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In 2023, nearly three in ten flights arrived more than 15 minutes late, according to Eurocontrol's 2024 data snapshot. Sadly, the reality — for many travellers around the world — is still the same today. The holiday season brings a familiar hustle and bustle: packed airports, long lines at security, delayed flights and the occasional scramble to find a gate. It’s a logistical nightmare that tests even the most seasoned travel operators. But now, buoyed by AI, the travel industry is finding some respite amidst the chaos. Udi Segall, CEO of IntellAct, said in an interview that AI’s role in the travel industry isn’t just about technology, but about connecting people. “AI’s true power lies in its human impact,” he told me. “It’s about ensuring families reunite on time, sparing crew members from extended delays, and bringing peace of mind to passengers navigating the holiday rush.” AI is helping airports and airlines be more efficient this holiday season, streamlining operations, reducing costs and improving passenger experiences. But for Segall, there are 5 major ways AI is keeping the booming travel industry on track. 5 Ways AI is Improving The Air Travel Industry 1. Diagnosing Delays and Keeping Flights on Time One of AI’s biggest promises for the travel industry is its ability to track, analyze and improve airplane turnaround times — a critical metric for maintaining on-time performance. Segall, who is also a board member of the Smart Airport Technologies Association, explained that AI-powered descriptive analytics can monitor every step of the turnaround process, from baggage unloading to cleaning services and passenger boarding. The hundreds of data points that AI gathers often help to generate a clear picture of how long each step takes. So, when delays occur, AI’s diagnostic capabilities kick in, identifying root causes such as slower-than-expected boarding or baggage handling issues. “These insights would be impossible to achieve manually, giving airport personnel the tools to address inefficiencies in real time,” said Segall. 2. Preventing Disruptions Before They Escalate Beyond diagnosing delays, AI also helps to predict and prevent disruptions. Through analyzing historical and real-time data, AI can predict how long it will take to resolve an issue and recommend actions to mitigate its impact. Prescriptive analytics , for instance, can suggest whether it’s worth waiting for missing passengers or prioritizing fuel-efficient paths to gates. “AI does not only monitor traveler traffic, but it also empowers personnel to make better decisions, reducing costs and customer frustrations,” noted Segall. 3. Boosting Operational Efficiency and Sustainability Flight delays cost both time and money. Many of us have been there, waiting for delayed flights for hours— seething with anger and thinking about the strong words to use in the complaints we will file. Such events don’t bode well for airlines. Although record numbers of people are flying today, according to CNN , airlines’ profits continue to plunge, with the aviation industry losing billions annually due to disruptions — from wasted fuel to labor expenses and compensation for disgruntled passengers. This is an area where AI’s predictive capabilities are useful. Segall noted that IntellAct’s AI-powered systems help airlines make the best use of gates, aircraft and personnel, reducing idle times and fuel consumption. He added that this not only saves money but also helps the industry to stay committed to the race to net-zero by 2050 . 4. Creating Safer Airports While there are ethical concerns around the use of AI for air travel, AI platforms like IntellAct enhance safety standards during turnaround operations, detecting and reporting violations in real time. Whether it’s spotting improperly loaded baggage or unauthorized personnel in restricted areas, AI-powered innovations are becoming more and more valuable in helping to create safer airports. 