Conor Bradley bullies Kylian Mbappe in statement Liverpool performance to put Trent Alexander-Arnold on noticeDiscrimination based on source of income still widespread despite new Illinois law, housing advocates say; recent lawsuits may change that
CBC resurrects live New Year's Eve broadcast special with coast-to-coast showHow to Watch the NBA Today, December 29Several major astrological transits are slated to occur next year. The switch-ups in the sky will underscore overarching themes that are expected to emerge in the years ahead, including disruption and upheaval. According to astrologers, these changes will be felt on both an individual and collective level. Terry Bradshaw given FOX NFL retirement view after Michael Strahan interruption NASA on high alert over Christmas Eve asteroid heading towards Earth Astrologer Chani Nicholas said of 2025's transits, "Tapping into our courage, individually and collectively, will help us co-create a brighter future. Prepare to face the friction of this upcoming year, and get ready to generate some heat." Here are seven key astrological transits to be on the lookout for in the new year. Seven key astrological transits in 2025 1. Lunar nodes enter Virgo and Pisces for the next eclipse cycle Dates: Jan. 11, 2025-Feb. 20, 2027 Every year, we see two eclipse seasons occur. Each eclipse cycle lasts for 18 months, 1.5 years, before the lunar nodes change into a new sign axis, marking new themes to underscore the key annual transit. On Jan. 11, the lunar nodes will move from the Aries-Libra axis – with the North Node in Aries and the South Node in Libra – into the Virgo-Pisces axis. The North Node, representing insatiability, will be in Pisces and the South Node, representing cathartic release, will be in Virgo. The transit will mark a collective shift from focusing on relationships and individuality to reality and dreams. For the first eclipse season, there will be a lunar eclipse in Virgo on March 13 and a solar eclipse in Aries on March 29. In the second season, there will be a lunar eclipse in Pisces on Sept. 7 and a solar eclipse in Virgo on Sept. 21. 2. Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces Dates: March 1, 2025-April 12, 2025 Venus, the planet of love and creativity, stations retrograde every 18 months, 1.5 years, for around 40 days. During this time, astrologers say that we are encouraged to review themes related to the planet and its host sign. For the first half of the transit, from March 1-26, the planet will be in the cardinal fire sign, Aries, before moving into the mutable water sign, Pisces, until April 12. It is common for couples to break up or redefine their relationship during this time as seen on the world stage during the last Venus retrograde in the summer of 2023 when the likes of Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner broke off their marriage. DON'T MISS... Pluto retrograde in Aquarius will 'force us to reflect on collective direction' Uranus and Jupiter to make once-in-14-year meet up and it will impact all of us Monday’s ‘catalyst’ solar eclipse in Aries is asking you to ‘face your fears’ 3. Neptune enters Aries Dates: March 30, 2025-Oct. 22, 2025; Jan. 26, 2026-March 23, 2039 The planet of delusions and dreams will move out of its home sign of Pisces into the cardinal fire sign, Aries, the leader of the zodiac. This rare transit only happens about every 18 years and is slated to help shape the next two decades. Aries is a bold sign associated with action, which astrologers believe will inspire protest - though it may also contribute to the spread of misinformation. Chani said of the Neptune in Aries transit, "Neptune's transition marks a major shift in how we collectively engage with our ideals. When the celestial dreamer enters this Mars-ruled fire sign, sparks fly. Instead of just fantasizing about giving peace a chance, the ram of the zodiac encourages us to show up at the protest and take action. "During this transit, staying grounded and resisting the allure of spiritual or political propaganda will be essential for honoring and protecting what we believe in," she adds. 4. Saturn enters Aries Dates: May 24, 2025-Sept. 1, 2025; Feb. 13, 2026-Apri 12, 2028 The planet of boundaries, Saturn, will move from the mutable water sign, Pisces, to the cardinal fire sign, Aries. This roughly three-year-long transit is defined by tough karmic lessons, especially for those who will experience their Saturn return. Those with Saturn in Aries in their natal birth chart will undergo their highly-anticipated Saturn return. Chani said of the Saturn in Aries transit, "When the two collide, we’re asked to be more disciplined and intentional in the ways we exercise our aggression, vitality, and drive. Noticing where we’re overly competitive or impatient can help us stay levelheaded as we strive to realize our ambitions. "Saturn has a reputation for teaching tough lessons, but for a reason: Experiencing dissatisfaction and encountering life’s constraints can help us tap into our stamina, grit, and accountability for our own actions." 