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Israel strikes Houthi rebels in Yemen's capital while the WHO chief says he was meters away JERUSALEM (AP) — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen have targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and multiple ports. The World Health Organization’s director-general said the bombardment on Thursday took place just “meters away” as he was about to board a flight in Sanaa. He says a crew member was hurt. The strikes followed several days of Houthi attacks and launches setting off sirens in Israel. Israel's military says it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa, power stations and ports. The Israeli military later said it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen. An uneasy calm settles over Syrian city of Homs after outbreak of sectarian violence HOMS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s new security forces checked IDs and searched cars in the central city of Homs a day after protests by members of the Alawite minority erupted in gunfire and stirred fears that the country’s fragile peace could break down. A tense calm prevailed Thursday after checkpoints were set up throughout the country’s third-largest city, which has a mixed population of Sunni and Shia Muslims, Alawites and Christians. The security forces are controlled by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the charge that unseated former President Bashar Assad. The US says it pushed retraction of a famine warning for north Gaza. Aid groups express concern. WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say they asked for — and got — the retraction of an independent monitor's warning of imminent famine in north Gaza. The internationally Famine Early Warning System Network issued the warning this week. The new report had warned that starvation deaths in north Gaza could reach famine levels as soon as next month. It cited what it called Israel's “near-total blockade” of food and water. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, criticized the finding as inaccurate and irresponsible. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds the famine-monitoring group, told the AP it had asked for and gotten the report's retraction. USAID officials tell The Associated Press that it had asked the group for greater review of discrepancies in some of the data. Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans in Congress plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. They want to push through long-sought changes such as voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements. They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections. That's after an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Democrats say they are willing to work with the GOP but want any changes to make it easier, not harder, to vote. Americans are exhausted by political news. TV ratings and a new AP-NORC poll show they're tuning out NEW YORK (AP) — A lot of Americans, after an intense presidential election campaign, are looking for a break in political news. That's evident in cable television news ratings and a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll found nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they've found the need recently to cut down on their consumption of political and government news. That's particularly true among Democrats following President-elect Donald Trump's victory, although a significant number of Republicans and independents feel the same way. Cable networks MSNBC and CNN are really seeing a slump. That's also happened in years past for networks that particularly appeal to supporters of one candidate. New York to charge fossil fuel companies for damage from climate change ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. The governor signed the new law Thursday. It requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state infrastructure fund for repairs or projects that help avoid future damage from climate change. Lawmakers approved the bill earlier this year. It's meant to make big oil and gas companies contribute to the cost of repairs after extreme weather events or for resiliency projects. Such projects may include restoring coastal wetlands or upgrading roads, bridges and water drainage systems. Legal challenges to the new law are expected. Aviation experts say Russia's air defense fire likely caused Azerbaijan plane crash as nation mourns Aviation experts say that Russian air defense fire was likely responsible for the Azerbaijani plane crash the day before that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured. Azerbaijan is observing a nationwide day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the crash. Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons yet unclear and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan. Cellphone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Ukraine's military intelligence says North Korean troops are suffering heavy battlefield losses KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's military intelligence says North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in Russia's Kursk region and face logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks. The intelligence agency said Thursday that Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. Ukraine's president said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war. How the stock market defied expectations again this year, by the numbers NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The benchmark index posted its first back-to-back annual gains of more than 20% since 1998. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing. But it wasn’t just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin and gold surged and “Roaring Kitty” reappeared to briefly reignite the meme stock craze. Why this Mexican American woman played a vital role in the US sacramental peyote trade MIRANDO CITY, Texas (AP) — Amada Cardenas, a Mexican American woman who lived in the tiny border town of Mirando City in South Texas, played an important role in the history of the peyote trade. She and her husband were the first federally licensed peyote dealers who harvested and sold the sacramental plant to followers of the Native American Church in the 1930s. After her husband's death in 1967, Cardenas continued to welcome generations of Native American Church members to her home until her death in 2005, just before her 101st birthday.Miguel Tomley scores 28 to lead Weber State over Pepperdine 68-53 at Arizona Tip-Off

These holiday gifts change the game when building fires, printing photos, watching birds and more

A late goal from the Toronto Sceptres propelled the hosts to a 3-1 win over the Boston Fleet in the PWHL season opener. Hilary Knight took a late boarding call, and Toronto’s Hannah Miller capitalized on the power play with just 1:38 left in the third period to put Toronto up by a goal. Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel headed to the bench for the empty net, and Emma Maltais scored the empty netter to finish off the Fleet.

