Connect with us
🔹 'I thought I was going to die' - people describe earthquake panic 🔹 What we know so far 🔹 Europe's heatwave shifts east as France raises health alert to highest level 🔹 Teenager cleared of murdering nine-year-old girl 🔹 Bellamy to stay with Wales as Burnley move off

Uncategorized

Dinner with H.E. Mariana Plaza: A Glimpse into Argentina–UK Bilateral Relations

Published

on

On Tuesday, 25 November, members of the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council (CFCC) gathered in the Attlee Room at the House of Lords for a dinner with Her Excellency Mariana Plaza, Ambassador of Argentina to the United Kingdom. The Ambassador was warmly welcomed by Baroness Meyer, Chairman of the CFCC.

Her Excellency Mariana Plaza brings an extensive diplomatic career, having held senior roles including Chief of Cabinet for the Deputy Foreign Secretary and the Under-secretariat for International Economic Negotiations, with a particular focus on MERCOSUR. Her professional experience spans three continents, with postings to the Argentine Mission in Montevideo and the Embassy in Kenya. From 2019, she served as Head of the Political Section, and from 2020 as Deputy Head of Mission in London, before assuming her role as Argentine Ambassador in 2024.

Guests enjoyed dinner before Baroness Hooper welcomed attendees, the Ambassador, and her husband, Minister Gonzalo Ortiz de Zárate. Baroness Hooper provided a brief outline of the Ambassador’s career, describing her as “a breath of fresh air”.

whatsapp image 2025 12 18 at 6.54.23 pm Dinner with H.E. Mariana Plaza: A Glimpse into Argentina–UK Bilateral Relations

In her address, Her Excellency spoke about the long-standing relationship between Argentina and the United Kingdom, highlighting historical connections through trade, immigration, culture, and education. She noted that 2024 marks 200 years since the first bilateral agreement between the two countries.

The Ambassador reflected on Argentina’s independence 216 years ago and the subsequent waves of immigration from across the United Kingdom. She referenced early Scottish settlers who arrived aboard the ship Symmetry, as well as Welsh communities who settled in Patagonia in the 1860s, where the Welsh language continues to be spoken today.

She also discussed Argentina’s economic development, particularly its role as a major food provider until the 1930s, and the contributions of UK immigrants to sectors such as banking, finance, communications, and shipping. Among these historical ties, she noted that Buenos Aires was once home to the only Harrods store outside London.

Addressing more recent history, Her Excellency acknowledged the South Atlantic conflict of the 1980s and noted that while diplomatic relations were re-established in the 1990s, both countries have maintained dialogue and communication despite differing national positions.

The Ambassador described Argentina as a unique country with so much potential. The eighth largest in the world, “it is going from strength to strength under President Javier Milei”. Change has come through Argentina’s young people. The President spoke to them and to many others, encouraging a new spirit, bringing about a changing attitude. The Ambassador mentioned the Ley Bases a bill passed in Congress described as a framework for the freedom of the Argentine people. She mentioned the three main pillars that the Ley Bases rests on, which are the deregulation of the state, promoting investments, and decreasing the weight of the state in the economy. Along with the Government’s policies, it helped to create a stable macroeconomic environment and rebuild Argentina’s credibility. The President continues to have massive support throughout the country.

Following the address, Baroness Hooper thanked the Ambassador for her work in keeping Argentina on the agenda of the UK Government and opened the floor for questions.

In closing, Her Excellency shared that among the values she would take back from the United Kingdom were its traditions, which she believes contribute to institutional stability and the strengthening of the rule of law.

Among those present were Ms Rebeca Riofrio, Dr Trevor Lee, Mrs Marilyn Clark, Mr Elvijs Plugis, Mr Graham Old, Ms Julia Kernick, Mrs Rosamund Blomfield-Smith, Ms Sue Whitting, Mr Lee Morton, Mr Chris Vary, Ms Belinda Donovan, Mrs Sarah O’Connell and Ms Anna Richmond, along with other guests.

https://www.cfcconline.org.uk/

https://sigulp.com/

Photos by: Guy Lucas

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Uncategorized

AIT Email Marketing Helps Businesses Take Control With Their Own Fully Managed Email Server for High-Volume Campaigns

FAYETTEVILLE, NCBrowser-based platform starts at $46.74/month for up to 240K emails and 20K contacts, with automation, segmentation, analytics, SMTP integration, API access, and flexible scaling on request.

Published

on

Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc. (AIT) is highlighting AIT Email Marketing as a fully managed, browser-based email marketing platform for businesses that want the control of their own email server without the burden of installation, maintenance, or infrastructure management.

Untitled design 1 1 AIT Email Marketing Helps Businesses Take Control With Their Own Fully Managed Email Server for High-Volume Campaigns

As businesses grow, their email marketing needs often become more advanced. Larger contact lists, higher monthly send volume, newsletters, promotions, customer updates, lead nurturing campaigns, and agency-managed workflows all require stronger campaign tools, more flexibility, and more predictable pricing.

