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Dominion Holdings books lower net earnings in the second quarter

DOMINION HOLDINGS, Inc. (DHI) saw its net income decline by 12.45% year on year in the second quarter due to lower interest earnings.

The company’s net profit stood at P58.62 million in the three months ended June, down from P66.95 million in the same period last year, its financial statement showed.

This brought its net earnings for the first half to P134.48 million, up by 7.34% from P125.28 million a year ago, “as it benefited from the high interest rate environment as well as the reversal of provisions for probable losses on bond investments, which matured in the second quarter of 2024,” it said in a disclosure to the stock exchange. This translated to a return on equity of 5.66% and a return on assets of 5.65%.

Interest income declined by 21.96% to P67.49 million in the second quarter from P86.49 million a year ago, its quarterly report showed.

The company’s investment portfolio declined by 67.51% to P1.98 billion at end-June from P6.09 billion.

Total assets likewise fell by 47.97% year on year to P3.26 billion at end-June from P6.27 billion due to a cash dividend declaration worth P3.2 billion. — AMCS

JG Summit says cybersecurity investigation underway

GOKONGWEI-LED conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, Inc. on Thursday said it is actively working with cybersecurity experts and partners to investigate an alleged ransomware attack.

“Our business units continue to operate normally. We are working closely with our cybersecurity experts and partners to proactively investigate and assess the situation,” JG Summit Holdings Inc. said in an e-mailed statement.

The company said it was “aware of circulating reports of a possible cybersecurity attack” and has activated all response protocols and enhanced security measures to ensure data protection.

Deep Web Konek has reported that the cyberattack targeted over 40,000 computers in JG Summit’s network and encrypted a total of 300 gigabytes of data.

The attackers gave JG Summit Holdings seven days to respond.

The cybersecurity group said the ransom note expressed the attacker’s frustration with JG Summit’s “lack of communication.”

In the note, the attackers said they are prepared to carry out additional attacks including further encryption, data shredding, and the use of secure delete functions to ensure no recovery is possible if their demands are not met.

“We take this matter very seriously. We recognize that many organizations have faced similar challenges in the current cybersecurity landscape,” JG Summit Holdings said.

The company said that safeguarding its data and preserving stakeholder trust are of utmost importance, and it will share updates as needed. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante

Box-office hero Deadpool could set record at comic-book auction

COMICS.HA.COM
COMICS.HA.COM

LOS ANGELES — Deadpool, the mouthy mercenary producing big box-office sales, may soon set a record at a comic-book auction.

Cover artwork featuring Deadpool’s first appearance in the comics went on sale this week at Heritage Auctions with an asking price of $7.5 million. If it sells at that price, it will be the most valuable comic-book art ever sold.

The penciled artwork was created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld, at age 23, for New Mutants #98, which was released in February 1991.

Mr. Liefeld does not own the artwork. He sold it to a collector 25 years ago, although he said he is thrilled that the character he created is doing so well financially.

“I just keep smiling,” said Mr. Liefeld about the auction.

Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool in box-office hit Deadpool & Wolverine, a movie from Walt Disney-owned Marvel Studios. The film ranks as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time with more than $879 million in global ticket sales.

When New Mutants #98 was released in 1991, the comic book cost $1. Now the original editions have become one of the most sought-after comics for collectors, with issues selling from $350 to $55,000 on eBay.

“Selling artwork was part of the income stream back then,” Mr. Liefeld told Reuters. “I sold this 25 years ago. I have zero regrets.”

Mr. Liefeld created Deadpool as a combination between Spider-Man and G.I. Joe. Immediately after his first appearance, Marvel Comics was flooded with fan mail.

“Marvel contacted me and said, this is the most fan mail we’ve had on a new character in 15 years,” said Mr. Liefeld. “They were flooded with letters, fan letters, which they sent me. And the box that that mail arrived in … I thought I was getting a washer and dryer,” he joked.

