PEP GUARDIOLA is losing sleep trying to handle his first crisis at Manchester City. And the Etihad boss says rivals are “taking the p” out of his faltering Prem champions. City visit runaway leaders Liverpool today on the back of a six-game winless run. Defeat would leave them 11 POINTS adrift of Arne Slot’s side. Guardiola confessed: “I don’t like it. I don’t enjoy it at all. “I don’t sleep as good as when I won every game. “Maybe it’s more unusual to win four Premier League titles in a row. In that moment I was stable enough, I was happy because I eat better and sleep better.” Guardiola, 53, confessed scratches on his head and a cut nose were self- inflicted after he watched City blow a 3-0 lead in 14 minutes in Tuesday’s Champions League draw at home to Feyenoord. That followed five defeats in all competitions — the Catalan’s worst run of his managerial career. And he accepts his rivals are LOVING seeing City struggle. Guardiola said: “As is normal in sport, they take the p and they laugh at your defeats. “At least there’s respect. There’s no violence and this kind of stuff. It is part of how nice football is that people can laugh at you when it’s not going well. FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS “But this shall pass — I don’t know when but nothing is eternal, not even our lives. “When I face this situation with my heart this is normal but maybe not in these six games.” Guardiola says he is making his players “suffer” to pull City out of their dive — and revealed he wants to build another great squad. One of the reasons he signed a new two-year deal last month was to put that plan into action. Guardiola added: “At the right moment, the club — myself first — will take the decisions we have to take to maintain the club for many years to come. “I want to be here. I asked to be here to try it.”In today’s news headlines, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has ramped up operations along the Zimbabwean border in Limpopo and revealed that pregnant women are crossing the border illegally to access social grants for their children. The SANDF faced criticism from EFF MP Carl Niehaus over the conduct of deployed soldiers. However, Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Angie Motshekga dismissed allegations of general misconduct within the force. It was a bad day for taxi drivers in Soshanguve, Tshwane, on Friday as 264 unroadworthy vehicles were taken off the road. The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) said the taxis were targeted in a “massive pre-dawn crackdown” involving the National Traffic Police, National Traffic Ant-Corruption Unit, Tshwane Metro Police and South African Police. In sports, Kaizer Chiefs wasted a good opportunity to move up to third position on the Betway Premiership. Meanwhile the Proteas cruised to a 233-run victory over Sri Lanka with more than a day to spare in the opening Test in Durban on Saturday. News Today: 30 November 2024 The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued an alert for extremely high fire danger conditions over the Free State, North West and the central and eastern parts of the Northern Cape on Sunday. Read the full forecast here Stay up to date with The Citizen – More News, Your Way. Motshekga dismisses allegations of ‘rampant ill-disciple’ in SANDF While her office acknowledged being aware of an incident that occurred last year, Minister Angie Motshekga refuted claims that such behavior was a norm in the defence force. “Yes, the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans has been briefed by the Chief of the SANDF, and is aware of incidents of ill-discipline and misconduct by some of our soldiers deployed in the Eastern DRC under Monusco.” Read more here SANDF says pregnant women entering South Africa illegally to secure grants Speaking to the media, the SANDF’s Major Shihlangoma Mahlahlane revealed that there is an increase in pregnant women entering the country so they can register their children as South African citizens. On Thursday, the SANDF’s Operation Corona conducted night patrols to combat illegal immigration. Read more here In the news: More than 250 taxis removed from Tshwane’s roads The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) said the taxis were targeted in a “massive pre-dawn crackdown” involving the National Traffic Police, National Traffic Ant-Corruption Unit, Tshwane Metro Police and South African Police. Taxis without proper permits, that were unroadworthy and that were suspected to be stolen were identified. Read more here In the news: MK party refutes claims its ‘targeting’ ANC and EFF members for growth [VIDEO] As the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party prepares to mark a year since its formation, the party said it is not targeting the Africa National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for growth. Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party, founded on 16 December, is gearing up to celebrate its first anniversary as a political force in South Africa. Read more here South Africa end fightback from Sri Lanka to win first Test in Durban Though the tourists put up a gutsy fight on day four, the Proteas coasted to a 233-run victory over Sri Lanka with more than a day to spare in the opening Test in Durban on Saturday. Resuming their second innings at 103/5 in the morning session, still needing 413 runs to win with only five wickets in hand, Sri Lanka’s batters dug deep. Read more here Gutsy Royal AM hold wasteful Kaizer Chiefs to a draw Kaizer Chiefs wasted a good opportunity to move up to third position on the Betway Premiership standings when they let a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Royal AM at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday night. Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi made two changes to the team that won 2-1 against Richards Bay midweek. Read more here Atticus Finch mocks the Summer Cup favourites Atticus Finch produced a storming finish to win the R6-million Betway Summer Cup at Turffontein over 2000m on Saturday. Trained by Alec Laird and ridden by Calvin Habib, the five-year-old gelding started at odds of 20-1 – continuing a modern trend of outsiders winning Joburg’s premier horse race. Read more here ‘I am so grateful to Minister Gayton McKenzie’: Makhadzi Multi-award-winning musician Makhadzi has expressed her gratitude to the Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, for his support ahead of her upcoming one-woman show. After pledging in October this year to purchase 200 tickets, the minister exceeded his promise by buying 600 tickets. Read more here More news headlines Seven Chinese nationals deny trafficking, say Malawian workers came to SA ‘willingly’ How to avoid being a ‘soft target’ for criminals this festive season
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Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City’s rivals will be laughing at their form - The Guardian
PR Newswire reveals the 12 key trends in the public relations industryEx-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died
Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense , has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy. Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, a controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity in the public sphere. In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show “Crosspolitic,” Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a “spiritual battle” with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as “boot camp.” “We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations – and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,” he said on the show. Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for an interview. Hegseth has spoken positively about Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson’s writings Christ Church is led by Pastor Doug Wilson, who founded the Calvinist group of churches called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. CREC has congregations in nearly all 50 states and several foreign countries. Hegseth’s church is a member of CREC, and Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson’s writings. Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don’t believe in the separation of church and state. They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community. Recently, Wilson has increased his influence nationally as he’s built a religious, educational and media empire. His Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of fundamentalist schools around the country, and his publishing outfit Canon Press churns out dozens of titles a year as well as popular streaming shows that highlight unyielding socially conservative ideals. In the recently released podcast, “Extremely American” (created by this reporter), Wilson says one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. In an emailed response for this story, he said he’s closer to that post-election and that he supports Hegseth’s nomination, though he downplayed any influence he has on him. “I was grateful for Trump’s win, and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration,” he said. Hegseth nomination could threaten cohesion, diversity of U.S. military, experts say That’s what worries Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who is the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein says Hegseth, if confirmed as secretary of Defense, would threaten the cohesion of a religiously and racially diverse U.S. military. “Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who’s controlling the technologically most lethal organization in the history of this country,” he said. Weinstein sees Hegseth’s nomination as an example of the dangers of Project 2025, a 900-page policy paper written by far-right political activists. It lays out a plan to gut the federal government and install Christian nationalist ideals. “Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country,” he said. “It is a Christian version of the Taliban.” Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said Hegseth is “one of the most extreme far right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory.” Taylor said he’s broadly concerned about Christian nationalists, who tend to take a dim view of democracy, potentially having a lot of sway in this administration. “I think we should expect a profound degradation of our democratic norms of the rule of law, and I think we are edging closer to a de facto Anglo Protestant establishment, of the kind where Anglo Protestant Christianity as the de facto official religion in the United States,” he said. Hegseth faces some headwinds in his nomination process due to multiple marital sex scandals and the recent revelation that he paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in exchange for her not speaking about it. He denies he assaulted her but admits he paid her . He’s also gotten criticism for tattoos that are symbols of the Crusades and wrote a book titled “American Crusade,” where he derides Muslims. Before becoming a TV personality, Hegseth led the conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, which advocated for increased privatization of veterans’ health care. He has also said that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military, and has complained about what he terms “woke” policies in the military. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: [email protected] . Follow Idaho Capital Sun on Facebook and X .Arsenal thump West Ham with five-star show to go second
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JHELUM: Former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry has issued a stern warning about the escalating political crisis in Pakistan, stating that if the current tensions are not defused, the situation could devolve into widespread violence. In a statement, the former PTI leader blast Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s recent speech as “foolish” and denounced the Punjab government’s media campaign against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as “absurd.” He expressed concern that the provocative rhetoric from both sides, including speeches in the Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, could lead the country into a dangerous conflict. Chaudhry stressed the need for immediate dialogue to de-escalate the situation, urging that the political temperature must be lowered to prevent further destabilization. “If the temperature is not brought down, this political crisis could turn into a regular fight,” he cautioned, calling for talks to resume as soon as possible. Meanwhile, in a bold response, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur lashed out at the federal government, stating that the province would not be intimidated by the threat of Governor’s rule. “If the federal government has the courage, it should show it,” Gandapur declared, challenging the authorities to take action. He dismissed the government’s threats, saying, “We are not afraid. My people are not terrorists. We will not stand idly by when faced with violence, and if it comes to that, we will not run.” Gandapur also made it clear that the provincial government and its supporters would not back down in their struggle for autonomy. “We will continue to fight peacefully for our rights, but we are not afraid of a fight. If the government wants to impose its will through force, we will respond accordingly,” he warned, hinting at the province’s readiness to defend itself with force if necessary. In his fiery remarks, Gandapur emphasized the sacrifices made by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s people, referencing past incidents such as the violent clashes at D Chowk, Anarkali, and Model Town, where the military intervened and lives were lost. He vowed that the blood of martyrs would not go in vain and that the provincial government would not back down from defending its rights, regardless of the challenges. As tensions continue to rise, the political situation in Pakistan remains volatile, with calls for dialogue and peace being overshadowed by increasingly combative rhetoric from both sides. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );Iran issues demarche to Swiss, Italian diplomats over US-ordered arrests of citizens
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