Scorpio, Weekly Horoscope, December 01 to December 07, 2024: Week brings professional successEAST LANSING, Mich. — The sight was a common one for Andrew Kolpacki. For many a Sunday, he would watch NFL games on TV and see quarterbacks putting their hands on their helmets, desperately trying to hear the play call from the sideline or booth as tens of thousands of fans screamed at the tops of their lungs. When the NCAA's playing rules oversight committee this past spring approved the use of coach-to-player helmet communications in games for the 2024 season, Kolpacki, Michigan State's head football equipment manager, knew the Spartans' QBs and linebackers were going to have a problem. "There had to be some sort of solution," he said. As it turns out, there was. And it was right across the street. Kolpacki reached out to Tamara Reid Bush, a mechanical engineering professor who not only heads the school's Biomechanical Design Research Laboratory but also is a football season ticket-holder. Kolpacki "showed me some photos and said that other teams had just put duct tape inside the (earhole), and he asked me, 'Do you think we can do anything better than duct tape,?" Bush said. "And I said, 'Oh, absolutely.'" Bush and Rylie DuBois, a sophomore biosystems engineering major and undergraduate research assistant at the lab, set out to produce earhole inserts made from polylactic acid, a bio-based plastic, using a 3D printer. Part of the challenge was accounting for the earhole sizes and shapes that vary depending on helmet style. Once the season got underway with a Friday night home game against Florida Atlantic on Aug. 30, the helmets of starting quarterback Aidan Chiles and linebacker Jordan Turner were outfitted with the inserts, which helped mitigate crowd noise. DuBois attended the game, sitting in the student section. "I felt such a strong sense of accomplishment and pride," DuBois said. "And I told all my friends around me about how I designed what they were wearing on the field." All told, Bush and DuBois have produced around 180 sets of the inserts, a number that grew in part due to the variety of helmet designs and colors that are available to be worn by Spartan players any given Saturday. Plus, the engineering folks have been fine-tuning their design throughout the season. Dozens of Bowl Subdivision programs are doing something similar. In many cases, they're getting 3D-printed earhole covers from XO Armor Technologies, which provides on-site, on-demand 3D printing of athletic wearables. The Auburn, Alabama-based company has donated its version of the earhole covers to the equipment managers of programs ranging from Georgia and Clemson to Boise State and Arizona State in the hope the schools would consider doing business with XO Armor in the future, said Jeff Klosterman, vice president of business development. XO Armor first was approached by the Houston Texans at the end of last season about creating something to assist quarterback C.J. Stroud in better hearing play calls delivered to his helmet during road games. XO Armor worked on a solution and had completed one when it received another inquiry: Ohio State, which had heard Michigan State was moving forward with helmet inserts, wondered if XO Armor had anything in the works. "We kind of just did this as a one-off favor to the Texans and honestly didn't forecast it becoming our viral moment in college football," Klosterman said. "We've now got about 60 teams across college football and the NFL wearing our sound-deadening earhole covers every weekend." The rules state that only one player for each team is permitted to be in communication with coaches while on the field. For the Spartans, it's typically Chiles on offense and Turner on defense. Turner prefers to have an insert in both earholes, but Chiles has asked that the insert be used in only one on his helmet. Chiles "likes to be able to feel like he has some sort of outward exposure," Kolpacki said. Exposure is something the sophomore signal-caller from Long Beach, California, had in away games against Michigan and Oregon this season. Michigan Stadium welcomed 110,000-plus fans for the Oct. 26 matchup between the in-state rivals. And while just under 60,000 packed Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, for the Ducks' 31-10 win over Michigan State three weeks earlier, it was plenty loud. "The Big Ten has some pretty impressive venues," Kolpacki said. "It can be just deafening," he said. "That's what those fans are there for is to create havoc and make it difficult for coaches to get a play call off." Something that is a bit easier to handle thanks to Bush and her team. She called the inserts a "win-win-win" for everyone. "It's exciting for me to work with athletics and the football team," she said. "I think it's really exciting for our students as well to take what they've learned and develop and design something and see it being used and executed." Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has fuelled the relentless criticism of officials by admitting that some "don't know the game" while analysing the weekend's decisions. The English top-flight threw up another selection of contentious incidents across nine games on Saturday and Sunday. And in The Sun's latest episode of The Whistleblower , Halsey - a Premier League referee from 1999 to 2013 - disagreed with two recent decisions made by the current crop. The 63-year-old first took issue with Samuel Barrott awarding Liverpool a match-winning penalty against Southampton on Sunday. Mohamed Salah scored the second of his brace from the spot to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 advantage after a fizzed ball struck Yukinari Sugawara's arm in the box. However, Halsey considered the call harsh, questioning the current referees' football knowledge outside of the game's laws. "I thought it was a bit harsh [the Sugawara handball]. You can't run with your arms by your side. You can't jump with your arms by your side," the 63-year-old explained. "It's come off his chest onto his arm. They're in a natural position for that phrase of play. That's what I'm saying about training education with our referees about incidents like that with handball. "It's about knowing the game. It's all right knowing the laws of the game. It's about knowing the game of football." Halsey then turned his attention towards Andy Madley for opting against sending Wilfred Ndidi off for a poor challenge on Cole Palmer in Chelsea 's 2-1 win at Leicester City a day earlier. The Foxes midfielder appeared to scrape his studs down Palmer's Achilles, but Madley left viewers stunned by only brandishing a yellow card. Halsey was among those in disbelief, describing Ndidi's reckless tackle as career-threatening. He said: "I thought it was a very, very poor challenge when I saw it again. In real-time, Andy Madley hasn't recognised the intensity of the challenge. man-utd "I was surprised when the Premier League match centre came out and said there was no intensity. It's all right knowing the laws of the game. It's about knowing the game of football. "But I'll say it again, I said it earlier, when a player lunges at an opponent in that manner, from one or two feet, from the front, from the side, from the back, it has to be sanctioned a serious foul play. "That was the worst challenge of the weekend. And I was very, very surprised that Paul Tierney, the VAR, did not recommend a review. "That was a career-threatening challenge. It's the training and education of VAR, when to come in and when not to come in."US effort to curb China's and Russia's access to advanced computer chips 'inadequate,' report finds

Evans scores again as Canadiens down Lightning 5-2SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean law enforcement officials on Monday requested a court warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol as they investigate whether his short-lived martial law decree on Dec. 3 amounted to rebellion. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, which is leading a joint investigation with police and military authorities into the power grab that lasted only a few hours, confirmed it requested the warrant from the Seoul Western District Court. They plan to question Yoon on charges of abuse of authority and orchestrating a rebellion. Yoon has dodged several requests by the joint investigation team and public prosecutors to appear for questioning and has also blocked searches of his offices. It’s not clear whether the court will grant the warrant or whether Yoon can be compelled to appear for questioning. Under the country’s laws, locations potentially linked to military secrets cannot be seized or searched without the consent of the person in charge, and it’s unlikely that Yoon will voluntarily leave his residence if he faces detainment. Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended after the National Assembly voted to impeach him on Dec. 14 over his imposition of martial law that lasted only hours but has triggered weeks of political turmoil, halted high-level diplomacy and rattled financial markets. Yoon’s fate now lies with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberations on whether to uphold the impeachment and formally remove Yoon from office or reinstate him. Yoon has defended the martial law decree as a necessary act of governance, describing it as a warning against the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which has been bogging down his agenda with its majority in the parliament. Parliament voted last week to also impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had assumed the role of acting president after Yoon’s powers were suspended, over his reluctance to fill three Constitutional Court vacancies ahead of the court’s review of Yoon’s case. The country’s new interim leader is Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who is also finance minister.

