PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Former Temple basketball standout Hysier Miller sat for a long interview with the NCAA as it looked into concerns about unusual gambling activity, his lawyer said Friday amid reports a federal probe is now under way. “Hysier Miller fully cooperated with the NCAA’s investigation. He sat for a five-hour interview and answered every question the NCAA asked. He also produced every document the NCAA requested,” lawyer Jason Bologna said in a statement. “Hysier did these things because he wanted to play basketball this season, and he is devastated that he cannot.” Miller, a three-year starter from South Philadelphia, transferred to Virginia Tech this spring. However, the Hokies released him last month due to what the program called “circumstances prior to his enrollment at Virginia Tech.” Bologna declined to confirm that a federal investigation had been opened, as did spokespeople for both the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia. ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported Thursday that authorities were investigating whether Miller bet on games he played in at Temple, and whether he adjusted his performance accordingly. “Hysier Miller has overcome more adversity in his 22 years than most people face in their lifetime. He will meet and overcome whatever obstacles lay ahead,” Bologna said. Miller scored eight points — about half his season average of 15.9 — in a 100-72 loss to UAB on March 7 that was later flagged for unusual betting activity. Temple said it has been aware of those allegations since they became public in March, and has been cooperative. “We have been fully responsive and cooperative with the NCAA since the moment we learned of the investigation,” Temple President John Fry said in a letter Thursday to the school community. However, Fry said Temple had not received any requests for information from state or federal law enforcement agencies. He vowed to cooperate fully if they did. “Coaches, student-athletes and staff members receive mandatory training on NCAA rules and regulations, including prohibitions on involvement in sports wagering,” Fry said in the letter. The same week the Temple-UAB game raised concerns, Loyola (Maryland) said it had removed a person from its basketball program after it became aware of a gambling violation. Temple played UAB again on March 17, in the finals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament. League spokesman Tom Fenstermaker also declined comment on Friday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college basketball: and
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Bill Belichick spent time after his NFL exit talking with college coaches wanting his thoughts on managing new wrinkles at their level that looked a lot like the pros. The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report. Get local news delivered to your inbox!DETROIT (AP) — If Donald Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, booze and other goods. The president-elect floated the tariff idea, including additional 10% taxes on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. But his posts Monday on Truth Social threatening the tariffs on his first day in office could just be a negotiating ploy to get the countries to change behavior. High food prices were a major issue in voters picking Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, but tariffs almost certainly would push those costs up even further. For instance, the Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said Tuesday that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when other countries retaliate. “Tariffs distort the marketplace and will raise prices along the supply chain, resulting in the consumer paying more at the checkout line,” said Alan Siger, association president. Mexico and Canada are two of the biggest exporters of fresh fruit and vegetables to the U.S. In 2022, Mexico supplied 51% of fresh fruit and 69% of fresh vegetables imported by value into the U.S., while Canada supplied 2% of fresh fruit and 20% of fresh vegetables. Before the election, about 7 in 10 voters said they were very concerned about the cost of food, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. “We’ll get them down,” Trump told shoppers during a September visit to a Pennsylvania grocery store. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. People looking to buy a new vehicle likely would see big price increases as well, at a time when costs have gone up so much that they are out of reach for many. The average price of a new vehicle now runs around $48,000. About 15% of the 15.6 million new vehicles sold in the U.S. last year came from Mexico, while 8% crossed the border from Canada, according to Global Data. Much of the tariffs would get passed along to consumers, unless automakers can somehow quickly find productivity improvements to offset them, said C.J. Finn, U.S. automotive sector leader for PwC, a consulting firm. That means even more consumers “would potentially get priced out of the activity” of buying a new vehicle, Finn said. Hardest hit would be Volkswagen, Stellantis, General Motors and Ford, Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska wrote Tuesday in a note to investors. Stellantis and VW import about 40% of the vehicles they sell from Canada and Mexico, while it's 30% for GM and 25% for Ford. GM and Stellantis import more than half of their