philwin online casino Last week the United States imposed rare sanctions on Pakistan while condemning its nuclear-armed long-range ballistic-missile program. This despite Islamabad long being an uneasy ally of Washington. The fresh sanctions on the missile sector were imposed under an executive order that "targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery ," according to the State Department's Matthew Miller. The measures specifically punish Pakistan's National Development Complex and three defense firms. In follow up this week, the Biden administration is warning that Pakistan is on the verge of achieving a long-range ballistic missile which is capable of striking the US mainland . According to a Monday report in The Wall Street Journal : Weeks before it leaves office, the Biden administration said that Pakistan is developing a long-range ballistic missile that could eventually provide nuclear-armed Islamabad with a weapon capable of striking the U.S. The administration disclosed the intelligence about Pakistan’s secret missile activities and imposed sanctions against a state-owned entity involved in the work after repeated efforts to press its concerns in confidential channels fell short, U.S. officials said. Pakistan's foreign ministry has rejected Washington's allegations, blasting them as "unfounded" and "devoid of rationality". Islamabad has further warned that this threatens the health of the "overall relationship" with the US. American officials say that Pakistan's production of such a long-range ballistic missile is not necessarily imminent, but likely remains years away, or possibly up to a decade. Still, Washington has launched a pressure campaign against a country which only twenty years ago was considered a 'major non-NATO ally' . "We’re trying to build this pressure to get ahead of this problem because we don’t want Pakistan to go down this road so far that we are dealing with something that is more imminent," a Biden admin official was quoted in WSJ as saying. Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said last week "candidly, it is hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States ." After recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. on #Pakistan ’s long-range ballistic missile program. Social media users have shown overwhelming support for Pakistan’s #nuclear deterrence @OfficialDGISPR #PakistanArmy #Shaheen #ISPR pic.twitter.com/IgOEHI1jVN The irony in all of this is that ever since Pakistan achieved status as a nuclear-armed power in the 1980s, Washington's chief concern has been its political and military stability , for which it has handed out billions in foreign aid to Islamabad over the many years. But starting in 2018, then President Trump began cutting all military aid to the country . Relations have remained rocky and strained ever since. The Pentagon still says it cooperates with Pakistan's armed forces on the military level, however.LEARNING SESSION In this August 2023 photo, Grade 1 teacher Ivy Catungal engages her pupils in a learning session during the first day of classes at San Diego Elementary School in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. Several groups have lamented the reduction in the 2025 budget of the Department of Education, saying this will affect the agency’s programs. —Grig C. Montegranda MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos on Monday committed to restore the P10 billion that was slashed from the proposed funding of the Department of Education (DepEd), but clarified that it will not be through a line-item veto of the questioned provision in the P6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). In an interview, the President said he was hopeful that he and the lawmakers could still work out a tweak before he signs the GAB, adding that the proposal to cut P10 billion from the DepEd’s computerization program was “contrary to the policy direction” of his administration on education. “We are still talking about it and we are trying to find a way and I think we’ll still be able to do something. We are working on that item because it is very necessary,” the President noted. READ: Angara: Marcos to remedy huge DepEd budget cut “The original request of ... P12 billion is only sufficient to maintain what they [in DepEd] are already doing, when in fact, they have to do more. So we have to figure that out. We’re working on it to make sure that we will restore it,” Mr. Marcos added. According to the President, the proposed reduction in the DepEd budget contradicted the government’s thrust of ensuring a continuing development of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in the education sector. The President made the statement amid mounting public uproar over the final version of the 2025 GAB, which included massive cuts on the proposed funding of major agencies such as DepEd, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Health. But a looming correction on the enrolled version of the budget should not come in the form of a line-item veto by the executive branch, the President said. “I do not want to line-item veto anything because that just gets in the way,” he said without elaborating. He pointed out that the discussion on a possible veto might be premature as the “process is still ongoing,” including a review of “worrisome” items. “We’re still finalizing because what came out of the [bicameral conference committee] were just the total, so the details were still unclear. So we’re returning to those and all those elements that are worrisome are something we’re trying to make sure they are not put at a disadvantage,” he said. “Let’s leave it to them (members of Congress). We’ll have that discussion with the bicam essentially and the leaders of both Houses,” the President added. Lawmakers defended the P10-billion budget cut for the computerization program by noting DepEd’s supposed low utilization rate from last year under Vice President Sara Duterte. The Vice President resigned as education secretary in July. Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who said he was elated by the pronouncement of the President, on Monday clarified that the utilization rate of its computerization program was much higher compared to what lawmakers had claimed in defending the budget cut. He added that he was already instructed to coordinate with other members of the Cabinet for the possible restoration, specifically with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. Angara also disclosed that Mr. Marcos himself called him up and was apparently frustrated over the bicam committee’s decision to reduce the DepEd’s budget for its computerization program. “He called me the other day and said he could not sleep over the budget cut because... this was contrary to what he wanted to modernize our education,” Angara said. Makabayan bloc lawmakers on Monday also called on the bicam panel to reconvene and restore funds for social services that were slashed from the different agencies. ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel claimed that the approved bicameral report was a “blatant replay of fiscal management and political patronage.” “The public was kept in the dark about the specific amendments, their justifications, and their impacts on urgent social services,” they claimed. The lawmakers lamented why budget cuts were usually seemingly made in the health and education sectors while discretionary funds, including confidential and intelligence funds, were retained or even increased. However, Assistant Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun said that the budget for the education sector should be taken in totality, along with funds allocated to other educational agencies and construction of related facilities by the Department of Public Works and Highways and local governments, pointing out it would show the sector remained a top priority. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . He noted that if the budgets of DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the state universities and colleges were summed up, it would show that the education sector was still allocated the biggest chunk of the 2025 national budget. —with a report from Jeannette I. Andrade

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Trump says the government is keeping people ‘in suspense’ about drones over NJ and the Philly suburbsLEARNING SESSION In this August 2023 photo, Grade 1 teacher Ivy Catungal engages her pupils in a learning session during the first day of classes at San Diego Elementary School in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. Several groups have lamented the reduction in the 2025 budget of the Department of Education, saying this will affect the agency’s programs. —Grig C. Montegranda MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos on Monday committed to restore the P10 billion that was slashed from the proposed funding of the Department of Education (DepEd), but clarified that it will not be through a line-item veto of the questioned provision in the P6.352-trillion 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). In an interview, the President said he was hopeful that he and the lawmakers could still work out a tweak before he signs the GAB, adding that the proposal to cut P10 billion from the DepEd’s computerization program was “contrary to the policy direction” of his administration on education. “We are still talking about it and we are trying to find a way and I think we’ll still be able to do something. We are working on that item because it is very necessary,” the President noted. READ: Angara: Marcos to remedy huge DepEd budget cut “The original request of ... P12 billion is only sufficient to maintain what they [in DepEd] are already doing, when in fact, they have to do more. So we have to figure that out. We’re working on it to make sure that we will restore it,” Mr. Marcos added. According to the President, the proposed reduction in the DepEd budget contradicted the government’s thrust of ensuring a continuing development of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in the education sector. The President made the statement amid mounting public uproar over the final version of the 2025 GAB, which included massive cuts on the proposed funding of major agencies such as DepEd, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Health. But a looming correction on the enrolled version of the budget should not come in the form of a line-item veto by the executive branch, the President said. “I do not want to line-item veto anything because that just gets in the way,” he said without elaborating. He pointed out that the discussion on a possible veto might be premature as the “process is still ongoing,” including a review of “worrisome” items. “We’re still finalizing because what came out of the [bicameral conference committee] were just the total, so the details were still unclear. So we’re returning to those and all those elements that are worrisome are something we’re trying to make sure they are not put at a disadvantage,” he said. “Let’s leave it to them (members of Congress). We’ll have that discussion with the bicam essentially and the leaders of both Houses,” the President added. Lawmakers defended the P10-billion budget cut for the computerization program by noting DepEd’s supposed low utilization rate from last year under Vice President Sara Duterte. The Vice President resigned as education secretary in July. Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who said he was elated by the pronouncement of the President, on Monday clarified that the utilization rate of its computerization program was much higher compared to what lawmakers had claimed in defending the budget cut. He added that he was already instructed to coordinate with other members of the Cabinet for the possible restoration, specifically with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. Angara also disclosed that Mr. Marcos himself called him up and was apparently frustrated over the bicam committee’s decision to reduce the DepEd’s budget for its computerization program. “He called me the other day and said he could not sleep over the budget cut because... this was contrary to what he wanted to modernize our education,” Angara said. Makabayan bloc lawmakers on Monday also called on the bicam panel to reconvene and restore funds for social services that were slashed from the different agencies. ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel claimed that the approved bicameral report was a “blatant replay of fiscal management and political patronage.” “The public was kept in the dark about the specific amendments, their justifications, and their impacts on urgent social services,” they claimed. The lawmakers lamented why budget cuts were usually seemingly made in the health and education sectors while discretionary funds, including confidential and intelligence funds, were retained or even increased. However, Assistant Majority Leader Jefferson Khonghun said that the budget for the education sector should be taken in totality, along with funds allocated to other educational agencies and construction of related facilities by the Department of Public Works and Highways and local governments, pointing out it would show the sector remained a top priority. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . He noted that if the budgets of DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the state universities and colleges were summed up, it would show that the education sector was still allocated the biggest chunk of the 2025 national budget. —with a report from Jeannette I. Andrade

