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Grad students find missing link in early Martian water cycle Grad students find missing link in early Martian water cycle Map showing water percolation rates on Mars billions of years ago according to research from UT Jackson School of Geosciences. Surface water sinking through the Martian soil took between 50 years (warmer colors) and 200 years (cooler colors) to reach the water table, a mile down. Credit: Mohammad Afzal Shadab Billions of years ago, water flowed on the surface of Mars. But scientists have an incomplete picture of how the red planet’s water cycle worked. That could soon change: Two graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin have filled a large gap in knowledge about Mars’s water cycle—specifically, the part between surface water and groundwater. Students Mohammad Afzal Shadab and Eric Hiatt developed a computer model that calculates how long it took for water on early Mars to percolate from the surface down to the aquifer, which is thought to have been about a mile underground. They found that it took anywhere from 50 to 200 years. On Earth, where the water table in most places is much closer to the surface, the same process typically takes just a few days. The results were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The researchers also determined that the amount of water trickling between surface and aquifer could have been enough to cover Mars with at least 300 feet of water. This was potentially a significant portion of the planet’s total available water. The research helps complete scientists’ understanding of the water cycle on early Mars, said Shadab, who earned his doctoral degree from UT Austin and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University. This new understanding will be useful in determining how much water was available to evaporate and fill lakes and oceans with rain, and ultimately, where the water ended up. “We want to implement this into [an integrated model] of how the water and land evolved together over millions of years to the present state,” said Shadab, who was the study’s lead author. “That will bring us very close to answering what happened to the water on Mars.” Today, Mars is largely dry, at least at the surface. But 3 to 4 billion years ago—at around the time that life was getting started on Earth—oceans, lakes and rivers carved valleys through Mars’s mountains and craters and imprinted shorelines on the rocky surface. Ultimately, Mars’s water took a different path than Earth’s. Most of it is now either locked in the crust or was lost to space along with Mars’s atmosphere. Understanding how much water was available near the surface could help scientists determine whether it was in the right places long enough to create the chemical ingredients needed for life. The new findings add to an alternative picture of early Mars, in which there was little water going back into the atmosphere through evaporation and raining down to refill oceans, lakes and rivers—as it would have on Earth, said co-author Hiatt, who recently graduated with a doctoral degree from UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “The way I think about early Mars is that any surface water you had—any oceans or large standing lakes—was very ephemeral,” he said. “Once water got into the ground on Mars, it was as good as gone. That water was never coming back out.” The researchers said that the findings are not all bad news for potential life on Mars. If nothing else, the water seeping into the crust wasn’t being lost to space, Hiatt said. That knowledge could one day be important for future explorers looking for buried water resources to sustain a settlement on the red planet. The work was conducted while Shadab was earning a doctoral degree from the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin. Other co-authors include Rickbir Bahia and Eleni Bohacek from the European Space Agency (now at the *** Space Agency), Vilmos Steinmann from the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, and Professor Marc Hesse from the Jackson School’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UT Austin. More information: Mohammad Afzal Shadab et al, Infiltration Dynamics on Early Mars: Geomorphic, Climatic, and Water Storage Implications, Geophysical Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2024GL111939 Provided by University of Texas at Austin Citation: Grad students find missing link in early Martian water cycle (2025, May 19) retrieved 20 May 2025 from This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Source link #Grad #students #find #missing #link #early #Martian #water #cycle Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Bicester firefighter’s bravery shone through, family says Bicester firefighter’s bravery shone through, family says The family of a firefighter who died in a blaze that claimed three lives have said her “bravery and fearlessness shone through right until the end”. Firefighters Jennie Logan, 30, and Martyn Sadler, 38, along with father-of-two Dave Chester, 57, were killed in the blaze that engulfed the Bicester Motion site on Thursday evening. It was brought under control and a police investigation is under way. In a statement released by Thames Valley Police, Ms Logan’s family said she was a “much loved daughter to us, her sister, Emilie, and ‘Mum’ to her beloved dog, Mouse”. Ms Logan owned a dog business and used to attend shows with her dog Mouse. “We still can’t believe we’ll never see her again, driving around Bicester collecting her dogs, which were like a second family,” the family statement continued. “She found her calling three years ago when she joined the fire service where she could use her incredible strength and determination. “Jennie was a force to be reckoned with but to everyone who knew her, she was such a loving, caring, thoughtful person, who would do anything and everything to help. “She lived life at 100mph, juggling her business with her love for rugby, where she made some truly amazing friends. “When Jennie’s pager went off, there was no stopping her. “Never did we think that when running out the door last Thursday, to give it her all, like she always did, it would be for the final time. “Her bravery and fearlessness shone through right until the end. “Our lives will never be the same, we’ll miss her beautiful smile and zest for life. “She will always be our hero and we are so immensely proud of her. Forever in our hearts.” Source link #Bicester #firefighters #bravery #shone #family Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

NZXT goes big and small at Computex with the H9 Flow and H3 Flow cases NZXT goes big and small at Computex with the H9 Flow and H3 Flow cases NZXT is showing off a range of new PC cases and AiO liquid coolers at its Computex 2025 exhibit. In terms of chassis, the firm has gone big and little with its new H9 Flow and H3 Flow cases. It also showed an assortment of new Kraken series AIO CPU coolers. Nothing is very surprising here, but there are some good new options for those planning an all-white build and who have a soft spot for NZXT design. Let’s start with the biggest new product, by size. The new NZXT H9 Flow is designed to offer a roomy dual-chamber chassis for PC DIYers. This ATX mid-tower case can reportedly provide angle-optimized airflow and facilitate a flexible cooling setup. There are two more versions of this case with RGB frills. The H9 Flow RGB adds a few fans with built-in lighting, and the RGB+ model includes a controller hub. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) The major feature of the H9 Flow/RGB/RGB+ is its size and maximum compatibility stats. Systems based on this chassis can fit up to 10 fans (9x 140mm plus 1x 120mm), and large radiators (up to 420mm). GPUs up to 459mm in length can also be accommodated in its 76.7-liter frame. You may like Though the case also supports motherboards up to E-ATX size, if you wish to make use of one of the new-fangled back-connector boards you will have to pick up an mATX-sized design. We only saw the white version of the H9 Flow case in Taipei, but NZXT also has a ****** variant of each of the standard, RGB, and RGB+ products. (Image credit: Future) NZXT’s H3 Flow scales things back to a maximum Micro-ATX (regular or BTF) motherboard-sized build, and is available in ****** or white. It is less than half the volume of the H9 Flow, coming in at 35 liters, but it still offers respectable max compatibility. For example, the H3 Flow retains the capacity for up to 10 fans (9x 140mm plus 1x 120mm). The largest radiator you can fit in here, though, is a 280mm model. Chunky GPUs up to 377mm are supported. NZXT Kraken Plus and Elite AiO liquid CPU coolers Our attention was also drawn to the new NZXT Kraken Plus and Elite AiO liquid CPU coolers at the firm’s Computex exhibit. The former features an NZXT turbine pump, with a 1.54-inch custom display. NZXT promises “easy installation,” and this model is available with ****** 240, 280, and 360mm radiators, or in either ****** or white with RGB 240 or 360mm radiators. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) More extravagant is the new NZXT Kraken Elite. This model features the same NZXT Turbine pump, but ramps up the eye candy with a 2.72-inch custom display. Many permutations of this Elite model are available in ****** or white livery, with or without RGB, and with radiator sizes ranging from 240 to 420mm. Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Source link #NZXT #big #small #Computex #Flow #Flow #cases Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Smarter, faster AI models explored for molecular and materials discovery Smarter, faster AI models explored for molecular and materials discovery Computational strategies for materials generation. Credit: Nature Computational Science (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43588-025-00797-7 Cornell researchers are demonstrating how artificial intelligence—particularly deep learning and generative modeling—can accelerate the design of new molecules and materials, and even function as an autonomous research assistant. In a study published in Advanced Science, researchers explored how to make AI models more efficient and effective in predicting the properties of molecules for everything from drug development to materials design. The team focused on a technique called knowledge distillation, which involves compressing large and complex neural networks into smaller, faster models. The distilled models ran faster—and in some cases improved performance—while working well across different experimental datasets, making them ideal for molecular screening without the heavy computational power required by most AI systems. “To accelerate discovery in materials science, we need AI systems that are not just powerful, but scientifically grounded,” said Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering in Cornell Engineering, who co-authored the study with graduate student Rahul Sheshanarayana. “Our work shows that AI can learn to reason across chemical and structural domains, generate realistic materials, and model molecular behaviors with efficiency and precision—all while aligning closely with the fundamental principles of materials science.” You directs the Cornell AI for Sustainability Initiative and co-directs the Cornell University AI for Science Institute—two programs advancing the next generation of AI-powered science. Both have supported forward-thinking efforts in You’s research group. In a Nature Computational Science paper, You and Zhilong Wang, an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, introduce a new framework for generative inverse design of crystalline materials. Crystals, with their repeating atomic patterns and strict symmetry, present a challenge for AI models, which often rely on abstract or oversimplified representations. The research group’s proposed solution: a physics-informed generative AI model, which embeds crystallographic symmetry, periodicity, invertibility and permutation invariance directly into the model’s learning process. The framework allows AI to generate novel crystal structures that are not only mathematically possible, but chemically realistic. “Our goal is to ensure that AI-generated materials are scientifically meaningful,” Wang said. “We’re encoding physical principles and operating conditions directly into the learning framework, so instead of relying on massive trial-and-error, we’re guiding the AI with domain knowledge.” In a review paper published in Advanced Materials, You and doctoral student Wenhao Yuan detail an emerging class of AI systems known as generalist materials intelligence. Unlike traditional models trained for specific tasks, generalist materials intelligence is powered by large language models and interacts with both computational and experimental data to reason, plan and interact with scientific text, figures and equations, functioning as an autonomous research agent. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matter—daily or weekly. “What’s exciting is the idea that AI can start to engage with science more holistically,” Yuan said. “We’re teaching AI how to think like a scientist, developing hypotheses, designing materials and verifying results.” In parallel with the group’s research, You is also bringing AI concepts into the classroom. This spring, he launched a new graduate-level course, AI for Materials, which introduces students to new techniques for materials science, including deep-learning applications in energy storage, synthesis optimization and materials behavior modeling. “The course emphasizes transformative applications and the challenges of applying AI to accelerate materials design,” You said. “It’s about equipping the next generation of researchers and engineers with the knowledge to drive innovation at the intersection of AI and materials science.” More information: Rahul Sheshanarayana et al, Knowledge Distillation for Molecular Property Prediction: A Scalability Analysis, Advanced Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202503271 Zhilong Wang et al, Leveraging generative models with periodicity-aware, invertible and invariant representations for crystalline materials design, Nature Computational Science (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43588-025-00797-7 Wenhao Yuan et al, Empowering Generalist Material Intelligence with Large Language Models, Advanced Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202502771 Provided by Cornell University Citation: Smarter, faster AI models explored for molecular and materials discovery (2025, May 19) retrieved 20 May 2025 from This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Source link #Smarter #faster #models #explored #molecular #materials #discovery Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

EU, *** go ahead with new Russia sanctions without US EU, *** go ahead with new Russia sanctions without US The EU and Britain have announced new sanctions against Russia without waiting for the United States to join them, a day after President Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin without winning a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine. London and Brussels said their new measures would zero in on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and financial companies that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions imposed over the war. But the new measures were announced without corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense public lobbying from leaders of European countries for the Trump administration to join them. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland had jointly travelled to Kyiv earlier in May and said they had new sanctions against Russia ready to go. European leaders then phoned Trump on the eve of his call with Putin on Monday to call for him to join them in imposing tougher measures. Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in more than three years on Friday but failed to agree a ceasefire. Ukraine says it is ready for an immediate ceasefire proposed by Trump, while Russia says it wants talks first. The Europeans say this is proof that Putin, who started the war by invading his neighbour in 2022, is not prepared to end it. “It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently. “Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war.” ******* Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Putin was clearly playing for time, and “unfortunately we have to say Putin is not really interested in peace”. After announcing their measures on Tuesday, Brussels and London both suggested that more sanctions could still follow, making clear they have not given up hope of persuading Washington to act. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for “sanctions that are truly dissuasive”. “Let us push Vladimir Putin to put an end to his imperialist fantasy,” he said. *** Foreign Minister David Lammy said “delaying peace efforts will only redouble our resolve to help Ukraine to defend itself and use our sanctions to restrict Putin’s war machine”. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said more sanctions were in the works. “The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response,” she wrote on X. The latest sanctions are aimed mainly at cracking down on a shipping fleet that Russia uses to export oil, circumventing a $US60 a barrel price cap imposed by the G7 group of industrialised countries to limit Russia’s income. Britain and the EU said they would also work to lower the cap, which imposes far less of a discount on Russian oil now global prices have fallen. But Kallas made clear that action was needed from the United States. “We all agreed and said … that if they don’t agree to unconditional ceasefire, like Ukraine has agreed over 60 days ago, there will be strong action,” Kallas said. “And that is what we want to see from all the parties who have said that they will act in accordance.” Trump said on Monday that Russia and Ukraine were ready to start negotiations. Putin said the process would take time. Source link #ahead #Russia #sanctions Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

D-Wave Quantum releases latest computing system D-Wave Quantum releases latest computing system Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images D-Wave Quantum’s latest quantum computing system has finally hit the market, the company said Tuesday. The quantum computer, known as Advantage2, marks the sixth iteration from the company and its most advance system, D-Wave said. “It’s an engineering marvel, with substantial technical advancements that highlight D-Wave’s progress in scaling quantum technology to meet industry demands for growing computational processing power while maintaining energy efficiency,” said CEO Alan Baratz in a press release. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates. Source link #DWave #Quantum #releases #latest #computing #system Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Online headlines shift from concise to click-worthy Online headlines shift from concise to click-worthy Online headlines shift from concise to click-worthy. Credit: MPI for Human Development Over the past 20 years, online news headlines have become longer, more negative, and increasingly focused on click-through rates—regardless of journalistic quality. This is the conclusion reached by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who analyzed about 40 million headlines from English-language news outlets across the last two decades. Their study has been published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. The researchers liken the internet to a huge marketplace where journalists use headlines to compete for readers’ attention. Attention is a precious commodity in the digital age, as content can be produced more cheaply than ever before—resulting in an oversupply and fierce competition to engage readers’ interest. Headlines play a crucial role in drawing readers in. They need to grab attention and arouse curiosity. Unlike print headlines, the success of each individual online headline can be measured in terms of the number of clicks it receives. The researchers argue that this leads to online headlines being worded to generate as many clicks as possible, effectively becoming clickbait. “Our analysis shows that the language of online headlines has changed systematically over the years,” says lead author Pietro Nickl, a predoctoral fellow in the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. “Many of these changes indicate that they are being adapted to the new affordances and pressures of the digital environment.” Online news headlines have changed markedly in the last 20 years The analysis focused on linguistic and structural changes in headlines since 2000. These changes reflect not only changes in editorial practice, but also the growing importance of headlines as a key element in the digital competition for attention. Unlike in print journalism, where headlines primarily need to be clear and concise, online headlines are used strategically to generate clicks. Clickbait headlines are characterized by their length: They are written in a conversational tone and serve to arouse curiosity without revealing much information. In fact, the researchers found that the average length of headlines has increased continuously over time. They also observed an increased use of linguistic devices typically associated with clickbait. These include active verbs, the use of pronouns such as “I,” “you,” or “they,” and a higher frequency of question words (“how,” “what,” “why”). These elements arouse curiosity by creating an information gap that readers can only bridge by clicking to open the article. Another notable finding concerns sentence structure. While noun phrases such as “Earthquake in Myanmar” were common in the early 2000s, full sentences later became more popular. Full-sentence headlines are more dynamic and emotional, often narrative in structure, and appeal more strongly to the emotions. The shift in emotional tone was also striking. Sentiment analysis showed that headlines have become more negative on average, across both high-quality and tabloid journalism. Interestingly, right-wing media outlets used headlines with negative connotations significantly more often than left-wing or politically neutral ones. Developments reinforced by algorithms “The changes are not the result of individual editorial decisions, but reflect a process of cultural selection. Specific linguistic features prevail because they are more successful under the conditions of the digital attention economy. They are used more and more frequently—sometimes without the people who produce or consume them even being aware of