The current record holder in comic-book auctions is a copy of Action Comics #1, which features the first appearance of Superman and sold for $6 million earlier in the year, also at Heritage Auctions. — Reuters

Bangladesh isn’t getting its happy ending

AUSTIN CURTIS-UNSPLASH

IT MIGHT look like the replacement of Bangladesh’s long-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is a happy ending for a country that seemed to be inexorably sliding towards authoritarianism. After all, Hasina’s rule had become so paranoid that she even burned political capital on persecuting Yunus, widely feted for his role in rural development in Bangladesh and beyond. But, although Hasina’s exit was overdue, what comes after might wind up being worse.

We should be wary of seeing this as a simple victory for widespread, weeks-long popular protests, sparked by students in Dhaka. As in Egypt late in the Arab Spring, when pro-democracy protests against an elected president actually tipped the country into military rule, the prime mover was in fact an army desperate to protect its privileges. Cairo feels less free and prosperous now than it did a decade ago. Will Dhaka fare any better? Hasina was pushed off-stage relatively swiftly once the military switched sides: After 15 years in power, she was reportedly given 45 minutes to get out of town.

Yunus, while popular, has no political base from which he could challenge the uniforms. The only organized opposition in Bangladesh — again, shades of Egypt here — is on the more Islamist side of the spectrum. With Hasina gone and her party and movement discredited, it seems clear that these are the forces that will make a play for power. The leaders of the student protests understandably reject this possibility. But, as in Cairo in 2013 or Teheran in 1979, the protesters may not completely comprehend the forces they have allied with and unleashed. Hasina’s departure was celebrated by attacks on the homes, businesses and temples of the Hindu minority across the country.

When her rivals in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party last ruled in the 2000s, the country quickly became the source of a worrying amount of cross-border terrorism. After Hasina was elected in 2009, she cracked down on militancy. As a consequence, Bangladesh outperformed on growth, development, and poverty reduction during her tenure. Even Pakistani politicians noted the contrast with the illiberal chaos that has crippled their economy.

Hasina could be trusted to keep Bangladesh from descending into a Pakistan-style maelstrom of fanaticism because she viewed Islamists as personal enemies: They collaborated with Pakistani colonizers, and killed her father. Bangladesh’s first prime minister, Mujibur Rahman, was an omnipresent image in his daughter’s now-vanished regime. Mujib, as he is known, is widely respected for leading the Bengalis’ struggle against Punjabi-dominated Pakistan before independence in 1971. The most dangerous aspect of Hasina’s increasingly oppressive grip on power is that, alongside destroying her own legacy, it may have tarnished her father’s beyond repair.

This is not a quarrel about dead history, but about live ideology. Mujib and his movement are associated with the Bengali language and nationalism; his opponents — who staged a coup in the 1970s that killed him and most of his family except for Hasina (and her sister, Rehana, who is with her now in India) — are much closer to the political Islamism that both defines and has derailed the Pakistani project.

None of this exonerates Hasina, who wound up rigging one election too many. Her overthrow should not come as a surprise to anyone paying attention. The problem is that nobody has been paying attention. It’s time for that to change.

India and the West cannot evade responsibility here. New Delhi has tied itself so closely to Hasina in the public imagination that it has ended up being seen not a proponent of democratic values but as a dictator’s primary prop. The West, meanwhile, did little to convince Hasina of the benefits of democratization. As long as labor rights appeared to progress, it didn’t care about the rest of its Bangladesh policy — which, by the end, was being set by a restive and politically influential Bangladeshi diaspora now dominated by those ideologically opposed to Hasina and her father. Mujib’s statues may have been attacked back home, but this echoes actions in the West; soon after her downfall a rowdy group of expatriates barged into Bangladesh’s New York consulate to forcibly remove his portrait from there, as well.

We will pay for these errors. Bangladesh has appeared normal for so long that we have forgotten how dangerous it would be for it to become chaotic. The world’s third-largest Muslim-majority nation has largely avoided sectarianism. That’s thanks partly to the strength of Bengali cultural nationalism. But it’s also because it was born in opposition to Pakistan, an Islamic republic. Half a century ago, following its traumatic independence from Pakistan, it faced such starvation that The Beatles’ George Harrison decided to organize the first superstar charity concert in history. Today, the poverty rate is below 20% and still declining.

