The highly anticipated arrival of Sora, the latest AI-powered innovation from tech giant OpenAI, has been met with a dose of skepticism as the company unexpectedly poured cold water on the excitement surrounding its launch. Promising to revolutionize the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Sora's debut was supposed to mark a significant leap forward in the field. However, OpenAI's recent announcement has left many wondering if the hype was premature.Perhaps the answers lie in the pasts of the female master's degree holder and Mr. X. Perhaps they hold the key to unlocking the mystery behind this curious incident. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain - the truth behind the events of that fateful night is eagerly awaited by all who have been following this captivating saga.
Brown-Forman Increases Cash Dividend for 41st Consecutive YearVine Xiaoxuan, known for her viral dance videos and vibrant social media presence, has been at the center of attention in recent weeks due to alleged rumors of a romantic involvement with a popular actor. Despite the speculation and gossip circulating online, the internet sensation took to her official social media accounts to set the record straight and clarify the situation.
GDIN CEO Jongkap Kim: “By matching technology needs with local markets, we create long-lasting joint ventures with multiple exit opportunities.” SEOUL, South Korea , Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Global Digital Innovation Network (GDIN), led by CEO Jongkap Kim, proudly announced the major achievements of its 2024 Joint Venture Program. This program, which supports the establishment of joint ventures between South Korean companies and international partners, is designed to lower market entry barriers and create sustainable growth opportunities through local collaborations. Since the launch of the program in 2021, GDIN has supported the establishment of 44 joint ventures across various regions. This year alone, 10 joint ventures were successfully launched in 8 countries including the United States , Canada , Japan , India , Singapore , Vietnam , UAE, and Uganda . The Joint Venture Program was created to address a common challenge faced by early-stage tech companies: while they may have products and services that meet market demand, they often lack the resources and workforce to enter international markets. Through this program, GDIN helps companies increase their chances of success by facilitating strategic market entry via local partnerships. In addition to the 44 joint ventures established so far, 47 partnership agreements are in the pipeline for future joint ventures. The program’s success is largely attributed to GDIN’s extensive global network of partners, which includes government organizations, multinational corporations, and international agencies such as the World Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Investment Turkey etc. GDIN has organized multiple technology matching and investor relations events to introduce Korean companies and their innovative technologies to potential international partners. At the year-end performance report event, held on December 19 , GDIN recognized companies that successfully established joint ventures. Changsoft I&I, a digital construction management system company, was highlighted for its success in establishing joint ventures in Japan and Vietnam . CFO Jongeun Park of Changsoft I&I shared, “We were facing stagnating revenue growth, and expanding into new markets was critical. With GDIN’s support, we were able to establish joint ventures in Japan and Vietnam , allowing us to tailor our products to local market needs.” Other companies that successfully established joint ventures in 2024 include Medicos Biotech, Bloomsbury Lab, Arbaim, Eucast, Pixelro, Hansol root one, Eco-Peace, and IESG. GDIN CEO Jongkap Kim commented, “Unlike simple joint investments or distribution networks, these technology-driven joint ventures are based on market demand, ensuring their long-term sustainability. If these joint ventures achieve success in the local markets and even go public, they could offer multiple exit opportunities, creating a strong growth model for all involved.” About GDIN Global Digital Innovation Network (formerly known as Born2Global Centre), registered under the Ministry of Science & ICT, is an independent foundation that promotes and fosters collaboration between next-level innovative companies from South Korea and the world. Since 2013, we have established over 160 international partnerships, supported over 3,000 tech companies, conducted over 20,000 consulting services, and helped companies raise $3.6 billion USD in investments. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/gdin-successfully-supports-establishment-of-10-new-joint-ventures-in-2024-alone-302337081.html SOURCE GDIN
