casino live bet365

casino live bet365 Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal Friday called for a complete integration of industry stakeholders with government platforms to improve efficiency of the logistics sector. At the ULIP Logistics Hackathon 2.0, he asked industry to focus on green logistics by following sustainable and green practices to cut carbon footprint in the sector. "We have to adopt technology like electric mobility, biofuels, multimodal transport options to bring down overall carbon impact and make sustainability the core of our thinking," Goyal said. Emphasising on skill development, Goyal called for collaborations with institutions to train and build a future-ready workforce. He added that by using artificial intelligence and data analytics, "we can make sure there is no time and cost overrun". Nominations for ET MSME Awards are now open. The last day to apply is December 15, 2024. Click here to submit your entry for any one or more of the 22 categories and stand a chance to win a prestigious award. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )Kendrick Lamar Fans Drag Drake After Surprise “GNX” ReleasePeoples Bancorp of North Carolina director James Abernethy sells $15,950 in stock

As the Trump administration enters its second term, addressing economic and military threats posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will remain a cornerstone of its foreign policy and legislative agenda. One area primed for action is the expansion of outbound investment restrictions targeting companies and securities associated with the PRC’s military-civil fusion system, human rights abuses, and fentanyl trade. The policy momentum for strengthened outbound restrictions will likely be led by the administration’s reshaped national security team. The new team will include Representative Michael Waltz as national security advisor, Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state, and Representative Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the United Nations—all of whom collaborated on outbound investment legislation during their time in Congress. Informed by the national security team’s collective legislative background, the Trump administration should craft an outbound screening regime focused on three core issues: expanded sanctions authorities, sector-specific restrictions, and broader prohibitions on publicly traded PRC securities and derivatives. During his first term, President Trump issued an executive order that prohibited “U.S. persons” from engaging in certain transactions with publicly traded securities issued by “Communist Chinese Military Companies.” The executive order and companion legislation in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act empowered the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to publish and maintain a list of restricted PRC military companies. President Biden then issued his own executive order in 2021, which amended Trump’s and expanded the scope of the list to cover Chinese surveillance companies. This list—now called the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (NS-CMIC) List —is a powerful sanctions tool that enables OFAC to designate any PRC company that supports military-civil fusion or surveillance technology. Despite this wide authority and bipartisan congressional pressure, however, the Biden administration never updated the initial list after its publication in 2021. The incoming Trump administration should broaden the definition of covered entities and prioritize increasing the number of PRC companies on a non-SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) prohibited investment list. The first designations on an updated list could be publicly traded PRC companies already designated on other US government blacklists, such as the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, Military End-User List, Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List , the Federal Communications Commission’s Covered List , and the Department of Defense’s 1260H list . Expanding the existing NS-CMIC List to include other blacklisted PRC companies would require updated definitions through an amended executive order or legislation. If enacted, this policy would enable the US government to close an economic security policy gap. This gap currently allows Americans to invest in blacklisted PRC military companies and human rights abusers despite the same PRC companies being subject to trade restrictions. The expansion of authorities for a revised NS-CMIC List could also include a 50 percent rule or control definition that would immediately expand the scope of the list to include majority-owned subsidiaries of named entities. The NS-CMIC List currently does not include prohibitions on subsidiaries. This is a straightforward policy already used by OFAC for other sanctions programs. A 50 percent rule for the NS-CMIC List would have an immediate chilling effect on the PRC’s military-industrial complex. Finally, the administration and Congress should expand authorities to allow Treasury to issue outbound restrictions on PRC companies that manufacture fentanyl precursors and support the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ongoing genocide and human rights abuses in Xinjiang. While expanding the NS-CMIC List is an important first step, an effective outbound screening mechanism cannot rely exclusively on listing individual PRC entities. As history has repeatedly shown , the US government’s highly bureaucratic entity listing processes are structurally misaligned with the agile evasion strategies employed by targeted foreign entities. The incoming National Security Council and Department of Government Efficiency should examine ways to streamline the disparate policy processes used to create and maintain blacklists—a policy issue that industry has long championed . In the meantime, though, the new administration’s outbound policy must expand beyond lists to include tightly defined sectoral restrictions on the most high-risk technologies and sectors that jeopardize America’s security. These include hypersonics, quantum, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and other critical defense articles and dual-use technologies on the US Munitions List and the Commerce Control List . PRC companies regularly evade US economic security restrictions. This type of sectoral approach will give the administration wider authority to crack down on CCP efforts to use US technology and capital to build a military that directly threatens the lives of American armed service members. The Trump administration’s outbound mechanism should also close the loopholes in the Biden executive order by including broader prohibitions on publicly trading securities issued by high-risk PRC entities. American investors and funds purchase billions of dollars of PRC securities each year, including securities issued by PRC military companies and other large PRC companies that use slave labor and help the CCP perpetuate genocide. The new outbound regime should expand the covered activities section of the Biden executive order to include prohibitions on all critical technologies subject to sectoral restrictions and securities issued by PRC companies that use and/or benefit from Uyghur forced labor. The overall success of the Trump administration’s outbound investment screening regime depends on effective enforcement. To detect evasion and prevent American capital from directly funding our adversaries, the White House should direct the Intelligence Community (IC) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to prioritize economic security issues. A practical first step would be to expand the ODNI’s Office of Economic Security and Emerging Technology (OESET). Reallocating or adding resources for intelligence collection and analysis to support the enforcement of economic security regulations—including outbound and export controls—is needed. However, resource allocation alone is insufficient. A comprehensive review of authorities for OSINT and financial data is also necessary to ensure that the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other non-IC agencies can effectively monitor global capital and investment flows associated with high-risk PRC companies. This review must also ensure the IC does not overclassify financial intelligence, a key ODNI policy issue that could undermine efforts to engage with allies on the threats posed by PRC capital flows. To safeguard American economic and national security, the Trump administration should implement a targeted outbound investment screening regime to counter the PRC’s military-civil fusion system, slave labor, and fentanyl trade. By expanding the NS-CMIC List, introducing sectoral restrictions on critical technologies, and implementing prohibitions on publicly traded PRC securities, the Trump administration can close key loopholes exploited by PRC companies and the CCP. Enhanced Treasury enforcement and intelligence capabilities will ensure resilient measures against evasion tactics. A targeted and well-enforced outbound investment screening regime will allow the United States to increase its economic sovereignty and more adequately defend against Beijing’s increasingly complex financial and supply chain warfare. Kit Conklin is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center. Related content

