Six young people sue 32 European states over climate change
Six Portuguese youths are taking 32 nations to the European Court of Human Rights this month for not doing enough to stop global warming, the latest bid to...
2023-09-20 17:57
Father reveals moment he realised he wanted to leave US and raise his children in Spain
A father has revealed the exact moment he knew that he wanted to leave the United States and raise his children in Spain. Luna, who goes by the username ​​@lunagoestospain on TikTok, frequently posts videos about preparing for her move with her family. In a recent clip, she noted that a lot of people who live in the US have told her that, while they also want to move abroad, their husbands don’t want to do the same. She went on to direct her camera towards her own husband, before explaining that he didn’t want to move at first either. However, he then shared the experience he had while visiting Spain that ultimately changed his mind about raising children outside of the US. “We go to a cafe and there’s a ton of people walking around,” he recalled about the trip to Spain. “Being from St Louis, that’s not a very comfortable place for me to be in. And you turn to me and say: ‘Have you seen all these people?’ And I’m like: ‘Uhuh,’ and you’re like: ‘None of them have guns.’” He concluded his message by describing his change in perspective about living in Missouri, which has allowed individuals to carry concealed firearms in most places without first obtaining a permit since 2017. “I realised that this weight that I’d been carrying around my whole life wasn’t necessary,” he said. “It’s like what we think is normal is not normal.” In the caption, Luna went on to describe her husband’s comments, writing: “Here’s what shifted for him. I’m sure this’ll piss the right people off. No pun intended.” The TikTok video has quickly gone viral, as it has amassed more than 121,600 views. In the comments, multiple viewers also expressed their interests in raising children outside of America, while also describing their positive experiences when taking trips abroad. “There’s so much mental energy we dedicate to simply existing in the US,” one person claimed. “We lived in Japan for three years. Feeling safe in any neighbourhood or at any time of day or night was amazing,” another wrote. @lunagoestospain Here’s what shifted for him. I’m sure this’ll piss the right people off. No pun intended. #movingabroad #spaindigitalnomadvisa #movingabroadwithpets #movingtospainwithkids ♬ 7AM (Slowed + Reverb) - adrian A third added: “As a father of two young boys, your husband’s explanation has me shook because I cannot disagree.” Earlier this month, Luna shared another video reflecting on her upcoming move to Spain. In the clip, she explained that she’ll miss her family and friends in Missouri, but highlighted some of the benefits to living abroad. “I won’t ever have to tell her she can’t wear light-up shoes because of safety,” she wrote. “No shopping for bulletproof backpacks. I’ll move mountains to make sure she’s as safe as humanly possible.” The Independent has contacted Luna for comment. Luna’s videos also come two years after Missouri enacted the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” which “subjects local and state law enforcement officers to fines of $50,000 for helping to enforce a federal gun law,” according to the Giffords Law Center. In March of this year, a federal judge ruled the controversial law as unconstitutional, but “has since allowed the law to remain in effect pending appeals,” per Giffords. In recent years, research has found that more Americans are opting to move out of the US. According to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), there were nearly 4.8 million Americans living overseas in 2018. This number has continued to grow, as the US Department of State estimated that in 2021, there were about 9 million US citizens living abroad. Read More A scientist's 4-decade quest to save the biggest monkey in the Americas One in six students at English universities taught overseas – watchdog Dylan Mulvaney leaves the US ‘to feel safe’ amid Bud Light backlash Schoolboy almost dies from swallowing magnets for TikTok challenge Woman shares honest review of New York City apartment TikTok mom slammed after making 5-year-old son run in 104 degree heat
2023-07-14 01:36
IRS steps toward a new free-file tax return system have both supporters and critics mobilizing
Plans by the IRS to test a new electronic free-file tax return system next year have got supporters and critics of the idea mobilizing over whether the government should set up a permanent program to help people file their taxes without needing to pay somebody else to figure out what they owe
2023-07-20 12:02
Queen assassin case exposes ‘fundamental flaws’ in AI – safety campaigner
