#Drennn.

RAMALLAH, Palestine The foreign minister of Palestine said on Wednesday that his country was mulling whether to ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution allowing Palestinians to hold elections in Jerusalem. Speaking to Palestine's official radio broadcaster, Riyad al-Maliki said "contacts continue with the International Quartet [US, EU, UN and Russia] and a number of foreign ministers in the world to pressure on Israel not to hinder conducting the elections especially in Jerusalem." Al-Maliki described plans to hold Palestinian elections in Jerusalem as "an issue of great importance," adding that the international community did not abide by its commitment to pressure Israel to allow the ballot in the city. An interim agreement signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel on Sept. 28, 1995, included an article allowing Palestinian residents to cast their votes in Israeli post offices. On Sunday, a member of the ruling Fatah group's central committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, said the Palestinian Authority had made an official request to Israel two months ago to allow the elections in Jerusalem, but "there had been no response so far from Tel Aviv." Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem took part in previous elections conducted in 1996, 2005, and 2006. They voted in six Israeli postal centers set up in the city. The votes were then sent by mail to the Palestinian Central Elections Commission. International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Israeli settlement-building activity there illegal. Palestinians are set to elect a new legislature on May 22 and a president on July 31 after a gap of 15 years. *Ahmed Asmar in Ankara contributed to this report from Ankara

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A regional train built by Hitachi Rail Italy at a trade fair in Berlin in 2018. With Hitachi’s purchase of GlobalLogic, it hopes to layer software on heavy manufacturing with the aim of gathering data and building efficiency. Hitachi Ltd. ’s $9.6 billion purchase of digital-engineering firm GlobalLogic Inc. amounts to a big bet that enterprise software will unleash the power of big data on heavy industry. The Japanese manufacturing giant follows a string of other old-guard hardware businesses that are investing in fast-growing enterprise-software development, analysts say. Best-known years ago for TV sets, video recorders and batteries, Hitachi is diving headfirst into this area as coronavirus restrictions have all but shoved industries into digitizing their businesses—faster. That’s where Hitachi hopes to employ GlobalLogic’s engineering know-how in manufacturing, energy and other sectors to expand further outside Japan, said Gajen Kandiah, chief executive of Hitachi Vantara, the firm’s digital infrastructure segment. “Unfortunately, you only hear about a small group of companies that are maximizing data,” he said. “You don’t hear about the 99% that isn’t.” India, Europe and the U.S. to help companies on such digital projects. Shashank Samant, the San Jose, Calif., firm’s chief executive, commands a small army of developers who will lay software on Hitachi products, like railroad or factory equipment, in the hopes of hoovering up data and improving efficiency. The two companies also overlap in industrial sectors like auto manufacturing, he said, as Hitachi automates plant machinery and GlobalLogic helps digitize cars. “If you bring two companies together, now you’re carrying that entire ecosystem,” Mr. Samant said. His firm’s website features projects including an artificial-intelligence-powered battery meter for defibrillators; a platform to help a warehouse robotics-developer test its systems, and a mobile app that allows a tool manufacturer to track and analyze its internet-connected products. At the deal’s announcement on Wednesday, Hitachi Chief Executive Toshiaki Higashihara also framed it as part of an international push. The Tokyo-based conglomerate’s existing software and services business, Lumada, derives about 70% of its revenue from Japan. At GlobalLogic, more than half the firm’s clients are in the U.S. and around one-third in Europe, Mr. Samant said. The price tag for GlobalLogic is large, analysts noted, but comes at a time when enterprise software is in particularly high demand. The pandemic has forced chief information officers to help run companies remotely and rethink their relationships with customers, said Tim Crawford, CIO strategic adviser at AVOA LLC, a consulting firm. The right technology can help drive those changes, and software generally can be more tailored to businesses’ needs, he said. “The value is not in the hardware,” Mr. Crawford said. “It’s in the software and services.” Tech suppliers have taken note of that demand. Hitachi, which sold its power-tools unit in 2017, joins a growing list of companies that have divested themselves of some old product lines or gone on buying sprees in high-growth sectors to diversify. business,” said Ray Wang, founder of advisory firm Constellation Research Inc. “It’s highly capital-intensive and the growth just isn’t there.” Software development, on the other hand, is an entry point to an array of markets, ranging from autonomous vehicles to mobile devices, he said. “You write the software once, and then distribute it over the internet,” Mr. Wang added. In this sense, Mr. Kandiah said, GlobalLogic will help pull 110-year-old Hitachi into a new era. “We were looking for a while,” he said of the company’s hunt for the right acquisition. “Kiss many frogs, as they say.”

