Passengers disembark from a ferry in a steady downpour of rain in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood on Wednesday Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey) AP
A warm front in Massachusetts on Tuesday night is expected to bring steady rain.
This will be followed by a significant temperature drop when a strong cold front moves in late Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Rain amounts of a quarter to half an inch are expected across the state overnight, with temperatures starting off in the mid to upper 40s before warming up due to warmer air from the south.
Although temperatures will be muggy and unseasonably warm on Wednesday, reaching the upper 50s and lower 60s across the state, a cold front will move in by nighttime.
Much colder air will move in and bring temperatures down to the mid to upper 30s by Thursday morning.
Thanksgiving Day is expected to have cold and blustery conditions, with high temperatures struggling to reach the low 40s. In higher elevation areas, temperatures are expected to only reach the mid-30s.
Luis joined MassLive in 2022 as a general assignment reporter, writing breaking news stories, exposing the use of confidentiality agreements in Palmer public schools and the ‘ladies’ controversy in Easthampton….
Microsoft’s AI chatbot Copilot will no longer be available on WhatsApp after January 15, the company has shared. After that date, users on WhatsApp won’t be able to chat with the AI unless they switch to Microsoft’s own Copilot mobile apps or use the chatbot via the web.
The company explained it’s removing Copilot from the popular messaging app to comply with WhatsApp’s revised platform policies, which were announced last month.
At the time, the Meta-owned messenger said it would no longer support general-purpose AI chatbots from using its WhatsApp Business API to serve their customers. Instead, it wanted to reserve those resources for other types of businesses. This change doesn’t mean that businesses can’t use AI to serve their own customers. It does, however, put an end to WhatsApp being a channel for AI chatbot distribution, which will impact companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, and others.
OpenAI had already announced its plan to wind down its WhatsApp integration in January.
Unfortunately for Copilot users on WhatsApp, their chat history isn’t being preserved when they make the move to Microsoft’s platform because the access to the chatbot on WhatsApp was unauthenticated. Microsoft recommends users who need to retain their conversations for future reference export them using WhatsApp’s built-in tools before the January 15 deadline.
If you already picked up a Switch 2, you’re probably looking for deals that can help you kit out your new console without spending too much money. While maybe not the most exciting thing, a microSD Express card will be a key component for long-term gaming bliss. SanDisk’s 256GB microSD Express Card for the Switch 2 is on sale for Black Friday, down to $60 right now. This model is also available in storage sizes of 128GB and 512GB, but at the moment, only the 256GB model has a discount.
This particular model easily made our list of the best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch 2. It even made our list of the best Switch 2 accessories. It just gets the job done. We loved the speed on offer here. It was the fastest of all the cards we tested when transferring games and loading games.
SanDisk
We also found that it performed admirably at just about every test we threw at it. The card was always consistently right near the top, thanks to outstanding sequential read and write performance. This was backed up by benchmark testing with PC tools like CrystalDiskMark.
The Switch 2 only works with SD Express cards, so this covers that. Luckily, this card isn’t just for Nintendo’s latest console. It’ll work with just about everything, if you ever find it outstays its usefulness as a storage container for Mario and friends. Elsewhere when it comes to microSD Express cards on sale: PNY’s 256GB card is down to $50, as is Lexar’s Play Pro 256GB card.
Samsung continues to run some crazy Black Friday deals, including big discounts on select flagship Galaxy phones, and a rare discount on the Galaxy Ring tracker.
Through its online store right now, Samsung has a number of direct discounts on its products. This is notable because Samsung offers big discounts year-round, but they’re typically attached to trade-in offers. The discounts in this article are purely cash discounts on the cost of the device.
The biggest discount comes on Samsung’s most expensive smartphone. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, usually retailing for $1,999, is down to $1,399 for Black Friday. This also includes a doubled storage offer, meaning you’re getting the $2,119.99 512GB model for $720 off. That’s a really good deal on what is, by many accounts, the best foldable on the market today.
