1. Cbus puts super sector on the edge of a systemic scandal  The Australian Financial Review
2. Super funds warned over delays in assessing life insurance claims  Sydney Morning Herald
3. VIDEO Cbus taken to court accused of failing to pay thousands of claims  ABC News
4. Super fund in strife over $20m in delayed payments  The Canberra Times

1. Airlines cancel Bali flights after volcano spews ash miles into the sky  Al Jazeera English
2. More Bali flight cancellations with experts warning travel disruptions from volcanic ash cloud may continue  9News
3. Volcanic eruption grounds Bali flights, leaving travellers stranded  Sydney Morning Herald
4. Update on Indonesia operations due to volcanic ash  Virgin Australia Newsroom
5. Travellers stranded after flights cancelled due to volcanic eruption  The Age

1. India tops global diabetes list with 212 million cases in 2022: Lancet Study  The Economic Times
2. Don’t follow self-healing methods to control diabetes, says diabetologists  The Hindu
3. Combat diabetes with urgent lifestyle changes: Experts  The Times of India
4. Indians account for quarter of world’s adult diabetes patients: Lancet study  Hindustan Times
5. Rice University’s ROGUE device implants a ‘living pharmacy’ to combat diabetes and obesity  Express Pharma

THE VATICAN TAKES A TOUGHER STANCE ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE.

Extreme weather in Spain is back over Malaga as flights and train travel are disrupted due to wind and rain

A new analysis of data from NASA's Voyager 2 mission reveals that the planet Uranus and its five largest moons might harbor subsurface oceans and potential conditions for life. The BBC reports: Much of what we know about them was gathered by Nasa's Voyager 2 spacecraft which visited nearly 40 years ago. But a new analysis shows that Voyager's visit coincided with a powerful solar storm, which led to a misleading idea of what the Uranian system is really like. [...] So, for 40 years we have had an incorrect view of what Uranus and its five largest moons are normally like, according to Dr William Dunn of University College London. "These results suggest that the Uranian system could be much more exciting than previously thought. There could be moons there that could have the conditions that are necessary for life, they might have oceans below the surface that could be teeming with fish!". It has been nearly 40 years since Voyager 2 last flew past the icy world and its moons. Nasa has plans to launch a new mission, the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, to go back for a closer look in 10 years' time. According to Nasa's Dr Jamie Jasinski, whose idea it was to re-examine the Voyager 2 data, the mission will need to take his results into account when designing its instruments and planning the scientific survey. "Some of the instruments for the future spacecraft are very much being designed with ideas from what we learned from Voyager 2 when it flew past the system when it was experiencing an abnormal event. So we need to rethink how exactly we are going to design the instruments on the new mission so that we can best capture the science we need to make discoveries." Nasa's Uranus probe is expected to arrive by 2045, which is when scientists hope to find out whether these far-flung icy moons, once thought of as being dead worlds, might have the possibility of being home to life. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI's latest large language model, known internally as Orion, has fallen short of performance targets, marking a broader slowdown in AI advancement across the industry's leading companies, according to Bloomberg, corroborating similar media stories in recent days. The model, which completed initial training in September, showed particular weakness in novel coding tasks and failed to demonstrate the same magnitude of improvement over its predecessor as GPT-4 achieved over GPT-3.5, the publication reported Wednesday. Google's upcoming Gemini software and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Opus are facing similar challenges. Google's project is not meeting internal benchmarks, while Anthropic has delayed its model's release, Bloomberg said. Industry insiders cited by the publication pointed to growing scarcity of high-quality training data and mounting operational costs as key obstacles. OpenAI's Orion specifically struggled due to insufficient coding data for training, the report said. OpenAI has moved Orion into post-training refinement but is unlikely to release the system before early 2024. The report adds: [...] AI companies continue to pursue a more-is-better playbook. In their quest to build products that approach the level of human intelligence, tech firms are increasing the amount of computing power, data and time they use to train new models -- and driving up costs in the process. Amodei has said companies will spend $100 million to train a bleeding-edge model this year and that amount will hit $100 billion in the coming years. As costs rise, so do the stakes and expectations for each new model under development. Noah Giansiracusa, an associate professor of mathematics at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, said AI models will keep improving, but the rate at which that will happen is questionable. "We got very excited for a brief period of very fast progress," he said. "That just wasn't sustainable." Further reading: OpenAI and Others Seek New Path To Smarter AI as Current Methods Hit Limitations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was so impressed with Aaron Sanchez's first bullpen session of the spring that it would have been almost impossible to wipe the smile off his face afterwards.