high-profit pickup trucks from the two countries, according to Bernstein. If Trump does impose the tariffs in January, the auto industry would have little time to adjust, putting operating profits at risk for the automakers, Roeska said in an email. “A 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada would severely cripple the U.S. auto industry,” he said. The tariffs would hurt U.S. industrial production so much that “we expect this is unlikely to happen in practice,” Roeska said. The tariff threat hit the stocks of some companies that could be particularly hurt, such as auto manufacturers and Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States. But the overall market held relatively steady near records as investors saw Trump’s proposal as more of an opening position for negotiations rather than as a definitive policy. It's not clear how long the tariffs would last if they are implemented, but they could force auto executives to move production to the U.S., which could create more jobs in the long run. But Morningstar analyst David Whiston said in the short term automakers probably won't make any moves because they can't quickly change where they build vehicles. To move to the U.S., they would have to buy equipment and revamp their parts supply chain, which can take years. “I think everyone is going to be in a wait-and-see mode,” Whiston said. Millions of dollars worth of auto parts flow across the borders with Mexico and Canada, and that could raise prices for already costly automobile repairs, Finn said. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. said tariffs on tequila or Canadian whisky won’t boost American jobs because they are distinctive products that can only be made in their country of origin. In 2023, the U.S. imported $4.6 billion worth of tequila and $108 million worth of mezcal from Mexico and $537 million worth of spirits from Canada, the council said. “At the end of the day, tariffs on spirits products from our neighbors to the north and south are going to hurt U.S. consumers and lead to job losses across the U.S. hospitality industry just as these businesses continue their long recovery from the pandemic,” the council said in a statement. Electronics retailer Best Buy said on its third-quarter earnings conference call that it runs on thin profit margins, so while vendors and the company will shoulder some increases, Best Buy will have to pass tariffs on to customers. “These are goods that people need, and higher prices are not helpful,” CEO Corie Barry said. Walmart also warned this week that tariffs could force it to raise prices, as did Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who talked with Trump after his call for tariffs, said they had a good conversation about how the countries can work together on the challenges they face. "This is something that we can do, laying out the facts and moving forward in constructive ways. This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on and that’s what we’ll do,” Trudeau said. Trump's transition team wouldn't comment on the call. Also Monday, Trump turned his ire to China, saying he has “had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington cautioned on Monday that there will be losers on all sides if there is a trade war. Trump's threats come as arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico have been falling . The most recent U.S. numbers for October show arrests remain near four-year lows. But arrests for illegally crossing the border from Canada have been rising over the past two years. Much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico. Border seizures of the drug rose sharply under President Joe Biden. The tariffs would also throw into doubt the reliability of the 2020 trade deal brokered in large part by Trump with Canada and Mexico, the USMCA, which replaced NAFTA and is up for review in 2026. Trump transition team officials did not immediately respond to questions about what authority he would use, what he would need to see to prevent the tariffs from being implemented and how they would impact prices in the U.S. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department and Economy Department also had no immediate reaction to Trump’s statements. ___ Rugaber reported from Washington. AP reporters Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Stan Choe and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York, and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath's 'warning' to investors Scam stories: 'Baap of Chart' and Trafiksol ITS Technologies The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk’s news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity. Read More Latest Mobiles Samsung Galaxy A16 5G ₹15,800 Lava O3 Pro ₹6,999 Vivo X200 5G ₹65,999 Tecno Phantom V Flip 2 5G ₹54,999 Lava Yuva 4 ₹6,999 Poco C75 5G ₹7,999 Tecno POP 9 4G ₹6,499 Itel Color Pro 5G ₹9,199 Vivo Y18T ₹9,499 Lava Blaze 3 5G ₹10,999
