The Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which is now poised to remain in his control for at least the near future. What's next for Infowars and Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site . U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them. “Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said in a phone interview Wednesday. The families, meanwhile, were preparing the mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting. The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case , which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid. He also said the amount of money offered in the only two bids was too low and there needed to be more effort to try to raise as much money possible from the selling of Infowars' assets. The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody . The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors. Lopez called it a complex arrangement that led to different interpretations of the bid's actual value as well as last-minute changes to a proposed sale order. The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected the allegations, saying that while mistakes were made there was no wrongdoing. Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors. The next steps remained unclear Wednesday. The judge directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy. He said Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company. He also said Murray could abandon the efforts, which could allow the Sandy Hook families to return to the state courts where they won their lawsuits against Jones and begin collection proceedings against him. The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan to move forward. Mattei, who represented the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said everyone is waiting to see what plan the trustee comes up with. Jones, meanwhile, continued to allege fraud and collusion on his show Wednesday and threatened legal action over what he called an attempted “rigged auction.” On the social media platform X, he called the judge's ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process." “I don’t want to have to go after these people, lawsuit-wise, but we have to because if you don’t then you’re aiding and abetting and they do it to other people. They made some big mistakes," he said. It's a solemn and heartbreaking week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence on Wednesday evening. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye. Many of the families said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats. Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed, testified at the Connecticut lawsuit trial in 2022 that the decade of abuse his family suffered made them move across the country to Washington state, and even there he was accosted in person. The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials. Jones has been appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments, and has since conceded that the shooting did happen. Last week, a Connecticut appeals court upheld most of the judgment in that state but reduced it by $150 million. Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.Bernard Looney Appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors at Prometheus Hyperscale
Oshana regional electoral officer Amon Haimbangu has said in his view the Namibian elections were conducted in a free and fair manner.Over the weekend, he told Namibian Sun he was ... If you are an active subscriber and the article is not showing, please log out and back in. Free access to articles from 12:00.After being denied refund for faulty used Subaru by car dealership, Utah man did the unexpected. Details hereThe New Orleans Pelicans have no interest in trading Herb Jones, sources tell The Stein Line. Jones signed a four-year, $54 million deal with the Pelicans in restricted free agency during the 2023 offseason. Jones, who cannot become a free agent until 2027, is averaging 10.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals in 31.3 minutes over seven games this season for the Pelicans. Jones is shooting just 29.2 percent on three-pointers this season after shooting 41.8 percent last season.
Is ‘Glicked’ the new ‘Barbenheimer’? ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ collide in theaters
None“Gladiator II” asks the question: Are you not moderately entertained for roughly 60% of this sequel? Truly, this is a movie dependent on managed expectations and a forgiving attitude toward its tendency to overserve. More of a thrash-and-burn schlock epic than the comparatively restrained 2000 “Gladiator,” also directed by Ridley Scott, the new one recycles a fair bit of the old one’s narrative cries for freedom while tossing in some digital sharks for the flooded Colosseum and a bout of deadly sea-battle theatrics. They really did flood the Colosseum in those days, though no historical evidence suggests shark deployment, real or digital. On the other hand (checks notes), “Gladiator II” is fiction. Screenwriter David Scarpa picks things up 16 years after “Gladiator,” which gave us the noble death of the noble warrior Maximus, shortly after slaying the ignoble emperor and returning Rome to the control of the Senate. Our new hero, Lucius (Paul Mescal), has fled Rome for Numidia, on the North African coast. The time is 200 A.D., and for the corrupt, party-time twins running the empire (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger), that means invasion time. Pedro Pascal takes the role of Acacius, the deeply conflicted general, sick of war and tired of taking orders from a pair of depraved ferrets. The new film winds around the old one this way: Acacius is married to Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, in