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How Secret Service agents are trained for a 'zero-fail mission'

X (formerly Twitter) is experiencing its largest user exodus since <keyword id="6355315" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="elon-musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword> took over in 2022. The tipping point is a perfect storm of political controversy, privacy fears, and discontent with the platform’s new policies, culminating in a dramatic shift of users to alternative platforms like <keyword id="412371" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bluesky" source="Orion">Bluesky</keyword> and <keyword id="1163500" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="threads" source="Orion">Threads</keyword>. Here’s a breakdown of the recent changes and why they’ve left users saying goodbye to X. <h2>Political backlash</h2>The day after the U.S. presidential election on November 6, X saw over 115,000 account deactivations — the most since Musk's acquisition. Many users were disillusioned by Musk's perceived alignment with newly elected President Donald Trump. Musk's vocal support for Trump during his campaign, coupled with his attendance at Republican rallies, alienated users who once trusted X as a politically neutral platform. One user, Kara Wurtz, said the election was the “final straw.” After eight years on the platform, the finance director from St. Louis decided that X was no longer delivering the content she valued. “Every time I opened it, it would throw things at me that put me in a bad mood,” she said. The political fallout didn’t just affect individuals. Prominent organisations and brands, including The Guardian and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, have also bid farewell to the platform. <h2>New terms of service spark outrage</h2>On November 15, X's updated terms of service came into effect, granting the platform a sweeping global licence to use user-generated content. This includes using posts, photos, and creative works to train artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models. The backlash was immediate: <ul><li>Privacy Concerns: By continuing to use X, users implicitly agree to have their data — personal photos, creative work, and more — used for AI training. Artists and creators fear their intellectual property could be exploited to develop AI tools that might one day replace human creativity.</li><li>Legal Implications: Disputes over the new terms will be handled in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, home to Judge Reed O'Connor, a Tesla investor. This has raised questions about potential bias in legal proceedings related to the platform.</li></ul>Alex Fink, CEO of the AI-powered platform Otherweb, criticised X’s lack of transparency, stating, “Unlike other platforms with vague licensing terms, X removes any ambiguity about its intentions.” <h2>Changes to blocking and safety settings</h2>Safety concerns have also escalated due to alterations in X’s block feature. Users now allegedly receive notifications that even those they block can still view their posts — though they can’t interact. This tweak is particularly alarming for users who have faced harassment on the platform. Many feel their safety is compromised, prompting them to seek refuge in safer alternatives like Bluesky, which saw a surge of 500,000 new users in just one day following the policy updates. Initially developed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky offers customizable feeds and decentralised control, which many find refreshing. With over 16 million users (and counting), it’s quickly becoming the top choice for X refugees. Threads, Instagram’s text-based app, also surpassed 275 million monthly active users by November, with 15 million new sign-ups last month alone. For many, these platforms represent a chance to escape X’s chaos while reclaiming control over their online experience. <h2>Is Fediverse the future?</h2>Experts believe the exodus from X could mark the beginning of a new era of decentralised social networks. Bluesky, built on a protocol that enables interconnected platforms, is part of the "Fediverse," which could allow users to interact seamlessly across different apps. This shift reflects growing dissatisfaction with centralised platforms that control user data, content visibility, and privacy settings. While Musk touts record-breaking engagement on X, the cracks in the platform’s foundation are evident. Critics warn that X could become a training ground for Musk’s xAI venture, leveraging user interactions to fuel lucrative AI models. Whether X can weather this storm remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the days of Twitter’s broad appeal as a space for open, inclusive dialogue seem to be fading fast.