what is happening,” says Nickl. This whole development is reinforced by social media recommendation algorithms. The study is based on data from four international news outlets—The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times of India, and ABC News Australia—as well as the comprehensive News on the Web corpus (NOW), which contains some 30 million additional headlines from various countries. In addition, data from Upworthy (as a prime example of clickbait style) and from a corpus of scientific preprints (as a counterexample) were analyzed. Over time, the news headlines became increasingly similar to the clickbait titles on most variables considered. Data analysis was conducted using modern natural language processing methods such as sentiment analysis, syntactic analysis, and dictionary-based counting. Manipulative content is getting harder to detect The results also raise fundamental social questions. The increasing prevalence of clickbait style in traditional media could, in the long term, undermine trust in journalism and make it more difficult to distinguish between reputable and manipulative content. Many linguistic features that were previously red flags for clickbait or manipulative content—such as overly emotional language or heavy use of pronouns and question words—are now also common in quality media. “If the style of established media increasingly resembles that of problematic sources, the boundaries become blurred—which makes it more difficult to distinguish between serious and manipulative content,” warns co-author Philipp-Lorenz Spreen, research scientist in the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Need for changes in platform design The researchers nevertheless see opportunities for action by shaping the digital information landscape. If metrics such as click-through rates or time on page have adverse effects on content, it is time to think about alternative metrics. The first platforms are already experimenting with new approaches—one emerging metric is “deeply read” content, which focuses on how thoroughly users engage with articles rather than just the number of clicks. In the long term, individually selectable criteria could also help to promote a more diverse and sustainable media landscape. More information: Pietro Nickl et al, The evolution of online news headlines, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04514-7 Provided by Max Planck Society Citation: Online headlines shift from concise to click-worthy (2025, May 19) retrieved 20 May 2025 from This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Source link #Online #headlines #shift #concise #clickworthy Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Scottie Scheffler's PGA Championship win rang Tiger Woods alarms as dominance hits rare air – New York Post Scottie Scheffler's PGA Championship win rang Tiger Woods alarms as dominance hits rare air – New York Post Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Championship win rang Tiger Woods alarms as dominance hits rare air New York PostWhat Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Championship celebration tells us about the man The New York TimesAfter an emphatic PGA, Scottie Scheffler told the world his secret GOLF.comU.S. Open 2025: Final qualifying results, sites for Oakmont Country Club NBC SportsThe PGA Championship was a reminder that Scottie Scheffler is still on top of the golf world ESPN Source link #Scottie #Scheffler039s #PGA #Championship #win #rang #Tiger #Woods #alarms #dominance #hits #rare #air #York #Post Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Net zero construction push strains *** workforce mental health and well-being Net zero construction push strains *** workforce mental health and well-being Credit: Pixabay from Pexels The pressure of decarbonizing industrial sectors is weighing on workers. The ***’s Labor government seeks a low-carbon and homegrown energy supply by 2030. The scale and pace of this transformation is unprecedented in the country’s power sector, and will involve building twice as much transmission infrastructure (pylons, cables, substations) in the next five years as was built over the last decade. Much of the workforce will be drawn from the construction sector, which employs 2.3 million people. Construction forms the dominant supply chain to the 17 major infrastructure projects involved in an overhaul of the electricity grid that will connect new wind farms in the North Sea and northern Scotland to homes and businesses across Great Britain. The workers “on the tools” who will carry out much of this transformation are struggling. The latest analysis from the Office for National Statistics suggests that the suicide risk of construction workers is three times higher than the male national average. Scholars of construction project management have identified a toxic workplace culture in the industry, citing aggressive market competition and demanding performance metrics. This is a problem that is largely being ignored. When planners at the National Energy System Operator assessed the ***’s capacity to build a clean power sector by 2030, they considered the absolute number of workers needed, the skills required and how employment is changing in the sector. Their assessment failed to consider the broader implications for workforce mental health and well-being of such a quick and comprehensive upgrade—but it is people who are going through a rapid transition, not just infrastructure. Going green, feeling blue Construction workers already endure long hours and stress due to tight deadlines. A rapid transition to green power will substantially increase their workload, unless managed carefully. Our report, published July 2024, looked into well-being and suicide in the construction industry. We concluded that the *** government, major infrastructure owners such as National Grid and their supply chain partners who provide specialist design and construction services, must work together to solve this problem. Major infrastructure owners offer mental health services, such as confidential counseling, legal advice and financial guidance, to help their own employees manage personal or work-related issues. But most workers on the tools are not directly employed by these owners. Most are self-employed, or hired by construction firms, of which 99% are small- and medium-sized enterprises. More than 96% of construction firms have fewer than 15 employees. Smaller suppliers of specialist trade skills, like electrical and mechanical installation, have fewer employment protections and more compressed schedules, and are even less likely to have the capacity to provide these services. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matter—daily or weekly. Some infrastructure owners and big construction companies extend their health and well-being services to these smaller suppliers. However, in an industry that is dominated by competitive tendering, which favors suppliers that keep costs low, it is no surprise that uptake has been low. Owners of infrastructure assets like electricity pylons and substations can drive workplace improvements by adopting procurement models that prioritize suppliers that are offering measures to improve worker well-being. Research from one of us (Jing Xu) and fellow project management expert Yanga Wu, has shown that the top-down prescriptive approach traditionally applied to health and safety in construction does not work for well-being. This requires a bottom-up approach that makes it easy for workers to tell managers what they are struggling with and what they think would help. The construction sector also faces a shortage of workers and skills required for the green transition. The industry training board forecasts that the industry must attract the equivalent of 50,300 extra workers a year to meet expected levels of work over the next five years. In the power sector, however, there is the additional complication of an aging workforce, as well as differences in employment conditions between permanent and contract staff. Key expertise is at risk of being lost with retirements. Older workers often face additional pressure, not only to meet performance targets but also to compensate for gaps in expertise, and all within a fast-paced environment. To improve mental health and well-being among a diverse workforce requires engaging with workers directly and ensuring their voices are heard. This involves more than upgrading technical skills. Research to better understand how organizations can care for their workforce in the context of increasing pressures due to achieving net zero is also vital. Further research and collaboration with infrastructure owners and major construction contractors could help manage the risks and provide valuable insights for other sectors that will need to follow suit, such as heating, transport and agriculture. It is imperative to consider what a transition means: the technical transition of replacing outmoded technology, as well as the social transition, which prioritizes not only skills but workplace mental health. Without a focus on both policy and people, clean power will not be delivered. Provided by The Conversation This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Citation: Net zero construction push strains *** workforce mental health and well-being (2025, May 19) retrieved 20 May 2025 from This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Source link #Net #construction #push #strains #workforce #mental #health #wellbeing Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Cook, Tongue named in England Test team for Zimbabwe Cook, Tongue named in England Test team for Zimbabwe Sam Cook has been named to debut for England in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, with fellow seamer Josh Tongue making a comeback after two years. Source link #Cook #Tongue #named #England #Test #team #Zimbabwe Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

