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They were sentenced to decades behind bars for their heinous crimes but now want their sentences cut These are the faces of six criminals who committed heinous crimes but now don't want to do the time as they try desperately to appeal their convictions. From shameful child killer Thomas Cashman who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years to shooter Connor Chapman, who killed Elle Edwards on Christmas Eve. At the time they committed their crimes, it is unlikely they paid much thought to the repercussions and now they can't face the prospect of possibly spending their whole life behind bars. Here the ECHO takes a look at some of the criminals who, since their incarceration, have lodged appeals to have their sentences cut or overturned completely and what the outcome was. Thomas Cashman Child killer Thomas Cashman was branded shameful over his attempts to appeal his sentence and conviction. Cashman , 35, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years in prison after a trial at Manchester Crown Court in March 2023. Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, died on August 22, 2022, after Cashman fired a bullet through the front door of her family home in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot , shortly after 10pm. The bullet hit her mum, Cheryl Korbel, in the wrist before striking the St Margaret Mary's Primary School pupil in the chest, causing catastrophic injuries. Cashman, formerly of Grenadier Drive in West Derby , had been attempting to kill convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee , now 36, before the hit went disastrously wrong. On November 15, 2023, Cashman had his second appeal bid crushed by the Court of Appeal. In July his application for permission to challenge his 42-year minimum term was rejected by a judge without a hearing. In November John Cooper, KC, representing Cashman, renewed an application to appeal his client's sentence after his initial written application was rejected. In oral arguments at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, watched over video-link by Olivia's family, Mr Cooper argued that trial judge, Mrs Justice Yip, had imposed too high a minimum term . He said: "The aggravating factors were too heavily relied upon to increase the minimum term. In particular, the emphasis on planning and surveillance was a relevant factor to take into account, of course, it was, but too much emphasis was placed onto it for its sophistication.” On November 20 of this year, the killer once again appeared before the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn his conviction . But this was thrown out by presiding judges Lord Justice Holroyde, Sir Stephen Irwin and Mr Justice Hilliard. Cashman's counsel John Cooper KC told the court that it should order an investigation into allegations that members of the jury were provided with panic alarms by the police during their deliberations. Mr Cooper also told the judges that the police had "been in" to see the jury and informed the jury that there were things they should know. The police had produced a folder of evidence that the jury had not been privy to. The information was said to have been provided to Cashman's solicitor Thomas Keaney by an unknown caller, who said the information had been passed to him via a friend and his dad who had met a juror over a pint. However, the Court of Appeal judges said: "We find it impossible to conceive how such a visit would have gone undetected by court staff as it happened. We are also unable to accept the suggestion that all twelve jurors who were visited in that way and presented with material which was not evidence in the case, breached the obligations so sternly expressed to them in the jury notice and failed to bring that to the attention of court staff or the judge. "The jury will have been warned time without number that they must only decide the case on the evidence, and must ignore all other public comment, and private questions and opinions addressed to them. Yet it is inherent in the scenario advanced that they then not only received this material in an obviously clandestine and illicit way, but then suppressed that fact, all of them ignoring the repeated injunctions to decide the case only on the evidence given in court, not one of them choosing to report the intrusion into the jury room despite the instructions in the jury notice, and all of them changing their verdicts as a result." Connor Chapman Connor Chapman lost a challenge against his 48-year minimum life sentence at the Court of Appeal in February this year. Chapman fatally shot Elle Edwards, 26, on Christmas Eve in 2022. He was convicted of Elle's murder last year. Chapman, 23, hit Elle twice in the back of the head when he fired 12 shots from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral . A trial at Liverpool Crown Court last year was told five other people were injured in the shooting, with Chapman intending to murder two men Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld. The incident was said to be the culmination of a gang feud in Wirral, where there had been nine shootings in 2022. Trial judge Mr Justice Goose, sentencing Chapman, said: "You carefully planned a revenge attack in gang rivalry. You had no thought at all for anyone else, least of all to innocent people. The risk of all six being murdered by you was as substantial as it was obvious, but you didn’t care." At a hearing in London on Thursday, senior judges rejected Chapman's appeal against the length of his prison sentence. The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, who considered the case alongside Mrs Justice May and Mr Justice Foxton, said they concluded the sentence was "severe, but not manifestly excessive". Lucy Letby Since being behind bars Lucy Letby has twice tried to appeal her convictions. In May after a two-and-a-half-day hearing, Letby's lawyers asked senior judges for approval to bring an appeal against her convictions for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others. Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, refused Letby's request. In October of this year, Letby lost her bid to challenge her conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl. Letby’s lawyers asked senior judges for approval to appeal against her most recent conviction after being found guilty following a retrial in July of attempting to kill a newborn known as Child K. Lawyers for the former nurse told the Court of Appeal that the attempted murder charge should have been “stayed” as an “abuse of process” due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial and that the retrial should not have gone ahead. But three senior judges dismissed Letby’s bid following the hearing in London. Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan, said at the start of their ruling that they would “refuse permission” for Letby to challenge the conviction. Child serial killer Letby, 34, was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child. She was sentenced to a 15th whole life term for the attack on Child K. The offences took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where Letby worked as a nurse, between June 2015 and June 2016. Natalie Bennett In October of this year, Natalie Bennett applied for permission to appeal her 18-year minimum prison term for the murder of her boyfriend Kasey Anderson. Bennett was found guilty of murdering Kasey after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in November . The jury heard Kasey was killed a week before his 25th birthday in March last year after being slashed several times with a knife and suffering two stab wounds. A hearing was set to take place at the Court of Appeal in London, on October 24, before judges Lord Justice Holgate, Mrs Justice Stacey and Sir Nigel Davis. The Court of Appeal confirmed to the ECHO the hearing is over a "renewed application for leave to appeal against sentence and for a Representation Order". Bennett, who was aged 47 when she was convicted, plunged a knife into Kasey's heart before attempting to stab him in the head as he lay gravely injured in the neighbour's driveway and pleading for help, telling a 999 call handler that "he was dying". The Court of Appeal confirmed to the ECHO that Bennett's "application for leave to appeal against the sentence was "dismissed" by the court. Eddie Ratcliffe Eddie Ratcliffe, one of the teenagers found guilty of murdering Brianna Ghey, had his sentence appeal rejected after it was claimed it should be reduced due to a lack of consideration for his "maturity". Brianna, from Warrington , was just 16 when she was lured to Culcheth Linear Park by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe. The unsuspecting Birchwood Community High School pupil was stabbed 28 times and her body was left to be discovered by dog walkers. The teenage killers coordinated their crime through sinister messages on WhatsApp, fuelled by dark web content. Both 16 at the time, Ratcliffe and Jenkinson, were handed life sentences in February this year, with minimum terms of 20 years and 22 years, respectively, for their roles in the brutal killing. At a hearing today, Thursday, December 5, lawyers for Ratcliffe, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and selective mutism, argued the judge did not "sufficiently" consider his age and maturity when deciding his sentence. Richard Littler KC, representing Ratcliffe, stated at the London court: "It is culpability and maturity which are at the heart of this application. It is right to say that on any analysis of the applicant's maturity, he is closer to the starting point of a 14-year-old rather than a 17-year-old boy. The point we make is age and maturity were very important issues in this case and could very much affect the end result for this particular applicant." Mr Littler remarked that Ratcliffe had been found to have "poor social skills" and "immaturity", as well as "a lower-than-expected ability to express what he thinks or articulate his ideas", further commenting the sentence was "far too high". He said: "There is no doubt they were taken into account, but they were not taken into account fully." The Crown Prosecution Service contested the appeal and the Court of Appeal judges found that the "starting point of 20 years for the minimum term was correct". Delivering the ruling, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said the sentence imposed by Mrs Justice Yip in February was "neither manifestly excessive nor wrong in principle". She added: "The proposed grounds are not arguable. The applicant's application for leave to appeal against sentence is refused." Wearing a dark suit, shirt, and tie, Ratcliffe appeared at the hearing with his mum in the courtroom via video link. Brianna's family also followed proceedings remotely. Khairi Saadallah The family of murdered schoolteacher James Furlong welcomed his killer's failed Court of Appeal bid against his sentence. The 36-year-old from Liverpool was killed in a terror attack in Reading on June 20, 2020, by Khairi Saadallah. Saadallah also fatally stabbed Mr Furlong's friends, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39 - as the victims were enjoying a summer evening after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed. Three other people - Stephen Young, 51, Patrick Edwards, 29, and Nishit Nisudan, 34 - were also injured before Saadallah threw away the eight-inch knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer. Saadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders - and was sentenced to a whole life order by Mr Justice Sweeney in January this year - who described the incident as a "rare and exceptional" case. In October 2021, Saadallah appeared at the Court of Appeal in London via video link from Belmarsh Prison, wearing a dark jumper, to challenge the length of his sentence. However, after a hearing, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Mr Justice Henshaw, said his challenge had been unsuccessful. In a joint statement, the three men's families welcomed the upholding of his sentence after senior judges rejected Saadallah's appeal bid. The statement said: "While nothing can bring back James, David and Joseph it gives us some comfort to know that Saadallah will spend the whole of the rest of his life behind bars and that the public will be protected from this dangerous man. "The loss of James, Joseph and David has left a vast hole in all of our lives and not a day goes by that we don't miss them tremendously."