When an MDT participant’s family member commits suicide, she becomes puzzled and angry. But with encouragement from others, she recognises God’s compassion.

An OM worker in Russia finds opportunities to share Christ's love with members of the Romani ethnic group.

You want to share the hope you have in Jesus but don’t know how? OM Lifehope’s Dancelink team suggests dancing in the street!

With OM Lifehope, Andrea works with a local church and growing church plant, providing her with many opportunities to build relationships with locals.

OM Zambia participates in Run4TheWorld for the fourth year, offering 35-km and 65-km cycling routes, in addition to the 10-km run.

Greece – a land with a glorious past is today faced with many challenges. OM is working with churches, ministering to the Greek and refugees.

Transform in Europe inspired a dance ministry in Australia - dance, discussions and discipleship.

A chatter emerged that South Africa could be a viable alternative to organise next year's Champions Trophy but no such discussion happened in the International Cricket Council on Tuesday

1. John Krasinski revealed as People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive after Benny Blanco confusion; fans are relieved  Hindustan Times
2. John Krasinski reveals wife Emily Blunt's reaction to his Sexiest Man Alive title  Hindustan Times
3. Not Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Leonardo Dicaprio, Chris Evans, or Tom Cruise, THIS actor is the sexiest  India.com
4. Actor John Krasinski Named 'Sexiest Man Alive' Of 2024 By People Magazine  NDTV
5. Is Jim from The Office really the sexiest man in the world?  The Guardian

Washington warned Israel last month that military aid could be limited until progress was made. It did so based on Memorandum 20, which links such aid to humanitarian actions.

Modern radiocarbon dating and advanced gene-sequencing technology have allowed researchers to analyze the remains found.  

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted on Wednesday that financial pledges made at the previous two United Nations’ annual climate summits — COP27 and COP28 — were yet to materialise.

He made the remarks during the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP29, that is being held in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku. The premier presented Pakistan’s case on the second and final day of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit.

Pakistan is ranked among the top 10 most climate-vulnerable countries, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. It has faced increasingly frequent and severe weather events, such as unprecedented floods, intense monsoon rains, devastating heat waves, rapid glacial melting and glacial lake outburst floods.

Addressing the summit, PM Shehbaz asserted that COP29 should “make this understanding loud and clear that we will have to fulfil those financial pledges” committed at COP27 and COP28.

“And yet, I think, those huge financial commitments have to be materialised.”

The prime minister said the event was aimed at understanding the “calamities which, unfortunately, some of the countries have already faced and some will if we do not act”.

At COP27 in 2022, which was also attended by PM Shehbaz, countries had adopted a hard-fought final agreement to set up a “loss and damage fund” to help poor countries battered by climate disasters.

At COP28 last year, then-caretaker premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar had called for immediately executing the $100 billion in commitments for climate finance.

According to the UN, around $700 million have been pledged so far for the loss and damage fund, with France, Italy, Germany and the UAE being the biggest contributors.

At COP29 today, PM Shehbaz also spoke about the devastating monsoon floods of 2022, highlighting they had resulted in 1,700 deaths, massive displacement, destruction of houses and crops, and $30 billion loss to the country’s economy.

He called on the international community “to take measures which are so important at this point in time to have a conducive environment” to combat climate change.

The prime minister stressed that Pakistan was one of the countries that “hardly contribute” to global emissions, yet it was vulnerable to climate change and listed as one of the “10 countries which can, God forbid, face this kind of devastation again”.

“My memories are still fresh,” he said, recalling a meeting with flood affectees in Balochistan, including a boy named Ikramullah who had “lost everything”.

“His entire village was erased from the face of the earth, his home was completely demolished, and his school was also submerged. And we had arranged his education [in] another part of Pakistan,” he said.