Mass X-odus: What are the controversial changes on X that are driving users away?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says AI and human customer service agents are indistinguishable.</li><li>Benioff said AI agents had reached "another level of capability."</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marc-benioff">Marc Benioff </a>thinks AI has progressed to a point where humans and AI customer service agents are now indistinguishable.In an <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtNrCJCwwlc">interview with David Sacks at the All-In Summit,</a> the Salesforce CEO was asked if AI had reached a level where people speaking to customer support could tell if it was a human or an AI agent."We are already at the point. We already have that live," Benioff said. "We're really getting to, like, another level of capability, and I think that's it's pretty impressive."Benioff said the company planned to scale the feature to thousands of customers before the end of the year.Customer service has long been seen as one of the sectors where AI could have the biggest impact. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cvs-pharmacy-use-ai-customer-service-call-centers-tilak-mandadi-2024-6">Many companies</a> have been incorporating the tech into customer service departments to see if it can improve customer experience.Earlier this year, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/klarna-ai-chatbot-work-700-people-2024-2">Swedish fintech company Klarna </a>claimed its AI assistant was doing "the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents." The company said the chatbot was more accurate in "errand resolution" and on par with human agents when it came to customer satisfaction.Some companies have claimed that AI agents deliver <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-work-automation-octopus-energy-greg-jackson-2023-5">better customer satisfaction</a> than human workers.Last year, the CEO of Octopus Energy, a UK-based household energy supplier, said emails written by AI delivered 80% customer satisfaction, improving on the 65% achieved by skilled, trained people.However, introducing AI in other customer service areas has not been as successful. In June, McDonald's said it was removing its Automated Order Taker technology <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-ai-voice-order-technology-drive-thrus-2024-6">from over 100 restaurants after videos</a> showing flaws with the tech went viral the previous year.Representatives for Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Marc Benioff says AI and humans are now indistinguishable in customer service 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Is YouTube's massive content library being used to train its AI models?</li><li>CEO Neal Mohan says some creators' contracts with the platform mean their content could be used.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-future-ai-agents-project-astra-2024-5">Google is betting big on AI</a>. AI models, including Google's Gemini, require a ton of training data to be competitive.So a natural next question is: Is Google using its massive trove of YouTube videos to further those AI ambitions?To help try to answer that question, we looked at what YouTube's CEO has said on the topic and what the platform's terms of service say, along with sending some clarifying questions to its parent company Google.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-youtube-ceo-neal-mohan-changing-way-we-watch-tv-2023-11">YouTube CEO Neal Mohan</a> was asked in an interview about the possibility of Google using YouTube's massive digital content library to train its AI models.In April, The New York Times <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html">reported</a> that "Like OpenAI, Google transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text for its A.I. models, five people with knowledge of the company's practices said. That potentially violated the copyrights to the videos, which belong to their creators."Mohan said some YouTube creators have specific contracts that can allow their content to be used in AI training."Google uses YouTube content really in accordance again back with those terms of service or individual contracts that we might have with creators or uploaders to our platform," Mohan told Bloomberg's Emily Chang in a full-length <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZWUKxeIDWQ">interview</a>, some of which was first published in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-04/youtube-says-openai-training-sora-with-its-videos-would-break-the-rules">April.</a>"Lots of creators have different sort of licensing contracts in terms of their content on our platform, lots of rightsholders do," he added.Basically, it sounds like YouTube's CEO is saying that any AI training the company is doing with YouTube content, whether it's scraping video titles or transcripts or the video content itself, is being done in a fashion that honors the terms that content creators have agreed to."And so some portion of that YouTube corpus may be being used for those models, but it's going to be in concert with whatever the terms of service or the contract that that creator has signed before uploading their content to YouTube," Mohan said.As The New York Times reported, Google may not be the only company looking to YouTube for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-training-data-source-solutions-openai-meta-google-2024-4">AI