World Series vision that got Nathan Eovaldi to the Rangers is the same one that got him to re-sign
UN nuclear watchdog board passes resolution chiding IranTitle: Chinese Main Stock Indexes Open Higher but Fall Back during Morning Trading
World is about to see off the biggest election year in history. Almost half of humanity was involved in election exercises across continents, ranging from large democracies like India , USA and Indonesia to island nations like Tuvalu with 11,000 population. Citizen voters, in over 70 countries, millions of them first timers, attempted to address their own situations at the voting booths. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for The last of the national elections came this Sunday in Chad in central Africa amidst an opposition boycott.Universal suffrage remains the spine that holds a dithering democratic fabric whose other ingredients are in constant debate. BR Ambedkar linked elections to political democracy, ushering conditions for equality and justice. But if elections are undermined by impurities, process glitches, fake narratives, boycotts, competing claims, street protests, violence or even abandoned midway, that could be the proverbial last nail. The Stockholm-based International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), in its report 'Global State of Democracy 2024', points to a certain erosion of credibility of elections compared to five years back, owing to declining turnout and other pathological conditions. The experience in India's neighborhood as elsewhere has been mixed at best. Declining interest Elections continue to be democracy's beautiful action play, especially the view of ordinary folks queuing up to vote. The average turnout of voters in elections this year is estimated to be at 61%. During the 15 years from 2008 to 2023, there has been a disconcerting decline of about 10% in voting across the world. India, with its electoral list inching towards a billion, has successfully reversed the trend by hitting the 65%-mark third time in a row, starting from 2014. Women turned out at a higher rate again in 2024 like in 2019. The best part of this year's last two assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra is the record turnout. Not a family show Campaigns have made elections a spectacle, an ugly one off late. Electioneering is developing as a democracy malfunction with misinformation, racist references, outright abuse and misogyny becoming its part. Poll time divisive narratives from top leaders could leave unremedied scars and dent unity. Champions of unbridled freedom do not find a problem with campaign rhetoric even of the most repelling imagery; that's what democracy and rights are about, they would say. But hate speech amplified by social media and made potent by artificial intelligence, is becoming a bigger concern because it is seen yielding electoral victories. Reasonable restrictions, enforced by India's model code, have been of partial help. Top-notch campaigners and party bosses must take the responsibility, a point hammered by Election Commission of India in recent polls.It is surprising that elections of the 21st century still veer around identity: in US elections, the segments read as: coloured women, white workers, Hispanic, Asian, college goers or dropouts and in Indian context it is: OBC, SC, ST, minority and majority religion. Each one is a vote bank, the contesting candidate reduced to a mascot. For the USA that swears by individual worth, one commentary after November polls was that it is not ready for a woman president yet and a coloured one at that. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrows Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Performance Marketing for eCommerce Brands By - Zafer Mukeri, Founder- Inara Marketers View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Strategy Succession Planning Masterclass By - Nigel Penny, Global Strategy Advisor: NSP Strategy Facilitation Ltd. View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Pam Moore By - Pam Moore, Digital Transformation and Social Media Expert View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Office Productivity Mastering Google Sheets: Unleash the Power of Excel and Advance Analysis By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Outcomes bite, limit the bitterness Worse is the growing trend of political contenders hesitant to accept statutorily derived results. One in five elections between 2020-2024, was challenged by the defeated candidates. Even as votes were getting counted to decide the 47th Presidency in the United States, the world was worriedly recalling the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Donald Trump notched an emphatic victory, but a moot question is what if it was otherwise. Joe Biden exuded the ultimate grace of democracy when he asked supporters to "bring down the temperature". On the electoral system, Biden further said, "It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose."Disappointment over electoral outcomes can be provoking. But polity and politicians in India and everywhere have an urgent obligation not to fall into a trap that could erode public trust. It will be myopic to shift blame to voting equipment or a standard procedure after an electoral loss. Well Commissioned India The Constitution of India has imaginatively raised certain institutions to serve as guarantors for the country's democratic arrangement. The ECI is the critical one which gathers the franchise, counts and delivers the result that is convertible to legislative and executive leadership. Its conduct of 18 Lok Sabha and over 400 assembly elections has been rated highly by all stakeholders and by the wider world, irrespective of seasonal grievances. One sufficient pointer to performance is the negligible re-polling in only 40 out of 10.5 lakh polling stations in the last Lok Sabha polls. Smooth conduct of both parliamentary and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, with high people's participation is another impressive statement.Election management bodies (EMBs) across countries are reforming and acquiring tech-backed efficiencies but voting and counting remain points of vulnerability. Safeguarding voters against lies, fakes and inducements is another ever expanding task. Unlike ECI, which has a staggering capacity for execution, others may require collaboration for ensuring electoral integrity. India clearly has a role to play. Last Defence The 2024 Economics Nobel recognises the role of democracy and its institutions like free and fair elections in upholding prosperity. Voting rights and correctness of representation have witnessed sizeable compromise in parts of the globe, but there have been elections this year, which immaculately embodied expression of people's will. The International IDEA underlines that India, and some other countries have "allowed the voters to have an effective voice". Good elections look like the last sure wall to not only prevent any democracy downslide, but also to enhance its promise. (The writer is former Director General, Election Commission of India) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )As Jack Harlow continues to make waves in the music world and carve out his own unique identity as an artist, his partnership with Marek Karska stands as a testament to the transformative power of mentorship. Through Karska's guidance, Harlow has not only honed his craft but has also found a mentor and friend who believes in his potential and champions his growth.