PM Shehbaz stated he would not want “other countries to face the plight Pakistan faced back in 2022”.

Describing Pakistan as a “resilient, hard-working and responsible nation”, the premier affirmed his country was “fully committed to being part of the global climate solutions”.

Concluding his speech, the prime minister expressed the hope that under Azerbaijan’s leadership, COP29 can transform into a “finance COP by restoring confidence in the pledging process and scaling up climate finance”.

“I strongly feel that climate finance must be grant-based and not add to the debt burden of vulnerable developing countries,” he said, reiterating his remarks from yesterday on the sidelines of the summit.

“Two years ago, I warned, and I warned at the top of my voice, that the future would never forgive our inaction. Today, I echo the same warning with greater urgency,” PM Shehbaz asserted.

‘We shouldn’t brave impact of emissions by others’

Referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement, PM Shehbaz said: “Ten years ago in Paris, we had failed to stop the rise in emissions and catastrophic global warming, and those pledges in Paris 10 years ago, which were made have yet to see the light of the day.”

“As the minus-one emitters, we should not brave the impact of emissions realised by others without even the tools to finance resilience,” he emphasised.

“Without climate justice, there can be no real resilience,” the prime minister asserted.

The premier further said Pakistan would “go through a renewable energy revolution”, noting that the country last year presented a “comprehensive National Adaptation Plan”.

He continued: “This year, we have developed our National Carbon Market Framework. But we cannot do it alone. Pakistan needs international support to deliver on its climate ambitions.”

“My government has taken concrete actions to deliver on its commitment of producing 60 per cent of all energy from green sources and shifting 30pc of our vehicles to EVs (electric vehicles) by the end of this decade,” he told the summit.

PM Shehbaz stated that developing countries would need an estimated $6.2 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half of their current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

“The same goes for adaption and loss and damage,” he added, recalling the efforts at COP27 led by then-climate change minister Sherry Rehman.

Early warning systems for all

Addressing the COP29 summit, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar highlighted the utility of early warning systems for climate-induced disasters and extended his gratitude to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for launching the ‘Early Warning for All’ initiative.

“Today, the threat is not limited to floods, we are facing rising temperatures, more intense and frequent heatwaves, and erratic rainfall patterns,” Dar said. “Early warning systems for various climate-induced hazards including floods, glacial lake outbursts, droughts and extreme heat are essential for resilience, not just for Pakistan but for all vulnerable nations worldwide,” he added.

The deputy PM thanked the UN Secretary-General for the early warning initiative, which “aims to protect every person on earth with an early warning system by 2027”.

Dar added that the threat of extreme heat emphasises the necessity of multi-hazard early warning systems, which he said were “critical to saving lives and supporting sustainable development in the face of climate adversity”.

“Despite our limited resources, Pakistan is committed to climate action and has set very ambitious goals,” the deputy PM said. “Our pledge to reduce projected greenhouse gas emissions by 50pc by 2030 comprises a 15pc reduction through national efforts and an additional 35pc contingent on international support.”

Dar named the Green Pakistan Project, an “electric vehicle policy”, a large-scale project to rehabilitate mangroves and implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) mass transit systems in Pakistan’s major cities.

“These efforts aim to fulfil our nationally determined contributions and to balance our global mitigation role with local adaptation needs,” Dar said. “However, we must acknowledge that national efforts alone are insufficient.”

The deputy PM highlighted that accessible climate finance is essential for Pakistan to meet these targets. “We urgently call on developed nations to honour their $100bn climate finance annual pledge and establish a new collective quantitative goal that reflects today’s needs with funding reaching the trillions,” he stated.

He added that this funding must be “accessible, grant-based and reflective of the historical responsibilities of industrialised nations”, adding that the burden “cannot rest solely on developing countries”.

“While Pakistan is ready to do its part, we look to the international community for support, particularly in accessing climate finance for early warning systems and climate resilience projects,” he said. “We need mechanisms that ensure easy, direct access to funds that can bolster national programmes rather than piloting isolated projects.”

Dar reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to “being part of the solution” to the shared climate crisis and stressed that through shared partnerships and support from global allies, “we can bridge the early warning gap, enhance resilience and build a safer, more sustainable future for generations to come”.