For storage startups focused on the highest end of infrastructure, removing the costs associated with a hardware business might be the only way to reach potential. But only if you’re not leaving customers to fend for themselves integration-wise. Look as profitable as possible and focus on only the largest deals. This has been Vast Data’s stated mission since its inception and in a new move announced today, the startup is one step closer to both. Vast is stepping out of the hardware business and taking that hefty line item off their books, shifting it entirely to hardware partner, Avent. Instead of buying the hardware up front or forcing customers into the familiar pattern of over-provisioning, Vast’s books show a software profits only while on the customer side, they can basically dedicate support people just to those muti-petabyte deals they’re focusing on. It is this focus on just the highest end of storage where Vast can differentiate from other startups who took a similar approach to ditching their hardware businesses. First, they’re doing it relatively early in their game, avoiding the Oracle or Nutanix shock that hit when those companies took similar steps. And unlike a Nutanix, which focused on tackling the entire market, from small, mid-size, and large enterprise, Vast won’t have to scramble wildly to deeply support everyone. It’s just the largest installs, which means Vast can wisely provision the people to make the support work instead of trying to handhold the world’s businesses ala Nutanix. This is a smart move. Vast can have all the cost off their own books, pushing it onto Avnet’s, and bask in the glory of high software margins, making it more attractive to investors and potential buyers. And while it shows some internal business savvy, there’s nothing really lost for users, in fact, everything stays the same, except users can buy hardware at cost and add to it over time instead of having a single fat CAPEX to contend with when what they wanted might have been a performance not a capacity increase out of the gate. The kernel of the idea for this shift in practice was driven by a hyperscale customer that wanted to use Vast’s software but already had established relationships with the hardware vendors. What held the deal back, according to Vast’s Jeff Denworth, was that they didn’t want to leave their own hardware partnerships on the floor to make the shift to one of their appliances. “They wanted to buy like a hyperscaler but they don’t have legions of people doing storage integration. In this middle state where they want the visibility, want to align their flash purchases with their server purchasing cadence for maximum buying power but don’t want to deal with the integration part.” This “Gemini” business model, as Vast as named it, will let Vast keep selling managed software on hardware that customers can buy at cost as an integrated appliance that comes straight from Avnet. And for end users, the possibility to escape some of the problems inherent to appliance purchases, letting “customers buy like hyperscale cloud operators without the heavy lifting commonly associated with building always-on, massively scalable clouds of low-cost flash infrastructure.” “This is really the first disaggregated business model in storage,” Denworth says. “At the end of the day, customers just cut us a check for the software and only see hardware at or below street price. We have our own purchasing people work with companies like Intel and Mellanox to ensure a good price and you’re not solving the problem on your own, which you would be with software-defined plays. The product is fully integrated by the manufacturer, just as before, so in terms of how the systems is delivered and supported, it’s all the same but for us, we have more financial instruments to use to go after the big deals and to satisfy customer requirements in a more granular manner.” The true differentiator here for those hyperscalers who want to leverage all the hardware partnership benefits but don’t want to deal with integration is packaged in with the Gemini model. Vast has a “co-pilot” for each of its customers who have their own hardware but a Vast Gemini license. This gets them their own Level 3 engineer dedicated to their site to monitor systems, handle feature requiests, and manage all the deployment and operation of Vast’s Universal Storage platform. VAST says it has already delivered dozens of petabytes to customers since the launch of this new business model at the turn of the year. Gemini customers such as Squarepoint Capital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard benefit from the flexibility Gemini provides them as they scale their Universal Storage investments with a solution that is now optimized for each organization’s unique requirements. “Hardware refreshes are a chronic headache for any IT department as any downtime can have a negative impact on business operations,” said Bill Mayo, CIO of Broad Institute. “What we look for are solutions that have the flexibility to scale performance and capacity so we can quickly adjust to the needs of our organization.” “In the quantitative trading industry, having the flexibility to dial up performance and grow on demand without a forced refresh or hardware tax is a key win for our business,” said Jesse Sieger, Systems Specialist at global investment management firm Squarepoint Capital. “Gemini has given us the freedom and flexibility to meet our data center needs at any given time, while also increasing our return on investment.”

Trials of Fire is another excellent entry into the deckbuilding genre, combining roguelite tactics and deep card pools to great effect. Trials of Fire is a deckbuilding roguelite developer and published by Whatboy Games. While it's been in Steam Early Access for quite some time, it's finally launching in full on April 9, 2021. Thanks to its iterations and player feedback, what's being released is a content rich, deep deckbuilder that has a number of innovative spins on the form, resulting in yet another excellent entry into a genre that's started to get a little crowded with compelling titles. Trials of Fire is, at its core, a game that's deeply inspired by Slay the Spire. Many of the well-established tropes of that game and the deckbuilding titles that have come since are present in Trials of Fire, too. Players build their deck, acquiring cards through leveling up and synergizing their deck with equipment that's found over the course of a journey. The equipment system provides additional depth to the game, as items will also add cards to a hero's deck. While these cards can be powerful, especially on higher rarity items, they might not necessarily work well with a party composition, particularly in a run that's gone on for an hour or so already. The balancing here is key to Trials of Fire's identity, which is rooted in fiddling with as stats as possible to produce the best outcome in a given game session. Trials of Fire allows players to tackle randomly generated adventures, pre-made content, and other modes like boss rushes as they become more familiar with the game. The pre-made journeys are the best because of their mix of story-telling, world-building, and gameplay decisions, though every mode ranges from serviceable to exciting. With that said, however, the narratives at play are only just better in Trials of Fire than they are in similarly esoteric titles like Slay the Spire, and that's a shame given the game's more involved world. Players navigate a board full of locations to check out, roaming enemies, and more to tackle quests, side quests and leveling. It feels more like a tabletop RPG than a lot of other deckbuilder designs, and it would've been nice to see this embraced even further. That being said, it's pretty obvious why Whatboy Games didn't dive too deeply into the RPG story - games of Trials of Fire already take a sizeable amount of time. While many deckbuilders err on the side of pretty quick gameplay unless a run is going extremely well, Trials of Fire is sluggish no matter what. That's in part due to its tactical battles, which infuse positioning and range into the usual deckbuilder norms to create more dynamic combat. Battle takes longer, but so does exploration, and even botched runs can span quite a while before it's become obvious it's not working out. Trials of Fire is not pick-up-and-play by design, though it does have some shorter jaunts available for players on a tight schedule. Still, Trials of Fire gets most of its innovations right, and its party system is lovely. There are a wide range of characters to unlock and each party consists of 3 of them, with users able to swap them out and customize their team as they see fit. It's another layer of strategy, and each class does a good job of separating itself from the pack, offering something new to tinker on in conjunction with the party's larger thematic scope. Each hero archetype levels up through sessions and unlocks more cards, though this takes a considerable amount of time. It would've been nice to see progression hastened at least a little, as the game really shines with the full gauntlet of its options available. Ultimately, it's not surprising to see Trials of Fire emerge out of Early Access as a strong deckbuilding contender. That time spent listening to player feedback was used wisely, and balancing, tone, and innovation have all been tweaked with a deft hand. While some of its elements shine more brightly than others, and the more involved nature of the game means it's a tougher sell for players looking to rapid-fire their way through its learning curve and combinations, Trials of Fire leaves Early Access as yet another strong, captivating deckbuilding game that borrows from tabletop roleplaying games and roguelites to carve out a name for itself.