training data</a>.In a March interview with The Wall Street Journal, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-mira-murati-openai-new-interim-ceo-2023-11">OpenAI CTO Mira Murati</a> was asked if the company's AI text-to-video generation tool Sora was trained on YouTube content. She responded that she was "actually not sure about that."Mohan says that, depending on what, if any, data OpenAI scraped, it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/could-openai-be-violating-youtubes-terms-of-service-2024-4">could violate YouTube's terms of service</a>."Our terms of service does allow for some YouTube content like the title of a video or the channel name or the creator's name to be scraped because that's how you enable the open web for that content to show up and maybe show up in other search engines or what have you and be available that way," Mohan told Chang."But it does not allow for things like transcripts or video bits to be downloaded and that is a clear violation of our TOS," he said.YouTube's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms">terms of service</a> define content as "videos, audio (for example music and other sounds), graphics, photos, text (such as comments and scripts), branding (including trade names, trademarks, service marks, or logos), interactive features, software, metrics, and other materials whether provided by you, YouTube or a third-party."The terms say uploaders "retain ownership rights in your Content" but also "grant certain rights to YouTube and other users of the Service.""By providing Content to the Service, you grant to YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license to use that Content (including to reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works, display and perform it) in connection with the Service and YouTube's (and its successors' and Affiliates') business, including for the purpose of promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service," the terms say.So while Mohan's remarks and YouTube's terms of service shed more light on the matter, it's still not entirely clear if and how the average YouTube video could be used by Google for AI training purposes. Business Insider reached out to Google to ask if the company was training any of its AI models or products, such as its recently announced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-unveils-ai-video-generator-veo-openai-sora-2024-5">text-to-video generator, Veo</a>, on the actual video files of YouTube content. We'll update this post if we hear back.

Does Google train its AI on YouTube videos? Here's what YouTube's CEO and the platform's terms of service say.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Photobucket was popular in the early days of the social internet. You might still have an account.</li><li>Its CEO told BI that Photobucket could soon license photos stored on its service to train AI.</li></ul>Photobucket, the photo-storage site once owned by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-myspace-ceo-explains-why-facebook-was-able-to-dominate-social-media-despite-coming-second-2015-5">Myspace</a>, is planning to license user photos to AI companies, which would use the images to train their datasets.CEO Ted Leonard said photos marked "private" would not be licensed. In an interview with Business Insider, he said no images have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-goodbye-meta-ai-train-generative-post-copypasta-profile-2024-9">used for AI training</a> so far, but ones set to "public" would be part of any potential licensing deals.If you have an old Photobucket account you haven't touched in a while, you'll need to reactivate it to opt out of any licensing deals by setting your account to "private." A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061000711-Photobucket-Subscription-and-Storage-Options">paid account</a> starts at $5 a month. (You can delete your entire account for free — but you won't be able to view or download any old photos before you do.)Founded in 2003, Photobucket became a popular way to store the images you'd post on your friends' <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napster-myspace-where-are-they-now-2016-7">Myspace walls</a>. After a brief stint owned by News Corp, it's been operating independently since 2009. Leonard, CEO since 2017, spoke to Business Insider about Photobucket's latest plans, which include new features, such as a private sharing plan called Group Buckets, which allows groups like a wedding party, kids' soccer team, or a family to post and share photos securely among themselves.Photobucket, now privately owned and based in Denver, didn't share details about its revenue or other financials. Leonard said he's optimistic about AI."I view licensing content specifically for AI training as similar to the advertising revenue the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/06/photobucket-3-6-million-for-printing-and-acquisitions/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACFg7K50dJai3qtI9N31dmGdIR9OzJdR_ze8RaFBJQZIDbKx3pzW6rR4QzHod_DUkqeJ8l3M8yncchQx4nQ-Is3LjrpBZRxhXZHp3KD9F-IxDBPIPopztnrFmoQ8WEuX2nUirMJbDIyWl46gGgYnQvDDP0hLgQWceiWUKW_h50Be">company</a> generated 10 years ago," Leonard said. "It is a vehicle for continuing to support the company from a financial perspective, and it gives us capital at what we think will be fairly significant in material margins to continue investing in the product itself."