Beyond that, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is up to $505 off through a similar discount. Some of the biggest discounts include:
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Samsung is also offering a direct discount on the Galaxy Ring. Usually priced at $399, the health tracker is $120 off for Black Friday. Discounts on the Galaxy Ring have not been particularly common in the year since the product launched, so this is a great time to pick one up if you’ve been waiting.
A new residential development with 23 apartments is being proposed at 1428 Dorchester Ave. in the Fields Corner neighborhood, positioned within a six-minute walk of the Red Line station.
The five-story building would include at least four affordable units, meeting the 17% requirement under Boston’s Inclusionary Zoning regulations that became effective in October 2024.
The development by 1428 Dorchester Ave. LLC, with principals Timothy Longden and Edward Ahern, would rise 65 feet on an approximately 7,747-square-foot site, exceeding the 40-foot height limit in the Neighborhood Shopping subdistrict.
The project requires zoning relief for floor area ratio and building height.
The agency opened a two-month comment period Nov. 2 after receiving a Small Project Review Application for the Dorchester Avenue site. Residents can share their views on the proposal until Jan. 2, 2026.
Context Workshop of Boston is providing architectural services for the project, which features varied facade treatments including barnwood vertical siding, eggshell white panel siding, black fiber cement panels and grey panel siding.
1428 Dorchester Avenue Residential Project artist rendering submitted to the Boston Planning Department by 1428 Dorchester Ave LLC with Context Workshop.1428 Dorchester Ave LLC with Context Workshop
The development would provide two on-site parking spaces but includes a 26-space interior bicycle parking room supplemented by exterior bike racks. The limited parking reflects the site’s proximity to the Fields Corner Red Line station, which serves approximately 11,000 daily riders.
The project would provide rear yard and patio areas, side yards, private balconies and a roof deck.
The application cites the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s December 2023 approval of an adjacent 46-unit, five-story development at 1420 Dorchester Ave. as precedent for the building’s scale. That approval explicitly recognized alignment with Mayor Michelle Wu’s Squares + Streets initiative, encouraging denser housing near rapid transit.
Fields Corner is home to Boston’s Little Saigon Cultural District and features existing retail and customer services along the Dorchester Ave. corridor. The site is located on Dorchester Avenue, designated as a Neighborhood Connector under the city’s Complete Streets Initiative with dedicated bike infrastructure.
The project would preserve several existing street trees in good or fair condition along Dorchester Avenue, with trees requiring removal due to poor health or construction needs to be replaced.
India has granted legal status to millions of gig and platform workers under its newly implemented labor laws, marking a milestone for the country’s delivery, ride-hailing and e-commerce workforce — yet with benefits still unclear and platforms beginning to assess their obligations, access to social security remains out of reach.
The recognition stems from the Code on Social Security — one of four labor laws the Indian government brought into effect on Friday — more than five years after the parliament first passed them in 2020. It is the only part of the new framework that addresses gig and platform workers, as the remaining three codes — covering wages, industrial relations, and workplace safety — do not extend minimum earnings, employment protections or working-condition guarantees to this rapidly expanding workforce.
India has one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing gig economies, with industry estimates suggesting that more than 12 million people deliver food, drive ride-hailing cabs, sort e-commerce packages, and perform other on-demand services for digital platforms. The sector has become a critical source of employment, especially for young and migrant workers shut out of formal job markets, and is projected to expand further as companies scale logistics, retail, and hyperlocal delivery.
Companies from Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart to Indian quick-delivery apps such as Swiggy, Eternal’s Blinkit, and Zepto, as well as ride-hailing firms including Uber, Ola, and Rapido, rely on gig workers to run their businesses in the South Asian nation — the world’s second-largest internet and smartphone market after China. Yet despite powering some of India’s most valuable tech businesses, most gig workers operate outside traditional labor protections and lack access to basic social security.