In a message to the American people, the King expressed “great sadness” at the news of Mr Carter’s death, describing him as “a committed public servant” who “devoted his life to promoting peace and human rights”. He added: “His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977. “My thoughts and prayers are with President Carter’s family and the American people at this time.” Mr Carter, a former peanut farmer, served one term in the White House between 1977 and 1981 and spent his post-presidency years as a global humanitarian, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Carter had “lived his values in the service of others to the very end” through “decades of selfless public service”. Praising a “lifelong dedication to peace” that saw him win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Sir Keir added: “Motivated by his strong faith and values, President Carter redefined the post-presidency with a remarkable commitment to social justice and human rights at home and abroad.” Tributes to Mr Carter followed the announcement of his death by his family on Sunday, more than a year after he decided to enter hospice care. His son, Chip Carter, said: “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.” Very sorry to hear of President Carter’s passing. I pay tribute to his decades of selfless public service. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. pic.twitter.com/IaKmZcteb1 — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) December 29, 2024 US President Joe Biden, one of the first elected politicians to endorse Mr Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976, said the world had “lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian”. He said: “Over six decades, we had the honour of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. “With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us.” Vice President Kamala Harris said Mr Carter “reminded our nation and the world that there is strength in decency and compassion”. “His life and legacy continue to inspire me — and will inspire generations to come,” she said. “Our world is a better place because of President Carter.” Other UK politicians also paid tribute to Mr Carter. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he was “an inspiration” who “led a truly remarkable life dedicated to public service with a genuine care for people”. Scottish First Minister John Swinney described the former president as “a good, decent, honest man who strove for peace in all that he did”, while Welsh First Minister said he was “a remarkable man” and “a humanitarian and scholar”. Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair said Mr Carter’s “life was a testament to public service”. He added: “I always had the greatest respect for him, his spirit and his dedication. He fundamentally cared and consistently toiled to help those in need.” Gordon Brown, another former prime minister, said it was a “privilege” to have known Mr Carter, who “will be mourned, not just in America, but in every continent where human rights are valued”. Mr Carter is expected to receive a state funeral featuring public observances in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington DC before being buried in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. A moderate democrat born in Plains in October 1924, Mr Carter’s political career took him from the Georgia state senate to the state governorship and, finally, the White House, where he took office as 39th president in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. His presidency saw economic disruption amid volatile oil prices, along with social tensions at home and challenges abroad including the Iranian revolution that sparked a 444-day hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. But he also brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, which led to a peace treaty between the two countries in 1979. After his defeat in the 1980 presidential election, he worked more than four decades leading The Carter Centre, which he and his late wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope”. Under his leadership, the Carter Center virtually eliminated Guinea Worm disease, which has gone from affecting 3.5 million people in Africa and Asia in 1986 to just 14 in 2023. Mrs Carter, who died last year aged 96, had played a more active role in her husband’s presidency than previous first ladies, with Mr Carter saying she had been “my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished”. Earlier this year, on his 100th birthday, Mr Carter received a private congratulatory message from the King, expressing admiration for his life of public service

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You can't always know that it's a great year for new music while it's happening, but there was a sense from the very start of 2024 that we were in for a ride. A springtime gauntlet of weekly album drops by the industry's biggest stars was regularly interrupted by wildly inventive newcomers arriving out of nowhere, underground favorites reaching new heights and elders making vital statements. (For the record, just one of those reigning champions made our final list. Plenty of the challengers did.) Sometimes the sheer amount of great albums out each week could feel disorienting — June 7 was quite a day — but the abundance, looking back, is clearly a gift. We kept our ears open all year. Here's the result of that listening: our picks for the best albums of 2024. Fifty albums to give you something to hold onto when things get overwhelming, or to keep your head spinning with new sounds and ideas. They're presented chronologically and unranked, though we've adorned NPR Music's picks for the best of the best — a baker's dozen, perfect for a year overflowing with great music — with a crown. Label: Geffen Release Date: January 12 There is a seductive, disarming sweetness to the paisa accent of Colombian women. Perhaps that's why Kali Uchis , who was born in Virginia and grew up between the U.S. and her family's native country, fought with a former label to let her make music in Spanish. On her fourth LP and second Spanish-language project, ORQUÍDEAS — named after Colombia's national flower — Uchis' voice and vision is finally in full bloom. She purrs her way from a fluttering falsetto on "¿Cómo Así?"" to the full-bodied, revenge-fueled wails of the bolero "Te Mata." Uchis has long made divine femininity a central motif of her work, complete with glittery pop melodies and whispered prayers. But in the second half of ORQUÍDEAS , silky synths and moonlit musings descend into a raunchier, grittier party. She ramps things up with JT and El Alfa on dembow standout "Muñekita," then slides into a sweaty, sapphic duet with Karol G before landing on her grand finale: an escalating merengue medley that immediately demands a dancing partner and a shot of guaro. —Isabella Gomez Sarmiento ▶️ Stream Orquídeas by Kali Uchis Label: ECM Release Date: February 2 Turbulence and grace are coequal forces on Compassion, the second album by a powerfully perceptive all-star piano trio. Spearheaded by pianist and composer Vijay Iyer , it's recognizably stamped by his point of view, which favors brisk, slippery kineticism and a trust in the collective ideal. That trust is beautifully placed in two exceptionally astute partners: Linda May Han Oh , a bassist who imparts the sensation of a deep moving current; and Tyshawn Sorey , an ever-surprising drummer who released a stunning trio album of his own this year. The original compositions refer obliquely but sincerely to pandemic losses ("Panegyric," "Tempest") and personal heroes ("Arch," for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "Prelude: Orison," for Iyer's father). But these musicians put an equally distinctive spin on some material by shared touchstones: the experimental composer and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell , the bridge-building pianist Geri Allen , the openhearted soul magus Stevie Wonder . — Nate Chinen, WRTI ▶️ Stream Compassion by Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey Label: R&R Release Date: February 9 Where the hell did Mk.gee come from? Before this year, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter and music school dropout from New Jersey was largely known for his songwriting and production collaborations with Dijon . But in the months since dropping his spellbinding debut rock album, Two Star & The Dream Police , Mk.gee has cemented himself as his generation's guitar god in an era devoid of them, steadily building an impassioned fanbase who seek to replicate his mysterious playing style and clamor to see him repeat songs in his sets (he once played a song 12 times ) at his energetic sold-out shows. But it's not just unearned hype. On Two Star & The Dream Police , Mk.gee confidently melds the soft sounds and yearning styles of '80s rock, from U2 to The Blue Nile, with his distinctive guitar finger-picking to create a feverish, instantly replayable blur of an album. — Hazel Cills ▶️ Stream Two Star & The Dream Police by Mk.gee Label: ANTI- Release Date: February 9 Madi Diaz has spent many years bouncing around as an industry lifer, moving from Nashville to L.A. and back, writing songs for pop and country stars ( Kesha , Little Big Town ), releasing her own rich and deeply perceptive records, and even touring with Harry Styles . With Weird Faith , she follows her stunning 2021 breakup record History of a Feeling with an equally gripping set of songs about uncertainty — navigating the pitfalls of new love, wrestling with existential questions and generally surveying the minefields that forever lie ahead. Diaz keeps her arrangements spare, which lets the occasional swell of voices or orchestration hit that much harder. It also draws the listener's attention ever closer to her clear, plainspoken examinations of life's risks, questions, doubts and — maybe, if everything goes just right — triumphs. —Stephen Thompson ▶️ Stream Weird Faith by Madi Diaz Label: Nonesuch Release Date: February 23 Across Hurray for the Riff Raff 's eighth studio album, Alynda Segarra tells several stories about America through their history as a hitchhiker and train hopper. "People who sleep outside [have] a form of expertise about what's going on in this country," Segarra told World Cafe . The Past Is Still Alive reclaims some aspects of patriotism to redistribute power to the people living on the margins of society. Their journey is storied with misadventures: eating from the garbage ("Hourglass"); finding community in a "barrel of freaks" ("Snake Plant"); ducking from gunfire at a gay bar ("Colossus of Roads"). "Say goodbye to America / I wanna see it dissolve / I can be your poster boy for the great American fall," they sing on the latter, making way for deeper understanding, desire, freedom and survival. —Elle Mannion ▶️ Stream The Past Is Still Alive by Hurray For The Riff Raff Label: Top Dawg Entertainment Release Date: March 1 Rappers have been innovating on ways to say "I'm Bad" since L.L. started grabbing his crotch in his grandma's basement. But nobody in 2024 bested ScHoolboy Q , with a line buried like a gold nugget on an album full of uncut gems: "I ain't never met God but I bet he know me," became the ultimate flex as soon as "Yeern 101," Blue Lips ' first official single, dropped in February. When the album came two weeks later, it was the first sign that hip-hop gon' be alright after a 50th-anniversary year in which the genre's biggest names collectively took an unpaid vacay from the Billboard charts. Meanwhile, Q had been quietly woodshedding for the last five years on a psychedelic gangsta-rap opus, full of obscure samples, beat switches and the ruminations of an ex-pill popping, hood politickin, dad rapper approaching middle age and loving it. Blue Lips is the sound of maturing gracefully, from an artist nearly 20 years in the game and still feeling himself. —Rodney Carmichael ▶️ Stream Blue Lips by ScHoolboy Q Label: Bright Shiny Things Release Date: March 1 After the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, steps (albeit small ones) have been taken to better represent the work of Black American composers, past and present. This important — arguably long overdue — album spotlights two versatile mid-20th century artists whose music fell into neglect. The once-celebrated Julia Perry died in 1979, leaving her arresting violin concerto in disarray. Recently reconstructed, it receives a committed performance by Curtis Stewart, keen to the score's chromatic nuances. Her Prelude is serene, unlike the experimental Symphony in One Movement , which probes dark harmonies with the urgency of a search party. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, an agile pianist-composer who collaborated with Max Roach and Marvin Gaye , channels Handel in his neoclassical Sinfonietta No. 1 and conjures gritty southern styles in Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk for Violin . These strong performances by the Experiential Orchestra will hopefully spark a resurgence in the music of these exceptional composers. —Tom Huizenga ▶️ Stream American Counterpoints by Experiential Orchestra Label: Matador Release Date: March 8 "The song is breathing down my back, breathing down my neck," Kim Gordon sings half-way through her second solo album, The Collective . Every single song on this intimidating, arty, wildly cool album breathes down your neck. Over abrasive beats and heavy guitar reverb produced by collaborator Justin Raisen, Gordon lets her art school freak flag fly higher here than she ever did in Sonic Youth . Across 11 tracks, she spins up a collection of poetic, Dadaist songs, deadpanning in a whisper about everything from misogyny, the Los Angeles art scene, gift shop purchases, gun worship, influencer culture and what might be the most chilling (and somehow sexy) song ever written about bowling . It's fun, it's a nightmare, it's an album about the American dream that only Gordon could pull off. — Hazel Cills ▶️ Stream The Collective by Kim Gordon Label: ANTI- Release Date: March 22 Katie Crutchfield's melodies veer around like unchecked feelings, but on Tigers Blood this indie royal has never been more in control. Having claimed her friends and foes, turned a love match into a working partnership and faced up to the limits — and possibilities — of giving yourself to rock and roll, Crutchfield frees herself completely in these rambling yet tightly executed songs. "We can roll around in the disarray," she sings in "Evil Spawn," nailing every syllable to the snap of Spencer Tweedy's drums as she perfectly captures the earnest extravagance of making creativity the center of your world. Crutchfield's love songs acknowledge monogamy's challenges, her self-assessments have swagger and she redefines the very idea of "adult" music, saying it's possible to keep a little wildness at the core of a fully realized life. —Ann Powers ▶️ Stream Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee Label: Epic Release Date: March 22 "They ain't never had a pretty girl from Joburg, see me now and that's what they prefer." If 2023's "Water" was any indication of Tyla 's star power, then her self-titled debut cements it. On this album, Tyla creates a formula that has global appeal while keeping true to herself: Anchored by the South African pulse of amapiano, Tyla brims with energy, ambition and a clear sense of identity. There are many standout moments — the Aaliyah-infused "On and On" and Tyla's mesmerizing vocals on "Butterflies" — but perhaps the most powerful is when she teams up with Nigerian R&B princess Tems for the confidence-boosting "No. 1." With this debut, she's not only positioned herself as thee African popstar, but also carving out space for a new generation of African artists on the global stage. —Ashley Pointer ▶️ Stream Tyla by Tyla Label: Sentimental Release Date: March 22 "What you give to me no one can frack / What you give to me cannot owe bail / What you give to me no app can track," Los Angeles indie-rocker Rosie Tucker sings on UTOPIA NOW! The lyric demonstrates something at which Tucker is especially talented: moving deftly between big-picture societal critiques and dialed-in personal intimacies, often from one line to the next. The album, which Tucker wrote in the aftermath of being dropped from their label, chronicles (among many things; Tucker created a Wiki compiling all the references on the album) the perils of the music industry and the failures of technology. But Tucker's erudition doesn't come at the cost of the music's playfulness; it's a guitar record after all, and the production is experimental, with literal bells and whistles (and car horns and dog barks) layered throughout. And Tucker is truly funny as a lyricist, slipping one-liner zingers into songs that are existential and anti-capitalist, making listeners sit with our complicit consumerism. —Elle Mannion ▶️ Stream UTOPIA NOW! by Rosie Tucker Label: Vida Release Date: March 22 Let this be the official acknowledgment: My Alt.Latino co-host Anamaria Sayre turned me on to this Basque artist, and for that I am eternally grateful. Amaia Miranda is part of a cohort of musicians from northern Spain creating new musical expressions based on existing traditions, but with 2020s sensibilities. I was completely enchanted by the quiet beauty of her acoustic guitar meditations and wondered how I've lived so long without her music in my life. OK, turns out she's only been releasing music since 2017, but such is the hold her music has on me now that I know. —Felix Contreras ▶️ Stream Mientras vivas brillas by Amaia Miranda Label: Columbia Release Date: March 29 The origin story of Beyoncé 's latest album — a rebuke to those who questioned her legitimacy after she performed at the 2016 CMA Awards — is well known. But to assume that Act II: Cowboy Carter is just an album of personal retribution is to miss her doctorate-level dissertation on the depths of country's Black roots and its all-American recuperation. Cowboy Carter manages to expand a Black-birthed genre and meditate on what dismantling genre altogether can mean. The album's 27 tracks unfurl lifetimes of knowledge. Bey reminisces. She teaches. She raps. She writhes. She do-si-dos. She soothes her babies with lullabies and reloads the gun for her hangman on some " '03 Bonnie and Clyde " role revisal. She bows down to unsung trailblazer Linda Martell. She traces her family tree. She calls herself home. While Toni Morrison taught us that the "function of racism is to distract," the function of appropriation is to abstract; to steal so specifically that over time, you can make someone forget what's theirs in the first place. Cowboy Carter reclaims what's been abstracted with a spiritual, silly, kaleidoscopic precision. On the resounding "AMEN," Bey holds a funeral for the "old ideas" that this music was never Black people's to enjoy and occupy. After one spin of this album, you won't be able to claim you didn't know ever again. —Sidney Madden ▶️ Stream Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé Label: XL Recordings Release Date: April 5 The vibes are immaculate on Fabiana Palladino 's debut album. Her pedigree is, too: She's the daughter of Pino Palladino , an in-demand session bassist since the early 1980s (both of her parents, plus her brother and sister, contribute here, giving it the feel of an intimate coming-out party) and she was mentored by Jai Paul, a reclusive singer and producer whose limited output is balanced by the reverberations of his influence (check out the guitar sound on Mk.gee's Two Star & The Dream Police for more proof). It's crucial to mention this background, but just as important to discard it, because Fabiana Palladino belongs completely to its namesake, a writer and producer of immediate distinction. Fans of sophisticated, richly textured pop (Solange, Jessie Ware) will find rewards for days here. Palladino's songs feel bound to the early 1980s moment when experimental synth production was at pop's vanguard. Tastefully-retro keyboard sounds, shuddering guitar parts and multi-tracked backing vocals all jump out of the mix, but everything remains in perfect balance. These 10 songs play out like a classic '80s LP, with big hooks on side A, but don't sleep on the back half, where Palladino's skills as an arranger reach swoon-inducing heights. —Jacob Ganz ▶️ Stream Fabiana Palladino by Fabiana Palladino Label: Islandia Music Release Date: April 5 Sixty years ago, Terry Riley 's groundbreaking In C debuted in San Francisco, helping to usher in the minimalist movement in music. Over the years, his sparse, one-page score of 53 modular "riffs" has been performed by groups as diverse as a Chinese orchestra , musicians from Mali and a Japanese acid rock band. But none of these (nor many other renditions) offers the deep, trance-inducing grooves laid down by so few instruments — just Beiser 's cello (with a looping machine) and a pair of percussionists. She unspools long, droning lines, like bolts of fabric in the wind, as the low C string of her cello caroms off the drummers' beat. There are moments of serene repose, also headbanging grunge, redolent of Led Zeppelin 's "Kashmir." The project started as a whimsical surprise gift for Riley. It continued with his blessing, and pulses on for all to get lost in. —Tom Huizenga ▶️ Stream In C by Maya Beiser Label: Topshelf Release Date: April 17 So rare that a debut album announces a punk band so fully, loudly and, well — in a year that's celebrated highly chaotic energy — so damn brat . In the first 60 seconds of pink balloons , you get an immediate sense of Ekko Astral : throttling bass fuzz, bottom heavy drums, noisy guitar squall and the snotty snarl of Jael Holzman's voice. Each song is a confetti cannon stuffed with an unknown pink substance leaking out the sides, not only daring you to thrash, but dance. But even more than a cathartic set of punk anthems, Ekko Astral captures the feeling of falling apart together: How else can we cope with the anxiety and exhaustion of existence, religion and gender-based violence than in the company of comrades? pink balloons wants to hold space for empathy, but also, as Holzman cheekily offers, "Carly Rae Jepsen with a broadsword." —Lars Gotrich ▶️ Stream pink balloons by Ekko Astral Label: Thrill Jockey Release Date: April 19 In claire rousey 's music, hushed, seemingly insignificant beats of everyday life are often focused in on and magnified into moments of beauty. The experimental artist and composer is known for her prolific, disparate body of largely ambient music that makes great use of found sound (iPhone voice memos, field recordings) and her own Auto-Tuned vocals. But on sentiment , rousay pushes her uncategorizable work the closest it's ever been to something resembling singer-songwriter music, turning totally inward and pairing her introspective writing with emo guitar and strings. The result is a quietly powerful album that surfaces the artist's potent self-criticisms and ruminations on loneliness, and in its constantly mutating, delicate sound creates the devastating feeling of wanting for more. — Hazel Cills ▶️ Stream sentiment by claire rousay Label: self-released Release Date: April 30 The Brazilian singer-songwriter Luiza Brina calls these non-religious prayers calls for peace, salves for broken hearts, and announcements of arrivals and departures in life. She looks to Brazilian music masters for inspiration — the psychedelic symphonies of Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa come to mind, as well as Milton Nascimento 's tender sambas — but through a concave lens. Her soft-yet-commanding voice, nimble nylon guitar picking and orchestral arrangements expand outward with bombastic synths and more subtle electronic textures, crafting a sound that's right now, with a host of collaborators from Brazil's past and present. (And, if you'll forgive a brief tangent, 2024 was an incredible year for albums from Brazilians: Amaro Freitas , Sítio Rosa, Rogê , Milton Nascimento with esperanza spalding , to name a few.) There's a restrained ambition to Prece — a promise of something bigger than the prayers contained. A quiet, yet colossal record. —Lars Gotrich ▶️ Stream Prece by Luiza Brina Label: Mexican Summer Release Date: May 3 Before you hear Jessica Pratt 's unmistakable voice on Here in the Pitch , there are signs that the singer is working with an ambitious new palette. Drums thud and echo a familiar boom-pitter-pat as strings float in like rays of a long-awaited sunrise. And then, as if echoing down a smoke-filled hallway leading out of a dream, Pratt sings, her voice an uncanny mix of regret and resignation: "Life is ... it's never what you think it's for." That lyrical head fake, two words into her fourth album (her first in five years and by a wide margin her best) gives a sense of what makes Here in the Pitch so special. It's an album of displacement — temporal and psychological — that manages to find its own plane of existence. Naturally, references to the past are part of the album's fabric. Foremost, to rock and roll before it became "rock" — those early 1960s acts still tugged by widescreen country storytelling, smoky basement jazz crooning and studio strings — as well as the revivalists who have draped themselves in its image in each decade since. But Here in the Pitch avoids feeling overtly retro by being utterly enveloping (an attribute it shares with Cindy Lee's rapturously received Diamond Jubilee ). "It's the age of what's to come," Pratt sings later in "Life Is." Here in the Pitch is a handbook for keeping your balance when life is turning upside down around you. —Jacob Ganz ▶️ Stream Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt Label: Domino Release Date: May 17 The two most established public truths about the singer Beth Gibbons — that she is the lead vocalist of the trailblazing trip-hop group Portishead