Expelled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s whereabouts have been revealed after fleeing Syria. Assad, along with his family, have arrived in Moscow on Sunday and granted asylum, according to the TASS news agency, which received the information from a Kremlin source. “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them asylum,” the source said. In Syria, celebrations are taking place after rebels captured the capital of Damascus, triggering the collapse of Assad’s government and the end of his 24-year reign. Assad left with his wife and two children, their location remaining unknown until now. “At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice,” U.S. President Joe Biden said after the overtaking. “It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty as we all turn to the question of what comes next.” A popular LA radio host has died at 44 years old, loved ones said. Robin Ayers, a personality on KBLA 1580 Talk, died on Thursday, according to fellow broadcaster Tavis Smiley .Her cause of death has not been released. “Robin was a bright light. You could see her radiant smile through the radio. We all respected her immense talent, loved her jovial spirit, celebrated her love of family, and honored her faith in God," Smiley wrote on X. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Robin’s entire family, most especially her husband Rob and her twin daughters Brooklyn and Madison.” On Friday, KBLA Talk 150 opened up phone lines and listeners could call in and talk about Ayers and their memories of the star, who was also an entertainment reporter. Prior to being a host for “The RA Report with Robin Ayers,” she was a stylist in Hollywood for 15 years. Her last Instagram post showed Ayers spending time with her family in New York City, where they celebrated Thanksgiving and her twin daughters' 18th birthday. If you’re trying to pick up gifts for the loved ones on your list, here’s a tip: everyone appreciates the gift of softer and more manageable hair and skin. 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The Disney sequel won the box office for the second week in a row, earning $52 million over the post-Thanksgiving weekend. It’s the largest total ever for the post-holiday weekend, besting Disney’s own Frozen 2 ($35.1 million) for the crown. Wicked followed its fellow musical for the No. 2 title, earning $34.9 million throughout the weekend. The film, the first in the two-part tale, became the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation of all time. Gladiator II completed the trifecta for a second week in a row, earning $12.4 million. The weekend also saw the return of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which played in various IMAX theaters for its 10th anniversary. The film scored at No. 6 for the weekend with $4.5 million. New York Police Department detectives arrived in Atlanta on Saturday as the search for the UnitedHealthcare assassin continues. Officers traveled to the Georgia city after receiving a large number of tips linked to the yet-to-be unidentified suspect wanted in the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, ABC News reported . The Atlanta Police Department confirmed the arrival of NYPD officers, but reportedly declined to provide additional details. The suspected shooter allegedly arrived in New York on Nov. 24 on a Greyhound bus from Atlanta . On Dec. 4, the masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where the insurance executive’s company was holding an investors conference. After the shooting, police say that the suspected gunman boarded a bus out of New York City. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the murder as “brazen” and “targeted.” And, while the suspect remains at large, authorities released new images of the suspected shooter on Saturday and investigators are said to have followed leads in multiple states. 🚨UPDATE: Below are photos of a person of interest wanted for questioning regarding the Midtown Manhattan homicide on Dec. 4. The full investigative efforts of the NYPD are continuing, and we are asking for the public's help—if you have any information about this case, call the... https://t.co/U4wlUquumf pic.twitter.com/243V0tBZOr Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission. As any true audiophile already knows, Amazon Music Unlimited has long been a reliable destination for an elevated listening experience. With millions of high-quality songs and an unparalleled collection of top ad-free podcasts, the platform’s catalog is curated to capture both your attention and your imagination. Now, Amazon is raising the bar with an exciting update: Audible is officially joining Amazon Music Unlimited, cementing the brand’s status as an all-in-one audio hub . Audible’s industry-leading catalog of audiobooks features an expansive selection of can’t-miss bestsellers, hot-off-the-press exclusives, and timeless classics to immerse yourself in. As an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber, you’ll be free to select one book each month (of any length) and listen to it directly in the Amazon Music app . Whether you’re a fiction buff ready to dive into a thrilling new adventure or a non-fiction enthusiast looking to expand your