‘Debt cannot be new normal’

Speaking at a Pakistan-organised conference at COP29 yesterday, PM Shehbaz had said debt cannot become the “acceptable new normal” in climate financing.

He had explained that finan­c­ing in the form of loans pushes developing nations towards “mounting debt traps”, which he ref­erred to as “death traps”.

Speaking at Glaciers 2025: Actions for Glaciers, the prime minister had also linked humanity’s survival with the health of glaciers, saying Pakistan was ready to work with the world on the matter.

PM Shehbaz also met with various world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, including UAE President Sheikh Moha­m­med bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UK PM Sir Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as those from South and Central Asia.

Dozens of world leaders convened in Azerbaijan for COP29 but many big names skipped the UN climate talks where the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory was keenly felt.

US President Joe Biden, China’s President Xi Jinping, India’s PM Narendra Modi and France’s President Emmanuel Macron were among the G20 leaders missing the event.

Pakistan witnessed devastating floods during the 2022 monsoon season, induced by climate change, resulting in the loss of at least 1,700 lives.

With 33m people affected and swathes of agricultural land washed away, the damage incurred losses worth $30bn, according to government estimates.

In June 2024, a heat wave brought record-high temperatures, severely impacting public health and agriculture.

1. Oncologist stabbed at Chennai govt hospital ‘by 26-year-old whose mother is undergoing cancer treatment’  The Indian Express
2. Video: Chennai man calmly walks away after stabbing doctor, wipes knife  India Today
3. Indian Medical Association condemns brutal attack on doctor in Chennai  The New Indian Express
4. Daylight assault on doctor inside Chennai hospital leaves medical fraternity in shock  The Hindu
5. 'No law and order': BJP, AIADMK attack ruling DMK after government doctor stabbed in Chennai  The Times of India

Advance care planning (ACP) is a complex and iterative communication process between patients, surrogates and clinicians that defines goals of care that may include, but is not limited to, documentation of advance directives. The aim of ACP is to promote patient-centred care tailored to the patient's clinical situation through informed preparation for the future and improved communication between patient, clinicians and surrogates, if the latter need to make decisions on patient's behalf.

The aim of this article is to review research related to ACP in acute and chronic respiratory failure, regarding the process, communication, shared decision-making, implementation and outcomes.

Research has produced controversial results on ACP interventions due to the heterogeneity of measures and outcomes, but positive outcomes have been described regarding the quality of patient–physician communication, preference for comfort care, decisional conflict and patient–caregiver congruence of preferences and improved documentation of ACP or advance directives.

The main barriers to ACP in chronic respiratory failure are the uncertainty of prognosis (particularly in the organ failure trajectory), the choice of the best timing for initiation and the lack of training of healthcare workers. In acute respiratory failure, the ACP process can be very short, should include the patient whenever possible, and is based on a discussion of treatments appropriate to the patient's functional status prior to the event (e.g. assessment of frailty) and clear communication of the likely consequences of possible options.

All healthcare worker dealing with patients with serious illnesses should have training in communication skills to promote engagement in ACP discussions.

Background

Lung cancer ranks as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. There is evidence that second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure is a risk factor for the development of lung cancer in never-smokers. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide the most accurate quantification of the association between SHS exposure and lung cancer risk in never-smokers.

Iraqis who grew up under the rule of Saddam Hussein were all familiar with the battle in minute detail

Further excavations may reveal how ancient human populations likely interacted with each other, researchers say

1. Kanguva Box Office Day 1 Advance Booking: Suriya Starrer Jumps By 353%, Already Enters Biggest Tamil Openers Of 2024!  Koimoi
2. 5 Reasons To Watch Suriya and Bobby Deol Starrer 'Kanguva' In Theatres  Zee News
3. Waiting for Suriya's 'Kanguva', watch these blockbuster films by National Award-winning actor for free  India TV News
4. Kanguva budget and actor salaries: Suriya took Rs 39 crore, Bobby Deol earned Rs 5 crore for his role – How much money others charged for the film  The Financial Express
5. Kanguva Movie Release, Review Live Updates: Suriya-starrer has already earned over Rs 7.3 crore before opening day  The Indian Express

