A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in what authorities suspect was an attack. The driver was arrested.
(Image credit: Dörthe Hein)
Over a decade later, none of the bodies of the 239 passengers and crew members abroad have been recovered.
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But several hurdles remain to avert a government shutdown ahead of a Friday midnight deadline.
(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Millions of Americans are planning to travel in the coming days. Here's what a potential government shutdown could mean for flying, driving and more — and what you can do to prepare.
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As Mini PCs are becoming increasingly powerful, offering a compact design and a wealth of ports, they offer a versatile solution for users who need a powerful setup but don’t necessarily have the workspace to dedicate to a traditional desktop PC.
Recognizing this trend, Asus has introduced two 24-inch monitors, the BE248CFN and BE248QF, which are designed to accommodate these miniature marvels. Each monitor includes a mounting kit to securely attach a mini PC at the back of the stand, positioned closer to the base for easier access.
The two monitors offer other practical features, including a groove at the base that you can use to stash a smartphone. There’s also an integrated USB hub for users managing multiple devices.
Not 4K, sadly (Image credit: Asus)Both models offer ergonomic adjustments to suit various viewing preferences. The stands support tilt from -5 to 35 degrees, swivel 180 degrees left and right, pivot 90 degrees in either direction, and 130mm of height adjustment. The IPS panels deliver wide 178-degree viewing angles and 16.7 million colors, with a 5ms response time, 350cd/m² brightness, and a contrast ratio of 3,000:1.
Rather disappointingly, the display resolution of the two screens is Full HD+ (1,920 x 1,200), rather than 4K upwards, which may limit their appeal to those requiring higher detail or sharper visuals, such as content creators, or those who like to have a lot of windows open on screen at the same time.
Connectivity varies slightly between the two models. The BE248CFN includes HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.4, USB Type-C with a 96W power delivery function, a four-port USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub, and Gigabit Ethernet. The BE248QF adds a mini D-Sub 15-pin connector, catering to users with legacy hardware.
Both monitors incorporate 2W stereo speakers and Asus Eye Care technologies, such as Flicker-Free and Low Blue Light, which should make them comfortable to use during extended work sessions.
There’s no word on pricing or global availability as yet, but they should be on sale soon, starting in Japan, before hopefully heading to other countries.
You might also likeLawmakers will have to authorize additional borrowing to pay the government's bills, but there's no reason it has to be done right away — except for politics.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The world’s most popular browser, Google Chrome, is experimenting with a new AI-powered tool designed to help you avoid online scams.
The feature is currently being tested and apparently uses AI tech, specifically a Large Language Model (LLM) on the device, to analyze web pages and determine if they seem suspicious or scam-related.
This development was spotted by Leopeva64 on X, who regularly highlights web browser features which are being tested. What they actually discovered was a flag that can be enabled called ‘Client Side Detection Brand and Intent for Scam Detection,’ which is present in the latest version of Chrome’s experimental browser, Canary.
It looks like Chrome will also use AI to detect scams, there's a new flag in Canary that suggests this:https://t.co/uQb84zbqeW pic.twitter.com/7CyK5y4gtODecember 19, 2024
The new flag leverages an on-device LLM to investigate the content of any given web page and figure out what it's trying to do, and whether that content falls in line with the website’s supposed purpose or brand.
This is explained in the flag’s description, which reads: “Enables on-device LLM (large language model) output on pages to inquire for brand and intent of the page.”
(Image credit: Robinraj Premchand from Pixabay) On device is key to privacyOne key detail about this process is that it uses an on-device LLM, which means that the analysis of web pages happens on your device (as opposed to in the cloud somewhere, which would involve sending your browsing data to a third-party). In short, this means your data will stay private.
To try this feature out, you would have to install the latest Google Chrome Canary release, which is not something I’d generally recommend, unless you’re really keen (if so, you can follow Neowin’s advice on how to enable the new flag).
This is the latest in a series of AI-powered tools coming to Chrome, which also includes a ‘Store reviews’ feature that’s currently in testing. This capability uses AI to summarize reviews from platforms like Trustpilot or ScamAdvisor, helping users quickly check if an online store is reliable.
As ever, we don’t know if features in testing will make it through to release, but it’s likely these will - Google is keen on building out AI powers for its browser, and I expect we’ll see this scam warning system rolled out before too long. Unless the Google Chrome team finds some good reasons to go back to the drawing board.