horizons, Audible’s expansive collection is sure to have the right title that matches your tastes. Plus, when you’re ready to take a break from the book, you can seamlessly swap back to your favorite tunes and podcast episodes —all without having to leave the app. It’s all the audio that you’ll ever need, all in one place! Best of all, this game-changing update is arriving just in time for the holiday season: start a new subscription , and enjoy your first three months of Amazon Music Unlimited, completely for free. Audio art, conversation, and storytelling—all in one place. What’s not to love? Sign up today and get lost in the sound . Mariah Carey shut down rumors that her new Christmas video was generated by artificial intelligence, claiming bad lighting and red lipstick were to blame for the odd visuals. Carey, who filmed a Christmas-themed video thanking her fans, had commenters questioning if the video was actually real with one user writing, “that is AI for sure!!” Another chimed in, “Definitely AI. It’s always something off with the eyes.” The clip, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of her album, “Merry Christmas,” was made for Spotify Wrapped, and shown to users who counted Carey as one of their most-listened artists. Carey responded to the backlash from the video, saying it was the red lipstick and lighting throwing viewers off. “Bad lighting and a red lip have you all thinking this is AI?? There’s a reason I’m not a fan of either of those things,” she wrote on X. One fan responded, “It must be hard being so gorgeous that nobody believes you’re real.” . @MariahCarey with an exclusive message for her top fans on Spotify Wrapped. pic.twitter.com/ODo5DHW5ih A $2 million dollar home in Nantucket was broken into by high schoolers after the homeowner ignored their AirBnB request. The owner, Edith Stone Lentini, received rental request for the home for Oct. 28 about a Halloween party for 14-15 year olds. “My daughter wants to throw a little Halloween party for her and her friends and I was wondering if that’s possible,” the AirBnB rental request message read, obtained by the Nantucket Current . “I would be there to monitor the kids and it would just be a fun get together.” After ignoring the “sketchy” request, a police officer called her one night informing her a rager was being thrown at the house. Police told Lentini that the high schoolers broke in through an unlocked window, and threw the party despite the ignored request. The teenagers took extraordinary caution, however: rolling up the white rug, taking all the pictures off the walls, moving furniture aside and more. “As much as I’m upset about this, they did take care of the house,” Lentini told the Nantucket Current. “The most damage was just sticky floors. They even put ‘do not enter’ tape around the TV stand.” The house rents for $5,500 a week in the summer, and was worth an estimated $2.3 million. Photos of the home can be seen on realtor.com , with the last sale in 2012 for $1.3 million. CNN political commentator Alisyn Camerota announced on Sunday she would leave the network. “Big News, Everyone! — today is my last day on CNN,” she wrote on Instagram, sharing that her sign-off would be early Sunday evening. Camerota joined the network in 2014 after a 16-year stint at Fox News, hosting its New Day morning show for years alongside Chris Cuomo before a move to afternoons in 2021. After Warner Bros. Discovery assumed control of CNN, Camerota floated through various positions at the network, including as its 11 p.m. host before an eventual floating role as a political commentator and fill-in anchor. Camerota disclosed in July that her husband of nearly 23 years, Tim Lewis, died after a battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. “I cannot imagine any human being soldiering through a devastating diagnosis with more humor, humility and bravery than Tim,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “He was a phenomenal father, husband, friend and role model and the rest of us are left trying to follow in his footsteps.” Aside from her role at CNN, where she won two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award, Camerota is a best-selling author, publishing both a children’s book and a memoir. Her memoir, Combat Love, is being adapted for film and television. Barry Keoghan addressed his abrupt departure from Instagram after he deactivated his account on the platform Friday night. The actor took to X asking fans be “respectful” of him and his loved ones after his name was “dragged across the internet” following news of his breakup with Sabrina Carpenter on Tuesday. Since their split, internet rumors have swirled that Keoghan cheated on the pop star. Some suggested he had a tryst with influencer Breckie Hill, a claim Hill seemingly confirmed when she re-posted a TikTok about their speculated romance. Keoghan, however, made no mention of Hill in his statement. “The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent, and every other inhumane thing you can imagine,” the actor wrote , accusing trolls of “Knocking on my grannies door. Sitting outside my baby boys house intimidating them.” Keoghan, who has a young son, also pleaded with social media users to think of his child before they post about him. “I need you to remeber (sic) he has to read ALL of this about his father when he is older,” he said. Please be respectful x pic.twitter.com/N03eHAIbC8 Scouted selects products independently. 