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wild ace jili login register SATURDAY'S BOWL GAMESBarclays PLC grew its stake in shares of PDF Solutions, Inc. ( NASDAQ:PDFS – Free Report ) by 388.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,467 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 44,111 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned 0.14% of PDF Solutions worth $1,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in PDF Solutions by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,147,622 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,357,000 after acquiring an additional 23,148 shares during the period. Creative Planning bought a new position in shares of PDF Solutions in the third quarter worth approximately $341,000. Emerald Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of PDF Solutions by 2.2% in the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 895,248 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,361,000 after purchasing an additional 19,673 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in PDF Solutions by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 917,627 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,383,000 after buying an additional 16,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in PDF Solutions by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 658,547 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $20,863,000 after buying an additional 94,154 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.51% of the company’s stock. PDF Solutions Trading Down 3.0 % Shares of PDFS stock opened at $27.89 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $30.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.74. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 253.57 and a beta of 1.51. PDF Solutions, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.52 and a 12 month high of $39.70. Insider Buying and Selling Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several research firms recently issued reports on PDFS. Northland Securities reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of PDF Solutions in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised PDF Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of PDF Solutions in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on PDFS PDF Solutions Company Profile ( Free Report ) PDF Solutions, Inc provides proprietary software and physical intellectual property products for integrated circuit designs, electrical measurement hardware tools, proven methodologies, and professional services in the United States, China, Japan, and internationally. The company offers Exensio software products, such as Manufacturing Analytics that store collected data in a common environment with a consistent view for enabling product engineers to identify and analyze production yield, performance, reliability, and other issues; Process Control that provides failure detection and classification capabilities for monitoring, alarming, and controlling manufacturing tool sets; Test Operations that offer data collection and analysis capabilities; and Assembly Operations that provide device manufacturers with the capability to link assembly and packaging data, including fabrication and characterization data over the product life cycle. See Also Five stocks we like better than PDF Solutions Stock Analyst Ratings and Canadian Analyst Ratings S&P 500 ETFs: Expense Ratios That Can Boost Your Long-Term Gains How to Use High Beta Stocks to Maximize Your Investing Profits How AI Implementation Could Help MongoDB Roar Back in 2025 Learn Technical Analysis Skills to Master the Stock Market Hedge Funds Boost Oil Positions: Is a Major Rally on the Horizon? Receive News & Ratings for PDF Solutions Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for PDF Solutions and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .RH (NYSE:RH) Shares Bought by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

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Hexagon Composites ASA ( OTCMKTS:HXGCF – Get Free Report ) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,600 shares, an increase of 5,766.7% from the November 30th total of 300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 44.0 days. Hexagon Composites ASA Stock Performance Shares of HXGCF stock opened at $3.95 on Friday. Hexagon Composites ASA has a 12-month low of $1.41 and a 12-month high of $4.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $4.07 and its 200 day moving average is $4.00. About Hexagon Composites ASA ( Get Free Report ) Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Hexagon Composites ASA Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Hexagon Composites ASA and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

