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  • AI warning for DIFC firms as survey finds quarter have insufficient governance

    AI warning for DIFC firms as survey finds quarter have insufficient governance

    The report (pdf, 2.9mb/16 pages) by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) found that generative AI usage among financial institutions had surged by 166% over the past year. Overall, AI adoption in the DIFC rose from 33% of firms in 2024 to 52% in 2025, with significant growth seen in ‘narrow’ AI systems for specific tasks, deep learning and machine learning models.

    Despite this rapid uptake, the survey highlighted persistent governance gaps. The DFSA found that 21% of the 661 companies surveyed for the report have yet to introduce clear accountability mechanisms for governing their usage of AI. Similarly, the report warned that 26% of companies that use AI applications in a critical area of their business have no governance framework, with a further 11% lacking it around considerable or important areas of the business.

    “The uptake in AI has been rapid, but this comes against a backdrop of evolving regulatory expectations,” said Marie Chowdhry, a fintech expert with Pinsent Masons in Dubai.

    “Companies operating in the DIFC must immediately assess whether their governance frameworks adequately address the risks and responsibilities associated with their current level of AI deployments. This assessment should cover compliance with existing regulatory expectations at a minimum, but the strongest and most robust firms will also be looking to the future as this is a fast evolving area where we anticipate evolving standards, ethical considerations, and operational resilience obligations becoming more important, as AI becomes more deeply embedded in business models. Boards and senior management need to ensure that oversight mechanisms, accountability structures, and risk controls are robust enough to support both present use cases and future innovation,” she said.

    A need for clearer regulation of AI usage was identified as one of the main barriers to AI adoption, according to the report, with more than 38% of companies citing regulatory uncertainty as their biggest hurdle. The DFSA also found the majority of firms surveyed are still seeking clarification on how existing regulations apply to AI usage.

    Nevertheless, 60% of the surveyed companies plan to increase their usage of AI systems in the next year, with three-quarters of all companies aiming to increase their AI involvement in the next three years.

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  • Raul Malo, frontman of band the Mavericks, dies aged 60 | Music

    Raul Malo, frontman of band the Mavericks, dies aged 60 | Music

    Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band the Mavericks, has died. He was 60.

    Malo died on Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been diagnosed with cancer. The frontman…

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  • This GitHub script claims to wipe all of Windows 11’s AI features in seconds – OODAloop

    1. This GitHub script claims to wipe all of Windows 11’s AI features in seconds  OODAloop
    2. Script to Nuke AI Features from Windows 11 Goes Viral Amid Privacy Backlash  Currently.com
    3. Hate Microsoft Copilot? So does everyone else. Too bad  qz.com

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  • Simple light trick reveals hidden brain pathways in microscopic detail

    Simple light trick reveals hidden brain pathways in microscopic detail

    Every tissue in the human body contains exceptionally small fibers that help coordinate how organs move, function and communicate. Muscle fibers guide physical force, intestinal fibers support the motion of the digestive tract, and brain fibers…

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  • Birds flu outbreaks confirmed at two Lincolnshire farms

    Birds flu outbreaks confirmed at two Lincolnshire farms

    Outbreaks of bird flu have been confirmed at two poultry farms in Lincolnshire.

    The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the cases were at commercial breeders.

    A protection zone of almost two miles (3km) and an eight-mile…

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  • Streaming device deal: Get the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select for $9.99

    Streaming device deal: Get the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select for $9.99

    SAVE $30: As of Dec. 9, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is back down to its $9.99 Black Friday price when you use the coupon code HOLFTV4K at checkout. That’s $30 or 75% off its list…

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  • The predictive value of NLR, PLR, LMR, NPAR and D-dimer on the efficac

    The predictive value of NLR, PLR, LMR, NPAR and D-dimer on the efficac

    Introduction

    On April 4, 2024, the National Cancer Institute published cancer statistics for all regions of the world in 2022, and lung cancer is a malignant tumor with the highest incidence and the leading cause of cancer deaths in China and…

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  • SEC Chair Criticizes Accounting Firms for Pushing Rules Driven by ‘Self-Interest’

    At a conference, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins strongly criticized accounting firms for having pressured the commission to adopt certain disclosure rules that do not necessarily reflect the traditional concept of materiality, issuing a stern warning to the firms.