Evoluant en toute subtilité, la nouvelle Toyota GR86 se dévoile enfin. Et bonne nouvelle, elle sera bien lancée en Europe ! Il y a quelques mois, Subaru levait le voile sur la toute nouvelle génération de sa BRZ, qui faisait alors évoluer son style ainsi que sa motorisation, sans pour autant créer de véritable rupture, et surtout, sans céder à la tendance de l’électrification. Aujourd’hui, c’est au tour de son partenaire Toyota de faire de même, en dévoilant officiellement la toute nouvelle itération de son coupé sportif. Comme son cousin technique, celui n’est pas vraiment synonyme de révolution, tant stylistique qu’en termes de motorisation, mais opère néanmoins un changement qui n’est pas vraiment anodin, se nommant désormais GR et non GT86. Une petite évolution qui permet alors à cette nouvelle venue de mieux s’intégrer dans la gamme Gazoo Racing, aux côtés de la Supra et de la très efficace GR Yaris. Mais une bonne nouvelle n’arrivant pas seule, la marque japonaise a également confirmé que cette GR86 ferait bel et bien le chemin jusqu’en Europe, contrairement à la BRZ ! Au premier abord, la recette semble être restée inchangée par rapport à la précédente génération. C’est bien le cas, puisque cette nouvelle itération conserve un style et des proportions similaires, avec son long capot, son toit incliné et ses porte-à-faux très courts. Cependant, quelques évolutions ont évidemment été apportées à cette Toyota GR86, qui gagne alors deux centimètres en longueur, tandis que les lignes semblent un peu plus musclées, de profil comme à l’arrière, avec son bouclier massif intégrant deux larges sorties d’échappement. La face avant reste de son côté assez sobre, manquant presque un peu de caractère avec des lignes très lisses, en opposition totale avec les deux autres modèles badgés GR. A bord, l’ambiance est ici très sobre, la seule touche de sportivité étant alors apportée par le logo sur le volant, tandis que l’ensemble se pare d’une sellerie noire. On remarquera également l’écran tactile, compatible avec Apple CarPlay, associé à un combiné numérique, apportant alors un peu de modernité dans cet habitacle plutôt traditionnel. Petite hausse de puissance Mais les principales évolutions, c’est sous le capot qu’elles se trouvent, puisque Toyota, comme Subaru, ne s’est pas contenté de redessiner son coupé. Les deux coupés, qui partagent alors leurs dessous reprennent également la même motorisation, à savoir un quatre cylindre à plat, dont la cylindrée passe de 2,0 à 2,4 litres, ce qui est bien entendu synonyme de hausse de la puissance. Rien n’a encore été dit du côté de Toyota, mais chez Subaru, on annonce déjà 231 chevaux, soit 28 de plus que l’ancienne génération. Nous devrions logiquement retrouver une valeur similaire sur la GR86, dont la vitesse maximale ainsi que les chiffres du 0 à 100 km/h n’ont pas encore été révélés. A vrai dire, la firme japonaise reste encore assez peu bavarde sur sa nouvelle création, affirmant que de nouvelles informations seront révélées un peu plus tard. Une chose est néanmoins sûre, l’auto demeure une vraie propulsion, tandis que la rigidité de torsion a été augmentée de 50 %, améliorant alors considérablement l’efficacité en courbes.

GUWAHATI, India, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifestyle, India's leading fashion destination for the latest trends, launches 'The Lifestyle Bihu Anthem' showcasing the latest festive collection available at great price points. Celebrating the occasion of Rongali Bihu, Lifestyle's Bihu anthem features noted singer Zubeen Garg and is composed by Partha Protim Gogoi with lyrics by Ibson Lal Baruah & direction by Rudrajeet Laskar & Rupak Dutta. The anthem captures all things quintessentially Bihu while showcasing how fashion and festive celebrations come together to create unique moments. The anthem captures iconic locations and moments of celebration in and around the city, including the one-stop fashion destination for latest trends - Lifestyle Stores. It focuses on high-energy and happy scenarios that people cherish during this time of the year - where everyone dresses up and enjoys the festivities while looking their very best, but while doing so responsibly. On the anthem, Srinivas Rao - Sr. Vice President, Marketing Lifestyle, said: "This year, Bihu celebrations promise to be different as people welcome the festive season in their own way. With this in mind, we wanted to create something that ushers in the festive mood and makes our audience smile. The anthem captures favourite festive moments and highlights our all-new collection available at great price points, with something special for all occasions." Along with the anthem, Lifestyle also launched its all-new festive collection comprising trendy apparel and accessories that are perfect for the festive season. The curated collection is available at attractive price points with kurtas for women starting from Rs. 599 to occasion wear shirts & kurtas for men starting from Rs.799 onwards from leading brands. The collection is also available online on lifestylestores.com where customers can shop from the convenience of their home. About Lifestyle: Lifestyle is India's leading fashion destination for the latest trends. Part of Dubai based retail and hospitality conglomerate - The Landmark Group, Lifestyle brings multiple categories including men, women and kids' apparel, footwear, handbags, fashion accessories and beauty under the convenience of a single roof. Lifestyle provides seamless and hassle-free shopping, offering leading national and international brands along with the convenience of a true omni-channel experience with its online store lifestylestores.com. The company is recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including Most Admired Fashion Retail Destination of the Year at Images Fashion Awards for 5 consecutive years; No. 1 India's Best Company to Work for in the retail industry for 2 consecutive years and Top 10 Best companies to Work for in India in 2015 - Great Places to Work Institute®. Currently, Lifestyle has a network of over 80 stores, across 44 cities and delivers to over 19,000 pin codes.

http://english.wafa.ps/image/NewsThumbImg/Default/7f218369-5a72-43ca-86ac-72493cd65647.jpg RAMALLAH, Tuesday, April 6, 2021 (WAFA0 – Palestine recorded today 2593 new coronavirus cases, 21 deaths, and 1455 recoveries, according to Minister of Health Mai Alkaila. She said in her daily report on the disease in Palestine that 1463 new cases were recorded in the Gaza Strip, along with four deaths, and 412 recoveries, while the West Bank had 1076 new cases, 15 deaths, and 891 recoveries. East Jerusalem had 54 new cases, two deaths, and 152 recoveries recorded over three days. Alkaila said 203 corona patients are getting treatment in intensive care units, among them 60 are on respirators. A total of 81,543 people have so far been vaccinated against coronavirus in the West Bank and 28,351 people in the Gaza Strip. M.K.

