sg777 win no deposit bonus Middle East latest: Israel agrees to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon starting at 4 amIn latest news, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has taken action to save TikTok from a law which would force a sale or ban of the social media platform by Jan. 19, 2025. He filed a brief on Dec. 27 asking the Supreme Court to block the law. Passed on Apr. 20, the bill called for parent company ByteDance to either divest of TikTok, or face a complete ban in the country. The brief acknowledged the "difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national-security concerns on the other". In the light of these facts, Trump opposes banning TikTok in the U.S. "at this juncture", the brief said. However, as the deadline imposed for TikTok to either be sold or shut down falls on Jan. 19 — just a day before his inauguration — Trump requested a delay. This is so he can "resolve the issues through political means once he takes office". Intends to pursue "negotiated resolution" The brief called Trump "one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history" and said he is in a position to evaluate TikTok's importance as a medium for freedom of expression. It said: "Indeed, President Trump and his rival both used TikTok to connect with voters during the recent Presidential election campaign, with President Trump doing so much more effectively." He therefore hopes to pursue a "negotiated resolution" to save TikTok. This is in line with his earlier election promise that he was "gonna save TikTok", shortly after creating his own account on the social media platform. Notably, the brief took no position on the merits of the ongoing debate as to whether banning TikTok infringes on Americans' First Amendment rights, which include freedom of speech. On the same day, TikTok filed a brief attesting that the law is a violation of the First Amendment. Calling it "profoundly unconstitutional", the platform said that it is one of the nation's "most important venues for communication". "Shuttering the platform will silence the speech of petitioners and the more than 170 million monthly American users that communicate there about politics, arts, commerce, and other matters of public concern — as illustrated by the massive interest expressed during the recent presidential election," it said, adding: "The government has banned an extraordinary amount of speech; demands deference to unsubstantiated predictions a future risk will materialise; and gets facts wrong when it bothers to provide them." Previously wanted to ban TikTok During his tenure in 2020, Trump said he planned to ban TikTok, and cited national security concerns. “As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” he said in July 2020, calling the action a “severance”. Then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that the Trump administration was evaluating TikTok akin to Chinese state-backed tech companies Huawei and ZTE. He previously described both companies as "Trojan horses for Chinese intelligence". Subsequently, in April 2024, amid a backdrop of concerns from U.S. lawmakers about TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and accusations that it handed over sensitive information to the Chinese government, the bill banning TikTok was passed. Top image from Donald Trump/Facebook and TikTokHot honey, brie & chorizo garlic bread recipe perfect for New Year's Eve

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday (December 21, 2024) allocated portfolios to his council of ministers, retaining the crucial Home department with him. Mr. Fadnavis will also handle Energy, Law and Judiciary, General Administration Department and Information and Publicity departments, an official statement said here. Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has been allocated Urban Development, Housing and Public Works Department (public enterprises). Ajit Pawar, another deputy CM, got Finance and Planning, State Excise. The portfolios were allocated after the weeklong winter session of the state Legislature ended earlier in the day. As many as 39 ministers had been sworn in on December 15, before the start of the session, while Mr. Fadnavis and his two deputies had taken the oath of office on December 5. The Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena swept the November 20 assembly elections, winning 230 of 288 seats. Portfolios allocated to BJP ministers are -- Chandrashekhar Bawankule (Revenue), Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Water Resources- Krishna and Godavari Valley Development corporation), Chandrakant Patil (Higher and Technical Education, Parliamentary affairs), Girish Mahajan (Water Resources- Vidarbha , Tapi, Konkan Development Corporation and Disaster Management). Ganesh Naik has been given Forests, Mangal Prabhat Lodha Skill Development, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Jaykumar Raval Marketing and Protocol, Pankaja Munde Environment and Climate Change, Animal Husbandry; Atul Save OBC Welfare, Dairy Development and Renewable Energy. Ashok Uike has been given Tribal Development, Ashish Shelar Cultural Affairs and Information Technology, Shivendrasinh Bhosale Public Works. Jaykumar Gore has been given Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Sanjay Savkare Textiles, Nitesh Rane Fisheries and Ports, Akash Fundkar Labour. Shiv Sena Ministers' portfolios: Gulabrao Patil Water Supply and Sanitation, Dadaji Bhuse School Education, Sanjay Rathod Soil and Water Conservation, Uday Samant Industries and