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Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in ManpowerGroup Inc. ( NYSE:MAN – Free Report ) by 51.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,190 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,789 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in ManpowerGroup were worth $823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MAN. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ManpowerGroup by 179.7% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,327 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,345,000 after buying an additional 11,132 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in ManpowerGroup by 5,109.1% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,449 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 7,306 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in ManpowerGroup by 140.0% in the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,437 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,587,000 after acquiring an additional 11,921 shares in the last quarter. Burney Co. increased its stake in shares of ManpowerGroup by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 17,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,367,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of ManpowerGroup during the 2nd quarter valued at $667,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.03% of the company’s stock. ManpowerGroup Stock Up 2.8 % ManpowerGroup stock opened at $62.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15. ManpowerGroup Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $59.35 and a fifty-two week high of $80.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $67.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.65. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.09 and a beta of 1.46. ManpowerGroup Increases Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $1.545 dividend. This represents a $6.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.89%. This is a boost from ManpowerGroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. ManpowerGroup’s dividend payout ratio is currently 389.88%. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of ManpowerGroup from $78.00 to $74.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on ManpowerGroup from $78.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on ManpowerGroup from $87.00 to $71.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ManpowerGroup currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.60. Get Our Latest Report on ManpowerGroup Insider Buying and Selling In other news, CFO John T. Mcginnis bought 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $62.28 per share, with a total value of $498,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 70,639 shares in the company, valued at $4,399,396.92. This represents a 12.77 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders. ManpowerGroup Profile ( Free Report ) ManpowerGroup Inc provides workforce solutions and services worldwide. The company offers recruitment services, including permanent, temporary, and contract recruitment of professionals, as well as administrative and industrial positions under the Manpower and Experis brands. It also offers various assessment services; training and development services; career and talent management; and outsourcing services related to human resources functions primarily in the areas of large-scale recruiting and workforce-intensive initiatives. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MAN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for ManpowerGroup Inc. ( NYSE:MAN – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for ManpowerGroup Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for ManpowerGroup and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
"The poor pollis. He is killed." Sensation as sergeant is stoned to deathDENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) Shares Sold by Mutual of America Capital Management LLCORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — In a season that began with many questions and lowered expectations , it was apt watching Bills quarterback Josh Allen join coach Sean McDermott lay on the cold, wet sideline to make snow angels in celebrating Buffalo’s earliest clinching of a division title in team history. That Allen took part was no surprise. The newly engaged 28-year-old has maintained the happy-go-lucky approach he brought with him to Buffalo as a raw-talented athlete in 2018, while gradually blossoming into one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks. For McDermott, it was a pleasant surprise to see the usually reserved eight-year coach finally let his hair down — figuratively, because the few jokes he does make are usually about being bald. With his latest do-it-all three-TD outing — one rushing, one receiving and, the coup de grace, being credited with receiving his own pass for a score off a lateral from Amari Cooper — in a 35-10 win over San Francisco on Sunday night , Allen continued making his strongest NFL MVP case. What’s also becoming apparent is how much McDermott deserves consideration for coach of the year honors. Without the two, the Bills (10-2) wouldn’t be in this position in becoming just the eighth NFL team — and first since Indianapolis in 2009 — to clinch a division title with at least five games remaining in their schedule. It’s reflective of how the two have grown together in what, on the outside, could be perceived as an odd couple relationship between an offensive-minded, swashbuckling quarterback and a defensive-minded coach, too often knocked for being too conservative. Perhaps, it’s Allen’s boyish nature that has brought out the risk-taker in McDermott, who has carried over the aggressive approach he takes to defense by placing trust in his quarterback. It’s become apparent in everything the Bills have accomplished so far in having at least 10 wins through 12 games for just the fifth time in team history, and first since 1991, when Buffalo was led by eventual Hall of Famers in coach Marv Levy and quarterback Jim Kelly. Buffalo has won seven straight since consecutive losses to Baltimore and Houston. And the Bills have scored 30 or more points in six straight outings, matching the team record set in 2004. Allen is doing more with less on an offense that was supposed to be hampered following the offseason departures of receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis and center Mitch Morse. The Bills are more balanced in leaning on their running attack, while Allen has also curtailed his turnover-prone ways. He's lost two fumbles and thrown just five interceptions after being picked off a career-worst 18 times last season. Meantime, McDermott has taken a different approach to fourth down situations. The Bills have converted 13 of 15 fourth down attempts after going 9 of 16 last season and 7 of 13 in 2022. The most fourth down attempts during McDermott’s tenure came in 2021, when Buffalo converted just 11 of 22. This is but an example of the bond the quarterback and coach have built in a shared objective of overcoming past playoff failures. Clinching a division title is but one step, with the Bills now focused on catching the Kansas City Chiefs (11-1), whom they’ve beaten already , for the AFC’s top seed. In calling it the team’s next goal, McDermott went off script from his usual game-at-a-time message by noting the importance of