Nucleus Software that provides lending and transaction banking products to global financial leaders, on Monday said it has appointed Parag Bhise as the Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds the outgoing CEO, RP Singh, who retired after a career spanning 35 years with Nucleus Software. The appointment is effective April 1. Bhise has been a transformational leader for Nucleus Software and has played a key role in developing and growing Nucleus businesses in India and abroad, the company said. He will lead the Nucleus 2.0 vision of continuous improvement in products and solutions. He has a Master’s Degree in Computer Applications from BIT Mesra, MBA from the Management Development Institute – Gurugram and has done courses from MIT in Innovation & Technology. “Parag Bhise has been an effective change manager at Nucleus Software for over 31 years now. He embodies our promise of providing tech superiority, product innovation and continuity to our customers, most of them being the who’s who of the industry," Vishnu R Dusad, Managing Director, Nucleus Software said.

Home Hardware Stores – one of Canada’s largest dealer-owned hardware retailers – is the latest victim of an infamous ransomware group that is threatening to leak the data it copied from the company. The DarkSide ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack, and posted what it claims to be corporate data copied from Home Hardware. The hacker group has threatened to publicly release the rest of the data if the retailer fails to pay the ransom. “We have downloaded a lot of your private data. You can see examples below. If you need proof, we are ready to provide you with it,” a notice on DarkSide’s website said, addressed to Home Hardware. “The data is preloaded and will automatically be published in our blog if you do not contact us. After publication your data can be downloaded by anyone. It is stored on our tor for CDN and will be available for at least six months.” IT World Canada obtained some screenshots of some of the documents being leaked on DarkSide’s website. They appear to be a December 2020 financial report and a November 2020 letter that seems to pertain to an acquisition deal. DarkSide has also displayed countdown clocks on its website, which count down to when the copied Home Hardware files will be automatically released. The group began to sequentially release the data starting April 02. Home Hardware Stores director of communications Jessica Kuepfer confirmed with IT World Canada in an email statement that it has indeed been affected by a ransomware attack. “We immediately engaged our cybersecurity firm and quickly implemented countermeasures to isolate and contain the attack. We have maintained full business continuity,” said Kuepfer. The spokesperson also said that each of Home Hardware’s stores is independently owned and operated, and that, based on the company’s investigations, it appears that the attack has not affected dealer retail systems or any consumer transaction or payment data. However, the representative was not able to comment in time for publication on how much money DarkSide was demanding, or whether Home Hardware had spoken to the group. Home Hardware Stores has over 1,050 stores under its name, which include the brands Home Hardware, Home Building Centre and Home Furniture.