Marathi language, Shambhuraj Desai Tourism, Mining, Ex-servicemen Welfare, Sanjay Shirsat Social Justice, Pratap Sarnaik Transport, Bharat Gogawale Employment Guarantee, Horticulture, Salt Pan Lands Development; Prakash Abitkar Public Health and Family Welfare. NCP ministers' portfolios: Hasan Mushrif Medical Education, Dhananjay Munde Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Dattatrey Bharne Sports ,Youth welfare and Minority Development and Aukaf, Aditi Tatkare Women and Child Development , Manikrao Kokate Agriculture. Narhari Zirwal has been given Food and Drug Administration, Special assistance. Makrand Patil has been given Relief and Rehabilitation, while Babasaheb Patil was allocated Cooperation. Among Ministers of States, Shiv Sena's Ashish Jaiswal has been given Finance and Planning, Agriculture, Relief and Rehabilitation, Law and Judiciary and Labour. BJP's Madhuri Misal has been given Urban Development, Transport, Social Justice, Medical Education, Minorities Development and Aukaf. Pankaj Bhoyar, also of BJP has got Home (Rural), Housing, School Education, Cooperation and Mining. BJP 's Meghana Bordikar has got Public Health and Family Welfare, Water Supply and Sanitation, Energy, Women and Child Development, Public Works (Public Enterprises). Published - December 21, 2024 10:21 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Maharashtra / MumbaiChris Mubiru leads Northwestern State over North Alabama 71-58HONG KONG: Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented attempt to diversify from an oil economy to something more sustainable seems to be churning along nicely. The female labour participation rate has nearly doubled to 36 per cent from 2016, the year Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid out his Vision 2030. Unemployment is at a record low. Last year, the number of domestic and foreign tourists exceeded 100 million for the first time. Headline statistics aside, what’s Saudi Arabia really like? Curious, I did some sightseeing myself in early November, taking advantage of a new route between Hong Kong and Riyadh. The two financial centres have been strengthening economic ties, cross-investing and offering exchange-traded funds on each other’s bourses. Cathay Pacific started a direct flight late last month. Before the trip, my friend and I were fussing over our outfits, worrying that we might get stopped on the street for not dressing conservatively enough. We were also a bit nervous about our road trip – after all, women were forbidden from driving until mid-2018. VISITORS WELCOME What we saw was an open, friendly nation that welcomed visitors. We blended in as well as any foreigners would in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, and we didn’t spot the much-feared religious police. In Medina, we accidentally roamed into the courtyard of the Prophet’s Mosque, not knowing that it was for Muslims only. When a policeman asked us to leave, his tone was apologetic. In just a few years, entertainment options have ballooned in a nation where the median age is only 30. Perhaps because of the desert heat, nightlife there is booming. From Riyadh’s Boulevard City – a sprawling commercial development that includes an amusement park, outdoor cinemas and retail stores – to Jeddah’s Red Sea waterfront, people crowded into the streets, singing, dancing and hanging out in cafes and hookah lounges well into the night. Female drivers are now commonplace. And while most Saudi women are still wearing long, flowing abayas as well as face coverings, fashionistas have tossed off their hijab and are wearing their abaya like a cloak. No one judges or casts disapproving glances. What about men? We took plenty of Uber rides and talked to Saudi drivers. One laughingly quipped that traffic in Riyadh got a lot worse since women began driving. A 69-year-old in Jeddah said he was okay that two of his five adult children were unmarried. One 22-year-old said he was a huge fan of American rapper Eminem, who will perform in Riyadh next month. And people just assumed we were in the Kingdom for business, as if career women were a fact of life. CHANGING LIFESTYLES Anecdotes aside, there’s also statistical evidence that cultural and social reforms are profoundly changing families and how they live and consume. The share of spending on restaurants, hotels, recreation and culture has increased from about 12 per cent in 2017 to nearly 20 per cent this year, according to Capital Economics. Home ownership among Saudi citizens has increased to 64 per cent of households from 47 per cent in 2016, when the government slashed payments for mortgages and taxed land owners who left plots undeveloped. Mortgage lending now accounts for nearly a quarter of banks’ total outstanding credit. As testament to the buzzing economy, rents are growing at a brisk 11 per cent, amid inflows of expatriate workers and large redevelopment plans in Riyadh and Jeddah. As part of Vision 2030, Riyadh aims to lower the country’s unemployment rate and increase small businesses’ contribution to the economy. It’s making progress on both fronts, while a cultural opening is giving young Saudis incentives to work. FALLING SHORT ON SOME METRICS The prince is falling short on some of his metrics, and the nation’s human rights record remains a serious concern. Women who posted online about gender inequality can suffer decades-long jail sentences. The 2022 Personal Status Law requires women to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry. This perhaps explains why Saudi Arabia is not getting