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Trump's transition team eyes expansion of ankle monitors for illegal immigrants not in custodyThe Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which is now poised to remain in his control for at least the near future. What's next for Infowars and Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site . U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them. “Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said in a phone interview Wednesday. The families, meanwhile, were preparing the mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting. The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case , which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid. He also said the amount of money offered in the only two bids was too low and there needed to be more effort to try to raise as much money possible from the selling of Infowars' assets. The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody . The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors. Lopez called it a complex arrangement that led to different interpretations of the bid's actual value as well as last-minute changes to a proposed sale order. The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected the allegations, saying that while mistakes were made there was no wrongdoing. Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors. The next steps remained unclear Wednesday. The judge directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy. He said Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company. He also said Murray could abandon the efforts, which could allow the Sandy Hook families to return to the state courts where they won their lawsuits against Jones and begin collection proceedings against him. The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan to move forward. Mattei, who represented the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said everyone is waiting to see what plan the trustee comes up with. Jones, meanwhile, continued to allege fraud and collusion on his show Wednesday and threatened legal action over what he called an attempted “rigged auction.” On the social media platform X, he called the judge's ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process." “I don’t want to have to go after these people, lawsuit-wise, but we have to because if you don’t then you’re aiding and abetting and they do it to other people. They made some big mistakes," he said. It's a solemn and heartbreaking week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence on Wednesday evening. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye. Many of the families said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats. Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed, testified at the Connecticut lawsuit trial in 2022 that the decade of abuse his family suffered made them move across the country to Washington state, and even there he was accosted in person. The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials. Jones has been appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments, and has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Last week, a Connecticut appeals court upheld most of the judgment in that state but reduced it by $150 million. Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

Israel strikes kill 52 in Lebanon as Hezbollah targets south IsraelIn a fresh scam, fraudsters used a malicious app named 'PM Kisan Yojna,' and targeted UPI users and stole money, Tamil Nadu police said on Saturday and advised people to use only official apps and websites for financial transactions. Assembly Election Results Live Updates Maharashtra Election Results Jharkhand Election Results Bypoll Election Results Investigations into unauthorised debits through PhonePe revealed the use of a malicious app named 'PM Kisan Yojna,' and this app was distributed via multiple channels, including WhatsApp and gained control over user's SMS and device permissions. "The fraudsters intercept SMS traffic and use it to manipulate UPI applications. They use the intercepted data to register devices on UPI platforms, enabling unauthorized transactions. It also collects sensitive personal data, such as name, Aadhaar number, PAN , and date of birth, through a web form," state headquarters of cyber crime wing said here in a statement. "This sophisticated method of attack has caused financial and emotional distress to several individuals, with the scammers exploiting the trust associated with government benefit schemes and urgency." Multiple incidents of unauthorised bank transactions through UPI applications, particularly PhonePe, have been reported recently. In the month of November 2024, around 7 complaints have been registered in Tamil Nadu through National Cyber Crime Reporting portal. "Victims have reported unexpected deductions from their bank accounts without their knowledge or consent via PhonePe. 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View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Upon investigation, it has been discovered that in all reported cases, the deducted amounts were transferred exclusively to Amazon Pay ," the official release added. Assembly Election Results Live Updates Maharashtra Poll Results Highlights 2024 Jharkhand Poll Results Highlights 2024Future Days Beer Co. opens Thursday in a renovated carriage house in Northern Liberties, but its original home was much more modest. The brewery was born in an off-campus apartment near Fordham University in the Bronx, where two college juniors decided to give beer-making a spin. "We had a huge pot that we were using on the stove," Sean McGuire, one of those home brewers, remembered. "And then in order to cool everything down to ferment, we had to soak it in a bathtub full of ice cubes. It was insanely rudimentary, but we were young and dumb and excited to try to make beer." McGuire and Nick Mata have learned a lot since then, and are ready to show off their skill at their first (official) storefront. The pair is set to launch Future Days at 433 Fairmount Ave. with four – possibly five – beers on tap and many more to come. The brewery's future wasn't always guaranteed. After brewing and rooming together