WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday. He was 100. A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president -- a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader." Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David Accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments -- education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word. "After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address. "The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer." Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states -- 27 to Carter's 23. Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country." In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president." Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialog with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018. ______________________________________________________Stock market today: Wall Street rises to records despite tariff talkChildren as young as ten could be banned from using the internet or engaging in forums under terror orders designed to crackdown on the number of teenagers being radicalised online. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has announced youth diversion orders that could be used to force teenagers to participate in programmes designed to mitigate their terrorist risk under Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism strategy, which identifies people at risk of radicalisation. Police will be able to apply to courts for an order, but conditions must be “necessary and proportionate to mitigate terrorist risk”, Cooper said. Home Office sources said restrictions on online activity could bar young people from specific websites, online forums and social media channels such as Telegram, whose encrypted technology is favoured by terrorists

Stock market today: Wall Street rises to records despite tariff talkUnlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13 pounds,” said Griffin, who watches her diet, drinks plenty of water and exercises regularly. “I’ve done everything right with no success. It’s discouraging.” In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of their body weight — up to 50 pounds or more in many cases. But roughly 10% to 15% of patients in those trials were “nonresponders” who lost less than 5% of their body weight. Now that millions of people have used the drugs, several obesity experts told The Associated Press that perhaps 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not respond well to the medications. It’s a little-known consequence of the obesity drug boom, according to doctors who caution eager patients not to expect one-size-fits-all results. “It’s all about explaining that different people have different responses,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital The drugs are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists because they mimic a hormone in the body known as glucagon-like peptide 1. Genetics, hormones and variability in how the brain regulates energy can all influence weight — and a person’s response to the drugs, Stanford said. Medical conditions such as sleep apnea can prevent weight loss, as can certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids and contraceptives. “This is a disease that stems from the brain,” said Stanford. “The dysfunction may not be the same” from patient to patient. Despite such cautions, patients are often upset when they start getting the weekly injections but the numbers on the scale barely budge. “It can be devastating,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of the obesity treatment company FlyteHealth. “With such high expectations, there’s so much room for disappointment.” That was the case for Griffin, who has battled obesity since childhood and hoped to shed 70 pounds using Wegovy. The drug helped reduce her appetite and lowered her risk of diabetes, but she saw little change in weight. “It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “You want it to work like it does for everybody else.” The medications are along with eating behavior and lifestyle changes. It’s usually clear within weeks whether someone will respond to the drugs, said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Weight loss typically begins right away and continues as the dosage increases. For some patients, that just doesn’t happen. For others, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea force them to halt the medications, Dushay said. In such situations, patients who were counting on the new drugs to pare pounds may think they’re out of options. “I tell them: It’s not game over,” Dushay said. Trying a different version of the new class of drugs may help. Griffin, who didn’t respond well to Wegovy, has started using Zepbound, which targets an additional hormone pathway in the body. After three months of using the drug, she has lost 7 pounds. “I’m hoping it’s slow and steady,” she said. Other people respond well to older drugs, the experts said. Changing diet, exercise, sleep and stress habits can also have profound effects. Figuring out what works typically requires a doctor trained to treat obesity, Saunders noted. “Obesity is such a complex disease that really needs to be treated very comprehensively,” she said. “If what we’re prescribing doesn’t work, we always have a backup plan.