game night outfit dress to impress In conclusion, the partnership between Amazon and Perplexity represents a major turning point in the world of online gambling. By harnessing the power of AI, these two tech giants have the potential to revolutionize the way that people gamble online, creating a more personalized, immersive, and engaging experience for players. However, with this power comes a responsibility to ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical manner, to protect players and promote responsible gambling practices. Only time will tell how this partnership will reshape the gambling industry, but one thing is for sure – big changes are on the horizon.The successful completion of the second phase of the Tier 2 capital bonds issuance is a testament to SPDB's commitment to maintaining a strong capital position and meeting regulatory requirements. The capital raised through the issuance will enhance the bank's ability to absorb potential losses and strengthen its risk management capabilities, ensuring the stability and resilience of its operations in the face of market uncertainties and challenges.In conclusion, the pressure is on for Inter Milan as they face the challenge posed by Lazio. Inzaghi's side must rise to the occasion and show their quality and resilience in the face of adversity. The outcome of this crucial match could have a lasting impact on the Serie A title race, making it a must-watch for football fans around the world.

Preview: Benfica vs. Estrela Amadora - prediction, team news, lineupsIn recent years, the concept of "overwork" has gained increasing attention in many industries across the globe. The phenomenon of overwork, or "内卷" in Chinese, refers to the excessive workload and intense competition that can lead to burnout and negative mental health outcomes among employees. As one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world, AliExpress is taking a proactive stance in combating overwork while simultaneously supporting new businesses in the cross-border e-commerce sector. This dual approach signals the perfect timing for entrepreneurs and businesses to join the cross-border e-commerce race.National automobile trade-in subsidy program applications surpass 5 million

Boeing, one of the world's largest aerospace companies, has announced a significant workforce reduction in the states of California and Washington. The company plans to lay off nearly a thousand employees as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline operations and adapt to the challenging economic environment caused by the global pandemic.

‘Don’t want to rush’: Ontario holds steady on not declaring intimate partner violence an epidemicJeffrey Fleishman | (TNS) Los Angeles Times The national furor in recent years around banning books on race and gender in public schools is intensifying as President-elect Donald Trump threatens to shut down the Department of Education, emboldening conservatives to end “wokeness” in classrooms. Battles over books in school libraries have become emblematic of the country’s larger culture wars over race, historical revisionism and gender identity. A new report by PEN America found book bans increased by nearly 200% during the 2023-24 school year, including titles on sexuality, substance abuse, depression and other issues students face in an age of accelerating technologies, climate change, toxic politics and fears about the future. Book censorship has shaken and divided school boards, pitted parents against parents, and led to threats against teachers and librarians . It is part of an agenda driven by conservative parental rights groups and politicians who promote charter schools and voucher systems that could weaken public education. The issue goes to the heart not only of what students are taught but how federal and state education policies will affect the nation’s politics after one of the most consequential elections in its history. “It’s not just about taking a book off a shelf,” said Tasslyn Magnusson, an author and teacher from Wisconsin who tracks book censorship across the U.S. “It’s about power and who controls public education. It’s about what kind of America we were and are. We’re trying to define what family is and what America means. That comes down to the stories we tell.” She said she feared Trump’s return to the White House would further incite those calling for book bans: “I don’t have lots of hope. It could get a lot worse.” Over the last year, PEN counted more than 10,000 book bans nationwide that targeted 4,231 unique titles. Most were books dealing with gender, sexuality, race and LGBTQ+ storylines. The most banned title was Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” about a school shooting that included a short description of date rape. Florida and Iowa — both of which have strict regulations on what students can read — accounted for more than 8,200 bans in the 2023-24 school year. “This crisis is tragic for young people hungry to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read Program, said in