<h2 id="c0e4cc90-0466-4f8b-979a-04f384e006d9">Sitting on a possible AI-training goldmine</h2>Unlike other mid-2000s photo-hosting peers like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flickr-photos-kids-train-ai-facial-recognition-database-megaface-report-2019-10">Flickr</a> or Webshots, Photobucket hasn't deleted people's old photos. (<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/textfiles/status/1204428338913325056">Webshots</a> shut down in 2012. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flickr-new-owner-smugmug-remain-independent-2018-4">Flickr moved to a paid subscription</a> model in 2019 and only kept the first 1,000 images on non-paying users' accounts.)Those old images that Photobucket has been storing for all these years — things people uploaded in 2005 and forgot about — are still there. And now they may provide a windfall for Photobucket, which can make licensing deals with AI companies to train their models on those images and videos. Leonard didn't share details on how much revenue the AI training deals might bring.If those deals are inked, Photobucket would follow in the footsteps of other media and content companies that see <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-publishers-deal-explainer-peter-kafka-2024-6">AI licensing deals as a good financial opportunity</a>.<div type="image" title="Ted Leonard CEO of photobucket in a blue shirt sitting down" height="1462" width="1949" msid="114265014" hostid="261" sizebytes="223414"></div><h2 id="c4bba153-d2b7-4688-b65c-5b1a7dc6d4ec">Photobucket isn't the only company using your photos for AI training</h2>If the idea of stuff you posted to the internet long ago now being used for AI training gives you the ick, well, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-killing-web-grand-bargain-2023-8">I have some bad news for you</a>.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242789/meta-training-ai-models-facebook-instagram-photo-post-data">Meta recently said</a> that it used public Facebook photos and posts to train its own AI models. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flickr-photos-kids-train-ai-facial-recognition-database-megaface-report-2019-10">Flickr photos were already used for facial recognition</a> training starting in 2014 when Yahoo owned it. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;sgrp=c-cb">OpenAI has reportedly used YouTube content</a> for training.Oodles of other websites and content have been used for AI training as part of the open-source dataset called the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://commoncrawl.org/">Common Crawl.</a>" This could have already included Photobucket images hosted on other sites.Leonard said Photobucket is in talks with several companies to license the images. Rather than a one-shot deal where, say, OpenAI gets images to use forever, the potential deals are generally for a few years and for specific content."A company will come to us and say, 'We need content of landscapes with people in a distance, and we're looking for beach and mountains,'" Leonard explained. "So we say, 'OK, great. Based on that request, we have 150,000 images that we can license you.'"Photobucket estimates about half of its 13 billion images are public and eligible for AI licensing.<h2 id="b1ca6dbf-d446-4b92-9ca0-9dc53af83ed5">Notifying users about the new Terms of Service</h2>Leonard said Photobucket sent an email in July to its customers alerting them to an update to its <a target="_blank" href="https://photobucket.com/legal/biometric-information-privacy-policy">Terms of Service</a>. The update outlined how public images may be used for AI training, including "scanning and processing of the Public User Uploaded Content, including extracting physical features, e.g. measurements, of your Biometric Information (e.g., face, iris, etc.), for the purpose of artificial intelligence and machine learning training."I have an old Photobucket account from around 2007 that I used for hosting images for an old blog. For the past few years, I've gotten emails with increasingly dire warnings that my account was at risk of being deactivated. (It hasn't been.) At some point years ago, I had already downloaded the images and stored them elsewhere, so I wasn't too concerned. (I do continue to pay $10 a month for my old personal photos on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/this-quote-perfectly-sums-up-how-yahoo-is-killing-everything-it-buys-2014-8">Flickr</a>.)Presumably, there are plenty of people like me with an old Photobucket account, largely forgotten — maybe abandoned because we moved the photos somewhere else or simply didn't care. And then there's another group of people who aren't even getting these emails: Maybe they signed up with a student email that they can't access anymore, or maybe they long ago forgot their username and password combination.Leonard said Photobucket has been attempting to reach customers through email, on-site alerts, and other methods (including alerting users in the press, like in this story).I did receive the email from Photobucket alerting me about the new policy, but like most other emails about updated Terms of Service, I simply didn't bother opening it."There's kind of a two-way street where if you put a whole bunch of personal memories on the site, maybe you should do your best to continue to update the email address and everything like that," Leonard said.