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Dumont is best-known for portraying Oppenheimer’s sister-in-law Jackie Oppenheimer in the 2023 Oscar-winning blockbuster. They have also portrayed Lorna Dane/Polaris in Fox’s 2017 X-men adaptation series The Gifted , also scoring a role in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Licorice Pizza . Next they are set to star in a film called The New Me , about a young mother struggling to connect with her baby and husband, according to IMDb . The film does not have a release date yet, but Dumont has updated their listed pronouns on Instagram to reflect their life update. “Only call me Nick if ur cool okay?” they wrote on their updated Instagram profile. The family of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, 78, said he is in the “early stages” of Alzheimer’s and battling another blood-born disease that is “causing problems with his entire body.” Robertson’s son Jase broke the news Friday on an episode of the Unashamed with the Robertson Family podcast. “Phil’s not doing well. We were trying to figure out the diagnosis, but according to the doctors, they are sure that he has some sort of blood disease causing all kinds of problems,” said Jase, 55. He added, “And he has early stages of Alzheimer’s. So, if you put those things together, he’s just not doing well.” Robertson rose to fame with the popularity of the hit 2012 A&E show, which followed the Louisiana family of seven as they operated their lucrative duck call and decoy business, Duck Commanders. When the show ended in 2017, Robertson became a conservative figurehead with his support of President-elect Donald Trump . According to Jase, Robertson is hoping to return to hosting the podcast. “I’m like, ‘Well Phil, you can barely walk around without crying out in pain, and your memory is not what it once was,’” said Jase. “He’s like, ‘Tell me about it.’”The proposed ban on DJI and Da Jiang Innovations is the latest in a series of measures aimed at strengthening national security oversight of emerging technologies. In recent years, the US government has taken steps to restrict the use of Chinese-made equipment in critical infrastructure, citing concerns over potential backdoors and vulnerabilities that could be exploited by foreign adversaries. The ban on DJI drones reflects a broader trend toward greater scrutiny of technology imports and a more cautious approach to foreign investments in strategic sectors.
Together, we mourn the loss of a bright young soul and stand in solidarity against the forces of darkness that seek to sow fear and division. In the spirit of unity and resilience, may we find hope and healing in the midst of adversity, and strive to create a future where such senseless tragedies are but distant memories in the annals of history. Let us remember Alex Johnson and all those who have fallen victim to violence, as beacons of light guiding us towards a brighter tomorrow.
Donald Trump vows to pardon January 6 Capitol attack defendants on day one
In conclusion, the proposed ban on DJI and Da Jiang Innovations represents a significant escalation in the national security review of Chinese drone manufacturers. As the US government seeks to safeguard critical infrastructure and protect sensitive data, it faces difficult decisions about how to balance security concerns with economic considerations and technological advancements. The outcome of this debate will have far-reaching implications for the drone industry, national security, and the future of US-China relations.Hubbard scores 14 of his 25 points late as Mississippi State pulls away from Prairie View A&M, 91-84Ajit Pawar Retains NCP Bastion Baramati By Defeating Nephew Yugendra In Pawar Family Showdown
3. Avoid picking or peeling off nail polish, as this can damage the nail bed and lead to complications.Excited and nervous, the released prisoner started running, eager to leave behind the memories of his life as a convict. As he ran, the sounds of his footsteps echoed in the empty streets, a stark contrast to the cacophony of prison life. With each stride, he felt the weight of his past lifting off his shoulders, making way for a brighter future.
In conclusion, Elon Musk's cryptic emoji response to Volodymyr Zelensky's tweet has ignited speculation and debate, highlighting the power of a single symbol to convey complex emotions and ideas in the digital age. Whether signaling concern, skepticism, or simply a desire to provoke thought, Musk's use of the 🤔 emoji serves as a reminder of the nuances of online communication and the endless possibilities for interpretation in an interconnected world.
