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Unconvincing Canada tops Germany 3-0 in world junior hockey clashMusk says US is demanding he pay penalty over disclosures of his Twitter stock purchases DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022. In a letter, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro tells the outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, that the commission’s demand for a monetary payment is a “misguided scheme” that won’t intimidate Musk. The letter also alleges that the commission reopened an investigation this week into Neuralink, Musk’s computer-to-human brain interface company. The SEC has not released the letter. Nor would it comment on it or confirm whether it has issued such a demand to Musk. Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process on Thursday for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act. It would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. The legislation has passed the House. The bill would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds, which are already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. The measure would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Trump offers support for dockworkers union by saying ports shouldn't install more automated systems WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is offering his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports. He posted on social media Thursday that he met with union leaders and that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. He wrote that the “amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers.” The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. The Maritime Alliance says the technology will improve worker safety and strengthen our supply chains, among other things. IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in back taxes and proceeds from a variety of crimes. The announcement comes under the backdrop of a promised reckoning from Republicans who will hold a majority over both chambers of the next Congress and have long called for rescinding the tens of billions of dollars in funding provided to the agency by Democrats. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said improvements made to the agency will help the incoming administration and new Republican majority congress achieve its goals of administering an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. OpenAI's Altman will donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships the incoming administration. A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the move on Friday. The announcement comes one day after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million. China signals it's prepared to double down on support for the economy as Trump tariffs loom BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders met this week to plot economic policy for the coming year and sketched out plans to raise government spending and relax Beijing's monetary policy. Analysts said the broad-brush plans from the annual Central Economic Work Conference were more of a recap of current policy than ambitious new initiatives at a time when the outlook is clouded by the President-elect Donald Trump's threats to sharply raise tariffs once he takes office. The ruling Communist Party did commit to raising China's deficit and to doing more to encourage consumer spending by bringing wage increases in line with the pace of economic growth. Here's a look at China's main priorities and their potential implications. Stock market today: Wall Street slips at the end of a bumpy week Stocks slipped as Wall Street closes out a rare bumpy week. The S&P 500 was down less than 0.1% in afternoon trading Friday and headed for a weekly loss. The benchmark index hit its latest in a string of records a week ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25 points. The Nasdaq composite was down less than 0.1%. Broadcom surged after the semiconductor company beat Wall Street’s profit targets and gave a glowing forecast, highlighting its artificial intelligence products. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. European markets were mostly lower and Asian markets mostly fell. Next Week: Retail sales, Fed policy update, existing home sales The Commerce Department releases its monthly snapshot of U.S. retail sales Tuesday. Federal Reserve officials wrap up a two-day meeting and issue an interest rate policy update Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors issues its latest update on U.S. home sales Thursday. African Union chairperson candidates advocate for permanent UN Security Council seats NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Three African leaders seeking to head the African Union have detailed their plans for regional security amid conflicts and political coups while strongly advocating for inter-Africa trade. The race for chairperson debate was held Friday in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Kenya’s Raila Odinga, Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf and Madagascar’s Richard Randriamandrato are seeking to be elected as chairperson for the 55-member state African Union. They had a two-hour debate Friday in which they all advocated for two permanent seats for African countries at the U.N. Security Council to effectively represent the continent with the youngest population. The three are seeking to convince most African countries before the February election to succeed the African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki. From a 10-year-old to a Muppet to a president-elect, NYSE bell-ringers range from famous to obscure The first guest invited to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 1956 wasn’t a company executive, a politician or a celebrity. It was a 10-year-old boy, Leonard Ross, who received the honor by winning a television quiz show. Since then, business titans, political giants and global film stars have all been among those ringing the opening bell at the NYSE. Ronald Reagan rang the bell as president in 1985. Billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. have also rung the bell. The even list includes famous Muppets: Miss Piggy was once a bell ringer.

It’s been a horror year for many Australian brands forced to close their doors amid rising costs, with 40 per cent more businesses filing for insolvency since before the Covid-19 pandemic. CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun said businesses were facing ongoing financial pressures much like their customers who were finding ways to cut their budget amid cost-of-living pressures. “Together with some greater caution in discretionary spending and softness in interest rate sensitive sectors of the economy, this unsurprisingly has led to higher voluntary business closures and some rise in insolvencies,” Mr Colhoun said. “We’re yet to see the extent to which the 1 July tax cuts now flowing through the economy will ease some of the pressures on consumers and businesses.” The latest CreditorWatch business risk index found that Aussie businesses were failing at their highest rate (5.04 per cent) since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020 (5.08 per cent). The average failure rate for Australian businesses has climbed from 3.97 per cent in October last year. The food and beverage sector recorded the highest failure rate of all industries in October, increasing to 8.5 per cent from 8.3 per cent in the 12 months up to September this year. Administrative and support services were next with a 6.0 per cent failure rate in October, followed by arts and recreation services (5.9 per cent) and transport, postal and warehousing (5.8 per cent). Meanwhile, both the retail and construction industries look to be levelling out after each recorded a 5.5 per cent increase in insolvencies or business deregistrations during the same time period. Big brands under pressure During the 2023-2024 financial year, 2832 construction companies went into insolvency in Australia, according to ASIC data. Some of those failed companies will have lasting impacts on vital infrastructure and business projects across the country. Quasar Construction is just one of the construction companies that fell into administration this year. It continues to owe an estimated $60m to 600 creditors after its collapse earlier this year. The company’s collapse potentially impacts 10 projects across NSW, including a Bunnings, a $50m shopping centre and parts of the new Western Sydney Airport. Financial woes have also impacted the retail sector this year, with international brands like Dion Lee collapsing despite the company’s best efforts. Not even dressing US megastar Taylor Swift at the 2024 Super Bowl helped the popular fashion brand survive the horror year in fashion retail. Queensland University of Technology marketing professor Gary Mortimer told NewsWire that high-end fashion brands like Dion Lee had a “very small footprint and market size” that was hard to compete against brands such as Burberry or Chanel. “When you think about the likes of Chanel, even if their fashion business isn’t doing so well, they can certainly draw business from other revenue like make-up and cosmetics,” Mr Mortimer said. “Big brands like Louis Vuitton, Moet, and Hennessy have very differential business models, so if one element of the model or one element of the business isn’t working so well, they pull money from other businesses. “Dion Lee wasn’t able to do that.” Mr Mortimer said brands were having to come up with ways to beat their competition, but that didn’t always work out for the best. He said brands like Mosaic Brands, which went into voluntary administration in October owing $250m to creditors, tended to fall prey to “self cannibalisation”. Mosaic Brands confirmed it was in trouble earlier this year when it announced it would shut down its entities Autograph, BeMe, Crossroads, Rockmans and W.Lane in a bid to improve investment in its other brands Katies, Millers, Noni B and Rivers. Mosaic Brands had more than 700 stores and 10 online shops. Mr Mortimer said this type of retailing structure could be problematic in the long run. “Mosaic has five or six brands that are all targeting the same customer of the middle-aged woman,” he said. “It was all essentially the same type of product. “In a centre where you’d have two or three of the same brands, you’re all competing against yourself for the same customer.” Cost-of-living pressures The University of Sydney retail expert Lisa Asher said the cost-of-living crisis continuing to impact consumers’ discretionary spending was a major issue going against smaller Australian brands. “Those below 65, they’re going into savings, but those over 65 have the money (to spend),” Ms Asher told NewsWire. “Because of that, what it’s done is people have to priorities spend, and it’s shelter and food and basic necessities.” Mr Mortimer said consumers who were tightening their budgets could have a lasting impact on businesses. “Where we see discretionary spending categories like fashion, footwear or accessories sales have flatlined or in some cases have declined, it’s because households are more concerned about the cost of food, the cost of rent, servicing their mortgage, electricity bills going up and utilities bills going up,” he said. “In that certain economic climate, certain categories tends to trade less and decline in sales.” Ms Asher said consumers were more willing to turn to fast fashion, like Temu or Shein, when they want to buy something new instead of spending money on quality items. “What has happened because of this, within apparel, there’s been lot of changes within apparel and clothing,” she said. “Fast fashion and it’s actually killing off traditional apparel brands we’ve seen historically.” Trying to find a way forward Unfortunately, more businesses are likely to shut up shop in 2025. CreditorWatch forecasts food and beverage businesses are likely to fail at 9.1 per cent in the next 12 months. Mr Mortimer said retailers normally liked to rely on Christmas spending to help boost their profits as they head into the new year. “We still spend about $36bn in the month across the retail sector but that’s not more than what we spent last year,” he said. “As we move into the busy Christmas period, it’s projected that we will spend $69.7bn in the six weeks leading up to Christmas but that’s essentially what we spent last year. “Retailers aren’t expecting a significant kick in these sales as we move into the busy Christmas period.” But all eyes will be on the Reserve Bank of Australia in the new year as people look to see if interest rate relief is on the way. “A slowdown in the inflation rate will certainly help businesses, but we must remember this just means that price rises have slowed down, so the cost pressures remain,” CreditorWatch chief executive officer Patrick Coghlan, said. “In most cases, you won’t see the cost of goods and services coming down. “Businesses desperately need interest rates to come down so households have some relief in cost-of-living pressures and start spending more.” Originally published as Thousands of Australian businesses collapse during 2024 amid rising costsMusk says US is demanding he pay penalty over disclosures of his Twitter stock purchases DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022. In a letter, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro tells the outgoing SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, that the commission’s demand for a monetary payment is a “misguided scheme” that won’t intimidate Musk. The letter also alleges that the commission reopened an investigation this week into Neuralink, Musk’s computer-to-human brain interface company. The SEC has not released the letter. Nor would it comment on it or confirm whether it has issued such a demand to Musk. Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process on Thursday for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act. It would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. The legislation has passed the House. The bill would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds, which are already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. The measure would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Trump offers support for dockworkers union by saying ports shouldn't install more automated systems WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is offering his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports. He posted on social media Thursday that he met with union leaders and that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. He wrote that the “amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers.” The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. The Maritime Alliance says the technology will improve worker safety and strengthen our supply chains, among other things. IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in back taxes and proceeds from a variety of crimes. The announcement comes under the backdrop of a promised reckoning from Republicans who will hold a majority over both chambers of the next Congress and have long called for rescinding the tens of billions of dollars in funding provided to the agency by Democrats. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said improvements made to the agency will help the incoming administration and new Republican majority congress achieve its goals of administering an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. OpenAI's Altman will donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships the incoming administration. A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the move on Friday. The announcement comes one day after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it donated $1 million to the same fund. Amazon also said it plans to donate $1 million. China signals it's prepared to double down on support for the economy as Trump tariffs loom BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders met this week to plot economic policy for the coming year and sketched out plans to raise government spending and relax Beijing's monetary policy. Analysts said the broad-brush plans from the annual Central Economic Work Conference were more of a recap of current policy than ambitious new initiatives at a time when the outlook is clouded by the President-elect Donald Trump's threats to sharply raise tariffs once he takes office. The ruling Communist Party did commit to raising China's deficit and to doing more to encourage consumer spending by bringing wage increases in line with the pace of economic growth. Here's a look at China's main priorities and their potential implications. Stock market today: Wall Street slips at the end of a bumpy week Stocks slipped as Wall Street closes out a rare bumpy week. The S&P 500 was down less than 0.1% in afternoon trading Friday and headed for a weekly loss. The benchmark index hit its latest in a string of records a week ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25 points. The Nasdaq composite was down less than 0.1%. Broadcom surged after the semiconductor company beat Wall Street’s profit targets and gave a glowing forecast, highlighting its artificial intelligence products. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. European markets were mostly lower and Asian markets mostly fell. Next Week: Retail sales, Fed policy update, existing home sales The Commerce Department releases its monthly snapshot of U.S. retail sales Tuesday. Federal Reserve officials wrap up a two-day meeting and issue an interest rate policy update Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors issues its latest update on U.S. home sales Thursday. African Union chairperson candidates advocate for permanent UN Security Council seats NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Three African leaders seeking to head the African Union have detailed their plans for regional security amid conflicts and political coups while strongly advocating for inter-Africa trade. The race for chairperson debate was held Friday in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Kenya’s Raila Odinga, Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf and Madagascar’s Richard Randriamandrato are seeking to be elected as chairperson for the 55-member state African Union. They had a two-hour debate Friday in which they all advocated for two permanent seats for African countries at the U.N. Security Council to effectively represent the continent with the youngest population. The three are seeking to convince most African countries before the February election to succeed the African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki. From a 10-year-old to a Muppet to a president-elect, NYSE bell-ringers range from famous to obscure The first guest invited to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 1956 wasn’t a company executive, a politician or a celebrity. It was a 10-year-old boy, Leonard Ross, who received the honor by winning a television quiz show. Since then, business titans, political giants and global film stars have all been among those ringing the opening bell at the NYSE. Ronald Reagan rang the bell as president in 1985. Billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. have also rung the bell. The even list includes famous Muppets: Miss Piggy was once a bell ringer.

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A massive $895 billion defense spending bill cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday with provisions that would ban transgender medical treatments for minors and raise military pay. The must-pass legislation to fund the military for the next fiscal year passed in bipartisan 281-140 vote, with 200 Republicans and 81 Democrats supporting the measure. The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), faces an end-of-month deadline to clear Congress and be signed into law by President Biden. Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) indicated that the defense spending package may be taken up for a vote in the upper chamber early next week . The House-passed measure authorizes a 1% increase in defense spending and 14.5% pay raises for junior enlisted service members, or about half of US troops. Other enlisted service members would be eligible for a 4.5% bump in pay. The NDAA bill also includes funding for US joint military exercises with Israel and would prohibit the Pentagon from citing casualty numbers tabulated by the Hamas terror group. It also appropriates new funds for child care and housing for US troops. “No service member should have to live in squalid conditions and no military family should have to rely on food stamps to feed their children, but that’s exactly what many of our service members are experiencing, especially the junior enlisted,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, (R-Ala.) said. “This bill goes a long way to fixing that.” Several Democratic lawmakers bristled at the inclusion of a measure that would bar TRICARE, the military’s health care program, from covering transgender medical procedures for the children of active-duty members. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, voted against the bill over the transgender treatment provision. “These treatments changed their lives and in many cases saved their lives,” Smith said of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for children. “And in this bill, we decided we’re going to bar servicemembers’ children from having access to that.” Smith argued that the ban “taints an otherwise excellent piece of legislation.” Meanwhile, conservative lawmakers, such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), celebrated the ban. “I think these questions need to be pulled out of the debate of defense, so we can get back to the business of defending the United States of America without having to deal with social engineering debates,” Roy said. The NDAA also includes a provision that would ban the teaching of critical race theory in the military. “In this year’s NDAA, we will end CRT by stripping funding for its teaching and promotion within our military!” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wrote on X. “I have fought hard to get rid of it,” the congresswoman added. “CRT is a harmful ideology that spreads racial divides in our country. Our service members do not need this NONSENSE.”

During recent prior year projections for digital storage and memory we have not talked much about digital storage using optical recording. Optical storage media was a big consumer technology in the past as a method for digital content distribution but there was another market for optical storage for archival storage, where cartridges of optical discs were kept in libraries, similar to the optical libraries used for magnetic tape storage. These libraries used optical discs which were derived from Blu-ray and other mass market optical storage technologies and were often write-once optical media meant for archive applications. Let’s talk about where optical storage fits into the storage hierarchy and about the technologies being introduced by a number of optical storage startups, which could change the way that data centers store archived information. Data centers often use a combination of digital storage products with different performance versus cost trade-offs together to meet the needs of different workflows with the highest efficiency and lowest costs. The different layers in such a storage hierarchy today often feature solid state drives, SSDs, using NAND flash as a faster but more expensive, in $/TB, primary storage. This primary storage directly feeds the faster but even more expensive and volatile, DRAM memory used to directly support computation. There is another layer of digital storage, often called the secondary storage layer where lower cost, lower performance digital storage technologies are used to store a larger amount of less active data than that stored in primary storage. Secondary storage is where nearline hard disk drives, HDDs, are used the most to store data which has value, but which does not require the performance characteristics of most enterprise SSDs. In addition to HDDs there are a number of storage systems meant for secondary storage using quad-level cell, QLC, flash SSDs. These SSDs often higher storage capacity at lower cost than multi-level cell, MLC, and three-level cell, TLC, NAND flash, but they have lower endurance and lower performance, but still higher than that of individual HDDs. However, the raw storage costs of these QLC SSDs are still higher than that of nearline HDDs and so these products will likely have the most use where in-frequently written secondary storage with higher performance is needed. The final layer in this storage hierarchy is archival storage, where data is kept that still has potential value but which is very seldom accessed, for instance for various types of legal compliance or for historical value. This layer generally requires even lower costs for storage than the secondary storage layer and this is the realm where magnetic tape and optical disc storage have their greatest use. The chart below, from my colleague, Jim Handy, of Objective Analysis shows a log-log plot of storage performance versus capacity price for various memory and digital storage technologies. Coughlin Associates projects that annual storage capacity shipments for solid state drives (SSDs), hard disk drives (HDDs) and magnetic tape/optical storage should grow over 5X from 2024 through 2029. The majority of this stored data is for secondary or active archive applications where data is retained for later access and it is generally transferred to faster SSDs and DRAM for primary storage and immediate use. The percentage of data in secondary and archived storage is growing faster than primary storage. Optical storage libraries are still being sold as an alternative to magnetic tape storage and with the technologies being introduced by numerous startup optical storage startups, this use could increase. Coughlin Associates recently wrote a white paper on current archive storage technologies, including these newer optical storage technologies . This article includes some material from that white paper as well as the IEEE Mass Storage Roadmap . As secondary and archive storage demand grows, there may be opportunities for new storage media to play a role, particularly if they can provide higher performance, lower cost, including ongoing energy costs, and greater longevity than current archive storage media. There are also archival optical approaches that don’t use optical discs but rather ceramic coated rectangular glass sheets. Modern optical recording technologies are particularly interesting for archive and particularly digital preservation applications because the various optical storage media can last 100 years or more in a much less controlled environment that magnetic storage technologies. Conventional optical media uses lasers with a fixed wavelength to ablate regions of the media or to change the reflective characteristics of the media to create optical features that can be encoded to store digital information. This is how CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs work. Over 10 years ago, Panasonic and Sony created a roadmap for multiple layer two-sided Blu-ray derived optical storage that they projected would reach at least one TB per disc (Archival Disc, AD). In practice this technology, while used in some facilities, never became mainstream for general data archiving and demonstrated product disc storage capacity have not exceeded 500GB (their second-generation product, introduced in 2020. Sony and Panasonic both introduced optical disc library systems using their AD technology. There are many other optical recording media, which include PiqlFilm, which uses black and white, negative silver-halide film on a polyester base. This method is unique in that it can include recorded human readable instructions and file format and source code for reading data, in addition to digital data. This archive method is being used in some scientific, engineering and historical archives. PiqlFilm is also the initiator of the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a repository for world memory located in Northern Norway on the Arctic Ocean. Microsoft and the University of Southampton have explored volumetric archive recording in fused silica using a fast laser. This is a write once method with a media that should be stable for 100’s of years and can store up to 360TB of data on a 5-inch glass plate. The Southampton researchers have recently started a company, SPhontonix, to commercialize this technology. A California-based startup, Group 47 developed the Digital Optical Tape System (DOTS) that it says can preserve data for more than 200 years using a phase change media sputtered on a polyester-based film. The image below shows the SPhotonix optical storage concept. Various holographic optical recording technologies have also been developed over the years, but, although research on this technology continues, no commercial products using holographic recording have been successfully implemented for archival storage. Folio Photonics is a company which has developed a multilayer optical recording system for archiving applications which can result in photothermal recording similar to Blu-ray optical discs with either reflective or fluorescent recording technologies. Their technology uses photosensitive dyes dispersed in a polymer matrix to create a reflective or fluorescent optical media. This photosensitive material has a strong optical absorption at 405nm, the wavelength used for conventional Blu-ray discs. Using roll-to-roll co-extrusion processes, multiple layers can be produced all at once in a media which can be cut and placed on plastic optical disc substrates, reducing the costs of making a multiple layer optical media. Rather than using a spiral tracking feature embossed on conventional optical discs (hence the land and grooves), Folio does head tracking with a separate laser focused on the disc substrate where the tracking pattern is embossed. Folio Photonics believes that this could be done in multiple layers (dozens of layers all at once) with an initial manufacturing cost of less than $5/TB and with more layers going to less than $2/TB by 2029. Note that one of the on-going issues with multi-layer optical media has been the optical absorption of the layers which can reduce the storage capacity and signal from lower layers. The image below shows Folio Photonic’s projection for optical disc storage capacity with their technology. Another interesting optical recording contender is Cerabyte, founded in 2020 and with headquarters recently moved to Silicon Valley. Cerabyte uses sputtered 10nm ceramic layers on a glass substrate. Data is written encoded in an array of data matrices using a 2-D digital micro mirror with up to 2 million elements simultaneously written by femtosecond laser pulses in the UV spectrum with a write speed of 1GB/s and with less than 1W average power. Reading is done at GB/s data rates using high-speed image sensors and parallel high speed image processing for decoding. The image below shows Cerabytes digital recording concept. Both reading and writing are done across the square substrate by scanning the microscope optics using high-speed XY stages kept in focus using a piezo driven auto focus system enabling random data access. The 9X9 cm media sheets can be recorded on both sides and stacked in cartridges for robotic access similar to that used for conventional optical and magnetic tape libraries. Cerabyte projects media costs below $1/TB by 2030. Optera Data’s storage technology takes advantage of changes in the optical absorption/emission characteristics of its recording media at several adjacent laser frequencies during writing and then by reading these changes. These changes are referred to as spectral holes. They do this using an optical media which consists of a mixture of nano-particles with many particles lying within the write/read laser spot and the nano-particles have different but adjacent optical emission/absorption frequencies. To prevent oxidation, these nano-particles may be encapsulated in plastic beads and spread across a conventional plastic (or other material) optical disc substrate. The combination of these nano-particles, in which spectral sensitivities are close to and partly overlapping each other, results in a combined spectral emission profile that is called a “top-hat” fluorescence emission profile, that is, the light emitted by the different nano-particles, combine together to make a pattern like that shown in (a) in the figure below. With this media, tuning the write laser frequency to match that of one of the nano-particle frequencies creates a spectral hole where the nanoparticle emission can be diminished as shown in (b) in the figure below. These spectral holes can have a depth that depends upon the level of laser energy during the spectral hole writing as shown in the figure. Data can be encoded in both the frequency and depth of these spectral holes. Optera believes that, short term, 1TB discs are feasible with particulate media and medium term, a thin film single layer write once archival disc with high volume manufacturing costs of $1/10TB ($0.10/TB) is possible before the end of the decade. Longer term (say within a decade or so), these costs could be reduced even further, if this technology were implemented as a volumetric recording technology (perhaps even having 10X lower cost, $0.01/TB). Projections of new optical storage archiving systems promise 1PB optical cartridges by the 2030’s, compared to the possible 576TB cartridge projections for LTO Gen 14. Optical storage could be a significant contender for the digital archive market.Sinn Fein was accused of “ignoring” the role 3,000 Troubles deaths had in damaging community relations in Northern Ireland in a memo sent to a direct rule minister in 2003. Declassified files show the note to former MP John Spellar also said the republican party had ignored the “visceral component of sectarianism” in responding to a new government good relations strategy. Mr Spellar, then a Northern Ireland Office minister, had launched a consultation on the “A Shared Future” document, an attempt to address community divisions, segregation and sectarianism in the region at a time when the devolved powersharing institutions were suspended. A file at the Public Record Office in Belfast shows that OFMDFM official Chris Stewart wrote to the minister in July about a response to the document from Sinn Fein representative Bairbre de Brun. Mr Stewart told Mr Spellar that Ms de Brun’s letter had been critical of the document and was clearly intended to “mark your card”. He said among a number of points raised by de Brun was that “the promotion of equality is the key to improving community relations”. His memo adds: “Sinn Fein is clearly seeking to position or align the issue of community relations within its equality and human rights agenda. “This general Sinn Fein position has resulted in a simplistic analysis of community relations, which is flawed in its description of the causes and necessary policy response. “There is of course, no doubt that a lack of equality has been a contributing factor to poor community relations. “However, Sinn Fein ignores the many other factors, not least the violent conflict that resulted in over 3,000 deaths. “Sinn Fein also portrays poor community relations (for nationalists) as being a purely rational response to the political situation. “This ignores the more visceral component of sectarianism, which is all too prevalent in both communities.” Mr Stewart continues: “To suggest, as Sinn Fein does, that the promotion of equality should be the key component of good relations policy is to ignore the key message in A Shared Future, that indirect approaches alone are insufficient to deal with sectarianism and the abnormal relationship between sections of the Northern Ireland community.” The official recommended the minister invite representatives of Sinn Fein to a meeting to discuss the policy. The file also contains a note about Mr Spellar’s meeting with DUP representatives Maurice Morrow and Peter Weir the following month to discuss the document. The note says: “Morrow said he had no problem with sharing the future and suggested that the first step to that would be an election to decide who spoke for whom – though he was quick to say he didn’t want politics to dominate the meeting.” It adds: “Weir said that the biggest step towards improving community relations would be the creation of a political environment that had the broad support of both unionism and nationalism, and the GFA (Good Friday Agreement) could not create that environment.”For travelers, Puerto Rico is a floating island of desirability