at Fordham, the duo split to pursue careers in finance and accounting. They picked up the project again about five years after graduation, making batches in Mata's Long Island garage. It became a weekend ritual, even as McGuire followed his wife, a Bucks County native, to Connecticut and then Philadelphia. "It was not fun," McGuire admitted. "I would wake up at like 3:00 a.m. just so that I could get out there by like six or seven and avoid all of the traffic." But the buzz grew as they hosted tastings and won home-brewing awards for a couple of their early creations. McGuire picked up some commercial experience at Half Full Brewery in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, once he'd settled in Philly, he convinced Mata to join him and go all in on Future Days. The partners plunged into the project headfirst, quitting their day jobs to focus on fixing up the Fairmount Avenue property. "It was a total shell, and had been vacant actually for 15 years prior, which was both good and bad," McGuire said. "Good in that we could do whatever we wanted to make it the exact brewery and the exact tasting room that we wanted. But bad in that it was gonna take us quite a bit of time. I think we underestimated how long it would actually take." Now, a full decade after their bathtub beer, McGuire and Mata are ready to launch Future Days. The brewery will be open Thursdays through Sundays and initially offer two hazy pale ales, a West Coast pale ale and the flagship Future Days Kölsh to start. (McGuire teased a possible fifth beer by the weekend.) And while its owners hope the place will become a fun place to hang – they'll have a pool table and Eagles games on the TV – they mainly hope to cultivate a reputation among beer drinkers. "We're not gonna stop at solid, decent, you know, that beer's okay," McGuire said. "We got into this because we wanted to make really, really good beer. We've drank really good beer. We know what it tastes like. So our overarching mission is to brew great beer that Philadelphia could be proud of, that we could be proud of. We want it to be some of the best beer in Philly when all is said and done." Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt | @thePhillyVoice Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Have a news tip ? Let us know.

H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), today launched the Middle East’s first-of-its-kind drone delivery system at Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the special economic zone for knowledge and innovation and a member of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ). The launch event was attended by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, and Chairman of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority. He placed the first order using the drone delivery system through the platform from the Rochester Institute of Technology-Dubai (RIT-Dubai), one of the landing points within DSO’s drone delivery network. The order was successfully delivered from one of the take-off points in the community. H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed reaffirmed Dubai’s commitment to developing advanced infrastructure and fostering an innovative environment to enhance smart logistics and cutting-edge air transport solutions, aligned with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to establish Dubai as a leader among future-ready cities. His Highness said, “We continue to support projects that drive a diversified, flexible digital economy by leveraging advanced technology in Dubai and empowering the aviation and air transport sectors. Our strategy places a high priority on strengthening public-private partnerships to catalyse research and development (R&D), sustainable growth, and smart mobility. This aligns with the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which aims to position Dubai among the world’s top three urban economies.” Highlighting the importance of economic growth driven by R&D and innovation, H.H. Sheikh Hamdan said, “Over the past years, we have launched a series of programmes in Dubai aimed at promoting the development of smart city solutions, enhancing economic integration between various sectors, and employing technology in the service of society, such as the Dubai Programme to Enable Drone Transportation, the Dubai Robotics and Automation Programme, the Dubai Research and Development Program, and Dubai’s annual plan to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence. Today, we are reaping the impressive results of these initiatives and continuing the transformational projects that will double the size of Dubai’s economy by 2033.” H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed further said, “The future of robotic technologies and self-driving systems for retail services, and knowledge-based economic applications, innovation, digital transformation and the use of artificial intelligence have all become a reality in Dubai.” His Highness emphasised Dubai’s pioneering role in driving innovation and creating new opportunities. “Dubai has consistently led the way in advancing research, innovation, and the adoption of transformative technologies. A decade ago, we introduced the UAE Drones for Good Award to encourage the positive use of drone technology. Today, we have reached a significant milestone with operational readiness to commence drone delivery operations. Through strong collaboration between the public and private sectors, we aim to further raise the quality of services, enhance quality of life, and accelerate economic growth.” The launch was also attended by Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State For Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications; Mattar Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA); Lieutenant General Talal Belhoul Al Falasi, President of Dubai’s State Security Department; and several senior officials. His Highness’ comments were made during the completion of a joint project between Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), to finalise preparations for launching drone delivery services in DSO. Their efforts resulted in the creation of dedicated air routes aligned with existing airspace usage in DSO. H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum emphasised that Dubai’s global leadership in aviation, logistics, and future mobility stems from the visionary leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This vision has established Dubai as one of the most advanced hubs for air transport and aviation solutions. Dubai also leads in excellence in research, development, and testing of cutting-edge technologies, including drones and related services, leveraging these innovations to drive development and serve communities worldwide. The pilots at Dubai Silicon Oasis were the culmination of the Dubai Programme to Enable Drone Transportation, launched by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2021. The MoU to initiate the programme’s operations was signed by several government and private sector entities, including Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Future Foundation, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, the Roads and Transport Authority, Fakeeh University Hospital, Majid Al Futtaim, and Emirates SkyCargo. Over the past few months, Dubai Silicon Oasis hosted a series of pilot operations for drone delivery operations to ensure the highest aviation safety and security standards. This was done in cooperation with the DCAA and Keeta Drone, a pioneer in this field and the most well-known drone delivery platform in China. This is the company’s first venture outside the Greater China region. Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Executive Chairman of DIEZ, said, “DIEZ is committed to supporting initiatives that utilise advanced technologies to facilitate people’s daily lives, and provide a conducive environment to pilot smart solutions ahead of implementation. We are proud to be a key partner of the Dubai Program to Enable Drone Transportation, launched by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in 2021.” He added, “We are delighted to launch drone delivery operations at DSO, which has become an internationally recognised lab for the latest smart technologies. The launch marks a new milestone in the shift towards a future of technological innovation. We are committed to working with both, the private and public sectors, to test and implement projects and initiatives in the smart mobility field, in a bid to offer the emirate’s residents the most advanced smart services as part of the emirate’s broader strategy to make Dubai the world’s best place to live.” Mohammed Abdullah Linjawi, Director General of DCAA, said, “We are committed to making a vital contribution to enhancing Dubai’s position as one of the cities best prepared for the future and a global hub for innovation in the aviation sector. This new achievement in the field of drone delivery reflects the continuous efforts made by the emirate under the guidance of the wise leadership, which has always attached great importance to developing safe and efficient transportation solutions that contribute to improving quality of life, strengthening Dubai’s future economy and making it a leading model in developing and implementing smart solutions in the field of aviation.” He added, “Drone delivery will reach 33% of Dubai by 2030, positioning the emirate as a pioneer in smart mobility. We will continue our pioneering role in creating new opportunities by regulating and operating drones and paving the way for the introduction of various emerging and promising technologies in the field of aviation in cooperation with government and private entities, and applying the best international practices to ensure the safety of air operations and using the latest technologies to enhance the efficiency of advanced logistics services.” Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, stressed that this achievement embodies the forward-thinking vision of the leadership and Dubai’s commitment to design and execute the future. It also reflects Dubai’s remarkable successes in developing advanced infrastructure and creating integrated systems to support the growth of smart mobility, delivery, and logistics services over the past years. Belhoul noted, “The Dubai Future Foundation is committed to collaborating with public and private entities, in line with H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed’s directives to accelerate progress in vital economic and future sectors.” “We will continue to work with our partners through various projects, programmes, and initiatives, such as the 'Dubai Program to Enable Drone Transportation,' the 'Dubai Robotics and Automation Program,' and the 'Dubai Research, Development, and Innovation Programme'. This aligns with our mission to reinforce Dubai’s position as one of the world’s most future-ready cities,” Belhoul added. Dr. Yinian Mao, VP of Meituan and President of Keeta Drone, the overseas arm of the drone delivery unit of Meituan, a leading tech-driven retail company in China, said, “Our venture in the Middle East aligns with the parent company’s growth strategy. We are excited to have an ideal partner such as Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority that offers businesses and investors three economic zones of choice to ensure the right platform to establish and grow in this region. Through our presence in Dubai Silicon Oasis, we are keen to bring drone delivery solutions to its community and look forward to expanding the initiative across Dubai, and the wider region.” Dr. Yousef Al-Assaf, President of Rochester Institute of Technology in Dubai, said, “We are proud to forge a unique partnership with diverse public and private sector entities in the project to test, implement and launch the first drone delivery system in the Middle East, from Dubai Silicon Oasis, which consolidates its position as a hub for future technologies. The participation of RIT-Dubai, headquartered in DSO, in this pioneering project enables it to develop its academic competencies, empower local talent, and provide a world-class academic and research laboratory environment.” With the aid of cutting-edge flight control algorithms and multi-sensor fusion positioning technology, the drone is designed to operate in various city landscapes. It is equipped with low-noise propellers, a parachute, and a flight control system, all developed in-house. Follow Emirates 24|7 on