5. Transforming the Passenger Experience For air travelers, AI-powered tools offer less stress, shorter waits, as well as more predictability, impacting the overall travel experience for passengers. Segall even envisions a future where passengers enjoy seamless journeys, thanks to AI-driven innovations. From optimizing check-in times to managing gate assignments and improving in-flight services, could unlock a new range of experiences for air travellers. “Air travel hasn’t changed much for passengers in decades,” he said. “But with AI, we can finally create journeys that are smoother, more enjoyable and less frustrating.” AI’s Economic Superpower in Aviation Perhaps the biggest value in integrating AI into air travel operations is the economic value it presents. For example, one of the leading causes of losses for airlines is flight disruption . Every delay burns money, said Segall, who cited wasted fuel and costly labor as examples of how flight disruptions lead to losses in the aviation industry. Imagine the cumulative GDP boost across the globe if millions of passengers spent less time waiting in airports and more time engaged in meaningful activities. “By keeping flights on track, AI contributes not just to operational efficiency but also to global economic growth,” said Segall who added that “the aviation industry works with razor-thin margins, and AI offers a path to profitability without compromising passenger experience or sustainability.” Whether it’s keeping families together during the holiday rush or driving long-term economic growth, AI looks poised to change the way we move, one flight at a time.Stockhead Don't miss out on the headlines from Stockhead. Followed categories will be added to My News. Yep, you guessed right. Pilbara Minerals is still the most-shorted ASX stock, despite lithium prices trending back up just recently Uranium plays Boss Energy, Paladin Energy and Deep Yellow also remain a target of short sellers Short positions in consumer discretionary stocks suggest investor caution around consumer spending Before we delve into the ASX's most shorted, just a quick reminder right off the bat here about what short selling actually is. Short sellers effectively borrow a stock from a broker, and go wager it (sell it) on the open market. The plan is to then buy the same stock back later after it’s made a hefty drop in price. That done, the short seller buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the lender. The difference between the sell price and the buy price is the short seller’s profit. Investors are in effect betting they will fall. Because shorting is restricted under Australian law (and because it’s an all or nothing bloodsport) any substantial shorting of stocks is worth knowing about, even if you only trade long. And perhaps there’s method in the madness. Stockhead has utilised the number of short positions as a percentage (5% or more) of total shares on issue according to ASIC's Short Position Report . The most-shorted stocks on the ASX Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort: Code Company Short positions Shares on issue % short positions PLS PILBARA MINERALS 523,390,114 3,011,484,916 17% BOE BOSS ENERGY 61,348,586 409,688,058 15% IEL IDP EDUCATION 40,145,281 278,336,211 14% PDN PALADIN ENERGY 43,099,890 299,113,022 14% SYR SYRAH RESOURCES 137,320,763 1,034,891,766 13% MIN MINERAL RESOURCES. 20,756,242 196,518,604 11% DMP DOMINO PIZZA ENTERPRISES 9,042,677 92,459,635 10% DYL DEEP YELLOW 94,420,603 969,741,926 10% LYC LYNAS RARE EARTHS 87,225,487 934,718,185 9% ADT ADRIATIC METALS CDI 1:1 25,894,400 278,062,106 9% LTR LIONTOWN RESOURCES 224,187,943 2,425,108,140 9% KAR KAROON ENERGY LTD 65,626,146 779,344,840 8% LIC LIFESTYLE COMMUNITIES 9,839,705 121,740,054 8% CTD CORPORATE TRAVEL 11,265,544 146,325,746 8% GMD GENESIS MINERALS 85,171,861 1,128,548,275 8% JLG JOHNS LYNG GROUP 20,965,374 281,293,351 7% SYA SAYONA MINING LTD 750,703,519 10,293,296,014 7% CTT CETTIRE LTD 27,473,775 381,238,220 7% SEK SEEK LTD 25,228,594 356,820,190 7% RIO RIO TINTO LTD 25,446,378 371,216,214 7% FLT FLIGHT CENTRE TRAVEL 14,575,028 221,911,982 7% STX STRIKE ENERGY LTD 182,479,121 2,865,373,749 6% AD8 AUDINATE GROUPLTD 5,164,503 83,342,014 6% CUV CLINUVEL PHARMACEUTICALS 3,088,238 50,060,680 6% SLX SILEX SYSTEMS 14,604,969 237,241,524 6% NUF NUFARM LIMITED 23,514,043 382,889,516 6% IMU IMUGENE LIMITED 451,197,831 7,438,310,643 6% WBT WEEBIT NANO LTD 11,190,914 189,902,055 6% DXS DEXUS UNITS STAPLED 62,108,358 1,075,565,246 6% BGL BELLEVUE GOLD LTD 71,824,663 1,279,998,987 6% APE EAGERS AUTOMOTIVE 14,146,372 258,074,137 5% NVX NOVONIX LTD 27,048,398 493,764,317 5% ALD AMPOL LTD 12,612,023 238,302,099 5% CHN CHALICE MINING LTD 