Fabian Lysell is expected to make his long-awaited National Hockey League debut on Saturday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Lysell, the Bruins’ first-round draft pick in in 2021 (21st overall) whom the B’s called up on Saturday afternoon, has been coming on as of late in Providence after a slow start. The highly skilled wing was a candidate to make the roster in training camp but he had an ineffective first preseason game and, though he played better in subsequent exhibition games, he couldn’t do enough to win a job. On Friday night, the 21-year-old Lysell had a goal and two assists in the P-Bruins’ 4-1 win over Bridgeport. He’s got 5-12-17 totals in 26 games this year. Along with Matt Poitras, Lysell is one of the organization’s most high-skilled prospects. How it translates to the NHL remains to be seen. This is the 5-foot-11, 188-pound Swede’s third pro season in North America. Last season he was trending toward a late season call-up when suffered a shoulder injury that effectively ended his season. He had 15-35-50 totals in 56 games last season.Elon Musk , named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the federal government, is poised to undermine funding for rural broadband services to benefit his satellite internet services company, Starlink. Musk has long been a critic of the Biden administration ’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (Bead) Program, which provides $42.45bn through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities. Starlink, the satellite internet services subsidiary of SpaceX , has largely been shut out of this funding after government agencies deemed it too slow to qualify. But with Trump’s election, and the deference Trump appears poised to give to Musk’s desired reforms, the world’s richest man could re-prioritize how the federal government provides high-speed internet to rural America, creating an immense conflict of interest. If Musk recommends cuts to government spending on rural fiber optic broadband – as he has repeatedly suggested – it directly increases the value of Starlink’s satellite internet services. “We have never had a situation where the leading shareholder of a communications company has both a position – both in terms of influencing the president, but also having an assignment to drive efficiency in government – with so many government contracts,” said Blair Levin, a telecommunications industry analyst with New Street Research and the Brookings Institution. “That is an extraordinary situation. That is unprecedented.” Levin suggested that Trump could order Bead funding to be withheld indefinitely as soon as he takes office, even though Congress has authorized the funding. Doing so would violate the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, a law Trump fell afoul of in his first term that ultimately resulted in one impeachment. But Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead the commission to reduce the size of the federal government, argued in a Wall Street Journal editorial last week that Trump should pursue impoundment when he deems it necessary. “Mr Trump has previously suggested this statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current supreme court would likely side with him on this question,” they wrote. Any move like this would tie the program in legal knots as lawsuits abound, Levin said. But the delay is the point. “While states and others could file legal actions to stop such a pause, we think most courts would be reluctant to enjoin or otherwise stop the administration from reconsidering some elements of the program. Even actions of dubious legality can benefit Starlink through delay or through litigation.” Musk had set his sights on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) long before Trump’s victory. The NTIA administers federal grant funding for the Bead program. Without a government subsidy, rolling fiber optic lines down country roads to serve a handful of houses at a time is usually too cost-prohibitive for an internet service provider. But to companies like AT&T or Verizon, a government subsidy to a local internet service provider also looks like the government funding the competition. Big telecom companies and the FCC argued long and loud about what parts of the country had access to high-speed service, and thus didn’t need government money. But the definition of “high speed” used by industry and the government was often slow by many standards. After years of negotiation, lawsuits and politicking, the FCC and the NTIA settled on a modern definition for broadband service: 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds, 20Mbps upload speeds, with less than 100 milliseconds of latency. Right now, Starlink doesn’t meet that standard . It has been getting slightly slower over time even as more people sign up for service, according to internet performance testing service Ookla’s speed tests. In 2022, the FCC rescinded a $900m grant from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to Starlink to connect rural communities to the internet, citing its failure to meet the speed and latency standards and declining network performance. Musk erupted on an X post. “Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale! They should arguably dissolve the program and return funds to taxpayers, but definitely not send it those who aren’t getting the job done,” Musk wrote. ”What actually happened is that the companies that lobbied for this massive earmark (not us) thought they would win, but instead were outperformed by Starlink, so now they’re changing the rules to prevent SpaceX from competing.” In June, Musk described the Bead program, which began rolling out grants to states this year, as “an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and is utterly failing to serve people in need”. A month later, Musk endorsed Trump and began a $100m spending campaign in support of his candidacy. After Musk started to gain Trump’s ear – and particularly after Musk’s endorsement and Starlink’s deployment of satellite