as much foreign capital as Riyadh desires. In 2023, Norway’s largest pension fund KLP blacklisted some of Saudi’s telecom and real estate companies, citing “human rights abuses”. Last year, net foreign direct investment accounted for only 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product, well below Vision 2030’s 5.7 per cent target. In addition, foreigners are still mostly visiting for the pilgrimages of hajj and umrah, even though the country is building ambitious ski slopes in the desert and lavish resorts by the Red Sea that cater to non-religious tourists. The government is aiming for the sector to account for 10 per cent of non-oil GDP. Foreign fund managers have likened Saudi Arabia’s 2016 opening to China’s. I don’t think that’s quite fair, because Saudi is already a developed country in terms of infrastructure. Its roads are well-built and its malls are full of American chain stores – nothing like the 1980s China I knew. But if we look at the speed of cultural changes, the parallel is eerily accurate.

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Vauxhall owner blames EV rules over decision to shut Luton plantAuthored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A Chinese man who killed at least 35 people last month by driving his car into a crowd was sentenced to death on Dec. 27, amid growing concerns over a recent wave of deadly attacks across the country. The driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu, acted out of anger stemming from “a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the way financial assets were divided during his divorce,” according to a statement from the intermediate court in Zhuhai, a city in southern China. Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety through dangerous methods, according to the court’s announcement. The incident occurred on the evening of Nov. 11, when Fan drove his SUV into a group of people exercising at the Zhuhai Sports Centre. It took nearly 24 hours for Chinese authorities to report on the casualties from the violent attack. According to local police , at least 35 people have died, with 43 others suffering severe injuries as a result of the incident. At the time, the authorities said Fan, who was in a coma and had injuries consistent with self-harm, was apprehended at the scene. On China’s internet, censors responded quickly, suppressing eyewitness accounts and videos related to the incident. By the evening of Nov. 12, searches on the popular microblogging platform Weibo yielded mostly official statements, with little presence of videos or photos of the incident. The sports complex was closed on the day of the attack. On the morning of Nov. 13, members of the public left bouquets at one of the gates, only to see them removed within minutes . Some cleaning staff told AFP that they were following an “order from the top.” Meanwhile, BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell was shoved by a man while reporting outside the complex on Nov. 12. While the man’s identity remains unclear, the BBC pointed out that such incidents are not uncommon in China, where local Communist Party officials often recruit groups of individuals to act as outraged locals, tasked with obstructing foreign reporters from covering sensitive events. The incident, described by some Western media outlets as the deadliest in a decade, was one of a spate of tragic events that have occurred across China in recent months. On Oct. 28, at least five people, including three children, were severely injured in a stabbing incident , according to local police, who identified the suspect as a 50-year-old man surnamed Tang. On Nov. 16, eight people were killed and 17 others injured during a mass stabbing rampage at a vocational college in eastern China. Arrested at the scene was a 21-year-old male, identified only as Xu—a former student at the Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology in Yixing in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Police said he later confessed to the killings. On Nov. 19, a driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd outside a primary school in Changde, central Hunan Province, injuring an unspecified number of people. Recent waves of random attacks have sparked concerns among outside observers, with some highlighting a growing desperation under the tight grip of the Chinese Communist Party. “Logically, if someone has a grievance, they should target the person responsible. But he may not even be able to find that person,” Li Yingzhi, an exiled rights activist, previously told The Epoch Times. “Why resort to killing innocent people? Because he has reached complete despair and no longer wants to live.” Li links these violent attacks to systemic issues in China, where people were left with little recourse to seek justice or voice dissent. “First, there is suppression of free speech and a lack of press freedom. Second, the petitioning system is ineffective. Third, the judiciary fails to function properly. These are all systemic issues,” he said. “If there were effective channels to resolve problems, it wouldn’t have come to this.” Katabella Roberts and Cindy Li contributed to this report.Bulls look for inspiration to snap slump against inconsistent HawksELKO — The next time you have a cup of coffee at an Elko restaurant, it very well may be coming from a local roaster that imports its beans from Guatemala and other areas. “I love the idea of coffee. I love the fact that it always seemed like very few people drink it alone when they are out. They are