The newly implemented labor laws are intended to change that, by defining gig and platform workers in statute and requiring aggregators, such as food-delivery and ride-hailing platforms, to contribute 1–2% of their annual revenue (capped at 5% of payments made to such workers) to a government-managed social security fund. But the details remain murky: what exact benefits will actually be offered, how workers will access them, and how contributions will be tracked across multiple platforms, and when payouts will begin all remain unclear, raising concerns that meaningful protections may take years to materialize.
A Zomato delivery boy moves through New DelhiImage Credits:Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto / Getty Images
The Code on Social Security creates a legal framework for gig workers to be covered under schemes such as the Employees’ State Insurance, provident fund, and government-backed insurance. However, the extent of these benefits — including eligibility, contribution levels, and delivery mechanisms — remains unclear and will depend on future rules and scheme notifications.
A key part of the framework is the creation of Social Security Boards at both the central and state levels, tasked with designing and overseeing welfare schemes for gig and platform workers. The central board must include five representatives of gig and platform workers and five representatives of aggregators, all nominated by the government, alongside senior officials, experts, and state representatives, per the Code. But there is little clarity on how decisions will be made, how much influence worker representatives will actually have, or who will ultimately control decisions on funding and benefit delivery.
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“We need to wait and see what exactly is in the government’s mind when it comes to implementing the four Codes, and what it hopes to do for gig workers,” said Balaji Parthasarathy, a professor at IIIT Bangalore and principal investigator of the Fairwork India project. “And then we also have to see what the states translate on the ground.”
Parthasarathy noted that because labor policy in India is shared between the federal and state governments — listed in the “concurrent list” of the Indian Constitution — state governments are responsible for designing, notifying, and administering many of the schemes needed to make the Code on Social Security operational for gig workers.
That raises the possibility of uneven access, as some states move quickly to establish social security boards and roll out mechanisms, while others delay or deprioritize the effort due to political or fiscal constraints. Recent examples — such as Rajasthan’s stalled legislation after it was passed in 2023, and Karnataka’s Gig Workers Act, which was implemented soon after clearing the state assembly — underscore how workers’ protections may ultimately depend on where they live rather than the law itself.
Platform companies have publicly welcomed the reform, but are still largely evaluating what it will require of them. An Amazon India spokesperson told TechCrunch the company supports the Indian government’s intent behind the labor overhaul and is evaluating the changes it will need to introduce. A spokesperson for Zepto said the company welcomes the new labor codes as “a big step toward clearer, simpler rules that protect workers while supporting ease of doing business,” adding that the changes will help strengthen social security for its delivery partners without undermining the flexibility that quick-commerce operations rely on.
Food delivery firm Eternal, formerly known as Zomato, said in a stock exchange filing that the Social Security Code is a step toward more uniform rules and that it does not expect the financial impact to threaten its long-term business.
Nonetheless, Aprajita Rana, a partner at corporate law firm AZB & Partners, said the change “will naturally have a financial impact” on India’s e-commerce sector, as worker contributions are now being formalized. It will also create new compliance obligations, requiring companies to ensure all workers in their networks are registered with the government-managed fund, determine whether individuals are associated with multiple aggregators and how to avoid duplicative benefits, and set up internal grievance mechanisms.
“While the law has the right intent, gig worker structures in India are quite novel, and practical challenges in compliance will emerge as the law takes force,” Rana told TechCrunch.
One of the biggest hurdles for gig workers seeking benefits under the newly implemented law will be registering on the Indian government’s E-Shram portal, launched in 2021 as a national database of unorganized workers. The portal had registered more than 300,000 platform workers as of the end of August, even though the government estimates India’s gig workforce at around 10 million. Trade unions, including the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), which has more than 70,000 members, are working to help gig workers enroll so they can access the benefits.
Ambika Tandon, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and an affiliate of the national trade union Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said registering on the portal could mean lost wages for gig workers, since they would have to take time off to fill in required details.
“These workers work for 16 hours a day,” she told TechCrunch. “They don’t have time to go and register themselves on the government portal.”
CITU is also among the ten major Indian trade unions calling for the withdrawal of the new labor laws, ahead of nationwide protests planned for Wednesday.
