Magic: the Gathering's release schedule for 2024 is packed with new planes and videogame crossover events.

Consumer cryptocurrency trading should be regulated as gambling, the treasury committee has urged. In a new report, the committee called for consumer trading in unbacked crypto assets to be treated in regulation as gambling. The cross-party committee of MPs said cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are being used by criminals in scams and money laundering. Unbacked crypto assets – often called cryptocurrencies – are not supported by underlying assets, the committee added. They pose significant risks to consumers, given their price volatility and the risk of losses, according to the MPs, who said retail trading in unbacked crypto more closely resembles gambling than a financial service and should be regulated as such. The report said: “We strongly recommend that the government regulates retail trading and investment activity in unbacked crypto assets as gambling rather than as a financial service, consistent with its stated principle of ‘same risk, same regulatory outcome’.” The committee pointed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures indicating that around 10 per cent of UK adults hold or have held crypto assets. The MPs also said potential productive innovation in financial services should not be unduly constrained. They said technologies underlying crypto assets may bring some benefits to financial services, particularly for cross-border transactions and payments in less developed countries. A balanced approach should be taken to supporting the development of crypto asset technologies, while avoiding spending public resources on projects without a clear, beneficial use, the MPs said. Harriett Baldwin, chair of the treasury committee, said: “The events of 2022 have highlighted the risks posed to consumers by the crypto asset industry, large parts of which remain a wild west. “Effective regulation is clearly needed to protect consumers from harm, as well as to support productive innovation in the UK’s financial services industry. “However, with no intrinsic value, huge price volatility and no discernible social good, consumer trading of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin more closely resembles gambling than a financial service, and should be regulated as such. “By betting on these unbacked ‘tokens’, consumers should be aware that all their money could be lost.” The committee is considering central bank digital currencies as a separate piece of work. A treasury spokesperson said: “Risks posed by crypto are typical of those that exist in traditional financial services and it’s financial services regulation – rather than gambling regulation – that has the track record in mitigating them. “Crypto offers opportunities but we are taking an agile approach to robustly regulating the market, addressing the most pressing risks first in a way that promotes innovation.” Read More Crypto rules get final approval to make Europe a global leader on regulation Is my money safe? What you need to know about bank failures Nearly 80% of APP scam cases start online, says UK Finance Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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By Martin Coulter LONDON Meta, the company behind social media giants Facebook and Instagram, has launched its new

Google is introducing its artificially intelligent chatbot named Bard to other members of its digital family — including Gmail, Maps and YouTube — as it seeks to ward off competitive threats posed by similar technology run by Open AI and Microsoft

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Google will now alert people when their personal information appears online – and make it easier to get it removed. The new tools are aimed at giving people more control over the information and images of them that appear online, the company said. New rules on personal explicit images mean that users will be able to request that explicit images of themselves are taken down from search results. That extends to situations where someone has willingly uploaded explicit content themselves and then later wants it to be removed from search results. The same policy applies to personal information generally. That too will not only appear in Google’s tools but will also be easier to have removed. Google has long had policies that are intended to help people have non-consensual explicit imagery removed from search results. But the changes mean that people can have that content removed even when it was uploaded consensually at the time. In its update, Google stressed that it was only able to remove content from Google search, and that doing so would not affect its availability on other websites or search engines. But removing any unwanted images from search results should make them much more difficult to find. The new features are part of an expansion of Google’s “Results about you” tool, which it first made available last year. When it was launched, it was intended to make it easier for people to request the removal of search results that contain personal information, such as phone numbers or home addresses. Now it has been improved so that it is proactive in finding search results that include that information. Users will be able to access the dashboard and see any web results that include that contact information. Users will then be able to access an improved form to ask to have those taken down. The dashboard is available only in the US and in English for now. Google said it was “working to bring it to new languages and locations soon”. Read More Google Assistant will be ‘supercharged’ with AI like ChatGPT and Bard Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account Apple gives update on its plans for AI – and says it is coming to every product

A new viral optical illusion will test the sharpness of your eyes and only those with the sharpest will be able to solve the hidden mystery within. Optical illusions can be a fun way to test the proficiency and speed of our brain, eyes and other sensory aspects of ourselves. A new and intriguing viral optical illusion challenges users to detect the number hidden within an image and it is leaving some people baffled. The image was shared on Twitter by @TheFigen_ who captioned the image: “Eye test! What number do you see?” The picture appears to show a blank square of red speckles, but if your eyes are sharp enough you may just about see a three-digit number hidden amongst the red speckles. Over 568,000 people have viewed the image and in the comments, people have commented on the number that they believe they can see. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter For those with sharp eyes, the number can be seen going across the centre of the image, blending almost seamlessly in with the background until you spot it. In the comments, one three-digit number appeared very frequently, while the answers some people gave were less unanimous. One person guessed “572”. A few posed “573” while someone else said “285”. The answer was actually “571”, with most of those commenting giving the correct answer to the challenge. Other optical illusions that have taken the internet by storm include the viral “fourth object” trend on TikTok that challenges people to locate four different objects in one image. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

MACON, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 11, 2023--

In a series of Tweets made in April 2023, Andrew Tate revealed how his mother was 'mean and hard'