always with somebody else,” said Garret Kamps, owner and manager of Collective Coffee Roasters in Elko. “ It's kind of a shared habit. It's a shared delight and I love that about it.” His love of coffee and that habit sprung from his younger days. “Quite a few years ago, I was young and just interested in trying to figure out what was good, what would wake me up in the morning,” he said. Living in Reno at the time, he visited a local coffee shop and noticed how there were several varieties of coffee on display, ready for sampling. Garret Kamps, owner and manager of Collective Coffee Roasters, poses in front of bags of coffee. Photo provided by Collective Coffee Roasters. “I just started trying things and started developing a taste for what was good. And, living in Reno, there was a lot of access to good coffee and so we kind of just built our taste and built our preferences.” Kamps said when he moved back to his hometown of Elko a number of years ago, he realized it didn’t have a coffee-roasting scene or a specialty coffee line. “So, we started roasting ourselves at home to try to fill that gap, because it was so expensive to ship coffee in. After a while, we realized this could be really fun. We could actually make a go of this. So, we gathered some friends of ours together to experiment and try some things. We went in together on some equipment and we started a small business.” They also had a particular aim — to sell specialty coffee, Kamps said. The Specialty Coffee Association defines specialty coffee as scoring 83 or higher on their rating scale, he explained. “There are a lot of things at the farms, the way that the coffee is grown and the way that the coffee is processed, that can help achieve those kinds of scores and goals,” he said. “Specialty coffee is kind of the cream of the crop. It's the top end of coffee production and so that's what we're shooting for.” Collective Coffee Roasters does very little blending, Kamps said. “Most of those coffees are so good on their own, coming from either a single farm or a single region,” he said. “We try to offer mostly single-origin coffees to our customers. Mostly, we have a few blends that are just for people who are maybe getting started or maybe people who focus on espresso,” Kamps said. “But for the most part, we're trying to showcase the work that these farms are doing to produce really good coffee.” “We are mainly, right now, a wholesale coffee supplier. So, we supply cafes and restaurants and hotels and things like that,” Kamps explained. “We also have our own retail side, which is mostly done online — so, people sign up for subscriptions and things like that, and it's either shipped to them or delivered,” he said. “We actually do free local delivery. We have a van that goes around that's logoed, and we deliver coffee that way, right to people's homes every week,” he explained. “The bulk of our business is actually getting unbrewed, just roasted, coffee beans directly to cafes or churches or businesses or individuals.” Collective Coffee Roasters also runs a brand called Reformation Roasters, which supplies coffee to churches and supports church planting efforts. “We would love to continue growing,” Garret Kamps said. “We love being a local roaster here in Elko but we also want to see Elko on the map nationally for coffee. We think that would be really cool if Elko was known for good coffee.” He said the company is “working hard,” especially with marketing professional Jaclyn Trice, “to help raise awareness of our brand through social media and through the Specialty Coffee Association, even, to be noticed and recognized at a national level." "We'd love that,” he said. “At some point in the future, to better serve Elko, we probably will offer a slow bar, which is a place where you can come in and sit and get coffee, no window. It'll all be slow service — sit down and experience the product in the community. That will be our goal. We're probably looking at about 12 months for that.” Along with working in the coffee business, Kamps is also a pastor at Living Stones Church in Elko. He said teamwork is an important ingredient in balancing his two passions. “Collective Coffee Roasters has always been a team effort,” he said. It's always been a group of like minded people who've come together to produce a really good product, and so with that shared labor, with the shared work between our partners, we're able to balance the workload. You know, I'm not the only one there.” His wife Delynn Kamps is the head roaster. “She's amazing at what she does,” her husband said. He also said co-owner Casey Parish has done “incredible work” as a business partner. “He's really the nuts and bolts of making everything go and making everything work. He and I were just in our new space that we just moved into, putting up shelving and organizing everything and getting everything ready to look good,” Garret Kamps said. “I'm kind of the chief financial officer,” he added. “I do a lot of the bookkeeping. And as well as sales, I try to keep our customers happy and find new ones.” Customers who support the business in Elko are supporting coffee producers, he said. “Because of the work that we're doing in Elko — Elko gets to be a part of something huge happening around the world,” he said. “Florencio Villatoro is our farmer who produces coffee for us and many others,” out of the remote region of Cuilco, Guatemala. “We don't have local growers, but we're a local roaster. There's no coffee that's grown in the [continental] United States, because coffee is grown in this