Just four years ago, Jamie Dimon, the head of one of the world’s largest banks, JP Morgan, called bitcoin (BTC) a fraud. In the current year, JP Morgan’s top executives call for involvement in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, their financial analysts project bitcoin to rise above $100,000 and supplant gold as a real asset hedging against inflation. Needless to say, the past year has been tremendous for bitcoin. As the mainstreamer of blockchain technology reaching over one trillion market cap, bitcoin opened the entryway to the entire ecosystem. Meanwhile, ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain has one big advantage — programmability in the form of smart contracts. These computational pieces of code auto-execute on the Ethereum blockchain, making it possible to create: automated market makers (AMMs); decentralized exchanges (DEXs); borrowing and lending DeFi protocols; yield farming — earning interest rates based on stakes in liquidity pools within AMMs. Altogether, the decentralized finance sector currently holds over $40 billion locked-in assets. This accounts for two major forces po[CENSORED]rizing blockchain technology — bitcoin and DeFi dApps. A third major blockchain driver has also seen deep market penetration in the last year — non-fungible tokens (NFT). These are digital collectibles from a variety of sources, minted by smart contracts on NFT marketplaces as unique, incorruptible, and traceable. In fact, NFTs might be more important to mainstream blockchain than DeFi protocols emulating banking products and services. The latter can be quite a boring subject, but when po[CENSORED]r artists like Beeple sell a single NFT for $69 million, the power of such sensationalism cannot be overstated. We are already seeing this effect, as even Taco Bell fast food chain joins the NFT party. The constant parade of headlines, in which po[CENSORED]r figures make astronomic NFT sales, will apparently expand the usage of dApps running on Ethereum. This brings us to the fourth driver of blockchain market penetration — video games — inextricably linked to NFTs as most of them are gaming related. Where does blockchain fit in the gaming industry? While NFTs provide the most recent bread and butter of journalism — sensationalism — video games have a much longer history for blockchain use cases in the form of microtransactions. Nowadays, the biggest games are so-called free games with an elaborate monetization model. Fortnite is leading the charge in this arena with a $2.4 billion revenue in 2018 and $1.8 billion in 2019. However, large games like Fortnite and Roblox have in-game currencies that serve as a bridge to fiat currency conversion, V-Bucks, and Robux, respectively. They have a fixed price in relation to the U.S. dollar and other fiat money. For example, Fortnite’s 1,000 V-Bucks would cost you $7.99, while Roblox’s 800 Robux would take $9.99 from your bank account, at the time of writing. However, such mainstream super-po[CENSORED]r games still don’t have full-blown marketplaces. Mostly, they rely on item shops and selling of game accounts via Discord servers. Likewise, there are thriving black markets for Roblox (RBXPLACE, RBXFLIP, RBLXSHOPPING). From this, we can conclude that: There is a great demand for decentralized marketplaces, which can run without having to rely on someone buying and maintaining a server. There is a great demand for a modular marketplace solution that can be plugged into a game, so that developers don’t waste development resources on creating something from scratch, over and over again with each new game. Developers lose money when players go to grey markets to trade in-game assets, so it is in their interest to use proper DeFi marketplaces. When developers are on large, centralized, publishing platforms, they also lose money when selling DLC and other in-game items. For example, Steam’s community market fee transaction is currently 5%. In contrast, an NFT marketplace like Rarible takes 2.5% off sales. Not only is blockchain ideally poised to supply such solutions, but NFT marketplaces can already be plugged into a game’s lifecycle. NFTs as a game funding model NFTs can themselves serve as an engine of game development. Developers receive their much-needed funding, while buyers of their NFTs get a piece of gaming history, which may become small fortunes if the game turns into a successful venture. Bear Games is one such company, fusing blockchain with game development. Their initial NFT offering (INO) raised $100,000 worth in NFTs for their upcoming DeFi game called BEAR NAVY Vs. Pirates (BVP). DeFi games are types of blockchain games that have a gamified yield farming system, so it doesn’t feel like a chore when you earn money via interest rate. The raised funds via NFTs will not only go into BEAR NAVY Vs. Pirates but also into a more ambitious project. “Games and Gain” will be the team’s decentralized gaming platform, hoping to become the go-to place for cryptocurrency and decentralized finance gaming. Self-explanatory, the upcoming games on this platform will net you gains while gaming. They will follow the principle of play-to-earn as you receive your share of fungible tokens accessible to players holding VIP PAW NFTs. Of course, the fungible tokens are swappable on a DEX like Uniswap, which can then be off-ramped into fiat currency. This certainly represents a more elegant solution than selling accounts and opening black marketplace Discord servers. Harnessing NFTs to achieve massive gains While Bear Games is just gaining momentum, other games have already harnessed their NFTs to achieve massive gains. Sky Mavis studio, with their Axie Infinity, is exceptionally po[CENSORED]r. It owes this to a pleasant and cheerful artistic style reminiscent of the mega-po[CENSORED]r WAKFU franchise. More importantly, Axie achieved $9.6 million in trading volume, earlier this year. In Axie Infinity, players build kingdoms while managing an ecosystem of wild fantasy creatures called Axies. Both land plots and creatures can be bought as NFTs. The land plot you see above topped the charts as the fifth most expensive NFT sold so far. However, this is another blockchain game that can become a source of daily income. Thanks to Axie’s in-game items called SLP (Small Love Potion), which you can earn by playing daily quests, you can then sell them on Uniswap for other tokens that lead to fiat currency. This is the power of blockchain games — in-game resources equate to real money. The same cannot be said for previously mentioned gaming studios that seek and destroy unsanctioned item marketplaces. Cometh is a similar DeFi game but with a twist. Placed in a sci-fi setting reminiscent of 1980s games, the player is in charge of astrominers, with the goal of getting close to bountiful asteroids, which are randomly generated by a smart contract called Cometh Generator. Instead of mining ore from them, you mine tokens until you exhaust the asteroids. Each astrominer is also an NFT, varying in its capability to mine tokens. So far, Cometh’s top player earned $8,172. As you can see, each DeFi game has its own style and way to earn real money via swapped blockchain tokens. However, the big question is, how po[CENSORED]r are they, and what can be done to make them more enticing? The iconic Atari certainly believes it can leverage nostalgia to prosper within the new space of NFTs and cryptocurrencies, with its released Atari VCS mini-console. Blockchain games are still a niche product When we look at integrating blockchain with gaming, it becomes apparent that niche projects like DeFi games leverage a fraction of the gaming audience compared to mainstream games. For example, the tenth game ranked on the largest gaming platform, Steam, has more average monthly players than the first game ranked on dApps’ list of games. While this is not too bad considering that dApps only took the public spotlight during the last year, in this transitional period, it will make more sense for developers to integrate cryptocurrencies and smart contracts in a modular manner. Without directly interfacing blockchain infrastructure with games, you can still use your BTC wallet to buy games and cosmetics on all the most po[CENSORED]r platforms. Paxful allows you to buy discounted gift cards with bitcoin, which you can then redeem in the stores. Nonetheless, this represents the most superficial contact with cryptocurrencies. It is clear that game development studios would benefit from the lower costs and greater control DeFi protocols present. At the same time, investing development time in learning different dev stacks unrelated to gaming presents an expenditure that may tilt the balance for the foreseeable future. Breaking through blockchain isolation To make in-game monetization and tokenization readily available, developers will most likely start to take advantage of third-party networks. One of the most promising ones is the Enjin coin (ENJ). Launched in 2018 by Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski, Enjin makes it possible for game developers to tokenize their in-game assets on the Ethereum blockchain. Its maximum supply is one billion ENJ coins, presenting itself as a store of value. Indeed, every NFT token minted on the Enjin blockchain absorbs ENJ coin, which is then removed from circulation. This means that Enjin is deflationary, just like bitcoin, gives NFTs a reserve value, and provides liquidity. Furthermore, if you don’t want to hold an in-game asset anymore, it can be “melted,” which returns its value in ENJ tokens. Of all utility tokens currently rising in po[CENSORED]rity, Enjin seems like the most effective solution for in-game asset tokenization and monetization. However, this still leaves one big issue – blockchain isolationism. Last month, we saw the first real-world scenario of linking blockchain to non-blockchain assets. Synthetix platform uses Linkchain (LINK) to connect the two different infrastructures by utilizing oracles, third-party services that feed on-chain smart contracts with off-chain data. A major blue-chip stock, Tesla, has been listed on Synthetix as a synthetic stock. Meaning, you can now trade this stock on a permissionless, decentralized protocol that even allows for shorting. Needless to say, such a development eliminates the deplatforming of retail traders as it happened with Robinhood. Kain Warwick, a co-founder of Synthetix, had already announced a crypto NFT game that will take advantage of the platform called Illuvium. With the deployment of these technologies, it is not difficult to see that adoption among game developers will present itself as the main obstacle. In the meantime, as Enjin and Synthetix become more po[CENSORED]r and easily pluggable into the video games pipeline, blockchain’s main feature – decentralization – will still pose an unmatched value proposition.