The case of a would-be crossbow assassin exposes “fundamental flaws” in artificial intelligence (AI), a leading online safety campaigner has said. Imran Ahmed, founder and chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate US/UK, has called for the fast-moving AI industry to take more responsibility for preventing harmful outcomes. He spoke out after it emerged that extremist Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, was encouraged and bolstered to breach the grounds of Windsor Castle in 2021 by an AI companion called Sarai. Chail, from Southampton, admitted a Treason offence, making a threat to kill the then Queen, and having a loaded crossbow, and was jailed at the Old Bailey for nine years, with a further five years on extended licence. In his sentencing remarks on Thursday, Mr Justice Hilliard referred to psychiatric evidence that Chail was vulnerable to his AI girlfriend due to his “lonely depressed suicidal state”. He had formed the delusion belief that an “angel” had manifested itself as Sarai and that they would be together in the afterlife, the court was told. Even though Sarai appeared to encourage his plan to kill the Queen, she ultimately put him off a suicide mission telling him his “purpose was to live”. Replika, the tech firm behind Chail’s AI companion Sarai, has not responded to inquiries from PA but says on its website that it takes “immediate action” if it detects during offline testing “indications that the model may behave in a harmful, dishonest, or discriminatory manner”. However, Mr Ahmed said tech companies should not be rolling out AI products to millions of people unless they are already safe “by design”. In an interview with the PA news agency, Mr Ahmed said: “The motto of social media, now the AI industry, has always been move fast and break things. “The problem is when you’ve got these platforms being deployed to billions of people, hundreds of millions of people, as you do with social media, and increasingly with AI as well. “There are two fundamental flaws to the AI technology as we see it right now. One is that they’ve been built too fast without safeguards. “That means that they’re not able to act in a rational human way. For example, if any human being said to you, they wanted to use a crossbow to kill someone, you would go, ‘crumbs, you should probably rethink that’. “Or if a young child asked you for a calorie plan for 700 calories a day, you would say the same. We know that AI will, however, say the opposite. “They will encourage someone to hurt someone else, they will encourage a child to adopt a potentially lethal diet. “The second problem is that we call it artificial intelligence. And the truth is that these platforms are basically the sum of what’s been put into them and unfortunately, what they’ve been fed on is a diet of nonsense.” Without careful curation of what goes into AI models, there can be no surprise if the result sounds like a “maladjusted 14-year-old”, he said. While the excitement around new AI products had seen investors flood in, the reality is more like “an artificial public schoolboy – knows nothing but says it very confidently”, Mr Ahmed suggested. He added that algorithms used for analyzing concurrent version systems (CVS) also risk producing bias against enthic minorities, disabled people and LGBTQ plus community. Mr Ahmed, who give evidence on the draft Online Safety Bill in September 2021, said legislators are “struggling to keep up” with the pace of the tech industry. The solution is a “proper flexible framework” for all of the emerging technologies and include safety “by design” transparency and accountability. Mr Ahmed said: “Responsibility for the harms should be shared by not just us in society, but by the companies too. “They have to have some skin in the game to make sure that these platforms are safe. And what we’re not getting right now, is that being applied to the new and emerging technologies as they come along. “The answer is a comprehensive framework because you cannot have the fines unless they’re accountable to a body. You can’t have real accountability, unless you’ve got transparency as well. “So the aim of a good regulatory system is never to have to impose a fine because safety is considered right in the design stage, not just profitability. And I think that’s what’s vital. “Every other industry has to do it. You would never release a car, for example, that exploded as soon as you put your foot on the on the on the driving pedal, and yet social media companies and AI companies have been able to get away with murder. He added: “We shouldn’t have to bear the costs for all the harms produced by people who are essentially trying to make a buck. It’s not fair that we’re the only ones that have to bear that cost in society. It should be imposed on them too.” Mr Ahmed, a former special advisor to senior Labour MP Hilary Ben, founded CCDH in September 2019. He was motivated by the massive rise in antisemitism on the political left, the spead of online disinformation around the EU referendum and the murder of his colleague, the MP Jo Cox. Over the past four years, the online platforms have become “less transparent” and regulation is brought in, with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, and the UK Online Safety Bill, Mr Ahmed said. On the scale of the problem, he said: “We’ve seen things get worse over time, not better, because bad actors get more and more sophisticated on weaponizing social media platforms to spread hatred, to spread lies and disinformation. “We’ve seen over the last few years, certainly January 6 storming of the US Capitol. “Also pandemic disinformation that took 1,000s of lives