20,351,636 389,026,788 5% LOT LOTUS RESOURCES LTD 109,164,815 2,101,222,748 5% SFR SANDFIRE RESOURCES 23,607,808 458,400,401 5% NCK NICK SCALI LTD 4,395,547 85,530,699 5% IDX INTEGRAL DIAGNOSTICS 11,696,442 233,961,997 5% CIA CHAMPION IRON LTD 24,774,607 518,251,001 5% EDV ENDEAVOUR 83,602,932 1,790,980,017 5% NAN NANOSONICS LTD 13,830,581 303,454,080 5% Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) remains the most shorted stock on the ASX with a short position of 17%. But in some sort of silver lining for the lithium producer, its short position has at least dropped slightly from 20% in September and 19% in October. Atchison investment analyst Mishan Dahia told Stockhead the materials sector dominated the list of ASX most-shorted stocks at 39%, followed by energy and consumer discretionary, both on 18%, information technology at 7%, and healthcare at 7%. "Lithium companies dominate short interest in the materials sector," Dahia said. Other lithium plays shorted include Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) , Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) and Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) . Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) – which recently announced a $10bn deal to acquire Arcadium Lithium (ASX:LTM) – in a bullish support for lithium’s long term prospects is also among the ASX's most shorted stocks. "While lithium prices have faced headwinds (down 41% in the past year), the supply/demand imbalance, China's self-reliance, and a strong US dollar have likely contributed to the downward pressure on these companies," Dahia said. While lithium prices are down from their 2022 peaks they have been trending up of late, benefiting from an uptick in demand and various Chinese stimulus packages, including doubling government subsidies for consumers who trade in conventional cars for electric vehicles. Source: Trading Economics Morningstar reckons lithium prices may have hit bottom and remains bullish on the future facing commodity. "As demand growth overtakes supply, we predict the market will return to balance in 2025 from a current supply deficit," Morningstar associate investment specialist Simonelle Mody said . "This should lead to higher prices, which are the strongest catalyst for lithium stocks." The Pilbara share price is down ~35% YTD. Uranium stocks remain target of short sellers, despite lift in prices Uranium plays Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) , Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) and Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) also remain the target of short sellers despite the price of the commodity edging higher. Uranium prices have climbed over 10% in the past two weeks, driven by the re-election of Donald Trump as US president and Russia's export ban on enriched uranium to the US. However, Dahia said many major ASX and global uranium stocks have struggled through the second half of 2024, weighed down by a weaker uranium price and, for some, ongoing operational challenges. Boss Energy and Deep Yellow have dropped close to 50% in six months, following strong rallies earlier in the year. Paladin is down around 19% YTD. Short positions in consumer discretionary Dahia said short positions in consumer discretionary stocks including Domino's Pizza Enterprises (ASX:DMP) , Cettire (ASX:CTT) and Nick Scali (ASX:NCK) suggested investor caution around consumer spending, labour costs and supply chain constrains. He said Domino’s Pizza had been hindered by margin pressure, rising ingredients and labour costs, while Cettire had been impacted by falls in luxury spending and elevated interest rates. "Nick Scali with a short position of 5% has been affected by recent supply chain challenges/UK expansion," he said. Originally published as Short and Caught: Which lithium play remains the ASX’s most-shorted stock? More related stories Stockhead Neurotech receives vital ethics approval Stockhead TV’s Sarah Hughan brings you today’s Break it Down, detailing the new human pharmacokinetic study from Neurotech. Read more Stockhead EZZ finds Chinese market a thing of beauty Following key online promotional events, EZZ Life Sciences reports surging Chinese sales of its health and beauty products. Read moreIt looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Get local news delivered to your inbox!

