3 lucky coins 'Nicest dinner ever' is comforting twist on pie and mash - perfect for winterFox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee scorched his old team on Sunday after watching them get eliminated from playoff contention in a loss to the New York Giants. Indianapolis had three turnovers and allowed four Drew Lock touchdown passes in the 45-33 defeat. The Colts dropped to 7-9 on the season and were officially out of contention. McAfee wrote a scathing post on X, criticizing the organization, ripping those who tried to get him "booed out of the city" and announcing he will not renew his season tickets. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM Pat McAfee sits on the ESPN College GameDay set at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa., on Nov. 2, 2024. (IMAGN) "A blind person could see the red flags on this team.. Work ethic questions, NEVER happens on good teams.. Preparation commitment questions, NEVER happens on good teams.. Late to meetings, NEVER happens on good teams.. Late to/skipping treatment, NEVER happens on good teams.. The franchise QB (Anthony Richardson) tapped out of a game.. on 3rd down.. in the red zone.. because he was tired... NEVER HAPPENED in the history of the NFL," McAfee wrote. "That’s literally the only thing you need to tell someone (who knows ball) and they could tell you everything about this team..." He wrote that if a franchise quarterback left in the middle of a game because he was tired, the "immediate response" would be that the team has "no chance." "And to the surprise of nobody.. that was the response by everybody who’s ever played/coached the game before but.. Colts blogs and fans who have been covering the Colts since 2020 and more recent knew better than everybody... Started personally attacking me and trying to kick me out of town," McAfee continued. BAKER MAYFIELD'S 5 TOUCHDOWNS KEEP BUCS' PLAYOFF HOPES ALIVE IN WIN OVER PANTHERS New York Giants quarterback Drew Lock celebrates with wide receiver Malik Nabers after Lock ran for a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts in the second half, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) "When I said Joe Flacco gives us a better chance to win than AR immediately after the tap out.. I would’ve said whatever backup QB we had on the roster. That can’t be what the face of your team is doing.. just can’t be.. and to a bigger aspect of it all, somehow AR thought it was ok to do that. That’s a locker room issue.. that’s a culture issue.. thats an indicator of a loser attitude radiating thru a building that was built by greats. "I have no idea how they fix it.. I don’t think it’s like a light switch. "Alright, we’re gonna become Pros now" but... maybe it is, but what do I know? "Oh wait..... how this was all gonna work out. I knew that." McAfee added that he wouldn’t be renewing his season tickets and hoped the team returned to its winning ways. "As a multiple year season ticket holder (not renewing).. and someone who has actively, daily, attempted to be an additive to this beautiful city. I hope they become a good franchise again.. this city deserves it.. the OGs in the Colts building deserve it (equipment managers, trainers, ticketing, PR, sales).. and on the flip side the players/coaches in that building deserve whatever happens to them. Your unwarranted arrogance, laziness, and lack of professionalism has lead you to ANOTHER early vacation... which is probably what most of you entitled bums have been hoping for. "I don’t speak for the city.. and I don’t speak for all ex Colts players because I was only a punter.. nominated for the HOF 3 times now but nonetheless.. I speak from my own perspective.. I’ve never seen a group waste opportunities/talent/money more than this group." Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor scores a touchdown against the New York Giants in the second half, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Corey Sipkin) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP McAfee was a two-time Pro Bowl punter with the Colts from 2009 to 2016. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter . Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

The final gaming-focused major event of 2024, , is only a few days away, and already, some publishers are hyping up what will appear during the ceremony. It's two highly-anticipated 2K-published titles that are slated to land with fresh looks this Thursday, namely and existence was first revealed by 2K and Gearbox Software during Gamescom Opening Night Live. The first teaser trailer only had a cryptic scene of what's happening in the alien looter shooter universe, but The Game Awards reveal should have a lot more to offer. "Prepare yourselves," hyped up the official channels earlier today "We’re about to crank things up to the next fucking level at The Game Awards. Who's ready to get their first look at the most ambitious Borderlands yet?!" Moreover, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford pitched in with a much more substantial teaser of his own, confirming that gameplay will indeed be shown off: Yes, there is GAME PLAY in the trailer! Also, in addition to a lot of in-game footage, I will share a sick, never-before-seen original cinematic sequence depicting a moment that occurs about half way between the end of Borderlands 3 and the beginning of Borderlands 4. I AM... Compared to that, teaser is much tamer. Its simply invited fans to watch The Game Awards for first-look at the prequel entry. The game's reveal in August. It's in development at the Mafia 3 and the original Mafia's remake studio Hanger 13. The game is slated to take players into 1900s Sicily to offer a look into the "origins of organized crime with a gritty mob story." Both and currently have broad 2025 launch windows attached to them, but The Game Awards may reveal a more tighter time slot for their release, probably far away as possible from 2K's biggest launch of 2025: The , December 12, 2024, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

NEW YORK , Dec. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Informa TechTarget ("Informa" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: TTGT ). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Informa and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] On December 2, 2024 , TechTarget completed its business combination with Informa Tech, a business unit of Informa PLC ("Informa"). Then, on December 6, 2024 Tech Target disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Informa's management had advised the Company that certain "financial statements previously prepared by Informa should no longer be relied upon and were being restated because of errors identified by Informa in such financial statements". On this news, TechTarget's stock price fell $2.06 per share, or 8.07%, to close at $23.48 per share on December 9, 2024 . Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York , Chicago , Los Angeles , London , Paris , and Tel Aviv , is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz , known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud , breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Danielle Peyton Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 646-581-9980 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

ormer center has turned into a season of joy for thousands of children in . The star spearheaded the annual ensuring every child in the system received a gift this holiday season. Kelce and his former Eagles teammates -collectively known as the -raised funds through sales of their festive Christmas album. Their effort culminated , complete with a nine-vehicle caravan and police escort, . In a social media post, shared his gratitude, writing: The video captured the team spreading cheer -board games and toys for younger students, while older kids received gift cards . The Kelce Brothers share holiday laughs Meanwhile, and his brother, , brought their own holiday magic to fans in a festive episode of their podcast, . Jason's wife, Kylie, joined the duo as they fielded voicemails from listeners . One listener asked how to gently tell a loved one r. Jason shared a relatable anecdote, revealing that he and Travis used to gift their mother, Donna Kelce, until she suggested switching it up. Jason recalled. Kylie humorously : Jason is a Santa dressed in green While Jason and kept , Donna Kelce is reportedly . to sharing family traditions, in every way possible.Maybe it’s because there are so many games, or maybe it’s because the rise of digital distribution and subscriptions means there are more sub-groups of game-players and fewer massive mainstream hits, but it feels like this year the “best games” lists are more diverse and individual than ever. Even as someone who tries to play broadly across all platforms, there are some games cropping up on end-of-year lists that I didn’t play, and some of the best ones I did play draw blank looks when I discuss them with others. So, while it’s impossible to make anything approaching an objective list of the best, I’ve attempted it anyway. Here they are in no particular order. I didn’t have ‘help a rapping tree’ on my 2024 bingo card, but I’m glad it happened. Astro Bot PS5 At once a celebration of PlayStation’s 30-year history and a whimsical Nintendo-style platformer the likes of which the brand has never seen before, Astro Bot is a beautiful theme park of running and jumping, filled with hidden depth, incredible gimmicks and great music. I’m not a huge fan of the emotionless robot protagonist or the Sony branding, but the combination of flawless gameplay design, hilarious environments, oodles of nostalgia and cutting-edge tech puts this on par with some of Mario’s most memorable outings. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Side-scrolling platform adventure games are ubiquitous and there were heaps of good ones this year, but the best was also a return to relevance for a beloved franchise. The fictional Mount Qaf is a wonderful setting that blends Iranian history and Arabian mythology with the series’ penchant for vicious traps and time distortion, while new protagonist Sargon brings a fresh and edgy vibe that marries the acrobatic focus of the Sands of Time trilogy with the methodical platforming of older Prince adventures. By invoking familiar poker hands, Balatro brings the satisfying hook of a rougelite game to a wider pool of players who have no idea what that is. Balatro Android, Apple Arcade, iOS, PC, PS5, Switch Xbox In an industry plagued by gambling disguised as play, it’s gratifying that one of this year’s most successful games employs the aesthetic of cards and casinos with no gambling to be found. Upgrade and augment your deck with special powers and tarot effects, stack up game-changing jokers to synergise with your favourite cards, and try to break the game with impossibly powerful poker hands. The work of one individual developer, it’s incredible, and arguably addictive, but you’ll pay no more than the purchase price. Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch Mario Party is a dependable choice for casual group play or a family game night. But, unexpectedly, Jamboree is the absolute height of the series. There are heaps of playable characters, more than 100 great new minigames, seven unusually interesting and diverse game boards and extra modes for playing on your own or online with randos. But the icing on the cake is the ability to enforce “pro mode” to make the winner less chance-based, opening up the possibility of truly competitive play, and it’s so much fun. It may take its broad structure from one third of a decades-old game, but Rebirth has plenty original to say. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth PS5 I was expecting a middle chapter for Square’s epic three-part remake of a 1997 classic, but this turned out to be so much more. From the layered character customisation and combat systems that feed seamlessly into one another, to the completely optional collectible card game that I quickly became obsessed with, this is unexpectedly a much broader, deeper and more open game than its predecessor. An astonishing RPG that more than stands on its own merits, and even overshadows part one for ambition and creativity, it’s a remarkable achievement. Star Wars Outlaws PC, PS5, Xbox A streamlined and multi-planet take on Ubisoft’s familiar open-world action, paired with an original-trilogy-era Star Wars tale that follows an up-and-coming scoundrel rather than a Jedi or Imperial, Outlaws has everything a long-suffering franchise fan could hope for in a sandbox scum and villainy game. The overarching story is a bit of a letdown, but the main appeal here is simply being able to exist in this rich and incredibly well-realised universe, being a dirtbag and pulling off heists. Fans of Monty Python or The Mighty Boosh will find a lot to love exploring Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You’re Here PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox A cartoony and hilariously vulgar adventure set in a small northern England town, this is a point-and-punch exploration game that’s fondly reminiscent of classic daft British sketch comedy, with heaps of funny visuals and sound effects plus the voice talents of Matt Berry and others. Mechanically it couldn’t be simpler, but the writing and timing are masterful. From an unexpected exposed penis in a seagull-gathering side-mission to a prolonged sequence combining fish and cigarettes, it’s crassly artful and unforgettable. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Switch Despite her name being in the titles, Princess Zelda has had few starring roles in Nintendo’s beloved adventure epics. This game marks a change in that regard, and introduces a brilliant new approach to items and combat where Zelda can copy and paste objects and enemies to fight and solve puzzles, but it’s otherwise business as usual for the series; this is a beautiful, joyful and surprising fantasy world to explore, with just the right mix of nostalgia and innovation. Eventually you’ll be filling out pages of details before you can even grasp the nature of the crime you’re supposed to be solving. And you’ll be loving it. The Rise of the Golden Idol Netflix, PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox The first Golden Idol was a wonderfully epic tale of paranormal serial murder, and Rise is even better. Set 200 years later, you’re tasked with solving 20 crimes, each painted as a beautifully grotesque painted moment. You analyse the scene to collect clues, words and names, then use those to fill in the blanks and uncover the truth. It’s like a multidimensional murder sudoku, which only gets more complex and tells a compelling alternate history detective story. Dragon Age: The Veilguard PC, PS5, Xbox Bioware is responsible for some of the greatest role-playing games ever, but this is their best in more than a decade. The narrative and fantasy settings are incredible, and the action-focused combat feels great, but the true strength is in the constant choice-making that affects your friendships in real and unexpected ways. Early on, the game makes you choose between two companions, the consequence of which leaves one with permanent visible bruises and scars for the rest of the game. This is Dragon Age telling you how it’s going to be. Unicorn Overlord has the familiar Vanillaware look, but it may be the studio’s deepest game yet. Unicorn Overlord PS5, Switch, Xbox Vanillaware has spent two decades crafting interesting and complex games with astounding hand-drawn art. The studio has a cult following but I think Unicorn Overlord might be its first true breakout hit. It’s a twist on the traditional turn-based tactical RPG, where instead of just skirmishing you define the parameters of each unit’s actions and priorities ahead of time, and then watch as they play out in battle. And, of course, it’s gorgeous. Sonic x Shadow Generations PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Since 2011’s excellent Sonic Generations was already a reimagining of the series’ high points, half of this new package is arguably remaking remakes. But the other half — an all-new campaign featuring Shadow the Hedgehog — contains some of the most excellent 3D Sonic gameplay ever made. It serves as a great introduction to the character alongside his big-screen debut, but it also presents his tortured backstory and most memorable game moments in a surprisingly cohesive and enjoyable manner. No combat, no explanations, just a blob in a cursed VHS tape of ghostly animals. Animal Well PC, PS5, PS Plus, Switch, Xbox Animal Well , another amazing work from a solo developer, is on the surface a stunning CRT-filtered Metroid-like with a spooky animal theme. But dig a little deeper past the cursed herons and sleepy capybara and you’ll find a complex latticework of puzzles combined with interesting power-ups, a focus on physics play and a near total lack of combat. Some secrets require specific power-ups from around the world (a yo-yo, a slinky, a frisbee), while others need lateral thinking or knowledge gleaned from other areas. UFO 50 PC A package of 50 new games, styled and presented as a library of retro titles by a fictional company for their fictional home computer, this compilation evokes the feeling of finding a dusty 1980s machine and a box full of disks, and putting them in to see what you find. The games are all surprisingly full in scope, and they run the genre gamut from beat-em-ups to top-down driving games to narrative horror. Best of all are the two-player options, which offer a peerlessly strange retro bonding experience. The Great Circle takes Indy to many cultural epicentres around the globe, from Italy to Egypt to the Himalayas and more. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Game Pass, PC, Xbox Games based on movie franchises can go very wrong, but MachineGames (the Swedish studio known for the Nazi-hunting 2010s Wolfenstein series), had a clear vision for the world’s most famous archeologist . Each level is an exploratory puzzle with dozens of smaller riddles within, filled with fascists to sneak around and artefacts to recover. Combat is slapstick, gunplay is scarce, the iconic whip gets plenty of creative use and voice actor Troy Baker puts in an astonishing Harrison Ford impersonation. The narrative overall (concerning a trek across the globe to stop the Nazis achieving a mystical power) is the best the franchise has seen since 1989. Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article Video games Tim Biggs is a writer covering consumer technology, gadgets and video games. Connect via Twitter or email . Most Viewed in Technology Loading

With impending removal of restrictions on vehicle imports early next year, industry experts have urged the Government to prioritise the importation of new vehicles over used ones, warning of significant environment, economic, and technological repercussions if outdated vehicles flood the market. The potential reintroduction of used vehicles has drawn criticism from experts, who highlighted challenges posed by older commercial vehicles in particular. “Given their extensive usage, a five-year-old vehicle could have clocked over 500,000 kilometres, making it prone to costly repairs of critical components such as engines, transformations, drive trains, and suspension systems. Although these expenses may not seem immediately apparent, the frequent need for maintenance and replacement parts results in a substantial foreign currency outflow, spread over multiple shipments,” they explained. The experts listed out four key arguments against the importation of older vehicles, emphasising concerns over environmental impact, technological stagnation, economic efficiency, and Sri Lanka’s international image. Vehicle emissions, they argued, remain a pressing global issue. “Newer models run on more refined fuels and incorporate better emissions control technologies, while older vehicles contribute to higher pollution levels, negatively impacting the environment,” they said. Additionally, they noted the rapid evolution of technology in the automotive industry means newer vehicles offer superior safety features, fuel efficiency, and performance. “Encouraging the import of cheap, old vehicles stifles access to modern, technologically advanced vehicles in Sri Lanka,” they opined, noting that importers often prioritise low-cost, outdated vehicles, limiting options for Sri Lankan consumers and preventing them from benefitting from the latest innovations in safety, fuel efficiency, and performance. The industry experts also raised a reputational concern, warning that Sri Lanka