That old Photobucket account you haven't touched in years could soon be licensed to train AI

Leading financial services company <keyword id="19904855" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Wells-Fargo" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Wells Fargo" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Wells Fargo">Wells Fargo</keyword> on Thursday said it has broadened its <keyword id="21638388" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Talent-Attraction" source="keywords">talent attraction</keyword> strategy by launching the <keyword id="23053308" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Transgender-Persons-Hiring-Program" source="keywords">Transgender Persons Hiring Program</keyword> in <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword>, a move that will increase <keyword id="21441079" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Diverse-Representation" source="keywords">diverse representation</keyword> across levels. Building on the programme's initial pilot with its 2022 cohort of 13 individuals hired in its technology function, the company aims to train and attract additional talent across multiple lines of business in 2024. The programme aims to provide <keyword id="23053309" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Employability-Skills-Training" source="keywords">employability skills training</keyword> and <keyword id="20128844" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Professional-Development" source="keywords">professional development</keyword> for transgender talent, Wells Fargo said in a statement. "Investing in diverse communities to upskill and unlock potential and, at the same time, set up the right environment for success is a critical area of focus for Wells Fargo," said Uday Odedra, executive vice president and Region head of Wells Fargo India &amp; Philippines. In partnership with community organisation <keyword id="23053310" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PeriFerry" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="PeriFerry" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="PeriFerry">PeriFerry</keyword>, the company currently sponsors 30 transgender individuals focused on enhancing their options for employment and building a robust talent pipeline at Wells Fargo. "By offering meaningful employment and professional opportunities to transgender individuals, we are not only enhancing our workforce <keyword id="20051946" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Diversity" source="keywords">diversity</keyword> but also driving a culture of <keyword id="20074544" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inclusion" source="keywords">inclusion</keyword> that everyone can thrive in," said Sneha Suresh, executive director, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leader, Wells Fargo India &amp; Philippines. As part of our commitment to continually enhance the inclusive environment, Wells Fargo India conducts sensitisation and awareness sessions with community partners, such as Periferry. Wells Fargo has an active Pride Connection Employee Resource Network (ERN), advocating for LGBTQ employees, customers and allies. The Pride Connection ERN facilitates reverse mentoring, promotes visible allyship, and engages senior leadership to support all employees. They organise floor huddles, conferences, rainbow conversations and training sessions to ensure day-to-day inclusivity across the business.

Wells Fargo launches Transgender Persons Hiring Program in India

<keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword> and Maldives have signed an agreement to introduce the <keyword id="19998949" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Unified-Payments-Interface" source="keywords">Unified Payments Interface</keyword> in the archipelago nation, which will have a "very positive" impact on its <keyword id="20260982" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tourism-sector" source="keywords">tourism sector</keyword>, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Friday during Jaishankar's three-day official visit to the Maldives. "Witnessed signing of MoU between (the) National Payments Corporation of India and (the) Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Maldives on (the) introduction of (a) digital payment system in the Maldives," he said in a post on X. Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (<keyword id="19998946" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NPCI" source="keywords">NPCI</keyword>), Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system to facilitate inter-bank transactions through mobile phones. Addressing a press conference with his Maldivian counterpart Moosa Zameer after their "productive discussions", Jaishankar said that India, through its UPI, has "revolutionised digital transactions". Stressing that it has taken financial inclusion in India to new levels, he said "Today 40 per cent of the world's real-time digital payments take place in our country." "We see this revolution, every day in our lives. I am pleased to note that with the signing of the MoU today, we have taken the first step towards bringing this digital innovation to Maldives," he said. "I wish the very best to stakeholders on both sides and hope that we will