Even though Chrome is the dominant web browser by a long way, Google shouldn’t rest on its laurels, and I think it’s very savvy of the company to keep improving its browser to stay in pole position. And with scammers and hostile actors now having AI-powered tools at their disposal, it’s good to see Google (hopefully) bringing LLMs in to help defend Chrome users from the unwanted attention of these nefarious types.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...The consumer financial watchdog says customers of the top three banks lost more than $870 million over seven years due to a lack of safeguards against fraud on the Zelle network.
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There have been plenty of rumors surrounding Lenovo’s upcoming successor to its PC gaming handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go, being equipped with SteamOS. And now it seems there’s credit to these rumors, according to a new report.
One possible successor to the original handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go S, seems to feature SteamOS instead of the Windows 11 operating system that the Legion Go used. A new email circulating around Lenovo (shared by The Verge) may confirm that one of the designers of the Steam Deck — Pierre-Loup Griffais — will attend a Lenovo presentation at CES 2025 called ‘Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds.’
The key takeaway is that Valve will have a presence at this event in the first place, which is what hints at the SteamOS news. There’s also another piece to the email, which allegedly shows a Legion handheld with a Steam button on it. Keep in mind that this SteamOS will most likely be for the Legion Go S, as previous rumors insist that the Legion Go 2 will stick with the Windows 11 OS.
What are Lenovo and AMD planning?There will apparently be two Lenovo Legion Go sequels, the first being the Legion Go S and the second the Legion Go 2. The former is reported to have an AMD Ryzen Z2G APU with Zen 3+ CPU cores and Radeon 680M integrated graphics. It’ll also feature 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and an 8-inch IPS display with 1920×1200 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate.
The latter is more of a direct successor as it will be equipped with a more powerful APU, possibly the rumored Ryzen Z2 Extreme that features a Zen 5-based CPU and an RDNA 3.5-based iGPU. The Verge also stated that Legion Go 2 will also have an OLED display with deeper blacks, more vibrant colors, and improved contrast over the original's IPS display.
This model will also keep the detachable controller from the original Legion Go but will have a more ergonomic design. However, there’s no mention of a dedicated Steam button on this handheld, which means it’ll most likely have Windows 11.
CES 2025 will also be an interesting event for AMD, as it’s planning to announce new tech like graphics cards and processors, including new RDNA 4 graphics cards. The tech giant might also drop some new mini gaming PC designs at the conference.
Richard Allen, who was convicted in the 2017 killings of two teens who vanished during a winter hike, received the maximum prison sentence in a case that's long cast a shadow over the town of Delphi.
(Image credit: Darron Cummings)
US sanctions on chip and advanced technology shipments to China have ramped up in recent years, largely spurred on in the post-pandemic era and aimed at tackling the country’s technological advancement, which the US fears could fuel its military.
A report by the South China Morning Post revealed Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC), a Chinese toolmaker, has now been removed from America’s list of concerning companies – dubbed ‘Chinese Military Companies operating in the US’.
Despite this, the company still remains on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, continuing certain restrictions and sanctions imposed by the country.
AMEC no longer under DoD restrictionsThe downgrade was confirmed via a US Federal Register filing on December 13, around 12 months after it was first listed. The company's inclusion on the list throughout 2024 meant the Department of Defense was banned from purchasing anything from AMEC, and other companies on the list, among other restrictions, depending on the company.
In the case of AMEC, it was also unable to buy technologies developed in the US, and as it is still included on the Entities List, suppliers from AMEC still need to acquire an export license to sell tools and materials to the firm – those licenses can be tricky to get, by all accounts.
Chinese investment firm IDG Capital was also removed from the list, though the Department of Defense did not give a specific reason to the downgrade.
Earlier in 2024, AMEC filed a lawsuit in the US against the DoD for its inclusion on the list in the first place.
This news comes just weeks after the US added even more companies to its list. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian previously criticized the US' measures as being harmful to global trade, adding that the country had been considering its own countermeasures.
The added complexity comes in the form of President-elect Trump – it’s unclear whether many of the restrictions that have previously been put in place will remain.