1. IndiGo, Air India cancel flights to and from Bali after volcanic eruption: ‘Ash clouds may impact air travel’ | Today News  Mint
2. Deadly volcano still erupting near Indonesian holiday island: IndiGo, Air India cancel Bali flights  Moneycontrol
3. Bali volcano eruption: Tourists stranded after ash clouds from Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki force flight canc  The Times of India
4. Indonesia's volcanic eruption grounds flights on tourist island of Bali  Business Standard
5. International airlines cancel Bali flights amid ongoing volcanic eruptions in Indonesia  The Financial Express

The upcoming season, created by Sam Levinson, will consist of eight episodes and is expected to include a time jump that catches up with the characters in new stages of their turbulent lives

Season 33 welcomed a new cast of celebrity contestants all competing for the coveted Mirrorball trophy

Actor, who played Joey Gladstone on the hit ABC sitcom, said he is currently undergoing rounds of chemotherapy

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Several international airlines cancelled flights to and from Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Wednesday (Nov 13), after further eruptions of a volcano that has spewed ash clouds as high as 10km and forced thousands to evacuate. Jetstar and Qantas said they had stopped flights to Bali on Wednesday for safety reasons because of volcanic ash, while plane tracking website Flightradar24 showed flights to the island by AirAsia and Virgin were also cancelled. Bali is Indonesia's top tourist hotspot and is a popular destination for Australian visitors. The first eruption of the Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki on Nov 3 in the East Nusa Tenggara province, about 800 km from Bali, killed at least nine people. It has since erupted repeatedly, including multiple times on Tuesday. From Nov 4 to Nov 12, 80 flights in Bali were cancelled, including from Singapore, Hong Kong, and several Australian cities, said Ahmad Syaugi Shahab, general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport. Indonesia has close to 130 active volcanoes and sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an area of high seismic activity atop various tectonic plates.

Hello everyone,I've recently transitioned into freelancing in IT (software development & support) after a decade in a salaried role. I've learned that I may need to register for GST and apply for an LUT. Could anyone guide me on the key steps I should take? I currently have one US-ba

Sir,

remuneration payable is outstanding for years. Can we disallow the same in income tax as the losses are high while making the computation. Also there is no sufficient funds for the remuneration to be paid. Pls guide

FiveThirtyEight founder and editor-in-chief Nate Silver said in a blog post

United Bank of India and NIIT Institute of Finance Bankingand Insurance Training (IFBI)

Very important! Every moment is a move we make in life. We have the ultimate responsibility to make sure to take THE steps that will help us achieve the career or business goals.

Redundancy can come about at anytime but you can safeguard against the unknown as well as the reality that it could possibly occur to you. Income protection insurance would let you take out a policy to get a fixed premium every month...

Today with the changing trend everything has become digitized. You can order online anything you wish. Financial services have also become digitized as you can order for a loan or an insurance policy...

Personal Loan as its name suggests is a loan that is specially structured to mitigate different personal needs and desires at once. It is loan unsecured in nature availed by consumer without pledging any collateral to the bank. It is a...

When any insurance agent comes near to you and try to sell a insurance policy or plan then his tone of convincing can drown your worries that are vital to wise investment. The agent/consultant tells you only those factors of the...

The GOD retires on Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. For some of the ardent followers of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, it is as good as end of cricket. But is it really the case? India will play the next match soon. The game will move on. But for...

Researchers from the US have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that surfs the internet, extracts information from the available plain text and organises it for quantitative analysis in very less time.

International calling service Reliance Global Call on Friday launched 'RGC India app that enables direct dialing of international contacts without the need to enter toll-free or pin numbers.

International calling service Reliance Global Call on Friday launched 'RGC India app that enables direct dialing of international contacts without the need to enter toll-free or pin numbers.

Two leading Indian companies have been awarded for their leadership in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, eco consciousness and community care at the third annual Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Awards (ACES).

France, Italy and Portugal lead the teams attempting to secure a place in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals, while England's promotion hopes have been hit by a series of withdrawals.

Nedoroscik and Arnold honoured Charli D'Amelio and Mark Ballas's season 31 routine to Joji's "Glimpse of Us" with a Viennese Waltz.