The benefits of registering on the E-Shram portal are not compelling for many gig workers, Tandon noted, because the law does not address more immediate concerns such as fluctuating earnings, account suspensions, and sudden termination of accounts — issues that workers say matter far more right now than access to insurance or provident fund benefits.
Trade unions often organize strikes to push platforms to address these concerns directly. However, such actions can disrupt everyone involved, including consumers, and put workers at further risk, as they are not paid while striking and may even face termination for participating.
Swiggy workers protested in Kolkata in 2023Image Credits:NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
“While the social security rules have now been put in place, we demand a minimum wage and an employer–employee relationship for gig and platform workers, which are yet to be set by the government,” said Shaik Salauddin, founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), which has more than 10,000 members in the southern state of Telangana, and national general secretary of IFAT. “We urge the government to obtain data from aggregators and secure their monetary contributions to the fund to start offering benefits to workers.”
There is a broader debate over whether gig workers should be treated as employees — a question the new labor laws do not address. The Social Security Code defines gig and platform workers as a separate category, rather than extending them the rights and protections that come with employee status. In contrast, courts and regulators in markets such as the U.K., Spain, and New Zealand have moved toward recognizing platform workers as employees or “workers,” entitled to minimum wages, paid leave, and other benefits. In some U.S. jurisdictions, regulators and courts have pushed for platform workers to be treated as employees or similarly protected workers, though many ride-hail and delivery drivers remain classified as independent contractors.
“With this law, the Indian government has settled this debate by saying that these gig workers do not sit within the ambit of employment or other protections,” Tandon said.
The Indian labor ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
President Donald Trump has issued a new Executive Order that launches the “Genesis Mission,” an AI-focused initiative that will be led by the Department of Energy. It will “harness the current AI and advanced computing revolution to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” the DOE explained. One of the mission’s main goals is to build a centralized platform that will house a huge collection of datasets collected “over decades of federal investments,” as well as datasets from academic institutions and partners from the private sector.
Those datasets will then be used to train scientific foundation models and to create AI agents, automate research workflows and accelerate scientific breakthroughs, the administration said in its announcement. “The platform will connect the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, and next-generation quantum systems with the most advanced scientific instruments in the nation,” the Energy department said.
Based on that statement, the platform will be linked to the two sovereign AI supercomputers the agency is building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, its famous research and development center. The machines, to be built by Hewlett Packard Enterprises, are meant to be the Trump AI Action Plan’s flagship supercomputers. The DOE previously revealed that the machines will be powered by AMD chips and will help tackle the biggest challenges in energy, medicine, health and national security.
“The Genesis Mission marks a defining moment for the next era of American science. We are linking the nation’s most advanced facilities, data, and computing into one closed-loop system to create a scientific instrument for the ages, an engine for discovery that doubles R&D productivity and solves challenges once thought impossible,” said Dr. Darío Gil, the Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission Director.
In the next four months, the Energy department must identify its initial set of data and model assets for the Genesis platform. The department must be able to demonstrate “an initial operating capability of the platform for at least one of the national science and technology challenges” the government has identified within nine months. While the list of challenges is pretty long, the Genesis Mission will focus on addressing three key challenges overall. First, it aims to accelerate nuclear and fusion energy, as well as to modernize the energy grid using AI. It also aims to power scientific discoveries for decades to come. Finally, it aims to create advanced AI technologies for the purpose of national security, such as systems that can ensure the reliability of America’s nuclear weapons and can accelerate the development of materials for defense.
Update 11/24: Version 7.55 is now widely rolling out on Android and iOS. Besides the homescreen, this new icon also appears in the top-left corner of the app bar.
After having the new design on my homescreen for a few days, the gradient effect absolutely takes a backseat. Instead, it looks more like the center of the icon has faded, especially the yellow. In one regard, this vaguely evokes nostalgia and faded photographs. But on the other hand, it doesn’t scream AI, while the resemblance to the other icons is minimal.
