Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Around 1,000 fans were on hand when England played one of the very first matches of the inaugural Women’s European Championship in 1984.How things have changed.More than half a million tickets have already been sold for the 31 matches of this year’s edition of the tournament, which kicks off next week in Switzerland.Organizers expect to break the attendance record of 575,000 set at the previous women’s euros in England in 2022 when 87,000 people packed into Wembley Stadium for the final.The popularity of women’s soccer in Europe — and around the world — has accelerated in leaps and bounds in…

In the fight for top AI talent, Meta just reportedly snagged a win, poaching three OpenAI researchers despite rival Sam Altman’s public mockery of Mark Zuckerberg’s lavish hiring tactics. The latest victory in Zuckerberg’s widely-reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai – who established OpenAI’s Zurich office – have joined Meta’s superintelligence team, the WSJ reports, suggesting Zuckerberg’s methods can deliver. As Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, first revealed in a recent podcast with his brother Jack, Zuckerberg has been dangling $100+ million compensation packages in an effort to lure top talent from OpenAI. The Journal subsequently…

Climatiq, a startup that’s built an AI-enabled platform for companies to collect and automate their carbon emission data, has secured a $11.6 million Series A led by Alstin Capital.The Berlin startup’s tool analyzes everything from supply chain data to purchase orders to calculate a company’s scope 3 emissions, which measure its indirect carbon footprint.”If you’re building any other kind of software, there are existing APIs — but not for carbon emissions. So we’ve built an infrastructure for carbon tooling,” Climatiq’s cofounder and CEO, Hessam Lavi, told Business Insider in an interview.Scope 3 emissions, which typically represent around 90% of a company’s carbon…

Aaron Sorkin is returning for a sequel to his Oscar-winning film, “The Social Network.”A source familiar with the project confirmed to Business Insider that Sorkin will work with Sony Pictures to write and direct “The Social Network Part II,” inspired by The Wall Street Journal’s 2021 investigative series, The Facebook Files. The entertainment news platform Deadline was the first to report on the sequel.While the 2010 film chronicled Facebook’s founding, the source confirmed to BI that the new sequel will examine the tech giant’s societal impact on youth mental health and misinformation and touch on the January 6, 2021, Capitol…

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A’ja Wilson scored 22 points and became the fastest player in WNBA history to 5,000 points as the Las Vegas Aces beat the Connecticut Sun 85-59 on Wednesday night. Wilson made a driving left-hand layup with about four minutes left in the first quarter to top the 5,000-point plateau in just 238 games. She has 5,015 career points. Breanna Stewart needed 242 games to score 5,000.Connecticut (2-13) has lost seven in a row overall and six straight to the Aces, who beat the Sun 87-62 on May 20. Jackie Young scored 20 points for the Aces…

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired an anti-vaccine advocate and longtime ally to a position at the Health and Human Services Department, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Kennedy. Her exact role at HHS is unclear.Andrew Nixon, a department spokesman, told ABC News he had no comment.Meanwhile, Redwood is expected to deliver a presentation at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on Thursday using a report on thimerosal that is currently available online, which contains misleading information…

A federal judge sided with Meta on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought against the company by 13 book authors, including Sarah Silverman, that alleged the company had illegally trained its AI models on their copyrighted works. Federal Judge Vince Chhabria issued a summary judgment — meaning the judge was able to decide on the case without sending it to a jury — in favor of Meta, finding that the company’s training of AI models on copyrighted books in this case fell under the “fair use” doctrine of copyright law and thus was legal. The decision comes just a few days…

BALTIMORE (AP) — When Jacob deGrom is at his best, the Texas Rangers believe he’s the best pitcher on the planet. The two-time Cy Young Award winner certainly is looking like his old self. DeGrom flirted with a perfect game through six innings and a no-hitter through seven Wednesday night in another dominating performance in his return from Tommy John surgery in June 2023.He threw 89 pitches, getting pulled after giving up his only hit to Colton Cowser leading off the eighth. The Rangers finished off a 7-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles as deGrom tied his career-best streak of…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee wrapped up the first day of its meeting since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the entire panel and appointed his own hand-selected members.The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on Wednesday to discuss possible recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines and antibody shots, as well as COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to be further reviewed at a later date.Martin Kulldorff, the ACIP’s new chair, said two new work groups would be established, one focusing on the cumulative effects of children and adolescents receiving all recommended vaccines on the…

The measles outbreaks that have sickened at least 1,227 people across 36 states may be hitting a plateau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said Wednesday, June 25.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time on June 25 after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired all 17 original members on June 9, replacing them with members that critics have called unqualified. Some of the members, like Kennedy, have a history of anti-vaccine sentiments, prompting backlash that had experts and organizations calling for a delay in the meeting.The new ACIP met anyway on Wednesday…