terminals to areas hit by Hurricane Helene, which Trump praised regularly on the campaign trail – Trump’s language about rural broadband began to shift in Musk’s direction. Trump described Starlink as “better than the wires”, when talking with Joe Rogan in the much-watched podcast interview. “We’re spending a trillion dollars to get cables all over the country, right, up to upstate areas where you have like two farms ... They haven’t hooked up one person.” Over the last year, the FCC commissioner – and Trump’s newly named FCC chair – Brendan Carr has also echoed Musk’s position, arguing that the public might be better off by subsidizing the cost of Starlink terminals instead of fiber optic broadband. After Trump’s election, Carr said the FCC is unlikely to revisit its rescission of Starlink’s grant, citing procedural hurdles. But Carr, who authored the FCC chapter of Project 2025 , has suggested that as much as a third of Bead funding could go to satellite internet providers. Sign up to Fighting Back Big thinkers on what we can do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a Trump presidency. From our opinion desk. after newsletter promotion Republican senators have also been agitating for changes to the Bead program. Senator Ted Cruz, poised to take over the Senate committee overseeing telecommunications, sent a letter last week lambasting the NTIA administrator, Alan Davidson, for alleged waste and administrative bloat in the Bead program. “Fortunately, as president-elect Trump has already signaled, substantial changes are on the horizon for this program,” Cruz wrote. “Congress will review the Bead program early next year, with specific attention to NTIA’s extreme technology bias in defining ‘priority broadband projects’ and ‘reliable broadband service’.” Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa sent Musk and Ramaswamy a letter on Tuesday with a roadmap for cost-cutting. The Bead program was on her target list. Davidson responded to earlier inquiries by Cruz, noting that the NTIA “has obligated over $28bn to states and territories, all of whom also received planning grants through the program”. The program “also creates room for all strategies, and the NTIA expects states and territories will use a mix of technologies to connect their unserved and underserved locations”, Davidson wrote. The NTIA announced earlier this year that Starlink could qualify for some Bead funding for services in extremely remote locations. In areas without broadband service from a landline operator, Starlink is often the only option. Project Kuiper by Amazon is also a low-Earth-orbit satellite internet service, which Amazon says will begin consumer offerings next year. SpaceX and its Starlink subsidiary are private companies that do not regularly disclose their finances. But analysts have argued that, until recently, Starlink had been losing money despite the success of SpaceX. That has changed over the last year as Starlink’s 6,000-plus low-Earth satellite network has come online and courted business in developing countries. Analysts from Quilty, a space industry intelligence firm, suggest that Starlink’s revenue has exploded, from $1.4bn in 2022 to $6.6bn in 2024. SpaceX and Tesla have about $15.4bn in government contracts, according to a recent New York Times analysis. Starlink is also competing with 15 other companies for US space force contracts worth nearly $1bn. Starlink did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Despite the obvious interest in government contracts, Musk and biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Ramaswamy’s “Department of Government Efficiency” will be tasked with reducing the federal government headcount and cutting costs, which could include the Bead program. “Starlink and Bead are seeking to provide broadband to the same population: those living in low-density America,” Levin said. “While Starlink already has a network that covers the entire country, spectrum constraints and its relative functionalities compared to wired broadband service providers mean that the primary market for Starlink is in low-density America.” Starlink benefits from any delay in Bead funding, Levin said. “Every day Starlink is signing up customers in low-density America. Today, those in unserved and underserved locations likely believe that if they want a baseline broadband service, they have no choice but to subscribe to the Starlink service. The longer it takes for an alternative provider to come online with a similar or better service, the better it is for Starlink, as its sales process benefits from the current lack of broadband alternatives.” Reallocating funding from fiber to satellite would put money in Starlink’s pocket at the direct expense of terrestrial competitors. “While there are other technology options for high-speed connectivity, the most reliable, efficient and future-proof solution is fiber optic technology to the home or business,” said Tom Dailey, head of regulatory and government affairs at Brightspeed, an internet service provider competing for Bead funds. “Satellite broadband is a costly option that does not provide the same level of reliability or speed that fiber optic technology provides ... We don’t anticipate that the Bead program will be eliminated. In fact, we believe it will continue and there is strong bias for fiber technology as the main means of connectivity given its superior speed and bandwidth capabilities.”