and a notoriously off-the-record person — are complicated by her solo debut, Lives Outgrown . Ten years in the making, the album introduces a brand new sound world of hushed chamber folk, using its delicately layered, splendidly crafted arrangements and their faintly rhythmic thrust to reveal more of herself than ever before. Wraithlike and pensive, its penetrating music meditates on maturity as a process, with all of its aches and hard lessons. The album can feel haunted in similar ways to the striking Portishead classics, but it is a personal sanctum all to itself that seems possessed by its own myths and folklore. Death and loss loom large, but Gibbons' spindly voice remains steadfast. Clear-sighted through an encroaching gloom, an anxious artist seems determined to fortify herself through doubt. —Sheldon Pearce ▶️ Stream Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons Label: Partisan Release Date: June 7 The brilliance of Angélica Garcia is in her malleability. The layers of intricately arranged emotion and cultural commentary come from excavating varieties of sound that feel spatially boundless. There's a neatness to the chaos on Gemelo . The album charts massive moments of transformation and rebirth as the Mexican-American singer carefully explores the duality of her core rhythm. She wrestles with twin identities, spirit and body, beauty and pain. There is a fixed, eternal conflict inherent to Mexican-ness, children of the colonizer and the colonized. Mexican philosopher Octavio Paz posits this as the explanation for our embracing of equal parts joy and sorrow. These two states of being are irreconcilable, so we bask in the glory of their messy collision. Amidst guttural cries and electro-cumbia rhythms, Garcia builds solace in extremity and acceptance. "To a certain extent, we have a choice of how we frame things," she explained regarding the record. "Pain can be another color, and the more colors I have — it just means that I lived." —Anamaria Sayre ▶️ Stream Gemelo by Angélica Garcia Label: RCA Release Date: June 7 Longtime listeners of Kaytranada know his sound instantly — that effortless bounce, its undeniable grooves and precision. Building off of the sonic diversity of 2016's 99.9% and the collaborative spirit of 2019's BUBBA, TIMELESS delivers all of these hallmarks across a whopping 21 tracks that offer surprises without straying too far away from his signature style. "Video" with Ravyn Lenae and "Feel a Way" featuring Don Toliver feel overdue in the best way, while powerhouse vocalist Durand Bernarr makes a triumphant return, adding to the album's mix of the fresh and the nostalgic. No matter whether you're entertaining friends or unwinding solo, TIMELESS has something for everyone — securing Kaytranada's place as a masterful producer who knows how to keep the party going, or just help you vibe out. —Ashley Pointer ▶️ Stream TIMELESS by Kaytranada Label: Atlantic Release Date: June 7 Sometimes when I survey the artists who've dominated our mainstream pop landscape for the last few years, I feel like I'm staring down a ballot to nominate America's homecoming queen and king. Everyone's so squeaky clean and inoffensive, so gracious and self-edited. But in 2024 we got Charli xcx , as if emerging from cutting class to smoke in the girls bathroom all these years, to release her irresistibly chaotic brat . For over a decade, the artist has been circling a commercial breakthrough, her records largely relegated to cult classics. But brat is her most thrilling release in years, a fast and furious electro-pop album that twists and turns between its bitchy, party girl persona and Charli's stark anxieties that flare underneath it. And even as it was memed into oblivion , garnering TikTok dances and a mention from Kamala Harris' campaign, brat 's cool factor never waned, boosted months after its release by an equally incredible remix version. Now that's, like, so brat. — Hazel Cills ▶️ Stream brat by Charli xcx Label: RCA Release Date: June 7 " This is for the girl in the dark / This is for the one tryna make it right / This is for the one waiting for the sunrise / This is for the one with a voice inside ." The parting message on Tems ' debut album commemorates her artistic awakening — one that's prompted a seismic shift in music. Since 2018, the Nigerian phenom knows full well that she's set the tone for African artists attracting global ears (" Yeah, I'm the one that got the scene bangin' " she blazons on "Wickedest") but throughout the LP, she reiterates that her confidence comes from the knowledge that she's covered by God during all her most daring moves. Born in the Wild weaves the soundwaves of her Lagos and London upbringing with a playful bravado delivered through her unforgettably rich alto. "It was night in my life, for so long, that I just thought it was never coming," she told me during Born in the Wild 's release. But this classic album celebrates the divinity of trusting the light that burns within us all. —Sidney Madden ▶️ Stream Born in the Wild by Tems Label: Platoon Release Date: June 7 This dazzling, multi-Grammy-nominated album starring celebrity conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic should give the hard-working 59-year-old Mexican composer the widespread recognition she deserves. In three disparate works, the album proves Ortiz as a distinctive master of color and rhythm. The 43-minute ballet Revolución Diamantina tackles her homeland's history of violence against women with whiplash Stravinskian beats, percussive commentary from a chorus and, oddly, a pinch of humor. The violin concerto Altar de cuerda sports modernist hues (think Messiaen and Ligeti ) with a cinematic, diaphanous central movement inspired by Mexico's 16th-century open-air churches. A seven-minute show-stopper, Kauyumari is fueled by a perky folk melody that continually transforms and finally blossoms into a jubilant frenzy. It's intoxicating music that, in a just world, should be played by orchestras around the globe. —Tom Huizenga ▶️ Stream Revolución Diamantina by Gabriela Ortiz Label: Interscope Release Date: July 10 As the wunderkind of Afrobeats, Rema has watched the growth of the continent's modern genre parallel his own coming of age. And coming off his 2022 crossover success with the catchy, PG-rated "Calm Down" remix featuring Selena Gomez , the 24-year-old singer could have easily coasted on some highly lucrative Afropop laurels. Instead, the Remy Boy grabbed the steering wheel and jerked attention back to his roots of Benin City, Nigeria, with HEIS. During its all-too-brief 28 minutes, the album is bold, shadowy, roving and all-consuming. Adrenaline rush standouts "MARCH AM," "YAYO," "OZEBA," and "HEIS" drive home Rema's statement that no matter how popular it becomes, the ancestral sounds of African music can never be diluted. It's exactly what the genre called for at this moment and a project that will go down as a powerful turning point in his career. —Sidney Madden ▶️ Stream HEIS by Rema Label: Dead Oceans Release Date: July 12 Omakase berries are a strawberry varietal only found, in nature, in the foothills of the Japanese Alps. Today, though, they're grown in vertical greenhouses and sold at Eataly for five dollars a pop. In "Omakase," sophisti-pop auteur Cassandra Jenkins dreams that she feeds the rare berries to her lover (who is, she murmurs, her light and destroyer); turning into coyotes, they lick the seeds from each others' teeth. Such surreal magic abounds on this gorgeous collection of synth-kissed reveries: in "Petco," she locks eyes with a lizard and finds dubious communion; "Clams Casino" describes depression through images of stray hairs in hotel beds and mysterious encounters in hotel restaurants. The music that makes Jenkins' stories glow is uncanny, too: retrofuturistic and intimate, modestly psychedelic, punctuated by interludes that feature French murmurs and her mother, a science teacher, enthusing about the stars. Twenty-first century intimacy is strange — established virtually, regulated pharmaceutically, threatened by existential unease. My Light, My Destroyer captures its plastic, fragile heart. —Ann Powers ▶️ Stream My Light, My Destroyer by Cassandra Jenkins Label: Island Release Date: July 12 She knows how to disco, but don't call her a revivalist: Though Remi Wolf 's songs can feel like stepping through a magic wardrobe packed with shakers and ankle bells, there's no separating them from the anxieties of the here and now. Hence, Big Ideas , a step up in craft and a pivot out in theme from 2021's toy-chest charmer Juno , complicating her roller-jam confessions with the new twist of being a quasi-famous person, bound to the rules of the road. Desire moves differently here: Borrowed luxury is all around, tempting you to binge appetizers and small talk at the media party, before serving fierce emotional hangover when the lights come on. Situationships get physical in stolen moments, bodies lathered in fancy hotel soap, but beyond each euphoric peak is a valley of longing to darken your alone time. Spite is a hell of a drug, especially when leveled at that ex who's doing just a little too well without you. To catalog this many relatable, regrettable micro-feelings in one place would have been impressive enough; she didn't have to make the thing so damn danceable, too. —Daoud Tyler-Ameen ▶️ Stream Big Ideas by Remi Wolf Label: AWAL Release Date: August 1 No one online admits they were wrong, least of all the edgelords. It is more effective to simply double down, to build an entirely new identity around digging in. Few have been more committed to standing their ground than the rapper JPEGMAFIA . Across four albums of incendiary rap, he has emerged as hip-hop's troll in chief, belligerent, unshakable and trenchant. The gripping, knotty I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU carries many of those same instincts — taking on all comers for the rap equivalent of a Royal Rumble (if it were held on Twitter). But there is something lingering just under the surface that had previously eluded him: the pangs of conscience, which bleed into charged-up polemics turning defense into offense. Released in the wake of a controversial collaboration with Kanye West, a career provocateur does some self-reflection, coming out reinvigorated if not reformed. Though far closer to apologia than an apology, the music takes thoughtful, unexpected turns, and the album is gorgeous even when ugly, managing punk fury with an artisanal flair. As an idealogue's conviction takes the slightest of blows, he produces the most stunning work of his career. —Sheldon Pearce ▶️ Stream I Lay Down My Life For You by JPEGMAFIA Label: Blue Note Release Date: August 2 When NPR's Ari Shapiro asked Meshell Ndegeocello why James Baldwin's work — in particular, his book The Fire Next Time — continues to inform her music, Ndegeocello responded with a question of her own: " Why aren't we going back to it more? " Like Baldwin, the bassist, singer-songwriter and producer examines systems of oppression through her music, making a conscious decision to opt out. No More Water also includes the words of Audre Lorde, a poet, activist and educator who during her life was dedicated to calling out injustice in all of its forms. These elements, set to music composed by Ndgeocello and her band, make for an uncompromising listening experience. —Nikki Birch ▶️ Stream No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin by Meshell Ndegeocello Label: Def Jam Release Date: August 9 "I'm tryna become who I wanna be / Let me define by any means." This decisive declaration is paramount for a recording artist making a transition from independence to a major label. On CRYBABY, rapper and singer Rae Kahlil flows seamlessly between rhyming without artifice and singing with vulnerability. Boasting collabs with Freddie Gibbs , Benny Sings , Tiana Major9 and Anderson .Paak , Kahlil moves through pockets of R&B, including a Running Man -inspiring New Jack Swing via "COME HOME," the soulful "IS IT WORTH IT" and the sonic curveball "KNOW YOU." Whether wrestling with herself or a lover, she returns to that central intention to exist honestly within these spaces indefinitely, proclaiming, "F*** ya 15 minutes, I got so much more." —Mitra Arthur ▶️ Stream CRYBABY by Rae Khalil Label: Acony Release Date: August 23 In "The Bells and the Birds," one of the most quietly resonant tracks on this deceptively modest return from Americana music's reigning partnership, Gillian Welch murmurs a question as David Rawlings ' guitar overtones ring behind her: "Listen how the bells, they ring in the morning / What do they say to you, my love?" What they say is move along ; change is both necessary and inevitable. But, the birds answer, there is joy in claiming its sweet moments. Woodland follows the currents of impermanence through many storylines, some personal, others mythic or historical. Friends die, power corrupts and destroys, dreams play themselves out or are unfulfilled. Through it all there is love, fraying like an old coat, but still the ultimate protection. As spare guitar-and-voice duets alternate with subtle electric folk arrangements, Welch and Rawlings