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Speaking in Atlanta Friday, Vice President Harris called tougher abortion laws “immoral” and slammed Republicans for what she called “longstanding neglect” around maternal mortality.

(Image credit: Brynn Anderson)

A new AI-powered teddy bear might be the solution to storytime with your kids or an eerie robot attempting to usurp a parenting duty, depending on your point of view. Tech toy company Skyrocket hopes you'll see Poe the AI Story Bear as the former. The plush toy employs AI models from OpenAI to compose new stories based on ideas suggested by a child, which are then told by the bear in a friendly, but synthetic voice produced with ElevenLabs' AI speech creator. 

The customized stories are put together by the AI model using a wide range of options that a child can pick from the accompanying Poe AI Bear: Story Creator app. There are hundreds of curated options for story elements, and kids can pick a wide range of themes, characters, and locations for the story, even inserting themselves into it. If they like the resulting story, they can save it to listen to again or move on and try out other options next time. 

Because of the AI used to come up with the stories, there may be similarities based on the chosen icons in the app, but each story will ultimately be different even if the same options are chosen multiple times. There's only one AI voice included with Poe, but ElevenLabs' models give it context-aware emotional tones and otherwise mimic how a human speaks. Poe can tell stories in 30 languages, the ones built into the ElevenLabs model.

"Poe the AI Story Bear empowers kids with the ability to create amazing, personalized stories that they'll love listening to again and again," Skyrocket CEO Nelo Lucich explained. "It's always been a dream to have toys that come alive and now it's possible with AI. Poe the AI Story Bear embraces the positive aspects of AI technology and makes it accessible to all types of consumers from diverse backgrounds and languages and at a budget-friendly price point."

AI Toy Story

Of course, for a child's product, safety is going to be a major concern. To assuage worries, Skyrocket has designed Poe to only pull input from the app, so there are no cameras, microphones, or direct internet access, just Bluetooth to link to the mobile device. There are also stricter than usual safeguards on the content the AI model suggests for the story. That's also why the options for themes and characters are curated, limiting the chance of anything inappropriate inadvertently coming up.

The high-tech power of Poe is surprisingly affordable at $50. Skyrocket has ambitions to develop a whole line of toys with AI-powered features, but the real question is if parents will see Poe as their child's more talkative Buzz Lightyear or a sinister latter-day Furby.

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The EHF Champions League is the pinnacle of European club handball, offering plenty of fast-and-furious play. Featuring plenty of stars who graced the Paris 2024, read on to find out how to keep up with all EHF Champions League action wherever you are. 

• Just want to get watching? Watch on EHFTV (may require a VPN)

EHF Champions League live stream

Date: September 11, 2024 - July 15, 2025

Live stream: watch on EHFTV

Use NordVPN to watch from anywhere

The EHF Champions League group phase is underway. Defending champions Barça are in Group B along with Aalborg Håndbold, who they defeated in that final. Dinamo Bucuresti, Sporting CP and Paris Saint-Germain Handball are amongst the big names in Group A.

Barça boast Olympic gold medal-winning goalkeeper Emil Nielsen in their roster, while his legendary international teammate Henrik Møllgaard plays for Aalborg Håndbold. Salvador Salvador, the young captain of Sporting, is another top talent to watch out for. As for PSG, they feature some of the French talent that fell short at their home Games.

Read on to find out how you can watch all of the EHF Champions League action and handball live streams.

How to watch the EHF Champions League Handball live stream for FREE

Most of the EHF handball coverage is on EHFTV, which requires a paid subscription. 

However, if you're lucky enough to be in Germany, Austria or Switzerland you can catch some of the action for FREE.

DAZN and Pluto TV have a free-to-air handball channel in which a total of 50 games, including some from the EHF Champions League, will be shown. 

If you are from one of those countries but away when one of the games is on, you can use a VPN to access your usual service.

How to watch a EHF Champions League Handball live stream from anywhere

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How to watch EHF Champions League on EHFTV

The EHF has made it super easy to tune into the handball Champions League in most regions by showing live streams of all the EHF Champions League tournament games on its EHFTV streaming service.

All you need to do is register with EHFTV, buy a subscription and away you go. It costs €7.99 per month or $45.99 for the year.

If you have a subscription but can't access the service in the country you're in, you can use a VPN to watch as if you were at home.

EHFTV is easily accessible in many countries around the world. However, you may find yourself geo-blocked from EHFTV live streams when travelling abroad. If you'd like to access EHFTV, or any of your regular home streaming service as normal, then use a good VPN.

A good VPN can let you get around these digital borders legally, while also offering robust protection from cybercriminals and government snooping, making everyday tasks like online shopping and banking much safer.

Use NordVPN to live stream EHF Champions League 2024/25 from anywhere.

EHF Champions League 2024/25 groups

These are the groups for the 2024/25 EHF Champions League handball.

Group A

• Dinamo Bucuresti
• Füchse Berlin
• Sporting CP
• Paris Saint-Germain Handball
• Veszprém HC
• Orlen Wisla Plock
• Fredericia Håndbold Klub
• HC Eurofarm Pelister

Group B

• Barça
• Industria Kielce
• OTP Bank - PICK Szeged
• HC Zagreb
• Aalborg Håndbold
• HBC Nantes
• SC Magdeburg
• Kolstad Håndbold

EHF Champions League 2024/25 Schedule

• Group Phase: September 11, 2024 – March 6, 2025
• Play-offs: March 26, 2025 – April 3, 2025
• Quarter-finals: April 23, 2025 – May 1, 2025
• Semi-final: July 14, 2025
• Final: July 15, 2025

What is the EHF?