soon see the first UPI transaction here. I should mention that it will have a very positive impact on tourism," he added. Tourism is the main source of economic activity for the Maldives, contributing nearly 30 per cent of the GDP and generating more than 60 per cent of foreign exchange. Jaishankar's visit aims to reset the bilateral relationship with the Maldives and is the first high-level trip from India after the archipelago nation's pro-China president, Mohamed Muizzu, assumed office last year. "India's partnership with the Maldives is based on our deep desire to work together for each other's welfare and interests. It is a partnership that has enabled us to always swiftly and effectively respond to challenges, as witnessed in the past," Jaishankar said. "It is a partnership that has enabled us to deliver results and bring tangible benefits to our people in accordance with their wishes, aspirations and priorities," he said. In a post on X, Jaishankar also said, "Jointly inaugurated six High Impact Projects in areas of street lighting, mental health, children speech therapy and special education." "Welcome renewal of MoU between National Centre for Good Governance and Civil Services Commission on (the) training of additional 1,000 civil services officers," he added. Addressing the joint press conference, Maldivian Foreign Minister Zameer said, "India has always been one of our closest friends and a vital development partner." He said the "enduring friendship" was built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect and has continued to flourish over the years. "High-level exchanges between our countries have deepened our dialogue and cooperation in areas of shared interest. We remain dedicated to strengthening and advancing this mutually beneficial partnership," he said. "Minister Dr Jaishankar and I agreed that much more needs to be done to promote trade and investment between the Maldives and India," he said, adding that both sides are committed to establishing "effective mechanisms to enhance economic cooperation, fostering a vibrant and prosperous partnership that will benefit both the nations." Zameer said he conveyed President Muizzu's proposal to begin negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement between the Maldives and India. "This agreement alongside other economic and trade-related agreements will facilitate trade liberalisation and ease the risks of doing business in both our countries," he said. Zameer said that India and Maldives have also mutually agreed to further strengthen their partnership by continuing joint exercises and expanding training opportunities for officers from both countries, asserting that this reflects "our commitment to working together to ensure the security of our nations as well as ensuring the safety and stability of the Indian Ocean region." India's relations with the Maldives suffered a major setback last year when President Muizzu demanded the withdrawal of Indian military personnel manning three aviation platforms in the Maldives. Subsequently, the Indian military personnel were replaced by civilians by May 10, the mutually agreed date. "On regional and multilateral issues of importance, our countries have a common understanding and are united in our efforts to resolve them. We agreed to continue our cooperation on issues ranging from combating terrorism, violent extremism, drugs, human trafficking and to the promotion and protection of human rights," Zameer said. In his press statement, Jaishankar said that India and the Maldives "are not just close neighbours, we are also natural partners." "Today, we are mutually invested in each other's development and progress. In a globalised and interconnected world, we see a lot of volatility and global tensions. Even as the world is recovering from the impact of the COVID pandemic, we have been confronted with new challenges arising from international conflicts," he said. In this tumultuous environment, India has been and will be, an anchor of stability for its friends, partners and neighbours. To the Maldives specifically, India has provided support to deal with economic challenges through financial assistance and budgetary support, and by ensuring an uninterrupted supply of critical items, he noted. India's actions have been and will continue to be guided by its firm commitment to the philosophy of 'Sabka Saath, Sabke Vikas - which is- Together, we prosper', Jaishankar said. SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/brainbees-solutions-firstcry-ipo-allotment-how-to-check-allotment-ipo-gmp-listing-date-and-more/articleshow/112403576.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/brainbees-solutions-firstcry-ipo-allotment-how-to-check-allotment-ipo-gmp-listing-date-and-more/articleshow/112403576.cms" target="_blank">Brainbees Solutions (Firstcry) IPO allotment – How to check allotment, IPO GMP, listing date and more</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/indias-wearables-market-decline-for-the-first-time-as-smartwatch-shipments-fall/articleshow/112397246.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/indias-wearables-market-decline-for-the-first-time-as-smartwatch-shipments-fall/articleshow/112397246.cms" target="_blank">India’s wearables market decline for the first time as smartwatch shipments fall</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/ola-wants-to-re-enter-the-quick-commerce-business-to-take-on-blinkit-and-swiggy-instamart/articleshow/112364583.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/ola-wants-to-re-enter-the-quick-commerce-business-to-take-on-blinkit-and-swiggy-instamart/articleshow/112364583.cms" target="_blank">Ola wants to re-enter the quick commerce business to take on Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart</a>