I n June, Raman Bhatia walked into the fifth-floor office at Starling Bank’s headquarters in east London with a clean slate. It was set to be an antidote to a turbulent two years steering his former employer, Ovo, through an energy crisis and fines for overcharging customers . At the digital-only challenger bank, where he was taking over from the founder, Anne Boden, things looked more rosy, with a possible stock market listing on the horizon. He began his term by rubbing shoulders with new Labour ministers in No 10’s rose garden , and charming staff during a tour of Starling offices in Cardiff, London and Southampton. But autumn brought the honeymoon to an abrupt end. In October, Starling was hit with a £29m fine for “shockingly lax” financial crime controls , which the City regulator said had left the financial system “wide open to criminals and those subject to sanctions”. It threatened to take a hefty chunk out of Starling’s 2024 profits, and raised questions over the bank’s vehement defence of its customer screening process two years earlier when a former fraud minister challenged the bank’s handling of Covid loan applications. It meant that when Bhatia addressed a London banking conference at the start of December, one of the first questions he was asked was not about Starling’s bright future but its recent failings. Starling once seemed poised for unwavering success. It was part of a trio of online-only neo-banks, alongside Revolut and Monzo, which emerged in the mid-2010s to disrupt traditional banking. Boden, a former Royal Bank of Scotland executive, presented Starling as a grown-up among the upstarts, with 30 years of banking experience and £48m of seed funding from the reclusive Austrian billionaire Harald McPike. Not everyone agreed with her leadership style – as illustrated by a staff rebellion that led to a former colleague launching a rival, Monzo. But in 2016, two years after its launch, Starling clinched a coveted UK banking licence, allowing it to hold its own customers’ deposits and issue lucrative loans. It would take Monzo another year, and Revolut until 2024 , to do the same. And although the pandemic loomed, the government-backed schemes that followed would fuel Starling’s growth: it was among a number of smaller lenders that eagerly queued to distribute bounce-back loans (BBLs). Meant to support businesses during lockdown, banks offered companies loans of up to £50,000 at 2.5% interest, but carried little risk, with taxpayers picking up 100% of losses if borrowers defaulted. Large banks restricted BBLs to their own customers. But challengers such as Starling opened applications to new clients and experienced exponential growth as a result. The bank had only issued £23m of its own loans before the pandemic in November 2019, but had distributed £1.6bn in BBLs by the time the scheme closed in March 2021. Meanwhile, its business customer base swelled from 87,000 to 330,000: equivalent to onboarding 15,000 a month. High street banks, by comparison, were onboarding 1,500 to 8,000 on average. Starling – which had 1,245 staff at the time – credited the feat to its cutting-edge tech. , a feat that the bank – which had 1,245 staff at the time– chalked up to its cutting-edge tech. Within months, it was toasting its first annual profit. Not everyone was celebrating. In May 2022, Lord Agnew, a former Treasury minister with an anti-fraud brief, accused Starling of acting against taxpayers’ interests and using BBLs as a “cost-free marketing exercise to build their loan book and so their company valuation”. He added that the bank was “one of the worst when it came to validating the turnover of businesses or submitting suspicious activity reports”. Boden was incensed. She accused Agnew of making “defamatory statements” and threatened to take legal action against the Tory peer, and said the bank had reported his comments to regulators. She also insisted Starling was one of the “most active and effective banks fighting fraud”. In the background, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had been raising serious concerns about Starling’s financial crime controls. In late 2020, during a sample review of challenger banks, the watchdog said it had “identified several issues” with Starling’s anti-money-laundering and financial sanctions controls, as well as its governance and oversight. But this would not have been news to some, at least, of Starling’s management. In 2018, an internal audit report had identified “several significant gaps” in Starling’s financial crime procedures. However, those shortcoming were not adequately conveyed to either Starling’s board or the regulator, FCA documents said. The regulator flagged “wide-ranging concerns” in a letter to Starling bosses in March 2021, just as the BBL programme was winding down, but further tests found problems in Starling’s client screening. By September, Starling had agreed to a VREQ – or voluntary requirement – that banned it from processing applications for any high-risk customers while it improved controls. Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion Months passed. In July 2022, Starling realised that a key check was not working properly. It meant that nearly 300 customers who had previously been booted out of the bank for “financial crime reasons” had been able to reopen accounts. By November, Starling’s financial crime rating was raised to “red”. And two months later, in January 2023, it found that an automated screening system had only been checking against a partial list of individuals under sanctions since 2017. Starling ultimately breached the VREQ, opening 54,000 accounts for 49,183 high-risk customers between September 2021 and November 2023, earning £900,000 in interest and fees along the way. An external consultancy later chalked up the failings to an inexperienced management team that lacked sufficient anti-money laundering and regulatory expertise. Engineering teams, given responsibility for upgrading the systems and controls, were not told of the existence of the regulator’s order. It was only in April this year that Starling managed to go a full month without breaking the rules. The VREQ remains in place today. The regulator did not refer to the BBL scheme in its report. But Agnew revived his concerns in October. The digital bank has so far claimed £94m of taxpayer money through the BBL scheme on loans that were later flagged for fraud, a figure only surpassed by the four largest high street banks. “The government should consider the FCA’s findings and examine whether there needs to be a clawback on any of the taxpayer funds paid to Starling to cover fraud losses,” Agnew told the Times . The new revelations have undoubtedly hurt Starling’s reputation and kicked the prospect of a stock market listing – and payouts to investors such as Goldman Sachs and McPike – down the road. “It makes it harder to ‘sell the story’ to investors,” said John Cronin, an independent banking analyst and founder of SeaPoint Insights. “I would be surprised to see a successful IPO within the next two to three years,” he added. Boden stepped down as chief executive in 2023 citing a “conflict of interest” between being a boss and a large shareholder, leaving Bhatia to weather the storm. Starling said: “We fully accept and have apologised for the FCA’s findings. Their fine related solely to breaches of the VREQ and to sanctions controls. The loans issued during the Covid crisis were to a small proportion of our new customers. In line with other banks, we were supporting the government’s efforts to keep the economy alive and small business owners active. “We’re moving forward with plans for new products and services and are excited about the prospects for 2025.” Boden and the Treasury declined to comment.Forthright and fearless, the Nobel Prize winner took pot-shots at former prime minister Tony Blair and ex-US president George W Bush among others. His death came after repeated bouts of illness in which images of the increasingly frail former president failed to erase memories of his fierce spirit. Democrat James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr swept to power in 1977 with his Trust Me campaign helping to beat Republican president Gerald Ford. Serving as 39th US president from 1977 to 1981, he sought to make government “competent and compassionate” but was ousted by the unstoppable Hollywood appeal of a certain Ronald Reagan. A skilled sportsman, Mr Carter left his home of Plains, Georgia, to join the US Navy, returning later to run his family’s peanut business. A stint in the Georgia senate lit the touchpaper on his political career and he rose to the top of the Democratic movement. But he will also be remembered for a bizarre encounter with a deeply disgruntled opponent. The president was enjoying a relaxing fishing trip near his home town in 1979 when his craft was attacked by a furious swamp rabbit which reportedly swam up to the boat hissing wildly. The press had a field day, with one paper bearing the headline President Attacked By Rabbit. Away from encounters with belligerent bunnies, Mr Carter’s willingness to address politically uncomfortable topics did not diminish with age. He recently said that he would be willing to travel to North Korea for peace talks on behalf of US President Donald Trump. He also famously mounted a ferocious and personal attack on Tony Blair over the Iraq war, weeks before the prime minister left office in June 2007. Mr Carter, who had already denounced George W Bush’s presidency as “the worst in history”, used an interview on BBC radio to condemn Mr Blair for his tight relations with Mr Bush, particularly concerning the Iraq War. Asked how he would characterise Mr Blair’s relationship with Mr Bush, Mr Carter replied: “Abominable. Loyal, blind, apparently subservient. “I think that the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.” Mr Carter was also voluble over the Rhodesia crisis, which