With the comprehensive rollout of personal pension plans, a new era of saving for retirement is on the horizon. The upcoming opportunity to open accounts and make contributions marks a significant step towards securing a stable financial future for individuals. Personal pension plans empower individuals to take control of their retirement savings, offering a range of benefits and incentives to encourage active participation.16-year-old St. Louis youth hockey player Colin Brown has passed away days after being shot while riding home from a hockey game. Colin Brown was shot in St. Louis last Saturday while in a vehicle on Interstate 55. According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department , Brown was hit by a stray bullet while being driven by his father, leaving a hockey game for Brown's team, CBC High School. The school posted their condolences on social media: The St. Louis Blues also offered condolences to the family of Brown, the team announcing they will be holding a pre-game moment this Saturday vs the Philadelphia Flyers to honor Brown's memory, which will include a 50/50 raffle in order to raise proceeds for the Brown family. In a statement, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones called Brown's passing: St. Louis Metro PD said in a statement that Brown's organs were donated to those in need. The family has asked for privacy at this time according to police. The Homicide Division, which is taking over the investigation, is asking for anyone with information to contact 314-444-5371. Anonymously, callers can contact CrimeStoppers, who is offering a reward of $5,000, at 866-371-TIPS (8477). This article first appeared on Hockey Patrol and was syndicated with permission.
EA Sports talked the talk in the build-up to EA FC 25's release, but the game has gained a bad reputation, and it is quickly dying. So, five years on from FIFA 19, has it's game actually improved? If you regularly play Ultimate Team, you'll know that EA FC 25 just isn't the same as past FIFA releases. The menu grind isn't there, and when you go to play the game, you're greeted with arguably the worst gameplay in years . When you combine the poor menu grind and underwhelming gameplay, you can understand why players have no reason to be playing EA FC 25. Just two months after the game's release, EA FC 25's audience reviews on Google currently give the game a 1.4 out of 5 – the lowest ever for any FIFA or EA Sports FC title. When you compare that to the 3.5 out of 5 rating given to FIFA 19 which still isn't that amazing, it shows what the majority of players currently think of the game. So, this got me thinking. Five years on, so many gameplay updates and changes have been made by EA Sports , has the gameplay in EA FC 25 actually improved from FIFA 19, or are players just jumping on the EA FC 25 bashing bandwagon? EA FC 25 vs FIFA 19 – which game is better? To put this to the test, I'm going to be reviewing different gameplay aspects of EA FC 25 compared to FIFA 19 to really see what game is better. Passing is one of the main gameplay features that's come under fire in EA FC 25, and with passing one of the most important elements of football, it makes the gameplay feel horrible when its not quite right. Well, as soon as I jumped back into FIFA 19, passing was the biggest difference I felt from FC 25. Instantly, I was able to play quick, smooth football, with the majority of my first time passes coming off. Compare that to FC 25, and although it may be more realistic, it was nowhere near as fun to use. Unless I was using someone like Rodri with the Tiki Taka PlayStyle Plus, nearly every ground pass was bouncy, slightly off target, and the biggest problem of all, every pass had a noticable input delay. Kevin De Bruyne has 92 passing in FIFA 19 and 94 in EA FC 25, so I used him a lot in this comparison, and long passing wise, the Belgian felt almost identical in both. But, I have to say, regular through balls were much better in FIFA 19 than EA FC 25, despite De Bruyne having the Incisive Pass PlayStyle Plus in the latter. There was also a lot more variation to passing in FIFA 19. De Bruyne made some visually impressive passes, while in FC 25, it was copy and paste visual-wise. It's clear that FC 25 has gone for more of a realism approach when it comes to passing, but compared to FIFA 19, it's just too slow and quite boring, so FIFA 19 passing is better to me. Dribbling has changed a lot over the years, and in FC 25, R1 dribbling, also known as agile dribbling, has made carrying the ball much easier and eye pleasing. In FIFA 19, unless you had pace, dribbling didn't feel very smooth. L1 dribbling, also known as strafe dribbling, was a