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Facebook Tweet Email Link Israel’s far-right security minister posted video footage of himself taunting the most high-profile Palestinian prisoner while visiting him in jail this week, in an encounter that has prompted outrage from supporters. The video is the first time that Marwan Barghouti, 66, who is serving five life sentences after being convicted in 2002 for his role in planning attacks that killed five Israeli civilians, has been seen for many years. He appears gaunt and frail, with his arms held together in front as he nods slightly. In the 13-second video, Itamar Ben Gvir taunts and threatens Barghouti,…

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty ImagesA version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.As the world’s rich have gotten richer, their investment firms have doubled down on private assets such as direct lending and data centers.The number of family offices with allocations to private markets has surged by 524% since 2016, rising from 651 to 4,067, per Preqin data. This increase surpasses that of wealth management firms (410%) and endowments and foundations (81%) with allocations to private…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A record low number of Americans are drinking, according to a new Gallup poll released this week. Just 54% of Americans said they consume alcohol at all. Gallup has been tracking Americans’ drinking behavior since 1939, and their views of the health implications of drinking since 2001. For the first time, a majority of Americans – 53% – said that moderate drinking, defined as one or two drinks per day, is bad for your health. “This is a message that those of us in public health have been advocating for a long time,” said Dr. Katherine…

People move through a crowded JFK International Airport days before the 4th of July holiday on July 02, 2024 in New York City. As the summer travel season takes off, millions of Americans and tourists are experiencing long delays and congestion at airports, train stations and on highways. July is the busiest month of travel in the U.S.Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesMaking money in the summer is not as easy as it used to be for airlines.Airlines have drawn down their schedules in August for a variety of reasons. Some travelers are opting to fly earlier,…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Rapper Sean Kingston is scheduled to be sentenced in South Florida on Friday after being convicted of a $1 million fraud scheme.Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were each convicted by a federal jury in March of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. U.S. Judge David Leibowitz sentenced Turner last month to five years in prison, but Kingston’s sentencing was rescheduled.Kingston, 35, and his mother were arrested in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale.…

Airbnb has launched a new feature called “Reserve Now, Pay Later” that lets users in the U.S. reserve a property without paying up front, potentially allowing people to cancel their bookings with less hassle if their plans change. The feature is applicable to properties that have a “flexible” or “moderate” cancellation policy. Flexible policies let users cancel their reservation up to 24 hours before they check in, while moderate policies allow for no-fee cancellations until five days before check-in. Users will need to pay the full amount for their booking before the listing’s free cancellation period ends. Airbnb will send…

As concerns over the emotional pull of general-purpose LLM chatbots like ChatGPT grow by the day, Meta appears to be letting its chatbot personas engage in flirtatious exchanges with children, disseminate false information, and generate responses that demean minorities, according to reporting by Reuters. According to an internal Meta document seen by Reuters, Meta had policies on AI chatbot behavior that allowed its AI personas to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”  Meta confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the document, which contained standards for the company’s generative AI assistant, Meta AI, and chatbots on Facebook,…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A sudden burst of heavy rain has claimed dozens of lives in India-administered Kashmir and sparked frantic rescue efforts, the second recent disaster to underscore the vulnerability of those living in the Himalayas to the effects of extreme weather. At least 46 people have died and more than 200 are missing in the town of Chashoti, a popular pilgrimage destination for Hindu tourists, Reuters reported citing local officials. Flash floods caused by the rain turned roads into raging rivers while the downpour devastated entire buildings and swept away vehicles, dramatic video shared on social media showed.…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…

Eastman Kodak is denying reports that it’s shutting down. On Wednesday, media outlets like CNN and CNBC detailed the company’s ongoing financial challenges, including statements made in its earnings report that warned investors it didn’t have “committed financing or available liquidity” to meet debt obligations coming due within 12 months. However, Kodak quickly published a press release to counter these claims, noting it has “no plans to cease operations” or file for bankruptcy protection. Rather, it claims to have plans to “repay, extend, or refinance” its debt before the due date and expects to have a stronger balance sheet by…