was about to end during his presidency. His support for Robert Mugabe at the time generated widespread criticism. He was said to have ignored the warnings of many prominent Zimbabweans, black and white, about what sort of leader Mugabe would be. This was seen by Mr Carter’s critics as “deserving a prominent place among the outrages of the Carter years”. Mr Carter has since said he and his administration had spent more effort and worry on Rhodesia than on the Middle East. He admitted he had supported two revolutionaries in Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, and with hindsight said later that Mugabe had been “a good leader gone bad”, having at first been “a very enlightened president”. One US commentator wrote: “History will not look kindly on those in the West who insisted on bringing the avowed Marxist Mugabe into the government. “In particular, the Jimmy Carter foreign policy... bears some responsibility for the fate of a small African country with scant connection to American national interests.” In recent years Mr Carter developed a reputation as an international peace negotiator. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his commitment to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, his work with human rights and democracy initiatives, and his promotion of economic and social programmes. Mr Carter was dispatched to North Korea in August 2008 to secure the release of US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour after being found guilty of illegally entering North Korea. He successfully secured the release of Mr Gomes. In 2010 he returned to the White House to greet President Barack Obama and discuss international affairs amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. Proving politics runs in the family, in 2013 his grandson Jason, a state senator, announced his bid to become governor in Georgia, where his famous grandfather governed before becoming president. He eventually lost to incumbent Republican Nathan Deal. Fears that Mr Carter’s health was deteriorating were sparked in 2015 when he cut short an election observation visit in Guyana because he was “not feeling well”. It would have been Mr Carter’s 39th trip to personally observe an international election. Three months later, on August 12, he revealed he had cancer which had been diagnosed after he underwent surgery to remove a small mass in his liver. Mr Obama was among the well-wishers hoping for Mr Carter’s full recovery after it was confirmed the cancer had spread widely. Melanoma had been found in his brain and liver, and Mr Carter underwent immunotherapy and radiation therapy, before announcing in March the following year that he no longer needed any treatment. In 2017, Mr Carter was taken to hospital as a precaution, after he became dehydrated at a home-building project in Canada. He was admitted to hospital on multiple occasions in 2019 having had a series of falls, suffering a brain bleed and a broken pelvis, as well as a stint to be treated for a urinary tract infection. Mr Carter spent much of the coronavirus pandemic largely at his home in Georgia, and did not attend Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in 2021, but extended his “best wishes”. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Mr Carter during his term as US president, died in November 2023. She had been living with dementia and suffering many months of declining health. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Mr Carter said in a statement following her death. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

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By SARAH PARVINI, GARANCE BURKE and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case. “The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote. Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location. Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending. In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app. Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits. DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI , but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January. “DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP. Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history. Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.” SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers. ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people. In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.” But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.” Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said. On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead. The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.” “In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said. That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs. “It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call. GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.