AIT Email Marketing is designed for businesses that need more control than many standard email marketing platforms provide, while still keeping the experience simple and fully managed.

The campaign message is simple:

Your Own Email Server for Email Marketing — fully managed, browser-based, and built for high-volume campaigns.

With AIT Email Marketing, businesses can log in through any modern browser and start building campaigns without installing software or managing backend infrastructure. AIT handles the underlying platform so businesses can focus on marketing, audience engagement, and campaign growth.

“AIT was built on helping businesses use internet technology to grow, improve, and profit,” said Clarence Briggs, CEO of AIT. “With AIT Email Marketing, we are giving businesses the control of their own email server while keeping the experience fully managed and browser-based. Our goal is to help clients run serious email marketing campaigns without forcing their teams to deal with installation, maintenance, or infrastructure headaches.”

AIT Email Marketing offers transparent high-volume pricing tiers:

  • Tier 1 — $46.74/month: up to 240K emails and 20K contacts
  • Tier 2 — $68.00/month: up to 600K emails and 60K contacts
  • Tier 3 — $127.50/month: up to 1.5M emails and 100K contacts

 

The platform provides predictable flat-rate pricing within selected plan limits. If a client outgrows a plan or needs a temporary boost for seasonal campaigns, product launches, or list growth spikes, AIT can extend email and contact limits at additional cost on request.

AIT Email Marketing includes the campaign tools businesses need to build, send, automate, and track email marketing campaigns. Features include custom fields, merge tags, custom subscription forms, advanced segmentation rules, scheduled campaigns, behavior-based automation flows, event-driven triggers, RSS-driven newsletters, real-time analytics, open rate tracking, click tracking per link, bounce and complaint handling, API access, CSV import, and multi-user access with granular permissions.

The platform also supports flexible SMTP integration with providers such as Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, SparkPost, ZoneMTA, and other SMTP relays. This gives businesses more control over their sending strategy and sender reputation while still using a fully managed email marketing platform.

AIT Email Marketing is a strong fit for small businesses with growing email lists, marketing agencies managing client campaigns, e-commerce brands sending promotions and customer updates, SaaS companies sending onboarding and product communications, publishers using RSS-driven newsletters, larger teams needing multi-user permissions, and organizations sending high-volume, permission-based email campaigns.

Email marketing remains one of the most valuable owned marketing channels for businesses because it gives companies a direct way to communicate with their audience. AIT Email Marketing helps businesses strengthen that channel with transparent pricing, scalable sending capacity, automation, segmentation, analytics, SMTP flexibility, and managed infrastructure.

With the appeal of “Your Own Email Server for Email Marketing” and the convenience of a fully managed browser-based platform, AIT Email Marketing gives businesses a practical way to manage serious email campaigns without adding technical burden to their teams.

About Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc.

Advanced Internet Technologies, Inc. (AIT) is a privately held North Carolina-based technology company specializing in infrastructure, hosting, platform services, domain services, website solutions, and digital marketing tools. Founded by Clarence Briggs, AIT has served businesses ranging from small organizations to larger enterprise clients with technology solutions designed to help them grow, improve, and profit online.

Call to Action:

Businesses can own their fully managed email marketing platform here:

https://www.ait.com/effective-email-marketing/

Media Contact

Michael Noble

Advanced Internet Technologies

+1 800-862-6507

[email protected]

Fayetteville, NC, U.S.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

PG Gaming Strengthens Global Digital Presence with Launch of Verified Communication Channels

SINGAPOREPG Gaming, a developer of competitive social gaming environments, today announced the expansion of its global digital infrastructure. The initiative is designed to provide a secure, transparent, and reliable platform for its growing international community. As digital engagement continues to evolve, PG Gaming has established its official presence across key digital channels to facilitate community […]

Published

on

PG Gaming, a developer of competitive social gaming environments, today announced the expansion of its global digital infrastructure. The initiative is designed to provide a secure, transparent, and reliable platform for its growing international community.

As digital engagement continues to evolve, PG Gaming has established its official presence across key digital channels to facilitate community interaction and provide a trusted source for company updates, platform announcements, and competitive event information.

“The security and authenticity of our digital ecosystem remain top priorities,” said the Operations Lead of PG Gaming. “By centralizing communications through our official website and verified social channels, we aim to provide our community with a reliable source of information and a secure environment for engagement.”

Effective immediately, PG Gaming’s official digital presence is available through the following channels:

The company continues to see steady growth in community participation and remains focused on enhancing user engagement through competitive social gaming experiences and secure digital communication channels.

About PG Gaming

PG Gaming is a competitive social gaming community focused on delivering engaging gaming experiences, organized tournament structures, and secure digital communication platforms for players worldwide.

