragon.
Activision announced in 2007 that the Spyro The Dragons series sold over 20 million units, but as of September 2023, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy sold over 10 million units across all consoles.
Xbox typically likes to announce and release its Game Pass games on a Thursday, so keep your eyes peeled later this week.
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Pelican News
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Retirees should invest bolder as they grow older, study suggests
Retirees should invest bolder as they grow older, study suggests
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Retirement is a longed-for milestone in most workers’ lives, but the transition requires a delicate financial balance. Retirees must anticipate life expectancy, inflation, recurring expenses and more as they manage their investments to ensure their life savings last through their golden years.
A study by Doug Waggle, professor of finance at the University of West Florida, and Pankaj Agrrawal, Nicolas M. Salgo, Professor of Finance at the University of Maine, simulated five potential approaches, or glide paths, to assess their performance amid fluctuating stock prices and other uncertainties. Their findings countered the approach that most financial advisers currently recommend.
Most financial advisors recommend that retirees follow decreasing glide paths, which gradually assume a lower-risk mix of investments over time. A common recommendation is that the percentage of stocks to bonds in a portfolio should equal 100 less than their age, meaning someone who is 100 should invest their entire portfolio in bonds.
Waggle and Agrrawal’s study, however, finds that an increasing glide path, which increases the proportion invested in stocks over time, may be optimal for most retirees who can count on Social Security.
The paper, titled “Guaranteed Income and Optimal Retirement Glide Paths,” which was published in the Journal of Financial Planning, reasoned that investment portfolios are more vulnerable in early retirement, when large losses may threaten their ability to provide lifetime income.
A more ************* approach early on reduces retirees’ vulnerability to this risk. Furthermore, as an individual progresses through retirement, the timeline for their income stream shortens and variables—like one’s desired income—become more certain.
Those developments, coupled with the portfolio’s growth during retirement, frees one to shift to a riskier investment mix that offers greater growth potential. The study’s authors caution, however, that this strategy is currently not widely accepted by financial advisers, who retirees should work with to develop their investment plans.
The aim of the study, Agrrawal said, was to explore the tradeoffs retirees and financial planners have to make as they choose an investment strategy for a given retirement portfolio.
The paper also examined the impact of factoring in Social Security payments into the withdrawal plans for their retirement savings. Including guaranteed income in a retiree’s portfolio reduces the amount and importance of an ongoing income stream from investments, which frees them up to focus their portfolio on building wealth.
This approach, the study found, particularly benefits risk-averse retirees who wish to leave an inheritance behind as a portfolio that factors in guaranteed income will have higher starting allocations in stock.
“The paper takes a break from the classic models of post-retirement asset allocations; the inclusion of Social Security payments has significant implications for the equity-bond mix. Utilizing Monte Carlo modeling, we find that increasing glide path equity allocations over time is optimal for the retirees’ wealth function,” Agrrawal said.
The research by Waggle and Agrrawal used computer models to run thousands of potential scenarios through these paths that accounted for common differences among retirees like guaranteed income, initial savings, risk aversion and whether they wish to leave assets to their heirs.
The duo also analyzed how each of the paths—increasing fast, increasing slow, constant, decreasing slow, decreasing fast—performed with varying withdrawal rates.
More information:
Doug Waggle et al. Guaranteed Income and Optimal Retirement Glide Paths. Journal of Financial Planning (2024) www.financialplanningassociati … tirement-glide-paths
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