:A jury in U.S. federal court in Delaware on Friday said it was deadlocked on one of the questions that it has been asked to resolve in Arm Holdings' lawsuit against Qualcomm, but is still deliberating the two other questions before it. Arm's lawsuit against Qualcomm asks for the destruction of chip designs it acquired from Nuvia for $1.4 billion in 2021. Nuvia's technology has become the basis of Qualcomm's push into the personal computer market. At stake in the case, in which Arm is suing its biggest customer, is the fate of Qualcomm's expansion into new markets using Nuvia's technology and whether Arm can continue to be viewed as a neutral player throughout the chip industry. Nuvia and Qualcomm both had license agreements with Arm, and Qualcomm sought to transfer Nuvia's designs to itself after buying the startup company. Arm objected that Nuvia needed its permission to do so and terminated Nuvia's license, ticking off the legal battle. The case requires a unanimous verdict from the eight-person jury on three questions. The first of those questions was whether Nuvia breached its agreement with Arm, and the jury said Friday it was deadlocked. The jury said it is still debating the two other questions, which are whether Qualcomm breached Nuvia's Arm license agreement and whether Qualcomm's central processor designs are properly licensed under its own agreement with Arm.Employee-facing agents will liberate teams from the "work of work" that saps productivity. Companies need a work operating system, a single command center that connects all your teams, data, workflows, apps and now agents. Agentforce in Slack unlocks agentic productivity for every employee, right in the flow of work. After years of being asked to "do more with less" and putting ambitious growth plans on hold, business leaders and entrepreneurs suddenly face a more encouraging prospect: a limitless digital laborforce of agents. Agents are purpose-built workers that use AI to learn and analyze information, reason, make decisions, and take action autonomously. Leaders are understandably excited about using agents to scale their capacity, considering labor costs take up to 60% of budgets in the Fortune 500. McKinsey estimates that generative AI could generate up to $4.4 trillion in potential profits annually, compounding the cost reductions and revenue increases reported by early AI adopters. Agentforce, Salesforce's digital labor platform for enterprises, can already perform a wide range of customer-facing interactions pulling from CRM data and related systems such as inventory management. But this is just the start of an even bigger wave of digital labor: employee agents that work alongside teams and perform specialized tasks from IT help desk services to product expertise to HR business partners. As with any new technology that automates work, some knowledge workers are anxious about the arrival of this 24/7 digital workforce. But a closer look at the current state of work suggests that digital workers will be a boon to employee experience and productivity. Today, 41% of work is spent on low-value tasks, as employees chase information across an average of 11 applications just to get their job done. Despite investing more than ever on enterprise software over the past decade, many companies operate more like private sector bureaucracies than the nimble growth engines their CEOs want them to be. Companies can reverse this trend by hiring agents to do the "work of work" that drags down productivity, giving employees newfound time and bandwidth for more creative and strategic endeavors. But simply deploying agents ad hoc risks adding more noise to an already dysfunctional work environment, with the added challenge of unsupervised autonomous agents taking actions that may be inaccurate or even harmful. Just as the PC and mobile revolutions required new operating systems to fulfill their potential, the Agentforce revolution needs a new "work operating system" that orchestrates work between human and digital workers across all the projects and processes that make your business run. A work operating system centralizes agents where their inputs and actions are transparent to employees and subject to your organization's enterprise security and policies. To take advantage of the next wave of agentic productivity, every organization is going to need a work operating system. Context is critical to success with agents What makes today's agents exponentially more useful than yesterday's chatbots is ironically what makes them behave more like humans — they are conversational, and we can ask them to do things in natural language. Even more, they can remember and build on our instructions in multi-turn conversations, anticipate our responses and proactively execute tasks on our behalf. So for a work operating system to successfully put agents to work, it needs to be a conversational platform, ideally the same platform your teams work in today, so agents can organically learn from collective knowledge and day to day operations of the business. But that's not enough. For agents to truly be productive, they need to be connected to the same data, apps, and workflows that we spend our days navigating — the key difference being that agents can search and analyze vast amounts of data in seconds. A work operating system that unlocks agentic productivity embeds agents at the heart of the organization, working alongside people as members of the team. This is the only way agents will have the real time context of company priorities, understanding of your brand, operational know-how and institutional memory so you can trust them to take the right action at the right time. Slack: the Work Operating System for the Agentforce Era Even before the arrival of agents, innovative companies like Ford, IBM, Target, Capital One, Accenture, and Rocket Companies have been using Slack as their work operating system. Millions of people work in Slack every day, connecting to global teams and external partners with over 700 million messages and running over 3 million workflow automations daily. By centralizing work in Slack, companies report a 47% increase in productivity and 31% faster issue resolution time. With the launch of Agentforce 2.0, Slack is the work operating system for a new generation of employee agents that will unlock even greater productivity gains. Custom agents built in Agentforce's Agent Builder can be deployed in Slack, where employees can find the right agent for the job in the new Agent hub, chat with agents in messages and channels, and even direct agents common tasks like sending a message or creating a channel. Our customers see Slack as the natural place to bring employee agents to life. "You go to a single, conversational interface in Slack and you can interact with humans and AI. Agents are doing the work, and we've dreamt of that for decades in computing, and now we're finally seeing it" says Aaron Levie, CEO of Box. Agentforce in Slack heralds not just a new era of digital labor, but a new era of employee success. Now everyone is empowered to build and shape agents that will allow us to experiment, innovate, and achieve what only recently was impossible. Click here to learn how Slack can help your organization put AI to work. This post was created by Insider Studios with Slack.How you can protect your text messages following FBI warning of massive Chinese hack