Media Contact:

Company Name: PG Gaming

Contact Person: Morgan

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://pggaming.co

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

New Open‑Source FPGA Code is Poised to Bring Private Payments, Verifiable AI, and Instant Gaming to Ethereum Layer 2s

San Francisco, CAFirst public release of a complete FPGA implementation for zero‑knowledge proofs could finally make ZK‑rollups cheap enough for consumer‑scale applications. A team of hardware and cryptography engineers has released the first open-source, full-stack FPGA implementation of a zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM). The code, published today, is designed to accelerate the generation of ZK proofs; the […]

Published

on

First public release of a complete FPGA implementation for zero‑knowledge proofs could finally make ZK‑rollups cheap enough for consumer‑scale applications.

A team of hardware and cryptography engineers has released the first open-source, full-stack FPGA implementation of a zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM). The code, published today, is designed to accelerate the generation of ZK proofs; the cryptographic backbone of secure, private, and scalable blockchain networks.

If adopted by rollup operators and prover networks, the technology could dramatically lower the cost of ZK‑rollups, making them competitive on cost with optimistic rollups, which today are cheaper but settle more slowly and rest on different trust assumptions. That, in turn, would enable a new class of consumer applications that have remained theoretical for years: private stablecoin payments, portable identity without document uploads, verifiable AI on local devices, and on‑chain gaming with instant finality.

The Bottleneck That Held Back Web3

ZK‑rollups offer instant transaction finality and the same security guarantees as Ethereum mainnet. But generating the required cryptographic proofs has been computationally expensive; so expensive that most ZK‑rollups remain costlier than optimistic rollups, which require a seven‑day withdrawal window and weaker trust assumptions.

Consumers have voted with their wallets. They choose the cheaper, slower option. And many promising applications; like private payments, proof‑of‑age without revealing identity, and micropayments; have never reached scale because the underlying proof costs made them uneconomical.

What the Open‑Source Code Does

An FPGA (field‑programmable gate array) is a chip that can be reconfigured after manufacturing to perform a specific task extremely efficiently. For ZK proofs, a properly configured FPGA can run orders of magnitude faster and use far less power than a general‑purpose CPU or GPU.

Until now, FPGA implementations for ZK proving have stayed proprietary or locked to a single prover network. This release is the first complete, open-source FPGA proving stack for a full zkVM — the FPGA backend for Venus, Cysic’s open-source zkVM. It includes the complete proving pipeline, not just isolated primitives, and is licensed permissively for anyone to use, modify, or port to different hardware.

The code sits alongside a production GPU proving network that already generates proofs for Ethereum blocks. With both GPU and open FPGA backends, the infrastructure is no longer dependent on a single class of silicon; a reliability benefit for any application that relies on verifiable compute.

What Becomes Possible

With fast, cheap, and open ZK proving, several long‑promised consumer applications could finally move from white papers to wallets:

  • Private, instant stablecoin payments – A business could prove its funds are clean without revealing its entire transaction history, at a cost of pennies instead of dollars.
  • Portable, privacy‑preserving identity – A user could prove their age or creditworthiness in under a second, without uploading passports or sensitive documents to third‑party servers.
  • Verifiable AI on consumer devices – An AI assistant on local hardware could prove it executed a given model faithfully on the user’s data — without sending that data to the cloud.
  • On‑chain gaming with instant finality – A multiplayer game could settle hundreds of moves per second on a ZK‑rollup, with proof costs low enough to make true asset ownership practical.
  • Micropayments and streaming money – Paying a fraction of a cent per second for video or API calls would no longer be eaten by fees, because per‑transaction proofs would become nearly free.

 

Availability

The open‑source FPGA code is available today on GitHub under permissive licenses. It is under active development and not yet audited for production use, but the team has invited researchers, developers, and hardware engineers to study, test, and build upon it.

“ZK only reaches its potential when proving is fast, cheap, and verifiable by anyone. Open‑sourcing the first FPGA zkVM is our way of saying the ecosystem moves forward together – not behind closed doors.”
— Leo Fan, CEO of Cysic

About the Release

The code is the FPGA hardware backend for Venus, Cysic’s open-source zkVM. It was built by Cysic, a verifiable compute network, and is released under Apache 2.0 / MIT licenses. It was built by Cysic, a verifiable compute network, and is released under Apache 2.0 / MIT licenses.

GitHub: github.com/cysic-labs/venus-fpga (placeholder)

Media Contact: [email protected]

About Cysic

Cysic, backed by leading investors including Polychain Capital, OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, is building the verifiable compute engine for Web3. By combining custom ZK hardware, a decentralized node network, and a programmable economic layer, Cysic transforms computation into a trustless, on-chain resource. The network supports scalable proof generation, AI verification, and scientific computing workloads, laying the groundwork for the ComputeFi economy.

Follow on X: @cysic_xyz

Read the Docs: https://hackmd.io/@Cysic

https://docs.cysicfoundation.org/~/changes/18/

Continue Reading

Trending