    While he did not explicitly say so in his remarks, he was referring to large firms, especially Big Four firms, that strongly supported the SEC’s rulemaking on climate disclosure during the previous administration. These firms would financially benefit by providing assurance services.

    “Self-interest…is the one thing that is troubling; let’s just say about the last few years and some activities of the profession, the growing focus on issues and services that promote your own financial self-interest,” Atkins said at the AICPA Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in Washington on December 8, 2025.

    The Biden-era climate disclosure rule adopted by the SEC when Gary Gensler was chair is on hold following a court ruling. With change to the Trump administration, federal government agencies abandoned everything related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters. As for the climate change rule for public companies, the commission stopped defending the rule but has not yet formally rescinded it either.

    “Basically our theme right now with respect to the profession is to get back to basics. We have to focus on things like integrity and objectivity, professional skepticism, which is the reason why we have auditors and accountants for protection of investors so they know how things are going. Honesty and fairness and independence to avoid bias and that sort of things. So, all that is really very important, challenging management judgment and what not,” the SEC chief said.

    In further explaining the “self-interest” aspect of the profession, Atkins said that in the past five years or so, he was “really shocked at the focus … on things that I think would have completely subverted the importance of financial materiality and financial accounting. That’s some of the disclosure rules that were pushed forward at the SEC to the chairs… and that would have subverted [Regulation] S-X, S-K, of course, and ultimately U.S. GAAP.”

    While the SEC scaled back its proposal, the March 2024 final rule requires larger companies to provide Scope 1 and Scope 2 disclosures. Scope 1 is direct emissions, and Scope 2 is indirect emissions from purchased energy. The SEC retained the assurance requirement for companies that disclose Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

    The regulator estimated the rule would increase spending by filers on external service providers like assurance firms by as much as $907 million a year.

    Atkins: Will ‘Discount’ Firms’ Comment Letters on Climate

    Such self-interest is “a real problem. And some of these comment letters that were submitted to the SEC are still on firms’ websites,” Atkins said. “So, I guess you still stand by that. So looking forward, we have a very heavy regulatory agenda coming up next year, but basically, you know, I will look with rather skepticism, I guess, and you know, discount some of the comments that come from the profession in this area.”

    “So I think there has to be a real refocus, again, on the basics of financial accounting auditing,” he added.

    At the end of the day Q&A, SEC Chief Accountant Kurt Hohl was asked about Atkins’ remarks.

    In particular, the question concerned Atkins’ remarks that comment letters from the profession would be given less consideration, and how this approach could benefit the rulemaking process.

    Hohl explained that when representatives from firms or companies visit the SEC to meet with the chair or others, Atkins “basically gave the same message to all the firms. And that is, ‘don’t let your pecuniary interests in rulemaking overcome your or outweigh the principles in which you basically stand by. And that is, he’s focused mainly on materiality of disclosures. And I think he’s mostly focused on the comment letters that came from the climate change rule proposals” which the firms supported.

    He emphasized that this commission has inherited the climate change rule, and the SEC “is going to basically deal with the climate change rescission coming up soon.”

    “I don’t anticipate that comment letters from practitioners and firms are going to be weighed less in the comment process,” Hohl said. “They’re all very important, and we encourage everybody to come in and talk to us, and we’ll weigh all those comments the same way.”

     

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  • Adiala tensions flare again as Imran Khan’s sisters stage fresh sit-in outside jail

    Adiala tensions flare again as Imran Khan’s sisters stage fresh sit-in outside jail

    Sisters denied meeting PTI chief; authorities deploy extra police and prepare for possible operation

    Sisters of PTI chief Imran Khan sit outside Adiala Jail after a meeting was denied on Tuesday. Photo: X/PTI

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  • Emirates NBA Cup: 5 things to know about East’s Knockout Round matchups

    Emirates NBA Cup: 5 things to know about East’s Knockout Round matchups

    The Association predicts the winners of Tuesday’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals in the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup.

    Familiar foes, unfamiliar circumstances and immediate consequences. That’s the theme for the doubleheader of Eastern Conference…

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