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Darren Rizzi would be an unconventional choice to take over the New Orleans Saints' head coaching job on a permanent basis. That doesn't mean it can't happen. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.Hedge funds bet against power and pile into materials, says Goldman Sachsjili fortune gems 3 demo 。

Today, on International Human Rights Day , we celebrate the enduring vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948. Despite progress over the past 75 years, much remains to be done to realize these rights for everyone, everywhere. As we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, generative artificial intelligence emerges as an intriguing tool to finally bridge the gap between human rights ideals and the lived experiences of people worldwide. Time is overdue, but are our mindsets ready? The Unfinished Journey Toward Universal Human Rights Global poverty reduction has reached a near standstill, with the decade from 2020 to 2030 projected to be a lost period in the fight against poverty. Today, nearly one in ten people live on less than $2.15 per day, the extreme poverty line for low-income countries, according to the World Bank . Additionally, 44% of the global population, around 3.5 billion people, live on less than $7 per day, which is the poverty line for upper-middle-income countries. While we are excited about the fast-paced technology that changes life as we know it, billions of people lack access to clean water and healthy food, health care, and education. To make this gloomy picture even darker, unjustifiable gender disparities continue, as do exploitation, violence, and abuse. Generative AI: A Tool For Human Advancement Generative AI, capable of producing human-like text, images, and other media, offers innovative solutions to these complex problems plaguing society for centuries. Some examples: Education Accessibility : AI-powered platforms like Khan Academy use AI tutors to provide personalized learning experiences, helping bridge educational gaps. Their new initiative, Khanmigo, uses AI to simulate prosocial AI-powered one-on-one tutoring for students worldwide. Healthcare Innovation : AI is changing healthcare diagnostics. For instance, DeepMind's AlphaFold has predicted the 3D structures of over 200 million proteins, accelerating drug discovery and disease understanding. Eventually, advancements of this type can lead to treatments for diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations and that have received little funding in the past. Human Rights Monitoring: The Human Rights Data Analysis Group employs AI to analyze data from conflict zones, identifying patterns of human rights abuses that might be overlooked. This assists international organizations in holding perpetrators accountable. Economic Inclusion : AI-driven financial services are extending credit to underserved communities. Companies like Branch use machine learning algorithms to offer microloans via mobile platforms, reaching millions without access to traditional banking. Two shifts are needed to harness the social benefits. One is material, starting with the actual access to the internet for those who are excluded from the virtual world. Today, 2.6 billion people do not have access to the internet. Taking the benefit of generative AI to scale means Increasing connectivity to ensure everyone who wants to go online can do so. Digital inclusion is not abstract. The second shift is mental; from the ambition of AI as merely a driver of commercial profitability, we need to zoom in on the aspiration of positive social outcomes. Seizing The Opportunity: AI As A Means To An End To harness AI effectively to address the issues listed earlier, we must approach it as a means to achieve human rights goals, not an end in itself or a mere instrument for commercial benefit. Pro-social and pro-business are not an either-or equation; instead, they can be mutually beneficial – making them a win-win-win-win for the people we are, the communities we belong to, the countries we are part of, and the planet we depend on. However, in pursuing an expressed ambition of human rights respect as a prime concern rather than a secondary consideration, the priorities are reversed, and the need to focus systematically on ethics and inclusion becomes evident. Ethics: As evidenced ever and again by cases where AI systems have exhibited racial and gender discrimination in hiring or lending decisions, the old saying garbage in, garbage out still holds – biased data leads to biased outcomes. Moving towards an AI-saturated future, it is important to ensure that AI systems are systematically designed to be unbiased. Inclusion : Developing AI solutions that consider the needs of marginalized communities requires us to expand the scope of interest beyond the usual target audience or people in high and middle-income countries. For example, UNICEF's Innovation Fund invests in open-source AI projects that address challenges faced by children worldwide, particularly in low-income countries. Reframing The AI Welfare Debate The AI welfare discussion, which dives deep into the moral considerations for advanced AI systems and the potential rights of future sentient entities, presents an opportunity to refocus our attention on human well-being. Rather than diverting resources from pressing human rights issues to speculate about the rights of hypothetical AI beings, this heightened interest can reinforce our commitment to empowering humanity. By contemplating the ethical dimensions of AI, we are reminded of the importance of addressing the challenges people worldwide face today. While ethics and inclusion may appear as abstract lofty goals, they start with practical, straightforward actions by those who create and utilize these technologies. Diverse development teams are essential for building unbiased AI systems that serve everyone equitably. When people from different backgrounds contribute to AI development, the resulting technologies are more likely to be fair and inclusive. Transparency and accountability in AI practices foster trust and encourage responsible use, ensuring that AI systems are held to ethical standards. Furthermore, educating users about AI empowers them to make informed decisions, enhancing the likelihood that technology positively influences society. Double literacy, combining a holistic understanding of our natural intelligence and artificial assets, is central to that endeavor. Building Collaborative Frameworks For ProSocial AI As we observe International Human Rights Day amid the relentless hype surrounding generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, it's important to recognize that while AI holds immense potential for humankind, its ultimate value lies in how we harness it to advance human rights and global well-being. The concept of ProSocial AI — AI systems that are tailored, trained, tested, and targeted to bring out the best in and for people and the planet — embodies this philosophy. By focusing on ProSocial AI, we commit to developing technologies that are: Tailored to address specific challenges different communities face, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. Trained on diverse and representative data to eliminate biases and promote fairness. Tested rigorously to ensure safety, reliability, and ethical compliance. Targeted toward initiatives that promote social good, environmental sustainability, and global equity. ProSocial AI offers a pathway to leverage technology that uplifts humanity, reduces inequalities, and fosters shared prosperity. It aligns with the urgent need to accelerate progress on human rights, especially in light of recent stagnation in poverty reduction and rising inequalities. Now, we have the means – do we have the desire?

Hennessy Advisors, Inc. Announces Listing Transfer for the Hennessy Stance ESG ETF (STNC) to The Nasdaq Stock Market LLCBy ROB MAADDI Missed kicks. Poor tackling. Costly penalties. Week 12 was filled with sloppy play around the NFL, leading to some upsets and surprising outcomes. Jayden Daniels nearly led Washington to an improbable comeback down 10 in the final two minutes against Dallas only to fall short because Austin Seibert’s extra point sailed wide left. After a field goal and successful onside kick, Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin on an 86-yard catch-and-run touchdown to bring the Commanders within one point with 21 seconds remaining. But Seibert’s point-after attempt failed and the Cowboys returned the ensuing onside kick for a touchdown to seal a 34-26 victory. Special teams were atrocious for both teams. Seibert also missed his first extra point and Washington allowed KaVontae Turpin’s 99-yard kickoff return for a score earlier in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys missed a field goal, had another blocked and had a punt blocked. “What a wild special teams moment of blocked punts, kicks, kickoff returns, blocked field goals, just a number of things going to that spot,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. Washington (7-5) was a 10 1/2-point favorite over the undermanned Cowboys (4-7) but ended up losing a third straight game. The Houston Texans were 8-point favorites against the lowly Tennessee Titans and let the game come down to Ka’imi Fairbairn missing a 28-yard field goal that would have tied it with just under two minutes left. C.J. Stroud threw two interceptions, was sacked four times and the Texans (7-5) committed 11 penalties, including an illegal shift that negated a go-ahead 33-yard TD pass to Nico Collins on the drive that ended with Fairbairn’s miss in the 32-27 loss. The Titans (3-8) averaged just 17 points per game before putting 32 on the scoreboard against Houston’s defense that entered No. 4 in the league. “We didn’t do anything well enough to win this game,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Out of all the positives that we did have, there were way too many negatives. Too many negative plays. Score, get a penalty, get touchdowns called back. Get penalties on special teams. Just way too many negative plays defensively, like unexplainable explosives for touchdowns. We just didn’t play good across the board.” The San Francisco 49ers didn’t have quarterback Brock Purdy, star edge rusher Nick Bosa and All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams against Green Bay. That was no excuse for their undisciplined performance. The Niners committed nine penalties and their tackling was shoddy in a 38-10 loss to the Packers. The defending NFC champions are 5-6 with a trip to Buffalo (9-2) coming up. They’re still only one game behind Seattle and Arizona in the NFC West. “I’m really not concerned right now about how many guys were missing. We didn’t play good enough, so that’s not a factor. But, when you are missing some guys, you do have to be better. When you have those penalties and we didn’t stop the run like we did and we had those three turnovers in the second half, that’s how you get embarrassed.” Coming off their first loss of the season, the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs needed Patrick Mahomes’ heroics on the final drive to beat Carolina 30-27. Mahomes ran 33 yards to set up Spencer Schrader’s 31-yard field goal as time expired. Kansas City had 10 penalties, including a pass interference that gave the Panthers (3-8) another chance to make the 2-point conversion that tied the game with 1:46 remaining. On defense, the Chiefs (10-1) suddenly shaky unit gave up 334 total yards against Bryce Young and an offense that entered last in the NFL. “We’ve got to do better. We’re doing good in the red zone but that’s only a third of the field,” Chiefs safety Bryan Cook said. “We will go back and look at the film to see what we’re doing week to week, and see the tendencies that we’re giving up, and just move forward from there. At the end of the day, we’re all vets in the room for the most part. ... got to go back to the drawing board and see what we’re doing and correct it from there.” The Vikings allowed the Bears to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left and Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos’ tying 48-yard field goal. But Minnesota won in overtime, 30-27. The Chiefs and Vikings overcame their mistakes in narrow victories. The Commanders, Texans and 49ers couldn’t. They have to be better down the stretch to make a playoff run.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Security Cabinet has approved ceasefire deal with HezbollahHas any S&P 500 stock had a better year this year than Palantir Technologies ( PLTR -3.72% ) ? The stock is up a staggering 360% since the beginning of 2024 as I write this, producing outsize investment returns for virtually any portfolio it touches. I don't want to be a pessimist, but it could be time to share a cautionary tale about stocks that behave like this. Palantir has legitimate growth tailwinds in artificial intelligence (AI) , specifically its AIP platform for deploying AI applications in the government and private sectors. However, its fundamentals haven't kept up with the stock price. History doesn't always repeat itself, but you can learn from it. Microsoft ( MSFT -1.73% ) one of today's largest and most influential companies, experienced a similar situation over 20 years ago. Below, I'll explain what happened to the stock back then and why Palantir's similarities to Microsoft make it arguably the largest potential bust of 2025. Going back in time to the turn of the millennium You may have heard AI being called the most important technology since the internet's arrival in the late 1990s. That could be true. Yet the stock market tends to get ahead of itself. Excitement for the internet in the late 1990s fueled a stock market bubble that ultimately popped in early 2000. Microsoft became one of Wall Street's hottest stocks in the mid-1990s due to its successful Windows computer operating system software. The stock enjoyed a massive run that inflated its valuation to astronomical levels. At its peak, Microsoft stock traded at a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio over 31: MSFT PS Ratio data by YCharts It can be hard to appreciate valuations when they're just numbers on a chart. To be clear, paying 31 times a company's total revenue for its stock is expensive. Mathematically, an investor buying stock at that valuation waits 31 years for the company (not including revenue growth) to repay their investment with sales dollars. That's not profits, by the way -- it's sales! That's a terrible return on your investment; you're waiting many years to make your money back, even if the business is rapidly growing. Unfortunately, investors don't think about it in these terms when emotions like greed and euphoria run rampant. As you know, Microsoft grew back in the 1990s and became arguably the world's largest and most prominent technology company. But how did buying at the stock's peak valuation turn out? MSFT data by YCharts The stock collapsed due to its unrealistic valuation and took approximately 18 years to reach new highs. Again, Microsoft's business kept growing; its revenue increased by over 330% during those 18 years. Could Palantir be a worse bubble than Microsoft? It's hard not to see some similarities between Microsoft back then and Palantir today. Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) has become arguably the leading software platform for deploying AI applications . However, similar to Microsoft years ago, the market's excitement has pushed the stock to unrealistic heights. Astonishingly, Palantir's P/S ratio has gone parabolic, rising to more than double Microsoft's peak in the late 1990s: PLTR PS Ratio data by YCharts Palantir will generate approximately $2.8 billion in revenue this year, and its market cap has reached $187 billion. This is worse (almost twice as expensive) than when zero-percent interest rates fueled a stock market bubble just a few years ago. Ultimately, nobody can time the market. Stock prices can do funny things for longer than you'd think. But the music will stop. It always does when valuations go parabolic. When the time comes, it's probably going to hurt. Investors buying into the parabolic upward momentum over these past couple of months could experience a long stretch of poor returns as the stock's valuation unwinds -- even as the business grows, much like Microsoft investors did. Given Palantir's nearly 400% returns in 2024, these circumstances make it a prime candidate to be the ultimate bust of 2025.

Debate Over Hegseth’s Fitness Highlights a Gender Divide in the SenateHalifax security forum gathers as Trump's support for Taiwan, Ukraine in questionWall Street's Santa Rally At Risk, Palantir Dethrones Nvidia, Consumer Confidence Pulls Back: This Week In The Markets

Lea en español For many people, this time of year is all about the shopping. And there's a fair chance many feel less than joyful about the prospect. If fulfilling your lengthy list feels overwhelming, learning what brain science and evolutionary psychology say about shopping and gift-giving might help you understand exactly why you're stressed – and even point you toward a healthier, happier holiday season. Our reactions are encoded into our nervous system, said Dr. Beth Frates, a part-time associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "By understanding these brain responses, people can develop strategies to manage stress better, such as setting realistic expectations, focusing on mindfulness and simplifying holiday preparations," said Frates, who also is the immediate past president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. The idea of exchanging gifts at this time of year can be traced back to pagan solstice celebrations. But the drive to share with another is as old as humanity itself, said Dr. Diego Guevara Beltran, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies cooperation and generosity. The science of generosity is more about survival than stocking stuffers, Guevara Beltran said. Sharing food gave early humans an evolutionary advantage. "Generosity is just one of the ways by which we can accumulate resources, be it wealth itself or friendships or work partners or more attractive, more intelligent mates," he said. Sharing with other people, Guevara Beltran said, is "a signal that communicates how much you value them, their welfare, your relationship with them." Research has shown that helping people makes us feel good. Part of that, he said, is because when someone is part of a community, they feel protected. One way this manifests is through the act of giving gifts. But to derive happiness from gift-giving, the giver needs to feel both that it was not an obligation and that it was effective, according to the 2019 World Happiness Report . That means it could be stressful to be in a culture where gift-giving feels mandatory, or if we can't see that a gift helped someone, Guevara Beltran speculated. It also might be stressful if gift-giving becomes a competition to show that you care about somebody more than the others around them. Our brains on shopping Stressful shopping can cause several physiological responses to kick in, Frates said. First is the "fight or flight" reaction that comes with stress. The release of chemicals that increase our heart rate, raise our blood pressure and intensify our breathing evolved to give us bursts of energy to escape danger. Frates said that while holiday stressors are not life-threatening, they can still trigger the stress response. The pressure to stay within budget could create a sense of scarcity, she said. "This taps into an evolutionary response, where the fear of losing resources like money can feel urgent and distressing." The holiday season also involves a lot of choices. "The brain has limited capacity for decision-making, and making multiple decisions can lead to decision fatigue," Frates said. "This fatigue reduces the ability to self-regulate and cope, which can lead to heightened stress responses when confronted with even minor setbacks, like a long line or out-of-stock item." The stress of needing to complete tasks within a limited time can intensify the fight-or-flight response, she said, as the brain interprets the ticking clock as a sense of urgency or threat. Meanwhile, Frates said, holiday shopping can also trigger brain chemicals that affect our feelings. "Dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, is released when we anticipate something exciting or enjoyable, like finding a great gift or finding a good deal," she said. "This anticipation can feel rewarding even before any actual purchase is made." For some people, this dopamine boost can make shopping a relaxing experience. "It provides a temporary distraction from other stressors and allows them to focus on something positive, creating a 'holiday high,'" Frates said. For some people, that can be problematic. "When shopping becomes a way to chase that next dopamine hit, it can lead to excessive spending or impulsive purchases," she said. "This can become a trap, particularly during the holidays, when deals, sales and gift-giving pressures are everywhere." Understanding how all these processes work can help people recognize why they feel the way they do and adopt strategies to cope, Frates said. Here are some of her suggestions. 1. Start with self-care before shopping Prioritizing self-care means people can be their best selves and make good decisions, Frates said. So, "eat food that is delicious and nutritious. Get seven to nine hours of sleep. Make sure to enjoy physical activity. Take walks when you can and invite friends along. Practice stress reduction like meditation or yoga to help you calm your body and mind." Before going shopping, try taking deep breaths using stress-relieving techniques such as 4-7-8 breathing (inhale through your nose for four counts, hold for seven counts, and exhale through your mouth for eight) or box breathing (inhale through the nose for four counts, hold your breath for four, exhale for four, then hold for four). 2. Be strategic Don't shop when you're hungry, tired, lonely or stressed, Frates said. And don't start shopping 15 minutes before a store closes or a website's online deals end, she said. That's setting yourself up for triggering the fight-or-flight response. 3. Be mindful Before making a purchase, take a moment to consider whether it's truly needed or whether it's an impulsive choice. To avoid overindulging, set a specific budget or limit yourself to a couple of hours or specific shopping days. "This keeps dopamine-driven spending in check while still allowing for the enjoyable aspects of holiday shopping," Frates said. Look for post-shopping activities that provide rewards without the financial cost. That can satisfy your brain's desire for more dopamine in a healthier way. "Plan enjoyable, stress-relieving activities after shopping, like going for a walk, spending time with friends or indulging in a hobby," she said. 4. Bring a friend Not only does this support healthy social connections, Frates said, but if things start feeling stressful, "you have a buddy, and you have a support system right there for you." 5. Rethink the focus of the season "With gift-giving, we need to change mindsets in order to be able to manage the stress," Frates said. The holidays could be used to emphasize social connections, she said. "Thinking about the connection with the person and making gift-giving more about deepening the connection than anything else, I think, will really help to reduce the stress around the process," she said. So instead of scouring shops and websites for the "perfect" gift, think about making a meaningful and personal one, she suggested. It could be a poem, a painting, a song or a framed photograph that captured a special time. 6. Lessons for children It's easy to get caught up in the hunt for a hard-to-get item, Frates said. But ask yourself what the holiday means in your family's traditions. "Is it about getting that perfect gift for the child? Or is it about celebrating the meaning of that holiday?" So instead of having children ask for one specific toy, or a specific brand of clothing, teach them to leave a little leeway on their lists. "It is a good reminder to express to children that this season is about giving and sharing what we can in the best way that we can," she said, "and sometimes the exact gift is not available." Encouraging such an attitude can be a tall order, Frates said, but it's a place to start. "A simple mindset shift could be the difference between a stressful holiday shopping season or a joyful journey to find meaningful gifts for people you care about." American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!