India to introduce UPI payment service in Maldives

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ukraine has released a video it says shows North Korean troops in Russia.</li><li>The video was published by the Ukrainian government's Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security.</li></ul>A new <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/StratcomCentre/status/1847317531477844036">video</a> released by the Ukrainian government's Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security appears to show North Korean soldiers at a Russian military base.The center said the footage shows North Korean troops "being outfitted in Russian gear" at Russia's Sergievsky training ground "in preparation for deployment to Ukraine."Business Insider was unable to independently verify the footage.It comes after South Korea's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-to-send-thousands-troops-aid-russia-ukraine-2024">National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Friday</a> that thousands of North Korean troops were set to join Russian forces in Ukraine.The NIS said that North Korean soldiers were being transported from the North on Russian navy ships and that around 1,500 North Korean special forces troops were already in Russia.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a NATO press conference on Thursday that Ukraine had information that North Korea was preparing to send 10,000 troops to occupied areas of Ukraine."We've got information that North Korea sent tactical personnel and officers to Ukraine on temporary occupied territories, and they are preparing on their land, 10,000 soldiers, but they didn't move them already to Ukraine or to Russia," he said.Speaking in Brussels on Friday, NATO chief Mark Rutte said: "Our official position is that we cannot confirm reports that North Koreans are actively now as soldiers engaged in the war effort.""Even if North Korea is not physically there at the battlefield, then still they are helping to fuel Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in every way they can," Rutte added.Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the US was "looking into" the claims."We can't confirm or corroborate those reports," he said on Thursday. "If true, that would demonstrate an increase in the cooperation between Russia and North Korea."Should North Korean troops' involvement in the conflict be confirmed, it would mark North Korea's first major involvement in a war since the Korean War in 1950-1953.

Video appears to show North Korean soldiers gearing up for Ukraine war at a Russian military training base

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump survived an apparent second assassination attempt after the Secret Service intervened.</li><li>Former agents say the department is short-staffed, leading to burnout that increases security risks.</li></ul>Incidents like Sunday's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shots-fired-florida-golf-course-2024-9">apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump</a> show the Secret Service is stretched so thin due to short staffing that potential dangers are becoming increasingly hard to respond to adequately, two former agents told Business Insider.In a Monday press conference discussing the incident, the acting director of the Secret Service called for "some hard conversations with Congress."The former president was unharmed on Sunday after a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-ryan-wesley-routh-second-trump-assassination-attempt-suspect-2024-9">would-be shooter</a> hiding in the perimeter treeline of the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach was spotted and fired upon by a Secret Service agent. The suspect was able to flee the scene unharmed but, thanks to details from an eyewitness, was identified and detained by law enforcement shortly after the incident.On July 14, Trump faced a closer call when he was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-butler-pennsylvania-rally-secret-service-2024-7">wounded during a campaign rally</a> after a suspect perched upon a rooftop overlooking the event fired his rifle into the crowd. A rally attendee was killed, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pennsylvania-rally-shooting-deaths-2024-7">two others were injured</a> in the shooting. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-was-thomas-matthew-crooks-the-trump-rally-shooter-2024-7">A Secret Service sniper killed the suspect</a> in the July incident.Kenneth Valentine, a former Secret Service Special Agent in Charge who served under three presidents, told Business Insider that security around the former president was ratcheted up after the July incident, and the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-scrutiny-shooting-donald-trump-pennsylvania-rally-2024-7">Secret Service faced intense scrutiny</a> for failing to prevent the shooting. He said agents should have been on high alert, making Sunday's near-miss far too close for comfort."Did we not have time, or did we not have the assets and resources to sweep that wood line and post it with a police officer ahead of time?" Valentine said. "It seems to me like that would have been great business to do."