While it is too soon to tell what political plans the 37-year-old has, Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka has hit the ground running. JAKARTA - In the one month since assuming office as Indonesia’s vice-president, Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka has actively embraced his new role by distributing free lunches to schoolchildren, visiting disaster-stricken communities and establishing a dedicated public channel for direct engagement. This proactive approach contrasts sharply with the traditional perception of the vice-presidency as a “spare tyre” – a contingency role with limited independent influence or responsibilities. Already a subscriber? Log in Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month $9.90 $9.90/month No contract ST app access on 1 mobile device Subscribe now All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowMid-tier police officers will get a $750 bump to their weekly pay as they and 16,000 colleagues in the nation's biggest force share in a "generational" change to wages and conditions. or signup to continue reading The $697 million pay lift, which will increase most wages by at least 25 per cent over four years, is aimed at curbing growing shortages in NSW Police. The offer was backed by 96 per cent of Police Association of NSW members, a record. "Despite the challenges faced with staffing shortages, the professionalism of our police officers has been recognised with a once-in-a-generation pay rise," union president Kevin Morton said on Tuesday. The deal improves flexible work arrangements, condenses pay scales and includes a $5400 one-off leadership retention payment for senior officers More than 10,000 constables, senior constables and sergeants will receive increases of at least 25 per cent before shift allowances, with the rest getting at least 22.3 per cent. For a level-three senior constable on $107,600, they will be collecting an extra $747 per week or $39,000 per year by mid-2027. "This is a whole suite of measures," Police Minister Yasmin Catley said. "It's all about the workforce: looking after them, getting them back to work, valuing them, respecting them, and making sure that they're paying properly." It follows other recruitment incentives including payments to trainees while they live at the academy in the southern NSW city of Goulburn. The force is authorised to have more than 18,000 sworn officers but long-term retention and recruitment issues left more than 2200 positions open in August. While settling a wage dispute with a key workforce, the massive pay offer has caused consternation across the public sector since being put on the table a fortnight ago. Nurses and midwives have used the deal as a rallying cry for their demand for a 15-per-cent instant pay increase, while rail chaos was narrowly averted over the weekend as those workers pressed for 36 per cent over four years. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement Advertisement

Viking ( NYSE:VIK – Get Free Report ) and Norwegian Cruise Line ( NYSE:NCLH – Get Free Report ) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation. Profitability This table compares Viking and Norwegian Cruise Line’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Valuation & Earnings This table compares Viking and Norwegian Cruise Line”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Analyst Ratings This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Viking and Norwegian Cruise Line, as reported by MarketBeat. Viking currently has a consensus target price of $41.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.73%. Norwegian Cruise Line has a consensus target price of $27.60, indicating a potential upside of 2.62%. Given Norwegian Cruise Line’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Norwegian Cruise Line is more favorable than Viking. Institutional & Insider Ownership 69.6% of Norwegian Cruise Line shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Norwegian Cruise Line shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term. Summary Norwegian Cruise Line beats Viking on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks. About Viking ( Get Free Report ) Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda. About Norwegian Cruise Line ( Get Free Report ) Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cruise company in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. It offers itineraries ranging from three days to a 180-days calling on various ports, including Scandinavia, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Greek Isles, Alaska, Canada and New England, Hawaii, Asia, Tahiti and the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, India, South America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean. It distributes its products through retail/travel advisor and onboard cruise sales channels, as well as meetings, incentives, and charters. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. was founded in 1966 and is based in Miami, Florida. Receive News & Ratings for Viking Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Viking and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .UCare is closing its offices next week after receiving what the Minneapolis-based health plan described as a “concerning” phone call, making it the second instance of a Twin Cities insurer temporarily closing its headquarters amid a surge in online hostility directed at insurance companies. Minnetonka-based Medica confirmed earlier this week that it was temporarily shutting down its headquarters in Minnetonka and offices in other states. Insurers have seen a notable increase in threatening social media messages since Wednesday’s murder of Brian Thompson, the top executive at Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare . “We received a concerning comment in a phone call and, out of an abundance of caution, will close our offices next week,” according to a statement from UCare on Saturday. “Employees will work from home as UCare takes every precaution to protect our team.” UCare, which employs about 1,700 people, did not offer any more information about the call. Thompson, 50, of Maple Grove, was killed Wednesday in a shooting that police say apparently targeted the executive. Authorities have not speculated publicly on a motive, but bullet casings at the crime scene had the words “deny” and “delay” written on them, according to media reports. Thompson’s widow told NBC News that Thompson had received threats possibly linked to coverage denials. Before its decision to close offices, UCare this week started locking the front door of its headquarters in northeast Minneapolis. Thompson’s fatal shooting “has created a new level of unease in our industry,” the Minnesota Council of Health Plans told the Minnesota Star Tribune in a statement. “The vitriol on social media following this tragic event is unsettling and concerning.” “Thousands of people work for health plans here in the Twin Cities and across the state,” said the trade group, which is not an insurer but an association of health plans founded 40 years ago. “Not only are these Minnesotans dedicated and invested in supporting access to care, but they also receive their care here, they raise families here and they support their communities.” Medica employs about 3,000 people, mostly in Minnesota. UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest health insurer and a division of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group, which said Friday it was partnering with law enforcement to ensure workplace safety while reinforcing security guidelines and building access policies. United employs about 19,000 people in Minnesota. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota said in a Friday statement it had elevated security measures and protocols at its headquarters in Eagan, while asking workers to “remain aware and vigilant and report any unusual activity.”Julianne Brunet says public libraries are always working to reinvent themselves. Welland Public Library , which started as a mechanic’s institute in 1824 in a schoolhouse that no longer exists, is no different, Brunet, its chief executive officer, said ahead of its 200th anniversary celebration Wednesday. The library existed before Welland, which was first incorporated as a village in 1858, more than 30 years after the library was created. “What I have seen since I have been here is what has defined the library for the last 200 years. It’s a real community spirit. We’re community-led and we want to make sure we are responsive to the needs of residents. I think that has gotten us to where we are and will get us to where we want to go.” Brunet started at the library as manager of public services and became CEO in 2019, overseeing the main library at Welland Civic Square and branches at Seaway Mall and Diamond Trail on Southworth Street. “We need to make sure that we remain relevant. To do that, we have to listen to the people we serve. What was relevant 200 years ago may be relevant in some form today, but we must continue to grow and evolve and ensure we continue to meet those needs,” she said. As of last year, Welland’s three branches have more than 106,000 books in circulation, 3,433 special collection items in print and 3,918 digital items. That’s not counting CDs/DVDs, ebooks and e-audiobooks, print magazines, newspapers and electronic titles. Brunet said many people think literacy is just about reading and writing, but it’s more than that. “Literacy is more about showing people what they can do and how they can do it. The library will always serve a need in that realm.” Literacy also includes music, with the library lending instruments for people to play and practise. It teaches digital literacy, lending tech and offering people use of the internet who might not otherwise have access to it so they can participate in civic life. Board chair Lindsay Bryan said the library’s function is literacy of all kinds, not just serving the reading public. “Being among other people is a function of a modern library as well,” she said, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic with people still feeling a sense of loneliness and social alienation. Brunet said Welland Public Library serves as a community hub. “We are a place where people can connect with different ideas, different trains of thought. It’s an area of open ideas and a place for debate. We have been a pillar in the community for the last 200 years.” Welland Public Library’s main branch is at 50 The Boardwalk. The library celebrates its 200th anniversary Wednesday. And it’s being used more than ever. “We are on track to exceed our pre-pandemic numbers this year.” Online visits to the library catalogue and website are up 153 per cent compared to 2019; Wi-Fi and use of public access terminals are up 91 per cent; electronic circulation is up 926 per cent and program