Latest news with #Knock
Times
13-07-2025
- General
- Times
Why social media is driving young men towards the priesthood
Social media is driving young men into the priesthood as spiralling frustrations around distorted realities online begin to take their toll, a senior priest has said. Dozens of men, many of whom are in their twenties, are expected to gather on Sunday in Knock, Co Mayo, to learn about vocations in the diocesan priesthood. The annual 'Come and see' event has attracted an increasing number of young people in recent years, something that is being credited to a 'spiritual hunger' in society. Father Willie Purcell, Ireland's national vocations co-ordinator, said young people were beginning to tire of the curated façades being presented to them online. He believed many were turning towards religion for deeper meaning. 'I think there's a renewal of young people who are growing tired of this online generation,' Purcell said. 'They're in search of authenticity and can't find the answers to life's real questions on social media or through AI [artificial intelligence].
Arabian Post
26-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Cloudflare and OpenAI Unite to Power Persistent AI Agents
Cloudflare and OpenAI have unveiled a powerful integration enabling developers to build intelligent, stateful AI agents that combine OpenAI's reasoning with Cloudflare's scalable execution infrastructure. By pairing the OpenAI Agents SDK with Cloudflare's new Agents SDK and foundational technologies like Durable Objects and Workers, the collaboration delivers global reach, persistent memory, and human‑in‑the‑loop interaction, all within a serverless framework. The synergy addresses a key shortcoming of stateless AI agents. OpenAI's Agents SDK offers advanced cognition—planning, tool‑calling, decision‑making—yet leaves execution environment and persistence to the developer. Cloudflare's solution fills that gap: its Agents SDK runs atop Workers and Durable Objects, providing each agent a unique identity, durable memory store, built‑in scheduling, WebSocket connectivity and global low‑latency execution. Durable Objects act as the agent container. Each instantiation—based on a name or unique ID—carries its own state and storage, enabling multi‑session workflows, memory hydration, and asynchronous execution. Developers can create one agent per user, task, or domain, avoiding state entanglement while fostering modular, composable agent systems. For instance, one could build a triage agent that routes queries to specialist agents, each maintaining separate memory and logic. ADVERTISEMENT A standout feature is scalability through human‑in‑the‑loop control. Cloudflare's architecture enables agents to pause mid‑workflow, await human judgment, and resume—persisting intermediate steps and context across sessions. Knock, a third‑party messaging layer, exemplifies this. Developers have built virtual card‑issuing workflows where the AI agent pauses for approval before issuing a card—managed via Knock plus Cloudflare's SDK. Another innovation: agents are addressable beyond HTTP. Cloudflare's system supports Twilio‑backed phone‑call integrations, WebSocket real‑time sessions, email and pub/sub. This opens rich, multimodal use cases—voice, text, email—bound by a globally unique agent identity. Complementing these developments, a remote Model Context Protocol server has been introduced. Cloudflare now allows agents to host MCP servers directly, enabling structured tool integration and external service access via authenticated, remote endpoints using MCPAgent. The MCP feature dovetails neatly with Cloudflare's recent release of a free tier for Durable Objects and general availability of multi‑step Workflows, lowering the entry barrier for developers. Addition of the OpenAI Agents SDK and Responses API further enriches the landscape. OpenAI's Responses API supports dynamic web search, file system access and system‑level tasks; the Agents SDK coordinates multi‑agent orchestration. Paired with Cloudflare's persistent runtime, this empowers developers to build AI agents capable of real‑time research, memory‑backed workflows and inter‑agent communication. Underpinning this integration is Cloudflare's acquisition of Outerbase in April, a database platform company. The acquisition strengthens data infrastructure within Workers, Durable Objects and the Agents SDK—helping developers build rich, contextual, database‑backed AI systems. This move boosts long‑term memory storage and retrieval critical for agents maintaining evolving user context. Industry observers are taking notice. A Medium commentary described the duo as 'perfect complements: OpenAI's Agents SDK gives you the brain, the other gives you the body'. Cloudflare's CEO Matthew Prince emphasised that these developments remove 'cost and complexity barriers' to agent deployment, calling the MCP server release 'the industry's first remote MCP server'. Developers working with the Agents SDK can bootstrap agent projects via common workflows: installing via npm or using the agents‑starter template, extending the core Agent class to handle HTTP, WebSocket, scheduled tasks, SQL storage, and tool invocation. Integration with front‑end frameworks is supported through useAgent and useAgentChat React hooks, offering real‑time UI connections. Looking ahead, Cloudflare promises further enhancements: evaluation tooling, voice and video interactivity via WebRTC, richer email integration for human supervision, self‑hosting capabilities, structured output support, and deeper embedding with Worker AI, Vectorize, Log Explorer and AI Gateway. The evolving field of AI agents is entering a new phase—no longer demonstrations, but operational systems able to remember, adapt, collaborate, and operate at global scale. By combining cognitive reasoning with robust orchestration and persistence, developers are empowered to deploy production‑ready agents that are stateful, interactive and distributed. That shift stands to redefine automation, customer support, education, workflows and more—lowering development barriers, increasing resilience, and enabling agents that truly work on behalf of users across time, platforms and modalities.