celebrating a division-clinching win, if only for one day. “Being 50 years old and 20-plus years in this league, I’ve learned to try and enjoy the moments,” McDermott said. “And this is a moment, right?” It certainly was. Turnover differential. Buffalo’s defense forced three fumbles, including one at its goal line, while the offense didn’t commit a giveaway. The Bills upped their league-leading turnover differential entering Monday to plus-17. Run defense. Though the conditions were snowy and slick, the Bills allowed 119 yards rushing in the first half before the 49ers were forced to start passing the ball once the score became lopsided. Buffalo particularly struggled in stopping Christian McCaffrey, who had 53 yards on seven carries before leaving the game with a potential season-ending knee injury . LB Matt Milano was in on five tackles while playing 37 of 48 defensive snaps in his first outing in nearly 14 months after being sidelined by a broken right leg and torn left biceps. CB Kaiir Elam, the 2022 first-round pick was a healthy inactive for a second straight outing, and still having difficulty finding a regular role. None reported. 9-0 — The Bills' home record going back to last season, marking their second-longest run in team history. Hit the road for two outings, starting with a trip to face the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
ChatGPT opened the floodgates. But many people don’t realize there’s a whole world of generative AI tools and applications out there, just waiting to be explored. Whether you’re struggling to overcome a case of writer’s block, lack the artistic aptitude to do your imagination justice, or just need a hand crafting efficient computer code, generative AI can help augment and streamline both your professional and creative endeavors. Yet, amid the seemingly endless variety of AI assistants currently on offer, finding the right one for your needs can prove a daunting task. So, let’s delve into some of the most impressive AI tools that are pushing the boundaries of innovation, including the best AI chatbots , the best AI image generators , and much more. The best AI tools for image generation One of the first AI image generators to be released back in 2022, Midjourney has proven immensely popular with users and art critics alike . It can output high-definition, photorealistic images in countless artistic styles based on natural language text prompts. Originally only available through the company’s Discord server, Midjourney can now be accessed through a streamlined web portal . While the website’s gallery of generated art is free to browse, you will need to subscribe to a monthly service plan (which range from $10 to $120) in order to generate images of your own. While not as creatively robust as Midjourney — only able to generate images in one of five preset artistic styles — Ideogram does offer a generous free tier that allows users to generate up to 40 images per day. Paid tiers range from $7 to $48 per month and offer a host of benefits, from additional compute resources and priority access to full-quality image downloads. The company also boasts an iOS app and an API that it claims will “offer superior image quality at a lower cost compared to other models.” This is OpenAI’s in-house text-to-image generator and runs atop the company’s GPT-4 model. Originally released in September 2023, it was initially only available to paid tier subscribers. OpenAI expanded its availability to free tier users this past August, though you’ll only be able to generate two images per day at that subscription level. Dall-E 3 is also available through Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot. If you’re looking to create high-quality images without the strict production limits that ChatGPT enforces, Google’s Imagen 3 is a solid option. It’s available through the Gemini chatbot , including the free tier, and offers higher-quality outputs with fewer artifacts than its previous versions. Note, however, that the system will not generate images of people, famous or not, unless you subscribe to Gemini Advanced (which costs $20 per month). Grok 2 is the text-to-image generator for people uninterested in adhering to copyright law. Developed for Elon Musk’s xAI company, and available on X, Grok 2 isn’t restricted by minor inconveniences like safety and legal guardrails, as other image generators are. Want to see Mickey Mouse fighting Darth Vader atop a 747 as it flies into the World Trade Center? Grok will generate it, no questions asked. You will, however, need to pony up $8 for a premium subscription to X in order to access it. Runway’s Gen 3 Alpha is a relatively new model, having been released in June of 2024, and is capable of creating both still images and video clips with nearly photorealistic quality based on the user’s natural language prompts. The company recently announced that it will begin integrating a new foundational model, dubbed Frames , into the Gen 3 platform that will offer unprecedented control over the image creation process, enabling users to generate multiple image variants while maintaining a specific aesthetic style, whether that’s mimicking 35mm disposable camera shots or retro anime motifs. Subscription prices run from $12 to $76 per month, though the company does offer a limited free tier as well. The best AI tools for image editing Skylum’s Luminar Neo is a photo editing suite designed with professional photographers in mind. It offers many of the same powerful tools as Adobe Photoshop, but outsources much of their functionality to AI. This enables users to accomplish numerous common tasks, from adjusting color balance and lighting levels to tweaking the look of the sky, water, and skin tones, with a single click. Luminar Neo might be a bit pricey for casual users, costing $421 for a yearly subscription or as a lifetime subscription for $577. It’s available on both Windows and Mac, as well as a plugin for Photoshop, Photos, and Lightroom. Canva is a multifunction creative platform that offers everything from digital whiteboarding, data visualization, and marketing material templates to photo, video, and YouTube editing features. While you can easily make minor adjustments like cropping, adding filters and adjusting aspect ratios using the site’s free editor, Canva Pro offers a number of additional AI-empowered tools. Select, move, resize, and even erase individual objects within an image; extract and modify text on flattened images; and even generatively expand the image’s background, all with a few simple clicks. Canva Pro costs $120 per year for a single user license. This online photo editing suite has served as a free and user-friendly alternative to Photoshop since it was released in 2008. Last November, the company debuted a number of AI features including image generation, a generative fill tool, AI background removal, AI face swap, and image expansion to help round out the tool set’s functionality. While the interface is geared more for casual users and may not be as precise and granular as what Photoshop offers, you can’t beat free. If you only need to do some light retouching work on your images, the Topaz Photo AI suite offers eight enhancement tools: Denoise, Sharpen, Upscale, Recover Faces, Remove Objects, Preserve Text, Adjust Lighting, and Balance Color. It’s not a true replacement for full-function photo editors like Photoshop, but it is available without an annual subscription, for a flat rate of just $199 with version upgrades costing $99. Adobe’s Firefly AI