thing in FIFA 19, and when comparing this feature in FIFA 19 and EA FC 25, neither were very eye pleasing, with De Bruyne's foot going through the ball on multiple occasions. Turing on the ball, FC 25 looks better, and it also felt better. When it comes to dribbling regularly, though, with just the left stick, FIFA 19 was nowhere near as clunky and slow. Overall, dribbling felt unsatisfactory in both games. They both have pros and cons, so for dribbling, I will have to call it a draw and say both are as bad as each other. Shooting has evolved a lot since FIFA 19, and I don't think for the better. Right now in EA FC 25, shooting PlayStyles are extremely overpowered. In fact, it almost feels like you can't score from outside the box anymore unless you have Power Shot Plus, Trivela Plus, or Finesse Shot Plus. This is the main issue I have with EA FC 25, and when I jumped back into FIFA 19, I had more fun scoring goals. EA has mentioned multiple times how HyperMotion technology has made it possible to recreate real-life goals with new and unique shooting techniques, but compared to FIFA 19, shooting animations are bland and boring. In FIFA 19, my players tried to score in many different ways. There were multiple variations of finesse shots, with players sometimes opting for power over placement or vice-versa. The old driven shot feature was quite overpowered, and when shooting regularly, I was still able to score, though there were some opportunities where the shooting was nothing short of awful. I think shooting is better without PlayStyles. I understand the appeal of PlayStyles, don't get me wrong, but I do think they're becoming too important and are starting to ruin the overall gameplay experience. We may get a nice little camera shake and net noises in FC 25, which is a cool touch, but overall, shooting felt better in FIFA 19. I know a lot of people have bashed defending in FC 25, but when jumping back into FIFA 19, I could tell that defending has gotten much better and also a lot easier over the last five years. The addition of second man press and commanding the AI to track runners has made defending much simpler overall, as when I was playing on FIFA 19, it felt very tough to defend and quite clunky at times. The defensive AI was poor at tracking runners, so when you're only able to control one defender when there are four attackers running at your back line, it made it a much tougher task. I do think that defending may be getting close to becoming too easy in EA FC 25, but I'd pick the current state of defending over FIFA 19 every day of the week. Point to EA FC 25. The Attacking AI has been an issue for some players in EA FC 25, with a new player roles system being introduced in place of the player instructions system as part of the FC IQ overhaul. The biggest complaint from players has been a lack of understanding and common sense from the attacking AI, from players not making runs to not even sticking to the role that's assigned to them. I actually found the player instructions system in FIFA 19 performed better than the player roles in EA FC 25. When setting up my team, I could give my players more detailed instructions – for example, I used Barcelona, and with both my wingers set on stay wide and run in behind, they did just that. Lionel Messi was glued to the touchline while making some smart runs in behind, and the same was seen with Phillipe Coutinho on the other wing. I played around with the attacking AI in FIFA 19 by changing the instructions at half-time to see if there was any difference. When I changed my wingers to come short and cut inside, that's what they did, and they did it effectively. I also changed Luis Suarez's instructions to make him play as a false nine instead, and the striker was dropping deep while Messi was making central runs instead of wide runs. On FC 25, the players understood the player roles that I had set up for them. Positionally, the players were in the right place, my wingers were out wide where I wanted them, but the problem I encountered was movement. Despite my wingers having attacking player roles assigned, the movement was poor as they failed to make runs forward or in behind when they should have. There is a workaround for this, though. I've found that learning how to trigger runs is the best way to make your players move when you want in EA FC 25, but when comparing player roles and the attacking AI to FIFA 19, FIFA 19 takes the point. There was one way to decide which game had a bigger pace split: by having a race. In both games, we put Adama Traore in a race with two different defenders, both much slower than the winger. To make it realistic, we had Traore carry the ball with the