thin band around the equator of the world. And it can only be grown there because those are the places where the growing season is long enough to support coffee growth,” Kamps explained. “The coffee that we get is mostly processed by hand,” he noted. “It's picked by hand. It's sorted by hand. And then there is some machinery that goes into taking the coffee cherry off of the coffee bean — because they're these little cherries that start green and then they go yellow and then they go red. When they're a certain color of red, that's when they're ripest,” which is why high-quality coffee is hand-picked, he explained. A coffee plant with several beans at a Guatamalan farm. “There's no machine that can do that, because the coffee ripens at different stages on the same branch,” he said. “The coffee is either naturally processed, which is where they allow that cherry to dry on the coffee bean and then they take the cherry off as almost a raisin-like material — or it's washed, which is where they actually use a rudimentary mechanical system in most of the farms that we go to, to remove that cherry as it's ripe and it hasn't dried.” He said it then goes on to dry. “It goes into these big drying beds, where it's then moved by hand to allow the air and the sunlight to dry it. Then, it goes off to a big polishing station or dry mill. There's this little husk left on the coffee bean. They remove that, they get it all cleaned up and then they package it — and that's how we receive it,” he said. After the company receives the coffee, it is weighed and goes on to the German-made coffee roaster to produce a roasted product, he explained. “From there, it's actually hand-packaged as well and hand-bagged. So it's a very person-intensive process.” For the production of specialty coffee, “each bean is probably touched by 40 different hands by the time it gets to you. That's an incredible amount of work, an incredible amount of labor, that goes into producing something,” Garret Kamps said. “I think it's so cool that Elko gets to be a part of that. Elko is experiencing something that is so much bigger than it.” Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

Obituary: Thomas Martin ClancyIran says will hold nuclear talks with France, Germany, UK on Friday

Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd (Image: AP/Mark Schiefelbein) Despite Kevin Rudd’s assurances last week that his team is “ready” to work with Donald Trump’s incoming administration, his precarious ambassador position in Washington demonstrates the risks of political appointments. Rudd was undoubtedly well qualified for the ambassadorship under the previous Biden administration: he has foreign affairs experience and extensive political experience, including as an Australian prime minister; is a fluent Mandarin speaker; and has specialized in a range of international studies. However, this has not prepared him for an unpredictable Trump administration. Most politicians have fixed opinions about policy options, and their capacity to accept opposing views is often limited. Australian political debates occur most commonly in a rigid environment where negotiation and compromise are regarded as signs of weakness. Consequently, it is harder for senior politicians to consider alternative policy agendas and adapt a nuanced diplomatic position in international discussions. Rudd works room at Republican convention to shore up ‘Trumpified’ AUKUS deal Read More Like Trump himself, Rudd is also an enthusiastic social media commentator, and some of his past personal observations about the returning US president — a number of which were posted on Twitter, since deleted — are unacceptable within diplomatic circles. Australians may need to be reminded that we have a professional workforce of career diplomats working in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, professionals who gain expertise in a variety of cultures and complex issues in international relations — and work in a variety of positions in Canberra — before being considered for posting to other countries. Despite this extensive in-service training of career diplomats, Australian governments frequently appoint politicians with scant special diplomacy skills to represent the nation overseas. Critics argue that elected members and senators representing either the Liberals or the ALP are not necessarily familiar with world affairs, and many would doubt their capacity to be diplomatic. Government leaders often make ambassadorial appointments when rewarding former ministers. These appointments are criticised as “jobs for the boys” — and indeed very few women have been anointed with this benefit. (We have yet to see a minor party or independent political appointment, so the partisan nature of this process reinforces the view that diplomacy should be about more than mateship.) Such political appointments can take advantage of the particular skills or experience of former parliamentarians, particularly in the case of former treasurers, ministers or prime ministers. However, it must be frustrating for career diplomats to be overlooked when their political masters prefer familiar former parliamentarians instead of professionals with years of experience in diplomacy and international relations. The Lowy Institute shows that political appointments are increasing, and former politicians currently head our diplomatic missions in Washington, London and Dublin. Political appointments rarely have bipartisan support, too, and we’ve seen Peter Dutton further entrench the debate about Ambassador Rudd’s