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Mechanicsburg girls basketball continues its hot start to the year with another victory. • Sign up for PennLive’s daily high school sports newsletter Mechanicsburg took it to Hempfield Friday afternoon with a 55-29 victory. Maycee Yanoski led the Wildcats with 12 points. Lauren Lebo (11) and Mia Masser (10) also scored in double figures. Hempfield’s Jazelyn Santiago scored a game-high 15 points. — Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Follow Rymir Vaughn on X — @RymirVaughn ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation's top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-old Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy,” and pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have diverged from this path to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. The killing sparked widespread discussions about corporate greed, unfairness in the medical insurance industry and even inspired folk-hero sentiment toward his killer. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply refuted that perception after Mangione's arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald's restaurant in Pennsylvania spotted Mangione eating and noticed he resembled the shooting suspect in security-camera photos released by New York police. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.” Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather, Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report. Nick Mangione had 37 grandchildren, including Luigi, according to the grandfather's obituary. Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes, including Catholic organizations, colleges and the arts. One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesman for the lawmaker’s office confirmed. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media by Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.” Mangione, who was valedictorian of his elite Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press. He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication. His social media posts suggest he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations. The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. The children of some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have attended the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.” Mangione took a software programming internship after high school at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs on the hit strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, said it would not comment on former employees. He more recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, but has not worked there since 2023, the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company confirmed to the AP. From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Honolulu. Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin. “Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.” At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, including surfing, Ryan said. “He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym. Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment. An image posted to a social media account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into someone's lower spine. Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago. An X account linked to Mangione includes recent posts about the negative impact of smartphones on children; healthy eating and exercise habits; psychological theories; and a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti about the dangers of becoming “well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Mangione likely was motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by AP. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, based on a review of the suspect’s handwritten notes and social media posts. He appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown, asserting in his note that he is the “first to face it with such brutal honesty,” the bulletin said. Mangione called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski a “political revolutionary” and may have found inspiration from the man who carried out a series of bombings while railing against modern society and technology, the document said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore; Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Michael Kunzelman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.Drought, fires and deforestation battered Amazon rainforest in 2024

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NEW YORK (AP) — Remember what you searched for in 2024? Google does. Google released its annual “Year in Search” on Tuesday, rounding up the top trending queries entered into its namesake search engine in 2024. The results show terms that saw the highest spike in traffic compared to last year — ranging from key news events, notably global elections , to the most popular songs, athletes and unforgettable pop-culture moments that people looked up worldwide. Sports — particularly soccer and cricket — dominated Google's overall trending searches in 2024. Copa América topped those search trends globally, followed by the UEFA European Championship and ICC Men's T20 World Cup . Meanwhile, the U.S. election led news-specific searches worldwide. Queries about excessive heat and this year's Olympic Games followed. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump topped searches in Google's people category this year — followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales , U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif , who also led athlete-specific searches. Meanwhile, the late Liam Payne , Toby Keith and O.J. Simpson led search trends among notable individuals who died in 2024. In the world of entertainment, Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” was the top trending movie of the year, while Netflix's “Baby Reindeer” led TV show trends. And Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” dominated song trends. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Queries for the Olympic village's chocolate muffin , made famous by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen over the summer games, led Google's global recipe trends this year. The New York Times' “Connections” puzzle topped game searches. And in the U.S., country-specific data shows, many people asked Google about online trends like the word “demure” and “ mob wife aesthetic .” You can find more country-specific lists, and trends from years past , through Google’s “Year in Search” data published online . The California company said it collected 2024 search results from Jan. 1 through Nov. 23 of this year. Google isn't the only one to publish an annual recap or top trends as 2024 draws to a close. Spotify Wrapped , for example, as well as Collins Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s words of the year, have offered additional reflections for 2024.Black Friday Peacock deals 2024: Get one year for $20

NoneMartensville-Warman Early Years Family Resource Centre opensSYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Eddie Lampkin Jr. and Donnie Freeman each posted a double-double and Jaquan Carlos finished an assist shy of joining them as Syracuse closed out its nonconference schedule with a 75-63 win over Bucknell on Saturday. The Orange evened their record at 6-6 with their sixth win in seven home games, taking a 12-point lead at intermission and maintaining it through the second half, handing the Bison (4-9) their seventh straight loss. Syracuse, which lost its Atlantic Coast Conference opener to Notre Dame, finished nonconference play 6-5. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week

US President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief Friday urging the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban TikTok the day before his January 20 inauguration if it is not sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance. "In light of the novelty and difficulty of this case, the court should consider staying the statutory deadline to grant more breathing space to address these issues," Trump's legal team wrote, to give him "the opportunity to pursue a political resolution." Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.TV and Movie Merchandise Market to Grow by USD 103.5 Billion (2024-2028), Driven by E-Commerce Platform Growth, AI Redefining Market Landscape - Technavio

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Report: Pelicans Not Eying 'Gap Year' for High NBA Draft Pick amid Zion's InjuryAs we eagerly await the opening of the A-share market, all eyes are on the performance of key players and sectors that have the potential to shape the market's direction in the coming days. Will technology stocks continue their upward trend, or will traditional industries make a comeback? These are just some of the questions that linger in the minds of investors as they prepare to dive back into the bustling world of stock trading.

It is worth noting that naturalized players have become increasingly common in the international football scene, with several countries welcoming foreign-born athletes into their national teams. While this trend has undoubtedly sparked discussions about national identity and representation, it also reflects the growing globalization of the sport and the diverse backgrounds of its participants.A coalition of Canadian news media corporations has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the creator of ChatGPT breached copyright and online terms of use to train its artificial intelligence models. The suit, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday, marks the latest in a series of legal actions against OpenAI over the use of data and news materials to train AI systems. The lawsuit seeks punitive damages from the AI developer, as well as payment of any profits that it managed to make from using news articles published by the media outlets. Moreover, the plaintiffs are looking for a legal ruling that would ban OpenAI from using their news articles in the future. “OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large swaths of content from Canadian media to help develop its products, such as ChatGPT,” Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said in a joint statement . They emphasized that the company was doing this without getting permission or providing compensation to content owners. “Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal,” the plaintiffs concluded. The lawsuit is latest among similar legal challenges that the AI developer has faced over the past years. Last December, the New York Times filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement. Earlier this year, US billionaire Elon Musk took the company to court over an alleged breach of its original mission to develop AI technology not for profit but for the benefit of humanity. Two weeks ago, the lawsuit was expanded after the tech entrepreneur added OpenAI’s largest financial backer, Microsoft, as a defendant, and accused both of monopolizing the market for generative artificial intelligence and sidelining competitors.

Real estate assets have always been considered as a safe harbor for investors, providing steady returns and acting as a hedge against inflation. In recent years, the emergence of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) has offered investors an opportunity to gain exposure to real estate assets without directly owning the properties. This innovative investment vehicle has gained popularity globally, but challenges remain in terms of pricing mechanisms in the public market.Where to watch Outlander: Live stream Season 7, Part 2

jili slot game fortune gems slot png Lil Wayne, GloRilla, Camila Cabello to perform at College Football National ChampionshipAfter-hours movers: Zscaler, Honeywell, Microchip Technology and moreWASHINGTON (AP) — After several weeks working mostly behind closed doors, Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill this week in a new, more visible role: Helping Donald Trump try to get his most contentious Cabinet picks to confirmation in the Senate, where Vance has served for the last two years. Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday with former Rep. Matt Gaetz and spent the morning sitting in on meetings between Trump’s choice for attorney general and key Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The effort was for naught: Gaetz announced a day later that he was withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations and the reality that he was unlikely to be confirmed. Thursday morning Vance was back, this time accompanying Pete Hegseth, the “Fox & Friends Weekend” host whom Trump has tapped to be the next secretary of defense. Hegseth also has faced allegations of sexual assault that he denies. Vance is expected to accompany other nominees for meetings in coming weeks as he tries to leverage the two years he has spent in the Senate to help push through Trump's picks. The role of introducing nominees around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for a vice president-elect. Usually the job goes to a former senator who has close relationships on the Hill, or a more junior aide. But this time the role fits Vance, said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first director of legislative affairs as well as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition ahead of his first term. ”JD probably has a lot of current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to have him utilized in that capacity,” Short said. Unlike the first Trump transition, which played out before cameras at Trump Tower in New York and at the president-elect's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this one has largely happened behind closed doors in Palm Beach, Florida. There, a small group of officials and aides meet daily at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to run through possible contenders and interview job candidates. The group includes Elon Musk, the billionaire who has spent so much time at the club that Trump has joked he can’t get rid of him. Vance has been a constant presence, even as he’s kept a lower profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the last two weeks in Palm Beach, according to people familiar with his plans, playing an active role in the transition, on which he serves as honorary chair. Vance has been staying at a cottage on the property of the gilded club, where rooms are adorned with cherubs, oriental rugs and intricate golden inlays. It's a world away from the famously hardscrabble upbringing that Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.” His young children have also joined him at Mar-a-Lago, at times. Vance was photographed in shorts and a polo shirt playing with his kids on the seawall of the property with a large palm frond, a U.S. Secret Service robotic security dog in the distance. On the rare days when he is not in Palm Beach, Vance has been joining the sessions remotely via Zoom. Though he has taken a break from TV interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance has been active in the meetings, which began immediately after the election and include interviews and as well as presentations on candidates’ pluses and minuses. Among those interviewed: Contenders to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray , as Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post. Defending himself from criticism that he’d missed a Senate vote in which one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees was confirmed, Vance wrote that he was meeting at the time "with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.” “I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” Vance added on X. “But that’s just me.” While Vance did not come in to the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. find roles in the administration. Trump ended up selecting Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence , a powerful position that sits atop the nation’s spy agencies and acts as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services , a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid. Vance was also a big booster of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will serve as Trump's “border czar.” In another sign of Vance's influence, James Braid, a top aide to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s legislative affairs director. Allies say it’s too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. While he gravitates to issues like trade, immigration and tech policy, Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs. Vance was spotted days after the election giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol and was there the day of leadership elections. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — arguably Trump’s most divisive pick — and then Hegseth, who has was been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing. Vance hosted Hegseth in his Senate office as GOP senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, filtered in to meet with the nominee for defense secretary. While a president’s nominees usually visit individual senators’ offices, meeting them on their own turf, the freshman senator — who is accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes moving around more unwieldy — instead brought Gaetz to a room in the Capitol on Wednesday and Hegseth to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them. Vance made it to votes Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others on Thursday afternoon. Vance is expected to continue to leverage his relationships in the Senate after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer relationships with Trump himself. Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that Trump was often the first person to call him back when he was trying to reach high-level White House officials during Trump's first term. “He has the most active Rolodex of just about anybody I’ve ever known,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would make a good addition. “They’ll divide names up by who has the most persuasion here,” Cramer said, but added, “Whoever his liaison is will not work as hard at it as he will.” Cramer was complimentary of the Ohio senator, saying he was “pleasant” and ” interesting” to be around. ′′He doesn’t have the long relationships," he said. "But we all like people that have done what we’ve done. I mean, that’s sort of a natural kinship, just probably not as personally tied.” Under the Constitution, Vance will also have a role presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he's not likely to be needed for that as often as was Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of ties for Democrats as vice president, since Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year. Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Skip Bayless is at it again, criticizing LeBron James's response to social media skeptics. The controversial sports personality recently unleashed a tirade on about James' reaction to fans questioning his claims about watching Dalton Knecht in college. "LeBron James has done it again. He's given me yet another reason for why he's just not the GOAT!" Bayless began, before launching into his critique of James's mental toughness. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.

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The Trump-Xi bromance has a chance next yearINDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indianapolis Colts defense started this season struggling. It couldn't stop the run, couldn't keep teams out of the end zone, couldn't get off the field. Now the script has flipped. Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley's group is playing stouter, holding teams — even the high-scoring Detroit Lions — largely in check long enough to give Indy a chance to win, and it's the Colts offense that has struggled. “They are playing their tails off. You don’t want them on the field a bunch and as an offense you want to be able to play complementary football,” running back Jonathan Taylor said after Sunday's 24-6 loss. “I would say specifically on offense, it sucks when you can’t help your defense out when they are fighting their tails off all game.” Indy's defense held up its end of the bargain by limiting the Lions (10-1) to 14 first-half points and allowing just 24, matching Detroit's lowest output since Week 3. The problem: Even when the Colts (5-7) did get Detroit off the field, they couldn't sustain drives or score touchdowns. Again. Anthony Richardson provided the bulk of the ground game by rushing 10 times for 61 yards, mostly early. Taylor managed just 35 yards on 11 carries and a season-high 10 penalties constantly forced the Colts to dig out from deep deficits. Part of that was by design. “We knew Jonathan Taylor was going to be the guy we needed to shut down,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “We did that. The quarterback runs. It got us on a couple but overall, we did what we needed to do, and we kept them out of that game." Part of it could be because of an injury-battered offensive line that has started three rookies each of the past two weeks and finished the previous game with the same three rookies. Whatever the fix, Indy needs a good solution. There is good news for Indy is that its schedule now gets substantially more manageable. After losing four of five, all to teams in playoff position and three to division leaders, Indy faces only one team with a winning record in its final five games. The most recent time the Colts played a team with a losing mark, Richardson rallied them past the New York Jets 28-27. But Colts coach Shane Steichen knows that's not the answer. The Colts must get this offense righted now. “We’ve got to get that figured out. We’ve got to get him going on the ground,” Steichen said when asked about Taylor, who has 92 yards on his past 35 carries. “We’ll look at the offensive line. We’ll look at everything." Pass rush. Pro Bowl DT DeForest Buckner's presence certainly has been felt since he returned from a sprained ankle Oct. 27. In those past five games, the Colts have had 14 sacks, including three of Jared Goff on Sunday. Penalties. The Colts have had one of the cleanest operations in the league most of this season. Sunday was an anomaly, but one that can't merely be written off. WR Michael Pittman Jr. The five-year veteran is one of the league's toughest guys, but playing through a back injury appeared to take its toll on Pittman's productivity. Since sitting out in Week 10, Pittman has 11 receptions for 142 yards including six for 96 yards, his second-highest total of the season, Sunday. Tight ends. Each week the Colts want their tight ends to make an impact. And each week, they seem to fail. It happened again Sunday when Drew Ogletree dropped a TD pass that would have given Indy a 10-7 lead. Instead, Indy settled for a field goal and a 7-6 deficit. Through 12 games, Indy's tight ends have a total of 26 catches, 299 yards and two TDs. That's just not good enough in a league where versatile, productive tight ends increasingly signal success. Pittman and WR Josh Downs both returned to the game after leaving briefly with shoulder injuries. WR Ashton Dulin did not return after hurting his foot in the second half. But the bigger questions come on the offensive line. LT Bernhard Raimann (knee) was inactive Sunday, and rookie center Tanor Bortolini entered the concussion protocol Monday. Bortolini was one of three rookie starters the past two weeks, replacing Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly who is on injured reserve. 55.88 — Indy has scored touchdowns on 55.88% of its red zone trips this season. While it puts it near the middle of the NFL, it's cost the Colts multiple wins. Richardson needs to rebound from this latest 11 of 28 performance and show he can lead the Colts to victories week after week. He'll get plenty of chances over the season's final month, starting with next week's game at the New England Patriots. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflVance takes on a more visible transition role, working to boost Trump's most contentious picks