DraftKings Inc. Cl A stock rises Thursday, outperforms marketNasal Irrigation Market Set to Reach USD 1.9 Billion by 2034, Growing at a CAGR of 18.1% | Transparency Market ResearchSan Jose Foos’ fairgrounds toy drive gets a boost from mayor’s office

NetApp Inc. stock underperforms Friday when compared to competitors despite daily gainsNone

Govt mulls Raj Mandapam in Jaipur: Industry ministerAfter Hunter Biden's pardon, White House considers broader clemency

LOS ANGELES — In announcing that he was pardoning his son Hunter in two federal cases, President Joe Biden said the criminal charges “came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” The president’s claim that the cases were politically motivated — which his son’s camp has long asserted — has been met with skepticism from some corners. Biden was convicted by a jury of illegally purchasing a handgun in Delaware, and he pleaded guilty to tax charges in Los Angeles. Here is what we know about the cases and the pardon. What is the gun case? Earlier this year, a federal jury in Delaware convicted Biden of federal gun crimes, including lying about being drug-free when he purchased and briefly owned a gun while he was addicted to crack cocaine. Biden was on trial for three felony charges, and the jury convicted him of all three. In addition to lying on a federal background check form and giving a false statement to a federal firearms dealer, he was also convicted of possessing a gun while being an illicit drug user. The testimony the jurors heard centered around a question Biden answered on a background check form at a Delaware gun store on Oct. 12, 2018: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Biden checked “No.” Prosecutors told jurors that there was “overwhelming evidence” of Biden’s drug use in the years before and the months after the gun purchase. They summoned ex-girlfriends and photos of L.A. hotel rooms where Biden had gone on drug-fueled benders. Prosecutors also played excerpts of Biden’s memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he recounted years of hard partying following his brother’s death. Abbe Lowell, the defense attorney, argued to jurors that his client had completed a rehab program in L.A. and that the gun salesman did not perceive Biden to be under the influence or glassy-eyed. No witness at the trial testified to observing Biden using drugs in the days after purchasing the Colt Cobra revolver. His attorneys contended that the gun was never fired and remained locked up until Hallie Biden, his brother’s widow, found it on the morning of Oct. 23, 2018, and in a panic, disposed of it in a trash bin outside a nearby grocery store. Biden, who was dating Hallie Biden at the time, urged her to retrieve the gun once he discovered it missing, asking her, “Are you insane?” When Hallie Biden returned to the supermarket, the gun was gone from the trash can, and Biden instructed her to contact police. What did jurors say about the politics of the case? The Times interviewed two jurors— a 51-year-old woman from northern Delaware and a 68-year-old man from the southern half of the state. Speaking on condition of anonymity, both said there was clear evidence that Biden knowingly lied about his drug addiction in order to buy the gun. The male juror said that despite repeatedly noticing the first lady in the courtroom, he rarely thought of the fact that Hunter Biden was the president’s son. “You are looking at him. You are looking at his family,” the juror said of the experience in court. But he said he “tried to block the rest of it out” because Biden “was just like everybody else.” “It was not politically motivated. Politics played no part in this whatsoever. Again, we just went by the evidence,” the juror said. What about the tax case? In September, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to all nine federal tax charges he faced, just as jury selection was about to begin in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. The indictment in the tax case included racy details of Biden’s life between 2016 and 2019 — the period during which now he admits he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes — including the hundreds of thousands of dollars he spent on escorts, a pornographic website, hotels, luxury car rentals and other lavish personal expenses. As part of his guilty plea, Biden had acknowledged improperly classifying his personal expenses as business expenses. Did Hunter Biden face prison time? In the tax case, Biden faced a maximum of 17 years in federal prison, although he was likely to be sentenced to a few years in prison at most. In the gun case, he faced a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, although as a nonviolent first-time offender, he was likely to face no more than two years behind bars. In the tax case, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi was scheduled to sentence him in Los Angeles on Dec. 16. In the handgun case, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika was set to hand down her sentence in Delaware on Dec. 12. Both judges were appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump. What does the pardon do? The pardon covers offenses that Hunter Biden “may have committed or taken part in” from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024. It effectively wiped away the two pending criminal cases in which the younger Biden faced years in prison. However, it also offers immunity for other conduct in that period, when he was active in foreign business dealings, including his seat on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company he joined in 2014 while his father was vice president. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said in his statement. “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution.” Shortly after the pardon was issued, Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed petitions to have both criminal cases dismissed. How is this a change in the president’s position? The White House and President Biden himself have long insisted he would not pardon his son. Shortly before the trial testimony began, President Biden told ABC journalist David Muir that he would accept the jury’s verdict in the Delaware case. “Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?” Muir asked. “Yes,” Biden replied. After the gun verdict, the president said he would continue to “respect the judicial process” while his son considered an appeal. What has Hunter Biden’s team claimed about the prosecutions? Hunter Biden has long been the target of ire from right-wing political figures, activists and the media. In both criminal cases, Hunter Biden and his legal team had sought to paint him as a victim of selective, unfair, and politically motivated prosecution. His lawyers had pointed to a plea deal reached in 2023 that would have spared Hunter any prison time. It unraveled under questioning from a judge in Delaware, and after the deal collapsed, David C. Weiss, the special counsel, secured indictments in both cases. Hunter Biden filed but later dropped a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over a fictional program that depicted his legal troubles. Hunter Biden’s lawsuit asserted that Fox News defamed him in a six-part series called “The Trial of Hunter Biden: A Mock Trial for the American People” that was shown on its streaming platform Fox Nation. ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.( MENAFN - GetNews) On December 19, the“Finest Cultural Gifts from China” Cultural and tourism Trade Promotion Activity (Special Session for Leisure Journey), organized by the Department of industry Development, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, took place in Sanya, Hainan. The event was conducted both online and offline, with live coverage through text, images, and video on domestic and international platforms, reaching a total audience of over 1.5 million, including 740,000 viewers from abroad. Event Snapshot (Photo Provided by the Sponsor) Sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province and undertaken by China Tourism News and the Institute of Creative Industries Technology of Renmin University of China, the event was held in tandem with the 2024 (9th) Hainan World Leisure Tourism Expo. It aimed to explore and showcase unique cultural and tourism products, premium performance programs, and travel routes across regions, enhance cultural richness and appeal, and build an effective platform for international exchange and cooperation on distinctive tourism products. Through these efforts, it sought to provide Chinese and international tourists with a richer and more diverse travel experience. This event featured 33 cultural and creative products, 4 leisure tourism destinations, and 12 leisure travel routes. A corresponding product manual was also prepared. At the event, 6 related organizations conducted roadshow presentations, introducing offerings such as the AI Magic Screen Camera for Travel Photography, Unique Dream of Red Mansion-themed cultural products, the Sanya International Yacht Center, and Atlantis Sanya. A special“Leisure Journey” exhibition area was set up on-site, showcasing and selling distinctive cultural and tourism products, premium performance programs, and travel routes across China. It gave consumers a chance to experience the unique charm of Chinese culture up close. The event captured widespread attention from audiences at home and abroad, with many marveling,“Every cultural and tourism product has its own unique charm and cultural significance” and“It's amazing to enjoy a leisure trip that feels like living inside a Chinese landscape painting”. They also hoped to explore China's magnificent landscapes and vibrant civilization during their travels. Various guests were present at the event, including officials from the Department of Industry Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Trade in Services Administration of the Ministry of Commerce, some provincial (district and municipal) administrative departments of culture and tourism, and local governments, as well as representatives from related tourism associations, cultural and tourism enterprises, cross-border e-commerce platforms, financial institutions, national bases for international cultural trade, national cultural export bases, experts, and media outlets. It is understood that by integrating domestic and international resources as well as online and offline resources, the“Finest Cultural Gifts from China” Cultural and Tourism Trade Promotion Activity seeks to showcase, promote, and trade high-quality cultural and tourism products with distinct Chinese characteristics and styles that are well-received in the international market. It strives to build a platform for exchange and cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, expanding the cultural trade scale and optimizing the structure. Ultimately, the campaign aims to boost the international competitiveness and popularity of Chinese enterprises and brands. Over ten special sessions have been held for the“Finest Cultural Gifts from China” Cultural and Tourism Trade Promotion Activity. They have received an overwhelming response and produced remarkable results. MENAFN20122024003238003268ID1109018478 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.