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox . Months before voters went to the polls in November, a group of election skeptics based in North Carolina gathered on a call and discussed what actions to take if they doubted any of the results. One of the ideas they floated: try to get the courts or state election board to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by voters whose registrations are missing a driver’s license number and the last four digits of a Social Security number. But that idea was resisted by two activists on the call, including the leader of the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network. The data was missing not because voters had done something wrong but largely as a result of an administrative error by the state. The leader said the idea was “voter suppression” and “100%” certain to fail in the courts, according to a recording of the July call obtained by ProPublica. This novel theory is now at the center of a legal challenge by North Carolina appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican who lost a race for a state Supreme Court seat to the Democratic incumbent, Allison Riggs, by just 734 votes and is seeking to have the result overturned. The state election board dismissed a previous version of the challenge , which is now being considered in federal court . Before the election, a Trump-appointed judge denied an attempt by the Republican National Committee to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls based on the same theory. The latest case is getting attention statewide and across the country. But it has not yet been reported that members of the group that had helped publicize the idea had cast doubt on its legality. “I don’t comment on pending litigation,” Griffin wrote to ProPublica in response to a detailed list of questions. “It would be a violation of our code of judicial conduct.” Embry Owen, Riggs’ campaign manager, disputed the challenge and called on Griffin to concede. “It’s not appropriate for this election to be decided in court, period. NC voters have already made the decision to send Justice Riggs back to the Supreme Court,” she said. The theory Griffin is citing originated with a right-wing activist, Carol Snow, who described herself to ProPublica in an email as “a Bona Fide Grade-A Election Denier.” Snow promoted it with the help of the state chapter of the Election Integrity Network, a national group whose leader worked with President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election. The network also was behind extensive efforts to prepare to contest a Trump loss this year in other states, as ProPublica has reported , as well as in North Carolina, according to previously unreported recordings and transcripts of meetings of the state chapter. State election officials have found that missing information on a voter’s registration is not disqualifying because there are numerous valid reasons for the state’s database to lack that those details. Those reasons include voters registering before state paperwork was updated about a year ago to require that information or using alternate approved documents, such as a utility bill, to verify their identities. What’s more, voters must still prove their identity when casting a ballot — most often with a driver’s license. “There is virtually no chance of voter fraud resulting from a voter not providing her driver’s license or social security number on her voter registration,” attorneys for the state election board wrote in response to the RNC lawsuit. Bob Orr, a former GOP state Supreme Court justice who left the Republican Party in 2021 , said he too doubts the theory. “I appreciate fighting for every vote: If you honestly think illegal votes have been cast, it’s legitimate to try to prove that,” he said. “But the bottom line is: Did anyone vote illegally? Have you been able to prove one person voted illegally? At this point, no. And we’re weeks past the election and multiple recounts, and there’s no evidence of that.” In modern history, the state board’s decision on who wins elections has been final, said Chris Cooper, a professor specializing in North Carolina politics at Western Carolina University. That includes an even tighter race in 2020, when a Democratic justice conceded to a Republican after protesting her 401-vote loss to the board. “We’re used to close elections, we’re used to protests, we’re used to candidates pushing every legal action up to the point the state election board rules,” Cooper said. But, he added, there is an important difference with Griffin’s petition, which goes beyond the state election board to the courts. “This is basically saying the state elections system is wrong, and we’re going to court to try to change the rules of the game after the game has been played — which is unprecedented.” In July 2024, the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network convened online to plan its efforts ahead of the presidential election. Worried about a surge of voter registrations from nonwhite voters who they believed would back Democrats, the activists discussed how to assemble a “suspicious voters list” of people whose ballots they could challenge. Then, one of the group’s board members, Jay DeLancy, said he had another idea “that’s a lot slicker.” DeLancy said that if a candidate lost a close election, the loss could be overturned by questioning the validity of voters whose