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — had a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday. Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo. After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine. Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965. The 600 block of Sutter Street, near downtown’s Union Square, became Joe Rosenthal Way after a short ceremony Thursday morning. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomed the street’s new name. Aaron Peskin, who heads the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, welcomed the city's political elite, military officials and members of Rosenthal's family to toast the late photographer, who was born in Washington, D.C., to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. The famous photo became the centerpiece of a war bonds poster that helped raise $26 billion in 1945. Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said the image helped win the war. “But I’ve grown over the years to appreciate also his role as a San Francisco newspaper photographer who, as Supervisor Peskin says, went to work every day photographing the city where we all live, we all love,” he said. Graves and others said they look forward to tourists and locals happening upon the street sign, seeing Rosenthal's name for perhaps the first time, and then going online to learn about the photographer with the terrible eyesight but an eye for composition. Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers. When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”UnitedHealth Group CEO admits more transparency is needed in insurance industry
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, Healthcare costs have soared. Obamacare failed to live up to its promises. And my lead image dramatically understates the problems with costs... Data from the BLS, chart by Mish The numbers look bad but they are much worse than they look because of the way the BLS calculates the CPI. On all CPI calculations, the BLS only counts costs directly paid by consumers. To the extent corporations and Medicare are obscuring more of the costs, the CPI numbers are understated. The above is an AI-generated response. It totals 86.6 percent. Census. Gov says that in 2022, 92.1 percent of people, or 304.0 million, had health insurance at some point in the year. Those in various Medicare plans have seen smaller increases than those buying insurance for themselves. And the cost of direct pay is outrageous. Large corporations can get better deals than smaller ones. The BLS averages this all in to arrive at the numbers posted in the chart. Heaven help anyone paying for their own insurance who gets cancer or other serious needs. Obamacare penalizes young and healthy for the benefit of those older and with conditions. Young adults not working for a company that provides health care benefits frequently opt out. No one can blame them. The Wall Street Journal discusses the ObamaCare Con Progressives are at last acknowledging that ObamaCare is a failure. They aren’t doing so explicitly, of course, but their social-media screeds against insurers, triggered by last week’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, suggest as much. “We’ve gotten to a point where healthcare is so inaccessible and unaffordable, people are justified in their frustrations,” CBS News medical contributor Céline Gounder said during a Friday segment on the roasting of health insurers. Remember Barack Obama’s promise that if you like your health plan and doctor, you could keep them? Sorry. How about his claim that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected? Also not true. The biggest howler, however, was that healthcare would become more affordable. Grant Democrats this: The law has advanced their political goal of expanding government control over insurers, in return for lavishing Americans with subsidies to buy overpriced, lousy products. (One might observe that Democrats are driving a similar Faustian bargain to induce automakers to produce more electric vehicles.) One problem is that simply having insurance doesn’t change people’s behavior. It does, however, cause them to use more care. This is a particular problem in Medicaid, since beneficiaries often rush to the emergency room for nonemergencies because they don’t have deductibles or co-pays. Another problem: The nearly 100 million Americans on Medicaid or tightly regulated and generously subsidized exchange plans struggle to find doctors to treat them. Physician access for Medicaid patients has long been limited owing to the program’s low reimbursement rates. It has gotten worse since ObamaCare expanded eligibility, as states have tried to hold down Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursements. A 2019 study found that patients were only half as likely to get an appointment with a doctor compared with privately insured patients before the law passed. Post-ObamaCare, they were less than one-third as likely. Medicaid is insurance in name only. Patients with exchange plans hardly fare better. Affordable Care Act plan networks include on average only 40% of local physicians and 21% of those employed by hospitals. Patients must pay significantly more out of pocket to see out-of-network doctors. If you find a doctor in network, there’s no guarantee he’ll continue to be. Insurers are narrowing coverage to keep down costs. They are also hiking deductibles, which this year averaged $5,241 for a typical plan . That’s up from $2,425 in 2014. Although subsidies reduce how much people with ObamaCare plans pay toward their premiums, they are stuck paying out of pocket until they hit their deductible. Most healthy young people never do. That means their insurance is worthless except in the event of a catastrophic emergency, which was the gist of recent rants against insurers. Perhaps they should take up their grievances with Mr. Obama, since his law’s mandates and regulations are to blame. ObamaCare