Hasina’s party and government took credit for both these achievements. In doing so to justify their vice-like grip on power, they may have convinced Bangladeshis that these are not achievements worth keeping. That would be a tragedy for Bangladesh. And it would be dangerous for India, the West, and the world.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

AmCham firms to join SM J.O.B.S. advocacy

AROUND 800 members of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) are expected to take part in SM Group’s job fairs after the two entities entered into a partnership.

In a statement on Wednesday, AmCham said that the partnership is a result of a memorandum of understanding signed with SM Group’s Jobs Opportunities Building Skills (J.O.B.S.) advocacy.

Under the agreement, 800 AmCham members will participate in SM’s job fairs, and thousands of employees within AmCham’s network will be provided with upskilling opportunities.

“AmCham has always pushed towards upskilling our workforce as we see how crucial it is to the sustainability of business,” AmCham Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe said.

 “The SM J.O.B.S. advocacy’s two-pronged approach to empowering the Filipino worker is quite an effective way to reach people and provide opportunities nationwide,” he added.

 The partnership will give AmCham companies’ employees opportunities to attend courses like digital marketing for e-commerce, cloud foundation, business analytics, and computer security.

“SM will continue to hold job fairs across the country to match job opportunities with the right skills and talents,” Teresita Sy-Coson, lead of the J.O.B.S. project under the Private Sector Advisory Council, said.

“By providing a venue for employers and potential employees, we are doing our part in pushing job acceleration,” she added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

Auto Sales (July 2024)

VEHICLE SALES in the Philippines jumped by an annual 6.1% in July, driven by new launches and supply availability, according to an industry report. Read the full story.

Auto Sales (July 2024)

The personalization versus privacy dilemma

The ubiquity of digital platforms and channels such as websites and mobile apps has significantly transformed the landscape of customer interactions. These platforms strive to offer personalized experiences that cater to individual preferences, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement. However, this personalization often comes at the cost of user privacy, creating a complex dilemma: how to balance the need for personalization with the imperative of ensuring customer data security. This personalization versus privacy dilemma is real, particularly in the context of financial services, where the stakes are exceptionally high due to the sensitive nature of the data involved.

Personalization in digital platforms is driven by the need to provide users with relevant and tailored experiences. This is achieved by collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data, including user behavior, preferences, and demographic information. For instance, online banking apps and financial websites use data analytics to offer personalized financial advice, tailored product recommendations, and customized alerts. These personalized services are designed to enhance user experience, foster customer loyalty, and drive business growth. However, the very data that enables this personalization also raises significant privacy concerns.

The collection and use of personal data inherently involve risks. Unauthorized access, data breaches, and misuse of information are prevalent threats in the digital age. In the financial sector, where data include sensitive information such as account numbers, transaction histories, and personal identification details, the implications of a privacy breach are severe. Such breaches can lead to financial loss, identity theft, and a loss of trust in financial institutions.

One prominent example of this dilemma is the 2017 Equifax data breach. Equifax, a leading credit reporting agency, suffered a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of more than 147 million consumers. The breach included sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers. This incident underscored the vulnerability of even the most secure systems and highlighted the devastating consequences of inadequate data protection measures.

In response to such incidents, regulatory bodies have implemented stringent data protection laws to safeguard consumer privacy. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States are two prominent examples. These regulations mandate that organizations must ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of personal data. They also grant consumers greater control over their data, including the right to access, delete, and restrict the processing of their information.

While these regulations are a step in the right direction, they also present challenges for financial institutions striving to offer personalized services. Compliance with data protection laws requires significant investments in cybersecurity infrastructure, data encryption, and secure data storage solutions. Additionally, organizations must implement robust data governance frameworks to manage consent and ensure transparency in data processing activities. These measures, while essential for protecting privacy, can hinder the seamless delivery of personalized experiences.