registrations are missing their driver’s license and Social Security information. “Those are illegal votes,” he claimed. “I would file a protest.” Jim Womack, the leader of the chapter, immediately pushed back: “That’s a records keeping problem on the part of the state board. That’s not illegal.” Later in the call Womack said, “I’m 100% sure you’re not going to get a successful prosecution.” And he told the group, “That’s considered to be voter suppression, and there’s no way a court is going to find that way.” But DeLancy asked for backup from the originator of that theory: Carol Snow. She argued that her theory could in fact overturn the outcome of an election. “I guess we’re gonna find that out,” Snow said. Snow is a leader of the conservative activist group North Carolina Audit Force and lives in the state’s rural mountains. After Trump’s loss in 2020, she threw herself into questioning the election’s results. In 2022, she accompanied a pair of far-right activists to a North Carolina election office where the two men unsuccessfully tried to forcefully access voting machines, and she participated in a failed pressure campaign to oust the election director who resisted them, ProPublica previously reported . She also began filing overwhelming numbers of records requests and complaints to state election officials, an effort that Womack praised on the July call: “I think Carol has shown a way of really harassing — not that we want to do it for harassment purposes — but really needling the Board of Elections to do their jobs by just constantly deluging them.” Since late 2021, the state elections board had spent far more time on her requests and complaints than those of any other individual, spokesperson Patrick Gannon said in a statement. “Ms. Snow’s constant barrage of requests and complaints causes other priorities and responsibilities to suffer,” Gannon said. Snow described her work to ProPublica as “simply taking the time to learn about my state’s electoral process” and acting for the public good. “The records I’ve requested are owned by the public. In other words, I’m asking for what belongs to me,” Snow wrote to ProPublica . “If government agencies are understaffed and unable to comply with this state’s Public Records law, they should address the issue with the entities that fund them.” In the fall of 2023, Snow filed a complaint alleging that North Carolina’s voter registration form did not clearly require voters to provide their driver’s license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number, as required by federal law — instead that information was coded as optional. Snow later described the missing information as a “ line of attack ” through which bad actors could cast fraudulent votes using fake identities. (A right-wing conspiracy theory holds that this was how Biden won the 2020 election.) But she was not able to demonstrate that the missing information had led to anyone improperly voting. After obtaining public records for hundreds of thousands of voter registrations, Snow provided the state board with only seven examples of what she called potential double voting. The state board found all seven to be innocuous things like data entry errors . The state board quickly updated the form to require the information. But from late 2023 through the fall of 2024, six complaints , some of which were partly based on Snow’s theory, were filed with the state election board. Aside from the updates to the form, the state board dismissed the complaints. By the time of the July call, some of Snow’s peers seemed dismissive as well. “I’m not suggesting that we can’t arm a candidate that loses a short, a close race with the information they need to file a protest using this,” Womack said on the call. “But I would just suggest to you that that’s not the way to win on this thing.” Yet the information did end up in the Republican National Committee’s lawsuit trying to disqualify 225,000 voters, a challenge DeLancy filed against Riggs’ victory in North Carolina’s most populous county, and, the day after that was dismissed, Griffin’s challenge to over 60,000 voters. DeLancy wrote to ProPublica that he filed the challenge on his own and did not coordinate with Griffin. He also said he disagreed with Womack’s description of such challenges as “voter suppression.” Instead, he said, he saw it as “a proper response” to the state election board’s “violation of federal law.” “Carol Snow deserves an Order of the Long Leaf Pine for exposing this treasonous behavior on the part of the election officials,” he wrote, referring to an award bestowed by North Carolina’s governor . Womack wrote to ProPublica that the group he leads “is a non-partisan, neutral organization” that does “not favor one party over another.” He also said that recordings of the group’s calls are “prohibited and violate our internal policies” and “whatever bootleg recording you may have is unauthorized and may well be altered.” ProPublica has seen a video recording of the call and verified portions of it with some participants. Though Griffin’s challenge of Riggs’ victory is now being considered in federal court, legal experts say it could still end up back where he intended: in front of the state Supreme Court. Griffin’s petition is making what experts describe as extreme asks to the Supreme Court: to allow him to bypass the lower courts, to allow ballots to be thrown out without proving that voters