doesn’t just generate images and video from text prompts, it also empowers a number of AI features throughout the Adobe product ecosystem. That includes the Generative Fill tool in Photoshop, text effects in Adobe Express, vector and pattern generation in Illustrator, and Generative Extend in Premiere Pro. You will need to subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite in order to access these features, though they can either be purchased individually (the image generator, for example, costs $5/month while Photoshop costs $23) or you can pick up all 20-plus Adobe apps for $60 per month. Best AI for video generation While Luma Dream Machine may be designed with fashion, marketing and filmmaking professionals in mind, it’s built as a subscription-based service with both casual and professional users in mind. Unlike conventional AI tools, Dream Machine does not require precise and exhaustive prompting to generate the desired effect, but rather, interprets the user’s natural language request intuitively. It also accepts multi-image prompting and single-image character references so users can show the AI what they have in mind. Luma does not offer a free tier, though a “hobbyist” subscription costs just $10 per month. Kling AI video-generation system from China’s Kuaishou Technology offers photorealistic outputs on par with what we’ve seen from OpenAI’s Sora and is already available to users around the world. It can generate high-definition videos up to two minutes in length (double what Sora can) at up to 30 frames per second and 720p resolutions (slightly less than Sora’s 1080p output). Each clip starts out at just five seconds in length but can be extended in 4.5-second increments by purchasing additional credits. Just be warned that the system is blocked from generating politically-sensitive subjects. Synthesia is a bit more niche than the other video generators we’ve discussed so far. It’s designed specifically to generate video avatars from the user’s text prompts making it ideal for business applications like onboarding and training videos, sales presentations, and internal communications. Users can choose from one of more than 130 avatar models speaking 140 different languages and over 60 video templates. The free tier allows you to generate a single three-minute video per month and your choice of nine avatars, while the $30/month Starter tier and $90/month creator tier offer significantly more benefits. Vyond offers similar functionality to Synthesia in that it generates AI avatars for training videos based on the user’s text prompts, however, this service relies on animated characters rather than live actors. You also have the option to record yourself performing specific actions or movements and Vyond will motion match its animation to them. Plans start at $49 per month, which also includes access to an added video editor, though anything you produce at that tier will be watermarked with Vyond’s logo. The best AI for text generation ChatGPT , the chatbot that launched the AI boom in 2022, remains at the forefront of the industry with an estimated 200 million active weekly users. Trained on huge quantities of written content including websites, books, social media posts, and news articles, ChatGPT is equally adept at answering general knowledge queries and compiling computer code as it is at generating creative prose . It was also the first chatbot to offer a conversational feature in Advanced Voice Mode that allows users to interact with the chatbot as if it were a person, doing away with the need for text-based prompts. ChatGPT is available on the web as well as on iOS and Android. It’s free to use, though subscribing to the $20/month ChatGPT-Plus plan will give you increased access to the company’s latest AI models and features. Copilot answers the question “what if ChatGPT worked natively within Microsoft’s 365 app ecosystem?” Which is exactly what it does. Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI’s business and, as such, its Copilot AI runs atop the startup’s GPT-4o LLM. However, Copilot is more than just a reskinned ChatGPT. For one, Copilot does not restrict users from generating images without paying for a subscription to its premium plan as ChatGPT does. For another, its functionality can be integrated across Microsoft’s products, helping users generate text in Word , create graphs and tables in Excel , and draft emails in Outlook . Google’s Gemini chatbot may have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start upon its official debut in February but the AI assistant has quickly grown into a potent rival to ChatGPT, offering much of the same functions and features. Those include the ability to generate text, images, video, audio, and code, converse with users verbally with Gemini Live, and integrate with Google’s Workspace app suite. It can gin up email responses in Gmail, search for files in Drive, create content for Slides, and draft text in Docs, all through the user’s natural language prompts. Gemini is free to use and is available on the web as well as through its iOS and Android apps, but if you want to access the AI’s more advanced features (and Workspace integrations), you’ll need to subscribe to the company’s $20/month Google One AI Premium service. Perplexity’s AI assistant offers a unique alternative to traditional search engines. Rather than simply return a list of websites in response to a user’s query as Google search does, this chatbot scours the internet for relevant information, then synthesizes an answer to the user’s question directly in the chat window. It essentially eliminates the need to click through to individual websites to find the information you’re looking for. Built atop the GPT-4 model and available on Android, iOS, as well as on the web, Perplexity is free to use. The company also offers a Pro subscription plan for $20/month (or $200/year) that grants you access to additional AI models including GPT-4 Omni and Claude 3 Sonnet and Haiku , as well as a host of additional benefits. Unlike generalized chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, Jasper AI is all business. It is designed to generate text for emails, blogs, social media posts, and marketing materials, all while maintaining your company’s distinctive tone, voice, and brand style. The platform includes Jasper Chat, which assists with research tasks and offers writing advice, as well as can help maximize the SEO score of your marketing content. Jasper is only available on a subscription basis, with plans starting at $40 per month per user, though the company does offer a seven-day trial. The best AI for audio and voice generation ElevenLabs knows how to make a machine talk. The company is a leader in generative speech technology, offering a variety of audio-centric services from automatic voice dubbing and cloning to text-to-speech and text-to-SFX. Users can select from thousands of unique voices (including those of famous celebrities ), all trained on public domain and licensed data, in any of 32 languages. Ideal for podcasting, audio book narration, and conversational AI applications, the company’s products are available at a variety of pricing tiers ranging from free up to $99 per month. Why read a document when you can have Speechify read it to you four and a half times faster? The company’s voiceover technology can recite nearly any document you present to it in one of 200 voices (including your own through its voice cloning feature) in more than 60 languages. Speechify is available