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KYIV, Ukraine — NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile. escalating the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro. In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks Friday during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense, representatives of the military-industrial complex and developers of missile systems at the Kremlin in Moscow. Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile. People are also reading... Ukrainian military officials said the missile that hit Dnipro reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six nonnuclear warheads, each releasing six submunitions. Speaking Friday to military and weapons industries officials, Putin said Russia will launch production of the Oreshnik. “No one in the world has such weapons,” he said. “Sooner or later, other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development. “We have this system now,” he added. “And this is important.” Putin said that while it isn’t an intercontinental missile, it’s so powerful that the use of several of them fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with strategic — or nuclear — weapons. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, echoing Putin’s claim that even with conventional warheads, “the massive use of the weapon would be comparable in effect to the use of nuclear weapons.” In this photo taken from a video released Friday, a Russian serviceman operates at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts "The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow’s talking points, suggesting the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement. “These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orbán said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.” Orbán cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick ... there will be consequences,” he said. Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky speaks to journalists Friday during a joint news conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriiy Sybiha in Kyiv, Ukraine. Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday’s missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.” At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.” He said the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine. Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv. In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who said it's not the first time such a threat has been received. Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad. From tuberculosis to heart disease: How the leading causes of death in America have changed From tuberculosis to heart disease: How the leading causes of death in America have changed We're all going to die someday. Still, how it happens—and when—can point to a historical moment defined by the scientific advancements and public health programs available at the time to contain disease and prevent accidents.In the early 1900s, America's efforts to improve sanitation, hygiene, and routine vaccinations were still in their infancy. Maternal and infant mortality rates were high, as were contagious diseases that spread between people and animals.Combined with the devastation of two World Wars—and the Spanish Flu pandemic in between—the leading causes of death changed significantly after this period. So, too, did the way we diagnose and control the spread of disease.Starting with reforms as part of Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, massive-scale, federal interventions in the U.S. eventually helped stave off disease transmission. It took comprehensive government programs and the establishment of state and local health agencies to educate the public on preventing disease transmission.Seemingly simple behavioral shifts, such as handwashing, were critical in thwarting the spread of germs, much like discoveries in medicine, such as vaccines, and increased access to deliver them across geographies. Over the course of the 20th century, life expectancy increased by 56% and is estimated to keep increasing slightly, according to an annual summary of vital statistics published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000.Death Records examined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to see how the leading causes of death in America have evolved over time and to pinpoint how some major mortality trends have dropped off. Smith Collection/Gado // Getty Images Infectious diseases lead causes of death in America According to a report published in the journal Annual Review of Public Health in 2000, pneumonia was the leading cause of death in the early 1900s, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 deaths.By the time World War I ended in 1918, during which people and animals were housed together for long periods, a new virus emerged: the Spanish Flu. Originating in a bird before spreading to humans, the virus killed 10 times as many Americans as the war. Many died of secondary pneumonia after the initial infection. Pneumonia deaths eventually plummeted throughout the century, partly prevented by increased flu vaccine uptake rates in high-risk groups, particularly older people.Per the CDC, tuberculosis was a close second leading cause of death, killing 194 of every 10,000 people in 1900, mainly concentrated in dense urban areas where the infection could more easily spread. Eventually, public health interventions led to drastic declines in mortality from the disease, such as public education, reducing crowded housing, quarantining people with active disease, improving hygiene, and using antibiotics. Once the death rates lagged, so did the public health infrastructure built to control the disease, leading to a resurgence in the mid-1980s.Diarrhea was the third leading cause of death in 1900, surging every summer among children before the impacts of the pathogen died out in 1930. Adopting water filtration, better nutrition, and improved refrigeration were all associated with its decline.In the 1940s and 1950s, polio outbreaks killed or paralyzed upward of half a million people worldwide every year. Even at its peak, polio wasn't a leading cause of death, it was a much-feared one, particularly among parents of young children, some of whom kept them from crowded public places and interacting with other children.By 1955, when Jonah Salk discovered the polio vaccine, the U.S. had ended the "golden age of medicine." During this period, the causes of mortality shifted dramatically as scientists worldwide began to collaborate on infectious disease control, surgical techniques, vaccines, and other drugs. Death Records Leading causes of death tip toward lifestyle-related disease From the 1950s onward, once quick-spreading deadly contagions weren't prematurely killing American residents en masse, scientists also began to understand better how to diagnose and treat these diseases. As a result, Americans were living longer lives and instead succumbing to noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs.The risk of chronic diseases increased with age and, in some cases, was exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyles. Cancer and heart disease shot up across the century, increasing 90-fold from 1900 to 1998, according to CDC data.Following the post-Spanish Flu years, heart disease killed more Americans than any other cause, peaking in the 1960s and contributing to 1 in 3 deaths. Cigarette smoking rates peaked at the same time, a major risk factor for heart disease. Obesity rates also rose, creating another risk factor for heart disease and many types of cancers.This coincides with the introduction of ultra-processed foods into diets, which plays a more significant role in larger waistlines than the increasing predominance of sedentary work and lifestyles.In the early 1970s, deaths from heart disease began to fall as more Americans prevented and managed their risk factors, like quitting smoking or taking blood pressure medicine. However, the disease remains the biggest killer of Americans.Cancer remains the second leading cause of death and rates still indicate an upward trajectory over time. Only a few types of cancer are detected early by screening, and some treatments for aggressive cancers like glioblastoma—the most common type of brain cancer—have also stalled, unable to improve prognosis much over time.In recent years, early-onset cancers, those diagnosed before age 50 or sometimes even earlier, have seen a drastic rise among younger Americans. While highly processed foods and sedentary lifestyles may contribute to rising rates, a spike in cancer rates among otherwise healthy young individuals has baffled some medical professionals.This follows the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. At its peak, high transmission rates made the virus the third leading cause of death in America. It's often compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918, though COVID-19 had a far larger global impact, spurring international collaborations among scientists who developed a vaccine in an unprecedented time.Public policy around issues of safety and access also influences causes of death, particularly—and tragically—among young Americans. Gun control measures in the U.S. are far less stringent than in peer nations; compared to other nations, however, the U.S. leads in gun violence. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens (around 2 in 3 are homicides, and 1 in 3 are suicides), and deaths from opioids remain a leading cause of death among younger people.Globally, the leading causes of death mirror differences in social and geographic factors. NCDs are primarily associated with socio-economic status and comprise 7 out of 10 leading causes of death, 85% of those occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.However, one of the best health measures is life expectancy at birth. People in the U.S. have been living longer lives since 2000, except for a slight dip in longevity due to COVID-19. According to the most recent CDC estimates, Americans' life expectancy is 77.5 years on average and is expected to increase slightly in the coming decades.Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.This story originally appeared on Death Records and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Canva Be the first to know

Via When the story of global nickel prices is written for 2024, Indonesia and China will undoubtedly be the main characters. This is not only due to the former country’s high production output but also alleged violations of environmental rules and poor labor practices, which Indonesia has consistently denied. Indonesia is in global nickel production, accounting for 51% of the world’s total mine production. The country also sits on 42% of total global reserves. Because of this, it’s been a major investment hub for Chinese firms. According to SandP Global Commodity Insights, is projected to hit 2.1 million metric tons in 2024—over 50% of the expected global output and more than double its 2020 levels. In the rest of the world, the nickel story has turned sour of late. Everywhere you look, mines and smelters are either closed or about to be. Adding to the woes is the fact that benchmark nickel prices remained down in 2024 from the highs of 2022. The Economist says most sector experts blame these problems on Indonesia because of its , poor environment and labor laws and cheap coal power, a hot mix for those who want to undercut the competition. According to media reports, mining giant Vale is implementing across its global operations due to the continued decline in nickel prices. While the company has not revealed how many of its Sudbury, Ontario employees will be affected, it stated that the layoffs will mainly focus on “non-operating roles.” Nickel is vital to various industries and applications. Despite its relatively low profile, nickel is highly versatile, which makes it an essential component in many modern technologies and products. For example, nickel is a key alloying element in l, which is used in construction, transportation and consumer goods. It can also be used to create high-temperature alloys for aerospace, power generation and chemical processing. However, the most immediate reason for nickel’s prima donna status is its use in rechargeable batteries, such as nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, as well as in electronic components like switches, contacts and connectors. As electric vehicles become more popular in the West and other nations, nickel production and use continue to spike. Indonesia is planning to step on the gas pedal next year as far as production is concerned, as reports claim that its four major publicly listed nickel companies, PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), Merdeka Battery Materials (MBMA), Trimegah Bangun Persada (TBP Harita) and PT Vale Indonesia (Vale), are all in expansion mode. According to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, these firms want to within the next 5 years. Last year, these four companies produced 353,000 tons of nickel. At the same time, they generated 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesia managed to jockey itself into the number one position by implementing a ban on unprocessed nickel ore exports in 2020. Still, processing nickel for EV batteries carries a considerable environmental and carbon footprint. By Sohrab Darabshaw

Biden pledges £472m for rail project to improve access to Africa’s minerals

Mr Biden told African leaders the resource-rich continent of more than 1.4 billion people had been “left behind for much too long”. “But not anymore,” Mr Biden added. “Africa is the future.” Mr Biden used the third and final day of a visit to Angola – his long-awaited, first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president – to travel to the coastal city of Lobito and tour an Atlantic port terminal that’s part of the Lobito Corridor railway redevelopment. Mr Biden described it as the largest US investment in a train project outside America. The US and allies are investing heavily in the project that will refurbish nearly 1,200 miles of train lines connecting to the mineral-rich areas of Congo and Zambia in central Africa. The corridor, which likely will take years to complete, gives the US better access to cobalt, copper and other critical minerals in Congo and Zambia that are used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies that Mr Biden said would power the future. China is dominant in mining in Congo and Zambia. The US investment has strategic implications for US-China economic competition, which went up a notch this week as they traded blows over access to key materials and technologies. The African leaders who met with Mr Biden on Wednesday said the railway corridor offered their countries a much faster route for minerals and goods – and a convenient outlet to Western markets. “This is a project that is full of hope for our countries and our region,” said Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, whose country has more than 70% of the word’s cobalt. “This is not just a logistical project. It is a driving force for economic and social transformation for millions of our people.” The leaders said the corridor should spur private-sector investment and improve a myriad of related areas like roads, communication networks, agriculture and clean energy technologies. For the African countries, it could create a wave of new jobs for a burgeoning young population. Cargo that once took 45 days to get to the US – usually involving trucks via South Africa – would now take around 45 hours, Mr Biden said. He predicted the project could transform the region from a food importer to exporter. It’s “something that if done right will outlast all of us and keep delivering for our people for generations to come,” he said. The announcement of an additional $600 million took the U.S.’s investment in the Lobito Corridor to 4.0 billion dollars (£3.15 billion).

US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Jared Isaacman, a billionaire online payments entrepreneur and the first private astronaut to conduct a spacewalk, as the next head of NASA. The nod raises questions about potential conflicts of interest, given Isaacman's financial ties to SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who is set to co-chair a government efficiency commission and is one of Trump's closest advisors. Isaacman, 41, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, has emerged as a leading figure in commercial spaceflight through his high-profile collaborations with SpaceX. He made history in September by stepping out of a Crew Dragon to gaze at Earth from the void of space while gripping the spacecraft's exterior, during the first-ever spacewalk carried out by non-professional astronauts. "I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot and astronaut, as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Jared will drive NASA's mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration." The groundbreaking spacewalk was part of the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX that is set to include three missions in total. Financial terms of the partnership remain under wraps but Isaacman reportedly poured $200 million of his own money into leading the 2021 all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration4 orbital mission, his first foray into space. A staunch supporter of SpaceX and Musk, Isaacman frequently praises the company and its vision on social media platform X. "There will inevitably be a thriving space economy -- one that will create opportunities for countless people to live and work in space," Isaacman said in an X post after Trump's announcement. "At NASA, we will passionately pursue these possibilities." Isaacman, a Pennsylvania native, founded the business that became Shift4 Payments from his family's basement at just 16. A skilled aviator, he is qualified to fly military aircraft, has performed at airshows, and set a world record for an around-the-world flight. The nomination comes at a delicate juncture for the storied US space agency, with experts anticipating significant shifts in direction during Trump's second term. The Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon, may face scrutiny as Trump has repeatedly voiced a preference for prioritizing a direct mission to Mars. Also possibly on the chopping block is the massive, NASA-owned Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket, which has been criticized for being exorbitantly expensive due to its lack of reusability, in contrast with SpaceX's Starship, which is designed to be reusable but remains a prototype. If Isaacman is confirmed by the Senate, his ties to SpaceX could invite heightened scrutiny of future contracting decisions. NASA currently has agreements with both SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin to develop lunar lander systems -- a dual-source approach Isaacman has criticized, citing budgetary constraints and SpaceX's capabilities. In a recent op-ed for Space News, Peter Juul of the Progressive Policy Institute called upon Congress to require dual-source contracting to "preserve competition in the commercial space industry and preempt any attempt by Musk to entrench SpaceX as a de facto monopoly for commercial space services." Still, as a daring entrepreneur in an era of expanding public-private partnerships in space, Isaacman's appointment has drawn praise in some quarters. "The Planetary Society shares his vision of bold exploration in space, and, should he be confirmed, we look forward to working with him," Casey Dreier, the nonprofit's chief of space policy, told AFP. ia/ahaBy AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow. The U.S. believes that the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden has been briefed on the findings and that the White House “has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday. Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed reporting.

Raiders and Saints meet with prominent players nearing statistical milestonesThe defender emphasized the need for the team to show courage and determination in the face of a formidable opponent like Paris. He stressed that in order to compete at the highest level, one must be willing to take risks, push beyond their limits, and show resilience in the face of adversity. For the Salzburg players, this means approaching the match with a fearless attitude and a never-say-die mentality.

Reports: Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold entering transfer portal

Sincerely,Red Wings fire head coach Derek Lalonde, hire Todd McLellan

Staff List: The 50 Best Dance Tracks of 2024

As the final round of the ARRC concluded, the celebrations were filled with excitement and joy as the Honda rider was officially crowned the 1000cc class champion. His triumph was a testament to his hard work, skill, and unwavering determination to succeed in the highly competitive world of motorcycle racing.Noneslot fortune gems jili games apk 。

Has a waltz written by composer Frederic Chopin been discovered in an NYC museum?

Recently, a heartwarming moment between Chinese actor Zhan Shu, also known as Zan Zuo, and actress Guo Biting has captured the hearts of many. During a haircutting session, Zan Zuo took the opportunity to express his love and admiration for Guo Biting, leading to a sweet and romantic declaration that has touched the lives of countless individuals.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel. The resolution -- adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions -- urges "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire," and "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" -- wording similar to a text vetoed by Washington in the Security Council last month. At that time, Washington used its veto power on the Council -- as it has before -- to protect its ally Israel, which has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It has insisted on the idea of making a ceasefire conditional on the release of all hostages in Gaza, saying otherwise that Hamas has no incentive to free those in captivity. Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood repeated that position Wednesday, saying it would be "shameful and wrong" to adopt the text. Ahead of the vote, Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said: "The resolutions before the assembly today are beyond logic. (...) The vote today is not a vote for compassion. It is a vote for complicity." The General Assembly often finds itself taking up measures that cannot get through the Security Council, which has been largely paralyzed on hot-button issues such as Gaza and Ukraine due to internal politics, and this time is no different. The resolution, which is non-binding, demands "immediate access" to widespread humanitarian aid for the citizens of Gaza, especially in the besieged north of the territory. Dozens of representatives of UN member states addressed the Assembly before the vote to offer their support to the Palestinians. "Gaza doesn't exist anymore. It is destroyed," said Slovenia's UN envoy Samuel Zbogar. "History is the harshest critic of inaction." That criticism was echoed by Algeria's deputy UN ambassador Nacim Gaouaoui, who said: "The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very heavy price, and it will be heavier tomorrow." Hamas's October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. That count includes hostages who died or were killed while being held in Gaza. Militants abducted 251 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,805 people, a majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the United Nations. "Gaza today is the bleeding heart of Palestine," Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week during the first day of debate in the Assembly's special session on the issue. "The images of our children burning in tents, with no food in their bellies and no hopes and no horizon for the future, and after having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and prompt action to end this nightmare," he said, calling for an end to the "impunity." The Gaza resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present "proposals on how the United Nations could help to advance accountability" by using existing mechanisms or creating new ones based on past experience. The Assembly, for example, created an international mechanism to gather evidence of crimes committed in Syria starting from the outbreak of civil war in 2011. A second resolution calling on Israel to respect the mandate of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and allow it to continue its operations was passed Wednesday by a vote of 159-9 with 11 abstentions. Israel has voted to ban the organization starting January 28, after accusing some UNRWA employees of taking part in Hamas's devastating attack. abd/sst/jgcOne of the biggest highlights for TikTok in the realm of social commerce came during the Black Friday sales event in November 2021. According to reports, TikTok users spent over a billion dollars on products featured in Black Friday promotions on the platform. This staggering figure underscores the growing influence of TikTok as a shopping destination and highlights the power of influencer marketing and social media-driven sales.Ford, GM, Stellantis, and other US automakers and suppliers have invested nearly $146 billion over the past three years in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of electric vehicles according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But in MAGAmerica, much of that investment could be wasted if the incoming enfant terrible decides to gut the exhaust emissions rules hammered out between the Biden administration and the auto industry last year. The New York Times reports that automakers aren’t pouring money into EVs any more. Instead, they are mounting lobbying campaigns designed to convince the incoming occupant of the Offal Office not to tear up that agreement — something he has promised to do. That conversation would require diplomatic finesse, the Times says, which is an understatement if there ever was one. Trump still holds grievances against some of the automakers, who he thinks betrayed him because during his first term when they supported Obama-era auto emissions rules instead of the ones he was proposing. Lobbyists and officials from several car companies say the automakers want the Biden regulations to remain largely intact, with some changes such as more time for compliance and lower penalties for companies that don’t meet the requirements. It’s not that they love the current rules, but they are trying to pay for their transition to electric cars with profits from their conventional cars. If the rules get tossed overboard, they fear other companies that have not invested heavily in electric cars could undercut their prices with devastating consequences. If that were to happen, potentially 1.1 million jobs in the automotive sector could be at risk. The current regulations affect vehicles starting in model year 2027 and become more stringent through 2032. Automakers will be able to comply by selling a mix of gasoline powered cars, hybrids, EVs, or cars powered by hydrogen. Trump insists on calling these regulations an electric car mandate, even though they are an “all of the above” solution that Republicans profess to adore. The EPA estimates that as a result of the current rules, about 56 percent of new passenger vehicles sold would be electric and another 16 percent would be hybrids by 2032. That’s up from about 9 percent and 11 percent today. Companies that don’t meet the new restrictions would face substantial penalties or could purchase “emissions credits” from companies that have exceeded the standards by selling more EVs. Tesla, which makes only electric vehicles, has earned billions of dollars by selling emissions credits to other automakers. It collected $2.1 billion in the first nine months of this year alone — 43 percent of its net profit . During Tesla’s early years, the credits were a critical source of revenue that may have helped stave off bankruptcy for the company. John Bozzella is the president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents 42 car companies that produce nearly all the new vehicles sold in the United States. In a letter to Trump on November 12, he wrote that for the auto industry to remain “successful and competitive,” it needs “stability and predictability in auto-related emissions standards.” That is undoubtedly true, but since Trump is notorious for not reading things — like the daily intelligence briefing — it is doubtful the letter will have much impact. Automakers plan car models years in advance and have already designed the cars they expect to sell in 2028 under the assumption that the emissions rules would still be in place. “The worst thing of all for the automakers, even worse than a difficult regulation, is a back and forth swing every four years. The regulations determine that all automakers have to follow the same rules,” said Stephanie Brinley, of S&P Global Mobility. Virtually all auto executives expect electric vehicles to displace gasoline cars eventually. If American carmakers give up on their EV plans now, they risk being overtaken by carmakers from Europe and China , or so the thinking goes. CleanTechnica ‘s Zach Shahan and Scott Cooney discussed this at length in a recent YouTube discussion. The companies are treading lightly when it comes to the the policies they would like to see from the incoming administration. Many are concerned Trump might hold a grudge against them because they opposed his first term efforts to erase the Obama EV rules. “Given their track record with Trump, I don’t know how much sway the autos will have in terms of the decision the president makes,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative research group, who served on the first Trump administration’s transition team. Among Trump’s biggest grievances is a 2019 legal agreement that four of the world’s largest automakers — Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, and BMW — secretly struck with the state of California to reduce their tailpipe emissions according to stringent limits set by that state. The move enraged Trump, since it came as his administration was attempting to revoke California’s authority to set its own rules. To exact revenge, his administration filed an antitrust investigation into those automakers. Later on, two more companies — Stellantis and Volvo — joined the companies that sided with California. Mary Barra, the chief executive of GM, has shown herself to be the most malleable when it comes to positioning her company to take advantage of changes in the political winds. She met with Trump in his first weeks in office and urged him to weaken the pollution standard. She also had her company join the administration’s legal proceedings against the California deal. But just weeks after Biden’s election in 2020, she reversed course by dropping GM’s legal support of the Trump administration in its suit against California, and cheered Biden’s electric vehicle agenda. In a letter to environmental groups, Barra wrote, “President-elect Biden recently said, ‘I believe that we can own the 21st century car market again by moving to electric vehicles.’ We at General Motors couldn’t agree more.” She further cemented her relationship with Biden in 2022 when GM hired his niece, Missy Owens, to be the company’s head of ESG. Perhaps the kindest thing one can say about Barra is that she is a flexitarian when it comes to politics. The Trump inauguration committee has asked GM to provide about 250 vehicles for VIPs during the inauguration, which the company intends to support “in a big way,” according to a person familiar with the matter. We don’t know yet if any of those vehicles will be electric, but don’t bet on it. The manufacturers hope to impress on Trump that many of their new manufacturing facilities and battery plants, which are generating jobs and tax revenue, are in states like Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina that he won in this year’s election. When he was last in office, there were fewer that 6 such facilities. Now, there are over three dozen, most of them in so-called red states whose elected officials rather like the employment opportunities they provide. But that assumes Trump is rational, which he is not. One wildcard in all of this is Elon Musk, the carpetbagger from South Africa who is primarily focused on removing government obstacles to self-driving cars, which he says are vital to Tesla’s future. As for the emissions standards, Tesla prepared in advance for their elimination, said Rohan Patel, who served as vice president of global policy for Tesla before stepping down earlier this year. “They predicted that if a Republican won, no matter how influential Elon was, the rule would be weakened for sure or potentially go away,” he said. Musk has also made it clear he will not fight to preserve the $7,500 tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles that is provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Why? Because getting rid of it could bankrupt other automakers in years to come and make him richer, not because it will benefit America. See how this works now? The people get dumped on while the oligarchs get wealthier. The EV tax credit was designed to make EVs more competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles and has been a particular target of Trump. “In my view, we should end all government subsidies, including those for EVs, oil and gas,” Musk said on X last week. Getting rid of the tax credit might damage Tesla, but it would hurt Ford, GM and others more. During an earnings call in July, Musk said, “I think it would be devastating for our competitors and for Tesla slightly.” He is salivating at the prospect of his competitors being devastated. Who cares if tens or hundreds of thousands lose their jobs? Tough cookies for them, right? According to Autoblog , the repeal of the EV tax credit is being championed by billionaire oil mogul Harold Hamm, who leads Trump’s energy policy transition team, along with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum , who is scheduled to be the next Secretary of the Interior. Naturally, oil and gas subsidies will not be removed, no matter what Musk thinks. Trump is 100 percent transactional. Anything he does has to reflect credit on him or enrich him personally. Musk and Trump had a bromance in 2017 that fell apart after about 6 months. Will this new love affair last even that long? Musk says he wants to get rid of all subsidies, but if he tries to mess with those that benefit oil, methane, and coal interests, he will provoke a withering backlash from those industries. The heads of the major car manufacturers must be having sleepless nights trying to understand how Elon came to be in charge of their fates. US consumers should plan for a glut of enormous pickup trucks and gargantuan SUVs. Lower prices? Forget about it. The automakers have to recoup their $146 billion investment in EVs somehow, and profits from those gas guzzlers is how they plan to do it. Brace yourself for price increases on conventional cars once the EV tax credit is demolished, and get ready for a time when 7- and even 8-year car loans are common. Buckle up and enjoy the ride. This is what America wanted and now it is going to get it — in spades. CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook X Email Mastodon Reddit