Cultural Event: Cybernetic Existentialism On Exhibit In More Museums

Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. stock underperforms Friday when compared to competitors

Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko: We can stop the war in 24 hours

What to know about Northern California's rare tsunami warningPHILADELPHIA, Dec. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kaskela Law LLC announces that a shareholder lawsuit has been filed against Zuora, Inc. (NYSE: ZUO) (“Zuora”) in connection with the sale of the company to Silver Lake at $10.00 per share. Click here to submit your information: https://kaskelalaw.com/case/zuora/ Under the terms of the buyout offer, Zuora stockholders are only expected to receive $10.00 per share in cash in exchange for their ZUO shares. Notably, at the time the proposed buyout at $10.00 per share was announced, numerous stock analysts were maintaining price targets for ZUO shares in excess of $12.00 per share . Following the closing of the proposed transaction, Zuora’s stockholders will be cashed out of their investment position and the company’s shares will no longer be publicly traded. Zuora shareholders are encouraged to contact Kaskela Law LLC (D. Seamus Kaskela, Esq. or Adrienne Bell, Esq.) at (484) 229 – 0750 to receive additional information about this matter and their legal rights and options with respect to the proposed buyout. Alternatively, investors may submit their information to the firm by clicking on the following link (or by copying and pasting the link into your browser): https://kaskelalaw.com/case/zuora/ Kaskela Law LLC exclusively represents investors in securities fraud, corporate governance, and merger & acquisition litigation on a contingent basis. For additional information about Kaskela Law LLC please visit www.kaskelalaw.com . CONTACT: KASKELA LAW LLC D. Seamus Kaskela, Esq. ( skaskela@kaskelalaw.com ) Adrienne Bell, Esq. ( abell@kaskelalaw.com ) 18 Campus Blvd., Suite 100 Newtown Square, PA 19073 (888) 715 – 1740 (484) 229 – 0750 www.kaskelalaw.com This notice may constitute attorney advertising in certain jurisdictions.