Are you at risk of developing diabetes? Well, this World Health Day, let’s figure it out by identifying some warning signs. Diabetes can be one of the worst lifestyle disorders to have. In fact, it can really affect your overall health, increasing your risk of renal issues, digestion problems, and heart illnesses. There are two forms of diabetes–type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is basically genetic in nature but type 2 diabetes is the one that stems from wrong lifestyle choices. Here are some lifestyle-related factors that increase your risk of developing diabetes: 1. Eating junk food 2. Not exercising 3. Not going for regular check-ups 4. Not practising portion control 5. Not managing your weight Yeah, these are extremely common habits most of us are guilty of. HERE ARE 8 WARNING SIGNS THAT YOUR BODY SENDS YOUR WAY TO HELP YOU REALIZE YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: 1. THIRST If you feel constantly thirsty, in spite of healthy water intake, you might need to get yourself checked for diabetes. When you have diabetes, your kidneys have to work extra hard to regulate excess glucose. This glucose is released in the urine and, along with it, some very essential minerals also get flushed out of the body which makes you feel dehydrated. Also, read: Can being stressed give you diabetes? Let’s hear it from the experts 2. FREQUENT URINATION This is actually a cause behind the dehydration. The logic is the same as above. Your body needs to clear out extra glucose from the body. Therefore, you urinate more frequently if you have diabetes. 3. HUNGER When you have diabetes, the body is unable to digest glucose which is needed to release energy. When this excess glucose doesn’t get digested, you won’t feel like you have enough energy and this might lead to hunger. 4. DRY SKIN High blood sugar makes your skin tissues more prone to dryness. Hence, you might experience itchiness and may become more prone to skin infections. 5. TINGLING FEELING IN THE LIMBS Diabetes damages the nerves that send signals from the brain to the limbs. Due to this, you feel numbness and tingling. Also, read: Here’s how you can save your kidneys from diabetes 6. SLOW HEALING Diabetes slows down the process of cell regeneration and hence, slows down the process of healing. 7. SORES This happens due to blood vessel damage which is caused by diabetes. 8. LOSING WEIGHT Some people also experience weight loss because insufficient insulin doesn’t let glucose release energy. Hence, the body starts burning existing fat to fuel itself. This leads to weight loss. ARE YOU AT RISK? There are some people who are prone to developing diabetes. Here are risk factors you need to take into account to assess your risk: If you are above 45 and lead a sedentary lifestyle. If you are over-weight. If you don’t exercise at all. If it runs in your family. If you have a blood pressure problem. If you have a cholesterol problem. Also, read: Finding it hard to deal with diabetes? Learn how to manage it at home with these tips The good news is that you can prevent diabetes by leading a healthy lifestyle which involves eating a balanced diet and working out regularly. On the occasion of World Health Day, we urge you to bring a change to your lifestyle and be more vigilant of the initial signs of diabetes. (This story was originally published on HealthShots.com)

RAMALLAH, Monday, April 05, 2021 (WAFA) – Palestine today urged the Middle East International Quartet to pressure Israel into allowing elections for the legislative council planed on May 22 in occupied East Jerusalem. In identical letters sent to the members of the Quartet - UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - on holding legislative and presidential elections in the occupied territories, Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad Malki highlighted the actual steps taken so far towards the elections, including updating the electoral register and accepting the lists of electoral candidates. He stressed the importance of holding the elections, particularly in the occupied East Jerusalem, in line with international law and the signed agreements and keeping with the past precedents. He emphasized the need for the Quartet to immediately intervene to pressure Israel, the occupying power, to allow Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem to participate in the elections through casting their votes, running as electoral candidates and campaigning. He noted that the presidential decree on elections provides for holding the elections throughout the occupied territories, including in East Jerusalem, while reiterating the Palestinian leadership’s firm position that elections will not be acceptable should Israel ban them in Jerusalem. K.F./M.K.

A fault with the pitlane speed limiter software resulted in penalties that denied Rosberg X Racing pole and demoted Jenson Button’s JBXE team in the Extreme E qualifying shootout. In the afternoon session on the desert course in Saudi Arabia, RXR driver Molly Taylor and JBXE’s Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky were penalised for speeding in the driver change zone. The rules give a five-second penalty for every km/h a car exceeds the 30km/h limit. This resulted in a 60s penalty for RXR to drop it from first to third in the combined times. A 150s penalty was handed out to JBXE to demote it to sixth. A further 25s penalty for a driver change that was under the minimum 45s was later rescinded due to a timing error. It has transpired that both speeding penalties were the result of a software failure with the Spark Racing Technology-built Odyssey 21 E-SUV, which handed pole to Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team and its drivers Cristine Gutierrez and Sebastien Loeb. RXR driver and three-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson told Autosport: “That was frustrating, but no blames on Molly. “She hit the pit speed limiter button; it went into pit speed limiter. Then all of a sudden it just jumped out. Very, very frustrating for all of us.” Kristoffersson, first approached by Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg via an Instagram direct message, added that he and Taylor would be better off on their own rather than use a device which is “so unreliable”. “The team has done a fantastic job to prepare the car,” he added. “We had no issues all day and when there's such a software thing, that's very annoying. “Obviously, you focus on just holding full throttle and let the software do the job. “But if we knew that it was a problem, it would have been much better to just control it yourself instead of to rely on something which is so unreliable.” Button confirmed to Autosport that his team-mate Ahlin-Kottulinsky had suffered from the same issue, with the 2009 F1 title winner recognising immediately that she was too quick. He said: “Mikaela came in, she pushed the button. In the data, you see that she's pushed it. “But there isn't a limiter there, so she sped through it and then had to push it again. “It's a shame. She obviously did go quite quick. But the problem is the limiter wasn't there. We got that penalty. “We also got a penalty for being too quick on our driver change but we weren't. We got that penalty taken back, which is good. We did 45.09s so we just perfected it. “We would have been fifth without the speeding penalty.”