risks becoming a dumping ground for outdated and inefficient vehicles from developed nations. Similar patterns have been observed in parts of Africa and India, where a lack of stringent regulations has turned these regions into repositories for vehicles no longer desired in wealthier markets. “By continuing to import outdated vehicles, we risk turning our country into a repository for unwanted, inefficient, and environmentally harmful cars. Should Sri Lanka really accept the role of a junkyard for obsolete vehicles?” one expert questioned. From an economic perspective, the appeal of used vehicles lies in their lower upfront cost. However, experts cautioned that their long-term maintenance and repair expenses, coupled with a lack of warranties, often outweigh these initial savings. “In contrast, new vehicles come with comprehensive warranties (typically for two years), minimising unexpected expenses during the initial years of ownership. Although the upfront price of new vehicles may be higher, the long-term maintenance and repair costs of used vehicles result in greater foreign currency outflows,” they pointed out. To address these challenges, the experts proposed a series of measures to regulate vehicle imports. They suggested setting stringent standards for emissions and safety features, ensuring only vehicles that meet modern benchmarks are allowed into the country. Furthermore, they recommended restricting used vehicle imports to models manufactured within the past two years, a move they argued would maintain environmental integrity and ensure access to newer technologies. HS Code Existing Description Proposed Description 8704.22.61 Trucks GVW exceeding 5 Tons but not exceeding 20 Tons less than 5 years Trucks GVW exceeding 5 Tons but not exceeding 20 Tons less than 2 years 8704.23.71 Trucks GVW exceeding 20 Tons but not exceeding 20 Tons less than 5 years Trucks GVW exceeding 20 Tons but not exceeding 20 Tons less than 2 years 8701.20.10 Road Tractors for semi-trailers less than 5 years Road Tractors for semi-trailers less than 2 years 8702.10.55 Motor Vehicles for the transport of 25 or more persons (adults) but less than 35 (adults) including the driver not more than 5 years Motor Vehicles for the transport of 25 or more persons (adults) but less than 35 (adults) including the driver not more than 2 years These proposals, they said, would not only protect Sri Lanka from becoming a repository for outdated vehicles, but also elevate consumer safety and improve the quality of the country’s vehicle fleet.Feminist clarity begins at home

The Baltimore restaurant industry is preparing for a potential fight against an out-of-town nonprofit’s effort to implement a fair minimum wage mandate for service workers in Maryland. Sara Jayaraman, co-founder and spokesperson for the New York City-based advocacy group One Fair Wage said her nonprofit will bring its mandatory minimum wage fight to the local level. Jayaraman said the current U.S. tipping structure relies on service workers earning a lower minimum wage, which is supplemented by tips to help them reach a recognized minimum wage. She said this system is rooted in systematic racism. One Fair Wage’s website echoes this claim. “The sector’s low wages are due to the money, power and influence of a trade lobby called the National Restaurant Association (‘The Other NRA’) which has lobbied since Emancipation to maintain a subminimum wage for tipped workers — a literal legacy of slavery,” One Fair Wage’s website says. The National Restaurant Association’s website says it was established on March 13, 1919, by Kansas City restaurateurs. Former President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, according to the National Archives. Ron and Gail Furman, who have owned Max’s Taphouse in Fells Point for 39 years, said they believe Jayaraman’s advocacy work is misguided. “People aren’t going to pay it,” she added. In 2022, Washington, D.C. voters approved a ballot measure supported by One Fair Wage known as Initiative 82. The measure mandated restaurants gradually eliminate the lower tipped wage over several years, ultimately reaching the city’s current minimum wage of $17.50. Consumer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., have targeted restaurant owners because many establishments have been forced to add a 20% service fee to diners’ bills. Restauranteurs have insisted the increase is necessary to offset the nearly 300% rise in operating expenses to pay higher wages. In March, the D.C. Council codified restaurants’ ability to charge up to 20% service fees to offset the expense increase. These service fees were not considered tips for service for restaurant workers. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows the restaurant industry in Washington, D.C., lost nearly 1,800 jobs amid the phased implementation of the mandatory wage increase law. Those jobs have not yet been recovered, the data shows. Jayaraman said her organization’s data offers a different perspective, arguing the quality of life for restaurant workers has improved. “Things are exactly what they were before in terms of consumers, in terms of employers; and, workers are getting more than they got before,” Jayaraman said. “But let’s be clear: I-82, for all of the screaming, has only been two years into a five-year phase-in.” Tim Christofield, a longtime bartender at Furman’s restaurant, said that if the Baltimore City Council moves forward with a bill like one passed in Washington, D.C., he will have to leave a career he loves. “They think there is a gray area where they think we are not declaring [taxes] or there is something that isn’t being reported properly,” Christofield said. “They want to seize control over that and that’s just pretty ridiculous.” Ron Furman said his family and their employees believe One Fair Wage’s efforts represent a fabricated issue seeking a solution aimed at increasing tax revenue for the city. They argue the initiative attempts to close a loophole that his employees do not exploit. “None of our employees make $3.63 an hour. None of our employees make $15 an hour,” Ron Furman said. “They make a lot more than that because they earn it and they do a great job doing what they do.” “[I]f the customers are coming in and seeing a 15-20% surcharge on their bill, and [our employees are] not going to be earning tips, they are not going to stay,” he added. Baltimore City Council members John Bullock, Ryan Dorsey, Kristerfer Burnett, Odette Ramos and Phylicia Porter proposed a bill in June that would have required city restaurants to eliminate their tip credit system and implement a phased mandatory minimum wage of $15 per hour. The bill did not receive a vote before the previous council’s term ended. FOX45 reached out to each of the re-elected council members who previously proposed the wage mandate. Councilman Bullock acknowledged the message but did not say if he plans to reintroduce the measure. In a statement, the Restaurant Association of Maryland said it “strongly opposes” so-called fair wage efforts, claiming such policies have a negative impact on employees, restaurants and customers. “Legislation to eliminate the tip credit is being pushed by an out-of-state activist group as part of their nationwide agenda,” the Restaurant Association of Maryland wrote. “Maryland elected officials should reject that group’s efforts to pursue their agenda at the expense of local restaurants and tipped employees who support maintaining the tip credit.” Have a news tip? Contact Gary Collins at gmcollins@sbgtv.com or on X at @realgarycollins.

Oldendorff Carriers (Oldendorff) is pleased to announce the successful installation and operational deployment of Rotor Sails on the Chinook Oldendorff. Through a joint agreement first announced in December 2023, the Chinook Oldendorff transports Elk Valley Resources (EVR) steelmaking coal from the Port of Vancouver to customers across the Pacific Ocean. “The collaboration with EVR on this project exemplifies how partnerships can drive meaningful progress,” said Russ McNeil, Managing Director of Oldendorff Vancouver. “The Chinook Oldendorff reflects our commitment to deliver practical environment conscious solutions that align with our clients’ needs and our long-term sustainability goals.” Equipped with Norsepower Rotor SailsTM, the Chinook Oldendorff harnesses wind energy to generate additional thrust, expecting to reduce fuel consumption on transpacific routes by about 10-15%. Chinook Oldendorff with three Norsepower Rotor SailsTM onboard, ready to sail “We applaud Oldendorff Carriers and Elk Valley Resources for their leadership to reduce emissions from the shipping industry. Their innovative efforts are in line with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s ongoing commitment to environmental protection, and we are pleased to welcome the Chinook Oldendorff at the Port of Vancouver.”, commented Jennifer Natland, Vice-President, Properties and Environment, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Originally built in 2020 as the Dietrich Oldendorff, this Post Panamax vessel was renamed the Chinook Oldendorff to reflect the synergy between the Rotor Sail technology and the natural wind patterns in the Pacific Northwest. The word “Chinook” originates from the First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest referring to a type of wind with coastal and inland variations. Coastal Chinooks are southwesterly winds blowing in from the ocean, while the inland Chinooks are warm, dry winds that descend the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The name references the innovative use of mother nature to lower emissions on the vessel’s journeys. This initiative also aligns with global efforts to create greener supply chains and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, marking a key step toward decarbonizing maritime operations. Source: Oldendorff Carriers