requires plans to cover myriad government-determined “essential benefits” regardless of whether people need them. It also prohibits insurers from charging higher premiums based on a patient’s health-risk factors and limits their ability to do so for older people. The young and healthy are thus required to subsidize their elders, while taxpayers are required to subsidize everyone on the exchanges . The WSJ noted “states have tried to hold down Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursements.” Everyone else pays more because if it. Wait times and the struggle to find a doctor who takes Medicaid are not factored into the CPI at all. The Huffington Post reports ‘This Is A Warning’: Warren, Sanders Address Sympathy For UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing Two of the biggest critics of the U.S. health care system condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson while calling out “vile” insurance company practices aimed at maximizing profits. “The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost in an interview on Tuesday when asked about the cold response to Thompson’s death, which included celebratory posts on social media. “Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far,” Warren added. “This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone.” After drawing some criticism for her remarks, Warren clarified her comments in a statement provided to HuffPost on Wednesday. “Violence is never the answer. Period,” the senator said. “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Thompson’s killing “outrageous” and “unacceptable” before similarly criticizing insurance company practices. “I think what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry tells us is that millions of people understand that health care is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit,” Sanders said. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) also criticized “vile” social media posts for celebrating an “assh*le that’s going to die in prison.” “If you gun someone down that you don’t happen to agree with their views or the business that they’re in, hey, you know, I’m next, they’re next,” he added. “And people want to celebrate it. It’s twisted.” Government meddling is one of the reasons healthcare is so expensive. Obamacare failed across the board. And it did so by creating big pools of those who overpay and underpay. Let’s not mince words. People who smoke ought to pay more for healthcare because they are a higher risk. Those who are grossly overweight ought to pay more as well. Medicaid encourages emergency visits by paying primary care doctors so little that the doctors refuse new patients. To avoid lawsuits, doctors perform more tests than necessary. Fraud is rampant. Paperwork is excessive. “Medicare for All” would enhance problems in all of the above. Customers who have already reached their max out of pocket deductibles have no skin in the game. And that’s a huge problem. According to Medicare.Gov “ No Medicare drug plan may have a deductible more than $505 in 2023. Some Medicare drug plans don’t have a deductible. In some plans that do have a deductible, drugs on some tiers are covered before the deductible. ” Once deductibles are reached, sometimes in one month, consumers have no incentive to shop around. Other customers, unaware of cost differentials, fill prescriptions on the basis of convenience, that being the nearest pharmacy. January 24, 2024: Denver Health at “Critical Point” as 8,000 Migrants Make 20,000 Emergency Visits The Denver hospital system is turning away local residents because it is flooded with migrant visits. March 9, 2024: Medicaid Expansion Was Supposed to Pay for Itself, Instead Hospitals Are Closing 10 states did not fall for the Medicaid expansion trap under Obamacare. The rest are suffering. Private payers (you, one way or another) make up the loss. Medicaid does not pay enough to cover hospitals’ costs, meaning hospitals need to make up for the shortfall by charging private payers more. This was one of the easiest “I Told You So” advance predictions in history. Best of all, we have a decade of data to prove it thanks to ten states that resisted the trap. May 9, 2024: Hospitals Turn to Pay In Advance, In Full If you are in the hospital emergency room, and that’s where most people without insurance go, then you get treated. Otherwise, many hospitals are turning to pay in advance for services. It’s interesting to note that hospitals want payment in advance for births. Most illegals just walk in and never pay for anything. Nonpayment is one of the reasons costs are soaring for everyone who does pay. Obama claimed Medicaid expansion would pay for itself. Whenever you hear that claim please run. Free government handouts are never free and most often backfire completely. As long as we are going to have Medicare, and no politician will ever get rid of it, It would behoove Medicare and insurers to require the cheapest cost alternative on all drugs. That would force competition and eliminate fraudulent collusion. US consumers are subsidizing the rest of the world. I would put an end to that by allowing drug imports. It’s an uncomfortable topic, where demagoguery about “death squads” abounds, but we need to have a talk about the right to die and how much money we spend prolonging a terminal patient’s life, in massive pain, for a few weeks or months. I have made my wishes known. I do not want to be kept alive by heroic means if the quality of my life is expected to be grim. That’s a personal decision. At the national level, we must face this very uncomfortable question: Should we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping someone alive whose life expectancy is 3 months? 