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Man City blows 3-goal lead and gets booed by fans in draw with Feyenoord in Champions LeagueAs the year draws to a close, reflecting on how it unfolded can feel overwhelming—especially if the memories feel blurry or tinged with pain. For some, trauma makes it hard to take stock. For others, the absence of significant milestones can leave them wondering where the time went. If you’re struggling to summarise the year, let me assure you that this is entirely natural. Not every year demands a neatly packaged conclusion. Life isn’t an itemised ledger, and we owe no one an account of how we’ve spent our days—except, perhaps, our Creator and even that reckoning is meant for the end of life, not the end of a year. If you’re finding it hard to reflect on 2024, you’re not alone. Many of us have faced challenges that make looking back feel more like a burden than a celebration. There can be many reasons why it is hard to summarise the year. It could be the economy. Economic hardship has been a defining struggle for many this year. In Nigeria, the economy hit rock bottom, creating unbearable conditions for citizens. The toll has been both collective and personal, leaving many exhausted and traumatised. It could be personal challenges. For me, the highs of 2024 were often accompanied by lows, creating a confusing emotional landscape. I faced mental and emotional battles I hadn’t anticipated, and the hardest blow was losing my unborn child. Reflecting on the year inevitably stirs up these painful memories, making it difficult to process or find closure. These two factors—the state of the economy and personal hardships—are why many, myself included, find it easier to look forward to a fresh start in 2025 than to make sense of the year gone by. If you find yourself unable to put the year into words, there are some steps I’ve taken to navigate the difficulty. Acknowledge your feelings It’s okay if you can’t summarise the year. Some experiences are too complex to categorise, and there’s no rule saying you must tie everything together neatly. Accept the feelings—whether they’re sadness, confusion, or frustration—and don’t force yourself to unpack them all at once. Focus on the present Instead of dwelling on the past, try to make the most of the remaining days of the year. For instance, I approached Christmas differently this year. I recognised the emotions that could have dampened my mood and instead chose to enjoy simple pleasures: sharing food and movies with loved ones. It wasn’t extravagant, but it was meaningful. Create intentional moments The last days of the year don’t need to be perfect. They simply need to come and go, and you can make them worthwhile by being mindful. Engage in small activities that bring you joy, whether it’s journaling, taking a walk, or connecting with someone you care about. This year has been a confusing one for many people, myself included. I’ve read countless posts online where others share their heartbreaks, losses, and setbacks. 2024 has been universally difficult, reminding me not to take my struggles too personally. The year was full of contradictions for me. Things that should have made me happy left me sad. Opportunities that seemed like breakthroughs became sources of stagnation. This duality—where joy and pain coexist—has made it challenging to look back without feeling overwhelmed. But I’ve realised that I don’t need to have all the answers right now. Instead, I’m choosing to end the year with intention, however small. Moving Forward It’s okay if 2024 feels like a blur or a mess. Not every year will have a clear story or a satisfying conclusion. What matters is how we choose to move forward. As the final days of the year unfold, allow yourself grace. Be present, engage in activities that bring peace, and know that you’ve done your best to navigate this chapter. There’s no need to force closure; sometimes, it’s enough to simply let the year come to an end and trust that the new one will bring fresh opportunities to grow, heal and thrive. *** Feature Image by Polina Tankilevitch for PexelsMetallurgical Coal Market To Grow By USD 95.27 Billion (2024-2028), Rising Steel Demand Boosting Growth, AI Driving Market Transformation - Technavio

WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday. He was 100. A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president -- a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader." Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David Accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. HOSTAGE CRISIS On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments -- education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word. "After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address. "The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer." 'THERE YOU GO AGAIN' Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states -- 27 to Carter's 23. Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country." In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president." Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialog with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018.VERMILLION, S.D. — North Dakota State couldn't hold a late lead as South Dakota scored the game-winning points in the closing seconds. Javion Phelps caught a 25-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds remaining to lift the No. 4-ranked Coyotes to a 29-28 victory against the No. 1-ranked Bison in Missouri Valley Football Conference play before 9,062 fans at the DakotaDome. ADVERTISEMENT NDSU (10-2, 7-1 MVFC) had its 10-game winning streak snapped. The Bison couldn't hold on to the 11-point lead that they built with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Bison quarterback Cam Miller completed 10 of 22 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 82 yards and a TD in 19 attempts. NDSU shared the conference crown with South Dakota and South Dakota State. The Bison could have earned the MVFC title outright with the victory. SDSU earned the league's automatic bid. Below are scenes from Saturday's dramatic NDSU-South Dakota showdown:

US President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country. In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said, speaking from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria." Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that "Assad should be held accountable." Biden -- set to step down in January and make way for Republican Donald Trump's return to power -- said Washington will assist Syrians in rebuilding. "We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign" Syria "with a new constitution," he said. However, Biden cautioned that hardline Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance will be under scrutiny. "Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States had "taken note" of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, he said, but cautioned: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions." Biden said Washington is "clear eyed" that the Islamic State extremist group, often known as ISIS, "will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish" itself in Syria. "We will not let that happen," he said, adding that on Sunday alone, US forces had conducted strikes against ISIS inside Syria. The US military said the strikes were conducted by warplanes against Islamic State operatives and camps. Strikes were carried out against "over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s," the US Central Command said on social media. Earlier, Biden met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the crisis. Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in Syria's civil war. They announced Sunday they had taken the capital Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations nationwide and a ransacking of Assad's luxurious home. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that the deposed leader was now in Moscow, along with his family. The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group. It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad's government. Biden also confirmed US authorities believe the American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, still lives. "We believe he's alive," Biden said, but the US has yet "to identify where he is." bur-sms/mlmIndia News | Rajnath Singh Becomes 1st Defence Minister to Visit Mhow in 24 Years, Lauds Indian Army's Training Institutes

Whole international companies such as and currently dominate the LED cinema screen market, that looks set to change as Chinese companies, buoyed by domestic success, begin driving the global adoption of LED cinema technology. A recent report from claims LED cinema screens are gaining traction in China, driven by supportive government policies. Leading companies like China Film Global Technology Limited (CFGDC), HUAXIA LEYARD, QSTECH, Unilumin, and LOPU are actively promoting LED cinema solutions domestically and in overseas markets, including North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Plenty of room for growth notes that China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) recently announced that a cinema in Dinkelsbühl, Germany, had purchased 10 of its CINITY projection systems, creating a fully LED-based cinema experience. LEYARD has installed LED screens in over 20 international cinemas, including locations in France, the US, and Spain. Earlier in 2024, Rio-tech and Timewaying introduced HeyLED screens, measuring 10 meters (32.8 feet) wide and 5.5 meters (18 feet) high, to a cinema in Romania. These screens, which eliminate the need for traditional projectors, have gained traction in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Meanwhile, LOPU’s transparent LED cinema screens are also attracting interest from international investors and at CinemaCon in April 2024, Cineappo showcased its VLED products, reporting strong interest from global cinema operators. We’ve previously written about Unilumin, which created a in Nanjing Deji Plaza, China. Its 20.48 meter (67 feet) wide by 10.8 meter (35 feet) high screen serves as an alternative to IMAX and uses the UCine LED film projection system. Unilumin has also installed screens at the Regency Theater in Los Angeles and the San Ya cinema in Hainan province. projects global LED installations will reach 160 units this year. With only 0.5% market penetration for LED cinema screens so far, there is substantial room for growth, and Chinese companies are evidently eager to capitalize on the opportunity.Stock market today: Wall Street rises to records despite tariff talk

Whole international companies such as and currently dominate the LED cinema screen market, that looks set to change as Chinese companies, buoyed by domestic success, begin driving the global adoption of LED cinema technology. A recent report from claims LED cinema screens are gaining traction in China, driven by supportive government policies. Leading companies like China Film Global Technology Limited (CFGDC), HUAXIA LEYARD, QSTECH, Unilumin, and LOPU are actively promoting LED cinema solutions domestically and in overseas markets, including North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Plenty of room for growth notes that China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) recently announced that a cinema in Dinkelsbühl, Germany, had purchased 10 of its CINITY projection systems, creating a fully LED-based cinema experience. LEYARD has installed LED screens in over 20 international cinemas, including locations in France, the US, and Spain. Earlier in 2024, Rio-tech and Timewaying introduced HeyLED screens, measuring 10 meters (32.8 feet) wide and 5.5 meters (18 feet) high, to a cinema in Romania. These screens, which eliminate the need for traditional projectors, have gained traction in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Meanwhile, LOPU’s transparent LED cinema screens are also attracting interest from international investors and at CinemaCon in April 2024, Cineappo showcased its VLED products, reporting strong interest from global cinema operators. We’ve previously written about Unilumin, which created a in Nanjing Deji Plaza, China. Its 20.48 meter (67 feet) wide by 10.8 meter (35 feet) high screen serves as an alternative to IMAX and uses the UCine LED film projection system. Unilumin has also installed screens at the Regency Theater in Los Angeles and the San Ya cinema in Hainan province. projects global LED installations will reach 160 units this year. With only 0.5% market penetration for LED cinema screens so far, there is substantial room for growth, and Chinese companies are evidently eager to capitalize on the opportunity.