Apple earlier this week updated its Leadership page to feature John Ternus as the Senior Vice President, Hardware Engineering. Ternus was named successor to senior executive Dan Riccio, who is said to be spearheading the company’s Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality projects. According to Apple’s website, Jon Ternus will report to company CEO Tim Cook. Ternus would lead all hardware engineering at Apple, including the teams responsible for iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and more. The company also gives a brief overview of Ternus’ stint at Apple so far. Before joining Apple, Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He had joined Apple’s Product Design team in 2001. He served as a vice president of Hardware Engineering since 2013. Apple also mentions Ternus as a key leader in the ongoing transition of the Mac to Apple silicon. “Throughout his tenure at Apple, John has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products including every generation and model of iPad, the latest iPhone lineup, and AirPods,” according to the website. Bonus: iPhone SE 2022, 2023 rumours Apple is said to be preparing for an upgraded 2022 iteration of its compact iPhone SE. Conveniently dubbed as iPhone SE 2022, the handset will feature a 4.7-inch LCD. The 2023 model could be even bigger with a 6.1-inch display, according to leakster Ross Young. The leakster also claimed that the 2023 version of the iPhone SE would have a punch-hole display. The iPhone SE 2022 is also rumoured to come with 5G support. As of now, Apple’s iPhone 12 series comes with 5G connectivity. Another interesting leak is that iPhone SE 2023 will come with a punch-hole display, moving away from the current boat-shaped notches on premium iPhones. Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews, also keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Despite having had a somewhat polarizing reaction back during its release, GTA 4 has come to be appreciated by most fans. The initial polarization that came from the game is a major departure from the rest of the series. Rockstar Games elected to switch things up and opt for a more serious and grounded tone, which meant scaling back many over-the-top elements. One of the most infamous ways in which it accomplished that was through realistic driving physics. Yet, that wasn't the only area of gameplay that was tweaked to reflect a more grounded and realistic tone. In terms of weapons, GTA 4 was more functional than showy. This is in stark contrast to GTA 5, which seemed like a course-correction for Rockstar Games as it reverted to the series' older identity. It saw the return of a ridiculous number of weapons of all shapes and sizes. It's plain to see that Rockstar Games made a conscious decision not to go overboard regarding weapons and their numbers in the game. Perhaps the objective was to ground the game in reality and not have an absurd number of weapons on Niko. Typically, the GTA franchise has had a rather inelegant solution to weapons and their storage to service gameplay. For the most part, each GTA protagonist seems to have Hermoine's magical handbag at all times - whipping out rocket launchers and machine guns out of thin air. That sort of suspension of disbelief, while enjoyable, is in stark contrast to what GTA 4 was attempting. Thus, while Niko still seems to carry a rather large amount of weapons on his person - the number of weapons and their types are far lesser than previous or future games in the series. One ingenious way GTA 4 both grounded itself in reality while also making fun gameplay opportunities was pickable objects. The player, as Niko, could pick up random objects from the environment to then be used as weapons. Using throwables such as bottles, bricks, and all sorts of other oddities became an enjoyable way to interact with the game world organically. While GTA 4 remains a critical darling to this day, a major portion of the fanbase felt it lacked severely in terms of the "fun" quotient. Rockstar Games responded by infusing GTA 5 with a healthy dose of wanton violence and a ridiculous number of weapons. However, this is not an exhaustive list as GTA Online adds new and more ridiculous weapons to the game with every other title update. While pickable objects were gone from the game, there is little doubt that players felt satisfied with the amount of weaponry available.

Un hecho casi impensado fue el que se presentó en China, en donde un hombre después de verse acorralado con su moto por un auto, tuvo la idea más loca y a la vez efectiva para poder terminar con su problema. Un hombre llamado Tan Xianbin, es repartido de diferente tipo de mercancía. Había estacionado su moto para realizar una de sus entregas y hasta ahí todo marchaba cómo cualquier otro día “en la oficina”. Un sedan negro le obstruía el camino Sin embargo, lo que no contaba Xianbin es que al salir de su entrega, se iba a encontrar a un sedan negro que le estaba obstruyendo su paso para salir, por lo que la situación se podía poner bastante incómoda. Al principio, intentó salir por atrás y no lo iba a lograr. Posteriormente, intentó hacer el cruce por algunos de los dos lados sin tener problemas de golpear a alguno de los vehículos, pero no encontró el éxito esperado. La decisión que lo volvió el "Hulk" chino Pese a ello, Tan Xianbin no se rindió e ideó una estrategia para salir de su problema, la cual fue simplemente armarse de mucho valor y mucha fuerza y con sus propias manos empujar el vehículo que le estorbaba hacia abajo. Estas imágenes se hicieron virales después del gran éxito que tuvo al empujar con sus manos el vehículo, algo que parecía improbable, pero que ahora lo tienen colocado como el “Hulk” chino y qué se ha convertido en toda una personalidad.