6 months? a year? I say no to all for those without insurance, and no for me personally, regardless. Also, hospitals should be free to turn away those without insurance. We need tort reform to cut down legal expenses. When consumers have no skin in the game or not enough skin in the game, no one other than the insurers are interested in reducing costs. That is the fundamental problem with US healthcare. Senators Warren and Sanders proposals would make everything worse.Furious Cucurella changes cleats after slipping twice to concede early goals, then helps Chelsea win
Rosen Law Firm Encourages Quanterix Corporation Investors to Inquire About Securities Class Action Investigation - QTRXOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to donate $1 million to Donald Trump's inaugural fundIn a very unusual occurrence related to the Right To Information (RTI) Act in India, the Calcutta National Medical College asked a researcher named Sabir Ahamed to prove his Indian citizenship in reply to his submitting an RTI query, The Telegraph reported. Sabir Ahamed, a researcher who works with Pratichi Trust had reportedly submitted an RTI seeking data from 23 medical colleges in West Bengal. The RTI sought details on their students, faculty and administrative employees, including details such as social groups they belonged. The data, which does not come under any restricted information category, was required by Sabir Ahamed for his research on the representation of underprivileged populations in the state’s medical education and administration. “As a researcher, I have filed more than 2,500 applications in various departments of state and central governments since the enactment of the (RTI) law. This was the first time I was asked to prove my citizenship. According to the RTI Act, a mere declaration of citizenship is typically sufficient,” Ahamed was quoted by The Telegraph . On December 2, the Calcutta National Medical College sent a response to the RTI plea asking Ahamed to prove his Indian citizenship. “In response to your RTI application..., the undersigned would like to mention that you have not declared in the said application that you are a citizen of India. Therefore we are unable to are unable to answer your queries until you provide proof of your Indian Citizenship,” said the communication, signed by the state public information officer (SPIO). Ahamed replied to the SPIO with a copy of his Aadhaar card. On December 6, a reply came agreeing to share the information as he has provided the information identifying as a researcher while stating that the Aadhaar card was not considered proof of Indian citizenship. The Union government’s website mentions that there is no requirement for proof of citizenship to apply for any information under RTI. However, it mentions that if the SPIO or any other concerned officer doubts whether the applicant is an Indian citizen, proof may be asked. “My question is: what made the SPIO of the medical college find reason to believe I am not an Indian citizen, or doubt my citizenship? Was it my name, or was it an attempt to deny information?” Ahamed said. Sabir Ahamed is the national coordinator of the Pratichi Institute, which was founded by the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
Baten Gay to Jeeten Gay: Divided We Win, United You LoseIndian stock market shows resilience, growth potential amid cautiously optimistic outlook — expert advice | Stock Market News - MintStock Market News Today Live Updates on December 25, 2024 : American Airlines stock down 1.9% after technical glitch briefly impacts flight operations on Christmas Eve
Thomas scores 25 as Austin Peay defeats Georgia State 62-50Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year. The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November. Before Trump rang the opening bell at 9:30 a.m., a first for the native New Yorker, he spoke at the exchange and called it “a tremendous honor.” “Time magazine, getting this honor for the second time, I think I like it better this time actually,” he said. Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany and Vice President-elect JD Vance, grinned as people chanted “USA” before he opened the trading day. He then raised his fist. In his remarks, he promoted some of the people he has named to his incoming administration, including Treasury pick Scott Bessent, and some of his policies, including a promise that the federal government will expedite permits for projects and construction worth more than $1 billion. “I think we’re going to have a tremendous run. We have to straighten out some problems, some big problems in the world,” he said. Sam Jacobs, the magazine’s editor in chief, made the announcement on NBC’s “Today” show, saying Trump was someone who “for better or for worse, had the most influence on the news in 2024.” Trump was Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House. “This is someone who made an historic comeback, who reshaped the American presidency and who’s reordering American politics,” Jacobs said. The NYSE regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the bell-ringing, which has become a marker of culture and politics.