One way financial institutions are navigating this dilemma is through the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies. For example, differential privacy techniques enable organizations to glean insights from data without exposing individual identities. By adding statistical noise to datasets, differential privacy ensures that the privacy of individual users is maintained while still allowing for meaningful analysis. Similarly, federated learning allows for the training of machine learning models on decentralized data, reducing the need to centralize sensitive information.

Another approach is the use of tokenization, which replaces sensitive data elements with unique identification symbols (tokens) that retain the essential information without compromising security. In the context of financial services, tokenization can be used to secure payment information during transactions, ensuring that even if data is intercepted, it cannot be misused.

The financial industry is also leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance both personalization and privacy. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to detect patterns and anomalies, helping to identify fraudulent activities in real-time. At the same time, these technologies can be designed to prioritize data minimization, ensuring that only the necessary information is collected and processed.

For instance, some banks are using AI-driven chatbots to provide personalized customer support while adhering to strict privacy standards. These chatbots can handle routine inquiries and transactions without accessing sensitive information, thereby minimizing the risk of data exposure. Additionally, advanced encryption techniques ensure that any data exchanged during these interactions is secure.

Despite these technological advancements, the human element remains crucial in balancing personalization and privacy. Financial institutions must foster a culture of data protection, where employees are trained to handle data responsibly and ethically. Regular audits, risk assessments, and continuous monitoring are essential to ensure that privacy measures keep pace with evolving threats.

In the end, the personalization versus privacy dilemma is a significant challenge in the digital age, particularly for financial services that handle sensitive customer data. While personalized experiences can enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth, they must not come at the expense of data security. By leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies, complying with regulatory requirements, and fostering a culture of data protection, financial institutions can navigate this dilemma effectively. The ultimate goal is to strike a balance where customers enjoy tailored experiences while their privacy and data security are uncompromised.

The views and opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FINEX.

 

Reynaldo C. Lugtu, Jr. is the founder and CEO of Hungry Workhorse, a digital, culture, and customer experience transformation consulting firm. He is a fellow at the US-based Institute for Digital Transformation. He is the chair of the Digital Transformation IT Governance Committee of FINEX Academy. He teaches strategic management and digital transformation in the MBA program of De La Salle University. The author may be e-mailed at rey.lugtu@hungryworkhorse.com

Chelsea reports narrowed losses for Q1, cites sector recovery

CHELSEA Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp. narrowed its first-quarter (Q1) net loss to P148.17 million from a loss of P324.04 million last year, buoyed by a rebound in maritime and logistics operations.

Gross revenue for the three months to March reached P1.78 billion, climbing by 4.1% from P1.71 billion a year ago, the company’s financial statement showed.

Its Q1 gross expense declined to P1.67 billion, lower by 3.5% from P1.73 billion in 2023.

The company attributed the improvement to the resurgence in the passage, chartering, tugboats, and logistics businesses, as well as the increasing vessel activities.

Gross profit for the first quarter reached P304 million, up by 13.9% from P267 million previously.

Cost of sales and services also went up to P1.47 billion from last year’s P1.44 billion.

“The quarter saw a strategic focus on optimizing the fleet through increased availability of vessels, supporting the recovery in passenger volumes and enhancing service capacity across all segments,” Chelsea Logistics said.

The company said it will continue to invest in digital transformation efforts to help improve its service delivery.

“We are confident in our ability to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities in the logistics sector,” Chelsea Logistics Chief Financial Officer Ignacia S. Braga IV said. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

BTS member Suga apologizes for drunk driving on e-scooter

COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

SEOUL — K-pop star Suga, a member of the boy band supergroup BTS, apologized on Wednesday after police in Seoul, the South Korean capital, fined him and revoked his license for drunk driving while on an electric scooter.

The songwriter and rapper had ridden the scooter for about 500 meters before he tripped when parking on Tuesday night, his label Big Hit Music, which is part of K-pop firm HYBE, said.

Suga failed a breathalyzer test conducted by nearby police and was fined, and his scooter license taken away, the label said, adding that the incident caused no harm to anyone else or property damage.