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BeyondTrust has confirmed it recently suffered a cyberattack after spotting “anomalous behavior” on its network and uncovering some of its Remote Support SaaS instances were compromised.
In an announcement published on its website, the company, which provides Privileged Access Management (PAM) and secure remote access solutions, said a subsequent investigation uncovered that the threat actors accessed a Remote Support SaaS API key, which they used to reset local app account passwords.
"BeyondTrust immediately revoked the API key, notified known impacted customers, and suspended those instances the same day while providing alternative Remote Support SaaS instances for those customers,” the company said in its announcement.
It wasn't ransomwareThe company said it found two vulnerabilities, which it patched. It doesn’t seem as if these vulnerabilities were used in the attacks, though.
In any case, BeyondTrust’s research uncovered a critical command injection flaw impacting the Remote Support (RS) and Privileged Remote Access (PRA) products. This flaw is tracked as CVE-2024-12356 and has a severity score of 9.8/10 (critical).
The second flaw is a medium-severity one, with a 6.6 score, and tracked as CVE-2024-12686. It allows attackers with existing admin privileges to inject commands and run as a site user on Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS).
The instances provide cloud-hosted solutions for secure, scalable remote support, allowing IT and service desk professionals to remotely access and troubleshoot devices or systems while maintaining strict security and compliance standards. BeyondTrust’s usual clients are large enterprises, government agencies, financial institutions, tech giants, and similar.
The company did not state if the attack trickled down to any of BeyondTrust’s customers, but it did stress that it “proactively completed” an update for its Secure Remote Access Cloud customers, tightening up on their defenses.
The nature of the attack is not known at this time, but the company did confirm to BleepingComputer that it was not ransomware.
Via BleepingComputer
You might also likeUsyk vs Fury 2 is almost here – which means it's time to figure out the best (and possibly cheapest) way to watch the big fight live on Saturday, December 21, from Riyadh.
The hotly-anticipated heavyweight clash between WBA, WBC, WBO, and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk and former WBC champion Tyson Fury is expected to sell more than 1 million pay-per-views.
Boxing fans can watch it live on TV thanks to major sports networks such as DAZN, TNT Sports and Sky Sports, as well as online via their respective streaming apps.
Ready for a huge box office showdown? Stick with us for all the latest developments as excitement grows ahead of Usyk vs Fury 2...
Watching Usyk vs Fury 2: the essentialsWhat is the venue for Usyk vs Fury 2?
Oleksandr Usky vs Tyson Fury 2 takes place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – the same venue as the first fight in May. This will be the third time each fighter has boxed in the Saudi kingdom.
Kingdom Arena is the largest fully-covered football stadium in the world with a capacity of stands 26,000 spectators.
When does Fury vs Usyk 2 take place?
Usyk vs Fury 2: Reignited – as it is officially known – takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, December 21. The undercard will begin at 5pm GMT / 12 pm ET.
The fight is a rematch of the the pair's May 18 bout in which Fury lost his WBC heavyweight title to Usyk in a split decision.
What happened in the first Fury vs Usyk 2 fight?
Since you’re getting ready to watch the Fury vs Usyk rematch, you might want to catch up with the events of May 18, when the pair first clashed.
Billed as 'Ring of Fire', Fury showboated his way through the first round but was soon struggling to hold his own against Usyk. The Gypsy King landed an uppercut in the sixth round but his momentum was short-lived. Usyk landed 14 punches in the ninth round and Fury was given a standing count.
After 12 rounds Usyk defeated Fury by split decision. It was first loss of Fury’s career and put an end to the undisputed heavyweight champion of boxing's four-belt era, setting the stage for a highly anticipated rematch.
When does the Fury vs Usyk 2 undercard start?
Fight card: 4pm GMT / 11am ET / 8am PT / 3am AEDT (Sun) / 7pm KSA / 7pm Riyadh time on Saturday, December 21.
(Image credit: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)What time are main event ringwalks?
Good question. Being a live fight, timings are changeable and it's not unusual for big showdowns to start later (sometimes much later) than originally advertised.
What we know is that Tyson Fury (the challenger) will walk out first, followed by Oleksandr Usyk (the champion). Approximate timing are as follows:
5.20pm ET / 10.20pm GMT – 10 mins of live entertainment
5.30pm ET / 10.30pm GMT – Ringwalks (around five minutes each)
5.55pm ET / 10.55pm GMT – Fury and Usyk touch gloves in the ring
If you're planning on watching Usyk vs Fury 2, keep an eye on our live updates for the latest streaming info and PPV prices.