HP Is Customising Its AI PCs With Multiple On-Device Tools and an AI Chatbot HP Is Customising Its AI PCs With Multiple On-Device Tools and an AI Chatbot As the second wave of AI PCs has hit the market, two things are immediately clear. One, the ecosystem players are looking at neural processing units (NPUs) as the next big thing in compute, and not just a gimmick. Second, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are still aiming to create a brand identity around AI PC. The former observation is understandable given the massive rise of the artificial intelligence (AI) space in the last year. According to data from Precedence Research, the global AI market grew from $638.23 billion in 2023-24 to $757.58 billion in 2024-25, expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.72 percent. HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 The second observation, however, is more intriguing. Since AI PC is a relatively new space and OEMs lack expertise in software development, most have not found practical ways to offer tools that enables users to experience this technology. However, if a brand has to stand out in the AI PC space, it must find ways to offer unique AI-focused features that are not present in their competitors’ devices. HP, which recently released its OmniBook, EliteBook, and ProBook series, is focusing on this exact problem, and has a unique way to solve it. The company’s AI PCs are equipped with three different tools — the HP AI Companion, the myHP app, and the Poly Studio web camera. And for the last couple of weeks, I have been testing out these features to understand whether they add value to the lives of an average user or not. The HP AI Companion The California-based computer brand has added an AI-powered on-device chatbot in all of its AI PCs, dubbed HP AI Companion. It serves as a personal assistant, a document analysis tool, and a conversational way to control some of the device settings. HP says the AI Companion is powered by a version of GPT-4 which operates entirely locally, meaning any data shared with the chatbot never leaves the device. It is powered by the on-device NPU, and is integrated with both the system as well as all the files stored on it. Discover in HP AI Companion There are three interfaces to the AI Companion — Discover, Analyse, and Perform. Discover is for those who are new to AI chatbots and want to explore the technology. Here, users can ask the AI any general queries, as well as assign any generative tasks such as writing a blog or an essay. One thing to note here is that since the chatbot is not connected to the Internet, it might not be able to answer questions about real-time events. The Discover panel is also the place where HP provides a newsfeed of summarised topics users can use for inspiration. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the HP AI Companion is the Analyse function. Users can upload any document or file, and the tool can quickly summarise the content. It can also access files stored in the user’s private Azure drive. In my brief usage, I was able to get it to summarise research papers and large documents accurately. It also adds citations so users can be redirected to the source in the document and get in-depth knowledge. Analyse in HP AI Companion What makes Analyse stand out is that it offers the text summarisation capability directly on-device and for free. Users can also compare documents, highlight key points, and even filter specific data. Those who care about both frugality and data privacy, the combination is hard to find unless you own one of the expensive AI-enabled smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Apart from this, the HP AI Companion also comes with the Perform interface, which is a conversational interface to access system settings. For instance, if you’re already working on AI Companion, and suddenly fight the display brightness to be inadequate, you can go to the Perform page and tell it to “increase brightness by 70 percent,” and it will. Some other settings users can control using the interface include Accessories, Audio, Camera, Display, and Gestures. Perform in HP AI Companion But that’s not all. The interface also lets users maintain system drivers, BIOS, and firmware – all of which can be updated right from one screen. Perform can also show troubleshooting information from HP support to help users configure settings. HP claims that the AI also learns from user behaviour and can adjust the optimal configuration based on what the user is doing. Overall, the chatbot is a comprehensive offering from HP that will be useful for both those new to the AI technology and those experienced with it. myHP In 2020, the PC brand first introduced myHP as a central hub for devices. The company recently refreshed the app and added AI capabilities to it. It is designed as a customisation platform that lets users tweak different features of the device to their preference. The home page of myHP shows various tools and settings that can be accessed, such as Audio, Video, Display, Touchpad, Presence Sensing, Gestures, and more. myHP home page Each of these settings lets you quickly access the controls to tweak various customisation settings. For instance, in the System Control tab, users can enable the Performance mode of the laptop and select from a wide range of options. In the presence sensing tab, they can adjust various options for when the device turns the screen off. For instance, users can specify how far the user is from the device and for how long before the display turns off. Similar options are available to wake the device or dim the brightness. These options are aimed at letting users select the exact configuration that they desire. myHP System Controls The AI integration comes into play as the user spends more time with the device and adjusts different settings for different usage. The AI records the patterns and then automatically adjusts the settings based on user behaviour. myHP Presence Sensing While the idea behind the myHP app is great, I feel that duplication of settings is not necessarily a requirement for most users. However, for those who want a handy one-stop shop for all their customisation controls, this could be a game-changer. Poly Camera Pro Finally, HP has also made some AI-based changes to its Poly Camera Pro app. It is the company’s in-house web camera app, which also connects to different video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. In 2022, HP acquired Poly for $3.3 billion. In the following years, the company launched the Poly Camera Pro, a web camera app that offers multiple customisation features. Take the background control, for example. It offers several modes, such as portrait, spotlight, and green screen, which automatically track the subject to add the desired effect to the screen. HP’s Poly Camera Pro features The framing tool also allows users to adjust the camera to various video streaming platforms, be it vertical or horizontal, all while ensuring that the subject is centred. There are also several built-in templates that users can add to avoid the generic on-camera/off-camera appearance. Templates can also be created to allow users to design the perfect video look for themselves. In my brief experience with the Poly Camera Pro, I found the customisation options aplenty and useful. Since the customisations also appear on third-party video conferencing apps as well, it is a convenient way to ensure your appearance remains constant in all meetings. If you are new to the idea of AI-powered personal computers, then HP’s AI PCs are a great starting point to understand what this technology can do for you. Since all of these AI-powered tools run locally on the device, you do not have to worry about data privacy issues, and can slowly accustom yourself with the AI assistant that can answer your basic queries, analyse and summarise your documents, help you customise your device to new heights, and allow you to look at your sharpest in every meeting. And if you’re an experienced AI user, you can always explore GitHub and Hugging Face for your favourite open-source AI model and run them locally on your device with the built-in NPU. Source link #Customising #PCs #Multiple #OnDevice #Tools #Chatbot Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

L.A. landlord stops blasting “Baby Shark” tune to drive off homeless following complaints L.A. landlord stops blasting “Baby Shark” tune to drive off homeless following complaints An otherwise ordinary commercial building at the corner of 11th and Main streets in downtown Los Angeles captured the attention of Los Angeles officials recently for blasting “Baby Shark” to deter homeless people. Shalom Styles, owner of Styles Barber Lounge and one of the building’s tenants said the landlord began playing the song on Thursday over a speaker on Main Street just a few feet from a homeless encampment that’s been in place on the sidewalk for more than a year. The situation marks the latest attempt by property owners to keep homeless individuals from loitering or sleeping in commercial zones, an issue they say threatens business. “These are thriving businesses, we don’t need to have that stuff over here,” he said of the homeless encampment. But by Monday, the children’s song—a frequent earworm—was no more. Styles said the landlord told him that police had received complaints about the music and was at risk of being cited for disturbing the peace. He said the landlord wanted to meet with city officials before agreeing to turn the music off. The landlord could not immediately be reached for comment. The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But a spokesperson for Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, whose district includes the area in question, said a meeting with the landlord and LAPD had taken place but provided no further details. “Our housing and homelessness crises impact everyone in this city—as we navigate this, I implore everyone to lead with care and compassion,” Jurado said in a written statement. “My team and I are focused on looking at tackling these issues holistically and plan to create long-lasting solutions to support our unhoused population but it’s important that as we move through this we don’t lose sight of each other’s humanity.” Daniel Cruz, a barber at Styles Barber Lounge, stands outside during a break at Styles Barber Lounge on Monday, May 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) It was a sentiment echoed by Dennis Oleesky, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Mission, who on Monday announced that it planned to team up with Styles to host an event to provide free haircuts and grooming services to unhoused people in downtown. “We know the homelessness crisis has created strain on all sides — for individuals living on the street and for the business owners trying to operate in challenging conditions,” Oleesky said. “We commend Shalom for turning a moment of frustration into an opportunity to serve.” Oleesky said outreach workers will be at the event to help people who want to get off the street. “We all see what’s happening downtown and sometimes it feels overwhelming,” Styles said. “This is our way of helping, not just talking.” Tensions between business owners and the homeless population have grown over the past few years. In 2019, 7-Eleven made headlines when it began playing loud classical music to chase away homeless people from its stores. Other businesses have deployed planters and fences. Although the unsheltered population in the city of L.A. decreased last year from 32,680 to 29,275, and is projected to decline again this year, residents and business owners continue to express frustration with the city’s handling of the homelessness crisis. Those frustrations reached new levels recently with the findings from a court-ordered audit of the Los Angeles homeless services that found the city and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority lacked adequate data systems and financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance. Recent investigations by the Times into Skid Row Housing Trust and Aids Healthcare Foundation revealed properties managed by the two nonprofits were plagued by heating, elevator and electricity failures as well as vermin infestations. More than a week ago, tenants from a building providing permanent supportive housing in Westlake filed a lawsuit against the current and former landlords and property managers for creating what they described as “abysmal living conditions.” Still, city officials maintain progress is being made. Styles Barber Lounge on Monday, May 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) When Styles arrived in L.A. to open his barbershop in 2020, the pandemic stymied his plans. A year later, he said he was able to start cutting hair, but by 2022 he and other barbers