offer a midlife testament that honors and mourns loss while sounding ageless. —Ann Powers ▶️ Stream Woodland by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Label: Island Release Date: August 23 Sabrina Carpenter is hungry, and she wants you to know it. On her delightfully compact breakthrough album, this Disney grad-turned-pop auteur casts herself as a freedom fighter in the sheets, calling out the hot boys who've wronged her — often because they're too dumb to do otherwise — while saucily acknowledging that she's no saint, either. We've seen this character before; from Jean Harlow's Blonde Bombshell to Mikey Madison's Anora, she's the baddish girl whose insistence on transparency exposes all the holes in the romantic fantasies that keep thoughtless, entitled men on top. Short n' Sweet swathes its empowerment fantasies in Y2K-pfp pastels, her vocals light as a feather floating in a cloud of vintage synths as she whispers to a lover on the verge of wandering, I won't give a f*** about you . On the merry-go-round of heartbreak, she's putting her foot down. It won't stop the spin, but for this laughing vamp, it's one way toward sure footing. —Ann Powers ▶️ Stream Short n' Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter Label: Top Dawg Entertainment Release Date: August 30 When Doechii performed in Atlanta on her Alligator Bites Never Heal tour, she took a moment between songs to relish in her four recently announced 2025 Grammy nominations. "They didn't see the Black b**** coming!" she shouted to a sold-out crowd, flaunting the explicit moniker she's used at least since her 2022 mixtape, she / her / black bitch . Of course, the phrase dates back much further in the annals of antebellum history. To be stuntin on 'em as a young, lyrically-gifted, dark-skinned, bisexual woman from the Deep and Dirty South in hip-hop today is a leather-gloved pimp slap across the face of an industry hard-coded with all the inbred racism, sexism and colorism that comes with commodifying Black bodies. Doechii knows this. And by the time she unpacks her bags — from Tampa to L.A., dependency to sobriety, self-doubt to audacity — over the course of a 19-song mixtape that's never bound or confined by genre, formula or label pressure, you'll know she's the s***, too. —Rodney Carmichael ▶️ Stream Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii Label: Deutsche Grammophon Release Date: August 30 While the 30-year-old Canadian mezzo-soprano emerges into stardom (she opened the Metropolitan Opera season this fall), she's yet to release a standard-issue "opera arias" album. And that may confound traditionalists. On Freezing , Emily D'Angelo opts for a smartly curated mix of folk and pop-ish songs. I admire her restless curiosity and, frankly, wouldn't mind if she sang a physics textbook. The voice is that beautiful — a burnished mahogany instrument with crisp (but not overly fussy) diction, tidy vibrato and elegant phrasing that sounds at home whether she's conjuring Jean Ritchie in the old Irish ballad "O Love is Teasing," diving deep into the melancholy of Purcell 's "O Solitude" or probing the heartbreak of Randy Newman 's "Wandering Boy." The arrangements are sparse but fresh — scorching electric guitar, droning synths and simple piano. D'Angelo is proving that her voice is one for all seasons. —Tom Huizenga ▶️ Stream Freezing by Emily D'Angelo Label: Pyroclastic Release Date: September 6 Folkloric futurism is a trademark for Patricia Brennan , a brilliant vibraphonist and composer rattling along the volatile edge of contemporary chamber music (or if you prefer, the more compositional quadrant of avant-garde jazz). On Breaking Stretch, an album whose title pointedly evokes the idiom "stretched to the breaking point," she augments her percussive quartet with an elite three-man horn section — Adam O'Farrill on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto saxophone, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone — and deploys them with a fidgety emphasis on abrading tensions. Her compositions play with unstable accord and accumulative density, with a rhythmic brio that occasionally evokes her formative years in Veracruz, Mexico. But the core coordinates of this music are fixed someplace that hasn't yet been charted; Brennan and her expeditionary forces make us feel flush with its discovery. — Nate Chinen, WRTI ▶️ Stream Breaking Stretch by Patricia Brennan Septet Label: Warp Release Date: September 6 The London-based harpist, keyboardist and composer Nala Sinephro designed her second album, Endlessness , as a musical Möbius strip. Comprising 10 tracks titled by number — "Continuum 1," "Continuum 2" and so on, continuity being the animating principle — it glides in a scroll of accumulative and recessive detail, with input from peers like saxophonist James Mollison (of Ezra Collective) and drummer Natcyet Wakili (formerly with Sons of Kemet). Sinephro's modular synthesizers burble and hum, as an arpeggiated line shimmers through the mist. Occasionally there's a tasteful slick of strings. As a totality, the result suggests an elegant convergence of ambient, electronic music and astral jazz, but genre terms can only offer an imprecise shorthand. Sinephro is pursuing a form of transcendence, at once cosmopolitan and almost elemental, relaxed yet hyperacute, rooted in an understanding that even infinity is a matter of one moment surrendering to the next. —Nate Chinen, WRTI ▶️ Stream Endlessness by Nala Sinephro Label: ANTI- Release Date: September 6 MJ Lenderman sings like a slightly out of tune guitar, like it kinda hurts him to do so, but he wouldn't want you to say anything about that. A poet of the half articulate, he's the guy at the backyard party who silently takes note of every sloppy kiss, dirty lie and borderline racist quip the alcohol inspires, recording them later in a secret notebook his kids will find in a closet in 50 years' time. Manning Fireworks claims Americana for the kids with revoked drivers licenses and the families with Christmas decorations in the yard in June; it claims rock for the unheroic and uncool, the purveyors of awkward pauses. A gentle feedback master, Lenderman knows heroic moves break bones; his band, a shaggy beast, extends the legacy of wrecked rock from Neil Young through Pavement and the Drive-By Truckers . "Please don't laugh, only half of what I say is a joke," he begs, bending the melody like it's a pipe cleaner in his nervous hands. After the party, there's a little sculpture on the kitchen table in the shape of a broken heart. —Ann Powers ▶️ Stream Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman Label: Ninja Tune Release Date: September 13 As Nilüfer Yanya began to make her third album, on the cusp of her 30s, she started thinking about the nature of performance, of being unable to separate herself from her songs and uncertain about giving her life to them. Previous albums established the Londoner as an electrifying young polymath, an indrawn songwriter and menacing guitarist with a majestic, sandpapery voice that could light a match. Where do you go from there? What stokes the desire to keep committing oneself to such an invasive process? The search for answers charges My Method Actor , a discerning record that interrogates the process itself and the identity put into it. Dynamic yet locked into an indefatigable groove, even as its grungy sound begins to dissolve into something more understated and unwound the longer it plays, the album is poised amid existential confusion. Yanya emerges from her crisis of conviction a virtuoso more in command of her artistry than ever, blazing her path forward by simply trusting her instincts. —Sheldon Pearce ▶️ Stream My Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya Label: Jagjaguwar Release Date: September 27 The music made by the poet and folk artist Mustafa can feel like it is operating across planes. The songs are remarkably present yet obscure somehow. His voice, which is translucent in its own way, hangs at a middle distance. He is in conversation with both the living and the dead, and he sings as if he is occupying a liminal space. Dunya , his second album of quietly awe-inspiring elegies and remembrances, stands at many intersections to consider the toll the messenger must bear in service of keeping memories alive. In his capacity as hood archivist, he comes to represent many things: his Regent Park neighborhood, a Toronto youth movement in crisis, the Black muslim diaspora, the gang as a means of community, a facilitator of violence and a refuge from it. Through the softspun sounds of his heartbreaking memoranda, written so carefully as to feel both intimate and unknowable, Mustafa reaches out across the threshold, continuing to try to make sense of the senseless, even as his spirit grows weary. —Sheldon Pearce ▶️ Stream Dunya by Mustafa Label: Nonesuch Release Date: October 4 Some fingerstyle guitarists need more than the six or 12 strings under their fingers. They are composers, after all, who dream and hear techniques and textures outside of our imagination — the guitar can extend the artistic expression toward something symphonic in size and scope. On her third album, Yasmin Williams ' musicianship is impressive as always — her percussive-yet-melodic touch on the acoustic guitar is immediately distinctive — but here her musical storytelling finds brilliant vistas in the company of others. A string trio coaxes warming colors out of a busy "Sisters," underscoring a familial tension. Allison de Groot (banjo) and Tatiana Hargreaves (fiddle) brighten the corners of "Hummingbird," a brisk bluegrass tune that is among Williams' finest compositions. When she switches over to electric guitar, drummers give the emo-tinged "Dream Lake" and "Nectar" just enough juice to shred. With over 20 guest musicians, Williams quite literally traveled far and wide to make her vision a reality; on Acadia , she forges new ground. —Lars Gotrich ▶️ Stream Acadia by Yasmin Williams Label: Century Media Release Date: October 4 Have you ever growled into the void and found the light of creation? Blood Incantation , a death metal band steeped in the brutality of the masters, has always looked beyond — to the death of self, to the spaceways, to the horror (and hope) of existence — to write the next chapters of metal. Absolute Elsewhere , the band's fourth full-length, collapses a catalog of sublime stargazing and varied influences into a metal masterpiece that we'll be picking apart for ages. Explosive riffs, planet-swallowing grooves, atmospheric synths, dubby production, proggy instrumentals, bongo breaks and psychedelic passages deftly weave through two side-long songs — deemed "tablets" by the band — that are as intricate as they are enticing. Are there sections that veer into Pink Floyd laser show territory? Yes! And I, for one, challenge planetariums absolutely everywhere to take on Absolute Elsewhere . —Lars Gotrich ▶️ Stream Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation Label: Blue Note Release Date: October 11 With his stunning third album, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins deepens his scope as a conceptualist — creating a song cycle that explores familial bonds, ancestral bloodlines, and Black pain and persistence. (Its title refers to an utterance by Daniel Hamm, one of the Harlem Six savagely beaten by police in 1964; the composer Steve Reich once created a sound collage with the same phrase.) The album creates space for four sensitive vocalists, whose contributions overlap and intertwine in ways that suggest a subterranean root system. Among them are the transfixing South Indian devotionalist Ganavya and the folkish singer-songwriter June McDoom, whose hauntingly emotive lyrics meld naturally with Wilkins' bittersweet melodic designs (and the intuitive grace of his excellent quartet). Working deftly with producer Meshell Ndegeocello, Wilkins balances bracing poignancy with affirming communality: his invocation of historical struggle is also a reminder that no one fights alone. — Nate Chinen, WRTI ▶️ Stream Blues Blood by Immanuel Wilkins Label: UnitedMasters Release Date: October 11 The same morning BigXthaPlug dropped his second studio album, I hit up my cousin in Texas: "Yo man, Dallas finally got a rapper bout to go big. No pun intended." Like BigX, my cousin hails from the Big D. I hadn't shot him a music recommendation in years, but couldn't resist while sitting at a red light bumping "Law & Order," the Take Care song named for the same TV-show theme song it samples. The canned guitar wails that made the '90s police procedural so cringe never sounded as twanged-out and redemptive as they do next to BigX's double-barrel baritone drawl. A swashbuckling outlaw with a heavy soul , the man personifies Texas. Producer Tony Coles keeps that same energy throughout, leading with big samples — Willie Hutch, War, Ronald Isley , Rick James — that make Take Care ride like a mixtape masquerading as an album. Clearly, this is what Pimp C meant when he christened Southern hip-hop as "country rap tunes." When the all-encompassing story of country music's 2024 resurgence is told, BigXthaPlug will require a sizable entry. —Rodney