Is it true that Usyk vs Fury 2 will feature an AI judge?
Yes, the AI experiment will be "free from bias and human error" according to Turki Alalshikh the man behind the tool. You might be relieved to hear that the so-called 'AI judge' will not be used for official scorecards.
It's certainly an interesting idea but we're not convinced AI judges will solve boxing's scoring problem.
What time is the Fury vs Usyk 2 weigh-in?
The weigh-in takes place at 1pm ET / 10am PT / 6pm GMT on Friday, December 20 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That's 5am AEDT on Saturday for those of you in Australia.
Fingers crossed it's every bit as controversial as Thursday's utterly extraordinary 10-minute face-off...
Where can I watch the Usyk vs Fury 2 weigh-in live?
Fight fans can watch the weigh-in for free on the DAZN YouTube channel. It's due to start in exactly one hour's time – 1pm ET / 6pm GMT / 9pm KSA.
Usyk vs Fury 2 undercard
Saturday’s undercard features rising star Moses Itauma. The 19-year-old British boxing sensation has notched up 10 wins in 10 fights and there is now talk of him becoming the youngest heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson.
The latest news is that Israil Madrimov has withdrawn through illness and will be replaced against Serhii Bohachuk.
Andrii Novytskyi vs Edgar Ramirez - heavyweight
Daniel Lapin vs Dylan Colin - light-heavyweight
Peter McGrail vs Rhys Edwards - super-featherweight
Isaac Lowe vs Lee McGregor - featherweight
Johnny Fisher vs David Allen - heavyweight
Serhii Bohachuk vs Ishmael Davis - super-welterweight
Moses Itauma vs Demsey McKean - heavyweight
Usyk vs Fury weigh-in... live streaming on YouTube NOW!
But don't worry – you haven't missed anything. We're still waiting for Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk to hit the scales.
Elsewhere, the last-minute Peter McGrail vs Rhys Edwards fight has been confirmed as a super featherweight clash. McGrail says he's "ready" and has a lot of respect for Edwards, who steps in at late notice to replace Dennis McCann.
Fun fact: Tyson Fury's beard length was officially cleared and sanctioned yesterday. The Morecambe bomber's bushy visage attracted the ire of Usyk's camp, who are still protesting its length. Presumably they want Fury to get a better 'uppercut'?
Up next: Tyson Fury weighs in!
Hit play on the FREE DAZN live stream below as Tyson Fury, the man wants to be undisputed again, strips down and steps on the scales... Sweet Caroline is blasting out and Michael Buffer is about the introduce first Fury, and then Usyk. It's go time!
Fury weighs in at a career-heavy 20st 1lb
Fury was first to the scales and didn't even take his jacket off, nevermind his gold jewellery.
The Morecambe man weighs in at 20st 1lb or 281 lbs.
Fury weighed 18st 7lb when these two met back in May.
"Facts of the matter: tomorrow night we're gonna fight out who is the best," says promoter Frank Warren. "Tyson's favorite" for a TKO win, he adds. Hmmm... not sure about that, Frank. We'll find out tomorrow night.
(Image credit: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)Is Usyk vs Fury 2 a pay-per-view?
Yep, it's a DAZN Pay-Per-View in over 200 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia and most of Europe.
What is the Pay-Per-View cost?
The Usyk vs Fury PPV will set you back £24.99 in the UK, $39.99 in the States and $29.99 in Australia. So, a bit less than the first fight. Which is nice.
What if I live in a really remote area such as Antarctica?
DAZN has you covered. The PPV price is set at $19.99 USD in a string of obscure locations around the world from Antarctica to Timor-Leste, Togo and mighty Vanuatu. Whether you can find a strong internet connection is, of course, another matter.
Which country has the cheapest PPV?
In Ukraine, fans can watch the fight live on local streaming service Megogo as part of the Optimal plan, which costs only 119 UAH per month – the equivalent of £2.27 / $2.84. You can watch lots of TV show and live sports, including boxing, on Megogo every month.
I'm from Ukraine but currently abroad
You can use a VPN! We find NordVPN (save up to 70%) works best. It will unblock your usual, geo-blocked streaming services, allowing you to use them from anywhere in the world.