at his shop began to have issues with homeless people in the area. He said the children’s song that the landlord had been playing was an attempt to bring the city’s attention to homelessness problem in the area. Nearby, at Rage Ground, where people pay to vent their anger by breaking dishes and smashing cars, at least one homeless man has defecated and urinated outside the business. Karla Maldonado, 25, an employee at the business, said the man also tried to start fires using trash during January’s Palisades and Eaton fires. “We tried to call 911 but they just hung up on us,” she claimed. Maldonado said she used buckets of water to douse the flames. She said other homeless people in the alley along the warehouse have stolen brooms and coveralls that she said cost up to $100 each. She estimates at least 20 have been stolen. Around the corner from Styles’ barbershop there’s a small encampment where about half a dozen people have been living. Bicycle parts lay in a pile on the sidewalk. Kenneth Moore, Chy And B Daniels sit at their encampment around the corner from Styles Barber Lounge on Monday, May 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) Kenneth Moore, 68, expressed anger and frustration that the business was casting blame on him and others at the encampment for problems that he says have nothing to do with the group. “If it’s about the break-ins, that’s not us,” Kenneth Moore, 68, said. “We don’t tolerate that over here, we fix bikes to survive.” Passing through the area with his dog, Billy Copeland, 55, became interested in the group’s conversation over homeless services. Copeland said a few months ago he was sleeping on a street between Pico Boulevard and 15th Street when cleaning crews came by his block. Fed up, he refused to move. “All they do is come by and clean up and document where people are,” he said. Copeland said he didn’t budge until workers could help him access a shelter. He said he’s now at a tiny home in Eagle Rock, awaiting permanent housing. “That was the only way I could get help,” Copeland said. “I was out here forever, giving my information and all that happened was them coming out to take my stuff.” Moore and others say they have been waiting to be placed into permanent housing in some cases for more than two years. A spokesman for LAHSA said an outreach team was at the encampment a month ago. He said some people were placed in interim housing but left. It was unclear where they went. LAHSA is expected to return to the encampment on Tuesday. Moore has grown tired of sitting on a wait list and being shuffled around by the city. “You think we like living like this?” Moore said. “We don’t.” A homeless man notorious for carrying a loud boombox in the neighborhood stands down the street from Styles Barber Lounge on Monday, May 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Source link #L.A #landlord #stops #blasting #Baby #Shark #tune #drive #homeless #complaints Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Live updates: Trump heading to Capitol Hill to lobby wavering Republican lawmakers – The Washington Post Live updates: Trump heading to Capitol Hill to lobby wavering Republican lawmakers – The Washington Post Live updates: Trump heading to Capitol Hill to lobby wavering Republican lawmakers The Washington PostTrump heads to Capitol Hill to push ‘big, beautiful bill’ Fox NewsHouse Republicans hope Trump can tamp down rebellion around their signature bill NPRInside the Republican Factions Dueling Over Trump’s Tax Bill The New York TimesWhy Republicans are using ‘reconciliation’ to shove through Trump’s budget MSNBC News Source link #Live #updates #Trump #heading #Capitol #Hill #lobby #wavering #Republican #lawmakers #Washington #Post Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Game of Thrones: Dragonfire hits soft launch in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines Game of Thrones: Dragonfire hits soft launch in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines Game of Thrones: Dragonfire is now in soft launch in certain regions It takes you back nearly two centuries to the times of the Targaryens That means dragons, backstabbing, politicking and massive battles After Game of Thrones’ disastrous eighth season, it seemed as if the franchise was dead in the water, at least where television was concerned. But, surprisingly enough, the spin-off prequel House of the Dragon has managed to claw back much of that popularity, so it’s little surprise a new mobile adaptation is out now with Game of Thrones: Dragonfire. Set nearly two centuries before the familiar storyline we know from GoT, Dragonfire takes us back to the reign of House Targaryen and their ubiquitous use of dragons. Naturally, that means you’ll get to gather and raise your own to do battle with your enemies. Aside from that obvious selling point, Dragonfire promises tile-based strategic battles as you expand, making alliances and breaking them. You can also expect a dense and detailed map of Westeros featuring iconic landmarks such as the Red Keep and Dragonstone. Tiamaat has arrived House of the Dragon did seem to effectively revive interest in Game of Thrones, and it’s not surprising that the slightly higher-fantasy ******* makes for a more appealing timeframe to build a strategy multiplayer release in. At the same time, GoT: Dragonfire will need to differentiate itself from a suite of similar releases to stand out, and competition from a dramatic world-trotting RPG in the form of Kingsroad, too. However, with a wealth of recognisable characters to pick from, a setting practically built for strategy and multiplayer politicking, as well as all manner of already-iconic locations to do battle over, there’s no reason why Dragonfire might not turn out to be an interesting release. If you want to see some of the competition it’ll be going up against, however, why not check out our list of the top 25 best strategy games on iOS and Android for our selection of some of the best ways to unleash your inner Sun Tzu that are out there? Source link #Game #Thrones #Dragonfire #hits #soft #launch #Malaysia #Indonesia #Philippines Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cherry unveils next-generation keyboard switches with inductive sensing technology — claims no mechanical wear and 50% power reduction Cherry unveils next-generation keyboard switches with inductive sensing technology — claims no mechanical wear and 50% power reduction Cherry has today announced “a bold new chapter” in its history at Computex 2025, debuting its new IK inductive switch, as well as three new MX mechanical switches, MX Honey, MX Blossom, and MX Falcon. The move heralds Cherry’s inaugural inductive switch technology, with promises of no mechanical wear and power use reduction in wireless keyboards. (Image credit: Cherry) Starting with the headline, Cherry’s new IK is a next-gen analogue switch that uses patented inductive sensing technology. Cherry says this enables true contactless actuation through electromagnetic field detection. Cherry says the result is no mechanical wear, “even after millions of keystrokes. IK also reportedly consumes 50% less power than magnetic switches and only 5% of the power of Hall effect switches, which could drastically improve the battery life of the best wireless keyboards. Cherry IK also features RGB lighting and customizable actuation, and is expected to debut in Fall 2025. (Image credit: Cherry) Coming in June 2025, Cherry’s MX Honey switch is the company’s first silent tactile MX switch, perfect for those who don’t want to disturb their office neighbours but still want the tactile response that only the best mechanical keyboards deliver. Featured in the MX2A family, they feature a newly optimized spring and factory-applied premium lubrication. 36-switch consumer kits will also follow at a later date. You may like (Image credit: Cherry) The new Cherry MX Blossom is the company’s lightest linear mechanical switch ever, apparently, with an actuation force of just 35 cN. This features the same mechanical improvements of the MX2A series mentioned above, and will be available in June 2025, with consumer switch kits “coming soon.” (Image credit: Cherry) Finally, there’s the MX Falcon, which Cherry says is a “community-inspired tactile switch” for heavy typists and enthusiasts, inspired by retro designs and “the crisp snap of typewriters”, this one is not for the faint-hearted and definitely not for the office. It’s Cherry’s first long-pole stem switch, with a sharper bottom-out and richer sound. Again, this will be available in early June with 36-switch kits coming soon after. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #Cherry #unveils #nextgeneration #keyboard #switches #inductive #sensing #technology #claims #mechanical #wear #power #reduction Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Iran’s Khamenei doubts US nuclear talks will lead to agreement Iran’s Khamenei doubts US nuclear talks will lead to agreement Iran’s Supreme Leader has expressed doubt that nuclear talks with the US will lead to a new agreement, saying it had made “excessive and outrageous” demands on uranium enrichment. “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. US President Donald Trump said last week that Iran had “sort of” agreed to the terms of a deal following four rounds of talks mediated by Oman since 12 April. But ahead of another round scheduled for this weekend, Iran’s chief negotiator rejected his US counterpart’s assertion that it would have to commit to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons. Trump, who pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term in office, has warned Iran that it could face US and Israeli military action if the talks are not successful. Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs. Khamenei addressed the latest developments in Iran’s negotiations with the US at a ceremony honouring late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter ****** one year ago. He praised Raisi, a fellow hardline cleric, for refusing direct talks with the US while in office. “He clearly said ‘no’ without ambiguity,” Khamanei noted, adding that Raisi did not let enemies “drag Iran to the negotiating table through threats or tricks”. Khamenei said nuclear talks under Raisi’s predecessor, the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani, had failed to achieve results, and that he did not think there would be any breakthrough under his successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, who is a reformist. The supreme leader also criticised the Trump administration’s approach, saying: “The American side in these indirect talks should avoid nonsensical remarks.” “Saying they will not allow Iran to enrich is a big mistake. No-one waits for their permission.” US special envoy Steve Witkoff told ABC News in an interview on Sunday: “We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability. We’ve delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them.” He added: “We want to get to a solution here. And we think that will be able to.” “But everything begins from our standpoint with a deal that does not include enrichment. We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponisation, and we will not allow a bomb to get here.