Jimmy Carter, the self-effacing peanut farmer, humanitarian and former navy lieutenant who helped Canada avert a nuclear catastrophe before ascending to the highest political office in the United States, died Sunday at his home in Georgia. He was 100, making him the longest-lived U.S. president in American history. Concern for Carter's health had become a recurring theme in recent years. He was successfully treated for brain cancer in 2015, then suffered a number of falls, including one in 2019 that resulted in a broken hip. Alarm spiked in February 2023, however, when the Carter Center — the philanthropic organization he and his wife Rosalynn founded in 1982 — announced he would enter hospice care at his modest, three-bedroom house in Plains, Ga. Rosalynn Carter, a mental health advocate whose role as presidential spouse helped to define the modern first lady, predeceased her husband in November 2023 — a death at 96 that triggered a remembrance to rival his. "Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished," the former president said in a statement after she died. "As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me." Conventional wisdom saw his single White House term as middling. But Carter's altruistic work ethic, faith-filled benevolence and famous disdain for the financial trappings of high office only endeared him to generations after he left politics in 1981. "The trite phrase has been, 'Jimmy Carter has been the best former president in the history of the United States,'" said Gordon Giffin, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada who sits on the Carter Center's board of trustees. "That grated on him, because it distinguished his service as president from his service — and I literally mean service — as a former president." His relentless advocacy for human rights, a term Carter popularized long before it became part of the political lexicon, included helping to build homes for the poor across the U.S. and in 14 other countries, including Canada, well into his 90s. He devoted the resources of the Carter Center to tackling Guinea worm, a parasite that afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people in the developing world in the early 1980s and is today all but eradicated, with just 13 cases reported in 2022. And he was a tireless champion of ending armed conflict and promoting democratic elections in the wake of the Cold War, with his centre monitoring 113 such votes in 39 different countries — and offering conflict-resolution expertise when democracy receded. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, nearly a quarter-century after his seminal work on the Camp David Accords helped pave the way for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the first of its kind. "His presidency got sidelined in the historic evaluation too quickly, and now people are revisiting it," Giffin said. "I think his standing in history as president will grow." A lifelong Democrat who never officially visited Canada as president, Carter was nonetheless a pioneer of sorts when it came to Canada-U.S. relations and a close friend to the two Canadian prime ministers he served alongside. One of them, former Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, once called Carter a "pretty good Canadian" — a testament to the former commander-in-chief's authenticity and centre-left politics, which always resonated north of the Canada-U.S. border. The pair were reunited in 2017 at a panel discussion in Atlanta hosted by the Canadian American Business Council, and seemed to delight in teasing the host when she described Clark as a "conservative" and Carter as a "progressive." "I'm a Progressive Conservative — that's very important," Clark corrected her. Piped up Carter: "I'm a conservative progressive." In 2012, the Carters visited Kingston, Ont., to receive an honorary degree from Queen's University. Instead of a fancy hotel, they stayed with Arthur Milnes, a former speech writer, journalist and political scholar who'd long since become a close friend. "He became my hero, believe it or not, probably when I was about 12," said Milnes, whose parents had come of age during the Cold War and lived in perpetual fear of the ever-present nuclear threat until Carter took over the White House in 1977. "My mother never discussed politics, with one exception — and that was when Jimmy Carter was in the White House. She'd say, 'Art, Jimmy Carter is a good and decent man,'" Milnes recalled. "They always said, both of them, that for the first time since the 1950s, they felt safe, knowing that it was this special man from rural Georgia, Jimmy Carter, who had his finger on the proverbial button." While Richard Nixon and Pierre Trudeau appeared to share a mutual antipathy during their shared time in office, Carter got along famously with the prime minister. Indeed, it was at the express request of the Trudeau family that Carter attended the former prime minister's funeral in 2000, Giffin said. "The message I got back was the family would appreciate it if Jimmy Carter could come," said Giffin, who was the U.S. envoy in Ottawa at the time. "So he did come. He was at the Trudeau funeral. And to me, that said a lot about not only the relationship he had with Trudeau, but the relationship he had in the Canada-U.S. dynamic." It was at that funeral in Montreal that Carter — "much to my frustration," Giffin allowed — spent more than two hours in a holding room with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a meeting that resulted in Carter visiting Cuba in 2002, the first former president to do so. But it was long before Carter ever entered politics that he established a permanent bond with Canada — one forged in the radioactive aftermath of what might otherwise have become the country's worst nuclear calamity. In 1952, Carter was a 28-year-old U.S. navy lieutenant, a submariner with a budding expertise in nuclear power, when he and his crew were dispatched to help control a partial meltdown at the experimental Chalk River Laboratories northwest of Ottawa. In his 2016 book "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety," Carter described working in teams of three, first practising on a mock-up of the reactor, then on the real thing, in short 90-second bursts to avoid absorbing more than the maximum allowable dose of radiation. "The limit on radiation absorption in the early 1950s was approximately 1,000 times higher than it is 60 years later," he wrote. "There were a lot of jokes about the effects of radioactivity, mostly about the prospect of being sterilized, and we had to monitor our urine until all our bodies returned to the normal range." That, Carter would later acknowledge in interviews, took him about six months. Carter and Clark were both in office during the so-called "Canadian Caper," a top-secret operation to spirit a group of U.S. diplomats out of Iran following the fall of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. The elaborate ploy, which involved passing the group off as a Canadian science-fiction film crew, was documented in the Oscar-winning 2012 Ben Affleck film "Argo." Carter didn't think much of the film. "The movie that was made, 'Argo,' was very distorted. They hardly mentioned the Canadian role in this very heroic, courageous event," he said during the CABC event. He described the true events of that escapade as "one of the greatest examples of a personal application of national friendship I have ever known." To the end, Carter was an innately humble and understated man, said Giffin — a rare commodity in any world leader, much less in one from the United States. "People underestimate who Jimmy Carter is because he leads with his humanity," he said. "I read an account the other day that said the Secret Service vehicles that are parked outside his house are worth more than the house. How many former presidents have done that?" This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec, 29, 2024. James McCarten, The Canadian PressJarrod Bowen held Antonio’s number nine shirt aloft after scoring the winner in support of the Hammers striker, who is recovering after a horror car crash on Saturday. Boss Julen Lopetegui said: “He is not in his best moment but he kept his humour. It was a special moment for us. “I think we have a lot of reason to win matches but this was one reason more. He’s alive so we are happy.” MA9 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fXwtdSQWYE — West Ham United (@WestHam) December 9, 2024 West Ham players wore ‘Antonio 9′ shirts while warming up and walking out before kick-off. The shirts will be signed by the players, including Antonio, and auctioned off with the proceeds going to the NHS and Air Ambulances UK. Tomas Soucek headed West Ham into the lead and held up nine fingers to a TV camera. The Czech midfielder told Sky Sports: “He’s been here since I came here. He is really my favourite. I said it would be tough for me to play without him. "He was here since I came and he's really my favourite" Tomáš Souček on dedicating his goal to Michail Antonio ❤️ pic.twitter.com/smNy26wmuX — Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 9, 2024 “I was so scared what was going to happen. It was a really tough week for him, his family and us.” Matt Doherty equalised for Wolves, and boss Gary O’Neil felt they should have had two penalties for fouls on Goncalo Guedes and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, both of which were checked by VAR. But Bowen’s winner – O’Neil believed there was a foul in the build-up – condemned Wolves to a 10th defeat of the season and a third in a row. While under-pressure Lopetegui may have earned a stay of execution, O’Neil’s future as Wolves manager is now in serious doubt. “A lot of things went against us but ultimately we have not found a way to turn the game in our favour,” he said. “But the players showed they are still fighting for me, for the fans and the group. “Where does this leave me? In the same place I was. I’m aware of the noise. But if anyone expected this to be easy – I’m happy to be judged on results but it should be done in context. “Whenever this journey ends with Wolves I’ll be proud of it.” There was an acrimonious end to the match as captains Bowen and Mario Lemina scuffled after the final whistle, with the Wolves midfielder angrily shoving people including one of his own coaches, Shaun Derry. “I just went to shake his hand after the game,” Bowen said. “He didn’t want to shake my hand, two captains together just to say ‘well done’ after the game. “I know it’s difficult when you lose. I’ve been on the end of that situation.” O’Neil added: “Mario is calm now. He’s a passionate guy and something was said that upset him. “The instinct of the staff was to make sure he didn’t get into trouble, but he took some calming down.”

