CHESTER, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2023--

Three tweets for bookmaker Betfred featuring Anthony Joshua have been banned after a watchdog found the boxer’s strong appeal among under-18s broke gambling ad rules. The first of the three posts in March and April, which promoted a forthcoming fight for the boxer, featured Joshua being interviewed by commentator Dom McGuinness about his diet ahead of his bout against Jermaine Franklin, with text stating: “How does @anthonyjoshua stay in shape? A diet consisting of bananas with rice & ketchup with sweetcorn. How does @ant_crolla stay in shape? Guinness.” The second tweet featured a video of Joshua being interviewed about how he prepares for fights, while the third included excerpts from an interview about his mentality when fighting. The ruling forms part of wider work by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banning gambling ads which, under strengthened rules, are prohibited for being likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. They were identified for investigation with the use of AI to search for online ads that might break the rules. Betfred acknowledged that Joshua is “undoubtedly a star in the sport of boxing”, but said he is reaching the end of his career and, therefore, the ads posed a low risk of appealing to children. Social media data showed that none of Joshua’s followers on X/Twitter, Facebook or TikTok was registered as being between 13 and 17 years old, while 5 per cent of his Snapchat followers and 6.6 per cent of his Instagram followers were registered as being between 13 and 17 years old. Overall, the company said, he has 29.3 million followers worldwide, which it acknowledged means he has a substantial social media presence, with 1.1 million users registered as being under 18. He has 7.2 million followers in total in the UK and, assuming age breakdowns in the UK mirror worldwide figures, Betfred believes approximately 280,000 of Joshua’s UK followers are under 18. It acknowledged that the total number excludes Snapchat, for which it did not have UK-specific data. The ASA noted that Joshua is a 33-year-old former world champion boxer who is considered a high-profile “star” in the sport. It said: “Although they made up a small proportion of his total followers, we considered that over 1.1 million followers aged under 18 was a significant number in absolute terms. “We therefore considered that, because he had such large numbers of social media followers who were under 18, Mr Joshua was of inherent strong appeal to under-18s.” Betfred is committed to ensuring that our marketing does not have a strong appeal to under-18s, and we are firmly of the view that the posting of these interviews with Anthony Joshua in no way undermined that commitment Betfred The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form, adding: “We told Betfred not to include a person or character who had strong appeal to those under 18 years of age in their advertising in future.” Betfred said it will be seeking an independent review of “this unjust decision”. A spokesman said: “Betfred is committed to ensuring that our marketing does not have a strong appeal to under-18s, and we are firmly of the view that the posting of these interviews with Anthony Joshua in no way undermined that commitment. “It should also be remembered that the ASA did not receive a single complaint from a member of the public about our association with Anthony Joshua in this respect.” Read More Sarina Wiegman admits England learned ‘hard lesson’ against Belgium Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea need to give Nicolas Jackson ‘confidence’ Erik ten Hag says ‘only a matter of time’ until Manchester United form improves Alex Greenwood suffers head injury in England’s clash with Belgium We’re better than that – Dawid Malan deflects England heat from Matthew Mott Sir Bobby Charlton funeral announced for November 13

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A new artificial intelligence breakthrough could revolutionise weather forecasts, its creators say. The new technology, built by Google Deepmind, allows for 10-day weather forecasts to be produced in just a minute. And it does so with unprecedented accuracy, Deepmind said. The forecasts made by the GraphCast system are not only more accurate but produced more efficiently, meaning they can be made more quickly and with fewer resources. It can also help spot possible extreme weather events, being able to predict the movement of cyclones and provide early alerts of possible floods and extreme temperatures. Google therefore says it could help save lives by allowing people to better prepare. At the moment, weather forecasts usually rely on a system called Numerical Weather Prediction, which combined physics equations with computer algorithms that are run on supercomputers. That requires vast computing resources as well as detailed expertise by weather forecasters. The new system is one of a range of technologies that instead use deep learning. Instead of looking at physical equations, it learns from weather data and then uses that to model how the Earth’s weather changes over time. Creating the model was intensive, since it required training on decades of weather data. But now that it is created it could vastly reduce the resources required for predicting the weather: 10-day forecasts take a minute on one machine, a process that might otherwise take hours and use hundreds of machines in a supercomputer. In use, the system was able to provide more accurate forecasts than the gold-standard traditional system in 90 per cent of tests, its creators write in a paper newly published in the journal Science. What’s more, the system is able to spot extreme weather events despite not being trained on it. In September for instance it had predicted the path of Hurricane Lee nine days before it arrived, compared to six days for traditional forecasts. Deepmind noted that GraphCast’s prediction of extreme temperatures could be particularly useful given the climate crisis. The system can predict areas where the heat will arrive above the historical top temperatures, allowing people to anticipate heat waves and prepare for them. The company will also open source the system so that it can be used by others. That may help with other new tools and research to help tackle environmental challenges, Deepmind said. Read More Battery breakthrough brings ‘unprecedented performance’ to next-gen cells Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram

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Women who smoke during pregnancy are 2.6 times more likely to give birth prematurely compared with non-smokers – more than double the previous estimate, new research suggests. The University of Cambridge study also found smoking meant the baby was four times more likely to be small for its gestational age, putting it at risk of potentially serious complications including breathing difficulties and infections. There was no evidence caffeine intake was linked to negative outcomes. We’ve known for a long time that smoking during pregnancy is not good for the baby, but our study shows that it’s potentially much worse than previously thought Professor Gordon Smith, University of Cambridge Professor Gordon Smith, head of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’ve known for a long time that smoking during pregnancy is not good for the baby, but our study shows that it’s potentially much worse than previously thought. “It puts the baby at risk of potentially serious complications from growing too slowly in the womb or from being born too soon. “We hope this knowledge will help encourage pregnant mums and women planning pregnancy to access smoking-cessation services. “Pregnancy is a key time when women quit and if they can remain tobacco free after the birth there are lifelong benefits for them and their child.” The NHS recommends that women who are pregnant should stop smoking and limit their caffeine intake because of the risk of complications to the baby. When the toxins from smoke travel through the bloodstream to the baby, it struggles for oxygen. When this happens it affects their development, and is linked to premature birth and low birthweight, though it has also been linked to a reduced risk of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy). High caffeine intake has also been linked to lower birthweight and possibly foetal growth restriction. But caffeine can be more difficult to avoid than cigarette smoke as, as well as being found in coffee and tea, it can be found in chocolate, energy drinks, soft drinks and certain medications. Researchers say studies looking at the links between smoking and caffeine and their impact on pregnancy tend to rely on people reporting how much they have consumed, or exposure to smoke, data which is not always reliable. Blood tests for metabolites – chemical by-products created when substances such as tobacco and caffeine are processed in the body – might be more accurate. Researchers at Cambridge and the Rosie Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, recruited more than 4,200 women who attended the hospital between 2008 and 2012 as part of the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction (POP) study. The team analysed blood samples taken from a group of these women four times during their pregnancies. To assess exposure to cigarette smoke, the team looked at levels of cotinine, which can be detected in blood, urine and saliva. Only two out of three women with detectable levels of cotinine in every blood sample were self-reported smokers, showing that this measure is a more objective way of assessing smoking behaviour, researchers say. A total of 914 women were included in the smoking analysis. Of these, 78.6% were classified as having no exposure to smoking while pregnant, 11.7% as having some exposure and 9.7% as having consistent exposure. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that compared with those without smoke exposure while pregnant, those with consistent exposure were 2.6 times more likely to experience spontaneous preterm birth. According to the researchers, this is more than double the previous estimate of 1.27 from an analysis of multiple studies. They were also 4.1 times as likely to experience foetal growth restriction. Additionally, babies born to smokers were found to be on average 387g lighter than babies born to non-smokers – that is, more than 10% smaller than the weight of an average newborn. This increases the risk that the baby will have a low birth weight (2.5kg or less), which in turn is linked to an increased risk of developmental problems as well as poorer health in later life. Unlike in previous studies, the team found no evidence that smoking reduced the risk of pre-eclampsia. To assess caffeine intake, researchers looked for the metabolite paraxanthine in 915 women. Of these women, 12.8% had low levels of paraxanthine throughout pregnancy (suggesting low caffeine intake), 74.0% had moderate levels and 13.2% had high levels. The researchers say there was little evidence of an association between caffeine intake and any of the negative outcomes. However, because the researchers did not study all possible adverse outcomes of pregnancy, and some of the outcomes not studied – such as stillbirth – have been associated with higher caffeine intake in previous studies, they cannot interpret the findings as indicating that current recommendations around caffeine intake should be changed. The work was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Medical Research Council. 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