Carmichael ▶️ Stream Take Care by BigXthaPlug Label: Interscope Release Date: October 11 Without fail, GloRilla is going to deliver that gospel. Five years into a career of continued, authentic virality, Big Glo blesses fans with a debut album displaying all her sides. The former choir girl praises her Christian roots with "RAIN DOWN ON ME" and "GLO'S PRAYER," then mixes the ratchet with the righteous on "HOW I LOOK." She talks herself out of overthinking with "STOP PLAYING" and "LET HER COOK." Released during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, she stands on business with "DON'T DESERVE" and "I AIN'T GOING": "I ain't goin' for all that rough me up and grab me by the neck (no) / N**** put his hands on me, we gon' be smokin' on him next." Heavy on the energies of self-love, reliance and respect, GLORIOUS is a triumph of Southern lyricism that shows off the Memphis star in new multitudes. —Sidney Madden ▶️ Stream GLORIOUS by GloRilla Label: Verve Release Date: October 18 The glow of his first Grammy win — in the category of Best Latin Jazz Performance, for Habana — didn't even have time to fade before trumpet dynamo Roy Hargrove went back into the studio to record a sequel, in the spring of 1998. Why, then, was that album put in the vault rather than on a release schedule? It couldn't have been the quality of the music, because Grand-Terre is an ecstatic winner: an even more fluent and focused celebration of Afro-Cuban musical lineage, with Hargrove and his Crisol band both in exceptionally strong form. Maybe the album would have been taken for granted had it been released in the immediate wake of Habana ; arriving as it does six years after Hargrove's untimely death , it's a heartening reminder of his uncommon gift for crisp lyricism, his abiding respect for Afro-Diasporic traditions, and his strutting ease in every sort of groove. — Nate Chinen, WRTI ▶️ Stream Grande-Terre by Roy Hargrove's Crisol Label: Rimas Release Date: October 24 Latin Mafia's genius hinges on mining glitter in the gray area. When the trio of brothers from Monterrey, Mexico, creates, nothing is off limits: a dancing piano, synthetic sparkle, palmas and, always, chillingly honest lyrics. "Que no te acabes nunca (May you never be finished) / Y si te acabas me esperas (And if you are finished may you wait for me)," they coo on "y como te digo que." Love always plays with death and joy with a bit of melancholy. Within the trio's sonic landscape, the most extreme and seemingly oppositional expressions of emotion find equal representation. Whether dropping bars of bitter self-condemnation ("nunca he sido honesto.") or sitting with messages from their grandma about how to carry on ("tengo mucho ruido."), authenticity is both Latin Mafia's power and connective tissue. —Anamaria Sayre ▶️ Stream Todos los días todo el día by Latin Mafia Label: Columbia Release Date: October 28 You can split the career of Tyler, The Creator pretty neatly into two phases: the confrontational wildness of his attitude era, running from the early days of Odd Future to the explosively shifty Cherry Bomb ; and the more thoughtful expressions of his post- Flower Boy awakening, bringing increasing degrees of experimentation and refinement. They are divided by an artistic puberty of sorts, whereby a once and future auteur began to grow into himself as both a performer and a personality. Now 33, the fully rehabilitated rabble-rouser makes another leap with CHROMAKOPIA , a colossal album of developmental epiphanies. In asserting himself as the premier rapper-producer of his generation, Tyler reckons with aging into a new personal reality, realizing the weight of adulthood bearing down on him. If this quarter-life crisis finds him off-guard, he chooses to meet it emphatically with platoon march aesthetics that embrace the flashing, prismatic energy of a carnival. Throughout the album, you get the sense that growing up shouldn't mean sacrificing the creativity of one's inner child. —Sheldon Pearce ▶️ Stream CHROMAKOPIA by Tyler, The Creator Label: Fiction/Capitol Release Date: November 1 "The Cure's first album in 16 years!" certainly qualifies as a news peg, but how often have fans' hopes been dashed by albums that follow absurdly lengthy hiatuses? No record could fully live up to the sum of that much anticipation, right? And yet here we are, returning to The Cure at its most grandly and orchestrally forlorn, in its most sonically and thematically cohesive record since 1989's Disintegration . Robert Smith's voice — weary and mysterious, awash in regret and swimming in loss, yet still up for a bit of playful yearning every now and then — has lost nothing as the singer rolls on past retirement age. With Smith envisioning Songs of a Lost World as the first installment in a trilogy, bleakness and optimism have rarely coexisted so neatly. —Stephen Thompson ▶️ Stream Songs of a Lost World by The Cure Label: pgLang/Interscope Release Date: November 22 Pluto entered Aquarius the same week Kendrick Lamar 's surprise album GNX descended upon us. The bigger surprise may be that no fan theories about this supernatural phenomenon exist. With all the bedevilment stirring between hip-hop's biggest stars, the answers we seek might lie somewhere in the stars. According to all the internet astrologists I follow, Pluto's newest transit is a big deal. It began Nov. 19, the Tuesday before GNX dropped, and will remain in Aquarius for the next 19 years. The last time the planet of transformation entered the sign of rebellion for that long, the American Revolution popped off. You might think that's too much weight to place on a rap album; Kendrick Lamar doesn't. His battle isn't against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He's out to end wars — between rival gangs, conflicting hip-hop doctrines, God and Lucifer — even if waging war is the only means to do so. You've heard of a carpenter from Nazareth purportedly dying for our sins. But until you've heard a ninja from Compton black out "just to take our power back," you haven't seen the light. —Rodney Carmichael ▶️ Stream GNX by Kendrick Lamar Copyright 2024 NPRFor sure, it was a far-reaching recommendation: The planet Uranus and its moons should be NASA's highest-priority new flagship mission for startup in the decade 2023-2032. The proposed mission, known as Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), would conduct a multiyear orbital tour to yield knowledge of ice giants in general and the Uranus system in particular, doing so through flybys and the delivery of an atmospheric probe. The payoff: "transformative, breakthrough science across a broad range of topics." UOP was advocated within the pages of "Origins, Worlds, and Life — A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032." Released in 2022, that heady document came from the prestigious U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and was sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. Improving our knowledge Underscoring the importance of Uranus, the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena held a workshop late last year to look into how best to improve our knowledge of Uranus' internal structure in the context of a future mission that includes an orbiter and a probe. Related: Uranus up close: What proposed NASA 'ice giant' mission could teach us Spearheading that KISS workshop was Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. He's not solar system shy and admits Uranus is his favorite planet. Space.com caught up with Hofstadter to discuss what exploration of Uranus — that far-flung, ice giant of a world with a mass roughly 14.5 times that of Earth — can offer. The planet has been visited only once, by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft during a brief flyby back in 1986. Within the planetary community, many people are very much focused on a Uranus mission, Hofstadter said. As for the KISS study, it was focused on one aspect of the Uranus system, he said: Understanding the current structure and composition of the planet's interior, in order to learn about its formation and evolution. "I personally believe learning about the interior is the most important reason to go to Uranus," Hofstadter said. But he also stressed that Uranus is a complex system, consisting of the planet's interior, its atmosphere, its rings and small moons, larger satellites, its magnetosphere and its interactions with the solar wind . Thus, studying Uranus has the potential to produce transformative, breakthrough science across a broad range of topics, as the Decadal Survey pointed out, said Hofstadter. "You could even expand that idea of 'system' to include how Uranus, over its lifetime, gravitationally altered the paths of other objects in the solar system , potentially influencing the Earth," Hofstadter added. "Every component of that system has features that violate some of our ideas about how planets work." Ice giant That's why the UOP's plan to put an orbiter into the middle of that system — a spacecraft equipped with a wide range of instruments, as well as a probe to enter the atmosphere — is expected to dramatically increase our understanding of our entire solar system, as well as planets that orbit other stars , Hofstadter advised. Why does he rate Uranus' interior as the most compelling investigation for a mission? "Of the thousands of planets we have discovered in our galaxy, most are roughly the size of Uranus and Neptune . That makes Uranus an important type of planet, and we'll apply what we learn at Uranus to all those other faraway planets we cannot study in detail," responded the JPL planetary scientist. Complex system Hofstadter emphasized that there are many unknowns about the composition and structure of both Uranus and Neptune. For example, scientists aren't sure if Uranus has a deep, solid region. "We call them 'ice giants' because we originally thought they formed primarily from water ice, but recently some have argued they should be mostly rock," Hofstadter said. "Learning basic things about the interior — something we can only learn by going there with a spacecraft — will help us understand how this type of planet forms and evolves." Related: What is Uranus made of? Naive Earth-centric view There's also the question of Uranus' astrobiology potential. The history of reconnoitering the outer solar system — planets beyond Mars — has been one of surprises, Hofstadter said. Indeed, our naive Earth-centric view originally indicated that sunlight is needed to provide the energy for life, and we thought places beyond Mars would be cold, inactive, dead worlds. "We now know that there are other ways to heat up icy objects in the outer solar system and create liquid oceans," said Hofstadter. "And we still believe liquid water is critical for life, and that the chemistry of life elsewhere might work differently than that on the Earth." Moons of Uranus Given that, some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are now considered the most likely places in our solar system to find alien life . "We don't know enough about the Uranian moons to say whether or not they also harbor liquid oceans, but theoretical studies have shown they might," said Hofstadter. "That, combined with Voyager's images showing that some of Uranus' moons have geologically young surfaces, makes it plausible that life could exist under the icy crust of one of Uranus' moons." Putting on his more speculative hat, Hofstadter said that some have asked if life might exist within Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. "Such life would probably have a very different genesis than that of the Earth, and I don't think anyone can say if it is plausible. Nor is it clear how one might detect such life," Hofstadter said. Weird world Meanwhile, Earth-based work is also critical for understanding Uranus. Laboratory and theoretical studies, the KISS study explains, as well as Earth-based and space-based observations of Uranus can enable researchers to properly interpret future on-the-spot spacecraft measurements and guide what measurements a visiting craft should make, as well as where they should be made. Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the third-largest world in our solar system. It is definitely and defiantly a weird world, appearing to spin sideways, rotating at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. The surprises that the Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission, should it indeed fly, will reveal at that enigmatic world will likely put scientists in a sideways spin, too.By James Royal, Ph.D., Bankrate.com Cryptocurrencies are enormously volatile, but that volatility can create opportunities for profit if you’re looking to trade these digital assets. Cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have risen a lot since their debut — but they’ve also experienced tremendous boom-bust cycles along the way. Experienced traders have been speculating on cryptocurrencies for years, but how can you get started if you’re new to the crypto market? Here’s how to start investing in cryptocurrency and the significant risks you need to watch out for. 5 steps for investing in cryptocurrency First things first, if you’re looking to invest in crypto, you need to have all your finances in order. That means having an emergency fund in place, a manageable level of debt and ideally a diversified portfolio of investments . Your crypto investments can become one more part of your portfolio, one that helps raise your total returns, hopefully. Pay attention to these five other things as you’re starting to invest in cryptocurrencies. As you would for any investment, understand exactly what you’re investing in. If you’re buying stocks, it’s important to read the annual report and other SEC filings to analyze the companies thoroughly. Plan to do the same with any cryptocurrencies , since there are literally thousands of them, they all function differently and new ones are being created every day. You need to understand the investment case for each trade. Related Articles In the case of many cryptocurrencies , they’re backed by nothing at all, neither hard assets nor cash flow of an underlying entity. That’s the case for Bitcoin , for example, where investors rely exclusively on someone paying more for the asset than they paid for it. In other words, unlike stock, where a company can grow its profits and drive returns for you that way, many crypto assets must rely on the market becoming more optimistic and bullish for you to profit. Some of the most popular coins include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana , Dogecoin and Tether (a stablecoin) . So before investing, understand the potential upside and downside. If your financial investment is not backed by an asset or cash flow, it could end up being worth nothing. A mistake that many new investors make is looking at the past and extrapolating that to the future. Yes, Bitcoin used to be worth pennies, but now is worth much more . The key question, however, is “Will that growth continue into the future, even if it’s not at quite that meteoric rate?” Investors look to the future, not to what an asset has done in the past. What will drive future returns? Traders buying a cryptocurrency today need tomorrow’s gains, not yesterday’s. The prices of cryptocurrencies are about as volatile as an asset can get. They could drop quickly in seconds on nothing more than a rumor that ends up proving baseless. That can be great for sophisticated investors who can execute trades rapidly or who have a solid grasp on the market’s fundamentals, how the market is trending and where it could go. For new investors without these skills — or the high-powered algorithms that direct these trades — it’s a minefield. Volatility is a game for high-powered Wall Street traders, each of whom is trying to outgun other deep-pocketed investors. A new investor can easily get crushed by the volatility. That’s because volatility shakes out traders, especially beginners, who get scared. Meanwhile, other traders may step in and buy on the cheap. In short, volatility can help sophisticated traders “buy low and sell high” while inexperienced investors “buy high and sell low.” If you’re trading any asset on a short-term basis, you need to manage your risk , and that can be especially true with volatile assets such as cryptocurrency. So as a newer trader, you’ll need to understand how best to manage risk and develop a process that helps you mitigate losses. And that process can vary from individual to individual: Newer traders should consider setting aside a certain amount of trading money and then using only a portion of it, at least at first. If a position moves against them, they’ll still have money in reserve to trade with later. The ultimate point is that you can’t trade if you don’t have any money. So keeping some cash in reserve means you’ll always have a bankroll to fund your trading. It’s important to manage risk, but that will come at an emotional cost. Selling a losing position hurts, but doing so can help you avoid worse losses later. Finally, it’s important to avoid putting money that you need into speculative assets. If you can’t afford to lose it — all of it — you can’t afford to put it into risky assets such as cryptocurrency, or other speculative assets, for that matter. Whether it’s a down payment for a house or an important upcoming purchase, money that you need in the next few years should be kept in safe accounts so that it’s there when you need it. And if you’re looking for an absolutely sure return, your best option is to pay off high-interest debt. You’re guaranteed to earn (or save) whatever interest rate you’re paying on the debt. You can’t lose there. Finally, don’t overlook the security of any exchange or broker you’re using. You may own the assets legally, but someone still has to secure them, and their security needs to be tight. If they don’t think their cryptocurrency is properly secured, some traders choose to invest in a crypto wallet to hold their coins offline so they’re inaccessible to hackers or others. Remember that investing in cryptocurrency can be part of a broader investment strategy, but shouldn’t be your only one. Other ways to invest in cryptocurrency While investing directly in cryptocurrency is popular, traders have other ways to get into the crypto game, some more directly than others. These include: Each of these methods varies in its riskiness and exposure to cryptocurrency, so you’ll want to understand exactly what you’re buying and whether it fits your needs. Cryptocurrency investing FAQs In theory it takes only a few dollars to invest in cryptocurrency. Most crypto exchanges, for example, have a minimum trade that might be $5 or $10. Other crypto trading apps might have a minimum that’s even lower. However, it’s important to understand that some trading platforms will take a huge chunk of your investment as a fee if you’re trading small amounts of cryptocurrency. So it’s important to look for a broker or exchange that minimizes your fees. In fact, many so-called “free” brokers embed fees — called spread mark-ups — in the price you pay for your cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is based on blockchain technology . Blockchain is a kind of database that records and timestamps every entry into it. The best way to think of a blockchain is like a running receipt of transactions. When a blockchain database powers cryptocurrency, it records and verifies transactions in the currency, verifying the currency’s movements and who owns it. Many crypto blockchain databases are run with decentralized computer networks. That is, many redundant computers operate the database, checking and rechecking the transactions to ensure that they’re accurate. If there’s a discrepancy, the networked computers have to resolve it. Some cryptocurrencies reward those who verify the transactions on the blockchain database in a process called mining. For example, miners involved with Bitcoin solve very complex mathematical problems as part of the verification process. If they’re successful, miners receive a predetermined award of Bitcoins. To mine Bitcoins , miners need powerful processing units that consume huge amounts of energy. Many miners operate gigantic rooms full of such mining rigs in order to extract these rewards. As of October 2024, running the Bitcoin system burned as much energy per year as the country of Poland. If you’re looking to invest in Bitcoin, you have a variety of ways to do so, and you can work with a number of companies, including: If you’re looking to buy Bitcoin, pay particular attention to the fees that you’re paying. Here are other key things to watch out for as you’re buying Bitcoin . What are altcoins? An altcoin is an alternative to Bitcoin. Many years ago, traders would use the term pejoratively. Since Bitcoin was the largest and most popular cryptocurrency, everything else was defined in relation to it. So, whatever was not Bitcoin was lumped into a catch-all category called altcoins . While Bitcoin is still the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization by far, it’s no longer the only game in town. Other altcoins such as Ethereum and Solana have grown in popularity, making the term altcoin somewhat outmoded. Now with a reported 15,000 or more cryptocurrencies in existence, it makes less sense than ever to define the industry as “Bitcoin and then everything else.” Bottom line Cryptocurrency is a highly speculative area of the market, and many smart investors have decided to put their money elsewhere. For beginners who want to get started trading crypto, however, the best advice is to start small and only use money that you can afford to lose. Bankrate’s Brian Baker contributed to an update of this story. ©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jimmy Carter, 39th US president, Nobel winner, dies at 100With laborers in scant supply because of the workforce shortage, NH manufacturers are increasingly turning to automation and robotics to meet their production needs. Hypertherm, a Hanover-based manufacturer of industrial cutting systems, uses automation to pick and place high volumes of small parts, freeing workers for more complicated tasks. In Salem, a waist-high, red-and-white robot named Tally traverses the aisles of BJ’s Wholesale Club, blinking and bleeping and counting inventory. This automation is part of the nation’s fourth industrial revolution, experts say, but unlike the steam, electricity and computing revolutions of earlier days, this one is fast-moving and demanding. “Everything in the future is going to be automated,” says Tony Fernandez, director and president of the NH Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NHMEP), which provides workshops and training to the state’s manufacturers. “If you’re going to have a path to the future, it’s not going to be the old 1950s working with your hands but working with your mind.” To facilitate that path, the state’s educational institutions are stepping up to provide skills and training to operate and maintain automated machinery. This includes soliciting ideas from manufacturers to tailor training to industry needs. Phil Przybyszewski, partner development and outreach coordinator for the Community College System of NH, presented some telling data at July’s Seacoast Automated Manufacturing Business Roundtable. According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the NH Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau, Przybyszewski reports that 4 million new manufacturing employees nationally will be needed by 2030 and 2.5 million manufacturing jobs are unfilled because of retirements. The problem is especially acute in NH, where 35% of the manufacturing workforce is 55 or older, with many of those workers “aging out” of their jobs. Meanwhile, manufacturing is the third largest industry in the state, with some 70,000 workers. A robotic helping hand Roy VanGemert Jr., workforce training manager for NHMEP, cites efficiency, consistency and safety as the chief advantages of automation. That makes automation ideal for such tasks as machine-tending, material handling, welding, some medical procedures and palletizing. Examples include Amazon warehouse robots getting out orders quickly and “lights out” manufacturing where machines crank out products in the dark. Robots have advantages over humans, VanGemert says, adding, “They show up every day, there’s no down time, and consistency and quality control is easier.” Bret Kulakovich, coordinator of the Robotics Automation Program at Plymouth State University, says automation can be the best option when it comes to tasks involving “the three Ds.” “If it’s dull, dirty or dangerous, why should a human have to do it?” he asks. There are basically two types of robots used in manufacturing, explains Fernandez. Industrial robots are heavy duty and used for major applications like parts assembly and palletizing. Collaborative robots or “cobots,” (also called service robots) are smaller devices that typically carry out repetitive tasks on the floor like counting inventory. Robots may be joining the workforce, but don’t worry about them stealing jobs, experts say. Christoper Musumeci, director of operations for NHMEP, says the new technologies “are not necessarily replacing the people at work. It’s really there to help them out. It could be removing something that’s a safety issue or helping with productivity, looking at what we do on a daily basis and seeing what we can do to help our employees work better, quicker, safer.” “The robot is not taking a job; it’s adding to the workforce,” agrees Fernandez. Joseph Smith, who chairs the Advanced Manufacturing and Electrical Technologies Department at Lakes Region Community College, points out that even with the proliferation of automated manufacturing systems, “we still need people to install these systems, operate these systems. It’s evolving more to a technical field and less of a manual field.” Robotics in NH As the field continues to grow, numerous NH companies already use — or make — robots. Hypertherm, which manufactures industrial plasma and waterjet cutting systems, uses automation to free employees from manual and ergonomically challenging tasks like assembling small parts, says Kristen Clark, director of communications. It also reduces production waste and assists in addressing the