Dedicated Roman Gladiator Superfans Were the Football Hooligans of Their DayMajority of Indian manufacturers are embracing technology as a catalyst of future profitability and global competitiveness. However, a significant share of companies are allocating less than 10% of their budgets to technology, according to a study by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for India's manufacturing sector is going through a transformation, fueled by adoption of technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), robotics, and automation. This transformation can support the goal of increasing manufacturing's contribution to India's gross domestic product to 25% in the next few years, according to the report titled ' Smart Manufacturing : Unlocking India's Potential'. "By embracing these advancements, the country can gain a competitive edge globally and establish itself as a manufacturing leader," said Deepak Shetty, Chairman of the Council on Manufacturing Excellence, CII and CEO & Managing Director, JCB India Limited. The survey covered enterprises of varying sizes, ranging from ₹5 crore to over ₹24,000 crore. In the next two years, sectors aim to allocate 11-15% of their budgets towards technology investments to boost efficiency and innovation, the report mentioned. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrows Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Performance Marketing for eCommerce Brands By - Zafer Mukeri, Founder- Inara Marketers View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Strategy Succession Planning Masterclass By - Nigel Penny, Global Strategy Advisor: NSP Strategy Facilitation Ltd. View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Pam Moore By - Pam Moore, Digital Transformation and Social Media Expert View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Office Productivity Mastering Google Sheets: Unleash the Power of Excel and Advance Analysis By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program While high-capital industries like semiconductors, aerospace, and automotive are leading the way in adopting advanced technologies, traditional sectors like textiles and food processing are taking longer to embrace digitalisation, it added. The manufacturing sector is undergoing a transformative moment, where advanced technologies are reshaping processes and addressing challenges like supply chain visibility to drive industrial excellence, said Deepak Jain, Co-Chair of the Council on Manufacturing Excellence, CII and Chairman, Lumax Group. The report also outlined several barriers to technology adoption. Nominations for ET MSME Awards are now open. The last day to apply is December 31, 2024. Click here to submit your entry for any one or more of the 22 categories and stand a chance to win a prestigious award. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there's one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to be a nonstarter: Kansas. That's because the state has been there, done that, and all but a few Republicans would prefer not to go there again. Kansas imposed a proof-of-citizenship requirement over a decade ago that grew into one of the biggest political fiascos in the state in recent memory. The law, passed by the state Legislature in 2011 and implemented two years later, ended up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote. That was 12% of everyone seeking to register in Kansas for the first time. Federal courts ultimately declared the law an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, and it hasn't been enforced since 2018. Kansas provides a cautionary tale about how pursuing an election concern that in fact is extremely rare risks disenfranchising a far greater number of people who are legally entitled to vote. The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, championed the idea as a legislator and now says states and the federal government shouldn't touch it. “Kansas did that 10 years ago,” said Schwab, a Republican. “It didn’t work out so well.” Steven Fish, a 45-year-old warehouse worker in eastern Kansas, said he understands the motivation behind the law. In his thinking, the state was like a store owner who fears getting robbed and installs locks. But in 2014, after the birth of his now 11-year-old son inspired him to be “a little more responsible” and follow politics, he didn’t have an acceptable copy of his birth certificate to get registered to vote in Kansas. “The locks didn’t work,” said Fish, one of nine Kansas residents who sued the state over the law. “You caught a bunch of people who didn’t do anything wrong.” Kansas' experience appeared to receive little if any attention outside the state as Republicans elsewhere pursued proof-of-citizenship requirements this year. Arizona enacted a requirement this year, applying it to voting for state and local elections but not for Congress or president. The Republican-led U.S. House passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement in the summer and plans to bring back similar legislation after the GOP won control of the Senate in November. In Ohio, the Republican secretary of state revised the form that poll workers use for voter eligibility challenges to require those not born in the U.S. to show naturalization papers to cast a regular ballot. A federal judge declined to block the practice days before the election. Also, sizable majorities of voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and the presidential swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin were inspired to amend their state constitutions' provisions on voting even though the changes were only symbolic. Provisions that previously declared that all U.S. citizens could vote now say that only U.S. citizens can vote — a meaningless distinction with no practical effect on who is eligible. To be clear, voters already must attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and noncitizens can face fines, prison and deportation if they lie and are caught. “There is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that only American citizens can vote in American elections,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, the leading sponsor of the congressional proposal, said in an email statement to The Associated Press. After Kansas residents challenged their state's law, both a federal judge and federal appeals court concluded that it violated a law limiting states to collecting only the minimum information needed to determine whether someone is eligible to vote. That's an issue Congress could resolve. The courts ruled that with “scant” evidence of an actual problem, Kansas couldn't justify a law that kept hundreds of eligible citizens from registering for every noncitizen who was improperly registered. A federal judge concluded that the state’s evidence showed that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote from 1999 through 2012 — an average of just three a year. In 2013, then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who had built a national reputation advocating tough immigration laws, described the possibility of voting by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as a serious threat. He was elected attorney general in 2022 and still strongly backs the idea, arguing that federal court rulings in the Kansas case “almost certainly got it wrong.” Kobach also said a key issue in the legal challenge — people being unable to fix problems with their registrations within a 90-day window — has probably been solved. “The technological challenge of how quickly can you verify someone’s citizenship is getting easier,” Kobach said. “As time goes on, it will get even easier.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Kansas case in 2020. But in August, it split 5-4 in allowing Arizona to continue enforcing its law for voting in state and local elections while a legal challenge goes forward. Seeing the possibility of a different Supreme Court decision in the future, U.S. Rep.-elect Derek Schmidt says states and Congress should pursue proof-of-citizenship requirements. Schmidt was the Kansas attorney general when his state's law was challenged. "If the same matter arose now and was litigated, the facts would be different," he said in an interview. But voting rights advocates dismiss the idea that a legal challenge would turn out differently. Mark Johnson, one of the attorneys who fought the Kansas law, said opponents now have a template for a successful court fight. “We know the people we can call," Johnson said. “We know that we’ve got the expert witnesses. We know how to try things like this.” He predicted "a flurry — a landslide — of litigation against this.” Initially, the Kansas requirement's impacts seemed to fall most heavily on politically unaffiliated and young voters. As of fall 2013, 57% of the voters blocked from registering were unaffiliated and 40% were under 30. But Fish was in his mid-30s, and six of the nine residents who sued over the Kansas law were 35 or older. Three even produced citizenship documents and still didn’t get registered, according to court documents. “There wasn’t a single one of us that was actually an illegal or had misinterpreted or misrepresented any information or had done anything wrong,” Fish said. He was supposed to produce his birth certificate when he sought to register in 2014 while renewing his Kansas driver's license at an office in a strip mall in Lawrence. A clerk wouldn't accept the copy Fish had of his birth certificate. He still doesn't know where to find the original, having been born on an Air Force base in Illinois that closed in the 1990s. Several of the people joining Fish in the lawsuit were veterans, all born in the U.S., and Fish said he was stunned that they could be prevented from registering. Liz Azore, a senior adviser to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said millions of Americans haven't traveled outside the U.S. and don't have passports that might act as proof of citizenship, or don't have ready access to their birth certificates. She and other voting rights advocates are skeptical that there are administrative fixes that will make a proof-of-citizenship law run more smoothly today than it did in Kansas a decade ago. “It’s going to cover a lot of people from all walks of life,” Avore said. “It’s going to be disenfranchising large swaths of the country.” Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.BOSTON — Forty years ago, Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie rolled to his right and threw a pass that has become one of college football’s most iconic moments. With Boston College trailing defending champion Miami, Flutie threw the Hail Mary and found receiver Gerard Phalen, who made the grab while falling into the end zone behind a pair of defenders for a game-winning 48-yard TD. Flutie and many of his 1984 teammates were honored on the field during BC’s 41-21 victory over North Carolina before the second quarter on Saturday afternoon, the anniversary of the Eagles’ Miracle in Miami. “There’s no way its been 40 years,” Flutie told The Associated Press on the sideline a few minutes before he walked out with some of his former teammates to be recognized after a video of The Play was shown on the scoreboards. It’s a moment and highlight that’s not only played throughout decades of BC students and fans, but around the college football world. “What is really so humbling is that the kids 40 years later are wearing 22 jerseys, still,” Flutie said of his old number. “That amazes me.” That game was played on national TV the Friday after Thanksgiving. The ironic thing is it was originally scheduled for earlier in the season before CBS paid Rutgers to move its game against Miami, thus setting up the BC-Miami post-holiday matchup. “It shows you how random some things are, that the game was moved,” Flutie said. “The game got moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving, which was the most watched game of the year. We both end up being nationally ranked and up there. All those things lent to how big the game itself was, and made the pass and the catch that much more relevant and remembered because so many people were watching.” There’s a statue of Flutie winding up to make The Pass outside the north gates at Alumni Stadium. Fans and visitors can often be seen taking photos there. “In casual conversation, it comes up every day,” Flutie said, when asked how many times people bring it up. “It brings a smile to my face every time we talk about it.” A week after the game-ending Flutie pass, the Eagles beat Holy Cross and before he flew off to New York to accept the Heisman. They went on to win the 49th Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. “Forty years seem almost like incomprehensible,” said Phalen, also standing on the sideline a few minutes after the game started. “I always say to Doug: ‘Thank God for social media. It’s kept it alive for us.”’ Earlier this week, current BC coach Bill O’Brien, 55, was asked if he remembered where he was 40 years ago. “We were eating Thanksgiving leftovers in my family room,” he said. “My mom was saying a Rosary in the kitchen because she didn’t like Miami and wanted BC to win. My dad, my brother and I were watching the game. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody remembers where they were for the Hail Mary, Flutie pass.”