“I violated the road traffic law because I was comfortable with the idea of being close (to home) and was not aware that you could not use an electric scooter when you are drunk,” Suga wrote in a post on Weverse, a fan platform owned by HYBE.

“I apologize to everyone who has been hurt by my careless and wrong behavior,” added Suga, whose birth name is Min Yoon-gi.

South Korea, which requires a license for use of an electric scooter, can levy penalties for driving while drunk or injuring others.

Police accompanied the singer to his home, Big Hit Music said.

The incident is the latest example of K-pop performers sometimes falling short of their squeaky-clean image.

Since announcing a break from group projects in June 2022, BTS members pursued solo activities before starting military service.

The 31-year-old Suga has been engaged in social service work in order to meet his military duty commitment.

All able-bodied South Korean men aged 18 to 28 must serve for about two years in the military, though some are allowed to work as social service agents as an alternative form of duty. — Reuters

A US judge just called Google the ‘highest quality search engine.’ But how do we determine ‘quality’?

In his landmark ruling against Google earlier this week, United States district judge Amit Mehta said the tech giant has built “the industry’s highest quality search engine.”

Judge Mehta made clear this was partly because Google had an illegal monopoly over the market. Nonetheless, Google was keen to promote the praise it received for its flagship product. Its president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said: “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

But is the Google search engine as good as the company (and Judge Mehta) says it is? And by what metric do we measure whether Google has the “best” search engine in the world?

To answer these thorny questions, it’s important to think about the broader context of the internet — and, in particular, the powerful place of advertising.

SEARCH ENGINES ARE AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS
On Sept. 4, 1998, computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google. In the 26 years since, the company has radically transformed our ability to find information.

Its search engine currently processes 8.5 billion queries per day — 15% of which have never been made before.

People expect the search engine to rapidly deliver accurate answers to every one of those queries. To fulfil this expectation, Google must keep the index up to date by regularly scanning and re-scanning the internet.

This huge task requires thousands of staff — and is therefore very expensive.

One edge Google has over its competitors when it comes to delivering relevant results is its large customer base. They can tune their algorithms based on customer clicks to be more accurate and cover a broader range of queries.

Crucially, however, they wouldn’t have as large a customer base were it not for them having an illegal monopoly over the market.

ADVERTISING IS KEY
A good way to measure the quality of Google’s search engine is by tracking the presence of advertisements to see how much they affect peoples’ ability to find the information they are looking for.

Advertising has long been a key part of Google.

The company doesn’t appear to keep copies of its search result pages. However with some sleuthing, examples of how ads in search have changed over the years can be found on the Internet Archive’s WaybackMachine. The picture that emerges indicates the line between high-quality search results and sponsored content is increasingly blurred.

The first page captured in the year 2000 shows only two adverts at the very top of the page. These are clearly identified by different colored boxes and the prominently displayed message “sponsored link.”

The next example, taken from 2013, shows many more ads. But they are clearly labeled in a colored box and in a separate column on the right.

In 2016, the column has disappeared and the ads at the top lose their distinctiveness from Google’s main result list, for which Google receives no money.

Finally, the capture of the Google result today shows sponsored links occupying much screen space before the main results can be seen at the bottom of the page.

There are other problems impacting the quality of Google’s search engine — as well as its competitors’. In a study published earlier this year, German researchers found that spam and other low quality content is very prevalent among the top results for product review searches on Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

They concluded: “We find that search engines do intervene and that ranking updates, especially from Google, have a temporary positive effect, though search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse game that is [search engine optimization] spam.”

SO, WHAT’S THE FIX?
The impact of forcing Google to give up some of its market share might increase competition, which could push Google to improve the experience search engine users have by reducing the volume and display of advertising.

However, reducing the search engine’s customer base too much might impact on the search engine’s ability to deliver high quality results, because the number of customer clicks that help tune the search engine algorithm would drop.

Apart from breaking up a monopoly, are there other ways to improve search quality?