SEE our full Usyk vs Fury 2 watch guide for your PPV options
Boxing fans warned against illegal streams
Saturday's Tyson Fury fight is expected to generate well over a million Pay-Per-View sales. But it's not just a bonanza for the sports networks; a YouGov poll revealed a reported 20 million illegal streams of the first Usyk vs Fury fight (per svgeurope.org).
Kieron Sharp, CEO of BeStreamWise partner FACT, has issued a warning to boxing fans: "Illegal streaming puts consumers at risk of malware, financial theft, and the compromise of personal data, such as emails, photos, and browsing history."
Beard-gate rolls on – and Team Usyk files another complaint
The furore over Tyson Fury's facial hair continues. Following today's weigh-in, Team Usyk once again protested the length of Tyson's beard.
Usyk's camp say the growth 'grossly violates' the 'beard rule' and they want it trimmed.
Are they wasting their time? Quite possibly. It's hard to imagine a multi-million dollar fight – on the 50th Anniversary of The Rumble of The Jungle – being cancelled over a fullsome beard.
Anyway, one sleep to go before Reignited... the anticipation is building.
Fury weighs in a STONE heavier than Usyk... fully clothed
At today's weigh-in The Gypsy King cut short his face-off with Oleksandr Usyk after just seven seconds. Not a patch on the 11-minute 20-seconder we got at Thursday's media conference.
The other surprise? Fury's weight. At 281 lbs, he's now at his career-heaviest.
But British-Irish former professional boxer Matt Macklin reckons it isn't a true reflection of what he'll weigh tomorrow.
"I think you've gotta take at least half a stone off, possibly 10lbs," Macklin told Sky Sports Boxing. "He has a massive coat, shoes, phone in the pocket, wallet, money... [that's] at least 7lbs. So what's that? 274... 273 lbs? I think that's probably his optimum fighting weight."
Bluesky's soaring popularity as the social media platform of the moment has been somewhat hamstrung by frustrating verification problems. Simply put, there's no official verification system in place, at least not the traditional Blue Check you can find on Instagram, Threads, X, and TikTok. But now the distributed platform has made one relatively minor change that could have a big impact on protecting everyone's names from handle squatters.
In a relatively small update (1.96) released on Thursday, December 19, Bluesky announced that if you change your Bluesky handle to a domain name, the original handle, which might also feature your full name, will be reserved for you. You don't have to use it, but the old handle will never expire and, therefore, never fall into someone else's hands. It's the equivalent of forever ownership of site domains, which doesn't exist. If you stop paying for your website domain, it will go back on the market, and anyone else can take it.
In the case of Bluesky, the focus on domains is important because this is how Bluesky verifies accounts or at least provides a form of verification for account holders. Bluesky explains in a blog post, "On Bluesky, you can set your website as your username. This is one form of verification on Bluesky, and it's our version of a 'blue check.' We highly recommend that official organizations and high-profile individuals do this."
Get a domain checkBluesky explains how to do this in the post and I walked through the process for myself here. In my case, my handle went from lance.ulanoff@bsky.social to @lanceulanoff.com. I already own my domain, but if you don't, Bluesky is now offering to search for and secure a domain for you.
It can be a little confusing because other social platforms seemingly make it easier, allowing you to verify full names and other custom handles. Bluesky is not, though, your average platform; it's built on the AT Protocol, the benefit being that your profile and social media activity are not owned by Bluesky and are actually portable to any platform built on that protocol. However, AT Protocol is designed to use domains for identification in part because it's a strong verification signal.
Bluesky's system still lacks a visual cue that a handle is verified, though. Of course, if you see a domain, well, you know it is. Even so, who doesn't like a Blue Check?
Bluesky did introduce a couple of other small updates, including a Mentions tab, which, yes, is reminiscent of other micro-blogging social media platforms. It lets you split your notifications into posts that specifically mention your handle.
Even as all these platforms grow (Threads just hit 300M users, Bluesky has around 25 million), these platforms become increasingly alike. As I continue to run X, Threads, and Bluesky, I sometimes struggle to tell which platform I'm in.
Surely, not all three can survive, and while I can't guess which platform wins, Bluesky is making the right moves to remain in the running.
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