The ( ) share price has risen an impressive 46% since its first trading day in June after the . After such a good start to ASX life, investors may be wondering if 2025 could be another exciting year. The Mexican food business is looking to add hundreds of restaurants to Australia over the coming years, and FY25 will be part of that journey. Before we get to how 2025 may go, the business has already told investors how it has performed in the first quarter of the 2025 financial year. Let's remind ourselves how FY25 has gone so far, and then we'll look at some projections. GYG reported that in the , its total network sales grew by 20.7% to $278.8 million, with comparable sales growth (excluding the US) of 8.7%. Total Australian network sales increased by 21.1%. Pleasingly, the total number of Guzman y Gomez restaurants grew by 10.8%, or 22 locations, year over year to 226. This could be essential for Guzman y Gomez shares. The company said its comparable sales growth had been above expectations, thanks to "strong delivery performance, successful execution of the 'clean is the new healthy' campaign and guest demand for value menu items." Overall, GYG said it expects to meet its prospectus forecasts for FY25, including the opening of 31 new restaurants in Australia. With the Mexican food business committed to meeting its prospectus forecasts, let's examine the company's guidance. In its prospectus, the company forecasted that it would generate $428.2 million of revenue and $26.6 million of other revenue and income (which includes franchise marketing fee revenue and other costs recovered from franchisees). Guzman y Gomez predicted it would generate $59.9 million of as well as $19.7 million of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). The Mexican food business also predicted it would generate $19.5 million of profit before tax and $6 million of . The investment bank Goldman Sachs is more optimistic than GYG about its potential financials for FY25, despite the Mexican food business forecasting strong double-digit growth across various revenue and most profit metrics. Goldman Sachs suggests GYG could generate total revenue of $438.8 million (2.5% better than forecast), EBITDA of $65.3 million (9.1% better than forecast), $27.6 million of EBIT (39.9% better than forecast), and net profit of $14 million (133.6% better than forecast). However, the broker has a sell rating on GYG shares for two reasons: We consider Guzman to be a high quality QSR operator with multiple levers available to grow operations, as well as a high likelihood of exceeding FY25 prospectus forecasts. While we forecast top-line growth and margin expansion, the basis of our Sell thesis is centred on 1) an overly ambitious long-term store expansion profile that has no recent successful precedent in the Australian market; and 2) a stretched valuation that has inappropriately, in our view, been pegged to the highest growth US-peers without taking into consideration the market differences and risks associated with an aggressive store expansion. Separately we note an overhang exists with c.13% of total shares expected to be released from escrow in March 2025. Goldman Sachs has a price target of $33.20 on Guzman y Gomez shares, implying a possible drop of almost 25% within a year compared to where it is today. Time will tell whether the market is impressed by what GYG reports in 2025 or whether today's valuation is too spicy.Former US president Jimmy Carter dead at 100Police have named the "strong person of interest" in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City as 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in the state of Maryland and had ties to San Francisco in California, according to New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, He was arrested in Pennslyvania - the state between Maryland and New York - but his last previous address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione was arrested after he was recognised by an employee at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona. He was "sitting there eating", Kenny added. He credited the tip to the wide circulation of a photo the New York City Police Department released of Mangione without a mask on. "Luckily, a citizen in Pennsylvania recognised our subject and called local law enforcement," Kenny said. Mangione was carrying a so-called ghost gun, a largely untraceable firearm that can be assembled at home using kits, that was likely manufactured on a 3D printer, a suppressor, as well as "multiple fraudulent IDs", including a New Jersey ID that matched the identity the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting. Sometimes referred to as a "privately made firearm," ghost guns do not have serial numbers, making them more difficult to track and regulate. Purchasing kits to build ghost guns online does not require a background check, so buyers can also sidestep the typical requirements that might come with buying a firearm. Mangione was also carrying a handwritten document - "a three-page manifesto" - which railed against the health care industry and suggested violence is the answer, according to CNN. "We don't think there's any specific threats to other people mentioned in that document, but it does seem that he has some ill will towards corporate America," Kenny said. An official told CNN the following two quotes: "These parasites had it coming" and "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," were written in the manifesto, which is currently in the possession of the Altoona Police Department. Mangione also wrote he acted alone and that he was self-funded. Family Mangione's Facebook account, which has since been deactivated, showed his hometown as Towson, near Baltimore, in the state of Maryland. According to CNN, Mangione is the grandson of Nicholas Mangione, a prominent Baltimore real estate developer, and his wife, Mary C. Mangione, a philanthropist who died last year. The Mangione family owns Lorien Health Systems, a nursing home chain in Maryland, and Luigi volunteered there in 2014, according to his LinkedIn page. Mangione is registered to vote at his family's address in Cockeysville, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb, and is registered as unaffiliated with a political party, according to the state's voter registration lookup website. He is the cousin of Maryland State Delegate Nino Mangione, a Republican, the state lawmaker's office confirmed to local media. Private security guards were blocking access to the family's house on a golf club on Monday afternoon local time, CNN reported. Education Mangione was a cum laude (with distinction) graduate from the University of Pennslyvania, completing both a master's and bachelor's of science in computer engineering within four years. His concentration, or major, was in artificial intelligence, and his minor was in mathematics. The University of Pennslyvania - commonly known as UPenn or Penn - is a private Ivy League university in Philadelphia. It has an acceptance rate of 7 percent, and is ranked 11 in the QS World University Rankings 2025. Mangione was also the valedictorian at Gilman School - an all-boys independent school in Baltimore, Maryland - in 2016. Work According to LinkedIn , Mangione has been working as a data engineer at the car-buying website TrueCar - in Santa Monica, California - since November 2020. However, a company spokesperson told local media CBS News that Mangione had not worked there since 2023. Social media A person matching his name and photo had an account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review site, BBC reported. Magnione gave four stars to a text called Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski - more popularly known as the Unabomber manifesto. Starting in 1978, Kaczynski carried out a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured dozens of others, until he was arrested in 1996. In his review, Mangione wrote: "When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it's not terrorism, it's war and revolution". "Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators."' CNN reported that, in total, Mangione's GoodReads profile listed him as reading or wanting to read nearly 300 books, including a book about mental illness, a biography of the creator of the atomic bomb and Michael Pollan's popular book on the science of psychedelics. Also on GoodReads, he reported reading or wanting to read a number of books about coping with chronic back pain. His account on X that appears to belong to him features a background profile photo of what looks like an X-ray image of a spine with hardware from a surgery. Posts addressed to the X account suggest that some of Mangione's friends have been trying to get in touch with him since earlier this year. In July, one user tweeted at Mangione, "I haven't heard from you in months," urging him to respond to his wedding invitation. Three months later, another user posted, "Hey, are you ok? Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you." Coverage In a statement, UnitedHealth Group said it had received many messages of support from "patients, consumers, health care professionals, associations, government officials and other caring people". However, many people - including UnitedHealthcare customers and users of other insurance services - reacted differently, according to the BBC. It said those reactions ranged from acerbic jokes (one common quip was "thoughts and prior authorisations", an insurance-themed play on the phrase "thoughts and prayers") to commentary on the number of insurance claims rejected by UnitedHealthcare and other firms. At the extreme end, critics of the industry pointedly said they had no pity for Thompson. Some even celebrated his death. Tens of thousands of social media users mocked the death of the health insurance chief executive. A post by UnitedHealthcare's parent company mourning Thompson's death received more than 82,000 reactions as of Friday; 76,000 of them were laughing emojis. And, as NBC News reported, TikTok users who would normally leap at the chance to identify an alleged criminal had stood down during the manhunt. "I have yet to see a single video that's pounding the drum of 'we have to find him,' and that is unique," said Michael McWhorter, better known as TizzyEnt on TikTok, where he posts true crime and viral news content for his 6.7 million followers. "And in other situations of some kind of blatant violence, I would absolutely be seeing that." CNN reported some had portrayed the killer as a man enacting vigilante justice against a healthcare system they say values profits over patients' lives, which could hinder some people's motivation to report possible sightings of him. The words "delay" and "depose" were written on a live round and a shell casing linked to the shooter, CNN said, words similar to a popular phrase about the insurance industry: "delay, deny, defend".Bains meets Gadkari, seeks 4-lane road from Kiratpur Sahib to Una

Bitfarms Announces Restatement of Previously Issued Financial Statements

Boosted by Mental Health Concerns, Gravity Blanket Market Expected to Reach $1.87 Billion at a CAGR of 17.6% by 2028Global Golf Course Equipment Market Set For 5.1% Growth, Reaching $5.46 Billion By 2028