of people who thought that the vaccine would harm them but it was in fact Covid that killed them. Last month, X – formerly known as Twitter – launched legal action against CCDH over claims that it was driving advertisers away from by publishing research around hate speech on the platform. Mr Ahmed said: “I think that what he is doing is saying any criticism of me is unacceptable and he wants 10 million US dollars for it. “He said to the Anti-Defamation League, a venerable Jewish civil rights charity in the US, recently that he’s going to ask them for two billion US dollars for criticizing them. “What we’re seeing here is people who feel they are bigger than the state, than the government, than the people, because frankly, we’ve let them get away with it for too long. “The truth is that if they’re successful then there is no civil society advocacy, there’s no journalism on these companies. “That is why it’s really important we beat him. “We know that it’s going to cost us a fortune, half a million dollars, but we’re not fighting it just for us. “And they chose us because they know we’re smaller.” Mr Ahmed said the organisation was lucky to have the backing of so many individual donors. Recently, X owner Elon Musk said the company’s ad revenue in the United States was down 60%. In a post, he said the company was filing a defamation lawsuit against ADL “to clear our platform’s name on the matter of antisemitism”. For more information about CCDH visit: https://counterhate.com/ Read More Broadband customers face £150 hikes because of ‘outrageous’ rises – Which? Rise of AI chatbots ‘worrying’ after man urged to kill Queen, psychologist warns William hails ‘amazing’ eco-friendly start-up businesses Royal website subject to ‘denial of service attack’, royal source says TikTok finds and shuts down secret operation to stir up conflict in Ireland Spotify will not ban all AI-powered music, says boss of streaming giant
2023-10-06 09:45
China starts to slow yuan's one-way slide
SHANGHAI/BEIJING China set a stronger-than-expected trading band for its currency on Tuesday and state banks sold dollars against
2023-06-27 15:30
Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story Announced
Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story has been announced since 2021, but another video by Riot Forge this morning has stated its new release date.
1970-01-01 08:00
Shohei Ohtani's future is still uncertain as the Angels ponder a momentous decision
Shohei Ohtani’s future has been the talk of baseball all year long, and the forecast isn’t much clearer as the Los Angeles Angels reach the last 10 days before the MLB trade deadline
2023-07-22 14:59
SpaceX hints next Starship launch attempt could be soon
SpaceX has hinted that flight tests of its Mars-bound Starship rocket system could begin to occur on a more frequent basis following a successful launch on Saturday. The tallest and most powerful rocket ever built lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, seven months after the first launch attempt. Unlike the first attempt, both parts of the rocket were able to separate in mid-air without immediately exploding, while the newly-built launch pad was also able to withstand the force of the 33 Raptor engines firing simultaneously. “Just inspected the Starship launch pad and it is in great condition,” SpaceX boss Elon Musk posted on X on Sunday. “No refurbishment needed to the water-cooled steel plate for next launch. Congrats to SpaceX team and contractors for engineering and building such a robust system so rapidly!” The second flight test of the fully-stacked Starship rocket was beset by delays due to the high levels of debris from the destroyed launchpad and exploded rocket following the failed first attempt. Regulators said they would be working with SpaceX before a third flight test takes place, with the US Federal Aviation Administration confirming that no injuries or property damage was reported following Saturday’s launch. The fully-stacked Starship rocket system was the first to successfully perform a hot-stage separation, which saw the upper second stage launch away from the Super Heavy Booster mid-flight. Both parts of the rocket were destroyed shortly after they achieved separation, however SpaceX already has two Super Heavy boosters and three upper-stage vehicles currently undergoing preliminary testing, according to Next Spaceflight. Mr Musk has previously outlined his plans to build a fleet of hundreds of Starship rockets, with the hope of using them to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2050. SpaceX has already secured a multi-billion dollar contract with Nasa to develop Starship for the US space agency’s Artemis program, which will return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time in 50 years. Read More SpaceX launches ‘zero fuel’ engine into space SpaceX Starship rocket loses contact after reaching space: Live updates Air Force officer breaks silence over ‘red, glowing’ UFO sighting: ‘Not a joke’
2023-11-20 22:08
MLB Rumors: 3 Braves backup plans after striking out on Aaron Nola
With Aaron Nola re-signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves will need to turn their attention elsewhere to fortify their starting rotation.