South Korean authorities seek warrant to detain impeached president( MENAFN - Nam News Network) NEW DELHI, Dec 27 (NNN-PTI) – Former Indian Prime Minister and veteran leader of India's main opposition congress party, Manmohan Singh, died at 92 yesterday, after a prolonged illness, health officials said. Singh served two consecutive terms as prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014, leading a coalition government under the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He had been considered the architect of India's economic liberalisation in 1991, when he was the country's finance minister. Singh, a renowned economist and statesman, had been staying away from politics in recent years, due to health reasons and was not keeping well since the beginning of this year.– NNN-PTI MENAFN26122024000200011047ID1109033761 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.

One of the biggest debates in business-focused GenAI is how best to monetize it, and there is not a definitive answer. Considering the future, McKinsey pricing guru James D. Wilton —one of the world’s leading experts on SaaS pricing. Wilton has dedicated more than 12 years to helping startups and fast-growing companies capture more of the value they create through pricing strategy transformations. Wilton is currently the Managing Partner and Founder of Monevate , the premier pricing and monetization consulting firm for SaaS and tech companies. Wilton has written a book titled Capturing Value , where he shares insights on emerging trends in GenAI pricing. In the book, Wilton writes: “In the pricing space, we see many companies moving to a hybrid pricing model, which is partly traditional subscription and partly usage-based pricing. I would suggest that, for the front-end GenAI solutions at least, that’s where the answer resides.” As to how business units and individuals should respond, Wilton recommends: “My hot take at this time is that a usage-tiered user model is a great path forward for the GenAI Front-End User Applications.” How might this system work in practice? According to Wilton: “A model like this would charge a different amount per month for a user based on the usage level of that user. For example, a customer who uses a GenAI product below a certain usage threshold might be able to do so for free.” After this point: “Once the user has exceeded that usage threshold, they may start paying a low monthly fee (e.g., $5 to $10). When they exceed another higher usage threshold, the monthly fee may increase to $20. And so on and so on. The number of tiers will be dependent on the number of different usage-based user personas.” The book sets out several benefits of such a system. In summary, these are: According to Wilton: “Because you are scaling the price by usage, users with very low usage need not pay much, if anything. This means you can have a tier where a new user can build familiarity with the GenAI technology and understand the value without having to pay a lot. This would dramatically increase adoption of the technology, which should be a major goal.” Wilton finds: “We don’t have to worry about the low-price entry tier putting us in a precarious position with our margins because price scales with usage. As soon as a low price/free user uses the product regularly enough to cross a usage threshold, they will be bumped into the next tier by the gating usage metric, and their subscription fee will rise to (I hope) cover the costs. The higher tiers can in turn cover the costs of high usage levels.” Wilton pontificates: “While GenAI usage doesn’t scale well with value at a micro level (i.e., do customers really get more value for 32 queries than for 31?), it does at a macro level (they are sure they get more value for a hundred queries than they do for five). Users know they are not going to have to pay more unless their usage really increases by a step change. Individual queries are not monetized, and so they are not going to worry to the same extent about whether each individual query is valuable before submitting. And if they do increase their usage by such a step change, they will likely agree that the value has increased materially, and so they likely wouldn’t object to paying extra.” Summing up the benefits, Wilton considers: “It really is a case of the ‘best of both worlds’ across user-based and usage-based pricing. We’re still early in our GenAI journey, and it will be interesting to see what models become the ‘go to’ as the market dynamics evolve. Until then, I’ll be championing usage-tiered user license models.” Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news.Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.