as a Chrome extension, a Mac app, a web app, iOS or Android app. The mobile apps can also read physical documents using your phone’s camera to scan the page. Speechify’s free tier limits you to simple text-to-speech in just 10 voices, while the $12/month premium tier unlocks the service’s full functionality. Respeecher specializes in voice cloning for celebrities, content creators, voice actors, game designers, and other professional applications. The company’s AI model essentially enables one person to speak in the voice of another. “We take recordings of the ‘target voice’ (the voice that is being replicated), train our system, and apply it to a ‘source speaker’ (the actor reading the lines),” the Respeecher’s FAQ explains. “It features all the emotions, intonations, and nuances of a real human voice.” The company offers a wide range of celebrity voices including Chris Farley and Richard Nixon, the latter of which earned Speechify an Emmy in 2019. Subscription plans start at $18 per month for basic text-to-speech (up to 100,000 characters per month and range up to $500 per month for the Power tier, which offers 900 minutes of speech-to-speech and 3 million characters of text-to-speech generation in more than 100 voices and 13 accents. If you fancy yourself a musician but can’t carry a tune, Controlla Voice can help. Its generative model can train an “AI Singing Voice” that sounds like you, based on 15-30 minutes of sample audio, then apply it to songs from the company’s extensive catalog, or blend your voice with others from their licensed stable of voice actors to generate unique vocals. You can even convert the vocals in existing songs from other artists into your voice for low-effort covers. Subscription prices run from $12 to $30 per month. The best AI for coding Anthropic’s Claude chatbot may not be able to generate images or speak to you conversationally, but it utterly excels at coding applications. Its latest iteration, Claude 3.5 Sonnet , drastically outperforms the likes of Gemini 1.5 Pro and ChatGPT-4o across a broad swath of leading industry benchmarks. Claude was also the first chatbot to offer a collaborative window (dubbed Artifacts ) that previews what the AI is generating outside of the chat stream. The chatbot is available free to all users on the web, iOS, and Android, though subscribing to the $20/month Pro or $30/month Teams tiers will grant you priority access to the latest and greatest models that Anthropic has to offer. Developed through a partnership between Github and OpenAI, GitHub Copilot acts as an AI autocomplete, to help users in the Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs generate code faster than they can on their own. Users can present Copilot with a coding problem, phrased in natural language, and the assistant will automatically generate a solution code. Conversely, it can also explain what a given snippet of code does as well as convert snippets between various coding languages. You can use Github Copilot for free, though upgrading to either the $4/month Pro or $21/month Enterprise tiers will, of course, give you additional resources and features. Similar to Copilot, Amazon’s CodeWhisperer is a general use coding assistant that will automatically generate suggestions and code recommendations based on your existing inputs, in real time. It’s available for the JetBrains and Visual Studio IDEs and also supports natural language-to-bash translation in the Mac command line. The free tier only offers limited access to the system’s more advanced features, so you’ll have to pony up $20/month if you want to unlock its full capabilities. Cursor AI is a coding assistant in the same vein as Codewhisperer but can offer autocomplete suggestions across multiple lines of code, based on your previous inputs. It also offers a smart rewrite function that automatically corrects your typos and syntax errors so you spend less time tracking down errant quotation marks and parentheses while debugging, as well as cursor prediction that guesses where your cursor needs to be next, enabling you to navigate through your project faster and more efficiently. It even offers a chatbot assistant (leveraging GPT-4, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet) that can answer questions about either the entire active file or specific selected code blocks. The chatbot can even edit that highlighted code based on your natural language instructions. Cursor AI is available for the Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. You can try it out free for two weeks before a $20/month Pro or $40/user/month Business subscription is required. The best AI to integrate with the rest of your app ecosystem Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been investing heavily in AI over the past few years and has recently begun incorporating the smart features found in rivals like Gemini and Copilot to its own product portfolio. “More than 400 million people are using Meta AI monthly, with 185 million people using it across our products each week,” the company boasted in a September blog post . The company now offers a conversational AI similar to Advanced Voice Mode in Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram DM. It can answer questions about photos shared in your group chats, generate custom backgrounds for images you reshare from your feed to Instagram Stories, and automatically translate the audio of your Instagram Reels. It can also generate images to share on your feed, Stories, and set as your Facebook profile picture. So when you find yourself wondering why there’s so much AI slop clogging up Facebook and Insta, understand that it is a feature Meta has spent billions developing, not a bug. Microsoft has dumped north of $10 billion into its partnership with OpenAI, so of course it’s going to shoehorn ChatGPT’s generative capabilities into every single product it possibly can. In addition to the Copilot chatbot itself, Microsoft has developed and released Copilot Pages, which function much like Claude’s Artifacts or ChatGPT’s Canvas. The company has also integrated it into Outlook to help you manage your inbox by prioritizing which messages to respond to first and quickly draft email replies. 365 Copilot can also help you rapidly establish a cohesive narrative in your PowerPoint presentations by generating pitch decks whole cloth from your natural language prompt that maintain a consistent tone and brand voice. In Excel, Copilot does the heavy lifting of generating formulas, graphs, and charts based, again, on the user’s prompt. And in Teams, Copilot can monitor your video meetings and provide summaries of what happened as well as generate actionable item lists based on what was discussed. Gemini does for Google’s Workspace app suite what Copilot does for Microsoft’s. The AI assistant can help draft emails in Gmail , write documents in Docs, generate graphs and charts in Sheets, create and modify slides in Slides, find files in Drive, and provide live-translated captions and take notes in Meet. If you don’t already have a personal Google One AI Premium subscription, you’ll have to ask your Workspace admin to grant you access. Apple Intelligence may be the new kid on the AI block, but it is promising to be more deeply integrated within its product ecosystem than any other currently on the market. Designed to serve as an overarching agent acting on the user’s behalf, it promises to streamline monotonous everyday tasks, make Siri a better conversationalist, automate proofreading and text summarization across the company’s myriad apps, and offer lightning-fast image generation. It is currently available to all devices running iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , and MacOS Sequoia — basically, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (and newer), as well as iPads and Macs with M1 or newer chips.BBB Scam Alert: Going big with your holiday decorations? Don’t fall for this scam