Western Telegraph
05-06-2025
- Western Telegraph
Biker caught speeding at 101mph on narrow country road
Adam Knock, 36, pleaded guilty to committing the offence on the A4042 at Llanover near Abergavenny last month on Sunday, April 6. He was riding a Yamaha MT-09 motorcycle, Newport Magistrates' Court was told. The defendant, of Llanelly, Monmouthshire avoided a driving ban due to 'the impact on his business and especially an employee who relies on his wage'. Knock had his driving record endorsed with six penalty points. He was also fined £135 and ordered to pay £200 costs.
South Wales Argus
05-06-2025
- South Wales Argus
Abergavenny: Biker caught speeding at 101mph on country road
Adam Knock, 36, pleaded guilty to committing the offence on the A4042 at Llanover near Abergavenny last month on Sunday, April 6. He was riding a Yamaha MT-09 motorcycle, Newport Magistrates' Court was told. The defendant, of Llanelly, Monmouthshire avoided a driving ban due to 'the impact on his business and especially an employee who relies on his wage'. Knock had his driving record endorsed with six penalty points. He was also fined £135 and ordered to pay £200 costs.
Wales Online
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
All the Welsh acts who have performed at the Eurovision Song Contest
All the Welsh acts who have performed at the Eurovision Song Contest Several Welsh performers have taken to the Eurovision stage - but who were they, what did they sing and where did they place, if at all? Welsh legend Bonnie Tyler even took the stage for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. (Image: Richard Swingler ) Across the nation, folks are eagerly preparing for the Eurovision Song Contest as the grand final is looming. Although, there are people across Wales wondering, why can't we compete separately to the UK? Well, in January of this year, MSs discussed a petition that was created by calling for Wales to compete in the competition. Bakel Walden, from the EBU, wrote: "As the BBC continues to participate, and remains the rights holder in the United Kingdom, this means an entry from the individual nations of the UK is therefore not possible at the Eurovision Song Contest." This is because only one broadcaster in the UK is allowed broadcasting rights and as it stands that is the BBC. In the case of Junior Eurovision in 2018 and 2019, the BBC didn't want the rights and instead S4C took the job, meaning Wales was able to complete singlehandedly with Welsh language songs. That being said, despite not competing as Wales, plenty of Welsh people have competed in the competition. Let's take a look? For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter . Mary Hopkin (1970) Place: 7th. Article continues below The first Welsh performer at Eurovision was Mary, who represented the UK in 1970 with her song Knock, Knock Who's There. Born in Pontardawe, Mary is now 75 years old. She continues to create music and released her latest album, Two Hearts with her daughter in May 2023. Nicky Stevens (1976) Place: 1st. In 1976, Nicky brought the Eurovision title home as part of the group Brotherhood of Man. The band scored their first hit in 1974 and entered Eurovision two years later with the song Save Your Kisses For Me. In 2022, Brotherhood of Man - which also includes Martin Lee, Lee Sheriden and Sandra Stevens - announced their retirement from touring. Emma Louise Booth (1990) Place: 6th. Bridgend's own Emma Louise Booth holds the record as the youngest person to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990, when she was just 15. Now 50 and residing in Seattle with her family, Emma secured a respectable sixth place with her song Give a Little Love Back to the World. Jessica Garlick(2002) Place: 3rd In 2002, Jessica Garlick brought the UK its highest score of the noughties with her song Come Back, finishing third. Born in Derbyshire and educated at Glan-y-Mor Comprehensive School in Burry Port, Jessica had previously showcased her talent on ITV's Pop Idol. James Fox (2004) Place:16th Cardiff's James Fox didn't fare as well when he represented the UK at the 2004 Eurovision contest. His song Hold Onto Our Love landed him in 16th place. Now 49, James has since moved into musical theatre and penned the Cardiff City's FA Cup Final song Bluebirds Flying High in 2008. Bonnie Tyler (2013) Place: 19th Neath's Bonnie Tyler was the UK's hopeful in 2013, but despite her fame, she finished in 19th place with her song Believe in Me. Most people will recall Bonnie, now aged 73, for her hit songs Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out For A Hero. Her work has garnered her three Grammy Award nominations and three Brit Award nominations, among other honours. Joe and Jake (2016) Place: 24th Joe and Jake are a British duo which includes Joe Woolford and Jake Shakeshaft. They performed in Stockholm's Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song You're Not Alone, and unfortunately finished in 24th place. Although Jake was born in Stoke on Trent, Joe is very much a Welsh boy who was born and raised in Ruthin in North Wales. The pair met whilst competing in the Voice UK in 2015. Lucie Jones (2017) Position: 15th The most recent Welsh Eurovision star is West End sensation Lucie Jones, who represented the UK at the contest in 2017. She ultimately secured 15th place with her song Never Give Up on You. Lucie gained fame while participating in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009 where she finished in eighth place. She has also performed as Fantine in the West End production of Les Miserables and has more recently announced she will be performing at this year's Glastonbury. Article continues below This year's Eurovision Song Contest will be available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 8pm on Saturday, May 17.