5. Jupiter enters Cancer Dates: June 9, 2025-June 29, 2026 The planet of abundance and good fortune, Jupiter, will move from the mutable Earth sign, Gemini, to the cardinal water sign, Cancer. This will bring luck to the area of your life ruled by Cancer, a sign associated with nurturing. 6. Uranus enters Gemini Dates: July 7, 2025-Nov. 7, 2025; April 25, 2026-Aug. 3-2032; Dec. 12, 2032-May 22, 2033 The planet of disruption, Uranus, is moving from the fixed Earth sign, Taurus, to the mutable Earth sign, Gemini. Chani explained that while in Venus-ruled Taurus, we saw Venusian themes such as supply chain resource shortages, worker strikes, climate change and reproductive rights come to the surface. Now, while in Mercury-ruled Gemini, she expects changes regarding mass communication. This rare transit only occurs roughly every seven years and will contribute to the undertone of nearly the next decade. World War II and the Holocaust, the U.S. Civil War and the U.S. Revolutionary War all occurred under a previous Uranus in Gemini transit. 7. Pluto entered Aquarius Dates: Nov. 19, 2024-March 8, 2043; Aug. 31, 2043-Jan. 19, 2044 Though this rare transit firmly started at the end of 2024, it is worthy of an honorary mention as it will set the tone for the next two decades. The slow-moving dwarf planet is considered an astral body of transformation in astrology, and Aquarius is a fixed air sign associated with social justice and scientific data. The last time that Pluto was in Aquarius was between 1777 and 1798, marking major world events in history, including the American and French Revolutions, as well as the start of the Industrial Revolution, along with major scientific discoveries including the hot air balloon and the disruption planet Uranus. As a result, astrologers predict that the next two decades will be defined by massive social change that shatters outdated systems. Experts also expect an explosion of technological advancement, particularly pertaining to AI. Chani said of the Pluto in Aquarius transit, "By the end of Pluto’s time here in 2044, we can expect our social norms and ideologies to be radically transformed. "Whether we’re focused on the ongoing climate crisis, the rise of extreme political ideologies, or the epidemic of gun violence, Pluto in Aquarius demands our full cooperation in turning major issues around."Top 7 ways Gen Xers can turbocharge retirement savings before it’s too late
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s foreign minister, Abdullah Al-Yahya, and the chairman of the board of trustees of the Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Prize for African Development received on Thursday a group of winners of the Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Prize for African Development for the years 2022-2023 in the fields of education and food security, namely Dr Catherine Nakalembe and representatives of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation and the International Camfed Organization. During the meeting, they reviewed the winners’ efforts in presenting model programs, studies, and effective projects in the fields of education and food security on the African continent and enabling research and educational institutions to use modern technologies and technology in developing and advancing these two vital sectors. The foreign minister and chairman of the board of trustees of the Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Prize for African Development expressed his happiness and appreciation for the efforts made to achieve the goals and objectives of the prize, wishing the winners continued progress and success. — KUNA
A new artificial intelligence (AI) model has just achieved human-level results on a test designed to measure “general intelligence”. On December 20, OpenAI’s o3 system scored 85% on the ARC-AGI benchmark , well above the previous AI best score of 55% and on par with the average human score. It also scored well on a very difficult mathematics test. Creating artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is the stated goal of all the major AI research labs. At first glance, OpenAI appears to have at least made a significant step towards this goal. While scepticism remains, many AI researchers and developers feel something just changed. For many, the prospect of AGI now seems more real, urgent and closer than anticipated. Are they right? To understand what the o3 result means, you need to understand what the ARC-AGI test is all about. In technical terms, it’s a test of an AI system’s “sample efficiency” in adapting to something new – how many examples of a novel situation the system needs to see to figure out how it works. An AI system like ChatGPT (GPT-4) is not very sample efficient. It was “trained” on millions of examples of human text, constructing probabilistic “rules” about which combinations of words are most likely. The result is pretty good at common tasks. It is bad at uncommon tasks, because it has less data (fewer samples) about those tasks. Until AI systems can learn from small numbers of examples and adapt with more sample efficiency, they will only be used for very repetitive jobs and ones where the occasional failure is tolerable. The ability to accurately solve previously unknown or novel problems from limited samples of data is known as the capacity to generalise. It is widely considered a necessary, even fundamental, element of intelligence. The ARC-AGI benchmark tests for sample efficient adaptation using little grid square problems like the one below. The AI needs to figure out the pattern that turns the grid on the left into the grid on the right. Each question gives three examples to learn from. The AI system then needs to figure out the rules that “generalise” from the three examples to the fourth. These are a lot like the IQ tests sometimes you might remember from school. We don’t know exactly how OpenAI has done it, but the results suggest the o3 model is highly adaptable. From just a few examples, it finds rules that can be generalised. To figure out a pattern, we shouldn’t make any unnecessary assumptions, or be more specific than we really have to be. In theory , if you can identify the “weakest” rules that do what you want, then you have maximised your ability to adapt to new situations. What do we mean by the weakest rules? The technical definition is complicated, but weaker rules are usually ones that can be described in simpler statements . In the example above, a plain English expression of the rule might be something like: “Any shape with a protruding line will move to the end of that line and ‘cover up’ any other shapes it overlaps with.” While we don’t know how OpenAI achieved this result just yet, it seems unlikely they deliberately optimised the o3 system to find weak rules. However, to succeed at the ARC-AGI tasks it must be finding them. We do know that OpenAI started with a general-purpose version of the o3 model (which differs from most other models, because it can spend more time “thinking” about difficult questions) and then trained it specifically for the ARC-AGI test. French AI researcher Francois Chollet, who designed the benchmark, believes o3 searches through different “chains of thought” describing steps to solve the task. It would then choose the “best” according to some loosely defined rule, or “heuristic”. This would be “not dissimilar” to how Google’s AlphaGo system searched through different possible sequences of moves to beat the world Go champion. You can think of these chains of thought like programs that fit the examples. Of course, if it is like the Go-playing AI, then it needs a heuristic, or loose rule, to decide which program is best. There could be thousands of different seemingly equally valid programs generated. That heuristic could be “choose the weakest” or “choose the simplest”. However, if it is like AlphaGo then they simply had an AI create a heuristic. This was the process for AlphaGo. Google trained a model to rate different sequences of moves as better or worse than others. The question then is, is this really closer to AGI? If that is how o3 works, then the underlying model might not be much better than previous models. The concepts the model learns from language might not be any more suitable for generalisation than before. Instead, we may just be seeing a more generalisable “chain of thought” found through the extra steps of training a heuristic specialised to this test. The proof, as always, will be in the pudding. Almost everything about o3 remains unknown. OpenAI has limited disclosure to a few media presentations and early testing to a handful of researchers, laboratories and AI safety institutions. Truly understanding the potential of o3 will require extensive work, including evaluations, an understanding of the distribution of its capacities, how often it fails and how often it succeeds. When o3 is finally released, we’ll have a much better idea of whether it is approximately as adaptable as an average human. If so, it could have a huge, revolutionary, economic impact, ushering in a new era of self-improving accelerated intelligence. We will require new benchmarks for AGI itself and serious consideration of how it ought to be governed. If not, then this will still be an impressive result. However, everyday life will remain much the same. Michael Timothy Bennett , PhD Student, School of Computing, Australian National University and Elija Perrier , Research Fellow, Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology, Stanford University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .Mexico president hails 'excellent' Trump talks after US tariff threat