President-elect Donald Trump has revealed that his administration will attempt to “eliminate” Daylight Saving Time in the US. Taking to Truth Social, the Republican claimed daylight savings time was “inconvenient” and that he hoped to “eliminate” it. “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate daylight saving time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Mr Trump wrote. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.” Max Corstorphan Daylight saving time - putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings - has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s, but has been a topic of debate in recent years. Some lawmakers want to stay on standard time year-round, more are on record calling for remaining on daylight saving time all year, while others want to keep the status quo. President Joe Biden never took a public position on the issue. Max Corstorphan In March 2022, the US Senate voted unanimously to make daylight saving time permanent but the effort stalled in the House after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus. A bipartisan group of senators in March made a new push to make daylight saving time permanent. Supporters of remaining on daylight saving time argue it would lead to brighter afternoons and evenings and more economic activity during the winter months. Critics say it would force children to walk to school in darkness since the measure would delay sunrise by an hour. Proponents of eliminating daylight saving time say the twice-annual changing of clocks causes sleep disturbance and health issues. Congress has not held any new hearings on the issue for more than two years and the Senate would need to take up the issue again. Year-round daylight saving time was used during World War Two and adopted again in 1973 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo, but was unpopular and was repealed a year later. In America, daylight saving time commences in March, on the second Sunday, and ends of the first Sunday in November. - With Reuters
It’s called “Fart on Contact”, and Tesla drivers will soon be able to enact the feature in their vehicle. It might smell a little fishy, but it’s not April 1, and so we have to take the EV giant at its word. As part of its 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla has revealed “Fart on Contact”, which allows users to set off whoopee cushion–style fart sounds from any seat (see top image). A mocked up screen on X shows the heading “Emissions” and invites users to “Play a gassy prank from any seat”. The options are “I’m so random”, “Fart on demand”, “Fart on Turn Signal” and “Fart on Contact”. The latter is subtitled “Sit happens”. Meanwhile, Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update – which starts as a free over-the-air update next week – will allow people to use the Tesla app on an Apple Watch as a phone key. “You can also view battery charge, open frunk & turn on climate control,” Tesla said in a post on X. For the uninitiated, the frunk is the front trunk. Tesla update – new design options. Another update means that when in reverse, “your vehicle will alert you if it detects a pedestrian or vehicle crossing behind you. An audible warning will also play if a potential collision is detected”. New Cybertruck custom wraps and licence plate customisation allow you to customise your truck’s avatar with one of the preloaded designs, or create and upload custom ones using a USB flash drive. Some of the other updates include: Watch Dashcam and Sentry Mode clips directly from the Tesla app and save them to your phone to edit or share; Set Arrival Energy at Destination; Rear Cross Traffic Alert; Precipitation Map & Weather at Destination; Schedule Light Show from Tesla App; View and track maintenance items from your vehicle’s touchscreen; The new Seats control panel allows you to adjust the position of the unoccupied passenger seat, including second-row seats, and; The game Boomerang Fu.Malik Nabers vents frustration after Giants' loss: 'It ain't the quarterback' | Sporting News
Prairie premiers urge action on security to fend off Trump's tariff threats
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The goals are flying in again for Arsenal — and it just happens to coincide with the return from injury of Martin Odegaard. Make that eight goals in two games since the international break for Arsenal after its 5-1 hammering of Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday, tying the English team’s heaviest ever away win in the competition. Odegaard is back in Arsenal’s team after missing two months with an . In that time, Mikel Arteta’s attack stuttered, with a 2-0 loss to Bournemouth and a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle dropping the Gunners well off the pace in the Premier League. There was also a 0-0 draw at Atalanta in the Champions League as well as a 1-0 loss to Inter Milan last month, when Odegaard made his comeback from injury as an 89th-minute substitute. Since then, Arsenal hasn’t lost and the goals have returned. After a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday came the cruise in Lisbon — and Odegaard was at the heart of everything as Sporting’s unbeaten start to the season came to an end. “He’s an unbelievable player,” Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka said of Odegaard. “The day he returned, there was a big smile on my face. You can see the chemistry we have. I hope he stays fit for the rest of the season.” Odegaard was involved in the build-up to Arsenal’s first two goals against Sporting — scored by Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz — and was fouled to win the penalty converted by Saka in the 65th to restore Arsenal’s three-goal lead at 4-1. Odegaard was seen flexing his leg after that but continued untroubled and was substituted in the 78th minute. The last thing Arteta would want now is another injury to Odegaard as Arsenal attempts to reel in first-place Liverpool in the Premier League. Liverpool is already nine points ahead of fourth-place Arsenal after 12 games. AP soccer:NEW YORK — A shoplifting ring that stole nearly $2 million in clothes and beauty products from Macy’s and other well-known stores in the U.S. and then resold them in New York City and the Dominican Republic has been busted, law enforcement officials announced Tuesday. Five New Yorkers have been charged with felony possession of stolen property, conspiracy and other related crimes, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. The bust served as a reminder to shoppers as the holiday shopping season kicks off in earnest with Black Friday this week to make sure they are supporting legitimate establishments, she said. “When a deal seems too good to be true, I guarantee you, it’s too good to be true,” Katz said. Nationally, businesses lose roughly $100 billion and the average family pays $500 more a year because of the impact of organized retail theft, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who joined the district attorney and other law enforcement officials in Queens. The Democrat said the arrests