Iran will hold talks about its disputed nuclear program with three European countries on November 29, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on November 24, days after the UN atomic watchdog passed a resolution against Tehran. Iran reacted to the resolution -- proposed by Britain, France, Germany, and the United States -- with various measures reportedly such as activating numerous new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium. Japan's Kyodo news agency, which first reported the meeting would take place in Geneva, said Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian's government was seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration in January of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei later said the deputy foreign ministers of Iran and the three European countries would take part in the talks, which he said would cover regional issues as well as the nuclear dossier. Iran has vowed to respond to a resolution adopted by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that criticizes the Islamic republic for what it says is poor cooperation by installing a number of "new and advanced" centrifuges. The resolution, which comes shortly after the return of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi from a trip to Iran , reportedly says it is "essential and urgent" for Tehran to "act to fulfill its legal obligations." A joint statement by Iran's Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Organization said on November 22 that the country's nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, "issued an order to take effective measures, including launching a significant series of new and advanced centrifuges of various types." The Iranian announcement came after the IAEA's board on November 21 issued a second resolution condemning Tehran's cooperation with the agency after a similar warning in June. Some analysts say the resolution may be a step toward making a political decision to trigger a "snapback" of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran. The "snapback" mechanism is outlined in UNSC Resolution 2231, which enshrined a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. However, the option to reimpose the sanctions expires in October 2025. The IAEA resolution, put forward by France, Germany, and Britain and supported by the United States, comes at a critical time as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return at the White House in January. Trump during his first term embarked on a "maximum pressure" campaign of intensified sanctions on Iran and unilaterally withdrew the United States in 2018 from a landmark 2015 agreement that lifted some sanctions on Iran in exchange of curbs to its nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful. The resolution passed on November 21 also urged Iran to cooperate with an investigation launched after uranium particles were found at two sites that Iranian authorities had not declared as nuclear locations. Nineteen of the 35 members of the IAEA board voted in favor of the resolution. Russia, China, and Burkina Faso opposed it, 12 members abstained, while one did not vote, diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP. It also calls on the IAEA to come up with a "comprehensive report" on Iran's nuclear activities by spring. During Grossi's visit, Iran agreed with an IAEA demand to limit its stock of uranium enriched at 60 percent purity, which is still under the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear weapon, but it is much higher than the 3.67 percent limit it agreed to in the 2015 deal. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was Tehran's chief negotiator for the 2015 agreement, warned that Iran would not negotiate "under pressure." Tehran has responded to previous similar resolutions by moves such as removing IAEA cameras and monitoring equipment from several nuclear sites, and increasing uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity at a second site, the Fordow plant. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Muhammad Deif, a military commander in the Iran-backed group Hamas, alleging they committed crimes against humanity in the ongoing Gaza war. All three are accused of committing war crimes connected to the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, an EU- and U.S-designated terrorist organization that is part of Tehran's network of proxies in the Middle East, and Israel's subsequent military intervention in the Gaza Strip. Iran's backing of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-supported militant group and political party that controls much of the southern part of Israel's neighbor, Lebanon, has sparked fears that the war in the Gaza Strip will engulf the Middle East. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union blacklists its armed wing but not its political party. Hezbollah’s political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament. The court said the warrants had been classified as "secret" to protect witnesses and to safeguard the conduct of the investigations. Israel, which claims it killed Deif in July, blasted the move as "a dark moment for the ICC." Hamas, which has never officially acknowledged Deif's death, called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant an "important step toward justice." The ICC said it had issued the arrest warrant for Deif as the prosecutor had not been able to determine whether he was dead. His warrant shows charges of mass killings during the October 7 attack on Israel that left some 1,200 dead, as well as charges of rape and the taking of around 240 hostages in the attack. "The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both [Israeli] individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024," the ICC said in a statement . "This finding is based on the role of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law and their failure to facilitate relief by all means at its disposal," it said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called the move against Netanyahu and Gallant "absurd" in a post on X, saying it was an attack of Israel's right to self-defense. "A dark moment for the ICC in The Hague, in which it lost all legitimacy for its existence and activity," Sa'ar said. Tehran has yet to comment publicly on the warrants. Neither the United States nor Israel have recognized the ICC's jurisdiction. A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said Washington "fundamentally rejects" the issuance of the arrest warrants and "the troubling process errors that led to this decision. Meanwhile, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a post on X that ICC decisions "are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States." The court said Israel's acceptance of the court's jurisdiction was not required. However, the court itself has no law enforcement levers to enforce warrants and relies on cooperation from its member states. Autocratic states have long used allegations of mental illness to discredit and imprison their critics. In Iran, the authorities are increasingly branding women who violate the country's hijab law -- a key pillar of the Islamic system -- as psychologically unstable . The move has coincided with unprecedented protests against Iran's clerical establishment and growing calls for greater social and political freedoms. Experts say the Iranian authorities are employing punitive psychiatry -- the misuse of psychiatric diagnoses, treatments, and institutions to punish, control, or repress individuals -- to go after government critics. "In countries like ours, being mentally ill is taboo, so the authorities use mental health allegations to raise public sympathy to justify their human rights violations," Medis Tavakoli, an Iranian psychotherapist and rights activists based in Europe, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. 'Labeling Healthy People As Sick' In July 2023, for the first time, judges diagnosed three prominent actresses sentenced for not wearing the hijab as "mentally ill." The unprecedented move was condemned by top Iranian psychologists who said the judiciary was abusing its authority. Now, the authorities have announced the creation of a rehabilitation center in Tehran for women who do not wear the mandatory head scarf. The Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said on November 12 that the center will offer "scientific and psychological treatment" to women who refuse to follow the Islamic dress code. No other details were provided. In response, Iranian psychologists have raised the alarm about the consequences of "labeling healthy people as sick." Earlier this month, a young woman who took off her clothes outside a university in Tehran in apparent protest against harassment was committed to psychiatric care -- a move deemed "illegal" by rights activists. The political abuse of psychiatry is well-documented, and was prominently used in the Soviet Union against dissidents. In recent years, the authorities in countries like China, North Korea, and Russia have labeled their domestic critics as mentally ill . Iran has been increasingly using mental health allegations and other "hateful statements" against women who oppose the hijab since unprecedented protests in 2022, according to Amnesty International . Months of antiestablishment protests erupted across Iran in September 2022 after the death in custody of a young woman who was arrested for violating the hijab law. Women were at the forefront of the protests, which snowballed into one of the most sustained demonstrations against Iran's theocracy, with some protesters calling for an end to clerical rule. "Governments alone cannot get rid of all of their critics," Tavakoli said. "One method is to lob accusations and labels against critics. So, when they get rid of their critics, society thinks that bad actors were weeded out." 'Alternative' Punishment The authorities' decision to establish a rehabilitation center for violators of the hijab law has caused uproar in Iran. Mojgan Ilanlou, a documentary filmmaker and women's rights activist based in Tehran, said she felt "pity" for those who come up with "such brilliant ideas." "They themselves know better than anyone how much these things make people laugh," she told Radio Farda. In recent years, the authorities have taken several measures to enforce the hijab on women in a society that is increasingly shunning head scarves. The Hijab and Chastity law went into force last month, mandating fines and sentences of up to 10 years in prison for those who are deemed to be dressed "inappropriately" in public. Iranian authorities have said the "treatment" center in Tehran can serve as an "alternative" punishment. But Ilanlou said the opening of the clinic showed that the authorities "are losing the fight" to enforce the hijab. Iran-based political activist Pouran Nazemi said that "women have been putting up a fight." "I doubt [the authorities] can continue resisting what society wants," she told Radio Farda. Iranian authorities are using executions as "a tool of fear," particularly directed at ethnic minorities, dissidents, and foreign nationals, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on November 20. The rights watchdog highlighted a recent surge in capital punishment sentences against these groups, noting that the verdicts are handed down amid rampant violations of due process. According to Iran Human Rights group, in the first 10 months of this year, at least 651 people were executed in Iran -- 166 people in October alone. HRW noted the case of Kurdish political prisoner Varisheh Moradi, sentenced to death by Iran’s revolutionary court in Tehran on November 10 on the charge of “armed rebellion against the state." Moradi, a member of the Free Women’s Society of Eastern Kurdistan, was arrested in the city of Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province in August last year and kept for five months in solitary confinement in the infamous Evin prison where she was tortured. Her family has not been allowed to visit her since May, the group said. Moradi was not allowed to defend herself, and the judge did not permit her lawyers to present a defense, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported. “Iranian authorities use the death penalty as a tool of fear, particularly targeting ethnic minorities and political dissidents after unfair trials,” said HRW's Nahid Naghshbandi. “This brutal tactic aims to suppress any opposition to an autocratic government through intimidation,” she said. Five other Kurdish men were sentenced to death in recent weeks on charges of “espionage for Israel," HRW said. Four Arab prisoners from Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, are at risk of imminent execution, after being sentenced to death by a revolutionary court with two other individuals for their alleged involvement in the killings of two Basij members, a law enforcement officer, and a soldier. The four -- Ali Majdam, Moein Khonafri, Mohammadreza Moghadam, and Adnan Gheibshavi (Musavi) -- were arrested in 2017 and 2018, according to human rights groups. Afghan citizens in Iran have been targeted, in particular, by death sentences, HRW noted, adding that according to human rights groups, at least 49 Afghan nationals have been executed in Iran this year, 13 in the past month alone. “Iran’s revolutionary courts are a tool of systematic repression that violate citizens’ fundamental rights and hand out death sentences indiscriminately, leaving legal protections meaningless,” Naghshbandi said. “The international community should categorically condemn this alarming trend and pressure Iranian authorities to halt these executions,” she added. Mai Sato, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, has also voiced concern about the "alarming" increase in the number of executions. "In August 2024 alone, at least 93 people were executed, with nearly half in relation to drug offences," Sato said on November 1. No charges have been brought against the Iranian woman who disrobed in an apparent protest outside her Tehran university, a spokesman for the judiciary said, adding that she had been released from the hospital to her family. "Given that she has been sent to the hospital and it has been determined that she is sick , she has been handed over to the family and they are currently taking care of her," Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a news conference on November 19. The spokesman added that "no judicial case has been filed against this student." It wasn't immediately clear if the comments meant that the case had been permanently closed. The woman was identified as Ahoo Bahari, a student from the science and research department of Tehran Azad University. She took off her clothes in public on November 3 in an apparent protest at the university and was arrested shortly afterward. The circumstances that led to her taking off her clothes remain unclear, but witnesses say she was harassed by the university's security officers over what she had been wearing. One video showed officers violently forcing the unidentified woman into a car. Reports in Iranian media later alleged she was suffering from mental illness and that she was taken to a psychiatric hospital. Video footage posted online raised concerns of the woman's safety from international rights groups, who condemned her treatment and demanded her immediate release. Amnesty International said it had previously published evidence of the government's crackdown on protesters under the pretext of "mental disorders" that needed to be "treated." Rights groups and Iranian activists have long assailed the government of the conservative Muslim nation for attacks on protesters, often targeting those who challenge strict laws governing women’s dress in public. New laws increase prison terms and fines for women and girls who breach the dress code in the wake of the mass Women, Life, Freedom protests that followed the death of a young woman while in police custody for an alleged head-scarf violation. Iranian rights activist Hossein Ronaghi was held for several hours after being detained following a sit-in protest in central Tehran, his family said on November 18. "Ronaghi was violently arrested by a large number of armed officers at 5 p.m. at Vali-e Asr Square" before being released at his front door at 9 p.m., his brother Hassan said on Telegram . Ronaghi had announced the protest on Telegram, saying it was to honor Kianoosh Sanjari, a journalist and political activist who jumped to his death from a Tehran building on November 13 to protest the numerous arrests and interrogations of himself and other political activists. The U.S.-based PEN America free-speech watchdog has asked the UN Human Rights Council to intervene in the case of imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who it said is in "urgent need of medical care ." In an open letter, PEN urged the UN “to call on the Iranian authorities to grant Mohammadi a medical furlough on humanitarian grounds so that she is able to receive comprehensive and essential care for a range of serious medical conditions." Mohammadi, 52, has been in and out of prison for the past 20 years. She is currently serving a 12-year sentence in Tehran's Evin prison for "spreading propaganda," allegations that she, her family, and supporters reject. The EU has widened its sanctions against Iran over the country's support of the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine, the European Commission said on November 18, targeting firms, ports, and individuals involved in the transfer of ballistic missiles and drones to Russia for use on the battlefield. Included in the new sanctions are the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) -- which will see its assets frozen -- and measures targeting the activities of Iranian ports on the Caspian Sea linked to listed entities and individuals. The EU said it decided to "widen the scope of the EU framework for restrictive measures in view of Iran's military support to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and to armed groups and entities in the Middle East and the Red Sea region." It said the new measures target "the use of vessels and ports for the transfer of Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), missiles, and related technologies and components." The United States, Britain, France, and Germany have accused Iran of sending ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia for use against Ukraine, sparking consultations among European allies on the matter. Ali Safaei, chief of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, rejected the "European accusations," calling them "baseless," according to the state-run IRNA news agency. "It is regrettable that some delegations, including the U.S., have once again disseminated false and misleading information to advance their political agendas," Safaei said. The IRISL headlined the list of the newly sanctioned entities. "IRISL is Iran's national maritime carrier, and for years its ships have been involved in shipping drones on behalf of the EU-listed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy," the EU said. IRISL director Mohammad Reza Khiabani is also targeted in the sanctions. The measures include "access to facilities of the ports and locks, such as Amirabad and Anzali, and the provision of any services to vessels," it said, adding that exceptions will be made for vessels in need of assistance for safety for humanitarian purposes. The EU also listed three Russian shipping companies -- MG Flot, VTS Broker, and Arapax -- whose vessels are involved in transporting Iranian-made weapons and ammunition, including UAV components, across the Caspian Sea to resupply Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. The November 18 announcement is a continuing of a wide-ranging strategy by the West of targeting Iranian entities and individuals over rights abuses, aid to extremist allies and proxies in the region, and weapons transfer. EU foreign ministers on October 14 approved new sanctions against seven individuals and seven entities linked to Iran after Kyiv's Western allies accused Tehran of sending ballistic missiles to Russia to aid in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Those sanctions, first reported in an exclusive by Radio Farda, targeted companies and individuals accused of being involved in the transfer of the weapons to Russia, including the country's flagship carrier Iran Air, as well as airlines Saha Airlines and Mahan Air. Those targeted are subject to an asset freeze and travel ban to the European Union. Additionally, the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, with those listed is prohibited. Iran Air has direct flights to several cities in Europe, including Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Paris, and Milan. Overall, the EU said sanctions have been imposed on 227 individuals and 42 entities in Iran in response to "human rights abuses, nuclear proliferation activities, and military support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on November 16 that there remains a "limited opportunity" for nuclear negotiations with the West, according to Iranian state media. Relations between Tehran and the United States have been especially tense since then-President Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and global powers and reimposed tough U.S. sanctions on Iran. "There is still an opportunity for diplomacy, although this opportunity is not much. It is a limited opportunity," Araqchi was quoted as telling state television. Western concerns at Iranian actions have soared amid the yearlong war in the Gaza Strip after U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas carried out a brutal attack in Israel in October 2023, with Iranian allies including Huthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon attacking Israel in support of Hamas. With Trump poised to return to the White House in January following his election victory earlier this month, reports circulated of possible informal contacts, including claims that Trump ally Elon Musk met last week in New York with Iran's envoy to the United Nations. After days of silence, Tehran on November 16 " categorically denied " that any such meeting took place. This week, Rafael Grossi, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), urged Iran and its global partners to achieve "concrete, tangible, and visible results" in talks over Tehran's nuclear program as the return of Trump could mean the window for diplomacy is closing. The 2015 deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had given Iran some limited relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program designed to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. After Washington's withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran expanded its nuclear program and restricted IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites. U.S. President Joe Biden entered the White House in 2017 pledging to try to revive the deal but made no breakthroughs. Trump's announced pick for secretary of state, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, is generally regarded as an advocate of tough action to counter Iranian influence through a return to a "maximum pressure" policy. Tehran has "categorically denied" U.S. reports suggesting that billionaire Trump ally and adviser Elon Musk met with Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeed Iravani in New York last week, contradicting reporting by The New York Times and AP asserting that Tehran sought the meeting in an apparent effort to ease tensions with President-elect Donald Trump. Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying those are "false reports." In his first term, Trump withdrew from a major nuclear accord with Tehran and global powers and reimposed tough sanctions that walloped Iran's currency and economy. Trump has pledged close if informal cooperation with Musk, who has boasted that he has "top-secret clearance" and said he looks forward to a role as "first buddy" to the next U.S. president. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here . Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on November 15 asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and whose military wing is blacklisted by the European Union. He also appeared to urge Iran to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. As a top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said an American proposal for a cease-fire deal had been passed on to Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group. Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas’s surprise attack into Israel on October 7, 2023, ignited the war in Gaza. Iran backs any decision taken by Lebanon in talks to secure a cease-fire with Israel, a senior Iranian official said on November 15, signaling Tehran wants to see an end to a conflict that has dealt heavy blows to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and whose military wing is blacklisted by the European Union. Israel launched air strikes in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, flattening buildings for a fourth consecutive day. Israel has stepped up its bombardment of the area this week, an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in U.S.-led diplomacy toward a cease-fire. Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, asked whether he had come to Beirut to undermine the U.S. truce plan, said: "We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems." Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has visited Iran’s key underground uranium enrichment sites at Fordow and Natanz, Iranian state media reported on November 15, without offering details. Iran has restricted inspection of its nuclear sites and barred several IAEA inspectors from visiting its enrichment facilities. Grossi is in Iran to push for diplomacy, warning that the “space for negotiation...is getting smaller” over Iran’s advancing nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are peaceful. The visit comes ahead of an upcoming meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors, where some nations are pushing for action against the Islamic republic. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been bitter rivals for decades, vying to lead competing branches of Islam and standing on opposing sides of conflicts in Syria and Yemen. But Tehran and Riyadh have taken major steps to de-escalate tensions and boost cooperation, a move that appeared unthinkable until recently. The rapprochement has coincided with growing fears of an all-out war in the Middle East, where U.S. ally Israel is engaged in wars against Iranian-backed groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. The detente process has intensified since Donald Trump's decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month. The president-elect has pledged to bring peace to the region. "I don't view this as a warming of relations but rather as a cautious detente," said Talal Mohammad, associate fellow at the Britain-based Royal United Services Institute. Reassuring Iran The first signs of a thaw came in March 2023, when Iran and Saudi Arabia restored diplomatic relations after more than seven years following a surprise Chinese-brokered agreement. But it was Israel's invasion of Gaza in October 2023 -- soon after the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel -- that gave real impetus to Iran-Saudi rapprochement efforts. Since the war erupted, Iran and Israel have traded direct aerial attacks for the first time. The tit-for-tat assaults have brought the region to the brink of a full-blown conflict . Saudi Arabia is "concerned that these escalating tensions between Israel and Iran could spiral out of control and lead to a broader regional conflict that may impact their interests," said Hamidreza Azizi, fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Azizi adds that Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shi'a-dominated Iran are still "far from friends," despite the recent rapprochement, and they remain rivals vying for influence. Over the past year, Saudi Arabia has stopped conducting air strikes in neighboring Yemen against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Riyadh has also made attempts to negotiate an end to the 10-year conflict pitting the Huthis against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The Huthis have also ceased cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia. In 2019, the rebels managed to shut down half of the kingdom's oil production. The Trump Factor Trump's victory in the November 5 presidential election has injected more urgency to the Iran-Saudi rapprochement, experts say. Saudi Arabia's top general, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, made a rare trip to Iran on November 10 to meet Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Baqeri in what Iranian media dubbed " defense diplomacy ." The following day, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman accused Israel of committing "collective genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza and explicitly condemned Israel's attack last month on Iranian military sites. Azizi says there are fears in the region that Trump's electoral victory will embolden Israel to intensify its attacks on Iran and Tehran's interests. During Trump's first term in office from 2017 to 2021, his administration pursued a campaign of "maximum pressure" on Iran that included imposing crippling sanctions against Tehran. At the same time, Trump struck a close relationship with Riyadh. He helped facilitate normalization between several Arab states and Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords. Before Israel launched its devastating war in Gaza, Saudi Arabia was reportedly on the verge of a historic deal to normalize relations with Israel. Experts say that the Huthis' attacks in 2019 on Saudi oil facilities convinced Riyadh that Washington will not come to its aid if it is attacked. "Given Trump's tendency toward unpredictable shifts in policy, Saudi Arabia may seek to play an influential role by encouraging Trump to adopt a balanced approach that ensures regional stability without triggering escalation with Iran," Mohammad said. "By subtly guiding U.S. policy toward calibrated sanctions rather than aggressive pressure, Saudi Arabia could help maintain regional security while avoiding the risks of open confrontation," he added. Israeli Normalization Normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel have been indefinitely postponed. Saudi officials have recently said that a deal was off until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Mohammad says Riyadh has significant strategic incentives to normalize relations with Israel, including security and economic cooperation as well as access to U.S. nuclear and defense technology. But analysts say Saudi Arabia will only resume talks when the Gaza war is over, given the current public sentiment in the Muslim world toward Israel. "Normalizing relations without achieving tangible rights for Palestinians could weaken Saudi Arabia's normative influence within the Islamic world -- a position they are keen to maintain," Azizi argued. The Saudis will also have to take into account Iran, which staunchly opposes Saudi normalization with Israel. "Riyadh may consult with Tehran and seek assurances that normalization with Israel would not heighten hostilities or undermine the balance achieved through recent diplomatic outreach to Iran," Mohammad said. Rafael Grossi, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has urged Iran and its global partners to achieve "concrete, tangible, and visible results" in talks over Tehran's nuclear program as the return of Donald Trump to the White House may mean the window for diplomacy is closing. Speaking to journalists in the Iranian capital on November 14 after a meeting with Iran's nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, Grossi said pressure was building for movement toward a solution with Iran-backed proxies at war with Israel and Trump, known for his hard-line stance against Tehran, taking over the U.S. presidency in January. "We know that it is indispensable to get, at this point of time, to get some concrete, tangible, and visible results that will indicate that this joint work is improving (the) situation, is bringing clarification to things, and in a general sense it is moving us away from conflict and ultimately war," Grossi said. “The fact that international tensions and regional tensions do exist...shows that the space for negotiation and diplomacy is not getting bigger, it is getting smaller," he added. Grossi's visit takes place about two months ahead of the inauguration of Trump, who during his first term in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers and reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic. The 2015 deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had given Iran some limited relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program designed to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Grossi also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran on November 14. Araqchi, Iran's chief negotiator during the negotiations to reach the JCPOA deal, which barred Tehran from enriching uranium above the level of 3.65 percent, said on X that the talks with Grossi were "important and straightforward." He vowed to continue Iran's cooperation with the IAEA on nuclear nonproliferation "with courage and good will" and reiterated Tehran's longstanding assertion that its nuclear program was "peaceful." Araqchi added, however, that Iran would not negotiate "under pressure." After Washington's withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran expanded its nuclear program and restricted IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites. The IAEA and the international community have voiced alarm at reports that Tehran has substantially increased its stocks of uranium enriched to 60 percent -- considerably closer to the 90 percent level needed for a nuclear weapon. Nuclear expert Eric Brewer told RFE/RL that the IAEA's lack of access to Iran's nuclear sites heightens the risk of it producing more enriched uranium. "I suspect that to get Iran to provide some information on that front is at the top of Director-General Grossi's list," Brewer said. He added that while the trip had been scheduled since before the U.S. election, Trump's re-election "will hang over the conversations." The IAEA chief is expected to hold talks with Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian later in the day. WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Senator Marco Rubio to be his top diplomat as the incoming administration prepares to navigate an increasingly perilous world, with wars raging in Europe and the Middle East and competition heating up with China in the Asia-Pacific. In choosing Rubio -- a senator known for taking a tough line on many foreign policy issues -- the president-elect is seeking someone who largely shares his views on the most pressing international topics, says Behnam Ben Taleblu, an analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Rubio is someone who has ideological and political alignment with Trump on several key national-security issues like great-power competition, countering China, countering the Islamic [Republic of] Iran, and reinstating the maximum-pressure campaign," Taleblu told RFE/RL. In a wide-ranging interview last week with media before being tapped as secretary of state, Rubio said the decades-long period of unchallenged U.S. global dominance following the collapse of the Soviet Union had ended, replaced by a new Cold War-like era. He warned that the United States can't stretch itself too thin with global commitments, saying Washington must be "pragmatic" in its pursuits abroad. "We're the most powerful [country], but we too have limited resources...so we have to invest both our time and our money on things that serve our core national interest," Rubio said in a November 7 interview with EWTN, a U.S.-based cable network. Rubio, a Cuban-American, played an influential role in shaping Trump's policy on Venezuela during the latter's first term as president from 2017 to 2021. The New York Times described Rubio at the time as Trump's "virtual secretary of state for Latin America." The three-time Florida senator, who challenged Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, comes to the job with ample foreign policy experience, having served on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. If ultimately confirmed by the Senate, Rubio, 53, would be the first Latino to serve as secretary of state . And while Latin America will certainly be an important focus for Rubio, it will take a back seat to more pressing U.S. foreign policy concerns, namely China's global rise, Iran's threat to the Middle East, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Priority No. 1: China When it comes to demands on U.S. military, political, and financial resources, Rubio wants the focus to be on China. "I think the future of the 21st century is going to largely be defined by what happens in the Indo-Pacific. And I think China would love for us to be bogged down in Europe in a conflict and not focused on what's happening in the Indo-Pacific," Rubio said on November 7. Rubio, who served as a co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, has consistently advocated taking a hard line on China. He led efforts to arm Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing. He called for direct shipments of U.S. munitions and advanced military technologies in hopes of deterring China from attacking the island. Rubio has also been vocal about Beijing's human rights record, pushed for a U.S. industrial policy to better compete with China, and backed tariffs on Chinese goods. He sought to ban imports of Chinese goods made with forced labor by Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in western China and prevent China from circumventing Trump-era tariffs by relocating production to Mexico. NATO And Ukraine Rubio has repeatedly supported Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in its defensive war against Russia and described Ukrainians as "incredibly brave and strong." In February 2022, immediately following Russia's full-scale invasion, he co-sponsored the NYET Act in the Senate, which aimed to "bolster Ukraine's defense capabilities" and impose sanctions on Russia. However, Rubio has also said Russia's war against Ukraine has reached a "stalemate" and "needs to be brought to a conclusion." He was among a minority of senators who, earlier this year, opposed a foreign-assistance bill that included $60 billion in aid for Ukraine. The bill eventually passed in April, bringing total U.S. aid to Ukraine since February 2022 to almost $175 billion -- about as much given by all of Europe combined. Rubio has highlighted that imbalance, emphasizing that Washington should push Europe to take a larger role in handling its own security issues in order to allow the United States to prioritize challenging China in the Indo-Pacific. In last week's interview with EWTN, Rubio said it was "unrealistic" to expect the United States to approve tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine every 10 months. He said European members of NATO need to step up their contributions to the alliance. "Every day in our own country, [we are] grappling with [the question of] how do we provide assistance to Americans, even as we have these defense requirements that we're spending a lot of money on, and these [European NATO] countries are not making that choice," he said. While Rubio sees Russia as a threat to U.S. security and backs Ukraine's sovereignty and independence, he said Kyiv will have to negotiate an end to the war. Rubio said Russia has just too many resources at its disposal, including weapons and men, to allow it to continue the fighting despite suffering extraordinary losses. Iran: 'No Appeasement' In the Middle East, Rubio has long taken a tough stand on Iran, describing its theocratic government as a "terrorist regime" for financing groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated terrorist organizations by the United States. As a senator, he was a fierce critic of U.S. President Barack Obama's 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), which restricted Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions. Critics of the deal argued it empowered Iran, offering too much relief from sanctions without guarantees it wouldn't someday produce a nuclear bomb. In 2018, Trump, who was then president, pulled the United States out of the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran. More recently, Rubio co-authored three bills punishing Iran that were signed into law this year. The bills authorize placing sanctions on Iranian oil exports and top Iranian leaders for human rights abuses, as well as foreign entities and governments supporting Hamas. An Iranian client, Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, triggering a regional war that threatens to engulf more states. Rubio in September criticized the Biden administration for dragging its feet on enforcing the Iranian oil sanctions , which are aimed at crippling the government's finances. It has also failed to move forward on the human rights sanctions. Depending on what the incoming administration is faced with in Iran when it takes office, analyst Taleblu says -- noting the volatile situation in the Middle East -- he would expect a Rubio-led State Department to make good on enforcement of the sanction bills. A vocal supporter of Israel, Rubio has backed the country's right to defend itself from Iranian threats. Following Tehran's missile strikes on Israel on October 1, Rubio publicly backed an asymmetrical response. Afghanistan Rubio has also taken a hard line on the Taliban, arguing the militant Islamist group should be described as a "terrorist organization" by Washington. In March, the Florida senator introduced a bill in the Senate calling for an end to an end to U.S. aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, arguing that some of that money could end up with "terrorist groups." In remarks to the Senate, Rubio said, "A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan poses a direct threat to U.S. national-security interests and to our allies in the Middle East and Central Asia." Kianoosh Sanjari, a journalist and political activist, has committed suicide to protest numerous arrests and interrogations of himself and other political activists. A relative of Sanjari confirmed the news in an interview with RFE/RL on November 13. Friends of Sanjari also confirmed his death in posts on X. Since returning to Tehran in 2015 to care for his elderly mother, Sanjari was repeatedly summoned and arrested by the security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic republic. Hours before committing suicide, Sanjari announced his decision to end his life on X. After an ultimatum demanding the Iranian government release four activists and journalists by a specified time was not met, Sanjari tweeted again: "My life will end after this tweet but let's not forget that we die for the love of life, not death. I wish that one day Iranians will wake up and overcome slavery." To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here . The U.S. Justice Department has charged a man for allegedly leaking highly classified U.S. intelligence about Israel's plans for retaliation against Iran, according to U.S. media reports on November 13. The reports said that Asif W. Rahman was indicted earlier this month for willfully transmitting national defense information. He was arrested on November 12 in Cambodia by the FBI and was to appear in court in Guam. Court documents indicate that he was employed by the U.S. government. According to a person familiar with his employment, he was employed by the CIA. This employment gave him a top-secret security clearance and allowed him to access sensitive information. The New York Times, which first reported the story, said that Rahman was indicted on a charge related to the posting of the intelligence on Telegram in mid-October. The documents posted included Israeli plans for moving munitions and Israeli Air Force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles. Iran says it has measures in place to ensure it will continue producing and exporting oil even if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Tehran once he takes office in January. During his first term in office in 2017-21, Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran. As a result, Iran’s oil production dropped from 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to 2.1 million bpd, while its exports plummeted to between 200,000 and 500,000 bpd from 2.5 million bpd. But both production and exports have picked up in recent years despite U.S. sanctions, with Iran’s oil output reaching around 3.2m bpd. Exports, meanwhile, have hit a multiyear high of 1.7 million bpd. Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told reporters on November 13 that Iran has mechanisms in place “to continue selling our oil” regardless of who is in power in the United States. “We have tried-and-tested methods and don’t have serious concerns about [selling oil],” he said, according to Iranian state-aligned media. Without offering details, the oil minister said, “necessary measures have been taken by our colleagues in the oil sector in preparation for what is to come and there is no reason to worry.” Trump is expected to launch a new-look "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic republic once he takes office on January 20, 2025. Iran boosted its oil sales by circumventing sanctions through a variety of means, exporting mostly to China, which does not recognize U.S. measures against Iran. The tactic involves the ship-to-ship transfer of oil, middlemen, clandestine money transfers, and the rebranding of the oil to mask its Iranian origin. Iranian crude makes up about 13 percent of oil imports by China, the world's biggest purchaser of the commodity. Beijing says the purchases conform to international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says another attack on Israel would paralyze the Islamic republic's economy and cost billions of dollars that could be spent to the benefit of ordinary Iranians. In his second video addressed directly to Iranians in the last two months, which was released in English with Farsi subtitles on November 12, Netanyahu said that Iran's October 1 missile attack cost it $2.3 billion dollars, "valuable money that the Islamic republic wasted" as the "damage of that attack on Israel was insignificant." He added that the Iranian government is "obsessed" with the destruction of Israel but its theocracy fears its own people more than Israel. Neither the people of Israel nor ordinary Iranians want war, he said. Some analysts said the video could be a warning that if Iran were to attack again, Israel would hit back hard in an attempt to cause major damage to Iran's economy. There was no immediate reaction to the video from Iran. T o read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here . Iranian-American human rights activist Masih Alinejad says she derives joy from the failure of alleged plots by the Islamic republic to kidnap and assassinate her. The U.S. Justice Department on November 8 unsealed criminal charges that include details of a plot allegedly backed by Iran to kill Alinejad and President-elect Donald Trump before the November 5 election. Iran has rejected the allegation. "When the Islamic republic is defeated, disgraced, and embarrassed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], it has no choice but to deny," Alinejad, 48, said in comments to RFE/RL's Radio Farda. Alinejad, who has criticized Iran's laws requiring women to wear a hijab, or head scarf, was the target of a kidnapping plot in 2021. In 2022 a man was also arrested with a rifle outside her home. “The Islamic republic has been disgraced three times.... The humiliation of [Iranian authorities] is truly pleasing,” she said. The FBI informed Alinejad of the suspected Iranian plot to kill her shortly before the court documents were unsealed, she said, recalling that she was "shocked" to learn about the details. Two men arrested by the FBI were planning to target Alinejad at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where she was scheduled to appear. The Justice Department alleges the two men spent months surveilling Alinejad and earlier this year traveled to the university campus and took photos of the premises. "It is shocking how brazenly the Islamic republic can savagely plan to assassinate someone in another country," Alinejad said. Iran has long been accused of targeting dissidents abroad, either to kidnap them or kill them. Rights groups say exiled opposition activist Ruhollah Zam was abducted in 2019 before being executed in Iran a year later. In 2020, Tehran said it had arrested Iranian-German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd and later sentenced him to death. Sharmahd's family insists he was kidnapped while through the United Arab Emirates. Iranian authorities claim Sharmahd died in prison last month before being executed. Alinejad, who is visiting Germany and recently met with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said her message to Germany, the United States, and all Western countries is to "protect your borders and democracy instead of protecting me so that the Islamic republic's terrorists can't enter and plot assassinations on Western soil." She said symbolic gestures by the West in support of Iranian protesters and dissidents "is not enough" to dissuade Iranian authorities from targeting critics abroad. Instead, she argued, severing diplomatic ties and "extensive support" for protesters inside Iran would be more effective. The general chief of staff of Saudi Arabia's armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, met his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Baqeri, in Tehran during a rare visit on November 10. Iran's official IRNA news agency said they discussed the development of defense diplomacy and bilateral cooperation without offering any details. Iranian media said Baqeri had discussed regional developments and defense cooperation with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman al-Saud last year. Ruwaili is only the second high-profile Saudi official to travel to Tehran since Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore diplomatic relations after seven years following Chinese-brokered talks in March 2023. Previously, Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan visited Iran in June 2023. Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia severed ties with Shi'a-dominated Iran in 2016 after its diplomatic compounds in Tehran and Mashhad were attacked by protesters over Riyadh's execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The trip comes days after the election of Donald Trump, whose second term as U.S. president begins in January. He has pledged to bring peace to the Middle East, where U.S. ally Israel is engaged in wars against Iranian-backed groups in Gaza and Lebanon. Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the timing of the trip was significant because it comes as various countries are preparing for a second Trump presidency. He said the Saudis' decision to send their top military official to Tehran "is a signal that they are committed" to the detente process that started last year and that "they don't want Trump's election to jeopardize the recently improving relations with Iran." Separately, Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman on the phone and discussed expanding bilateral relations, according to Pezeshkian's office. Trump had good relations with Persian Gulf Arab states in his first tenure in office and worked on normalizing relations between Arab states and Iran's archfoe, Israel. Saudi Arabia has not normalized relations with Israel but Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is said to have discussed the possibility of normalization with Saudi Arabia since 2021. In another sign of warming relations, Saudi Arabia announced last month that it held military drills with Iran in the Sea of Oman. UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit Iran on November 13 and start consultations with Iranian officials the following day, state media reported on November 10. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that he might head to Iran in the coming days to discuss its disputed nuclear program and that he expected to work cooperatively with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Long-standing issues between Iran, the IAEA, and Western powers include Tehran barring several uranium-enrichment experts from IAEA inspection teams in the country and its failure for years to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. Iran has also stepped up nuclear activity since 2019, after then-President Trump abandoned a 2015 deal Iran reached with world powers under which it curbed enrichment -- seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability -- and restored tough U.S. sanctions on the Islamic republic.