future by reminding the community his appointment was Anthony Albanese’s “captain’s pick” . This ties the prime minister to remain loyal to Rudd despite the prospect that the Trump administration may demand a diplomatic replacement. Perhaps it is time for Australian governments to seriously examine how highly they rate diplomacy in their management of foreign policy. Since its early role at the formation of the United Nations in 1945, Australia has a proud tradition of taking a leading role in key initiatives like peacekeeping missions and the Chemical Weapons Treaty. However in recent years, our governments have lost interest in being proactive as a middle power, preferring more to line up with old allies than assert our independence in foreign and defence policy.Oklahoma residents on Sunday mourned the death of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Fred Harris , a trailblazer in progressive politics in the state who ran an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1976. Harris died on Saturday at 94. Democratic Party members across Oklahoma remembered Harris for his commitment to economic and social justice during the 1960s — a period of historical turbulence. Harris chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1969 to 1970 and helped unify the party after its tumultuous national convention in 1968 when protesters and police clashed in Chicago. “Fred Harris showed us what is possible when we lead with both heart and principle. He worked to ensure everyone had a voice and a seat at the table,” said Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party. Harris appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago earlier this year as a guest speaker for the Oklahoma delegation, where he reflected on progress and unity. "Standing alongside him in Chicago this summer was a reminder of how his legacy continues to inspire,” Andrews said. Kalyn Free, a member of the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma and the DNC, said that there is no one else in public service whom she admired more than the former senator. “He was a friend, a mentor, a hero and my True North. Oklahoma and America have lost a powerful advocate and voice,” Free said in a statement. “His work for Indian Country will always be remembered.” “Senator Harris truly was an Oklahoma treasure and was ahead of his time in so many ways,” said Jeff Berrong, whose grandfather served in the state Senate with Harris. “He never forgot where he came from and he always remained focused on building a society that would provide equality of opportunity for all.” Harris served eight years in the state Senate before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served another eight years before his 1976 presidential campaign. State party leaders commemorated his work on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, or the Kerner Commission, to investigate the 1960s riots. Harris was the last surviving member of the commission. Shortly after his presidential campaign, Harris left politics and moved to New Mexico and became a political science professor at the University of New Mexico. —- Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Can you imagine? Down in the coal mines, there are more cameras than workers. At Shandong Energy Group Co., Ltd., there is a strict safety rule: "no video, no work." There are over 800 cameras on average in each mine. "In the past, most of our video footage could only be used to for retrospective analysis," said Zhou Jianpeng, the deputy general manager of Shandong Energy Group's Yunding Technology. "Now with the wide use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the coal mines, cameras are playing a 'big role.'" In the underground operation area, visual recognition technology is replacing the traditional mode of "people watching people." AI has become a "safety officer" 24 hours on duty. Once someone enters the operation area, it will automatically issue a warning. In a multi-rope friction hoisting system, the integration of an AI reasoning server enables real-time analysis to swiftly identify potential issues such as rope misalignment and wear. Intelligent applications are also enhancing efficiency. In mine shafts which are nearly 1,000 meters deep and face the risk of rock bursts, pressure relief drilling is essential to prevent collapses. Based on intelligent analysis and assisted verification of a visual recognition large language model, the construction supervision process for drilling has been shortened to 10 minutes from a previous length of three days, achieving a 100 percent acceptance rate. "These applications are inseparable from two key elements: data and intelligence," explained Jiang Wangcheng, vice president of Huawei's Oil, Gas and Mining BU. In the past, people often likened coal to "black gold." In Jiang's view, data is now becoming the "gold" of the intelligent era. Mines not only produce coal, but also a huge amount of data. This provides application scenarios and rich data elements for new technologies such as AI represented by large language models. "Nowadays, our large language models for mines have included more than 80 operational scenarios of mining enterprises," Jiang said. Just as oil is essential to industry, the rich data resources generated in various industries serve as "digital blood" driving the new round of industrial transformation. Driven by intelligent technology, data's potential value is being unleashed at an accelerated pace.Bigger Thanksgiving turkeys aren't always better, says Sandra Lee