<h2 id="ba0533fe-c6b9-48f7-857a-0616a5af5d15">Still doing Treasury business</h2>Valentine — as well as Jeffrey James, who spent 22 years in the Secret Service — told BI the agency has been struggling with staffing levels and adequate resources since it was rolled up under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.The agency, founded in 1865, had previously been under the purview of the Department of the Treasury with a mission to combat counterfeiting. Though the Secret Service no longer reports to Treasury officials, its agents have maintained investigative assignments related to credit card fraud and cybercrime."I believe the Secret Service should give up all of that and just be the executive protection arm of DHS," James said. "If I was making decisions, I would push them to eliminate all their investigations, aside from investigating threats toward people under Secret Service protection."Instead, both Valentine and James said they believed the agents are stretched too thin, forced to work absurd amounts of overtime, and said there's an incredibly high rate of attrition in the field that the Secret Service can't keep up with. "We never hit a time in my career where we were fully staffed," James said. "We were always in a deficit because you're always playing from behind."In his experience, many agents left the Secret Service before their retirement, James said — a natural occurrence in any field if people decide the gig is not for them — "but we were such a small agency that it really became a detriment.""I will tell you we had people driving the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/president-car-limousine-photos-the-beast-2024-2">president's limousine</a> for enough hours in a day that if they drove a truck for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-exec-surprising-reason-low-income-shoppers-pay-for-plus-2024-9">Walmart</a>, they would be told to park the truck and not drive anymore," James said, adding that agents were on the road for so long it was no longer safe for them or their passengers.<h2 id="42735993-3767-428f-8a3b-230f5dc61ca5">Word from the top</h2>Valentine said that if you hear the top brass tell it, they'll talk about how the agency has been hiring at a rate exceeding all previous combined years."And it's like, well, yeah, that's true, but tell me about your attrition," Valentine said.Officers work long hours, including weekends and holidays, and forego personal time to take on the Sisyphean task of risking their lives to protect the country's highest-profile people. Salaries start at under $70,000 annually, according to a 2021 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2021-09/UD%202021%20Salary%20Schedule.pdf">pay scale.</a> When reached for comment, a representative for the Secret Service directed Business Insider to comments made by Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe during a press conference on Monday following the second <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-donald-trump-rally-shooting-pennsylvania-2024-7">security incident involving Trump</a>. In his remarks, Rowe indicated the Secret Service's leadership is aware of burnout among its agents."We have immediate needs. We have future needs, too," Rowe said, referring to counter-sniper training that the agency is petitioning Congress to approve. "We also have the need to make sure that we're getting the personnel that we have, and that requires us to be able to have the funding to be able to hire more people."Rowe added: "You can't just give me money and say, 'Hey, we're going to make sure that everybody gets overtime.' Because the men and women of the Secret Service right now, we are redlining them."According to agency <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.secretservice.gov/careers/paths#:~:text=The%20Secret%20Service%20employs%20approximately,professional%20and%20technical%20support%20personnel.">statistics</a>, the Secret Service employs about 3,600 special agents, including 1,600 uniformed division officers and roughly 2,000 administrative and support personnel. Of the Department of Homeland Security's $64.81 billion <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/committee-releases-fy25-homeland-security-appropriations-bill#:~:text=The%20Homeland%20Security%20Bill%20provides,Fiscal%20Year%202024%20enacted%20level.">total budget</a>, the Secret Service in 2024 was allotted <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/U.S.%20SECRET%20SERVICE_Remediated.pdf">$3.27 billion</a> — increasing less than $400,000 since 2022.Secret Service agents "are rising to this moment," Rowe said, but "We have to have it every day. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-training-zero-fail-mission-2024-7">We cannot have failures.</a> And in order to do that, we're going to have some hard conversations with Congress, and we're going to achieve that."

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