FAA grants commercial launch license to Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket"We take these allegations seriously and are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigation," said the CEO of NVIDIA. "At NVIDIA, we believe in competing on the merits of our technology and the value we bring to our customers. We have always strived to operate with integrity and in compliance with all antitrust laws."

In conclusion, the incident of invasive photography on the subway train serves as a stark reminder of the importance of respecting privacy rights and holding individuals accountable for their actions. It is imperative for all members of society to be mindful of the impact of their behavior on others and to take responsibility for any violations of personal boundaries. By creating a culture of respect, transparency, and accountability, we can ensure that everyone's privacy is protected and that incidents of harassment and invasion are swiftly and decisively addressed.

Pakistan’s history is filled with unsung heroes, and among them stands Prince Miangul Asfandyar Amir Zeb, a man whose life was tragically cut short in a bomb blast on December 28, 2007. Known for his elegance, charm, and dedication to the people of Swat, Asfandyar’s legacy remains largely forgotten, overshadowed by national tragedies that unfolded around the same time. Yet, his contributions to education and development are still remembered by those whose lives he touched. Asfandyar was not just another politician; he was a figure who embodied grace and strength, a true prince in both name and spirit. With a background in civil engineering, he was elected as a member of Parliament, and later served as the Education Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was admired not only for his royal lineage but also for his humble demeanor, kindness, and tireless service to his people. On that fateful December day, Asfandyar was in Manglawar, a town on the outskirts of Mingora city, having just concluded an election gathering. In a rush to reach Shingrai village for Friday prayers, he was killed in a devastating bomb blast that took the lives of nine others. The violence claimed not just his life, but the lives of innocent civilians, some of whom were identified only by their shoes or watches. It was a heartbreaking day for Swat, compounded by the previous day’s tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, a national event that dominated the media and, unfortunately, overshadowed Asfandyar’s demise. Born to Prince Miangul Amir Zeb and the grandson of Swat’s last ruler, Major General (H) Miangul Abdul Haq Jehanzeb, Asfandyar came from a bloodline rich in history. His education began at Public School Sangota in Swat, followed by Army Burn Hall College in Abbottabad and a degree in Civil Engineering from Peshawar University. Asfandyar’s political journey started in 1997 when he contested elections as a member provincial assembly candidate for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He quickly made a mark as the Education Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where he spearheaded the establishment of numerous schools, colleges, and universities. His work helped uplift the province and played a crucial role in defending Pakistan against those who sought to criticize its potential. As District Nazim from 2003, following the death of Dr. Mahboob ur Rahman, Asfandyar carried forward his grandfather’s legacy of progress and development. Swat, once a remote and underserved region, saw the construction of schools, hospitals, roads, and other vital infrastructure, all thanks to his tireless efforts. Despite his monumental contributions, Asfandyar’s death went largely unrecognized, failing to receive the acknowledgement it truly deserved. Fazal Mahmood Rokhan, a poet and historian from Swat, talking to APP lamented the lack of acknowledgement for Asfandyar’s work. “He deserved to be remembered for his services to the district and the province. But no road, no school, or university bears his name,” said Rokhan. Rokhan further recalled the harrowing aftermath of Asfandyar’s death, describing how his body, disfigured and mutilated, lay unceremoniously in Saidu Sharif Hospital for an entire night. “It is almost unimaginable for someone as dignified and handsome as him,” Rokhan said. “The other victims were buried in pieces, but Asfandyar, a man who gave so much to his people, was treated with such disregard.” The tragedy of Asfandyar’s departure is not just in the way he was lost, but in how his legacy has faded from memory. As Fazal Mahmood Rokhan put it, “It is a tragedy after a tragedy. His death, like his life, went unnoticed by the powers that be.” Today, 17 years after that tragic day, it is crucial that we remember Prince Miangul Asfandyar Amir Zeb, not just for his royal bloodline, but for the dignity and devotion with which he served his people. It is time to restore his rightful place in the annals of history and honour the memory of one of Swat’s most beloved sons.