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi swiftly responded by warning Witkoff: “Unrealistic expectations stop negotiations, enrichment in Iran is not something that can be stopped.” “I think he is completely at a distance from the reality of the negotiations,” he added. The 2015 deal that Iran reached with then-US President Barack Obama’s administration, as well as the ***, France, China, Russia and Germany, saw it limit its nuclear activities and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in return for sanctions relief. Iran was only permitted to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity, which can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Iran had stockpiled almost 275kg (606lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is near weapons grade. That would theoretically be enough, if enriched to 90%, for six nuclear bombs. Source link #Irans #Khamenei #doubts #nuclear #talks #lead #agreement Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Once Human to launch PvP spin-off Once Human: RaidZone Once Human to launch PvP spin-off Once Human: RaidZone Once Human is set to have its own spin-off with Once Human: RaidZone Take on other players in PvP survival battles as you gather resources Survive in a Rust-inspired take on the Once Human series While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, NetEase’s Once Human has proven to be pretty popular with audiences both on mobile and PC. But even so, in a surprisingly fast move, NetEase is set to launch a solely PvP experience with the upcoming Once Human: RaidZone arriving soon in early access! Now, Once Human: RaidZone is not a massively different release; in fact, it looks to be built on the bones of Once Human itself. It’s intended to serve as a ‘sub-brand’ and will feature a focus solely on PvP with the same survival experience that’s present in the mainline release. You’ll take on other players in Rust-like combat across the landscape, building your own defensive strongholds and using a variety of weapons. Naturally, there’s also a curve in the power of your equipment as you go from a simple wooden hut to hide in, to veritable concrete fortresses, and going from crossbows to assault rifles. Once more with emphasis While Once Human: RaidZone does look to be quite a fun release, there are a few potential problems that look to be evident. Indeed, it’s the fact that RaidZone is so distinct that it is a double-edged sword, as it seems to lack what drew people into Once Human’s stylish supernatural aesthetic. And that risks putting it at odds with a veritable swathe of other survival shooter experiences on mobile. But, you’ll be able to find out for yourself, as Once Human: RaidZone is set to arrive in early access on May 21st! If you want to see what kind of competition Once Human: RaidZone will be going up against, however, there’s no better place than to dig into our comprehensive list of the best shooters on iOS and Android to find out who’s top of the leaderboard! Source link #Human #launch #PvP #spinoff #Human #RaidZone Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Microsoft NLWeb Open Project for AI-Powered Natural Language Interface for Websites Unveiled Microsoft NLWeb Open Project for AI-Powered Natural Language Interface for Websites Unveiled Microsoft introduced a new open project dubbed NLWeb at its Build 2025 conference on Monday. Short for Natural Language Web, the NLWeb project aims to build an interface to websites that support artificial intelligence (AI) models. With AI capabilities, these websites will then support natural language queries by users and provide answers for those queries. The Redmond-based tech giant says that NLWeb could have a similar effect in building AI-enabled websites, like the introduction of HTML did for website creation. Microsoft Says NLWeb Will Turn Websites Into AI Apps In a newsroom post, the tech giant announced its new open project dubbed NLWeb. The technology is Microsoft’s vision for future websites, where every web page comes with AI capabilities to handle natural language queries. Essentially, this system will replace traditional search boxes on websites with an AI-powered chatbot interface. Introducing the project, the company said NLWeb is “the fastest and easiest way to effectively turn your website into an AI app, allowing users to query the contents of the site by directly using natural language, just like with an AI assistant or Copilot.” However, the scope of NLWeb is not just limited to creating AI chatbots on web pages. The company said every such AI-powered website will also act as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. MCP was developed by Anthropic as a universal, open standard for how AI systems connect to external data hubs. By supporting the protocol, each NLWeb website will also make its content accessible and crawlable to AI agents and other participants in the MCP ecosystem. This will create a new structure for websites where the entire network of NLWeb-enabled websites will be readily available to AI agents for data extraction and to let them perform actions. “Ultimately, we believe NLWeb can play a similar role to HTML in the emerging agentic web,” the company said. With NLWeb, Microsoft believes an AI agent-friendly Internet can be created, making the creation and functioning of browser-based agentic tools more common and widely prevalent. In such a system, AI agents can potentially complete much more complex tasks than just purchasing a product online. They can, for example, talk to a brand’s sales agent, negotiate discounts, verify warranties, and handle returns autonomously. Microsoft highlights that the open project is technology agnostic and supports all major operating systems, AI models, and vector databases. Notably, NLWeb was coined and developed by RV Guha, the company’s recently joined Corporate Vice President and Technical Fellow. Source link #Microsoft #NLWeb #Open #Project #AIPowered #Natural #Language #Interface #Websites #Unveiled Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ministers consider easing winter fuel payment cuts Ministers consider easing winter fuel payment cuts Senior government figures are discussing whether to reverse the controversial decision to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners within weeks. More than nine million pensioners lost out on payments worth up to £300 after Chancellor Rachel Reeves restricted eligibility for the pension top-up last year. Discussions in government have included changing the threshold at which pensioners stop receiving the benefit, or restoring the payments to all pensioners. The talks are understood to be fluid, and have not yet reached a conclusion. The government may ultimately decide to stick with its existing policy. Any announcement could come as soon as the spending review on June 11, when the chancellor will unveil government departments’ budgets for the coming years. The i newspaper has reported the government is considering whether to increase the £11,500 income threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance. Some Labour MPs have blamed the winter fuel policy for the party’s losses at last month’s local elections, and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. Simply abandoning the policy entirely is seen as a less likely outcome than adjusting the thresholds. However, the fact that this policy – one of the first decisions made by Labour upon entering office last last summer – is even under review shows the scale of concern in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s team about its political impact. In an interview with the BBC’s Newscast podcast on Monday, Reeves failed to rule out changing course on winter fuel. Reeves said the government faced a “tough inheritance” and took some “tough decisions” to stabilise the public finances after winning last year’s general election. But she added: “I do understand the concerns that people have.” She said she would “continue to listen to understand the concerns that people have raised”. “We are a government that listens,” the chancellor said. “But we would always need to show where the money is going to come from if we’re going to make any policy changes. That would be part of the normal process.” Her comments mark a change in tone since Reeves urged Labour MPs to back her plan to cut winter fuel payments in September last year. At a meeting of Labour MPs that month, Reeves told Labour backbenchers: “It is the right thing to do, to target money at a time when finances are so stretched, at people who need them most.” Earlier this month, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters there “will not be a change to the government’s policy” on the winter fuel payment, despite growing calls within Labour ranks for a rethink. Some MPs raised questions about the payment as they grilled Sir Keir at a meeting in Parliament on Monday. Speaking to the BBC ahead of that meeting, Labour MP Stella Creasy said it would be “remiss” of the government to dismiss concerns over the winter fuel payment. “Those concerns are being heard across the party,” Creasy said. “Those of us who have been around a long time and among new MPs, there’s a genuine concern to get this right and that’s now what the government needs to respond to.” The winter fuel payment is a lump-sum amount of £200 a year for pensioners under 80, increasing to £300 for over-80s, paid in November or December. Last year, the government restricted the payments to those who qualify for pension credit and other income-related benefits, in a bid to save £1.4bn. The move did not feature in Labour’s general election manifesto. It was seen as a key issue at this month’s local elections, at which Labour lost 187 council seats and control of the only council it was defending. The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 by New Labour as a universal payment for all pensioners. It was billed as a way to guarantee they would be able to pay for increased heating costs over the winter – although in practice it is a pension top-up, which recipients can spend on whatever they want. This year state pensions are going up by 4.1% – a rise of £363 a year for those on the basic pension, or £472 for those on the new pension. Source link #Ministers #easing #winter #fuel #payment #cuts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nintendo has filed a new trademark for Cing’s 2007 DS adventure game Hotel Dusk: Room 215 Nintendo has filed a new trademark for Cing’s 2007 DS adventure game Hotel Dusk: Room 215 Nintendo has filed a new trademark for Hotel Dusk: Room 215 in Japan. The new trademark was filed on May 9 and published on May 19 on the Japan Platform for Patent Information (as spotted by GameSpark). While trademark renewals are nothing new and generally don’t tend to mean much beyond a company ensuring the name of its IP isn’t used for another product, this is slightly different in that it’s an entirely new filing, as opposed to a renewal. Nintendo already holds trademarks for the game’s Japanese name, Wish Room, as well the Japanese name of its sequel, Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku (Midnight Promise), but this appears to be the first time its Western name has been trademarked in Japan. Hotel Dusk: Room 2015, which was developed by the now-defunct Cing, was released on Nintendo DS in 2007 and gained a cult following for its unique art style and its pulp novel storyline which extended to having to hold the DS vertically like an opened book. Its sequel, Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, was released in 2010 and was the last game released by Cing before it went bankrupt two months later. The reason Hotel Dusk’s trademark filing has raised eyebrows is because last year Nintendo released remakes of two other cult favourite Cing games. 