a welcome return), daughter of the now-deceased emperor Aurelius and the love of the late Maximus’s life. Enslaved and dragged to Rome to gladiate, the widower Lucius vows revenge on the general whose armies killed his wife. But there are things this angry young phenom must learn, about his ancestry and his destiny. It’s the movie’s worst-kept secret, but there’s a reason he keeps seeing footage of Russell Crowe from the first movie in his fever dreams. Battle follows battle, on the field, in the arena, in the nearest river, wherever, and usually with endless splurches of computer-generated blood. “Gladiator II” essentially bumper-cars its way through the mayhem, pausing for long periods of expository scheming about overthrowing the current regime. The prince of all fixers, a wily operative with interests in both managing gladiators and stocking munitions, goes by the name Macrinus. He’s played by Denzel Washington, who at one point makes a full meal out of pronouncing the word “politics” like it’s a poisoned fig. Also, if you want a masterclass in letting your robes do a lot of your acting for you, watch what Washington does here. He’s more fun than the movie but you can’t have everything. The movie tries everything, all right, and twice. Ridley Scott marshals the chaotic action sequences well enough, though he’s undercut by frenetic cutting rhythms, with that now-familiar, slightly sped-up visual acceleration in frequent use. (Claire Simpson and Sam Restivo are the editors.) Mescal acquits himself well in his first big-budget commercial walloper of an assignment, confined though he is to a narrower range of seething resentments than Crowe’s in the first film. I left thinking about two things: the word “politics” as savored/spit out by Washington, and the innate paradox of how Scott, whose best work over the decades has been wonderful, delivers spectacle. The director and his lavishly talented design team built all the rough-hewn sets with actual tangible materials the massive budget allowed. They took care to find the right locations in Morocco and Malta. Yet when combined in post-production with scads of medium-grade digital effects work in crowd scenes and the like, never mind the sharks, the movie’s a somewhat frustrating amalgam. With an uneven script on top of it, the visual texture of “Gladiator II” grows increasingly less enveloping and atmospherically persuasive, not more. But I hung there, for some of the acting, for some of the callbacks, and for the many individual moments, or single shots, that could only have come from Ridley Scott. And in the end, yes, you too may be moderately entertained. “Gladiator II” — 2.5 stars (out of 4) MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence) Running time: 2:28 How to watch: Premieres in theaters Nov. 21. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.Bill Belichick is heading to the college game after all. The legendary head coach is filling the vacancy at North Carolina after rumors had linked him to the Tar Heels for the past week. And that had fans and pundits alike at the NFL and college levels fairly stunned: There are countless questions about the fit between Belichick and North Carolina. How will a coach who worked in the NFL for parts of five decades adjust to the college game or the demands of recruiting? Will his coaching methods translate with kids in the same way they did with professionals? Will North Carolina be able to compete with other major football programs on the NIL front, given the resources that go to the men's basketball team? There's no doubt that he's a major splash as a hire, and his name-brand appeal and the pedigree of being a six-time champion as an NFL head coach should aid in recruiting. More than likely, he'll delegate many of the recruiting obligations to his staff, instead focusing on program-building and Xs and Os. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show earlier in the week, he laid out his vision for leading a college program. "If I was in a college program, the college program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players that had the ability to play in the NFL," he said. "It would be a professional program—training, nutrition, scheme, coaching and techniques that would transfer to the NFL." Belichick now becomes the most intriguing and high-profile college coach outside of Deion Sanders. While it's unlikely he'll turn North Carolina's sideline into a celebrity-sighting bonanza like Colorado, the Tar Heels are now a team to watch going forward, if only to see if Belichick can come anywhere close to replicating his NFL success.
‘Gladiator II’ review: Are you not moderately entertained?
San Francisco (5-5) at Green Bay (7-3) Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EST, FOX BetMGM NFL odds: Packers by 2 1/2. Against the spread: 49ers 4-6; Packers 4-6 Series record: Packers lead 38-34-1 Last meeting: 49ers beat Packers 24-21 in NFC divisional playoff game Jan. 20, 2024, in Santa Clara, California. Last week: 49ers lost 20-17 at home to Seattle; Packers won 20-19 at Chicago 49ers offense: overall (2), rush (7), pass (4), scoring (T-8) Packers offense: overall (4), rush (4), pass (9), scoring (T-8) 49ers defense: overall (6), rush (8), pass (8), scoring (T-16) Packers defense: overall (12), rush (14), pass (13), scoring (10) Turnover differential: 49ers plus-3; Packers plus-5 QB Brandon Allen: With Brock Purdy unavailable due to a sore right shoulder, Allen will make his first start in three years. The 32-year-old Allen has made nine career starts, and his teams have gone 2-7 in those games. His last start came with Cincinnati in the 2021 regular-season finale when the Bengals rested usual starter Joe Burrow to get ready for the playoffs. Allen has thrown three passes in the last three seasons, including none since joining San Francisco in 2023. Allen was a member of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017, when Packers coach Matt LaFleur was that team’s offensive coordinator. RB Josh Jacobs has 838 yards rushing this season to rank third in the NFL entering Week 12. He ran for 76 yards and a touchdown while also catching five passes for 58 yards against the Bears. Jacobs has scored four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving) over his past four games. He has at least 90 yards from scrimmage over his past six games, matching Houston’s Joe Mixon for the NFL’s longest such active streak. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey vs. Packers run defense: McCaffrey rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns — including the game-winner with 1:07 left — in the 49ers’ playoff victory over the Packers last season. Green Bay is coming off a performance in which it allowed a season-high 179 yards rushing to the Bears. Purdy isn't playing due to a sore throwing shoulder. ... The 49ers also won't have Nick Bosa after he injured his left hip and oblique against the Seahawks. ... Niners CB Charvarius Ward will miss a third straight game following the death of his 1-year-old daughter. ... Niners LT Trent Williams (ankle) is questionable. ... Niners TE George Kittle is expected back after missing last week’s game with a hamstring injury. ... Packers CB Jaire Alexander (knee) and LB Edgerrin Cooper (hamstring) have been ruled out. ... Packers guard Jordan Morgan (shoulder) is on injured reserve. The 49ers have beaten the Packers in the playoffs three of the past five years. That includes a 37-19 victory in the 2019 NFC championship, a 13-10 upset at Lambeau Field in the 2021 divisional round and the 24-21 thriller last season. The past three matchups between these teams — including a Packers 30-28 road victory on Sept. 26, 2021 — have been decided by a total of eight points. This marks the first time these teams have faced off at Lambeau Field during the regular season since a Packers 33-30 triumph on Oct. 15, 2018. Each of the past three Packers-49ers games at Green Bay have been decided by three points. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Packers coach Matt LaFleur worked together as assistants at Houston (2008-09), Washington (2010-13) and Atlanta (2015-16). A loss would give the 49ers a losing record more than 10 games into a season for the first time since going 6-10 in 2020. ... San Francisco has lost a league-worst three games this season after leading in the final two minutes of regulation. ... The 49ers have allowed 36 points in the final two minutes of regulation, second most in the NFL. ... The Niners had only one play from scrimmage go for at least 20 yards last week, tied for the fewest in any game in eight seasons under Shanahan. ... San Francisco is outgaining the opposition through the air by an NFL-best 53.9 yards per game. ... McCaffrey has topped 100 yards from scrimmage in his first two games back from Achilles tendinitis and has five straight games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage going back to last postseason. ... McCaffrey’s 57 games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage are the most for any active player. ... The 49ers are 1-5 this season when Purdy turns the ball over and 4-0 when he doesn’t. ... Purdy’s four rushing TDs are the most in a season for a Niners QB since Colin Kaepernick had four in 2013. ... This is the first of three games the Packers are playing in a 12-day stretch. They host the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving night and visit the NFC North-leading Detroit Lions on Dec. 5. ... The Packers are tied for fourth in the league with 19 takeaways, but they don’t have any over their past two games. ... Packers S Xavier McKinney has six interceptions this season to rank second in the league, behind Detroit’s Kerby Joseph (seven). McKinney has seven total takeaways, putting him in a tie for first with Joseph. ... Jacobs’ 838 yards rushing and 1,024 scrimmage yards this season are the most any Packer has had in his first 10 games with the team. Jacobs’ 1,024 scrimmage yards are the most for any Packer through the first 10 games of a season since Ahman Green had 1,057 at this point in 2004. ... Packers DL Rashan Gary had his 35th sack against Chicago to overtake teammate Kenny Clark for ninth place in franchise history. Clark, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, is still seeking his first sack of the season. ... The Packers and 49ers have the NFC’s best regular-season winning percentage since 2019. The Packers are 63-30 and the 49ers 59-34 during that stretch. ... San Francisco’s George Kittle has seven touchdown catches to lead all NFL tight ends. Green Bay’s Tucker Kraft has five touchdown receptions to match Baltimore’s Mark Andrews for the second-highest total among tight ends. ... The 49ers rank 26th in the league with TDs on 48.8% of their red zone drives. Green Bay is 27th in that category and has scored TDs on 48.7% of its drives. Packers WR Christian Watson’s slow start to the season means he might have been stashed on someone’s bench or perhaps even became available on some fantasy football waiver wires. Now would be a good time to try to acquire him. Watson had four catches for a career-high 150 yards against the Bears. After getting targeted just 14 times over his first six games, Watson’s had 17 targets in his past three. He had a catch each of the four times Jordan Love targeted him in Chicago. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLIs ‘Glicked’ the new ‘Barbenheimer’? ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ collide in theatersStaff reporter John Lee Ka-chiu hopes for closer collaboration among the government and the innovative industry, academia, research and investment sectors, to build a comprehensive IT ecosystem in the city. Alongside a 1,800-square-meter AI educational base to be opened at Cyberport next year, the city's tech hub will also see an Artificial Intelligence supercomputing center to be gradually put into service from year-end. Lee said on social media that he had visited the new AI supercomputing center and an AI laboratory at Cyberport together with Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong on Friday. The center's first phase, set for completion by year-end, will provide computing power of around 300 petaflops - quadrillion floating-point operations per second - which will increase to around 3,000 petaflops next year and will be able to finish handling 10 billion pictures within an hour. "This will provide strong support for the pressing need for computing power in Hong Kong [innovative] industry and will drive scientific research breakthroughs," Lee said. "Meanwhile, the Cyberport AI Lab showcased a range of AI solutions, services and products for enterprises to test and experience and to promote related research and development and collaboration." Additionally, phase two of the center is set to be completed between next year and 2026. Lee emphasized the importance of industry efforts in promoting the development of innovative industry. "I am happy to see that enterprises are setting up an AI educational base in Hong Kong to offer professional and technical training to local university students," he said. "The educational base will offer courses covering AI foundation theories, applications, talks hosted by top [AI] professionals and academics, as well as field trips to the mainland. These can allow more young people to get to know about AI, cultivate their interests, and in turn train up professional talents." Meanwhile, Lee cited the International Institute for Management Development's latest World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, which showed Hong Kong's ranking moved up three places to seventh globally. He said it shows Hong Kong remains one of the most digitally competitive economies in the world. "AI has been an important driver of a new round of industrial transformation and in digital economy development. Hong Kong must seize the opportunity to further enhance its competitiveness and innovative capacity," the CE said. He urged industries across the SAR to give full play to their creativity and promote the application of AI and digital intelligence via the city's thriving AI ecosystem.
AP News Summary at 10:46 a.m. ESTGraham to Canada's Trudeau: 'If You Help the ICC, We're Going to Crush Your Economy'Bill Belichick's UNC HC Contract Stuns CFB Fans After Historic NFL CareerMumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with his deputies, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, on Saturday, thanked the people of the state for the MahaYuti's resounding success, accepting the development politics and rejecting the anti-growth and negative politics. He said the three MahaYuti parties would sit together and decide on the Chief Minister’s post. CM Shinde took a swipe at the Maha Vikas Aghadi, especially, SS(UBT) for repeatedly claiming that the MahaYuti government would collapse. The CM said that they did not respond to this by making counter-allegations. Terming the poll performance "historical", the Chief Minister said that MahaYuti’s responsibility to boost the pace of development has further increased. "We have won the hearts and not the votes of people," he claimed. He took a dig at his former boss Uddhav Thackeray saying, "The poll results have proved that the government cannot be run by sitting at home or through Facebook but by mingling with the people and working 24x7." The CM said the people have decided whose Shiv Sena is the real Shiv Sena. NCP President Ajit Pawar also determined whose NCP is the real NCP. The Chief Minister also took a swipe at the opposition for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'Ek Hai To Safe Hai' call saying that it was given for unity. Fadnavis said that the 'Ek Hai To Safe Hai' call given by the Prime Minister was for unity among various sections of the society and today’s mandate was a befitting reply to those doing communal, divisive politics and appeasement politics. "The election was contested based on the development plank and welfare schemes. People want development. They do not want vindictive politics," he said. The Chief Minister said the government launched the welfare and development schemes after considering the state’s financial position and also adhering to the Central and RBI norms. "Opposition questioned the MahaYuti government about how the funds will be made available for Ladki Bahin Yojana but later they announced financial aid through Mahalakshmi yojana," he said. The CM also criticised the opposition for terming financial aid under the Ladki Bahin Yojana as a bribe but said the government undeterred by such allegations focused on its implementation. He thanked the Centre for giving funds and clearing a slew of projects for Maharashtra, including the Rs 76,000 crore Vadhvan port project. "During the UPA government, the Centre gave Rs 2 lakh crore while the BJP-led government released over Rs 10 lakh crore in the last decade," he said. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Dy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar ridiculed Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's allegation of poll results as "fraud".
Buni approves N70,000 minimum wage in Yobe
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