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As winter sets in, a wave of cold air is sweeping across China, bringing with it frigid temperatures and heavy snowfall in many regions. This sudden drop in temperature has caught many off guard, leading to concerns about the potential impacts of the extreme weather conditions.As Guga reflected on his journey in Beijing, he realized that he had finally found what he had been searching for all along – a sense of belonging and purpose. The city had provided him with the opportunity to explore his passions, connect with like-minded individuals, and make a positive impact on the world around him. In Beijing, Guga felt alive, inspired, and fulfilled in a way that he had never experienced before.Recently, the Henan Provincial Department of Education organized a symposium on corporate cooperation between BYD Co., Ltd. and vocational schools. The meeting aimed to strengthen the partnership between industry and education, promote the integration of theory and practice, and enhance students' practical skills and employability.None

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SEVEN Premier League stars feature in this year's top 20 highest transfer value climbers. Plenty of players around the world have increased their stocks with brilliant performances in 2024. From teenage wonderkids to already established stars making a leap, this list features players that have soared during the last 12 months. Boffins over at Transfermarkt calculate every player's transfer value. And they have compiled their list of the top 20 risers during 2024. Here is a run-through of each player to have made the cut. Transfer value: £62m (+£25m) Former Coventry and Brighton star has been sensational since moving to Portugal. Has scored 27 goals in 26 games this season, and will have upped his stock with a Champions League hat-trick vs Manchester City . Transfer value: £66m (+£25m) The winger, 28, has come on leaps and bounds since leaving Leeds in 2022. He has established himself as one of Barca's key men, and even captains them in Marc-Andre ter Stegen's injury absence. BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKER S Transfer value: £108m (+£25m) Despite being surrounded by superstars, Valverde continues to stand out. The 26-year-old helped Real Madrid to LaLiga and Champions League triumphs last term. Transfer value: £116m (+£25m) Attacking midfielder Musiala excelled at Euro 2024 with Germany last summer. At club level, the 21-year-old is already among Bayern Munich 's best players. Transfer value: £116m (+£25m) Manchester City star Foden was crowned PFA Player of the Year for his exploits during the 2023-24 campaign. At 24, it's expected that he should soon enter his prime years. Transfer value: £124m (+£25m) Prior to his recent hamstring injury, Saka continued to thrive for the Gunners. The 23-year-old has already scored five goals and laid on 10 assists this season. Transfer value: £37m (+£26.5m) Italian defender Calafiori hugely improved his stock with his performances at Euro 2024. The 22-year-old subsequently earned a summer move from Genoa to Arsenal . Transfer value: £37m (+£29m) Turkish international has established himself as one of Juventus ' key players aged just 19. He is projected to get better and better with the Old Lady. Transfer value: £41m (+£29m) Lopez, 21, is one of several La Masia graduates to make this top 20 list. With Barca still struggling financially, the midfielder's importance will likely only grow. Transfer value: £54m (+£29m) Previously stuck behind Kylian Mbappe in PSG's pecking order, Barcola has been able to flourish since the forward's departure. The 22-year-old has firmly developed into one of Ligue 1's best players this season. Transfer value: £33m (+£31m) Former Man City academy starlet Rogers left Middlesbrough for Aston Villa in January. This season he has grown into one of Unai Emery 's most important players. Transfer value: £41m (+£33m) Brazilian wonderkid Estevao, 17, has already broken into the Selecao national team following his performances for Palmeiras. He is set to join Chelsea upon his 18th birthday next summer. Transfer value: £116m (+£33m) German attacking midfielder starred as Bayer Leverkusen achieved a historic campaign last term. Wirtz, 21, was central to Xabi Alonso 's side achieving an unbeaten Bundesliga title season and winning the DFB Pokal. Transfer value: £50m (+£37m) Egyptian international Marmoush has become one of the Bundesliga's hottest properties this year. The 25-year-old has starred for Eintracht Frankfurt, who may struggle to keep hold of him. Transfer value: £41m (+£40m ) Holding midfielder Pavlovic has risen from relative obscurity to become a key cog for Bayern. The 20-year-old German is expected to keep going from strength to strength for club and county. Transfer value: £45.5m (+£40.5m) Manchester United academy graduate Mainoo is already among the Red Devils' most important players. New boss Ruben Amorim will hope to have the 19-year-old fit and firing during the second half of the campaign. Transfer value: £165m (+£41m) Brazilian winger felt robbed of the Ballon d'Or, but can still look back on plenty of personal accolades this year. The 24-year-old is a man in his prime, helping Real Madrid to trophy after trophy each season. Transfer value: £58m (+£57m) Central defender Cubarsi is already starring at the back for Barcelona aged just 17. The academy graduate has shown an amazing maturity beyond his years. Transfer value: £108m (+£70m) Chelsea star Palmer is second on this list and the highest-ranked Premier League player. Since moving to Stamford Bridge from Man City he has exceeded all expectations, leaving his old club to rue the sale. Transfer value: £149m (£99m) The third La Masia graduate on this list, Yamal is the most impressive. Like Cubarsi he is aged just 17, and has already carried Spain to Euro 2024 glory - an incredibly exciting talent.

Parliamentary Panel To Examine Issue of Lateral Entry In Government DepartmentsIntroducing St. Maarten's New Sports Landmark: Vie L'Ven's Multi-Court With Panoramic Views of Indigo Bay and Limited-Edition Pickleball PaddleBritain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs David Lammy has hailed the bold economic reforms of Dr Manmohan Singh as a legacy which continues to shape modern India. In a social media tribute to the former prime minister who was cremated in New Delhi on Saturday, Lammy also credited Singh for laying the foundations of the “thriving” bilateral partnership between India and the UK. “Dr Manmohan Singh’s bold economic reforms transformed India’s economy,” Lammy said in a post on X on Friday evening. “His legacy continues to shape modern India, and his vision laid the foundations for today’s thriving UK-India partnership. My deepest condolences to his family and the Indian people,” he said. Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister between 2004 and 2014 and finance minister before that, has been widely hailed the world over as the architect of India's economic liberalisation. He died aged 92 and was laid to rest with full state honours in a ceremony attended by leading political dignitaries and included a 21-gun salute. Following his death on Thursday night, the government declared seven days of national mourning. Earlier, British High Commissioner to India Lindy Cameron took to social media to pay tribute to “a great Prime Minister, Finance Minister and global statesman who advanced India’s interests through bold economic reforms and played a key role in putting India in its rightful place on the world stage and stabilising the global economy after the financial crisis”. “The UK will always be proud of his invaluable partnership with three UK Prime Ministers, and proud of him as an alumnus of two of our great universities. My thoughts and wishes are with his family and the people of India,” she said. Singh’s tenure overlapped with Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Conservative David Cameron, who later wrote in his memoir that he “got on well” with this “saintly man” who was robust on the threats India faced. “On a later visit he told me that another terrorist attack like that in Mumbai in July 2011, and India would have to take military action against Pakistan,” notes the former UK PM in ‘For the Record’, published in 2019. The Guardian’ newspaper referenced Singh’s “trademark sky-blue turbans and home-spun white kurta pyjamas” in its obituary. “Singh, called India’s ‘reluctant prime minister’ due to his shyness and preference for being behind the scenes, was considered an unlikely choice to lead the world’s biggest democracy. But when Congress leader Sonia Gandhi led her party to a surprise victory in 2004, she turned to Singh to be prime minister,” the newspaper notes. The BBC, in its obituary, hailed Singh as one of India's longest-serving prime ministers who was considered the “architect of key liberalising economic reforms, as premier from 2004-2014 and before that as finance minister”. Also Read: R.I.P Dr Manmohan Singh (1932–2024): A reformer and a gentleman “In his maiden speech as finance minister he famously quoted Victor Hugo, saying that ‘no power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come’. That served as a launchpad for an ambitious and unprecedented economic reform programme: he cut taxes, devalued the rupee, privatised state-run companies and encouraged foreign investment,” reads the report.

With nearly all of the votes counted, left-leaning Mr Milanovic won 49% while his main challenger Dragan Primorac, a candidate of the ruling conservative HDZ party, trailed far behind with 19%. Pre-election polls had predicted that the two would face off in the second round on January 12, as none of the eight presidential election contenders were projected to get more than 50% of the vote. Mr Milanovic thanked his supporters but warned that “this was just a first run”. “Let’s not be triumphant, let’s be realistic, firmly on the ground,” he said. “We must fight all over again. It’s not over till it’s over.” Mr Milanovic, the most popular politician in Croatia, has served as prime minister in the past. Populist in style, the 58-year-old has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and continuous sparring between the two has been a recent hallmark of Croatia’s political scene. Mr Plenkovic has sought to portray the vote as one about Croatia’s future in the EU and Nato. He has labelled Mr Milanovic “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing. “The difference between him (Mr Primorac) and Milanovic is quite simple: Milanovic is leading us East, Primorac is leading us West,” he said. Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme commander of the military. Mr Milanovic has criticised the Nato and European Union support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides. He has said Croatia should stay away from global disputes, thought it is a member of both Nato and the EU. Mr Milanovic has also blocked Croatia’s participation in a Nato-led training mission for Ukraine, declaring that “no Croatian soldier will take part in somebody else’s war”. His main rival in the election, Mr Primorac, has stated that “Croatia’s place is in the West, not the East”. However, his bid for the presidency has been marred by a high-level corruption case that landed Croatia’s health minister in jail last month and which featured prominently in pre-election debates. Trailing a distant third in the pre-election polls is Marija Selak Raspudic, a conservative independent candidate. She has focused her election campaign on the economic troubles of ordinary citizens, corruption and issues such as population decline in the country of some 3.8 million. Sunday’s presidential election is Croatia’s third vote this year, following a snap parliamentary election in April and the European Parliament balloting in June.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler birdied every hole but the par 3s on the front nine at Albany Golf Club on Friday and finished his bogey-free round with an 8-under 64 that gave him a two-shot lead in the Hero World Challenge. Two months off did nothing to slow the world's No. 1 player. Scheffler already has eight victories this year and is in position to get another before the end of the year. Scheffler was at 13-under 131, two ahead of Akshay Bhatia (66) and Justin Thomas (67), both of whom had to save par on the 18th hole to stay in range going into the weekend. Scheffler started with a lob wedge to 2 feet for birdie and never slowed until after he went out in 29 to seize control of the holiday tournament against a 20-man field. Scheffler cooled slightly on the back nine, except it didn't feel that way to him. "Front nine, just things were going my way. Back nine, maybe not as much," Scheffler said. "A couple shots could end up closer to the hole, a couple putts go in, just little things." Asked if he felt any frustration he didn't take it lower — he once shot 59 at the TPC Boston during the FedEx Cup playoffs — Scheffler sounded bemused. "I think in this game I think a lot of all y'all are looking for perfection out of us," he said. "Today I shot 8 under on the golf course, not something I hang my head about. A lot of good things out there — clean card, bogey-free, eight birdies. Overall, I think I'm pretty pleased." Thomas felt his 67 was stress-free, particularly the way he was driving the ball. The wind laid down again, rare for the Bahamas, though it is expected to pick up on the weekend. Thomas wasn't concerned to see Scheffler get off to a hot start, especially with three par 5s on the front nine and a short par 4 that at worst leaves a flip wedge to the green. "You literally can birdie every hole as soft as the greens are," Thomas said. "He's a great player, a great wedge player, and you have a lot of birdie holes to start. I'm honestly surprised he only shot 8 under. It's a sneaky course because if you fall asleep on some shots, you can get out of position. But if you're on and focused and really in control of everything — like these last two days with no wind — you can just make so many birdies." Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley had a 67 and was four shots behind. No matter how benign the conditions, it wasn't always easy. Cameron Young, who opened with a 64 for a two-shot lead, followed with a 75 despite making five birdies. That included a double bogey on the final hole when his approach tumbled down the bank into the rocks framing the lake that goes all the way down the 18th hole. Patrick Cantlay was trying to keep pace playing alongside Scheffler, but he had three bogeys over the final seven holes and fell seven shots behind with a 71. The tournament, hosted by Tiger Woods, is unofficial but offers world ranking points to all but the bottom three players because of the small field. It's the weakest field in 25 years, but Scheffler at No. 1 gives it enough cachet. He is the first player since Woods in 2009 to start and finish a year at No. 1 in the world. And even after a layoff — giving him time to tinker with a new putting stroke — it looks like it might be a while before anyone changes that.ST. PAUL, Minn. — Five weeks after losing a national election, Gov. Tim Walz is keeping his options open both in Minnesota and nationally, gearing up for the 2025 legislative session and trying to understand why the ticket he joined with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t win over enough voters. “Somehow we decided that electing a billionaire who screwed the middle class his entire life was better for the middle class,” Walz said in an interview, referring to the Harris-Walz ticket’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump. “Who knew making housing affordable was not as strong a message as: ‘They’re eating dogs and they’re eating cats.’ ” Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Gov. Phil Murphy has asked the Biden administration to put more resources into an investigation of mysterious drone sightings that have been reported in New Jersey and nearby states. Murphy, a Democrat, made the request in a letter Thursday, noting that state and local law enforcement remain “hamstrung” by existing laws and policies in their efforts to successfully counteract any nefarious activity of unmanned aircraft. He posted a copy of the letter on the social media platform X. “This leaves action surrounding the (drones) squarely on the shoulders of the federal government,” Murphy said. “More federal resources are needed to understand what is behind this activity.” Murphy and other officials have repeatedly stressed that there is no evidence that the aircraft pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus. The Pentagon also has said they are not U.S. military drones. The drones have drawn intense public concern and curiosity since residents first reported seeing them last month. Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia said from four to 180 aircraft have been reported to authorities since Nov. 18, appearing from dusk till 11 p.m. The flying objects have been spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, but the number of reported sightings has grown greatly since then. Drones were also spotted in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region. The FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and other state and federal agencies involved in the investigation have not corroborated any of the reported sightings with electronic detection, and reviews of available images appear to show many of the reported drones are actually manned aircraft. They also say there have been no confirmed sightings in restricted air space. It’s also possible that a single drone has been seen and reported more than once, officials said. Some federal lawmakers have called on the military to “shoot down” the drones. The drones also appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker who was briefed by the Department of Homeland Security. In one case, a medevac helicopter was unable to pick up a seriously injured car accident victim in Branchburg Township in Somerset County late last month due to drones hovering near the planned landing zone, according to . The FAA said Thursday that it does not have a report on this incident. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use but are subject to local and FAA regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified. Witnesses say the drones they think they have seen in New Jersey appear to be larger than those typically used by hobbyists.best time to play jili fortune gems 。

Emerging Threats: Pakistan's Expanding Missile Arsenal

Angela Theatre reopens with high-tech and a nod to nostalgiaMALIBU, Calif., Dec. 13, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — As the Franklin Fire nears containment, having scorched over 4,000 acres and displaced thousands of residents, the Satellite Phone Store ( satellitephonestore.com ) is stepping up to provide critical communication solutions to assist recovery efforts and prepare communities for future emergencies. The Franklin Fire, which destroyed six homes and damaged others, left many areas without reliable communication infrastructure. Satellite communication devices such as sat phones & starlink terminals , which function independently of damaged cell networks, are proving essential for both emergency responders and returning residents. IN RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS, THE SATELLITE PHONE STORE IS OFFERING: Emergency rentals starting at $35.99 per week. Same-day delivery options for urgent needs. Free consultations to help families and organizations find the right tools. 24/7 customer support to ensure seamless setup and troubleshooting. “A WAKE-UP CALL FOR PREPAREDNESS” “Disasters like the Franklin Fire remind us how essential reliable communication is during and after an emergency,” said Tina Blanco, CEO of Satellite Phone Store. “We’re here to help Malibu recover, but we also want to encourage everyone to think ahead. It’s never too late to prepare for the unexpected, and having the right tools can make all the difference.” SATELLITE COMMUNICATION: A LIFELINE DURING AND AFTER A CRISIS As displaced residents begin returning home, satellite communication tools are helping: First responders coordinate firefighting operations in remote, rugged terrain. Residents stay in touch with loved ones, access updates, and communicate with insurance providers. Relief volunteers organize recovery efforts efficiently. With the wildfire starting to be under control, attention now shifts to the importance of emergency preparedness. Wildfires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters can happen at any time, and satellite communication ensures connectivity when traditional networks fail. WHY PREPAREDNESS MATTERS The Satellite Phone Store emphasizes the importance of readiness for future emergencies: 100% Connectivity: Satellite devices work independently of damaged or overloaded cell towers. Emergency Updates: Stay informed about evacuation routes and critical developments. Peace of Mind: Reliable communication ensures you’re never out of touch when it matters most. PREPARE TODAY FOR TOMORROW’S EMERGENCIES As Malibu rebuilds, the Satellite Phone Store urges individuals and communities to take action now to prepare for what’s next. Reliable communication tools aren’t just for disasters—they’re a safeguard for the unexpected challenges of the future. About Satellite Phone Store: The Satellite Phone Store, a division of Connecta Satellite Solutions LLC , is a global leader in satellite communication technology. Specializing in satellite phones, portable internet hotspots, GPS trackers, and emergency equipment, the company equips families, businesses, and governments with tools to stay connected in extreme conditions. For more information, visit https://SatellitePhoneStore.com/ or call 1-877-324-6913. MEDIA CONTACT: Lacey Moore Website: SatellitePhoneStore.com Email: Care@SatellitePhoneStore.com Phone: 1-877-324-6913 Locations: California, Florida, Alaska NEWS SOURCE: Satellite Phone Store Keywords: Telecom and VoIP, Emergency, Telecom, Technology, Internet, Natural Disasters, malibu wildfires, portable internet, satellite internet, sat phones, franklin fires, emergency response, california, MALIBU, Calif. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Satellite Phone Store) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire . Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P122844 APDF15TBLLI To view the original version, visit: https://www.send2press.com/wire/satellite-phone-store-steps-in-to-support-malibu-wildfire-recovery-with-lifesaving-communication-tools/ © 2024 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) — Nick Johnson had 22 points in Winthrop's 102-97 win over Mercer on Saturday. Johnson had five rebounds for the Eagles (10-4). Kasen Harrison shot 7 of 11 from the field, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and went 5 for 8 from the line to add 20 points. Kelton Talford shot 4 of 9 from the field and 10 of 14 from the free-throw line to finish with 18 points. The Bears (6-6) were led in scoring by Ahmad Robinson, who finished with 27 points and seven assists. Tyler Johnson added 19 points for Mercer. Angel Montas finished with 17 points. Winthrop plays Sunday against Indiana on the road, and Mercer visits Georgia State on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Turkish Airlines to Begin Operations at The New Terminal One at JFK and Unveil World-Class Lounge

Boston Scientific has updated its instructions for doctors using catheter technology to treat atrial fibrillation with extreme cooling, following reports of four fatalities and other serious complications, the FDA publicized Wednesday. The company, which has approximately 9,400 employees in Minnesota, highlighted the risks of developing an atrioesophageal fistula, a rare and often fatal complication resulting from injury to the esophagus during cryoablation procedures using POLARx and POLARx FIT catheters, which are thin, tubular devices physicians can advance to the heart through blood vessels. During a cryoablation procedure, a balloon expands inside the pulmonary vein, using extreme cold to freeze tissue that transmits the signals that cause the heart to quiver in atrial fibrillation. Seven reports of injuries and four fatalities are linked to the catheters. The FDA has classified the instruction change as a Class I recall, the most serious type, reserved for situations when there’s a reasonable chance that using a device without following updated instructions would lead to serious health problems or death. The recall does not require doctors to stop using the catheters — existing inventory can be used with the new instructions, Boston Scientific said. Patients who have already had a procedure using one of the affected catheters don’t need to take any action. The Heart Rhythm Society said in a safety alert that the POLARx system, commercially introduced in 2020, has been used in about 69,000 cases worldwide, citing the company’s data. The society urged its members using the system to read and follow the company’s instructions. “At present, there is no indication that their system is not safe and effective, if used in accordance with the instructions for use,” the society’s alert to doctors said. Cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation, another AFib procedure cauterizing tissue around the pulmonary vein point by point, present a risk that doctors can inadvertently damage other organs like the esophagus, doctors say. Pulsed field ablation—which uses a high voltage impulse to create pores in cells in the area surrounding the pulmonary vein—presents a smaller chance that the procedure affects adjacent organs, they say. Boston Scientific and other medical technology are racing to commercialize this new technology.