2023-11-20 01:57
Chile lithium miner SQM builds inventories as prices slide
SQM, the world's second-largest lithium producer, said on Thursday it is building its lithium inventories as it continues
2023-11-17 00:43
Japan to open up Apple- and Google-dominated phone apps to competition
TOKYO Japan plans to stoke competition in smartphone app payments, dominated by Apple and Google, by banning major
2023-06-17 16:13
Parents of Christian Glass call for Colorado sheriff’s resignation over fatal police shooting
The parents of Colorado motorist Christian Glass – who was fatally shot by police after calling 911 for help – have called for the resignation of the sheriff in the same county whose commissioners on Tuesday released a statement underscoring their lack of faith in him. The Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners “completely supports the Glass Family’s efforts to ensure that events such as the killing of Christian will never be repeated,” the board said in the statement, just days before the one-year anniversary of the young man’s death. It continued: “The Board does not believe that the Sheriff has adequately accepted responsibility for his central role in this tragedy or the need to swiftly correct all of the gaps in training and protocols that existed at the time of Christian’s death.” Christian was shot dead after calling 911 on 10 June 2022 after his car became stuck in a dark, rural and rocky area near Silver Plume, an old mining post. Former Clear Creek deputies Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould – who were terminated by the sheriff’s office following the shooting – have been charged in Christian’s death and are awaiting trial. They have pleaded not guilty. The commissioners’ statement came two weeks after the announcement that the Glass family would receive a $19m payout, the largest for police misconduct in the state of Colorado. Christian’s parents, Sally and Simon – from the UK and New Zealand, respectively – have vocally called for more charges to be filed. Seven officers responded from five agencies and spoke with Christian for more than an hour before he was tased and fatally shot as he sat in the driver’s seat. On Tuesday, the Glass family released a statement serving to “applaud” the board of commissioners’ “commitment to ensuring that the senseless and preventable use of force that resulted in the tragic murder of their son, Christian, never happens again. “Sheriff Albers’ refusal to accept any personal responsibility for this unjustifiable loss of life demonstrates a lack of leadership and a disregard for the trust placed in him by the community,” the statement read. “Sally and Simon Glass join the Board in condemning Sheriff Albers’ conduct and call for his resignation. “By resigning, Sheriff Albers can begin to acknowledge and take responsibility for the failures that occurred under his watch. Only then can we begin to rebuild the shattered trust between law enforcement and the community they are sworn to protect.” The Independent has reached out to the sheriff’s office but did not immediately hear back on Tuesday. Sheriff Albers released an apology to the family last month along with the announcement of the historic settlement. “The events that transpired the night of June 10-11, 2022, that ended in Christian’s death, continue to be disturbing,” he wrote. “The initial press release did not give an accurate description of what occurred. Rather, as stated in the conclusion of the investigative report ... the deputy who killed Christian Glass used lethal force that ‘was not consistent with that of a reasonable officer.’” Four Colorado state governments will each pay parts of the newly announced settlement with the Glass family to reach the record amount. In addition to the funds, the family will also receive assurances that the state and its police agencies are enacting measures to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur again. As part of its statement on Tuesday, the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners wrote: “The County’s Emergency Medical Services and Human Services Divisions were directed to research and implement a mental health crisis co-responder program. The pilot for this program will launch this summer with grant funds and staffing secured by the Board. “We are also pursuing a partnership with a regional communications center that already has extensive experience with co-responder programs, training, and protocols in place to effectively differentiate between mental health crises and public safety concerns.” It concluded: “We understand that no amount of money can bring Christian back or ease his family’s pain. Christian’s killing never should have happened, and the Board is unanimously committed to doing its part to ensure that a reprehensible act like this is prevented from ever happening again.” Read More Christian Glass called 911 when his car got stuck – then police shot him dead. Now, his parents need justice Family of Christian Glass, who was shot dead by police after calling 911, receives record $19m settlement Parents of Christian Glass, fatally shot by police, appeal for end to gun violence: ‘People are scared’ Family of Colorado man shot by police moments after making heart shape with his hands say they want justice George Floyd death anniversary: Reckoning with police violence in limbo
2023-06-07 03:42
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