Police arrest father over sudden death of son in Anambra
Spirit Halloween launches 10 locations for the holidays – but shoppers point out glaring mistake with new store nameMiami (6-7) at Houston (8-5) Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, CBS BetMGM Odds: Texans by 3. Against the spread: Dolphins 5-8; Texans 5-6-2. Series record: Texans lead 8-3. Last meeting: Dolphins beat Texans 30-15, on Nov. 27, 2022, in Miami. Last week: Dolphins beat Jets 32-26 in OT; Texans were off, beat Jaguars 23-20 on Dec. 1. Dolphins offense: overall (19), rush (24), pass (14), scoring (23). Dolphins defense: overall (9), rush (7), pass (11), scoring (T14). Texans offense: overall (18), rush (16), pass (17), scoring (11). Texans defense: overall (5), rush (10), pass (7), scoring (T12). Turnover differential: Dolphins minus-2; Texans plus-10. QB Tua Tagovailoa, who has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL at throwing with anticipation and accuracy since he returned from a concussion in Week 8. Tagovailoa leads the NFL with a 73.8% completion rate and threw for 300 yards for the third straight game last week vs. the Jets. Tagovailoa is the first player in NFL history to have at least 40 pass attempts, multiple touchdown passes and no interceptions in three consecutive games within a single season. QB C.J. Stroud has thrown for at least 225 yards in each of his six home games this season and is 11-4 in 15 starts in Houston, including the playoffs. He has thrown for 3,117 yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season. Houston RB Joe Mixon vs. Miami’s run defense. Mixon ran for 101 yards in Houston’s previous game for his seventh 100-yard game this season. He ranks third in the NFL by averaging 88.7 yards rushing a game. This week he’ll face a run defense that ranks seventh in the NFL by holding teams to 105.6 yards a game. Miami LT Terron Armstead is dealing with a knee injury that limited him to just five snaps last week. He did not practice Wednesday... LBs Bradley Chubb (knee) and Cameron Goode (knee) could make their season debut, depending on how this week of practice goes, coach Mike McDaniel said. ... WRs Tyreek Hill (wrist) and Jaylen Waddle (hamstring), RB Raheem Mostert (hip), and LB Anthony Walker Jr. (hamstring) were among those limited in practice Wednesday. ... Houston S Jalen Pitre is expected to miss a second straight game with a shoulder injury. ... DE Denico Autry was limited in practice Wednesday because of a knee injury. Houston won the first seven meetings in this series. ... Miami didn’t get its first win against the Texans until a 44-26 victory in 2015. ... The Dolphins have won the past two meetings. ... These teams first met in the season opener in 2003 when Houston got a 21-20 win on a late field goal. Three of Miami’s final four games of the season are on the road. ... K Jason Sanders needs 13 points Sunday to reach 800. He also needs one field goal to reach 177, which would give him the second-most field goals made in franchise history. ... TE Jonnu Smith needs 100 yards receiving to reach 792 and set a franchise record for most yards receiving by a tight end in a single season. Smith had three catches for 44 yards, including the game-winning TD vs. the Jets last week after having no receptions during regulation. ... Tagovailoa needs a completion rate of 70% or better on Sunday to reach eight consecutive games completing at least 70% of his passes. That would tie him with Joe Montana (1989) and Drew Brees (2017-18) for the longest streak in NFL history. ... The Dolphins gave up a season-high 402 yards to the Jets last week. Aaron Rodgers burned Miami’s pass defense for 319 yards, and Miami’s secondary allowed a combined 223 yards by Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams. ... Houston can clinch the AFC South title for the second straight year with a win and a loss by Indianapolis Sunday. ... The Texans rank second in the NFL with 84 tackles for loss. ... Their 42 sacks also rank second. ... WR Nico Collins had eight receptions for 119 yards for his fourth 100-yard game this season in Houston’s previous game. He has had at least 75 yards receiving and a TD reception in each of his four home games this season. ... TE Dalton Schultz had five receptions for 61 yards and a score in Week 13. He has had at least five catches in two of his past three games. ... LB Azeez Al-Shaai will serve the first game of a three-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head