Kirill Kaprizov misses Texas trip, listed as day-to-dayPALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vincerx Pharma, Inc. VINC , a biopharmaceutical company aspiring to address the unmet medical needs of patients with cancer through paradigm-shifting therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into a binding term sheet for a proposed merger with Oqory, Inc., a privately-held, clinical-stage company developing ADCs for the treatment of multiple oncology indications. Upon completion of the proposed merger, Oqory, Inc. will merge with Vincerx Pharma, Inc. Post-closing, Oqory equity holders are expected to own approximately 95% of the combined entity, while Vincerx equity holders will hold about 5%. The transaction includes a minimum fully diluted equity value of $13.66 million for existing Vincerx stockholders at closing and, as a condition to the closing of the merger, completion of a concurrent offering of Vincerx equity securities of at least $20 million. Additionally, Oqory-designated investors will provide interim financing to Vincerx of $1.5 million in two tranches, approximately $1,000,000 of which was funded today through the issuance of common stock and pre-funded warrants along with accompanying common stock warrants and approximately $500,000 of which will be funded on or prior to January 31, 2025. The merger is subject to customary closing conditions, including due diligence, regulatory approvals, negotiation of a definitive merger agreement, stockholder approval from both parties, completion of the minimum $20 million financing, and the continued listing of Vincerx's common stock on Nasdaq. Vincerx is also implementing additional streamlining and cost-control measures, including a workforce reduction, as it pursues due diligence and transaction-related work. As part of this workforce reduction, Dr. Ahmed Hamdy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), has stepped down as CEO but will remain as Chairman. Dr. Raquel Izumi has stepped down as President and Chief Operations Officer and taken over as Acting CEO in a consulting capacity. Alexander Seelenberger has stepped down as Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin Hass, the Company's Vice President and Controller, has taken over as Acting Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Seelenberger has agreed to provide ongoing assistance in a consulting capacity to assist the Company as it pursues its strategic efforts. "This strategic transaction highlights Vincerx's commitment to develop ADCs with improved safety profiles that allow patients to thrive on—rather than endure—their cancer therapies," said Raquel Izumi, Ph.D., Acting Chief Executive Officer. "Oqory's anti-TROP2 ADC has shown favorable efficacy and safety in the clinic. Among approximately 150 treated patients, results include an 83% overall response rate and 100% disease control rate in first-line triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC; n=30). Unlike other TROP2 ADCs in Phase 3, no cases of interstitial lung disease or Grade 3 and above stomatitis have been reported. Oqory's Phase 3 studies of OQY-3258 are ongoing to confirm these promising findings." About OQY-3258 (also known as ESG401) OQY-3258 is Oqory's anti-TROP2 ADC with an optimized enzyme-dependent linker technology and an SN-38 payload with established efficacy and manageable side effect profile. OQY-3258 has completed Phase 1/2 development in over 150 patients with solid tumors, including metastatic HR+/HER2- and triple-negative breast cancer. OQY-3258 has shown efficacy in these patients, including reduction of brain metastasis and responses in heavily pretreated patients. To date, OQY-3258 has exhibited a differentiated safety profile vs. Trodelvy and other TROP2 ADCs in Phase 3 development. Notably, no interstitial lung disease or ocular surface events have been observed. Gastrointestinal effects have been mild and mainly Grade 1/2. Neutropenia and leukopenia have been the major AEs, which were manageable and did not result in discontinuation of study drug. OQY-3258 is being evaluated in a Phase 3 study as first-line treatment in patients with unresectable recurrent or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer ( NCT06732323 ) and in a Phase 3 study in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic HR+/HER2- breast cancer ( NCT06383767 ). About Oqory, Inc. Oqory, Inc. is an innovator in the field of ADCs with expertise in advancing targeted cancer therapies. The Company's pipeline includes multiple ADC programs, with two currently in clinical development and several next-generation ADCs in preclinical stages. These programs are designed to address critical unmet needs in indications such as breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, multiple myeloma, and other metastatic solid tumors. Powered by a proprietary ADC platform, Oqory is delivering therapies that have demonstrated promising efficacy and safety paving the way for improved patient outcomes. About Vincerx Pharma, Inc. Vincerx Pharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing differentiated and novel therapies to address the unmet medical needs of patients with cancer. Vincerx's pipeline consists of a next-generation ADC, VIP943, currently in Phase 1; a small molecule drug conjugate, VIP236, which has completed its Phase 1 study; a CDK9 inhibitor, enitociclib, which has completed a Phase 1 monotherapy study; a preclinical ADC, VIP924; and VersAptxTM, a versatile, next-generation bioconjugation platform. Vincerx is based in Palo Alto, California, and has a research subsidiary in Monheim, Germany. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the "safe harbor" created by those sections. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe future plans, strategies, expectations and events, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "suggest," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "potential," "on-target," "on track," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," or other comparable terms. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the entry into a definitive merger agreement; the anticipated terms and closing of the merger, the $20 million equity investment, and the amount and timing of the interim financing; the expected ownership structure and value to Vincerx stockholders upon closing of the merger; the anticipated benefits of a merger transaction; and the clinical results of Oqory's product candidates. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance or events. Instead, they are based only on current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding future business developments, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy, and other future conditions. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict, many of which are outside Vincerx's control. Actual results, conditions, and events may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results, conditions, and events to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Vincerx's capital requirements, availability and sufficiency of capital, and cash runway; the ability of the parties to enter into a definitive merger agreement and the final terms thereof; the parties' ability to satisfy the conditions precedent to the merger, including stockholder approval; the closing of the merger; the risk that any definitive agreement is terminated after it is entered into but before consummation of any proposed merger;; Vincerx's reliance on receipt of interim funding; market acceptance of the combined company; risks associated with clinical development of the Vincerx and Oqory product candidates; general economic, financial, legal, political, and business conditions; and the risks and uncertainties set forth in Vincerx's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Vincerx. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Vincerx disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Vincerx and the Vincerx logo are trademarks of Vincerx. This press release also contains trademarks and trade names that are the property of their respective owners. Contacts: Gabriela Jairala Vincerx Pharma, Inc. gabriela.jairala@vincerx.com Totyana Simien Inizio Evoke Comms totyana.simien@inizioevoke.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Amritsar: A group of Panthic leaders , in a meeting on Wednesday, said the punishment handed down to Sukhbir Singh Badal was mild. The meeting was attended by the team which organised the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa and included Mohkam Singh, Jarnail Singh Sakhira, Amrik Singh Ajnala, Satnam Singh Manava, Vassan Singh Jaffarwal, and Gurdeep Singh Bathinda. They said during the Sarbat Khalsa, they had unanimously appointed Jagtar Singh Hawara, imprisoned in Tihar jail, as the jathedar of Akal Takht and reiterated their respect for him and affirmed their continued support for his leadership. Sakhira said it was unacceptable for them to remain silent in the face of incomplete or incorrect decisions by Akal Takht. “Had we not raised voices against the pardon granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim by the Sikh high priests, the pardon would never have been revoked,” he said. We also published the following articles recently Cleaning utensils, shoes over SAD rule 'mistakes': Akal Takht issues religious punishment for Sukhbir Singh Badal The Sikh clergy imposed religious penalties on Sukhbir Singh Badal and other Shiromani Akali Dal leaders for actions during their 2007-2017 rule. Badal received 'sewadar' duties at the Golden Temple, including cleaning utensils and shoes. The Akal Takht also revoked Parkash Singh Badal's 'Fakhre-e-Qaum' title and mandated other leaders to perform similar services. 'Wash utensils, clean bathrooms': Why Sikh high priests have punished SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Punjab deputy CM, performed public penance at the Golden Temple after being declared 'tankhaiya' for religious misconduct during SAD's rule. He carried a spear and wore a placard displaying Gurbani verses. The Akal Takht Jathedar cited Badal's failure to address the 2015 sacrilege incidents and the pardoning of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a blasphemy case. Sikh community the real force behind Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Singh Badals submission, Takhts assertion Sukhbir Singh Badal, former SAD president, admitted his and his late father's wrongdoings during their rule in Punjab before the Akal Takht. Driven by public pressure and electoral losses, this submission reflects a shift in Sikh politics. 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Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as US president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Monday, the Carter Centre said. He was 100. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honouring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 US election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other US president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on 19 November, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th US president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. “I’m Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president. I will never lie to you,” Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: “The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader.” Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Centre in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency – walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter’s foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbours. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unravelling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20 percent and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter’s presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. On 4 November, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a US hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight US soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter’s final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on 20 January 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the US Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full US ties with China. Carter created two new US Cabinet departments – education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America’s “energy crisis” was “the moral equivalent of war” and urged the country to embrace conservation. “Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth,” he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his “malaise” speech to the nation, although he never used that word. “After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” he said in his televised address. “The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.” As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behaviour of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: “I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer.” Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigourous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, “There you go again,” when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan’s views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on 1 October, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called “the most important thing in my life.” They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration,” despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states – 27 to Carter’s 23. Not all of Carter’s post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter’s freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most “gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made.” He called George W. Bush’s administration “the worst in history” and said Vice President Dick Cheney was “a disaster for our country.” In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump’s legitimacy as president, saying “he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Trump responded by calling Carter “a terrible president.” Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant’s spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration by announcing the deal with North Korea’s leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labour for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children’s book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book “Faith: A Journey for All,” was published in 2018.