Original 11/19: The rounded semi-circle pinwheel shape is unchanged today. What’s new is a gradient fade that starts at the center where everything is lighter and then radiates out to the existing colors.
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This redesign is not the most obvious to spot. At homescreen size, you’ll just notice how the center has a slight glow. That said, it’s not an easy icon to update to the new company style. The “brighter hues and gradient design” symbolize the “surge of AI-driven innovation and creative energy across” Google. It’s meant to stay “true to Google’s iconic four colors.”
Old vs. new
The new icon reflects the slew of AI-powered features that Google Photos has gained recently. This includes the conversational “Help me edit,” Nano Banana, Ask Photos search, Remix, and more.
The estimated Powerball jackpot is $654 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $303.2 million.
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m.
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Jimmy Cliff onstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in July 2011.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
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Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican musician and actor who helped propel reggae into the international spotlight, has died at 81 years old. The singer-songwriter was known for hits such as “Many Rivers to Cross,” “You Can Get It if You Really Want” and the title track in the 1972 crime film The Harder They Come, in which he also starred as the main character.
According to his wife, Latifa Chambers, Cliff died due to a seizure followed by pneumonia. In an announcement on social media, Chambers wrote, “To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.”
Born James Chambers in 1944, Cliff grew up in a rural village in Jamaica, and began singing in school and in church. His father worked as a tailor, and hoped his son would study medicine. After being exposed to American music from New Orleans and Florida through the radio, a teenaged James moved to Kingston to pursue an artistic career.
His first major hit in Jamaica, “Hurricane Hattie,” referenced a 1961 storm that wreaked havoc in the Caribbean. In 1964, Cliff was selected to perform at the World’s Fair in New York City as a representative for the island. The following year, British-born producer Chris Blackwell signed Cliff to his label, Island Records, and persuaded him to move to England.
Though he initially struggled to find his footing with audiences abroad, Cliff earned critical and commercial success for songs such as “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” and the protest anthem “Vietnam.” Despite addressing war and tragedy in his music, the artist infused his lyrics with a hopeful outlook.
“I grew up economically poor, spiritually rich,” Cliff told NPR in 2010. “So even though I had this condition, that kind of balance made me always take the downside and kind of put an up to it.”
Cliff’s career reached new heights when he was cast in the lead role of Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin in the seminal Jamaican film The Harder They Come, directed by Perry Henzell. In it, Ivan is an aspiring reggae musician who moves to Kingston from the countryside, faces poverty and exploitation in the city and descends into a life of crime, eventually becoming a violent fugitive with a chart-topping single. The film features several of Cliff’s songs, which helped turn The Harder They Come into a national sensation in Jamaica and an international cult classic.
“That movie really had a tremendous effect on bringing the Jamaican world, music and culture and everything, to the forefront,” Chris Blackwell, who also served as executive producer for the film, toldFresh Air‘s Terry Gross in 2022.
Cliff continued to perform and record for decades, collaborating with artists including Elvis Costello, Annie Lennox and Wyclef Jean. In 1985, he was one of the dozens of artists featured on the all-star anti-apartheid song “Sun City.” The following year, Cliff won a Grammy Award for best reggae recording for his album Cliff Hanger.
In 2010, he became the second reggae artist, after Bob Marley, to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later, Cliff reintroduced himself — and reggae — to the world with his album Rebirth, which would go on to win a Grammy for best reggae album in 2013.
In an interview with NPR, Cliff described that album as a revitalization of his artistic vision, which necessitated going back to the sound that first launched his career from the studios of Kingston — playing with the same instruments and following the same live-to-tape recording techniques that he’d employed in the genre’s beginnings. The album included a cover of “The Guns of Brixton” by The Clash, which references Ivanhoe Martin in its lyrics.
“One of the reasons for covering that song was to show and remind people the influence that reggae music had on punk music,” Cliff told NPR. “Because reggae and punk address the same issues — political, social issues. I think that is the essence of the connection.”
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