The most promising approach at the moment is to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) behind the scenes.

A recent leak of how the Google algorithm works found that a generative AI system was being used to judge the quality of web pages.

Microsoft has also applied an “AI model to our core Bing search ranking engine, which led to the largest jump in relevance in two decades.”

Hopefully this works. Because with multiple disruptions from the courts and AI innovations including Chatbots, the sedate changes in the quality of search results are about to accelerate.

THE CONVERSATION VIA REUTERS CONNECT

 

Mark Sanderson is the dean of Research and a professor of Information Retrieval at RMIT University. He received funding from Microsoft Research in 2018.

Long-term career plan for new workers

I’m a fresh college graduate, now in my first month with a medium-sized corporation. It’s my dream to work in this industry. What’s your advice for a new employee like me? — Time Travel.

Don’t waste time. Study the company’s policies and programs, including its performance appraisal system. Exceed the job expectations and in due time, you’ll get many favorable opportunities that could increase your motivation and pave the way for a fast-track promotion.

That is, if you don’t mind working your way up from the lowest level in the organization. Ordinarily, that means spending three years showcasing what you can do best. But first, your concern is to meet the terms and conditions of your six-month probationary employment contract.

If you can prove your worth, there’s a good chance you can be a regular employee in four months. That is if your employer has a strategic human resources (HR) program that could improve your chances of getting high marks in your performance appraisal after the first three months.

Don’t be distracted by external noise like applying for jobs elsewhere. Focus on your current job. Don’t engage in office gossip or other non-productive activity. Aspire for a perfect attendance award, even if there is none.

Don’t be sidetracked by comfort zones, which would be disastrous, and could delay your confirmation as a regular employee, or complicate your work relationships.

PROMOTION SYSTEM
Have a long-term career plan in that organization, not elsewhere. Job-hoppers, especially for a fresh graduate like you, are frowned upon by many employers. Therefore, the best approach is to understand the current expectations of your employer and achieve them all with flying colors.

Understand the system and use it to your advantage. Many companies believe in meritocracy rather than seniority or length of service, which is used only when breaking a tie between and among several internal candidates. There’s no other way but to work your way up with due deference to your boss, colleagues, and top management.

Here is a step-by-step guide that you can explore:

One, understand the performance appraisal system. Internalize their specific requirements. What kind of system is in use? Is it the 360-degree appraisal that requires peer assessment from your work colleagues and team members? Does it allow self-assessment based on attitude, behavior, and actual job performance? A simple Management-by-objectives system?

Two, study the promotion policy in great detail. It goes hand-in-hand with appraisal. There’s no use meeting the minimum requirements of the appraisal system if you just wait for an internal job vacancy to happen. You have to seize the day and create your own luck.

Seek out experienced people who were there before you. Don’t be disappointed if their experiences are negative. Your situation could be different from others.

 Prepare a personal promotion chart. Observe fast-trackers who were promoted recently. Befriend them. Know their secrets. Then draft a promotion roadmap starting from your current job up to the most likely senior position open to you.

Make a Point A to Point B goal that includes all requirements of the job, such as a post-graduate degree, performance milestones, awards, and other skill requirements. Now, plot all the steps in between. Then, mark your current place. Cross off each step as soon as you accomplish every stage of the process.

You can also include other skills that you may find unique to your situation, especially if they are difficult to acquire.

RELATIONSHIP
Developing a long-term career plan is like being a movie actor, choosing the role, memorizing a script, and maintaining a good reputation. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s your mission statement. Whatever you do, be the best person that you can be to your boss and work colleagues.

It may seem simple, but having positive work relationships is equally important, or even more important than the roadmap you’re following. You may be the ideal candidate for a promotion, but if you are perceived to be a horrible person at dealing with people, then you may not be able to get what you want.

 

Bring Rey Elbo’s popular problem-solving and decision-making workshop called “Kaizen Blitz” to your organization. Save millions of pesos from operational invisible wastes. Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com

How PSEi member stocks performed — August 8, 2024

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Thursday, August 8, 2024.