did anything knowingly wrong and to essentially decide whether to change its composition to six Republicans and one Democrat. “Even if they do their best to be open-minded and independent, the facts of the potential conflicts of interest are just too obvious to the public,” said Orr, the former Republican justice. Griffin has described Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby as a “good friend and mentor,” and Newby promoted Griffin’s 2020 run for the court of appeals. What’s more, a ProPublica review of campaign finance reports show that the spouses of three justices, including Newby’s wife, donated over $12,000 to Griffin’s most recent or previous campaigns. (The husband of the Supreme Court’s other Democratic justice donated to Riggs.) Newby and other justices did not respond to a detailed list of questions sent to spokespeople for the Supreme Court. When announcing his candidacy for the Supreme Court , Griffin declared, “We are a team that knows how to win — the same team that helped elect Chief Justice Paul Newby and three other members of the current Republican majority.” A cartoon illustration that hangs in the Supreme Court depicts all the Republican appellate jurists as superheroes from the Justice League, with Newby caricatured as Superman and Griffin as the Flash.
Downing throws for 2 TDs, runs for another, Elon tops North Carolina A&T 31-21But alongside his stark warning of the threats facing Britain and its allies, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said there would be only a “remote chance” Russia would directly attack or invade the UK if the two countries were at war. The Chief of the Defence Staff laid out the landscape of British defence in a wide-ranging speech, after a minister warned the Army would be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict. The admiral cast doubt on the possibility as he gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) defence think tank in London. He told the audience Britain needed to be “clear-eyed in our assessment” of the threats it faces, adding: “That includes recognising that there is only a remote chance of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia on the United Kingdom, and that’s the same for the whole of Nato.” Moscow “knows the response will be overwhelming”, he added, but warned the nuclear deterrent needed to be “kept strong and strengthened”. Sir Tony added: “We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age, which is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.” The first nuclear age was the Cold War, while the second was “governed by disarmament efforts and counter proliferation”, the armed forces chief said. He listed the “wild threats of tactical nuclear use” by Russia, China building up its weapon stocks, Iran’s failure to co-operate with a nuclear deal, and North Korea’s “erratic behaviour” among the threats faced by the West. But Sir Tony said the UK’s nuclear arsenal is “the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on (President Vladimir) Putin than anything else”. Successive British governments had invested “substantial sums of money” in renewing nuclear submarines and warheads because of this, he added. The admiral described the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers on Ukraine’s border alongside Russian forces as the year’s “most extraordinary development”. He also signalled further deployments were possible, speaking of “tens of thousands more to follow as part of a new security pact with Russia”. Defence minister Alistair Carns earlier said a rate of casualties similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the need to “generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis”. In comments reported by Sky News, Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers killed or injured a day. “In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our Army for example, on the current casualty rates, would be expended – as part of a broader multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” Mr Carns said in a speech at Rusi. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger Army, but it does mean you need to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.” Official figures show the Army had 109,245 personnel on October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Mr Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” to place greater emphasis on the reserves. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defence Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces that were inherited from the previous government”. The spokesman said: “It’s why the Budget invested billions of pounds into defence, it’s why we’re undertaking a strategic defence review to ensure that we have the capabilities and the investment needed to defend this country.”
Reports: Saints concerned over QB Derek Carr's hand injuryThe village, nestled among the lush green mountains of western China, is known for its picturesque scenery and traditional way of life. However, the beauty of the surroundings is overshadowed by the state of the roads that connect the village to the outside world. Years of neglect and minimal upkeep have taken a toll on the road infrastructure, leaving it riddled with potholes, cracks, and uneven surfaces that pose a serious threat to both pedestrians and vehicles.Geek culture now more popular than football as nerdy hobbies takeover modern Britain