also marked the first time anyone has been charged under a new criminal statute of fostering the sale of stolen goods that she recently signed into law to help crack down on retail theft. “This is real simple. We’ve had enough with criminals preying on our citizens,” Hochul said. “We are sick and tired of our citizens feeling they’re vulnerable to random crimes on the streets or these sophisticated organized crime rings. And we are coming after you.” Katz, the district attorney, said the group stole high-end makeup, perfume, beauty products, designer clothing and accessories from stores ranging from Macy’s to Victoria’s Secret, American Eagle, Sephora and Ulta Beauty over a roughly two-year period. The group’s leaders, married couple Cristopher Guzman and Yvelisse Guzman Batista, directed shoplifting crews to steal specific merchandise as they hit multiple stores in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and elsewhere along the East Coast, she said. They also paid truck drivers to divert products bound for retailers from manufacturer warehouses directly to locations under their control. The group, operating out of a home in Queens, then resold the merchandise online as well as at a brick-and-mortar boutique called Yvelisse Fashion in Santiago, a city in the Dominican Republic. Vince Scala, a lawyer for the couple and two of the other defendants, said his clients pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Saturday. They were released pending their next court date in January. “The charges are only a couple of days old, and I have not seen a single piece of evidence, discovery or police reports,” he said. “I look forward to reviewing the case at the appropriate time.” Tuesday’s announcement is part of a broader push from Hochul to counter Republican criticisms that Democrats in New York are soft on public safety issues, an issue that hurt her party in the 2022 midterm elections and has remained a consistent talking point for the GOP. Earlier this year, Hochul signed off on a handful of policies aimed at cracking down on retail theft, including increased criminal penalties for assaulting retail workers, new funding for law enforcement teams dedicated to retail theft and tax credits for businesses to install security cameras. She also approved policies that allow prosecutors to combine the value of stolen goods when filing larceny charges and made it easier to criminally charge third-party sellers of stolen goods. Retail theft has also been a concern elsewhere. Videos of brazen shoplifting crews rampaging through stores have been widely shared on social media, fueling widespread frustration that retail crime is rampant and unpunished. Earlier this month, California voters overwhelmingly passed a tough-on-crime ballot measure that makes shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders again. The measure partly rolled back a progressive law passed by voters a decade ago downgrading several nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors, including theft under $950 in value.
PHILADELPHIA — Penn State has won a closely watched trademark fight over an online retailer’s use of its vintage sports logos and images. A Pennsylvania jury awarded Penn State $28,000 in damages on Wednesday over products made and sold by Vintage Brand and Sportswear Inc., two firms co-founded by former minor league baseball player Chad Hartvigson. Penn State accused them of selling “counterfeit” clothing and accessories, while the defendants said their website makes clear they are not affiliated with the university. At least a dozen other schools have sued the defendants on similar grounds, including Purdue, Stanford and UCLA, Penn State said in its 2021 lawsuit. However, the Penn State case was the first to go to trial and seen by some as a test case in the sports merchandising industry. “It addresses an important issue with trademark law — whether or not the mark owner is able to prevent third parties from using its marks on T-shirts and paraphernalia without permission,” said Tiffany Gehrke, a trademark lawyer in Chicago who was not involved in the case. The verdict, she said, maintains the status quo, while a victory for Vintage Brand “could have shaken things up.” It followed a six-day trial in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, overseen by Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann. Defense lawyers declined to comment on the verdict and whether their clients planned to appeal. Penn State, in a statement, called its trademarks “critical” to the school’s brand, and said it was grateful for the verdict. “The university appreciates this result as it relates to the many hundreds of licensees with whom the university works and who go through the appropriate processes to use Penn State’s trademarks,” the statement said. Founded in 1855, Penn State adopted the Nittany Lion as its mascot in 1904 and has been using various images of the animal, along with the school’s seal and other logos, for decades, the lawsuit said. The school now has more than 100,000 students at 24 campuses.
Prairie premiers urge action on security to fend off Trump's tariff threatsLangley Cruise-In raises $94,000 for charity at 25th car showKendrick Lamar has done it again. The rapper completely shocked music listeners by dropping his new album on Friday morning. Nobody, not even Lamar's collaborators, saw it coming. The consensus among fans is that the Compton legend delivered a stellar and surprisingly catchy body of work. He has moved on from his highly controversial feud with Drake , and refocused on what he does best. Longtime Lamar heads aren't the only ones who are loving GNX , though. The rapper's fiancee, Whitney Alford, also took to social media to make her admiration for the album known. Whitney Alford posted the GNX album cover on her Instagram Story, along with three hearts. She didn't provide any text, but the co-sign spoke for itself. Kendrick Lamar's relationship with Whitney Alford has been a major talking point throughout 2024. Drake leveled several serious allegations at Dot during their feud, and many of them had to do with Alford. The 6 God accused Lamar of being estranged and living apart from Alford and their two children. He also accused the rapper of being physically violent with his longtime fiancee. "They hired a crisis management team," Drake rapped. "To clean up the fact that you beat on your queen." Read More: DJ Akademiks Gives His Highly-Anticipated Review Of Kendrick Lamar's "GNX" "Not Like Us" shifted the narrative, though. Kendrick Lamar's number one diss took the culture by storm, and Whitney Alford went along for the ride. She appeared at the Pop Out show on Juneteenth, where Dot played "Not Like Us" a whopping five times to L.A. fans. She also appeared in the video for "Not Like Us," dancing alongside her children. Whitney Alford has not publicly spoken on the Lamar vs. Drake feud, but she has made it clear through her actions that she supports her partner. This is not the first time Whitney Alford has been supportive of Lamar's work. She contributed spoken word passages to the rapper's sprawling 2022 double album, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers . Despite the fact that Lamar was addressing his infidelity and his struggles with remaining faithful as a superstar, Alford stood by his side. Lamar and Alford have presented a united front during the last few years, and fans of the couple have taken to social media to voice their enthusiasm over the latter's GNX co-sign.