a statement. “What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives.” Trump’s calls to close the Department of Education would need congressional approval, which appears unlikely. Although public schools are largely funded and governed by state and local institutions, the department helps pay to educate students with disabilities, provides about $18 billion in grants for K-12 schools in poor communities and oversees a civil rights branch to protect students from discrimination. But Trump’s election has inspired conservative parental groups, including Moms For Liberty and Parents Defending Education, to strengthen efforts to limit what they see as a liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate children with books and teachings that are perverse, amoral and pornographic. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, has criticized schools that she says spend too much time on diversity and inclusion when only about one-third of U.S. children are reading at grade level: “We’re talking about public school libraries and content for kids,” Justice told NewsNation after Trump’s victory. “I think it’s very clear that there are certain things that are appropriate for kids, certain things that are appropriate for adults. We’re just getting back to commonsense America.” Trump’s threat to deny federal funding to schools that acknowledge transgender identities could affect curricula and the kinds of books school libraries stock. During his rally at Madison Square Garden in October, Trump — who has has accused schools of promoting sex change operations — said his administration would get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.” Vice President-elect JD Vance has accused Democrats of wanting to “put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.” Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Newsmax that she was excited about Trump’s calls to remake education and “clean up a lot of the mess” he has inherited from the Biden administration. Trump “has centered parental rights back in his platform, which is incredible. He has prioritized knowledge and skill, not identity politics,” she said. “American children deserve better, and it is time for change.” In nominating Linda McMahon to be his secretary of Education, Trump appears to be pushing for more conservative parental control over what is taught and read in classrooms. A former professional wrestling executive, McMahon chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-connected organization that has criticized schools for teaching “racially divisive” theories, notably about slavery and a perspective about the nation’s founding it views as anti-American. “Today’s contentious debates over using classrooms for political activism rather than teaching a complete and accurate account of American history have reinvigorated calls for greater parental and citizen involvement in the curriculum approval process,” the institute’s website says. Culturally divisive issues, including race and LGBTQ+ themes, cost school districts an estimated $3.2 billion during the 2023-24 school year, according to a recent study called “The Costs of Conflict.” The survey — published by the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA — found that battles over books and teaching about sexuality and other topics led to increased expenses for legal fees, replacing administrators and teachers who quit, and security, including off-duty plainclothes police officers. “Are we really going to spend our tax dollars on these kinds of things?” asked Magnusson. “After Trump was elected, I saw a bunch of middle-class white ladies like me who were saying, ‘This isn’t America.’ But maybe it is America.” One school superintendent in a Western state told the study’s researchers that his staff was often consumed with correcting misinformation and fulfilling public record requests mainly from hard-line parental rights activists attempting to exploit cultural war issues to discredit the district. “Our staff are spending enormous amounts of time just doing stupid stuff,” the superintendent said. “The fiscal costs to the district are enormous, but [so are] the cultural costs of not standing up to the extremists. If someone doesn’t, then the students and employees lose. ... It’s the worst it’s ever been.” The survey found that 29% of 467 school superintendents interviewed reported that teachers and other staff quit their profession or left their districts “due to culturally divisive conflict.” Censoring books in school libraries grew out of opposition to COVID-19 restrictions. A number of conservative parental groups, including Moms for Liberty, which invited Trump to speak at its national convention in August, turned their attention to lobbying against “liberal indoctrination.” Their protests against what they criticized as progressive teaching on sexuality and race were focused on increasing conservative parental control over a public education system that was struggling at teaching children reading and math. That strategy has led to a