Syrian government services come to a 'complete halt' as state workers stay homeOnline predators are becoming increasingly resourceful in trolling media platforms where children gravitate, prompting an explosion in police case loads, said an officer who works for the RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation Unit in British Columbia. Data show the problem spiked during COVID-19 when children began spending more time online — but rates did not wane as police anticipated after lockdowns ended. In B.C., they soared, almost quadrupling from 2021 to 2023. Const. Solana Pare is now warning exploitation of children is likely here to stay, as a technological race between police and predators gains momentum. “Technology is becoming more and more available, and online platforms and social media sites are being used by children younger and younger, which provides an opportunity for predators to connect with them,” Pare said in an interview. Police say child exploitation cases in B.C. went from about 4,600 in 2021 to 9,600 in 2022 to 15,920 reports last year. The upwards trend is seen nationally, too. Statistics Canada says the rate of online child sexual exploitation reported to police rose by 58 per cent from 2019 to 2022, and police data show cases have continued to rise. The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre reported that from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, it received 118,162 reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation offences — a 15 per cent increase compared with the previous year. Online child sexual exploitation, Pare explained, includes offences such as sextortion, child luring and the creation or distribution of sexually explicit images of a minor. “We don’t see these types of reports going away,” Pare said. “We only see them increasing because the use of electronic devices and social media, and kids being online earlier and earlier is becoming more common. There’s going to be more opportunity for predators to target children online.” Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the most common type of child luring is communicating with a youth online in order get them to produce sexual abuse material. She said “the pandemic accelerated those types of cases, and it hasn’t slowed down.” “The tools (Canadian authorities) have to deal with this type of behaviour are inadequate for the scope and the scale of what’s going on,” she said. Online exploitation gained international attention in 2015 in the case of Port Coquitlam, B.C., teenager, Amanda Todd, who died by suicide after being blackmailed and harassed online by a man for years, starting when she was 12. The month before the 15-year-old died, she uploaded a nine-minute video using a series of flash cards detailing the abuse she experienced by the stranger and how it had affected her life. It’s been viewed millions of times. Dutch national Aydin Coban was extradited to Canada for trial and, in October 2022, he was convicted of charges including the extortion and harassment of Todd. Since then, the term “sextortion” has made its way into the vernacular as more cases come to light. Among them was Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old Prince George, B.C., boy who died by suicide in October 2023 after falling victim to the crime. In New Brunswick that same month, 16-year-old William Doiron took his own life after falling victim to a global sextortion scheme. Mounties across Canada have issued news releases warning of increased cases in their communities, noting that the consequences for the victims can include self-harm and suicide. St. Germain said technology, such as artificial intelligence, is also becoming more user-friendly. “The existence of that technology and its ease of use and ready accessibility is a problem, and it is going to be an increasingly large problem as we move forward,” she said. Pare said police are also adapting to technological advancements in order to keep up with the ever-changing online landscape. “Police are constantly obtaining training on digital technologies to increase our knowledge and understanding of all the intricacies involving their use and how to capture any digital evidence,” she said. Pare said the true rates of the crime are impossible to determine, but pointed to increased social awareness and legislation across North America around mandatory reporting of child abuse material from social media companies as a potential reason for the increase. It’s not going undetected any longer, she said. “Additionally, there’s been a lot of use in artificial intelligence to detect child exploitation materials within those platforms.” Pare said “it’s up to each individual platform” to ensure there is no child sexual abuse material on their sites or apps. “With mandatory reporting, it’s putting the onus back on the electronic service providers to ensure they have measures in place to prevent this from happening, and if it is happening that it is being reported,” she said. “That being said, there are times when things don’t get located.” That is why the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has been advocating for the adoption of the Online Harms Bill that the federal government introduced in February, St. Germain said. “It’s shocking that up until now, we’ve relied on companies to self regulate, meaning we’ve just relied on them to do the right thing,” she said. “What we are seeing in terms of the number of offences and in terms of all the harm that is happening in society as a result of online platforms is completely tied to the decision not to regulate. We need to have rules in any sector, and this sector is no different.” The Online Harms Bill covers seven types of harms, from non-consensual sharing of intimate images to content that can be used to bully a child. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Arif Virani announced the Liberal government will split the bill into two parts: dealing with keeping children safe online, and combating predators and issues related to revenge pornography. “We are putting our emphasis and prioritization and our time and efforts on the first portion of the bill,” Virani told reporters on Dec. 5. Such measures would include a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada, which would compel social media companies to outline how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, particularly minors. It would have the power to levy fines and evaluate companies’ digital safety plans. St. Germain said such a split “makes sense,” noting that most objections to the bill are related to changes to the Criminal Code and not measures around curbing harms to children. “There obviously are differences of opinion in terms of what is the best way forward, and what kind of regulatory approach makes sense, and who should the regulator be, but there does seem to be consensus on the idea that we need to do more in terms of protecting children online,” she said, adding that the organization is still in support of the second half of the bill. She said the United Kingdom previously passed its own Online Safety Act that will come into effect in 2025, which includes requiring social media firms to protect children from content such as self-harm material, pornography and violent content. Failure to do so will result in fines. “Canada is really behind,” she said. “The amount of information that has come out of the U.K., the amount of time and care and attention that their legislatures have paid to this issue is really quite remarkable, and we really hope that Canada steps up and does something for Canadian children soon.” In the absence of national legislation, province’s have filled the void. In January, B.C. enacted the Intimate Images Protection Act, providing a path for victims to have online photos, videos or deep fakes expeditiously removed. Individuals are fined up to $500 per day and websites up to $5,000 a day if they don’t comply with orders to stop distributing images that are posted without consent. B.C.’s Ministry of the Attorney General said that as of Dec. 11, the Civil Resolution Tribunal had received a total of 199 disputes under the Intimate Images Protection Act. It said the Intimate Images Protection Service had served more than 240 clients impacted by the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, adding that four awards of $5,000 each and one for $3,000 had been supplied as of mid-December. Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Saskatchewan have also enacted legislation targeting unauthorized distribution of intimate images. St. Germain said the use of provincial powers is also necessary, but it’s not enough. “A piece of provincial legislation is going to be very difficult to be effective against multiple actors in multiple countries,” she said, noting that the online crime is borderless. “We need something bigger — more comprehensive. We need to use all tools in the tool box.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2024. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. 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