of QB Trevor Lawrence Sunday. ... DE Danielle Hunter is one of two players in the NFL this season with at least 15 tackles for loss (15) and 10 sacks (10 1/2). It’s his sixth career season with at least 10 sacks. He has eight tackles for loss and five sacks combined in his past three games. ... DE Will Anderson has had a sack in his past two home games. ... LB Henry To’oTo’o has had at least five tackles in four straight games. ... CB Derek Stingley had his third interception of the season in his previous game. ... CB Kamari Lassiter had a career-high eight tackles, including a tackle for loss in Week 13. ... S Jimmie Ward has had an interception in his past two home games. He also had an interception in his previous game against Miami in 2022 while with San Francisco. Collins has 456 yards receiving and four touchdown receptions in four home games this season. AP NFL:
Teachers allowed to use audiobooks in GCSE English classes
Ukraine is slowly losing the three-year conflict on the battlefield. Russia is slowly losing the economic conflict at a roughly equal pace. The Kremlin’s oil export revenues are too low to sustain a high-intensity war and nobody will lend Vladimir Putin a kopeck. Russia’s overheated, military-Keynesian war economy looks much like the dysfunctional German war economy of late 1917, which had run out of skilled manpower and was holed below the waterline after three years of Allied blockade – as the logistical failures of the Ludendorff offensive would later reveal. Vladimir Putin’s war has crippled Russia’s economy. Credit: AP Photos Putin’s strategic victory in Ukraine was far from inevitable a fortnight ago and it is less inevitable now after the Assad regime collapsed like a house of cards , shattering Putin’s credibility in the Middle East and the Sahel. He could do nothing to save his sole state ally in the Arab world. “The limits of Russian military power have been revealed,” said Tim Ash, a regional expert at Bluebay Asset Management and a Chatham House fellow. Turkey is now master of the region. Turkish forces had to step in to rescue stranded Russian generals. Even if Putin succeeds in holding on to his naval base at Tartus – a big if – this concession will be on Ottoman terms and sufferance. “Putin now goes into Ukraine peace talks from a position of weakness,” said Mr Ash. When Trump won the US elections in 2016, corks of Golubitskoe Villa Romanov popped at the Kremlin. There were no illusions this time. Anton Barbashin from Riddle Russia says Donald Trump imposed 40 rounds of sanctions on Russia, belying his bonhomie with Putin before the cameras. He has since warned that Putin will not get all of the four annexed (but unconquered) oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. The Kremlin had banked on a contested election outcome in the US, followed by months of disarray that would discredit US democracy across the world. The polite interregnum has been a cruel disappointment. Barbashin says Russia’s leaders expect Trump to issue ultimatums to both Kyiv and Moscow: if Volodymyr Zelensky balks at peace terms, the US will sever all military aid; if Putin drags his feet, the US will up the military ante and carpet-bomb the Russian economy. That economy held up well for two years but this third year has become harder. The central bank has raised interest rates to 21 per cent to choke off an inflation spiral. “The economy cannot exist like this for long. It’s a colossal challenge for business and banks,” said German Gref, Sberbank’s chief executive. Sergei Chemezov, head of the defence giant Rostec, said the monetary squeeze was becoming dangerous. “If we continue like this, most companies will essentially go bankrupt. At rates of more than 20 per cent, I don’t know of a single business that can make a profit, not even an arms trader,” he said. If the Saudis again decide to flood the world with cheap crude to recoup market share – as many predict – oil will fall below $US40 and Russia will spin out of economic control. Credit: AP The resurrection of the Soviet military industrial complex – to borrow a term from Pierre-Marie Meunier, the French intelligence analyst – is cannibalising the rest of the economy. Some 800,000 of the young and best-educated have left the country. The numbers slaughtered or maimed in the meat grinder are approaching half a million. Russia’s digital minister says the shortage of IT workers is around 600,000. The defence industry has 400,000 unfilled positions. The total