Before you dive into holiday shopping, learn how to spot common scams and protect yourself. Fraudsters commonly send phishing emails and text messages impersonating delivery services or popular retailers like Amazon. These messages, which typically claim there’s an issue with processing or delivering the order, may request payment information or include malicious links. A message might say something like, “Part of your address is missing. Please click on this link to complete the address,” says Raj Dasgupta, senior director of global advisory at BioCatch, a fraud-prevention firm. If you get a similar message when you’re not expecting a package, that should raise doubts, Dasgupta says. But even if you have ordered something, don’t overlook warning signs. It’s unusual for delivery services to hold up packages or seek payment, because shipping costs are almost always charged to the shipper, not the receiver, says Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance. Avoid clicking on links in texts or emails, and don’t share personal or payment details. To verify whether an order update is genuine, “go back to your original order on the site,” Steinhauer says. You can log in and check the order status and reach out to customer service directly if there’s a problem, he says. When shopping online, carefully scrutinize sellers and products to avoid winding up with counterfeit items — or nothing at all. Sponsored ads on social media sites and search engines aren’t always vetted enough, Steinhauer says, which means you may come across scams. Fraudsters buy Google ads for desirable products, such as exercise equipment, Dasgupta says. When people click on these ads, they might land on a “sophisticated-looking fake website” that mimics a well-known site, such as Macy’s, or on a made-up company’s page, he says. Shoppers never receive the product they’re attempting to purchase, or they get an inferior product. Ignore “sponsored” links, and read URLs closely. There will usually be “something off,” Steinhauer says, such as a slight misspelling or dashes in the website name that aren’t normally there. “The best thing is to go to the legitimate website or app that you know is the right one, and just shop there,” he says. Watch for third-party seller scams on legitimate websites, too. Some companies, such as Walmart and Target, allow outside vendors to sell merchandise through their platforms — and the reliability can vary. Reading seller reviews before you buy can help you avoid bad actors. Be wary of sellers who ask for gift cards or peer-to-peer payments. If a service like Venmo or Cash App is the only payment method accepted, that’s an immediate red flag, Dasgupta says. And if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. “Quishing” is when scammers create QR codes that link to fraudulent websites or install malware on devices. These codes may show up on parking meters, in mysterious packages delivered to your physical address or in your email inbox. For example, a scammer posing as your bank might email you a code and instruct you to update your login credentials. Email services often filter out known malicious links or domains and send them to your spam folder, Steinhauer says, but a QR code can get past these filters because it’s an image. Don’t scan codes you receive unexpectedly, and closely inspect QR codes in public places for signs of tampering. Get local news delivered to your inbox!OptiSigns to Showcase Cutting-Edge Digital Signage Solutions at the Digital Signage Experience 2024 in Las VegasThe Cowlitz County Auditor's Office is looking for someone to author an "against" statement in the Feb. 11 special election voters' guide. The Castle Rock School District 's levy for educational programs and operations will be on the ballot in the special election. The Cowlitz County Auditor is seeking to fill a committee that will write an argument in the voters' guide arguing against the measure. To sign up for the committee, contact the Cowlitz County Elections Office by 5 p.m. on Dec. 16. This can be done in person at the office, via email at elections@cowlitzwa.gov or by phone at 360-577-3005. Appointments are first-come, first-served. Writers must live within the boundaries of the Castle Rock School District. This is due to a state law passed earlier this year which mandates writers must live within the jurisdictional boundaries of a proposition. Get local news delivered to your inbox! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.