national, right-wing effort that is “redefining government power to restrict access to information in our schools,” said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. “This movement to protect the innocence of our children believes if children never read it in a book they won’t have to know about it and can go on to lead harmonious lives. But books teach us cautionary tales. They instruct us. You can’t protect innocence through ignorance.” School districts across the country have removed “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, which are about gender identity and include graphic depictions of sex, along with titles by renowned writers such as Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Maya Angelou and Flannery O’Connor. Related Articles National Politics | Trump fills out his economic team with two veterans of his first administration National Politics | Trump chooses controversial Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH National Politics | Abortion bans could reverse decline in teen births, experts warn National Politics | Trump vows tariffs over immigration. What the numbers say about border crossings, drugs and crime National Politics | Trump promised mass deportations. Educators worry fear will keep immigrants’ kids from school Surveys show that most Americans do not favor censorship. The Florida Freedom to Read Project and similar organizations around the country have called for thorough public reviews of challenged books to prevent one scene or passage from being taken out of context. Moderate and liberal parents groups over the last two years have also become more active in school board politics. They have supported school board candidates who have defeated those backed by Moms for Liberty in Texas, Florida and other states. “People say the pendulum will swing back,” said Ferrell. But, she said, conservatives want to “stop the pendulum from swinging back.” Picoult is accustomed to conservatives attempting to censor her. Her books have been banned in schools in more than 30 states. Published in 2007, “Nineteen Minutes” explores the lives of characters, including a girl who was raped, in a town leading up to a school shooting and its aftermath. “Having the most banned book in the country is not a badge of honor. It’s a call for alarm,” said Picoult, whose books have sold more than 40 million copies. “My book, and the 10,000 others that have been pulled off school library shelves this year, give kids a tool to deal with an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners aren’t helping children. They are harming them.” ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.As the Broncos’ offensive menu continues to expand, Devaughn Vele is becoming one of the foremost beneficiaries. The rookie wide receiver is lining up all over the field, playing different spots and making an impact in several different ways. The seventh-round draft pick already had three catches in the first half of when head coach Sean Payton put him alone on the backside of a unique, 4-by-1 formation. The Broncos had Courtland Sutton and Troy Franklin aligned into the boundary with running back Javonte Williams and jumbo tight end Matt Peart as an eligible receiver all to quarterback Bo Nix’s right. Vele pushed vertically up the field, gave a head-fake inside that kept cornerback Decamrion Richardson on his heels and then eventually snapped off his route to the inside. Nix pinned the ball on him for a 26-yard gain. Vele’s showed a knack for getting open and making plays since rookie minicamp in May. In recent weeks, though, his ascension has only accelerated. The 26-year-old has fortified himself as the No. 2 option at receiver behind Sutton and on Sunday he finished with six catches (nine targets) for 80 yards. Since he returned from being out four games — one due to a rib injury and three healthy scratches — Vele’s been on a 58-catch, 782-yard pace. In the three weeks since his playing time jumped to about two-thirds of Denver’s offensive snaps, he’s got 14 catches (18 targets) for 185 yards and a touchdown. Vele’s most recent game and his trajectory drew about as strong of praise as you’ll hear from Payton on Monday morning. “He’s been really good,” Payton said. “The strengths for him: Certainly, his hands. You guys saw it in camp — he’s got strong hands in traffic. He’s a guy that plays well over the middle. He reminds me a lot of Marques Colston, who I had in New Orleans for 10 or 11 years.” Colston, of course, was also a seventh-round pick in 2006, Payton’s first New Orleans draft class. He ended up catching 70 balls for 1,038 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie, then going for 98 catches, 1,202 yards and 12 touchdowns in his second season. In his 10-year career, Colston racked up 711 catches, 9,759 yards and 72 touchdowns. Those are lofty marks, but Payton’s clearly been impressed with Vele. “Just in our staff meeting 20 minutes ago, I said, ‘We’ve got to continue to find touches for him,’” the coach said. They’ve already started putting