The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for all things European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and comprises 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland).

Can I watch EHF Champions League handball on my mobile?

Of course, EHF has an app through which you can access EHF TV and all the latest information about the competition.

One week into the US Coast Guard’s OceanGate hearings, witnesses have shed new light on key aspects of the company’s troubles leading up to the fateful implosion.

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Springfield has become a lightning rod in a pitched battle over immigration. Meanwhile, Dayton has welcomed immigrants for more than a decade, to fill vacant jobs and revitalize old neighborhoods.

We're introducing the Mattress Smasher 9000, a proprietary CNET device that helps us break through the subjectivity of mattress firmness.

Looking for the best internet provider in Rochester, Minnesota? There are a few great fiber internet options available, but speeds top out at 1,000Mbps.

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I've tested more than 70 cases for Apple's iPhone 16 range. These are the best cases, along with a few MagSafe accessories.

A building in a residential neighborhood in Beirut was struck by Israel, killing a senior commander with the militant group Hezbollah and ten other fighters, according to the Israeli military. It was the deadliest attack in Beirut in nearly two decades and it comes in the same week Hezbollah militants were targeted by Israel with thousands of exploding pagers and radios. We go to the scene of the strike in Beirut.

A new start-up called Juice has announced a partnership with New York ride share and fast-charging operator Revel that could help take the pain out of using a public EV charging network thanks to smart cameras and machine learning.

Although vastly improved over recent years, topping up EV batteries via chargers found out in the wild remains a confusing and sometimes over-complicated task. 

Many require setting up a bespoke account, either through a browser or by downloading a smartphone app, despite the increased prevalence of tap-to-pay options.

Regardless, it’s still not the seamless experience that Tesla customers have long enjoyed on its Supercharger network. That process sees payment methods stored on account within the car’s infotainment system, which means the owner can enjoy simply plugging in, charging and driving away, safe in the knowledge that the bill and breakdown of costs will arrive every month.

Juice and Revel want to change all of that by creating what it calls 'Face ID for vehicles'. Harnessing the power of computer vision, which uses AI-driven smart cameras, the company wants EV charging stations to be able to recognize a vehicle, alongside its license plate, authenticate and then automatically debit the cost of a charging session to an associated account.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

"Our goal is not to create a long experience where we’re forced to come in and download an app and use that app every single time," Paul Suhey, cofounder and chief operating officer at Revel told The Verge in a recent interview. "We’re just trying to make the experience as easy as possible."

Granted, the EV owner in question does have to scan an initial QR code to get signed up, and then allow permission for Juice to record some video footage of the vehicle via a smartphone camera. But from there it's simply a case of selecting a payment method and leaving the smartphone in the pocket when you pull up to a Revel stall.

Revel says it can then use existing security camera technology, alongside machine learning, that will recognize the EV and then automatically debit the account holder when the charging session is complete – removing a number of irritating sign-up and payment steps that currently plague much of the public network.

Analysis: Like Amazon Go for EV charging

(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz USA)

To all intents and purposes, the public charging network is still a bit of a mess. A lack of single service provider (Tesla not included) means that multiple accounts often have to be set up to cover any significant journey, despite the work carried out by numerous EV manufacturers to make the process more seamless.

Unlike paying for diesel or petrol, there are no cashiers at public charging stations and the software that runs them is often unreliable, glitchy or completely broken. 

The likes of Kia, Nissan, Polestar and BMW now all offer a subscription-style package, which sees the user set up an account (complete with billing information) and then use an RFID card that can be tapped (an app also works) at various chargers across a handful of networks, with owners receiving a final bill at the end of the month.

Similarly, Mercedes-Benz offers payment from within the car (Tesla-style) thanks to its Mercedes me Charge system, which will speak to more than 1.6 million charging points worldwide and automatically debit the user. 

These are all steps in the right direction, but the process remains riddled with problems, the main one being that not all public charging networks are included in any of these packages. There are simply too many to consolidate it all.

Juice has essentially created the Amazon Go of EV charging here, where AI-driven smart cameras automatically detect the user's activity and debits their account accordingly. But it still only works on the Revel network – or at least those that go on to adopt the technology.

During an EV owner’s lifetime, they will likely come across hundreds of different public charging providers, some more obscure than others, particularly if you start venturing off the beaten path. After all, if the vehicle is showing only four per cent battery remaining, the driver is going to head to whatever charging option is closest or most convenient.

Things are improving and a smaller handful of widespread service providers are now dominating the charging landscape, while more charging stalls now simply require a tap of a credit or debit card. 

But if electric vehicles stand any chance of hitting parity with their internal combustion engine siblings, all aspects of range anxiety need to be banished, and this includes the ability to charge anywhere at any time without additional payment steps or complications.

After all, when was the last time you planned a road trip with specific gas station stops?

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British pharmaceutical firm that makes asthma inhalers. An office of the company is seen here in Neuchatel, western Switzerland.'/>

Three years ago, the cigarette giant acquired Vectura, a British pharmaceutical firm that makes asthma inhalers, raising health groups’ ire. Now, it’s selling the business for almost $200 million.

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