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JERUSALEM — The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants began early Wednesday as a region on edge wondered whether it will hold. The ceasefire announced Tuesday is a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. An international panel led by the United States will monitor compliance. People are also reading... Recap: Here's how Joey Graziadei will win 'Dancing with the Stars' They fell in love with Beatrice. So they opened a store in downtown. At the courthouse, Nov. 23, 2024 Search warrants lead to arrest of man in narcotics investigation No change in bond amounts in child abuse death case Clabaugh family presents Outstanding Educator award Harmonizers to perform ‘I don’t care who’s played': Nebraska’s Dana Holgorsen on personnel changes at tight end Courthouse lighting ceremony planned for Sunday Kidnapping in Nebraska prompted police chase that ended with 3 dead on I-29 in Missouri Inside Nebraska volleyball’s finishing kick for a Big Ten title: First up, Wisconsin Zitel bound over to district court in death of child Just Askin': Dana Holgorsen noncommittal on future, ranking a big week for Nebraska Athletics Streaming review: 'Landman' gives Billy Bob Thornton a real gusher of a series Amie Just: Bring out the tissues — and the brooms — for Nebraska volleyball's emotional win The ceasefire began at 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the conflict that in recent weeks turned into all-out war. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities. Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. The ceasefire does not address the devastating war in Gaza , where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable. There appeared to be lingering disagreement over whether Israel would have the right to strike Hezbollah if it believed the militants had violated the agreement, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted was part of the deal but which Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have rejected. Israel's security Cabinet approved the U.S.-France-brokered ceasefire agreement after Netanyahu presented it, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Biden administration spent much of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza but the talks repeatedly sputtered to a halt . President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East without saying how. Still, any halt to the fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and exchanged direct fire with Israel on two occasions earlier this year. In this screen grab image from video provide by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. Netanyahu presented the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers after a televised address in which he listed accomplishments against Israel’s enemies across the region. He said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran. “If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.” The ceasefire deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance. Biden said Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce, but that the deal "was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” A police bomb squad officer inspects the site where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024. Netanyahu’s office said Israel appreciated the U.S. efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security.” Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire and described it as a crucial step toward stability and the return of displaced people. Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday it had not seen the agreement in its final form. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state," he said, referring to Israel's demand for freedom of action. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.” Rescuers and residents search for victims Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon. Even as ceasefire efforts gained momentum in recent days, Israel continued to strike what it called Hezbollah targets across Lebanon while the militants fired rockets, missiles and drones across the border. An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in central Beirut — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Israel also struck a building in Beirut's bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli military said it struck targets linked to Hezbollah's financial arm. The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously were not targeted. Residents fled. Traffic was gridlocked, with mattresses tied to some cars. Dozens of people, some wearing pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed overhead. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said peacekeepers will not evacuate. Israeli soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometers (miles) from the Israeli border. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah is required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border. Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have exchanged barrages ever since. Israel escalated its bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes. Israeli security officers and army soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon. Chehayeb and Mroue reported from Beirut and Federman from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Lujain Jo and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

NFL Scout: Texas' Quinn Ewers Is 'Tough as Nails Mentally' After Return from BenchingLongest-lived US president was always happy to speak his mindTORONTO — Canada's main stock index edged higher in trading on Wednesday, helped by strength in the technology sector, while U.S. stock markets also rose. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 5.45 points at 25,641.18. The index took a “breather” Wednesday ahead of key labour market indicators set to be released both in Canada and the U.S. this week, said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones. Statistics Canada will report the latest data from the national labour force survey on Friday, the same day the November jobs report is due in the U.S. “That's the last important data point for the Bank of Canada before they meet next week,” said Kourkafas. November was a strong month for equities, he said, so it isn't surprising that investors are digesting the gains while they await new data. He said it’s expected that Statistics Canada will report an acceleration of job gains after last month brought a “relatively weak reading,” with job gains at about half of what analysts were expecting. While Canada’s central bank is expected to cut its key interest rate a fifth straight time on Dec. 11, the size of the cut could depend on that jobs data, he said. “We're now looking at a rebound, but as the Bank of Canada deliberates between a quarter point cut versus half a percentage point cut, I think what we are going to see in terms of unemployment rate and the base of job gains is going to have a say into that,” said Kourkafas, adding that wage growth is another important metric to watch. “If we see steady job growth and slowing wages, that can potentially tilt the Bank of Canada towards a larger cut.” In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 308.51 points at 45,014.04. The S&P 500 index was up 36.61 points at 6,086.49, while the Nasdaq composite was up 254.21 points at 19,735.12. U.S. markets were propelled by strength in the technology sector, said Kourkafas, highlighting strong results in quarterly earnings released this week by Salesforce Inc. and Marvell Technology Inc. “I think today's results highlight that there is still a long runway and still enthusiasm, excitement about artificial intelligence and kind of that multi-year adoption cycle,” he said. The Canadian dollar traded for 71.09 cents US compared with 71.14 cents US on Tuesday. The January crude oil contract was down US$1.40 at US$68.54 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$3.04 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was up US$8.30 at US$2,676.20 an ounce and the March copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.20 a pound. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press