workforce shortage trend, she adds. The global warehouse technology company AutoStore, which recently opened a new 40,000-square-foot facility in Salem as its U.S. headquarters, has experienced “phenomenal growth” over the past several years, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 40% from 2017 to 2023, according to Paul Roy, the company’s vice president and managing director of North America. AutoStore storage systems provide “warehousing solutions” for companies like Puma, Gucci and Best Buy. Its automated fulfillment systems use robots to replace aisles with cube-based, scalable storage that keeps everything within reach for fasterorder fulfillment. “While the global workforce shortage has been a contributing factor, it is not the sole driver of our growth,” Roy says. “Our technology not only automates critical processes but also enhances the productivity of the workforce already in place.” Robotics accounts for at least a third of the business at Milford-based Cirtronics, a contract manufacturer for complex systems, according to Stephanie Gronvall, director of marketing, and “we continue to see an uptick.” Cirtronics builds components for “things that move,” including boards, subassemblies and final system assemblies for applications like unmanned ground and underwater vehicles for the military, mobile robots that can perform tasks autonomously and medical and surgical assistive devices. Gronvall sees increasing demand especially in the areas of defense and medical devices. “Robots aren’t just arms anymore,” she says. “They can have wheels. They can have fins.” ARMI’s BioFabUSA human tissue foundry in Manchester is automated with Rockwell Automation technology to consistently and cost-effectively manufacture cells, tissues and organs. ARMI was launched by Dean Kamen, who also founded FIRST Robotics, Segway, and DEKA Research andDevelopment. The Turbocam plant in Barrington has numerous robots and machine tools that produce turbomachinery flow path components and continuously monitor the manufacturing process. The company’s turbo machinery is used in rocketry and the aviation and space industry. Several members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Aeronautics team recently visited Turbocam to acknowledge the company’s key contributions to NASA’s Space Launch System. Laconia-based Rogue Space Systems uses AI and “Orbots,” or robotic satellite servicing vehicles, to provide in-space infrastructure and services to commercial, civil and government customers. Robotics engineering programs As robots continue to infiltrate the workplace, the state’s educational institutions are ramping up their course offerings to educate potential workers for careers in robotics engineering. Plymouth State University offers the state’s only four-year degree in robotics and two years ago received $1 million in federal funding for a new robotics laboratory. The program, now in its second year, has grown from 10 students to 16, according to Kulakovich, who expects further growth as word of the program spreads. Demand for the skills taught in the program is so high that “the phenomenon I’m seeing is that junior year, my students are getting hired,” he adds. “They have to take time off [from] a full-time job to finish their senior year.” Manchester Community College places 100% of the graduates who earn an associate of science degree in Advanced Manufacturing Technology or certificates in mechatronics and robotics. Dan Larochelle, chair of the Advanced Manufacturing Department, says the department has evolved over 10 years and works closely with manufacturers like Hitchiner to tailor curricula to industry needs. At Manchester Community College’s Spark Academy — a high school within the college — students in the “print farm” produce kits that allow NH middle and high school students to build and program simple robots in the classroom. The free curriculum was developed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute and implemented through a collaboration between the college, Spark Academy and DEKA Research & Development Corp. in Manchester. It is part of a national program called Experiential Robotics Program, or XRP. As part of the XRP program, Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth has installed 10 3D printers to produce robotics kits, joining Manchester, Lakes Region and White Mountains community colleges as program participants. Students at Lakes Region Community College can now earn an associate degree in Industrial Automation & Robotics under a new program. Joseph Smith, chair of the Advanced Manufacturing and Electrical Technologies Department, says the program was launched after local manufacturers said they were starting to invest heavily in automation because they couldn’t find enough workers to meet their needs. Smith says four or five students are enrolled so far but he expects that number to grow dramatically. The NH Technical Institute in Concord also offers Manufacturing Engineering and Robotics and Automation Engineering Technology programs. Credits from the community colleges can be transferred to Plymouth State, where students can earn a bachelor’s degree. The community college system also offers an Early College at Your High School program, which enables high school students to take community college courses for dual high school and college credit. Some 344 students use that program in the manufacturing area, according to Przybyszewski of the Community College System of NH, with a portion in the robotics design program. As NH high schools and community colleges promote courses like mechatronics and advanced automation, “Students are going to come out of school with skills you could only dream about before,” says VanGemert of NHMEP. Partnership opportunities Smith of Lakes Region Community College would like to see more business leaders visit community college labs to see what kind of skill sets students are learning, partner in the creation of apprenticeships, and help in securing federal or state funding to keep NH manufacturing ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing field. Partnering with industry is key to keeping coursework relevant, experts agree. Przybyszewski has been surveying manufacturers throughout the state, asking them about what skills workers need, what certifications or credentials are important to them and whether they’re interested in internship or apprentice programs. That data is being used to upgrade community college courses to reflect the need. Among the workshops that NHMEP offers throughout the year is one on Lean Manufacturing, a methodology to minimize waste while maximizing productivity in manufacturing. Musumeci says that course is being updated to incorporate more information on smart manufacturing and automation to “help educate and bring awareness to production workers and supervisors about these technologies” and how they will be used in the future. Przybyszewski notes that many NH companies, especially larger ones like BAE Systems, are offering their own technical training for employees. Others offer training opportunities for clients. Hypertherm produces Robotmaster, offline software for robot programming and robot simulation. The company’s Robotmaster Academy offers training videos and e-books for potential users. AutoStore’s new Salem facility is home to AutoStore Academy, which provides hands-on and virtual training for partners to design, install, maintain and service the company’s storage and retrieval system. With robots getting less expensive and the workforce shortage showing no signs of relenting, industry experts predict continued growth in automation. Nationally, 70% of companies are increasing investments in technology, according to Przybyszewski, and 50% of the NH companies he surveyed plan to automate in the next five years. “Given our low unemployment rate and population levels, hiring for manufacturing jobs is challenging across the U.S., particularly in New Hampshire,” says Clark at Hypertherm. “We will continue investing in automation and evaluate new AI and robotics technologies.” Says Roy of AutoStore, “In New Hampshire, we see tremendous opportunities for growth and innovation in the automation sector, which is one of the reasons why we decided to locate our U.S. headquarters here. The manufacturing sector is a key component of the state’s economy, and the adoption of automation and robotics will be critical in maintaining and enhancing this role while addressing ongoing labor challenges.” ••• These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org .DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points as Drake beat Belmont 65-46 on Sunday night. Stirtz added three steals for the Bulldogs (12-0, 2-0 Missouri Valley Conference). Daniel Abreu scored 15 points while shooting 5 for 11, including 3 for 9 from beyond the arc and added five rebounds. Mitch Mascari had nine points and shot 3 for 7, including 3 for 6 from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs prolonged their winning streak to 12 games. Sam Orme led the Bruins (9-4, 1-1) in scoring, finishing with 11 points. Brody Peebles added 10 points for Belmont. Jonathan Pierre had nine points. Drake took the lead with 10:21 left in the first half and never looked back. Stirtz led their team in scoring with 13 points in the first half to help put them up 39-21 at the break. Drake outscored Belmont in the second half by one point, with Abreu scoring a team-high eight points after intermission. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by and data from . The Associated Press

Scientists warn of 'unprecedented' risks of research into mirror lifeSome Atlantic City casino workers call on union boss to resign for opposing a smoking banHE the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammed bin Ali bin Mohammed al-Mannai has hailed the anniversary of the founding of the State of Qatar by Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani as an occasion that conveys patriotic meanings. In remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA), HE al-Mannai said the anniversary represents a pivotal moment in Qatar’s history when Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani showed a legacy of prudence and leadership that led to the establishment of a modern independent and unified state. Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani’s vision was the foundation for Qatar’s multi-sector renaissance, HE al-Mannai said, highlighting that Qatari people’s pride on this historic occasion is the result of their ancestors’ sacrifices for a sovereign state. This occasion reminds Qataris of a long history of hard work and dedication to build a single national identity through which all members of the Qatari people unite for a prosperous future. As marking this occasion prompts Qataris to reflect on Qatar’s achievements, it also boosts the need to preserve their national heritage and the values set by the Founder, he added. HE al-Mannai hailed the National Day as an opportunity for all nationals and residents to renew their pledge to the country and its wise leadership to press on accomplishments that elevate Qatar’s profile. Turning to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT)’s achievements, al-Mannai highlighted the ministry’s future digital vision, primarily the launch of the Digital Agenda 2030 — a six-pillar strategy striving to foster public and private sectors to build a thriving digital economy aligning with the Third National Development Strategy (NDS-3) and Qatar National Vision 2030. In this respect, he spoke about the Fanar project — an Arab AI Project in collaboration with local and Arab agencies. A significant milestone underscoring Qatar’s dedication to elevating the Arabic language and culture in the AI era, Fanar is expected to generate accurate Arabic texts through original texts amounting to approximately 300bn words. Also among the MCIT’s accomplishments were the 2024 launch of the Qatar Digital Academy and TASMU project. The Qatar Digital Academy — an expansion of the Qatar Digital Government Training Program keeps a keen eye for enhancing digital competencies in Qatar, envisioning training 1,000 state employees annually. With a focus on many digital skills such as AI, cybersecurity and the Internet of Things, the academy also grants 250 employees international certificates annually to enhance their qualifications and keep pace with technological developments. The academy’s specialised training programmes aligning the needs of government institutions aim to build a qualified workforce that supports digital transformation in Qatar and overcome the future challenges. Tasmu — a project catalysing Qatars ICT ecosystem — unites global innovators with the needs of the local market to fuel Qatar’s digital transformation. The programme received 640 applications from 74 countries following a thrilling 2023 cycle, which garnered $36mn funding and over $100mn sales. HE the Minister also spoke about SafeSpace, a project set to be launched in 2025 with the aim of elevating awareness about digital safety. Related Story National Day reflects Qatari identity

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