defender running alongside, and in both scenarios, the defender stayed pretty much in line with Traore. In fact, there was a point in the EA FC 25 race where the defender got ahead of Traore, but the winger eventually went ahead again, with the AcceleRATE feature likely the reason for this. The races were too close to call, with the pace split feeling identical in both. You'd expect that in the five years between FIFA 19 and EA FC 25, the graphics would've improved, and they have, with EA FC 25 blowing FIFA 19 out of the water. Players, pitches, and stadiums all look much better in EA FC 25, with the in-game crowd and cutscenes also a big improvement. I do think I prefer the menus in FIFA 19, though. The vibrant colour scheme appealed to me more than the new simplistic-style layout EA has gone for in EA FC 25, but nostalgia may be winning me over there. Overall, graphics are much better in EA FC 25 PlayStyles were introduced in EA FC 24 in place of traits, and although they do make big differences in-game, like I mentioned earlier, I think the game was better without them. EA FC 25 has become too reliant on PlayStyles – you now need the best players with these PlayStyle Plus boosts just to win games. The traits system wasn't anything special, but it wasn't PlayStyles, and as much as I enjoy scoring power shots with Federico Valverde from long distance every game, I preferred it when borderline superpowers weren't a feature. The point here goes to FIFA 19. Overall, it was a close one, but FIFA 19 just edged it, performing better in more rounds than EA FC 25. Now, this is solely based on offline gameplay as the servers aren't available on FIFA 19 anymore, but with the comparison being between EA FC 25 and a game released five years ago, it's a worrying sign that the similarities were this close.DALLAS — Tad Carper had no idea the technology to detect more than 50 cancers with one test existed. He does now, and the Dallas Cowboys senior vice president of communication wants to help spread the word. Carper recently underwent surgery for Stage 2 throat cancer. He exhibited no symptoms. The Galleri blood test, developed by GRAIL, allowed him to attack the cancer sooner than he would have been able to otherwise. The story of Carper and others helps put a face on its impact and increases awareness of this relatively new technology. “There is nothing that is more motivating and inspiring than hearing these stories,” said Dr. Josh Ofman, president of GRAIL, a California-based biotech company that specializes in early cancer detection. Single-cancer screenings are the norm. The focus is usually on three specific cancers in women (breast, colon and cervical) and two in men (prostate and colon). Lung is a focus for heavy smokers. Screening for these cancers helps save lives. But it creates what Ofman calls a classic spotlight problem, shining the light over there while other, more aggressive cancers go unscreened. More than 70% of cancer deaths in the United States occur from those less common cancers, Ofman said. The Galleri test doesn’t target a specific area. It looks for the fingerprint, the biological signal in DNA that has been shed from cancer. It’s a very specific marker and detects where that cancer is in the body. It creates a more effective and efficient screening program. “This really is a game-changer,” Ofman said. “In the past, people always thought of a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence, so they didn’t want to know. With the new technology that GRAIL has pioneered, we can now find many of the aggressive, early cancers. “That can change the way we think about cancer.” Blood is drawn and shipped to the company’s lab in North Carolina to test for more than 50 cancers. The results are available in seven to 10 days. Patients receive one of two messages: There are more than 8 million false positive results yearly with the single-screening cancers mentioned above, Ofman said. That’s a 10% false positive rate. The false positive rate of the Galleri test is 0.5%, he said. 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Title: Female Gamers Complaining about Difficulty Pressing "W + Spacebar" on Keyboard - Lenovo Provides Online Tutorial for Assistance
French President Emmanuel Macron is currently facing a multitude of challenges both internally and externally, leading to growing concerns about the stability and effectiveness of the French government. Political analyst Song Zhongping recently commented on the situation, describing Macron's administration as a "lame duck" due to its inability to effectively address the various crises the country is currently facing.Thousands still queuing to vote after Namibia polls close