him in more positions as the No. 1 target. The 26-yarder looked to be designed for him. So, too, was a late-game miss that came out of the same 4-by-1 set. Instead of breaking in, Vele went vertical — a wrinkle from the original look — and Nix just left the ball too far inside. Nix threw him two slants out of RPO looks and the Broncos put him in motion and used Lil’Jordan Humphrey to create a pick to get him open on third-and-short for a conversion. He caught a scramble-drill ball for 23 yards and went up to catch it even knowing he was going to get hit hard when he landed. He sat down in a soft spot in zone coverage. He caught a pass as the safety valve and got upfield for a first down. “Sometimes, as a coach, you feel like you’re stopping the progress by not getting him touches,” Payton said Monday, likening Vele earlier in the season to where running back Audric Estime is now. “And now — I don’t want to say we’re guilty as coaches, but oftentimes (you’re) afraid to play the rookies. And very quickly we’ve seen his growth.” Nik Bonitto . The Broncos’ third-year pass-rusher has racked up 10 sacks in his past 10 games. He’s turned into a high-end pass-rusher and gives Denver a pairing between him and Jonathon Cooper, , that’s easy to imagine building around long-term. Outside of the highlight-reel, game-sealing strip-sack on Sunday, though, Bonitto made plays against Las Vegas that he simply would not have made earlier in his career. Most impressively: Bonitto recognized two different screens — one to a running back and one to a receiver — in the first eight minutes of the game and ruined them by playing smart, alert football and hustling. On the first, Bonitto didn’t get fooled by Vegas’ motioning and stayed locked on Ameer Abdullah. Minshew had to throw the ball into the ground. On the second, he started roaring up the field but saw left tackle Kolton Miller and other Vegas linemen start to break out to block down the field. Bonitto swung around quickly and hit a dead sprint out toward receiver D.J. Turner. He took such a good line that he ended up directly in the throwing lane and forced Minshew to again throw it in the dirt. Bonitto’s first step and his bend are upper-echelon traits and will be what gets him paid. But playing smart, consistent football on top of that is what can make him a great all-around player. Payton put together a questionable play-calling sequence late in the fourth quarter. After Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson cut Denver’s lead to 26-19 with 3:38 to go, the Broncos took over at their 30. Payton’s inclination to dial up an explosive play to start the drive was understandable. Get in heavy personnel on first down — Peart checked in as a jumbo tight end — and then play-fake and throw the ball down the field. Nix, though, left a throw too far inside for Vele, who could not come down with a contested catch. Las Vegas had all of its timeouts, which meant Denver needed to get a first down to really go to work on the clock. Instead, two more incompletions led to a three-and-out. Total time run off the clock: 26 seconds. Payton defended the sequence without prompting Monday, saying, “We’re trying to win the game at the end of the game there. The last thing I was going to do was hand the ball off three times. They’ll use their timeouts. Then they’ll drive down the field.” The first-down throw was an aggressive and understandable decision. But missing it set the Raiders for one more chance. The Broncos defense, as it has often this year, rose to the occasion when Bonitto logged his 10th sack and forced a fumble to set Denver up in the red zone. Payton dialed up another pass above the two-minute warning on that series, too. By then, Denver had the game in full control. Still, going 0 of 4 plus two runs for 2 yards and rolling just 57 seconds off the clock over two late possessions is far from ideal. The Broncos’ offense hasn’t just shown signs of life recently. It’s revved into a gear that, while not elite, has not been seen in Denver since Peyton Manning retired. Denver’s scored 28 or more points in five of its last eight outings and in that span is averaging 25.3 points per game. The Broncos haven’t had more than four games of 28-plus points in a season since 2014 (10). In fact, they’ve only hit four twice (2015 and 2020). The rest: three once (2023), two each in 2016, 2021 and 2022, and one in each 2017-19. The Broncos still have some volatility. Their other three totals in the recent eight-game set were 10 against Baltimore, 14 against Kansas City and 16 against the Los Angeles Chargers. For the first time in a long time, though, the Broncos have an offense capable of putting a big number on the scoreboard.Twins tender contracts to all arbitration-eligible players; reach terms with three

Diddy had ‘prison meltdown’ in hellhole jail as he ‘couldn’t believe he had to spend Christmas behind bars’Memphis beats No. 2 UConn 99-97 in overtime to tip off Maui InvitationalFrom Underdogs to Contenders: How Coach DeCan revived Hudson Valley women’s volleyball