2005 Nintendo DS game Another Code: Two Memories and its 2009 Wii sequel Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories were remade and released on Switch in January 2024 as Another Code: Recollection. As noted on Reddit by user BreafingBread, Nintendo also filed a new trademark for the Western logo for Another Code five years before Another Code: Recollection was announced, implying it could be repeating the process here. VGC’s Another Code: Recollection review calls it “an impressive overhaul of two Nintendo favourites”, noting that “every element of Cing’s classic adventure games has been entirely reimagined. “Another Code: Recollection is a beautiful adventure game with a touching storyline that only goes to remind us why Cing’s closure all those years ago remains such a loss,” we wrote. “With any luck (and with original developers seemingly on board with the idea, given their roles here), Recollection will sell well enough to warrant similar remakes of Cing’s other cult DS adventure pairing, Hotel Dusk and Last Window. If they were handled with the same care as what’s on offer here, we’d be there day one.” Source link #Nintendo #filed #trademark #Cings #adventure #game #Hotel #Dusk #Room Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Intel Arc Pro B-Series GPUs With XMX AI Cores and Advanced Ray Tracing Units Launched Intel Arc Pro B-Series GPUs With XMX AI Cores and Advanced Ray Tracing Units Launched Intel Arc Pro B-series graphics processing units (GPUs) were launched by the company at Computex 2025 on Tuesday. Available in various partner board form factors, the new GPUs are built for workstations and artificial intelligence (AI) inference, handling demanding workloads with larger memory configurations and expanded software support. The Arc Pro B-series comprises two GPU models called Intel Arc B50 and Arc B60, with both of them equipped with advanced ray tracing units and Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) cores. Intel Arc Pro B-Series GPUs Price, Availability Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU will be available for purchase via Intel-authorised resellers starting in July 2025, priced at $299 (roughly Rs. 25,500). Meanwhile, the Intel Arc B60 GPU can be purchased from add-in board partners such as ASRock, Gunnir, Lanner, Maxsun, Onix, Senao and Sparkle starting June. Its pricing is yet to be revealed. Intel Arc Pro B-Series GPUs Specifications Intel says while its Arc B-series GPUs targeted consumer-grade PCs, the Arc Pro B-series GPUs are built for graphics workstations, AI inference workstations, and edge computing solutions. They are based on the company’s latest Xe2 architecture and leverage XMX engines for supporting AI capabilities. As per Intel, the GPUs deliver up to 3.4 times better graphical fidelity and up to 3.5 times higher inference in Stable Diffusion compared to the Nvidia RTX A1000 8GB. The company says Arc Pro B-series GPUs have been optimised for delivering stability through independent software vendor (ISV) certifications and optimised software on AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) and inference workstations. When equipped in Linux-based systems, they support a containerised software stack for simplification of AI deployments. Photo Credit: Intel Intel’s Arc Pro B60 GPU is equipped with 20 second-generation Xe cores, promising up to 197 tera operations per second (TOPS) of computational power and up to 200W Total Board Power (TBP). According to the company, it is equipped with 24GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a memory bandwidth of 456GB/s and supports PCIe Gen5 platform. It supports a varied range of display resolutions, including but not limited to 8K UHD at 60Hz, 5K WUHD at 240Hz, and 5K UHD at 120Hz. With this GPU, Intel is targeting advanced AI inferencing workstations and servers. Meanwhile, the Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU is claimed to be tailored for use cases involving AI, generative design, 3D simulations, ray tracing, and editing. It gets 16 Xe cores, 16GB of GDDR6 memory, and a memory bandwidth of 224GB/s. Its peak computational power is rated at 170 TOPS with a 70W TBP. Alongside, Intel has also unveiled a configurable workstation-class Intel Xeon-based platform, codenamed Project Battlematrix. It is said to be designed to reduce friction points during AI development. As per the company, it supports up to eight Intel Arc Pro B60 24GB GPUs for enabling medium-sized AI models with up to 150 billion parameters, along with up to 192GB of VRAM. Source link #Intel #Arc #Pro #BSeries #GPUs #XMX #Cores #Advanced #Ray #Tracing #Units #Launched Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump allows New York offshore wind project after apparent gas pipeline compromise with state Trump allows New York offshore wind project after apparent gas pipeline compromise with state File: The wind farm in the Baltic Sea 35 kilometres northeast of Rügen is a joint venture of the Essen-based energy group Eon and the Norwegian shareholder Equinor. Bernd Wüstneck | Picture Alliance | Getty Images Norwegian energy company Equinor will resume construction on its offshore wind farm in New York, after the Trump administration lifted its order to halt work on the project. Empire Wind 1 will be the first offshore wind project to deliver electricity directly to New York City. The Interior Department under the Biden administration approved the project last year after Equinor signed a lease issued by the Department of Interior in 2017. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered construction on Empire Wind to stop on April 16, alleging that the Biden administration rushed the project’s approval “without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday evening that Burgum and President Donald Trump agreed to lift the stop work order and allow the project to move forward “after countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials.” Empire Wind supports 1,500 union jobs, Hochul said. Burgum said he was encouraged by Hochul’s “willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity.” “Americans who live in New York and New England would see significant economic benefits and lower utility costs from increased access to reliable, affordable, clean American natural gas,” the Interior Secretary said in a post on social media platform X. Hochul did not mention natural gas in her statement, though she “reaffirmed that New York will work with the Administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements” under state law. New York has a history of opposing new natural gas pipelines. Trump has targeted the wind industry, despite his agenda calling for the U.S. to achieve energy dominance. The president issued an executive order on his first day in office that barred new leases for offshore wind in U.S. waters and ordered a review of leasing and permitting practices. Trump has a long history of attacking wind turbines dating back to at least 2012, arguing that they kill birds and cost more than they generate in revenue. Empire Wind 1 started construction in the spring of 2024 and is more than 30% complete. Equinor has invested $2.5 billion in the project so far. The company is planning to build 54 turbines that are up to 910 feet tall. Empire Wind 1 will have generated 810 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power half a million homes, according to Equinor. Equinor Chief Financial Officer Torgrim Reitan called the Trump administration’s order to stop work unlawful, extraordinary and unprecedented during the company’s first-quarter earnings call April 30. “We have complied with this order. However, the order did not include any information about the alleged deficiencies in the approval,” Reitan said. Three other offshore wind projects are under construction in the U.S. all located on the Eastern Seaboard. They are Revolution and Sunrise Wind in New England and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. Dominion Energy is confident Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind will continue to move forward, CEO Robert Blue said on the company’s May 1 earnings call. It is 55% complete and will deliver electricity in early 2026, Blue said. Orsted remains fully committed to Revolution and Sunrise Wind, CEO Rasmus Errboe said on the company’s May 7 earnings call. Revolution and Sunrise are about 75% and 35% complete respectively, Errboe said. Catch up on the latest energy news from CNBC Pro: Source link #Trump #York #offshore #wind #project #apparent #gas #pipeline #compromise #state Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Margaret River’s Jack Robinson makes an early exit from his home World Surf League event Margaret River’s Jack Robinson makes an early exit from his home World Surf League event Jack Robinson’s hopes of winning a third Margaret River Pro in four years came unstuck on a day of carnage for the championship tour’s top seeds at Main Break. Robinson, the 2022 and 2024 champion at his home event, was wiped-out on Tuesday in the final heat of the day by world No.32 Imaikalani deVault of Hawaii. His early exit was one of several upsets in pumping 8-10ft conditions, as five of the top-seven were eliminated in the round-of-32. Current world No.1 Italo Ferreira of Brazil was also taken out by local qualifier Jacob Willcox, while No.2 Yago Dora of Brazil, No.5 Ethan Ewing of Australia and No.6 Filipe Toldo of Brazil were all surprise losers. It leaves No.3 Jody Smith of South Africa and No.4 Kanoa Igarashi of Japan as the highest-seeded men remaining in the seventh and final World Surf League stop before the mid-season cut. Robinson made a few uncharacteristic errors in his match-up with deVault, getting caught too deep in the barrel on a couple of occasions and getting caught on the lip and wiping out when taking an important wave inside the final six minutes. He scored a 6.00 wave with just over two minutes remaining under second priority to reduce the number he needed to advance but ultimately ran out of time, falling with a two-wave 11.33 total to deVault’s 14.33. Needing to win the event to make the cut and stay on tour, deVault said he’d approached the heat against local favourite Robinson with nothing to lose. Camera IconJack Robinson of Australia surfs in Heat 16. Credit: Cait Miers/World Surf League “He’s the guy to beat here, I feel like everybody knows that,” deVault said. “My game plan was I had to get the best waves to beat him and he obviously knows the line-up so well so I was kind of just following him and he actually let me know on my good wave because it did kind of look like it was going to taper off but luckily it kept giving me the sections.” Earlier, *********** wild-card Mikey McDonagh took out Dora to reach the round-of-16 at CT level for the first time. Camera IconImaikalani deVault of Hawaii after surfing in Heat 16. Credit: Beatriz Ryder/World Surf League But fellow Aussies Ewing, George Pittar, Winter Vincent, Liam O’Brien, Joel Vaughan were eliminated. Pittar and O’Brien and another *********** Ryan Callinan, who went out in the elimination