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The ’s hit historic highs this month, closing above 6,000 points for the past two weeks running. Up 27% this year, its performance has dwarfed the ‘s lacklustre 6.5% growth. Major US tech stocks such as and have been leading the charge in the past five days, up 40% and 20% respectively. But looking at year-to-date performance, one under-the-radar company sticks out. Slotted between the usual suspects of and is ( ), the second-best-performing S&P 500 stock this year. Up 262% since 1 January, it’s streaks ahead of Nvidia’s 163% gain but someway behind Palantir’s mind-boggling 333% gain! The Texas-based retail electricity company’s probably a big deal in the US. But here in the UK, our news is dominated by headline-grabbing tech giants like and . So I decided to do some digging and find out why the stock’s doing so well. It’s AI again! Unsurprisingly, Vistra’s performance is intrinsically linked to artificial intelligence (AI). The rapid increase in data centre development over the past year has led to a skyrocketing demand for electricity. Datacentres house the huge number of servers, GPUs and storage devices that are critical to running AI technologies. They’re essentially massive digital libraries where the internet resides. With the demand for electricity forecast to keep growing, hedge funds across the US have been pouring cash into energy suppliers. Vistra operates in the deregulated energy markets of Texas and the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM). This, combined with its capacity to provide dispatchable power, makes it a preferred choice for US data centres. Latest results In its third-quarter results released on 7 November, earnings per share (EPS) and revenue exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue climbed 54% to $6.29bn compared to Q3 2023, while EPS surged 320%, from $1.27 to $5.25. The results were well received, with the stock rallying 15%. Guidance for 2025 was also raised, with adjusted EBITDA expected to range $5.5bn-$6.1bn and cash flow between $3bn-$3.6bn. Looking ahead, revenue’s forecast to grow at an average rate of 9.2% a year. Balance sheet Vistra’s balance sheet has some worrisome figures, particularly $15.52bn in debt. This is considerably higher than its $8.65bn in equity. Operating income covers interest payments four-fold but it’s still a lot of debt to hold. For now, it looks manageable but a debt-to-equity ratio below 100% would be more reassuring. , the price looks a bit high, with a (P/E) ratio of 25.7. The industry average is closer to 15. That’s not particularly surprising, considering the recent growth. It could suppress growth but with electricity demand increasing, I doubt it’ll be a big issue. So what’s the catch? Vistra’s performance is heavily reliant on the AI industry maintaining stability. It’s at risk from unforeseen regulatory hurdles, not to mention energy price fluctuations. And with the bar now set high, shareholders will expect a lot from the year’s final results. A fall below expectations could spook investors, sending the share price tumbling. All things considered, I think it’s a big enough company to weather short-term issues. If I had spare cash, I’d buy the stock to diversify my tech-laden portfolio. I think it’s well worth considering, especially for investors looking for AI exposure beyond the obvious options.

A may not be the gift Americans had on their list this holiday season. But the . A shutdown became more likely after President-elect opposed a reached Wednesday to keep through mid-March. Complicating an already complex situation: Trump wants Congress to because the current debt limit suspension . An agreement would give the incoming administration time to use to pay the bills. A question possibly on the minds of the 68 million Americans currently getting : What happens to the Social Security Administration during a government shutdown? Will recipients still get benefits checks? Here's what to know. During a government shutdown, some federal agencies continue their work because at least some of their workers are considered “essential” to continue activities such as air traffic control, border protection, law enforcement, in-hospital medical care, and power grid maintenance, notes the nonprofit, nonpartisan . Among those agencies and programs that continue on because some of their mandatory spending is not subject to annual appropriations by Congress: Medicare, Medicaid and, yes, Social Security. Social Security has "dedicated funding, so it's outside of the budget process," said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the . "All that money is there to paid (out). It doesn't have to be appropriated. ... You're still going to get your checks." That means retirement and disability benefits including (SSI) payments will continue to go out. Also unaffected by a shutdown: military veterans' benefits, and medical care, and food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Social Security Administration has a contingency plan for shutdowns. In a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget three months ago, the described its 2025 fiscal year plan for a potential federal government shutdown. That coincided with a potential mid-September shutdown, which was avoided by an . (That agreement expires on Friday.) The SSA details how it will "continue activities critical to our direct-service operations and those needed to ensure accurate and timely payment of benefits .... (and) will cease activities not directly related to the accurate and timely payment of benefits or not critical to our direct-service operations." The plan, signed by Chad Poist, the SSA's deputy commissioner for the budget, finance and management, cites from the Department of Justice to the Office of Management and Budget that any other government activities needed to disburse Social Security benefits are allowed during a "lapse in appropriations." The SSA's continued activities include processing benefits applications, issuing new and replacement Social Security cards, and information technology work needed for daily processing activities, fraud protection, and other applications. Some discontinued activities during a shutdown include benefit verifications, earnings record corrections and updates unrelated to adjudication of benefits, and IT enhancement activities. "Some of the (SSA) workers could be furloughed until this is resolved, because some of those services are funded differently than the way the benefits are," Copeland said. He suggests anyone who has an appointment to start benefits or to handle benefit calculations to make sure their appointments will happen or need to be rescheduled. "Appointments ... could be impacted," he said. Those recipients whose birthdates range from the 21st to the 31st of the month are scheduled to get a check on Dec. 24, according to the . The January SSI payment is scheduled to go out Dec. 31. The next checks would be Jan. 3 for recipients who began receiving Social Security before May 1997. Those who get both Social Security & SSI will get Social Security paid on Jan. 3 and SSI on Jan. 1, according to . Checks go out on Jan. 8 for those whose birthdates are from the 1st to 10th of the month and Jan. 15 for those whose birthdates are from the 11th to 20th. ,Several social media users, most identifying as Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters, have expressed discontent with President Joe Biden 's decision to grant clemency to a Chinese national who pleaded guilty to possession of thousands of child pornography images in 2022. Although the social media users appear to be reacting to the news now, Washington and Beijing engaged in a prisoner swap two weeks ago in which the individual, Jin Shanlin, was exchanged. According to the Justice Department's executive grant of clemency, it was granted by Biden to Jin on November 22. At least three Americans who had been detained in China were released and sent back home. "We are pleased to announce the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung from detention in the People's Republic of China," a National Security Council spokesperson told several news outlets in a statement in late November. Jin was a doctoral student at Southern Methodist University when he was arrested in 2021 and later sentenced to 97 months (or just over eight years) in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography before a U.S. magistrate judge in July 2022, according to court documents. His sentencing also required him to pay $30,500 in restitution and $100 in assessment. Newsweek reached out via email to the White House for comment on Thursday. Jin has family connections to China's Communist Party, according to reports. Biden's clemency grant for Jin says he must leave and "remain outside the limits of the United States." Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene reshared a post on X (formerly Twitter ) with information about Jin, along with a segment from a 60 Minutes interview Leslie Stahl did with her in April 2023. She captioned the post: " Democrats really are the party of pedophiles." In the video segment, Greene reiterated her claims, stating that Democrats "support grooming children" and "sexualizing children." She cited transgender surgeries as an example, arguing that "sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children." Also on X, user @MJTruthUltra, who is followed by President-elect Donald Trump 's account that reshares his Truth Social posts, called the clemency "just sick," echoing rhetoric similar to Greene's, writing, "The party of pedophiles protecting pedophiles." X user Alexandria Brown questioned the president's reasoning for granting Jin clemency, writing, "I find it difficult to comprehend what grounds there are for clemency." Unrelated to the China-U.S. swap, Biden commuted on Thursday the sentences of 1,499 people who were released from prison to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, marking the largest single-day clemency action in the country's modern history. Biden also pardoned 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes in an effort to promote second chances and to address problems with the nation's criminal justice system. Though Biden had long promised not to use his clemency power, which is outlined in Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, for his family members, he recently reversed course with his son Hunter, arguing that the prosecution was politically motivated. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in a little over a month, on January 20. He said he will immediately pardon people convicted of participating in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Sikich, a technology and professional services provider, has completed a fifth acquisition in as many years that focuses on building out its presence across the federal landscape. The newest move as part of that strategy sees Sikich purchase the federal contracts business of Cherry Bekaert Advisory, whose primary government customer is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Six members of the Cherry Bekaert team will join Sikich, which is also adding Aurpon Bhattacharya as a principal in the federal government practice. Financial terms of the transaction announced Monday were not disclosed. Chicago-headquartered Sikich employs close to 1,900 employees whose client base includes federal agencies, state and local government agencies, corporations and nonprofit organizations. Sikich has recorded approximately $13.1 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months with the Pentagon's Defense Finance and Accounting Service its largest client at 42% of the obligations, according to USASpending.gov. Cherry Bekaert's unclassified prime revenue figure over that same timeframe is $2.4 million with all of it from USPTO. In May, Sikich accepted a $250 million minority growth investment from Bain Capital to support this current iteration of the expansion strategy. Bain Capital is the same private equity firm that , while Sikich retains majority control of itself in this instance. Sikich’s approach to growth across the federal landscape covers both agencies and contractors. Its expansion push traces back to 2019 and the purchase of public accounting firm Halt, Buzas & Powell that marked an initial entry into the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan regions. Then in 2022, Sikich bought another public accounting firm in Cotton & Company. That transaction added 200 employees to Sikich’s team, including 15 partners, and footprints with cabinet-level and independent federal agencies. Sikich acquired professional services firm CLA in 2023 to add 70 employees and a business whose client base included the Transportation Department, Defense Commissary Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In August, Sikich purchased the accounting and consulting services firm Saggar & Rosenberg to further extend across both GovCon industry clients and federal agencies.Trump offers support for dockworkers union by saying ports shouldn't install more automated systemsBattle for Bitcoin dominance Donald Trump is determined to establish a national bitcoin strategic reserve. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Bitcoin (BTC) and digital currencies are unstoppable. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping may be on the verge of sparking a $1.4 trillion Bitcoin and crypto market surge. In Japan, lawmakers led by Satoshi Aoyama have put forward a proposal to create a national Bitcoin reserve. Public statements, policy discussions and market trends reveal that several nations are exploring the possibility of building Bitcoin reserves. Among these are Brazil, Poland, the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, France, the UK, Canada, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines -- each signaling growing interest in leveraging Bitcoin as a strategic asset. The US government is reported to hold approximately $20 billion worth of Bitcoin, followed by China with $19 billion. The UK holds $6 billion, Bhutan $1 billion and El Salvador $600 million. Among corporations, MicroStrategy leads with a $44 billion Bitcoin holding, followed by Marathon ($4 billion), Riot Platforms ($1.7 billion), Tesla ($994 million), and Coinbase ($970 million). Within the US, several states have expressed interest in establishing their own Bitcoin reserves, including Wyoming, Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado, Arizona, New York, California, Washington and Illinois. The Bitcoin Act of 2024 (S.4912), which proposes designating Bitcoin as a ‘Strategic National Reserve’, is currently awaiting approval in the United States Congress. In Russia, State Duma Deputy Anton Tkachev has introduced a proposal to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Similarly, the RESBit bill, which seeks to allocate up to 5.0 per cent of Brazil’s international reserves to Bitcoin, is under consideration in the Brazilian Congress. Thailand, the Philippines, Paraguay, Panama, South Korea, India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Morocco, Tunisia, the UAE, Qatar, France and Switzerland are all exploring ways to diversify their portfolios and reduce reliance on traditional assets like gold and the US dollar. There’s a growing recognition that owning Bitcoin can enhance a country’s geo-political influence and bargaining power. Bitcoin can help nations reduce their dependence on the traditional financial system and its associated risks, such as sanctions and currency manipulation. For Pakistan, Bitcoin can streamline and lower the cost of remittances, a vital source of foreign exchange for the country. For Pakistan, early adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain technology could also offer the country a competitive edge in the global digital economy. For us, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can help bridge the financial inclusion gap by providing essential financial services to the approximately 60 per cent of the country’s adult population that remains unbanked. The world is undergoing a seismic shift, transitioning from a hard money era to a digital asset revolution. The monetary system is undergoing a radical transformation. The very foundations of the old financial system are being deconstructed. Pakistan must seize the transformative potential of Bitcoin. From geopolitical influence to financial inclusion, Bitcoin offers Pakistan unparalleled opportunities. The country must embrace this digital revolution to secure its future.

French President Emmanuel Macron began his latest search for a prime minister on Friday as the center-left Socialists signaled they were open to joining a broad government coalition, sparking tensions inside an increasingly fragile leftwing bloc. Macron this week rejected demands to resign to resolve France's political crisis, saying conservative prime minister Michel Barnier had been driven from office by the far right and extreme left's "anti-republican front". "We came to say we want left-wing policies with a left-wing prime minister and that this is the message that he (Macron) now needs to understand after he picked Michel Barnier," Socialist Party chairman Olivier Faure said after meeting the president. In a sign of shifting political tides, Faure said he was ready to back a broader government as "everyone could see" the current political gridlock was harming France, but added that he could not work with another rightwing prime minister "under any circumstance". Seeking a way out of the political paralysis that followed snap elections this summer, Macron's allies tried for months to drive a wedge through the leftwing alliance known as the New Popular Front (NFP), urging the socialists to cut ties with the more radical France Unbowed (LFI). LFI's firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon slammed Faure for talking to the president, saying in a social media post: "Nothing of what he's doing is in our name or the name of the NFP." In a prime time address on Thursday, Macron said he would announce a new prime minister in the coming days to replace Barnier, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote by lawmakers angered by his belt-tightening 2025 budget bill. But it remains to be seen how Macron can cobble together enough support in parliament to pass the budget, or install a prime minister with any sort of longevity. France's budget deficit has spiralled upwards this year, worrying financial markets, but the failure to agree a plan to rein it in has seen French borrowing costs jump higher still. The Socialists, a moderate leftist grouping with 66 seats in the National Assembly, voted to topple Barnier this week, but could emerge as crucial kingmakers. If Macron can win their backing, a new prime minister would likely have the numbers to stave off no-confidence motions from Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and other parts of the left. Faure said that Macron should also seek to bring in the Greens and Communists. Macron, who sparked France's festering political crisis in June by calling the snap election that delivered a hung parliament, was defiant in his address to nation on Thursday. "I'm well aware that some want to pin the blame on me for this situation, it's much more comfortable," he said. But he said he would "never bear the responsibilities" of lawmakers who decided to bring down the government just days before Christmas. Their sole motivation, he added, was the 2027 presidential election, "to prepare for it and to precipitate it." The next government would pursue a 2025 budget bill early in the new year, he said, so that "the French people don't pay the bill for this no-confidence motion."From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja Vice President, Kashim Shettima, at the official launch of the 2024 Nigeria Economic Report, gave a firm assurance that ongoing reforms by the government will yield inclusive growth in no distant future. He explained that the strategic policy interventions of the administration of President Bola Tinubu are already yielding positive results, with more optimistic projections for 2025. According to a statement issued by his media aide, Stanley Nkwocha, the Vice President said this on Friday during a one-day technical workshop on the Year 2024 Economic Review at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Represented by Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), Ibrahim Hadejia, he said the report is “a pragmatic synopsis of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bold and impactful strides under the canopy of the Renewed Hope Agenda. “We are not just compiling statistics but constructing a narrative of economic resilience and strategic transformation. Every data point and every analysis represents our commitment to turning the tide of economic challenges into opportunities for national growth. We are laying the groundwork for sustainable economic development that will create opportunities for every Nigerian,” he added. Earlier, Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the Ministry would drive Nigeria’s economic growth with the abundant gas deposits in the country. “We have 209 trillion cubic feet of gas. Today, if Nigeria takes advantage of this, we will grow our economy to the level that would be envied. Nigeria will take its rightful position in the gas economy in the continent,” he stated. The Minister urged Nigerians to key into the CNG initiative of the President, noting that this is cleaner, safer and environment-friendly, pointing out that though the kits may be expensive, there are incentives provided to make it affordable. In her remarks, the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism, and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, noted that Nigeria has an untapped creative industry potential. Musawa said her ministry is the first of its kind to focus on transforming creative content into economic opportunity, even as she stressed while Nigeria boasts of unique cultural talents, the creative industry represents a critical pathway for economic diversification beyond petroleum. Also, Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, said the tax reform proposals are aimed at transforming Nigeria’s economic landscape. Oyedele stressed that these reforms are not just a technical exercise but a commitment to equity, efficiency, and economic transformation. He acknowledged concerns raised by stakeholders, assuring that ongoing engagement will address potential challenges. During a panel discussion, Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, described 2024 as a critical year of economic reforms. “Reforms are never easy. It’s like the process of planting and waiting for them to grow and for harvest,” Fasua said, explaining that these interventions have been sweeping, including the “removal of fuel subsidies, CBN ways and means, unification of foreign exchange markets, and critical tax reforms. “The economic indicators are promising, with Nigeria’s GDP growing 3.46% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2024 – the fastest growth since late 2023. Going forward, we are going to be seeing leaps in growth and the worst is over for the economy. We’re looking at a higher growth rate, more stable naira, and lowered inflation,” he added. In the power sector, Special Adviser to the President on Power Infrastructure, Sadiq Wanka, said, “I’ve never been more optimistic about the power sector because the foundations of a reinvigorated power sector are being laid.” The government’s initiatives include increased liberalisation through the Electricity Act which has decentralised the power sector, allowing states to regulate and develop their own local electricity markets, and the Presidential Metering Initiative aimed at eliminating estimated billing. On his part, Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Nurudeen Zauro, emphasized that “all eight items on the Renewed Hope Agenda are built on inclusion.” He explained that the government has significantly reduced financial exclusion, established a dedicated office, and signed the Aso Accord to accelerate financial inclusion. Also, Special Assistant to the President on Export Promotion, Aliyu Bunu Sheriff, noted that the administration is focused on moving Nigeria from a consumption-based to a production-driven economy. “Revenue from the export of manufactured goods rose by 118.33% to ₦749.52 billion in H1 2024, compared to ₦343.29 billion in H1 2023,” Sheriff said. He maintained that the government’s initiatives aim to position Nigeria as a key player in the global halal economy, potentially adding $1.5 billion to GDP by 2027. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development Programmes, Mariam Masha, explained that the Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme (ASSEP), launched by the federal government in May, will modernise school infrastructure, integrate virtual learning, and improve access to tertiary education. “This comprehensive programme is focused on bridging Nigeria’s educational divide by leveraging technology, enhancing STEM learning, and revamping dilapidated classrooms,” Masha said. Others in attendance were Minister of State for Regional Development, Uba Maigari Ahmadu; Director General of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru, Prof Ayo Omotayo, and Director General of Nigeria’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Charles Odii, among many others.

Musk's millions for Trump make him biggest US political donor

Will This DealShare Cofounder’s Bold Plan Be A Game-Changer For Youth Sports Training?NoneCARY, N.C. — Tarik Pannholzer scored in the opening minutes, Aleksa Janjic finished with five saves and an assist and Marshall beat No. 1 seed Ohio State 1-0 Friday night in the semifinals at the 2024 College Cup. No. 13 seed Marshall (15-1-7) will play un-seeded Vermont — which beat Denver on penalty kicks in the other semifinal — in the championship game on Monday. Pannholzer slipped behind the defense on the counter-attack and ran onto a long goal kick played by Janjic. Ohio State goalkeeper Max Trejo came off his line, collided with teammate Siggi Magnusson at the edge of the penalty area and Pannholzer walked it into the goal for a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute. David Ajagbe’s header off a corner kick ricocheted off the crossbar for Ohio State (16-2-4) in the opening minutes. Nathan Demian was the victim of a shooting with an errant bullet early Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio, just hours after helping the Buckeyes to a 3-0 win over Wake Forest in the quarterfinals. Police said he is recovering from his injuries and his family is with him. Marshall has made six consecutive NCAA Tournaments — it's only appearances in program history — including a 2020 national championship. Marshall's Takahiro Fujita was taken off the field on a stretcher in the second half and was replaced by Aleksandar Vukovic. Ohio State's Donovan Williams came off with an apparent leg injury about five minutes into the game and was replaced by Nick McHenry.