labour shortage is near 5 million. Anatoly Kovalev, head of Zelenograd Nanotechnology Centre, said his industry was crippled by lack of equipment and could not replace foreign supplies. “There is a shortage of qualified specialists: engineers, technologists, developers, designers. There are practically no colleges and technical schools that train personnel for the industry,” he said. Total export earnings from all fossil fuels were running at about $US1.2 billion ($1.9 billion) a day in mid-2022. They have fallen for the last 10 months consecutively and are now barely $US600 million. The Kremlin takes a slice of this for the budget but it is far too little to fund a war machine gobbling up a 10th of GDP in one way or another. Oil tax revenues slumped to $US5.8 billion in November, based on a Urals price averaging near $US65 a barrel. That price could fall a lot further. Russia is facing an incipient price war with Saudi Arabia in Asian markets. Putin is raiding the National Wealth Fund to cover the shortfall. Its liquid assets have fallen to a 16-year low of $US54 billion. Its gold reserves have dropped from 554 to 279 tonnes over the last 15 months. The fund is left with illiquid holdings that cannot be crystallised, such as an equity stake in Aeroflot. The long-awaited rally in oil prices keeps refusing to happen. JP Morgan said excess global supply next year would reach 1.3 million barrels a day due to rising output from Brazil, Guyana, and US shale. Rosneft’s Igor Sechin has told his old KGB friend Putin to brace for $US45-$US50 next year. Adjusted for inflation, that matches levels that bankrupted the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The purpose of the G7’s convoluted oil sanctions was – until a month ago – to eat into Putin’s revenue without curtailing global oil supply and worsening the cost of living shock in the West. This has been a partial success. Russia had to assemble a shadow fleet of tankers and ship oil from Baltic and Black Sea ports to buyers in India and China, who pressed a hard bargain. The International Energy Agency estimates that the discount on Urals crude has averaged $US15 over 2023 to 2024, depriving Putin of $US75 million a day in export revenues. ‘The economy cannot exist like this for long. It’s a colossal challenge for business and banks.’ Russia can get around technology sanctions but its systems are configured to Western semiconductors. These chips cannot easily be replaced by Chinese suppliers, even if they were willing to risk US secondary sanctions, which most are not. The chips are bought at a stiff premium on the global black market and are unreliable. Ukrainian troops have noticed that Russian Geran-2 drones keep spinning out of control. The Washington Post reports that laser-guided devices on Russia’s T-90M tanks have “mysteriously disappeared”, greatly reducing capability. The industry ministry has been trying to develop analogues to replace chips from Texas Instruments, Aeroflex and Cypress but admitted in October that all three tenders had failed. Alexey Novoselov from the circuits company Milandr said Russia could not obtain the insulator technologies needed to make chips of 90 nanometers or below. It is the dark ages. The US tightened the noose three weeks ago, imposing sanctions on Gazprombank and over 50 Russian banks linked to global transactions. This has greatly complicated Russia’s ability to trade energy and buy technology on the black market. It briefly crashed the rouble, now hovering at around 100 to the dollar. Chinese banks have stopped accepting Russian UnionPay cards. The Chinese press says exporters have pulled back from Russian e-commerce sites such as Yandez or Wildberries because payment fees through third-parties no longer cover thin profit margins. Some have been unable to extract their money from Russia and are facing large losses. Few foresaw the sudden and total collapse of the Soviet regime, though all the signs of economic decay and imperial overreach were there to see by 1989. Putin’s regime is not yet at this point but it would only take one more change in the Middle East to bring matters to a head. If the Saudis again decide to flood the world with cheap crude to recoup market share – as many predict – oil will fall below $US40 and Russia will spin out of economic control. The Ukraine war may end in Riyadh. Telegraph, London The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning .
sg777 casino
p777
777bet casino
casino777 slot
p777 slot