A few years ago, I was in a local grocery store, standing in line waiting for the cashier. We were in the early years of raising our twin grandsons with special needs, and I was incredibly frazzled all the time. Like most moms (caregiver, in my case), grocery shopping without kids is an escape. On this particular day, the boys were either home with my husband or with their parents. Either way, I was alone and enjoying every moment of it. I noticed a young pregnant mother in line with at least four or five children surrounding her. All of them looked to be under the age of 5. What stood out to me the most as I watched her is that none of her kids ran off, screamed, wailed or demanded attention. And most of all, she looked calm — serene, even. I remember looking at her, marveling at her ability to handle all of those kids while pregnant. And then I was amazed at how well-behaved the children were. Granted, they could have all melted down the minute they were in the car, but at that moment, everything was fine. I will never forget that scene because I remember thinking, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t handle the noise, the overwhelm, the demands and meltdowns?” I’ve thought that many times, at parks, school functions, family gatherings and at the grocery store. You can probably relate if you have children, especially children with special needs or behavior and conduct disorders. She knew something I didn’t and I was determined to figure it out. I desperately wanted to ask her, but the introvert in me kept my mouth shut. So I did the next best thing. I searched the internet looking for clues about how to be a calmer parent. You see, all of us have particular challenges that prevent us at times from being the people we want to be. In my case, I have a neurological and hormonal condition called Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). It never occurred to me as a first-time mom those issues were significant contributing factors to being an “angry mom.” I’m not proud of it, but yes, I yelled. I screamed. I demanded. I controlled. My kids grew up with a mother who lost it regularly. I was overwhelmed, emotionally dysregulated, and unable to cope with the stress of raising kids, working anywhere from one to three jobs sometimes, and managing the household. It was too much for me to handle. So I was in constant reaction mode, flying off the handle over everything. I made my kids feel belittled, not good enough, and desperate to leave as soon as they were old enough. I lived with guilt and shame for years. It’s not easy admitting my mistakes. I’ve learned to forgive myself. I didn’t know what I didn’t know back then. We’re all growing and learning from the moment our children are born. Mistakes are what help us grow, learn and change. And sharing them with you helps me heal every time I talk about my experience. If it helps another parent recognize their own mistakes and seek to change them, I’m fulfilling my mission to encourage parents to create peaceful, happy homes. It wasn’t until my kids were out of the house, grown-up, estranged from me, and living their own lives that I discovered what was wrong with me and how to manage the conditions. (We’re all now on good terms.) Having PMDD is like PMS on steroids. It’s unimaginable and challenging. Only another person with PMDD can even begin to understand. As for ADHD, well, that leads me to be highly scattered, distracted, and mentally exhausted at the end of each day. It’s not an excellent combination for calm parenting. After several years of not raising kids, I didn’t think I’d have to deal with the emotional rollercoaster and daily stresses of mom life anymore. I was emotionally in a good place, so I thought. That’s because I didn’t have the triggers and overwhelm of motherhood weighing me down every day. But then I had to help raise my grandsons, who tested my patience and emotions daily for months. It wasn’t long before I began to crack and “angry mom” returned. This time, my husband and I prepared for this situation. We talked about it and what I would do if my emotions got out of control. And when it did happen, I searched for answers, tried different holistic therapies, and discovered collaborative parenting and stress-reducing techniques through trial and error. I also welcomed back an old friend – the antidepressant. I began to put everything I was learning about collaborative, conscious and connected parenting and stress-reduction into practice. A dramatic shift happened in me and my home. These practices aren’t anything you probably haven’t already heard before. Breathe when you find yourself triggered, walk away from the stressor, take care of yourself with better eating, exercise, and the like. It’s easier said than done in the heat of the moment. But what inspired this month’s column was something I heard in an audiobook I’m currently listening to as of this writing. It’s called Atomic Habits by James Clear. (I highly recommend it.) He tells the story of a friend he knew who lost 100 pounds by constantly asking herself, “What would a healthy person do?” And that resonated with me, primarily because I’m a bit fluffier than I’d like to be like most of us. I realized you could use that question for nearly anything. For parents, especially those of us who tend to be angrier and overwhelmed, or dealing with conditions that make it hard to stay emotionally regulated, let’s ask ourselves each time, “What would a calm parent do?” And as the author advises about habits, be consistent in whichever technique works for you. Good habits breed familiarity. Start small, so you’re more likely to stick with it. If all you can manage is one deep breath in a triggered moment, then it’s better than none and yelling at the kids. If you can only step outside for a minute to get some quiet, then it’s better than constant noise all day, every day. That leads to overstimulation and, you guessed it, yelling in frustration. And if grocery shopping and errand running is the only alone time you get, then make it the best experience you can. Stroll down the aisles, blast your favorite music in the car, and treat yourself to something you haven’t had in a while. Because if you don’t get enough alone time, you begin to resent your kids and your partner, leading to (drumroll, please) more yelling.

RAMALLAH, Palestine Palestinian health authorities on Saturday registered 24 new fatalities and 1,651 infections from the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said 16 deaths and 698 cases were recorded in the West Bank while 953 cases and eight fatalities were registered in the Gaza Strip. According to the minister, 200 of those infected are in intensive care units, while 63 patients are supported by artificial respirators. Palestine has reported 277,130 coronavirus cases, including 2,941 deaths, since the first case of COVID-19 was detected last year, according to the Health Ministry. *Bassel Barakat in Ankara contributed to this report

Before you can improve a workflow, you have to understand how work advances through a business, which is more complex than you might imagine inside a large enterprise. That’s where Celonis comes in. It uses software to identify how work moves through an organization and suggests more efficient ways of getting the same work done, also known as process mining. Today, the company announced a significant partnership with IBM where IBM Global Services will train 10,000 consultants worldwide on Celonis. The deal gives Celonis, a company with around 1,200 employees, access to the massive selling and consulting unit, while IBM gets a deep understanding of a piece of technology that is at the front end of the workflow automation trend. Miguel Milano, chief revenue officer at Celonis, says that digitizing processes has been a trend for several years. It has sped up due to COVID, and it’s partly why the two companies have decided to work together. “Intelligent workflows, or more broadly spoken workflows built to help companies execute better, are at the heart of this partnership and it’s at the heart of this trend now in the market,” Milano said. The other part of this is that IBM now owns Red Hat, which it acquired in 2018 for $34 billion. The two companies believe that by combining the Celonis technology, which is cloud based, with Red Hat, which can span the hybrid world of on premises and cloud, the two together can provide a much more powerful solution to follow work wherever it happens. “I do think that moving the [Celonis] software into the Red Hat OpenShift environment is hugely powerful because it does allow in what’s already a very powerful open solution to now operate across this hybrid cloud world, leveraging the power of OpenShift which can straddle the worlds of mainframe, private cloud and public cloud. And data straddle those worlds, and will continue to straddle those worlds,” Mark Foster, senior vice president at IBM Services explained. You might think that IBM, which acquired robotic process automation vendor WDG Automation last summer, would simply attempt to buy Celonis, but Foster says the partnership is consistent with the company’s attempt to partner with a broader ecosystem. “I think that this is very much part of an overarching focus of IBM with key ecosystem partners. Some of them are going to be bigger, some of them are going to be smaller, and […] I think this is one where we see the opportunity to connect with an organization that’s taking a leading position in its category, and the opportunity for that to take advantage of the IBM Red Hat technologies…” he said.