round, are among those to have already missed the cut. The next call is at 7.15am on Wednesday with round-of-16 action. Watch the WSL Margaret River Pro live and free on 7PLUS MEN’S ROUND-OF-32 RESULTS HEAT 1: Mikey McDonough AUS 12.77 (6.60, 6.17) def. Yago Dora BRA 11.30 (7.67, 3.63) HEAT 2: Griffin Colapinto USA 10.97 (6.50, 4.47) def. Cole Houshmand USA 9.70 (5.13, 4.77) HEAT 3: Leonardo Fioravanti ITA 17.13 (9.00, 8.13) def. Ian Gentil HAW 13.60 (7.00, 6.60) HEAT 4: Miguel Pupo BRA 15.27 (8.00, 7.27) def. George Pittar AUS 11.83 (7.00, 4.83) HEAT 5: Kanoa Igarashi JPN 13.16 (7.33, 5.83) def. Winter Vincent AUS 7.93 (4.10, 3.83) HEAT 6: Connor O’Leary JPN 14.37 (8.50, 5.87) def. Liam O’Brien AUS 13.33 (7.83, 5.50) HEAT 7: Jake Marshall USA 12.76 (6.43, 6.33) def. Samuel Pupo BRA 10.10 (5.43, 4.67) HEAT 8: Barron Mamiya HAW 13.54 (6.87, 6.67) def. Ian Gouveia BRA 13.06 (6.73, 6.33) HEAT 9: Jacob Willcox AUS 15.00 (8.33, 6.67) def. Italo Ferriera BRA 12.87 (6.87, 6.00) HEAT 10: Joao Chianca BRA 13.93 (8.73, 5.20) def. Matthew McGillivray RSA 10.87 (6.00, 4.87) HEAT 11: Jackson Bunch HAW 9.17 (4.63, 4.50) def. Filipe Toledo BRA 7.56 (3.83, 3.73) HEAT 12: Crosby Colapinto USA 16.00 (8.83, 7.17) def. Ethan Ewing AUS 14.33 (8.00, 6.33) HEAT 13: Jordy Smith RSA 12.50 (6.67, 5.83) def. Edgard Groggia BRA 8.53 (4.60, 3.93) HEAT 14: Marco Mignot FRA 13.67 (7.17, 6.50) def. Joel Vaughan AUS 12.80 (6.80, 6.00) HEAT 15: Alan Cleland MEX 13.40 (6.90, 6.50) def. Rio Waida IDN 10.50 (5.50, 5.00) HEAT 16: Imaikalani deVault HAW 14.33 (8.00, 6.33) def. Jack Robinson AUS 11.33 (6.00, 5.33) Source link #Margaret #Rivers #Jack #Robinson #early #exit #home #World #Surf #League #event Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Major Changes, New Objectives, Key Lore Twist, and Everything We Know Major Changes, New Objectives, Key Lore Twist, and Everything We Know Helldivers, the time has come: Super Earth is under siege! Arrowhead Game Studios has launched the Heart of Democracy update for Helldivers 2, and it is probably the biggest plot point in the game’s ongoing galactic narrative. In a twist that we both feared and anticipated, the Illuminate faction has succeeded in invading our homeworld. The war has been brought to us as we must now fight, not to spread democracy, but to defend our home. Let’s unpack everything included in this enormous update. From our new AI allies to the new Planetary Defense Cannons, this is everything you need to know about the fight for Super Earth. Helldivers 2 isn’t about spreading democracy, we need to defend Super Earth now In an unexpected narrative twist, the Illuminate have launched a devastating assault on Super Earth. The Heart of Democracy update is the direct result of our failure. Helldivers around the world were tasked with holding a number of key planetary strongholds to prevent the Illuminate from reaching Super Earth. We failed to hold off the invaders in the last Major Order, losing the final line of defense at New Haven. With that loss, Super Earth, the beating heart of Managed Democracy, became vulnerable, and Arrowhead Game Studios has responded immediately with the Heart of Democracy update. We’re ready to defend Super Earth. The Illuminate have reached the Heart of Democracy. Our Mega Cities are under siege. Liberty now hangs in the balance. The Ministry of Defence has authorised arsenal upgrades and placed SEAF soldiers on active duty. Today, we fight for the future of Super Earth! pic.twitter.com/GxkrAQCmKD — HELLDIVERS 2 (@helldivers2) May 20, 2025 This will be the first time we fight battles and take missions on the homeworld. The new city biome is unlike anything previously seen in the game. We’re going to have to go through urban structures, fight in the middle of high-rise towers, shattered roads, and the debris of democracy under siege. According to Arrowhead’s official announcement, players will participate in operations designed to liberate Super Earth city by city, directly impacting planetary campaigns. It’s a tug-of-war for survival, and every street matters. We might be getting some capture the flag action soon, if this is any hint. The Illuminate invasion has begun. Landfall is confirmed at multiple sites across Super Earth. Our Mega Cities are under siege. For the first time in more than a century, hostile forces have breached our sovereign homeworld. The Battle for Super Earth has begun. The Helldivers… pic.twitter.com/P9demnpUGf — HELLDIVERS 2 (@helldivers2) May 20, 2025 With the battlefield shifting to Super Earth, the update introduces dynamic new objectives and support systems. One new weapon that’s been made available to us is the use of Planetary Defense Cannons. Hidden beneath the surface of Super Earth’s peaceful façade, these powerful weapons can be activated by players to take down incoming Illuminate fleets. MAJOR ORDER: The Illuminate invasion has begun. Landfall is confirmed at multiple sites across Super Earth. Our Mega Cities are under siege. For the first time in more than a century, hostile forces have breached our sovereign hameworld. The Battle for Super Earth has begun.… pic.twitter.com/AlAU5KGnca — Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) May 20, 2025 In addition to the super weapon, players will now encounter SEAF (Super Earth Armed Forces) AI squads throughout the city. These NPC units can engage enemies autonomously or be commanded by Helldivers to follow them, providing critical backup during missions. It’s democracy with a side of heavy artillery, and the battle is now more alive than ever. Arrowhead has also given us the tools to defend this threat to the planet As comically patriotic as Helldivers 2 is, the threat facing Super Earth is portrayed with uncharacteristic gravity. For the first time, we are facing the possibility that our homeworld, the core of the game’s narrative and ideological satire, might actually be lost. While Arrowhead hasn’t revealed what would happen if Super Earth falls, the stakes have never been higher. Gear up, Helldivers—your arsenal just got personal! With the Weapon Customization system, you can now tailor your weapons to match your combat style once you’ve progressed and unlocked different attachments. It’s time to fight for Super Earth with weapons that are truly yours!… pic.twitter.com/smZtiy2HYn — HELLDIVERS 2 (@helldivers2) May 13, 2025 As if the invasion weren’t enough, the Illuminate recently brought some new enemies out of its arsenal and took us by surprise. The Galactic Emergency update had at least three new enemy types: The Stingray: Aerial jetfighters that can come into combat zones to make deadly strafing runs and harass us from above. They forced players to take the skies seriously and coordinate anti-air responses. The Crescent Overseer: A tactician-class enemy that calls in artillery-like barrages on concealed positions, flushing out squads taking cover. Their long-range makes them a constant threat unless prioritized. The Fleshmob: Easily the most disturbing addition, the Fleshmob is a big enemy formed from failed experiments using Voteless corpses. It charges the battlefield as a lumbering juggernaut of democracy gone wrong. Major Updat: – Weapon customization unlocked – New Illuminate faction enemies – Weapon balances – New UI look – ****** fixes Okay…. We all own him an apology pic.twitter.com/hwp9i7nPyt — Helldivers 2 Media (@Helldiversmedia) May 13, 2025 But that’s not all. Fortunately, Helldivers now have powerful new tools to help them push back. Last week, Arrowhead also rolled out a highly requested weapon customization system. We now have upgrade paths for most primary weapons that are tied to mission performance, which lets us unlock attachments such as optics, extended mags, under-barrels, and muzzles. According to what design director Niklas Malmborg said in the deep dive, some weapons now feature up to 20 customizable elements. This system reportedly adds “500+ hours” of progression, making it one of the most packed updates in the game’s history. With Super Earth now fully in play, players are naturally wondering where Helldivers 2 goes from here. Will the next updates introduce interior missions through government facilities or subways? Could we get more missions to save civilians with evac operations? The Heart of Democracy update is easily the biggest narrative update in Helldivers 2 to date. By making Super Earth a playable warzone, Arrowhead has flipped the script on what players expect from the game. It’s beautiful. The sh*ittening has finally arrived. Source link #Major #Objectives #Key #Lore #Twist Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Seven ******** youths shot dead at church festivity Seven ******** youths shot dead at church festivity Seven ******** youths have been shot dead at a festivity organised by the Catholic Church in the central state of Guanajuato. Gunmen opened fire on a group of people who had stayed behind in the central square of the village of San Bartolo de Berrios after an event organised by the local parish. Eyewitnesses said the assailants had driven straight to the village square in the early hours of Monday and fired dozens of shots seemingly at random. The authorities have not yet said what the motive behind the shooting may have been but messages scrawled on signs left at several nearby locations appear to indicate it was carried out by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel. While attacks on nightclubs, bars and cockfighting venues are not unusual in ******** states hit by cartel violence, an attack on an event organised by the Catholic Church is rare. The Episcopal Conference of Mexico, which represents the country’s bishops, condemned the fatal shooting saying it “cannot remain indifferent in the face of the spiral of violence that is wounding so many communities”. The local archbishop, Jaime Calderón, also released a statement blaming the attack on a fight for territory between rival cartels. Guanajuato, where San Bartolo de Berrios is located, had the highest number of murders of any state in Mexico in 2024 with a total of 2,597 homicides. Both the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel are active in the state and have been locked in a deadly battle for control over territory. While the two groups engage in extortion and drug trafficking, they have also increasingly tapped pipelines which run through the state carrying petrol from refineries to major distribution points. The practice of stealing and selling fuel on the ****** market – known as huachicoleo – is a major source of revenue for the criminal gangs in the region. In their fight for territorial control, the gangs often try to spread fear amid the local population in order to ensure their silence and compliance. Bloody shootings such as the one in San Bartolo de Berrios and the subsequent display of threatening messages are a particularly brutal way gangs use to show they have expanded into a particular town. Residents of San Bartolo de Berrios said they had heard around 100 shots ring out in the early hours of Monday within the space of a few minutes. They said the scene in the central square resembled “a bloodbath” with the bodies of the seven youths, two of them aged under 18, strewn across the pavement. No arrests have so far been made in connection with the attack. Source link #******** #youths #shot #dead #church #festivity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]