attendances up 172 per cent. While in-person visits are down 2.82 per cent to date, the library expects that number will increase by the end of the year. In 2019, there were 146,407 visits across the three branches. So far this year, there have been 142,277 visits. “We are getting busier and busier across all demographics, ages and all walks of life.” College and university students and seniors flock to the Seaway Mall branch, while students, parents and families use the branch inside Diamond Trail Public School. “We have three study rooms that people can use on a first come first serve basis and two larger rooms we rent out.” With Welland growing, its population is expected to reach 80,000 by 2041, Brunet and Bryan were recently before city council to ask for $120,000 in municipal funding for a nearly $400,000 bookmobile for 2026. The library will fund $278,000 from reserves and development charge revenue for the vehicle, while the city’s funding would pay for a full-time co-ordinator and part-time programmer to operate it. The vehicle would bring books, audiovisual materials, instruments, programming and services to places such as parks, schools, retirement residences and community events. “There are underserved areas of Welland, and as the city develops we’re going to learn more about where those areas are. We’ll see where the needs are within the community,” Brunet said. Original location was in a choolhouse near Brown’s Bridge - 1824 A room over McCaw’s Shoe Store on East Main Street - 1896 Town Hall, King Street - 1901 Carnegie Building, King Street - 1923 Northwest Branch on South Pelham Road -1972 Main Branch - 2005, Diamond Trail Branch - 2013 Seaway Mall Branch - 2017 A bookmobile would allow the library to reach vulnerable sectors and individuals who may not have the means to get to any library branches. With the library running lean — it has had 35 employees over the three branches for several years — Brunet said the two new hires would be needed to operate the vehicle and programming. Brunet said Wednesday’s 200th anniversary celebrations start at 2 p.m. and go until 7 p.m. There will be food, toys and games for children, and speeches from all levels of government starting at 3 p.m. She said library staff having been planning the event for the past two years and through research determined the first local library opened on Nov. 27, 1824. “We’ve survived two world wars, two global pandemics, several iterations of the Welland Canal, the rise of the internet and we’re still here. “We have been relevant in every single decade we have operated and I have no doubt that will continue,” said Brunet.Almost every second business lacks confidence in deepfake detection, according to a new industry assessment. This particularly relates to uncertainty with detection, leaving firms vulnerable to rising fraud risks. The study also uncovers significant gaps in preparedness, particularly in the Financial Services sector, where the threat is growing. The study comes from Regula , a global developer of identity verification solutions. The key message is a gap in preparedness: nearly half of businesses admit they are only partially confident in their ability to detect deepfakes, leaving them vulnerable to escalating fraud risks. Based on Regula’s study, “ The Deepfake Trends 2024 ,” 59 percent of businesses consider video deepfakes a serious threat, while 58 percent feel the same about audio deepfakes. Certain industries and regions feel the impact more acutely : In the Financial Services sector, 66 percent of respondents rank audio deepfakes as a moderate to significant risk. Traditional banks are among the least confident, with only 49 percent feeling prepared. In contrast, FinTech companies report the highest confidence levels at 63 percent. In terms of national trends, Mexico leads globally in deepfake threat perception, with 83 percent concerned about video deepfakes and 85 percent about audio deepfakes. By contrast, only 50 percent of U.S. organizations express concern about video deepfakes; meanwhile, Germany ranks slightly higher, with 57 percent of organizations worried. Germany leads in uncertainty, with only 47 percent of businesses expressing strong confidence in their defenses, while the UAE (63 percent) and the U.S. (60 percent) show the highest levels of confidence. Notably, businesses that have previously experienced identity fraud are twice as likely to view deepfake threats as a major concern. Despite widespread awareness, on average, 42 percent of businesses admit they are only “somewhat confident” in their ability to detect deepfakes. To address the issue, the study reveals that businesses adopting online identity verification (IDV) early are significantly more prepared. Those with seven years of IDV experience report 20 percent higher confidence than recent adopters. However, tackling deepfakes in-house can backfire. Companies building their own IDV systems reported higher average losses—$515,000 compared to $444,000 for those using ready-made solutions—underscoring the complexity of fighting fraud effectively. The report also uncovers a disconnect between owners and managers where 76 percent of business owners are confident in their ability to manage deepfake threats. Yet only 47 percent of managers feel the same, reflecting the day-to-day challenges of mitigating fraud. Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news.Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.